Do the words \”innovative\” and \”Jewish groups\” seem like oxymorons? Not to the publishers of \”Slingshot,\” a new guidebook to the \”50 most innovative Jewish groups in North America,\” published by a division of the Andrea and Charles Bronfman Philanthropies.
Edy Greenblatt is best known in Los Angeles as an energetic, knowledgeable folk dance teacher. But in search of a more stable career, she studied organizational behavior at the Harvard Business School, in a joint doctoral program involving Harvard\’s graduate schools of psychology and sociology.
Jonathan Erlich and Andy Ram think they can win the upcoming U.S. Open. Come again? The Grand Slam tennis tournament that no Israeli has come close to winning?
\”Every tournament we enter we think we can win,\” Ram said.
Erlich and Ram nearly backed that up two years ago at Wimbledon. They reached the doubles semifinals, and Ram butted into the mixed doubles final. That makes them the top Israeli Grand Slam duo in history.
Long before \”The Da Vinci Code\” dominated bestseller lists, a cluster of Jewish mathematicians were promoting \”The Bible Codes,\” the deeply mathematical interpretations of the five books of Moses which may, vaguely, predict some future events.
And yes conspiracy theorists, the government is involved — insofar as one of the code\’s four main proponents worked at the National Security Agency (NSA).
\”The evidence is all showing that these codes are real,\” said Harold Gans, who spent 28 years at the NSA as a senior cryptologic mathematician before retiring in 1996. \”The Torah could not be written by any being bound by the laws of nature.\”
It\’s not easy for a kid to find out that his parents are spies, and that he and his sister have to rescue them from evildoers.
But it\’s not as hard as trying to learn Hebrew from scratch in six months for a bar mitzvah — especially when the spy scenario is fictional and the bar mitzvah is real.
So it was for Daryl Sabara, the cherubic red-headed star of three \”Spy Kids\” films. He and his twin brother, Evan, also an actor who appeared in \”Spy Kids,\” were bar mitzvahed at Chabad of Brentwood last month after studying with the synagogue\’s rabbi, Baruch Hecht, for half a year.
As professional actors, it would have been a cinch for the Sabaras to memorize their Torah portion phonetically, just like many kids who don\’t know Hebrew. But the twins really wanted to learn Hebrew — and about their heritage.
Scoring on a Saturday night just got a whole lot easier for gamers, and they have an Orthodox Jew to thank.
Arena Interactive Lounge offers a 21st century take on the arcade — a Santa Monica-adjacent, nerd-hip destination that features a modern lounge vibe.
It\’s the brainchild of 27-year-old Ron Rosenberg, an observant Jew who grew up in Pico-Robertson, attending Harkham Hillel Hebrew Academy, Yeshiva University High School and USC.
There are plenty of guys with crushes on Drew Barrymore, the actress who began as a child ingénue at age 6 in \”E.T.\” and who captivates as an adult in sexier roles like her turn as one of \”Charlie\’s Angels.\”
The very word Siberia evokes a cold, distant place — it\’s so, well, Soviet. But Siberia just got a little warmer and a little more Jewish because of San Fernando Valley resident Elaine Berke, who arranged for the b\’nai mitzvah of 61 Siberian Jews ranging in age from 12 to 26.
Oz Iluz loved to play goalie on his soccer team, but wasn\’t too keen on math or the math exam that awaited him. So the 12-year-old didn\’t really want to get on the small No. 14 bus in Jerusalem on that February morning in 2004.
There is a new twist to the contentious question of who is really a Jew. John C. Haedrich, who claims that his DNA proves his Ashkenazi descent, is challenging the State of Israel to recognize his Jewishness under the Law of Return.
