The Circuit

Skirball Celebrity Gathering

The Skirball Cultural Center’s Fifth Anniversary Special Founders Dedication of Ahmanson Hall, which took place April 21, was a black-tie affair held — surprise — in the elegant and original Moshe Safdie-designed hall. Speakers included Audrey Kenis-Skirball, Morris Bergreen, Robert Ahmanson, Dr. Barry Munitz, Robert Erburu, Lloyd Cotsen (whose family name adorns the Hall’s main auditorium) and Skirball president and CEO Dr. Uri D. Herscher. Tablesful of political leaders attended as well, including L.A. City Councilmember Cindy Miscikowski, former Gov. Pete Wilson, city attorney candidate Mike Feuer, Rep. Adam Schiff and County Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky. Herscher announced that since opening in 1996, the Skirball has hosted some 2.3 million visitors, who have come to see firsthand how it fulfills its mission of linking 4,000 years of Jewish heritage to the American democratic ideal. In keeping with that theme, students from Hamilton High performed songs by Irving Berlin, George Gershwin and other great American Jewish composers. — Staff Report

What’s New? Nothing, at This Show

The Sixth Annual Los Angeles Antiques Show, organized by the Antiques Dealers Association of California, returns to Barker Hangar in Santa Monica May 4-6, with a special gala preview May 3. The opening night gala will benefit Women’s Guild of Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, which has raised more than $14 million for the hospital campus since 1957.

As in previous years, the Antiques Show will feature a vast array of European and American furniture, jewelry and artwork. Particular to this year’s exhibition: art owned by Judy Garland, antique Jensen silver and Chinese porcelain.

In attendance on opening night will be this year’s honorary chairs: actress Anjelica Huston and her husband, sculptor Robert Graham, and author Wendy Goldberg and her husband, producer Leonard Goldberg. Event chairs Joyce Brandman and Pam Rubin and advisers Beverly Firestein and Caryl Golden are running the event.

“Whether you love antiques or you don’t, it’s really an amazing cultural experience. What’s most exciting for me is the set-up week — going into this huge, 35,000-square-feet hangar that’s very, very empty, and seeing it all come alive. We turn it into something extraordinary,” said Abby Levy, the Women’s Guild president. She noted that the antique show, the Women’s Guild’s only annual fundraiser, takes a year to plan and execute. Proceeds from this year’s gala will go to the new Saul & Joyce Brandman Breast Center, to which the Guild has already donated $1 million toward volunteer programs. “We’re very proud of the work we’ve done,” Levy said.

For information on the antique show, call (310) 423-3667. For information on Women’s Guild of Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, call (310) 423-3606. — Staff Report

Celebrating Y.I. of Century City’s Quarter Century

Young Israel of Century City has held its annual Tribute Dinner in celebration of the synagogue’s 25th anniversary. Dr. Joel and Leslie Kessler were presented with the Tribute Award. Dr. Kessler has served as head of obstetrics and gynecology at St. John’s Hospital. Leslie is a pediatric nurse practitioner.

Happy Birthday, Lillian Kolisch!

David Goldstein, a supervisor at Shalom Retirement Home in the Fairfax District, contacted us to let us know that Shalom celebrated the 100th birthday of Lillian Kolisch. The party included awards and certificates from Sens. Dianne Feinstein and Barbara Boxer and U.S. Rep. Henry Waxman.

Kolisch is the last survivor of eight siblings. Last March, Kolisch’s brother, Joseph Lazar, passed away at the age of 106.

Kolisch was born in Russia in 1901. Three years later, her family settled in Chicago. Kolisch’s father opened a music store chain, which Kolisch and her husband eventually took over. In 1943, Kolisch moved to California. Before her retirement at age 80, Kolisch ran a local toy store. She has been a Shalom resident since 1991.

Tykes on Trikes

Fifty nursery-schoolers hopped on tricycles while participating in the 11th Annual Trike-A-Thon fundraiser at Temple Ramat Zion in Northridge. The children, ages 2-4, raised about $4,000, which will go toward playground accessories to keep children cool during hot weather.

“The Trike-A-Thon is one of my favorite events because it involves the whole family,” said Betty Gorelick, director of the temple’s nursery school.

An Induction That Needs No Introduction

Habib Levy Cultural Foundation, a philanthropic organization dedicated to peace, tolerance, and harmony through the dissemination of knowledge, inducted its new board of advisers at a luncheon reception at Century City’s St. Regis Hotel. The board includes Daphna Ziman, Dr. Dana Eisenman, Dr. Samuel Rahbar, Dr. Harlan Gibbs, Stanley Black, Dr. Jerrold Green and Dr. David Myers.

Check This Out

Author and Journal contributing writer Rahel Musleah presented a slide lecture on the Jews of India at a Jewish Community Library of Los Angeles event hosted by Saul Levi of Kahal Yosef Sephardic Congregation.

With National Poetry Month (April) in full bloom, the Circuit asked the library’s director, Abigail Yasgur, for recommended Jewish poetry. Here are some collections she recommends (in no particular order), all of which are available at the library:

• “Open Closed Open: Poems by Yehuda Amichai,” translated from the Hebrew by Chana Bloch
• “The Art of Blessing the Day: Poems with a Jewish Theme” by Marge Piercy
• “Selected Poems of Solomon Ibn Gabirol,” translated by Peter Cole
• “Defiant Muse: Hebrew Feminist Poems from Antiquity to the Present,” edited by Shirley Kaufman
• “Miriam’s Daughters : Jewish Latin American Women Poets,” edited by Marjorie Agosín
• “Selected Poems of Jehudah Halevi,” translated from the Spanish by Nina Salaman
• “A Spiritual Life: A Feminist Journey” by Merle Feld
• “Dreaming the Actual: Contemporary Fiction and Poetry by Israeli Women Writers,” edited by Miriyam Glazer

For more information on the Jewish Community Library, call (323) 761-8644 or visit www.jclla.org.