April 24, 2013 | 3:15 pm

It’s official: Kate Upton isn’t going to Jake Davidson’s prom

Posted by Ryan Torok

From left: Jake Davidson (Photo courtesy of Jake Davidson) and Kate Upton (photo by Richie Buxo/Splash News/Newscom).

So, 17-year-old Milken Community High School senior Jake Davidson won’t be putting a corsage on Sports Illustrated swimsuit model Kate Upton’s wrist, after all.

On April 24, Davidson told the Journal that the American model and actress has turned down the invitation to his high school prom – this despite the viral success of Davidson’s March 17 YouTube video where he asked Upton to go out with him (the video has racked up more than 2.5 million views to date), Upton’s tweet on March 19, "you can call me Katie if you want! How could I turn down that video! I'll check my schedule ” and a March 20 “The Today Show” episode where Upton phoned in unannounced to tell Davidson, “I absolutely loved the video” and led Davidson--and everyone watching--to believe that she might actually go with him.

Davidson is taking the rejection like a good sport.

“While I would have loved for Kate to come to my prom, I understand she is a very busy and in demand professional and I am so grateful for Kate responding at all," he said in an email.

Upton’s camp could not be reached immediately on Wednesday afternoon for comment.

The Los Angeles Times reported on March 26 that Upton turned down Davidson’s request due to her schedule being booked, but, speaking to the Journal three days later, Davidson said her official reply remained a maybe. Well, now we know for sure it’s not happening.

In related news, Los Angeles actress Jessica Rachel’s parody of Davidson’s video is getting some buzz.

“I know I may not be a famous swimsuit model, but I do look pretty terrific in a bikini,” Rachel says in “Kate Upton Says No - Bikini Babe says ‘Yes Jake Davidson.'" (Warning: Rachel's video contains some sexual images.)

Even if he didnt get the prom date he'd hoped for, Davidson still adores Upton.

"I appreciate everything she did as it made my senior year really surreal," he said. "She really is awesome!”

April 23, 2013 | 2:18 pm

Neil Diamond’s ‘Sweet’ gesture to Boston [VIDEO]

Posted JTA Staff

Neil Diamond performing 'Sweet Caroline' during the 7th inning of the Boston Red Sox game on April 20.

After a horrible week in their city, one Bostonians surely want to forget, singer Neil Diamond brought them a memorable moment.

Diamond came to Fenway Park on Saturday, when the Red Sox played their first home game following the Boston Marathon bombing five days earlier. It was also less than a day after Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, a suspect in the bombing, was captured following a manhunt that included a shootout with police and a lockdown on Boston and other area towns. Tsarnaev's brother, considered the leader in the bombing plot, was killed in the gunfire.

In the eighth inning, Diamond came on the field to perform his "Sweet Caroline," which since the early 2000s has been sung at least once a game by the Fenway faithful to a Diamond recording.

According to MLB.com’s Jason Mastrodonato, Diamond decided to fly to Boston from Los Angeles on Friday night and arrived an hour before the afternoon game. Then he called the people at Fenway and said, “Hey, I’m here. Can I come sing?”

Of course, he put on a great show, and everyone sang along with the “pa pa pa!” part.

A night after the marathon bombing, the rival New York Yankees had played "Sweet Caroline," without Diamond, when they squared off against the Sox at Yankee Stadium.

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April 23, 2013 | 1:45 am

Did Tamerlan Tsarnaev kill his Jewish friends?

Posted Jewish Journal

Brendan Mess

Did Tamarlan Tsarnaev kill three of his Jewish friends?

The Boston Globe is reporting that the former friends of the man assumed responsible for the Boston marathon bombings now wonder if Tamarlan Tsarnaev, who died after the bombings in a shootout with police,  was the perpetrator in a grisly unsolved murder that took place in 2011.

On September 12, 2011, Brendan Mess,  Raphael Teken, 37, and Erik Weissman, 31 were found stabbed to death in an apartment in nearby Waltham. The men had deep wounds to their necks, their bodies were strewn with thousands of dollars worth of marijuana, and police recovered $5,000 in cash at the scene.  There was no sign of forced entry. Police said they  believe the murders were "targeted and not a random act of violence."

