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COMMUNITY BRIEFS: ‘Jew’ Graffiti Confounds Experts

Law enforcement officials and hate crime watchdogs have been confounded over the last few months by a spate of graffiti with the word “Jew” marking multiple locations in the Fairfax area, near Hollywood and on La Cienega Boulevard near the 10 Freeway.
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May 13, 2009

Law enforcement officials and hate crime watchdogs have been confounded over the last few months by a spate of graffiti with the word “Jew” marking multiple locations in the Fairfax area, near Hollywood and on La Cienega Boulevard near the 10 Freeway.

The word “Jew” or “Jewish,” sometimes accompanied by the letters “TMA,” have been spray-painted on lampposts, freeway overpasses, walls and dumpsters, sometimes alone and sometimes alongside other tagging. No anti-Semitic messages or symbols accompany the word.

The six or seven locations of the graffiti also seem unconnected to anything Jewish, according to Ariella Loewenstein, associate regional director of Anti-Defamation League’s (ADL) Pacific Southwest office. ADL is working with LAPD Wilshire Division to funnel information from the flurry of calls they are getting reporting the graffiti. They are also working with the city to get the tags removed as quickly as possible.

Detective Ronald Cade, detective supervisor of LAPD Wilshire Division, confirmed the reports, but said the LAPD could not provide details on the ongoing investigation.

Loewenstein said she is not aware of any leads regarding who is doing this tagging, why, or what it means.

“It’s just a very weird phenomenon,” Loewenstein said, noting that anti-Semitic graffiti typically include swastikas or violent language, or might be on a synagogue or Jewish cemetery. “Why pick that one word to spray paint, and leave it at that? Why in these areas, and on these specific things? … It could be random, but when it gets to be this many, that makes it a little less random.”

Loewenstein said no connection had been drawn between the graffiti and threats to Jews scrawled last month on the bathroom wall at Hamilton High School, just blocks away from where the word “Jew” was spray painted on the low brick wall that surrounds the Kaiser Permanente West Los Angeles Medical Center on La Cienega Boulevard.

Anyone who spots the graffiti is encouraged to take photos of it and call the ADL at (310) 446-8000 or LAPD Wilshire Division at (213) 473-0476.

— Julie Gruenbaum Fax, Senior Writer

Agoura Hills Foundation Builds Arab-Israeli Bridges in Sandboxes
On a trip to Israel and the West Bank in 2005, Agoura Hills psychotherapist Shepha Schneirsohn Vainstein realized there was an untapped resource in the pursuit of Arab-Israeli peace: children.

But when she founded a program to build bridges between Arab and Israeli teens, she quickly realized she needed to start with younger children.

Vainstein, who founded Salaam Shalom Educational Foundation in 2006, switched her focus to providing Arab and Jewish kindergartners therapeutic environments in which to nurture souls developing under chronic stress and trauma.

This Sunday, Salaam Shalom will host educator Lisa Profumo to talk about the organization’s methods and work at a lecture, “Healing Children While Building Bridges With Jewish and Arab Children in Israel,” at the Westlake Village Civic Center.

Profumo will describe the Waldorf method, a teaching approach being used increasingly around the world that strives to develop a child’s capacity for imagination.

“One of the most important premises of the Waldorf education is it develops an ability to look at a problem in a new way,” Vainstein said.

Implanting that capacity in young children, Vainstein said, will allow them to later view with fresh eyes the seemingly intractable problems in the Mideast.

With a budget in the range of $100,000 — although that number is currently being reworked — Salaam Shalom supports an integrated Arab-Jewish Waldorf classroom in the Galilee, and another Arab classroom in the Galilee that is in need of emergency funds to make it through the end of the year. That classroom, which twins with a Jewish Waldorf school in the area, is also the incubation point for training Palestinian kindergarten teachers.

“Our goal is to provide a humanistic education and to build bridges among children,” Vainstein said. “It is the best investment we can make for the future.”

Lisa Profumo will speak Sunday, May 17, 4 p.m. at the Westlake Village Civic Center off of Agoura Road at 31200 Oak Crest Drive. For more information, visit http://www.ssefoundation.org/~sashedfo/, e-mail shepha@ssefoundation.org, or call (818) 707-2164.
— JGF

Holocaust Museum Holds Forum on Serving Survivors
They experienced the worst this world has had to offer, but now thousands of Holocaust survivors are living a new nightmare in Los Angeles. A new survey by The Jewish Federation of Greater Los Angeles found that about 30 percent of the 10,000 to 12,000 survivors living in the greater Los Angeles area subsist on less than $10,200 a year. The figures were cited last week during a forum at the Museum of the Holocaust.

“If I walked into shul and told people there were children who needed help, they would throw money at me. But if I make the same announcement about an elderly person, I am in shul from 9 a.m. to 12 o’clock,” said Rabbi Hershy Ten, founder and president of Bikur Cholim, which, among other things, helps survivors with health needs.

The purpose of the forum — which included representatives of The Federation, the museum, Bet Tzedek, Chabad, Jewish Family Service (JFS) and the advocacy organization Second Generation — was to discuss the Jewish community’s ongoing response to the plight of indigent Holocaust survivors and to plot next steps where available.

“We are seeing more and more people who are falling through the cracks,” said Lisa Hoffman, the Holocaust services advocate at Bet Tzedek.

