In every picture, Melissa Kahn is smiling — whether covered with mud at the Dead Sea, riding a donkey up Mount Canaan or hiking from the Mediterranean to Lake Kineret. Kahn, 16, a junior at Harvard-Westlake School, mused recently about the eight weeks shes pent in Israel last summer on the Bureau of Jewish Education\’s Los Angeles Ulpan program.
The Jewish Community Library is used to catering to the literaryneeds of groups of school children, Yiddish scholars and day-schoolteachers. But seldom does it get a call for Talmudic texts to gracethe set of a sitcom. That changed a few weeks ago when librarydirector Abigail Yasgur received a request from the \”Seinfeld\” artdepartment to borrow a set of the sacred books. The 29-volume redSoncino Talmud filled the bill. The books, borrowed for a week, willappear in an episode scheduled to air next Thursday (Oct. 9) on NBC.
T\’shuvah, which in Hebrew translates as \”repentance, return andresponse,\” is not only part of the name of Gateways Beit T\’Shuvah,the Los Angeles halfway house for recovering Jewish offenders andaddicts. \”It\’s very much a part of what we do here,\” ExecutiveDirector Harriet Rossetto said during a recent interview.
Thousands of Los Angeles-area youngsters participate in hands-on workshops.
The 1997 Community Awards, which recognize outstanding achievementin the Jewish community, were given out during a special meeting ofthe Federation\’s board of directors at Sephardic Temple TiferethIsrael.
Complete with a ketubah signing, champagne, speeches and a few tears, the installation of Rabbi Michael Beals at B\’nai Tikvah Congregation in Westchester seemed more like a wedding.
To many American Jews in their 20s, 30s and 40s, Zionism, the ancient dream of a Jewish homeland that spawned a political movement and the birth of Israel almost 50 years ago, is little more than a footnote in a Sunday-school textbook.
Three generations of Grahams. Is there such a thing as a \”typical\” Jewish grandparent in America? When I thought about this impossibly broad question, I turned to my own extended family for examples. Were they typical? Stereotypical?
The Federation had received only four cancellations — a total of seven people who decided not to go because of the twin blasts — according to Evy Lutin, mission co-chair. More than 350 people are signed up for the 10-day mission, which celebrates the kickoff of Israel\’s 50th-anniversary year. About 500 people are expected to make the trip.
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