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Jewish Journal

Connect. Inform. Inspire.

April 12, 2001

7 Days In Arts

Leave a Comment / Picks and Clicks /

14
Saturday

The best of current French cinema screens this week at the City of Lights, City of Angels Film Festival. The only one of the featured films presented in English, “Esther Kahn” follows the young daughter of Jewish immigrants in 19th century London. Esther feels nothing, she does not know how to be a person, so she tries to imitate her family and others around her. Her skills lead her to a life on the stage and the audience to a lesson in what it means to be human. $7 (general admission); $5 (seniors and students). 7 p.m. Directors Guild of America, 7920 Sunset Blvd., Los Angeles. For a full schedule of the City of Light, City of Angels Film Festival, or more information, call (310) 206-8013 or visit
www.cityoflightsfestival.org.

15
Sunday

Gregg Lachow’s absurdist stories and insightful character studies have won his independent films rave reviews and a weekend retrospective at the American Cinematheque. Tonight’s double feature starts with “Money Buys Happiness,” in which a bickering suburban couple unexpectedly inherit a piano. As wife Georgia goes off in search of a mysterious admirer, her husband attempts to push the piano home in time to prepare for Shabbat. $8 (general admission); $7 (seniors and students); $6 (members). 7:15 p.m. Egyptian Theatre, 6712 Hollywood Blvd., Hollywood. For a full schedule or more information, call (323) 466-3456.

16
Monday

The most notorious Nazi war criminal still alive, Alois Brunner, has lived in Syria since 1959, advising the government in Damascus on intelligence matters. Recently tried in absentia in Paris for crimes against humanity, Brunner continues to evade justice. The documentary “Alois Brunner: The Last Nazi,” examines the search for Brunner and the country that continues to protect him. 7 p.m. Kehillat Israel, 16019 Sunset Blvd., Pacific Palisades. For reservations, call (310) 689-3612. Also screening Tues., April 17, 7 p.m. Museum of Tolerance, 9786 W. Pico Blvd., Los Angeles. For reservations, call (310) 772-2529.

17
Tuesday

Though she’s not yet graduated from Sherman Oaks Center for Enriched Studies, 17-year-old soprano Hallie Silverston has already performed as a featured soloist with groups from CSUN’s Teenage Drama Workshop to the Opera Guild of Southern California. Her performance today, part of the University of Judaism University Women’s Young Artist series, includes classic songs and arias along with songs in Yiddish from the Warsaw Ghetto. $10 (concert); $20 (concert and luncheon). 11 a.m. Gindi Auditorium, 15600 Mulholland Drive, Bel Air. For more information, call (310) 476-9777 ext. 283.

18
Wednesday

Esther Raab managed to escape from the Sobibor concentration camp in 1943, but escape from grief and memory is an even more daunting task. “Dear Esther,” a play by Richard Rashke of “Escape From Sobibor” fame, takes a novel approach to this emotional journey. The play’s two main characters are two versions of Esther, her present-day self and her younger alter ego. The dialogue between Esthers is played out in a staged reading tonight starring the mother-daughter team of Barbara Bain and Juliet Landau. $15 (general admission); free (Wilshire Boulevard Temple members). 7:30 p.m. Also Thu., April 19, 7:30 p.m. Wilshire Boulevard Temple, Irmas campus, 11661 W. Olympic Blvd., Los Angeles. For reservations, call (213) 388-2401.

19
Thursday

Hip-hop trailblazers the Wu-Tang Clan are legendary as one of the most successful, innovative and notorious rap groups around. So how did a track from their 1998 compilation “Wu-Tang Killa Bees: The Swarm” wind up in a live performance during Yom Kippur services in Beverly Hills? That’s a question for Ross Filler, a k a Remedy, the Wu-Tang protégé whose Holocaust-themed song “Never Again” combines the heavy, rage-inflected beats that define hip-hop with a young Jew’s sensibility. “Never Again” is one of a handful of Jewish-themed tracks on Remedy’s new solo album, “The Genuine Article,” released April 17.

20
Friday

“Keep the River on Your Right: A Modern Cannibal Tale” tells Tobias Schneebaum’s astonishing story, as the now 78-year-old revisits the Peruvian and Indonesian jungles where he lived in the 1950s and ’60s. A gay, Jewish New York painter, Schneebaum took a fellowship to paint in Peru as an opportunity to join in the native lifestyle. Among the Asmat tribe of New Guinea, that lifestyle included the cannibalism that makes for a sensationalistic story, but also a cultural intermingling that raises more important and interesting questions. Daily 5:10 p.m., 7:30 p.m., 9:50 p.m.; also Saturday and Sunday at 12:30 p.m. and 2:50 p.m. Through April 26. Landmark’s Nuart, 11272 Santa Monica Blvd., West L.A. For more information, call (310) 478-6379.

7 Days In Arts Read More »

Big Apple Confessions

Leave a Comment / Entertainment /

With its witty observations, rapid pacing and expertly delivered one-liners, “The Pages of My Diary I’d Rather Not Read” is a great evening of theater for its humor alone. What makes Eydie Faye’s debut as a playwright special, however, is its trio of strong characters.

At the heart of the play is Esther, a Jewish girl from the Valley pursuing an acting career in New York. Her love affair with Target stores, her memories of high school classmates and, oy, her mother — Esther’s every observation is a proverb packed in a bitter pill wrapped in a joke.

Watch out for “the guacamole incident,” Esther’s whimsically indignant tale of sibling rivalry. The story packs an unexpected emotional wallop in the dramatic final half-hour.

The play’s emotional payoff comes largely through Jane and Ivy, characters worthy of their own shows and wonderfully served by actresses Betsie Devan and Melissa Manzanares.

At the beginning of “Pages,” super-tough, foul-mouthed Ivy is excited over her big new job, and perky Jane tries on her wedding veil. As the play slows down and opens up, all three characters emerge in three dimensions. The disappointments of the women’s fatherless childhoods and the hard compromises they must make in life begin to poke through their laugh-it-all-off toughness. Before the lights come up, you may want to be friends with these people.

“The Pages of My Diary I’d Rather Not Read” is playing until April 29 (but may be extended) in Hollywood. $18. For ticket information, call (323) 930-9304.

Big Apple Confessions Read More »

The Power of ‘Schindler’

Leave a Comment / Entertainment /

To mark Holocaust Remembrance Day, KCET and other PBS stations will broadcast Steven Spielberg’s "Schindler’s List" at 8 p.m. April 19 and 21.

The 8 p.m. screening April 21 will be followed at 11:30 p.m. by the 90-minute documentary "Schindler."

On April 20, the actual date of the Yom HaShoah observance, KCET will join Yahoo to host an on-line Web chat with Holocaust survivors. Also participating will be Doug Greenberg, president and CEO of the Survivors of the Shoah Visual History Foundation, which has videotaped the testimonies of more than 50,000 survivors worldwide.

The Web chat will be carried on www.yahoo.com and www.pbs.com at noon.

Spielberg won two of seven Academy Awards for "Schindler’s List" as best director and for best picture. He will speak about the work of the Shoah Foundation during two intermissions in the film, which is more than three hours long. He will also dedicate the KCET telecast to the memory of Leopold Page, who died March 9 in Los Angeles.

