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Richard Joel Profiled

Posted by on Jul 31, 2008 in YU |

Ben Harris writes for JTA:

NEW YORK (JTA) — The spring semester is in full swing, and the president of Yeshiva University, Richard Joel, is walking the two-and-a-half blocks from the school’s main study hall to his office.

Students and faculty members stop him as he makes his way south on Amsterdam Avenue, and Joel seems more than happy to engage them.

Joel is working to expand and improve the faculty and student body, and raise the university’s academic and religious profile. Now with Joel heading YU, the university is pouring about $30 million into its Manhattan campuses annually, renovating classrooms, expanding faculty office space and building new laboratories. Meanwhile, the university has added 56 full-time faculty positions since Joel’s arrival.

(Joel’s compensation was $619,700 in 2005-06, more than the president of Harvard earned that year.).

Propelling much of the growth at YU is Joel’s demonstrated fund-raising prowess. Perhaps in his most stunning success, Joel secured a $100 million pledge in 2006 from New York industrialist and former YU chairman Ronald Stanton (now chairman emeritus), the largest gift in Yeshiva’s history and, the university says, the largest ever to Jewish education in North America.

Joel shrugs off the latter suggestion, calling it a “bogus notion” and a “false dichotomy.” “You can’t go to most yeshivas and get multiple opinions,” Joel says. At Joel’s 2002 investiture, his predecessor and now the university’s chancellor and rabbinical school head, Rabbi Norman Lamm, called him the “unshakeable and uncompromising guardian” of the university’s “ineffable mission — Torah U’Madda.”

Where Lamm devoted his philosophic energies to extrapolating Torah U’Madda, Joel sees his job as enabling multiple types of students to find their particular paths as they struggle to meld opposites. Two days before his election, a group of leading Yeshiva rabbis told Joel to his face that they thought as a non-rabbi he was unsuitable for the job. “That I’ll never forgive them for,” Joel says now. Much of that initial opposition has dissipated, in part due to Joel’s charisma and legendary people skills. Joel also has had a long association with Yeshiva, serving as an associate dean of the law school and educating his children there.

Enrollment in the college already has grown by 9.3 percent under Joel’s leadership, but the president wants even more. Schachter subsequently apologized, saying he wasn’t serious, but Joel’s left-wing Orthodox critics protested that the rabbi was not removed from his post.

Joel is more comfortable in booster mode than refereeing university politics, singing the school’s praises to donors and strengthening Yeshiva’s role as a training ground for future Jewish leaders. That’s easily discerned during one of Joel’s walks around campus.

“Healthy, good,” Joel says, patting the fellow on the back and flashing a broad smile.

 

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Denied A Divorce

Posted by on Jul 29, 2008 in Conversion, Divorce |

Yair Sheleg writes for Haaretz:

The issue of conversion is ostensibly no longer in the headlines, but it still figures prominently on religious Zionism’s agenda. The proposal to establish religious courts to serve as an alternative to those of the Chief Rabbinate comes up repeatedly in various conversations. An interesting question is why the disputes on the issues of shmita (the sabbatical year) and conversion, which set off harsh reverberations this year, provoked a far stronger reaction than that aroused by the religious courts’ long-term harassment of women who are refused a get – a religious decree of divorce.

The answer is apparently related to the fact that the religious Zionist rabbis have a more consolidated viewpoint on these issues than on the issue of women denied a get. So the ultra-Orthodox insistence on enforcing the more stringent view is striking religious Zionism on a very sensitive nerve – not only farmers or converts are being harmed, but a religious worldview as well.

The idea of establishing alternative religious courts has potential, but there are many obstacles: It requires a long-term organizational and financial effort and an alternative system for registering marriages, which will include a promise to perform marriages for converts (the rabbinate will not recognize their conversion). Therefore, along with the attempt to establish an alternative system, we would do well not to give up the struggle for official governmental recognition of a lenient concept of conversion. An interesting and worthy trend of thought in this area can be found in the covenant drawn up a while ago by Prof. Ruth Gavison and Rabbi Yaakov Medan, a document that could solve most of the problems concerning relations between religion and the state.

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First Woman Ordained In Israel

Posted by on Jul 29, 2008 in Rabbis |

 From the Times of India:

 Rabbi Naamah Kelman was the first woman to be ordained as a rabbi in Israel. She is associate dean at the Hebrew Union College, Jerusalem, and seeks a progressive direction for Judaism and a greater understanding of pluralism. She is involved with Mazorim Spiritual Care/Israeli Chaplaincy, and Rabbis for Human Rights. She spoke with Swati Chopra:

You were the first woman rabbi in Israel.

Throughout the centuries the religious leaders of Judaism have been men. A woman was ordained for the first time in 1972 by a stream of Reformed Judaism, which began in the 1850s in Europe and later moved to the US. Israel was established with an official synagogue and rabbinate, which are orthodox and patriarchal. They control all laws of marriage, divorce, burial, conversion. And they continue to get more and more extreme.

I was fortunate to be born in New York and come of age during the Civil Rights Movement, the Feminist Movement. On my father’s side, i’m a tenth generation rabbi. So, i like to say i went into the family business! But it wasn’t automatic. It was a journey.

Does the official rabbinate accept you?

Not at all. But they don’t accept men who are not orthodox.

What is the women’s Bible project?

It is the product of the Reform Movement in Judaism in the US. Some 15 years ago, a woman suggested that since so much of our tradition is interpreting the Bible, wouldn’t it be wonderful if women’s voices interpreted the Bible?

There are over 200 women’s voices in this Bible, who are Biblical scholars, rabbis, teachers. They come from many groups; most are Reformed. It was launched in December 2007. This Bible highlights the women’s angle. Not with a sledgehammer, but by saying that this might be interesting to women from this perspective.

You’re in the heart of a conflict zone. Is there a woman’s perspective to peacemaking?

People in the peace camp in Israel come from the impulse to reach out to the other, to make room for the other. And I don’t know if that’s a woman’s perspective. There are many women in the peace movement. When I’ve been in interfaith dialogue, with Palestinian Christians mostly, I try and introduce a woman’s perspective. When things get angry, I try and speak from a different place, about what we share.

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Chabad Rabbi Found Guilty Of Zoning Violation

Posted by on Jul 29, 2008 in Chabad, Rabbis |

From APP.com:

FREEHOLD TOWNSHIP — Seven members of the township Zoning Board of Adjustment unanimously decided Thursday that a local rabbi is, in fact, running a house of worship out of his home.

“If it walks like a duck, and talks like a duck, it probably is a duck,” zoning board member William Nero said before the board voted. “And without question, this is a duck.”

Nero was referring to 351 Stillwells Corner Road, the home of Rabbi Avraham Bernstein.

Bernstein’s neighbors have long complained that Bernstein is running religious services out of his home, which is located across the street from the township Municipal Complex.

The township does permit houses of worship in residential areas, but requires a use variance for their operation. Bernstein — a member of the Jewish organization Chabad Lubavitch — does not have a use variance to run services out of his home.

After years of mounting frustration among his neighbors, one — Paul Sweda, who lives next to Bernstein — asked the zoning board to determine whether Bernstein is operating a house of worship in violation of the township’s zoning ordinances.

The board began hearing the case in January. During the hearing process, the board heard from several witnesses who described watching people visit Bernstein’s home on Fridays and Saturdays, and observing what they believed to be religious celebrations at the house.

Based on that testimony and their own observations, board members said they felt assured that Bernstein’s home met the definition of a house of worship.

To be a house of worship, a property must be used for traditional services, meetings or gatherings of an organized religious body or community, which are presided over by an ordained or “otherwise officially recognized” leader of the body or community.

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A Featured Convert Turns Cantor

Posted by on Jul 29, 2008 in Conversion |

From The Jewish Standard of New Jersey:

Not only did the new chazzan at Temple Israel & Jewish Community Center in Ridgewood move here in July from Albuquerque, New Mexico, but the former Caitlin O’Sullivan —whose conversion service was featured in a 1981 Moment magazine article on Jews by choice — has moved closer to what she called her “destiny,” combining a love of Judaism with a passion for music.


Cantor Caitlin Bromberg

 

“I was one of the first to do a public conversion ceremony in Manhattan,” she said, explaining that the service reflected the view of the late Rabbi Alexander Schindler, then leader of the Reform movement, that conversions should be celebrated like other major life-cycle events.

 

“I sang during the service,” she said, and shortly afterwards she received an invitation to officiate at High Holiday services at a small Reform congregation. “Even then I was thinking about [the cantorate],” she said.

 

Raised in San Diego, Calif., Bromberg received her ordination from the H.L. Miller Cantorial School of The Jewish Theological Seminary in 2000 and chose to begin her new professional life in the southwest.

 

After four years at a congregation in El Paso, Texas, she moved to Albuquerque’s B’nai Israel, the only Conservative congregation in New Mexico, which she served for an additional four years. Each city has a Jewish population of about 5,000, but, she pointed out, “it is difficult to determine the exact number of Jews in southwestern cities because of their high level of assimilation and lack of affiliation.”

 

While in El Paso, Bromberg worked with members of the converso community, helping to staff an outreach program created by Conservative Rabbi Stephen Leon (formerly of the Elmwood Park Jewish Center), who, she said, has made it his mission “to bring crypto-Jews back to Judaism.”

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Cleveland’s Synagogue Without Walls

Posted by on Jul 29, 2008 in Rabbis |

From the Cleveland Plain Dealer:

After spending 12 years at Congregation Bethaynu in Pepper Pike, Sukol left in June 2007 to start a new type of Jewish religious and learning experience that he calls Cleveland’s Synagogue Without Walls.

In the fall, he formed The Shul, which has no denominational affiliation.

“I felt it was time to do something new. To spread my wings. To create something from scratch,” said Sukol, 50, a graduate of the Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion in Cincinnati.

In addition to leading The Shul, Sukol is an adjunct faculty member at Baldwin-Wallace College, a lecturer at the Rose Institute for Life Long Learning in Beachwood and a hospital chaplain.

Sukol’s manner is easygoing and self-deprecating. No one calls him Edward. Instead, he’s simply Rabbi Eddie. He’s quick with a joke, and his style of dress nearly always includes a spirited tie.

There is the baseball tie for the Indians opening day. UNICEF and Save the Children ties. And for New Yorkers, a tie depicting the interior of the Chrysler Building.

Sukol says he began to wear the animated ties to better relate to children. That’s how the popular Charlie Brown tie took up residence around his neck.

His cheerful demeanor is infectious. At Congregation Bethaynu, Sukol routinely stepped off the bimah to interact with worshippers. He was known for sometimes calling on unsuspecting congregants.

It’s the reason some members of that congregation left and followed Sukol.

So what does a synagogue without walls look like?

Rabbi is always

on the go

For starters, it means Sukol is always on the go. He travels to homes for twice-a-month Shabbat services. He leads study groups in a restaurant and a bookstore and helps prepare teens for their bar or bat mitzvahs at his Pepper Pike home.

“Rather than expecting people to come to me, I am going out to them,” he said.

But logistical problems arise by not having a bricks-and-mortar synagogue.

Before Rosh Hashana last year (services were held at a Solon school), Shul member Allen Frydenberg was concerned that there was no ark to hold the Torah. So he made a wooden ark that fits in the back of the rabbi’s Toyota Camry.

Sukol is unsure if The Shul will ever have its own building. He said he can’t predict the future. For now, he’s concentrating on making the experimental synagogue as relevant as he can.

Even though she calls herself a traditionalist, Emily Gusky didn’t think twice about joining The Shul. Gusky, who lives in Solon, enjoys the informality of the service.

“I don’t think you need a building to believe in God and religion,” she said. “And you don’t need to have a building to feel Jewish.”

Sukol says he started The Shul to offer a different experience to those within the Jewish community whose needs and interests were not being addressed adequately or fully by existing communal organizations.

“It’s what I lovingly call the disaffected,” he said.

He especially wants to reach the unaffiliated, the intermarried (interfaith couples) and baby boomers. Boomers make up the largest segment of the Jewish population, Sukol said.

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Chief Rabbi Jonathan Sacks Advises Anglicans On Unity

Posted by on Jul 29, 2008 in Rabbis |

From virtueonline.org:

CANTERBURY-Sir Jonathan Sacks, Chief Rabbi of the United Hebrew Congregations of the Commonwealth, gave a stirring address to Anglican bishops gathered under the Big Top tent at the decennial Lambeth Conference Monday evening. He said that Anglicans must come together despite their differences.

Speaking in his main remarks about covenants between God and the people, Rabbi Sir Jonathan discussed the divisions in the Anglican Communion during the question and answer period. “It is the hardest thing in the world to hold the adherents of a faith together,” he said. “The Anglican Communion has held together quite different strands of Christian theology and practice better than any other religion I know, certainly than any other Western religion I know.”

He called on Anglicans to be tolerant of each other, as he had known them to be when he was a student in Anglican schools. “Covenant is predicated on difference,” he said. “Between God and humanity-that is the covenant of ultimate difference.”

Beyond the call to unity in the Anglican Communion, Rabbi Sir Jonathan said that Anglicans can help to unite people across religions. He said that Anglicans can help “to hold us together in a world that is drawing us apart.”

In his main remarks, Rabbi Sir Jonathan said that societies without faith disintegrate. “Relationships break down. Marriage grows weak. Families become fragile. Communities atrophy. And the result is that people feel vulnerable and alone.”

“That is where we are,” he said.

FROM THE TIMES OF LONDON:

Sir Jonathan said that “covenants of faith are splitting apart”, and called on Christians to walk united with members of other religions in working to solve the world’s problems.

Too often, he said, religion showed a divided face to the world: “Conflict – between faiths, and sometimes within faiths.”

Sir Jonathan said that globalisation had created a “global covenant” but that it was itself in danger.

“The sanctity of human life is being desecrated by terror. The integrity of creation is threatened by environmental catastrophe. Respect for diversity is imperilled by what one writer has called the clash of civilisations.”

He also referred to the long history of Christian antiSemitism that underpinned centuries of persecution of the Jewish people. He said: “Friends, I stand before you as a Jew, which means not as an individual, but as a representative of my people. And as I prepared this lecture, within my soul were the tears of my ancestors. We may have forgotten this but, for a thousand years, between the First Crusade and the Holocaust, the word ‘Christian’ struck fear into Jewish hearts.”

He said he could not have stood “in openness” before a gathering of so many Christian bishops without mentioning this “book of Jewish tears”.

Sir Jonathan said: “Think only of the words the Jewish encounter with Christianity added to the vocabulary of human pain: blood libel, book burnings, disputations, forced conversions, inquisition, auto-da-fé, expulsion, ghetto and pogrom.”

The past could not be rewritten but it could be “redeemed”, he said. Today, more than 60 years after an Archbishop of Canterbury, William Temple, met a Chief Rabbi, J. H. Hertz, to found the Council of Christians and Jews, the two faith groups could meet as “beloved friends”. That friendship now had to be extended more widely, to Sikhs, Muslims, Hindus, Buddhists, Jains, Zoroastrians and Baha’is.

Sir Jonathan said: “Because though we do not share a faith, we surely share a fate. Religions should not fight each other but work together to face the challenges of poverty, hunger, disease and environmental disaster.”

