Who was the first Jew? All of us learned in Sunday School that thefirst Jew was Abraham. It was our father, Abraham, who detected thepresence of the one true God and championed monotheism in a paganworld. It was with Abraham that God established the Covenant,defining our identity, our mission, our destiny. That\’s true. But thefirst Jew wasn\’t Abraham. The first Jew was his son Isaac.
Beth Olam Cemetery in Hollywood, one of the most venerable and historical Jewish cemeteries in Southern California, is in danger of being abandoned and padlocked.
The list of potential insurgents includes every senior figurein the Likud: Jerusalem Mayor Ehud Olmert, Infrastructure MinisterAriel Sharon and every other Cabinet minister and Knesset member inthe party.
When I was warned by Israeli friends that the El Al experience would be unique, they never told me about being crushed between two Ivy League men on a midnight flight to Tel Aviv.
New York publishing executive Steven Baum is a lifelong Conservative Jew who recently joined a Reform temple, and he\’s not happy about it. \”There\’s hardly any Hebrew,\” he says. \”They don\’t wear yarmulkes. It\’s just not the Judaism I grew up with.\”
What can American-style liberalJudaism offer Israel? After the battle over the proposed conversionbill is settled, that question will remain. We can puff up our chestsand demand equality with Orthodoxy over who is a Jew. But,inevitably, every political victory in the Knesset will beshort-lived unless we find a way to talk to Israeli Jews about theirown lives.
When you think of \”art books,\” a thick, slickly produced tomecomes to mind — the kind of immovable slab meant to sit on anexpensive coffee table. \”Artist books,\” however, are somethingaltogether different, as visitors to the Finegood Art Gallery of theJewish Federation/Valley Alliance will see when \”Women of the Book\”opens on Nov. 23.
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