\nWhen Cedars-Sinai Medical Center announced last Monday that itplans to take over management of two smaller West Los Angeleshospitals, the headlines could easily have read, \”Man Bites Dog.\”
The dominant stories of 5757 centered around ourcontinual war of words fought over religion, sex, politics andhistory
Ronald Weiner sits on a bench in a serene Beverly Hills park on a perfect, sunny day, filled with rage and frustration. He\’s shaking, his fingers tremble, and his voice cracks with every other sentence. The source of his anger is the city in which he sits. For the past year, Beverly Hills has thwarted Weiner\’s efforts to build a large senior-housing project on property he owns.\n
For Robert Anthony Siegel,April is indeed the cruelest month.Siegel\’s first novel came out in April — that was kind. But so did novels by Norman Mailer, Saul Bellow and Philip Roth. That was very,very cruel.\n\nAs book reviewers wrote fevered mini-tomes, dissecting the latest works by the greats, and publishing-house publicity budgets emptied to push Saints Norm, Saul and Phil, Siegel\’s exceptionally funny and entertaining novel, \”All the Money In the World,\” received zero attention.
Tisha B\’Av, the day of mourning in commemoration of the destruction of the two Temples, is notable for at least two reasons. For one, it may be the only holiday that Hallmark hasn\’t designed a card for. And it seems to be the one holiday that most Jews have heard of, but few seem to know much about. As with quarks and RNA and Rothko, we can drop \”Tisha B\’Av\” into a conversation, hoping all the while that we won\’t be asked to actually explain it.\n
Dr. Susan Marilyn Block is a nice Jewish girl, who talks about sex on late-night cable TV. From Esther to… Dr. Suzy?\n
Naomi Wolf, author of \”Promiscuities: The Secret Struggle for Womanhood\”\nSex will always be with us, but thoughtful, non-hysterical conversations about sexual issues are few and far between. With the publication of her newest book, \”Promiscuities: The Secret Struggle for Womanhood\” (Random House, $24), social critic Naomi Wolf has helped bring the subject of girls\’ sexuality to the national spotlight in a serious way — for at least as long as it takes to conduct a book tour.
Haviva Kohl is two people. She is, at 18, the idealistic young woman, fresh from her high school graduation, eager to live her dreams. And she is, at 18, the toughened outsider, wise to the ways of the world, even a bit exhausted by it all.\n\nFor the past six years, Kohl has been on her own. Not because she had to be but because she wanted to be. It was the only way she could receive a Jewish education.
Question: What do you get when you cross Hollywood, the Holocaust and Jewish communal fund-raising? Answer: Something exactly like last Wednesday night\’s Simon Wiesenthal National Tribute Dinner at the Beverly Hilton Hotel.
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