December 28, 2000

Calendar

Leave a Comment / What's Happening / Mike Levy

30/Saturday

Westwood Kehilla: 10:45 a.m. Beginners’ Shabbat service, for people
who know nothing about Jewish prayer, with discussion, questions and answers.
10523 Santa Monica Blvd. For more information, call (310) 441-5289.

Congregation Beit T’shuvah: 4 p.m. The Shabbat afternoon experience,
with Torah study, speakers and snacks. 8831 Venice Blvd. For more information,
call (310) 204-5200.

B’nai David Judea Synagogue: 8 p.m. Yehuda Glantz performs South American,
Chassidic/Latino/rock tunes. 8906 W. Pico Blvd., Los Angeles. For more
information, call (310) 285-7777.

31/Sunday

Temple Ramat Zion: New Year’s Eve bash with live band. $145 per couple,
babysitting available, $25 per child. 17655 Devonshire St., Northridge.
For reservations or more information, call (818) 360-1881.

Temple Beth Emet: 9 p.m. New Year’s Eve celebration and casino night,
with buffet, raffle, gaming tokens and entertainment. $36. 1770 W. Cerritos
Ave., Anaheim. For reservations or more information, call (714) 772-4720.

1/Monday

Congregation Mishkon Tephilo: 6:30 p.m. Yoga with Yiddishkeit class.
206 Main St., Venice. For more information, call (310) 392-3029.

Jewish Family Service of Los Angeles: 2 p.m.-3 p.m. Widow/widowers
bereavement support group for those 55+ who have been widowed in the past
two years. West Valley Campus, 22622 Vanowen St., West Hills. For more
information, call (818) 464-3338. Also, 7:45 p.m.-9:15 p.m. Bereavement
program for adults who have lost a parent. $20 per session. MetroWest office,
2050 S. Bundy Dr., Ste. 270, Los Angeles. For more information, call (310)
820-4111.

Jewish Family Service of Orange County: 10 a.m.-11:30 a.m. Weekly issues-oriented
discussion group. 250 E. Baker St., Suite G, Costa Mesa. For more information,
call (714) 445-4950.

Yeshiva of Los Angeles: 9 p.m.-10 p.m. Mishna Sukka for beginners with
Rabbi Rafael Stefansky, men only. Beit Midrash, 9780 Pico Blvd., Los Angeles.
For more information, call (310) 229-0958.

West Valley JCC: 10 a.m.-11:30 a.m. Torah study group. 12:30 p.m.-2
p.m. Yiddish music and conversation class. Free (members); $4 (nonmembers).
22622 Vanowen St., West Hills. For more information, call (818) 464-3300.

2/Tuesday

Robertson Recreation Center: 10 a.m. – 11:30 a.m. International and
Israeli folk dance class with Tikva Mason. 1641 Preuss Road. For
more information call (310) 278-5383.

North Valley JCC: 9 a.m. Beginning bridge class. 10 a.m. Pan classes.
11 a.m. Senior friendship club with lunch followed by entertainment. 16601
Rinaldi St., Granada Hills. For more information, call (818) 360-2211.

The Kabbalah Centre: 7 p.m. Lecture on the power of kabbalah every
Tuesday and Thursday. 1062 S. Robertson Blvd. For reservations or more
information, call (310) 657-5404 ext. 1017.

Temple Emanuel: 8 a.m. Rabbinic study breakfast with Rabbi Jonathan
Aaron. Discuss any aspect of Jewish life. 8 p.m. Israeli dance lessons
with James Zimmer. $5 (members); $6 (nonmembers). 8844 Burton Way, Beverly
Hills. For more information, call (310) 274-6388.

3/Wednesday

H.O.P.E. Unit Foundation: 7 p.m.-9 p.m. Widow/Widowers support group
for the first two years of mourning. $15 suggested donation. Wilshire Boulevard
Temple, Irmas Campus, 11661 Olympic Blvd., West L.A. For more information,
call (818) 788-4673.

Westside JCC: 1:30 p.m.-2:30 p.m. Meditation class with Rosalyn Grossan.
Free (members); $2 (nonmembers). For more information, call (323) 938-2531
ext. 2225.

Adat Ari El Sisterhood: 12:30 p.m. Multi-interest day events include
lecture by Edward Cohen, author of “The Peddler’s Grandson: Growing up
Jewish in Mississippi.” Free (registered students); $3 (general admission).
12020 Burbank Blvd., North Hollywood. For more information, call (818)
766-9426.

Jewish Family Service, Southern Region: 6 p.m.-7:30 p.m. Relatives as
parents program, for grandparents and others raising the children in their
care. 22410 Palos Verdes Blvd., Torrance. To register or for more information,
call (310) 540-6646.

OLAM: 7:30 p.m. Mystical Wednesdays, kabbala study, meditation, music
and song with Rabbi Michael Ozair. $8. B’nai David Judea Congregation,
8906 Pico Blvd. For more information, visit olam.org.

Malibu Jewish Center and Synagogue: 7 p.m.-9 p.m. Israeli folk dance
with Shlomo Bachar, includes kibbutz, Yemenite, Chassidic and modern Israeli
dances. $10. To register or for more information, call (310) 456-6789.

Shomrei Torah Synagogue: 8 p.m. Talmud class with Cheryl Peretz,
focusing on obligations of parents and children. 7353 Valley Circle Blvd.,
West Hills. For more information, call (818) 346-0811.

4/Thursday

Yeshiva of Los Angeles: 8:15 p.m.-9:15 p.m. “Laws of Blessings,” class
for women with Rabbi Rafael Stefansky. Mogen David Congregation, 9717 W.
Pico Blvd., Los Angeles. For more information, call (310) 229-0958.

Jewish Learning Exchange: 7:30 p.m.-8:30 p.m. Chumash class with Rabbi
Avrohom Czapnik. 8:30 p.m.-9:30 p.m. Talmud class with Rabbi Yaakov Biron.
Young Israel of Hancock Park, 225 S. La Brea Ave. For more information,
call (323) 857-0923.

Valley Cities JCC: 1 p.m.-3 p.m. Beginning bridge class, six-week course
begins today. $16 (members); $24 (nonmembers). 13164 Burbank Blvd., Sherman
Oaks. For more information, call (818) 786-6310.

