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Jewish Journal

Connect. Inform. Inspire.

September 4, 1997

His Summer Vacation

Leave a Comment / Old Stories /

Brad Sherman easily remembers what was the most enjoyable time hespent during his week-long visit to Israel. “It was,” he says, “thehour I slept.”

The first-term congressman from the 24th District spent the restof his time in briefings with Israeli and Palestinian officials,touring sites of strategic importance to both sides, and listening tothe opinions of settlers, peaceniks, soldiers and terrorism’svictims. In other words, there were “no perks, no lollygagging” andnot a lot of fun — unless your idea of fun is a public confrontationwith Yasser Arafat.

The purpose of the trip, organized by the American JewishCommittee’s Project Interchange, was to reacquaint Sherman with thefacts on the ground, and to provide him an opportunity to see forhimself the principal players and issues. As a member of the HouseInternational Relations Committee, he is “just steeped in” thepolitics of the Middle East.

For most of Sherman’s constituents, Israel is hardly some vagueforeign policy objective. His district, which runs from Sherman Oaksto Thousand Oaks and from Malibu to Northridge, includes what isprobably the largest expatriate Israeli population in the UnitedStates, as well as tens of thousands of American Jews. Whether theyare twentysomething or eightysomething, they take a keen, knowinginterest in Israel.

So Sherman marched. He visited with Binyamin Netanyahu; Cabinetministers; Hebron settlers; Esther Waxman, the mother of murderedsoldier Nachum Waxman; and Yasser Arafat, whom he had met previouslyin Washington. This time, when Arafat protested against an anti-Arabcartoon distributed in Hebron by a fanatic Jewish settler, Shermantalked back. “He wanted sympathy over the actions of one racistwoman,” said Sherman, “when Syrian textbooks still containanti-Jewish caricatures and statements.”

Sherman also extracted a promise from the Palestinian leader thatthe murderer of Waxman, if ever found in areas under Palestiniancontrol, would be arrested. Sherman said that he intends to readArafat’s promise into the Congressional Record and hold him to it.

After a week, Sherman, a 42-year-old Monterey Park nativeand UCLA grad, returned to Washington, then to his field office inWoodland Hills. His take: Israelis, Palestinians, the U.S. governmentand American Jews have a “hidden consensus” on most of the thornyissues, except Jerusalem. The trick, of course, is getting from hereto there. — Robert Eshman, Associate Editor“Classic on Collins,” by Alan S. Maltz, from his newbook, “Miami: City of Dreams.”

Miami Nice

The last book I read about Miami was called “The Corpse Had aFamiliar Face.” It’s by Edna Buchanan, the legendary former policereporter of The Miami Herald, and it features true tales of gore (andcrooks such as “Murph the Surf”) in the drug capital of the world.

You won’t find any gore, or criminals, or anything even remotelyunpleasant in Alan S. Maltz’s new, gorgeous and slick coffee-tablebook, “Miami: City of Dreams” (Light Flight Publications, $60).

You won’t find much that is Jewish either, although South Floridahas roughly 645,000 Jews, 64 synagogues and 14 Jewish day schools(Maltz does throw in the occasional image of the local Holocaustmuseum or Orthodox Jews debating at Miami Beach).

What you will find is lots of rosy sunsets, translucent,turquoise seas, and vast, downtown cityscapes. You’ll see thecolorful, bustling streets of Little Havana; the fancifulfaçades of Miami Beach’s art deco district (onepink-white-and-yellow building towers like a wedding cake); and thegarishly cheerful storefront of Wolfie’s coffee shop. Thelily-covered reflecting pool at the Holocaust museum shimmers like aMonet.

For 16 months, Maltz rose before dawn to wander the area with his35mm Nikon, snapping images from dawn to 10 a.m. and from 4 p.m.until after dark. It’s no wonder the quality of his light is subtle,ethereal, perfect.

But Maltz, who won the 1995 award for best coffee-table book fromthe National Association of Independent Publishers, makes noapologies for his persistently pretty, upbeat vision of Miami. As hetold The Miami Herald, “I feel there’s enough negativity out there inthe world…that’s not my focus.”

To order “Miami: City of Dreams,” call (800)329-7297. — Naomi Pfefferman, Senior WriterThomas Elias and Mary Jo Siegel

Defending the Good Doctor

Out of Jewish holiday workshops come many wonderful things:challah and charoset recipes, knowledge of Jewish history, lastingfriendships. But an investigative book about “the century’s mostpromising cancer treatment, and the government’s campaign to squelchit”? Not usually.

However, the topic, which is the subtitle of a fascinating andextremely readable new book from General Publishing Group, “TheBurzynski Breakthrough,” was suggested by a woman the author, ThomasElias, had first met 18 years ago in a workshop he took at hissynagogue, Kehillat Israel in Pacific Palisades.

When Mary Jo Siegel first brought the idea to him two years ago,Elias was busy covering the O.J. Simpson criminal trial for ScrippsHoward News Service and loath to take on what appeared to be adubious story about a miracle cancer cure.

Still, since he knew Siegel, he decided to look into her claimthat the government was trying to jail the doctor who Siegel said hadsaved her life, and those of many others, through the infusion of anunusual mixture of enzymes and peptides called antineoplastins.

The procedure had led to the disappearance of a huge tumor on herneck, Siegel said, and her apparent victory against non-Hodgkin’slymphoma, a slow-growing but almost always fatal type of cancer.

But Dr. Stanislaw Burzynski, the Polish-born, Houston-basednon-Jewish doctor who had discovered the medicine, was likely to losethe ability to treat his many patients, and he faced the prospect ofspending the rest of his life in prison.

Elias, who co-authored a highly praised book on the Simpsoncriminal trial, began to lose his skepticism after he talked toofficials with the major cancer organizations and the Food and DrugAdministration. None said that Burzynski was a quack or that hisanti-cancer regimen didn’t work. “All said simply that it was anexperimental, unproven treatment,” Elias writes. And when the authorinterviewed Burzynski’s patients and the relatives of some who haddied, he heard “not a single negative word.”

Ironically, while in the process of commuting to Houston to coverBurzynski’s grand jury trial, Elias’ ongoing problem with kidneydisease worsened, leaving him in need of a transplant. He was touchedwhen many members of the chavurah to which he and his wife, Marilyn,belong, as well as Rabbi Steven Carr Reuben, his wife, Didi, andCantor Chayim Frenkel of Kehillat Israel volunteered to donatekidneys.

Elias has since found a donor and is awaiting surgery. The book,just published in the last month, chronicles Burzynski’s David-andGoliath fight to gain approval for his drug, and offers severalheart-wrenching case histories, including Siegel’s.