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JConnectLA Singles Events

Posted by on Jul 28, 2008 in JConnectLA |

 Subject: Simply Shabbat this Friday Night – LAST CHANCE TO SIGN UP!

DON’T MISS OUT! SIGN UP AT WWW.JCONNECTLA.COM NOW!

This Friday night Jconnect’s Simply Shabbat will be what’s hot, hip & happening in the ‘hood.

Professor Gordon will be discussing the intriguing topic “Judaism & the Founding Fathers”.

As it has in the past, the Simply Shabbat program begins with inspirational services (led by Moshav bassist Yosef Solomon), followed by a 3 course dinner, and concludes with a Shabbat Oneg. OPEN BAR ALL NIGHT LONG!

For more info on this event, click below:
http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=28339486270
________________________________________________________

If you thought the 4th of July party was big, well you ain’t seen NOTHIN’ yet! Our biggest event of the summer, LOVE FEST ’08 – our Tu B’Av Celebration- will take place Thursday, August 14th! We’ve got MASSIVE music by Moshav, superb spoken-word show by Smooth-E, a brilliant book-signing by the breathtaking Lisa Alcalay Klug (author of “Cool Jew”), extremely enticing edibles, a happenin’ hypaethral haven of hip Heebster happiness and more!

Check out the event here:
http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=24691529458

Sign up for the Shabbat and Tu B’Av events on our website by clicking below:
http://jconnectla.com/nextevent.html

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The Nine Days

Posted by on Jul 25, 2008 in Torah |

From Bnai David:

Halachot of the “nine days”

This year the nine days commence on Shabbat August 2, and end on Monday, August 11 at 1:00 p.m.  According to tradition, we spend the days from Rosh Hodesh Av through midday on the tenth of Av in a state of national mourning.  This practice has its roots in the Talmud, and has taken more specific form as the centuries have passed.  It would be difficult indeed to simply “switch Tisha B’av on” as the fast day itself began. Preparation is crucial.  The objective of the “nine days” period is to create the frame of thinking and feeling which will enable us to experience Tisha B’av in the most powerful way possible.

The following is a basic description of some of the “nine days” halachot. Please don’t hesitate to consult with me regarding any personal “she’elot” you may have. 

  • We do not eat meat or drink wine during the nine days, other than on Shabbat.

(2)  We shower with cool (rather than warm) water, and only for the length of time necessary to satisfy the needs of basic hygiene.  Friday afternoon is an exception to this rule.   We refrain from swimming during the nine days.

(3) We continue to not have our hair cut, and (unless it is completely impossible to not do so) do not shave during this period.

(4)  We withhold from ourselves the luxury of wearing new garments.  In addition, except for on Shabbat, we refrain from wearing freshly cleaned or freshly laundered outer garments as well.  [Please note that the halacha gives us a little bit of a break regarding this custom.  Halacha defines “freshly laundered” in a very literal way.  Clothing worn for even a few minutes (before the nine days began) is no longer defined as “freshly laundered”.]  Also, we do not wash clothing during the nine days, even though we are not intending to wear that clothing until after Tisha B’av.  (Children’s clothing that must be washed is exempted.)

Observing the laws of the nine days, is a powerful vehicle for connecting to the Jewish past, and for understanding what is still missing from the Jewish present.  I also recommend that you spend a little time with Jeremiah this week (especially the closing chapters), to refresh your memory of the events most closely associated with these days.

Schedule for Erev Tisha B’av & Tisha B’av

The fast of Tisha B’av begins at sundown next Shabbat, even though Shabbat is not yet over.  Please note the schedule and special procedures for going from Shabbat into Tisha B’av.

 

Shabbat August 9

6:00 Mincha.  There will be no shul seudah Shlisheet following Mincha.  Your seudah shlisheet at home must end by sundown, 7:47 p.m.  When Shabbat ends at 8:27, recite the simple formula of havdalah, kujk asue ic khscnv lurc, and recite

atv hrutn truc over the havdalah candle.  Replace your shoes with non-leather shoes and please proceed to shul as quickly as possible.  (You may drive to shul if you wish.) We will begin Ma’ariv at 9:00 promptly, and Ma’ariv will be followed by the reading of Eichah.

 

Sunday, August 10

8:30 a.m. at Young Israel of Century City – joint BDJ-YICC Shacharit & Kinot

6:40 p.m. Mincha (with tallit & tefillin)

7:10 Shiur with the rabbi in Midrash Eichah

8:00 Ma’ariv

8:12 Fast ends

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Burning Off Warts

Posted by on Jul 25, 2008 in walgreens |

I went to Walgreens on the corner of Pico and Robertson Blvds and asked this Hispanic girl in the skincare section for something to burn off warts. She had me repeat my question. Then said, “No, there’s nothing.”

I didn’t believe her and wandered the store until I found some Compound W.

Perhaps Walgreens should insist their employees be literate in English.

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Gift Cards At Ralphs

Posted by on Jul 24, 2008 in Supermarkets |

If you haven’t seen this, at Ralph’s they are selling gift cards in increments of $300 (up to $1200) that are tied in with one’s Ralph’s card. The idea is that they’ll give you a 10% bonus. So, you buy a $300 card, you get $30 free. $1200, you get $120 free. A 10% return on one’s money, esp. these days, is not to be sneezed at, I say. Offer ends July 31.

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Adeena Bleich For LA City Council

Posted by on Jul 24, 2008 in Politics |

David Suissa writes:

Adeena Bleich and former Assembly Speaker  Bob Hertzberg at a bar mitzvah in Hancock Park.Adeena Bleich and former Assembly Speaker
Bob Hertzberg at a bar mitzvah in Hancock Park.

If you want to really annoy Adeena Bleich, just ask her what it feels like to be a young Orthodox woman running for City Council. I know, because when we sat down recently for lunch at Shiloh’s, the first thing I asked her is what it felt like to be a young Orthodox woman running for City Council.

She rolled her eyes like my teenage daughter Shanni does when I show off my knowledge of the latest music.

It’s clear that Bleich is leery of being stereotyped, or worse, becoming some kind of political curiosity whose main calling card is her youth (she just turned 31), gender and Orthodox religion.

What she is, she says, is something a lot less dramatic: A hard-working individual who knows how local politics work and who wants to bring a new, practical attitude to serving the people.

All the people, of course.

Although she estimates that nearly half of the registered voters in her 5th District (which cuts a wide swath from West Los Angeles through Westwood, Pico-Robertson, the Fairfax area and right up to Sherman Oaks) are Jewish, she’s savvy enough to realize that Jews alone won’t carry her to victory. So Bleich, who is single and belongs to three Modern Orthodox shuls in Pico-Robertson (Young Israel of Century City, Beth Jacob Congregation and B’nai David Judea) wants to reach out.

She’s not exactly a novice at this game. She spent years as City Council Deputy to Councilman Jack Weiss— and was knee-deep in the local dramas of neighborhood groups, pro-business groups and the maze of City Hall politics. She was also in the trenches with former Speaker of the California Assembly Bob Hertzberg when he ran for mayor of Los Angeles.

So she knows the lingo, and she also knows that she’s up against some serious competition — from, among others, former city councilman Paul Koretz and neighborhood activist Ron Galperin. But she has no qualms about asking for your vote, because, as she says, she’s got some great things cooking for your district and your neighborhood.

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JConnectLA’s Happy Hour At La Gondola

Posted by on Jul 21, 2008 in JConnectLA |

Special Guest Speaker – Joan Hyler – “One Woman’s Journey”
joan hylerSpecial Happy Hour Menu plus 25% off regular menu & bar

DON’T FORGET TO BRING YOUR BUSINESS CARDS!!!

Special Musical Appearance by Jconnect’s Jazzy Jew!
Richard Glaser, a jazz musician, will be serenading us with his smooth jazz stylings. Check him out at www.richardglasermusic.com

WHEN: Monday July 21st from 5:30 – 7:30pm

WHERE: La Gondola – 9025 Wilshire Blvd, Beverly Hills, CA 90211.
Parking available in lot on Wetherly.

WHO: Special Guest -Joan Hyler created and operates Hyler Management, a boutique talent management and production company, after two illustrious decades as a talent agent and Senior Vice President of the William Morris Agency and International Creative Management. As an agent she represented icons Andy Warhol, Madonna, Meryl Streep, Bob Dylan and Peter O’ Toole. She was involved with many groundbreaking talents, both developing and redefining such careers as Karen Allen (Raiders of the Lost Ark), Candice Bergen (Murphy Brown) & Ricki Lake (The Ricki Lake Show).

As a manager and producer Joan Hyler continues to represent Gold Standard actors many of whom have been nominated or won Oscars, Tony Awards, Golden Globes and Emmys such as: Alfred Molina, Eric McCormack, Ricki Lake, Amber Tamblyn, Annabeth Gish, Rutger Hauer and Diane Lane.

As a producer Joan Hyler co- produced the CBS TV series Ladies Man with client Alfred Molina, the Miramax feature documentary Get Bruce, which starred writer/performer client Bruce Vilanch, and the feature film Precious Find starring Rutger Hauer. She also produced the off Broadway one man show Almost Famous.

COST: Whatever you order.
Make sure your orders are in before 7:30pm for Jconnect’s 25% discount.

CONTACT: Michal @ 310-405-2336

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Finding Meaning In Tragedy

Posted by on Jul 21, 2008 in Helkeinu |

From Helkeinu.org:

 This evening will be dedicated to the strength, sustenance and prosperity of all the Jewish community not only in Los Angeles, but for the entire world as we go into the 3 weeks before Tisha B’Av.

Tuesday,July 23, 2008
Rabbi Alexander Seinfeld
FINDING MEANING IN TRAGEDY AND SUFFERING

8:30 PM lecture begins followed by refreshments and private meetings with the Rabbi
$5 member/$10 donation

Wednesday, July 24, 2008

Rabbi Seinfeld will be having private meetings with our members. Consultations will start at 7 pm and will be limited to 20 minutes for a $10 donation. Time is limited therefore it will be on a first come first served basis .

Helkeinu- www.Helkeinu.org
1875 Century Park East, suite 1800
Los Angeles, CA 90067
(310) 785-0440

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VideoJew Does Hadassah

Posted by on Jul 17, 2008 in Jewish Journal |

July 17, 2008 | 9:03 am


VideoJew does Hadassah


Photo

The 94th annual Hadassah convention recently traveled to Los Angeles and JewishJournal.com VideoJew Jay Firestone was all over it, like jelly on gefilte fish.


To get a feel for the convention, VideoJew submerged himself in many of the activities.  On his journey, he made new friends and even visited with some old friends.  But does he find his ’eshet chayil?’


Watch and find out.  Your rabbi would want you to.



Video by VideoJew Jay Firestone and the amazing VideoJew Assistant, Sari Thayer.


VideoJew on Facebook

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‘A Black Day For Israel’

Posted by on Jul 17, 2008 in Chabad |

(lubavitch.com) After two years of speculation about the condition of two Israeli soldiers kidnapped by Hezbollah terrorists on the Israel-Lebanese border in the summer 2006, the remains of Ehud Goldwasser and Eldad Regev were transferred to Israel earlier today.

The two black coffins, delivered to the Israeli military as part of a swap in which Israel released five Lebanese prisoners, among them a notorious terrorist, were first confirmation that both soldiers were dead.

“It is a truly black day,” said Chabad’s Rabbi Dovid Meir Drukman, who is chief rabbi of Kiryat Mozkin where the family of Eldad Regev resides. Drukman has been in close contact with the family throughout their ordeal, and was with them today. Though he acknowledged that the return of the bodies allows for the soldiers to finally receive a Jewish burial, the swap brought bitter closure to the families who’ve endured two years of campaigning for their return.

“This is a tragic ending to a very drawn out saga of great anguish,” said Rabbi Drukman. The families’s pain, he said, “is reflective of the feeling that prevails today in Israel at large.”

Rabbi Moshe Oirechman, Chabad representative to the area, visited the Goldwasser family, and lit memorial candles as is customary. Chabad representatives spent time with both families, and in the course of the day, encouraged many of the locals who turned out to express their sympathy, to do a mitzvah in memory of the soldiers.

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Ask The Rabbi

Posted by on Jul 17, 2008 in Rabbis |

From the Texas Jewish Post:

By Rabbi Yerachmiel D. Fried
By Rabbi Yerachmiel D. Fried

Dear Rabbi Fried,

I have trouble understanding the 10th commandment, “Thou shalt not covet.” It seems to be an injunction forbidding jealousy. How can jealousy, a normal human emotion, be forbidden?

Clyde R.

Dear Clyde,

One of the classical commentaries, R’ Avraham Ibn Ezra, provides insight to answer your question. He explains that we are only jealous of, or covet, something that we believe could actually become ours. When we see a friend, colleague or coworker achieve a heightened level of financial success, we may be overcome by jealousy. When we observe, however, a king of royal lineage basking in the splendor of his riches, we don’t feel envious. Why this discrepancy?

The difference is clear. We recognize we are not kings. We were not born into royal families, and do not yearn for things we know could not possibly become ours. We might, however, be envious of our neighbor who we believe is no more capable than ourselves.

“Lo sachmod,” “Do not covet …” teaches us a profound lesson in G-d’s involvement in our lives and livelihoods. The Al-mighty has provided each person with his or her needs. What is appropriate for one is not necessarily fitting for another. What belongs to another is as much out of reach as if your friend was royalty.

I think this explanation is inherent within the verse itself. The commandment to not covet our friend’s ox and donkey is uttered in the same breath that we may not covet his wife. This is hinting to us that just as his wife is completely off limits to me (that’s his royalty), so too the rest of his possessions are to be viewed as completely out of reach. Consequently, you will not covet those belongings.

You see that this mitzvah doesn’t command us to quash our emotions. It rather gives us a direction in life which enables us to control our emotions. All natural emotions have a place; otherwise they would not have been created within us. Our job, as Jews, is to control our emotions, utilizing them when appropriate, remaining above them when inappropriate.

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First Ugandan Rabbi Ordained

Posted by on Jul 17, 2008 in Rabbis |

Rabbi Gershom Sizomu and his daughter Daphne  light the Sabbath candles on Friday evening on  Nabogoya Hill. Photo by Richard Sobol/ZUMA PressRabbi Gershom Sizomu and his daughter Daphne
light the Sabbath candles on Friday evening on
Nabogoya Hill. Photo by Richard Sobol/ZUMA Press

Rabbi Gershom Sizomu, the first black sub-Saharan rabbi ordained at an American rabbinical school, has had a very busy time since returning to Uganda in June, after not having lived there for five years. Among other activities, the American Jewish University graduate recently supervised about 250 formal conversions to Judaism: men, women and children, ages ranging from 4 to 80, who had been preparing while he was gone for their meeting with the beit din.

“We started the conversions on July 8,” said Sizomu, who spoke with The Journal by cellphone from his Ugandan village. “And we have continued the conversions throughout the week. People not just from Uganda, but also from Kenya, South Africa and from Ghana.

“We are very happy about how Judaism appeals to Africans,” he continued. “We are not going out there and asking people to convert. We are here, and people come to us and express their desire to make that commitment, their desire to immerse themselves in Jewish education.”