Skirball Cultural Center: 7:30 p.m. Synagogues Without Jews, a slide-illustrated
lecture by Rivka and Ben-Zion Dorfman on synagogues in towns and villages
of central and southern Europe. $8 (general admission); $6 (members); free
(students). 2701 N. Sepulveda Blvd., Los Angeles. For advance tickets,
call (323) 655-8587.

Adat Ari El: 7:30 p.m.-8:30 p.m. Kosher kvetching, a class on the traditional
Jewish approach to constructive criticism, with rabbinic intern Rachel
Rudis. Three meetings, through Jan. 18. 12020 Burbank Blvd., North Hollywood.
For more information, call (818) 766-9426.

5/Friday

Beth Chayim Chadashim: 7 p.m.-9 p.m. Participatory Torah study with
Rabbi Lisa Edwards. Knowledge of Hebrew and Judaism helpful but not pre-requisite.
6000 W. Pico Blvd., Los Angeles. For more information, call (323) 931-7023.

Yeshiva of Los Angeles. 8:30 p.m.-9:30 p.m. “What makes the world tick?
Perspectives of a master kabbalist,” with David Krich. Mogen David Congregation,
9717 W. Pico Blvd. For more information, call (310) 772-2487.

Jewish Vocational Service: 7 p.m.-8:30 p.m. Career counseling group
starts today at the Thousand Oaks office. Six-session group focuses on
clarifying career goals. $150, plus $50 assessment fee. For more information,
call (805) 496-2649.

West Valley JCC: 9:45 a.m.-11:45 a.m. Short story discussion group with
Susan Mahler begins today. 22622 Vanowen St., West Hills. For more information,
call (818) 464-3268.

Temple Emanuel: 7:30 p.m. Shabbat M’Yuchedet service, with Rabbi Arthur
Green discussing new directions in Jewish spirituality. Presented with
Metivta: a center for contemplative Judaism. 300 N. Clark Dr., Beverly
Hills. For more information, call (310) 274-6388.

Valley Beth Israel: 8 p.m. Music Shabbat, with Cantor Mark Goodman and
piano accompaniment. 13060 Roscoe Blvd., North Hollywood. For more information,
call (818) 782-2281.

Temple Ramat Zion: 9 p.m. Shabbat Unplugged, service for singles and
couples ages 20-45, with original acoustic music. 17655 Devonshire St.,
Northridge. For more information, call (818) 360-1881.

Peretz Etz Jacob Hebrew Academy: Sun., Jan. 7, 5:30 p.m. Scholarship
banquet honoring Rabbi Avi Schefres and attorney Jacob Borenstein, hosted
by Monty Hall. Beverly Hills Hotel, 9641 Sunset Blvd., Beverly Hills. For
reservations or more information, call (323) 655-5766.

The Brandeis-Bardin Institute: Jan. 19-21. Scholar-in-residence weekend
with Albert Vorspan, focusing on political storms in America and Israel,
sea changes for American Jewry. $275 per person. 1101 Peppertree Lane,
Brandeis. For reservations, call (805) 582-4450.

Singles

30/Saturday

Bridge for Singles (59+): Intermediate players meet in a private home
in West Los Angeles and Santa Monica areas. Also meets Tuesday and Thursday.
$4. For more information, call (310) 398-9649.

31/Sunday

Quick Date (): Rapid introductions event for Jewish singles, 10 introductions
in one hour. For reservations or more information, call (310) 488-8716.

Jewish Singles Golf Connection (50’s-60’s): Short courses, friendship
and fun. Experienced only please. For reservations, call (310) 802-0079.

Westside JCC: 8 p.m.-midnight. Israeli folk dancing with David Dassa.
$4 (members); $5 (nonmembers). 5870 W. Olympic Blvd., Los Angeles. For
more information, call (323) 938-2531 ext. 2225.

Bridge Group (60+): 7:30 p.m. Intermediate players only. Private homes
in Santa Monica and West L.A. area. Also Tuesday and Thursday. $4.
For more information, call (310) 398-6558.

1/Monday

Israeli Folk Dancing: 8 p.m. All levels of experience welcome, with
instructor Israel Yakovie. Lessons until 9 p.m.; open session 9 p.m.-12:30
a.m. Also meets Thursday. $5. 2244 Westwood Blvd., Los Angeles. (800)
750-5432.

2/Tuesday

West Valley JCC: 8 p.m.-midnight. Israeli Folk dancing with James Zimmer.
Instruction until 9:15 p.m.; open dancing until midnight. $5 (members);
$6 (nonmembers). 22622 Vanowen St., West Hills. For more information, call
(818) 464-3311.

Westwood Jewish Singles (45+): 7:30 p.m. Coffee, cake and conversation.
Professionally led discussion and support group. Also meets Sun., 8 p.m.
$8. For more information, call (310) 444-8986.

3/Wednesday

Aish HaTorah: 7:30 p.m. Becoming Whole, dating and relationship effectiveness
training with Rabbi Heller at the Aish Annex. For more information, call
(310) 659-7449.

JeffTennis (25-37): 7 p.m. Social-Vintational, with tennis rallying
and mixed-doubles play, near Beverly Hills. $5. For reservations, call
(818) 342-9402.

4/Thursday

Conversations!: 7:30 p.m. Singles group with a guest speaker every Thursday
night. Light dinner served. $15. 820 Harvard St., Santa Monica. For reservations,
call (310) 315-1078.

New Age Singles (45+): 1 p.m. Bowling at Mar Vista Bowl. $1.50 per game.
12125 Venice Blvd., West L.A. For more information, call (323) 931-3509.

5/Friday

Travelling Shabbat Singles (20’s-30’s): 7:45 p.m. Group attends Friday
night services at different synagogues every week and socializes after
services. This week:

Singles Shabbat dinners: Four Westside Conservative synagogues welcome
unattached singles to share dinners monthly in private homes. For reservations
or more information, call (310) 202-0772.