Mess, who was Jewish, was a close friend  of Tsarnaev.  So friends thought it was especially strange when Tsarnaev did not show up at Mess's funeral.  

"Tam wasn't there at the memorial service, he wasn't at the funeral, he wasn't around at all," a friend of the murdered men told the Globe. "And he was really close with Brendan. That's why it's so weird when he said, 'I don't have any American friends.'"

"He was somebody who was in contact with Brendan on a daily basis. Anybody like that, you would think they would have been around," Ray said.

Mess and Tsarnaev met at a Jiu Jitsu gym, and trained together regularly.

According to multple reports, Mess, Teken and Weissman were Jewish.   Teken had attended  Brandeis University, and Weissman took a active role in his synagogue. The murder took place about two and a half miles from the Brandeis campus.

Their murder, which a Waltham police officer called, "the worst bloodbath I have ever seen in a long law enforcement career," came on the tenth anniversary of the September 11 World Trade Center terror attack by Muslim extremists.

The Boston Globe first reported that police are now reinvestigating the case, which has so far gone unsolved.  Former friends of the deceased say once they heard Tsarnaev's name mentioned in conjunction with the Marathon bombings, their suspicion grew.  

"A few of my friends, without even speaking about it beforehand, have all been thinking this," said one former acquaintance.

The online newspaper WickedLocal.com carried more detailed news of the murdered men after their brutal deaths sent shockwaves through the community.  According to the website:

Former CRLS teacher Larry Aaronson who attended the Mess and Weissman funeral services this week said hundreds of friends, neighbors and classmatesturned out to pay tribute.

“For me the greatest pain and deepest grief of these ghastly murders is the tragic mystery of why and how these two gifted and talented social geniuses, intellectsthat engendered so much love and generated so much generosity, nevertheless made certain choices that led to this death trap,” he said.

Weissman was Aaronson’s student in the now defunct The Pilot School at CRLS, where he enjoyed the vibrant culture but failed to grow academically, Aaronson said. Weissman enjoyed the hustle and bustle of the urban nightlife, he said, but was also a “ voracious reader” with a “creative mind” that he used to “challenge conventional wisdom.”

Read more at WickedLocal.com.

Despite its tragic and mysterious nature, the homicide of the three young men received little national attention.  That's clearly about to change.

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April 16, 2013 | 4:32 pm

Justin Bieber’s Anne Frank furor

Posted JTA Staff

Justin Bieber. Photo by Tami Chappell/Reuters

Justin Bieber, no stranger to controversy, stirred another one with his visit to the Anne Frank House.

Bieber, visiting the Netherlands over the weekend for a concert in Arnhem, visited the landmark on Friday night for two hours. Afterward he wrote in the guestbook, “Truly inspiring to be able to come here. Anne was a great girl. Hopefully she would have been a belieber.”

Of course, the comment made the Internet explode, since so many online already are dedicated to either loving or hating Bieber. Here was one comment: ”I just can’t believe that he would turn something that important into a publicity platform for himself. What a dirtbag.” That was just the tip of the iceberg.

True Beliebers (who did not spend their childhood hiding in the attic from Nazis) said in his defense that he is “just a human” and that it was “ironic that all of you are spewing hate. Isn’t this why Anne Frank and countless others had to go into hiding?”

Missing the point a little, but a good thought.

The authority on offensiveness, the ADL's Abraham Foxman, said Frank was a fan of celebrities and pop culture, so he doesn’t ”see anything wrong” with what Bieber wrote. At least Biebs dodged that bullet.

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April 12, 2013 | 9:03 pm

Developing: Jewish Family Service denies Australian news report of ‘harboring’ pedophile

Posted by Jonah Lowenfeld

Jewish Family Service of Los Angeles (JFS) has rejected accusations that the organization or any member of its staff attempted to shield a known pedophile from law enforcement.

Responding to reports that first appeared on April 10 in the Sydney Morning Herald, a respected Australian newspaper, the 157-year-old L.A.-based social services agency released a statement reaffirming its commitment to following “all mandated reporting laws to the letter.”

The statement also defended its former staff member, Debbie Fox, who until October 2012 was the director of children and family services at JFS, and who also served as director of the Aleinu Family Resource Center, an arm of JFS that serves the local Orthodox community.

