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Jewish Journal

Connect. Inform. Inspire.

March 19, 1998

Peace Talk

Leave a Comment / Community, Old Stories /

Beit Shalom is a newly minted coalition of 16American Jewish groups “dedicated to the advancement of peace andreligious pluralism in Israel.” Based in New York, Beit Shalom (Houseof Peace) brings together Americans for Peace Now, Meretz, JewishLabor Committee and similar groups for dialogue, education and morecoalition building.

Beit Shalom is bringing together a panel ofdistinguished rabbis and Jewish educators, along with the leaders ofIsrael’s three kibbutz movements, for a public discussion at TempleEmanuel in Beverly Hills, on March 26, at 7:30 p.m. “ReligiousPluralism and Peace: Is There a Connection?” will feature RabbisHarvey Fields, Laura Geller, Joel Rembaum and Professor Gerald Bubisof Los Angeles. The kibbutz leaders will be Dov Hellman of the UnitedKibbutz Movement, Avshalom Vilan of Kibbutz Artzi, and Rabbi DavidBigman of the Religious Kibbutz Movement. For more information on theevent, call (213) 936-2265. — RobEshman, ManagingEditor

Nosh ‘n Tell

The Los Angeles/Southern California ZagatRestaurant Survey, widely considered the last word on where’s best toeat, depends on free-lance diners to rate their meals out. To be apart of the survey, mail a stamped, self-addressed business-sizedenvelope to: Zagat Survey, 12618 Homewood Way, Los Angeles, CA90049-1908. Respond before May 1 and receive a free guide this fall.– RE

Boy Wonder

We thought the last episode of “Ally McBeal” wenta bit over the top when it featured a story line about a 9-year-oldlawyer. Then comes news — for real — of Vladimir Kalnizky, astudent at the ORT high school in Migdal Ha Emek, Israel, who nextyear will matriculate at the Technion as the youngest student in thatesteemed university’s history. Kalnizky, a native of Kiev, excels inmathematics, computers and chemistry. ORT, which supports vocationaland technical training for Jews around the world, has some 262,000students enrolled at 800 ORT schools worldwide. We’ll go out on alimb and say that Kalnizky is among the brightest of them.

For more information on ORT and Woman’sAmerican ORT — the largest ORT affiliate — call 800-51-WAORT. —RE


Peace Talk Read More »

Torah Portion

Leave a Comment / Old Stories, Torah /

Context is everything. Certainly, this must besaid concerning the curious opening of this week’s Torah portion. Forthe portion opens with a command that has been issued many timesbefore: the command to observe the seventh day as a day of rest.There is no new information here. The “newness” is all in thecontext, and the context is rarefied indeed.

Moses has gathered the people to share news ofhistorical importance with them. God has designed the precisedwelling place that He would like to have among His people, and Hedesires that it now be built. The exhilarating task of building themishkan, the mobile tabernacle that would serve as the forerunner ofthe great Temple in Jerusalem, is at hand. But before Moses revealsthis exciting challenge to the people, he first reiterates the ideaof Shabbat. Apparently, Shabbat has something important to say withinthe context of Temple-building. What is this importantmessage?

The Sages of old understood it this way: Moses’intention here is to subject the building of the mishkan to thedemands of Shabbat. Although Israel would invariably want to completethe mishkan with all due haste — understanding that the sooner theyfinished the project, the sooner the Divine Presence would become anintimate neighbor within their encampment — the people needed tounderstand that even the mishkan must give way to Shabbat.

When the desert sun set each Friday, all work –even the holy work of creating the House of God — had to absolutelycease. The people of Israel, then and forever, needed to understandclearly that our “cathedral in time” — as Rabbi Heschel famously andvividly termed Shabbat — is of greater value than any cathedral thatwe would ever build in the realm of space.

The reasons for this preference are at least two.One has to do with the projected course of Jewish history. Evenbefore we first entered the Promised Land, Moses had alreadyforewarned us that our possession of it was a highly contingentaffair, and that, invariably, over the course of our stay in the landwe would anger God to the point at which we would be made to sufferexile and dispersion. Everything that we would build in the land,including the Temple in Jerusalem, could one day be destroyed. If wewere to hold the sanctity of sacred place as being the ultimatesanctity, we would surely one day perish as a faith community. Onlythe firm conviction that the sanctity of sacred time was supremewould we survive. For sacred time, the Shabbat could come with us toall the lands of our dispersion. And, indeed, as Ahad Ha-am hasnoted, even more than the Jews have kept Shabbat, Shabbat has keptthe Jews.

The second reason relates not to history but toone of the most fundamental ideas within the Jewish value system:Shabbat must come before mishkan because Judaism teaches that weassess the goodness of our lives not based on the number of thingsthat we’ve managed to build or acquire, but based upon the beautifuland worthwhile times that we were blessed to have. Life is not aboutthe house we live in, but about the moments of love that weexperience within that house.

Every time I tie my child’s shoe or share a momentof quiet with my wife after we’ve finally managed to get the kids tosleep, I am conscious that this is the stuff of life’s deepest joy.Shabbat is the weekly guarantor of these kinds of moments of love andpersonal intimacy. How could any value, short of the value of humanlife itself, push Shabbat aside?

In the end, the Temple relies upon the value weplace on silver and copper and gold to achieve its grandeur in oureyes. What an unfortunate and misleading message would have been senthad God commanded us to continue with the work of building despitethe arrival of the holy time — despite the arrival of one of thelimited number of Shabbats that we will have in our lives.

“Don’t worry,” Shabbat says to us. There willstill be plenty of time for building things next week. Spend todayconstructing your cathedral in time.

Rabbi Yosef Kanefsky is rabbi at B’naiDavid-Judea in Los Angeles.

 

Torah Portion Read More »

Israeli Vice

Leave a Comment / Israel, Old Stories /

The young Lithuanian woman in the prison libraryhas the narrow chest, hunched shoulders and wary eyes of someone whohas known poverty and is not sure where the next blow is coming from.She talks to reporters to convince herself that she was not aprostitute, not one by choice anyway.

Her first name, which is all she will tell, isGiedre. She is 19, with lank, sandy hair, pale freckles on palecheeks, stone-washed blue jeans and a black boucle zip-up jacket.Giedre is one of 39 illegal immigrants from the old Soviet Unionawaiting deportation in Neve Tirtza women’s prison near Ben-GurionAirport. Almost all of them, according to the governor, Betty Lahat,worked in Israeli brothels.

The prisoners are the tip of a multimillion-dollarracket, which recruits hundreds of women a year in Eastern Europe forwhat the Israel Women’s Network brands “a modern slave trade.”Criminologists estimate that about 2,000 women from Russia, Lithuaniaand Ukraine are currently working in Israel’s sex industry. Manyarrive by sea, on tourist visas or cruise ships from Cyprus. Some aregenuine tourists who are kidnapped by local gangsters.

The women are bought and sold by pimps andtraffickers for prices up to $20,000. Some were promised jobs asnannies, waitresses or dancers. One woman, arrested last month inHaifa, confessed that she was a doctor who couldn’t make a living inher profession back home.

Giedre, who has a Jewish father and a Christianmother, says that she came to Israel to stay with an aunt. After afamily quarrel, she moved into a cheap hotel in Herzliya, near TelAviv. One night she returned from a disco to find her room ransacked,her bag, passport and money gone.

