Being American is bad for your health

By Marty Kaplan
Published on February 4, 2013

“Americans are sicker and die younger than people in other wealthy nations.”

A feast for Mollie Pier

Published on November 29, 2012

In 1989, Mollie Pier co-founded Project Chicken Soup (PCS), a nonprofit organization that makes and delivers free kosher food to Angelenos living with HIV/AIDS, cancer and other serious illnesses. Today, at 92, she still volunteers, spending eight hours a month in the kitchen and calling recipients when their meals are ready.

Arafat’s body exhumed to test for poisoning

Published on November 27, 2012

Forensic experts took samples from the body of former Palestinian Authority President Yasser Arafat's uncovered corpse in the West Bank on Tuesday, trying to determine if he was murdered with the hard-to-trace radioactive poison, Polonium.

Israel for a Cure participates in AIDS Walk

By Ryan Torok
Published on October 17, 2012

Israel and American men and women of all ages, representatives of Israeli and Jewish community organizations and others turned out to walk with Israel for a Cure, one of approximately 1,700 teams that participated in the AIDS Walk Los Angeles on Oct. 14.

Conversations From Twitter – Part 5

By Ilana Angel
Published on June 11, 2012

Cooking for AIDS patients Is chicken soup for grieving mom’s soul

By Naomi Pfefferman
Published on January 5, 2012

Several days before Mollie Pier’s son, Nathaniel, died of complications from AIDS, she joined together with his doctors, Nathaniel and his longtime partner, Michael, as the couple exchanged rings and vows in his hospital room.

African AIDS experts visit, learn from Israel

Published on October 11, 2010

A delegation of prominent HIV/AIDS doctors from across East Africa is visiting Israel to expand medical partnerships and benefit from Israel's expertise.

Cedars-Sinai studies liver transplants for HIV patients

By Nancy Sokoler Steiner
Published on December 18, 2008

Cedars-Sinai is one of only 11 hospitals in the country and two in the state participating in the study

African AIDS fight uses Israeli circumcision skills

By Dina Kraft
Published on November 26, 2008

The United Nations announced last year that the procedure could reduce the rate of HIV transmission by up to 60 percent. It was in Israel, with its experience performing adult male circumcision on a wide scale, that the international medical community found an unlikely partner in the global fight against AIDS.

Malibu camp offers respite and community for kids with HIV

By Danielle Berrin
Published on November 19, 2008

" . . . This camp, this organization [Hollywood Heart] gives me true happiness.I get back so much more in ways that are impossible to quantify, in ways I couldn'tget from anything material or anything else I've ever done . . . "

AIPAC, Persian tragedy, Christian support for Israel

Published on June 19, 2008

" . . . The deceased is gone. Yet the living . . . [are] left sinning, hurting, reeling, and lost. I only hope and pray that our people can find ourselves again, and learn from this. It is time to stop, and put an end to this vicious cycle. . . . ."

Albert Winn’s photography captures the intertwining influences of Judaism and illness

By Nick Street
Published on June 5, 2008

"A funny thing happens when you become ill. Even though you're the person who's sick, you have to be a caregiverin a way. You can't just dump information on people."

Reform rabbinical school teaches students to reach out to HIV/AIDS patients

By Nick Street
Published on June 5, 2008

HIV/AIDS education at Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion (HUC-JIR) means "making sure rabbinical students don't leave campus before they hone their skills to help people in need," said Michele Prince, director of the Kalsman Institute of Judaism and Health at HUC-JIR.

Project Chicken Soup brings comfort by the bowl

By Rachel Heller
Published on June 5, 2008

The notes are short, direct and never signed. They come from all over Los Angeles, from the South Los Angeles tenements to the San Fernando Valley suburbs. Their authors differ in age, ethnicity and religion, but have at least one thing in common: They all live with HIV/AIDS.


Their gratitude is directed at Project Chicken Soup, an L.A.-based nonprofit whose volunteers gather twice a month to cook nutritious, kosher meals and deliver them, free of charge, to the doors of clients across the city.

The over-50 crowd relearns the ‘facts of life’

Published on June 5, 2008

While HIV can pose health problems at any age, there is additional risk of having the virus as an older person. People 50 and older have less vigorous immune systems, and studies report that a majority of older adults have at least one or more chronic, age-related condition such as diabetes, arthritis or heart disease

HIV/AIDS impacts the vulnerable across the city, up the state, over America and around the globe

Published on June 5, 2008

Worldwide, there are more than 33 million people living with HIV/AIDS, and the epidemic continues to expand.

By Alex Dobuzinskis, Contributing Writer

Published on June 5, 2008

"Africa isn't something far awayand distant anymore. It's something very personal, and it's somethingthat you can't avoid."

Teen makes a difference for orphans in Kenya slum

By Sharon Schatz Rosenthal
Published on November 8, 2007

After Ryan Silver returned home from a trip to Africa with his family, he began preparing for his bar mitzvah. Without hesitation, he knew that his mitzvah project would involve helping the children in the orphanage he visited in a Nairobi slum. Between the guests' donations and his own, Silver raised more than $2,700. In addition to completing a Jewish rite of passage, Silver was pleased that his celebration helped educate others about the plight of the children in Africa and to ultimately offer financial support.

IFF: ‘Hands’ sends message about kids, not AIDS

By Hannah Brown
Published on February 22, 2007

The idea for "Tied Hands" began to take shape in the 1990s, when he visited director Amos Guttman, who was living with AIDS and had come back to Israel to die.

Rebecca Levinson: Born to Be a Volunteer

By Jane Ulman
Published on December 28, 2006

Rebecca Levinson grew up always doing things for the community.

