Comedy’s living legends — like Larry David, Jerry Seinfeld, Jay Leno and Richard Lewis — all started out, at least in part, as nobodies playing The Improv on Melrose Avenue. It’s long been a place committed to showcasing new talent, and these days, every Tuesday at 5 p.m., the storied comedy club hosts a popular open mic for striving comics. It has been running in this time slot for more than two years.
TribeLive presents “Out on the Bimah: An Open and Honest Conversation With Gay Clergy in Los Angeles,” featuring Rabbis Lisa Edwards (Beth Chayim Chadashim), Denise Eger (Congregation Kol Ami), J.B. Sacks (Academy for Jewish Religion, California), Zachary Shapiro (Temple Akiba) and Jocee Hudson (Temple Israel of Hollywood). The Jewish Journal Managing Editor Susan Freudenheim moderates. Tue. 7:30 p.m. $10. Writers Guild Theater, 135 S. Doheny Drive, Beverly Hills. (213) 368-1661 ext. 251. outonthebimah.eventbritecom.
\”If you want to make something where everybody will come together, focus on things that people have in common, [like] love of music,\” said Rabbi Yonah Bookstein, organizer of the Jewlicious Festival. Indeed, music, art and family took center stage last weekend for the three-day, sixth annual Jewlicious, which brought nearly 1,000 people — including Jews of all denominations — from 22 states to Long Beach\’s Alpert Jewish Community Center.
Peter Wollstein lived in the Shanghai Ghetto when he celebrated his bar mitzvah in 1947. But now, looking back more than six decades later, he says he is unhappy with his Chinese simcha.\n\n“I memorized a couple of prayers, and that was about it,” said Wollstein, whose family fled Nazi Germany prior to the start of the Holocaust. “It wasn’t very demanding.”\n\nWollstein, 75, has become more deeply involved in Jewish life in recent years, and his cursory bar mitzvah in China has inspired him to go back and give it another try. Last year, after the High Holy Days, he joined a class to study for a second, more authentic experience.
Emmy-nominated actress Jane Kaczmarek (“Malcolm in the Middle”) stars as an American settler in Israel in a staged reading of Karen Hartman’s “Goliath.” Awarded the 2008 Dorothy Silver Playwriting Prize, the drama unfolds on the eve of Israel’s 2005 Gaza pullout. Discussion follows. Wed. 7:30 p.m. Free. UCLA De Neve Auditorium, 351 Charles E. Young Drive, Los Angeles. (310) 208-3081. uclahillel.org.
The sixth annual Jewlicious Music, Arts and Culture Festival blends Judaism with the aesthetics of Coachella. The three-day event boasts an eclectic lineup of contemporary Jewish music and comedy, including performances by Moshav, Electro Morocco, Diwon and Smooth E. Fri. through Feb. 21. Prices vary. Barbara and Ray Alpert Jewish Community Center, 3801 E. Willow St., Long Beach. (310) 277-5544. jewliciousfestival.com.
Exodus, Leviticus and Deuteronomy, as well as Maimonides’ “Eight Levels of Charity” all say the same thing: Loans should be given out without charging any interest.
The Los Angeles City Planning Commission ruled unanimously on Jan. 28 to approve an expansion project proposed by Valley Beth Shalom (VBS) in Encino.
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