Community Briefs

Action Israel Comes to L.A.

On Sunday, Feb. 24, student activists will gather from colleges all over Southern California for Action Israel, a conference held in response to the increasing concern about anti-Israel sentiment on college campuses throughout the country. Comparisons of Nazism with Zionism at CSUN and UCLA as well as a speech given by Palestinian legislator Hanan Ashrawi at UCSB are only a few of the events that have called students to action.

The purpose of Action Israel will be to provide students with an opportunity to acquire skills to increase awareness about Israel on campus, and meet other activists from more than 20 campuses in Southern California to build powerful networks and share ideas. Speakers at the conference, which is being co-sponsored by The Jewish Journal, will include: Yuval Rotem, consul general of Israel in Los Angeles; Rep. Howard Berman (D-26); Los Angeles County Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky; and author and UCLA professor David Myers. The conference will run from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. at Sinai Temple, 10400 Wilshire Blvd., Los Angeles. Cost is $15. For more information, contact (323) 761-8163. — Merav Tassa, Contributing Writer

Jewish Schools Make Playoffs

If you thought it unlikely that both the Lakers and the WNBA Sparks won the championships last season, get ready for another unusual event in basketball. Three Jewish high schools — Yeshiva University of Los Angeles (YULA), Valley Torah, and Milken Community High School — are currently competing in statewide intramural basketball playoffs.

Of the three schools, YULA Boys had the closest shot at victory, until this past Tuesday, when they lost a game to Verbum Dei, a Catholic school in South Central Los Angeles.

“We got to the final eight and that’s as far as we got,” said Joel Fisher, YULA Boys’ athletic director, who oversees the boys basketball team with coaches Ed Gelb and Dave Winnik. Fisher added that while there was some post-game depression, YULA Boys are taking their loss in stride.

“For a school of our size with no gym to compete with these powerhouses, it’s a testament,” Fisher said. “The boys are realistic.”

No matter which team wins or loses, this amazing feat of Jewish representation in the high school playoffs is, in itself, something of a victory for the Jewish student athletes, which compete while maintaining a double curriculum.

However, the road to victory for the three schools was not without complications. Shabbat forced the schools to rearrange game schedules for YULA and Valley Torah. For YULA, that meant that the Pico-Robertson area school, which had a game at Arrowhead Christian rescheduled last weekend, had to spend Shabbat at a San Bernardino hotel, complete with sefer Torah for their minyan.

So is there a master plan in place at YULA Boys to improve their fortunes in 2003?

Said Fisher, sense of humor intact, “We’re going to try to find the tallest Jewish boys that we can find. Even if it takes genetic engineering.” — Michael Aushenker, Staff Writer

First Ramat Zion Kindergarten

Temple Ramat Zion of Northridge will open its first kindergarten class this September. “For the past several years, many parents have requested that we open a kindergarten,” said Betty Gorelick, nursery school director.

The nursery school will last from three to eight hours per day, as opposed to public school kindergarten, which can run less than three hours a day. The school day will be from 9 a.m. until 3 p.m., with early daycare starting at 7 a.m. and late daycare going until 6 p.m.

Temple Ramat Zion is located at 17655 Devonshire St., Northridge. For more information call (818) 366-1773. — Staff Report

Chabad Women’s Shabbaton

Chabad of the Conejo is hosting the a Women’s “Survivor” Shabbaton on March 1-3, at the Brandeis-Bardin Institute in Simi Valley.

Fee for the weekend is $225.00 per person, based on double occupancy. For more information please call Chabad at (818) 991-0991. — Staff Report