The dynamic mother of three college-age children, who now saysthat she’s cancer-free, founded an organization with her husband,Steve, that has raised $600,000 for Burzynski’s legal defense andthat is seeking FDA approval for the anti-cancer therapy.

“I am very sure that without [Burzynski] and his drug,” Siegelsays in the book, “I would be dead right now, like the people I knewwho were diagnosed with the same disease at the same time I was.”— Ruth Stroud, Staff Writer

His Summer Vacation Read More »

Torah Portion

Leave a Comment / Old Stories, Torah /

The first question asked of the human being in theTorah is God’s question of Adam: “Where are you?”

Pay attention to the Torah’s questions. Read themas if they were italicized, written in red or underlined. For thequestions capture the essence of the Torah’s lesson. “Am I mybrother’s keeper?” “Shall not the judge of all the earth do justice?”It is as if the question came first and the narrative was writtenaround it as its supporting commentary.

Of them all, no question is as profound as thisfirst question: “Where are you?” Adam and Eve, having chosen to eatof the forbidden tree, having disobeyed their one commandment inorder to gain knowledge, suddenly understand the cold reality oftheir separation from one another, from nature, from God, and theyfeel shame. So they hide. They hide from God, from one another, andfrom all they should be and could be. “Where are you?”

When the great Chassidic master Shneur Zalman wasjailed in St. Petersburg, his jailer, a pious Christian, came to himwith a question of faith:

“If God knows all, then why the game ofhide-and-seek; why the question, ‘Where are you?'”

The rabbi looked deeply into the face of thepuzzled jailer, and asked him, “Do you believe that the Scripturesspeak to every generation?”

The pious man replied in the affirmative.

“Well, then, the question is addressed not only toAdam but to you,” the rabbi said. “You have been alive these 44years, where are you?”

Hearing his age quoted exactly, the jailer felt achill run up his spine.

How many years have you been given, and where areyou? Where are you on your journey? How much closer to wisdom? Howmuch nearer to completing the tasks for which you were created? Howmuch closer to your dreams? How much closer to those you love? Howmuch wider your circle of concern? How much deeper your friendships?What did you do with My gift of a year of life? What have you donewith all your years? Where are you?

We begin each new year with a strange attitude. Weare a faith, passionate in our love of life. L’Chaim! recited eachday. But with the new year upon us, we turn to the reality of death,reflecting on the unsettling mystery of the year ahead: “Who shalllive and who shall die? Who will attain the length of days and whowill be taken before their time?”

Only in the reflection of death does each day,each decision, each pursuit take on its true seriousness. Life isfinite. We are finite. There aren’t an infinite number of tomorrowsto accomplish our purposes. Knowing this, we want to hide, to evade,to cry, “Leave me alone to follow my impulses, to have my fun; theserious concern of life can wait!” But in one form or another, Godalways comes searching for us, always asking, “Where are you?”

This week begins the Hebrew month of Elul, themonth given to deep reflecting about the purposes, theaccomplishments and the failures of life. We are given a month tosearch and reflect, to study and to judge ourselves before the newyear begins. It is a time to find a quiet corner of life and ask,with all honesty and courage, God’s penetrating question, “Where areyou?”

It isn’t easy. To look at ourselves truthfully –without the defenses, the evasion, the excuses normally marshaled tocover up our disappointments and shortcomings — can be frightening.For this reason, the tradition added Psalm 27, a powerful statementof faith, to the daily liturgy:

Mine is the faith that I shall surely seethe

Lord’s goodness in the land of the living

Hope in the Lord and be strong.

Take courage, hope in the Lord.

Shabbat Shalom and Shana Tova.

Ed Feinstein is rabbi at Valley Beth Shalom inEncino.

Read a previous week’s Torah Portion byRabbi Feinstein

AUGUST 29, 1997 — What’s Wrong with aCheeseburger?

AUGUST 22, 1997 — Finding the AdultWithin

AUGUST 15, 1997 — Make the Time Count

AUGUST 8, 1997 — ‘What’s the Meaning ofLife

AUGUST 1, 1997 — A Warning toRevolutionaries

Torah Portion Read More »

The Grown-Up Prodigy

Leave a Comment / Entertainment, Old Stories /

Ann Krasner never put a brush to canvas until this year.

If I were a struggling painter, say, 20 years in a garret withnothing to show for my art but empty paint tubes and unpaid bills,I’d probably hate Ann Krasner.

Krasner’s oils on canvas win awards and sell briskly, at $750 to$1,250 each. That’s pretty good for someone who just started puttingher work on the market a few months ago. And it’s even moreimpressive when you consider this: Krasner never painted a singlework — never put a brush to canvas — until this year.

About eight years ago, Krasner and her husband emigrated fromMoscow to Los Angeles. With the help of the Jewish FederationCouncil, Krasner, who has advanced degrees in computer science andmathematics, found a job at a computer software company. Then, forher 30th birthday, Krasner received some paints and a blank canvasfrom her husband, Paul. “Maybe he felt something,” she says now,thinking back. “He always said I saw things differently.”

Krasner’s first paintings were street scenes of her native Moscow– bleak yet somehow fanciful works of nostalgia. Friends and familyencouraged her to do more. She entered some in the annual Malibu ArtAssociation Competition and won the People’s Choice Award — out ofthe works of 300 artists, the public liked hers best. Malibu ArtGallery began selling her work.

“I thought it was very exciting, different and refreshing,” saidgallery owner Val Gajik. “Funny but kind of serious.” In a slow artmarket, Krasner’s paintings flew off the walls. Within weeks, theprices tripled.

The city of Santa Monica selected Krasner, along with fellowRussian-born artist Irene Fire, to exhibit her work at the CommunityCorps space at 1423 2nd Street in an exhibit organized by Self TaughtArtists Resources. Fire has acted as Krasner’s mentor in Los Angeles,and both women use their works to reflect on the bewilderingexperience of the immigrant.

How does Krasner explain her sudden incarnation as an artist?Perhaps the talent comes from her father, Alexander Kahn, apre-eminent Russian optic physicist and accomplished photographer.”Thanks to him,” she says, “I notice what other people don’t.”

And not to draw too many comparisons, but they say that HenriMatisse didn’t start painting until he was 28.

Whatever the cause, Krasner is free with the credits. “It’s allthanks to the Jewish community of Los Angeles,” she says. “Theyhelped me leave Russia and find a job. This is like another life forme.”

Now living in Malibu, Krasner, who has a 5-year-old daughter, ishoping to one day make painting her day and night job. “If I havethis chance to be a successful artist,” she says, “I really want totry.”

The Grown-Up Prodigy Read More »

Letters

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

It is very concerning that The Jewish Journal has been reluctant to recognize why there is an uproar about the play “Mendel and Moses” (“The Play’s Not the Thing,” Aug. 1).

