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Jewish Journal

Connect. Inform. Inspire.

November 6, 1997

The Chosen Beer

Leave a Comment / Food, Old Stories /

He-Brew has a microbrewery bite and a hip Jewish identity

By Robert Eshman, Associate Editor

One day, a tall, youthful Stanford grad named Jeremy Cowan decidedthat it was time to chuck his career in computers and create the verything human society lacked most: a Jewish beer.

The idea flashed into his head during a bull session with somefriends: a Jewish beer…beer is brewed…He-Brew…shazam.

Cowan played around with some recipes, using a local microbreweryto refine his concoction. He called it “He-Brew, The Chosen Beer.” Heincorporated as the Shmaltz Enterprises. His friends loved the idea.His first run sold out. Cowan got serious.

Soon, the laid-back 32-year-old son of a Beverly Hills High Schoolteacher had hammered out a contract brewing arrangement with theesteemed Anderson Valley Brewing Company in Boonville, Calif. Hespent months refining recipes (which was fun) and going throughlicensing hassles (which was no fun). To attain kosher certification,he brought up Los Angeles’ Rabbi Binyomin Lisbon to Boonville, wherethe ponytailed brewmeister and the devout rabbi got along famously.Since beer manufacturing doesn’t involve a lot of lard or lobster,Lisbon’s main concern was making sure that the cleaning products werein adherence to Orthodox kosher standards.

The first product in the He-Brew line, Genesis Ale, is nowavailable in stores. Packaged in 22-ounce bottles, the beer is indeedcrisp and light, with a reassuring you-know-it’s-a-microbrew bite andalmost no aftertaste. Jews drink while they eat, figured Cowan, andhe didn’t want the beer to ruin the taste of the varnishkes tofollow.

Each bottle bears the Chagall-ian label, designed by Cowan’sartist girlfriend. It’s lively enough, though the dancing Chassidhoisting brewskies over drawings of the Golden Gate Bridge and theWestern Wall could double, were this 1930s Berlin, as a street posterdecrying world Jewish domination.

That, of course, is not Cowan’s aim. He-Brew, he says, is “acelebration of the culture of schtick.” The label’s copy makes thisclear enough — “Exile Never Tasted So Good” and “Don’t Pass Out,Passover” — as does Cowan’s marketing and his personality. He is oneof us way-post-Holocaust Jews who sees all things Jewish as cool andenriching. San Francisco, after all, is the birthplace of Davkamagazine, Noah’s Bagels and Tikkun — a city where Jewish hip ismainstreamed. “Twenty years ago, you could never have called a beerHe-Brew,” he says. “But we’re approaching Jewish identity in aninteresting way. I’m Jewish and it’s great and it’s fine.”

Thus, Cowan talks of marketing as “building community.” He sent abottle to Steven Spielberg and got back a short thank you — “Stevengot a kick out of it.” He’s supplied kegs to Chabad parties, donatedbeer to his local Jewish community center, and has pledged,Ben-and-Jerry-like, to give 10 percent of his profits to charity.It’s marketing as menschlekeit, and, so far, it seems to be working.The beer is selling briskly — at Wally’s Liquors on WestwoodBoulevard, customers bought out the entire first order in days.

Cowan is looking forward to developing a brew pub or piggybackingwith a deli. As Cowan says, “The schtickateria is everywhere.”

For more information, call (415) 648-HEBREW or visitwww.shmaltz.com.

Restaurant Review

A Restaurant at Midlife

What happens to Jews at midlife and beyond? That’s the cover storyof this issue, and, fittingly, one answer can be found at the CenturyCity Marketplace. In May 1994, just as Steven Spielberg and JeffreyKatzenberg were on their slippery slope toward 50 (Spielberg slipsnext month), they went Dutch on a restaurant. Dive! opened to greatfanfare — much of it deserved. A 1990s take on the theme restaurant,it features an undersea, submarine atmosphere, with screens full offish, state-of-the-art sound, a simulated dive sequence, basicallyeverything but the popping rivets from “Das Boot.” Sure, kids loveit, but will you?

The answer is, probably. If you can stomach the commotion — andwhy would you go there unless you wanted a little commotion — you’llfind plenty of good stuff to eat. (Caveat to our kosher readers:Dive! is not kosher.) The restaurant, operated by the LevyRestaurants, does do justice to Spielberg’s goal of creating a funplace where he could take the kids and still eat well. According to aDive! publicist, he still dines there weekly or so with his brood.The French fries are large, fresh and filling, though none of thearray of sauces they’re served with compares with a squeeze of Heinz.Submarine sandwiches with portobello mushrooms and Romano cheese arewarm and meaty. The specialties, such as charbroiled Atlantic salmon,have a smoky, oven-roasted edge. You can go way wrong — the carrotchip appetizer looked and tasted like burned wood shavings — but,mostly, the food, especially the subs, salads and specialties, couldtake the edge off anyone’s midlife crisis.

For hours and reservations, call (310) 788-DIVE. — R.E.

Books for Cooks

The Sephardic Connection

In the recently published “Latin American Cooking Across theU.S.A.” (Knopf, $27.50), authors Himilce Novas and Rosemary Silvabring us some of the country’s best Latin American home cooks, alongwith their recipes and stories. It’s a sensuous, endlessly temptingjourney, taking us from Crispy Bacalao Cakes with Criollo Gaspacho toRum-Soaked Sponge Cake. Along the way are hints of the feedback loopthat Jews entered into with cuisines everywhere.

In Latin American cooking, as in Eastern European cooking, Jewishcustoms and foods influenced native dishes, and native dishesinformed Jewish cooking. Look at Eva Asher, who grew up in ElSalvador, the daughter of a Jewish mother and Romanian father. Whenthe family ran out of shipped-in matzo meal on Passover, theyimprovised desserts by recreating a favorite Salvadoran confection ofshredded coconut atop a thin meringue layer.

Or take the Sopa de Habicas, a white bean soup thatLorraine Rosas said came to America via Jews in Spain and theCaribbean. Like many of the recipes in the book, it’s naturallykosher and echoes a taste of Sepharad in America. — R.E.

White Bean Soup

(from “Latin American Cooking Across the U.S.A.”)

1 cup dried white beans, such as Great Northern, navy or canellinibeans, rinsed

2 quarts water

2 tablespoons olive oil

2 medium Spanish onions, peeled and minced

1 large-clove garlic, peeled and minced

1 pound meaty beef short ribs, trimmed of fat

1/2 cup tomato sauce

2 medium ripe tomatoes, diced

1 teaspoon dried tarragon

Salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste

1) Put the beans and water in a large soup pot, and bring to aboil. Lower the heat, cover and simmer for one hour.

2) Heat the olive oil in a large skillet over medium heat.Sauté the onions and garlic until the onions are limp — about8 minutes.

3) Push the onions aside and add the short ribs. Brown on bothsides, about 4 minutes per side, stirring the onions so that they donot burn.

4) Add the onions and ribs, the tomato sauce, tomatoes, tarragon,and salt and pepper to the beans. Bring to a boil over medium-highheat, then lower the heat and simmer covered, for one hour.

5) With a slotted spoon, scoop up about 1 cup of the beans andpuree them in a food processor or electric blender. Stir the pureeinto the soup.

6) Now remove the short ribs and trim the beef from the bones.Discard the bones and cut the meat into 1-inch pieces and

The Chosen Beer Read More »

Taking Their Case to Israel

Leave a Comment / California, Israel, Old Stories /

 

Taking Their Case to Israel

Southland rabbis are among a delegation voicing concernover the proposed conversion law

By Naomi Pfefferman, Senior Writer

Rabbi John Rosove.

The urgent telephone call came on Monday, Oct. 20, for Rabbi JohnRosove of Temple Israel of Hollywood. A crisis was brewing in Israel,said Rabbi Ammiel Hirsch, head of the Association of Reform Zionistsof America.

Specifically, Hirsch asked Rosove to fly with him to Israel tojoin an emergency delegation of some 15 mostly Reform rabbis fromCanada and the United States. Among them were Rabbi Haim Dov Beliakof Temple Ner Tamid of Downey; Rabbi Emeritus Haim A. Asa of TempleBeth Tikvah in Fullerton; and Rabbis David and Jacqueline Ellenson ofLos Angeles, who are on sabbatical leave in Israel. The rabbis wereto convey a caveat.

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu was about to send to the Knesseta conversion law that would prevent non-Orthodox rabbis fromconducting conversions in Israel. It was the latest in the continuingconflict between the Orthodox establishment in Israel and Reform andConservative Jews, who dominate the Jewish scene in the United Statesbut constitute only a small minority in Israel. Agovernment-appointed commission had failed to work out an acceptablecompromise on the conversion bill.

