Category
Culture
‘A Lot of Life Left’
At first glance, Temple Beth Zion, on a busy stretch of Olympic Boulevard in the mid-city, looks stark and abandoned.\n\nThe front door is locked, the religious school has been closed for almost four decades, and the daily minyan and Friday-night serviceare gone (many of the some 135 members, most of whom are aged 75 to80, can no longer drive at night).\n
Getty’s
Dr. Barry Munitz, who started life in a \”lower-middle-class\” environment in Brooklyn, has been named president and chief executive officer of the $4.2 billion J. Paul Getty Trust.
On What It Means To Be Armenian in America
About a decade ago, I was interviewing Professor Richard Hovannisian, the eminent UCLA authority on modern Armenian history.\n\nHe lamented the state of the Armenian Diaspora in Los Angeles, with its infighting and confrontations between church leaders, and its American-born generations forgetting the mother tongue and marrying out at an alarming rate.\n
Read Me a Story
Sure, the children\’s shelves at bookstores are crowded with schlocky merchandising tie-ins and humorless \”P.C.\” stories that groan under the weight of their own environmental and multi-culti lessons. But look a bit more carefully; you\’ll find the kinds of books that create those magical moments between adults and children.
A Sephardic Celebration
Sephardic, Ashkenazic, Mizrachic, or just out for a good time — whatever their background, Jews poured into the Skirball Cultural Center last Sunday for the first annual Sephardic Arts Festival. The event was a success beyond its organizers\’ wildest dreams. Attendance, estimated at more than 4,000, was more than double the anticipated turnout, making it the largest audience for any one-day event since the Skirball opened in April 1996. Despite long lines for shuttle buses and food, the mood of participants — a mix of generations and ethnicities — was festive and good-humored. Many people bumped into relatives and friends — often literally — while searching for seats, program notes or restrooms.
HUC Dean Redux
More than a quarter century ago, Dr. Lewis Barth became one of the youngest college deans in the United States, assuming the post at Hebrew Union College in Los Angeles. Eight years later, he stepped down. Now, at 59, Barth is back, having returned to his old chair last month.
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