The African converts also immersed themselves in nature’s mikvah.

“The mikvah was the river,” Sizomu said. “So the women went to one part of the river, and the men went to a different part. It was so beautiful.”

The mass conversions were not the only major event for Sizomu since returning to Uganda. During the same week, he hosted the first-ever meeting of PAJA, the Pan-African Jewish Alliance.

“Jewish community leaders [came] from black African communities in Nigeria, Kenya, Ghana and Ethiopia,” Sizomu said.

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The Lure Of Pleasure

Posted by on Jul 17, 2008 in Torah |

Levi Cooper writes:

As human beings we are tempted by the lure of materialistic pleasures. How do these seemingly unholy urges fit into our spiritual worldview? Should they be decried, shunned and totally censured? Is is there perhaps room to harness them in the service of God?

Our sages expound on the requirements of the biblical verse “And you shall love the God, your Lord with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might” (Deuteronomy 6:5). Focusing on the Hebrew word for your heart – levaveha – the sages note a seemingly superfluous double letter. Your heart is normally rendered libha, the doubling of the letter bet, our sages suggest, indicates that our love for the Almighty must be expressed with two hearts. The heart is seen as the locus of our cravings and aspirations, thus we strive for a relationship with God that stems both from inclination for good as well as from our urge to do bad (M. Berachot 9:5).

How should the evil inclination be used for the service of the Almighty? How are we to express our love for God with the urge to do evil? Various approaches have been suggested. One explanation is that by embracing the drive for good and fulfilling the divine commandments and at the same time rejecting evil urges to transgress, the Almighty is served with both inclinations (Rabbeinu Yonah Gerondi, 13th century, Spain).

Another approach suggests that love for the Almighty with the evil inclination is expressed by retaining fidelity to God even at times when we are angry or wish to rebel against the Almighty. Such a state of unrest is the product of the evil inclination and by remaining loyal to God during such moods, we serve the Almighty with both our inclinations (Maimonides, 12th century, Cairo).

A different line of thought suggests that not just the rejection of the evil inclination or ignoring its urgings, but even its employ can be considered divine service. According to this approach the good inclination refers to attributes considered to be positive such as mercy and love. The bad inclination indicates negative attributes such as cruelty and fear. While undoubtedly, mercy and love are generally preferable over cruelty and fear, there are times when even the negative attributes are called for. By employing the appropriate attribute at the right time, in the proper measure for a suitable purpose, we serve the Almighty with both inclinations (Rabbeinu Yonah Gerondi).

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Escaping From The Satmar

Posted by on Jul 16, 2008 in Satmar |

From New York magazine:

Gitty and Esther Miriam eating a meal—tuna salad and toast—at Gitty’s mother’s house.   

(Photo: Clémence de Limburg)

A more typical American scene would be hard to imagine: a young mother and her daughter in Wal-Mart. Yet as she pushed the shopping cart with the 4-year-old Esther Miriam sitting, princesslike, in the child’s seat, Sterna Gittel Grunwald (call her Gitty), her five-one frame nicely defined in snug black jeans and white cotton shirt, kept an eye out for spies.

The Satmar Hasidim from Kiryas Joel, the Catskill village where the now-23-year-old Gitty grew up, only came to Wal-Mart for the big sales. There was something about the store’s dizzying display of cheesy American choice that made the townspeople nervous, Gitty thought. But still, in KJ, you could never be too paranoid.

Once, when Esther Miriam was a baby, Gitty took her for a walk. “A guy looked into the carriage,” Gitty recalls. “He said how cute Esther Miriam was and went on his way.

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The Winding Road To The Rabbinate

Posted by on Jul 16, 2008 in Rabbis |

Cindy Mindell writes for the Jewish Ledger:

BLOOMFIELD – The call comes from someone “deep in southwest Texas, headed for New Mexico.” It’s Stephen Landau, the new rabbi at Tikvoh Chadoshoh in Bloomfield, and he’s driving through the familiar landscape, visiting friends and family, catching up on rest, before taking the Connecticut pulpit on Aug. 1.

Landau is a Dallas native who lived and worked in New Mexico for 20 years before deciding to become a rabbi. A carpenter by trade, he was ordained on June 1 from Hebrew College in Newton, Mass.

“My heart is here in many ways,” he says of the American southwest, “and I always expected to return here or to the mountain states of the American west. But something happened when I went to visit Tikvoh Chadoshoh. Even though I had other opportunities, they basically won my heart.”

Landau will succeed Rabbi Lily Kaufmann, who served Tikvoh for seven years and left this summer to become the Theresa Berman Director of Jewish Learning at Adath Jeshurun Congregation in Minnetonka, Minn.

“There was something very non-concrete about my attraction to Tikvoh,” Landau says. “The congregants’ attitude and culture, the community they’ve built over 70 years, match my dreams and vision for community. It has a lovely, chavurah-like intimacy that you don’t often find once a congregation gets bigger than 50 or 60 families. They care very deeply about each other as individuals and Jews, and they’re very good to their rabbi. They’re easy to love.”

Landau says that while he always identified as a Jew, he was raised in a Jewish-secular family, with a high degree of ethnic, cultural, and historical identity with Judaism. “I’ve always been a person intrigued with the unseen, with what we don’t see or know,” he says. “In a Jewish sense, I’ve always been intrigued more with the questions much more than the answers.”

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Judaism Favors Organ Donation Says Rabbi

Posted by on Jul 16, 2008 in Rabbis |

Rabbi Reuven Bulka writes:

Just recently, a highly respected sage, Rabbi Zalman Nehemiah Goldberg, son-in-law of the late, great venerated sage Rabbi Shlomo Zalman Auerbach, shocked many by stating that Judaism is in favour of organ donation. He attached the usual caveat that one should consult one’s rabbi on this. But the message is clear and unequivocal.

The question is, will it make a difference?

Why would it not? Because it remains an entrenched myth in the mind of so many that Judaism is against organ donation. Jews and non-Jews are convinced of this.

Why do so many people believe this? There are a number of possible reasons. One is simple: ignorance. People don’t know, and therefore assume, often incorrectly. Another is that it is convenient to believe that Judaism is against organ donation, because that way, you are off the hook and don’t need to contemplate this urgent and life-saving matter. People generally avoid all conversation regarding their eventual demise, including buying burial plots. Organ donation fits with this avoidance response.

Or, people might actually be afraid of donating an organ. Why? Perhaps they give credence to the preposterous statements they may have heard, and attributed to some otherwise sage individuals, to the effect that if you donate an organ, you will come into the afterlife without that organ, as a punishment for having saved someone’s life! This is so ridiculous as to defy comment, yet it circulates and does its own incalculable damage.

Imagine that God would punish someone for having fulfilled the supreme mitzvah of saving a life. Or that God, who generates life, cannot generate another kidney. Or that someone who donates a heart will walk around in the afterlife without a heart!

By the way, what happens to those who did not donate a life-saving organ, but nevertheless had a lung or kidney removed because of cancer? Do they likewise get punished for having cancer? The more we splice this, the more absurd it sounds, because it is absurd.

Not absurd is the presumption made by many that Judaism insists on burial after death, and that by donating an organ, that body part is not buried. The premise is correct, but the conclusion is not. The Torah obliges us to bury those who have died. That is clear. Equally clear is that saving a life is a vital mitzvah that is praised and encouraged as the most noble deed that we are humanly capable of.

Until this generation, these two concepts never met after death, because organ donation was not a viable medical procedure. That has changed in the past few decades, such that organ donation is now part of after-life care. The human body is sacred, both in life and after death. If after death, one can save a life with a body part, that is an overriding mitzvah, pikuach nefesh, that pre-empts the other competing mitzvah obligations.

We understand that one must treat the Shabbat as an ordinary day in order to save a life. The same logic applies to the mitzvah of burial, namely that the rule of mandatory burial is waived for that organ or part (cornea) used to save life, or sight, as the case may be. Admittedly, it will take more than a few years to have an entire faith community re-adjust thinking that dates back thousands of years, thinking that has given birth to a noble Jewish reflex: death followed by funeral and burial, done as soon as possible with no delays.

The reality is that donating organs after one has passed from the world is a difficult concept, and it takes only a slight blip to convince people to back off from it. We continue to face an acute shortage of organs, to the extent that every three days, a person in Ontario dies waiting for an organ.

And to be fair, there are challenges, the most critical of which is assuring that the person donating an organ is dead according to halachic definition. For this, we have a major difference of opinion surrounding the issue of brain stem death, specifically whether it is a sufficient criteria to establish that the person is dead according to Jewish law.

The Halachic Organ Donation Society (HODS) has many rabbis associated with it who have signed their organ donor card. They have made this known in a public manner, and they have endorsed the brain-stem death concept. The issue is still not finalized, but it’s still possible to be an organ donor even with this challenge. And in many places in Canada, DCD, short for donation after cardiac death, has been implemented to help save lives.

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Shalom TV

Posted by on Jul 16, 2008 in TV |

Harold Davis writes:

Shalom TV can be seen more than 16 million homes in major markets around the United States, but Rabbi Mark Golub of Stamford hopes to get his network into more areas, including Fairfield County.

Though large cable providers such as Comcast and Time Warner Cable carry this free, video-on-demand channel, Shalom TV has yet to picked up by Cablevision, which serves the county.

“We have a very vibrant community here – this is one of the few places that you can’t see it. I get e-mails about it every week,” said Golub about the 6-month-old television network. “It’s ironic, but we believe that Cablevision will launch it in the near future.”

Golub hopes that successes of the Russian Television Network, which he established in 1991, will be mirrored with Shalom TV.He said he believes that the channel already has marked a milestone.

“There was never a network (for Jewish culture). You either purchased airtime or used public access,” said Golub, who has been involved in Jewish radio and television since the 1970s.

He serves the congregations of Chavurah Aytz Chayim (Fellowship for Jewish Life) in Stamford and Chavurah Deevray Torah (Congregation for Torah Study) in Greenwich.

Jim Cameron, a Darien member of Area 9 Cable Council, declined to comment on why Shalom TV, funded by private individuals, is not shown locally. He said the council does not make decisions on which channels will appear on Cablevision.

“We never take sides. Let the marketplace and capitalism do their thing,” Cameron said.

The provider has to see that there’s a demand for the channel but Cameron suggested that there may be other “technical” reasons as to why Shalom TV is not being carried by Cablevision.

“People should contact Cablevision and tell them, ‘I want my Shalom TV.’ They react to marketplace forces – but to add a channel, you have to drop a channel. You also don’t have to be tethered to one provider anymore,” Cameron said.

A spokesman for Cablevision said, “Cablevision does not comment on programming negotiations or discussions.”

But Shalom TV, which operates out of Fort Lee, N.J., continues to be picked up by other smaller cable providers such as Bright House and Metro Cast.

Metro Cast has presence in the New London and Groton area, as well as New Hampshire, Golub said.

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Is Dating A Business?

Posted by on Jul 16, 2008 in Dating |

Upcoming Helkeinu Events

Wednesday, July 16, 2008

Philip Kohan

IS DATING A BUSINESS?

9 pm followed by refreshments & PIZZA

$5 members/$10

Helkeinu- www.Helkeinu.org

1875 Century Park East, suite 1800

Los Angeles, CA 90067
(310) 785-0440

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The Nazi In Bellevue

Posted by on Jul 16, 2008 in anti semitism |

Mike Carter writes:

Peter Egner talked freely to his friends about his service as a conscript in the German army during World War II, and even showed them the jagged scar on his hip — the wound that Egner said ended his military service.

“He was a [WWII] veteran, like I was a veteran,” said Russell Wilson, 81, his longtime neighbor in West Linn, Ore.

But federal Nazi hunters say the 86-year-old Egner, of Bellevue, has lived a lie all these years, and Tuesday moved to revoke his U.S. citizenship, claiming he was a member of a Nazi death squad responsible for the murders of more than 17,000 Serbian Jews and others as the German Wehrmacht marched east on the Soviet Union.

A complaint filed in U.S. District Court in Seattle alleges that Egner was not a conscript, but instead served as a guard and interpreter with the notorious Nazi-run Security Police and Security Service (SPSS) in Belgrade, Serbia (then Yugoslavia) from 1941 through the fall of 1943, when he was wounded. During that time, the complaint stated, his unit participated in the roundup and systematic killings of tens of thousands of Serbian Jews, Gypsies and political dissidents.

Reached Tuesday by The Associated Press by telephone at the Silver Glen retirement cooperative in Bellevue, Egner confirmed his identity but said he was unaware of the complaint. Asked about his alleged service with the Nazis, he said: “I have no idea what you’re talking about. I’m sorry. Bye.”

Robert Gibbs, a Seattle immigration attorney representing Egner, acknowledged that his client served in the SPSS but said he has denied being involved in atrocities.

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Starbucks Bets On Sorbettos

Posted by on Jul 15, 2008 in Starbucks |

From the Los Angeles Times:

Starbuck's Sorbetto muralMichael Ramirez

Mural artists put the finishing touches on a new Starbucks advertisement on the corner of 3rd Street and Robertson in West Hollywood. The new drinks roll out Tuesday.

 Is sorbetto the new frapuccino?

Starbucks is gambling that Los Angeles and Orange County will go head over heels for its pair of icy new beverages being tested at roughly half of its area stores, beginning today. Tangy sorbetto is a twist on Pinkberry yogurt. And citrus ice sorbetto is grapefruit tart, yet still plenty sweet. Tangy citrus ice sorbetto is an Arnold Palmer-style mix of the two. There are also blend-ins, such as berry and tropical mango juices.

Cos La Porta, a Starbucks senior vice president, said the drinks were the result of extensive customer research – and a trip to Italy.

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Islamic Anti-Semitism

Posted by on Jul 15, 2008 in anti semitism |

From the New Republic:

The Editor:

Avi Beker’s article focusing on that aspect of Muslim theology that denigrates Judaism — as if it were the major cause of friction today — ignores the long history of relatively peaceful and respectful relationships between Islam and Judaism, and downplays the relationship between contemporary Muslim appeals to ancient denigration of the Jews, and contemporary struggles with the State of Israel.

He cites one oral tradition quoting Muhammad denigrating the Jews without citing others praising them, and acts as if hostility to the State of Israel is rooted in ancient anti-Jewish teachings — rather than assessing the possibility that hostility to the State of Israel calls forth references to those ancient texts.

One would never know, from his article, that there had been the period in Andalusia in which Jews, Christians, and Muslims freely and peacefully learned from each other. Nor would one know that the multireligious conference to which he refers that is about to happen in Madrid is happening there precisely because the King of Saudi Arabia specifically referred to that Andalusian history as the reason to meet in Spain. (I happen to know because I have been invited to the conference, and the king’s invitation mentions that history of peaceful and glorious dialogue among the Revealed Religions.)

 

It is far more likely, given the history, that the political and territorial conflict between Muslim communities and the modern State of Israel has revived old denigrations of Judaism, than the other way around. To the extent theological assertions have become important to the conflict, Jewish as well as Muslim theology must face this question. So long as dominant Jewish theology asserts that only the Jewish people, descendants of Abraham through Isaac, is entitled to the Promised Land, it also undermines the possibility of a theological as well as political rapprochement between the Israeli and Palestinian peoples, and between Islam and Judaism.

