To Miriam Koral, teaching Yiddish language and culture to people is not about saving a language from extinction but rather to give people a glimpse into a culture and language that produced its own film, theater, literature, music and art.
Agape has been described as a United Nations, and the surrounding scene lives up to the reputation.
Like a growing number of Jews in Los Angeles who feel disenfranchised from organized Judaism, Rachelle Benveniste found what she craved at this Culver City ecumenical spiritual center.
On the cover of Jack Bielan\’s new CD, \”From the Heart of a Jewish Soul,\” a pianist plays as his keyboard expands and spirals heavenward. Below, the glow from two yahrtzeit candles joins the keys soaring into the clouds.
One was a U.S. resident from the beginning of his long life to its end, creating music as American in its sound and subject matter as \”Yankee Doodle Dandy.\” The other, after making his mark in Germany, fled his homeland through France and spent his final, tragically few years adding to the glory of the American musical theater at its height.
For years, Alan Kaufman lived in shame, unable to make sense of his emotions.
More news and opinions than at a Shabbat dinner, right in your inbox.