“At no time did Aleinu staff ever shield a suspect from local or international law enforcement in any way whatsoever, nor would they ever do so,” JFS’ statement read. “Rather, Aleinu staff follows all mandated reporting laws to the letter, working closely with local law enforcement, without exception.”

The original report in the Herald, just one of a string of stories coming out about abuse within the Australian Jewish community, is connected to the case of a single unnamed alleged Jewish child abuser from Australia who later made his home in Los Angeles. That individual is, according to the Herald, under investigation by detectives in Australia. In 2011, the man’s case was brought to Fox’s attention by an unnamed accuser, who alleged that he had been molested by this individual in Australia.

According to JFS CEO Paul Castro, the alleged victim approached Fox hoping to “find a way to get the powers that be, within the Orthodox community, to pay attention to this individual that she identified as an alleged perpetrator.”

“He didn’t give us particulars, he didn’t give us details,” Castro said of the alleged victim. “He said it was something that occurred many years ago in a different community.”

As a result, Castro said, Fox never opened a file about the case, but she did bring the matter to the attention of a council of Orthodox rabbis that consults with Aleinu on matters where legal action is not possible but where the community’s interests may require that some protective action be taken.

“From our perspective and Debbie’s,” Castro told the Journal, “it was about how to connect the person who was making the allegations and the alleged perpetrator to resources within the Orthodox community.”

Fox contacted the Journal on April 12 but said she could not speak immediately with a reporter. She agreed to be interviewed within the coming days.

Rabbi Avrohom Union, the rabbinic administrator of the Rabbinical Council of California, is a member of Aleinu’s Halachic Advisory Board. Although he could not recall the details of the case, he said he did remember Fox bringing the case to the group’s attention.

But, Union said, as a matter of course, the rabbis on the board were not consulted about whether to report cases where the law clearly required it; Fox, Aleinu staff and JFS as an agency are all mandated reporters under California law.

Rather, Union said, “The matters that were brought to us were where there was no legal remedy, and we considered what additional steps could be taken to provide protection where there was a concern for the community.”

The Herald story, which ran under the headline “Jewish welfare group knows it is sheltering a paedophile,” focused on what JFS and Fox knew and did in 2011 after the unnamed alleged victim warned Fox about the unnamed alleged abuser. The article quoted from e-mails reportedly written by Fox and “obtained from U.S. sources” that suggest Fox was protecting a known abuser.

“I have no idea how anyone found out — but calls are coming daily from many sources,” Fox reportedly wrote in an e-mail that the Herald report claimed Fox had sent to the alleged abuser. “So far, we've been protecting you.''

But according to Nancy Volpert, JFS’ director of public policy and media relations, no one from JFS was contacted by the Sydney Morning Herald either before the publication of the story or since.

“They did not attempt to reach us through any of the media channels or through our main contacts,” Volpert told the Journal on April 12.

Castro said he had spoken with Fox in the days since the Herald’s article was published. In the original article, the Herald reported that “Ms. Fox did not respond to questions,” but Castro said Fox told him that she had not been contacted by any member of the Herald staff either.

Reached by phone in Melbourne, Richard Baker, one of the reporters who wrote the original story for the Herald, told the Journal on Friday that he had sent two emails to Fox's email address at JFS and received no response.

As of Friday morning, Fox was still listed as an active member of the JFS staff; by the afternoon her name and email adddress had been removed from the page.

Asked if JFS had looked at any of Fox’s e-mails dealing with the matter, Castro said that he had not, and was placing trust in Fox’s assertions.

“At this point, we have not done that,” Castro said. “Debbie is a long-standing employee with a tremendous reputation for ethics.”

For more on this developing story, visit jewishjournal.com.

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April 11, 2013 | 12:00 pm

Los Angeles Mayoral Debate—The Jewish Version

Posted by JewishJournal.com

Tonight, April 11 at 7 pm, you can tune into KABC-7 for a live broadcast of the Los Angeles Mayoral Debate from American Jewish University.

KABC is hosting the debate along with AJU, the Anti-Defamation League and the American Jewish Committee, and it will take place on the AJU's Bel Air campus.

City Controller Wendy Greuel will face off against City Council Member Eric Garcetti in their first debate since the mayoral primary.  The two have been trading barbs over the past week over education and budget, even challenging each other to impromptu debates.  

