- NEWS & COMMENTARY
Lapid: No settlement freeze for peace talks
Israeli Finance Minister Yair Lapid said he opposes a settlement freeze, but that thousands of settlers would have to leave their homes in a peace deal.
Israel to authorize four West Bank settler outposts
Israel plans to declare legal four unauthorized West Bank settler outposts, a court document showed on Thursday, days before U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry returns to the region to try to restart peace talks.
Palestinians mark Nakba with West Bank protests
Thousands of Palestinians in the West Bank marked the 65th anniversary of the founding of the state of Israel, which they call the “catastrophe,” with marches and protests.
- HOLLYWOOD
The Office’s best Jewish moment
Funny music, sad life
On an otherwise unremarkable day in 1938, a chubby but charming student at John Burroughs Junior High in Los Angeles “cracked the code of his comic gift and discovered his…
Filmmakers reveal magician’s secretive world
A British journalist recalls how she once sat down at a cafe with the legendary magician, author, historian, actor and, perhaps, the greatest sleight-of-hand artist on the planet in the documentary…
- LIFE & CULTURE
7 Rules for Perfect Hummus
When was the last time you opened a tub of hummus and swooned? When was the last time a restaurant put a plate of hummus in front of you, and…
Survivor: Irene Rosenberg
“Mommy, I’ll be right back.” Irene Rosenberg — then Irene Grunfeld — said as she was leaving the apartment of her cousin Mancy Weiss, where she and her mother were…
The Divine Wedding and Kiss - Parashat Naso
“O for your kiss! For your love / More enticing than wine, / For your scent and sweet name – For all this they love you. Take me away to…
- BLOGS
What would my Israeli grandmother think?
When I hear about the latest events in Israel – the air strikes on weapons facilities in Syria, the flare-ups over women donning prayer shawls at the Western Wall –…
A hot topic, a great panel, and chance to learn and discuss—immigration at issue
It's a critical time for immigration reform in this country. Washington is getting set to make major changes, the likes of which haven't been seen since the 1980's under President…
State 194: A Documentary About Palestine
Opening this weekend at Laemmle’s Music Hall 3 is a very hot-button new documentary called State 194, which follows the recent history of Palestine. Many will approach this film with…
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Has Villaraigosa succeeded as L.A.’s mayor?
Years ago, I was complaining about one of our governors to a colleague, Jack Germond, an experienced and highly respected national political reporter. Germond, who had reported from many states, regarded my analysis with skepticism.
Criticism is not Islamophobia
Criticism is the oxygen of journalism. Here at the Jewish Journal, we will criticize anything that we believe deserves criticism, including religion.
Can journalists really be objective?
What is the Media War and why is it such a big deal?
Jonah Lehrer resigns from The New Yorker after admitting fabrications
Journalist Uri Blau convicted of holding classified military documents
Uri Blau, the Haaretz journalist who accepted classified documents from an Israeli soldier, was convicted under a plea bargain.
No business like the news business: Aaron Sorkin on ‘Newsroom’
Congressmen threaten PA aid over Helen Thomas award
In a letter to Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, two congressmen said a medal awarded to veteran journalist Helen Thomas could hurt U.S. assistance to the PA.
Palestinians bestow journalism award on Helen Thomas
Longtime White House reporter Helen Thomas received a prize in journalism from a representative of Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas.
Turkey’s jails filling up with journalists
Aziz Tekin, a correspondent for the Kurdish-language newspaper Azadiya Welat, had the misfortune of becoming a news item himself over the weekend when he became the 105th journalist in Turkey to be put behind bars.
Opinion: Why I love paper
It’s a fight to the death: As the digital revolution marches on, and more and more people do their reading on user-friendly digital devices, the end of paper’s 500-year reign seems to be at hand.
Be a jury today!!!!