“Our delegation’s message was that the bill would divide theJewish people and severely erode American Jewish loyalty to Israel,”Rosove says.

The delegation’s whirlwind, 28-hour trip “was like flying into theeye of a storm,” Rosove says. The first surprise came at Ben-GurionAirport, where reporters from ABC, CNN and every Israeli TV stationdescended upon the rabbis. Some 50 Israeli supporters also greetedthe Americans, waving placards and singing “Shalom Aleichem” and “AmYisrael Chai.” The attention was “startling,” Rosove says. But aneven bigger surprise awaited the visitors.

A bus carried the rabbis directly to the Prime Minister’s Office,where they would engage in an intense, 90-minute meeting withNetanyahu and Finance Minister Yaacov Neeman, the chair of thegovernment-appointed commission. It was past 9 p.m., but passionatediscussion soon filled the Cabinet room.

Netanyahu wanted the rabbis to convince Reform and Conservativeleaders to postpone the equal-rights lawsuits they had threatened tobring to the Israeli Supreme Court. He said that he’d withhold theconversion legislation — so long as the Reform and Conservativeleaders signed onto a new compromise. He outlined the details, butthe rabbis were unimpressed. “The bottom line was that Orthodoxywould still govern all life-cycle affairs in Israel, and we felt wewere being snowed,” Rosove says.

During a late-night conference call, the leaders of world Reformand Conservative Jewry were told of the meeting and rejected the newcompromise. When the news hit the media the next day, “we became theheavies,” Rosove says.

The delegation’s first meeting, with Industry and Trade MinisterNatan Sharansky, went poorly. Sharansky, head of the YisraelBa’Aliyah party and part of the Netanyahu coalition, “was absolutelyfurious with us,” Rosove says. “He blamed us for missing an historicopportunity.”

Neeman, during another morning meeting, “kept slamming his fist onthe table,” Rosove says. “He said, ‘This is the saddest day of mylife.’ He said we’d caused the greatest tragedy to hit the Jewishnation since the destruction of the Second Temple.”

“We were struck by his hyperbole,” Beliak says.

Harsh words from the leader of The Third Way party followed, andleaders of Likud and even the liberal Meretz party thought that theAmericans had made a tactical mistake.

“Bobby Brown, Netanyahu’s Diaspora adviser, followed useverywhere,” Rosove says. “But nobody bothered to apologize that achief rabbi had called all Reform rabbis a bunch of ‘clowns.'”

The crisis was finally averted on Oct. 28, when Israeli PresidentEzer Weizman called on non-Orthodox leaders to postpone theirlawsuits — at least until January 31 — while Neeman’s commissionworks on a new compromise. One reason Reform and Conservative leadersagreed, Beliak says, is because “for the first time, a representativeof the chief rabbinate said he was willing to participate in thediscussion.”

Meanwhile, the media spin on the delegation was less thancomplimentary. Ha’aretz called the visitors “15 confused rabbis whohad come to Israel…to defend their besmirched honor.” The New YorkTimes indicated that the rabbis had “backed off” from their lawsuitsbecause they were “smarting from harsh criticism.”

Orthodox Rabbi Elazar Muskin of Young Israel of Century City spokeon KCRW’s “Which Way L.A.” and said that Americans “should notdictate to the Israelis what they should do.”

“This whole issue is not about who is a Jew but who is a rabbi,”Muskin told The Jewish Journal. “It’s the demand of Reform andConservative rabbis to be recognized by the Orthodox rabbinate, whichis not going to happen.”

Others accused the delegation of trying to topple Netanyahu’sregime. But Beliak and Rosove disagreed. “Our goal was not to meddlein Israeli politics but to prevent the Jewish state from alienating90 percent of world Jewry,” Beliak says.

Taking Their Case to Israel Read More »

Personal Voice

Leave a Comment / Old Stories, Personal Voice /

A Plea From a Kneady Noah’s Fan

By Judy Gruen

The news hit me as hard as a stale mandlebrot: Noah’s Bagels wasgoing treif. They were abandoning us, tossing aside Los Angeles’loyal kosher consumers like so many day-old minis.

For two years, we’ve enjoyed a carbohydrate high — any of a dozenflavors of big, fat, chewy bagels, ours for the asking. But the bestpart was that the little “old New York” style restaurants werekosher. Affixed to the doors were not only mezuzot but signs thatpolitely asked customers not to bring in any outside food or drink.Even in Santa Monica, just about a mile from my home, finding akosher place to sit and share rye observations with our friends wasalmost as easy as finding a body-piercing parlor. Almost.

And the ambiance! The photo gallery of haimesh images, from theNoah’s crew at the “holeiest” place on Earth — the Western Wall ofJerusalem — to the winners of the 1982 Yiddish grandma contest, tothe triumphant pose of the 1955 Brooklyn Dodgers, while listening tothe crew members shouting “Hot Plain!” as they hoisted steaming traysout of the oven, somehow made the sweetest cinnamon raisin bageltaste even sweeter.

When I recovered from the stinging news, I indulged in amultigrain of emotions. “They’re meshuga nuts!” I exclaimed to myfriend Harry, who had the sorry task of telling me.

“No, they feel it’s good for business,” Harry said. “But don’tworry. You still have about two weeks left.”

Then I became boiling mad. Speaking plainly and, since it was ErevYom Kippur, controlling my urge to use salty language, I told Harrythat I wouldn’t give a pumpered nickel for Noah’s future. Who wouldstep up and fill this gastronomic hole in kosher Los Angeles? Howlong would we remain in a pickle? I became berry blue as I recalledall the truckloads of bagels and challahs my family had consumedsince Noah’s fortuitous opening on Main Street two years ago.Spending at Noah’s had taken an ever larger bite in our budget, andnow, to have the rugelach pulled out from under us!

I know it’s naïve to expect anything like loyalty from bigbusiness — especially when it has decided which side its bagel’sbuttered on. I’ll try mightily not to carry a chocolate chip on myshoulder over this betrayal and will try to push away nasty thoughtsthat keep poppying up, such as that I hope Noah’s earns babkas fromthe new, treif enterprise.

Then I heard a hot rumor wafting over the Noah’s at Pico andBeverwil: that the barrage of phone calls that the corporatedoughboys were getting on their schmooze line, from die-hardcranberry-orange lovers (their only truly bad flavor) to spicyjalapeno fans, was making them rethink this half-baked scheme, atleast on “kosher alley” and a few other locations.

But, now, Noah’s is running full-page ads in the Jewish paperswith alarmingly light assurances that, hey, at least they’re keepingtheir bagel dough and cream cheese kosher. Sorry, I’m not impressed.

Listen, Noah’s: I know you have a responsibility to bialy that youcan be to your shareholders. But, oy vey shmear! Just because theDodgers abandoned Brooklyn doesn’t mean you have to abandon yourloyal kosher consumers. I’ll make you a great lunch deal: Go aheadand add anything you want to the menu at most of your locations. I’llgive you San Dimas, Pasadena, heck, take the whole wheat San GabrielValley. I’ll throw in Ventura County, Thousand Oaks and Burbank. But,please, leave West Los Angeles and Main Street (Santa Monica) orMarina del Rey alone!

Dare I allow my hopes to rise? Or will we soon see under theglass, God forbid, sliced roast beef hovering next to the lightvegetable shmear?

Please, Noah’s, when it comes to your kashrut in Los Angeles,please say “for here” and not “to go.”

Judy R. Gruen, a salted-everything bagel aficionado, writesfrom Venice.

Personal Voice Read More »

Philosophers and Fools

Leave a Comment / Film, Old Stories /

Above, Suheil Hadad (left) and Muhamed Bakri (right) in “TheMilky Way”; Below, Arik Sharon in Jerusalem’s Machane Yehuda.

Features

‘The Milky Way’

This earthy, lyrical film by writer-director Ali Nassar is easilyone of the festival’s brightest highlights. Fresh, impassionedperformances and a solid script are enhanced by painterly, almostfable-like images. For the lilting, lovely score, Nahum Haiman’soriginal music is interwoven with traditional Arabic melodies. “TheMilky Way” reinforces some of the best reasons to go to “foreign”films. We’re drawn into an unfamiliar and fascinating world where weend up recognizing large parts of ourselves.

The year is 1964. The setting is an Arab village in the Galileeduring the last year of military rule. There, on rocky, sunlithillsides dotted with goats, and in modest, candlelit rooms, work,love and social ritual coexist with deep unhealed wounds — a legacyfrom the war in 1948, when many of the villagers fled or were killedin the fields where they stood.

Those left behind are a diverse bunch: There’s the opportunisticvillage mukhtar and his brutish, hotheaded son. The film’staciturn hero is a metalsmith named Mahmoud (Muhammed Bakri –chiseled and compelling as always), who shares a tender friendshipwith Mabruq, the town’s tragicomic fool. As the childlike Mabruq,actor Suheil Haddad is incapable of duplicity, and he wears theentire village’s emotional landscape on his rubbery, expressive face.