A number of months ago, I received a call from a Jewish cast member in the production who told me she had left the show as she believed there were strong Christian overtones written into the play and felt there was missionary activity being thrust upon her. She also called Jews for Judaism, and Rabbi Kravitz, its executive director, made this information known to the Journal, and other Jewish organizations.

The problem is not whether this play has Christian overtones or not. The objection is that this play has been presented to the Jewish community as one with authentic Jewish themes, when in fact, the playwright, Jeremiah Ginsberg, is a well-known, self-proclaimed, Hebrew-Christian missionary. According to his own biography, Ginsberg has been “in full time international ministry, sharing his dynamic testimony, hosting a popular Messianic (Christian) radio show in the New York City area, and teaching on prophecy, Israel and end-time events.” The advertising of “Rabboni,” another Ginsberg play, shows a “humorous Jewish narrator, Mendel Moskowitz, transported back in time to Biblical days where he meets Yeshua (Jesus) and the disciples, as well as the farcical Beelzebub and the demons.” Isn’t Mendel Moskowitz the same name in “Mendel and Moses” as well?

It is completely antithetical to the Torah, Talmud and other sacred Jewish texts that Jesus is the Jewish Messiah; it is not merely an opinion. This play is written by a Christian, and although it may be worthy of seeing, it should be advertised accordingly. The Journal has not shared this vital piece of information with its readers, and has in fact, been glib about its importance.

Deception is the true issue that rests with this. It is an illusion that this is a Jewish work which should be supported by Jewish people. Jewish-Christians are Christians. Perhaps the sooner we recognize who we are not, the sooner we can come to terms with who we are.

I believe a major Jewish newspaper like The Jewish Journal has an obligation to educate its readership, and in many instances you have been on the mark, but in this instance, you have missed the target.

Debbie Pine, Director

Maynard Bernstein Resource Center on Cults

Los Angeles

Editor’s Note: There is a fundamental disagreement between Debbie Pine and me, but first the facts.

When “Mendel & Moses” opened in Los Angeles I sent Teresa Strasser, who writes for us, to review the play. She knew nothing about the author’s religious views, nor did I. It’s a terrible play, she reported back. Could she say that about a Jewish work? Absolutely, I replied. Her review, which appeared in this paper took writer, play and cast to task: Bad jokes, labored lines, idiotic plot was her verdict.

Nevertheless, the producers of the play decided to advertise in The Jewish Journal. We printed their ad. It was only then that Rabbi Kravitz and, now Debbie Pine, criticized The Jewish Journal for publishing an ad about a play (which has nothing to do with Jews for Jesus) because the playwright’s beliefs off stage were so objectionable.

Those seem to me the facts. Now the differing view(s). I believe:

1.) You judge a play on its merits, not on opinions of the playwright that are outside the drama. We would have chosen not to advertise the play if it had been a didactic effort to champion Jews for Jesus. This is not the case.

2.) We review plays and books written by Christians and praise those we think are worthy of our readers’ attention. We do the same with Jewish works (though almost by definition we give more attention to Jewish authors and Jewish themes), but under no condition do we feel obliged to praise, support or champion literature just because its author is Jewish, or dismiss the play because its author is Christian.

I have a question for Debbie Pine: Have you seen the play? It is not clear from your letter what it is you find objectionable within the play. — Gene Lichtenstein

The Swiss Role

At a time when the Swiss find themselves in an uncompromising international spotlight and have their collective actions during and after World War II subjected to microscopic investigation, it shocks and saddens me to see that Neal M. Sher continues to feel the necessity to criticize Switzerland’s efforts in a very unfair and unbalanced way (“Switzerland’s Hole Keeps Getting Deeper,” July 25). At a time when we welcome the advice of our friends and are willing to listen to well-informed critics, finger pointing and invective serve no purpose. While we are trying to heal the wounds left by past actions or inactions, Sher apparently feels the need to cut in even deeper, with unmistakable glee, I might add.

By giving voice to malicious and false allegations , i.e., that Swiss bankers trafficked in gold and valuables ripped from the mouths and bodies of Jews on their way to destruction, which had months ago been found without factual basis, he is insulting an entire nation.

It is of importance that our mandate now must be to work together to find constructive answers to difficult questions and not loose allegations that makes it difficult to open the doors to collective healing.

Three objectives are now of paramount importance to Switzerland: Shedding a full light upon history (in a constructive spirit of transparency and cooperation), achieving full restitution of all dormant assets which may still be held in Switzerland, and showing solidarity with survivors of the worst tragedy mankind has ever endured. Justice and nothing but justice should be carried out. But this in no way implies that Switzerland should accept unjustified criticism or blatant media prejudice such as that apparent in Sher’s article.

I urge the reader to contact me, whenever they are in need of updated information about this subject.

Hans Durig

Deputy Consul General of Switzerland

Los Angeles

Celebrity Strains

We were disappointed in the tone of Billy Crystal and other entertainers in the article “Strains in the Relationship”(Aug. 22). It seems that being Jewish at this time does not help their careers.

It is time that prominent Jews think about using their prominence to help the Jewish people. Their “Jewishness” has already served them and their careers. It is time to pay back!

Annette and Ted Kanner

Pacific Palisades

Positive Help for MAZON

Regarding the recently published article “Orthodox Union Pulls Out of MAZON’s Campaign” (Aug. 22): While the facts of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency article are essentially correct, the emphasis should have been positive, not negative.

For the first time, the Conservative, Reform, and Reconstructionist movements, together with MAZON, have joined together in a combined High Holy Days appeal seeking money for MAZON and non-perishable food for hundreds of local feeding programs nationwide. This is indeed something to celebrate.

“The Corners of Our Fields” is not a “MAZON appeal.” It is a cooperative effort between the three movements, in partnership with MAZON, the benefits of which will accrue to poor and hungry people and to the Jewish community.

While it is true that the Orthodox Union has decided to go more slowly and not participate in this year’s appeal, the decision is understandable: Working in partnership with MAZON is not familiar to the Orthodox movement, as it is to the other three, so the OU in a sense has a longer road to travel. They are studying the issue seriously and we hope they will join us in future years.

As the New Year approaches, it is gratifying to know that in this instance our cup is not even half empty — on the contrary, it is almost full.

Irving Cramer

Senior Executive Director

MAZON: A Jewish Response to Hunger

Los Angeles

Still a Lot of Life

It is with fond memories, I remember my years of preparation to be a bar mitzvah at Temple Beth Zion (“A Lot of Life Left,”Aug. 8). Memories so strong and compelling that when my oldest son, Marc, was preparing to become a bar mitzvah, he spent a summer in Los Angeles studying with Rabbi Tenenbaum. When Marc mastered his studies, my family gathered at Temple Beth Zion for the bar mitzvah celebration.