When she went downstairs to report the theft, shewas lured outside by a Russian girl who had befriended her. Two burlymen grabbed her and bundled her into a windowless van. She was keptfor three days in a locked room of a two-story house withoutfood.

“On the third night, I was desperate,” she says.”I tried to break out. I shouted for help. But it was no use. Twomen, who spoke Russian with a Georgian accent, carted me off to amassage parlor. When I refused to work there, they beat me up. Theyraped me, punched my body, slapped my face. Finally, I agreed to workfor them.”

Giedre was put in a room with another girl. Shehad sex with six clients a day, half an hour each. The two girlsslept and worked in the same room. There were five other girls in thebrothel. Some told Giedre that they had 15 to 20 men a day, for whichthey were paid $1,000 a month.

The Lithuanian teen-ager worked for a week butdidn’t wait for a paycheck. Before dawn one day, she climbed out ofan upstairs laundry room and fled barefoot down a rope of sheets.After finding her way back to her aunt’s, she was arrested foroverstaying her visa. When she can produce the money for a ticket,she will be put on the next plane out.

Another prisoner, who calls herself Russita,admits that she was a prostitute in Lithuania. Mafia agents broughther to Israel on forged papers with tales of rich pickings. One agenttook her passport on arrival. One pimp sold her to another, who madeher strip so that he could see what he was buying.

“When I asked what I’d be paid,” she says, “hetold me I’d have to pay back his investment first, then I would get$100 a month. Before then, I was sold on to a third pimp, who put mein a massage parlor, where I received up to 30 men a day. They paidhim 150 shekels [about $42] each.”

Russita was arrested during a police raid.Prostitution is not a crime in Israel, but she will be expelledbecause she has no papers. Like most of the Neve Tirtza girls, shearrived at the prison without money. The Lithuanian Consulate willprobably pay for her ticket home.

According to a 30-page report published at thebeginning of this year by the campaigning Israel Women’s Network,most pimps are Israeli citizens, either native-born or Russianimmigrants. Police raid brothels from time to time, but the networkfound that pimps were prosecuted only in the most extreme cases. Eventhen, they usually receive light sentences. “The pimps go free,” saysEfraim Ehrlich, head of the Tel Aviv vice squad. “The women go toprison.”

And, like Giedre, Russita and many Natashas, theywait to go home with nothing to show for their trip to the PromisedLand.


Israeli Vice Read More »

Revisionist TV

Leave a Comment / Israel, Old Stories /

After 50 years of evasion, soft sell andhalf-truths, Israelis are coming to terms with the darker side oftheir own history. The process is painful and divisive, but thepeople, if not their leaders, seem to be ready for it.

Channel One, the public-service televisionstation, is resisting angry demands from right-wing ministers andlegislators to abort a warts-and-all 22-part series that chroniclesthe first half century of the Jewish state. The series, “Tkumah”(“Rebirth”), traces the story through the joy and suffering ofordinary citizens, rather than by interviewing the movers andshakers.

It also scans the other side of the screen. Arabstalk about the legacy of their 1948 “catastrophe,” the flight andexpulsion, the discrimination, the ongoing struggle, armed andpolitical, for their measure of justice.

The politicians and spin doctors are finding ithard to take.

In 12 episodes screened so far, “Tkumah” has shonea harsh light on Israel’s treatment of its Arab minority as well asits eastern Jewish immigrants. It mercilessly pilloried such nationalheroes as Golda Meir and Moshe Dayan for squandering the opportunityfor peace in the years between the 1967 and 1973 wars.

A future program, to be screened next month, willdepict what Israelis call “terror” and the Palestinians term “armedstruggle,” from both sides of the barricade, using footage from PLOarchives captured during the 1982 invasion of Lebanon, as well asinterviews with Israeli victims and fighters.

To the surprise of its producers as much as itscritics, the series has proved a hit. Despite a choice of more than40 cable channels, one in four Israeli viewers is tuning in. That istwice as many as the filmmakers had expected.

Yehoram Gaon, a popular actor and singer whointroduced each episode, sparked the row by resigning in protest fromthe series. Television executives then leaked that he had been firedthree days earlier because they found his material too shmaltzy,which, indeed, it was.

The Likud communications minister, Limor Livnat,led the onslaught. She demanded that the state-funded IsraelBroadcasting Authority, which is responsible for Channel One, takethe offending series off the air immediately, and she urged PrimeMinister Binyamin Netanyahu to intervene.

“I don’t know any normal nation that would presentthe other side’s position so favorably,” Livnat said. “That is asenseless and infuriating decision that has caused severe damage tothe State of Israel, both internationally and in the eyes of ourchildren.”

Hanan Porat, a leading settler Knesset member,called on the “Tkumah” producers to put out a second series, whichwould present the story from a “national” perspective. Moshe Peled,the deputy education minister, accused the documentary makers ofpresenting half-truths in the guise of history, though he had praisedearlier episodes as “the best birthday present the state couldhave.”

The broadcasting authority rejected thesestrictures, although it has decided to follow the more controversialepisodes with a live panel debate. One veteran broadcaster retortedprivately: “We have grown up. We’re no longer living in the days whenthe news was controlled from the Prime Minister’s Office.”

IBA spokesman Zvi Lidar said: “This is a historicseries dealing with history that is still in the making. We knew wewere picking at open wounds. But each program was made with the helpof a team of historians representing different political views anddifferent approaches to history.”

Ronit Weiss-Berkowitz, who directed the terrorismepisode, vigorously defended her treatment. “At times,” she said,”the film adopted the other side’s point of view, and those arepictures we are not used to seeing. One of the objectives was tounderstand that blood was spilt on the other side as well, that therewas mourning, and there were victims there too. We don’t have amonopoly of that.”

She accused Israel’s leaders, left as well asright, of “obtuseness and condescension” toward Palestinians. When hewas chief of staff in the early 1980s, Rafael Eitan, she recalled,scorned them as “drugged cockroaches.” A decade earlier, PrimeMinister Meir brushed them aside with the assertion, “There is noPalestinian people.”

Weiss-Berkowits insisted, however, that she hadnot made a Palestinian propaganda movie. “In no way whatsoever,” shesaid, “did I praise Palestinian terrorists, as was claimed. I onlylistened to them. With all the openness, balance and objectivity, Idon’t see terror as a legitimate weapon.”

So far, the right-wing protest has not caughtfire. No one demonstrated outside the TV studios. Netanyahu, who hasministerial oversight of the broadcasting authority, did not respondto Livnat’s nudging.

In fact, the series told Israelis little they didnot know. They serve in the army. They are aware of what has beendone in their name — some of it glorious, some morally tainted.Sometimes, they acquiesce, arguing that torture and other humanrights abuses are necessary for Israel’s survival in a hostileregion. Sometimes, they object.

Ilan Pape, a Haifa University historian who hasfrequently challenged the received Zionist version of the state’sformative years, welcomed “Tkumah” as a sign that such criticism hadbecome legitimate.

“Although the series is bold in its criticism,” hesaid, “I don’t think it is presented in a way which contradicts theZionist narrative. It does not question the basic truisms, but it iswilling to take a more critical position. It is still within Israel’sself-image that, despite all the bad things we say about ourselves,we are the just party in this conflict.”

