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Jewish Journal

Connect. Inform. Inspire.

May 15, 1997

Up Front

Leave a Comment / Old Stories, Up Front /

Go into any synagogue, in any part of this town, and you will find them — people whose courageous stories of survival during the Holocaust could each be the subject of a compelling movie or book. The Holocaust Remembrance Project of North Hollywood’s Temple Beth Hillel more than proved this point. Its new book, “Remembrance and Reflection,” contains the stories of 20 survivors, all of whom have been affiliated with the temple.

The project, co-chaired by survivor Tina Jaffe, combined survivors’ interviews and memoirs with poems, drawings, essays, photos and short stories by other temple members who have been touched by the survivors’ stories.

And who wouldn’t be? There’s Jaffe herself, who survived temperatures of 20 below zero in Siberian work camps, and Ben Kamm, whose partisan group launched a fearless attack on German labor camps, and Phyllis Fields, who narrowly escaped death several times while wandering eastern Poland alone, disguised as a Catholic girl. It’s a story as chilling as “The Painted Bird,” and it’s all true.

Every story in this volume begs to be told and retold. True, every temple has its stories, but these are thoughtfully, and powerfully, committed to paper. Call (818) 763-9148 for your copy. n

VBS Converts on the Bimah


Some 40 Valley Beth Shalom congregants who have converted to Judaism will participate in Friday-evening services, on May 23, at the Conservative congregation in Encino.

Rabbi Harold Schulweis (pictured at right) said that some of the Jews-by-choice will participate as vocalists, others as readers, and five or six will relate their “journeys to Judaism” — including both positive and negative receptions by born Jews.

Schulweis recently received international attention with a proposal that Jews actively seek converts among interested and unchurched non-Jews.

During his sermon, which will take the biblical injunction “to love the stranger in your midst” as its theme, Schulweis will propose a mentor project “to befriend searchers” and a course to be taught by Reform, Conservative and Orthodox rabbis.

The community is invited to the services. For information, call (818) 788-6000, ext. 655, or visit the synagogue’s web site at www. VBS.org. — Tom Tugend, Contributing Editor

Sugihara: The Movie

His interest sparked by a story he heard on national public radio a few years back, paralegal and aspiring playwright Tim Toyama decided to write a one-act piece about the rescue efforts of World War II-era diplomat Chiune Sugihara (often described as the “Japanese Schindler”). Toyama’s “Visas and Virtue” was received warmly by Los Angeles’ Jewish and Japanese-American communities when it was given a series of modest stage productions last year. Soon after the play’s debut, the playwright and his colleagues formed Cedar Grove Productions and began to raise money to translate the drama into a short film.

Since then, Up Front has followed the fortunes of Toyama and company. Unlike the pipe dreams of many aspiring filmmakers, theirs became a reality. The Sugihara cast and crew shot the movie on a bare-bones budget, using Los Feliz as a stand-in for the Kovno consulate post. Now, six months later, moviegoers will get a chance to see “Visas and Virtue.” During the last two weekends in May, the 26-minute, 35mm short will play at Laemmle’s Sunset 5 Theatres in West Hollywood.

Sugihara’s story makes for compelling drama. From his post in Lithuania, after Hitler’s 1939 invasion of Poland, the Japanese consul issued thousands of life-saving transit visas to desperate Jewish refugees. While his actions angered his Japanese superiors and cost him his diplomatic credentials, Sugihara remained a hero to those he saved. Ultimately, he was honored as a Righteous Among Nations by the State of Israel.

“Visas and Virtue” director and lead actor Chris Tashima said that Cedar Grove hopes to distribute the film to educational institutions with an accompanying study guide. In the meantime, it has begun making the rounds of film festivals, recently winning first place at the USA Film Festival in Dallas. Along with its two-weekend run at Laemmle’s, “Visas” can also be seen during Los Angeles’ Asian Pacific Film and Video Festival, which is now in progress.

For screening times at Laemmle’s Sunset 5, call (213) 848-3500. For other information about the film, contact Cedar Grove Productions at (213) 668-1018 or by e-mail at tmt@tmsp.com. — Diane Arieff Zaga, Arts Editor

Parent Pleasing

If you’re a Jewish parent, get your hands on a copy of “It’s Apparent.” One day, it arrived in Up Front’s mailbox, out of the blue. Never before published, and perhaps never again, the 15-page newsletter is stuffed with wise and thoughtful information on raising a Jewish child. The text is concise, the format clear, the pictures lots better than average. In short, this is the sort of Jewish-education publication that the community needs on a regular basis.

