Eric will celebrate his Bar Mitzvah on May 22, 2010 at
Temple B’nai Torah in Bellevue.
Eric is the son of Michael and Susu Moshcatel of Seattle and the brother of Marc. His grandparents are Jack and Fran Moshcatel of Seattle, Leonard Wiviott of Seattle, and the late Evelyn “Pickle” Wiviott.
Eric is in the 7th grade at Eckstein Middle School. He enjoys playing baseball, cards, and video games. He also likes listening to music, and is working toward achieving his black belt in martial arts. For his mitzvah project, Eric is collecting supplies and funds to help Ginger’s Pet Rescue, a nonprofit organization specializing in the rescue and adoption placement of dogs that would otherwise be euthanized in animal shelters.  He is also donating a portion of his Bar Mitzvah gifts to this organization.

Abigail will celebrate her Bat Mitzvah on May 22, 2010 at Congregation Beth Shalom in Seattle.
Abigail is the daughter of Lisa Geiger and Charles Shifren of Edmonds. Her grandparents are Iris Shifren and Seymour Shifren of Los Angeles, Calif., Anne Geiger of Millburn, N.J. and the late Harold Geiger.
Abigail is in the 7th grade at Madrona K-8. Abby enjoys playing the viola, swimming, reading, and spending time with her friends and family. For her mitzvah project, she organized and performed with a string trio at the Ida Culver House in Broadview.

Richelle will celebrate her Bat Mitzvah on May 22, 2010 at Herzl-Ner Tamid Conservative Congregation, on the same bimah where her mother became the first Bat Mitzvah when the synagogue opened in November 1971. Her grandfather became a Bar Mitzvah at Herzl in 1938.
Richelle is the daughter of Patricia Willner-Martin and Neil Martin of Bellevue and the sister of Allison. Her grandparents are Kathryn and James Martin of Edina, Minn., Ina Willner of Bellevue and the late Richard Willner.
Richelle is in the 7th grade at the Jewish Day School of Metropolitan Seattle. Her interests include attending Camp Solomon Schechter, acting and teching at Youth Theatre Northwest, Facebook, Skype, and texting with friends. For her mitzvah project, Richelle is raising money for the Friends of the Israeli Defense Forces Bar/Bat Mitzvah LEGACY Program to send a child whose parent or sibling has been killed in action with the Israeli Defense Forces to summer camp in the United States.

Tamera and Jeremy are engaged to be married.
Tamera is the daughter of Michael and Francine Farkas of Los Angeles, Calif. Her grandparents are Nat and Elaine Stern of Los Angeles, Shary Farkas of Los Angeles and the late Sammuel Farkas.
Tamera graduated from the University of California at Berkeley in 2009 with a degree in History and Jewish Studies. She works as a Judaics teacher at Oakland Hebrew Day School.
Jeremy is the son of Mark and Sharon Sandler of Bellevue. His grandparents are Rose Stalin of Mercer Island, Rose Sandler of Bellevue, the late Max Stalin, and the late Martin Sandler.
Jeremy is a graduate of Northwest Yeshiva High School and holds a degree in biology from the University of Washington. He is starting a masters/Ph.D. program at the California Institute for Technology and currently works doing genetics research at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in Berkeley, Calif.