As one of the sabra generation of “newhistorians,” Pape feels less lonely. “It will be much more difficultto limit the debate now,” he said. “What began as an academic debatehas become more central to the way Israelis are looking atthemselves.”


Revisionist TV Read More »

‘Volpone’ for the

Leave a Comment / Old Stories /

From left, Francois Giroday, Apollo Dukakis,Anna C. Miller and Jay Bell in “Volpones” at A NoiseWithin.“

Shakespeare,” said Ben Jonson, “was not for an agebut for all time.” But Jonson himself is, in many ways, more durableand pertinent.

Shakespeare copulated with the universal; Jonson,in skewering the evils of a Jacobean society that sickened him, mayappear more temporal, but he possesses a tone of voice that speaksdirectly to our own age. Shakespeare was “gentle” and good-natured.Like contemporary filmmakers, he reveled in “feel-good” endings evenwhen the plays were tragedies. Jonson was a curmudgeon who always sawthe hole rather than the doughnut. Even when he neatly resolves hisplots according to the moral temper of his times, a foul odor seepsthrough the scented fragrance.

The spirit of Shakespeare breathes through theorderly plays of writers such as Neil Simon and Alan Ayckborne, butit is Jonson’s hard-nosed cynicism that pulsates beneath the work ofwriters such as David Mamet and Jon Robin Baitz. For all his insightsand philosophic understanding, Shakespeare would be lost in SouthCentral Los Angeles; Jonson would feel right at home.

“Volpone,” currently being revived in a productionby Art Manke at A Noise Within in Glendale, is a great comic snarl ofa play that puts forth the proposition that there are no depths towhich human beings will not sink in their desire for wealth. All buttwo of the major characters are tarred with avarice, and, curiously,the two innocents — a virginal wife and a disinherited son — aremorally unconvincing.

The two malevolent protagonists, Volpone (who usesthe pretext of an imminent demise to coax gifts from an assortment ofwould-be heirs) and Mosca (the kind of glib con man who is regularlyexposed on programs such as “60 Minutes”), are the twin monarchs of aworld that is predicated on rapacious greed. The l7th-century Venicedepicted in Jonson’s play is a horrifying mirror image of our ownpre-millennial Western society, and that is what makes the play bothchilling and apt.

But at A Noise Within, Jonson is being played forlaughs — which is legitimate so long as one recognizes that thelaughter has a cynical ring to it and that after human foibles havebeen exposed, inhuman iniquity must also be revealed.

The virtues of the production are that it isswift, energetic, streamlined and, given the sidewindings of itsdiscursive plot, perfectly compressed. The vices are that it is oftenplayed faster than the actors can effectively take it (and speedwithout definition is like a souped-up race car without a steeringwheel), and when the play itself drops its trousers to reveal itsdark underbelly, the company immediately hitches them up again andinsists on dispensing levity.

Dan Kern’s Volpone revels in trickery anddeception but lacks the voraciousness that gives this bitter comedyits tartness. François Giorday’s Mosca is the kind of used-carsalesman that would unload transmissionless Yugos onto unsuspectingout-of-towners. But where Jonson depicts diabolical corruption,Giorday gives us only zestful duplicity.

The production opens with a gaggle of black-robedvultures who, throughout the performance, perch above the action,acting as a kind of croaking Greek chorus that punctuates theentrances and exits of all the characters. We know that Jonson wasindicting mankind as rabid scavengers, but it is the play’s languageand situations that should be delivering that message. ToMickey-Mouse it with production touches and birdlike commedia masksis like sprinkling pesticide onto poison ivy.

Comparisons are odious but, in the case ofclassical revivals, inevitable, and one has to note that NicholasHytner’s production at the Alameida in London gave the play ametaphysical dimension that made it appear epic, and the 1930s Frenchfilm starring Harry Baur and Louis Jouvet, which eschewedstylizations, was like a cunning sermon delivered by a Jesuiticalpriest. This “Volpone” occasionally bruises and even lacerates, butnever draws blood.

Quibbles apart, I always arrive at A Noise Withingrateful to see work that other Los Angeles theaters instinctivelyshy away from, and always leave appreciating the ardor of theircommitment and the solid crunch of their ensemble work. Mysatisfaction in being able to experience Ben Jonson in Los Angelesalmost, but not quite, overrides my reservations about a company ofactors whose reach frequently exceeds their grasp. How boring itwould be if they didn’t.

Charles Marowitz writes regularly for TheJewish Journal from Malibu.

‘Volpone’ for the Read More »

Letters

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

Marlene Adler Marks is dead wrong. Monica Lewinskyis not the”every daughter” she proposes (“The Daughter,” Jan. 30). Monica’sfamily, mercifully is nothing like our own. The “undigested horrorsof the 20th century” have nothing to do with it.

Wretched excess, greed, and insatiable appetiteswere more likely what was played out at that dinner table. There arefar too many of us Holocaust survivors and children of survivors whohave gone forth and raised honorable decent offspring for thatridiculous claim of victimhood to be made yet again. It is an insultwith its insinuation that we are all helplessly caught in theunresolved histories of our fathers.

And just what is the “Shine” syndrome? More poppsychology? A clever hook on which to hang rather than understand aman’s complicated malady? Shall we also have to forgive Bill Clintonbecause of his own family’s constant uprootings?

Please, I look to The Jewish Journal forrelevance, reasonable views and intelligent discourse. MonicaLewinsky was not a Jewish issue, but now it is being made into one,and frankly, I’m disappointed that it should happen within yourpages.

Josie Levy Martin

Los Angeles

*

 

The Jewish Journal ought to be distinguished byits difference, not demeaned by its similarity. The Jewish communitydoes not need The Journal to offer snide references to”Zippergate,”or, more egregiously, to relate the content of theLewinskys’ divorce proceedings. For such “reporting,” we already havetoo many outlets.

Finally, to spin such feeble threads intospeculation as to the Holocaust’s impact on this sad incident, isboth uncharitable and unworthy. Does the “Jewish” in Jewish Journalmerely point to an ethnic affiliation, or are Jewish values somehowencompassed by that name?

The Journal was not going to scoop its competitionon a story that all of America was covering. Imagine how it mighthave been ennobled by reporting with humility on all we do not know,or at least with compassion on a tragedy that is painfully enmeshingmembers of our community.

Rabbi David Wolpe

Sinai Temple

Los Angeles

*

When I received your last issue, I thought for amoment that The Journal had been sold to a sex tabloid. Then as Ileafed through it and saw the amount of space you had devoted tol’affaire Lewinsky, I was shocked, disappointed, and then angry that youwould have joined in this cacophony of rumor, speculation andspecious gossip.

Although I have not always agreed with her, I haveadmired Ms. Adler Marks as a responsible columnist but certainly notwhen she throws in the “ethnic card” by putting on the tableLewinsky’s purported Jewishness as a connection which has not beenspotlighted.

And then to have your editorial criticize the LosAngeles Jewish community for treating her Jewishness as “only anincidental sidebar” is not only irresponsible but also ridiculous.With all the problems we Jews have, who needs that connection in thespotlight. Get real! I’m sure that many an anti-Semite thought of itbefore you did.

The Middle East may erupt momentarily, Israel isin mortal danger, the president makes an important and meaty State ofthe Union address, we will have a balanced budget and a surplus forthe first time in many years while countless thousands are homeless,and you choose to devote page after page of valuable space to thistitillation.