The untiring persistence of Page, who was No. 173 on Schindler’s original list, is credited with persuading first author Thomas Keneally to write the book "Schindler’s List" and then Spielberg to make the movie.

Ben Kingsley, who played Schindler’s Jewish accountant Itzhak Stern in the movie, commented on the continuing intense interest in the 1993 film and others on Holocaust themes in a phone call from his home in England.

"The Holocaust was utterly incomprehensible and can never be explained or understood," Kingsley said. "In spite, or because of that, we must keep questioning the inexplicable, we must insist on telling the story again and again."

Also honoring Yom Hashoah is the Sundance Channel, which will present the following four films on Holocaust themes, two shorts and two features, during the evening of April 18:

"Night and Fog," directed by Alain Resnais, at 8 p.m.

"Raw Images from the Optic Cross" by Karl Nussbaum at 8:30 p.m.

"Europa, Europa" by Agnieszka Holland at 9 p.m.

"Angry Harvest," also directed by Holland, at 11 p.m.

The Power of ‘Schindler’ Read More »

Dining With Cannibals

Leave a Comment / Entertainment /

The documentary, “Keep the River on Your Right: A Modern Cannibal Tale,” began when artist David Shapiro found a box of old books jutting out of a pile of garbage on Avenue B in Manhattan’s East Village.

The year was 1994, and Shapiro and his sister, author Laurie Gwen Shapiro, both now in their 30’s, had long been arguing about the subject of a proposed film project. They didn’t have to look any further. Inside the box, along with dog-eared copies of “The Tofu Cookbook” and “Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance,” was an intriguing memoir, “Keep the River on Your Right.” Its yellowed pages told of a gay, Jewish painter, Tobias Schneebaum, a onetime rabbinical student who disappeared into the Amazon to live (and dine) with cannibals in 1955.

The filmmakers, the grandchildren of Jewish union activists, figured Schneebaum was probably dead. But on a lark, they checked the Manhattan phone book — and found a listing. Before long, they were sitting opposite the “Heart of Darkness”-style adventurer in his Greenwich Village efficiency apartment. “We had been expecting Indiana Jones-meets-Hannibal Lecter,” David Shapiro told The Journal. “Instead, we met a witty, mild-mannered Jewish man who looked just like our grandfather.”

Amid shelves of real human skulls (gifts from his head-hunting friends), Schneebaum regaled the Shapiros with tales of his remarkable life. He was born on the Lower East Side — several blocks from the filmmakers’ childhood home, in fact — as the son of an Orthodox Polish immigrant grocer who imposed punishments for infractions of halacha. Schneebaum loved the Jewish holidays, the rituals of his “tribe,” he said, but longed to escape from the abuse. “I was preoccupied with drawing and with my need to lose myself in another world, where my father could not wallop me,” he explained in a telephone interview with The Journal.

A quiet, shy boy, he first glimpsed another world during a family trip to Coney Island, where he was riveted by a poster promoting a sideshow featuring the Wild Man of Borneo. Years later, he remembered the image when the New York art scene left him feeling hollow and his homosexuality made him feel like the ultimate outsider.

Searching for a place where he could feel he belonged, Schneebaum hitchhiked all the way to South America, riding from the Andes to the Amazon in a rickety, open-air truck. After hearing rumors of a remote mission serving the Harakhambut Indians, a people unknown in the West, he headed off alone into the uncharted Madre de Dios rain forest, without maps, equipment or footwear, except for the sneakers he wore. He chanted the “Sh’ma” or “Adir Hu” when he felt lost or lonely. His only instructions were to “keep the river on your right.”

Eventually, Schneebaum was adopted by the Stone Age Harakhambut, who decorated his body with red pigment and allowed him to sleep in the men’s communal hut (where, to his delight, the activities sometimes turned amorous).

But under a bright moon one summer night in 1956, Schneebaum’s idyllic new life abruptly came to an end. Schneebaum thought he was accompanying his friends on a daylong hunting excursion when, at dusk, they suddenly stopped outside a hut near a small clearing. Without warning, the Harakhambut charged, slaughtering all the men in the dwelling, then dismembering the bodies and roasting them in a celebratory bonfire. Schneebaum ran off to vomit, but during the subsequent feast, he felt pressured to eat the small piece of meat that was placed in his hands. He swallowed the bites of human flesh. Soon thereafter, he slipped away from the Harakhambut without saying goodbye. He emerged from the jungle a year after his disappearance, naked and covered in body paint.

“For 45 years, I had nightmares about the raid,” says Schneebaum, now a leading expert on the artwork of another headhunting tribe, the Asmat of New Guinea.

So he staunchly refused when the Shapiros begged him to return to Peru and to let them accompany him with their cameras. He didn’t want to relive the most traumatic night of his life. He didn’t want to learn that his Harakhambut friends were all dead. And he was nearly 80, after all. He had recently been diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease and had received three hip replacements.

The Shapiros, who maxed out their credit cards to finance the film, continued to beg him, however. When Schneebaum insisted he couldn’t remember where he disappeared into the rain forest, Laurie combed his apartment for clues. Behind a bookshelf, she found a crinkled slip of paper inscribed with a single word: Kosnipata. An Internet search revealed the word referred to a river in the Amazon forest — and led the filmmakers to a guide who believed some of Schneebaum’s friends might still be alive. The artist’s curiosity was piqued. In June 1999, he flew with the Shapiros to the Amazon, stepped into a canoe, and began a three-week journey into his past.

It was the film shoot from hell. David Shapiro and his cameraman suffered relapses of the malaria they had contracted while shooting with Schneebaum in New Guinea. Laurie endured the 100-degree heat and drenching rainstorms while battling severe vomiting and diarrhea. Mosquitoes and sand flies tormented the crew as they traveled 10 hours a day down the murky river past forests that teemed with snakes and sloths.

Every night, Schneebaum’s nightmares seemed to intensify. “He was screaming at the top of his lungs,” Laurie Shapiro recalls. “It was the most bone-chilling thing I have ever heard.”

Yet the team pressed on, and after obtaining directions from the oldest resident of a remote village, they arrived at an even more isolated outpost in the middle of an electrical storm. As Laurie Shapiro attempted to calm Schneebaum, David and his cameraman used a machete to cut a staircase in a 20-foot-high clay cliff so the elderly artist could walk up to the settlement. Inside a decrepit gathering hall, the New Yorkers found a number of Harakhambut watching “Rambo” on a flickering TV set.

Immediately, the old-timers recognized Schneebaum: They laughed as they remembered his feeble bow-and-arrow skills and cried when he produced pictures of their long-dead relatives. “Our children have never seen their ancestors before,” they told him. “Thank you for coming back to us.”

The Harakhambut revealed that they no longer practiced cannibalism and were as reticent to discuss their 1956 raid as Schneebaum was.

The artist, wiping away tears, felt he had achieved a closure of sorts. “I came full circle in a way that I never expected,” he said. “I no longer suffer from nightmares. David and Laurie were right to push me.”

“Keep the River on Your Right” opens April 20 at the Nuart in West Los Angeles. For information, call (310) 478-6379.

Dining With Cannibals Read More »

Circumcision Lite

Leave a Comment / Celebrations/Simchas, Circumcision /

An undeniable physical reminder of a man’s connection to Judaism, circumcision has been an important focus of the first days of a boy’s life since before we received the Torah. However, for almost as long, there have been people who question the act of circumcision and those who have rallied for eliminating the practice.