1917–April 14, 2010
Rabbi Dr. Bernard Poupko, a nationally prominent Orthodox rabbi recognized for his initiatives in saving Soviet Jewry, pioneering efforts in the Jewish day school movement, and for his leadership of religious Zionism, died April 14 in Seattle, where he had lived for the last six years. He was 93 years old and succumbed to Alzheimer’s.
At the time of his death, Rabbi Poupko was rabbi emeritus of Shaare Torah Congregation in Pittsburgh, Pa., where he served as rabbi from 1941-2004. He was a former national president of the Religious Zionists of America and a national vice-president of the Rabbinical Council of America. Rabbi Poupko was influential in building the Jewish community in Pittsburgh, serving as president of its rabbinical council from 1949-1999, co-founding Hillel Academy, the Holocaust Center, and the Greater Association of Pittsburgh Rabbis, as well as supporting other Jewish institutions there.
Born in Velizh, a town in Smolensk Oblast, Russia in 1917, Rabbi Poupko was known to refer to himself in humor as “a child of the revolution.” The fifth of eight children born to the late Rabbi Eliezer Poupko, the town’s religious leader, and Pesha Chaya Sapir, a renowned Talmud scholar, Rabbi Poupko became sensitized from a young age to the implications that the Bolshevik Revolution had for religious observance. The scope became clear when his father was twice arrested and tried by the Communists and sentenced to years of hard labor in Siberia for his leadership in upholding Jewish practice in the town.
In 1930, by rowboat in the middle of the night, the family escaped and made their way to the home of the Hafetz Hayyim, Rabbi Yisrael Meir Kagan, in Radun, Poland. There, Rabbi Poupko and his family were reunited with his three older brothers, who had been sent there nine years earlier to study Torah. Rabbi Poupko often recalled the life-shaping moment when the Hafetz Hayyim turned to him and said, “In Russia, the Communists prevented you from studying Torah. Now you must devote the rest of your life to plumbing its depths and spreading its word.”
From Poland the family, with help from the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee, secured visas to the United States and immigrated here in 1931.
Rabbi Poupko studied at Yeshiva College, City College and Columbia University, receiving his B.A. and M.A., as well as his rabbinic ordination from the Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary of Yeshiva University in 1941. He moved to Pittsburgh, and become rabbi of Shaare Torah Congregation and married the late Gilda Twersky-Novoseller Poupko. By 1952 Rabbi Poupko had earned his Ph.D. from the University of Pittsburgh. He wrote his dissertation on the state of Jewish adult education in the U.S., tracing its history, studying its trends, and prescribing its future.
Although Rabbi Poupko escaped Communism, he felt his escape was less a privilege and more a responsibility. His synagogue, therefore, was the first to hang a “Free Soviet Jewry” sign, and he was the first rabbi to speak publicly in Moscow under Soviet rule. He risked his life, being tracked by the KGB when he traveled to Russia a dozen times to campaign for the liberation of Soviet Jewry and bear witness to their plight. Due in no small part to these efforts, more than one and a half million Soviet Jews emigrated to Israel and the United States.
Rabbi Poupko’s efforts to save Soviet Jewry are recounted in his award-winning Yiddish book, In the Shadow of the Kremlin, as well as in dozens of newspaper articles that he wrote. He also edited and co-edited 38 sermon manuals for the Rabbinical Council of America, many of which include his own sermons.
Rabbi Poupko’s articles and sermons took on a progressive, tolerant and visionary tone, often calling for activism in upholding social justice, understanding of difference and confidence in the Jewish future.
Rabbi Poupko is survived by his wife, Miriam Bak-Poupko, five children, among them Rivy Poupko Kletenik of Seattle, 28 grandchildren and 41 great-grandchildren. Rabbi Poupko instilled within his family a deep love for the people Israel, the noble notion of community service, and devotion to the State of Israel.
He is remembered for his stirring eloquence, buoyant optimism, and enduring dignity. More than anything else, Rabbi Poupko’s life was marked by a deep concern for the human-other in service, of the divinely Other, and commitment to mending whatever brokenness he encountered. The family is deeply grateful to the Kline Galland Home and its staff members for providing Rabbi Poupko with a sanctuary of dignity and Jewish respect in which to complete his days on earth.
— Gilah Kletenik

Adrian will celebrate his Bar Mitzvah on March 20, 2010 at Temple B’nai Torah in Bellevue.
Adrian is the son of Jon and Laurie Rasmussen of Seattle and the brother of Leiah Rasmussen. His grandparents are Ruth and Marvin Scheflin of Nashville, Tenn., Edward Spivack of Boca Raton, Fla., Audrey Hanson of Lewiston, Idaho, and the late Albert Edward Rasmussen.
Adrian is in the 7th grade at the Salmon Bay School. His hobbies include snowboarding, mountain biking, movie-making and cooking. For his mitzvah project, Adrian assisted with trail building for the Evergreen Mountain Bike Alliance.