Calendar Read More »

7 Days In Arts

Leave a Comment / Picks and Clicks / Mike Levy

30
Saturday

Klezmer remains alive and kicking in Los Angeles, and this week its name is Yale Strom and Klazzj. On a national tour to promote their new album, “Garden of Yidn,” violinist/composer Strom and his vocalist/wife Elizabeth Schwartz play a mix of carefully researched classic klezmer and original compositions. The two concerts tonight mark the West Coast debut of the band’s new music. $16 (adults); $8 (children). Two shows, 7 p.m. and 9:30 p.m. 1525 S. Robertson Blvd., Los Angeles. For tickets or more information, call (310) 552-2007.

31
Sunday

If you’re still looking to improvise your New Year’s Eve plans, don’t worry… so are the folks at Sacred Fools Theater. Their Fast and Loose show is composed by 10 writers, 10 directors and 20 actors, beginning 24 hours before showtime. The writers write the short scripts, the directors rehearse the actors and the show goes up. Happy New Year. $12. 8 p.m. 660 N. Heliotrope Ave., Hollywood. For reservations or more information, call (310) 281-8337.

1
Monday

7 Days understands that there is some sort of parade in Pasadena today, and Pasadena always seems warm and sunny this time of year; however, if a trip to Colorado Boulevard is not part of your plan, head for the cineplex and check out “State and Main.” David Mamet’s latest film about the corrupting influence and nonstop negotiating of the movie business features a cast full of talented actors: David Paymer is the aggressive, persuasive producer, William H. Macy is the harried director and Philip Seymour Hoffman the put-upon screenwriter. Set in a small New England town with its own offbeat characters, the film communicates its themes with a dose of Mamet’s stylized dialogue and a sprinkling of Yiddish. Check movie listings for theaters and showtimes.

2
Tuesday

Maybe a scenic drive along the coast is in order to start off the new year. Stop off in Santa Barbara at the Karpeles Manuscript Library and Museum for a painting and photography exhibit examining life on city streets. Titled “The Street People,” the show features Pat Berger’s observant portraits of homeless people, and six decades worth of Joe Schwartz’s best folk photography recording life on streets across America. Through Feb. 15. 21 W. Anapamu St., Santa Barbara. For more information, call (805) 962-5322.

3
Wednesday

Apex Fine Art Gallery presents a collection of some of the most famous photographs to grace the pages of the dearly departed monthly Life magazine. “Life: A Retrospective View” includes Margaret Bourke-White’s photos of prisoners in Buchenwald and, across the cultural spectrum, Alfred Eisenstaedt’s future ballerinas of the American Ballet Theatre. The exhibit also includes such iconic Life photos as J.R. Eyerman’s movie audience in 3-D glasses and portraits of Noel Coward and Pablo Picasso. Tues.-Sat., 11 a.m.-5 p.m. Through Jan. 6. 152 N. La Brea Ave., Los Angeles. For more information, call (323) 634-7887.

4
Thursday

The ongoing violence in Israel has interrupted lives across the country, and Israeli artists are no exception. With the art-viewing public in Jerusalem otherwise occupied, the Lucien Krief Gallery found its many beautiful sculptures and paintings without an audience. The solution? The gallery is bringing its collection to Beverly Hills for an 11-day show, featuring some of the most popular artists currently working in Israel. Works by Mane Katz, Ben Avram, M. Kadishman, Lucien Krief and others travel to the Andrew Weiss Gallery, in an exhibit co-sponsored by the Consulate General of Israel in Los Angeles. Reception with Director of Cultural Affairs Kobi Oshrat, 6 p.m.-10 p.m. Exhibit open through Jan. 14. Andrew Weiss Gallery, 179 S. Beverly Dr., Beverly Hills. For more information, call (310) 247-9995.

5
Friday

A Jewish girl from the West Coast arrives in New York, hoping to find success as an actress. Two fellow-travelers, a businesswoman and a teacher similarly struggle with their aspirations in a new comedy by playwright Eydie Faye. In “The Pages of My Diary I’d Rather Not Read,” the audience follows the inner lives of these three women, discovering their varied backgrounds and shared goals. The play’s format, presented as a “sneak peek” into the women’s diaries, makes for an intimate, compassionate story. $12. Thu.-Sat. 8 p.m.; Sun. 7 p.m. Through Feb. 11. Ruby Theater at The Complex, 6476 Santa Monica Blvd., Hollywood. For reservations or more information, call (323) 993-8587.

7 Days In Arts Read More »

What’s Playing

Leave a Comment / Entertainment / Naomi Pfefferman

On the eve of the new year, there’s plenty to see in the arts around town. At your local cineplex there’s David Mamet’s “State and Main,” a Hollywood satire of what happens when a movie company invades small-town Vermont (hint: there’s matzah in every room). If you’re under the impression that Jews don’t do cinematography, trot out and see Billy Bob Thornton’s “All the Pretty Horses,” lensed by Barry Markowitz, who has a degree in Jewish history from Hebrew University in Jerusalem. It’s Markowitz’s third consecutive film with Billy Bob, and yes, the $60-million Western (dispossessed Texas teen goes to Mexico) is a far cry from the d.p.’s start as an associate producer on a documentary about Jewish immigrants. As Markowitz told Variety: “I know it almost sounds ridiculous, but [there] I was, a child of Holocaust survivors, plotting out shots with Matt Damon riding a horse across the open range.”

On PBS, “The Living Century,” hosted by Jack Lemmon, profiles people who are just that – aged 100 years or older. One segment (Dec. 31, 3:30 p.m. on KOCE, and Jan. 19, 10:30 p.m. on KCET) features Rose Freedman, the last remaining survivor of the infamous 1911 Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire and a past Jewish Journal interviewee. At 107, she still lives on her own in Beverly Hills, where she paints, shops and cooks for herself and dresses in high heels every day. Says series creator Steven Latham, “Because longevity is common in the Jewish community, nominate anyone you know who is 100 or older to become a subject of the TV show or to receive a recognition award from ‘The Living Century.'” Just log onto the Web site atwww.thelivingcentury.com.

Meanwhile, at the Ruby Theater at the Complex this Thursday, there’s the world premiere of Eydie Faye’s “The Pages of My Diary I’d Rather Not Read,” which follows the adventures of three disparate career women hoping to find success in the Big Apple (the Jewish one is a wannabe actress from L.A.) For tickets, call (323) 993-8587.

