Jewish liturgy and ritual frequently remind us that the Israelites were scattered to the “four corners of the earth,” as symbolized by the four fringes of the tallit, or prayer shawl. The extent of the geographic dispersion of the Jews over millennia has been vast, ranging from Baghdad to Burma, Marrakesh to Melbourne, Jerusalem to Los Angeles.
An Orthodox Jewish man who worked as a security guard at a Jewish boys\’ school in Melbourne, Australia was committed to stand trial on charges of sexually abusing children.
Israel\’s Sephardi Chief Rabbi Amar to visit Los Angeles; Ask A (Different) Rabbi; Inquiring Minds Want to Know.
Around the Pico-Robertson neighborhood — and the city — the standard lectures were being given on topics ranging from the Book of Ruth to Israel, but something off the beaten path was taking place on Robertson Boulevard in a lecture at Anshei Emet Synagogue. The subject was \”Kabbalah and the Red String.\”
In recent years Los Angeles, the nation\’s second-largest Jewish community, has become a stop for visiting Jewish dignitaries — especially politicians, hoping to tap into the fundraising network here.
\”The primary purpose is to serve the needs of the Orthodox population,\” says Rabbi Ilan Haber, the program\’s national director, who works out of Hillel headquarters in Washington. \”It\’s not an outreach program, it\’s an in-reach to Orthodox students.\”
In this collection of linked stories, the three figures at the center are a mother, father and son who leave Riga, Latvia, for Toronto, Canada. The stories are told from the point of view of the son, Mark Berman, who observes everything and helps interpret the New World for his parents.
The numbers of Humanistic Judaism are small — especially given the millions of Jews in the world who identify themselves as nonreligious — but Rabbi Sherwin T. Wine of Detroit, who founded the Society for Humanistic Judaism in 1969, remains optimistic.
Our Torah study was enriched by a day in Tel Aviv where we visited some of the projects supported by The Jewish Federation of Greater Los Angeles\’ Tel Aviv-Los Angeles Partnership, including the Shevach Mofet School, a high school in which the majority of the students are immigrants from the former Soviet Union.
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