Aliza celebrated her Bat Mitzvah on February 27, 2010 at Temple B’nai Torah in Bellevue.
Aliza is the daughter of Ricca Ben and Al Varon of Kirkland. Her grandparents are Becky Ben of Kirkland and the late Victor Ben and Becky Varon of Seattle and the late Mike Varon.
Aliza is in the 7th grade at Stella Schola Middle School. Her hobbies include playing piano and clarinet, singing, acting, martial arts, swimming, and hanging out with friends, family, and her dog Shayna. For her mitzvah project, Aliza raised awareness and solicited donations for Homeward Pet, the largest no-kill animal shelter in Washington.

Justin will celebrate his Bar Mitzvah on February 20, 2010 at Congregation Beth Shalom in Seattle.
Justin is the son of Gail and Kevin Coskey of Seattle and the brother of Rachel. His grandparents are Marion Blumberg of Seattle, the late Charles Blumberg, Eleanor Coskey of Encino, Calif., and the late Richard Coskey.
Justin is in the 7th grade at the Jewish Day School of Metropolitan Seattle. His hobbies include reading, acting, basketball, travel, creative writing, attending Camp Solomon Schechter, and being with family and friends. For his mitzvah project, Justin organized a community dinner in January to raise funds for MAZON: A Jewish Response to Hunger.

Kelly and Dan got engaged the second day of Rosh Hashanah, September 20, 2009.  They will be married in Seattle on August 29, 2010.
Kelly is the daughter of Ronald and Linda Krivosha and the granddaughter of the late Jean and Jack Caston and the late William and Joan Krivosha. She graduated from University Preparatory High School in 2001 and Syracuse University in 2005, where she received a B.S. in hospitality management. She was a member of Alpha Epsilon Phi while she attended Syracuse University. Kelly is currently working as a sales manager at the Westin Seattle Hotel.
Dan is the son of Larry and Roz Piha and the grandson of Nace and Rita Piha of Seattle, Louise Hasson of Seattle and the late Ralph Hasson. He graduated from Newport High School in 1999 and the University of Washington in 2004, where he received a B.S. in mechanical engineering. Dan is currently working at Pathway Medical Technologies, Inc. as a research and development engineer.

Sari will celebrate her Bat Mitzvah January 16, 2010 at Herzl-Ner Tamid Conservative Congregation on Mercer Island.
Sari is the daughter of Marvin and Lisa Brashem of Sammamish and the sister of Mara. Her grandparents are Martin and Joan Brashem of Gig Harbor, Grace Zweig of Phoenix, Ariz. and the late David Zweig.
Sari is in the 7th grade at Beaver Lake Middle School. Her hobbies include spending summers at Camp Solomon Schechter, dancing, traveling, shopping, watching movies and spending time with her family and friends. For her mitzvah project, Sari worked with Teen Feed, cooking and serving meals to homeless teens at Seattle’s University Street Ministry. Also, in honor of her Grandma Grace, Sari will make a donation to the Alzheimer’s Association.