 

At the theological level, both peoples need to affirm that God promised the Land to two different peoples, the descendants of Abraham through Hagar and Ishmael as well as through Sarah and Isaac; at the political level, both peoples need to affirm that in international law — what both traditions might recognize as our generation’s attempt to carry out the Covenant among God, the Children of Noah (all humanity) and all living-breathing life-forms on earth — – Israel and Palestine are each entitled to sovereignty and peace.

 

 

Shalom, salaam, peace –

Rabbi Arthur Waskow

Rabbi Arthur Waskow is the director of The Shalom Center and the author of Godwrestling – Round 2 and a dozen other books on Jewish thought and practice, as well as books on US public policy.

 

 

 

Avi Beker responds:

 

To the Editor:

 

Arthur Waskow tries in his letter to dismiss what is regarded today by leading scholars as the worst manifestation of anti-Semitism since the Nazis. In sharp contrast to Waskow’s claim, the problem is not restricted to “one oral tradition,” but, as pointed out by Abraham Geiger in 1833 (long before the Arab-Israeli conflict) and many other contemporary scholars, the Koran is replete with anti-Semitic verses, most notoriously, the ones equating Jews with “pigs and monkeys.” Even little children, when interviewed on Saudi TV, know that the anti-Jewish stereotypes are not a matter of oral tradition but, in their words, were delivered by Allah “in the Koran.” The fact that there existed a relatively tolerant oasis in the Muslim world (a fact that itself is up for debate) in one location and at one time in history in no way disproves Islam’s broader record of demonizing Jews.

 

It is therefore not encouraging that Waskow goes to Madrid under the banner of a moral equivalency arguing that both Jews and Muslims “face the same problem.” While he can differ in his political views from policies of the current or previous Israeli government, he cannot ignore the major difference between the status of Muslims in Israel, who enjoy political, civil, and religious rights, and a country like Saudi Arabia, which remains the only state in the world to ban all non-Islamic religious practices on its soil, not to mention the severe lack of political and civil rights.

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Chabad Retreat In Salt Lake City

Posted by on Jul 15, 2008 in Blog |

(lubavitch.com) Nadine Veibell is still looking for words to adequately capture her experience at the National Jewish Retreat over the Fourth of July weekend at a resort in Park City, Utah.

“All I can say is ‘Wow!’ I had an awakening. At 41 years old, I found the connection I seemed to be looking for my whole life,” Veibell said.

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Veibell was part of a group of nine Idahoans who drove six and a half hours to join 250 Jewish people at the third annual retreat hosted by the Rohr Jewish Learning Institute. The five-day event at Canyons Grand Summit Resort drew participants from 20 states, from major Jewish communities in Los Angeles, New York, Florida and New Jersey and from dots on the Jewish map like Plano, TX; Missoula, MT; Richmond, VA; and Alberta, Canada.

Participants were from every demographic. Parents brought children, who enjoyed a mini-Camp Gan Israel during their stay. Fifty college students from thirty-two campuses attended. Baby boomers and seniors rounded out the mix. 

The diverse group helped Rebecca Runyan feel comfortable. She chose to come at the urging of Rabbi Mendel Lifshitz, director of Chabad of Boise, whose Jewish Learning Institute courses she enjoyed. As the social action chair at Congregation Ahavath Beth Israel, a Reform synagogue in Boise, Runyan copped to “feeling a little nervous because I did not know what to expect” before the retreat. “I was really pleased and relieve that everyone was so warm and friendly.”

Rabbi Efraim Mintz, director of the Rohr Jewish Learning Institute and the JLI retreat, likened the spirit of the retreat to “a family reunion for people who may have never met but discovered their oneness as part the Jewish people.”

Staying at a five star location at the base of majestic mountains awash in greenery and golden wildflowers didn’t hurt either. “You can’t help but feel close to G-d in this setting,” said Rabbi Mendy Weg, the retreat’s coordinator.

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The Rabbi Who May Bring Down Olmert

Posted by on Jul 15, 2008 in Rabbis |

From New York Magazine:

Has a Threatening History

Talansky

Photo: Getty Images

Morris Talansky is the ordained rabbi, former Great Neck macher, and sometimes successful businessman who may bring down the government of Israeli prime minister Ehud Olmert. In May, Talansky told Israeli prosecutors that he delivered envelopes of cash to Olmert, which he claimed were for both campaign and personal expenses. Olmert insisted on cash, Talansky said. “I just didn’t really understand the system in Israel,” said Talansky, and so he acquiesced.But in cross-examination scheduled for this week in Israel, Olmert’s lawyers are expected to paint the roly-poly 75-year-old Talansky as an aggressive, threatening businessman who has long had a reputation as a bully. Talansky has characterized himself as a naïve lover of Israel taken advantage of by a cunning politician.

A transcript of secret tapes obtained by New York Magazine suggests that Talansky can indeed be willful and determined, and even threatening.

Twenty years ago Talansky invested in a Pittsburgh office building which quickly went bust. He felt he’d been fleeced by the sellers, among them a couple of Long Island rabbis.

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Jewish Singles Events From JConnectLA

Posted by on Jul 15, 2008 in Dating |

From JConnectLA.com:

Just wanted to remind you about the Networking event this Monday night. We are SUPER excited to have an amazing guest speaker! Joan Hyler is a talent agent and was the Senior Vice President of the VERY prestigious William Morris Agency! As an agent she has represented some of the greats like Madonna, Meryl Streep, Bob Dylan, Andy Warhol, and Peter O’ Toole. With her incredibly busy schedule, we are fortunate that she has managed to find the time to speak to the Jconnect crew this Monday!

We’ve once again gotten our JconnectLA members a 25% discount- but be sure your orders are in before 7:30pm!

For more info, click on the link
http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=18660132619
________________________________________________________

So many were disappointed when we postponed last month’s Simply Shabbat event. However, we were fortunate enough to get our guest speaker, Professor Lou Gordon, to attend this month’s event on August 1st! Professor Gordon will be discussing the intriguing topic “Judaism & the Founding Fathers”.

As it has in the past, the Simply Shabbat program begins with inspirational services (led by Moshav bassist Yosef Solomon), followed by a 3 course dinner, and concludes with a Shabbat Oneg. OPEN BAR ALL NIGHT LONG!

For more info on this event, click below:
http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=28339486270
________________________________________________________

If you thought the 4th of July party was big, well you ain’t seen NOTHIN’ yet! Our biggest event of the summer, LOVE FEST ’08 – our Tu B’Av Celebration- will take place Thursday, August 14th! We’ve got MASSIVE music by Moshav, superb spoken-word show by Smooth-E, a brilliant book-signing by the breathtaking Lisa Alcalay Klug (author of “Cool Jew”), extremely enticing edibles, a happenin’ hypaethral haven of hip Heebster happiness and more!

Check out the event here:
http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=24691529458

Sign up for the Shabbat and Tu B’Av events on our website by clicking below:
http://jconnectla.com/nextevent.html

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Dead Cats On La Cienega Blvd

Posted by on Jul 14, 2008 in Streets |

From LATimes.com:

Typically, Letters to the Editor only features brief correspondence reacting to Times coverage. But this long letter, from Keith Arnold of Manhattan Beach, caught our eye last week:

I take one of two paths to work every morning, like thousands of my fellow South Bay commuters. It is one of the day’s earliest choices: fight through the ill-timed lights and chaos of Playa del Rey and Culver City, or spin the wheel and brave La Cienega? (Who would even think to take the freeway?) For the past few weeks, I’ve been taking La Cienega, spending a mile or so in the rapidly slowing traffic of the 405 before escaping to the crawling surface street that takes you north from Inglewood to Beverly Hills.

When you’re moving at a crawl for 45 minutes, there is plenty of time to soak in your surroundings. I’ve counted garbage bags full of trash, expired license plates, even abandoned cars — most times making it to a dozen before I travel the 7.5 miles that usually takes me 30 to 45 minutes to complete.

Three weeks ago, I noticed two dead cats on the exit ramp from the 405 to La Cienega — two family pets, a half mile apart, both lying lifeless on the left side of the road. Being a native Midwesterner, I’m used to seeing road kill — deer, raccoons, and the occasional skunk — but after losing the family dog to a passing motorist a few years ago, I’ve started to take pity on the plight of domestic pets.

I picked up my cell phone and called 311. After sitting through bilingual recordings from our mayor, I waited for an operator. And waited. Over twenty-five minutes before finally hanging up. I called the next day, and after five or ten minutes, got an operator, who immediately passed me to the Department of Transportation. Where I waited again for 10 minutes. Finally, I spoke to a nice woman who assured me they’d send someone to pick up the animal. The following Monday I drove by, and saw those two cats, still lying dead, both looking worse for the wear from rotting in the hot sun.

After three weeks, and four more phone calls, I finally was told that the off-ramp wasn’t controlled by the City of Los Angeles. So I was transferred to the County, where I again waited for 10 minutes before I explained the plight of these two cats. I was told that the off-ramps weren’t controlled by the County, and that I’d have to call CHP. So I was transferred there. After waiting for at least 10 more minutes (I took a call while I was on hold, and my counter reset), I finally hit a prompt that somehow sent me to 911. It was the first time I didn’t get put on hold in my three career calls to 911. I explained that this wasn’t an emergency, but that two cats had been lying dead for at least three weeks on the northbound on ramp to La Cienega off the 405. The operator told me she’d dispatch someone to get them cleaned up immediately.

As I drove into work today, I hoped that I’d see a road free of decomposing house pets. But what I saw was worse: Our first dead cat, with a fresh stripe of yellow paint across him. Apparently, the road stripers didn’t let a dead animal get in the way of repainting our filthy streets. Luckily for cat number 2, he remains paint-free as he continues to decompose daily in front of thousands of commuters.

I know it’s too much to ask of our city to find a way to let citizens make it seven miles in under 45 minutes (though most high school cross-country teams can already do it by foot), but could we at least work on making those seven miles a little bit more clean? If you don’t do it for us, do it for the two cats.

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Dinner At Delice Bistro – In What Life?

Posted by on Jul 13, 2008 in Kosher |

A month ago, I wrote on here that Delice Bistro was the best kosher restaurant in town.

I hadn’t yet eaten at Delice. I wrote that post on the recommendation of a friend who knows food. I don’t know food. My favorite restaurant in the world is Poquito Mas but I shouldn’t eat there because it’s not kosher.

So last week my friend Holly Randall said she wanted to talk to me. She offered to buy me dinner.

I decided on Delice Bistro.

I made reservations Friday.

A few minutes later, I got a call back from the owner confirming.

I felt like a big shot.

I almost never eat at places requiring reservations.

I walk in Sunday with a ravishing Holly. Her arms are uncovered. Her top swings low over her Adirondacks.

There’s a tall beautiful blonde maitre’d.

We take a table outside beside Pico Blvd.

A waiter brings three types of bread. I choose two slices, head to the basin to say the blessing netilat yadayim and come back to my table to make hamotzi.

I see half a dozen friends from shul.

This is definitely the place to see and be seen.

It’s full.

I order the linguini (only a couple of entree selections for vegetarians) and Holly orders the roast duck.

In her first dip with the bread, Holly smears balsamic vinegar on her face.

I don’t say anything, figuring it would be rude.

Holly gets all serious.

I start laughing.

Holly: “The reason I wanted to meet with you…” and she goes off about her spiritual journey while her face is smeared with orange vinegar.

Our dinner comes. Holly usually finishes in twice the time I take (and I think of myself as a fast eater).

She goes to the ladies room.

Five minutes later, she comes back and demands, “How long have I had balsamic vinegar on my face?”

“The whole night,” I say. “I didn’t know whether to say anything or not.”

“You should’ve said something,” Holly says. “Did I have it on my face when I was making my serious speech?”

“Yes.”

“I hate you.”

Unlike me, Holly’s not a very spiritual person.

Julien Bohbot, the owner, comes by. It feels like he’s welcoming us into his home.

“I’m Luke Ford,” I say.

Surely he know the power of Luke Ford.

Hmm, mustn’t flaunt it. Not very spiritual.

“So I have this friend,” I tell Holly. “I mean, she’s just a friend. I’ve never spent so much time alone with a woman without crossing the line. And whenever anyone suggests that we’re romantically involved, she laughs. Would you laugh in that situation?”

“I’d laugh.”

“The other night, we were at Sheva Brachos (a week of parties for a newly married Jewish couple). And as we were getting up to leave, we say mazal tov to the newly married couple. And the host says, ‘Soon by you two.’

“And my friend starts laughing. And I feel like it’s a diss. I feel like she’s saying I’m not in her league.”

“That’s what she’s saying.”

“I’m Luke Ford. I have awesome powers. What’s this?

“And then she says as I walk her to her door, still giggling five minutes later, ‘In what life?’

“She keeps going off on variations of ‘In what life would I be together with you?’

“I feel like this is a giant diss. Would you say, ‘In what life?’”

“No. I wouldn’t say, ‘In what life?’ That’s a diss.”

“I’m Luke Ford. I shouldn’t be getting dissed like this.”

Holly’s on a new diet. She goes to the beach with this guy she likes and she wants to look good in her bikini.

He hasn’t made a move on her in a year because he’s working on himself, according to Holly.

“Whenever a guy says he’s working on himself, it just means he’s bonking some other woman,” I say.

We walk home.

“Now I can write that this is the best kosher restaurant in town. And I can do it with journalistic integrity.”

“Luke Ford and journalistic integrity? Those are four words I never thought I’d hear together.

“You can write that the roast duck was delicious. Everything was good there.”

We go back to the hovel and I show her this website that collects my favorite movie clips.

“You’re the first person I’ve been able to share this with,” I say.

“Of course.

“Look, you can watch the rest of this on your own time.

“Is your clock right? 8:30? I’ve got to get going.”

“Great to see you. Thanks for dinner. Thanks for the Borba water. It’s doing amazing things for my skin.”

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Bnai David Should Have A Good Kiddish Shabbos Morning

Posted by on Jul 11, 2008 in Bnai David |

From BnaiDavid.com:

Candlelighting: 7:49 PM.

.

Kabbalat Shabbat

@ 6:30

Alex Fax

.

Parashat Balak

???

.

Zman Kriat Shma:  9:25

Teen Minyan In the Beit Medrash

@ 9:15 AM followed by Teen (only) Kiddush

sponsored this week by

Leon & Leila Cohen in honor of their son

Avi’s Bar Mitzvah Anniversary.

Shacharit: Daniel Gumpright

Anim Z’mirot:

K’riat HaTorah: Avi mermelstein,

HaHatan Daniel Gumpright

Haftorah Introduction: Yehuda Hausman

Please join us this Shabbat in welcoming our newest addition to the B’nai David-Judea family, Yehuda Hausman and his wife Aliza, Yehuda will be serving as BDJ’s Rabbinic Intern for the next year. Yehuda is a third year student at Yeshivat Chovevei Torah Rabbinical School in New York. Yehuda will be at BDJ throughout the entire summer and will then join us on several Shabbatot during the school year. We are very excited to have Yehuda with us and we look forward to Yehuda sharing his thoughts and perspectives with our community. We hope that Yehuda greatly benefits from his time with us.