The central narrative is a neatly developed story about whatensues after the area’s Israeli military command discovers one of thevillagers has been issuing forged work permits. But linear plotsummaries don’t do justice to what filmmaker Nassar has achievedhere. “The Milky Way” is a richly knowing portrait of a worldbrimming with bawdy humor, petty cruelty, derailed dreams and smallsensual pleasures.

The rangy and reserved Mahmoud pokes his head flirtatiouslythrough the classroom window of the village schoolteacher, chidingher for the politically utopian songs she passes along to her youngstudents. Mabruq and a gaggle of boys play raucous games that reflectthe everyday reality of the adults — including the staging of akangaroo trial in which Mabruq, wearing a tattered, makeshiftmilitary uniform and holding one boy by the scruff of the neck, askshis court with mock outrage, “How did this dirty Arab threaten statesecurity?” “He pissed without a permit!” a boy shouts back amid awave of wild giggles.

Several times in the film, Mabruq shares tenderly romantic lookswith the orphaned Jamila, another badly damaged innocent herecognizes as a kindred spirit. The two are emblematic of life inthis village, where brutal realism and impossible poetry are intimateneighbors.

(Screens at the Music Hall on Nov. 9, 13, 15, 16 and 19, and atthe Writers Guild on Nov. 6.)

Documentaries

‘How I Learned to Overcome My Fear and Love Arik Sharon’

Is there a festival award for best title? The ostensible subjectof this video documentary is that (in)famous lightning rod, armygeneral-turned-pol Ariel Sharon. Director-editor-producer Avi Mograbidoggedly follows the rotund ex-general down the Likud campaign trailduring that volatile period between Yitzhak Rabin’s assassination andBinyamin Netanyahu’s election victory.

But as the playful title intimates, the movie is less about Sharonhimself than the place he occupies in the lives of Mograbi and otherdisaffected leftists like him. Mograbi’s eventual “love” for hissubject is, of course, a tongue-in-cheek falsehood. “Arik Sharon,”the filmmaker tells us at the outset, “is the only politician whosedoings, so I felt, had a direct effect over my life. And it wasscary.” Mograbi (who served jail time rather than serve during theLebanon War) proceeds to elaborate on the nature of his lifelongobsession with Sharon and the emotional havoc it has caused him.

It’s a funny, faux confessional delivered gloweringly into thecamera. Mograbi’s lumpy, affable face and bushy eyebrows are apicture of comic intensity as he relates how his childhood heroworship of the daring combat veteran gradually mutated into a fearand loathing that peaked with the bloody episode that occurred at theLebanese refugee camps Sabra and Shatila under Sharon’s indirectwatch. Mograbi’s documentary is film-as-therapy: He hopes to conquerhis complex obsession with the charismatic, seemingly likable manbehind the left-wing’s ongoing nightmare.

His initial failed attempts to gain access to Sharon are funny andtelling. They recall American provocateur Michael Moore’scat-and-mouse battle of wits with the head of General Motors in hisown satiric documentary, “Roger and Me.” Unfortunately, the parallelsend there. Although Mograbi’s resourcefulness and persistenceeventually gain him a limited kind of access to his cagey, powerfulsubject, unlike the brasher Moore, he’s not as certain of what to doonce he gets it. This proves to be the film’s undoing. Sharon’sentourage embraces Mograbi as one of them, and we see that theirdevotion to their leader is simultaneously discomfiting and touching.As for the fox-like Sharon (who repeatedly tells the filmmaker toshut down the cameras when he wants to eat), he tolerates Mograbiwith a wary affability when he’s not handily dismissing him as aminor logistical annoyance.

Mograbi may not love Sharon after all, but the bigger, unintendedirony is that he hasn’t overcome his paralyzing fear of him either.

(Screens at the Music Hall on Nov. 8, 13, 15 and 18.)

‘Jenny & Jenny’

Seventeen-year-old cousins Jenny Suissa and Jenny Guetta are bestfriends. They’re also cousins — third-generation North African Jewsgrowing up in the crowded, working-class seaside town of Bat Yam.Both are resolutely bored with high school, charmed by theirprovincial grandmother, exhilarated about boys and mightily alienatedfrom their blunt fathers. With empathy and insight, filmmaker MichalAviad tracks the two as they drift through their lives during thatseminal summer between girlhood and womanhood. The end result is adecidedly unslick video documentary that captures the way growing upfemale is done in this time and place.

This sort of material could easily end up a predictable fugueabout teen angst, sort of a low-budget version of MTV’s “Real World.”But Aviad avoids superficiality. Simple and complex truths emerge ontheir own, recalling the spirit of “Hoop Dreams” and — with itscinéma vérité scenes of domestic conflict– the raw candor of “An American Family.”

Ultimately, this is a very Israeli story. There’s poignancy inwatching these girls negotiate a blue-collar Middle Eastern worldrife with contradictions. Their cultural milieu is steeped inSephardic folkways and saturated with pop Western images. Theirparents invoke tradition but are confused about their ownincreasingly ineffectual familial roles. Religion as a spiritualresource is absent. Despite the Jennys’ penchant for sexy,midriff-baring tops, late-night club-hopping and enough finger andear jewelry to short-circuit a metal detector, their aspirations aresolidly retro: marry young, have kids, fade to black.

At times, their naiveté is painful to watch. Jenny Guetta’splan for the future pretty much consists of escaping from herdomineering father’s house into a husband’s. Her marriage celebrationwill have to be large and lavish, she says, because “if we have anunforgettable wedding, that will make sure we never stop loving eachother.”

It’s her smarter cousin, Jenny Suissa, who expresses a restlesshum of discontent. Her tentative, heartfelt search for the meaning oflife beyond Bat Yam’s figurative parameters provides this film withits best moments. To make that journey, she’ll need extraordinarycourage and imagination. During filming, her father abandoned thefamily for a new life in Las Vegas. Her older female relatives areloving, but of another era. Her swa
ggering male classmates (“My idealspouse? A virgin, a good girl who knows her place,” says one) areunlikely sources of salvation. This Jenny is poised uncertainly onthe brink of self-discovery. How it will all turn out for her is aquestion we’ve come to care about by film’s end.

(Screens at the Music Hall on Nov. 8, 12, 15 and 18.)

Philosophers and Fools Read More »

The Horse Whisperer

Leave a Comment / Entertainment, Old Stories /

Sixty one and still full of surprises, that’sWarren Beatty. This weekend, Beatty goes head to head at the boxoffice with “The Horse Whisperer,” starring that other senior iconRobert Redford. Redford, like his contemporary Beatty, not only starsbut also directs and produces his movie. May the best man win.

However, Beatty, never one to leave things tochance when he can micromanage every inch of his collected opus, isout there, looking for an edge — and selling his savage politicalfarce with the kind of intensity that would be exhausting if itweren’t so charming. In an era when movies poke bitter fun atpoliticos (most recently “Primary Colors” and “Wag the Dog,” bothcritically praised but not exactly box office dynamite), Beatty hasput his head on the line in the genre.

He playsincumbent U.S. Sen. Jay Bulworth of California, just days away froman election and in the throes of a nervous breakdown. With the racerazor’s-edge close, he’s become a blubbering mess, a disenchanted,burnt-out case, with a philandering wife (Christine Baranski) andlittle to hang on to. So he comes up with a unique solution to hisproblems: He hires a hit man to kill him for a fat life insurancepolicy that benefits his daughter.

But along the way to being 6 feet under, Bulworthmeets the gorgeous Nina (Halle Berry), a bright woman, 30-plus yearshis junior, raised by 1960s activists living in South Central LosAngeles. Bulworth, understandably, decides to cancel the hit. It’stoo late.

What follows is a “Warren in the Hood” politicaltragicomedy-cum-farce, which gives the savvy Beatty a chance tosavage not only the hometown Hollywood industry, but to fire deadlyarrows at assorted sacred cows, from politics to racism. Beatty asthe demented candidate turns into a hip-hopping, rap-spoutingpolitico who decides the only way to salvation is to tell it like itis: about Jews, blacks, Hispanics and the entire U.S. politicalhierarchy.

Why should politicians follow through on theircampaign promises to blacks, he asks his audience at a South Centralchurch, when blacks don’t make financial contributions? Whateverhappened to federal funding? asks a congregant. “They told you whatyou wanted to hear,” he snaps back. “Half your kids are out of workand half in jail, so what are you gonna do, vote Republican?”

Then whisked to a fund-raiser at a Beverly Hillsmansion, he scans his speech. Gazing out at the fat-cat donors, hemuses, “Oh, mostly Jews here — I’m sure they put something in aboutFarrakahn.”

