T\’shuvah, which in Hebrew translates as \”repentance, return andresponse,\” is not only part of the name of Gateways Beit T\’Shuvah,the Los Angeles halfway house for recovering Jewish offenders andaddicts. \”It\’s very much a part of what we do here,\” ExecutiveDirector Harriet Rossetto said during a recent interview.
Earlier in the week, Irving Moskowitz had stood in that gritty, neglected urban village on the flank of the Mount of Olives, hammering a mezuzah on a door post and telling the world\’s TV cameras that this was where \”we\” are making \”our\” home. Yet the truth was that as soon as he had signed a face-saving deal with the government of Israel, he was on the plane back to Florida in time for Shabbat.
The offspring of aleft-leaning coalition of Jewish groups and spearheaded by theAmerican Jewish Congress, the commission has set out to examineconditions in Los Angeles\’ garment industry and suggest possibleactions for the Jewish community to follow.
The 1997 Community Awards, which recognize outstanding achievementin the Jewish community, were given out during a special meeting ofthe Federation\’s board of directors at Sephardic Temple TiferethIsrael.
Even without the immediacy of the telephone, the fear, wearinessand anguish that Israelis are feeling is as close to us as thenightly newscast or the morning paper.
So, one has to ask, why did Rachel Wohlgelernter apply to Yale?
\”We are dwindling,\” says the 1939 Club\’s Fred Diament.\n\n\”We are afraid of what will happen when we are no longer around tokeep the memory alive,\” says the Lodzer Organization of California\’sKal Berson.\n\nThe aging Holocaust survivors are speaking not only of fellowsurvivors but also of their respective clubs, which were formed inthe 1950s by émigrés who had lost everything to Hitler.
Complete with a ketubah signing, champagne, speeches and a few tears, the installation of Rabbi Michael Beals at B\’nai Tikvah Congregation in Westchester seemed more like a wedding.
To many American Jews in their 20s, 30s and 40s, Zionism, the ancient dream of a Jewish homeland that spawned a political movement and the birth of Israel almost 50 years ago, is little more than a footnote in a Sunday-school textbook.
Following an intensive, three-year fund-raising campaign, augmented by government aid, BBI has moved from \”rubble to renewal\” and from \”dream to reality,\” according to the invitation to the Sept. 14 event.
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