Jan. 4-14 may be your last chance to see Ronald Harwood’s searing play at the Odyssey, “Taking Sides,” which centers on the post-World War II interrogation of German conductor Wilhelm Furtwängler. Call (310) 477-2055 for ticket information.

Also: Don’t miss perhaps the only artist to have exhibitions simultaneously at the Skirball (call (310) 440-4500) and the Museum of Latin American Art (in Long Beach: (562) 437-1689): Jose Gurvich (1927-1974), a Lithuanian shtetl emigre who helped bring modernism to Uruguay and who later lived in Israel. You have exactly three more days to see Gurvich’s watercolors and drawings at the Skirball (through Dec. 31), while the retrospective “Jose Gurvich: A Song to Life” will remain through Jan. 14 at the Latin American museum. Bottom line: Bring in the New Year with a bit of cul-tcha.

What’s Playing Read More »

Youth Appeal

Leave a Comment / Community / Julie Gruenbaum Fax

Mogen David, one of the last Trad-itional synagogues left in Los Angeles, installed a mechitzah and took out its microphones this month, choosing to become Orthodox rather than defunct.

“The board has come to the realization that as the membership keeps dwindling and our members are aging, we need to do something to rejuvenate the synagogue,” says Rabbi Gabriel Elias, interim rabbi of Mogen David, of the choice to erect a divider and create men’s and women’s sections of the synagogue.
So while many of the older members, who have poured a lifetime of service into building the synagogue on Pico Boulevard near Beverwil, would rather have stayed Traditional, the board decided to take the only logical step for the congregation that sits on the western edge of Los Angeles’ most vibrant and concentrated Orthodox corridor.

“The board decided that if we want young people to come, we have to put up a mechitzah, because otherwise the young Orthodox families are not going to come,” Elias says. “And those who drive are not going to come here anyway, because we don’t have a parking lot.”

Founded in the late 1920s and led for 47 years by Rabbi Abraham Maron, Mogen David for decades was a young and active congregation, with 2,000 families, a Hebrew school and a sizable endowment. But Maron didn’t have an assistant rabbi as a natural successor when he died 17 years ago, and with the changes in the neighborhood, membership shrank. Today the synagogue has about 350 families — with an average age of about 70. While it owes nothing on its valuable building with an attached school, and while it is still financially well-positioned, there seemed to be no future.

“We are not an institution that was closing its doors,” says synagogue president Al Spivak, whose family has been active in the synagogue since the 1950s. “We can continue on indefinitely with the capital we have. But we needed to put more life into where we are.”

Mogen David will continue to hold mixed-seating High Holy Days services off-site, with a rabbi and cantor.

Like a handful of synagogues founded in the postwar years in Los Angeles, mostly by Holocaust survivors, Mogen David was Traditional, sometimes called progressive Orthodox, meaning it used an Orthodox prayerbook and its services were non-egalitarian, but men and women sat together and microphones were used. The only other such synagogue still in the area seems to be Congregation Beth Israel, on Beverly Boulevard at Crescent Heights, which also has a dwindling, elderly membership. Most other Traditional synagogues went one way or the other, becoming either Conservative or Modern Orthodox.

With Mogen David’s transformation, all the synagogues on the 1.5-mile stretch of Pico between La Cienega Boulevard and Roxbury are now Orthodox.

Competition is pretty intense among the half-dozen major synagogues and many other small ones, and Mogen David will have to hustle to attract those coveted young Orthodox families.

Elias is under no illusions about just how tough and protracted a battle this can be.

“We know that we are looking to do the right thing. Are we aware of the fact that this is a long process? Yes,” he says. “We are looking to the 21st century, and we expect that in the next five or six years, we can be full to capacity again.”

He believes young families may initially be attracted by the lower membership dues, which at $500 and no extras is about half to one-third of other synagogues in the neighborhood, something Mogen David is able to accomplish thanks to some well-invested funds from the shul’s years of plenty.

Elias, who founded and runs the Elias-Elitzur basketball league, plans to spend the next few months setting up a quality youth program, as well as adult education, perhaps in conjunction with Yeshiva University of Los Angeles and the Simon Wiesenthal Center, which are both across the street.

He says the style of the synagogue will remain as it always has been — a quick, straightforward davening, over by 11:15 a.m. on Shabbat, followed by a “Chulnt Kiddush” and, for those who want to stay, a class. He says the philosophy is Modern Orthodox. Women will be invited to speak from the bimah and teach classes, and the Torah will go through the women’s section during services.

Elias had been the congregation’s executive director and assistant rabbi, and he became acting rabbi after the congregation did not renew the contract of Rabbi Yisroel Kelemer, who served for 13 years.
Elias looks to B’nai David-Judea, with a similar history, as a model of what it may take to make this transformation a success.

About 11 years ago, Rabbi Philip Schroit, the longtime leader of B’nai David, decided to install a permanent mechitzah in what had been a Traditional congregation. But even that did not help much for the first few years. Rather, the synagogue took off when Rabbi Danny Landes and a core group of families from an auxiliary minyan at Beth Jacob Congregation moved into B’nai David, forming an alliance with the older members who had been leaders for decades. After Rabbi Yosef Kanefsky came to lead the congregation about four years ago, B’nai David took its place as the vibrant, flourishing community it is today.

Elias says Mogen David has been approached with merger or buy-out proposals by nearly all the synagogues in the neighborhood — including B’nai David, Young Israel of Century City, Beth Jacob, Yeshiva University of Los Angeles, Chabad and Beth Am, a Conservative synagogue on La Cienega at Olympic. While some of those talks are ongoing, the synagogue wants to keep its doors open rather than sell outright, and so far, those who have proposed merging “all want to merge on their terms, but it doesn’t make any sense for us,” says Spivak.

Mogen David has formed a search committee to find the rabbi that can help it make a success out of this venture. Spivak points out that opportunities are available for lay leaders as well.

“They will have a better voice in the future of the congregation because they are coming in on the ground floor,” Spivak says.

