Softly, softly, Israel has launched a joint Orthodox-Conservative-Reform program to solve the problem of quarter of a million Russian immigrants who are Jewish according to the Law of Return (at least one Jewish grandparent), but not according to Halachah (a Jewish mother).
We buried her 13 months ago — this flower, this light, this precious partner of his for 60 years. Everything was done in our ancient way: the funeral with its torn, black ribbons and clods of earth thunking on plain pine; the shiva, with its prayers, grief and Bundt cakes; a year of \”Kaddish\” ending with an unveiled marker that captured his love for her in words as terse as Haiku.
I meet a guy. I\’m pretty sure I like him because I haven\’t erased the message he left on my answering message. I call my machine from work and listen to it a time or two, smiling and blushing and feeling like a complete idiot.
You may know Jonathan Elias as the guy who composed the music to Chaplin and 9 1/2 Weeks. Or most of the songs on the Yes album, Union. Or the ditty to the original MTV promo, the one where the astronaut plants the MTV flag on the moon.
Weaving together the threads of music, youth activities and social action, the eighth annual Valley Jewish Festival will take place from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Sunday, June 6. This year\’s festival, which organizers call the largest event of its kind on the West Coast, finds a new home on the campus of Cal State Northridge.
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