Miss Los Angeles Chinatown Queen dishes on her Jewish roots

By Jonah Lowenfeld
Published on February 23, 2012

On Jan. 14, the Chinese Chamber of Commerce of Los Angeles crowned Lauren Zhou Weinberger as the 2012 Miss Los Angeles Chinatown Queen. In the pageant’s 47-year history, Weinberger is the first queen with half-Chinese and half-European ancestry.

L.A. Pageant Raised Curtain on Holocaust

By Dr. Rafael Medoff
Published on July 17, 2003

Sixty years ago this week, many residents of Los Angeles became aware of the Nazi Holocaust for the first time, thanks to a dramatic pageant staged at the Hollywood Bowl by an alliance of Jewish activists and Hollywood celebrities.

Politics at Miss Universe Pageant

By JTA Staff
Published on May 30, 2002

Miss Lebanon is boycotting this year's Miss Universe pageant, saying she will not participate alongside Miss Israel. Yamit Har-Noy, a 20-year-old member of the Israel Defense Force, called Christina Sawaya's decision "very distressing." "It is only a beauty pageant," Miss Israel said of the competition, which took place May 29 in Puerto Rico. "It has nothing to do with politics."

Echoes of Esther

By Marlene Adler Marks
Published on February 14, 2002

The Purim beauty pageant of 1956 is long forgotten in the shtetl that was Queens Village, N.Y. But for me it is the stuff of personal destiny.