Haftorah: Rabbi Brian Walt

D’var Torah: Rabbi Leubitz

Musaf: Harold Walt

Harold and Brenda Walt and Sheila and John Gumpright

invites the Congregation to Kiddush

in the Social Hall in honor of Yona and Daniel’s wedding.

Join us today, 20 minutes after Services end, in the main Sanctuary with Babara Ribakove Gordon Director of North American Conference on Ethiopian Jewry (NACOEJ).

 

Shirat Chana at 5pm

For an innovative and intimate Shabbat Mincha and Torah reading . We will be having a special guest speaker:
Dinah Berland
and a joyous celebration of
 Flora Beck’s 80th Birthday
 Dinah will speak about the origins of women’s prayer,
 and about her work on the book:
HOURS OF DEVOTION:
Fanny Neuda’s Book of Prayers for Jewish Women

Mincha 7:20 PM 

Followed by Seudah Shlisheet sponsored by

Harold and Brenda Walt in honor of

Yona and Daniel’s wedding.

Followed by guest lecturer Rabbi Moti Bar-or, “How Jewish is Israeli Leadership?”  Rabbi Bar-or has taught and lead several schools before founding Kolot, a Beit Midrash aimed at developing pluralistic Israeli lay leaders inculated with values of Tikun Olam.  

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Kosher Markets On Pico Blvd

Posted by on Jul 10, 2008 in Kosher |

From the Jewish Journal:

Best Place to Get Into a Fender-Bender With a Black Hat: Elat Market Parking LotThe frenzied chaos that overtakes the Elat Market parking lot must be a testament to how good their groceries are. Whether it’s innocent-looking Orthodox mothers (with infants in car seats) crossing off their produce list, or hungry men in traditional garb on a Talmud break, or eager yeshiva students racing for the last box of matzah, no one gets in, out of, or through the Elat Market lot unscathed. Just try to enter, exit or drive safely up Wooster Street without honking your horn, slamming on your breaks, stopping short, cursing your brains out and then, finally, getting hit — this is what happens when Jews go food shopping. 8730 W. Pico Blvd., Los Angeles. (310) 659-7070.

Best Kosher Market on Pico Boulevard Where You Can Turn Your Cart Around Mid-Aisle: Glatt Mart

ALTTEXT The Glatt Mart, on Pico Boulevard and Elm Drive, was just about a year old when it burned down, in December 2004, devastating the group of owners who had invested years and hundreds of thousands of dollars in designing and building the spacious and well-stocked kosher supermarket. The fire was determined to be arson, but because of a glitch in their insurance policy, the owners received only a fraction of the store’s worth. Still, the five owners pooled their resources, got loans and invested $3 million in the market, and after sitting behind scaffolding for more than three years, Glatt Mart reopened in April, just before Passover. Modeled after a European supermarket, with discreet sections for the butcher, a fresh fish counter, an in-store bakery, a well laid out produce section, a computer-controlled refrigerator/freezer case and a room for candy, nuts and wine, it’s also unlike any other kosher market on Pico, with aisles wide enough to fit two or even three carts side by side. While co-owner Meir Davidpour’s claims of Glatt Mart being a “kosher Whole Foods” is a bit hyperbolic, Glatt Mart has many attractions: There are seven cash registers, so lines are minimal, and 25 parking spaces in back alleviate a small bit of the usual parking headache on Pico. Glatt Mart also has an extensive take-out section of prepared foods, including sushi, deli, and Persian, Israeli and American dinner items. Davidpour says the market is intended to cater to Americans and Israelis, but it does carry a wide selection of Persian foods. The entire store is under the kosher supervision of the Rabbinical Council of California. 8708 W. Pico Blvd. 310-289-6888.

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A Quiet Hero In Jerusalem

Posted by on Jul 10, 2008 in Israel |

David Suissa writes:

Andrea, who is from New York, a single mother of six and has the energy of several rowdy kids, is bracing herself for a difficult few months ahead. One question she’ll need to resolve is what to do with the silver-and- gold bracelet. She’s thinking that after the 30 days of mourning, maybe the girls can give it to Libby’s daughter in a special ceremony at Shalva. She’s not sure.

She tells me that I just barely missed seeing Libby when I visited Shalva — apparently, she arrived a few minutes after I left.

The truth is, it doesn’t really matter whether I met Libby Goren or not. It doesn’t matter whether any of us ever met any of the victims.

There’s something about moments of intense tragedy that shocks us into intimacy. The losses feel like personal losses. The tragedy may be 8,000 miles away, and we may be in Pico-Robertson or Paris or Montreal or Argentina, but we feel like the victims are right next to us — that we know them.

In my case, I got to know a little more about Elizabeth “Libby” Goren-Friedman just by seeing the faces on those young girls at Shalva whom she treated like her own.

Those same young girls who are probably wondering right now why she hasn’t shown up this week.

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The Power Of Speech

Posted by on Jul 10, 2008 in Rabbis |

From the Jewish Journal on this week’s Torah portion:

In its grandest forms, speech is the Divine gift which enabled Moshe to say to Pharaoh, “Let my people go,” and the gift which enables us, to this day, to protest injustice and decry evil. It is the Divine gift through which we are able to express love, shared hopes and communicate our vision to others.

But both the story of Bilaam and Targum Jonathan instruct us to see beyond the grand, deep, transformative moments of speech and realize that each and every time we speak, we are taking advantage of a Divine gift. In an elevator, on the checkout line, when asking our child to do her homework, when responding to a person looking for a handout, we are deploying this Divine gift that is within us. And as such, every time we open our mouths we are either affirming God’s decision to entrust us with this power, or we are proving ourselves — for that moment — unworthy and unappreciative of it.

Reb Shlomo Carlebach taught that a person should pray before each time they open their mouths. In light of the awful damage we can cause with speech, or the great blessing we can bestow with it, this is surely not a bad idea. But a more practical suggestion perhaps would be to just meditate for a split-second on the image of Bilaam’s donkey, or on Targum Jonathan, “and with [God's] breath the human became a creature of speech.”

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Speakers At Bnai David-Judea

Posted by on Jul 10, 2008 in Blog |

From BnaiDavid.com:

Ethiopian Jews Shabbat Morning
 

Join us this Shabbat July 12th, 20 minutes after Services end, in the main Sanctuary as Babara Ribakove Gordon Director of North American Conference on Ethiopian Jewry (NACOEJ). 

NACOEJ is the only national organization whose sole agenda is Ethiopian Jewry.  In Israel, NACOEJ creates and administers essential educational programs for Ethiopian Jews from elementary school through high school, college and graduate school. In Ethiopia, since 1990, NACOEJ has provided urgently needed food, education, employment and religious facilities to Jewish men, women and children awaiting the opportunity to join their families in Israel. Barbara Ribakove Gordon travels frequently to Israel, Ethiopia and throughout the United States and Canada on behalf of Ethiopian Jews. 

 

 

 
@ BDJ

in the Beit Midrash     for women only
Shabbat afternoon,    July 12th, @ 5:00 PM

 

Shirat Chana Shabbat Afternoon
 

For an innovative and intimate Shabbat Mincha and Torah reading . We will be having a special guest speaker:
Dinah Berland
and a joyous celebration of
 Flora Beck’s 80th Birthday
 Dinah will speak about the origins of women’s prayer,
 and about her work on the book:
HOURS OF DEVOTION:
Fanny Neuda’s Book of Prayers for Jewish Women

 

 

Kottel
@ BDJ

Shabbat afternoon, July 12th, Mincha @ 7:25 PM followed by Seuda Shelisheet & guest Lecturer.

 

Director of Kolot Seuda Shelisheet
 

  

Moti Bar-Or is an exceptional thinker and scholar who has taught Steven Spielberg and Bini Netanyahu, among other celebrated Jewish leaders and public figures.  Raised in Yerushalayim, he attended Hesder at Gush, fought in the 1st Lebanon war, and received smicha from Chief Rav Goren in 1984.  He taught and led several schools before founding Kolot, a Beit Midrash aimed at developing pluralistic Israeli lay leaders inculcated with values of Tikun Olam.  Bar-Or currently serves as Director of Kolot.  His topic at Seuda Shelisheet will be 

How “Jewish” is Israeli Leadership?

 

 
@ the Ablin/Below Home

Please call the office for the address. Shabbat afternoon July 19 @ 5:00 PM

 

Nosh & Drosh
 

It’s the best thing that ever happened to
long Shabbat afternoons.
childcare provided
in the host’s backyard.
 

Mandate or Mixed Message? A denominational analysis of Tikkun Olam as authentic religious expression. 

 

with Rabbi Ari Leubitz 

 

Exterior
@ BDJ

Shabbat afternoon July 19th, Mincha @ 7:20 PM followed by Seuda Shelisheet and guest Lecturer.

 

Gibraltarian Jewry   Seuda Shelisheet
 

Join us for Seuda Shelisheet with Rabbi Chanoch Boncheck, Limudei Kodesh teacher & Head Master for the coming year(s) in Gibraltar (Jordan & Vivian Lurie’s cousin).  As he shares words of Torah and talks to us about Gibraltarian Jewry. 

 

 

Kottel
@ BDJ

Sunday July 20th, Mincha @ 7:25 PM followed by Special Tefillot & D’var Torah.

 

Shiva Asar b’Tammuz
 

Join us for the OU Annual Community Wide Mincha/Ma’ariv, with Recitation of Tefillot for Medinat Yisrael and Tzahal.  D’var Torah:  “The Flip Side of Power is Responsibility” with Rabbi Elchanan Jay Weinbach Shalhevet Head of School.

 

 

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America’s Freedom Festival

Posted by on Jul 10, 2008 in Chabad |

From chabad.org:

Rabbi Benny Zippel, the Salt Lake City-based executive director of Chabad-Lubavitch of Utah, delivered the opening invocation for America’s Freedom Festival in Provo.

In his address at Brigham Young University’s Marriott Center, Zippel referred to the Seven Noahide Laws recorded in the Torah and incumbent upon all human beings.

“In recognizing you, O G-d, as the sovereign creator and ruler of the universe,” he said, “we are fulfilling the first of seven commandments which you, O G-d, gave to Noah and his family … the command to worship you and you alone.”

Zippel also took the opportunity to note that the 14th anniversary of the passing of the Rebbe, Rabbi Menachem M. Schneerson, of righteous memory, would be observed a few days later.

“The Rebbe was a great patriot, always extolling the virtue of patriotism to his constituents,” said Zippel. “May his memory be for a blessing, and his for a shield for our government and our country.” Occurring just days before Independence Day, the June 29 celebration drew a record attendance of more than 17,000 people. …

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Pope, Rabbi In Bible Marathon

Posted by on Jul 10, 2008 in Pope |

From JTA:

Pope Benedict VI and the chief rabbi of Rome will take part in a marathon live televised reading of the Bible.

The pope will kick off the weeklong, round-the-clock “Bible Day and Night” event Oct. 5, reading in Italian the beginning of Genesis, Italy’s state-owned broadcaster RAI reported.

Roman Chief Rabbi Riccardo Di Segni will follow, reading the same passage in Hebrew. Protestant and Orthodox Christian leaders also will read.

In all, about 1,200 people from all walks of life will continue reading all 73 books of the Catholic edition of the Old and New Testaments. Most of the marathon reading will be broadcast on RAI’s educational satellite channel.

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Taking On The Charedim In Israel

Posted by on Jul 10, 2008 in Charedi, Israel |

Gary Rosenblatt writes:

Rabbi Benjamin (Benny) Lau does not look the part of a revolutionary.

At 47, his youthful appearance, warm smile and engaging personality have helped him become a popular Orthodox rabbinic figure in Jerusalem, where he has revitalized the Ramban community synagogue in Katamon and heads the beit midrash program at Beit Morasha, a communal and educational leadership institute for observant men and women.

He also lectures at Bar-Ilan University (where he received a Ph.D.) and teaches at both a boys’ and girls’ yeshiva high school in Jerusalem.

The rabbi is soft-spoken, but his message of late — in sermons, lectures, newspaper columns and interviews — is blunt and compelling, offering up sharp criticism of the Chief Rabbinate and its role in the deteriorating relationship between religion and state in Israel.

Rabbi Lau, himself the nephew of former Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi Yisrael Meir Lau, is leading a campaign among like-minded, more tolerant Orthodox rabbis to wrest control of the Chief Rabbinate from the influence of a group of elderly ultra-Orthodox, anti-Zionist haredi religious leaders whose dictates often are followed by the two state-appointed chief rabbis.

Rabbi Lau says he and his colleagues, primarily from the rabbinic group, Tzohar (Hebrew for window), seek to restore a sense of compassion toward all Israeli Jews, no matter their level of observance.

“We can’t accept it,” Rabbi Lau says of the haredi style, which demands the strictest levels of adherence to Jewish law. “We are the Zionists and we should be the ones with the power. It’s not normal for the state to be the captive of the haredim,” who don’t acknowledge the authority of the state.

He says he would prefer that more senior rabbis in his camp take the lead in this campaign, “but I look around and see that the responsibility is on our shoulders, and it cannot wait. We are very close to the end of the relationship” between religion and the state, he says, as Israelis become increasingly disenfranchised with the Judaism they see practiced and adjudicated by the Chief Rabbinate.

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The Journey To Judaism

Posted by on Jul 10, 2008 in Conversion |

From St. Louis:

Ask Rabbi Ari
Send your questions to Rabbi Ari Vernon. Click here to fill out an anonymous form.

The Journey
Back to Judaism

Dear Rabbi Ari,

My mother is Jewish yet is non-practicing.   So, I have very little knowledge of the faith and the community.  I would like to get involved and learn about my heritage.  What do you recommend?  What the best way to learn about practiced customs and holidays?

- Looking to Return
Dear Looking to Return,

Your question is one I have received several times.  Sometimes it’s from people like you who by birth are unquestionably Jewish, but did not have the benefit of a Jewish upbringing.  Others are of questionable Jewish status and looking to embrace their Jewishness.  When Jews want to return to Judaism, it can be difficult, and I applaud your courage in asking the question and taking the first step.

Your situation isn’t even that much different from many people who were actively raised Jewishly, but who still reach adulthood feeling under-educated about Judaism lacking the basic skills to participate in Jewish life.  There are two areas of learning to undertake in embracing Judaism – learning the history and background information of Judaism and acquiring the skills to participate in Jewish community.

As you could probably figure out, skills are acquired through practice.  It’s not much different from riding a bike or hitting a baseball.  You have to learn how to do it and practice it until you get comfortable.  The biggest skill to acquire is Hebrew reading.  While understanding Hebrew would be great, if you can read all of the words in the prayer book, you won’t feel self-conscious about participating in services.  Many of the congregations in our community offer beginning Hebrew classes, as does the Central Agency for Jewish Education (CAJE).  CAJE also runs a Hebrew Reading Marathon in the Fall that is specifically designed for learning to read Hebrew to participate in services.  Some local colleges and universities also offer Hebrew classes.  Wherever you end up deciding to learn Hebrew, just make sure there is a strong focus on reading skills.