Many of those helping us in this celebration were friends and congregates associated with Temple Beth Zion since its founding; our extended family.

My mother-in-law, Raye Cowan, for many years, was the temple’s executive secretary and although in failing health, I know Raye would want me to wish all of her friends at Temple Beth Zion, good health and long life.

Thank you for the opportunity to recall this caring house of worship and the wonderful people who continue to give it life.

Roger Goldberg

Pensacola, Fla.

Beach Roots

As to no ones’ grandparents living in Manhattan Beach, I definitely take exception (“Wave of the Future,” Aug. 15).

My parents moved to the beach community in about 1928. The Center Pharmacy, on Center Street was our family business and a favorite landmark of the community. We attended Manhattan Grammar School and Redondo High.

Our father was a volunteer fireman, honorary policeman, Lion’s Club member, American Legion and was even close friends with the Catholic priests, who had a monthly poker game.

Our mother made sure that her two daughters had a Jewish life by taking us on the “Red Streetcar” to Sunday school in Long Beach.

There are now six great-great grandchildren who know their roots at the “beach.”

Jackie Rosen Berman

Century City

Not Anti-Jewish

Recently, our friend Councilman John Ferraro has been accused of being anti-Jewish. There is not a speck of truth to this accusation. We have known John Ferraro for almost 40 years and neither John, or his dear wife Margaret, have an anti-Jewish bone in their body.

The late Rabbi Judah Isacsohn, the dean of Yeshiva Toras Emes, called John Ferraro a “righteous gentile.” Rabbi Pinchos Gruman, a disciple of the late Moshe Feinstein and Rav Aron Kotler lists Councilman Ferraro as a close friend.

John Ferraro is a distinguished public servant who has helped Jewish causes for many years. We wish him many more years of health so that he can continue to serve all Los Angelenos.

Armin Mandel, Chairman of the Board, Congregation Bais Yehuda

Andrew Friedman, President, Congregation Bais Naftoli

Stanley Diller, President, Yeshiva Gedolah

Praying, Not Studying

As regards the photo that appears on pages 2 and 7 of your August 29 issue:

The accompanying caption on page 2 is quite wrong. The Brown University student is not studying — he is davening (praying). Kissing the tzitzes of his tallis while bedecked with tefillin and reading a small book in front of a clock marked 6:45 (presumably a.m.) are all sure giveaways!

Yossie Kram

Los Angeles

Clarification

Following publication of our report on a meeting between four community leaders and the Israeli consul-general at the Hillcrest Country Club (“Strains in the Relationship,”Aug. 22), we published a letter in the following issue by reader Howard Winter criticizing the participants for meeting on Tisha B’Av.

The facts are otherwise. While the Jewish Journal reported that the meeting took place on the same day as the Tisha B’Av altercation between Conservative worshippers and Israeli police at the Western Wall, this incident took place on the eve of Tisha B’Av on Monday, Aug. 11.

The Hillcrest meeting was indeed on the same Monday, but at noon, thus many hours before the start of Tisha B’Av. Due to the 10 hour time difference between Jerusalem and Los Angeles, however, it is quite likely that by the time of the Hillcrest meeting, the participants were already aware of the Western Wall incident.

Correction

Marsha Rothpan’s position as community program coordinator with the Jewish Federation-South Bay Council was full-time, not part-time as stated in the cover story (“Wave of the Future,” Aug. 13).

Letters Read More »

The Book on Olives

Leave a Comment / Books, Entertainment, Food, Old Stories /

‘Olives: The Life and Lore of a Noble Fruit,’

by Mort Rosenblum (North Point Press, $25)

In his endlessly fascinating book, “Olives: The Life and Lore of a Noble Fruit,” Mort Rosenblum reminds us that domesticated olives were around before the Bible, “was a first draft scribbled on papyrus.” Olives are so caught up in the history of Western civilization, in fact, that it is hard to imagine the latter without the former. Olive oil, which has, in our time, become no more than another affectation of the Upscales, has determined the course of empires from ancient Palestine to the modern-day Mafia.

To see our world in a grain of sand might take a poet. But to see it in an olive takes a reporter of Rosenblum’s insight and doggedness. In “Olives,” he takes us everywhere olives are king or, more often, deity: the presses of Tuscany, the orchards of Spain, the warehouses of Greece, the groves of California, France and Croatia. In Israel and in the West Bank, he talks to Palestinian growers who see their entire conflict with the Jews in terms of its impact on their beloved trees. He reports on the findings of the Ekron excavation, near Ashdod, where Iron Age jugs and olive presses reveal a remarkably advanced Philistine culture, whose wealth was built primarily on the oil trade — olive oil. “In ancient Israel,” writes Rosenblum, “if a prophet wanted to utter a curse, he would say, ‘Let God ruin your olive trees.'”

Rosenblum, who writes for The Associated Press and Vanity Fair, has his own olive grove in Provence, France. He is passionate about olives, but open-minded. He can be concise and fair-minded in examining the health benefits of olive oil, and refreshingly unsentimental — Peter Mayle take note — in dismissing some peasant oils as one step below Valvoline.

There are recipes, but too few, and there’s some advice on olive curing, but too vague. This is not a cookbook, but a cook’s book. Turn off the stove, get out the wine, the bread and the oil, and read all about how an elemental foodstuff shapes the lives of the people who grow it, and cook with it.

Some Like Fish Hot

This recipe, adapted from Paula Wolfert’s “Mediterranean Cooking,” appears along with several other olive-heavy dishes in Rosenblum’s “Olives.” It is similar to many fish dishes in books on North African Jewish cooking.

Tunisian fish Fillets with Harissa and Black Olives

1 1/2 pounds firm white fish fillets

salt and freshly ground pepper

Flour

1/4 cup olive oil

1/2 cup chopped onion

2 garlic cloves, minced

1 cup tomato sauce

1/2 teaspoon harissa (a North African chili paste available at most fine supermarkets)

1 bay leaf

1 cup pitted black Tunisian or Greek olives

Juice of 1/2 lemon or more

Chopped parsley

1) Season the fish with salt and pepper; dust with flour.

2) Heat the oil in a large skillet and fry the fish until golden brown on both sides.

3) Transfer the fish to a warm dish. Pour off all but 2 tablespoons of oil.

4) Add the onion and garlic to the skillet and cook, covered, 2 to 3 minutes.

5) Add the tomato sauce, 1/2 cup of water, the harissa and the bay leaf. Cook 10 minutes.

6) Add the olives and fish fillets and continue cooking, uncovered, until the fish is tender and the sauce is thick.

7) Add lemon juice to taste.

8) Serve with a sprinkling of chopped parsley.

