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David Finnigan

David Finnigan

War of Words and Ads Over Gaza

In Israel, settlers are facing off with soldiers as the date nears for the mid-August withdrawal of Jews from Gaza. In the United States, that conflict is playing out in rhetoric as supporters and foes of disengagement buy ads and opponents plan a final local rally.

Gaza Settler Pullout Protest Draws 500

More than 500 demonstrators, mostly Orthodox Jews, gathered in front of the Israeli consulate in Los Angeles last weekend to oppose Israel\’s planned, upcoming pullout of settlers from Gaza.

Unspeakable Acts, Incredible Pictures

A large, striped blue-and-white flag bearing the phrase, \”Liberation!\” greets visitors at the Museum of Tolerance exhibit, \”Liberation! Revealing the Unspeakable,\” about the Allied soldiers and the starved, dying and dead Jews they discovered while liberating concentration camps.

In a hallway there is a row of photographs of soldiers who became the saviors of survivors. Then, down a set of stairs to the main exhibit area, one gallery wall features a 1945 poem written by an unnamed survivor upon learning of Hitler\’s death:

I have outlived the fiend
My lifelong wish fulfilled
What more need I achieve
My heart is full of joy

Sudan Support Marks Memorial Day

Darfur has become significant for Southern California synagogues largely due to Valley Beth Shalom\’s Jewish World Watch group, which has been holding Darfur awareness evenings since last fall at Conservative, Reform and now Orthodox shuls.

Camp Adjusts to Life Away From Parent

This will be Camp JCA Shalom\’s first summer away from home. For the first time in its 54-year history, the Malibu camp is independent, having broken away from the Jewish Community Centers of Greater Los Angeles (JCCGLA) in January.

Life after the centers crisis hasn\’t been easy for The Shalom Institute: Camp and Conference Center, and now officials are learning how to raise the bulk of the camp\’s $2.3 million budget.

\”Everything is great but we need support,\” said Bill Kaplan, executive director of the Shalom Institute, which runs Camp JCA Shalom.

L.A.’s ‘Big’ Sunday

Between 35,000 and 40,000 people spent Sunday, May 15 at Woodley Park in Van Nuys for the annual Israel Independence Day festival.

The festival\’s early afternoon main event featuring pro-Israel speeches and politicians lasted exactly one hour; on the last note of \”The Star-Spangled Banner\” skydivers appeared above. \”The coincidence was amazing,\” festival executive director Yoram Gutman said.

In the late afternoon, more than 7,000 people crowded the festival\’s main stage to hear Israeli pop superstar Sarit Hadad. Fire marshals had difficulty clearing fans from the aisles.

A Yiddish ‘Fiddler’ to Honor Aleichem

Actor and Yiddish-language true believer Theodore Bikel grew up in prewar Europe, with German as his first language and Yiddish a quick second, partly due to his father reading his family Sholom Aleichem stories every Tuesday night.

Rites Mark Shoah, Camp Liberators

Rain and clouds greeted Southern California\’s annual Holocaust Remembrance Day, while sunshine welcomed a gathering of World War II veterans and the Shoah survivors whom they liberated from concentration camps.

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