Emily and Elan are engaged to be married on August 1, 2010. The ceremony will be officiated by Rabbi Jay Rosenbaum and Cantor Brad Kurland at the Golf Club at Newcastle.
Emily is the daughter of Stephen and Robin Boehler of Mercer Island and the granddaughter of Winfield Boehler of New York, N.Y., the late Jane Boehler, and the late Sheldon and Zelda Hamroff.
Emily is a graduate of Mercer Island High School and holds a B.S. in early childhood education from the University of Vermont. She is a preschool teacher at the Stroum Jewish Community Center.
Elan is the son of Raquel Shapiro of Newcastle and the late Gary Shapiro. His grandparents are Genia Guberek of Colombia, the late Bernard Guberek, Sol Shapiro of Seattle and the late Yetta Shapiro.
He is a graduate of Newport High School and has a B.S. in communications from Washington State University. He works as a recruiting manager at Revel Consulting.

Nathan will celebrate his Bar Mitzvah on December 19, 2009 at Herzl-Ner Tamid Conservative Congregation on Mercer Island.
Nathan is the son of Jane and Aaron Rosenstein of Mercer Island and the brother of Sam. His grandparents are Daisy and Mike Israel of Mercer Island and Beth and David Rosenstein of Albuquerque, N. M. and Mercer Island.
Nathan is in the 7th grade at Islander Middle School. His hobbies include baseball, soccer, snowboarding, and reading books about sports history. For his mitzvah project, Nathan participated in the Summer Volunteer Program through Mercer Island Parks and Recreation, working at Northwest Harvest and Teen Feed. He is also participating in the Youth Mitzvah Fund through the Jewish Federation.
Nathan will be sharing his Bar Mitzvah with his friend and cousin, Matthew Lipsen.

Matthew will celebrate his Bar Mitzvah on December 19, 2009 at Herzl-Ner Tamid Conservative Congregation on Mercer Island.
Matthew is the son of Jeffrey and Maureen Lipsen of Issaquah and the brother of Joseph and Daniel. His grandparents are Esther Lipsen of Seattle, Leon and Mary Cohen of Seattle and the late Irwin Lipsen and Isaac Piha.
Matthew is in the 7th grade at Beaver Lake Middle School. His hobbies include playing basketball and spending time with his friends and family. For his mitzvah project, Matthew is collecting teddy bears for local police and fire department emergency personnel to give to children during traumatic situations.
Matthew is sharing his Bar Mitzvah with his friend and cousin, Nathan Rosenstein.

Aliya will celebrate her Bat Mitzvah on December 12, 2009 at Congregation Ezra Bessaroth in Seattle.
Aliya is the daughter of Melanie and David Korch of Seattle and the sister of Matthew, Kathryn, and RaChelle. She is the granddaughter of Simon Korch of Seattle, the late Helga Korch and the late Mallian and Mary Ann Patoc.
Aliya is in the 7th grade at the Jewish Day School of Metropolitan Seattle. Her hobbies include soccer, gymnastics, hanging out with friends, traveling with family, attending camp, and reading.

Yonatan will celebrate his Bar Mitzvah on December 5, 2009 at Congregation Beth Shalom in Seattle.
Yonatan is the son of Jane Becker and Jason Kintzer of Seattle and the brother of Raphael, David, Maya, Avi and Yoel. His grandparents are Edward Becker of New York, N.Y., Jolanda Kintzer of Long Beach, N.Y., and the late David Kintzer and the late Mildred Becker.
Yonatan is in the 7th grade at the Jewish Day School of Metropolitan Seattle. He loves to meet people and learn about new ideas. He also enjoys basketball, tennis, swimming, travel and schmoozing. For his mitzvah project, Yonatan worked at various food banks, raised money for those less fortunate, and assisted with the Friendship Circle.

Jamey will celebrate his Bar Mitzvah on December 5, 2009 at Herzl-Ner Tamid Conservative Congregation on Mercer Island.
Jamey is the son of Michael and Stacy Vinnick of Sammamish and the brother of Gabriel. His grandparents are Joey and Marcia Mayo of Bellevue, Allan and Annette Vinnick of Bellevue, and Howard Adler of Kirkland.
Jamey is in the 7th grade at Beaver Lake Middle School. He enjoys most sports and is an avid baseball card collector. He also loves music and traveling with his family, especially his cousins. For his mitzvah project, Jamey is involved in the Ronald McDonald House and has participated in Herzl-Ner Tamid’s Teen Feed program.

