The Jewish Federation of Greater Los Angeles is one of our city\’s most successful philanthropies. Yet, nationwide, it ranks behind New York, Chicago, Detroit, the Bay Area, Philadelphia and Baltimore in the Chronicle of Philanthropy\’s annual listing of the 400 not-for-profit organizations with the largest revenues from individual contributors.
My 9-year-old son comes home from school each day and rants about how much he hates school.
Michal Amir prefers "a Jewish conversation." Entering her second year as co-chair of a donor support program called Face-to-Face, Amir believes the phrase is a more accurate description of the Super Sunday tradition aimed at strengthening ties between big donors ($1,000 or more) and The Jewish Federation of Greater Los Angeles.
On the surface, they may not seem to share much in common. Victoria Gendel is a charming, pixyish Russian woman. Elias Inbram is a tall, photogenic Ethiopian male. However, both are Jewish 20-something college students who grew up in small, isolated villages and are now living in Israel.
On Sun., Feb. 25, a local institution turns 25. Not a physical institution, like a building or a memorial, but an idea — a community-wide esprit de corps that, over the years, has inspired thousands of people.
While visiting Ellis Island at the turn of the 20th century, Henry James wondered how the sweeping tide of immigrants would ultimately affect \”the idea of\” America. Comparing the incorporation of foreigners to sword- and fire-swallowing feats at a circus, James reflected on what it meant for America to share its patrimony with those \”inconceivable aliens.\”
Klezmer supergroup Mikveh performs in concert at Temple Isaiah tonight, kicking off the Women\’s Yiddish Voices conference sponsored by Yiddishkayt Los Angeles and USC Center for Feminist Studies.
Since she fled the former Soviet Union more than a decade ago, Anya Verkhovskaya has come more than full circle.
\nYMCA leaders in Los Angeles strongly denounced a report by an international YMCA affiliate in Geneva, which accuses Israel of using \”massive force against unarmed protesters and completely innocent people\” and urges that \”the YMCA take the side of the oppressed Palestinian people.\”
Rabbi Jonathan Aaron of Temple Emanuel in Beverly Hills knows as much about show business as shul business.\n\nThe 39-year-old rabbi, a former actor and managing director of the Open Forum Theatre in Connecticut, is the author of a new musical, \”Hyrcanus,\” an intergenerational production of the temple\’s Emanuel Arts Center.
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