Howard Cosell: The man fans loved to hate
When Howard Cosell achieved fame as a sports journalist, the last thing he wanted was to be thought of as a Jewish sports journalist. But because of his insecurities, his condescension toward others, and his big mouth, that is exactly how Cosell (1918-1995) came to be perceived.
Opinion: Where have all the women gone?
A recent Jerusalem bus ad promoting organ donation through the National Transplant Center (ADI) perfectly summarizes the battle over the public sphere in Jerusalem.
World Press Freedom Day: New technology’s threats and potential
Newspaper readers might notice an empty white space in place of front page stories in their favorite broadsheets and tabloids on Wednesday morning. It’s part of a campaign organized by the World Association of Newspapers and News Publishers to mark World Press Freedom Day. Larry Kilman, WAN’s executive CEO told The Media Line that the idea is to “remind [readers] that without a free press, this is what the industry would look like.”
Journalists’ group considers dropping Helen Thomas award
Helen Thomas’ decision to take her disparagement of Zionists from off the cuff (last May) to on the record (last month) has led a journalists' group to consider dropping her name from a lifetime achievement award. The Society of Professional Journalists is revisiting its decision last summer not to change the name of its Helen Thomas Lifetime Achievement Award after Thomas, 90, told an Arab-American group in Dearborn, Mich., last month that Congress, the White House, Hollywood and Wall Street “are owned by the Zionists.” Thomas, a 67-year-veteran of Washington reporting, resigned from her job as a columnist at Hearst last June after remarking to a video blogger that Jews “should get the hell out of Palestine” and “go home” to Poland, Germany and the United States. She later apologized, but her remarks in Michigan on Dec. 2 have raised fresh concerns about the sincerity of the apology.
Ralph Waldo Emerson, it’s always Sunny in Hebron
" , , , Eshman, here is the question I have for you: Brother can you spare a dime? . . . "
All the news that’s fit to neuter
When the obituary for American journalism is eventually written, a milestone in the journey to its death rattle will surely be the column that The New York Times' ombudsman, Clark Hoyt.
Politics, rabbis, gotcha
" . . . So can a Jew remain true to the Talmud and Torah while simultaneously voting Republican? He not only should not -- he cannot . . . "
First Impressions
Then I asked Çakirözer, from Turkey, what he liked best about America. He said it was something he had never seen in his country, and never seen in all the countries to which he'd traveled. Yet it was something that said a lot about the core values of a rich and prosperous nation.
Maher and Snow spar at American Jewish University, Journal veteran Tugend praised as ‘Distinguished
Tony Snow declared himself "the sacrificial lamb" the moment he stepped on stage at Universal Studios Gibson Amphitheatre, rightly anticipating a rough tumble with the provocative HBO pundit Bill Maher during the final installment of American Jewish University's (AJU) 2008 Public Lecture
The Pearl Fellow
Editorial about Syrian journalist and Daniel Pearl Fellow Ramy Mansour and his internship at the Jewish Journal.
Class Notes: Book burning inspires book fair; Shalhevet scribes score; Rocket scientists among us
Education briefs.
Hitting the century mark doesn’t stop this translator
Dobkin doesn't play bingo, and she doesn't own a television. She occasionally attends a lecture or musical event, but generally, when she isn't working, she is reading, usually The Forward in Yiddish or English or The Jewish Journal. She reads without glasses, except for very small print.
City Voice: L.A. Times faces tough job
One day at lunch with a group of reporters and editors, Dave Laventhol, then the publisher of the Los Angeles Times, was musing that journalists had become elitist,
separated from their communities, maybe even too educated.
An Unexpected Love
When I joined The Jewish Journal of Greater Los Angeles in late 2002 after 3 1/2 tumultuous years at the Los Angeles Times, I expected to stay at the paper a maximum of six months. My plan was to use The Journal as a safe haven while I hunted for a prestige magazine gig. But a funny thing happened on my way out the door. I fell in love with The Jewish Journal and nearly everything about it, including the myriad opinionated readers who never hesitate to let me know when they think I've blown it.
