After we made \”Schindler\’s List,\” more and more Holocaust survivors came up to me ,and every one of them said, \”Now let me tell you MY story.\” And each story was different and compelling. – Steven Spielberg
Mark Borovitz is their rabbi, and he is one of them: An alcoholic since adolescence, a former drug user, an ex-con who spent a good chunk of the 1980s in state prison and county jail on charges including insurance fraud, check kiting and armed robbery. \”I\’ve been allowed to come back from my own demise, a demise I created myself,\” he told his congregants.
It was perhaps the most emotionally potent moment of the evening, as the elderly Rabbi Yedidiah Shofet, addressing his audience in Farsi, broke down and cried, his voice trembling, his frail body shaking.Representing the Nessah Cultural Organization, Shofet was part of a lineup of speakers appearing earlier this week at West Hollywood\’s Hollywood Temple Beth El, where – reacting to the July 1 verdict that sentenced 10 of the Shiraz 13 – local Jews met to demonstrate support for the prisoners and to condemn the actions of the Iranian government.
Eighty-eight years after Henrietta Szold founded Hadassah in 1912, the 306,000-member Zionist and social service organization will gather in Los Angeles for its first national convention of the 21st century. From July 16-19, more than 2,500 leaders and guests will mingle at the Century Plaza Hotel, where speakers will range from actor Richard Dreyfuss to political commentators Mary Matalin and James Carville. Hadassah is the largest women\’s and Jewish group in the U.S., but president Bonnie Lipton admits membership is down from its high of more than 350,000 in the 1980s. More than half of current membership is over 61, so the group is working to reinvent itself and draw younger women. Besides its historic focus on health care in Israel, for example, the organization is now championing women\’s health in the U.S, among other issues.
David Lehrer may be overstating his case only slightly when he says that most Westsiders are unaware of what goes on \”6 inches below the 10 freeway and 6 inches east of the Golden State.\”
Last Friday was bittersweet for Sandra King. Closing a chapter in her professional life that has lasted a quarter of a century, King stepped down as executive director of Jewish Family Service (JFS), a beneficiary agency of The Jewish Federation of Greater Los Angeles.
About the only words of praise for Chuck Quackenbush, who resigned last week (June 28) as California insurance commissioner in the face of certain impeachment, have come from Holocaust survivors grateful for his dogged attempts to force European insurance companies to pay claims stemming from the Nazi era.
Rabbi Abner Weiss has decided to abandon his prominent position in L.A.\’s Jewish community to lend his expertise and experience to England\’s budding Modern Orthodox community.
Debrah Constance is the director of A Place Called Home (APCH), a community center and safe house for inner-city kids in South Central.
Carl Birman would like to meet the right man one day. For now, he\’s trying to put the past to rest and advocates celibacy as a way \”to help people figure out their direction in life. It\’s a way to come to terms with feelings without acting on them,\” he says.
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