What, Where and When: The 17th annual Israel Independence Day Festival celebrating Israel\’s 57th anniversary on May 15, from 10 a.m.- 7 p.m., Woodley Park, Van Nuys (between Burbank and Victory boulevards).
Interfaith Passover seder participants dine in a banquet hall at Wilshire Boulevard Temple. The April 29 seder grew out of an 11-day interfaith trip to Israel and the West Bank in February.
The high concrete walls of the little-used cafeteria at the Men’s Central Jail in downtown Los Angeles hardly spoke to Passover’s concept of freedom found and bondage ended. But this is where a dozen inmates gathered for their seder, in a setting that cried out Egypt rather than the promised land.
Rabbi Yossi Carron, the jail’s Jewish chaplain, held up a sprig of parsley to redefine the bleak surroundings.
“This is a real great symbol for you,” the Reform rabbi said. “I really want you to believe in the green parts of yourself. This symbol is you.”
Temple Shalom for the Arts has a little part of its soul in Los Angeles gospel, when the independent congregation will host the pre-Passover Shared Heritage of Freedom service at the Wilshire Theatre on April 15.
Pope John Paul II died at 9:37 p.m. in Rome, which was 11:37 a.m. Saturday in Los Angeles — in the middle of Shabbat — at the same time that Rabbi David Wolpe talked to his Sinai Temple congregation about a pope who deserved the gratitude of the Jewish people.
Christian children wearing their Sunday best for last week\’s Easter services understandably could forget, amidst their Easter egg hunts, that the Last Supper of Jesus was a Passover seder.
But in this season of Easter and Passover, connections between the holidays has inspired an art exhibit showcasing Christian and Jewish artists motivated by religious themes. The exhibit is housed in downtown Los Angeles at the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels. Its aspirations and the artworks themselves are impressive, though the effort has suffered from uneven presentation of the artwork.
The \”Passion/Passover\” exhibit could be viewed as a positive response to Jewish-Catholic tensions surrounding last year\’s \”The Passion of the Christ\” by filmmaker Mel Gibson. His film was praised by Catholic church officials, though many Jewish leaders said the film unreasonably cast Jews as villains.
Last year The Jewish Federation of Greater Los Angeles raised about $4.5 million at Super Sunday 2004, about $800,000 more than 2003\’s Super Sunday success. The money will fund agencies such as Jewish Family Service and Jewish Vocational Service, as these two critical-needs agencies join other non-profits in bracing for state and federal cutbacks.
Southern California Jewish Republicans saw history up close at President Bush\’s inauguration, attending not only his swearing-in but numerous social events including a pre-inauguration dinner for the president where a local Chabad rabbi lit the candles.
At the Israel advocacy group StandWithUs, executive director Roz Rothstein can look back wistfully on a seemingly more innocent time when fundraising was less convoluted for the four-year-old group.
Boys can be squirrely when any adult visits a classroom to lecture. That\’s why when Ursula Bacon comes in to talk about her Holocaust experience, she tells stories about how she once had a cockroach for a pet, and that she didn\’t have use of a toilet for eight years.
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