Joel and Lindsay got engaged on October 11, 2009. They are planning a January 2011 wedding.
Joel is the son of Bruce and Marsha Krivosha of Mercer Island. He graduated from Mercer Island High School in 1998 and Washington State University in 2002. 
Lindsay is the daughter of Steve and Elaine Kantor of Portland, Ore. She graduated from Portland’s Lincoln High School in 2002 and the University of Oregon in 2005. 

Ariella will be called to the Torah as a Bat Mitzvah on November 1, 2009 at Congregation Beth Shalom in Seattle.  

Ariella is the daughter of Sidney and Israella Kleiman, the big sister of Caleb and Gabrielle and little sister of Jessica Crain and Kandra Kleiman. She is the granddaughter of Ellis and Vera Kantor of Kirkland and the late Rosa and Solomon Kleiman.

Ariella is a 7th grader at Eckstein Middle School. She enjoys soccer, violin, piano, hanging out with family and friends, listening to music, shopping, dancing and school.

Matthew will celebrate his Bar Mitzvah on November 21, 2009 at Temple B’nai Torah in Bellevue.
Matthew is the son of Paul and Denise Manner of Mercer Island and the brother of Karl and Jessica. His grandparents are Phyllis Manner of New Rochelle, N.Y., the late George Manner and the late Theodore and Gloria Joffe.
Matthew is in the 7th grade at Islander Middle School. His interests include football, baseball and making movies. For his mitzvah project, Matthew made care packages for U.S. soldiers.