Modern times are no exception. In fact, through televised programs and numerous Web sites, the anti-circumcision movement is gaining increased exposure and coverage.

Though most Jewish families still choose to circumcise their sons, some parents are looking for alternatives to their baby boy’s tearful parting with his foreskin. Often, these parents are torn between sparing their child the pain of circumcision and maintaining a connection with Jewish traditions and commandments.

As central as the mitzvah of circumcision is to Judaism, some parents have created alternative rituals. One such ceremony is called brit shalom, or covenant of wholeness, during which parents might read Bible passages and recite the traditional blessing normally recited at a brit milah, but there is no circumcision performed.

Another procedure called hatafat dam brit is also being used in place of a circumcision. Usually only appropriate in the case of already circumcised converts or adopted babies, or when a baby is mistakenly circumcised at the hospital, hatafat dam brit is a Jewish ritual circumcision performed by drawing a drop of blood from the site of the circumcision.

Dr. Fred Kogan, a prominent mohel in the Los Angeles area, is concerned about the increasing number of requests he is getting for this ritual. “People don’t want to circumcise during this big anti-circumcision movement and are looking for something to take its place,” he says. “People have been calling me now, saying, ‘We think it’s barbaric, horrific, and we don’t want to do this to our child.'” He adds that, on the other hand, parents may want to placate grandparents, and many don’t want to exclude themselves from the Jewish world.

In reality, there is no alternative to circumcision, Kogan maintains. “Circumcision is a cultural, physical sign,” he says. “It’s something you have to go through if you want to be part of the team.”

Rabbi Yehuda Lebovics, a Los Angeles Orthodox mohel, has not received many requests for circumcision alternatives, but he is quick to dismiss the appropriateness of hatafat dam brit. “It is totally invalid, totally meaningless. The only way that the drop of blood is valid is if there is no foreskin.” Otherwise, he says, “It is just a waste of a drop of blood.”

Rabbi Dennis Eisner, L.A. director of the Berit Milah Program (a joint project of the Central Conference of American Rabbis, Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion, where he is assistant dean, and the Union of American Hebrew Congregations) is in contact with mohels throughout the world. Regarding invalid applications of hatafat dam brit, he says, “I don’t think it’s very widespread. … There may be people out there who are trying to appease parents, but those people are wrong. They are doing a disservice to the young men who are entering in the community. It is not what we’re about, not what we’re promoting, and not what we’re suggesting.” Though he recognizes that the once-asserted medical benefits of circumcision are now falling into doubt, Eisner does not see this as relevant to the Jewish act of brit milah. “There is some ambivalence about the medical act of circumcision, but we are not about the medical act of circumcision,” he says, but about entering into a covenant with God.

Leaders in the anti-circumcision movement say the number of Jewish parents looking for alternatives to circumcision is rising. Ronald Goldman, author of “Questioning Circumcision — A Jewish Perspective” and director of the Circumcision Resource Center in Boston, Mass., says, “The large majority of Jews are not aware of the religious reasons” for circumcision “and do so for cultural reasons.”

Goldman, who does not see his ideas as a threat to modern Judaism, says his book is not directed at traditional Jews. “We are not here to tell people what to do, but to provide an alternative. We’re here to support Jews who are questioning circumcision, to let them know they are not alone. … We have been contacted by hundreds of Jews who are questioning circumcision. We’re also here to clear up the myths and misunderstandings about circumcision.” Goldman calls into question whether one really needs to be circumcised to be Jewish, suggesting that one only needs to be born to a Jewish mother. He adds that circumcision is in direct violation of the Torah’s prohibition against self-mutilation.

Rabbi Mark Fasman of Temple Sinai in Westwood says, “These points are dealt with extensively by the rabbis.” While there are laws against self-mutilation, circumcision is considered the removal of something that is not necessary, he explains, comparing the foreskin to the unneeded parts of a fruit. “It’s important at one stage, but it is ultimately not part of the fruit, like the stem of an apple.” Fasman says, “Human beings don’t own their bodies; God owns their bodies,” adding that it is God who is commanding us to circumcise.

Fasman sees the modern hesitations about circumcision as partly due to our rights-based society. “Rights is a whole new language, and it is often at direct odds with standard Jewish thought. We are inheritors of the rabbinic tradition, which is [that] we best fulfill our obligations in this world. We best fulfill our obligation through the performance of mitzvot.”

According to Anita Diamant in “The Jewish Baby Book,” the Torah refers to the foreskin as the orlah, which, she says, “means not only foreskin but also any barrier standing in the way of beneficial results. The word orlah is also used as a metaphor for obstructions of the heart that prevent a person from hearing or understanding God. Removing the orlah is interpreted as a permanent, physical sign of dedication to the ongoing task of perfecting the self in order to be closer to the Holy One.”

All parents of Jewish boys feel anxiety about their sons’ discomfort during the bris, but most accept it as part of being Jewish and as something the baby gets through. While Jewish parents seeking alternatives to circumcision are few, Kogan fears it’s a growing trend. “When anything starts, people say, ‘Eh, it’s nothing.’ But if I had three people call me in the past three years, and none in the previous 14 years, there must be a lot more people out there.”

Circumcision Lite Read More »

Calendar & Singles

Leave a Comment / What's Happening /

Calendar

SATURDAY/14

Temple Isaiah: 9:30 a.m. Tot Shabbat for children ages 2-6 including short service, songs and stories. 10345 W. Pico Blvd. For more information, call (310) 277-2772.

Congregation Mishkon Tephilo: 9:30 a.m. Services for the seventh day of Passover. Also, Yizkor services, Sun., Apr. 15. 206 Main St., Venice. For more information, call (310) 392-3029.

Congregation N’vay Shalom: 9:45 a.m. Minyan and Torah study including pot luck dairy lunch at home of Rabbi Stephen and Cantor Eva Robbins. Also, kabbalah service, Fri., Apr. 20 at Milken High School. For more information, call (323) 463-7728.

Sherman Oaks Public Library: 2:30 p.m. Historic impersonator Peter Small takes on the role of Golda Meir, fourth prime minister of Israel. 14245 Moorpark Street. For more information, call (818) 981-7850.

Temple Kol Tikvah: 8 p.m. Jazz interpretations from both the Jewish and African American struggles for freedom. 20400 Ventura Blvd., Woodlan Hills. For more information, call (818) 348-0670.

SUNDAY/15

B’nai Tikvah Congregation: 9 a.m. Yizkor service. 5820 W. Manchester Ave., Westchester. For more information, call (310) 645-6262.

Temple Aliyah: 9:15 a.m. Yizkor service. 6025 Valley Circle Blvd., Woodland Hills. For more information, call (818) 346-3445.

Temple Beth Am: 9:15 a.m. Yizkor services followed by a kiddush. 1039 S. La Cienega Blvd. For more information, call (310) 652-7353.

Temple Ner Tamid: 10 a.m. Passover Yizkor service for the last day of Passover. 10629 Lakewood Blvd., Downey. For more information, call (562) 861-9276.

Etz Hadar: 7:15 p.m. “Break the Chametz” annual gathering for the conclusion of Passover. Giovanni’s Pizza, 1150 Brookside Ave. For more information, call (909) 794-8883.