The participants talked about drawing more in reparations from the claims conference, something Bet Tzedek provides free legal services for, and encouraging more support from community members.

“We are creating ambassadors,” said Rabbi Mendel Cohen of Chabad on Olympic, which links younger Jews with survivors. “When you come to a museum, when you watch a Steven Spielberg film, when you read a book, it’s not the same as when you sit next to someone, and they say, I walked from Czechoslovakia, I worked in a camp, I sat under an oven.”

The primary needs for many indigent survivors are food and in-home care; JFS has fed 3,300 survivors and provided care to 580 since 1997. Michelle Wolf, assistant director of The Federation’s services to the vulnerable, said the biggest challenge the organization has had is actually getting services to survivors in surrounding cities like Glendale, Gardena and Downey. “Did The Federation plan to increase its support?” asked Mark Rothman, executive director of the Museum of the Holocaust.

“There is a tremendous amount of will,” Wolf said. “The biggest problem, of course, is we are facing the recession. We have been scrambling to create a new safety net. We just gave out our 80th emergency grant to a family in need; a few had been Holocaust survivors. We are scrambling on the new tidal wave of misery but very mindful that we need to keep taking care of Holocaust survivors.”

— Brad A. Greenberg, Senior Writer

Jewish Community Foundation Gives $1 million in Emergency Grants
In response to mounting financial need among Jewish individuals hurt by the economic recession, the Jewish Community Foundation last week released $1 million in emergency-assistance grants.

Five agencies joining together in a new collaboration called the Jewish Family Relief Network will receive, collectively, $750,000. Those agencies — Jewish Family Service (JFS), Jewish Vocational Service, Jewish Free Loan Association, the Bureau of Jewish Education and Jewish Big Brothers Big Sisters of Los Angeles — are pooling some resources and share a central intake for new clients and a coordinated case management to track services provided.

“Formation of the Jewish Family Relief Network offers a new approach to leveraging limited resources, and we expect to serve more members of the community more effectively through this collaborative effort,” said Marvin I. Schotland, the foundation’s president and CEO. “We hope that for individuals and families served by the Jewish Family Relief Network, the emergency assistance will provide the boost they need to put them on the road to self-sufficiency.”

The largest portion, $250,000, will go to JFS, which has seen a 43 percent increase in the number of clients it serves at its three SOVA food pantries each month.

Additionally, The Jewish Federation of Greater Los Angeles will receive $250,000 for its emergency grants initiative, which provides grants of up to $750 for individuals and $1,500 for families of four.

Individuals or families in need of emergency assistance should contact the agencies directly.

— BG

Denounce Muslim Group, UC Irvine Chancellor Urged
Nearly 2,700 people have signed an online petition encouraging a California university chancellor to publicly condemn an annual Muslim student event.

The document urges University of California, Irvine’s Michael Drake to denounce the Muslim Student Union’s “Israel: The Politics of Genocide” event, which began May 5 and runs through May 21.

“As an American, you have the right to speak out and explicitly denounce anti-Semitism, especially when it occurs on your campus,” the petition reads. “As an educational leader, you have the moral obligation to speak out.”

The petition also calls on Drake to condemn the Muslim group as a whole, alleging that it consistently violates a campus pledge to create “a learning climate free from expressions of bigotry.”

The Irvine campus has been a hotbed of pro-Palestinian activism, and Drake himself has drawn fire in the past from some Jewish groups who have urged him to publicly denounce activity that is said to cross the line into anti-Semitism. Drake thus far has declined to denounce specific activities, speaking out only against hate speech in general.

The two-week program features lectures from noted Palestinian activists such as British Parliament member George Galloway and former Georgia Rep. Cynthia McKinney, among other events, according to the O.C. Weekly.

— Jewish Telegraphic Agency

Bnei Akiva Event Draws 900
More than 900 people attended Bnei Akiva of Los Angeles’ community Yom HaZikaron commemoration and 61st Yom HaAtzmaut celebration on April 28 at Beth Jacob Congregation in Beverly Hills. 

The event’s main participants were members of Bnei Akiva of Los Angeles, a local branch of the international religious Zionist youth movement. High school-aged students led songs and prayers, performed a traditional flag dance with Israeli flags and emceed the event.

“Bnei Akiva gives kids leadership skills. They learn the basics of being leaders in the Jewish community and participating in what goes on in the Jewish world and in the world at large,” said Alissa Rimmon, program director at Bnei Akiva of Los Angeles.

In observance of Yom HaZikaron, Israel’s national memorial day for the fallen and the victims of terror, the Yeshiva University High School of Los Angeles Boys Band sang Hatikvah, the Israeli flag was lowered to half- mast, and the congregation took part in a moment of silence.

The keynote speaker was Dara Levin, whose twin brother, Michael, was the only American-born soldier to have died in the Second Lebanon War. Her speech was preceded by a condensed version of the documentary, “A Hero in Heaven,” which told the story of Michael Levin’s steadfast love for Israel and dedication to serve in the Israeli army.

A video presentation featuring Bnei Akiva of Los Angeles graduates, or bogrim, who were spending the year between high school and college in Israel was shown as well.

The program ended with the raising of the Israeli flag and the blowing of the shofar to celebrate Yom HaAtzmaut. After the service, the attendants danced in Beth Jacob’s newly dedicated recreation area, Jacob’s Garden.

— Jason Lipeles, Contributing Writer

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