"This is what you do," the 17-year-old junior at North Hollywood's Oakwood School, said matter of factly.

Shoah lessons drive curriculum

By Julie G Fax
Published on October 5, 2006

Community Briefs.

Six self-help books seek to help you get sealed in the Book of Life

By Sandee Brawarsky
Published on September 21, 2006

Self-help books are essential tools.

Phone call sparks memory of young AIDS victim

By Gloria Baran
Published on September 14, 2006

Ariel Jacobs had been jaundiced at birth, because of a blood-type incompatibility with her mother, and required a transfusion. As a result of contaminated blood, she contracted HIV, which later developed into AIDS.

‘Wagging’: My Story as Gay Jewish Male

By Eric Gordon
Published on May 11, 2006

A couple of years ago, I heard about an oral history project for older gay men and women that resulted in a staged play. I didn't see it, but when Bob Baker, the adapter-director, sent out the call for a new cast, I signed up. We listened to each other's stories, wrote up the most telling ones and turned remembered conversations into dialogue. After nine months, out came a play.

Hearing Loss Helps Writer Find Voice

By Nancy Sokoler Steiner
Published on December 29, 2005

Michael Chorost climbs the flight of stairs to a room filled with metal file cabinets. He's never been to this place before, but he's greeted like a long lost relative. A smiling woman hands him what he has come to see: file No. 27392.
Hearing Loss Helps Writer Find Voice

Jewish Groups Work Against AIDS

By E. B. Solomont
Published on December 4, 2003

Jewish groups from across the denominational spectrum are calling on the Jewish community to help fight AIDS in Africa and other places hit hard by the pandemic. An open letter to the Jewish community issued by the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism, together with Reform, Conservative and Reconstructionist Jewish leaders, called on "synagogues and rabbis to renew and affirm our commitment to ending the AIDS crisis in Africa and elsewhere around the world."

Fearful Assad Places a Risky Bet on Saddam

By Leslie Susser
Published on April 3, 2003

Judging from his public statements, Assad seems convinced that the Bush administration will not stop at Iraq, and that after a U.S. victory in Baghdad, he could be next on the regime-change agenda.

Therefore, when Assad vilifies the United States and openly aids the Iraqi war effort, he believes he is fighting for his life. In late March, buoyed by what he saw as initial Iraqi success in resisting the U.S.-led invasion, Assad explained the basis of his thinking in a fierce diatribe against Israel and the United States.

The war in Iraq, he told the Lebanese newspaper, As-Safir, was an Israeli-American conspiracy "designed to redraw the political map of the Middle East." In Assad's view, the United States would take Iraq's oil, and Israel would become the dominant regional power.

It’s a Full Plate in Nourishing the Sick

By Phil Shuman
Published on January 9, 2003

Bob S. insists that his mother back in Virginia made the best chicken soup ever, but he's willing to admit the homemade version delivered to his Van Nuys apartment is a close second.

The delivery is part of the mission of Project Chicken Soup, an all-volunteer group that cooks, packages and personally delivers kosher meals twice a month to patients living with HIV and AIDS. It might be a chicken breast or a casserole, along with the soup, salad, fruit, dessert or even a protein drink.

A Beautiful Mind

By Rob Eshman
Published on January 17, 2002

Acuity, passion, the ability to hold several conflicting ideas at the same time, a wide-ranging and detailed understanding of the world we live in, and an ability to articulate a broad intellectual and moral vision -- watching Bill Clinton last Monday night at the Universal Ampitheatre made me realize how much I miss these attributes in a president.

This is not a criticism of George W. Bush. I imagine he would be the first to acknowledge, with some pride, that he's no Bill Clinton. Among the crowd that pressed to touch flesh with Clinton in a post-speech reception, several people admitted that Clinton would probably have done no better, and maybe worse, than Bush in executing the war against Al Qaeda. Different men, different strengths and weaknesses.

But last Monday night, it was Clinton's gifts that were on display.

Sitting Idle

By Leonard Fein
Published on December 21, 2000

Africa is not much on our minds these days. We have obviously been preoccupied by America's election and by Israel's chaos.

Groopman’s World

By Ivor Davis
Published on October 5, 2000

For those who don't remember, Attanasio is the brilliant creator and writer of "Homicide: Life on the Street," the former NBC series that was always more beloved by critics and its small but fanatically devoted group of viewers than by the public at large. Among the talents spawned by that show, none made more of an impression than Andre Braugher, a Shakespearean-trained actor of enormous power who, during the show's run, got himself a cover of TV Guide which asked the question in banner headlines: "Is this the best actor on television?"

Still Stigmatized

By Charlotte Hildebrand
Published on May 4, 2000

When Ofra Haza, the 41-year-old Israeli Yemenite singer, succumbed to complications of AIDS in February, she died under a heavy cloud of silence.

Chicken Soup and a Mother’s Journey

By Ellie Kahn
Published on April 20, 2000

When I'm 79, I want to be Mollie Pier.

Sitting Idle

By Leonard Fein
Published on November 29, 1999

Africa is not much on our minds these days. We have obviously been preoccupied by America's election and by Israel's chaos. Many of us have long since stopped reading the news from Africa, since it is almost always gloomy -- Africa as the world's basket case, the one continent that seems irretrievably trapped by misgovernment and murder, and now by a horrendous pandemic of AIDS.

Groundbreaking Cinema

By Curt Schleier
Published on October 28, 1999

In "Hit and Runway," a straight Italian-American naif teams up with a gay Jew to write a screenplay. In "Aimee & Jaguar," a Jewish woman and a Nazi's wife begin a torrid affair. In "Man is a Woman," a gay man marries a woman, a Yiddish singer, who has never known a man.