The ponderous, pontifically pompous Ted Koppeldevotes a program to whether oral sex is adultery. CBS starts itshourly news with “The White House in Crisis” and one after the otherjoins in the repetition and competition to see who can get thelargest audience. And now the distinguished Rabbi Elliot Dorff getsinto the fray with a scholarly discussion of the wisdom of our sagesabout whether or not penis penetration is necessary to constituteadultery.

I don’t know whether to laugh or to cry.

S. Dell Scott

Encino

*

Congratulations! You have finally recognized howto stimulate reader interest and at the same time improvecirculation: More sleaze.

The one thing I have wanted to learn: at whichTemple are Monica’s parents members. Pages and pages, articles andeditorial, all I ever wanted to learn about Monica andJewishness.

Can I hope that next week you will follow up witha feature article on Judaica and oral sex?

Julian Omerberg

Sherman Oaks

*

With apologies to Gene Lichtenstein and MarleneMarks, The New York Times attitude of “so what?” seems to me the mostappropriate response to the Jewishness of Ms. Lewinsky, whosephotograph , glared at us all week.

I was appalled to see it also on the cover of TheJewish Journal. Sorry, Marlene, but I not only take strong exceptionto your armchair analyzing — based on a movie! — as a way ofprobing the dynamics of a family you know little about, but also toyour assumption of a “we.” I and many other single and marriedmothers do not raise our daughters to worship power, “vamp forDaddy,” etc. We raise them to have personal dignity; act withintegrity; take themselves seriously as women, Jews, and people;value their bodies as well as their minds and souls, and respectearned authority while remaining healthily skeptical of merepower.

If Ms. Lewinsky actually made half the statementsattributed to her, it is her own vulgarity and her media-made grossnotoriety that are most pitiable. She and her family scarcely needwhat amounted to little more than gossip-mongering on the part of TheJournal to exacerbate one of the more prurient and repellent episodesin recent American culture. Shame on you.

Miriyam Glazer

Santa Monica

*

I am glad that The New York Times did not mentionthat Monica Lewinsky was Jewish. She is a disgrace to our religion.Please do not try to portray this young woman as a victim. She wentto Washington with a plan, and succeeded in bringing disgrace uponherself. The Jewish community should not stand behind her. We owe hernothing. I am ashamed that she was born Jewish.

How dare you mention Fred Goldman and this womanin the same breath! Fred and his family were innocent victims in atragic affair. Lewinsky brought all her troubles upon herself.

As for Marlene Adler Marks: Please spare us the”victim” alibi. Many of us came from families with parents who foughtand/or divorced. That didn’t give us the right to behaveinappropriately.

Fern Reisner

Los Angeles

Monica and Israel

I was astounded to read that some right-wingJewish circles speculate with satisfaction that the Lewinsky scandalimpaired Clinton’s ability to constrain Netanyahu during the latter’svisit here (“Saved by the Belle,” Jan. 30). If this is really theprevailing right-wing Jewish viewpoint, it may bedisastrous fortheir own interests.

Impairing Clinton’s ability to constrain Netanyahualso impairs Clinton’s ability to constrain Saddam Hussein.Right-wing Jewish folk willing to risk a less-constrained Saddam inorder to get a less-constrained Netanyahu should recognize that onegoes along with the other.

I am reminded of the case of Rabbi Kupersztoch ofPoland. The rabbi was enraged when some young men of his flock wereexecuted by the czar for trying to avoid conscription.

Years later, during World War I, the rabbi tookhis revenge by tipping off the German high command about Russiantroop placements, leading to a major German victory. The rabbi andhis flock moved to Germany under German sponsorship, and was laterprotected against Nazi excesses by the German military.

When the rabbi died in 1940, his flock was nolonger protected and was subsequently sent to various camps. Sosometimes a leader can grasp for immediate advantage, at the cost ofthe long-term viability of a larger group that includes hisown.

This seems to be the case for those Jewish leaderswho take satisfaction in seeing Clinton undermined because theybelieve some uncertain short-term advantage will be gained. Those whofollow such leaders may be badly misled.

Larry Selk

Los Angeles

 

THE JEWISH JOURNAL welcomes letters from allreaders. Letters should be no more than 250 words and we reserve theright to edit for space. All letters must include a signature, validaddress and phone number. Pseudonyms and initials will not be used,but names will be withheld on request. Unsolicited manuscripts andother materials should include a self-addressed, stamped envelope inorder to be returned.Publisher, Stanley Hirsh

THE JEWISH JOURNAL welcomes letters from allreaders. Letters should be no more than 250 words and we reserve theright to edit for space. All letters must include a signature, validaddress and phone number. Pseudonyms and initials will not be used,but names will be withheld on request. Unsolicited manuscripts andother materials should include a self-addressed, stamped envelope inorder to be returned.Publisher, Stanley Hirsh

Editor-in chief,Gene Lichtenstein

Managing editor, Robert Eshman

Assistant editor, Stig Jantz

Calendar and copy editor, William Yelles

Senior writer, NaomiPfefferman

Staff writer, RuthStroud

Production coordinator and

online editor, SaraEve Roseman

Community editor,Michael Aushenker

Arts editor, DianeArieff Zaga

Senior Columnist, Marlene Adler Marks

National Correspondent, J. J. Goldberg

Contributing writers, James David Besser (Washington), Larry Derfner (Tel Aviv),Rabbi Ed Feinstein, Linda Feldman, Beverly Gray, Joel Kotkin, RabbiSteven Leder, Yehuda Lev, Deborah Berger-Reiss, Eric Silver(Jerusalem), Teresa Strasser

Contributing editor, Tom Tugend

Art director,Shelley Adler

Photo/Graphics, Carvin Knowles

Advertising art director, Lionel Ochoa

Members of the corporation,

Ed Brennglass (1919-1997), Willard Chotiner, IrwinDaniels, Irwin Field, David Finegood, Herbert Gelfand, Osias Goren,Richard Gunther, Stanley Hirsh, Marvin Kristan, Mark Lainer

Legal counsel/ accountants, Leon Katz of Tyre, Kamins, Katz and Granoff; JonathanKirsch of Kirsch and Mitchell/Gerald Block of Block, Plant andEisner

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Letters Read More »

The Divorce Force

Leave a Comment / Judaism, Old Stories, Politics, Power /

By J.J. Goldberg

Gangs of masked, Yiddish-speaking thugs inBrooklyn have been abducting Orthodox Jewish men and beating themsavagely to force them into granting their wives a religious divorce,or get, according to several men who say they were victims of such assaults.The beatings allegedly were ordered by an Orthodox rabbinicalcourt.

The story surfaced just before Purim, but it’s nojoke. The Brooklyn district attorney’s office is investigating twocases and may submit evidence to a grand jury within weeks, the DA’sspokesman says. Newsday, a local daily, reports that it has uneartheda dozen such get-related assaults.

One of the alleged victims, Abraham Rubin, filed a$100 million civil racketeering lawsuit in state court in Januaryagainst the people he claims attacked him. The suit names severalprominent rabbis charged with authorizing the assault.