Learning about Judaism is also pretty easy for someone who is willing to make a little effort.  Again, many congregations and local organizations offer classes on a variety of topics.  Some are one-time classes, and others are courses that run for semesters or years.  It’s up to you to determine the level of commitment you want to make.  An “Introduction to Judaism” type of class would probably be best for starting out.  The local Reform congregations collaboratively offer a four-part course through the offices of the Union for Reform Judaism – Midwest Council.  All of the organizations and congregations can be found through jewishinstlouis.org in the Community Directory.

Finally, I would recommend becoming a regular at a congregation.  Every Jew needs a spiritual home and community, and it will serve you well to find a congregation where you feel welcomed and comfortable as you learn and practice Judaism.  You’ll also benefit from developing a relationship with a rabbi who can provide guidance on this journey of exploration.

 

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Australia’s First Lesbian Ceremony Officiated By A Rabbi

Posted by on Jul 10, 2008 in Australia, Homosexuality |

From AJN.com.au:

  Nicky Glover (left) and Michelle Sanders… ceremony under a chuppahTWO former students of Sydney’s Moriah College plan to become the first lesbian couple to make a commitment to each other in a Jewish ceremony officiated by a rabbi.

Nicky Glover and Michelle Sanders, both 40, celebrated a secular commitment ceremony last month under a chuppah, at an outdoor venue in Byron Shire.

The event was attended by more than 100 friends and family.

The couple has planned a second commitment ceremony at Emanuel Synagogue in Sydney, towards the end of the year.

“People ask if our wedding is legal, but that is not the most important thing to us. Our marriage was witnessed by the people we love,” said Sanders, who is pregnant with the couple’s first child.

“The kosher ceremony will be at Emanuel after our child is born. At that one there will be three of us.”

Rabbi Jeffrey Kamins, senior rabbi of Emanuel Synagogue, confirmed that the couple and baby would be recognised as a family.

If this happens, the child will be the first Australian Jew whose homosexual parents are formally united by a synagogue.

“We wanted to get married to publicly declare our love for each other and to give our child a solid family structure,” said Glover, who operates an internet marketing consultancy.

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Battlefish

Posted by on Jul 10, 2008 in Kosher |

Rabbi Shlomo Brady writes:

Rabbi Haim ben Yisrael Benvenisti penned the first ruling on the ‘fish with the sword,’ writing that Jews eat the fish, despite the fact that it does not have scales once it has landed, since ‘when it comes out of the water, due to its anger, it shakes and the scales are thrown off’

Q All my teachers tell me that swordfish is not kosher, but my grandfather insists that his family ate it when he was a kid. Can you explain this?

- S.F., Tel Aviv

A I first heard about the controversy over the kashrut of swordfish as a college student, when a local Orthodox rabbi told me that the Conservative movement might be correct that it should be kosher. I forgot about the remark, since I was never a big fish consumer (I only started eating tuna a few years ago). Yet a recently acquired taste for fish (aliya will do that to you), plus a fascinating article by Ari Zivotofsky of Bar-Ilan University (B.D.D. 19), from which this column will heavily draw, has resparked my interest.

While the Torah specifies that kosher fish require both scales and fins (Leviticus 11:9-10), an ancient tradition codified by Halacha asserts that all fish with scales necessarily have fins (Nida 51b, YD 83:3). As such, much halachic literature focused on defining halachic scales, a complex project since these coverings vary greatly in different fish. Among other criteria, kosher fish must contain scales attached to their body which can be peeled without damaging the fish’s skin (Rama YD 83:1). Scales that shed when fish mature or leave the water, or alternatively, that develop only later in life, were also deemed acceptable.

Nonetheless, it remains difficult to identify which fish possess the biological traits that match these halachic criteria. For starters, there are myriads of fish which must be carefully examined by competent authorities.

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Orit Arfa Flies To Beirut

Posted by on Jul 9, 2008 in Orit Arfa |

From the Jewish Journal:

My Middle-Eastern looks helped get me an extra role as a Beirut café patron.
When the TV show is aired, I doubt anyone will see me—I’m in the back sipping coffee, and the scene has no dialogue.
The Second Lebanon War, I assume, is over in the story, and it’s a peaceful spring day—or is it?
Fortunately (or unfortunately), there was some other action in Beirut.
Recently (fact, not fiction), Hezbollah terrorists started gun battles in the streets in an effort to take over the Lebanese capital. It may take one woman to save the day . . . .
By the way, I am shamelessly seeking my SAG card and commercial/theatrical agent (not to mention a literary one). But not too shameless—so don’t get
any ideas.
I’ll also welcome free advice on the biz (don’t get nasty please).
You can write me at

orit@jewishjournal.com, or post your comments here.

For her second ever casting call as a “background actor”, Orit travels to a cafe in Beirut, Lebanon for an undisclosed TV show. She got a little more than she bargained for…

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Chief Rabbi Shouldn’t Serve As Rabbinic Judge

Posted by on Jul 9, 2008 in Israel, Rabbis |

From Haaretz:

Attorney General Menachem Mazuz yesterday told the High Court of Justice that Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi Yona Metzger should cease to serve as a dayan (rabbinic judge) on the Supreme Rabbinic Court.

Mazuz added that the committee charged with selecting rabbinic court judges was also responsible for ending their tenures.

Mazuz’s position came in response to a petition submitted by attorney Boaz Arad on behalf of the Ometz – Citizens for Good Government and Social Justice movement, which is opposed to a decision by the judicial selection committee in February not to dismiss Metzger over the free accommodation and benefits he received from hotels.

The police began investigating the affair in December 2004, in the wake of an investigative report on television, which stated that Metzger had received free accommodation at the David Citadel Hotel in Jerusalem during Passover.

The report also referred to three other incidents in which the chief rabbi supposedly received benefits from hotels in Jerusalem. In April 2006, after the police had investigated the various affairs, Mazuz decided to close the file for lack of evidence. But at the same time, Mazuz called on Metzger to take some responsibility and draw personal conclusions.

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Plane Waits 90 Minutes For Tardy Rabbi

Posted by on Jul 9, 2008 in Israel, Rabbis |

From Haaretz:

A group of ultra-Orthodox passengers delayed for about 90 minutes the takeoff of a scheduled El Al flight from Kiev to Ben-Gurion Airport last month because their rabbi was late in getting to the airport, according to a passenger on the flight. El Al and its Ukrainian partner have a monopoly on the route.

“The passengers were in their seats. The flight attendants were ordered to close the doors when a Haredi passenger suddenly came running from the back of the plane to the front,” the businessman related. He said the flight was scheduled to take off at 11:35 P.M. on June 19.

According to the passenger who spoke to Haaretz about the incident, about 35 minutes after the scheduled takeoff time the pilot announced that after consulting with Tel Aviv he was instructed to wait for the rabbi, who arrived about an hour later with two or three other ultra-Orthodox men. The rabbi, a man in his 70s, according to the witness, took his seat and told his fellow passengers, “Every delay is for the best.”

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IndyMac Bank Going Downhill

Posted by on Jul 7, 2008 in Banks |

From the Los Angeles Times:

Often lending to borrowers who didn’t documents their incomes, IndyMac grew its workforce to more than 10,000 and was the second-largest independent mortgage company before it began cutting back in late 2006 amid early rumblings of the avalanche of defaults that has buried the business.

IndyMac Chief Executive Michael W. Perry said attempts to work with investment bankers to raise capital, announced in March, had been unsuccessful. IndyMac shares, which traded above $30 last July, closed at 71 cents Monday, up 4 cents. IndyMac will have just 3,400 workers when it is through shutting nine regional loan offices, including four in California, that made loans through independent brokers, and about 150 direct-to-customer retail offices in the West and Northeast. Remaining employees will include about 1,100 loan-servicing employees handling billing, collections and foreclosures from Kalamazoo, Mich., and Austin, Texas. Financial Freedom, a reverse mortgage unit operating mainly from Irvine, Sacramento, and Atlanta, will continue to employ about 800, IndyMac said, while 400 more will stay on with the company’s Southern California retail and Internet banking operations. In addition, 500 employees will remain in portfolio management and administration, largely in Pasadena.

IndyMac was started by Countrywide Financial Corp. founders Angelo Mozilo and David Loeb in 1985. IndyMac is one of the last of such “monoline” home lenders, companies that once dotted Southern California, including a host of sub-prime lenders such as Ameriquest, Argent and Option One in Orange County, and Fremont, Aames and Ownit in Los Angeles County.

The few remaining Southern California mortgage specialists in business are struggling under rising defaults and shrinking capital cushions against loss, including Downey Financial Corp. in Newport Beach and FirstFed Financial Corp. near Playa Vista.

IndyMac specialized in so-called alt-A mortgages, which were made to people with decent credit but on terms that prevented them from being treated as prime loans.

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Australia’s Chabad Leader Dies

Posted by on Jul 7, 2008 in Australia, Chabad |

From AJN.com.au:

THE leader of the Chabad-Lubavitch movement in Australia, Rabbi Yitzchok Dovid Groner, died on Monday morning after a lengthy illness.

It is expected that he will be buried in Israel alongside members of his family, but a memorial service will be organised in Melbourne in his honour.

Rabbi Groner, 83, arrived in Melbourne in 1958 from the United States as the head shaliach (emissary) of the Lubavitcher Rebbe.

He built up the Chabad community to its current sizeable population.

The Chabad community now includes the 1000-student Yeshivah and Beth Rivkah Colleges, the Yeshivah Gedolah and countless Chabad synagogues and learning institutions around Melbourne.

Rabbi Groner’s children are continuing his work in spreading Yiddishkeit. His sons lead Chabad House of Glen Eira and Ohel Devorah and his daughter and her husband run Chabad House of Malvern.

His son-in-law, Rabbi Zvi Telsner, was appointed assistant rabbi of Yeshivah during Rabbi Groner’s illness.

Rabbi Groner’s work has been acknowledged across the Jewish and general communities.

On the occasion of his 80th birthday, then Prime Minister John Howard said “his service to the spiritual needs of countless members of the Jewish community, as rabbi, mentor, counsellor, or friend, has seen him develop the enviable reputation as the people’s rabbi”.

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LimmudFest In UK This August

Posted by on Jul 7, 2008 in Britain |

From the Guardian:

Welcome to the July edition of Sounds Jewish.

In this month’s podcast, we tackle the big questions: Is God a woman – and can Jews camp?

Joining me in the studio are Rabbi Laura Janner-Klausner of Alyth Garden Reform synagogue alyth.org.uk in London, and comedy writer, Ivor Baddiel.

Rabbi Laura explains how the new Reform Siddur or prayer book is tackling sexism in Judaism. It’s about time we modernised our view of God, she argues. But is it all a bit too modern for the Jewish mainstream?
Plus we speak to comedian Iris Bahr about playing opposite Larry David in one of my favourite shows of all time, Curb Your Enthusiasm.

She also talks about her new show, Dai, (‘Enough’) which she’ll be performing for one night only, courtesy of The Jewish Community Centre for London. The show is set in a café in Tel Aviv moments before a suicide bomber enters.

And Jewish Glastonbury: we speak to the organisers behind Limmudfest, a four-day camping festival combining music, culture and spirituality with a Jewish twist. It’s all happening over the August Bank Holiday weekend in the Peak District.
We’re taking a summer break, though I’m not sure camping will be my ideal holiday choice, and we’ll be back refreshed in September. See you then.

Sounds Jewish is produced with the Jewish Community Centre for London

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The Stockbroker Who Became A Rabbi

Posted by on Jul 5, 2008 in Rabbis |

From cantonrep.com:

CANTON Rabbi Leah Herz may be the only rabbi who received her AARP card and ordination in the same week.

Herz, who assumes the pulpit this month at Canton’s Temple Israel will succeed Rabbi John Spitzer, who has held the post since 1981.

“I think I have always wanted to be a rabbi,” she said. “There have always been pieces and elements in my life pointing in that direction.”

The “second career” rabbi was ordained three days after her 50th birthday in 2005.

She had been an assistant rabbi in Seattle and, before that, a successful stockbroker in Chicago.

Like many Jewish women, Herz didn’t have her bat mitzvah until 1992.

“When I was younger, girls didn’t have bat mitzvahs,” she explained. “When I had mine, the floodgates opened for me. I’ve always been observant, but I fell in love with the Hebrew language and the Torah.”

At her son’s urging, Herz quit her job of 13 years, sold her home, and enrolled in Hebrew Union College in Cincinnati at 45. It was five-year regimen that included a year of study in Israel.

“Six weeks after I got there, the Intifada (Palestinian uprising) started,” she said. “It was a challenging year, but it was an amazing year.”

FALLING IN LOVE

Herz’s first assignment after rabbinical school was at Temple DeHirsch Sinai in Seattle as one of three assistant rabbis serving 1,400 families.

“I always knew I wanted my own congregation,” she said. “I came to Canton in January and fell in love. There’s a Yiddish term, ‘bershert,’ which means ‘intended one.’ ”

Herz said second-career rabbis have a disadvantage in that they don’t have 40 to 50 years to serve like a traditional rabbi, “But what they lack in energy, they make up in life experience.”

The most liberal of the three main branches of the faith, Reform congregations such as Temple Israel began accepting women rabbis in 1972. Conservative Judaism started accepting women rabbis in the 1980s. Orthodox Judaism does not.

Herz noted that because half the current rabbinical students are women, concerns have been voiced about the “feminization of the rabbinate.”

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Chabad Rabbi Seeks Jews Who’ve Fallen Away

Posted by on Jul 5, 2008 in Chabad |

From the Tennessean.com:

For a man who is constantly busy, Rabbi Yitzchok Tiechtel doesn’t seem in much of a hurry.

Sitting at a table near the ark that houses the Torah scrolls in the Beit Tefilah synagogue on a recent Friday, Tiechtel holds a yad, or Torah pointer, in one hand as he talks. In the other hand, his BlackBerry chimes almost constantly.

In the background, Lee Becker, a volunteer, carries in brownies and helps set up for a dinner and Shabbat service. Once the setup is complete and his morning meetings are done, Tiechtel will leave the Bellevue office complex that’s home to the synagogue and head downtown. An acquaintance has asked him to hang mezuzah, small bits of parchment with Torah verses inscribed on them, on the doorpost of the office.

It’s all in a day’s work for Tiechtel, a foot soldier in the Rebbe’s Army.

He’s one of more than 3,000 sluchim, or emissaries, sent out by Chabad (www.chabad.org), a worldwide Jewish group with headquarts in the Crown Heights neighborhood in Brooklyn, N.Y. Followers of the late Lubavitcher Rebbe, Rabbi Menachem M. Schneersohn, the fellow sluchim are an unusual kind of missionaries. Unlike Christian missionaries, who seek new converts, Chabad sluchim hope to persuade secular Jews to return to the fold.

There’s been a Chabad presence in Nashville since the 1950s, when Rabbi Zalman Posner and his wife, Risya, arrived from Crown Heights as emissaries. The Posners became pillars of the Jewish community. They started the Akiva Academy Hebrew Day School, and Posner, a scholar and author, led Congregation Sherith Israel until retiring in 2002.

Tiechtel arrived nine years ago to become headmaster of the Akiva School. Not long after arriving, he left Akiva to start the Chabad Center for Jewish Awareness (www.nashvillejewish.org). The center runs classes and a summer camp, puts out an annual calendar and lights menorahs in public spaces during Hanukkah.

