Halloween is seen as the crowning achievement of secular emptiness. You celebrate, glorify, trivialize and idolize something as deep and holy as death, and in return, your kids get to gorge on KitKats and day-glow jawbreakers.
There\’s no question that Gino\’s got a thing for Jews. Perhaps this has something to do with the fact that for the better part of 40 years, Jewish women have accounted for 90 percent to 95 percent of his hairdressing business.
I can see going a little nuts on Purim, when we celebrate a seminal victory that saved the Jewish people, but going bananas on a day of Torah?
The new shul is a testament to the Jewish community\’s growth in the area, which already houses another equally large Chabad campus close to the Las Vegas Strip.
In Los Angeles, as in other American cities where Jews have moved out en masse from their old neighborhoods, they not only left dwellings behind, they also left behind synagogues, social centers, stores and street corners that connected them to a certain time in their lives and to a particular era in their collective past.
Corporate, private and organizational donors underwrite the day, including Temple Israel. The budget this year is $450,000. The city\’s participation will include providing security, busing and street closures. Additional donors are both welcomed and needed, Levinson said.
At one point the neighborhood was considered so dangerous, people were afraid to walk the streets at night, but now it is experiencing something of a renaissance among Jews and non-Jews alike.
We had no idea if we would be the only ones to brave the cold and damp but were pleasantly surprised; about 30 people made up our tour.
Overlooking bruised thumbs, sore muscles and sunburns, by week\’s end the construction crew will bubble excitedly over their measurable progress that began with a bare foundation, said Thayne Smith, construction director for Orange County\’s Habitat for Humanity.
Sean Samuels, a Beth Jacob board member, was instrumental in the quest to erect Irvine\’s eruv, which should be operational by Rosh Hashanah.
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