Also named is America’s second-largest Orthodoxrabbinic association, the Union of Orthodox Rabbis of the UnitedStates and Canada, which the lawsuit says acted “in conspiracy” withsome of the accused rabbis. The union’s executive vice president,Rabbi Hersh Ginsberg, says that his group had “nothing to do” withany beatings, adding: “We have 500 members, so whatever a member mayor may not do has nothing to do with us.”

The union last won headlines on the eve of Purim1997 by decreeing that Reform and Conservative Judaism were notJudaism. Founded in 1900, it is the oldest Orthodox rabbinic group inAmerica. Often derided by critics as marginal, the union’s membershipincludes some of the leading Talmudic authorities in traditionalOrthodoxy.

The allegations are the latest twist in acontinuing Orthodox debate over the fate of agunot, or “chainedwomen”—women who cannot remarry, because their husbands won’t givethem a get. In rabbinic law, the divorce document can only beinitiated by the husband. An ex-wife without a get is still a wifeand may not remarry, though a husband without a get may sometimestake a second wife.

Women’s rights advocates say that husbands oftenuse the get to extort better financial or child-custody terms than acivil court might grant. Many agunot, activists say, are womenfleeing abuse. Their number is unknown, but some activists put it inthe thousands.

Rumors of get-related beatings have beencirculating for years, but “there’s never been any hard evidence,“said Susan Aranoff, who is with the women’s rights group Agunah Inc.“We think it’s barbaric.”

A beating is rumored to cost about $5,000,including rabbinical court fees.

Rubin and his attorney, Thomas Stickel, held apress conference last week with five other Orthodox men who claimedto be victims of get attacks, including one beaten in 1992 bybat-wielding, Yiddish-speaking thugs in ski masks. Stickel believesthe same group of rabbis ordered most of the assaults.

Rubin’s lawsuit paints a sad picture of a 1986marriage that ended in 1990, when his wife, Chaya, fled to Canadawith the children. She agreed to settle their dispute in rabbinicalcourt, the suit says, but, instead, she obtained a civil divorce inMontreal in 1992. Then she asked for a get.

Beginning in 1995, the suit says, a series ofrabbinical panels ordered Rubin to appear for divorce. In 1996, aseven-member “star-chamber-like tribunal” allegedly issued a writ,“ordering plaintiff’s abduction and torture.” On Oct. 23, 1996, Rubinsays, he was snatched off a Borough Park street by three men whodragged him into a van, handcuffed, blindfolded and beat him, andrepeatedly shocked him with a stun gun, demanding in Yiddish that heissue a get. He says that he passed out and was later dumped near acemetery. Stickel says that Rubin was told the get had been concludedwhile he was unconscious.

In the broader Jewish community, the case hasaroused, well, not much of a reaction. Only two secular tabloids,Newsday and the New York Post, even reported the story. Orthodoxleaders who are asked for comment typically offer responses rangingfrom “nothing’s been proven” to “it’s not news; we’ve known aboutthis for years”—sometimes both from the same person.

The community’s ringing silence is not hard toexplain. It’s tough to know whom to dislike more in this, a sordidtale without good guys. But the silence also betrays a largerpathology: a tendency in the Jewish community, particularly theOrthodox community, to circle the wagons and resist outsidescrutiny.

It’s an old instinct, based on real fears ofvulnerability and a determination to shut out the outside world. Butit won’t work anymore. The outside world keeps creeping in.

Agunot were rare until recent times. That waspartly because divorce was infrequent, and partly because rabbis oncehad the power to flog a husband until he agreed to divorce. Israelirabbis can still jail a husband, but rabbis elsewhere have no suchpower. Not legally.

The problem is most acute in the United States.Because of church-state separation, no central authority governsrabbinic courts here, so husbands may bring a divorce to any tribunalthey choose. Some right-wing panels are known for favoringhusbands.

What’s emerged is basically a home-grown Americanproblem, something the Talmud never foresaw: growing numbers of wivesopting out, growing numbers of husbands refusing to free them. TheOrthodox community faces a crisis that it is just beginning toacknowledge. Society’s ills are taking a toll on a community thatlikes to think itself immune.

Actually, pummeling husbands isn’t the onlyhalachic way to help agunot. One tribunal in New York, headed byRabbi Moshe Morgenstern, began arranging divorces last year withoutthe husband’s participation. The panel uses an old procedure, akin toannulment, in which a get can be written without hubby’s consent ifthe rabbis rule the original marriage contract invalid.

But Morgenstern’s panel has evoked gales ofprotest from a spectrum of Orthodox rabbis who say the speedy getsare invalid. In January, the Union of Orthodox Rabbis convened aspecial “emergency meeting” to condemn the tribunal’s work as”deceitful.”

The reported get beatings, if proven true—andfew who know the community doubt there’s something there—are asign of what happens when change strikes a community that doesn’t believe in change. An irresistible force meets an immovable object.The result is violent chaos.

“This is what’s going on,” says Morgenstern. “It’sperfectly legitimate to beat the husbands up, but it’s treif to annul the marriages. There’s something wrong with that. Whether or not itwas once acceptable to use corporal punishment, it’s now against thelaw.”

J.J. Goldberg is author of “Jewish Power:Inside the American Jewish Establishment.” He writes regularly for The Jewish Journal.

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The Ashes of Memory

Leave a Comment / Entertainment, Film, Old Stories /

How do you go from co-starring on a popular sitcomto directing a documentary at Auschwitz? Just ask MichaelO’Keefe.

The actor, best known for his role as Fred on”Roseanne,” was approached by his teacher, Bernie Glassman of the ZenPeacemaker Order, to attend a meditation conference held on the siteof the former concentration camp. O’Keefe is also an ordained priestof the Order. Glassman and Rabbi Zalman Schacter of the JewishRenewal movement organized the event in order to transform the deathcamp into a place of interfaith spiritual healing.

In “Raising the Ashes,” O’Keefe has crafted a filmabout healing and rebirth unlike any other. His cameras follow the150 participants — who are from a variety of backgrounds,nationalities and religions — during the week-long retreat as theytry to understand the crimes that took place there, and come to termswith the perpetrators and those who stood by.

As Glassman explains in the film, “The word’remember’ means ‘to make whole again.'” To accomplish this, Glassmaninvited children of survivors, as well as descendants of the Naziswho have come to seek forgiveness and spiritual purpose. They sharetheir experiences and join in the various religious ceremonies: aJewish prayer circle where psalms and the “Kaddish” are recited, Zenchanting, and Christian and Islamic observances.

Many people have been “deeply offended” by hisfilm, O’Keefe told an audience at the Santa Barbara InternationalFilm Festival earlier this month. However, many others have beenequally moved by the powerful imagery and personal experiences: aGerman man who grew up hearing conflicting stories of his partlyJewish ancestry; a Swiss nun who expresses her initial reservationsabout attending, before singing Yiddish children’s songs she haslearned; the poetry of a survivor known only by the number he wasbranded with during his imprisonment — Ka-Tzetnik 135633.

Other Documentaries of Note

The International Documentary Association willscreen this year’s Academy Award-nominated nonfiction films onSunday, March 22, the eve of the ceremony. Features “Ayn Rand: ASense of Life,” “Colors Straight Up,” Spike Lee’s “4 Little Girls,””The Long Way Home” and “Waco: The Rules of Engagement” will bepresented as well as three of the five nominated short subjects.”Waco” will get things started at 10 a.m., and the last screening isscheduled for 10 p.m. Numerous question-and-answer sessions areincluded.

