May 21, 2012 | 11:09 am

‘60 Minutes’ Investigates Eden Cemetery Allegations

Posted by Julie Gruenbaum Fax

Eden Memorial Park in Mission Hills is owned by Service Corporation International, the subject of a "60 Minutes" report.

In September 2009 The Jewish Journal began following a class action law suit against Service Corporation International, owner of Eden Memorial Park in Mission Hills. The suit alleges that SCI broke burial vaults and mishandled human remains as it tried to cram graves together, an allegation SCI denies.

The Eden trial is set to begin in October 2012.

In a “60 Minutes” segment that aired May 20, Anderson Cooper took a broader look at problems raised about SCI at some of the 1,800 funeral homes and cemeteries it owns.

Cooper looked into cases where SCI double sold plots, then exhumed existing graves when the new body arrived.

While funeral homes are federally regulated, cemeteries are regulated on a state level, leading to often patchy oversight, according to Cooper’s report.

Joshua Slocum, executive director of the Funeral Consumers Alliance, told Cooper that SCI “generates a disproportionately large number of the complaints we get from consumers.” He also said the complaints are all similar –- high pressure sales tactics, misleading or dishonest information and double-sold plots.

Cooper’s report looked at Eden as well.

About 37,000 people are buried at Eden, a 72-acre facility at Sepulveda Boulevard and Rinaldi Street, which has been in operation for more than 55 years. SCI purchased Eden in 1985.

Groundskeepers deposed in the law suit, filed by Michael Avenatti of Eagan Avenatti, LLP, in Newport Beach, testified that some 200 bodies were disturbed or moved. But SCI says its investigation found problems with four graves, and the situations were handled directly with the families.

SCI, which did not comment on camera for “60 Minutes,” told the Jewish Journal in January 2012 that it follows protocol and properly handles human remains.

“We have different versions of what happened than the plaintiffs do,” SCI spokesperson Lisa Marshall said. “We are continuing to prepare for our day in court.”

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May 8, 2012 | 2:32 pm

Austin Beutner drops out of L.A. mayor’s race

Posted by Jonah Lowenfeld

Businessman Austin Beutner is dropping out of the race for Mayor of Los Angeles. (photo courtesy AustinforLA.org)

Businessman Austin Beutner has announced that he is withdrawing from the race for mayor of Los Angeles in order to spend more time with his family.

“Everything I have been successful at, I have busted my butt,” Beutner told the Daily News’s Rick Orlov. “I didn’t feel I could devote the time to this and balance it with my family.”

Beutner, who is Jewish, was running in a crowded field, and trailed a number of better-known candidates in a race to succeed his one-time boss, L.A. Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa. Beutner, who worked as the mayor’s “jobs czar” for just over one year, finished behind three declared mayoral candidates—City Councilman Eric Garcetti, Controller Wendy Gruel and City Councilwoman Jan Perry—in a recent poll.

That poll, by the Center for the Study of Los Angeles at Loyola Marymount University, found that Los Angeles County Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky, who has not announced his intentions regarding a bid for mayor, finished in a virtual tie with Garcetti and Gruel.

The election is not scheduled to take place until March 2013.

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May 8, 2012 | 12:35 am

Alleged Israel mob boss Yitzhak Abergil pleads guilty in LA

Posted by  Tom Tugend

Itzhak Abergil. Photo by Israel Police.

Reputed Israeli crime boss Itzhak Abergil pleaded guilty Monday in a Los Angeles federal court to participating in a large-scale Ecstasy distribution ring, whose members killed an accomplice in Sherman Oaks nine years ago.

His attorney, Mark Werksman, told the Associated Press that as part of the plea agreement, Abergil, 43, will serve a 10-year prison term. Sentencing is set for May 21.

Abergil, his brother Meir, and three associates were extradited by Israeli authorities to Los Angeles 16 months ago.

They have been held in a federal prison facility since, with the exception of Meir Abergil, who was freed last August and returned to Israel, after serving three years in Israeli and American prisons.

In a 77-page, 32-count indictment, and in subsequent statements, U.S. prosecutors charged that the Abergil brothers and their associates ran one of the largest rings importing narcotics into the United States, working with two other drug syndicates, the Jerusalem Network and another in the San Fernando Valley.

Yitzhak Abergil was also charged with racketeering conspiracy in the murder of Sami Atias. In his guilty plea, Abergil said that Atias was killed for stealing a large drug shipment from the gang.

The indictment listed the underworld monikers of the alleged mobsters, with Yitzhak Abergil also known as The Friend, The Big Friend, and the Man from the South.

The three indicted associates are Sasson Barashy, Moshe Malul, and Israel Ozifa (aka Israel the Tall or The Tall One).

Two other defendants, Yoram El-Al (aka The Wounded) and Luis Sandoval (aka Barney Twin or Hog), are fugitives and sought by police.

Israeli courts have rarely agreed to extradite their nationals to other countries, and in this case Israeli and U.S. officials agreed that if the defendants were found guilty, they would not receive the death penalty and would serve any sentences in Israeli prisons.

The Los Angeles Police Department has been concerned with Israeli crime in the city since the 1970s. “Israeli crime here tends to be quite sophisticated and hard to track,” said Captain Greg Hall, commander of the department’s Major Crimes Division in an earlier Journal interview.

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April 30, 2012 | 10:39 am

Jack Black will do anything to get into Hebrew school [VIDEO]

Posted by JewishJournal

Jack Black will sing, dance, and do whatever you need to believe he’s qualified for Hebrew school.

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April 24, 2012 | 1:19 pm

Jon Stewart upsets Catholics [VIDEO]

Posted JTA

“The Daily Show” with Jon Stewart has been the site of some controversies lately, and this week it was the host himself who was caught in a furor.

