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October 14, 2009
Jay Sanderson, making his first public appearance as the incoming president of The Jewish Federation of Greater Los Angeles, addressed the Jewish Communal Professionals of Southern California (JCPSC) this week at a Bel Air sukkah party with a killer view of the Getty Center and beyond.
When Joanna Shebson immigrated to Jerusalem two years ago she discovered two phenomena: a plethora of children's events in the capital and a plethora of people complaining about the lack of culture there. Noticing that there was not one place that comprehensively listed things to do for the young ones, she started compiling lists for herself and her friends. After taking a class in social networking - during which she realized that running a blog is less complicated than it sounds - she launched in June "Fun In Jerusalem," an English-language Web site listing all events and activities for children in and around Israel's capital.
In what will likely become an annual tradition, Susan G. Komen for the Cure’s Los Angeles affiliate partnered with more than a dozen of the city’s most popular restaurants on July 15 for Dine Out for the Cure. The event raised money for the organization’s breast cancer treatment and awareness programs, with participating restaurants donating 10 percent of their gross profits to the group whether diners knew it or not.
Philanthropist Audrey Irmas, longtime supporter of L.A. Family Housing, held her 80th birthday celebration at the Sydney M. Irmas Transitional Living Center in North Hollywood May 30. Named for her late husband, the center shelters families in the midst of moving out of homelessness as part of the L.A. Family Housing organization. Families currently residing in the Transitional Living Center enjoyed art activities, a catered luncheon and a moon bounce in Irmas’ honor.
Los Angeles County Supervisor Michael D. Antonovich is objecting to Los Angeles Opera's long-planned 2010 "Ring Festival LA" because of its celebration of the composer Richard Wagner.
A wall is going up in Jerusalem, this one to honor the soldiers who fought and fell in the 1948 and 1967 wars to defend and reunify Israel’s capital city.
Law enforcement officials and hate crime watchdogs have been confounded over the last few months by a spate of graffiti with the word “Jew” marking multiple locations in the Fairfax area, near Hollywood and on La Cienega Boulevard near the 10 Freeway.
On April 29, Israel’s 61st Independence Day, the L.A. Clippers held a press conference announcing a preseason exhibition game with Maccabi Electra Tel Aviv, Israel’s most successful basketball team.
David Yahudian endured embarrassment and fear growing up in Teheran. On walks in the market, his father ordered him to tuck the Magen David necklace inside his shirt and — even worse — called him by an alias, Ali, rather than by his overtly Jewish name. Following an Israel-Iran soccer match at the 1974 Asia Games, he saw fans burning Israeli flags in the parking lot.
Holocaust survivors and their families got a chance to share their legacies with the public April 19 as Mount Sinai Memorial Parks and Mortuaries hosted a Holocaust memorabilia forum at its Simi Valley campus in honor of Yom HaShoah.
Norman Jewison is not Jewish, though his name quite literally begs the question. In fact, the association of “Jewison” and “Jewish” is so strong there is a section in his Wikipedia entry devoted to debunking the myth: “Notwithstanding his alliterative surname ... Norman Jewison is not Jewish. He was raised in a Protestant family.”
Five communities, including Los Angeles, will split an $11 million emergency grant from the Jim Joseph Foundation for day school and Jewish camp tuition assistance over the next two years. The San Francisco-based foundation will begin paying money out immediately to Jewish federations in Los Angeles, the San Francisco Bay Area, Boston and its neighboring North Shore, and the greater Washington, D.C., area.
Villaraigosa Runs Hard for 2nd Term on Record, Future
On Thursday morning, Feb. 19, JewishJournal.com will broadcast LIVE from the Jewish Federation of Greater Los Angeles. At around 8:40 am, tune in to watch “The Lean Years: Strategies for Survival,” a conference dedicated to creating a greater conversation about surviving the economic crisis as a Jewish nonprofit.
Neighbors’ Hopes Ride High for Historic Shul’s Revival
Academic seminars are so numerous at UCLA that they rarely have much of an afterlife, but this has not been the case with the symposium on “Human Rights and Gaza” held Jan. 21 on campus.
When Los Angeles City Councilman Jack Weiss is asked why he gets involved in a zoning fight between an Orthodox yeshiva and its neighbors, well outside his own territory, he answers that as the Fifth Council District incumbent he represents the entire Jewish community.
Community Briefs
Adriana Martinez and Brenda Larios, two bright teenage students at Franklin High School, showed up at the Israeli Consulate’s election party midday Tuesday to scope out the issues and candidates in Israel’s elections for their political science class.
People are starting to get the message that The Jewish Federation of Greater Los Angeles isn’t going to be their grandparents’ umbrella organization, a place that year-in-year-out supplies office space and significant support to blue-blood agencies without being selective or soliciting competition for funds.
Iranian Jews, as well as other Iranian Americans, are being courted for contributions and political support in the run-up to the March 3 elections for Beverly Hills and West Los Angeles city council races, but nearly two years after Beverly Hills City Councilman Jimmy Delshad was sworn in as the first Iranian American mayor in the United States, a hoped-for bounce that would find more Iranian Jewish candidates entering area races has yet to materialize.
Linda Sanders needed some old Yiddish music to cheer up a 98-year-old woman she visited regularly, and she knew just where to find the obscure recordings — at the Jewish Community Library of Los Angeles, in The Jewish Federation building on Wilshire Boulevard.
The story is much the same in both Los Angeles and Long Beach: The proposed construction of a senior assisted-living facility has created heated controversy, pitting residents against developers, and, in both instances, laying the groundwork for costly legal battles.
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Discomfort with German art might seem like a problem that's particular to the Jewish community. It's another part of the "I would never set foot in Germany" statement that I often heard in response to my frequent German trips and my subsequent working in Berlin
"Without people like the Broads,we wouldn't have commissioned work of Mozart and Bach and Beethoven and so many of the great painters. How they use their capital is commendable." -- Dustin Hoffman
The story is told from the perspective of 8-year-old Bruno (Asa Butterfield), who is chagrined when his father (David Thewlis, who plays Remus Lupin in the "Potter" films) takes over as commandant of a remote labor-turned-death camp.