Westside JCC: 11:15 a.m.-12:15 p.m. Tai Chi classes with Mitchell Hermann. Also, 8 p.m.-midnight Israeli folk dancing with David Dassa every Sunday. $4 (members); $5 (nonmembers). 5870 W. Olympic Blvd. For more information, call (323) 938-2531 ext. 2225.

MONDAY/16

ENCORE/OASIS Older Adult Program: 1 p.m.-2:30 p.m. Lecture on Hinduism. Pierce College, 6201 Winnetka Ave., Woodland Hills. For more information, call (818) 710-4163.

UCLA Hillel: 7:30 p.m. “Children of Abraham” lecture series. “The Arab-Jewish Symbiosis: Myth & Reality,” with Dr. David Nirenberg $12 (per lecture); $50 (series). 900 Hilgard Ave. For more information, call (310) 208-3081, ext. 240.

Folk Dance Classes: 10 a.m.-11:30 a.m. International and Israeli folk dance class every Monday with Tikva Mason. Also, Wed., 10:15 a.m.-11:45 a.m. For more information and locations, call (310) 278-5383 (Mon.) or (323) 876-1717 (Wed.).

Beth Shir Sholom: 7:30 p.m.-9 p.m. Israeli dance class with David Katz every Monday. $5 (members); $6 (nonmembers). 1827 California Ave., Santa Monica. For more information, call (310) 453-3361.

Jewish Family Service of Orange County: 9 a.m.-10:15 a.m. Weekly support and discussion group for adults experiencing constant anxiety and/or depression. 250 E. Baker St., suite G, Costa Mesa. For more information, call (714) 445-4950.

West Valley JCC: 1 p.m.-2:30 p.m. “The Doctor Is In” lecture series. This week: “Durable Power of Attorney for Healthcare.” Also, 4 p.m. Book Club meets to discuss stimulating literary works. Today, “Poisonwood Bible,” by Barbara Kingsolver. Free (members); $4 (nonmembers). 22622 Vanowen Street, West Hills. For more information, call (818) 464-3300.

TUESDAY/17

City of Hope: 3 p.m.-4:15 p.m. Lectures on stress reduction including “Breathing for Health” and “Progressive Muscle Relaxation” every third Tuesday of the month. Hillquit Building, Support Group Room 4015, 1500 E. Duarte Road, Duarte. For registration and more information, call (626) 359-8111, ext. 62282.

Temple Judea: 7:30 p.m.-9 p.m. “Was Jesus the Messiah?,” lecture by Rabbi Ron Herstik. 5429 Lindley Ave., Tarzana. For more information, call (818) 758-3800.

Conejo Jewish Academy: 8 p.m. Yom Hashoah lecture, featuring Holocaust survivor Renee Firestone. $10 (in advance); $12 (at the door). 30345 Canwood Street, Agoura Hills. For more information, call (818) 991-0991.

Valley Cities JCC: 12:30 p.m.-2 p.m. Improvisational theater games every Tuesday. 13164 Burbank Blvd., Sherman Oaks. For more information, call (818) 786-6310.

West Valley JCC: 10 a.m.-noon. Senior Shalom Club meeting with coffee and bagel brunch, speaker and entertainment every Tuesday. Today, Mark Isler speaking on “Saving the American Dream.” Also, 7:30 p.m.-10:30 p.m., duplicate bridge games. $2 (members); $6 (nonmembers). 22622 Vanowen Street, West Hills. For more information, call (818) 464-3300.

Kinneret Group of Hadassah: 11 a.m. Fashion show and luncheon. $15 (members); $18 (guests). Courtyard by Marriott, 13480 Maxella Ave., Marina del Rey. For reservations or more information, call (310) 827-7717.

H.O.P.E. Unit Foundation: 7 p.m.-9 p.m. Family loss support group led by liscenced therapists. Widow/widower program on Thursdays. Valley Beth Shalom, 15739 Ventura Blvd., Encino. For more information, call (818) 788-4673.

Kol Tikvah Temple: 7:30 p.m.-9 p.m. First discussion session of six part series, “The Aging Journey,” regarding the last phases of life and the implications. Free (members); $18 (nonmembers). 20400 Ventura Blvd., Woodland Hills. For more information, call (818) 348-0670.

WEDNESDAY/18

West Valley JCC: 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Trip to Autry Museum of Western Heritage with special exhibit, “Out of the Mist” and deluxe bus transportation. $10 (members); $15 (nonmembers). For more information, call (818) 464-3300.

Skirball Cultural Center: 7:30 p.m. Lisa Schiffman discusses her book, “Generation J” and the fluid identity of American Jews. $10 (general admission); $8 (members); $5 (students). 2701 N. Sepulveda Blvd. For advance tickets, call (323) 655-8587.

Museum of Tolerance: 3 p.m. Joseph Rebhun relays a graphic version of the Jewish experience at the hands of the Nazis and stories of miraculous survival. Simon Wiesenthal Center Library, 1399 S. Roxbury Drive. For more information, call (310) 772-2526.

Jewish Institute for National Security Affairs: 6:45 p.m. Major General Sidney Shachnow, a Holocaust survivor, speaks at a Holocaust remembrance event. Congregation Beth Jacob, 9030 W. Olympic Blvd. For more information, call (310) 455-1819.

Temple Beth Am: 7 p.m. Deborah Oppenheimer, producer of the Academy Award winning documentary, “Into the Arms of Strangers,” speaks on the 1938 Kindertransport that took Jewish children from Europe to England during the Holocaust. 1039 S. La Cienega Blvd. For more information, call (310) 652-7353 ext. 219.

Temple Aliyah: 7:45 p.m. Service

honoring those lost in the Holocaust. 6025 Valley Circle Blvd., Woodland Hills. For more information, call (818) 346-3445.

Temple Isaiah: 10:15 a.m. Discussion of women’s contributions in the Torah portion of the week. 10345 W. Pico Blvd., Los Angeles. For more information, call (310) 277-2772.

North Valley JCC: 7 p.m.-8:30 p.m. Parents and friends of lesbians and gays support group. 16601 Rinaldi Street, Granada Hills. For more information, call (818) 360-2211.

West Los Angeles College: 8 p.m. Informational meeting with refreshments discussing the three week summer travel/study program in Jerusalem. Fine Arts 106, 4800 Freshman Drive, Culver City. For more information, call (310) 287-4551.

West Valley JCC: 9:30 a.m.-12:30 p.m. Eight week oil painting class begins. Through June 6. $35 (members); $52 (nonmembers). 22622 Vanowen St., West Hills. For more information, call (818) 464-3300.

THURSDAY/19

Temple Beth Hillel: 10 a.m. Lecture by the authors of “On the Side of the Persecuted.” $2. 12326 Riverside Drive, Valley Village. For more information, call (818) 763-5391.

Los Angeles Museum of the Holocaust: 11 a.m.-12 p.m. School children of Los Angeles honoring the victims of the Holocaust. Wilshire Boulevard Temple, 3663 Wilshire Blvd., Los Angeles. For more information, call (323) 761-8170.

Valley Beth Israel: 7 p.m. Interfaith Holocaust Memorial Service honoring “righteous gentile” Lidia Furmanski, for saving Polish children. 13060 Roscoe Blvd., Sun Valley. For more information, call (818) 781-2281.

Adat Ari El: 11:30 a.m.-2 p.m. Senior Club meeting to plan trips and entertainment. 12020 Burbank Blvd., North Hollywood. For more information, call (818) 766-9426.