At the Directors Guild of America, 7920 SunsetBlvd. Tickets may be purchased through Ticketmasteroutlets.

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Dear Deborah

Leave a Comment / Dear Deborah, Old Stories /

Dear Deborah,

I never wanted or expected to be financiallysupported by a man, but I now have a beautiful 9-week-old daughter,and my heart hurts when I think about returning to my full-time job.Here’s my story:

I grew up in an affluent suburb. My family wasstable and loving. My father was a successful professional, and mymother was a homemaker and a volunteer at our school and in theJewish community. When I was in college, my parents divorced, and mymother had a hard time emotionally and financially as she struggledto rebuild her life. Luckily, everyone is remarried and happy now,but I vowed that would never happen to me.

I went to college and graduate school. I became alicensed clinical social worker. I thought that, with this type ofcareer, I could always work, no matter what the circumstances. Whilea grad student, I met and fell in love with a wonderful man, who ismy best friend and husband. We married four years ago, and these havebeen some of the best years of my life. He is truly a treasure, and Ibelieve it was beshert that I found him. We both thought that it was importantfor us to share everything — working, running the house, et al. Itwas easy to be together and plan our future.

Due to our expensive student loans, my not workingwas never an option. I felt conflicted about this, althoughrationally believing that marriages are stronger when a woman sharesthe responsibilities of financial support, decision making, andrunning a household with her mate.

Also, both of us experienced the scare ofdownsizing in the labor market, and were happy neither one of us wasthe sole support. We bought a house, saved money and began investingfor our retirement. We are not wealthy, but we live in anupper-middle-class suburb with a good school district and a vibrantJewish community surrounding us. We have worked hard to get where weare.

Last year, we felt ready to begin our family. WhenI became pregnant, we were thrilled. I decided to find the best daycare available, since I did not have the luxury of working less thanfull time.

You may ask why I am agonizing. I have had thetime of my life being at home with my daughter; I love every minuteof my three-month maternity leave. (Thank God and Pat Schroeder forthe Family Medical Leave Act!) I had no idea it would be so difficultto leave her. My husband wishes I could stay home more too. He seeshow happy I am, taking care of her, and we both wish I could havejust one year at home with her!

When you wrote that half of women withnursery-school-age children are in the work force, I thought tomyself, “I would love to wait until she’s nursery-school-age to goback to work full-time.” I would be happy to work part-time. I dothink there are benefits to being in the work force, and children canget a great deal of care and stimulation in good day care.

It’s just that 40 hours a week is too much for me.I have a good job that helps the community as well as my finances. Ijust think that nature intended for a parent to be the main caretakerin an infant’s life.

How can I resolve this?

St. Louis Mommy

Dear S.L. Mommy,

What happened to your parents understandably leftyou a little anxious, regarding financial security. While it isadmirable that you are among the few who are financially responsiblefor your future, perhaps for the sake of your child, you mightconsider either part-time work, job-sharing or simply investing someof your own savings in your most precious commodity.

When a parent truly wants to stay at home with achild, the long-term yields of time, love and attention invested in achild can never, ever be matched by an early retirement in Miami.Just think of yourself at age 80, looking back upon these years. Whatwill you be most likely to regret — not having worked more or nothaving spent more time with your child?

Moral Dilemma

Dear Deborah,

When my husband and I were young, we got marriedfirst and then lived together. Lately, we have received severalinvitations to showers/luncheons for young couples that have beenliving together for two or more years. Since the parents of theseyoung people are our friends, we believe that some sort of gift isobligatory, but we are in a quandary because 1) we do not condonetheir children’s lifestyle, and 2) we have young adult children whoare aware of the behavior of their peers. If we send gifts, themessage may be misunderstood by our kids. They may think that we aresaying OK, that it’s just fine to live together beforemarriage.

Deborah, I’m tired of walking the fine line,trying not to judge the behavior of our friends’ children, whilemaking it clear to our own kids that it is not OK and that we expect themto behave differently. Kindly offer some words of wisdom.

Distressed in Denver

Dear Distressed,

If you do not send gifts, you will most certainlymake a statement. But, soon, you will have no one to whom to makesuch statements, because you will have no friends left.

Certainly, your children already know yourposition about living together out of wedlock. And since they areyoung adults, it is doubtful that boycotting the simchas of your friends’children will, at this stage in their development, alter theirmorals. Consider your gifts to be rewards for the decision of yourfriends’ children to finally marry and stop “living in sin.”

Deborah Berger-Reiss is a West Los Angelespsychotherapist.

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

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


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Fitting Together

Leave a Comment / California, Community, Old Stories /

At the conclusion of the weekend, participantstook their puzzle piece name tags and together assembled a poster.Photos by Nancy Steiner

 

For Jewish young adults in Los Angeles, connectingwith Judaism can be a puzzling experience. So it seemed appropriatethat the 145 participants of ACCESS’s annual Shabbaton weekend atCamp Ramah received name tags in the form of puzzle pieces.

ACCESS is the young-adult program of the JewishFederation of Greater Los Angeles, and the March 13-15 Shabbatonweekend retreat drew a record number of participants, who were eagerto make connections, both social and spiritual.

An ACCESS member for about four years, Iparticularly enjoy this annual opportunity to gain new insights aboutJudaism and spend a leisurely weekend with good friends. Many otherparticipants were longtime ACCESS members who, like me, wereShabbaton veterans. There were also several newcomers to the group,and, for some, this was their first taste of the Federation’sprogram.

Sayan Gomel, 28, recently moved to Los Angeles andcame “to get more involved with the community and my religion.”Describing himself as more “cultural” than “religious,” Gomel saw theShabbaton as a chance to meet “people you have more in commonwith.”

Although the majority of ACCESS members aresingle, there were at least nine couples on our weekend, many of whomhad met through the Federation. But while people were undoubtedlykeeping an eye out for their beshert, the focus was more onfriendship and community.

This was the third Shabbaton for Jodee Mora, whodescribes herself as on the more “seasoned” end of ACCESS’s 25-to-40age continuum. “It’s like having a big sleep-over party with all yourfriends,” says Mora, who came for “the chance to be with greatfriends in a beautiful, tranquil environment, learn more aboutreligion and…unwind from regular responsibilities.”

The theme of the program was “Why Be Jewish?” andif we learned anything during the weekend, it was that the answer isas unique and individual as each participant.

Our program began with song-filled Friday-nightservices, followed by a traditional Shabbat dinner. Then we gatheredto hear keynote speaker Carol Levy, executive director of theAmerican Jewish Congress. Levy’s boisterous address alternatedbetween serious and comic as she exhorted her listeners to translatethe spirit we demonstrated on the weekend into community action. Sheasked participants to break into small discussion groups and sharetheir positive Jewish experiences. During a second presentation onSaturday, Levy described Judaism as “endless struggle, endless joyand endless oy,” and advised us that being a mensch is “a lifetimeendeavor.”

