Rob Eshman

Gaza outcomes

Published on December 31, 2008

I deeply believe Israel has the right, the obligation,to stop Hamas from its capricious acts of terror.

Jewish Money

Published on December 23, 2008

If you scroll through the list of Madoff's philanthropic victims, you'll find plenty of evidence that even Jews who have shed every vestige of their ancient practice short of circumcision still resonate to the prophetic call to heal the wider world.

Madoff

Published on December 17, 2008

I wish Jews believed in hell, because then I could take comfort that Bernard Madoff will go there.

Is Bernie Madoff Jewish?  Very. Oy.

Published on December 12, 2008

"It's all just one big lie."

With those words Bernard Madoff confessed to senior executives of Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities that the $17 billion hedge fund he founded was nothing more than a Ponzi scheme. Madoff is at the center of "the largest investor swindle ever blamed on a single individual."

The news that broke today on the front pages of the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal reverberated in Jewish communities across the world. "A lot of Jewish charities had investments with him," one prominent investor told The Jewish Journal. "So did a lot of Jews."

UPDATE: Among the victims was the Jewish Community Foundation of Los Angeles.

2009

Published on December 10, 2008

The image of oil sheiks lighting campfires to keep warm beside their indoor ski slopes comforted me for only an instant. The truth is, their pain and our pain are interconnected, as it is with the fate of those striking Chicago factory workers, the college grads unable to find decent jobs and, of course, our own Jewish community.

Open House

Published on December 3, 2008

Whether in Thailand or San Francisco, when I wanted a place to spend a holiday, to pray on Shabbat or just to connect, there was always one of those perennially cheerful Chabad rabbis, a motley collection of tossed-about Jews and some schnapps. And I was home.

D I Y

Published on November 26, 2008

There are good things we can only achieve together -- if we can first come together. It's not clear how we do this when 10 friends, some cash and a Web site are enough to create a Jewish world unto themselves.

A Moderate Proposal

Published on November 19, 2008

The start of the event was running late -- did I mention it was a Jewish event? -- and midway through our green room conversation, Hitchens pulled out a small bottle of Johnnie Walker Black. He emptied it into a 16-ounce clear-plastic cup and drizzled in some Crystal Geyser spring water. And he began sipping.

It can’t happen here

Published on November 11, 2008

"People choose to remain gay, and people choose to remain Jewish," said an organizer. "Why should the majority of us be forced to honor that choice?"

A New Jewish Agenda

Published on November 5, 2008

the enormity of Obama's Jewish support disguises the depth and intensity of division within our community over this election. Vicious ads and viral lies tore us deeply, if not in two. The Jewish infighting got rough and ugly over this election. The far left tarred McCain as a warmonger, the right had Obama installing Noam Chomsky as special Mideast envoy.

Larry and me

Published on October 28, 2008

For a while I believed him. McCain was the moderate, pro-Israel Republican who could sweep up many independently minded Jewish voters. Early polls showed McCain getting more of the Jewish vote than Bush. But all that momentum stalled when McCain picked Gov. Sarah Palin as his running mate.

Old traditions, new rules

Published on October 22, 2008

The media is full of sad-sack accounts of billionaires who, having lost 20 percent of their net worth overnight, are down to their last 9 billion. Some of these men have the gall to say they will have to reduce their charitable commitments.

Return to sender

Published on October 15, 2008

I've never understood why they call a last-minute election ploy an "October Surprise," other than the fact that it usually happens in, you know, October.

Wall Street, Main Street, Jew Street

Published on October 7, 2008

If only those nasty money changers and culture vultures in the seething cities below would just let them sow their wheat and do their books and raise their children up good.

Death to Fanatistan!

Published on October 1, 2008

The gospel choir sang "God Bless America." If you weren't thinking of the Jewish immigrant Irving Berlin who wrote that song, you couldn't appreciate the beautiful irony of the moment.

The Crash

Published on September 24, 2008

"Who will live and who will die?" goes the prayer. "Who will become impoverished and who will become wealthy?"

Flag Day

Published on September 17, 2008

It's a fact of life: Israel's blue and white is a red flag for the fanatics. Wave it, and they are likely to charge.