Jewish Family Service of Los Angeles: 2 p.m.-3 p.m. Weekly support group for people caring for someone with a chronic physical illness. Also, 9:45 a.m-11 a.m., every Friday, support group for caregivers of people suffering from dementia. Valley Storefront 12821 Victory Blvd., North Hollywood. For more information, call (818) 984-1380.

FRIDAY/20

Beth Chayim Chadashim: 8 p.m. Holocaust memorial services led by cantorial soloist Fran Chalin, with memorial reading of names. 6000 W. Pico Blvd. For more information, call (323) 931-7023.

B’nai Tikvah Congregation: 7:45 p.m. Yom Ha Shoah Shabbat service commemorating the liquidation of the Warsaw ghetto after resistance from its Jewish inhabitants. 5820 W. Manchester Ave., Westchester. For more information, call (310) 645-6262.

Temple Judea: 8 p.m. “Healing and Renewal,” Holocaust memorial shabbat service. 5429 Lindley Ave., Tarzana. (818) 758-3800.

University Synagogue: 8 p.m. Holocaust memorial services with Louis Posner, author of “Through a Boy’s Eyes,” who speaks about surviving the Holocaust as a teenager. 4915 Alton Parkway, Irvine. For more information, call (949) 553-3535.

Cheviot Hills Senior Citizens Club: 10:45 a.m. Meets for entertainment, trips, guest speakers, book reports and special luncheons. $1.50 (members); $1.75 (nonmembers). 2551 Motor Ave., West L.A. For more information, call (310) 652-7508.

Temple B’nai Hayim: 7:30 p.m. Congressman Brad Sherman speaks about the intentions of Congress regarding Israel and the Middle East during Friday night services. 4302 Van Nuys Blvd., Sherman Oaks. For more information, call (818) 766-4664.

UPCOMING

Project Next Step: Sun., Apr. 22. “What Judaism Can Add to Your Marriage” and “Finances and Money Management” lectures for couples considering marriage, engaged or newly married. $20 (includes dinner). 9911 W. Pico Blvd., suite 102. For more information, call (310) 552- 4595.

Magbit Foundation: Sun., Apr. 22. Spring picnic with face painting, carnival rides, games and kosher barbeque. $25 (children 4-16); $50 (adults). Hidden Valley Park, Irvine. For pre-paid tickets and more information, call (310) 858-6020.

City of Hope: 9 a.m.-12 p.m., Apr. 28. Therapeutic and creative painting workshop for those dealing with cancer. 1500 E. Duarte Road, Duarte. For more information, call (626) 359-8111, ext. 62282.

The Council of Israeli Organizations: 10 a.m.-6 p.m., Sun., April 29. Israeli festival to celebrate 53 years of Israel’s independence includes entertainment, fashion show, Israeli dancing, carnival rides, Heritage Pavilion, petting zoo and much more. Woodley Park, 6350 Woodley Ave., Van Nuys. For more information, call (818) 757-0123.

OASIS/ Older Adult Program: June 14. Motorcoach trip to Solvang to explore the Danish Village and Elverhoj Museum of Danish History, returning through the San Marcos Pass and Cachuma Lake. $50 (by April 20). For more information, call (818) 710-4163.

Fall Foliage Tour of Japan: Nov. 7-20. Tour of Japan including Shabbat services, antique flea markets, private meetings with rabbis and Buddhist priests, pareve Japanese cuisine and tour of art, gardens and architecture. $3850 per person, double occupancy (all-inclusive). Esprit Travel and Tours, 2101 Wilshire Blvd., suite 101, Santa Monica. For more information, call (310) 829-6060.

Singles

SATURDAY/14

New Age Singles (55+): 8 p.m. Socializing, refreshments and classical music. $5 (members); $7 (guests). For location, reservations or more information, call (818) 907-0337.

Elite Jewish Theatre Singles: 8 p.m. Dinner social and play, “A Chorus Line.” $17. Also, Tue., Apr. 17, “Loves and Losses.” $16. For reservations, call (310) 203-1312.

Bridge for Singles (59+): 7:30 p.m. Only intermediate players meet at private West L.A. home. Also meets Tuesday and Thursday. $4. For more information, call (818) 398-9649.

Jewish Association of Single Professionals: 8 p.m.-1 a.m. Cocktail party with dancing, appetizers and dessert. $20. Radisson Beverly Pavilion Hotel, 9360 Wilshire Blvd. For more information, call (323) 656-7777.

Palos Verdes Singles: Cocktail and dance party with vocalist Dion James singing songs by Neil Diamond and complimentary bar. $22. 300 N. Catalina Ave. ‘A, Redondo Beach. For more information, call (310) 372-6071.

SUNDAY/15

Elite Jewish Theatre Singles (30-55): Sherry Singer of KRLA radio show hosts a “mating game” and discussion. $5. For reservations or more information, call (310) 203-1312.

JTennis (25-45): 1:30 p.m. Tennis and socializing. $15 (in advance); $16 (on day of event). Rancho Cheviot Park Tennis Courts, West Los Angeles. For more information, call (310) 836-6471.

Business and Professional Singles: 7 p.m.-11 p.m. Last of four gala dinner dances including no host bar and swing, ballroom and Latin dancing. $13 (members); $16 (guests). Radisson Valley Hotel, 4th floor ballroom, 15433 Ventura Blvd., Sherman Oaks. For more information, call (818) 761-0179.

Singles Helping Others: 12 p.m.-2 p.m. or 1 p.m.-3 p.m. Take rescued dogs for a walk. For location or more information, call (323) 851-9070.

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

MONDAY/16

Israeli Dance Lessons: 8 p.m.-12:30 p.m. Open dance session with Israel Yakovie every Monday and Thursday for couples and singles. $6. 2244 Westwood Blvd. For more information, call (310) 838-0885.

Westwood Kehilla: 8 p.m. Part of a weekly lecture series, “Chumash and Rashi.” 10523 Santa Monica Boulevard. For more information, call (310) 441-5288.

TUESDAY/17

Divorce Support Group: 4 p.m.-6:30 p.m. or 6:30 p.m.-8 p.m. Discussion regarding divorce with Rich Hirschkoff, M.A., M.F.T. every Tuesday. 1110 Ohio Ave., suite 202, West Los Angeles. For more information, call (310) 281-8476.

Sinai Temple: 7 p.m. Weekly Torah lesson with a different rabbi each week. $5 (members); $7 (nonmembers). Lunaria, 10351 Santa Monica Blvd., Los Angeles. For more information, call (310) 474-1518.

Singles Helping Others: 9 p.m H.E.L.P. golf tournament. Lost Canyon Golf Course, Simi Valley. For more information, call (323) 769-1307.

WEDNESDAY/18

Helkeinu Foundation (20-40): Lecture series on self-improvement by Rabbi Shlomo Goldberg every Wednesday. $10. For location and more information, call (310) 785-0440.

JeffTennis (25-39): 7 p.m.-9 p.m. Mixed doubles tennis. USTA-NTRP, 2.5-4.0. Beverly Hills area. For more information, e-mail JeffTennis@hotmail.com.

Westside JCC: 7:30 p.m.-11 p.m. Salsa and other Latin dances class for Jewish singles with instructor Yossi Conde. $4 (members); $5 (nonmembers). 5870 W. Olympic Blvd., Los Angeles. For more information, call (323) 938-2531 ext. 2228.