Betty Shavinsky Zeisl and the people at the Bureau of Jewish Education deserve the credit for “It’s Apparent.” Zeisl held on to the idea for 20 years before the opportunity to put out the paper presented itself. “We service Jewish schools,” said Zeisl, “but we always wanted to give parents a product directly.”

Curling up with our copy, Up Front found articles such as “Staging Your Child’s Moral Development,” “Second Language, Smarter Kids,” “How Children Understand God,” and “Visiting the Sick and Healthy Child Development.” The last argues that visiting the sick is a healthy way to teach children the value of loving and caring relationships. We’re sold.

“These are the kind of articles I don’t find in Parent magazine or a temple newsletter,” said Zeisl. She hopes that the publication, of which about 30,000 were printed to mark the 60th anniversary of the BJE, will become a quarterly. In Up Front’s fantasy world, “It’s Apparent” would be a monthly, folded into your very own copy of the paper you’re reading. Until then, call the BJE at (213) 852-6576 for your copy.

Where You’ll Find Up Front

Two upcoming concerts should shoot to the top of your “Must See” list. On Tuesday, May 27, at 8 p.m., the Jerusalem Jazz Band will perform in its only Southern California appearance, at the Veterans Wadsworth Theatre in West Los Angeles. The internationally acclaimed band, with its distinct Dixieland-Freilich sound, will perform in a benefit for the Camp Habonim Dror scholarship fund for needy youths. Los Angeles County Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky, an alumnus of Habonim Dror, chairs the event. Call (213) 655-6576 for information and tickets.

Rest two days, and then head back to the Wadsworth to hear David Broza perform in a special concert celebrating Israeli Independence Day. Presented by My Jewish Discovery Place and UCLA Hillel, the May 29, 7:30 p.m. concert will feature one of Israel’s greatest singer/songwriters. Broza has also carved out a career in the United States with a strong repertoire of English-language songs. Having grown up in Spain, Israel and England, Broza now lives in New Jersey. Think of him as combining the best of flamenco, Israeli folk rock and Springsteen. (We’re not sure what he gets from England. Then again, he is very polite in person.) This is the Israeli music concert of the year. See you there. Call (213) 857-0036, ext. 2242, for information.


Up Front Read More »

Torah Portion

Leave a Comment / Posts /

A fable: There was a king who collected jewels. One night, he dreamed that somewhere in the world, there was a ring with strange, magical powers: When one was sad, it could make him happy. When he was giddy and drunk, it could sober him and bring him back to himself. When he was joyful, it intensified his joy.

The king awoke from his dream, convinced that the ring really existed. Calling together his court, he recounted the dream and offered a fabulous reward for the one who found the ring.

Each of his ministers went out to search the world. And each returned empty-handed — except one. There was one whose love for his master pushed him onward. Years went by. He scoured the world, searching every shop, every bazaar, for the magic ring — to no avail. But before he would admit to failure, he stopped, one last time, into a tiny shop near the palace. He described what he sought and described all his travail over the past years. The owner simply smiled. “I have the ring,” he said. “Come, let me get it for you.” He took down an old box and handed the ring to the astonished minister. “Take it as my gift.”

We are

instructed in

this week’s Torah portion

to [remember] that time is passing.

And [to experience] …the poignancy,

the intensity, the full

bitterness and the full sweetness

of life lived in the passing

of time

The minister rushed to the palace. He entered the king’s chamber, approached the throne, and presented the ring to the king. The king opened the box. He found a plain, unadorned, metal ring. Could this be the precious, magical ring? Then, he saw that three Hebrew words were engraved on the ring: Gam Zeh Ya-avor — This too will pass.

Over time, the king came to realize the magical power of the ring. When the king was sad, the ring would remind him: This too will pass, and he would be consoled. Giddy and drunk, he would look upon the ring: This too will pass, and he was sobered. And when he experienced true joy, real happiness, the ring reminded him: This too will pass, and he recognized the preciousness of special moments. Soon, he realized that this was indeed the most valuable ring in the world. He lost interest in the rest of his collection — all his many jewels and gems paled in the face of the plain metal ring that never left his hand.

The story is true. The ring and its magic really exist. It is the greatest magic of all: learning to live with the passage of time.