How I returned

Published on September 10, 2008

But as much as she loves the pulpit, Naomi, like me, finds the modern synagogue problematic. She believes that Judaism offers people a sense of purpose, a mission to heal society and a fulfilling spiritual path, but that too often standard synagogue services don't attract or inspire Jews, much less compel them to commit to a community.

Joon

Published on September 3, 2008

Since 1978, Iranian Jews have injected into a stable, maybe even staid Jewish community talent, industry, a profound connection to their Jewish roots and a desire to have a positive political and social impact on the city. They have energized a Jewish community that could always use invigorating.

ANALYSIS: Sarah Palin . . . and the Jews

Published on August 29, 2008

For Jews who are not necessarily Israel Firsters, she carries some positives and negatives. Positives: she is a crusader for good government and a fiscal conservative. She is smart and successful and patriotic. Jews like all these things.

The teacher

Published on August 27, 2008

Mickey Palmer is 87 years old and living in a cozy home by Elizabeth Lake, near Palmdale. She moved there 25 years ago when she retired from teaching sixth grade.

First Impressions

Published on August 20, 2008

Then I asked Çakirözer, from Turkey, what he liked best about America. He said it was something he had never seen in his country, and never seen in all the countries to which he'd traveled. Yet it was something that said a lot about the core values of a rich and prosperous nation.

The Great Awakening

Published on August 13, 2008

The Rev. Rick Warren of Saddleback Church will hold back-to-back public conversations this Saturday, Aug. 16, with the two presumptive presidential
candidates, Sen. Barack Obama and Sen. John McCain. The conversations, on the topic of "Compassion and Leadership," will be broadcast at 8 p.m. on CNN

Eating Bambi (recipe included)

Published on August 5, 2008

Most of the anti-Semitic mail I get these days doesn't concern Israel, Hollywood or even the threat of a nuclear war in the Middle East -- it's about meat.

Sell it, Sam

Published on July 30, 2008

First they came for the Outdoor section, and I said nothing. Then they combined and demoted the Opinion and Book Review sections, and I said nothing.

Defending Identity

Published on July 16, 2008

Natan Sharansky's previous book, "The Case for Democracy," changed the world. It inspired a generation of U.S. policymakers and influenced President George
W. Bush in his decision to go to war against Saddam Hussein. So when Sharansky's second book, "Defending Identity," came out this month, I thought I'd better read it, quick

Take back L.A.

Published on July 9, 2008

I love Los Angeles, but let's face facts: We're fast becoming a second-rate city. Public safety is broken. Jews in Los Angeles were rightly outraged in June when Hamas rocket attacks from Gaza killed one Israeli in Sderot. But in one weekend of that same month, 14 Angelenos were murdered in gang-related shootings.

Boys to men

Published on July 3, 2008

It turns out, see, that I am endangered: I am a non-Orthodox Jewish man engaged in Jewish life.

Kaddish for Carlin

Published on June 26, 2008

Everybody keeps asking me whether George Carlin was Jewish. "I heard he was related to the Karlin-Stoliner rebbe," a colleague said.

Hi-Lo

Published on June 19, 2008

What you get instead is a God's eye view of the Holy Land: close enough to see day-to-day life, far enough not to get involved -- just like God.

In Sderot

Published on June 12, 2008

Signs of Israel's military readiness are everywhere near Gaza -- the military base at Nahal Oz, with its rows of dust-caked tanks and rooms of advanced surveillance equipment, the high-tech spy blimps floating like hard white clouds above the border

Free at last!

Published on June 5, 2008

Last Sunday night in an amphitheatre outside Jerusalem, I had a flash of insight into how to get disaffected Jews excited and involved in Jewish life: Make it free!

Wednesday with Ben

Published on May 22, 2008

Theodicy and ALS

Polished Diamonds

Published on May 15, 2008

One of the benefits of the creation of the State of Israel is the creativity and industry of the Israeli people ... living in Los Angeles.


Yes, the Zionist ideal is that all Jews would move to Israel, and those born there would grow up to be proud citizens of a noble land, etc., etc.