At Saturday-morning services, everyone got achance to have an aliyah, based upon which theme from the Torahportion most resonated with them. Services were followed by workshops(from which we chose two) on spirituality, tzedakah, Jewish holidays,the movements within Judaism, and crafts. Renee Firestone, aHolocaust survivor, and John Crites, a Jew-by-choice, also offeredworkshops. I opted for the spirituality session, where Rabbi GordonBernat-Kunin taught us about Buber’s “I-it” and “I-you” definitionsof relationships. Later, my inner child played at the arts and craftsworkshop, where we created etched-glass kiddush cups.

After Havdalah, the mood turned from serious tosilly as we broke into groups and were assigned to incorporate aJewish life-cycle event and a random object into a skit or song. Mygroup put together a jingle combining marriage with a remote control,while the group that got shiva and a toilet seat faced a tougher testand rose (actually, sunk) to the challenge.

Sunday afternoon arrived more quickly than wewould have liked. But as Shabbaton Co-Chair Craig Miller observed,the program had provided a new, “positive Jewish experience” thatparticipants could add to those they had shared at the beginning ofthe weekend.

At theconclusion of the program, participants took their puzzle piece nametags and together assembled a “1998 ACCESS Shabbaton” poster. Forthat moment, all the pieces fell into place. And with luck, each ofus gained something from our weekend experience that would make usfeel just a little more connected when we returned home.

For more information about the Federation’s ACCESSprogram, call (213) 761-8130.

Rebuilding a Family’s Past

In her latest memoir, Helen Epsteinrecounts the stories of grandparents she never knew

By Ruth Stroud, Staff Writer

Until she entered a concentration camp, FrancesEpstein hardly knew that she was a Jew. The same cannot be said ofher daughter, Helen Epstein, who thinks of herself as being “in aconstant state of teshuvah [return]” to Judaism.

Epstein was in Los Angeles earlier this month totalk about her recently published book, “Where She Came From: ADaughter’s Search for Her Mother’s History,” an absorbing memoir thatrebuilds her family’s destroyed and nearly forgotten past.

Epstein, who lives in Cambridge, Mass., with her husbandand two preteen sons, believes that she is the first in her familysince her great-grandmother, Therese Sachsel, who can walk to shulfrom her home. Though she calls herself “semi-observant,” even thatis a far cry from the life her mother led as an assimilated Jew inPrague during the 1920s and 1930s. Epstein had always hoped to writea story about her mother and her mother’s mother, Pepi, a skilledseamstress who was killed during the Holocaust. Epstein’s 1979 book,”Children of the Holocaust,” had made her a kind of icon among thesons and daughters of survivors. But, she said during an interview,”no one was dying to have a book about my grandmother.”

The book had taken a back seat to other projectsuntil Frances died suddenly from a brain aneurysm in 1989; she was69. For Epstein, then 42, the eldest of Frances’ three children andher only daughter, the loss was made more unbearable by her mother’srequest that no “Kaddish” be said, no rabbi be in attendance, and herremains be cremated. Epstein and her brothers didn’t even sitshiva.

“It placed a great burden on us,” she said duringa discussion with members and guests of Second Generation of LosAngeles. “We had no way of mourning.”

It was then that Epstein decided not to wait foran assignment — which might never come — and to write the book shehad dreamed of writing for many years. It was a project that tookabout eight years and spanned thousands of miles, as Epstein pursuedher grandmother’s story, from the archives of the research library atnearby Harvard University to the State Central Archive in Prague. Hersearch was bolstered by her fluency in Czech, which she learned as achild.

Epstein believes that her book is part of agrowing interest in genealogy among Jewish baby boomers. “We’re atthe age where we want to tell our children about our parents, and ourparents are dying.” As she has traveled around the country, promotingher book, Epstein said, she has come across
many Jews in their 30s,40s and 50s who are using the Internet to search for long-lostrelatives scattered throughout the world. “What’s so exciting aboutthe Internet is that when you get on it in Los Angeles, you arelikely to start conversations with someone in Poland…. It hasreally revolutionized the whole field of rebuilding families andreconnecting.”

As for her own search, Epstein did it theold-fashioned way. “I wouldn’t have had a book if I’d done it theelectronic way,” she said. “What my book depends on is stories.”These were dramatic stories that often came directly from her mother:the great-grandmother who committed suicide at 44, leaving behindthree young children; the grandmother, Pepi, raised as an orphan, whobecame a dressmaker in Prague at age 15. “These are things I couldnot have gotten off the Internet,” Epstein said.

While writing “Children of the Holocaust” was aliberating experience because she discovered a sense of kinship withother children of survivors, writing “Where She Came From” was purepleasure, Epstein said. “I never had a sense of family. Everyone wasdead when I was born. I really feel, in this book, I createdgrandparents for myself. That was an extremely rewardingexperience.”

Helen Epstein and her parents, Frances andKurt, top. Photos from “Where She CameFrom: A Daughter’s Search for Her Mother’s History.”


UCLA Hillel’s New Home

Launched quietly by million-dollar donations fromthree of the most recognizable names in Jewish life, the campaign toerect and furnish a new home for UCLA’s Hillel Center is about to gopublic.

The Yitzhak Rabin Hillel Center for Jewish Lifewill rise on the site of the YWCA building, directly across from theUCLA Faculty Center on Hilgard Avenue.

The $8.5 million drive to build and endow the newHillel Center began some 18 months ago with unpublicized gifts of $1million each from former MCA/Universal Chairman Lew Wasserman, StevenSpielberg’s Righteous Persons Foundation, and Edgar M. Bronfman,president of the World Jewish Congress and international chairman ofHillel: The Foundation for Jewish Campus Life.

Add another $500,000 from entertainment executiveHaim Saban and a total of $1.5 million in smaller gifts, and thecampaign is more than half way home, said Janice Kamenir-Resnik, whoheads the campaign.

Bronfman was recently in Los Angeles to press theflesh and exhort large-scale would-be donors. He joined one smalldinner, at which attendance was limited to potential million-dollargivers.

The timetable for the new 18,000-square-footbuilding, replacing the present 45-year old, unattractive andover-crowded facility, calls for ground-breaking in eight months anda construction period of 18 months.

The present YWCA building, which is 75 years oldand cannot meet seismic and safety standards, will be torn down, saidKamenir-Resnik, whose current involvement started when she met herfuture husband at a UCLA Hillel function.

Formal announcement of the Rabin Center plans isdue on May 14 at a tribute dinner marking Chaim Seidler-Feller’s 25years as a Hillel rabbi. Public fund raising is to kick into highgear in September. — TomTugend, Contributing Editor

 

Left to right, Rabbi Richard Levy, EdgarBronfman, Herb Glaser and Dean Ambrose discuss the new UCLA HillelCenter home.

 

Community Briefs

Exchanging Gifts, Goodwill

Aviva Lebovitz (l) and Fredi Rembaum (r) with PressmanAcademy students holding Purim packets from Israelistudents

The celebration of Purim took on a newinternational dimension for the children of Beth Am PressmanAcademy.

Pressman Academy (grades K through 8) is one offour Los Angeles day schools (Emek Hebrew Academy, Abraham JoshuaHeschel Community Day School and Milken Community High School are theothers) that have been twinned with schools in Israel through the newLos Angeles-Tel Aviv Partnership. Since fall, the Pressman kids havebeen writing to pen pals at Magen School in suburban Tel Aviv. Aspart of the ongoing relationship in which educators from the twoschools will exchange faculty members and curriculum ideas, adelegation from Magen was due to come to Los Angeles in lateFebruary. Fear of a second Gulf War scuttled the trip, but thePressman student body, under the leadership of Principal AvivaLebovitz, found a tangible way to send Purim greetings to theircounterparts at Magen.