More than two decades after he left his post, former students who had attended events at Hillel at the University of Washington still stopped in to ask how Rabbi J, as people knew him, was doing. That’s the impact Arthur Jacobovitz had on the Seattle Jewish community, said Rabbi Will Berkovitz, Hillel at the UW’s current executive director.
“He was tremendously giving,” Berkovitz said. “To this day, I still get calls from his old students asking me if I know where he is or what he’s up to.”
Rabbi Arthur Jacobovitz died Tues., Nov. 3 at the age of 79. He had been in ill health for the past several years.
Though it was more than 20 years since he retired, Rabbi J would still come to events, most recently for a meal in the Hillel sukkah, as well as to the annual Passover luncheon he originally created.
When he arrived in Seattle in 1959, he was a young Orthodox rabbi sent by the national Hillel Foundation to rescue an organization in disarray, having been through five directors in 10 years. He indeed brought stability to Hillel — he served in his position for nearly 30 years. He also worked with Jewish students and the community to make Hillel a magnet for the area’s Jewish students, regardless of belief or affiliation.
“He had a lot of struggles as an Orthodox rabbi coming to this town and to this university and making this place a Jewish center for all students,” said Rabbi Dan Bridge, who was not only Jacobovitz’s successor, but a student active in Rabbi J’s Hillel. “He did it. If you look back to the years in the ’60s, the ’70s, the ’80s, there were Jews from every Jewish walk of life.”
Jacobovitz was well-read and relished intellectual conversations with his students and community members. Rob Spitzer, whose involvement in Seattle’s Jewish community for nearly his entire adult life can be attributed to Jacobovitz, agreed.
“He was an extremely learned and devout and pious Jew, and at the same time, he had an openness and kind of a wonder about the world,” Spitzer said. “It was just a combination I’d never seen before.”
It was that openness that Spitzer said made Jacobovitz so successful in his position. Each week, Rabbi J would hold court at Clark’s, a now-shuttered restaurant near campus, for heated discussions that would go late into the night.
“During the radical times, there were people from all political backgrounds, all religious backgrounds, all Jewish religious backgrounds coming to debate, to talk,” Bridge said. “Everything he really built was to help students grow, to kind of be prickly, to push them to grow. Hopefully that’s something we’ve continued.”
Yet as open as he was, he was also opinionated and always seeking to teach others. That part of his personality would sometimes create friction in his relationships.
“He stood up for what he believed, and he got into a lot of conflicts with people because of that,” Bridge said, “but he also spoke, in the vernacular today, his truth.”
The Hillel that exists today is largely built upon much of what Jacobovitz created. That includes the kosher Passover lunches that bring Jews together from across the religious spectrum, weekly campus discussions for anyone — not just Jews — over bagels, and Grads Plus, the precursor to Hillel’s popular Jconnect program for young adults ages 22-32.
“We stand on the shoulders of those who came ahead of us,” Berkovitz told a class of students he teaches when word came of Jacobovitz’s death.
One of his disappointments during his tenure was his inability to get a Hebrew language program started in the Arab Studies dept., prior to the creation of the Jewish Studies Program. He ended up teaching Hebrew at Seattle University instead.
Upon his retirement, Jacobovitz approached community member Herb Pruzan to help him establish and manage the Jacobovitz Institute. The philanthropic foundation gave a major gift to rebuild the Karen Mayers Gamoran Family Center for Jewish Life, Hillel’s center that opened in 2004, and still funds organizations that further the cause of appreciation for Judaism.
“He was seeking to dispel anti-Semitism and its evils through an enhanced image of the Jewish people,” Pruzan said. “This was what he felt was important. He felt Jewish people had been maligned throughout history.”
Though he retired from his job, Rabbi J never really left Hillel. Until the new building opened, Jacobovitz served as mashgiach, ensuring the facility kept up its kosher standards, and provided advice on Jewish law to both of his successors.
One of the downsides to being so involved with the organization and the students was that he never settled down with a family of his own.
“He was a great people person and he always had relationships,” Spitzer said. “I think the great tragedy in his life was that, in a way, Hillel always came first, so that kept him from having his own family.”
Students from the ’60s said Jacobovitz always expressed interest in their dating lives and overlooked what may have been considered unseemly behavior at the time — as long as the partner was Jewish.
In many ways, the people he met at Hillel and stayed in touch with throughout the years were his family. Even as his health grew more fragile, a group of women who had maintained a following over the years would bring him groceries and help him get to doctor appointments, Bridge said.
Jacobovitz left behind a niece and some cousins. He was buried in Israel.
— Joel Magalnick

Three days before his death, Samuel Ruben Owen became a Bar Mitzvah. Sam, who turned 13 on Oct. 11, died Oct. 21. He had been diagnosed with Burkitt’s lymphoma in February of this year.
“He was just a very sweet child, and always wanting to do good and to do the right thing,” said Rivy Poupko Kletenik, head of school at the Seattle Hebrew Academy, where Sam would have been an 8th grader this year.
Before he fell ill, Sam had played electric guitar and loved to hike, camp and fish. He participated in cross country and basketball for SHA and his baseball team won the Rainier District Little League Minors Championship in 2007.
Sam was a huge sports fan, and during his illness he had made friends with several players on both the University of Washington and Seattle Seahawks football teams. A video of his ad-hoc Bar Mitzvah posted on the YouTube online video site showed his hospital room with an ESPN banner hanging on the wall while Sam lay on his bed, wrapped in a Huskies flag. A signed Huskies football sat just above his pillow.
Even while he was sick, Sam had studiously prepared for his Bar Mitzvah, and was adamant about having the ceremony, according to a blog written by his mother, Jodilyn Owen, that documented her son’s cancer. Friends read his Torah portion for the ceremony that had been scheduled for the following Shabbat, Oct. 24, while the rabbis of Seattle’s two Sephardic synagogues, Simon Benzaquen and Salomon Cohen-Scali, led the Torah service and presented Sam with gifts.
“Today is a day that Hashem made and we’re going to celebrate and rejoice in Hashem on this day of your Bar Mitzvah, Sam,” said his father, Rabbi Benjy Owen, on the video.
Sam, whose family on both parents’ sides extends back in Seattle four generations, was well-known and well-loved. As his mother wrote on the blog, his friends champed at the bit to visit him during his stay at Seattle Children’s. These were friends who stuck with Sam before his illness and all the way through.
“There is something very unique about Sam and the handful of friends who he has been with essentially since they were all in diapers,” Jodilyn Owen wrote. “They all have an enthusiasm about participating in their community and enjoying each other within the context of who they are as Jewish boys and as friends who enjoy sports, learning, and hanging out.”
Just as much as she had appreciation for the friends and family who spent so much of their time reaching out, Jodilyn Owen also expressed frustration at her inability to do anything for her son, even as she and her husband realized time was running out.
“There are moments where I just get so aggravated that his body is not cooperating with the rest of him and that we do not have any medical tools to help him fight this,” she wrote. “What I wouldn’t give.”
Still, she told JTNews in an e-mail, “Sam had a sharp wit, was an empathetic young man, and refused to ever give up his goal of beating cancer.”
The sanctuary at Congregation Ezra Bessaroth, where the funeral was held, was standing room only with even more people standing in the lobby. The procession to the cemetery had more than 100 cars.
Sam leaves behind his parents Benjy and Jodilyn Owen; older sister Julia and younger brother Jeff; four grandparents, a great-grandmother, and many aunts, uncles, and cousins.