First, Ricky Gervais cracked some Anne Frank jokes on the show, then had to explain himself and his “intentionally ignorant” comedy. This week it was Stewart himself who found himself under fire from the Catholic League for suggesting that women use “vagina mangers” to call attention to threats to female reproductive freedom.

Stewart has criticized Fox News for using the term “war on ...” from Christmas to salt, yet holding back from saying “war on women” in reference to recent abortion and birth control debates. To catch Fox News’ attention, Stewart advised women to put “vagina mangers” over their genitalia to catch the media’s attention. His suggestion came with a graphic that featured the manger as the Nativity scene.

That upset the Catholic League, which launched a campaign to boycott Stewart and Comedy Central. The league’s president, Bill Donohue, was scheduled to appear on Fox News’ “Hannity” on Tuesday to discuss the boycott campaign.

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April 22, 2012 | 9:32 pm

Trial for two Jewish brothers accused of beating black teenager in Baltimore set for Monday

Posted by JewishJournal

Two brothers who were accused of beating a black teenager while patrolling an Orthodox Jewish neighborhood in Baltimore are set to go on trial Monday. The case is similar to that of Trayvon Martin according to Yahoo.com.

The brothers, who are white and Jewish, have claimed self-defense, saying the teen was holding a nail-studded board. Local civil rights activists hope the Martin case will draw more attention to what they believe was racial profiling by neighborhood watch vigilantes.

Eliyahu and Avi Werdesheim are accused of beating a 15-year-old boy who was walking through a Baltimore neighborhood in November 2010. The brothers pulled up next to the teen in a vehicle, then got out and “surrounded him,” according to charging documents. The passenger threw the teen to the ground and the driver hit him in the head with a hand-held radio and patted him down.

The teen remembered the driver yelling, “You wanna (mess) with us, you don’t belong around here, get outta here!” according to court documents, which do not identify which brother was driving.

Read more at Yahoo.com.

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April 19, 2012 | 11:13 am

West Virginian Senate candidate equates smoking ban to Hitler policy [VIDEO]

Posted by JewishJournal

John Raese

West Virginian Senate candidate John Raese compared a local smoking ban to the Nazi’s use of the Star of David during World War II, the Huffington Post reports.

Speaking in Hurricane, W.Va., last Thursday at the Putnam County Lincoln Day Dinner, Raese turned to Monongalia County’s recently enacted smoking ban as an example of government overreach.

“But in Monongalia County now, I have to put a huge sticker on my buildings to say this is a smoke-free environment. This is brought to you by the government of Monongalia County. Okay?” he said. “Remember Hitler used to put Star of David on everybody’s lapel, remember that? Same thing.”

Read more at HuffingtonPost.com.

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April 12, 2012 | 2:42 pm

The pharaohs of pizza: Manhattan Beach restaurant takes on matzah pizza

Posted by Elan Rodman

Matzah Pizza. Photo by Elan Rodman

Running out of ideas on how to use left-over matzah? How about a matzah pizza? In the past you probably baked matzah pizza at home. You spread the cheese and sauce on your matzah and you threw it in the oven.

But now, someone can do it all for you. Fresh Brothers pizza is offering an opportunity for Jews to eat Italian out for once during Passover.

During Passover “Aren’t we always looking for something to use matzah with?” said Fresh Brothers pizza founder and CEO Adam Goldberg, who with his brothers helps operate the small chain, which serves his family’s rendition of the traditional Passover classic.

On a crisp spring day, I headed down to the Manhattan Beach location and discovered the feast for myself. As I walked through the door, the smell of pizza hit me, and on this Passover day, I realized I need a piece.

“We have six stores in areas with considerable Jewish Communities,” said Adam Goldberg. “The service aspect of making the pizza is that we are giving people a place to go and eat out, during a time when Jews normally don’t,” he added.

As I sat down, I noticed the promotion for the matzah pizza. Every napkin-holder had a colorful ad with the phrase: “Lotsa Matzoh”, with an image of a matzah pizza. It was refreshing to see Passover and Jewish food culture on colorful display. In a Hallmark world full of holiday branding and over-saturation, Adam and his Brothers’ marketing strategy nuanced a non-kosher pizza joint into a joyful Passover celebration.

The unusual idea of eating out during Passover stirred me to try his rendition. I wanted to find out what was different about his take on matzah pizza. 

“We use a part skim milk cheese, which isn’t greasy and yet very moist”, said Goldberg.

After my first bite, I noticed the difference the cheese made. Also, the matzah had a nice firmness to it and featured charred edges, which left an enjoyable tempered smokiness while playing off by the moist cheese.

Who makes up the market for matzah pizza shouldn’t come as a surprise.

“You can’t identify who is a Jew is, but you can when they order a matzah pizza this week,” said Goldberg.

Yes, it probably was sacrilegious to eat in a Non-Kosher restaurant during Passover, but we live in a different world now. Jews’ ideological views about kashrut stretch beyond our traditional reform, conservative or orthodox conceptions of food. For the average Jew, who’s Passover dinning out habits include removing grilled meat off a tortilla or ordering a sandwich with bread on the side, having a prepared dish with matzah can be as welcoming as any comfort food.

Think about making matzah pizza at home? Here’s a family recipe with a new age Neapolitan twist that will leave you asking for more.

Neapolitan Matzah Pizza

1. In a frying pan, brown onions until they caramelize.
2. Apply pizza sauce to matzah. Spread pizza sauce evenly over matzah. 
3. Sprinkle shredded mozzarella cheese over pizza. Bake in oven at 400 degrees. Watch carefully, when pizza is done, the cheese will be melted and bubbly.
4. When done cooking, remove from oven and apply arugula

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