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Sweet Sorrow

A wall of neatly coiffed ladies charges up to the counter to place their orders for baked goods on one of the last days before the holidays and one of the last days before Brown\’s Bakery in North Hollywood closes its doors forever. Some of the customers have been buying their cakes, cookies and bread here for as long as the bakery has been open, and that\’s 42 years. Some have been Brown\’s customers even longer, when it was Brown Brothers Bakery on Wilshire Boulevard; some for longer still, when Brown\’s was in the Bronx, during the war.

Model Volunteer

\”I didn\’t really know until I got into it that it was a Jewish organization,\” said Deborah Jennings, who is now the Talkline shift leader on Thursday nights. \”It took a little getting used to.\”

Finding Work in a Bear Market

It was a rough transition for Debbie Murphy. She had just emerged from a difficult divorce after being trapped for two decades in an abusive marriage. Two years ago, she found herself on her own for the first time, unemployed and unequipped.

Fighting Exclusion

In a Philadelphia suburb, a Reform congregation has fought for more than a year to create a synagogue on a parcel of land that for many years had been the site of a Roman Catholic novitiate. An Orthodox congregation in Los Angeles has been in court for years over their use of a private house, even though their neighbors thoroughly approve of the shul. And in New Rochelle, N.Y., a modern Orthodox congregation has been stymied in what seemed like a routine move — across the street.

One on One With James Hahn

Aping the famous Army recruitment commercials, the mayoral candidates have all urged Los Angeles to \”be all you can be.\” But City Attorney James Hahn, ostensibly the one shoo-in for the run-off election in June, has come up with a novel approach to realizing his own mayoral ambitions — by being the people\’s second choice. Hahn knows that outside of his base constituency within the African American community, few people are genuinely fired up about his candidacy. But that\’s okay, he says, because only one of his rivals is going to win the primary in April. And the people who supported the others, often with great passion and fervor, will most likely transfer their allegiance to their second-choice candidate — himself. It\’s a strange race, to be sure, and its Aesopian undertones may well inspire future tales of \”The Tortoise and the Hahn.\” Still, at press time Hahn\’s lead over Steve Soboroff and Antonio Villaraigosa had narrowed — and while Hahn shares the endorsement of the Los Angeles Times with Villaraigosa, the Valley-based Daily News has endorsed Soboroff.

Pressure Power?

\nHenry Bean can barely contain his anger when he talks about the Simon Wiesenthal Center.

UCLA Hillel Hosts Muslim-Jewish Series

On April 2, UCLA Hillel opened a spring forum titled \”Muslim-Jewish Relations: Harmony and Discord Throughout History\” examining relations between Muslims and Jews from the founding of Islam to the contemporary era.

Voices of Peace

In the long view — and who could have a longer view than the man who, until recently, was the U.S. State Department\’s Middle East negotiator for the past 12 years? — Dennis Ross believes that diplomacy in the Middle East boils down to psychology. \”The idea of taking politics out of foreign policy,\” Ross said, \”is as illusory as taking psychology out of human behavior, and what is foreign policy after all, but a collection of human behaviors.\”

Left Hanging

Sharon Kupferman, a junior at Cal State Northridge, was one of 11 students left \”hanging in the air\” last fall, when the statewide university system abruptly canceled its overseas study program in Israel.

From Baptist to Beshert

Growing up in Mississippi, the granddaughter of devout Baptist sharecroppers, Delores Gray came from what she calls \”a praying background.\”

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