As for Israel, he tells the astounded group thatpoliticians say they will support it just to take your money.

The $32 million movie is Beatty’s baby. Heproduced, wrote, directed and, of course, is the on-screen linchpinof this outrageous caper — made, ironically, for theultra-conservative Rupert Murdoch, who owns 20th Century Fox.

Political movies, especially since they’re upagainst some fairly stiff competition from the real thing these days,are not an easy sell. So Beatty is hitting the campaign trail asnever before to peddle “Bulworth” to the widest possibleaudience.

At the Four Seasons Hotel in Beverly Hills,Beatty, who turned 61 in March, looks in pretty good shape: There area few silver flecks in his full head of hair, a few wrinkles, but thewhole thing is pretty well preserved and immaculately attiredcompletely in dark-green cords, suede jacket and matching tie.

Throughout his long career, he has had a love-haterelationship with the media, but this time out, he’s making nice.Like a politician on the stump, he walks into the suite anddeliberately shakes everyone’s hand, paying particular attention toblack journalists. He knows there’s an audience out there thatnormally wouldn’t be seen dead at a Warren Beatty film, and he’sanxious to grab them. (When he’s finished, he even sits patiently,signing photos and posing for pictures with some of the morestar-struck journalists.) This is uncharacteristic behavior, to saythe least, from a man who has shunned the media all his life.

“This,” he declares, as if to convince himself,”is the best film I’ve ever made. It has a certain energy and makesme laugh when I look at it.”

And it’s pretty lifelike stuff, its creatorinsists. “In order for the film to work,” he says, “it has to beviolent, sexy and funny — or else it turns into C-Span.”

This desire to get attention has sent Beatty intosome strange territory. There’s enough rap music in his movie to keepthe most ardent fan happy. And Beatty compares the rappers of the1990s to Russian protest poets of Moscow, circa the 1960s.

It is also the first time that moviegoers get achance to see Beatty unvarnished, unairbrushed, filmed without thelayers of gauze he has lately employed when he takes to the bigscreen. In most of his movies, including the most recent, “LoveAffair,” “Bugsy” and “Dick Tracy,” Beatty has been filmed with thekind of devotion that only a Barbra Streisand can top. In “Bulworth,”he is unkempt, unshaven and crazed — upon orders from Beattyhimself.

“I told [cinematographer] Vittorio Storaro, ‘Iwant to be ugly in this movie,'” says Beatty. “I wanted to do thething that was the most opposite to me.”

And, so, the man who says with some justification,although not as much as he thinks, “I’ve been famous longer thananybody alive,” is preparing to sabotage his legend.”

And how does it feel to go out there symbolicallynaked in front of the multitudes? Don’t expect a straight answer fromthe man who perfected the responseoblique.

“This is the kind of language you hear processedthrough the press,” he says sharply. “It’s so ephemeral and goofy. Ifyou were to get caught up in this whole image thing, you’d go down aroad of unrewarding narcissism. And that is something I have neverwanted to get involved with.”

He then goes on to give the lie to himself inspades. “To tell you the truth, I’ve dealt with this legend thinglonger than most people…longer than Robert Redford and JackNicholson. My first film [“Splendor in the Grass,” l961] was a hugehit. Those people had to wait decades longer before hittingit.”

Failing to quit while he’s ahead, he gilds thelily further: “If I put my career into perspective, this is what Isee: I’ve done some good work and got awards, got critical acclaimand made enough money to live happily. I have built up a body ofmovies to make it impossible to forget me.”

Wonder what Bulworth would say about that one?

Ventura writer Ivor Davis writes a weeklycolumn for The New York Times Syndicate.

The Horse Whisperer Read More »

Other VoicesIn Memory of Edwin N. Brennglass:

Leave a Comment / Old Stories, Other Voices /

From President Bill Clinton

Hillary and I were saddened to learn of your husband’s death, andwe extend our deepest sympathy. We hope that the love and support ofyour family and friends will sustain and comfort you during thisdifficult time. You are in our thoughts and prayers.

From Los Angeles Mayor Richard J. Riordan

Los Angeles will miss Ed. His integrity and creativity are a modelfor all of us.

From Ben Zion Leuchter of Key Biscayne, Fla.

Ed Brennglass richly deserved tributes to him as a Jewishnewspaper publisher and a compassionate human being.

It’s fascinating that this hard-bitten businessman would haveinstinctively understood and put into practice principles ofjournalistic freedom. Having assumed the role of “first among equals”(the 10 pillars of the Los Angeles Jewish community who made itpossible for the Journal to pay off its creditors and take on a newlife), Brennglass installed business discipline while the newspaperslowly crept out of the loss side of the ledger.

He had a vision that the Journal could publish in the black, so tospeak, while at the same time helping the Jewish Federation. One ofthe ways he did this was to give editorial freedom to the Journal’seditor-in-chief. How do I know this? Because we were colleagues in anumber of international Jewish enterprises, including HIAS, and wetraveled abroad together. He knew that I was a retired dailynewspaper editor; I subscribed to the Jewish Journal and found itinteresting reading even 3,000 miles away. He would discussstrategies for increasing the newspaper’s income, and he understoodthat criticism of the Journal and/or the Los Angeles JewishFederation wasn’t necessarily bad either for the newspaper or thefederation. It was a sign that the newspaper was being read, that itwasn’t a federation house organ. The best gift an Anglo-Jewishnewspaper can make to its community federation is for Jews to lookforward to reading it.

Ed Brennglass wasn’t born with a silver spoon in his mouth. He wasproud of his success in business, and he put his creative mind to useon behalf of the Jewish world. He was a good listener and a straighttalker. But behind his growl, I always knew he was a marshmallow.

My wife Magda and I will miss him.

From Judge Joseph A. Wapner

Brandeis Bardin Institute

Even as we mourn the loss of Ed Brennglass, we at Brandeis BardinInstitute consider it an honor to do homage to one of the true gentlegiants of our own BBI family and of our larger community.

In his founding and rescue of the Jewish Journal, he provided aplatform where all aspects of Jewish life in our community could beboth critically examined and applauded.

It was as if Ed Brennglass’s vision in life and for the Jewishpeople coincided with our own at Brandeis Bradin:

To place education at the centerpiece of Jewish life.

To honor our people’s continuity….

To put arts and culture into the mix with study to help young Jewsfind their voices as Jews.

He studied with us on many occasions….

It was here that he and Marjorie chose to be married.

And it was here where he showed us his innate modesty: while weasked him many times to let us honor him, he always refused.

We will miss him, his presence, his quiet strength, his beguilingsmile and the twinkle in his eye. But we will always honor his memoryas a partner in building our institution.

From Avraham Burg, chairman of the Executive, World ZionistOrganization

I can’t think of any letter that is more difficult to write, forwhat words can be offered, what letter can be written that could inany way express my sorrow and condolences over the loss of Ed

Our condolences are sent from the Executives and the staff of theWorld Zionist Organization and the Jewish Agency — we all share inyour grief.

Ed was a true example of commitment to the Jewish people as awhole and we shall truly miss his presence. His work at the LosAngeles Federation, the Board of Governors and the numeroussub-committees are just a small example of his diligence towardsachieving his goal.

Please know that our thoughts are with you in this time of sorrow.

May his memory be a blessing, and may the Almighty comfort youamong the mourners of Zion and Jerusalem.

From Richard A. Siegel, executive director,

National Foundation for Jewish Culture

I was deeply saddened to hear that Ed had passed away. He was sucha vibrant and passionate man, who cared so deeply for his family, hiscommunity, and the Jewish people….

Ed will be deeply missed. We at the NFJC join with his family andfriends, his community and all those whose lives he touched, inmourning his loss. May his memory be a blessing.

From Jonathan W. Kolker, president, and Michael Schneider,executive vice president,

The American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee,Inc.

The board of directors and the staff of The American Jewish JointDistribution Committee note with great sadness the death of ourdevoted fellow board member and friend, Edwin N. Brennglass.

Ed was a great American Jewish leader. A dynamic man, he was anarticulate advocate for Jews in need across the world. Who can everforget his travels to distant places of JDC even during time ofpersonal or physical distress.

Ed played a significant role in establishing policy and providedvaluable leadership at JDC during a very exciting time when JDCconducted heroic rescue efforts from Ethiopia, Sarajevo, Syria andYemen: provided relief to hundreds of thousands in need, and nurturedthe reconstruction of Jewish life in the former Communist countries,as well as in many other places around the world.

He had a passionate belief in social justice and JDC’s role inpursuing that ideal. We shall miss this extraordinary man who caredso deeply about the Jewish people.

The entire JDC family extends our condolences to Ed’s wife,Marjorie, to his daughter, Cookie, and to his son, Gary.

