You can hang out for years at the Pico-Robertson intersection and still have no clue that you are 50 feet away from a Jewish high school for boys called Natan Eli.
Today, one of the great Moroccan sages, Rabbi Chaim Pinto of the city of Mogador, has a living presence right here in our own hood, on Pico Boulevard, just east of Robertson. It\’s at a little shul called the Pinto Center.
Ever since I moved to this country 25 years ago, I\’ve been in awe of how 250 million people stop everything during the fourth Thursday of November to gather around cranberry sauce, stuffing and bread pudding.This year, however, being in the Orthodox hood, where they celebrate a Jewish version of Thanksgiving twice a week — on Friday night and Shabbat lunch, without turkey and TV but with lots of prayers, blessings and songs, and at least as much food — I\’ve been experiencing something a little different: a respectful but slightly blasé attitude toward this big American holiday.
You walk into an elegant, minimalist little building on the corner of Pico and Doheny in the heart of the hood. It\’s Shabbat, and you\’ve come to pray.
There\’s no question that Gino\’s got a thing for Jews. Perhaps this has something to do with the fact that for the better part of 40 years, Jewish women have accounted for 90 percent to 95 percent of his hairdressing business.
I can see going a little nuts on Purim, when we celebrate a seminal victory that saved the Jewish people, but going bananas on a day of Torah?
If you want to get the full flavor of the Pico-Robertson neighborhood, there\’s no better season than this time of year.
Earlier this year, publisher and activist David Suissa moved from his old neighborhood near the Beverly Center to a home in the Pico-Robertson area. His new column will explore the nooks and crannies of his new neighborhood.
A great many of us are consumed by the nasty war of existence Israel has been fighting, by the international diplomatic backlash against the Jewish state, and by the renewed chutzpah of an enemy intent on destroying us. It is natural that we should do anything we can to help, whether through charitable donations, public demonstrations or even prayers at weddings. But in our zeal to do something, in our all-consuming anger at a cowardly and unjust enemy, it is easy to fall into a trap of putting other important things on hold, like our Jewishness.\n
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