In 1961, a saddened and disheartened 23-year-old Algerian school teacher and musician named Gaston Ghenassia was merely one of the thousands of refugees on a ship bound for France, leaving his homeland in the aftermath of the Algerian Revolution. Little did he know at the time how defining a moment it was to become in his life.
There were a multitude of good works to choose from during the Jewish Federation Valley Alliance\’s fifth annual Mitzvah Day, from the high-profile CROP Walk for Hunger to tree-planting at Lake Balboa to canned food drives at every temple from Simi Valley to North Hollywood.
Some people take lemons and make lemonade. Selma Schimmel took a diagnosis of cancer and turned it into a vast support network which has changed the lives of thousands of people.
He played a scumbag ex-husband in \”First Wives Club\”; harried father in both \”Clueless\” and \”A Night at the Roxbury\”; and President Richard Nixon in this year\’s \”Dick.\” And this week, Dan Hedaya was recognized for his prolific body of work at the Third Annual Los Angeles Sephardic Film Festival (alongside fellow actor Shaun Toub and film editor Kent Beyda) — something he never anticipated while growing up in Bensonhurst.
In early October, four 13-year-olds from Tel Aviv spent 10 days in Southern California.
\”At the moment of conception,\” says the Talmud, \”an angel takes the drop of semen from which the child will be formed and brings it before God. \’Master of the Universe, what shall be the fate of this drop?\’ asks the angel. \’Will it develop into a strong person or a weak one? A wise person or a fool? A wealthy person or a poor one?\’ Whether the person will be wicked or righteous, this he does not ask.\”
Why not? Why doesn\’t the angel ask God if the soon-to-be-formed person will be wicked or righteous?
It is \”Train of Life\’s\” misfortune to be released a year after the Oscar-winning Italian film, to which it inevitably will be compared and judged.
Phobia: 1. A compulsive or persistent fear of any specified type of object, stimulus or situation. 2. An exaggerated or persistent dread of or aversion to.
Sitting in the front row of the McCadden Theater in Hollywood was my personal pit of snakes. I would rather be buried alive, in the dark, on top of a skyscraper covered with mice than be reviewed. But there he was, a theater critic from Backstage West trade paper, perched right in the front row to review my one-woman show.
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