Aaron Paley, 41, grew up living and breathing Yiddish.\nHis world was a community of leftist Jews who considered the radical Workmen\’s Circle the reichte, the right wing.
Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Alfred Uhry, 61, is a Southern Jew who defines himelf as someone who grew up in a community of genteel Southern Jews who wished they were Episcopalian.
On the eve of Simchat Torah, many synagogues auction the three major honors of the day, with proceeds benefiting the synagogue or other Jewish institutions. Two honors, Hatan Torah (for the one called to the final reading in Deuteronomy) and Hatan Bereshit (for the one called to the first reading in Genesis), usually receive the highest bids. The third, Kol Hanearim — supervising the blessing of all minor children as a tallit is held over their heads, while the honoree receives the next-to-last aliyah in Vezot Haberakha — can be a close second.
\”Where\’s the jelly? I need five jellies.\”
\”Hand me 18 fruit rolls, will you?\”
\”I love your skirt, where did you get it?\”
The scene: A typical Thursday evening at Tomchei Shabbos\’ warehouse, at 353 1/2 N. La Brea Ave., where a team of fast-working, quick-talking volunteers gathers to pack overflowing food boxes for needy families in Los Angeles.
The most talked-about, perhaps the most feared, figure in Israeli politics this holiday season is neither a statesman nor a rabble-rouser. He is Yitzhak Kedouri, a frail, mystical Iraqi-born rabbi, barely able to speak or to walk unaided, whose widely distributed kabbalistic amulets are credited with swaying thousands of underprivileged Sephardic Jewish voters.
LAPD officer Terri Utley says that since Los Angeles is such a diverse, multicultural place, it\’s difficult to know sometimes what the taboos and customs are in different groups. \”Our goal is to serve, cooperate and not offend,\” she says.
Tom Bradley was buried Monday, hailed as Los Angeles\’ longtime mayor, statesman, leader and friend. His is a grand biography; a son of Texas sharecroppers and the grandson of slaves, Bradley broke down ethnic and class barriers and forged a new multiracial political base that re-created this capital city of the Pacific Rim.
Reuven Hammer is an American-born Conservative rabbi who has lived in Jerusalem since 1973, working as a writer and teacher — Conservative rabbi is not much of a career option inIsrael — and raising five kids along the way. Among variouspart-time jobs, he heads the bet din, or rabbinical court, whichoversees Conservative conversions in Israel.
As we approach the new millennium, we often discuss the unity of the Jewish people, seeking those aspects of Jewish life that will hold our diverse communal elements together after the year 2000. Rabbi Joseph Soleveitchek has referred to our Jewish covenant as including our shared history, shared suffering, shared responsibility and shared action.
Rabbi Stewart Vogel and Dr. Laura Schlessinger devoted nearly a year to working on \”The Ten Commandments\” — no small feat, considering their busy schedules.
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