From Nira Lerner, museum manager, Gedera Museum and EliahuRediya, mayor, Gedera, Israel

On a beautiful spring day in May 1983, Edwin and DorothyBrennglass turned up on our doorstep looking for “Uncle Moses'”previous home. They had finally come because their Aunt HelenMienarzevitch had begged them for years to come and see what hadhappened to it.

At that time Gedera was preparing to celebrate its 100thbirthday. The municipality decided to turn the place into a museumdepicting Gedera’s history.

Moses Mintz was a leading member of the “Bilu” movement,founded in Kharkov in Russia after the 1881-83 pogroms. Theirmovement took its place in Jewish history as the first ideologicalmovement to plan and execute the idea of renewing sovereignty over”Eretz Israel” (then Turkish-ruled Palestine). In 1883, because ofstrong ideological differences of opinion within the group, MosesMintz left and joined his family in the U.S. On retirement, hereturned to Gedera where he built the house which served partially ashis private home and partially as the Community Cultural Center, andthis was what Aunt Helen had referred to. When they came, the house,which had stood empty for about 10 years, was in a bad state ofdisrepair. I, at the time, was in the process of planning therenovation of the building and was responsible for preparing a masterplan for the future museum which was to be an education establishmentaimed at educating towards the Zionism practiced by the “Biluim”founders of Gedera.

All the time I kept wondering what miracle would occur to payfor it all when, out of the blue that sunny day, the miraculousappearance of Edwin and Dorothy occurred to save the day. Theircontribution both morally and financially helped fulfill Gedera’simportant main goal: the preservation of its precious history. Themuseum was dedicated to the memories of Moses Mintz and his sisterDora Brennglass, Edwin’s mother.

Since then, the relationship between us prospered and became asincere friendship with Eddie’s continuing support. The terrible newsof his departure from our lives has hit us sorely. He will be missedand remembered not only by his children Carole Spinner and GaryBrennglass, but also by the community here in Gedera as long as themuseum he helped establish stands in what became the first street inGedera.

Other VoicesIn Memory of Edwin N. Brennglass: Read More »

A Day of Mitzvot and Meaning

Leave a Comment / Old Stories /

Young Mitzvah Day volunteers clean-up Taft High School inWoodland Hills.

A Day of Mitzvot and Meaning

The annual Valley event provides social-action projects andopportunity for community involvement

Mitzvot, acts of loving kindness or just plain charity:Whatever you call them, Jews are commanded to do more than simplypray for good things — they have to do good themselves in order tohelp repair what is wrong in the world.

For the third year, this idea of tikkun olam (repairing the world)has become a rallying cry for Mitzvah Day, a community-wide day ofvolunteerism that this year is expected to bring together a smallarmy of more than 3,000 do-gooders from across the five-valley areaserved by the Jewish Federation/Valley Alliance. Members of 37synagogues and other organizations from the San Fernando, Conejo,Simi, Antelope and Santa Clarita valleys will participate in morethan 100 projects during the event, which takes place on Nov. 16 andis coordinated by the Valley Alliance’s Jewish Community RelationsCommittee (JCRC).

JCRC Director Barbara Creme views Mitzvah Day as acommunity-building tool. “It’s an incredible way of bringing thesynagogue and organizational community together,” she said. “It’s awonderful way for people to get together and do something meaningful,lasting and that feels good.” The goal of the day is not simply to dogood for a single day but to kick off ongoing projects.

One of the most ambitious projects this year, a tree-planting atLake Balboa, will take only a few hours, but the fruits (well,foliage anyway) of the effort will last a lifetime and beyond. TempleJudea, Stephen S. Wise Temple, Ahavat Shalom and Heschel Day Schoolwill join together with the TreePeople to plant 100 24-gallon-sizetrees as part of a major beautification project. The resulting smallforest will be aptly named the Mitzvah Grove.

Stephen S. Wise itself has 40 projects, ranging from volunteersmaking sandwiches for homeless-shelter residents, to youngstersdecorating 200 photo albums to give to foster children, who will fillthem with their own pictures (a disposable camera will be included).

Diane Kabat, the temple’s social-action chair, said that thesynagogue is also engaged in ongoing mitzvot, such as donatingvegetables from its community garden to the Valley Shelter in NorthHollywood, and conducting monthly bingo games at the Jewish Home forthe Aging.

She expects about 1,000 people from the congregation to donateabout 3,000 mitzvah hours on Nov. 16.

Other highlights of the day include:

* A swim-a-thon for teens at the West Valley Jewish CommunityCenter to benefit Jewish AIDS Services, the American Cancer Societyand the Juvenile Diabetes Foundation.

* A knit-a-thon at the Valley Cities Jewish Community Center toaid nursing homes and a blood drive.

* Wheels for Humanity has teens repairing wheelchairs, also at theWest Valley JCC.

* A sports day and barbecue for less privileged children at theGuadeloupe Community Center in Canoga Park is sponsored by the B’naiB’rith Reunion Chapter.

Conejo Valley, which has one of the fastest-growing Jewishpopulations, is getting into Mitzvah Day in a big way this year, withthe efforts of four synagogues (Temples Beth Haverim, Adat Elohim,Etz Chaim and Or Ami), the Conejo Valley JCC, B’nai B’rith, HeschelWest Day School and Chabad of the Conejo. Among the projects: a blooddrive, bubbes and zaydes reading to children, a sing-along at aseniors home, a trail cleanup in the Santa Monica Mountains and akosher tour of Bristol Farms.

For the first time, Mitzvah Day has a logo, the result of acontest among religious- and day-school students. Vanessa Le Winter,a Milken Community High School student and Temple Beth Hillel member,created the design, which shows a Band-Aid affixed to a blue andgreen world that is encircled by children linking hands and hearts.

Many of the mitzvah projects benefit non-Jews, and that is not byaccident, said Candice Stein, who is chairing Mitzvah Day for thesecond year. “It’s important for the community to know that Jews careabout it and do give back to it,” she said. This is particularly truein some areas of the Antelope, Santa Clarita and San Fernandovalleys, where there have been recent anti-Semitic incidents, Steinsaid. “We need to do outreach and create some relationships that willcontinue.”

For information about taking part in Mitzvah Day, call the ValleyAlliance JCRC at (818) 587-3219. — Ruth Stroud, Staff Writer

No Accidental Tourists

Nearly 400 Angelenos travel to Israel as part of the Federation’sGolden Anniversary Mission

By Ruth Stroud, Staff Writer

Three hundred ninety-eight Angelenos took off for Israel lastSaturday evening with an itinerary planned by the Jewish FederationCouncil of Greater Los Angeles. Not surprisingly, some departed withgreat hopes and memories, few with fears, and everyone with a senseof excitement.

“I’m really interested to see what it’s like since we were therelast,” said Arthur Mishler, who last visited Israel, with his wife,Susan, 18 years ago. “I know there have been lots of changes, andIsrael has become a very modern society.”

The Mishlers are riding on the Temple Beth Am bus, one of 11 thatare ferrying the large contingent on a tour of the Holy Land. Amongthe other travelers are top Federation officials, including PresidentHerb Gelfand, Executive Vice President John Fishel and newlyappointed 1998 United Jewish Fund General Campaign Chair SanfordGage, as well as representatives from major Federation departments,agencies, the Jewish Federation/Valley Alliance, and the Westside andSouth Bay regions.

Also making the trip are several California legislators,representatives from Mayor Richard Riordan’s office, seven rabbis(Ronald Shulman of Congregation Ner Tamid in Rancho Palos Verdes;Rabbi Joel Rembaum of Temple Beth Am; Rabbi Ed Feinstein of ValleyBeth Shalom and wife, Rabbi Nina Feinstein; Rabbi Donald Goor ofTemple Judea; Rabbi Zvi Dershowitz of Sinai Temple; and Rabbi JudithHaLevy of the Malibu Center and Synagogue) and a cantor (Stephen S.Wise’s Nathan Lamm).

The largest group — close to 50 — was recruited by the IranianAmerican Jewish Federation (IAJF), an umbrella organization for about16 nonprofit Iranian interests. Unlike more than half of thetravelers — who are first-time visitors to Israel — most of theIranian-American Jews have been there before, said IAJF PresidentSolomon Rastegar, who has led previous missions but will be aspectator on this one. Many Iranian-American Jews have relatives inIsrael. “We want to go there to see what was created out of nothingin the short time of 50 years,” Rastegar said.

The Federation’s 10-day Golden Anniversary Mission, in the worksfor more than a year, was scheduled to coincide with celebrationskicking off the 50th anniversary of the State of Israel. It was onNov. 29, 1947, that the United Nations endorsed the partition ofPalestine, which led to the final withdrawal of the British and thecreation of an independent Israeli nation on May 15,1948.