Serves 4-6

Restaurant Review

A Nice Piece of Fish…and More

The Fish Grill

Where: 7226 Beverly Blvd., Los Angeles (3 blocks west of La Brea)

Phone: (213) 937-7162

Hours: Sun.-Thurs., &’009;11 a.m. – 9 p.m.; Fri., &’009;11 a.m.- 2:30 p.m.

Major credit cards accepted

The Jewish men I knew growing up — guys named Murray and Harvey and Marv — would like The Fish Grill. These were men who, in their 30s or 40s, made a lot of money in real estate or merchandising and spent it lavishly. They dined at the continental restaurants that once lined the parvenu blocks of Ventura Boulevard, or drove over the hill to binge on rare meats in done-up cream sauces at Le Restaurant or The Bistro.

Then they got older. Maybe it was the hit they took in the recession, maybe it was the cardiologist’s hand-stitched zipper down their sternum, but these men’s tastes suddenly got simple. Ask them what they wanted for dinner, and the answer rarely varied: “A nice piece of fish and a baked potato.”

And that, in a sentence, is The Fish Grill.

It’s a small, spare and kosher place in the part of La Brea colonized by equal numbers of hipsters and Orthodox. Both line up to order from the counter, choosing from a menu so short that you can read it in a glance. There are nine choices of mesquite-grilled fish — trout, salmon, ahi, the usual suspects — two spicy Cajun preparations, some fish sandwiches, fish and chips, a fish taco and chowder — fish chowder. You place your order, which comes with a choice of baked or fried potatoes and coleslaw or Israeli salad. Pay your money — no item costs more than $8.95 — and then watch as the grill cooks lay your piece of bright, fresh fish on the grill.

The portions hover around the 6-ounce mark — that’s a nice piece of fish. They arrive charred at the edges, gently cooked toward the center.

The ahi tuna — my favorite — spreads over the plate like a French hangar steak. I order it with the thin, fresh-cut fries, which are boiled in oil until crackly and spilled in a heap across the fillets. As for the baked potatos, they’re tonged out of the oven to order, flaky as the sea bass. If you have less than $10 to spend, it’s hard to leave The Fish Grill hungry.

The same fries accompany the Fish-n-Chips ($5.50), but the fillets are coated in a dense crumb crust and fried until they twist into brittle, briny crackers. I love them.

But I wouldn’t order the Blackened Redfish ($7.95) again. It’s not real redfish, for one, and charred Cajun-style spices taste just like — surprise! — burned spices.

In the small sawdust-strewn seating area — decorated with old fishing nets and a broken-down soft-serve ice cream machine — you’ll find an only-in-Los Angeles bunch of patrons. Last Friday, at lunch, an ardent yeshiva bocher was trying to push copies of his rebbe’s video on the ultra-efficient Latina cashier. An Israeli businessman was trying to schmooze an American buyer, or vice versa, and both argued God with the yeshiva student. Meanwhile, a stunning interracial couple straight out of a Benetton ad nuzzled over their grilled salmon and butterflied trout.

Murray, Harvey and Marv weren’t there, but they should have been. They’d have loved it. — Robert Eshman, Associate Editor

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Igniting Israel’s Powder Keg

Leave a Comment / Israel, Old Stories /

The Reform movement’s kindergarten in the Jerusalem suburb of Mevasseret Zion was torched by arsonists on the eve of Monday’s opening of the school year. No one was injured, but the kindergarten’s walls were blackened with soot, windows were broken, and equipment and toys were destroyed.

Chana Sorek, chairperson of Mevasseret Zion’s Reform congregation, said that at a town council meeting in January, Sephardic residents, aligned with local politicians and rabbis from the Shas (Sephardi ultra-Orthodox) party, told Reform members: “We’ll burn you,” and, “It’s too bad they didn’t burn you at Auschwitz.”

The threats came as the council was about to decide on a plot of land where the Reform congregation, which numbers about 225 families, could build a community center and synagogue. The meeting was adjourned, Sorek said, when the Shas-aligned group appeared on the verge of physically attacking the Reform Jews present.

She said that it was obvious the arson was connected to this group of residents, and that at least one local council member — whom she did not name — agreed. Hours after the arson was discovered, a local Reform member received a telephone call from someone who told her, “You’ll be hearing from us.”

A spokesman for the Jerusalem police confirmed that the fire was caused by arson, and that the connection Sorek spoke of was one of the possibilities being investigated. The spokesman said that he did not want to elaborate, “because this is a very sensitive matter.” He added that no suspects had yet been arrested.

Meanwhile, the 41 children at the Kehilat Mevasseret Zion kindergarten have been gathering daily at the home of a nearby Reform Jewish family. The local council is expected to try to find an alternate site for the kindergarten.

Rabbi Uri Regev, Israel’s most prominent Reform leader, stressed that the arson was not a merely local matter, but was the inevitable result of continuous incitement by leaders of Israel’s Orthodox establishment.

“We hear it every day. The incitement against Reform Judaism does not stop; it has gotten out of control, and it is orchestrated by the leaders of the Orthodox establishment,” Regev said.

The verbal attacks have escalated in the last month, following the Supreme Court’s decision that Joyce Brenner, a Reform Jew, was entitled to sit on Netanya’s religious council. When Brenner tried to take her seat in the council chambers, a Shas member said angrily, “We don’t want lesbians or people who care more about Arabs than about Jews.”

Chief Ashkenazi Rabbi Yisrael Lau recently blamed the Reform for assimilation, and he was quoted in an extremist-Orthodox newspaper as saying, “Hezbollah, Hamas and Islamic Jihad commit suicide at Mahane Yehuda, and they [Reform Jews] commit suicide of a different kind.”

Rabbi Moshe Gafni, a Knesset member with the Degel Hatorah (Flag of the Torah) party, told Israel Television: “Just as you cannot allow a Hamas member onto the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, so you cannot allow someone who wants to destroy Judaism onto a council that is supposed to provide religious services to Jews.”

Interior Minister Eli Suissa of Shas said from the Knesset podium, “We will do everything in our power to banish them [the Reform] from our midst.”

Regev said that when unsophisticated Israelis hear this sort of talk from Orthodox leaders, “it’s easy for them to translate it into violent deeds.”

Regev drew a parallel between the current incitement and violence against non-Orthodox Jews and that which preceded Yitzhak Rabin’s assassination. An attempt on the life of a non-Orthodox Jew looms as a real possibility, he warned, saying, “Once again, the writing is on the wall, and no one wants to see it.”

Surveying the damage in the kindergarten, Sorek said that she believed the arsonists were connected to the 300-odd local Sephardic residents, many of them homeless, who have recently been battling police while trying to take over Mevasseret Zion’s immigrant absorption center.