It is said, “Time heals all wounds.” This is true only for the minor wounds. Real pain — the pain that comes with the bitter truth of human mortality — never goes away. But, over time, the sweetness of memory mixes with the bitterness of loss. The pain, the loneliness, is still there, but it mellows as we remember.

When we are frivolous, when life becomes a search for the next distraction and amusement, we remember that no one has an endless supply of tomorrows to accomplish the important tasks of life. And we wake up: If not now, when?

And when we are truly happy, we also remember: Moments of joy are fleeting; they must be cherished. Children grow older. Loved ones pass on. For the wise, the bitterness of our mortality teaches us to hold on to the sweetness of special moments.

Traditional Jews are obsessed with time, counting the days until Shabbat, marking the beginning of each new month, waiting for the next holiday. And they’re especially so at this time of the year — seven weeks of the Omer, each day counted, each week marked — as we are instructed in this week’s Torah portion to remind us that time is passing. And to give us this gift: the poignancy, the intensity, the full bitterness and the full sweetness of life lived in the passing of time. This magic ring is the king’s gift to you this week. Shabbat shalom.

Ed Feinstein is the associate rabbi at Valley Beth Shalom. He replaces Rabbi Steven Z. Leder, who will be completing a book (along with synagogue responsibilities at Wilshire Boulevard Temple) during the next six months.

All rights reserved by author.


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A Swiss Twist

Leave a Comment / California, Old Stories /

There lurks an almost unbearable irony in the appointment of UCLA Professor Saul Friedlander to an international commission of nine eminent historians that will probe, evaluate and ultimately judge Switzerland's role and conduct during World War II and the Holocaust era.

Nearly 55 years ago, on Sept. 29, 1942, Friedlander's Czech-born parents tried to cross into Switzerland from Vichy France. They were intercepted by Swiss border guards, who turned Jan and Elli Friedlander back and handed them over to French police.

The French passed the couple on to the Germans, who shipped the parents to Auschwitz, where both perished.

Just before the Friedlanders embarked on their ill-fated attempt, they managed to find a hiding place for their 10-year-old son in a French monastery, where he was raised as a Catholic.

Of the 12 Jews who attempted to cross the border with the Friedlanders, only those with children were permitted to cross. If young Saul had accompanied his parents, the family would have been saved.

“It shows how implacably horrendous the whole situation was,” says Professor Friedlander, sitting in his sunny office on the UCLA campus. “What you thought was the best turned out to be the worst.”

The horrors of the past came back to Friedlander's mind when he received a phone call last December from Switzerland's special envoy, Ambassador Thomas Borer, who asked him to serve on the Independent Commission of Experts.

The commission, Friedlander was assured, would have complete access to all of Switzerland's documents on foreign-policy, economic and financial dealings during the Nazi era; to its records of refugee treatment; and to the wartime archives of the international Red Cross.

Facing withering accusations of aid to Nazi Germany and mounting criticism over its banks' refusal to pay out accounts established by Holocaust victims, Switzerland was anxious to announce formation of the commission as quickly as possible.

Friedlander was given two hours to decide whether to serve on the commission. He based his acceptance on two considerations.

“The Swiss knew what had happened to my parents, that I had written about Switzerland's role in the war, and that I was an Israeli citizen,” says Friedlander. “Given all that, I took the Swiss offer as a sign that their intentions were really serious.

“As a Jew, as a human being and as a historian, I felt a deep commitment to make sure that the task would be carried through seriously.”

Friedlander was also reassured by the reputations of his fellow commission members — five Swiss, one American, one Briton and one Pole — all of whom he knows as scholars of high-standing and integrity.

The American is Dr. Sybil Milton, until recently, chief historian at the U.S. Holocaust Museum in Washington.

Even in that distinguished company, Friedlander is perhaps uniquely qualified for the job at hand.

Acknowledged as one of the world's top-ranking Holocaust scholars, he has taught history at universities in Israel, Switzerland, France and the United States.

He has written nine widely translated books in his field, including “When Memory Comes,” a moving account of his boyhood in Prague and his years in hiding in France.

The first volume of his “Nazi Germany and the Jews,” covering the period of 1933 to 1939, was recently published by HarperCollins. The highly readable book, already translated into French, German and Hebrew, has won early acceptance as the new standard on the subject.

To mark the publication, Friedlander will be honored at a 7 p.m. reception, on May 21, at UCLA Hillel. For information, call (310) 208-3081.

