Going home with Gary Baseman

By Tom Teicholz
Published on April 24, 2013

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.

Muslim Public Affairs Council’s conference draws hundreds to Pasadena church

By Jonah Lowenfeld
Published on December 19, 2012

When All Saints Church in Pasadena announced that it would host the Muslim Public Affairs Council’s (MPAC) 12th annual convention as part of its efforts toward “interfaith peacemaking,” the Episcopal church that was founded in 1883 became the target of hate mail and attacks.

Wind closes synagogues, schools

By Julie Gruenbaum Fax
Published on December 1, 2011

Gusts that peaked at 97 miles per hour whipped through the Los Angeles area Wednesday night, downing trees and power lines and leaving some synagogues and Jewish schools with minor damage and no power.

Pasadena temple gets Argentina’s first woman cantor

By Ryan E. Smith
Published on September 14, 2011

Cantor Ruth Berman Harris has been earning paychecks for leading services since she was 15, years before a cantorial school even existed in her native Buenos Aires, Argentina.

Letter from Pasadena: I’m in the oud for love [MUSIC VIDEO]

By The Web Guy
Published on December 17, 2008

Through the looking glass with Friends of Sabeel

By Tom Tugend
Published on May 15, 2008

Covering a meeting of Friends of Sabeel is a strange experience. "Strange" as in walking through the looking glass and encountering a reverse universe on the other side.

Paper pieces for peace

By Jay Firestone
Published on May 15, 2008

An ancient Japanese legend holds that anyone who folds 1,000 origami cranes will be granted a wish. If three L.A.-area day schools were to get one, it might be for peace and understanding.

Big Thinking

By Rabbi Joshua Levine Grater
Published on May 15, 2008

Parshat Behar (Leviticus 25:1-26:2)

In the few courses that I have taken and books that I have read on management, one of the main components of success is the ability to engage in "big
visioning" or "blue sky" thinking.

‘Pieces’ fall into place for Israeli actress

By Tom Tugend
Published on May 1, 2008

"I long for the loss of memory," grieves Jakob, the central character in "Fugitive Pieces," a sensitive, at times wrenching, film based on the best-selling novel by Canadian poet Anne Michaels and directed by her countryman, Jeremy Podeswa, the son of Holocaust survivors.

Voice of reason in a sea of insanity,  Jewish Dodgers, Prager, archaeologists, politicians and peace

Published on April 24, 2008

letters to the editor

Butt out

By Rob Eshman
Published on January 24, 2008

Pro-Israel media watchdog group CAMERA (Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting in America) has attempted to pressure the All-Saints Episcopal Church in Pasadena to cancel the appearance of a prominent Palestinian activist, the Rev. Naim Ateek, founder of the Sabeel Ecumenical Liberation Theology Center and its sister organization in the United States Friends of Sabeel North America (FOSNA). Ateek has championed the cause of nonviolent resistance to Israel in the West Bank.

Can Pasadena become a ‘city of justice?’

By Peter Dreier
Published on October 18, 2007

I sometimes wonder what the Prophet Isaiah would think about Pasadena.

Sitcom superstars, sultry songstresses, literary diamonds

By Dikla Kadosh
Published on August 23, 2007

Picks and Clicks

7 Days in the Arts

By Keren Engelberg
Published on June 29, 2006

7 Days in the Arts

Transplant Recipient Will Parade Success

By Nancy Sokoler Steiner
Published on December 29, 2005

Like many native Angelenos, Ilene Feder has never been to the annual Rose Parade in Pasadena. However, the Studio City resident not only will be attending the New Year's day festivities on Monday, Jan. 2, for the 118th Rose Parade, but will have a vantage point few get to experience: She'll be riding on a float.

The Real World: Warlord

By Robert David Jaffee
Published on October 27, 2005

With or without a Jewish theme, "The Manhattan Beach Project" skewers Hollywood the way Tom Wolfe lampooned Wall Street in "Bonfire of the Vanities." Lefcourt shows the callowness of these show biz Masters of the Universe.

A Case for Pasadena

By Rabbi Joshua Levine Grater
Published on September 8, 2005

Most people are surprised, even flabbergasted, to learn that there is a sizeable Jewish community in Pasadena, one that has been here for well over a century.

I grew up in the San Fernando Valley, and I had never been to Pasadena. I knew little about it -- mostly that the Rose Parade and Rose Bowl were there; I had no idea how close it was to Woodland Hills, where I lived. And I certainly didn't think about if there were Jews there.

Pasadena is located in the San Gabriel Valley -- or what locals call the "Other Valley" -- and it's surrounded by the San Gabriel Mountains. It sits at the foot of Mount Wilson, home to the observatory where Albert Einstein worked during his stay at Cal Tech. It's also home to Jet Propulsion Laboratory, the leading U.S. center for robotic exploration of the solar system, which offers us a connection to space, science and some of the best minds in the world.

7 Days in The Arts

By Keren Engelberg
Published on May 19, 2005

7 Days in the Arts

Your Letters

Published on September 25, 2003

Your Letters

Diversity Blooms in the Land of Roses

By Gaby Wenig
Published on September 18, 2003

Jews have had a presence in Pasadena since the late 1800s, yet many of the few thousand who lived there preferred to go unnoticed.

7 Days In Arts

Published on January 2, 2003

7 Days in Arts

Rose Queen for a Day

By Phyllis Folb
Published on December 26, 2002

It took 50 years, but this New Year's Day a childhood dream and mother's fantasy is about to come true. I was born on Jan. 1, 1953. Dwight D. Eisenhower prepared to assume the presidency, American troops remained in Korea and newspapers heralded mine as Los Angeles County's first recorded birth.

Purim Magic and Minutia

By Charlotte Hildebrand
Published on March 16, 2000

Hanoka was attempting to unravel the mathematical complexities of how Purim falls in Adar Bet, or the second month of Adar, this year, making 2000 a leap year, not only in the solar calendar but in the lunar, or Jewish calendar, as well.