- NEWS & COMMENTARY
A new era of Jewish leadership in L.A.?
Los Angeles chose Eric Garcetti as its first elected Jewish mayor, one of a number of political contests on Tuesday that reflected the city’s diversity, as well as its numerous…
Stone-walling
In the last two years, the Western Wall in Jerusalem — also known as the Kotel — has become a place of controversy as much as of worship. It’s the site of a battle that has long been waged by…
Gun violence in America: Scandal!
Two years after his mother was shot and killed, Dallas Sonnier received a phone call from the police: His father had just been shot and killed.
- HOLLYWOOD
Spielberg to produce ‘Halo’ television series, plus other news from the Xbox One announcement
Microsoft Corp gave the world a first look at its new Xbox One on Tuesday, announcing that its first gaming console in eight years will come with exclusive video and…
Justin Timberlake and Coen brothers answer Jewish questions at Cannes
Using his preternatural smoothness, Justin Timberlake saved the Coen brothers from some serious awkwardness at a Cannes press conference for their folk singer film “Inside Llewyn Davis” on Sunday. “Jewish…
Sean Penn lobbies for Charedi man imprisoned in Bolivia
Actor Sean Penn urged a congressional hearing to pressure Bolivia to release a haredi Orthodox father of five under house arrest in the country.
- LIFE & CULTURE
Sarah Silverman sings about staying home in ‘Perfect Night’
For your listening pleasure, “Perfect Night,” in which Sarah Silverman recounts the benefits of skipping the club for the couch. Because this is a Silverman production you can expect references…
Maccabi Tel Aviv back on top but coach future uncertain
Champions Maccabi Tel Aviv have reasserted their dominance of Israeli soccer but media reports on Tuesday suggested they might have to continue their revival without coach Oscar Garcia.
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…
- BLOGS
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…
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…
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 –…
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Melbourne radio host suspended for shouting ‘Sieg Heil’
A Melbourne radio host who claims Jewish descent was suspended for one month for shouting "Sieg Heil" three times at the mother of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange.
He’s looked at clouds from both sides now…
I listen to music all day, in my car, in my office, at the gym, while walking the dog or taking a hike.
Howard Stern’s got talent?
Norman Corwin, Bard of Broadcasting, dies at 101
Lisa & George
New York takes unprecedented steps ahead of Irene
New York City on Friday ordered the evacuation of more than 250,000 people and prepared to shut down its entire mass transit system, both unprecedented measures ahead of the expected battering from Hurricane Irene.
Andy Dick Lives Up to His Name
Beck to address Knesset committee
Right-wing radio talk show host Glenn Beck will address a Knesset committee during an upcoming visit to Israel.
‘Delancey’ dramatizes Yiddish radio’s reality show
In 2002, director/playwright Karen Sommers heard a story on National Public Radio about the Jewish American Board of Peace and Justice, a Jewish mediation court on the Lower East Side of New York that adjudicated disputes among community members between the late 1930s and 1956. The proceedings took place in a back room of the House of Sages, a synagogue led by Rabbi Shmuel Aaron Rubin, who presided over the cases, which were recorded and carried on such Yiddish radio stations as WLTH and WEVD. According to the Yiddish Radio Project Web site, where many of the programs heard on old-time Yiddish radio are archived, the conflicts covered everything from “the complaints of abandoned parents to altercations over ill-fitting sheets.”
Australia’s only Jewish radio station closes
Melbourne’s only Jewish radio station has been forced to close. Lion FM, barely a year old, ceased broadcasting at midnight Monday following a decision by the Australian Communications and Media Authority not to renew its radio license.
Radio host threatens to oust Minn. lawmaker over invocation objections
A conservative radio host suggested that he would work to unseat a Minnesota state senator who opposed a pastor's invocation in the statehouse for being nonsectarian.
Abbas denounces West Bank murders on Israel Radio
Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas called the killing of five members of a West Bank Jewish family "despicable," "inhuman and immoral." "A human being is not capable of something like that," Abbas said in Arabic during an interview Monday morning on Israel Radio. His words were translated into Hebrew by the interviewer.
Rabbis urge Fox to sanction Beck for Nazi comments
A group of American rabbis is calling on Fox News to sanction personality Glenn Beck for "his completely unacceptable attacks" on Holocaust survivor George Soros.
Ira Glass: Why do we all like the storytellers?
Latino Radio Show Stirs Concern Over Views on Jews
On a Los Angeles FM radio talk show, the following aired recently:
A caller identifying himself as Mohammed said, “I believe that so-called Israel should be annihilated totally, wiped off the map ... I hope that Iran has the gall to nuke and exterminate them so they go back to Europe.
AUDIO: Norman Corwin, Radio Zionist—‘Tel Aviv’ (1944)
In 1944, CBS broadcasts a 30-minute program about Tel Aviv on 'Columbia Presents Corwin'. The program begins as a young editor Douglas Adams flies from Cairo to Tel Aviv, and we meet the lovely R.A.F. Leftenant Aviva Har-Zahav . . .
