February 5, 2010 | 12:29 pm

NBC’s Black History Month employee menu: fried chicken and cornbread [VIDEO]

Posted by Jay Firestone

Poor NBC.  They just can’t seem to get anything right these days.  As if the NBC execs don’t have their hands full with late-night tv squabble, they now have to deal with this mouth-watering disaster.

But seriously, what the hell were they thinking?

From HuffingtonPost.com:

In honor of Black History Month, the NBC cafeteria served fried chicken, collard greens, and jalapeno cornbread today for lunch. The picture below was snapped by Questlove, the drummer for the Roots—Jimmy Fallon’s house band. He was also the musician that pointed out via Twitter that Conan spent half a million dollars on a walk-out song for Tom Hanks during his last episode.

Since this story has been circulating, NBC has removed the controversial sign from the cafeteria.

Read the full story at HuffingtonPost.com.

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February 3, 2010 | 10:09 am

Beverly Hills Street to Honor Theodore Herzl

Posted by Susan Freudenheim

One block of a Beverly Hills street will officially honor Theodore Herzl,  the man who first envisioned the State of Israel and the founder of modern Zionism. A plaque will be installed later this year, around the time of Herzl’s 150th birthday, according to a spokeswoman for the Israel Consulate in Los Angeles.

The decision to honor Herzl on the block of 300 Clark Drive, in front of Temple Emanuel, was made at 2:30 a.m. on Feb. 3 at a Beverly Hills City Council meeting, at the end of a seven hour meeting on other city matters. It was proposed by Vice Mayor Jimmy Delshad, and endorsed by the Consul General of Israel Jacob Dayan.

“It’s truly an honor that the city of Beverly Hills would acknowledge a visionary whose dream of the Jewish statehood came to fruition. Israel is blooming today because of the dream of Theodor Herzl,” Consul General Dayan said in a written statement issued by the consulate. “It gives me tremendous pride to see a piece of Israel’s heritage and culture amidst this beautiful city.” Beverly Hills is the sister city of Herzliya, Israel – which is named after Theodore Herzl.

As for the street address for the synagogue, according to Marina Rozhansky, director of media and communications for the consulate,  the issue is being pursued with the post office.

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February 2, 2010 | 1:50 pm

LA Educational Program Makes Top 10 List

Posted by Julie Gruenbaum Fax

A Los Angeles program to help families find the right Jewish preschool, camp or school was named in the decade’s top ten list of developments in Jewish education. Jewish Educational Services of North America (JESNA) said that the Jewish Education Concierge Program of the Builders of Jewish Education (BJE) of Los Angeles is a concrete mechanism that understands this new age of consumer-centric education.

“This is the age of choice in Jewish education: individuals and families choosing among multiple options to find the most meaningful and appropriate educational experiences,” the list read.

The Concierge program, launched in 2006, helps parents make choices through a comprehensive resource guide on JkidLA and through personal consulting services with two staff people familiar with both formal and informal educational institutions – from mommy and me to high school youth groups. All the services are free.

JESNA’s list also included programs like Birthright Israel, which gives a free trip to Israel to Jews between the ages of 18 and 26; online Jewish learning; service learning and the revitalization of Jewish camps.

Read the whole list here.

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January 28, 2010 | 11:23 am

Clinton: I don’t know what we’d have done without Israel in Haiti

Posted by Rob Eshman

At the World Economic Forum in Davos Switzerland, former President Bill Clinton told Israeli President Shimon Peres, “I don’t know what we would have done without the Israeli field hospital in Haiti.”

According to a report on ynetnews.com, the web site for the Israeli newspaper Yediot Acharanot, Clinton told Peres Israel’s field hospital in Haiti was the only operational unit that could perform surgeries and advanced examinations.

According to officials at Israel’s foreign ministry, Clinton told Peres, “In the name of the aid workers that operated in Haiti, in the name of the people who live there, and on a personal level I want to thank, we all want to thank, Israel from the bottom of our hearts.”

Peres pledged to continue Israel’s aid to Haiti.

