Two months ago, most pundits were predicting that the White House sex scandal would trigger a Republican earthquake at the polls. But Tuesday\’s electoral tremors mostly rattled a GOP leadership that made Bill Clinton\’s moral lapses a top issue despite polls suggesting voters were tired of the controversy and opposed to impeachment.
There\’s no place like home, but getting people to agree where home should be has not been easy for the Los Angeles Jewish Federation. Last week, the organization\’s board voted unanimously to return in two years to the 12-story building at 6505 Wilshire Blvd., which has been the Federation\’s home for 22 of the last 23 years.
More than just a victory for California Democrats, Tuesday\’s election has special meaning for the Jewish community. Gray Davis Jews made up 4 percent of the California voter rolls this week (compared with 3 percent nationally), and Davis got 84 percent of that support in his decisive victory over Republican Dan Lungren in the race for governor.
I heard the following anecdote from Menachem Perlmutter, who was there when it happened. David Ben-Gurion, Israel\’s founding father and first prime minister, was visiting a settlement in the Negev. As he was being shown around, he pointed in one direction and said, \”I would like to see orchards here;\” further along, he gestured again and said, \”Here I would like to see vegetables.\”
At least there\’s one good thing we can say about Abraham preparing to sacrifice his own son Isaac. When he lifts the gleaming knife above the boy\’s head, an angel calls out: \”Do not harm that child.\” Jews don\’t sacrifice their children. It might have been the norm in pagan societies, but not in our ancestors\’, and not in ours
About two-and-a-half years ago Michael Goldberg\’s life was on the line. A diabetic since he was a teen-ager, his kidneys began to fail him at 36. The only hope for Michael\’s survival was a kidney and pancreas transplant.
A Chinese proverb has it that if you haven\’t sailed on the Chang Jiang — the Long River — you really haven\’t been anywhere. Better known as the Yangtze River to foreigners, the world\’s third longest river flows through the heart of China from the highlands of Tibet until it empties, after a 3,900-mile journey, into the East China Sea at Shanghai.
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