"Free soup\’s on us!" That was the invitation David Suissa\’s Los Angeles-based charity Meals 4 Israel extended to all 5,000 participants of the National Religious Broadcasters Convention in Charlotte, N.C. last month — and it was pastors and ministers who made their way to the booth to sample some soup and learn more about the charity.
During \”Naharin\’s Virus\” a provocatative dance/performance piece that the Batsheva Dance company will excerpt this week at UCLA, a dancer holds chalk in her hand, dragging it through her body movements: Arching her back, outstretching her arm, she trails Hebrew words on a blackboard.
\”I\’m more nervous about the speech than I am about reading the Torah,\” Jonathan Shainberg told The Journal. \”When you are reading the Torah you aren\’t looking at people, but when you give the speech you have to look out at the whole crowd and seeing the faces makes me nervous.\”
Actor Jack Black wowed the crowd during Beth Chayim Chadashim\’s (BCC) Humanitarian Awards Brunch at the Omni Hotel on Feb. 22 when he played his \”saxaboom\” — a toy saxophone that belts out prerecorded tunes.
A Montreal resident claims that a Torah she loaned to a local senior home has illegally ended up in a Southern California synagogue. And now she\’s on the hunt to find it.
As far as narrative goes, Megillat Esther is one of the most exciting parts of the Tanach. It is rich in religious significance and considered a seminal text on the miracle of Jewish survival, the story of Esther, the orphan girl who is chosen in a nationwide beauty contest to become the queen and ends up saving the Jewish people from the evil machinations of Haman the Wicked, has all the elements of a good potboiler. Played out under the specter of Armageddon for the Jewish people are great and lavish displays of wealth, a mighty king who is duped by his nefarious adviser, scheming chamberlains, a harem full of nubile virgins, power plays among the king\’s underlings and enough surprising plot twists to keep the pages — or the scroll itself — turning.
Diane Arbus, acknowledged as one of the greatest photographers of the 20th century, thought photographs were the ultimate enigma.
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