Two months ago, Friedlander attended the first plenary session of the Commission of Experts in Bern, and he came away with the sense that “our work will be done thoroughly and totally…nothing will be hidden.”

Given the mountains of hitherto secret documents and statistics and the international ramifications of Switzerland's wartime role, the job facing the commission can be fairly described as monumental.

“I expect the commission's work to take five to six years,” says Friedlander. Some 30 to 40 researchers have already been hired. In the months and years ahead, they will comb archives not only in Switzerland but in Germany, Russia, the United States and Israel.

To cite but one upcoming project, the commission will probe the records of a Swiss government agency that daily monitored the flow of gold into and out of Switzerland during World War II.

These records are expected to yield information on the precise amount of Nazi gold looted from occupied countries and Holocaust victims, channeled into Swiss banks, and largely retained there.

Based on both his personal and scholarly background, Friedlander plans to pay special attention to Switzerland's wartime policy regarding Jewish refugees seeking asylum.

The commission will issue interim reports on its findings. It is also expected that, as the investigations deepen and widen, they will shed new light on the assistance given to the Nazi regime and war machine by such “neutral” nations as Sweden, Portugal, Spain and Argentina.

Such future research will give further impetus to a historical phenomenon: That, as the Nazi era and the Holocaust recede in time, the world's attention is not slackening but increasing.

“With the passage of time, we are slowly grasping the vastness of the amplitude and ramifications of the Hitler period,” says Friedlander.

Another remarkable historical aspect of the commission's work is the fact that, apparently for the first time, an independent nation is asking an international body to probe its past behavior, albeit under intense American and global pressure.

“Germany opened its records, but only as a defeated nation under Allied control,” says Friedlander. “America investigated the Pearl Harbor disaster, but that was done by the U.S. Congress. Switzerland, to my knowledge, is the first sovereign country to agree to such an international investigation.”

Friedlander earned his doctorate at Switzerland's University of Geneva and currently splits the academic year between two positions. He is professor of history at UCLA, where he holds the “1939 Club” Chair in the History of the Holocaust. In Israel, he is professor of modern European history at Tel Aviv University, where he is also director of the Besen Institute for the Study of Historical Consciousness and is editor of the journal “History & Memory.”

A Swiss Twist Read More »

the Spectator With Reprise, Marcia Seligson banks on the public’s desire for the return of the

Leave a Comment / Entertainment, Music, Old Stories, Theater /

Marcia Seligson is the prime mover and shaker behind Reprise, a new theater organization determined to mount local, first-class revival productions of Broadway musicals.

Marcia Seligson is a self-described “musical theater fanatic” and the prime mover and shaker behind Reprise, a new theater organization determined to mount local, first-class revival productions of Broadway musicals that just don’t get dusted off and given a professional run anymore.

There was a time in the not-too-distant past, Seligson pointed out, when hit numbers from Broadway were the songs people hummed in the street.

“When you look back at musicals by George Gershwin, Harold Arlen and these other artists, the score was the star of the musical, and those songs were the popular music of the day,” she said.

“Growing up in New York, Broadway musical theater was my popular music. I’ve been a fan my whole life. The first show I ever saw was Ethel Merman in “Annie Get Your Gun.” I never forgot that experience.”

Although she was a music major in college, Seligson worked primarily as a journalist upon her arrival in Los Angeles 26 years ago.

“When I realized that I didn’t want to do that anymore,” she said, “I began to think seriously about producing musical theater here. I was inspired by the Encore series at New York’s City Center. It’s really an appropriate and spectacular idea for our times. I just saw so clearly how it isn’t absolutely necessary to have all this tremendous spectacle and these special effects to succeed these days.”

Although Encore is an older organization with deeper pockets, Seligson adapted their budget priorities for Reprise. Money goes into the musical where it will count most. Only Los Angeles performers are cast, thereby avoiding costly air fare and hotel tabs and making this a true local effort. There are no spare production dollars for pricey stage props or saturation publicity campaigns.

“Instead of doing a $5 million or $10 million production, which is what a lot of these big new shows cost, our first production is costing $160,000,” she said. “It’s fully casted, orchestrated and choreographed. What is different is that it will be a very simple set, and there will be no elaborate costume changes.”

Reprise’s first season began, on May 14, with a two-week revival of “Promises, Promises.”

