The Circuit

Everyone’s a Critic

The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) closed out its four-part Ralph Tornberg Lecture Series at the Wyndham Bel Age Hotel in West Hollywood with a crackling discussion on an evergreen topic: to what extent, as Marty Kaplan put it, “entertainment and its values have permeated all aspects of society.” Kaplan is director of the USC Annenberg School and its Norman Lear Center (the event’s co-sponsor).

The panel: perennial Hollywood Square and award show jokemeister Bruce Vilanch; Entertainment Weekly movie critic Lisa Schwarzbaum; television screenwriter Lionel Chetwynd (“Nixon and Kissinger”); and Los Angeles Times media critic Greg Braxton. (Braxton’s colleague at the Times, Brian Lowry, sat in the audience).

After opening remarks by Kaplan and Amy Levy, ADL’s associate director, Meryl Marshall Daniels, Academy of Television Arts and Sciences chairman and CEO, moderated a discussion on whether today’s television merely reflects or actually exacerbates society’s amorality. The latter seemed to be the overwhelming audience consensus.

“I like ‘The Sopranos,’ but America has fallen in love with a guy who is amoral,” said Braxton, before lambasting “Survivor” and “Temptation Island” as lucrative shows that inspire verbal contortions from the networks trying to rationalize them.

Vilanch, in his trademark Muppet facial shag and a jocular “Betty Ford Alumni Association” T-shirt, said cable shows live and die by depicting graphic sex, violence, and vulgarity to separate themselves from network TV and justify their subscription rate.

Chetwynd received applause when he dismissed “The West Wing” as equally culpable “moral Novocain” that amounted to “mind-numbing, soft-core political pornography.”

“The dialogue is just a bunch of proselytizing jargon they substitute for ideas,” Chetwynd continued. “I hate it.”

Such a panel would be toothless without some audience participation, and the Q&A portion didn’t disappoint. Two men in the audience attributed an increase in homosexuality among youth to palatable depiction of gays on TV.

“Watching homosexuality on TV didn’t make me gay; seeing Betty Grable made me gay,” Vilanch quipped.

An attorney stood up to comment that the panel had minimized media responsibility and spoke of a teen-age killer she had prosecuted who was influenced by the “Scream” trilogy. She also expressed concern that her own 15-year-old had embraced “Fight Club” (a film with a strong R rating). Another audience member questioned why the parent allowed her son to watch that movie in the first place.

No boob tube program, “Media and Morality” served as a lively, thought-provoking closer to an excellent series.

And Speaking of the ADL

Tessa Waxman-Hicks has joined the organization as assistant project director for the ADL’s “A World of Difference Institute.” Waxman-Hicks will help coordinate and create anti-bias education workshops designed to help educators work with students and parents. Waxman-Hicks arrives fresh from her work as Youth Programs director at the National Conference for Community and Justice, where she created the “Black/Brown Leadership Training Program” for at-risk African-American and Latino youth.

Les Williams, who since 1995 has served in an administrative capacity in the ADL’s Civil Rights, Community Service and Development divisions, was recently promoted to event coordinator. Williams will oversee event production for ADL’s Development Division.

Congratulations to both of you!

Child’s Pay

WIZO L.A. made a donation to Community Counseling Service/Amanecer, an agency that provides mental health services for underprivileged children and their families.

Put Away the Kleenex

Our friends at American Associates of Ben-Gurion University of the Negev report that the university has developed an unusual pressure-sensitive bandage that is assisting victims of severe automobile accidents, battle wounds, and terrorist bombs. The Elastic Adhesive Dressing, or ELAD, stops bleeding without the use of a painful tourniquet, which itself can cause tissue damage. The new bandage, developed by Dr. Sody Naimer of the Department of Family Medicine at the university’s Faculty of Health Sciences, was the subject of an article in a recent issue of the American Journal of Emergency Medicine.

Another Kol Call

Barton Kogan has been named executive director of Congregation Kol Ami in West Hollywood. Kogan previously worked in the same capacity at Temple Kol Tikvah in Woodland Hills and has been very active in the Jewish community.

Magen Macher

Dr. Yzhar Charuzi was presented with the “Humanitarian of the Year” Award at the American Red Magen David for Israel’s 2001 Gala, held at the Regent Beverly Wilshire.

Call Him Rabbi

Lomita resident Boruch Hecht was among the graduates ordained by the Rabbinical College of America in Morristown, N.J.

A Secure Future

Israel Humanitarian Foundation (IHF) and The Edelstein Family Charitable Foundation have donated $15,000 toward the Home Secure Program of Jewish Family Service of Los Angeles (JFS). The program provides free home-safety equipment for the elderly.

Study Day

The Pacific Southwest Branch of the Women’s League for Conservative Judaism Torah Fund Campaign explored “The Jewish Family: Changing Times, Changing Roles” during “Ahavat Torah — A Study Day” at the University of Judaism.

Home Run

A reception at the Beverly Hills Hotel’s legendary Polo Lounge honored major donors whose gifts went toward the Paul Goldenberg and Daphna and Richard Ziman Special Care Center. The building, made possible by the Los Angeles Jewish Home for the Aging’s $72-million capital campaign, is due to open in early 2002. In addition to the Zimans and Goldenberg, major donors include Ruth Ziegler; Audrey and Martin Appel; Barbara and Leonard Bernstein; Jacqueline and Jules Fogel; Eleanor and Harold Foonberg; Marion and Ernie Goldenfeld; Bari and Steven Good; Toba and Earl Greinetz; Gertrude Maier; Lila Meyers; and Janet and David Polak.

Leaders of the Shul

Judith and Stan Podolsky, leaders of Shomrei Torah Synagogue in West Hills, were honored at an event benefiting the Masorti Movement, an institution promoting Conservative Judaism and religious pluralism in Israel.