- NEWS & COMMENTARY
Opposition continues despite new Boy Scout policy
In 2001, Temple Israel of Hollywood (TIOH) overwhelmingly decided to end its sponsorship of Cub Scout Pack 1300 to protest the Boy Scouts of America’s (BSA) policy banning openly gay…
Jews should get offended
If there’s one thing the Palestinians are great at, it’s saying no. For years now, many peace-loving Jewish heads have been bruised from banging against the brick wall of Palestinian rejectionism.
NSA and JEW
If you ever needed a sign that Jews feel fully integrated and accepted by society, consider this: Not one major Jewish group made a peep over the revelations of National Security Agency (NSA) surveillance.
- HOLLYWOOD
“Curb” star Jeff Garlin spends two days in jail following parking lot confrontation
Actor Jeff Garlin ("Curb Your Enthusiasm") was released from a Van Nuys jail yesterday, at approximately 7:30 a.m., according to the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department (LASD) website. An incident…
‘Man of Steel’ screenwriter David S. Goyer on Superman and religion
“People are always so quick to point out the Christ allegory in “The Man of Steel” but Superman has always struck me as a combination of Old Testament and New…
Superman is a Jewish Fantasy
This past week my wife surprised me with tickets to the new Superman movie “Man of Steel” for my birthday. So late Saturday night, we sat in a packed movie…
- LIFE & CULTURE
Archie Comics feature film in the works
Archie comics lovers, rejoice!
Israel’s SodaStream inks deal with KitchenAid
The Israeli company SodaStream agreed to develop a home system for making carbonated drinks for KitchenAid appliances.
Barbra Streisand receives Honorary Doctorate from The Hebrew University
Barbra Streisand, after receiving an honorary doctorate from The Hebrew University, stands in front of the plaque of the Institute of Jewish Studies Building, established in 1984 in honor of…
- BLOGS
Summer Peaches Are Here
I always figured peaches were a super sugary fruit as they are so darn good. But it is not so. Peaches: are often less than 100 calories, making them a…
The Power of Language: Cultivating Positive Emotions
Language affects the heart. When we’re surrounded by others who speak negatively, it can really affect our mood and disposition. Are we aware of how much negative language there is…
Attention Forward: We Aren’t That Radical
It has been said that most of us believe newspaper reporting to be generally accurate, until we read an article on a subject with which we are intimately familiar. It…
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L.A. Iranian Jews pessimistic about new Iranian president
In the wake of the election on June 16 of Iranian cleric Hassan Rohani as the next president of Iran, Los Angeles’ Iranian-Jewish activists not hopeful that the new head of the Iranian regime will be able to transform Iran’s radical totalitarian Islamic dictatorship.
On a roll with CicLAvia
In late April, some 200,000 people on foot and on cycles — most with two wheels, some with three or four and even one jerry-rigged to be two stories high — swarmed Venice Boulevard, clogging the roadway from downtown Los Angeles to the beach.
The role of L.A.’s Jewish electorate is changing
What do the recent city elections that saw Jews step into the three top citywide offices — mayor, city attorney and city controller — mean for the role of the Jewish community in Los Angeles?
Billion-dollar Waze
Just a couple of years ago, the Israeli entrepreneurs behind the traffic-fighting smartphone app Waze were knocking down the door of every news outlet in Los Angeles. They were seeking publicity to help forge their way into the iPhones and Androids of L.A. drivers by promising some reprieve from “Carmageddon” weekend on the 405 freeway.
A Place At the Table
Moving and Shaking
Temple Beth Am honored the Ziering family for its generosity to the Los Angeles Jewish community, Israel, the arts and numerous philanthropic organizations around the world on May 29 with a concert gala that featured performances by Placido Domingo, Melissa Manchester and Cantor Magda Fishman.
South African Jews find a home in L.A.
How far can you travel in less than an hour? All the way to Capetown, South Africa, and back, if you are talking to Leora Raikin, a third-generation South African Jew who has lived in Los Angeles for the past 15 years.
Welcome to rehab city
At 9:30 a.m. on a recent Tuesday morning, six men in their 20s and 30s were sitting on leather chairs in a cozy, dimly lit room in a nondescript Miracle Mile building, sharing with one another and two therapists their progress in transitioning from a life of addiction to what they hope will be a clean future.
Lights out (and sirens off) for Hatzolah?
In March 2011, Hatzolah of Los Angeles, the Orthodox Jewish volunteer emergency response corps, celebrated its 10th anniversary in this city.
Can dance maverick Millepied make it up to L.A.?
Gunman kills five in Santa Monica, shot dead by police
A gunman dressed in black killed at least six people in a string of shootings through the seaside California town of Santa Monica on Friday before he was shot dead by police in a community college library, law authorities said.