AUDIO: Al Jolson stars as ‘The Jazz Singer’—Lux Radio Theatre 1947
In this June 1947 production, Al Jolson reprises his most famous silver screen role as "The Jazz Singer."
AUDIO: The Jewish Bob Dylan (June 15, 1972)
Bernard Timberg analyzes the songs of Bob Dylan looking for Jewish themes and imagery. KPFA-FM. June 15, 1972
Crushing on Israel
Two Robs worth listening to
KCRW’s gift—five days of ‘Only in America’ Jewish history
For a certain nostalgic segment of the Jewish community, Chanukah wasn't official until KCRW-FM general manager Ruth Seymour narrated her lively "Philosophers, Fiddlers and Fools" program at this time of the year. This noble tradition has now come to an end, but KCRW (89.9) has come up with a worthy replacement in "Only in America," which will air over five days in one-hour segments, Dec. 3-7 at 2 p.m.
Hooker to the stars is a saucy satirist
American Israeli writer-actress Iris Bahr says she is fascinated with Russian culture and created Maksimovsrskaya (whose name grows weekly as an inside joke) over the years on stage, on screen and on air. At the invitation of KCRW general manager Ruth Seymour, Bahr has developed her into a regular radio character for "Social Studies," a four-minute rapid-fire satire segment that runs locally on KCRW during NPR's "All Things Considered."
Reality radio goes kosher
"In religious communities, especially the Charedi communities, people don't have televisions at home. Whereas a secular person comes home after work and turns on the TV to watch news, a religious person comes home and turns on the radio," said Ido Lebovitz, CEO of Radio Kol Chai.
KCRW’s annual Chanukah show lets the light go out
The Chanukah show has been a staple in Los Angeles, which, before its first airing in 1978, had been missing this classic blend of Yiddishkeit: folk music, readings of Isaac Bashevis Singer's stories, memorials to Holocaust victims, Second Avenue "hit parade" songs.
Radio DJ Jimmy Kay brings folksy charm to folkie L.A
A radio DJ might not be your idea of an innovative storyteller, but who can't relate to the desire to inflict your own personal interests onto the greater Los Angeles listening public? DJ Jimmy Kay does just this every Sunday night from 9 p.m. to midnight on KKGO 1260AM, where he hosts the program "Sunday Night Folk."
Radical right resents judges and juries
These days no judge is safe from the assault of the religious right, anti-government crusaders and law and order zealots.
Better late than never, Theodor Herzl, children reunited in death; Ex-N.J. Governor McGreevey’s Isra
Briefs courtesy Jewish Telegraphic Agency.
Letters to the Editor
Letters to the Editor.
Israeli Diplomats Reach Out to L.A. Iranian Media
Representatives from Southern California-based Persian-language satellite radio stations and television shows attended a special press conference on Aug. 28, held for them at Los Angeles' Israeli consulate, the first public interaction between the Israeli government and local Persian-language media in more than 25 years.
Radio Host Barry Gordon: It’s All Right to Be Left
If Barry Gordon seems to be one of the lone liberal voices on the radio (he jokes that listeners are as likely to hear Gordon Liddy as him on KCAA), he follows in a tradition that goes back to FDR.
Hebrew School Rocks Thanks to Radio Station
On Friday nights, when 13-year-old Michael Rothbart approaches Leo Baeck Temple for Shabbat services, he urges his parents to tune to 87.9 on their radio dial. He is hoping that Avram Mandell, Leo Baeck's educational director and the founding force behind the temple's very low-power radio station, has popped in some pre-recorded Jewish music.
7 Days in the Arts
A- and B-listers do Brecht for a pricey cause tonight. The one-year anniversary of The Edgemar Cente
A- and B-listers do Brecht for a pricey cause tonight.
7 Days in the Arts
7 Days In The Arts
Mizrahi Music Travels West
Business at Eitan Salman's music store has fallen 80 percent over the last decade, but it's not altogether a bad thing: Mizrahi music has grown so popular in Israel that it no longer is the exclusive domain of mom-and-pop shops like Salman's but is sold even at Israel's Tower Records outlets.
Pullman Stars on the Drive Home
"I am very proud of my Jewish heritage," Jason Pullman said, talking to The Journal from the Clear Channel offices (Star's parent company). "I used to use stage names, but then as of four or five years ago [I decided] I am myself, and that is only person that I want to be."
My Culture War
I understand that by many peoples' standards, Stern is indecent, but he has been so for a long, long time. The incident that prompted Clear Channel to dump him, and for which the FCC may levy fines, has been so commonplace on his program that it could have been mistaken for a promo spot.
Book Unpacks Shoah Memories
Karen Levine never had plans to write a book.
Then in 2001, the Canadian Broadcasting Corp. radio producer came across an article in the Canadian Jewish News about a young Japanese woman, urged on by Tokyo schoolchildren studying the Holocaust, who traveled halfway round the world to find the owner of a child's battered suitcase. That child, Hana Brady, had died in Auschwitz at age 13, but the determined young woman tracked down Hana's brother George, who had survived Auschwitz and found a new life in Toronto.