THURSDAY/19

Conversations!: 7:30 p.m. Guest speaker and socializing every Thursday. $15. For location, reservations or more information, call (310) 315-1078.

Quick Date (40-55): Rapid introductions event, 10 introductions in one hour. For reservations or more information, call (310) 488-8716.

FRIDAY/20

New Age Singles (55+): 6 p.m. No host dinner at Hamburger Hamlet. 11648 San Vicente Blvd., Brentwood. Also, 8 p.m., Shabbat services at University Synagogue. 11960 Sunset Blvd., Brentwood. For reservations for dinner or more information, call (310) 838-7459.

Aish HaTorah (20’s-30’s): 7 p.m. Aaron’s Tent Group Shabbos experience with lecture and after-party on the third Friday of every month. $11. For more information, call (310) 247-7474.

UPCOMING

Klutz Productions: Sun., Apr. 22., 8 p.m.-1 a.m. Dance
party at the Conga Room featuring DJ Kev E. Kev. $10. 5364 Wilshire Blvd., Los
Angeles. For more information, contact klutzproductions@aol.com .

Magbit Foundation: May 1. Celebration of Israel’s 53rd year of independence with musical performances by Shlomo Gronich and the Sheba Choir and speakers from the Israeli consulate. $26 (in advance); $35 (at the door). Skirball Cultural Center, 2701 N. Sepulveda Blvd., Los Angeles. For more information, call (310) 273-2233.

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Ritualized Equality

Leave a Comment / Celebrations/Simchas /

Woven into many Jews’ seders when they sit down to celebrate Passover this year will be a spate of new traditions.

A Miriam’s Cup next to Elijah’s represents the role of the prophetess Miriam in the Exodus and highlights women’s contributions to Jewish culture. A seemingly out-of-place orange on the seder plate represents how women — traditionally thought to have no place in Jewish study — have introduced their voices to Judaism.

Through integrating each of these into our retelling of the Exodus, the voices and perspectives of women are unearthed and brought into the present, where they add to the vitality of contemporary Judaism.

Like them, another relatively recent innovation — the simchat bat, or welcoming ceremony for Jewish baby girls — focuses on the feminine voice and is becoming so widely practiced that it is taking on the weight of tradition.

For centuries, Jewish communities from North Africa to Eastern Europe welcomed their baby girls with a range of customs, though none carried the same sense of religious importance as the commanded brit milah, or ritual circumcision, always has for boys. And as those communities were dispersed into Diaspora or destroyed by anti-Semitism, the customs regarding girls’ births all but died out.

Though the Sephardic community in America still customarily welcomes its new daughters with singing in synagogue and a party, in most American Jewish families little was done, until recently, to recognize the birth of a girl through religious ritual.

Traditionally oriented fathers go to synagogue on the first day that the Torah is read after the birth of a daughter, to name her and ask God to watch over her and help heal his wife. Rarely are the mother and baby present.

Today, in liberal synagogues, the entire family is often called up for an aliyah when family members first return to synagogue on Shabbat. They bless the Torah, and a blessing is said to name the new daughter and offer hope that she will grow into healthy adulthood.

But in recent years, the simchat bat has also been available to Jews wanting to welcome their baby daughters into the covenant and into their families with the same marriage of ritual seriousness and joy as they accord their sons.

The simchat bat (celebration of the daughter) or brit bat (covenant of the daughter), as it is often known, was first created in the early 1970s by Rabbis Sandy Eisenberg Sasso and Dennis Sasso, and, separately, by Rabbi Michael and Sharon Strassfeld. They were connected with the chavurah and Reconstructionist movements, which created the new ritual out of a desire to renew Judaism spiritually and to include the female voice equally.

Since that time, especially during the last five years, welcoming the birth or adoption of baby girls has become a quiet revolution in all sectors of the Jewish community, with Jews from Humanist to Reform to Orthodox welcoming their daughters with rituals they compose and hold at home.

“Thirty years ago nobody even asked the question of whether a girl should have a ceremony,” said Rabbi Nina Cardin, who was involved early on in the creation and dissemination of welcoming ceremonies for girls. Cardin now works as director of Jewish Life for the JCC of Greater Baltimore.

“There is a huge awareness that has developed over a relatively short span of time, and it has bubbled up from the bottom,” Cardin said. “These ceremonies were a very radical expression back then, and nowadays they’re not.”

While the mainstream movements’ rabbis’ manuals today all include brief synagogue-based rituals to welcome girls, a growing number of families are opting to hold a more complex ceremony at home. There they welcome their daughters with rituals as unique as their families.

Adina Kalet and her husband, Mark Schwartz, who belong to a Conservative synagogue and live in Brooklyn with their son and daughter, knew that they would welcome their daughter with a simchat bat after they adopted her from Colombia, at age 4 months, just over a year ago.

“We were eager to celebrate publicly her coming to us, and we’ve always turned to our own traditions as much as we could,” Kalet said. “Even during five years of infertility we looked for Jewish rituals” to help work through it. Having a simchat bat to welcome Sara “just seemed like the natural thing to do,” she said.

Incorporated into Sara’s simchat bat were elements representing her heritage. An aunt sang her a song in Ladino, the language of Spanish-speaking Jews. Kalet and Schwartz dipped Sara’s feet in water, similar to the mikvah in which she had just been immersed to be converted to Judaism, and spoke movingly of their long journey in bringing her into their family.

Kalet also wore a necklace of a gold Colombian fertility goddess, which they had purchased when they went to get Sara.

“To have a ritual way of welcoming her was just so meaningful on so many levels. It helped us focus on the transition from being infertile to having it all be over and having her be with us,” Kalet said. “Plus it was just fun to have a party.”

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The Circuit

Leave a Comment / Circuit /

The Honorable Mr. Villaraigosa

The Circuit was there when the Israel Humanitarian Foundation (IHF) held its annual fundraising dinner. And don’t ever accuse IHF — the outreach organization that supports humanitarian, educational, and health efforts throughout the United States and Israel — of not being topical. This year’s International Humanitarian Award honoree was mayoral hopeful Antonio Villaraigosa, at the height of the campaign season, no less.

Originally slated for late 2000, the dinner had to be postponed following last October’s outbreak of Middle East violence, to which the IHF responded with immediate assistance.

“Israel knows and values what you have done,” said Israel Consul General Yuval Rotem. “IHF has only redoubled its efforts for Israel in its time of need.”

Villaraigosa, who skipped a broadcast debate with his rival candidates to attend the IHF affair, brought something rare to the event — his family. Wife Corina, who seldom appears at public events, came with daughter Natalia and son Antonio Jr. Villaraigosa noted this as testimony to how important the evening was to his family.

According to IHF’s National Campaign Director and Western Region Executive Director Geoffrey Gee, the point of the evening was not to back a political candidate but to thank “a longtime and beloved friend of Israel and the Jewish people.” Gee and Rick Icaza, who co-chaired the event with Ron Burkle, pointed to Villaraigosa’s aggressive campaign to promote Jewish-Hispanic relations; his help in securing state-tax exemptions on Holocaust reparation monies; his outreach during the North Valley JCC shooting incident; and his participation in the Jewish Federation’s Super Sunday campaign.

