March 12, 2013 | 4:02 pm

Joan Rivers helps Israeli gay couple

Posted JTA

Joan Rivers holding a sign in support of a gay Israeli couple that reads, "I want them to have a baby too!" (Courtesy A Wider Bridge)

Yuval and Liran, a gay Israeli couple, want to have a child -- and they are using any help they can get, even from Hollywood. Joan Rivers and Kelly Osbourne have joined a campaign to help the couple by posting photos of themselves holding a sign in Hebrew showing their support.

A Wider Bridge, an organization that connects the Israeli and American LGBT communities, first brought the story of Yuval and Liran to the Internet. The couple started a campaign to legalize surrogacy for gay couples and are trying to raise money to have their baby in the United States.

The “Fashion Police” stars joined the campaign, posting photos of themselves holding A Wider Bridge signs on the organization’s site that read, “We want them to have a baby too” in Hebrew.

March 12, 2013 | 3:50 pm

LeBron’s Yom Kippur wedding

Posted JTA

NBA All-Star LeBron James of the Miami Heat dunks during the 2013 NBA All-Star basketball game on Feb. 17. Photo by Eric Gay/Reuters

LeBron James sent out his save the dates for his wedding, the weekend of Sept. 13 -- exciting stuff for the Miami Heat superstar's friends. Except the Jewish ones, that is -- the date happens to be Yom Kippur.

TMZ obtained a copy of the invitation and notes that James has plenty of Jewish friends, inlcuding “Rabbi to the Business Stars” Yishayahu Yosef Pinto.

No word on whether James will push off his marriage to fiance Savannah Brinson to save the Jews. Maybe he's thinking he can save money on the food.

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March 6, 2013 | 4:46 pm

Michael Oren visits Stephen Colbert to discuss Obama’s Israel visit [VIDEO]

Posted by Andrew Dugan

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March 5, 2013 | 4:06 pm

Developing: LAPD pursuit of burglary suspects led to brief lockdown at Milken School

Posted by Jonah Lowenfeld

Milken Community High School. Photo courtesy www.MilkenSchool.org

Los Angeles Police Department officers pursuing burglary suspects in the Sepulveda Pass on March 5 led the Milken Community High School to briefly lock down its campus on Tuesday afternoon.

The three burglary suspects, who were reportedly spotted by a neighbor in Woodland Hills around 1pm, first attempted to flee in a car on the 101 and 405 freeways, but after being pursued by police, exited the car on foot and ran into a thick section of brush on the west side of the 405 Freeway, near the Milken School.

The school ordered the lockdown before 2:30 pm and, in accordance with school procedures, the 740 students on campus, as well as teachers and staff, remained in their classrooms and offices, Sheryl Schreiber, Milken's Executive Director for Institutional Services, said.

"The school did have emergency procedures," Schreiber said in an interview on Tuesday afternoon. "We are happy that no one was injured and Milken was not affected, but we are also happy to say that our emergency procedures were in place and were abided by."

By 3:15 pm, the campus was back to its normal operations. "All kids are proceeding to their afternoon activities as usual," Schreiber said.

According to NBC4, LAPD caught the first of three suspects shortly before 3 p.m. At that time, LAPD officers, including canine units and off-road units, were continuing the search for the remaining two suspects.

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February 25, 2013 | 2:58 am

Academy Awards — not the greatest night for the Tribe

Posted by  Tom Tugend

British actor Daniel Day Lewis poses with his Oscar for best actor for his role in "Lincoln" at the 85th Academy Awards in Hollywood, California on Feb. 24. Photo by Mike Blake/REUTERS.

Sunday evening’s Academy Awards ceremony wasn’t all that great for the Jewish and Israeli film talent present, but it could have been worse.

“Lincoln,” the early frontrunner in the Oscar race avoided a near total shutout with a best actor trophy for Daniel Day-Lewis in the title role.

The half-Jewish actor is the son of actress Jill Balcon, whose parents immigrated to Britain from Latvia and Poland.

The film’s other top nominees, director Steven Spielberg and screenwriter Tony Kushner, were less fortunate and went home empty handed.

On the brighter side, “Argo,” which chronicles the rescue of six American hostages during the Iranian Revolution, came on strong at the finish, wrapping up the best picture title.