Stations of the Six-Pointed Star

Published on May 8, 2008

The two greatest Jewish inventions of the 20th century are, to my mind at least, Hollywood and Israel.

Genocide 2.0

Published on May 1, 2008

In Washington and abroad, longstanding Jewish organizations added their voices of protest against the genocide in Darfur.

But guess what: It's not enough.

Four Questions

Published on April 17, 2008

The controversy that erupted last week over allegedly anti-Semitic remarks by a local pastor raises, appropriately enough for this time of year, four questions.

Food issues

Published on April 10, 2008

Every Passover The Jewish Journal receives story pitches for a new batch of seders that the organizers tout as original or groundbreaking. Evidently the traditional ritual, at which Jews gather and retell the story of our people's liberation from slavery in Egypt, is so 2000 B.C.E.

20 questions with John McCain

Published on April 3, 2008

Interview with presidential candidate Senator John McCain and a transcript of remarks by the Senator to the Los Angeles World Affairs Council.

Hate in Translation

Published on March 27, 2008

Book review of Matthais Kuntze's "Jihad and Jew Hatred: Islamism, Nazism and the Roots of 9/11" (Telos Press, 2007).

Dear Senator Obama

Published on March 20, 2008

Now or later

Published on March 7, 2008

If Israel relaunches its invasion of Gaza, no one should blame it. A country must do everything it can to protect its citizens from constant attack. I know it's been said, but it bears repeating: No other country in the world would countenance even a single missile crossing its borders and landing on its citizens. Much less 7,000 missiles.

The Nazi in the hot tub

Published on February 28, 2008

It turns out there is something eternal and topical about the ancient wedding ritual of breaking the glass at the wedding, of the Jewish reality being forever black and white, of the Nazi in the hot tub.

The message

Published on February 21, 2008

Thank you. That's the profound message of this column: Thank you. The instigators, organizers and volunteers who brought Limmud to Los Angeles last weekend deserve our gratitude for challenging one of the long-held orthodoxies of the L.A. Jewish community: There is no Jewish community.

We just disagree

Published on February 14, 2008

As I wrote here three weeks ago, I am a supporter of CAMERA and its mission. They do good work. But I believe they were taking the wrong tact in trying to tell a local church with a long history of support for Israel and Jewish causes whom it should and shouldn't listen to. CAMERA and I disagree on only one thing: tactics.

Get it done

Published on February 7, 2008

About 15 years ago some stick-like things began appearing on the hard, ugly stretch of Venice Boulevard from where it crosses Lincoln and continues to the beach.

The sticks were trees, but pitifully thin, with trunks a woman could wrap her fingers around and no more than a handful of leaves. Cynical locals like myself were certain the trees would end up stolen, vandalized or turned into a homeless person's campfire.

Immigration: Time to share the heavy lifting

Published on January 31, 2008

Three years ago I was unloading some 50-pound bags of landscape pebbles from the trunk of my car when I felt a four-inch blade of molten steel jab into my lower back. Middle age had officially arrived, and my doctor ordered the permanent closure of Eshman Lifting and Schlepping, Inc. It was time to find younger men with stronger backs to do my dirty work.

That's how I met Luis.

Butt out

Published on January 24, 2008

Pro-Israel media watchdog group CAMERA (Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting in America) has attempted to pressure the All-Saints Episcopal Church in Pasadena to cancel the appearance of a prominent Palestinian activist, the Rev. Naim Ateek, founder of the Sabeel Ecumenical Liberation Theology Center and its sister organization in the United States Friends of Sabeel North America (FOSNA). Ateek has championed the cause of nonviolent resistance to Israel in the West Bank.

Could Tony Blair be the one?

Published on January 17, 2008

There was one big question left unanswered when Tony Blair spoke last Monday evening at the opening of American Jewish University's (AJU) 2007 lecture series.

There won’t be blood

Published on January 10, 2008

Bill Clinton, Ann Coulter, James Carville -- over the years American Jewish University's top-notch lecture series has hosted plenty of people who have infuriated plenty of people.

But evidently, when it comes to being infuriating, Karl Rove is in a class unto himself.