Participants of this mission began their trip by joining in acelebration of Israel’s 50th on the steps of Tel Aviv’s IndependenceHall. Splitting up into separate traveling groups with tailoreditineraries, most of the visitors will trek to the Galilee and GolanHeights. Many will meet Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and membersof the Knesset. There will be visits to Yad Vashem, Yitzhak Rabin’sgrave on Mount Herzl, the Western Wall and possibly Masada. Abouthalf of the contingent is continuing on to Jordan to visit MountNebo, the Roman city of Jerash, Amman and Petra, a city carved out ofa red-stone canyon.

At the last of three pre-mission educational meetings, held atStephen S. Wise Temple two weeks before departure, most people seemedinterested in discovering what the weather was like, how much luggagethey should bring, and how to extend their tr
ip after the mission.Few seemed worried about security despite recent bombings, dissensionover the faltering peace process and the “Who Is a Jew?” issue inIsrael, and new tensions between Israel and Jordan.

“I think it’s critical that people go to Israel, especially now,when there are issues concerning pluralism, the terrorists and thepolitical situation,” said Michael Scott, who is co-captain of theFederation’s Access (young leadership) traveling group. “Many peoplewho disagree with Netanyahu, including myself, want to go and showour support to Israel.”

The trip is not primarily a political trip, said Gelfand, althougha small group of participants will meet with Knesset members todiscuss the pending conversion bill, which would grant the Orthodoxrabbinate the exclusive right to perform conversions within Israel –a status quo situation that has angered many non-Orthodox outside theJewish state.

“The fact is that we take every opportunity we can to let themknow how we feel,” Gelfand said. “But the main purpose of the missionis to begin the celebration of the 50th anniversary.”

Evy Lutin, who is co-chairing the mission along with her husband,Marty, and is also Michael Scott’s mother-in-law, noted that ifIsrael were celebrating its 60th anniversary instead of its 50th,”there would not have been a Holocaust,” because the Jewish homelandwould have welcomed refugees from the Nazis who were spurnedelsewhere. Her father, who emigrated from Russia to the United Statesat the turn of the century, lost all nine brothers and a sisterduring the 1930s. “They couldn’t get out,” she said. “If there hadbeen an Israel then, they would have.”

Ruth Stroud is traveling with the Federation mission to Israeland Jordan and will report about the trip.

Headline News

By Tom Tugend, Contributing Editor

The Jewish Federation Council’s mission to Israel was greeted byThe Jerusalem Post with a Tuesday front-page story under the headline”L.A. Jews here to fight conversion bill.”

The Post quoted Federation President Herb Gelfand as saying:”Although there is more unhappiness with Israel among American Jewsthan I’ve seen in my lifetime, there is still wholehearted supportfor Israel.

“But, today, one thing is certain: We feel Israel is our countrytoo. It belongs to all Jews; therefore, all Jews everywhere have aright to speak up on what happens there.”

During their meetings with government and spiritual leaders,mission members “plan to express their worry and frustration over theconversion bill,” The Post reported.

The English-language daily further quoted Gelfand as saying: “Whatwe’re hoping to do is attempt to make them understand what theconversion [bill] means to us. We know it’s not on top of the agendaof most Israelis, but we have to tell them that in the U.S., where 90percent of Jews are Conservative, Reform or Reconstructionist, manyof us feel that we, our children and grandchildren, have beendelegitimized.”

He added that “a small minority” of American Jews are withholdingtheir contributions to the Federation in protest, “but only becausethey feel that is the only way they can communicate the way theyfeel.”

The delegation also intends to strengthen its “twin cities” tieswith Tel Aviv during the visit.

John Fishel, the Federation’s executive vice president, told ThePost: “We plan to work for a deeper, more intensive relationshipbetween various social programs, schools and individuals in LosAngeles and Tel Aviv. I think both sides understand there has to bemore to Israel-Diaspora relationships than just philanthropy.” 

Do we need a permanent international tribunal, like theNuremberg body in 1946 (below)? Above, Jews, like everyone else, areburied in Sarajevo city parks. Lower photo from the NationalArchives. Sarajevo photo from “Survival in Sarajevo” by EdwardSerotta.

War Crimes and Punishment

“War Crimes: Individual or Collective Responsibility?”

That was the topic explored at a symposium held at Sinai Templelast week. Sponsored by Bet Tzedek Legal Services and moderated byNational Public Radio talk-show host Kitty Felde, the questionresonated with the three panelists as well as the sizable audience inattendance.

The speakers brought impressive credentials. There was theHonorable Richard J. Goldstone, justice of the Constitutional Courtof South Africa and former chief prosecutor for the United NationsBosnian War Crimes Tribunal; Professor William Eckhardt, chiefprosecutor for the Vietnam War-related My Lai cases; and Dr. MichaelBerenbaum, the president and CEO of the Survivors of the Shoah VisualHistory Foundation.

Perhaps the most ardent advocate for a permanent internationaltribunal was Goldstone. Quoting a statistic that claimed that 175million people have been murdered by their own governments in thiscentury, Goldstone stressed the dire need for such a judicial systemto enforce what he called “good policing” on a worldwide level. Headded that as the world enters the 21st century, human rightsviolations may proliferate as technology further refines theefficiency of mass murder. “What happens in every country is thebusiness of the rest of the world,” he said. “The closing of the 20thcentury will see the beginning of international justice.”

Eckhardt provided a U.S. perspective, evoking My Lai, in whichAmerican soldiers were indicted after the fact for a wartime incidentinvolving the looting, raping and pillaging of a Vietnamese village.Since 90 percent of the participating soldiers were already undercivilian status by the time of the trial, they could not be tried,due to a technicality that allowed only uniformed soldiers to beprosecuted. Eckhardt singled out the United States’ failure to pursuejustice and accept accountability in this case as shameful. “If wecannot do that, taking the next step may be impossible,” he said.

Meanwhile, Berenbaum discounted any notions of granting amnesty tothose coerced into committing atrocities. When the topic turned tothe celebrated case of a Bosnian soldier tried in the Hague forreluctantly executing 70 war prisoners after his superiors hadthreatened to kill his family, Berenbaum turned to Jewish law andtenaciously embraced the Talmudic concept of martyrdom. He cited anobligation to God that precedes familial obligations, pointing outthat the Torah is absolutely clear on the three violations warrantingmartyrdom (the shedding of blood, unsanctioned intercourse and theworship of false gods); included within this realm are crimescommitted under duress.

“If there are things in life worth living for, there must bethings in life worth dying for. Taking a life is such a case,”Berenbaum said.

As for the Nuremberg Trials, Berenbaum considered the landmarkrulings more important as legal “theater” than as jurisprudenceprecedent, for they failed to effectively and responsibly administerfull culpability to the Nazis. To illustrate his point, Berenbaumcriticized their failure to try the creators of the gas chambers aswell as the operators.

By the conclusion of the program, the panel addressed thesemantics of terrorism, drawing a clear distinction between theJewish resistance fighters of World War II and present-day Arabextremists. Summarizing the need for a world court, Berenbaum said,”[During the Holocaust], the law itself was the instrumentation ofdestruction. [The Nazis] were technically correct when they said theydid not break the law. That’s why we must go to a higher law.” –Michael Aushenker, Community Editor

VBS’ ‘Crossroads to Equality’

Valley Beth Shalom is known for its groundbreaking “VBS Response,”a 5-year-old support group for Jewish gays, lesbians, bisexuals,their families and friends.

And, on Nov. 16, the Encino temple will host a conference, “At theCrossroads to Equality,” which will explore a variety of gay andlesbian issues.

More than 300 p
articipants are expected to attend seminars ontopics such as gay/lesbian parenting; homophobia in the workplace;making synagogues inclusive; and parents of gays “coming out of thecloset.”

Among the speakers will be Nancy McDonald, the national presidentof Parents and Friends of Gays and Lesbians (PFLAG); entertainmentconsultant Chastity Bono; The Advocate editor-in-chief Judy Wieder;and Steve Sass, senior vice president/business affairs for NBCStudios (and the president of the Jewish Historical Society ofSouthern California).

LAPD officer Lisa Phillips will receive an award for her effortsin promoting tolerance, and the Los Angeles Gay Men’s Chorus willperform.

The goal is ambitious, says VBS Rabbi Jerry Danzig, the Responsehead. “We view this conference as a first step in creating a bridgebetween gays, lesbians, their families and friends, and the communityat large.”

For registration information, call VBS at (818) 788-6000. — NaomiPfefferman, Senior Writer

Community Brief

Honoring

Our

Educators

For Jewish educators, the annual Milken Family Foundation EducatorAwards are a double blessing. The five winners receive $10,000 each.And all Jewish educators benefit from the increased public awarenessand acknowledgment of their contribution to the community.