The squatters, children of Sephardic immigrants who settled in the Ma’oz Zion neighborhood of Mevasseret Zion in the 1950s, resent the thousands of richer, mainly Ashkenazic residents who bought expensive new cottages and apartments in the Mevasseret Yerushalyim neighborhood over the last couple of decades. Squatters accuse the newcomers of “stealing” land that should have gone to them.

The militants in Ma’oz Zion tend to be traditionally Orthodox, and they see the Reform congregation — liberal, middle-class and largely Ashkenazic — as a symbol of their enemies, Sorek said.

“These people are violent, they threaten people, and some are drug addicts. It’s easy for someone to take their anger and turn it against the Reform,” she said.

Rabbi Avraham Yosef, the official rabbi of Ma’oz Zion, condemned the arson as “criminal,” saying that he would impart this message in his coming sermons. “I’m not for the Reform, but I’m not for violence either,” he said.

Yosef went on to say that he was unaware of any local incitement against the Reform, and that he was convinced the arson could not have been carried out by Mevasseret Zion residents.

Asked why he was certain of this, Yosef replied, “Whoever heard of a Jew doing such a thing to another Jew?”

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A Reform Response By Rabbi Eric H. Yoffie

We condemn the burning of the Reform kindergarten in Mevasseret Zion. We are appalled and saddened by this senseless act of violence.

We call on Israeli leaders, both religious and governmental, to denounce this attack in the strongest possible terms, and to aggressively pursue its perpetrators.

While those responsible for the arson attack cannot yet be identified, there is no doubt that wildly irresponsible and incendiary remarks by Orthodox officials have contributed to a climate of hate that makes such attacks possible. In the wake of the Rabin assassination, we had hoped — apparently to no avail — that religious and political leaders had come to understand the dangers of rash statements and inflammatory language.

We are particularly appalled by the remarks made on the Sunday prior to the arson by Chief Ashkenazi Rabbi Yisrael Lau, who compared Reform Jews to the suicidal Arab terrorists of Hamas, Hezbollah, and Islamic Jihad. Such words open the door to the grim possibilities of terror and violence.

Rest assured, we will not be deterred. The kindergarten will be reopened, and we will redouble our efforts to build Reform Judaism in Israel.

We remain committed to the dream of a Jewish state that unites the Jewish people wherever they may be found, a state in which Jews are respectful of their differences but united in their love of Zion and their commitment to a common Jewish destiny.

During the coming Days of Awe, we beseech the leaders of Israel to promote Jewish unity and the partnership of the Jewish people, in the spirit of mutual respect and civility.

Rabbi Eric H. Yoffie is president of the Union of American Hebrew Congregations.

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Dear Deborah

Leave a Comment / Dear Deborah, Old Stories /

Readers: Again?

The subject of men, women, money and our stereotypes about them consistently seems to whip up agitation. This new bundle of letters — some in response to J, the blue-collar man whose wife left him because he didn’t earn enough (“When Dollars = Esteem,” Aug. 8), and some still responding to “Stranded in the Middle Class,” the fellow with a similar situation, whose letter appeared months ago — is proof of this powerful struggle in our community.

Stereotypical Oversight

Dear Deborah,

Typically, I find your column insightful, enlightening and entertaining. I am gratified that you take writers to task for thoughtless stereotypes about men and women. So it was with great disappointment that I read your response to J.

Although his letter laid a great deal of emphasis on the odious stereotype that Jewish women seek nothing but a “cash cow” in a husband, you didn’t even comment on this, let alone disabuse him of it. As you have noted many times in the past, the world (and this city) is full of Jewish women for whom human qualities are far more important than wealth. In addition, while I am certain that there are Jewish women who seek wealthy husbands, we certainly have no monopoly on such shallow qualities. Indeed, given the statistics regarding the likelihood of a Jewish woman to achieve success in the professions, it would seem that we are less likely to need to rely on men for financial comfort than are many other women.

Abby J. Leibman,

Executive Director,

California Women’s Law Center

Dear Ms. Leibman,

Whoops. Caught looking on a fastball. Thank you for catching it; I was too busy focusing on J’s self-esteem to see the senseless stereotype fly past the plate.

Read on for a less forgiving reader’s response.

Dear Deborah,

I am offended by your response to this angry, divorced man. This is only his experience. How can you agree that all (Jewish) women want to be supported?

I was the sole supporter in a marriage — and not by choice. I have since divorced this man and lifestyle. My personal ad would definitely say “stable, secure man” because I will not be the sole supporter in a marriage again. Your answer should have been that these expectations should have been discussed before the marriage. You owe your fellow women an apology.

Miffed In Midwest

Dear Miffed,

Of course, I don’t think that all Jewish women expect to be supported. Only some. And although I have no idea of the data regarding percentages, I feel a survey coming on. I imagine few men or women want to carry the financial burden alone. So I’d like men and women readers to number the following statements from 1, what is most true, through 5, what is least true: I expect to be supported by my spouse. I expect to support my spouse. I expect us to both contribute financially to the best of our abilities. I would like to be supported by my spouse. I would like to be able to support my spouse.

Be sure to state whether you are male or female, and please submit the survey by the end of September.

By the way, Ms. Miffed, did your ex and you discuss your expectations before marrying, and if so, did it make a difference?

Read on for the (abridged) story of a woman reporting from the front lines of the conflict.

Chicago Hopeless

Dear Deborah,

I have felt sad and guilty about my feelings for a long time, and I thank you for giving me the opportunity to write to you about them. I, too, feel stranded in the middle class. I, however, am female, 45, and don’t plan to leave my husband because he doesn’t make enough money.

He is a wonderful man, and we have a good marriage in many ways. I have always worked — even when the kids were babies — so it’s not that I want to put all the pressure and responsibility on him. We live in a three-bedroom home. We are able to pay our bills with little to spare. I drive a small Honda that has 95,000 miles on it. We always have food and clothing, although my kids let me know that they feel “poor” because they don’t have the latest fashions and shoes that all the other kids have. It’s difficult to be around people from our temple, with their fancy clothes, cars, huge homes and fabulous vacations.

Why can’t I be grateful for what I have? My mother never worked and always had a cleaning lady, nice jewelry, et al. She instilled in me that I’d get married and have a life like hers. I feel cheated because I don’t have the life I expected. I feel judged and pitied by my parents for not being able to live the “good life.”

I would love to hear comments and/or advice about how to cope with my feelings.

Cheated in Chicago

Dear Cheated,

Clearly, you live in an upper-middle- to upper-class community, and the reasons for your frustration when you compare yourself to others, to your parents, seem obvious. Yet perhaps we ought take a look at the facts. In the 1950s, when you were raised, a booming postwar economy allowed many families to get by and sometimes even thrive on one income. Today, most families require two, so tell your parents the news. Even half of all mothers of nursery-school-aged children work.