The group is also raising funds to build a permanent home in Bellevue, which will include a kosher Internet cafe, a synagogue and a mikvah, or ritual bath.

Being an emissary runs in Tiechtel’s family. The oldest of 10 children has six siblings who serve as sluchim in Berlin, Germany; Illinois; and Arizona.

All were inspired by their grandmother, an immigrant from Russia whose father was arrested and killed by the Soviet government for running a cheder, or Hebrew school, in Leningrad.

“I’m just carrying on the work my great-grandfather started,” he said.

Tiechtel compares his mission to that of a lamplighter. “There’s a light in every person that comes from God,” he said, “but someone has to light the wick for that light to shine.”

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Los Angeles Jewish Events

Posted by on Jul 4, 2008 in Calendar |

From the Anshe.org blog:

July 05, Shabbos

This Shabbos, which marks the 200th Anniversary of Rabbi Samson Rafael Hirsch, Rabbi Weil will speak about the Hirschian legacy and how Hirsch irrevocably changed the way Torah Judaism & modernity interact. We will discuss the Hirschian controversies and its ramifications for Beth Jacob in 21st century Orthodox Judaism. (BETHJACOB)

Kollel’s Womens Shiur – The Shabbos women’s Shiur sponsored by the Kollel of Los Angeles will be given by an annual summer guest speaker R’Mendlowitz at Shaarei Tefilla at 5pm. (KEHYAAKOV)

Mussar Shiur w/Rabbi Yitzchok Summers – Orchos Tzadikkim – 45 minutes before Mincha at Anshe Emes (ANSHE)

July 06, Sunday

This Independence Day weekend, LINK together with Anshe Emes, is proud to present: Women’s Seminary for a Half Day

Sunday, July 6th, Textual Study w/Dr Rachel Freedland “Parshas Balak – Bilam’s Blessed Curse” 9:15am – 9:45am Complimentary Breakfast 9:45am to 12:30pm Directed Chavrusa Learning and Shiur by Dr Rachel Freedland – RSVP Is a MUST – Contact Rabbi Eli Stern @ 310 470 5465 or estern@linkla.org – Special Location: Anshe Emes Synagogue 1490 So Robertson Blvd, Los Angeles (So of Pico) (LINK)

July 08, Tuesday

Tuesday night “Shaarei Halacha” shiur w/Rav Summers at 8:30after Maariv – A Shiur on Rabbi Greenwald’s halacha sefer “Shaarei Halacha” (about everyday Halacha). (ANSHE)

July 09, Wednesday

Dr. Rachel Freedland is giving a women’s Chumash Chavrusa group Wednesday nights 8-9 pm. If you are interested in learning Chumash in depth and sharing it with other women, this program is for you. We will pair up and learn Chumash Shemos pasuk by pasuk with Mefarshim. A certain level of textual skills is needed. We are however open to pairing up people of different levels depending on their wants and needs. RSVP Required. Responses & Questions Welcomed. PLEASE EMAIL: CHUMASH.BCHEVRUSAH@GMAIL.COM (ANSHE)

Our Next amazing event will take place on July 9, 2008 with a special guest speaker: Rabbi Asher Zadmehr “A powerful story of faith and survival” In early 1999, thirteen Iranian Jews were arrested and imprisoned by Iranian authorities in the city of Shiraz. Those arrested included a rabbi, community leaders and a sixteen year old boy. Eleven of the arrested were from Shiraz, two from Isfahan. While the 13 were not formally charged for well over a year, the Iranian Government accused them of spying for the “Zionist regime” and “world arrogance” – Iranian code words for Israel. Asher Zadmehr: Age 49, university English instructor, sentenced to 13 years in prison on charges of “forming illegal group and an espionage network and of cooperating with the Zionist regime.” (HELKEINU)

July 12, Shabbos

ANNOUNCING: MIDDOS FOR MARRIAGE FOR YOUNG COUPLES Starting (Jul 12), Rabbi Motti & Sharon Shenker will be organizing eight classes focusing on the biggest problem in your marriage: YOU! Healthy relationships grow from healthy selves. Topics include: enthusiasm, patience, self-control, and humility. The first class will be for men on “Patience” by Rabbi Dov Heller. (AISH)

July 20, Sunday

Special Sunday Morning Lecture with Rabbi Yitzchak Etshalom – “Crumbling Stones – Meta-history and the 17th of Tammuz” 9:00 a.m. in the Goldstein-Baim Beit Medrash. (SHARTEFILA)

Special Film Presentation: “Alone on the Ramparts” A newly released documentary about the 1948 battle for the Old City Jewish Quarter of Jerusalem. Showing at 6:30 p.m. Cost: $5. Followed by Mincha and Maariv (SHARTEFILA)

July 27, Sunday

HDC Presents: Sunday, July 27th, 10:30am to 5pm – Rabbi Yehoshua Kohl – 4 Sessions- Based on Rabbi Lawrence Keleman’s bestselling book – “To Kindle a Soul”

818 348 4432 for more information $20 per person for ½ day- $60 per couple full day – Breakfast and lunch is included – (HDC)

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Saudis Invite Israeli Rabbi To Madrid Conference

Posted by on Jul 4, 2008 in Rabbis |

From the Jerusalem Post:

Rabbi David Rosen, president of the International Jewish Committee for Interreligious Consultations, is the only rabbi who lives in Israel who was invited by King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia and the World Muslim League to the conference that is slated for July 16 to 18.

Other rabbis representing Orthodox, Conservative and Reform Judaism have also been invited.

Rosen said that the conference was the Saudis’ first initiative to reach out to other religions in this way.

About 200 leaders have been invited to the conference.

Several months ago, Abdullah announced that he planned to hold a major interfaith summit in Saudia Arabia. The Madrid conference is a precursor to that much larger initiative.

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‘A Mouse In The Rabbi’s Study’

Posted by on Jul 4, 2008 in Books |

Cyndi Palmer writes:

The first-ever work of children’s book author Nancy Larner is now out on shelves and the Grand Lake Art Gallery is hosting a signing this afternoon.

“Grand County is such a magnificent place to live. For the past 12 years my husband Ken and I have felt so fortunate to be part-time residents here,” she said. “Our joy has been compounded by being able to share my first book with our friends, neighbors and visitors to the Grand Lake area.”

Her story, called “A Mouse in the Rabbi’s Study,” tells of Mazel (luck) the Mouse who learns about the Jewish holidays and the enticing delights associated with the religious culture.

Larner, who can laugh at the ordeal now, came up with the idea for the book after dealing with a mouse problem at her Evergreen home during the High Holidays. A longtime early childhood instructor, she was teaching Religious School at Congregation Beth Evergreen when she began to capture the experience on paper.
The imagination which she shared with so many of her students sparked images of what would happen if a mouse found its way into a rabbi’s study at Rosh Hashanah. As the story goes, the Rabbi Saltzman leaves crumbs on his desk and he makes a new friend — a mouse.

Their relationship grows, as does Mazel’s belly. Humor and education fill the pages.
Mazel and readers also learn about challah, latkes, hamantashen and other Jewish holiday traditional treats.

Her students, who got a sneak peek when she read them the manuscript, were so enthusiastic Larner was encouraged to pursue publishing the work. The book is aimed at children kindergarten through second grade, but she says the story is educational “for youngsters of any age,” as well as for adults interested about Judaism.

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Chief Rabbi Is One Of The Boys

Posted by on Jul 4, 2008 in Abuse |

From Haaretz:

Maariv’s report last week that Chief Rabbi Yonah Metzger had propositioned a young French cameraman during an interfaith conference in Spain a couple of years ago barely caused a ripple on the surface of the religious establishment swamp. This weekend’s part two, which will detail Metzger’s oligarch-sponsored trips around the world and the way he has enlisted himself in the service of Chabad interests, will most likely sink out of sight just as quickly. A controversial chief rabbi of Israel is not rare – certainly not all of Metzger’s predecessors were paragons of virtue – but it is hard to imagine such allegations being raised against any of them without some kind of public response.

One obvious reason for this indifference is that nobody really has any expectations of Metzger. No list of the hundred most influential Ashkenazi rabbis in Israel would include his name, and he probably wouldn’t even get into the second hundred. And besides, this isn’t the first time his name had been dragged through the mud. Similar sexual accusations were leveled against him on the eve of his appointment five years ago, and he only managed to extricate himself from a bribe-taking indictment by the skin of his teeth. The few who still regard the institution of the Chief Rabbinate with any degree of respect find comfort, at least, in the fact that Metzger’s Sephardi counterpart, Rabbi Shlomo Amar, is considered a formidable halachic authority – but even he is extra-careful not to cross swords with the much more powerful ultra-Orthodox leaders, and also had his own brush with the police a few years ago when his son and wife were arrested for abducting his daughter’s “unsuitable” suitor.

As it is, the concept of a chief rabbi is pretty outlandish. Originating from the days when Jewish communities needed a religious leader to represent them in the corridors of power, it has little place in a democracy – in Israel or the Diaspora. For secular Jews, the Chief Rabbi is meaningless, if not a nuisance, but for most religious Jews he is just as superfluous, since they don’t need anyone to choose a rabbi for them. Their spiritual allegiances are determined by birth, family, geography and personal preference, not by the electors who choose a new pair of chief rabbis every ten years.

But while being an irrelevancy, the various chief rabbis serve as useful keys to the psyche, collective aspirations and neuroses of the communities they purport to serve. Instead of being shining and exalted beacons of probity, the chief rabbis are a lot more like the rest of us than we think.

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Reno Rabbi Reflects On Her Battle With Cancer

Posted by on Jul 4, 2008 in Health |

From the Las Vegas Sun:

Rabbi Myra Soifer had just been ordained one of the first 10 female rabbis in the country and moved to New Orleans to begin her career in 1978 when she was diagnosed with cancer.

In an essay written in a recently published book, “Life, Faith, and Cancer: Jewish Journeys Through Diagnosis, Treatment, and Recovery,” Soifer says she is “one of the very lucky ones.”

Doctors were able to remove the malignant tumor in the fatty tissue of her left cheek, and she has had a long career since as head of Temple Sinai in Reno.

“They don’t get much luckier than I do when it comes to having had cancer,” she said.

The book captures how Jewish clergy use their faith to confront cancer. In her essay, Soifer shares the pastoral insight she received in the 48 hours after her surgery and the personal surrender that took her three decades.

When editor Douglas Kohn asked Soifer to contribute an essay to the book, she said she told him there was little to say about her decades-old brush with a disease that could have left her mute.

Kohn, who also is rabbi of Congregation Emanu El in San Bernardino, Calif., knew otherwise.

“Myra has got a richness that’s known within the rabbinic community,” Kohn said. “I was keenly aware that, although her humble protestations, she would be a wonderful contributor and that just being in Myra’s presence, seeing indeed her scar and seeing her management of herself that she had something to teach us all. I’m glad I asked her to reconsider.”

The weekend after her surgery, Soifer said she was alone in her apartment and felt as if in a fog, attempting to protect herself in a corner in the fetal position. “That weekend was just the most amazingly terrifying thing that I ever lived through,” she said.

It also would become a significant stage when she realized she had escaped death and had been given the opportunity to live an enriched life.

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Prayer Rally for Rabbi Mordechai Eliyahu

Posted by on Jul 2, 2008 in Israel |

(IsraelNN.com) A large prayer rally for the health of the Former Sephardic Chief Rabbi of Israel Rabbi Mordechai Eliyahu was held at the Sanhedria Cemetery in Jerusalem Monday. The prayer took place at the grave of Rabbi Yehuda Tzedaka, Rabbi Eliyahu’s uncle.

Rabbi Shmuel Bnayahu, Rabbi David Basri and Rabbi Moshe Tzadka, the present Head of Porat Yosef Yeshiva, where Rabbi Eliyahu studied, said prayers for Rabbi Eliyahu’s recovery.

Rabbi Eliyahu is one of the spiritual leaders of the Religious Zionist movement and is considered an authority by both Ashkenazi and Sephardic Jews. He is a longtime supporter of Jonathan Pollard and became his spiritual mentor while Pollard was in prison.

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Rabbi Yechiel Eckstein Defends Joe Lieberman against Attackers for Senator’s Support of John McCain

Posted by on Jul 2, 2008 in Politics |

CHICAGO–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Rabbi Yechiel Eckstein, president of the International Fellowship of Christians and Jews, with a worldwide membership of more than 250,000, issued a sharply-worded statement today condemning critics of Joseph Lieberman for the Senator’s support of Republican presidential candidate John McCain. He directed his ire, particularly, at some of the now-independent Connecticut legislator’s former Democratic Party colleagues many of whom, he said, had labeled Lieberman “a traitor.”

“I am deeply saddened by these attacks,” the Rabbi declared. “I have known Joe Lieberman for more than 15 years as both a friend of extraordinary integrity as well as a political leader of unbending devotion to democratic principles. Above all, he is a man whose strength of conviction has so often breached the self-defeating partisan divides that frequently imprison our Congress. Joe Lieberman has devoted his entire political career to the ideal of building bridges for the general good.”

Founded in 1983 and based in Chicago, the International Fellowship of Christians and Jews promotes understanding and cooperation between Jews and Christians around the world, focusing on financial support for Israel in addition to a broad range of social concerns.

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Song of the Soul In Maryland

Posted by on Jul 2, 2008 in Blog |

SILVER SPRING, Md., July 1 MD-Jewish-music-chrch

“Song of the Soul” Embraces Music, Social Action to Inspire Worship, Learning

SILVER SPRING, Md., July 1 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ — Rabbi Gerry Serotta and Cantor Ramon Tasat have agreed to become the religious leaders of Shirat HaNefesh (Song of the Soul), an emerging Jewish congregation in southern Montgomery County, MD that seeks to express its faith through music, prayer, lifelong learning, and repairing the world (tikkun olam).

Serotta and Tasat will lead Shirat HaNefesh’s religious services and work with the community to provide a full range of lifelong Jewish learning opportunities, including b’nai mitzvah training, to members and their children.

Founded in May 2008, Shirat HaNefesh is an unaffiliated community that draws from all Jewish traditions and denominations. Shirat HaNefesh members include traditional and non-traditional families, Jews by choice and birth, and non-Jews who seek the Jewish spiritual experience Shirat HaNefesh offers.

“We are very excited that Rabbi Serotta and Cantor Tasat have agreed to lead our new community and bring their energy, imagination and inspiration to Shirat HaNefesh,” says steering committee member Heidi Coleman. “Rabbi Serotta’s learning and focus on social action plus Cantor Tasat’s skills as an operatic tenor and teacher of liturgical music will help make Shirat HaNefesh a home for those seeking a joyous expression of their faith.”

Serotta says he sees his role at Shirat HaNefesh as teacher, community organizer and facilitator of Jewish spiritual growth, both personal and communal. “Today virtually all American Jews are in some ways ‘Jews by choice,’” Serotta says. “Shirat HaNefesh recognizes and builds on this restless diversity by striving to offer something new.”