Meanwhile, the first Shabbat with a mechitzah saw attendance jump from the usual 30 or 40 on Shabbat to about 350, thanks to some publicity.

“We had around 50 kids, which is more than we’ve had on the High Holidays in the last few years,” Elias says.

While he knows the real test will come in seeing how many of those families will come back week after week, he is optimistic.

“We made the only decision we could make, the decision we needed to make for our survival,” he says. “As long as we continue to service our elderly population, and not alienate them but make them a part of the rejuvenation process, I think this will all work out.”

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Virtual Exchange

Leave a Comment / Community / Yaakov Arnold

The world gets smaller every day.

Thanks to technological tools such as the Internet and e-mail, people in the United States can easily communicate with others around the globe — if they speak one another’s language.
Enter Jenny Kopeliof.

Kopeliof, who teaches Spanish at Milken Community High School of Stephen S. Wise Temple, was looking for an opportunity to use these tools in her classroom. She also wanted to help improve her students’ Spanish-speaking skills.

“I wanted to apply technology in my classroom,” Kopeliof said. “I thought the best way was to have real communication with a Hispanic community.”

So Kopeliof created a cross-cultural exchange program between students at Milken and the Colegio Israelita de Mexico in Mexico City.

During the three-phase program, students from both schools first interacted with each other and became acquainted through e-mail correspondence. Milken students helped set up e-mail accounts for the Mexican students on the Milken e-mail server.

Milken students were then given an assignment to converse with their new friends in Spanish and to learn about the Jewish community in Mexico and how the community participates in Mexican society, art and customs. Along with e-mail, students used chat rooms and created Microsoft PowerPoint presentations as part of their assignments.

For the final stage of the project, Milken students will apply all their acquired knowledge and skills to create an English-Spanish children’s book. Kopeliof says that at first her students worried the assignment would be too difficult, but those fears vanished once they began interacting with their Mexican counterparts.

“I found the project good on a number of fronts,” said Michael Richman, who helped set up much of the program’s technological aspects. “I was able to practice my Spanish and be corrected by a native Spanish speaker.”

Richman, a 16-year-old junior, said the students “were able to speak about things that were both interesting to us and them”outside the classroom setting.

It also allowed them to converse more freely.

“Here you were able to talk to someone you did not see. You could be more open,” he said.

Another student, Diana Hekmat, 16, said, “It is a different way of learning when you speak Spanish with someone your age than from a Spanish teacher. It is a much greater experience.”

Hekmat says that besides correcting her grammar, her correspondence with the Mexican students taught her things shenever would have found in her Spanish textbook, such as common expressions and slang.

Her teacher said that was one of the reasons for the exchange program.

“Sometimes books have old ideas,” Kopeliof said. “There are also some everyday expressions that are not found in books.”

Another reason for the exchange program was for the Milken students to learn about Jewish life in another country.

“I wanted them to compare the way they live to the way others live in another country,” Kopeliof said. “They are learning about different cultures and about living as a Jew in another part of the world.”

Some 15 students from Mexico who participated in the exchange program recently came to Los Angeles to visit the city and to meet and stay with the Milken students.

“We were able to live in an American Jewish home,” said Jimmy Finkler, 15. “We got to see relations between families.”

It was also a chance to see the sights.

“It’s a great opportunity to come to L.A.,” said Jessica Lewinsky, 15. The Mexican contingent went to Disneyland and was part of the audience at a taping of the TV show “Everybody Loves Raymond.”
The students also attended Friday night services at Stephen S. Wise Temple. Despite coming from a different place, many of the Mexican students said that not much is different between their lives and those of their American counterparts.

“Basically it is the same,” Lewinsky said. The connecting bond, she added, is Judaism.

“It is good that you can drop into a home anywhere around the world and you have Torah, and it is the universal language of the Jewish people,” she said.

Finkler, echoed his classmate’s observation. “I feel good knowing that when I go somewhere else, I see that the Jewish community is similar to the one I grew up in,” he said.

For the most part, the Milken students agreed with the Mexican teens.

“There are similarities, like dating, school stress, curfew and preparation-for-college stress,” Diana Hekmat said.

Some found obvious differences.

“In a way it seems like [their] society is more dangerous,” said. Hekmat. “They are worried about kidnappings. It is frightening to think that you have to worry about being held for ransom.”

According to Richman, the Mexican students discussed the dichotomy between the wealthy and the poor. Jews, who are often assumed to be rich, have been kidnapped and held for ransom.

“They aren’t able to live as open as us,” Richman said. “They can’t be outwardly Jewish. They have lots of security around synagogues, schools and Jewish organizations.”

The students also found some less-harrowing differences.

Students at Colegio Israelita de Mexico are fluent in Hebrew and Yiddish.

“Their Jewish education is more intense, and they are much more connected to Israel than we are,” said Hekmat, who added that virtually all of the students she met had already been to Israel. “Their relationship with Israel and Judaism is much tighter than ours.”

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Far From Child’s Play

Leave a Comment / Community / Michael Aushenker

It was a very emotional evening for Fred Kort. Two weeks ago, from the stage at Sephardic Temple Tifereth Israel, Kort introduced Josef and Theresa Herinx-Pieter and Annie Schipper, righteous gentiles who risked their lives to harbor Jews during World War II.

Kort, the new West Coast chairman of American Society for Yad Vashem, was presiding over his first event since assuming leadership of the organization. But as one of only nine people to survive the concentration camp at Treblinka, Kort knew that the ceremony represented something more for him: a triumph of the human spirit over great adversity, of good over evil, of the present over the past.

Kort was born in Leipzig on July 8, 1923, to parents of Polish-Austrian descent. He and his family were among 22,000 Polish Jews kicked out of Germany and sent into a stateless limbo after the war broke out. Kort was slated for death at Treblinka in August 1943 but bluffed his way out of the extermination compound and into Treblinka’s labor camp, until the day in 1944 when the Red Army closed in.

“On the 23rd of July, I could hear the sounds of the big guns coming closer and closer,” recalled Kort.The Nazis, anticipating an invasion, decided to kill all of their Jewish captives. Kort hid in a tool shed as camp officials massacred 550 prisoners. After 10 hours in hiding, Kort escaped into a nearby forest, where he lived off of berries and roots for three weeks. He eventually joined the Polish underground, made it to the Russian front, and fought with the Polish army.