Sam will celebrate his Bar Mitzvah on October 31, 2009 at Temple B’nai Torah in Bellevue.
Sam is the son of Laura and Andy Petrini of Bellevue and the brother of Sarah and Leah. His grandparents are Sally and Morton Schweitzer of Pittsburgh, Penn. and Carole and Francis Petrini of Conneaut, Ohio.
Sam is in the 7th grade at Tillicum Middle School. His hobbies include reading, playing the trumpet and competitive swimming.

Noam will celebrate his Bar Mitzvah on October 31, 2009 at Herzl-Ner Tamid Conservative Congregation on Mercer Island.
Noam is the son of Cantor Bradlee Kurland and Sandy Samuel of Mercer Island and the brother of Akiva and Talya. His grandparents are Inez Kurland of Revere, Mass., Miriam Samuel of Castro Valley, Calif., the late Morton Kurland and the late Bernard Samuel.
Noam is in the 7th grade at the Jewish Day School of Metropolitan Seattle. Noam loves sports – particularly football and basketball – music, hanging out with friends and creative writing. He has a passion for Israel and for Camp Young Judaea.

Sara celebrated her Bat Mitzvah on October 24, 2009 at Temple B’nai Torah in Bellevue.
Sara is the daughter of Jeff Adelson and Nancy Grayson Adelson of Sammamish and the sister of Danielle Bernard and Lori Adelson. Her grandparents are Ethel Abelman Rocco of Oro Valley, Ariz., Mike and Hella Grayson of Falls Church, Va. and the late Mike Adelson and June Almo Adelson.
Sara is in the 7th grade at the Eton Veladare Academy. Her hobbies include soccer, fast-pitch softball, volunteering, fostering cats and dogs, and completing 3D puzzles. For her mitzvah project, Sara fostered puppy mill dogs and sick kittens for the Seattle Humane Society.

Joshua will be called to the Torah as a Bar Mitzvah on October 24, 2009 at Herzl-Ner Tamid Congregation on Mercer Island.  
Joshua is the son of Laurie and Alan Powazek and the big brother of Sarah and Jonah. He is the grandson of Linda and Mervyn Gerson and the late Regina and Ben Powazek.
Josh is a 7th grader at Issaquah Middle School. He enjoys most sports, but especially likes baseball, skiing, basketball and football. For his mitzvah project, Josh volunteered at the summer games of the Special Olympics of Washington, where he helped and encouraged other athletes in their love of sports.