As to how to cope with your feelings, the complaints of your children, and so forth, why not load your children into the Honda and volunteer a couple of hours a week in a homeless shelter for families? Complaints about the lack of fancy vacations and designer duds will soon be drowned out by blessing counting.

One last point: In case you’ve been too taken up by your own sense of deprivation to notice, there are more than a few of your wealthier co-congregants who are no happier than you. Were you to take a peek into their sack of tsuris, you might just choose your own.

Deborah Berger-Reiss is a West Los Angeles psychotherapist.

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All letters to Dear Deborah require a name, address and telephone number for purposes of verification. Names will, of course, be withheld upon request. Our readers should know that when names are used in a letter, they are fictitious.

Dear Deborah welcomes your letters. Responses can be given only in the newspaper. Send letters to Deborah Berger-Reiss, 1800 S. Robertson Blvd., Ste. 927, Los Angeles, CA 90035. You can also send E-mail: deborahb@primenet.com

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From ‘Rubble to Renewal’

Leave a Comment / Community, Education, Old Stories /

The centerpiece of BBI’s reconstruction, the Arts and Conference Center, will be celebrated Sept. 14.With song, dance and prayers of thanksgiving, the Brandeis-Bardin Institute will celebrate the reconstruction of its Simi Valley campus on Sunday, Sept. 14. The community is invited to participate in the free event.

The 1994 Northridge earthquake inflicted some $11 million in damage at the Brandeis-Bardin Institute (BBI), and there was a real possibility that the innovative educational and cultural center would have to close down.

Following an intensive, three-year fund-raising campaign, augmented by government aid, BBI has moved from “rubble to renewal” and from “dream to reality,” according to the invitation to the Sept. 14 event.

The centerpiece of BBI’s reconstruction is the grand Arts and Conference Center, which encompasses the Wapner family main house and salon, the Gunther family dining center, the Lax family administrative center, the Dr. William and Leah Molle library, and a memorabilia room. Other new facilities include a dance plaza, sleeping cottages, a storage building and a sewer system.

This year also marks BBI’s 50th anniversary at its present 3,100-acre rustic site. Best known for its Brandeis Collegiate Institute, which provides a month-long immersion into Jewish life for its 18- to 26-year-old participants, campus programs now range from kindergarten to Elderhostels.

Judge Joseph A. Wapner, the BBI president, will chair the day’s events and will be assisted by executive vice president Dr. Alvin Mars. Speakers will include Herbert Gelfand, president of the Jewish Federation Council of Greater Los Angeles, and Ventura County Supervisor Judy Mikels.

The occasion also will be marked by picnicking, Israeli dancing, swimming, ribbon cuttings, and tours of the facilities.

The general public is invited to the celebration, with gates opening at 9 a.m. The program starts promptly at 10 a.m. at the campus site, 1101 Peppertree Lane, Simi Valley. There is no admission fee, but advance reservations are requested by Sept. 8 to Kim Miller at (805) 582-4450. Visitors may bring their own picnic foods or order them in advance.

As its post-opening inaugural event, the Arts and Conference Center will host an exhibition on Oct. 19, in which 50 artists will display their original sukkah designs.

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Telethon Time

Leave a Comment / Entertainment, Old Stories, Philanthropy, Television /

Previous telethon guests include (from top): Ann Jillian, Mayim Bialik, William Windom, Charles Durning, Fyvush Finkel, Sid Caeser and Jan Murray. Top right, Murray, who will also co-host the show with Rabbi Boruch Shlomo Cunin.

Left to right: Jon Voight, Tony Danza, Charles Durning and Tracy Danza.If anyone had any doubts that the Chabad telethon has become a landmark on the pop culture scene, consider this: The entire cast of “Friends,” one of NBC’s top-rated sitcoms, has produced a segment of the show to air only on the telethon.

The brief segment will be featured twice during the telethon, which airs on Sunday, from 5 p.m. to midnight, on UPN Channel 13.

The “Friends” short is but the latest way that Chabad, most of whose leaders, volunteers and service clientele come from resolutely Orthodox backgrounds, has managed to appeal to the broadest possible audience.

What brings everyone together, according to Rabbi Boruch Shlomo Cunin, West Coast director of Chabad and telethon founder, is the desire of all people to help others. “Caring and sharing,” he said, “are the driving forces behind the success of the telethon.”

That, and irrepressible showmanship. The telethon — one of the last live variety shows on television, according to its promoters — zooms along, a savvy but sincere mix of Hollywood, high-tech marketing and religious fervor. Rabbi Cunin’s impassioned appeals for funds to support Chabad’s activities alternate with song, dance and merriment. Celebrities show up, don yarmulkes, and provide testimonials to Chabad’s generosity and efficiency. When the tote board flashes a new dollar total, everyone — from visiting Chabad dignitaries to the latest TV heartthrob — joins hands and dances to swirling klezmer music.

Previous Chabad telethons have seen Jan Murray, Jon Voight and Rabbi Cunin locked in a dervish-like kazatzka. Other celebrity visitors have included Bob Hope and Michael Douglas.

This year, the celebrities scheduled to appear include Ed Ames, Mayim Bialik, James Caan, Sid Caesar, Tony Curtis, Tony Danza, Fyvush Finkel, Estelle Getty, Elliott Gould, the Limelighters, Jan Murray, Judd Nelson, Edward James Olmos, Regis Philbin, the Tokens, Jon Voight and Shelley Winters. Hollywood producer Jerry Weintraub will chair the event, and comedian Freddy Roman, president of the New York Friars Club, hosts.

Chabad’s connections to some of Hollywood’s elite often come about as a result of its service work: Roman signed on to the program despite a prior commitment when he discovered that a close friend’s son had been helped through Chabad’s drug-rehabilitation program.

The telethon began in 1980 as a one-time event to raise funds to rebuild the West Coast Chabad headquarters, which had been destroyed by a fire that killed three people. Many of those whom Chabad had helped over the years turned out to lend their support, and the idea of an annual telethon took hold.

Seventeen years and millions of dollars later, the telethon has — witness the “Friends” episode — graduated to the category of Los Angeles institution, for Jews and non-Jews.

Rabbi Cunin, the man most responsible for infusing the telethon with its trademark spirit, is well aware of the telethon’s reach. For many Jewish viewers, he told The Journal, “this is the only expression of their Jewishness that they have all year.”

Indeed, Jews who would never set foot in a synagogue, much less in one of Chabad’s 60 centers or 48 schools and social-service facilities statewide, find themselves transfixed by the telethon, which airs simultaneously in cities nationwide. For them, the dancing rabbis in traditional black frocks and shtreimels provide a welcome and ample dose of Yiddishkayt.