“Israel will continue to employ all of her abilities to assist the reconstruction efforts in Haiti,” said Peres.
After the plenum President Peres convened with former U.S. President Bill Clinton and the two discussed in detail what Israel can do to help the international rehabilitation efforts in Haiti.

In a column in The Jewish Journal, Asaf Shariv, Israel’s consul general in New York explained his country’s fast action in helping Haiti:

Israel, a nation of 7.5 million, immediately sent more than 220 people to Haiti, even though no Israeli citizens were missing or declared dead. The delegation consists of Israel Defense Forces rescue units, Magen David Adom, Israel Police and a medical staff of more than 120.

Most of the delegation are IDF reservists called up especially for the mission. More aid and delegation members are arriving daily. Israel is sending food, water and equipment.

The help is ongoing and evolving to the needs of the people.

As Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said, “Our decision to immediately dispatch a large delegation of doctors, nurses, medics, rescue forces as well as drugs and medical equipment to Haiti expresses the deep values which have characterized the Jewish people and the State of Israel throughout history.”

Search-and-rescue teams combed the area looking for survivors while an Israeli field hospital was established in Port-au-Prince.

The Israeli Home Front Command Field Hospital can handle 500 patients a day, and includes an emergency room, two surgical rooms, X-ray equipment, a maternity ward, an incubation ward, a children’s ward, a pharmacy and more. While the field hospital will largely treat trauma patients, similar to those encountered in a war, specialists in various other fields also have been sent. But this is only the beginning.

For years Israel has volunteered its experience in search-and-rescue operations around the world, from previous earthquake disasters in India and Turkey to recovering from recent terror attacks in Kenya.

But Israel’s aid does not only come during times of worldwide attention.  Israel’s Agency for International Development Cooperation, MASHAV, has been helping countries from around the world on a variety of issues—from areas of agriculture to helping create small businesses—for more than 60 years. Before the quake shook Haiti, Israel had been working with the people there to help them establish business and better provide for their families.

The Israeli aid to Haiti will not end with the delegation. The Israeli hospital will be operating there for as long as it is needed, offering services beyond emergency care. It has social workers on the ground to deal with the trauma of the ordeal and the smallest victims of the quake’s aftermath: Haiti’s orphans.

Currently recuperating in the Israeli field hospital is a 7-month-old girl. The doctors don’t know her name; no one else from her family survived the deadly earthquake. She has no one left in the world. What will happen to her once everyone goes home?

Trying to find solutions to such issues is why the Israeli delegation will stay in Haiti.

In Hebrew we use the phrase tikkun olam, literally meaning “repairing the world.” As a prosperous nation, Israel not only has the passion but also the means to better society as a whole. Working to help the people of Haiti is just one more project MASHAV has taken on. As long as they want us, we will be there for the Haitian people.

Israel places a high value on a human life. We strongly believe in the Talmudic teaching of “whoever saves a life, it is considered as if he saved an entire world.” Our doctors and medical personnel in Haiti see this as a mitzvah and not a job.

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January 26, 2010 | 1:12 pm

Carved Up Comics + Torah = Paper Midrash

Posted by Julie Gruenbaum Fax

Somewhere near the intersection of Torah discussions with his rabbi wife and his obsession with comic books, Isaac Brynjegard-Bialik discovered paper midrash.

“I look for things that the rabbis talk about, things from the tradition, and I let myself go with it. I figure tradition didn’t stop at certain place, and who says we can’t participate? So I bring my interpretations to those stories and use my art to share them with others,” said Brynjegard-Bialik, a graphic designer who has been creating Jewish papercuts and paintings for 15 years.

“Paper Midrash,” Brynjegard-Bialik’s first solo show, featuring 23 paper cuts and 4 paintings, will run at the Slutzky Art Gallery at the Merage Jewish Community Center of Orange County Jan. 24 through Feb. 27.

For many of the paper cuts, Brynjegard-Bialik carved up comic books to add layers of meaning to the works. In a piece called “Pillar of Cloud, Pillar of Fire,” Brynjegard-Bialik cut up images of The Watchers, a 1960s Marvel Comics extraterrestrial race that teams up with the Fantastic Four. Watchers were meant to just observe mankind, but most often became involved.