A look at the cast indicates that Seligson and her fellow board members are the real deal. Stage veteran Jason Alexander, best known for his role on TV’s “Seinfeld,” has been cast in the lead role. Co-starring with Alexander are Jean Smart, Alan Rachins, Karen Fineman and Fred Willard.

In September, Andrea Marcovicci and Keith Carradine are slated to star in a revival of “Finian’s Rainbow.” The third and final show of Reprise’s first series will be “Wonderful Town,” with Tyne Daly. All three productions will be staged at UCLA’s Freud Playhouse.

The response to Reprise — within the theater community and from the ticket-buying public — has been wildly enthusiastic, Seligson said. “We had 3,500 subscriptions to sell for this series,” she said. “We sold 3,000 of them before a single ad ran.”

Additional dates have been scheduled to meet the demand, and seats for some performances are still available, although going fast.

For tickets to upcoming Reprise performances, call the UCLA box office at (310) 825-2101 or Ticketmaster at (213) 480-3232.

Jason Alexander, best known for his role as George on “Seinfeld,” has the lead role in “Promises, Promises.”

the Spectator With Reprise, Marcia Seligson banks on the public’s desire for the return of the Read More »

A Woman’s Voice

Leave a Comment / Old Stories, Womans Voice /

A few weeks ago, I saw my husband walking across the street, near the dry cleaners. He was wearing khakis, a beige shirt and the brown belt I bought him for his 48th birthday, the one with the gold buckle. I couldn’t see the buckle, because I only saw him from behind. But I knew that it was the one I’d bought to match a new pair of shoes — a reddish, rawhide brown. I admired him from a distance: his U-shaped receded hairline, his sturdy, wide neck, his fast-paced gait (acquired from the study of fencing and ballroom dancing). He was amazingly graceful for a heavyset man. It didn’t make a bit of difference that he’s been dead 10 years.

I sped up the car to catch him, lowering my window so that I could say hello. The instinct to call out his name seemed completely natural.

As I was preparing to speak, I felt my face go flush and my mouth go dry.

“While you’re at the market, we need some milk,” I started to say.

“Oh, my God,” I thought, “how do I explain myself now?”

You have to take my word for it: I do not live in the past. I do not go around expecting to see my husband on the Third Street Promenade or in the local Hughes. I haven’t dreamed about him since the first two months after he died. He was riding his bike in a park, wearing a red-plaid shirt. He seemed just fine.

So, to see him now, to gasp in recognition, at a man with a similar body type and round head, was a surprising sign that, as with any amputation, the senses do survive.

The guy who could have been my husband’s twin turned toward me. His face was stiff, and his eyes were dull, communicating none of Burton’s understanding that life is a huge cosmic joke. I laughed. Then I imagined taking the stranger home with me, wondering what it would be like sharing even the kitchen with a man who appeared so much like the one I had loved, but who seemed to lack the salt of his cynicism and the pepper of his wit. Maybe the difference between the dead and the living is only a matter of taste.

But what if my husband, indeed, moved back in with us today, picking up precisely where we left off. What would he make of me now?

Take the house, for example. I couldn’t bear to show him the back porch, with the outdoor sink sitting in a cabinet of corroded wood. And the living room, with the familiar chintz couch, its covers now worn thin. He’d sit down at the piano and immediately hear how badly it needs tuning. I mean to get to it, believe me, I do.

But it isn’t only my neglect I fear showing him; it is that which I have done. Surely, he’d prefer the new white refrigerator over the avocado-green, and the low-pile white carpet over the sickening orange shag. And he’d understand that a child outgrows the wallpaper of the cows and geese and replaces it with photos of girls and boys her father has never met.

But I’ve made an office of the garage without consulting him. I’ve gotten rid of most of the lousy paintings that were on our living-room walls. When he goes to unpack (I assume, for no good reason, that he has luggage with him), he’ll find that the old bed and the bedspread have been replaced. And if he’d ask me what happened to our wedding photo, once prominent on the wall, I’d have to say, “I don’t know.”

The phone would ring; a man would be calling. Maybe even several men. No use denying the obvious: I have known others. That must be why my face turned red.

I’d recognize him, but my husband might not recognize me.

Do you think you’ve gotten over it?” Samantha asks. My daughter knows all about counting time. This year, she has decided, it is time to move on.

I am angered by her question. How dare she ask me if I’m over it — isn’t it obvious?

And, yet, I never once went to the cemetery unless my daughter demanded it. I have not watched home videos — ever. I do not light the yahrtzeit candle, being afraid. I hated the past because I loved it so much; I could not bear that it was, truly, gone. Time to move on, indeed.