The debate will cover the candidate's positions on the budget, education, traffic and other pressing issues.  What's with the Jewish aspect?  No, the candidates will not be pressed on their stand on kosher versus glatt kosher.  But the 600,000-strong Jewish community of LA, long an active and integral part of the city's cultural and civic life, cares deeply about making LA the best city it can be. Thus, a debate.

The debate moderator will be KABC-7's Mark Brown, who will be joined by a panel of journalists:  Adrienne Alpert (KABC7), Rob Eshman (Jewish Journal) and Gabrielle Tessier (Univision Los Angeles)

Dr. Robert Wexler, President of AJU, will welcome the audience and explain the evening's format.

Tune in or set your TiVO, or both:  April 11, 7 pm, KABC-7.

Our profiles of each candidate are here:

Wendy Greuel v. Eric Garcetti

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April 5, 2013 | 2:26 pm

“Never Forget” by Francky Perez [VIDEO]

Posted by Rob Eshman

Francky Perez is a Moroccan-born singer whose songs have topped French charts.  Just today he released via YouTube an English version of his French rap song "N'oubliez Jamais"-- Never Forget-- a rap song about... the Holocaust.   In the Digital Age, Perez's song-- catchy, short, backed by strong images and a passionate delivery-- might just be the way a new generation of computer-obsessed kids first learns about the Shoah.  That's what Perez is hoping, anyway.   And his last YouTube video for a FRench charity garnered 1.6 million viewers and counting... so he may indeed be on to something.

I called Perez at his current home in Los Angeles to ask about the English-language "Never Forget."

The project began, he said, after a visit last year to the Yad Vashem Holocaust museum and memorial in Jerusalem.  There Perez saw the image of a young boy in a concentration camp. 

"I looked at the kid and he looked exactly like my second son.   I had a shock. I needed to do something that expressed what I was feelingt, and I'm someone who uses rap music for therapy."

It took Perez six months to write and produce the music video.  Most of the shooting took place in paris, where he used real streets to recreate the roundups that took place there.   

Perez himself did not lose family in the Holocaust.

"I am Sephardic," he explained.  "But sometimes when I talk to other Jews, I feel they think that being sephardic we don't feel this hell they went through.   That's not true.  Being Sephardic,  I feel this is in my genes as much as an Ashkenazi. I suffer for my people, I feel it in my genes the same pain and suffering, not like the people who went through it, but like all Jews now."

Perez hopes a rap video will educate people in ways books and documentaries can't.

"I want this to go beyond the Jewish community, especially to teenagers," he said. " They learn by heart rap lyrics.  Maybe this is the right vector to reach the young generation, through a rap song."

His hope is that educational organzations will help him distribute it to young people, either in DVDs or online.

"I hope its totally respectful to the memory," Perez said.

Watch it.   It is.

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March 29, 2013 | 11:50 am

Justin Bieber’s guitarist visits Auschwitz-Birkenau with March of the Living

Posted by Ryan Torok

Dan Kanter in Auschwitz. Courtesy of Schnur Associates Inc.

Dan Kanter, Justin Bieber’s musical director and guitarist, visited Auschwitz-Birkenau on March 25, during Bieber’s 2013 “European Believe Tour” stop in Poland.

International March of the Living—an annual educational program that brings students from all over world to Poland in order for them to study the history of the Holocaust—arranged the trip for Kanter, who is Jewish.

“It’s been very intense and emotional today,” Kanter, 31, said, after walking the three-kilometer distance separating death camp Auschwitz and satellite extermination camp Birkenau.

On the evening of March 25, following Kanter’s visit to the camps, Kanter joined teen heartthrob and pop star Bieber onstage for a concert in Poland. 

This was not the first time that Kanter, who became Bieber’s guitarist after performing with him on a popular Canadian TV show in 2009, has demonstrated his Jewish identity while working for Bieber. In April 2011, Kanter performed a Jimi Hendrix-style rendition of Hatikvah before Bieber stepped onstage to perform at Tel Aviv’s Hayarkon Park. And “Justin Beiber’s Musical Father Figure, Dan Kanter,” a 2011 story in the Journal, describes how Kanter is the reason that Bieber, a devout Christian, says the “The Shema” before every concert.

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