Sitting today in his massive, accolade-adorned downtown L.A. office at on a sunny December day, Kort, founder and CEO of the thriving Imperial Toy Corporation, said that he was not reared in the Orthodox tradition, “but I consider myself a good Jew. I’m religious in my own way, and I believe in God. And I think God paid special attention to me — he wanted me to survive.”

So how does Kort account for a God in those bleak times?

“If I look back,” said Kort, “for me to survive, I had to meet with extraordinary circumstances and luck again and again and again. So many things happened to me when I was this close that I knew someone was watching over me.”

There were little miracles, such as the time he found a bag in a forest clearing. The sack’s contents: sausages, a bathing suit, a shaving kit and a loaded gun.

After World War II, Kort reunited with his mother and his sister, who had survived the war in Russia; his father and brother had perished in Germany. Kort came to America and settled in Massachusetts. His employer there transferred him to Los Angeles, and after switching jobs, he learned the toy business from manufacturer Martin Feder.

On April 1, 1969, Kort opened his own business, Imperial Toys, on Seventh Street. His inaugural product: the hi-bounce ball. Imperial, which employs 5,000 peopl, still churns out popular toys such as Miracle Bubbles, Bouncin’ Bone-Heads, and that perennial favorite, marbles among its 1,000 products. Licensing tie-ins have had his toys packaged with the likenesses of cartoon icons such as Batman, Marvel superheroes and Hanna-Barbara characters.

Kort amicably divorced the mother of his sons, Jordan, Steve and David, all of whom are also in the toy business. He is now celebrating 30 years with wife Barbara, whom he met in Hong Kong. Of Chinese descent, Barbara converted to Judaism before their marriage. Today, she works as Kort’s public relations representative. The Korts have a 20-year-old daughter, Susie, and they reside in Beverly Hills, where they frequently host fundraising parties. They are also active members of Congregation Beth Israel in the Fairfax district.

Kort has donated millions of dollars to dozens of Jewish organizations. He was one of the founders of the U.S. Holocaust Museum in Washington, D.C., and helped shape L.A.’s Holocaust Memorial at Pan Pacific Park. Kort is also a longtime supporter of the Tel Aviv Foundation, Bar-Ilan University, the Anti-Defamation League and Israel Bonds, among others. Kort has even financed unique projects such as a scholarship that sent 100 postgraduate Chinese students to Bar Ilan. And the American ORT will always stay close to Kort’s heart, as it was a German ORT outlet that gave Kort the electrical skills he used to survive during the war and beyond.

Now he’s also raising money for Vad Yashem. Built atop Jerusalem’s Mount Remembrance, Vad Yashem was born following a 1953 Knesset mandate. Each year, about 2 million people visit the 45-acre institution, currently in the middle of a six-year renovation plan. It houses comprehensive Holocaust-related departments — historical and art museums, schools and research institutions, extensive archives and library facilities. It also contains a memorial to the 5,000 Jewish communities destroyed during the Nazi era, a Hall of Names listing millions of survivors, and a tribute to the 18,000 people it has designated as righteous gentiles. Kort’s predecessor, Abraham Spiegel, personally oversaw the construction of a memorial dedicated to the 1.5 children murdered during the Holocaust.

In Kort, Yad Vashem could not have found a more enthusiastic supporter for their cause.

“We were thrilled when he agreed to succeed Abraham Spiegel,” said Shraga Mekel, American Society for Yad Vashem’s development director.

“We are confident that Fred will draw upon his unique talents and skills to carry forth Yad Vashem’s mission,” said Chairman Eli Zborowski, who founded the New York-based American Society two decades ago.

Carol Stohlberg, Survivors of the Shoah Foundation’s director of major gifts, said, “He was the first survivor to participate as a major donor to the Shoah Foundation. He’s always been a tremendously supportive, wonderful philanthropist.”

All in all, Kort did it his way — not bad for a man who came to America as a very poor immigrant. Said Kort, “America has been very good to me. My thanks is to give back to society.”

For more information on the American Society for Yad Vashem, contact Shraga Mekel at (800) 310-7495. Information about Imperial Toys is available online at www.imperialtoy.com.

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Tough Concession

Mounting Controversy

Leave a Comment / Israel / Michael J. Jordan

Sovereignty over the Temple Mount is apparently so explosive to the Arab world that the question may have torpedoed the Camp David summit in July and helped spark the Palestinian violence of the past three months.

Now it’s becoming clear just how explosive it is for Jews as well.

Amid new indications that the Israeli government is ready to cede sovereignty over the holy site in exchange for Palestinian renunciation of the “right of return” for refugees, American Jews are going on the offensive.

Israel knows best when it comes to borders and security arrangements, say some American Jewish activists, but Jerusalem — and the Temple Mount — is a different story.

“Israel Must Not Surrender Judaism’s Holiest Site” reads a new advertisement initiated by the Zionist Organization of America (ZOA) and signed by some 30 prominent American Jews.

The ad portends a potential confrontation between the Israeli government and important segments of American Jewry at a time when Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak may need international as well as internal Israeli backing for any peace deal with the Palestinians.

The signatories to the ad include hard-liners and moderates, including six past chairpeople of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations.

The ad is aimed at influencing both American Jewish and Israeli audiences and will run in U.S. Jewish and Israeli media this week, said Morton Klein, president of the ZOA.

“The Muslims wouldn’t dream of giving away part of Mecca or Medina; the Christians wouldn’t dream of giving away part of the Vatican,” Klein said.

“And no Israeli leader has the right to give away the essence of the Jewish people that is embedded in the Temple Mount.”

New U.S. proposals presented to Israel and the Palestinians over the weekend call for Israel to give up sovereignty over the Temple Mount and for the Palestinians to give up the right of refugees displaced during Israel’s creation to return to the state.

The Clinton administration is seeking a quick response from both sides to determine if a peace deal can be sealed before he leaves office on Jan. 20.

The Temple Mount’s upper level houses the third holiest shrine in Islam while sitting atop the remains of the First and Second Temples, the holiest site in Judaism.