This year’s recipients are Marianne Siegel of Kadima HebrewAcademy in Woodland Hills; Dr. Joseph Hakimi of Sinai Akiba Academy;Tova Baichman Kass of Pressman Academy; Lynn Karz of Ohr Eliyahu inCulver City; and Chaya Shamie of Bais Yaakov.

Now in their seventh year, the Milken Awards honor educators whoexhibit innovative methods and curricula, “an outstanding ability toinstill students with self-confidence and sound values,” and personalinvolvement in the Jewish and secular communities. “Theresponsibility of keeping alive both the Jewish faith and the Jewishculture in our young people often lies with our educators,” saidfoundation Executive Vice President Julius Lesner. “These awards aresimply to thank the finest of those educators for the wonderful workthey do.” — Staff Report

Top, from left, Dr. Joseph Hakimi of Sinai Akiba Academy; LynnKarz of Ohr Eliyahu in Culver City; and Chaya Shamie of Bais Yaakov;above, Dr. Julius Lesner with Marianne Siegel of Kadima HebrewAcademy in Woodland Hills; and below, Lesner presents an award toTova Baichman Kass.

 

A Day of Mitzvot and Meaning Read More »

Where Do We Go From Here?

Leave a Comment / California, Community, Old Stories /

Can’t we all just get along? Reviewing the events of the pastyear in our community, the answer seems to be: just barely. For theChinese, this has been the Year of the Rooster. For Los AngelesJewry, let’s call it the Year of the Grudge.

The big stories of the year were not Jew vs. Black, or Jew vs.Gentile, but Jew vs. Jew — a continual war of words fought overreligion, sex, politics and history. At least we can’t be accused ofpettiness.

To help us parse the cyclone, let’s take it by subject:

Sex

From late November well into February, the pages of The JewishJournal carried heated arguments over whether homosexuals should beordained as rabbis. The firestorm was ignited by Dennis Prager, who,though no shirker from controversy, must have had no idea what nervehis arguments would drill into. In the Nov. 22 issue (“Homosexuality,Judaism and Rabbis”), he declared that to ordain practicinghomosexuals as rabbis would be “to overthrow Judaism’s historicattempt to channel human sexuality.” Ordaining gays would open thefloodgates, warned the radio talk-show host, and soon we’d face thespecter of bisexual rabbis performing quadruple weddings on bisexualcouples, with two rebbetzins — one of each gender — in tow. OK,maybe we exaggerate his concerns, but not by much.

Faster than you could spell “Limbaugh,” the community was all overPrager. Sixteen local rabbis, including prominent Conservativeleaders, signed a letter, accusing his piece of being “homophobic,poorly argued and cruel.” Then came letters accusing the rabbis ofad hominem attacks. Then more letters from some of the 16rabbis, who said that they objected to the letter they had signedtheir name to. Then Prager again, defending himself. And that’s notto mention the letters from members of the community, swarming toPrager’s defense or eager to pile on. Finally, Rabbi Harold Schulweisof Encino’s Valley Beth Shalom, on Feb. 28, chimed in with abrilliant essay on Torah, compassion and human sexuality — a subtlebody check to Prager’s reasoning and a model of learned discourse forPrager’s critics. Now if only Schulweis had written in on Nov. 22.

Religion

For an instant, it appeared that a small group of Orthodoxcongregations would finally pull us together– by teeing us all off.In late March, the Union of Orthodox Rabbis of the United States andCanada declared that the Reform and Conservative movements are notJudaism. Some, such as Wilshire Boulevard Temple’s Rabbi HarveyFields, at first thought the pronouncement — given a misleadingheadline in the Los Angeles Times — must have been a Purim joke. Butit wasn’t, and rabbis from Fields to the Simon Wiesenthal Center’sMarvin Hier railed against an attempt to undermine the very Jewishnotion of critical interpretation. Orthodox lawyer Baruch Cohenlambasted Fields et al. for their misunderstanding. The Union ofOrthodox Rabbis, he explained, did not say that the majority of usweren’t Jews, just that the religion we practiced wasn’t Judaism.That felt so much better.

Politics

At home, problems surfaced, or resurfaced. Chabad once again facedoff against the American Jewish Congress and the city of BeverlyHills over the right to raise its 27-foot Agam menorah over SantaMonica Boulevard. This time, Chabad lost.

Proposition 209, the California Civil Rights Initiative, neatlydivided the Jewish electorate. The Jewish Federation Council’sexecutive board finally came out against it, but only after a raucousdebate.

Jews, however, did come together this year to — of all things –vote Republican, for Mayor Richard Riordan over Tom Hayden.

The news from Israel didn’t exactly help heal domestic rifts.Successive waves of suicide bombings, some of which wounded membersof the Los Angeles community, provoked unanimous grief and outrage.But the search for solutions divided us. Those leaning leftcriticized Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and the settlers forundermining the Oslo peace accords. Those leaning right unleashed achorus of we-told-you-sos and called for Oslo’s ultimate demise.

At the annual sermon seminar, convened for area rabbis, not onecleric presented a sermon in praise of Israel. Beth JacobCongregation’s Rabbi Abner Weiss urged his colleagues to put asidetheir differences on Israel and celebrate its accomplishments. Buteven louder was the silence from more and more members of thecommunity who are turned off to the news from Israel.

Religion and Politics

Two words will suffice here: The Wall. The Orthodox attack onnon-Orthodox women and men holding a prayer service at the WesternWall Plaza on Shavuot and Tisha B’Av provoked outrage at home.Conservative and Reform Jews felt the sting of religious persecutionin, of all places, a Jewish state. And the Orthodox believed that asacred space was used to score political points in the ongoing battleover the religious status quo.

But the hardest hand-wringing was taking place amongIsrael-affiliated fund-raising organizations, who feared that thethreats to pluralism in Israel would shrink donations back home.

Perhaps the problem was that we had, thank God, too few externalthreats to unite us. David Duke, the poster boy of the Ku Klux Klan,visited Cal State Northridge last September and spoke to some 1,100people. But the real drama was all in the pregame show — should hebe invited or not. The speech itself was as dull as anything said inthe mayoral race.

More Rancor, Please

The Jewish Journal did its part to stir the pot withinvestigations into the dire lack of funding of Jewish day-schooleducation; the slightly kooky world of the Kabbalah Learning Center;sex and power among the rabbinate, and stories and Jewish girls andsexuality.

And Schulweis, fresh from reconciling us on the gay issue, openeda new storm front: proselytism. In a passionate essay and sermon, hecalled on Jews to open their arms to potential converts and to moreactively bring non-Jews into the fold, no matter how rent the foldis. Schulweis drew fire for his suggestion, which many critics saidwas un-Jewish (it’s not) or impossible (to be determined).

And now the Good News

It’s easy, amid the fury, to be blinded to what’s right with ourshtetl-by-the-sea. We’ll mention, in passing, the synagogues,schools, clubs, community centers, museums, libraries, havurasand businesses that continue to serve a flourishing community. As ofJan. 3, there were three– three— Jewish theaters in LosAngeles. Also, there was Laemmle’s Jewish Cinema Series, a Yiddishfilm festival, the “Exiles and Emigré” exhibit at the LosAngeles County Museum of Art, and “Too Jewish?” at UCLA’s ArmandHammer Museum.

A conference on “The Jewish Quest for Purpose” drew 550 youngpeople to the Loews Hotel in Santa Monica (150 had to be turned away,to find purpose elsewhere). About 400 youngish men and women showedup for a conference on Zionism last month. The Kosher festival,Jewish festivals in the San Gabriel and San Fernando valleys, thefirst Sephardic festival– all attracted huge crowds to bask in asense of togetherness, no matter how fragile.

In any case, healing may be at hand. On July 2, rabbis fromdifferent denominations met to discuss ways to draw Jews together.And on July 11, the Federation took out a full-page ad in TheJournal, calling on us all to support unity and respect diversity. Inother words, there’s always next year.

Where Do We Go From Here? Read More »

MideastTwo Years After

Leave a Comment / Israel, Old Stories, Worldwide /

The memorial underneath the parking garage at Tel Aviv City Hall, where Yitzhak Rabin was murdered two years ago, was an island of quiet and somberness in a country that was being scalded anew by the memory of the assassination.

On Tuesday afternoon, Nov. 4, about 100 people stood around the black stone sculpture. Some knelt and lit candles. The memorial was covered with flowers and wreaths. One was inscribed, “Remember, and sound a warning.”

The place was lousy with reporters, who had to talk to people who didn’t feel much like talking. “They told me to interview 40 people. It wasn’t my idea,” said a reporter from Ma’ariv. He went to find number 22.