According to Chabad, the money it receives goes to support a whole range of Chabad social-service and educational programs, including the Chabad drug-rehabilitation center, Project PRIDE drug-prevention centers, a homeless program, and educational outreach programs on college campuses and in local communities. About $4 million was raised on last year’s telethon, and Chaim Cunin, the rabbi’s son, said that he expects the show to bring even more this year, though he declined to give a target number.

The story of how an episode of one network TV’s highest-rated sitcoms ended up on the locally produced telethon of an Orthodox Jewish organization is a case study of Chabad’s influence and chutzpah.

A previous “Friends” episode had one of the character’s watching the telethon on his TV. Chabad had granted the show permission to use some actual footage.

When “Friends” producer Todd Stevens phoned Chabad’s Chaim Cunin to ask for permission to air that episode again, Cunin asked for a favor in return. The result is a segment that lauds the work of Chabad and encourages viewers to support it. Chabad staffers wrote the original script for the segment, which was then rewritten by “Friends” writers.

“We’re funny,” said Chaim Cunin, “but they’re funnier.”

Cast members from “Friends” said that they may also visit the telethon in person.

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21 Years Ago: L.A.’s Own Zionist Conference

Leave a Comment / California, Community, Old Stories /

As Zionism turns 100 and Israel approaches 50, a Sept. 14 conference re-examines our affection for the Jewish State.

Photo from Jerusalem in 3000 Years, Konemann, 1995.

To many American Jews in their 20s, 30s and 40s, Zionism, the ancient dream of a Jewish homeland that spawned a political movement and the birth of Israel almost 50 years ago, is little more than a footnote in a Sunday-school textbook. Pursuing their own professional and personal goals in this country seems a lot more important than worrying about a tiny Jewish state on the other side of the world. And, besides, Israel doesn’t seem to need as much financial or political support these days.

But Los Angeles’ Jewish organizations are out to challenge these assumptions, for their future depends on attracting younger members and engaging the next generation’s commitment to Israel.

With this in mind, the Jewish Community Relations Committee of the Jewish Federation Council of Greater Los Angeles decided that the confluence of Israel’s 50th anniversary, in 1998, and the 100th anniversary of the First Zionist Conference, celebrated last week in Basel, Switzerland, was the opportune time to reintroduce a new generation of Jews to the idea of Zionism and Israel.

Along with nearly 40 other organizations, the JCRC is co-sponsoring an all-day event on Sept. 14 at the Loews Hotel in Santa Monica. “A Celebration of Israel” will include workshops, speakers, and networking at an “information fair,” and kosher food will be served.

The idea, said 29-year-old co-chair Norman Becker, is to attract people who normally wouldn’t go to organized Jewish events. The event will be geared toward Jewish identity and the relationship — or lack of it — that the participants feel to Israel. “We’re trying to light a fire under people and turn them on to any number of issues that might involve them in the community,” Becker said.

There will be a photo exhibit on the history of Zionism, workshops on politics, economics, art, history, music and the media, and a wine, nosh and dance party to cap the festivities.

Among the workshop topics will be:

* Religion and the Jewish state: Who is a Jew?

* Zionism: From Herzl to Hebron to Hollywood.

* Which Promised Land? Israel in the minds of American Jews.

* Gender myths and realities in Israel.

* Israel and the world: How bad is the neighborhood?

Keynote speakers will be Avrum Burg, chairman of the World Zionist Organization and the Jewish Agency, and Joseph Alpher, director of the American Jewish Committee in Israel and the Middle East.

Among the other speakers: Yoav Ben Horin, senior fellow of the Wilstein Institute; former U.S. Congressman Mel Levine; composer Lucas Richman; UCLA Hillel Director Rabbi Chaim Seidler-Feller; Renee Rothstein of AIPAC; Morton Klein, president of the Zionist Organization of America; writer-filmmaker David Notowitz; Rabbi Yitzchok Adlerstein, director of the Jewish Studies Institute of Yeshiva of Los Angeles and the Simon Wiesenthal Center; Gerald Bubis, founding director of the School of Communal Service at Hebrew Union College and an active member with Americans for Peace Now; Rabbi David Eliezrie of North County Chabad Center in Orange County; and Gene Lichtenstein, editor-in-chief of The Jewish Journal.

A 32-person committee co-chaired by Becker and pro-Israel activist Larry Greenfield helped plan the event. Although the group included a spectrum of views on Israel, there was a unity of purpose that kept things civil, said JCRC Israel Commission Director Elaine Albert, who served as the coordinator. “Everyone said, ‘No politics.’ All of us love Israel. We may not agree, but we all want this day to bring in another generation that loves Israel.”

Not that the process of putting together the conference was without its moments of drama. The use of the word “Zionism,” for example, sparked intense debate among the committee members. Some thought that it would turn off those who associated the term with their gray-haired grandparents or with a negative nationalistic or racist fervor. Others, steeped in the historic lore of such great Zionist heroes as Theodor Herzl, organizer of the first Zionist Congress, and David Ben-Gurion, Israel’s first prime minister, said that Zionism was an essential part of the message. Still, the invitation to the event relegates to smaller print the fact that the day is intended to celebrate “100 years of building the Zionist dream.”

To committee member Kelly Baxter, 27, a native Angeleno who spent four years in Israel and has a degree in Jewish studies from UCLA, Zionism has only positive connotations. “I feel that whatever goes on in Israel is happening in my own front yard,” said Baxter, who markets Israel programs on college campuses for the World Zionist Organization.

The conference will provide a great opportunity to show the positive side of Zionism, said Lili Steiner, another committee member. “It’s the reason that Israel exists. At the time of the first conference, 100 years ago, people didn’t have television, CNN and telephones. Yet they managed to build a movement of people that eventually led to the creation of the State of Israel,” she said.

Born in Russia and raised in Melbourne, Australia, Steiner said that she was brought up “culturally religious” and that anything Jewish or related to Israel stirs her passions. Australian Jews, who number about 100,000, tend to be more emotionally connected to Israel, she said, probably because a majority are Holocaust survivors or descendants of survivors.

The conference is not intended as a “rah-rah campaign for Israel,” said Greenfield. “My deepest belief is that an honest dialogue showing Israel’s strengths and difficulties will inspire us to be supporters of Israel.”

Zionism, according to Greenfield, is still relevant for young American Jews. “I still think we’re building the Zionist dream. Israel is still about the rescue, relief and safe haven of Jews seeking their own land,” he said. “[Zionism itself] is a success story. Lots of other ‘isms’ have come and gone — Nazism, socialism, communism, even anti-Semitism in America, for the most part.” But Zionism, the glittering dream of the Jewish state, though embattled and bloodied at times, still survives.

Up to 500 participants are expected to attend the conference. Reservations are mandatory, since space is limited. Cost for the event, which includes a kosher breakfast and lunch, is $50 per person. For information, call (213) 852-7866.

 

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