Levine made a radio documentary chronicling the meeting between Fumiko Ishioka and George Brady, and that led her to write a children's book, "Hana's Suitcase," a gripping detective story and an inspirational saga.
7 Days In Arts
7 Days in Arts
Your Letters
I have concerns about Arnold Schwarzenegger other than the fact his father was a Nazi ("Arnold's Challenge" Aug. 29).
Dr. Laura Loses Her Religion
Of her conversion to Judaism, Laura Schlessinger said, "I felt that I was putting out a tremendous amount toward that mission, that end, and not feeling return, not feeling connected, not feeling that inspired. Trust me, I've talked to rabbis, I've read, I've prayed, I've agonized and I came to this place anyway -- which is not exactly back to the beginning, but more in that direction than not."
World Briefs
World Briefs
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.
From Naive Dream to Big Screen
Michael Prywes was 24 when he decided to make a film.
Prager Mulls Run for Senate in 2004
"I'm still only in the thinking and talking stage," said the outspoken Republican. "No exploratory committee has been formed. I won't announce that until I am close to being certain. I don't want to disappoint people who have invested hopes."
Kicking it Old World
"Guib a click, dos is YidishMusic."
Not a Day Over 39
Jack Benny will be honored this weekend at a convention, "39 Forever," sponsored by the International Jack Benny Fan Club and the National Comedy Hall of Fame.
Spiritual Sounds
Sam Glaser's music is considered contemporary spiritual. He started out as a rock 'n' roller in the '80s, touring nightclubs in Southern California, but, in 1991, Glaser started keeping Shabbat, and his music changed accordingly.
Video Spawns a Radio Star
It takes Jay Sanderson about 10 minutes to put me to work. It's 8:55 a.m. on a Sunday, five minutes till broadcast of KLAC talk radio's "The Jay Sanderson Show" and he's having trouble getting his scheduled guest, screenwriter/producer Lionel Chetwynd, on the phone.
Talking to Gabby
Gabriela Jacobo, known as Gabby, at age 17 is a rising radio star.
Now Hear This
Jewish (and other) radio listeners will be able to time travel back to the world of their immigrant ancestors when "The Yiddish Radio Project" debuts March 19 on stations coast-to-coast.
Ask the Rabbi
It's late on Sunday evening at KFI 640 AM's &'9;Koreatown station, and within the confines of an overly bright fluorescent-lit radio booth, a tall man with Phil Donahue-white hair and a scraggly reddish beard worthy of the Norse god Thor sits alone at the mike.
Dressed in dependable Chabad wear -- white dress shirt, black slacks, yarmulke and tzizit hanging out -- Rabbi Chaim Mentz is an unexpected voice, booming out of the radio in a heavy Brooklyn accent.
"You got questions, I got answers!" Mentz enthuses in a gravelly voice.
‘L’Chayim Radio’ Silenced
"I was thinking back to my childhood and the origins of my interest in Judaism," said Mel Wax, native of New York and longtime Los Angeles-area resident, "and it came from the Yiddish records my grandfather gave me."
Who Speaks for the Jews?
In the eyes of television, radio and print editors and reporters, who speaks for the Los Angeles Jewish community?
Chanukah Specials
Amidst a blizzard of Christmas specials, the commercial networks are giving short shrift to Chanukah, so it's up to public television and radio stations to pick up the slack. KCET (PBS, Channel 28) is putting the emphasis on the culinary delights of Chanukah with the following programs:
Mantle’s Home Run
Spin the radio dial in any direction and most of what you come up with is just plain junk. One clear exception is Larry Mantle's "Airtalk," weekdays on public radio station KPCC.
Radio Yiddish
When she was 16, KCRW General Manager Ruth Seymour was captivated by her studies with the Yiddish scholar Max Weinreich. "Yiddish is magic," he told her. "It will outwit history."
The Force Behind ‘The Group Room’
Some people take lemons and make lemonade. Selma Schimmel took a diagnosis of cancer and turned it into a vast support network which has changed the lives of thousands of people.
Off the Air
To Israel Radio's ear, the Reform and Conservative message "There's more than one way to be Jewish" may be too "ideologically controversial."
Journey to America
My father Illya Pinhkus Kirtsman was born in 1909 in Odessa, Ukraine, the youngest of 11 children. His older sister and brother immigrated to America in 1912. The whole family planned to follow them. It was their dream for many years. In the 1930s, my father received few letters from his American siblings, and only after W.W.II did he establish communication with them again. By this time, only he and his sister Sonia (the 10th child) were alive. When we received a letter, my father took it to a translator (letters were written in Yiddish) and the whole family would listen to the news from America. We kept the door to our apartment locked. My mother was afraid that people from the KGB might come over, see us reading the letters, and put us in jail.
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