Once a shul, now a church that celebrates Judaism
Some months ago, L.A. County Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky was “cruising Boyle Heights,” the neighborhood where he grew up and where a large portion of Los Angeles’ Jewish community once lived. Feeling nostalgic, he drove by B’nai Jacob Synagogue — once known as the Fairmont Street Shul — and recalled that some of his parents’ students had celebrated their bar mitzvahs there.
Lies, Apartheid and BS
I never thought I’d ever sit around a Shabbat table talking about bulls---, a word we don’t usually print in the Journal. But there I was recently at my friend David Brandes’ house, sitting across from the prominent philosopher and former Princeton University professor Harry Frankfurt, author of “On Bullshit” (2005).
Family inspiration
Above all else, Rachel Arditi, 17, is passionate about helping others.
Using gift of gab for good
Sepora Makabeh is a social butterfly — outgoing, talkative, friendly and approachable. But rather than using this quality to just collect friends and speak her mind, the 18-year-old senior at Milken Community High School has employed it to assist people with special needs and desperate teens seeking help.
Q&A with Natan Sharansky
The Russian-born Israeli Natan Sharansky, 65, a former member of the Knesset and now chair of the Jewish Agency, visited Los Angeles last week, hosted jointly by The Jewish Federation of Greater Los Angeles and Beth Jacob Congregation of Beverly Hills.
Philanthropist donates $250,000 to Mount Zion cemetery repair
Shlomo Rechnitz, a Los Angeles businessman and philanthropist, has donated $250,000 to restore the badly vandalized Mount Zion Cemetery in East Los Angeles
Summer Sneaks calendar
More than 20 dramas, documentaries, comedies, foreign language films and shorts will be shown at seven venues from Thousand Oaks to Beverly Hills.
June 1-7
More than 20 dramas, documentaries, comedies, foreign language films and shorts will be shown at seven venues from Thousand Oaks to Beverly Hills.
BDS: Frustration, but with hope
Senate Bill 160, which calls for targeted divestment from companies that profit off of human rights abuses in the Palestinian territories, passed this last week in the University of California, Berkeley, student senate.
History matters: Garcetti and the history of Jewish politics
With Eric Garcetti’s election on May 21, the mayors of the three largest cities in the United States — Michael Bloomberg in New York, Rahm Emanuel in Chicago and Garcetti in Los Angeles — are all Jews.
Eric Garcetti: Keep an eye out for seniors
The small turnout at the Los Angeles polls for the mayoral election on May 21 is cited as evidence that most Angelenos don’t care whether City Hall is open, closed or simply blown away.
West Coast Zion
Just before I sat down to talk about the future of L.A. Jews, I took a quick tour of L.A.’s Jewish past.
Schwartz Bakery leaves RCC for Kehilla
Schwartz Bakery, a kosher bakery and caterer with six retail locations across Los Angeles, has dropped the Rabbinical Council of California (RCC) as its kosher certifier.
2013 L.A. city elections mean new milestone in history of city Jewish voices
In 2009, the Paul Koretz and Eric Garcetti were the sole Jewish voices in Los Angeles City Politics. As of 2013, there will not only will there be three Jewish Councilmembers in Paul Koretz, Bob Blumenfield and Mitch Englander, but the entire executive leadership of Los Angeles will be Jewish.
Garcetti, Feuer, Galperin: A new era of Jewish leadership in L.A.?
Los Angeles chose Eric Garcetti as its first elected Jewish mayor in a number of political contests on Tuesday that reflected the city’s diversity, as well as its numerous variations of Jewishness. (In a historical footnote, one Bernard Cohn served as the appointed mayor of Los Angeles for a few weeks in 1878.)
A talent agent turns yogurt maven
Amy Salko Robertson — producer of such films as “The Oh in Ohio,” “Lab Rats” and “When Do We Eat?” a comedy set at a Passover seder —realized that she couldn’t continue to rely on the speculative indie film world for income after her husband, John, was injured in a freak accident in 2010, leaving him unable to work. She responded the only way she knew how: Salko Robertson started a frozen yogurt shop.
May 25–31
Bridging the shores of the Mediterranean and the Pacific, entrepreneurs, investors, executives and tech enthusiasts from around the world converge on this two-day annual gathering at the Luxe Hotel on Sunset to learn about Israeli businesses and discover the next big trend.
Envisioning a new Los Angeles at Valley Beth Shalom [VIDEO]
This is an excerpt from a program given at Valley Beth Shalom on Tues., May 14th titled "City of Angels-Envisioning a New Los Angeles" with special guests, mayoral candidates Wendy Greuel and Eric Garcetti
The Life of a Jewish Communal Professional and LA Jewish Population Change
L.A. city controller candidate attacks opponent for “misleading” Jewish mailer
May 18-24
Events throughout Los Angeles. Food festival, Shavuot activities, Allan Sherman and more.
