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David Finnigan

David Finnigan

Messages of Meaning on Rosh Hashanah

Southern California rabbis used their Rosh Hashanah pulpits to speak on globalization, Africa\’s drought-ridden refugees and America\’s hurricane-drenched evacuees as well as Israel\’s Gaza pullout.

Community Briefs

Soulful \’Hatikvah\’ Ends Wiesenthal Farewell

It was an unscripted, final moment that may have best captured the Monday memorial at the Museum of Tolerance for Nazi hunter Simon Wiesenthal, who died last week at age 96.

The ceremony had been held outside. As long lines of mourners waited amidst rows of folded chairs to return into the museum, an elderly, white-haired man began singing Israel\’s national anthem, \”Hatikvah,\” in a loud, lone voice. A ripple of applause followed after Gedalia Arditti, a 77-year-old Greek Jew, belted out the song\’s last word — \”Yer-u-shal-a-yim!\”

Holidays, Arrests Add to Terror Fears

Jewish community concerns over security have increased in recent months following the arrest and indictment of four men for allegedly planning attacks on local Jewish targets, including a synagogue and the Israeli consulate.

An Ode to Parents and Other Strangers

When Paul Reiser co-created and starred in the 1990s hit sitcom, \”Mad About You,\” — about a secular Jew married to a Christian — he helped spur a new trend in TV comedy: the cute but neurotic Jewish leading man.

Going in After Katrina

After a catastrophe like Hurricane Katrina, sometimes an aid worker helps by delivering a baby, sometimes the job is just delivering a cheeseburger — or perhaps a thousand cheeseburgers. And sometimes the simple act of providing a yarmulke to an old man can provide solace.

So it was for Rabbis Chaim Kolodny and Tzemach Rosenfeld of Hatzolah of Los Angeles, an organization of emergency-medical volunteers with particular expertise in assisting members of the Orthodox community. When they decided to embark for the stricken Gulf Coast in the wake of Katrina, they wanted to be available to help Jewish victims who could benefit from their knowledge of religious practice. But they also were prepared and eager to help anyone they could, and they had no trouble locating storm victims and relief workers who needed all sorts of assistance.

Service Reaches Out to Jews by Choice

It fit somehow that this recent Saturday service for converts to Judaism took place in a synagogue library. Because this gathering, at Temple Beth Am near Beverly Hills, was both an exercise in worship and in teaching. Maybe it even fit that this was a children\’s library, because many of the 40 adults who sat in folding chairs are young in relation to their Judaism.

This program, called Judaism by Choice, is \”a way of educating the people while they\’re in the service itself, teaching it while they\’re doing the service … the terms of the synagogue, the geography of the service,\” said Rabbi Neal Weinberg, the program\’s creator.

Southland Responds to Relief Needs

Prominent rabbis have been urging their congregations to give generously to Hurricane Katrina relief funds, the most prominent being one set up by The Jewish Federation of Greater Los Angeles, which had raised more than $500,000 by early this week.

Exodus of Family Hits a Low Note

Earlier this summer, Shana Leonard gave up her Fairfax District apartment to move to New Orleans and be near her 82-year-old father, legendary jazz photographer Herman Leonard. But late last month, the 33-year-old single mother, who also cares for her wheelchair-bound 10-year-old daughter, India, found the three of them among the thousands racing to escape from New Orleans.

Torah by Numbers

Long before \”The Da Vinci Code\” dominated bestseller lists, a cluster of Jewish mathematicians were promoting \”The Bible Codes,\” the deeply mathematical interpretations of the five books of Moses which may, vaguely, predict some future events.

And yes conspiracy theorists, the government is involved — insofar as one of the code\’s four main proponents worked at the National Security Agency (NSA).

\”The evidence is all showing that these codes are real,\” said Harold Gans, who spent 28 years at the NSA as a senior cryptologic mathematician before retiring in 1996. \”The Torah could not be written by any being bound by the laws of nature.\”

Gaza Protests in L.A., N.Y. Prove Mild

A rally planned for last weekend outside the Los Angeles Israeli consulate to protest this week\’s Gaza settler pullout was canceled, but in its place arose a somber gathering of about 70 people.

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