Grant Heslov, the picture’s co-producer with George Clooney and star Ben Affleck, accepted the golden statuette and film editor William Goldenberg did likewise in his category.

Two documentary features centering on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict were among the five finalists in their category, but failed to garner the top prize.

In “The Gatekeepers,” Israeli director Dror Moreh interviewed six former heads of the Shin Bet anti-terrorist agency, none of whom had any good words for the policies of the primer ministers under whom they served.

The second entry, “5 Broken Cameras,” jointly directed by Palestinian Emud Bernat and Israeli Guy Davidi, viewed the confrontation between Palestinian villagers on the West Bank and Israeli soldiers protecting a new settlement.

Carrying off the documentary Oscar was the predicted favorite “Searching for Sugar Man,” about an American folk singer unrecognized in his own country, who becomes an idol in South Africa.

In the recent past, Israeli movies have scored well in the foreign-language film competition, making the top five shortlists in four of the last five years.

This time around, Israel was represented by “Fill the Void,” a sensitive portrayal of life and love in a haredi (fervently Orthodox) enclave in Tel Aviv.

Probably none of entries from 71 countries could have topped the winner, the superb Austrian film “Amour,” which examines the marriage of an elderly French couple, tested when the wife suffers a stroke.

However, “Fill the Void” was eliminated in the first cut and part of this disappointing showing can probably be attributed to the film’s anemic promotion effort.

While less accomplished films from other countries staged press screenings and arranged interviews with their directors and actors, the Israeli movie’s producers and distributors failed to make such rudimentary efforts, treating their product almost like a national security secret.

On Oscar night, in the absence of Billy Crystal and other Jewishly attuned hosts of previous years, first-time master of ceremonies Seth MacFarlane stayed away from the typical Jewish Hollywood jokes during the introductory monologue.

The show made up for this omission in the second part of the evening, when Ted, the X-rated stuffed teddy bear of the same titled movie, made an appearance.  In a skit, Ted “revealed” that his birth name was Theodore Shapiro and he was actually born Jewish, which he figured would assure his acceptance into Hollywood’s ranks.

He followed up later with a joke about Hitler, of all people, and a puzzling shtick involving the von Trapp family of “Sound of Music” fame and a black-uniformed SS man.

After that, it was a relief to welcome back Barbra Streisand in a soulful rendition of “The Way We Were” in a tribute to the late composer Marvin Hamlisch.

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February 12, 2013 | 1:25 pm

WATCH: Tel Aviv-Jaffa municipality paints disabled space around parked car, tow it

Posted by Marcy Oster, JTA

A security video showing Hila Ben Baruch's car being towed after the legal space it was parked in was switched to a handicapped space. (Facebook)

Hila Ben Baruch was painted into a corner and came out swinging.

Ben Baruch recently parked her car in a legal space near her central Tel Aviv apartment but returned to find the spot repainted for use by the handicapped -- and her vehicle towed.

She threatened to sue the city for ordering her to pay a fine and the cost of towing to recover her car. Ben Baruch had a strong case: A surveillance camera recording documented the space's transition, and she posted it on Facebook.

The municipality returned the vehicle for free and offered an apology.

"This was indeed a serious error, and schlemielism that is unacceptable to the Tel Aviv-Jaffa municipality," the city said in a statement, according to Haaretz.

Ben Baruch says she still plans to sue the city to recover damages for her mental distress. Regardless of any compensation she receives, the prime parking spot is gone -- a tough loss in Tel Aviv.

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January 31, 2013 | 11:53 pm

Rabbi Manis Friedman, who downplayed damage caused by sexual abuse, apologizes [VIDEO]

Posted by Jonah Lowenfeld

Rabbi Manis Friedman (YouTube)

Rabbi Manis Friedman, a prominent rabbi from the Hasidic Chabad Lubavitch movement who appeared in a video recently posted on YouTube minimizing the harm caused by sexual molestation, has apologized for what he called his “completely inappropriate use of language.”

“I have always believed in the importance of empowering victims of all kinds to move forward in building their lives,” Friedman wrote in an email to The Journal. “In my zeal to reinforce that belief, I came across as being dismissive of one of the worst crimes imaginable.