Before joining Shirat HaNefesh, Serotta worked as the associate rabbi at Temple Shalom in Chevy Chase, MD. Previously, he was Hillel director at The George Washington University and earlier at Rutgers, Vassar and CCNY. Serotta has also been the Senior Rabbinic Scholar-in-Residence at the Religious Action Center. He is the current co-chair of Rabbis for Human Rights-North America (http://www.rhr-na.org).

Tasat: “bringing a rich musical tradition”

Tasat says music will play an important role at Shirat HaNefesh. “My goal is to bring a rich musical tradition that inspires both joy and contemplation,” said Tasat. He plans to use a choir and instrumentalists to enhance the spirituality and communal participation of different religious services.

One of the most celebrated cantors locally and internationally, Tasat is also the director of Cantorial Studies at the Academy for Jewish Religion, musical advisor of the Berkeley Richmond Jewish Music Festival, president of Shalshelet: The Foundation for New Jewish Liturgical Music. Tasat recently worked at Temple Shalom in Chevy Chase, MD and has made numerous recordings of Sephardic and Ashkenazic Jewish music.

For more information about Shirat HaNefesh, visit HYPERLINK “http://www.shirathanefesh.org/” www.shirathanefesh.org.

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Scotland’s Small Jewish Community

Posted by on Jul 2, 2008 in Scotland |

From thescotsman.com:

Scotland‘s Jewish population is small and in decline, but within the community are some dynamic ventures encouraging lapsed individuals to give their religion a re-think. L’Chaims is Scotland’s only Jewish Kosher restaurant, named after both its owner and a traditional Hebrew toast: “To life”. Situated within the heart of Glasgow’s Jewish area and run by local rabbi, Chaim Jacobs, and his wife Sora, it has become a potent symbol of rebirth in a community that is battling a slow yet steady decline.

Across the country Britain’s Jewish population is falling. “People are marrying out of the faith, they’re having fewer children, daring to be gay, living an alternative lifestyle. As Glasgow-born Rabbi Malcolm Herman, director of another London-based Jewish educational initiative called Seed, points out in the documentary: “We’re talking about applying ancient wisdom to contemporary living.”

I meet Rabbi Jacobs, who as well as owning L’Chaims is a community rabbi in Giffnock and runs the Scottish arm of a Jewish educational organisation called Lubavitch, at his Giffnock home. Rabbi Jacobs is on a mission to bring lapsed Scottish Jews back to their roots. Via Lubavitch, the New York-based Jewish educational initiative that is the world’s biggest Jewish outreach organisation, he hopes to offer secular Jews who have abandoned their faith a reason to return.

“Formal practice of religion is on the decline, but there is still an interest in spirituality and Judaism within our community,” says Rabbi Jacobs. “There isn’t really a Jewish community centre like there used to be,” Rabbi Jacobs replies. There are around 5,500 Jews left in Glasgow’s community, by far the biggest in Scotland. Walk through Giffnock today and you will see traditionally dressed Hasidic Jews, Kosher delis, a synagogue, a Jewish primary school and two Jewish care homes for the elderly. “We don’t seek non- Jewish people but we welcome them,” Jacobs says. There have been Kosher wine tastings on the calendar, and a children’s birthday party with Kosher McDonald’s-style food. Jacobs’ son Mendel, also a rabbi, even launched a Jewish tartan in the Spring – made with Kosher non-wool linen of course.

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Conversion & Controversy In Israel

Posted by on Jul 2, 2008 in Conversion, Israel |

Two Conservative Jews in Israel write for the Jerusalem Post:

Over 1,000 people took part in a support rally for Rabbi Haim Druckman early last month. It was the first, and certainly the largest, religious Zionist rally for an issue other than the Land of Israel.

Something, without a doubt, is happening among the knitted kipot (skullcaps) Jewish community. They sense they are fighting for house and home. The Chief Rabbinate – established by their own fathers, who also set its tone – has been grabbed away from them. The haredim are taking over! You knitted types are out. Any day now you’ll also be disqualified from testifying in religious courts.

But there’s no making light of the sense of dread among religious Zionists. They have good reason to worry. Given Israel’s current legal structure, in which religion is interwoven with politics, the revocation of Rabbi Druckman’s conversions has serious repercussions. Thousands of converts whose Judaism has been revoked will not be able to marry through the rabbinate. In other words, they will be prevented from registering their status as “married” in the State of Israel – a nation that chose to grant a monopoly to the Chief Rabbinate for every matter related to personal status.

It is tempting to needle the leaders of the religious Zionist movement by reminding them that, when the power was in their hands, they acted with the same lordship over the Conservative and Reform movements. But that is not the point. Religious Zionism has a large constituency, and its concern for the People of Israel as a whole – not just for those sporting knitted kipot – is heartfelt and genuine. We must all hope that, at this historic moment, they will act responsibly, according to the dictates of their conscience. It will require rabbinical courage to bring about the creation of religious Zionist courts that operate parallel to the Chief Rabbinate.

THE ESTABLISHMENT of a religious Zionist court that performs conversions according to its standards, and whose rabbis marry converts in adherence with the religion of Moses and Israel, would be a revolution in Israel. Early on, granted, couples married in this manner will not be able to change their martial status officially at the Interior Ministry. But when tens of thousands of couples follow suit, the law will change. Revolutions can also begin from the ground up. Today already, 20 percent of all “Jewish” couples marrying in Israel do not do so via the Rabbinate. The majority, to the dismay of all of us, do not even marry in a Jewish wedding. Modern Orthodoxy, which can amplify the outcry of “rejected” couples for all to hear, has the strength to steer this unfortunate trend in another direction.

Rabbi Barry Schlesinger is president of the Conservative Rabbinical Assembly. Atty. Yizhar Hess is executive director of the Conservative Movement in Israel.

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Bargains At Ralphs

Posted by on Jul 1, 2008 in Supermarkets |

I prefer to shop at Ralphs because it is clean and orderly.

People don’t push.

But you have to be constantly on your guard for non-kosher food.

You can relax more at Glatt Mart where everything is kosher, and at Eilat Market where almost everything is kosher (watch out for the cheese!).

Sweet white corn is 8 ears for $1 at Pavilions and seedless watermelons are $1.99 each at Ralphs.  These are great deals.

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Jews & Real Estate

Posted by on Jul 1, 2008 in Real Estate |

Moshe Glasser writes:

When houses went on the market in my neighborhoods (first Beverlywood, in Los Angeles, sometimes called the Pico-Robertson Area, though that’s a much more expansive designation; later Teaneck, NJ and the accompanying Northern New Jersey towns like Englewood, Fair Lawn, and Bergenfield), sometimes Jews would move in and sometimes not. Especially in Teaneck, as the prices went up and up, the Jewish homes began to outnumber the non-Jewish ones, at least in the areas where synagogues caused Jews to view housing as optimal. There didn’t seem to be any conspiracy; we needed to live within walking distance of a shul. And while that distance could be extended beyond a block or two, your universe of housing options could often be drawn with a simple circle extending between half a mile and a mile around the shul building itself. But matters of convenience were also social, cultural, and economic. A wealthy shul would create wealthy homes around it, and make it harder for those outside the economic class of the shul members to move there.

And then we have the bizarre example posted at the top of this article. Apparently, a realtor or mortgage broker (there seems to be some debate) seems to want the neighbors of the area to band together, influencing the type of people who move in to an auctioned house.

Putting aside the ridiculousness of some of the issues involved here (such as the extreme cost of the house and banks’ willingness to sell an auctioned house to just about anyone to get it off their own hands, regardless of the community’s feelings), is this kind of thing moral?

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Leaving Los Angeles

Posted by on Jul 1, 2008 in Blog |

Helaine writes:

I’m not sure you can call this week’s Lives essay by Rachel Cline in the back of The New York Times magazine brilliant. Critiques of Los Angeles always seem hackneyed and trite to those who never lived there. Cline, however, captures the gothic feel of Los Angeles, how time slips away and one month becomes ten years overnight, leaving you with nothing but a few fragmented memories:

I lived in Los Angeles for almost 10 years, but it all runs together. I can never remember what happened when. In memory, I’m always driving down a sunny stretch of road, listening to National Public Radio, trying not to spill my latte. Sometimes I have a splitting headache, which must mean I am on the east side or in the valley, and sometimes the ocean is glittering nearby. Occasionally I can remember the jacarandas being in bloom, which means, what? May? But that still doesn’t tell me the year. It’s just an odd lot of incidents, a memory salad.

I was in Los Angeles last month.  One afternoon, I decided to drive to a favorite shop in Pico-Robertson. I parked my car on a side street, in front of a 1930s Spanish four-plex with an “Apartment For Rent” sign in front.

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Rav Yitzhock Adlerstein Is Proud To Be A Hirschian

Posted by on Jul 1, 2008 in R. Yitzhock Adlerstein |

He writes on Cross Currents:

“I don’t care what group you identify with, as long as you are ashamed of it.” There is much wisdom in the throw-away line with which Dennis Prager frequently challenges audiences to admit to the flaws of the groups with which they identify.

Of the many labels that doggedly pursue me, there is only one that I am not ashamed of at all. I am a Hirschian, and proud of it without reservation. I believe that his vision for living a Torah life is at least as viable today as when he described it, if not more so.

It took me decades to realize it, and years more to openly embrace it in a community sometimes hostile to its implications. Today, I can think of no more honorable distinction than to be considered a follower of Rav Samson Raphael Hirsch (RSRH) zt”l.

The bicentennial of the birth of RSRH, brought many tributes, although with much hedging. According to one report, a rav at Khal Adath Jeshurun argued that in the absence of RSRH himself, his teaching could not be followed, and Torah Jews should turn to contemporary gedolim for guidance (presumably different) on those issues. A cover story in Mishpacha implied that RSRH served as a role model primarily for scientists and doctors, and placed far more stress on his impact on organizations like Agudah, Bais Yaakov and the Eidah HaCharedis. Even the forever-insightful Rav Moshe Grylak saw the need to move on. “Although Rav Hirsch’s Torah and his worldview are still relevant to portions of our community even today, they have lost their relevance for some. A new generation…requires a new language to kindle in its heart the flame of Torah that is barely flickering.”

I do not understand the hesitation. “Still relevant” is a wussy understatement. To many of us, RSRH has no peer in giving voice to the way we understand our role as Torah Jews, and how Torah works to better ourselves and the world. Lost its relevance? All those I know who have studied RSRH seriously are struck by how much more relevant his thought is today than when he committed it to paper a century and a half ago. If his thought hasn’t kindled the hearts of some of the at-risk adults about whom Rav Grylak speaks, it is only because they have not been exposed to it.

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British Jews Celebrate Israel’s 60th Anniversary

Posted by on Jul 1, 2008 in Britain, Israel |

LONDON (JTA)—With a pair of massive rallies for Israel held simultaneously in London’s Trafalgar Square and Manchester’s Heaton Park on Sunday, British Jewry may be signaling that its transformation is at hand.

Some 30,000 participants attended the public shows of support for Israel, which were inspired by New York’s annual Salute-to-Israel parade.

Several thousand people waving Israeli and British flags marched from the Ritz Hotel to Trafalgar Square followed by dozens of carnival floats, cyclists, dancers and bands. At Trafalgar Square, an Israeli Cabinet minister, Britain’s secretary of state for Education and Britain’s chief rabbi all addressed the crowd. Israeli musicians performed between the speeches.

“I’m sure that my father, who served here as an officer in the British army, couldn’t have imagined that some day tens of thousands of Jews would be waving Israeli flags here in Trafalgar Square,” said Jeremy Newmark, chief executive of the Jewish Leadership Council, who helped organize the events.

Observers and critics alike said the unprecedented show of pride and self-confidence at the rallies is a sign that British Jewry is shaking off its reputation for being timid and low key.

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The Americanization Of Israel

Posted by on Jul 1, 2008 in Israel |

Rabbi Steve Pruzansky writes for Jewish Action (a magazine of the Orthodox Union):

America has long served as the world’s cultural trendsetter. Nowhere is this more apparent than in Israel.

Although English is a second language in Israel, this fact fails to convey the extent of America’s infiltration into Israeli society. It is not that you can get by without speaking Hebrew; indeed, it is difficult to embrace the society without speaking Hebrew. But English idioms have become commonplace in Israeli speech—and not just the “ya” endings of yesteryear (“televizya,” “protektsiya”). Listen to any Israeli speak—be it an ordinary citizen or a media personality—and he will sprinkle his sentences with words or phrases like “why not,” “time,” “time out,” “so what,” “OK,” “chance,” “conflict” (pronounced “con-FLICT,” plural “con-FLICT-im”), not to mention technical terms like “Internet,” “e-mail,” “fax,” “high-definition” and literally hundreds of other words, all of which are transliterated into Hebrew in the press. No doubt this is partly the influence of globalization, here known, of course, as “globalizatzya.”

Rather than grasp for a Hebrew word, it is often easier to just say it in English, with the occasional conversionary suffixes. Preparing for a public speech a few weeks ago, I looked up the word “speculative.” I need not have; the Hebrew is “speculativi.” Occasionally, the pronunciations and etymologies are humorous. Liat Collins, who writes a language column in The Jerusalem Post, reported an argument she had had with her commander in the army many years ago, who gave her an “ool-ti-mah-tum,” claiming it was a Hebrew word and correcting her (she is British) when she insisted on pronouncing it “UL-ti-mah-tum.”

As an aside, part of me wishes that “Saturday” would enter the Israeli lexicon in order to avoid hearing such non sequiturs as “On Shabbat, we drove to the Galil for a picnic.” Another part of me feels that at least use of the word “Shabbat” helps keep the idea of Shabbat alive, even if it is not observed properly.

The most amusing illustration of American influence that I have seen is “Halailah,” Israel’s The Tonight Show. “From Kikar Dizengoff in Tel Avivvvvv, it’s Halailah—starring Lior Schleiiiiiiiiin!” It is rank mimicry of the late night talk shows in America—featuring the host, the monologue (I never would have thought that Asarah B’Tevet could be mined for comic material!), the set—complete with the desk, the backdrop of Tel Aviv (instead of New York City or Hollywood), the sofa chairs, the band and the banter with the bandleader.

Certainly, the culture as it is has little general appeal to the more traditional elements in society. Religious Jews are blessed with a plethora of shiurim—every night of the week, and on an immense variety of topics—in almost every community in the country. But it is very difficult to combat a cultural behemoth like the United States. The revolution against Greek culture that occurred during the Second Temple era began right here in Modiin. Yet, it is worth recalling that despite the Chanukah victory, less than 100 years later, Simon the Maccabee’s own great-grandsons, who bore the fine Greek names Hyrcanus and Aristobulus, fought each other for the throne and self-destructed.

A country with its own culture shapes its own destiny, and develops a strong sense of national pride. American culture may be dominant in the world, but, in truth, it is scarcely felt in countries like Russia or China, each of which has a rich cultural tradition of its own. An indigenous Israeli culture exists, but it is overwhelmed by America’s. Israelis write books, yet the bookstores are mainly filled with Hebrew translations of American best sellers. In time and given the right circumstances, Israel will surely develop a culture that is uniquely Jewish and that touches the mind, heart and soul. It is part of building a state, liberating the Jewish spirit from centuries of exile and shaping the national character that will engender “a kingdom of priests and a holy people.”

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