The political leanings of the crowd were pretty clear. Peace Now was distributing stickers and memorial candles. “No peace, no security — Bibi is a failure,” was another popular sticker. Otherwise, one man in a yarmulke read aloud from a prayer book. Passersby on busy Ibn Gvirol Street looked at the small crowd without stopping. A man sat on the sidewalk next to a sign that read, “I am fasting and silent today — silent because it was words that committed the murder, even before the bullets.”

In the week leading up to the anniversary, the themes connected to the assassination — political violence and hatred — were replayed. The Jerusalem office of Dor Shalom (Peace Generation), led by Rabin’s son, Yuval, was torched. The organization reported receiving numerous telephone and e-mail messages in praise of Yigal Amir prior to the arson.

Kach member David Axelrod, who, after the assassination, told a radio reporter, “It’s not the murder of a Jew, but the liquidation of a traitor…eliminating an enemy is a good thing,” was acquitted on incitement charges. The judge ruled that Axelrod didn’t know his remarks were going to be broadcast, and that the reporter had asked “provocative” questions.

Tel Aviv painter Avraham Pesso was remanded in court for defacing Baruch Goldstein’s Kiryat Arba grave — which has become a pilgrimage site for his admirers — three days after Rabin’s murder. “Stop this disgrace!” Pesso had shouted as he kicked out the lights next to the benches where Goldstein’s devotees come to sit. Pesso confessed to most of the charges but said that he didn’t regret what he did. The prosecution said that it would seek only a punishment of community service instead of the maximum six-year sentence.

A clinical psychologist at Bar-Ilan University, where Yigal Amir studied, found in a survey of Israeli high school students that 27 percent of those attending religious high schools sympathized with Amir.

Another poll, conducted for Israel Radio, estimated that 300,000 Israelis endorse assassination of political leaders prepared to give up territory to the Palestinians, and that as many as 1,000 Israelis might be willing to carry out such a murder. The poll found that the leader most in danger of assassination was Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, followed by Meretz leader Yossi Sarid, former Prime Minister Shimon Peres, Labor Party leader Ehud Barak and former Meretz leader Shulamit Aloni.

Right-wing conspiracy theories about the assassination abounded. Hatzofeh, the newspaper of the National Religious Party, printed an account of some of the more popular theories, including the one that had Peres plotting with the Shin Bet to kill Rabin so that Peres could inherit the prime minister’s seat. In the wake of the story, Finance Minister Yaakov Neeman, Police Minister Avigdor Kahalani and Science Minister Michael Eitan called for an investigation of the Shin Bet’s actions prior to the assassination. Opposition figures, notably Peres, said that this was an amazing exercise of playing into the hands of the darkest political elements in the country. Former Supreme Court President Meir Shamgar, who headed the commission that investigated the assassination, said that the Shin Bet’s role had already been studied and that no shred of a conspiracy had been found.

Alongside these developments, the left continued to charge that the right, led by Netanyahu, had incited a climate of hatred which had prepared the ground for Rabin’s murder. “We Won’t Forget and We Won’t Forgive,” was the slogan of the moment. The Labor Party said that Netanyahu had no business speaking at the special memorial Knesset session this week unless he apologized for the way he ran the right-wing opposition before the assassination.

In return, the right continued to accuse the left of incitement, of blaming half the Israeli public for the assassination, and of trying to exploit the murder for political gain. The Action Headquarters, one of the most extreme right-wing organizations in Israel, printed up posters that also read, “We Won’t Forget and We Won’t Forgive” — but the posters referred to the Oslo accords, not the Rabin assassination.

Meanwhile, the memorial at City Hall seemed a place where people could get away from the arguments, where their lingering grief and anger could flow quietly and undisturbed. A woman in her 20s who gave her name only as Tami said: “My coming here has nothing to do with all the disputes. I just felt I needed to be here. There’s really nothing I want to say.”

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A Career Mother

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I keep a folder of newspaper items that fall intotwo categories — the informative and the outrageous. The informativeI make copies of and send to people whom I love; they might benefitfrom such information as the latest colon cancer test or the herbginkgo, which clears the static in the mind. My favorite, so far, isthe piece about the Southern Baptist minister who sellsdo-it-yourself caskets. For a mere $19.95 (lumber not included), youget a simple coffin kit that can double as a bookshelf, armoire, hopechest or coffee table. When your time is up, instead of paying $5,000for a casket you use once, you hop into the hope chest you’ve beenenjoying and pass on to that workshop in the sky.

My outrageous folder has changed over the years.Two decades ago, when I was teaching psychology in a local New Yorkcollege, I would open my file and read the articles to my classes inabnormal psychology. The best clips were about religious people whojudged others harshly and then got caught doing the deed theycondemned.

Nowadays, my folder is full of stories of a newsubspecies — predators of children. It used to be male-dominated.The most recent item appeared in the corner of the back page of mydaily newspaper, The San Jose Mercury News. The headline: ChildKiller Gets Custody of Girl. In Syracuse, a father who was recentlyparoled after being convicted and jailed for criminally negligenthomicide in the 1993 death of his infant son was granted temporarycustody of his 2-year-old daughter because her mother was foundunfit.

A judge in the Onondaga County Family Court turnedover the little girl to this guy after social workers allegedly foundthe toddler to be at risk in the house of the mother. I thought aboutMel Brooks on a panel show when the first question was about mothers.He said: “Let’s not talk about mothers; let’s talk about somethingthat can’t hurt you — killer sharks.”

Recently, I read an article about a woman who hadwritten a book titled “When Mothers Work: Loving Our Children WithoutSacrificing Ourselves.” I clipped it and couldn’t decide which wasthe suitable file.

The author believed that she was sacrificing heridentity to the “maternal ideal.” Those who feel fulfilled asfull-time mothers are deluded fools, slaves of their conditioning. Orthey’re lazy. “Many women are using motherhood as an excuse to dropout,” says author Joan Peters.

I worked when my children were little. The reasonmy guilt was kept to a chronic gastric condition was that I didn’thave the career-vs.-children conflict. That’s like saying there’sanother side to the San Francisco earthquake. My children came first.I didn’t have a career. I had a job. My children were my career. I’msure my tombstone is not going to read: Here lies Linda Feldman, atenured professor of psychology. My tombstone will have the date ofmy birth, my death and one word: Mother.

I remember driving off to work and waving to theother mothers who were gathered at the corner, wearing aprons. I waswearing pantyhose and a suit (those were the days when you could tellthe difference between the professors and the students). I wassummarily condemned by the corner clack for leaving mychildren.

I taught the late-afternoon classes, which none ofthe professors wanted, because I wanted to be with my kids for lunchwhen they got home from school. They had a mommy like the other kids,and I heard the news of the day firsthand.

Many of the women of my generation went to collegeto find a husband, married after graduation, moved to the suburbs,had 2.1 children, joined the PTA, had 2.1 affairs, and entered thelabor market after the children left home or the husband found outthat his secretary better understood him.

Some of us worked because we were educated to makea contribution to society. We thought that we could have it all –husband, home, children — and do it all well. And, for the mostpart, we did. But at a dear price. Our nerves, intestines andconsciences suffered. But not our children. If I wanted to dedicatemyself to my career, I would not have had children. I never evenconsidered that choice. But I do remember standing up at ahigh-powered feminist meeting in 1972 and saying, “Once you havechildren, your life is never the same; they must be considered first,before anything else.” I was booed into my seat.

I was not a career woman, but I was aprofessional. In the days when a male interviewer asked if I wasgoing to become pregnant in the next two years, I retorted, “Wouldyou ask a man if he intended to get a heart attack.” I didn’t getthat job. But I used to tell my children that they weren’t allowed toget sick on a work day, only on weekends. I was afraid of bringingattention to myself for taking off work to be with mychildren.

One semester, while teaching a child-developmentclass, the psychology department secretary, Hennie Greenberg,appeared at my third-floor lecture hall. “The principal of yourchildren’s school is on the phone,” she said. Everything went anempty white. I raced down those stairs with visions of my children inpools of blood and being comforted by strangers.

When I reached the phone, I panted into thereceiver, “This is Linda Feldman, mother of Julia and Jason.”

“I have some bad news,” the principal said. Icould feel my strength seeping through my pores until he added, “Bothof your children have head lice.”

“Thank God,” I said. He laughed and said that Iwas the only mother he had called who responded with relief. Ireturned to my class to finish my lecture about the importance ofmothering in the first three years of a child’s life.

I clipped a quote from a New Yorker articlewritten by John Cassidy about Karl Marx, who once said: “All that issolid melts into air, all that is holy is profaned, and man [andwoman] is at last compelled to face with sober senses his realconditions of life and his relations with his kind.”

Postscript: Calvin Klein’s new fragrance is”Contradiction.” The beginning of a new category.

Linda Feldman, a former columnist for the LosAngeles Times, is the co-author of the newly released “Where To GoFrom Here: Discovering Your Own Life’s Wisdom” (Simon &Schuster).

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