The controversial video was first posted on YouTube on Jan. 29 and had been viewed over 4,500 times as of Jan. 31. In it, Friedman, the founder of an educational institute for Jewish women in Minnesota, appeared dismissive of victims of sexual abuse, at one point suggesting that the long-term effects of molestation were no worse than those of diarrhea.

“You’re not that damaged, cut it out,” Friedman said in the video, speaking of victims of sexual molestation.

“Zay a mensch,” the rabbi added, a Yiddish phrase that roughly translates to, “Act like a human being.”

[The Article Continues Below.]

At a time when some leaders in Orthodox and ultra-Orthodox Jewish communities are beginning to speak out against sexual abuse and the covering up of molestation by rabbis and authority figures, Friedman’s videotaped remarks drew fierce criticism from around the world.

“Rabbi Friedman's remarks in this instance betray a long-standing, serious problem within Orthodox communities, a minimization sexual abuse and insensitive, dismissive treatment of survivors,” wrote Chaim Levin, a gay Jewish activist, in the Huffington Post.

Friedman founded Bais Chana, a Lubavitch educational institute for Jewish women in Twin Cities, Minn., in 1971. According to its Web site, Friedman still serves as the lead teacher at Bais Chana, which offers programs for women of all ages, including a summertime program for girls aged 15-18.

At one point during the eight-minute video, a man off-screen asks Freidman about a situation faced by one of his own students. The student was dumped by a girl he was seeing after revealing that he had suffered sexual abuse at the hands of a family member for two years.

In his response, Friedman draws a parallel between having been molested and having diarrhea, suggesting that victims of sexual abuse would be better off if they kept quiet.

“What’s wrong with him is that he mentioned it,” Freidman said.

“Do you have to tell her that you once had diarrhea?” he added. “It’s embarrassing, but it’s nobody’s business.”

Manny Waks, an Australian Jewish survivor of abuse who founded a group for other Jewish survivors of abuse, also took offense at Friedman’s remarks, and has reportedly filed suits in rabbinic courts in New York and Sydney rabbinic court, aimed at removing Friedman from his leadership positions.

“He needs to be stripped of any leadership position he holds,” Waks told SBS, “he ultimately needs to apologi[z]e and retract those statements... and undertake some sort of educational session so he is aware of the impact of child sexual abuse.”

In the apology emailed to the Journal late on Jan. 31, Friedman said he was “deeply sorry,” and called molestation “a devastating crime.”

“Perpetrators of molestation should be reported to the police and prosecuted appropriately,” Friedman wrote. “Any person, organization or entity that stands by silently is abetting in the crime.”

Waks welcomed Friedman's apology, calling it a "positive first step" in an email.

"I hope Rabbi Friedman contacts me so we can have a discussion about the impact of abuse, and for him to hear first-hand of the damage that he has caused," Waks wrote on Jan. 31.

Waks said that in light of Friedman's apology, his organization would "reconsider [its] position" before pursuing legal action in rabbinic court.

The full text of Friedman’s apology is below:

I want to apologize for my completely inappropriate use of language when discussing sexual abuse. I have always believed in the importance of empowering victims of all kinds to move forward in building their lives. In my zeal to reinforce that belief, I came across as being dismissive of one of the worst crimes imaginable.

For that I am deeply sorry.

Molestation is a devastating crime, violating the intimacy and innocence of the pure and defenseless. The victim is left feeling that there is something wrong with the world in which they live. Perpetrators of molestation should be reported to the police and prosecuted appropriately. Any person, organization or entity that stands by silently is abetting in the crime.

From now on, I will make sure to make those points absolutely clear. This is about more than regret. The subject can't be neglected.

I hope over time to earn the forgiveness of those who were hurt by my words.

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December 21, 2012 | 3:17 pm

‘Who’s On First?’: The Sequel (w/ Jimmy Fallon, Billy Crystal & Jerry Seinfeld) [VIDEO]

Posted by JewishJournal

Jimmy Fallon, Billy Crystal and Jerry Seinfeld revisit Abbott & Costello's classic "Who's On First?" routine, where we finally get to meet the team's first-baseman "Who," second-baseman "What," and third-baseman "I Don't Know."

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