“You have picked a most honorary gentleman,” agreed Terri Smooke, special liaison to Gov. Gray Davis. “Antonio’s priorities are the same as the IHF: education, health, community, and helping those in need.”

Retired medical researcher Dr. Bracha Rachmilewitz, who had flown in from Jerusalem, recounted her harrowing childhood odyssey of survival during the Holocaust. Rachmilewitz is proud of her association with IHF, which, she said, works for the day when “there will be no concentration camps, no displacement camps, no Exodus.”

Before the event began, Villaraigosa shared with the Circuit memories of his Roosevelt High School days living in multiethnic Boyle Heights, where Latino, Jewish, Armenian, and Japanese immigrants lived side by side.

“It really was the Ellis Island of the West,” he said.

From the podium, Villaraigosa spoke of the two seminal influences on his young life: his late mother, Natalia, who was “ahead of her time,” he said, bringing together people of all ethnicities in her home, and Herman Katz, the Boyle Heights teacher who saw potential in the young Villaraigosa (by his own account, a troubled youth coming from a home filled with alcoholism and domestic abuse). Katz encouraged Villaraigosa to continue his education, even paying for his SAT.

But the special person in Villaraigosa’s life these days is his wife, whom he thanked from the podium before praising the rich cultural tapestry that is Los Angeles and the rewards of community involvement.

“It’s not enough for us to be doctors and lawyers or even the mayor of L.A. The point is not to go up to the mountain alone. The point is to bring people with you up to the mountain, to give back.”

That’s something that both Villaraigosa and IHF vow to continue doing.

For more information on Israel Humanitarian Foundation, call (888) 732-5391 or go to www.ihf.net.

Foundation Donations

Mark Lainer, chairman of the board of the Jewish Community Foundation, presented the CLARE Foundation with a $5,000 grant toward its Detox/Primary program. Funds will go toward the purchase of new linens, comforters and pillows for the program’s formerly homeless participants.

The foundation also presented a $10,000 grant to Operation Unity, a program targeting at-risk public high school students. The grant will be used to fund the Operation Unity Young Ambassadors of Harmony Speakers Bureau, composed of high school participants in the organization’s 6-week Kibbutz Program in Israel, said the program’s founder and executive director, Cookie Lommel.

Since 1954, the Jewish Community Foundation has become the largest central clearinghouse of Jewish philanthropy in Southern California, with assets of more than $318 million.

Academy’s Awards

More than 1,000 guests were present as Dr. Isaac Wiener and Geraldine Golomb Wiener were honored for their service to Harkham Hillel Hebrew Academy at its 52nd Annual Scholarship Banquet. D’or L’Dor recipients Moishe and Rivka Loboda and Alumna of the Year Lulu Ezra Fensten were also honored.

Marilyn Golomb Selber, Geraldine Wiener’s sister, announced the endowment of the Dr. Morris and Eve Golomb Excellence in Teaching Award, which will be presented annually to an outstanding member of the Academy’s faculty at the school’s graduation ceremonies.

Special Delivery

This year, Robert Klein took to the mic and unspooled his trademark social observations for Comedy Night at the Hollywood Palladium, an annual membership-drive tradition sponsored by The Guardians of the Jewish Home for the Aging of Greater Los Angeles.

Ghetto Gathering

A special tribute will be held commemorating the 1943 Warsaw Ghetto Uprising at the Los Angeles Yiddish Culture Club. The Workmen’s Circle/Arbeter Ring, Yiddishkayt L.A., The Sholem Community, Emma Lazarus Jewish Women’s Club, Society for Humanistic Judaism, Progressive Jewish Alliance, Labor Zionist Alliance, Meretz USA-Hashomer Hatzair and the Los Angeles Yiddish Culture Club will co-sponsor the event, which is free to the public. For information, call (310) 552-2007.

Contest of Champions

Two triumphs to report…

Elana Simon of Temple Ahavat Shalom is one of six winners of a nationwide “Tsa’ar Ba’alei Chayyim” (compassion for the suffering of animals) 2000-2001 Contest,” sponsored by Concern for Helping Animals in Israel (CHAI) and the Schechter Foundation…

Jewish Television Network’s first-year PBS show, “New Jewish Cuisine,” with host Jeff Nathan, has received a nomination from the James Beard Foundation in the category of Viking Range Best National Television Cooking Show. The annual awards are given for excellence in the field of food and wine.

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High Morale

Leave a Comment / Worldwide /

As Israeli-Palestinian violence hits the six-month mark, Israeli military officials report that soldiers remain motivated to serve in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

Senior military officials report that reservists, who account for 70 percent of the army’s 639,150 troops, are reporting for duty at higher rates than before the intifada began. This contrasts with past years, when reservists often found excuses to evade service.

According to Brig. Gen. Avinoam Laufer, head of the Israel Defense Force’s (IDF) planning and logistics division, about 95 percent of reservists who have recently been drafted have reported for duty.

This compares to about 85 percent who reported for duty before Palestinian violence began last September.

“The feeling among reservists, like in the public at large, is that something must be done,” Laufer said, adding that in recent years soldiers’ motivation has tended to rise when times got tougher.

The army does not yet have clear indications about how the intifada is affecting new recruits or conscripted soldiers.

Soldiers currently being drafted were polled about their attitudes last year, before the wave of violence began.

Those polls indicated that there had then been a 4 percent decline in the motivation of young Israelis to serve in combat units.

That decline came against the backdrop of political developments in which Israel appeared to be on the brink of peace deals, Laufer said.

“When there is a feeling that we are moving toward a good peace, motivation tends to decline,” he said. “When the situation deteriorates, motivation goes up.”

Nevertheless, Laufer admits that during the first intifada, between 1987 and 1993, there was a clear deterioration in the motivation of reservists to serve as the conflict dragged on and soldiers were called repeatedly to police the Palestinians.

The apparent increase in motivation, as measured in terms of reserve turnout, comes amid a rising death toll.

Since the violence began in late September, 67 Israelis — 38 civilians and 29 soldiers — have been killed by the Palestinians.

Israel has killed at least 348 Palestinians over the same period.

For Israel, the death toll is very high when compared with the number killed by Hezbollah gunmen during the last five years of the Israeli presence in southern Lebanon.

Between 1995 and 1999, about 25 Israeli soldiers were killed in Lebanon. Even that death toll was enough to break the Israeli consensus over maintaining a presence there.

Palestinians were jubilant when Israel withdrew from Lebanon last year, citing Hezbollah’s war as a model the Palestinians themselves should follow.

Israeli military officials, however, said the Palestinians were making a “crude miscalculation” if they hope to copy Hezbollah tactics and wear down Israeli society and military morale through a war of attrition.

If the Palestinians concluded from the Lebanon case “that with a big enough pile of bodies we will go home or go somewhere else,” they misunderstood Israeli policy, said one military official, speaking on condition of anonymity.

“If that’s the logic, if they think they will pile up the numbers and get a Lebanon outcome, it’s a historic confusion of the accidental and the existential,” the official said.

Military assessments of Israel’s staying power come amid reports that the Palestinians may be reassessing their strategy.

Some Palestinians are said to be calling for public protests with a lower level of violence, alongside the guerrilla-style warfare by armed militias that has been the staple in recent months — and that has cost the Palestinians a degree of international sympathy.

