Rachel Brand
Book Month Sparks Literary Landslide
Last year, when Leonard Lawrence learned that the Jewish Community Centers of Greater Los Angeles (JCCGLA) had to cancel its annual book fair as a result of restructuring within the organization, he vowed to not let it happen again.
\”We saw it as a challenge that Mount Sinai could rise up to,\” said Lawrence, general manager of Mount Sinai Memorial Parks and Mortuaries.
This year, Lawrence\’s call to duty has placed the book festival back on the map with a bit of a twist. Unlike the traditional book fairs of previous years, this year\’s book festival, co-sponsored by Mount Sinai and JCCGLA, will cater to children.
Restoration’s Silver Lining
Silversmith David Friedman has the unique ability to trace the origin of almost every antique that comes across his desk.
Lev Eisha Women Pray Their Own Way
On the first Saturday of each month, while weekly, traditional Shabbat morning services are taking place at Adat Shalom synagogue, another service transpires behind the main sanctuary that is anything but traditional.
Prepping Campuses for Anti-Israel Surge
When Ross Neihaus exited his chemistry class three days after the start of UCLA\’s fall quarter, he saw the words \”Anti-Zionist and Proud\” scrawled in chalk on the wall of an adjacent building. Such a statement coming so early in the quarter was a surprise to the fourth-year biology major, but not a shock.
\”I expect this to be my toughest year in college,\” said Neihaus, the president of Bruins for Israel, UCLA\’s pro-Israel group. \”We are concerned that what will be said this year will be nastier, more radical and essentially more anti-Semitic.\”
Sisterhood in the Big House
As she enters her 23rd year in prison, Doris Roldan realizes that she has two choices: she can wallow in self-pity or she can continue to have hope.
On Tuesday evening, Sept. 30, while standing in front of her fellow inmates at the California Institution for Women (CIW), Roldan made her choice: \”My body is incarcerated but I will not allow my mind, heart or soul to be in prison,\” Roldan said.
Roldan is one of 26 members of the Shalom Sisterhood, a group of inmates that meets twice a month for Jewish study at the Chino maximum-security prison, who participated in a joint Rosh Hashanah/Yom Kippur service.
Prisons Pray for Surge in Chaplains
Those who might have the greatest need to repent this High Holiday season may not be able to.
A severe shortage in Jewish chaplains has led to a situation where the spiritual needs of some prisoners in California\’s state and federal correctional institutions are not being met.
\”When it comes to holidays and services, there\’s a very real concern that we\’re not doing a very effective and adequate job at serving in institutionalized settings,\” said Rabbi Mark Diamond, executive vice president of the Board of Rabbis of Southern California (BOR). \”There are many institutionalized Jews that do not have the benefits of a rabbi.\”
Community Briefs
Community Brief, news from around California, los angeles,United States.
Funny, They Don’t Sound Jewish
Laura Bush on Howard Stern; J. Lo waking up with a pimple on her nose; Homer Simpson running for governor of California. No, it\’s not a slow day on \”Live on E!\” It\’s a game of \”Scenes from a Hat\” — one of 40 interactive games that improv comedy troupe, The Los Hombres, has in its repertoire. The game, in which audience members write down funny scenes that they would like to see acted out, is just one way the eight-member cast connects with the audience.
Jewish Trojans — Oxymoron No More
Today, just steps away from USC\’s fraternity row — which has historically been a symbol of the university\’s typically all-white culture — lies the new site of the campus Chabad House. The 6,500-square-foot Victorian home, which Chabad is in the process of renovating, will be the third site that the organization will occupy since outgrowing its first two locations in the past three years.
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