Category
Susan Freudenheim
Good-bye to the Jewish Journal, hello Jewish World Watch
Susan Freudenheim
September 29, 2016
I joined the staff of the Jewish Journal in mid-November 2005, a seasoned journalist.
Calm amidst the violence in Israel
Susan Freudenheim
November 11, 2015
On the day the world was parsing Bibi Netanyahu’s suggestion that the notoriously anti-Semitic Mufti of Jerusalem, Mohammed Amin Al-Husseini, was responsible for Hitler’s Holocaust, I was among a group of journalists touring Jerusalem’s Waldorf Astoria hotel, which had just been named the top luxury hotel in the Middle East by Condé Nast’s Readers’ Choice Awards.
My interview with Leonard Nimoy
Susan Freudenheim
February 27, 2015
Some 10 or 12 years ago, I got an unusual request from my rabbi, John Rosove at Temple Israel of Hollywood.
Is 65 the new 40?
Susan Freudenheim
November 5, 2014
Two years ago on Yom Kippur, Rabbi Laura Geller began her sermon at Temple Emanuel of Beverly Hills with a musical clip from The Beatles. “Will you still need me, will you still feed me, when I’m 64?” Paul McCartney famously sang.
New Year’s Eve: Grand Avenue was great
Susan Freudenheim
January 2, 2014
Note to Los Angeles officials: We do like to party in public. Sure, we’re three hours behind the East Coast, but what’s wrong with that?
The Conservative gay marriage debate
Susan Freudenheim
July 2, 2013
On Rosh Hashanah in 1992, Rabbi Harold M. Schulweis stood before his Conservative congregation at Valley Beth Shalom (VBS) in Encino and declared that despite the words of Leviticus, homosexuality is not an abomination. He argued that the same understanding and compassion Jews afford all human beings should be extended to those attracted to others of their own sex, and he told his congregation:
Hillary Clinton, private citizen, reflects on Israel, Benghazi and Middle East unrest
Susan Freudenheim
June 25, 2013
“Live your values, embrace your traditions, but open yourselves up and never stop trying to heal the wounds of the world,” former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton implored an audience of 4,000 at Gibson Amphitheatre in Universal City on June 24.
Q&A with Rabbi Ed Feinstein
Susan Freudenheim
May 8, 2013
On May 11, Rabbi Ed Feinstein, senior rabbi at Valley Beth Shalom in Encino, will be feted for his two decades of service to the synagogue. He talks in this edited version of an interview about changes in synagogue life, his theology and what he prays for.
Pico-union hope
Susan Freudenheim
March 21, 2013
A shofar blasted as Cantor Tannoz Bahremand of Stephen S. Wise Temple stepped into the historic downtown sanctuary, raising her voice in prayer as she walked from the back of the pews, down an aisle packed with people, toward the bimah of the newly founded Pico Union Project. The cantor’s haunting song was answered by the equally vibrant chant of a Muslim call to prayer, sung from the front of the sanctuary by Ben Youcef of the Islamic Center of Southern California.
New Articles
NSFW – A Poem for Parsha Metzora
Rick Lupert
April 18, 2024
Israel War Room Launches in Spanish
Kylie Ora Lobell
April 18, 2024
Modern Book Bans Echo Past Atrocities and Further Silence Marginalized Voices
Larry Bailis and Cindy Rowe
April 18, 2024
The Power of the Passover Seder to Unite Jews
Samuel J. Abrams
April 18, 2024
Dr. Nicole Saphier Reflects on Motherhood and Jewish Advocacy
Kylie Ora Lobell
April 18, 2024
More news and opinions than at a Shabbat dinner, right in your inbox.