In all these years, I have met many men and women who have suffered loss. We never think we do it right. We should have remarried earlier, or later, or not at all. We should have kept the house, or sold the house, or taken in a tenant. We become control freaks over the small things — missing papers, unreturned phone calls — because we have no power over the large.

But what we never say is that death has great appeal. We study it and study ourselves, wearing it down like softened leather. Soon enough, memory serves us well. Better than real life.

Real life gets messy; memory stands still. Real life is strange and frightening; memory consoles — even its pain is familiar.

We are lying on the bed, watching a home video. “Are you sure?” Samantha asks. “I don’t want to cause you pain.”

I teach her the word “catharsis” and tell her it is time. I have the yahrtzeit candle ready. At random, we select the video from Burton’s 56th birthday party, the year before he died. Usually, at these events, he was the family historian, spending most of his film trying to focus the camera lens against the Spanish tiles on the ground.

But, now, Leslie has the camera, and it’s time for the cake. We’re all there, the birthday boy, his children, all his cousins and friends dating back to high school. I’m wearing a dress Samantha calls my “nightgown,” and I’ve just dropped the cake I made on the floor in the garage that would soon be my office.

“Here’s the cake,” I call out, feeding him a piece of chocolate mess. He laughs and kisses me and Samantha. And, I note, as he’s busy eating, my husband had no time to make a wish.

Marlene Adler Marks is editor-at-large of The Jewish Journal. Her e-mail address is wvoice@aol.com.

A Woman’s Voice Read More »

LettersNo to Peace Now

Leave a Comment / Letters to the Editor, Old Stories /

Regarding “Opposing Har Homa” by Richard Gunther (March 28), I believe that people like Richard Gunther hinder a peace process. They make true compromise more difficult as it is seen as a sign of internal strife and weakness. Unfortunately, Mr. Gunther would not be in Israel to suffer the results of his group’s actions.

For some reason, American’s For Peace Now’s definition of peace is that whatever Israel does is wrong and that Israel should give in for peace. Somehow, this never extends to the other side. Things such as terrorism or promises not kept or broken are just ignored in the one-sided diatribes.

I am always reminded of Atlee saying “peace in our time” and the terrible price that England paid for it. Unfortunately, Israel does not have the conditions to survive this which England had at that time.

Stanley M. Gottlieb

Culver City

An Outsiders’s View

If American Jews could clone 61 Stanley Sheinbaums, persuade them all to make aliyah and run for the Knesset, peace between Israel and the Arabs would be a snap.

I have the good fortune to know many Jews cut from the same ethical, rational cloth as Stanley; unfortunately they are still a minority. Given what the Zionist Movement and the State of Israel have done and are still doing to the Arabs of Palestine, it’s people like Sheinbaum who keep the self-respect of the Jewish people hanging on by a thread.

Donald S. Bustany

Los Angeles

Our Community’s Future

The recognized leaders of American Jewry are — by and large — dedicated to liberal solutions, inclusive of that ultimate melting pot, the public school. Into that pot goes any reminiscence of the millennia of Jewish religious culture. Hebrew language and the Jewish philosophy, being two intertwined disciplines, are lost as study objects; and the products of the public school system obtain only a rudimentary knowledge or understanding of Judaism. Very few will be impelled to venture forth on an expedition of discovery. The result is alienation, intermarriage, non-marriage, careerism, and negative population growth.

So, it is left for the leaders to alter their own views as to what will serve them and preserve us. The first step is a bill of divorcement from a commitment to public education in favor of a vouchered system of family choice. Rather than submitting to a government-administered secular value system, by aligning ourselves in the ranks of those who favor true freedom of choice in primary education, we can change the doleful statistics and brighten our community’s future.

Theodore S. Brandwein

Alpine

Politics in Israel

The Journal’s feature story about Prime Minister Netanyahu and the Deri-On Scandal (“Bottom Line,” April 25) was heralded as written by “our correspondent in Jerusalem.” A correspondent is not a commentator. One would expect the news to be fair and unbiased. But Ina Friedman (Jerusalem Correspondent) in all her writings, has been so far left that to her, covering both sides of a question is to start on the far left for one side and the extreme far left for the other.