Some rabbis in Israel forbid Jews from treading on the Mount, for fear of defiling its sacred ground.
Israeli officials, including Barak, have in recent statements indicated willingness to recognize the Palestinians’ de facto control over the upper level of the Temple Mount while steering clear of the term “sovereignty.”

At the same time, Israeli officials stress an agreement would ensure Jewish links to the site and access to the subterranean levels where the remains of the Temple are believed to be located.

“We will do nothing to impair the affinity of the Jewish people to the site,” said Barak, who has also come under intense pressure from Israeli political and religious leaders against yielding control of the site.

U.S. Jews opposed to concessions on the Temple Mount are citing those leaders in making their case.

The National Council of Young Israel this week cited Israel’s Chief Ashkenazi Rabbi Yisrael Meir Lau, who was quoted in the Israeli daily Ha’aretz saying that to abandon the Temple Mount “means abandoning the tradition of thousands of years.”

“The situation, de facto, is unfortunately that the Palestinians and the Muslims control the Mount, but to grant this reality a de jure authorization would violate the public’s trust,” Lau was quoted saying.

U.S. Jews also cite Israeli hard-liners Natan Sharansky and Ariel Sharon, who is challenging Barak in the upcoming Israeli elections.

The pair contend that Diaspora Jews must have a say over the fate of Jerusalem and the Temple Mount. In the Arab world, too, leaders warned Palestinian Authority President Yasser Arafat that Jerusalem is a matter for the entire Muslim world.

On the other side of the spectrum, meanwhile, American Jews in the peace camp are reiterating that they trust the Israeli leadership and electorate to decide for themselves what is in Israel’s best interests.
When the Conference of Presidents recently issued a clarion call to American Jews to visit Israel to boost its sagging tourism industry, it rankled several in the peace camp by including the mantra of Jerusalem as “the eternal and undivided capital.”

Avram Lyon, executive director of the Jewish Labor Committee, sent a letter to Ronald Lauder, chairman of the Conference of Presidents, to complain.

“It’s clear that Jerusalem or parts of Jerusalem are in fact in play and being discussed,” Lyon said.
“It would be rash and careless to imply that the Jewish community of the United States stands in opposition to the government of Israel.”

Malcolm Hoenlein, executive vice chairman of the Conference, denied there was any political intent to the statement, and said “it does not preclude Israel from doing anything” during the negotiations.
As for the ZOA-initated ad, it was launched in response to comments Israeli Absorption Minister Yuli Tamir reportedly made last week in New York.

Tamir was quoted as saying that Israel “must make painful concessions, renouncing one way or another our sovereignty over the Temple Mount if necessary.”

But, she added, “on the ground, things wouldn’t really change.”

A few days later, Israeli Foreign Minister Shlomo Ben-Ami reportedly made similar comments in a conference call with American Jewish leaders.

Signatories of the ad said they hoped to send a strong message to Barak.

“I don’t think Israel has to have sole sovereignty of the Temple Mount, but I think it’s a strategic error to say it’s not important, not vital to the Jews,” said Rabbi Jerome Epstein, executive vice president of United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism.

“I understand that I’m not a factor in this decision. I don’t live in Israel and I don’t have a vote. The prime minister can ignore me, but I can still use my voice and whatever influence my voice has.”

The ad also quotes Hoenlein and a controversial statement he made three months ago.

At that time, Hoenlein said, “In future years, all of us will have to answer our children and grandchildren when they ask us why we did not do more to protect their heritage and safeguard Har HaBayit” — the Temple Mount.

Hoenlein, who made his remarks before a Jewish group, was accused by some as attempting to derail Barak’s effort to negotiate control of the Mount.

Hoenlein said in an interview last week that his comments “are just as valid today as they were then.”

“Israel has a right to make decisions that affect its security. All Jews have a right to discuss it, but it’s up to the government of Israel,” he said.

The “Temple Mount is a different issue. It belongs to all Jews, it is the inheritance of all Jews, and all Jews have a vested interest in it.”

Morton Klein of the ZOA threatened that if Barak dealt away sovereignty over the Mount, he and others would launch a campaign to undermine its implementation.

“I can tell you that almost every major Jewish leader I’ve spoken with will do virtually everything in their power to ensure that any attempt to give away the spiritual soul of the Jewish people does not succeed,” he said.

But some think that in the end, American Jewry will defer to the Israeli people — and its government.
“There has been a bedrock principle that the American Jewish community gives great deference to the Israeli government’s decisions on matters of war and peace,” said Martin Raffel, associate executive vice chairman of the Jewish Council for Public Affairs. “I expect that will continue, including on issues affecting the Temple Mount.”

Epstein and others concede that if Israelis approve by referendum a deal on the Mount, they, too, would ultimately accept it.

“If the prime minister comes back with something the Israelis are willing to buy, then I would also buy it. I would — reluctantly, unhappily,” Epstein said.

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Time on Our Side

Leave a Comment / Opinion / Michael Gotlieb

On Jan. 1, the new millennium officially begins. No doubt a few determined souls will want to witness the first sunrise of the next 1,000 years. Somewhere in the Pacific Ocean, near the equator — perhaps on one of the 33 Kiribati Islands — small groups of tourists traveling from around the world will view the new millennium’s dawning. As the sun’s rays slowly peek above the edge of the horizon, try not to blink.
These adventurers are trying to turn a typical sunrise into a moment filled with deeper, spiritual meaning. Typical sunrise? Yes, unless you believe that God is bound to a man-made calendar, which calculates time in human terms. In the words of the Psalmist, “In [God’s] sight a thousand years are like a day to us” (Psalm 90:4).

A 1,000-year measurement is not intrinsically any more divine than a 24-hour measurement is. In either case, it is up to us to infuse time with significance; to format it much like we format the space on a computer’s hard disk. From a Jewish perspective, we are in partnership with the divine. God gives us time; it is up to us to give it meaning.

How we choose to use the time given to us determines the way our life is lived. In an abstract sense, time is nonexistent. Horology is the study of time, but it is strictly understood as a human convention. Time is a euphemism for life. Our inborn defense mechanism immediately engages, preventing us from speaking of life in such a blunt, nonromantic way. As such, something can no longer be viewed as a waste of time; it is, more significantly, a waste of life.