As recently as Sunday, however, another Israeli was wounded in a drive-by shooting in the West Bank.

While the continued violence appears to have rallied Israeli soldiers and society behind the national unity government’s refusal to negotiate under fire, there are some signs of cracks in the consensus.

Yesh Gvul, the movement that supports soldiers who refuse to serve in the West Bank or Gaza Strip, says it has handled 10 cases of conscripted soldiers and fielded calls from up to 80 reservists who refuse to help suppress the current intifada, including a “high proportion” of junior officers.

Yesh Gvul — Hebrew for “there’s a limit” — was created to protest Israel’s presence in Lebanon.

The group says 168 reservists went to prison during the 1982 Lebanon War for refusing to serve, while another 200 went to prison during the 1987-1993 Palestinian intifada.

Even the relatively small numbers are significant, however, since in the past, young conscripted soldiers almost never dared to challenge military discipline by refusing to serve, according to Peretz Kidron, a Yesh Gvul activist.

Kidron also said that most reservists who refuse to serve in the territories have been given other assignments instead of jail time, as the army wants to avoid public controversies that might affect morale.

“Outright refusal is the tip of the iceberg, and that has an enormous impact on army morale far beyond the numbers involved,” Kidron said. “They know that every time they throw one guy in jail, another 10 get the idea.”

Kidron also said Yesh Gvul has found in the past that many reservists will heed the call of duty the first time around but will think twice if called up again.

Tamar Hermann, director of the Tami Steinmitz Center for Peace Research at Tel Aviv University, said Israelis from across the political spectrum are rallying around the flag.

“Even those Israelis who supported unilateral withdrawal from Lebanon are now much more skeptical of such a move so close to home in the West Bank,” she said.

But Hermann’s polls also show that while Israelis have a high level of confidence in the IDF, 50 percent of the respondents do not believe there is a military solution to the current conflict, compared with only 41 percent who think more force would help.

“Israelis think some force should be used to suppress rising Palestinian violence, but they do not see it as a way out of the conflict,” she said.

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Fighting Exclusion

Leave a Comment / Community /

In a Philadelphia suburb, a Reform congregation has fought for more than a year to create a synagogue on a parcel of land that for many years had been the site of a Roman Catholic novitiate. An Orthodox congregation in Los Angeles has been in court for years over their use of a private house, even though their neighbors thoroughly approve of the shul. And in New Rochelle, N.Y., a modern Orthodox congregation has been stymied in what seemed like a routine move — across the street.

Now, thanks to a 6-month-old federal law, the three congregations are starting to think they might finally prevail in their struggles with zoning and planning boards and, in some cases, neighbors.

Thus far, however, only one religious institution has won its case under the new law, the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act (RLUIPA), according to a Web site devoted to the legislation (www.rluipa.org).

A U.S. District Court judge ruled in December that a small church could occupy a storefront in Grand Haven, Mich. Church officials had been told by the town that religious meetings and worship were not permitted at that location under city zoning laws, though private clubs, fraternal organizations and other assemblies were allowed in the zone.


Nunnery OK

Lacking its own building, Kol Ami in suburban Philadelphia has rented space for services and for its Hebrew school from theaters and other schools and facilities. Leaders thought they had found a perfect site in Abington Township — an 11-acre wooded parcel with a chapel that they could adapt and another building that could be altered for its school and offices. And the order of nuns who own the site were hoping that the purchaser would maintain it for religious uses.

But nearby residents said the synagogue would bring excessive noise and traffic and would lower the value of their homes. Township officials, meanwhile, dispute whether the synagogue would constitute a so-called “continued use” of the site under a current exception.

This month the zoning board ruled against the congregation, saying that the latter’s claim under the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act was not timely and that the township’s zoning ordinance “does not unreasonably limit” religious assemblies or institutions. The congregation, which has already spent $100,000 for lawyers and consultants, is girding for the costs and tsuris of an appeal.


City of Angels

Etz Chaim of Hancock Park, a tiny Orthodox congregation in Los Angeles, has had nothing but grief since it moved into its current site about seven years ago, said its rabbi, Chaim Rubin.

Etz Chaim is a shtiebel, a synagogue in a home, and its members are mostly elderly and disabled. For most of them, it is the only shul they can walk to.

But houses of worship are forbidden within the Hancock Park residential zone. At the behest of a residents’ group, the city of Los Angeles has successfully fought the congregation’s bid for a special-use permit in local and state courts. The shul is appealing the matter in federal court and has spent more than $50,000 in the process.

For a generation, Rabbi Rubin’s parents’ home was a shtiebel in the same neighborhood, but the congregation outgrew it. Its members purchased a home, which, he noted, is “at the corner of two secondary highway thoroughfares, traveled by some 84,000 cars daily.” For daily prayer, a small minyan meets each morning for about half an hour and again at sundown for another half-hour, Rubin testified to Congress. On Shabbat, as many as 50 men and women walk to and from the shul.

“That is all we do.”

Rubin noted that the zoning ordinance primarily hurts Orthodox Jews, because they must live within walking distance from their shul. “Our right to pray in our neighborhood has been, at best, ignored, or probably more accurately, trampled upon,” he said, adding that he believes the primary reason the residents’ group is opposing the shul so strongly is their concern that it will attract more Orthodox Jews to the neighborhood.

The congregation, Rubin said, has had to spend $50,000 on lobbying and application fees. The expense would be significantly greater were it not for a neighbor who happens to be the managing partner of a Los Angeles law firm that is handling the case pro bono.

“I’m thrilled with” the RLUIPA, Rubin said, adding he hopes that when the case comes up in federal court in July, it will make Los Angeles “start doing business a little differently than it did before.”

A Garage for Nondrivers

Things are no better for Young Israel of New Rochelle, N.Y., a modern Orthodox congregation that for the past six years has sought to move to a larger site diagonally across from its current location, according to Michael Turek, financial secretary and chairman of community relations for the 245-family shul.

Overcrowding has gotten so bad, Turek said, that the congregation has to hold three separate Shabbat morning services, each is standing room only. On the High Holidays, he continued, the synagogue has four simultaneous prayer groups, each in a separate room.

To ease neighbors’ opposition, the congregation has even offered to build an underground parking lot, despite the fact that congregants will walk to the shul on Shabbat. It has also offered to reduce the size of its planned social hall and have voluntarily “mandated to use it only for member-family life-cycle events,” Turek said.

He said environmental and other studies, as well as attorneys’ fees and other expenses incurred in trying to gain a zoning variance, have “cost us hundreds of thousands of dollars, even though we haven’t put a shovel in the ground.” And that is before the zoning hearing has even begun. Turek said he hopes that will take place by the summer. And now he hopes the federal law will bring a happy result.


Provisions of the Law

The Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act, which President Clinton signed into law last September, was meant to restore some of the safeguards for religious institutions that were lost when the U.S. Supreme Court struck down the Religious Freedom Restoration Act in 1997.
The new law says, “No government shall impose or implement a land-use regulation in a manner that imposes a substantial burden on the religious exercise of a person, including a religious assembly or institution.” It also says, “No government shall impose or implement a land-use regulation in a manner that treats a religious assembly or institution on less-than-equal terms with a nonreligious assembly or institution.”

There are exceptions if the government demonstrates there is “a compelling governmental interest,” and the zoning law is “the least restrictive means of furthering that compelling governmental interest,” the law states.

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