We, the readers of The Jewish Journal, should be informed that all the prime ministers of Israel, starting with Ben-Gurion, have been saddled with the worst and most antiquated form of government, which allows a one percent floor leading to over 20+ political parties. Since the beginning of the State of Israel in 1948, no political party (including the two major parties, Labor and Likud) has ever received enough votes to have 60 or more Knesset members to form a government without a coalition.

This “unprecedented scandal” appears to be the result of Netanyahu’s efforts to keep the Shas Party (that Deri heads) from bolting. Why doesn’t Friedman mention that Deri was originally indicted for fraud in 1993 — when Rabin and Peres were in power? They, too, needed the Shas Party support to keep their coalition.

Because of the numerous parties in Israel’s political system — the Shas Party, with only 10 votes, represents the third largest party in Israel behind Labor and Likud. With a measly 10 votes out of 120, they represent the balance of power.

Let’s put aside our left or right bickerings long enough to fix Israel’s political structure, so that no prime minister, right or left, will have to contemplate distasteful ways to keep the government from failing.

Irving Dubin

Carmarillo

Enivronmental Concerns

In Marlene Adler Marks’ column (“The Jewish Vote,” April 11), she asks rhetorically, “Would it have been better for the city if it lost Dreamworks SKG?” It sounds to me as if she hasn’t examined this issue very closely.

First of all, is there any sign that Spielberg et al. would consider moving their studio out of Los Angeles? No. The other locations they are considering are all in Los Angeles. Why not put Dreamworks in part of the city that badly needs the rejuvenation of new industry, instead of on the only remaining wetlands in Los Angeles?

Second point, and most important, the controversial building project under consideration is not a movie studio. Dreamworks SKG is only a tiny fraction of the gigantic office-retail-housing project being planned by Maguire Thomas. The developer is holding up Dreamworks SKG, which everybody wants, as a figurehead, to fool us into thinking that the Playa Vista project is something we want.

Does Los Angeles need 13,000 condominium units stacked four-stories high in its last remaining undeveloped area? Twice the size of Century City, more traffic than LAX, 10 tons of smog each day — that’s Playa Vista.

The Ballona wetlands are a welcome and delightful break in the urban sprawl of Los Angeles. It shelters wildlife, including many endangered species. It’s a vital resting place for migrating birds on the Pacific flyway.

Let Steven Spielberg build his studio, right where he wants it, on the northern edge of Ballona. Just don’t let Maguire Thomas fill in more than 70 percent of the wetlands with ultra-high density construction.

Everyone who uses the 405 freeway has a stake in preventing the traffic problems that Playa Vista would generate. Everyone has a stake in preventing the environmental degradation. And everyone who wants to work toward tikkun olam needs to be aware of the facts, not the publicity, concerning Dreamworks versus Playa Vista.

Deborah Aber

Gardena

School Teachers

It seems to me that the Los Angeles School teachers are at fault every time the school system comes up with low grades and averages.

I am a volunteer at the Saticoy Elementary School in North Hollywood. I work two days a week, every week, for two full hours. I work with students that teachers assign to me who need help in math, reading, spelling, etc. Some of these students are eight and nine years old. They can’t tell time, can’t add two-plus-two, can’t distinguish between coins, (pennies, nickels, dimes, etc. ) and, yet, at the end of the semester, they are pushed into the next grade and, some even go on to middle school, then on to high school. Why? Does this happen in other schools too?

I would like to know whose bright idea it is to allow this? It seems to me that if one can’t pass the subjects, one should be held back. Otherwise, the student says, “I’m not learning anything. l’m going to drop out.”

I want you to know that the teachers I have dealt with at Saticoy School are very dedicated teachers. They want to do more but their hands are tied. Their classes consist of 30-35 students in a double-graded class, in grades three through five.

All this is cause to re-evaluate the teachers, the schools and put the blame where it belongs.

Ben Racowsky

North Hollywood

Searching For Lisa Spott

I am searching for Lisa (aka Elizabeth) Spott, daughter of Benno and Rosa Spott of Berlin, Germany. Ms. Spott left Berlin in, approximately, 1938, at the age of 12, on a kindertransport to Liverpool, England. During the war, she lived with Mr. and Mrs. Isaac Harris (deceased) in Liverpool. I have no idea if Ms. Spott still lives in England or if she has ever married. If you have any information, please contact Mitch Levine at (310) 540-8400.

SEND YOUR OWN LETTER TO THE JEWISH JOURNAL AT ab871@lafn.org

Attention: Letters.

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