Paparazzi cameras flashed nonstop on Tuesday evening, May 5, at the entrance to the Beverly Wilshire Hotel as the Simon Wiesenthal Center prepared to honor Will Smith at its annual gala dinner.
The World Alliance for Israel PAC (WAIPAC) held its 2009 Awards and Installation Dinner at The Luxe Hotel Sunset Boulevard on March 30.
When you’re Cheryl Saban and you’re throwing a party to launch your inspirational new book, “What’s Your Self-Worth: A Woman’s Guide to Validation” — in hot-pink hardcover — your best friends line up to come.
Norman Jewison is not Jewish, though his name quite literally begs the question. In fact, the association of “Jewison” and “Jewish” is so strong there is a section in his Wikipedia entry devoted to debunking the myth: “Notwithstanding his alliterative surname … Norman Jewison is not Jewish. He was raised in a Protestant family.”
The man whom many are calling “Obama’s rabbi” paid a recent visit to Los Angeles to pray with local Jews. Rabbi Capers Funnye Jr., cousin to first lady Michelle Obama and spiritual leader of Chicago’s Beth Shalom B’nai Zaken Ethiopian Hebrew Congregation, attended Encino’s Nachshon Minyan on April 4. It was a prescient invitation, since Funnye made national headlines the following day when he was featured on the cover of The New York Times Sunday Magazine.
The Jewish Student Union renamed its national program for high school students the Jack E. and Rachel Gindi JSU this month, in honor of the Gindis’ support of the 7-year-old group.
Even as the Progressive Jewish Alliance celebrated its first 10 years on March 29 by honoring Daniel Sokatch, its founding executive director who has moved on to become CEO of the Jewish Community Federation in San Francisco, the PJA introduced its new leader, Elissa Barrett to a Skirball Cultural Center ballroom so full that some guests had to dine in the balcony.
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