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Personals

MY IRAQ

When a Marine finds himself in a ditch or an abandoned house, suddenly under fire, having to decide where to shoot and who to kill, it may not much matter if the Marine is Jewish. It was before and after the firefights in Iraq that Marine Corps Sgt. Kayitz Finley remembered and confronted his belief.\n\nThe war in Iraq cost Finley his faith for awhile. It also took away 11 buddies — including a close friend — men on whom he\’d depended to get home in one piece. Still, for Finley, the conflict was never the wrong war, the wrong place or the wrong time. For him, the Iraq War was as advertised — a war of liberation, a war keeping faith with the American principle of bringing freedom to those lacking it.\n\n\”Every Marine out there was for the cause,\” said Finley, who served two combat tours in Iraq. \”I believe in the cause, and I wanted to continue what I was doing.\”

‘Star Wars’ for Jews

I was out communing with the nerds last weekend, contributing to the $158.5 million record four-day opening for \”Revenge of the Sith.\” Now that the series is over and done with (at least until George Lucas launches his live-action \”Star Wars\” television series), I began reflecting on all things Jewish in the saga set a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away. Even though Lucas considers himself a \”Buddhist Methodist,\” and many of the themes from the series are inspired by the universal mythic structure explored by writer Joseph Campbell, there are some elements in the series that are undeniably Jewish.

A Concert Behind Bars

Most Jewish people I know have never set foot in L.A. County jails or a California state prison. Were they to do so, they would discover dangerous overcrowding in most penal institutions.

They would see tens of thousands of inmates struggling to survive the daily routines of prison life. And they would discover their fellow Jews behind bars — men and women who face enormous additional challenges. Too often, these inmates encounter virulent anti-Semitism at the hands of prisoners and guards. Strident missionaries from inside and outside the prison walls harass them. Jails and prisons test the resolve of those who choose to identify as Jews. They are too few in number to stand up to gangs and other hostile forces.

So Uncool, It’s Cool

I favor the type of acrylic French tip nails that are considered fashionable only by midlevel porn stars.

Live Jews Walking

Cigarette butts, old candy wrappers, dirty napkins on the ground. Above, Jews, Jews, Jews, lots of Jews, walking, smoking, laughing. First day of Chol Hamoed, there\’s a breezy, late afternoon glow.

My New Mother

My mother has become a serene and content old woman.

The changes, probably due to both her dementia and medications, have created an unexpected-and quite wonderful — new chapter in our relationship.

Pots-and-Pans Faith

When I was in 12th grade at L.A. Hebrew High School, our Chumash teacher, Eliezer Slomovic, interrupted a lesson to share with us a little of his anger. He had davened on the previous Shabbat in a friend’s shul — I think to attend a bar mitzvah. Eliezer, as we called him, always got to shul on time and apparently the gabbai wanted to honor him with an aliyah. He came up to our teacher and asked, “Do you keep kosher?”

As he told us this, Eliezer, a learned and humble man, looked down and slowly shook his head in wonder and sorrow. The room full of 16- and 17-year-olds perked up. We stopped passing notes or flirting with the boy across the room. We sensed that Eliezer was about to impart an important life lesson.

Hail to the Seder Chief

I can just imagine my Orthodox grandparents worrying about making the seder come alive for their grandchildren.

Card-Table Tales

I confess that most of my childhood Passover memories have nothing to do with the Passover story itself. How could they when seders were family dramas enacted against a backdrop of matzah and gefilte fish? Like most American Jewish kids, I started out observing the proceedings from a card table, fidgeting while the grown-ups read from the haggadah.

In Death, Still Not Parting

How often do we let feuds linger on believing that we have so much more time left on this earth?

More news and opinions than at a
Shabbat dinner, right in your inbox.

More news and opinions than at a Shabbat dinner, right in your inbox.

More news and opinions than at a Shabbat dinner, right in your inbox.