The facility still under construction in Irvine is expansive and includes an infant-care facility, preschool, fitness center and gymnasium large enough to accommodate two basketball games. There are areas designated for workout classes, adult education and massage. When completed, there will be lockers for swimmers, space for an art exhibit, playground and Holocaust memorial.
With entrée in both spheres and his own bent for community involvement, Joel Landau\’s influence is felt far beyond Beth Jacob, which was his first full time pulpit 11 years ago.
\”When they hear Blanche\’s story, they get it,\” Tenaya Wallace said. \”She was so sick; it was an absolute transformation.\”
Seventeen-year-old Megan Knofsky keeps alive her sibling\’s memory by sustaining a teen support group that raises money for research to find a cure for cystic fibrosis, the genetic disorder that affects 30,000 people and claimed her sister, Sarah, in 1997.
The calendar is doing for Purim this year what Emeril suggests is good for any recipe: Kick it up a notch.
Nearly a year ago, Jack Wertheimer, provost of the Conservative movement\’s Jewish Theological Seminary (JTS) and a scholar of demographic trends, put a challenge to a former student.
Jews around the nation are deeply involved in interfaith initiatives, Wertheimer noted. But they avoid involvement with their own religion\’s different movements, letting ideological differences get in the way of conversing with each other over issues dear to each. Do something to mend that divide before the gulf is unbridgeable, he urged Stuart Altshuler, a JTS graduate and rabbi of Mission Viejo\’s Congregation Eilat.
There is unanimity on one point only: Two young Irvine women, who are midway through a 10-month subsidized stay in Israel, will return home next June speaking conversational Hebrew.
But little else is certain as both girls\’ parents predict their offspring will return changed by the immersion in voluntary social service, language training and civics lessons.
With Chanukah bracketed by major Christian and Muslim celebrations, last month might have been a propitious time to find common ground between the Abrahamic faiths.
Instead, a pair of incidents occurring within days of each other reveals the breadth of the cultural divide.
Prompted by recent car bombings of two synagogues in Turkey and a mosque in India, local leaders of Jewish, Christian and Muslim faiths came together for a vigil on Dec. 7 to publicly condemn such acts of violence as \”nothing less than vicious murders.\”
The desperate son of a woman diagnosed with cancer sought advice from Rabbi Reuben Malekan before accompanying his mother to Mexico for shark-cartilage treatments. When the cure failed, the son again beseeched Malekan for support in claiming his mother\’s body. Emotionally spent and depressed by the experience, Malekan nevertheless went on that same day to perform a joyous wedding service, which typically includes his full-throated a cappella version of \”Sunrise, Sunset.\”
\”It\’s an art to get out of that sadness,\” said Malekan, a well-known Iranian-born rabbi from Los Angeles, who is a master at refocusing his mental energy to suit the emotional range requisite of daily clergy life.
About three weeks before an annual Chanukah concert, Kathleen Abraham renews a Jewish ritual little practiced outside the county\’s borders.
On her day off, Abraham left home at 5:30 a.m., stopping at a convenience store to fill a 64-ounce coffee mug before heading to the Orange County Performing Arts Center in Costa Mesa. Besides java, Abraham\’s other provisions include a nosh, cell phone, PalmPilot and beach chair.
Her goal: to be at the head of the box office line to buy a block of 100 prime seats at the Dec. 7 Chanukah show for parents and congregants of Newport Beach\’s Temple Bat Yahm.
More news and opinions than at a Shabbat dinner, right in your inbox.