With the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in the news again, as President Obama proposed protecting much of the oil-rich land as wilderness, I am reminded of the summer I spent a few years back leading a sea kayaking trip through the Refuge. It was an experience of transformation I will never forget and will most…
In the remote villages of rural “Bush” Alaska — a vast region neither accessible by road nor connected to the ferry system — not only do indigenous people still rely on subsistence foods, but sharing these foods also holds significant cultural importance, especially in forging new friendships. “The problem is whale, seal, shellfish (obviously), even…
1. As of 2012, Alaska is home to just over 6,000 Jews. 2. Four mountain peaks in Alaska are named after Jews, including Mount Ripinsky for Solomon Ripinsky, a former mayor of Haines, Alaska, and Mount Neuberger for former Oregon Senator Richard Neuberger, who supported Alaskan statehood. 3. The largest Jewish congregation in Alaska, Congregation…
(JTA) — Rebecca Scoggin lived in a lot of places growing up: Juneau, Nome, Fairbanks, Homer, Anchorage. But except for the two years she lived in Seattle after high school, she never lived outside Alaska. At least she hadn’t until a few months ago. Inspired by a Birthright trip she took at age 19, Scoggin…
A confessed serial killer from Alaska who hid in plain sight and whose crimes went undetected for more than a decade, was ultimately caught after he gave in to his compulsions and struck close to home. Israel Keyes, in jail since March for the kidnapping and murder of 18-year-old coffee stand server Samantha Koenig in…
Among the many things I’d resigned myself to leaving behind when my wife and I moved to Alaska from New York City — family and friends, Yankee Stadium, never having to drive — bagels topped the list. And I don’t mean the fluffy, soft roll-with-a-hole available at every Starbucks on earth. I’m talking about a…
In 1939, Harold Ickes, President Franklin Roosevelt’s secretary of the interior, proposed that four Alaskan locales play refuge to thousands of Europe’s fleeing Jews. Ickes’s idea -— which would become the premise for Michael Chabon’s “The Yiddish Policemen’s Union” — was later bucked by Roosevelt and by several prominent American Jewish organizations. But over the…
From Wyatt Earp to Sarah Palin, Alaska has a colorful history, which has occasionally touched on Jews. Four of the state’s legendary mountains are named after Jews. There’s a Star of David featured in one of the state’s most famed church stained-glass windows. Alaska Airlines helped airlift Yemeni Jews to Israel. Earp once ran a…
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