Conversely, time well spent is life well lived. Time is not a commodity that is traded on Wall Street. It is not something that can be purchased or sold, returned or warehoused. When it is gone, it is gone! But you can make something of the millennium — or any day, or moment of your life — should you choose.
We have not been put on this planet to wait for something or someone to change our lives. That is precisely the problem I have with the religious notion of messiah.

I do not pray for the Messiah as some outside source coming to cure humanity of its ills. I scorn the idea that we humans are incapable of improving the world sufficiently such that hatred and evil no longer exist. We have been given the ability all along to better the world and better our lives in the process. We have the ability, the God-given ability, to infuse the ordinary with meaning and purpose, morality and goodness.

The new millennium comes once in a person’s life, true. But once-in-a-lifetime opportunities occur every waking moment of our existence. They come and, before you know it, they pass, leaving us wishing they would return. Moments in life are elevated, transformed, every time a person acknowledges how precious and fleeting life truly is. Time is elevated, transformed at the moment one struggles with what is moral and what is not, choosing to then follow the high road. Time is elevated — essentially made holy — by celebrating a wedding anniversary or sitting down to enjoy a meal with family and friends; by controlling one’s temper; by offering a kind and caring word to a stranger, a colleague or a loved one. There is no magic intrinsic to any of these behaviors. The magic comes as the result of having willfully marked the moment, imbuing it with meaning and deeper significance.

So as the remaining days of the year 2000 make their way to the new millennium, savor each moment. Let each moment of life be exalted, each moment of our existence savored and appreciated. Before you know it, Jan. 1, 2001, will have come and gone. But when each moment leading up to the new millennium, as well as each moment that follows it, is filled with significance and purpose, its passing will not have mattered much. That is the challenge all of us face in the years and months ahead. How we transform our time in the new millennium is a personal, ageless quest. The choice is ours. It always has been.

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New Year’s Resolutions

Leave a Comment / Community / Jane Ulman

Four thousand years ago, the Babylonians originated the ritual of making New Year’s resolutions. Most of them made the identical promise — to return borrowed farm equipment.

Forty years ago, in possession of no overdue tractors or hay balers, despite the fact that I was living in Iowa, I made my first and only successful New Year’s resolution — to give up chocolate for the next 12 months.

Of course, this was more an exercise in preadolescent perversity than a desire to make any meaningful or healthful changes.

“Sounds like something you would do,” my husband Larry says, knowing I don’t much like chocolate.

“Sounds like something millions of Americans do every year,” I answer.

And come this Dec. 31, millions of us will once again resolve — perfunctorily, if not perversely — to lose weight, get organized and be more patient. We will collectively plunk down thousands of dollars at Weight Watchers and Bodies in Motion. We will buy Filofaxes and Palm Pilots. We will start to meditate, visualize and count slowly to 10.

But come Jan. 6, only one week later, approximately 90 percent of us will have reverted to our overindulgent, disorganized and short-tempered ways.

“We make ’em, we break ’em,” my son Jeremy, 11, says matter-of-factly.

“Then why bother making them?” Gabe, 13, asks.

“I think it’s good when people can admit their faults,” Zack, 16, adds, “even if they don’t keep their resolutions.”

The problem, as my father used to say, is that New Year’s Eve is amateurs’ night. He was referring to the forced frivolity and heavy drinking.

But New Year’s Eve is also amateur’s night in terms of making resolutions, which are mostly insincere, inconsequential and spur-of-the-moment.

Spiritually, we know that real change comes only after extensive and painstaking self-reflection and repentance. For us Jews, that traditionally takes place before Yom Kippur. In fact, we devote the entire month of Elul plus the Days of Awe — 40 days — to introspection and prayer.

Then, after genuine apologies to those we have injured or harmed during the previous year, including concrete amends, and after intense discussions with God regarding promises we have broken between God and ourselves, we begin anew, with a new slate of resolutions, and with the knowledge that, in a year, we will once again have to answer to a Higher Authority.

Psychologically, we know that real change occurs only after life slams us headlong into a brick wall or brings us helplessly and humiliatingly to our knees. Real change occurs after we are forced to brutally confront our actions and our addictions, our losses and our illnesses.

As the Yiddish proverb says, “When one must, one can.”

We humans seem programmed with some eternal and internal urge to improve, especially strong before the start of a New Year. Perhaps it’s a reminder of the inexorable and irretrievable passage of time. Or disappointment that, once again, we didn’t make anyone’s year-end Top Ten list. Or our self-imposed deadline for settling accounts for our excessive holiday partying.

Concomitant with this urge is a desire to find an instant and painless path to self-improvement. Thus, we comb newspaper ads, pharmacy shelves and self-help book sections for the quick fix, the magic bullet and the easy answer.

And for most of us, that’s what New Year’s Eve is — a blind shot in the dark that this time, merely because it’s a New Year, a proverbial new leaf and, literally this year, another Monday morning, our resolution will stick. This time, magically and mysteriously, we will actually lose those 10 pounds, keep our appointments straight and curb our road rage.

But there’s nothing magical about Jan. 1. For most of the world’s existence, the new year didn’t even begin in January. Many early cultures, including those of the Jews and the Babylonians, celebrated the new year in the spring, which made more sense as it coincided with the rebirth of the earth.

But Julius Caesar, who perhaps forgot his mother’s birthday one too many times, instituted the Julian calendar, moving the start of the year to Jan. 1. And while it again reverted to the spring during the Middle Ages, Pope Gregory XVIII restored it in 1582. Most countries followed suit over the next several centuries, with Turkey the last to comply in 1927.

In addition, there’s nothing magical about change. It’s a tedious and difficult process, often involving relapse and regression. That’s because, as Judaism teaches us, we are in a constant battle between our yetzer hatov (good inclination) and yetzer harah (evil inclination). We are born neither good nor bad, but with a capacity for both, and yetzer hatov never conclusively conquers yetzer harah.

But traditions die hard, even arbitrary and inauthentic ones. So this year, in honor of the real millennium and in honor of my contrary inclination, I pledge to give up chocolate. Again.

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