“For many people there is such ambiguity about God.” Brynjegard-Bialik said. In ancient Israel, “God was constantly involved in the people’s lives, performing miracles, talking to prophets. This piece asks, how do we see God’s presence in our lives now? Is God involved? Is God a Watcher. Is God a pillar of fire?”

In “Revelation,” interlocking swirls of colorful clouds funnel onto a patchwork mountain.

“The rabbis say Sinai resembled a kiln, the way smoke was rising from it,” Brynjegard-Bialik said. “What does it mean to think of Sinai as a kiln, a place where things are created?”
One of the more whimsical works, “Make Yourself an Ark,” evokes a model cutout kit, complete with ark, mini Noah and family, animals, even pots and pans.

Brynjegard-Bialik, who is a communications director at Deloitte business services, says his three daughters are now into comics as well. His wife, Rabbi Shawna Brynjegard-Bialik, is an assistant rabbi at Temple Ahavat Shalom in Northridge.

For more information, go to www.nicejewishartist.com or www.jccoc.org.

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January 21, 2010 | 4:12 pm

Charities compete for Chase Community Giving prize of $1 million

Posted by Jay Firestone

With one day left in the competition, one hundred of the nation’s charity organizations are campaigning to win a big cash prize. Chase Community Giving is offering $1million to the charity that receives the most votes in this latest facebook competition.

Each ‘registered’ voter is given 5 votes to spread across Chase’s 100 preselected charities.  The charity with most votes wins $1million.  The five runner-ups each take home $100,000 (not bad.)

click here to start voting!

Two competing organizations that recently contacted the Jewish Journal are:

Info provided by Chase Community Giving on Facebook.

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January 21, 2010 | 10:03 am

Is Tiger’s Sex Addiction Real?

Posted by Julie Gruenbaum Fax

As Tiger Woods is reported to have entered rehab for sex addiction (see ESPN story here), the media and the blogosphere have reacted more with snickers than sympathy.

But experts I interviewed for a story seven years ago say sex addiction is as physiological a malady as alcoholism or drug addiction.

“There is still this judgment of ‘what a sleazy guy,’ but what they don’t understand is that the addict has a psycho-biological disorder in which he is seeking a drug that he himself produces,” said Robert Weiss, clinical director of the Sexual Recovery Institute, on Olympic Boulevard, just outside Beverly Hills. “He is literally dosing himself with his own neurochemistry, like a drug addict with a needle in his arm.”

And rabbis have no doubt it’s a spiritual malady as well.

“All addiction is caused by a hole in one’s soul, and a need to fill it with something,” said Rabbi Mark Borovitz, spiritual leader of Beit T’Shuvah. “It’s about loneliness and emptiness. We turn to addictive behaviors and substances as a solution to this experience of not fitting in, of not being good enough.”

The story I wrote looked at how the addiction nearly ruined the lives of a Chasidic father of 12 who was raped as a child in yeshiva, a Reform husband and father who was raised by alcoholics, and another rabbi who became a leader in 12-step programs after facing his own addiction to internet porn. It’s been seven years since I wrote the story, but I still receive feedback on it.

One Friday night 33 years ago, when Yisroel Richtberg was 12 years old, an older boy sneaked into his dorm room at his Chasidic yeshiva in Israel, pulled off Richtberg’s pajama pants and raped him. The same thing happened the next Shabbat.

The boy told Richtberg (not his real name) that if he ever told anyone, the two would be blacklisted at all the yeshivas, and the attacker said he would kill himself.

Richtberg didn’t tell.

Instead, he sank into a cycle of depression, shame and isolation, one that would lead to a 20-year addiction to prostitutes, pornography and drugs, fronted by a double-life as an upstanding Chasidic rabbi, businessman and father of 12.

Today, Richtberg is alive to tell his story because he got help from therapists and 12-step programs. He has made it his life’s mission to help others conquer an addiction so coated with shame that it resides at the very bottom of the hierarchies of addiction.

Read more ...

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