It’s Personal, It’s Family and It’s Me
Over the years, people have often asked me whether I've ever thought about working at a "real newspaper." The idea, I guess, is if I'm good enough why wouldn't I want to move up to the mainstream press? But for me that would be more of a move out than a move up.
Perky Obit Girl
When I came to The Journal as a copy editor and had the opportunity to write and edit stories and interview celebrities (both real and pseudo), I couldn't have imagined a better job. Then came the curveball: In addition to writing and editing, I was asked to coordinate the obituaries. Ouch.
A Brutal Awakening
The events of Aug. 10, 1999, changed our culture. We would never again feel as carefree as before the madman walked into the JCC and opened fire. In some ways, the shooting began our preparation for what was to come two years later -- when not just our community, but our country, experienced a shattering of innocence.
Risks, Rewards of the Jewish Angle
When I started moonlighting for a Jewish weekly in the late 1950s, I often encountered sneers that implied that if I were any good, why wasn't I working for a "real" newspaper?
Why I Write Jewish
On Jan. 25, 1997, my oldest son, Zachary, became a bar mitzvah, a ceremony that inaugurated him into the Jewish community as a responsible young adult. It also catapulted me into the world of Jewish journalism as a family columnist. Call it writing therapy. Call it black humor. Dealing with the bar mitzvah preparations -- from the trivial to the transcendent -- sent me scrambling for books explaining the ritual's history and meaning.
Publishing Perils
Say what you will about journalism as a profession, you are never unemployed. Instead, you are "between assignments," a condition I found myself in during the early 1980s at the same time that The Jewish Federation of Greater Los Angeles was preparing to launch its new Jewish Journal. The two situations dovetailed nicely, and for the first 11 years of The Journal's existence, I was its associate editor, until I retired in 1993.
A Little Respect
Jewish tradition is marked by rendering the oral tradition in print and recording the stories of the patriarchs and matriarchs, the accounts of the prophets, the tales of Kings David and Solomon and the tales of the rabbis.
Why I Am Who I Am
I began my career in journalism at The Jerusalem Post, then the only English-language newspaper in Israel. It wasn't a Jewish newspaper per se; more than covering "Jewish news," its mission was to cover Israel as a country, and that included arts, business, science and technology, politics and crime -- which most often turned out to be Jewish.
Shocking Discovery
I was cross when I arrived at The Jewish Journal on Oct. 9, 1986. I had earned a master's degree in journalism at Northwestern University and had fantasized about becoming an arts writer (at least eventually) for, say, The New Yorker. Also, I was a bad Jew, having been turned off by lackluster synagogue services. So after I settled down at my Journal IBM Selectric, I was shocked to discover I liked -- no, loved -- working at a Jewish newspaper.
The Lichtenstein Formula for a Jewish Paper
The role of a Jewish newspaper is to connect the Jewish community, not to unify it," said Gene Lichtenstein, founding editor of The Journal.
During his nearly 15-year tenure, which ended in 2000, Lichtenstein's formula was to hire good, independent writers and columnists who could produce articles that raised the interest, and frequently the hackles, of both professional and peripheral Jews.
Spectator - ‘Devil’ Is in the Details
An enjoyable chick-lit book, "The Devil Wears Prada," in movie form follows the novel's storyline, with slight modifications to the plot that only enhance our understanding of Andy's dilemma. And for the fashion buff, the insider's view of the inner workings of a haute couture, albeit fictional, fashion magazine are amusing.
7 Days in The Arts
7 Days in the Arts.
The Circuit
Circuit
Spectator - Spin-Doctors of the Revolution
While a student at Columbia School of Journalism, Rachel Boynton saw a film about the history of 20th century nonviolent conflict that included a segment on how American consultants had gone to Chile in 1990 to produce TV ads for a successful campaign to end Gen. Augusto Pinochet's long autocratic presidency.
The Circuit
Circuit
Oops…Our 20th
The news these days is gruesome, so it's difficult to feel celebratory.
