Rabbi Dan Moskovitz of Temple Judea in Tarzana says the weeklong festival of Sukkot, from Yom Tov through Chol Hamoed, is a time for families and friends to gather not only to observe the holiday, but to enjoy the peacefulness of sitting together in a sukkah.
It\’s Yom Kippur in Israel, and former Los Angeles resident Eve Harow talks about the atmosphere in her adopted homeland of 12 years.
Outrage. Sadness. Disappointment. Hope. Jews in L.A. have not only been quick to express their feelings on the events plaguing the Middle East during the past two weeks, they are trying to do their part to make sure that Israel\’s intentions are not distorted in the eyes of public opinion. At press time, no less than three community-wide rallies had been scheduled to demonstrate solidarity with Israel (see page 10).
\nLast month, a group of people gathered at the Jewish Community Library of Los Angeles to hear a distinguished gentleman talk about Jewish gangsters, Yiddish-speaking intellectuals and circus freaks sharing prostitutes. But there was a good reason.\n\n
As leaders of the world community try to bring the Middle East back from the brink of war, Prime Minister Ehud Barak is facing a mounting political challenge to get tougher with the Arabs both inside and outside Israel.
\nThe French box office workers were decidedly underwhelmed when Jewish American playwright Donald Margulies arrived for the opening of his \”Dinner With Friends\” at the Comedie des Champs-Elysees in Paris last year. Impatient with his pidgin French, they brusquely shooed him aside to wait on native patrons. \”It was just so French,\” notes Margulies, who was once dubbed \”my Jewish playwright\” by impresario Joe Papp. \”They knew who I was. They just didn\’t have any time for me.\”
Lack of civility is nothing new. If we had been a kinder, gentler and less stiff-necked people 3,310 years ago, Moses wouldn\’t have had to trek up Mt. Sinai for the Ten Commandments.
Leo Cohen wanted to see my PalmPilot.
\”How do you put in the data?\” he asked.
We were just completing our pre-fast family dinner, and I\’d taken out my snazzy, whiz-bang electronic calendar to demonstrate it to Leo\’s son-in-law, Sam, an astronomer who gets his data from the sky, not from bytes in his Palm.
But if Sam was blasé, Leo was emphatic.
With the Days of Awe just behind us, it might do us all good to consider the content of the prayers we collectively uttered.
More news and opinions than at a Shabbat dinner, right in your inbox.