The 280 Pressman students made individualmishloah manotbaskets, enclosed personal postcards, then added candy and othergoodies. The load, which filled two huge suitcases, was schlepped toIsrael by Beth Am Rabbi Joel Rembaum and his wife, Fredi, who happensto be the Jewish Federation’s director of Israel and overseasrelationships and a prime mover in the twin-school program. TheRembaums, in Israel to welcome a new grandson, met with parents fromthe Magen School and were given another huge suitcase of mishloahmanot packets to take back to the Pressman kids.

At a school assembly, the packets were distributedto enthusiastic children, who greeted the unexpected gifts with achorus of “Toda Rabah” [thank you very much].

Future plans for the two schools include a jointbilingual newsletter to be published over the Internet. SaysLebovitz, “One of our goals is to create a sense of community betweenus and them — a feeling that we are connected.” — Beverly Gray, Contributing Writer

UJ Conference on Israel

Beginning on Sunday, March 29, the University ofJudaism will hold the symposium “Exile/Diaspora/Homeland: In theFiftieth Year of the State of Israel.” For the nominal charge of $60,the public is invited to attend the various panels, dinners andfestivities that make up the conference, which is being held underauspices of the Western Jewish Studies Association and runs throughTuesday, March 31.

For conference information, call Dr. Aryeh Cohen,chair of the UJ Jewish studies department, or Dr. Miriyam Glazer,chair of the literature department: (310) 476-9777, ext. 262 or ext.206. — B.G.

As an added attraction, Monday evening, March30, will be devoted to a performance of music, voice and dance,billed as “The Sephardic Soul of Flamenco.” The Del Monte familyincorporates into its repertoire centuries-old Gypsy traditions ofCentral and Eastern Europe as well as the musical legacy of theMediterranean Jewish peoples. This performance is free to those whohave registered for the conference; all others can purchase separatetickets for $15.

Music of Youth

A unique concert, featuring 12 talented studentmusicians from BJE-affiliated schools and youth programs, will beheld on Wednesday night, March 25, at the Westside Jewish CommunityCenter. The musicians, who will perform solo pieces by Bach,Beethoven, Vivaldi, Mozart and Chopin, were chosen through a citywidecompetiti
on.

It’s all part of the Liana Cohen Music Festival,established two years ago by the Cohen family to perpetuate thememory of their daughter. An accomplished pianist, she was killed bya drunken driver. Admission is free. Further information is availablefrom the BJE’s Dr. David Ackerman at (213) 761-8606. — B.G.

L.A. Holocaust Museum Moves

A page from 1943 autographalbum of Betty Koboshka Gerard. The album is part of the HolocaustMuseum’s personal memorabilia collection.

The Martyrs Memorial and Museum of the Holocaust,long tucked away in obscurity inside the walls of the JewishFederation Building, is changing its name and moving to a new, moreaccessible location. Its most frequent moniker, the Los AngelesMuseum of the Holocaust, will now be its official name, with MartyrsMemorial as a secondary title.

This spring, it will relocate to 6006 WilshireBlvd. on Museum Row, between the Petersen Automotive Museum and theMuseum of Miniatures, and across the street from the Los AngelesCounty Museum of Art. Sharing space at the new site will be theJewish Community Library and the Jewish Historical Society. All threeinstitutions were displaced last fall when the Federation moved tonew temporary quarters nearby.

Sometimes confused with the better-known Museum ofTolerance, the museum is celebrating its 20th anniversary this year.A department of the Federation, the institution was founded primarilyby survivors as both a museum and memorial. Its mission has been bothto educate the public about the Holocaust and commemorate those whoperished. “We deal with one subject: what happened between 1933 and1945 in Europe and North Africa,” said Marsha Reines Josephy, themuseum’s acting director and curator.

Using a stark, photodocumentary approach, themuseum offers a glimpse into the lives of European and North AfricanJews prior to and during World War II through photographs, documents,personal memorabilia and rare artifacts. Much of the material hasbeen donated by Los Angeles-area Jews, and families come frequentlyto view their own personal history, Josephy said.

In addition to its collection, the museum hasvideo stations that offer survivor accounts and historical footage.It also provides speakers to schools; serves as a resource forresearchers, teachers, and film and video documentarians; and offerspublic events.

Even after the Federation moves from its temporaryheadquarters at 5700 Wilshire Blvd., the hope is that the museum willremain where it is.

The Los Angeles Museum of the Holocaust willreopen in its new location later this spring. It is seekingsuggestions on ways to celebrate its 20th anniversary. To convey yourideas or for more information on current programs, call MuseumCoordinator Masha Loen at (213) 761-8170.— Ruth Stroud,Staff Writer

Etta Israel Center Online

The Etta Israel Center has been awarded a $150,000grant by the Covenant Foundation to create a new Internet site topromote Jewish education for the disabled and to help Jewish studentsand their families find their way through the special-educationmaze.

The Internet site will feature professionallymonitored articles, bulletin boards, chat groups, resources andsearchable databases. Disabled students and their support groups willbe able to share knowledge, experience, frustrations and successes;school administrators and special-education teachers will be able tointeract and improve the delivery of special education.

World-renowned scientist Dr. Michael Samet willlend his technical skills to creating and developing the new site.Dr. Samet created the Multimedia Computer Learning Center at theMuseum of Tolerance and designed an automobile Internet site that wonthe 1997 Webby for the World’s Best Money Site.

For more information, call (310) 285-0909. — Staff Report

Talking Up Tourism

Israeli tourism officialsfocused on selling Israel as a vital travel destination to anaudience of travel industry professionals.

In commemoration of Israel’s 50th anniversary, theIsrael Government Tourist Office threw a gala banquet at the BeverlyHilton during the height of Purim last week. The combination tradeshow/dinner/entertainment event, targeted at a travel-industryaudience, focused on selling Israel as a vital traveldestination.

Echoing the festive Purim holiday, the jubileeshow offered a balance of food and fun, kicking off with a trade-showreception that included representatives from airlines (El Al, TowerAir), travel agencies (World Express, Hadar Travel & Tours), andtour package groups (Carmel, Prestige).

Among the guests ushered into the banquet room forthe official program were Shimon Stein, legal adviser to PrimeMinister Binyamin Netanyahu, and Ari Rappaport, head of Israel’s50th-anniversary committee. With the aid of pie charts and tourismtrailers, host Oren Drori, director of the Israeli Government TouristOffice, gave a brief lecture on selling Israel’s image and handlingquestions of security.

“There are two kinds of Israel,” Drori said,half-joking. “Israel, my country, and the CNN Israel.” He furtheremphasized PR concerns by turning the tables on stereotypes, pointingout Israel’s perception of Los Angeles as a city under siege bygangs, and suggesting that the most dangerous part of an Angeleno’strip to Israel is the ride from home to LAX.

Entertainment accompanied the chicken and saladbuffet in the form of comedian Eitan Lev, who riffed on Israelitourists, mimicking Hebrew as spoken by the French, Germans and otherforeigners. Afterward, the sizable crowd was treated to an energeticperformance of Israeli folk dancing. –Michael Aushenker, Community Editor

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