Spectator - Anchorman in a Foreign ‘Land’
For 40 years, Chaim Yavin was the symbol of objective journalism in Israel, the figure people looked up to in time of crisis, despair or political change. As the anchorman of Channel One's IBA news, for years the only legal TV network operating in the Israeli media arena, Yavin was the Israeli Walter Cronkite, the man behind the news.
Letters
Letters to the Editor
Letters
Letters to the Editor
Class Notes
Class Notes
Letters
Letters to the Editor
Letters
I thought I was reading an excerpt from an Al Jazeera broadcast when I read "Two Families' Dreams Were Not Demolished" (June 24).
The chattering liberals in Brentwood, donating funds for Nasrallah's new home, have long ago made common cause with the Israel haters on the left. I expect little from them and more from The Jewish Journal.
Rachel Corrie's accidental death is a tragedy, but so are the deaths of the Jewish teenagers intentionally murdered by Arabs last month. She chose to be in harm's way. Not so the thousands of innocent Israelis murdered and maimed by intentional acts of violence by Arabs during the last four years.
The Optimist
I needed two forms of picture ID to enter the Pentagon, but I only brought one. The journalism students I accompanied last week -- participants in Hillel's Spitzer Conference J-Track program -- all had driver's licenses and university identification.
Stay Tuned
Last October, a man called with a complaint. Before I could ask what was the matter, he launched into a tirade about a biased and
inaccurate article. He said he couldn't believe a serious newspaper would print such lies. He was so angry, he was this close to canceling his subscription.
I wasn't sure which article he was referring to, so I gently asked him to be more specific. He went on to describe a piece I had absolutely no memory of.
"Are you sure you read this in The Jewish Journal?"
"The Journal?" he said. "No! This was in The Los Angeles Times."
"The Times?" I said. "So why are you calling me?"
"Because they won't pick up the phone!"
Patriot Paranoia?
By chance, Bet Tzedek Legal Services sponsored a program on the American Patriot Act just about the same time readers were beginning to get their copies of Philip Roth's "The Plot Against America."
Wandering BackInto the Fold
"Shanda: The Making and Breaking of a Self-Loathing Jew" by Neal Karlen (Touchstone, $23). Like Bob Dylan a decade before him, writer Neal Karlen turned up on Rabbi Manis Friedman's doorstep in St. Paul, Minn., in desperate search of his soul.
Intrusion Alarm
Primarily, I learned, as a writer, that if you live with a crime long enough, it seeps into you. You cry at the trials. You hug the siblings of the victim, and they hug you. You keep your distance. You know that the best thing most of the time is just to keep your trap shut and let people talk when they feel it is safe for them to talk -- or when they feel they can do nothing but talk.
The Circuit
All traces of the solemnity and sadness of Holocaust Remembrance Day were gone by nightfall when the gang from New York-based Heeb Magazine threw their first West Coast party at the Hollywood-and-Vine hotspot Deep.
NPR Israel Coverage Sparks Protests
"The Palestinian uprising and subsequent Israeli offensive in the West Bank stirred enormous sympathy for the Palestinians throughout the Arab world.... Over the past year, scores of Egypt's top singers have come out with songs about the Palestinian uprising.
Herb Brin
Herb Brin, one of the most colorful writers and editors in the annals of Los Angeles Jewish journalism, died of congestive heart failure
on Feb. 6 at the Jewish Home for the Aging in Reseda.
One American Muslim
Tashbih Sayyed told me he has cried three times in his adult life: once when his father died, once when his mother died and once when he had to sell his house.
Your Letters
Your Letters
A Charmed Existence
Amy Gerstler lights up as she describes the physical rush it gives her.
Where Were the Journalists?
I read Gary Rosenblatt's indictment of Los Angeles' rabbinate with some unease. It did not square with my understanding of what had occurred in the aftermath of the shootings at the North Valley Jewish Community Center in Granada Hills.
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