Back in the olden days, Pops worked at the same manufacturing plant his entire adult life, waking up every morning at the same time, returning home with the same empty lunch pail, wearing the same faded work uniform. A carpenter was a carpenter for life; a lawyer stayed a lawyer and the town butcher never quit his job to pursue a career in fashion design.
Name: Valley Performing Arts Center. VPAC for short. Location, Location, Location: In the heart of the San Fernando Valley — home to 2 million art-starved residents — on the campus of California State University, Northridge (CSUN), at the corner of Nordhoff Street and Lindley Avenue.
Israel’s Negev boasts a full itinerary of cool spots, unique experiences for adventurous travelers
Shalhevet, a Modern Orthodox day school in Los Angeles, has been dealt a second major blow in a matter of months — head of school Rabbi Elchanan Weinbach announced his resignation for personal reasons on April 29, less than two months after the school declared plans to close its middle, elementary and early childhood schools at the end of the current school year.
A National Geographic photography exhibition, “Water: Our Thirsty World,” on display at the Annenberg Space for Photography in Century City through June 13, gives an overview of the world’s water usage, but the portion focused on the Middle East, and specifically Israel, caught the attention of Consul General of Israel in Los Angeles Jacob Dayan, who objected to what he saw as a deliberately negative view of his country, ignoring Israel’s role in pioneering water technology and advancing water management in the world.
Camp Ramah in Ojai and Camp Alonim in Simi Valley, two of the Los Angeles region’s largest sleep-away summer camps, have named new directors. Ramah tapped Rabbi Joseph Menashe, an associate rabbi at a Conservative synagogue in Dallas, to take the reins from Rabbi Daniel Greyber, who has served as executive director of Ramah since 2002 and announced his resignation in January to pursue a pulpit position. Greyber will stay on through the upcoming camp season, turning Ramah, which is under the educational auspices of American Jewish University’s Ziegler School of Rabbinic Studies and is affiliated with the National Ramah Commission, an arm of the Conservative movement, over to Menashe on Sept. 1.
Avinoam and Rachel Hen, the Israeli couple who suffered through a decade of tragedies and were on the verge of losing their Chatsworth home in March, will be able to keep the home thanks to the efforts of i Short Sale, the real estate company that negotiated a lower rate for their mortgage on their behalf, along with the generosity of several members of the Jewish community who offered financial assistance but asked to remain anonymous.
For one week in May, the Magic Castle — Hollywood’s elegant Victorian mansion-turned-prestigious magic club — will be transformed into a lively hub of Israeli culture. The exclusive and formal den of world-renowned magicians and magic enthusiasts will showcase Israeli practitioners of the illusory arts, as well as musicians and artists, and the dining menu will offer cuisine from the Holy Land in a first-time celebration of Israel.
“It is in the Negev that the creativity and pioneer vigor of Israel shall be tested,” David Ben-Gurion once famously said. Israel’s first prime minister was a passionate advocate of developing the sparsely populated and barren southern desert into a thriving center of learning, technology, culture and innovation. Three decades after his death, a university named in his honor is carrying out his vision. Ben-Gurion University of the Negev (BGU), with campuses in Beer-Sheva, Sde Boker and Eilat, has as its central mission the goal of developing the Negev by attracting bright scholars to the region, conducting world-class research, promoting industry and agriculture in the desert, improving education, investing in the surrounding immigrant communities, and pioneering green technology and arid zone research.
A heavy haze thickened the air around the small cluster of prefabricated rectangular buildings, the result of a hot Negev wind forming swirls of dust along the dirt paths of the village. The normally blazing desert sun on this day glowed only dimly from behind a dusty veil.
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