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Gene Lichtenstein

Gene Lichtenstein

UJ Stages ‘The Quarrel’

About 10 years ago, give or take a year, I was invited to director Arthur Hiller\’s home to attend a reading of a work in progress. About 80 to 100 people turned out and listened raptly as two wonderful actors, script in hand, read the work in progress. It was a play called \”The Quarrel,\” written by two friends, David Brandes and Rabbi Joseph Telushkin and based on a short story by Yiddish writer Chaim Grade. I mean no exaggeration when I say that everyone seated in Hiller\’s spacious living area knew they were listening to a play that was special.

The Editor’s Corner

The good news about Passover in America circa 1998is that more Jews than ever are embracing the holiday. It has become,as Dr. Ron Wolfson tells us (in the Passover section), our mostpopular Jewish holiday. Even non-Jews seek an invitation to a sederat the home of Jewish friends.

The Editor’s Corner

My problem with Dennis Prager, author, radio host,newsletter writer, is simple: I like the man, but I just can\’t readhis writing. In person, I find him open, engaging, serious. In print,he comes across to me as narrow-minded, ponderous and self-involved.I usually settle my conflict by shying away from the publicpersona.
But with his new book, \”Happiness Is a SeriousProblem,\” and its appearance on the best-seller list, I thought Imight try again.

The People vs. The Executive Committee

This story should be called The People vs. The Executive Committee. The People in this instance are the families and individuals who make up the approximately 5,000-strong membership of the Westside Jewish Community Center on Olympic Boulevard near Fairfax Avenue.

American Books and Jewish Identity

Tucked away in a collection of J.D. Salinger\’s\”Nine Short Stories\” is a work of fiction I\’ve always liked: \”Down at the Dinghy.\” When I read the story for the first time, maybe five years after it was first published (perhaps sometime in the early 1950s), the thought occurred to me that some mysterious sea change had taken place in our literary culture when I wasn\’t looking.

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