Jewish rehabilitation organization Beit T’Shuvah held its 26th annual gala on Jan. 28 at the Beverly Hilton.
The event drew about 900 people and raised $2.2 million for the organization, making it the top-grossing event in the organization’s 31-year history, said Janet Rosenblum, Beit T’Shuvah’s director of advancement.
The cocktail-attire event honored “Rebel Rabbi” Mark Borovitz, the senior rabbi at Beit T’Shuvah, and “Mogul Mensch” Sam Delug, a Beit T’Shuvah board of directors member.
Lynn Bider and Heidi Praw, who have been involved with Beit T’Shuvah for over a decade, co-chaired the event.
Valley Beth Shalom Senior Rabbi Ed Feinstein served as emcee of the event, which also featured a silent auction, dinner and an awards program.
Attendees included Stanley Black, Rev. Mark Whitlock, Annette and Leonard Shapiro, Joyce Brandman, Charlotte Kamenir and members of the Kamenir-Reznik family, Nancy Mishkin, Ruth Ziegler and representatives of The Jewish Federation of Greater Los Angeles, a partner of Beit T’Shuvah.
Beit T’Shuvah serves people recovering from substance abuse and other addictions, including gambling, eating disorders and compulsive behaviors. Every year, Beit T’Shuvah reaches more than 500 residential clients and an additional 2,500 community members through its congregation and prevention programs.
“With the opioid epidemic now considered a national emergency, Beit T’Shuvah is one of the few places dealing with addiction regardless of someone’s ability to pay for treatment,” Rosenblum said. “We are truly unique that way, and we don’t throw you out when your insurance runs out. Many of our 145 residents stay six months to a year. This dinner makes this possible.”
Honorary chairs were Joyce Brandman, Warren Breslow and Gail Buchalter, Asher Delug, Jeff Frasco and Beverly Frank, and Annette and Leonard Shapiro. Laura Kinsman and Stefanie Post Pollard were the auction chairs.
Los Angeles Jewish community leaders Elana Wien, vice president of the Jewish Community Foundation of Los Angeles, and Bailey London, executive director of USC Hillel, have been selected for the latest cohort of the Wexner Field Fellowship, a three-year leadership development program for the Jewish community.
The fellowship is awarded by the Wexner Foundation in partnership with the Jim Joseph Foundation.
“We are very proud of Elana Wien for her many contributions in the community, including this significant honor,” Jewish Community Foundation President and CEO Marvin Schotland said in a statement. “Having worked with Elana for over six years, I’ve watched her develop into the outstanding Jewish leader she is today. We congratulate Elana, and all of the Wexner Field fellows, and look forward to her continued growth through this fellowship and beyond.”
Wien and London are among 15 fellows selected for the 2018 Wexner Field cohort, from cities that include Los Angeles, San Francisco, New York, Chicago and Washington, D.C.
“I’m beyond honored to have been selected to be a part of the second class of the Wexner Field Fellowship,” London said. “Throughout the early stages of my career, I have had the privilege of participating in high-level professional development, and this opportunity is, by far, the most comprehensive way I can imagine continuing the process of growing and learning. I’m most excited to be a part of a network around the world of professional and volunteer leadership that has not only been invested in their own development but in strengthening the Jewish community for generations to come.”
The American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) held its annual Los Angeles gala on Jan. 21 at the Ace Hotel in downtown Los Angeles. About 1,000 people attended the event, the theme of which was a celebration of 70 years of friendship between the United States and Israel.
The program featured AIPAC Regional Director Wayne Klifosky; Houston City Councilwoman Amanda Edwards; AIPAC UCLA student activist Amir Kashfi; and a keynote panel with retired Army Gen. David Petraeus, former Israel Defense Forces Chief of Staff Gabi Ashkenazi, and Vance Serchuk, director of the investment firm KKR Global Institute.
The panelists discussed the U.S.-Israel relationship and challenges and opportunities in the Middle East.
AIPAC is a bipartisan pro-Israel lobby seeking to promote and strengthen the U.S-Israel relationship.
Los Angeles Clippers owner Steve Ballmer, through his philanthropic organization the Ballmer Group, which supports economic mobility, has pledged $7.5 million over five years to Martin Luther King, Jr. Community Hospital.
The Ballmer Group, which Ballmer co-founded with his wife, Connie, and the Weingart Foundation, a grant-making foundation founded by the late Ben Weingart and his late wife, Stella, together pledged $15 million to the nonprofit hospital serving South Los Angeles.
“Both Weingart and the Ballmers identified the hospital as an agent for change in South Los Angeles,” said a Jan. 12 Martin Luther King, Jr. Community Hospital press release.
The organizations’ goal is to bring more doctors to South Los Angeles and thus close the physician gap, the
release said.
Ballmer attended a Jan. 12 ceremony at the Los Angeles Music Center’s Dorothy Chandler Pavilion that celebrated the pledges.
Jews, Christians and Muslims gathered together on Jan. 19 at Temple Aliyah in Woodland Hills for the 19th annual Voices of Unity interfaith prayer service in observance of Martin Luther King Jr. Day.
An estimated 800 people attended the Shabbat service, including Pastor Najuma Smith Pollard of Word of Encouragement Church in Pico-Union, Pastor Michael J. Fisher of Greater Zion Church Family in Compton, Father Michael Evans of St. Bernardine of Siena Church in Woodland Hills, and Shaykh Suhail Hasan Mulla of the Council of Islamic Scholars.
The service included performances by Christian and Jewish children’s choirs and Algerian actor-activist Ben Youcef, who is also a muezzin, the man who calls Muslims to prayer from the minaret of a mosque. Youcef sang the Abrahamic prayer “We Are All Children of Abraham,” which Temple Aliyah Cantor Mike Stein had translated into English so the choirs could accompany him. They created a fusion of voices, singing in harmony in English and Arabic and sending a message of peace and friendship.
Over the years, Stein said, Temple Aliyah’s collaborations with Christian churches and the Ezzi Masjid Mosque in Woodland Hills have gone beyond the annual prayer service.
“Five years ago, while [the Ezzi Masjid Mosque] was going through renovations, they used our synagogue on Saturdays for their classes,” Stein said. “And when we found some swastikas on our walls about 2½ months ago, the Shaykh Mulla came with a bouquet of flowers to show support.”
The prayer service concluded with the participants singing “Oseh Shalom Bimromav” and “We Shall Overcome.”
“We have been doing this for 19 years, and each year people leave feeling a wellspring of hope that no one will be treated differently because of their race, religion, ethnicity or sexual preference,” Stein said. “We are created b’tzelem Elohim, in the image of God. This event started and continues to be inspired by the words of Dr. Martin Luther King’s dream — that people will not be judged by the color of their skin, only by the content of their character and their souls.”
—Ayala Or-El, Contributing Writer
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