Peddling Drugs and Selling Sobriety

By Beit T'shuvah
Published on March 13, 2013

Addicted to redemption

By Beit T'shuvah
Published on September 7, 2012

Giffords attends vigil marking attack anniversary

Published on January 9, 2012

Rep. Gabrielle Giffords led the Pledge of Allegiance at a vigil marking the one-year anniversary of an attack on the congresswoman and her constituents at a political event.

Gilad Shalit faces recovery issues

Published on October 18, 2011

Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit was freed from five years of captivity in the Gaza Strip on Tuesday to a joyous reception, but may need time to recover from his time kept in sun-deprived isolation and other injuries, his father said.

Boxing, Addiction, Ryan O’Neil, Gorgeous Men & a Great Singles Night

By Ilana Angel
Published on September 16, 2011

78 Million Reasons to Love the People of Japan

By Ilana Angel
Published on August 19, 2011

Hyler begins to heal

By Danielle Berrin
Published on August 23, 2008

Talent manager Joan Hyler makes slow, steady progress after a life-threatening accident.

A Mensh on the radiowaves to recovery

By Naomi Pfefferman
Published on July 16, 2008

Over the next 13 years, Mensh snorted cocaine (sometimes off the turntables at his disc jockey gigs), added acid and Quaaludes to the mix, and imbibed to the point that he blacked out, only to awaken in a ditch or a stranger's car or bed.

Richard Lewis, comedian from heaven

By Jay Firestone
Published on March 13, 2008

The husband from hell. The uncle from hell. The comedian from hell. Richard Lewis is fully aware he has problems. And by the end of his set, his stand-up audiences know he has problems.

Mia Goldman’s film is an ‘Open Window’ into trauma and recovery

By Naomi Pfefferman
Published on June 28, 2007

Mia Goldman says it took her six years to work through her depression and to heal, which she did with the help of her psychoanalyst, her family and her growing spiritual connection to Judaism. She drew on her experience to write and direct her debut feature, "Open Window," which premieres on Showtime July 16 at 8 p.m.

Rabbi Carron brightens prisoners’ darkest days

By Nick Street
Published on September 21, 2006

With any luck, Daniel will be spending Rosh Hashanah on the outside. It's likely he'll soon be making the transition from jail to the recovery program at Beit T'Shuva, a nonprofit that works with at-risk youth.

After the Flood

By Sarah Price Brown
Published on August 24, 2006

Before Shelly Collen lost almost everything, her life had just fallen into place. Then Hurricane Katrina struck.

Rebuilding New Orleans—With A Little Help From Each Other

By Gail Naron Chalew
Published on August 24, 2006

One year after "the storm," as New Orleanians refer to Hurricane Katrina, Jewish communal leaders describe the health of the community with certain expected terms -- loss, trauma, devastation and challenge.

War Takes Environmental Toll

By Uriel Heilman
Published on August 17, 2006

As the people of northern Israel finally return to their homes, they're going back to more than empty streets, freshly dug gravesites and a beefed-up military presence. They're also coming home to a radically altered physical landscape.

Orthodox Alcohol, Drug Abuse Rising

By Chanan Tigay
Published on March 16, 2006

Peter Gould had his last drink on Purim night seven years ago -- or, more accurately, his last drinks. "I drank more alcohol in a day than a human body can handle," he said, relaxing on a puffy couch in Baltimore in jeans, sneakers and a black knit kipah.

Botox Treatments Aid Stroke Survivors

By Steve Ditlea
Published on February 16, 2006

Better known for cosmetic enhancement, Botox injections immobilize key muscles in stricken arms or legs, allowing physical therapy and exercise to extend range of motion and flexibility. Effects wear off, so the Botox is reinjected every three months for a year or more.

Post-Katrina, Jews Raised Funds Fast

By Larry Luxner
Published on January 26, 2006

Major Jewish organizations have raised more than $30 million to house, feed, educate and relocate thousands of victims of Hurricane Katrina in Louisiana and Mississippi.

Austria Makes Reparations for Nazi Past

By Tom Tugend
Published on January 26, 2006

In a high-profile case, Maria Altmann won her seven-year battle to recover from Austria five famous paintings looted by the Nazis and now valued at $200 million. The art works were seized in Vienna in 1938 from Ferdinand Bloch-Bauer, a wealthy Jewish sugar magnate and Altmann's uncle.

Kabbalah and the Modern Shrink

By Gaby Friedman
Published on October 6, 2005

Since the early 1990s, Rabbi Abner Weiss, former rabbi at Beth Jacob Congregation and current rabbi at the Westwood Village Synagogue, has been using kabbalistic tools in his psychology practice. Recently, he published "Connecting to God, Ancient Kabbalah and Modern Psychology," a book that asserts the congruity of the two disciplines.

Underclass Surfaces From Floodwaters

By H. Eric Schockman
Published on September 8, 2005

The gut-wrenching scenes of human suffering witnessed in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina are not only the result of the levee failures at Lake Pontchartrain, but also the failure of a nation numbed to the growing division between "haves" and "have-nots."

What is appearing on television sets across America is the inevitable impact of decades of ignoring a stark difference in economic realities. While wealthy, predominantly white Gulf residents -- and most Jews -- were able to leave the region or escape to higher ground, it was poorer, largely black, elderly and sick Americans who were left behind to fend for themselves.

In the case of New Orleans, high poverty rates already existed before the storm: More than 30 percent of the population lived below the federal poverty line. These are, in most cases, the victims whose bodies we saw floating in the Mississippi River and dying for lack of basic necessities at the New Orleans Convention Center and Superdome.

Spiritual Help Can Benefit Hopelessly Ill

By Judy Gruen
Published on March 31, 2005

When my friend, Debra, learned that a young man she knew had been in a tragic accident and was comatose, she went to the hospital to visit him every day for three months. No one knew if the man would emerge from his deep, distant sleep, but Debra believed that he would.

A Fishy Miracle

By Kathleen Vallee Stein
Published on December 9, 2004

The fish was the ugliest I had ever seen. I actually recoiled as my son proudly pointed him out in the aquarium. He loves fish.

Who Should Own Nazi-Looted Art?

By Tom Tugend
Published on November 11, 2004

In another development in this complex and contentious legacy of the Hitler regime, California courts are also dealing with a demand that actress Elizabeth Taylor return a prized van Gogh painting.

Lawyer Takes on Looted Art, Austria

By Tom Tugend
Published on April 24, 2003

In one of the most complex legal battles in the annals of Holocaust restitution, centering on the return of art looted by the Nazis to their rightful owners, E. Randol Schoenberg is stationed on the front lines.

Planning Ahead Can Save on Health Care

By Gaby Wenig
Published on December 26, 2002

Because elder care can be an enormous drain on an individual's resources, with nursing homes costing in excess of $100 a day and home care costing even more, planning ahead and buying long-term-care insurance is one way of preventing the costs from being too overwhelming.

Reality-Based Schooling

By Marlene Adler Marks
Published on March 1, 2001

One of the most engrossing reality-based television shows is the thrice-weekly KLCS public broadcasting program, "Conversation with Roy Romer." Unlike "Survivor" and "Temptation Island," where contestants wearing cruise and safari garb compete against each other and the weather, "Conversation" features little more than a white-haired man in a black suit talking to off-camera live callers wearing who knows what. Nevertheless, the sharks are out. Romer is superintendent of the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD), and what is at stake on the show is the education of some 700,000 Los Angeles children.