Obituaries: May 16-23
Wrestling with it: U.S. vs. Iran
Iran is a mainstay in international wrestling. The United States has a long and proud wrestling history, too.
Moving and Shaking
More than 1,200 youths and their foster parents from Los Angeles County participated in Foster Mother’s Day on May 12, a day filled with food, carnival games, arts and crafts, and a clothing boutique and beauty.
Elul and Jewish pluralism
A typical study session for Elul, a pluralistic Israel-based beit midrash (house of study), doesn’t confine itself to a discussion of Abraham’s journey in Genesis.
Character references: Eric Garcetti
In a few weeks, Eric Garcetti might become Los Angeles’ youngest mayor in more than a century. When Eric was a Rhodes scholar at Oxford University from 1993 to 1996, we were close friends and he was a regular at my L’Chaim Society.
Character reference: Wendy Greuel
I have known Wendy Greuel for almost 30 years, since she was a young UCLA graduate working for Mayor Tom Bradley.
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 life’s work,” as we learn in “Overweight Sensation: The Life and Comedy of Allan Sherman” by Mark Cohen (Brandeis, $29.95), a penetrating biography by a savvy observer of show business.
Son of ‘Pacific Standard Time’
It’s back! Remember long ago in those dark days of 2011, when “Pacific Standard Time,” the Getty-sponsored initiative, got more than 60 cultural organizations throughout Southern California to shine a light on the impact of Los Angeles’ art scene between 1945 and 1980?
Modern slavery: Answering the cry
Modern slavery is everywhere, and women principally are its victims.
No one loves the stranger
I know what happened with those three women in Cleveland, how one man was able to imprison and torture them in the middle of a residential neighborhood for 10 years, even though he had grown children, brothers, cousins who visited the house for hours at a time. It’s not a pretty tale, but we’ve all heard it, although to a lesser degree, countless times before.
Be a Rescuer – Not a Bystander
Mezzo’s Kibbutz roots
It’s a long way from Kibbutz Dalia, where Rachel Frenkel was raised, to the Walt Disney Concert Hall in downtown Los Angeles, but the mezzo-soprano is completing that journey this week.
A voter's-eye view of the city election
This year, for the first time, the Pat Brown Institute at CSU Los Angeles went into the polling field.
Destination Kauai
When it comes to honeymoons, nothing is more romantic than a tropical island. From Los Angeles, the most tempting include the Hawaiian archipelago. The oldest — and by far the greenest — of them all is Kauai.
Q&A with Rabbi Ed Feinstein
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.
Poverty is not a disgrace, nor is it filthy.
Christians honor Israel
Hundreds gathered in Beverly Hills on April 28 to hear from John Hagee, the Evangelical pastor who founded Christians United for Israel (CUFI), at the organization’s second annual Night to Honor Israel in Los Angeles.
Turning teens into police officers
Roberta Weintraub, a 77-year-old political activist and former president of the L.A. Unified School District Board of Education, has always had a soft spot for the men and women in blue.
Jews share a sense of place in L.A. history
Coinciding with the run of the “Jews in the Los Angeles Mosaic” exhibition at the Autry National Center — and we hope, continuing well beyond — this issue of the Jewish Journal marks the beginning of a new monthly feature showcasing various aspects of Los Angeles’ Jewish history.
How the Jews changed L.A.
When Los Angeles was incorporated as a city in 1850, eight Jews, all bachelors, were included on the population rolls. Today, according to the best estimates, somewhere between 600,000 to 650,000 Jews live in the Los Angeles metropolitan area, with figures varying depending upon who does the estimating, how they define the geographical boundaries and, indeed, the definition of who is a Jew.
More Ponzi in Iranian-Jewish community
Knowing Oneself: The Art of Translation
Meditation 101
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.
Adding Israeli spice to the burger mix
Southern California could be considered the epicenter of the hamburger universe. It’s where burger innovation was immortalized — the first cheeseburger allegedly was invented in Pasadena — and where every possible type has already been there, done that. (One Santa Monica restaurant tops its burgers with onion fondue and house-made rémoulade.)
‘Assisted Living’: Connections and transformations
The surprising ways in which people can connect is at the heart of the play “Assisted Living,” written by and starring the husband-and-wife team of Winnie Holzman (Tony nominee for the book of the Broadway musical “Wicked”) and Paul Dooley (co-star of the Robert Altman films “Popeye” and “A Wedding”).
Going home with Gary Baseman
There’s an old saying that goes something like this: We spend the first half of our lives running away from home and the rest trying to get back. Consider Homer, way back in ancient Greece, who defined our notion of a life’s odyssey as a journey that begins and ends at home.
Israel Festival brings L.A. a taste of Tel Aviv
Eden Bennun craved a taste of Israel. Growing up in Kfar Saba and Rishon LeZion as a child gave her a love of Israel’s smells, sounds and foods.
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