fbpx

GET HOME DELIVERY! CLICK HERE »

ADVERTISE
pick up locations
HOME DELIVERY
donate

Jewish Journal

Connect. Inform. Inspire.

March 14, 2002

L.A. Trembles

Leave a Comment / Community /

Although "Trembling Before G-d" has enjoyed a successful theatrical run in Los Angeles, drawing in theatergoers is only part of the mission of Sandi Simcha DuBowski’s documentary about gay Orthodox Jews struggling to reconcile conflicting parts of their identities.

"Dialogue is what the film is about, ultimately," said Dr. Mark Kramer, the national education outreach coordinator working for "Trembling." In terms of using the film to start a dialogue with Orthodox rabbis and their congregations, Kramer said, "Los Angeles has been a tough nut to crack."

The film, which broke box office records for a documentary in New York, was also well received there by nearly a dozen Orthodox rabbis, who hosted post-screening discussions of the film with congregants. When Congregation B’nai David-Judea hosted a screening of the film on March 9, it became the first — and so far the only — synagogue in Los Angeles to do so.

Rabbi Yosef Kanefsky of B’nai David-Judea, the only Orthodox rabbi who did agree to the screening, originally planned to take a more conservative approach, screening the film privately with the synagogue’s board of directors. "There was a lot more interest in viewing it as a synagogue community than we anticipated," said Kanefsky, who agreed to congregants’ requests. Approximately 200 congregants filled the synagogue’s auditorium to watch the film and discuss its implications with their rabbi.

After a closed-door session, three of the film’s subjects joined the group to answer questions. Los Angeles resident David and Florida couple Leah and Malka — who only go by their first names in the film and in person — addressed an audience as curious about the individual, personal questions the three faced, as the halachic possibilities for Orthodoxy and homosexuality.

Congregants’ reactions to the documentary reflect Orthodox Judaism’s opposition to the issue of homosexuality and a desire to show compassion, especially for homosexuals who live otherwise Torah-observant lives. "The film was persuasive for me in defining homosexuality as not a choice," said one woman at the B’nai David-Judea screening, who declined to give her name. "Where people are struggling with who they are, that was important to me as far as, I don’t want to say accepting, but as far as understanding," she added.

Not everyone in the audience was swayed by the film, however. One man spoke to the widespread concern that gay Orthodox Jews are trying to change halacha, or Jewish law. "I think there’s things in life you just can’t reconcile," he said. "It was a good film, but I don’t know what they want from us. Do they want a sign outside, ‘We Welcome Homosexuals’?"

But even among those in the audience who remained troubled by homosexuality, the individuals from the film who addressed them were warmly welcomed. "I think I’ve always had a concern about the gay subculture, not gay people," said one congregant. "The subculture troubles me. But the people here tonight, they’re part of our subculture. Tonight helped me separate that out."

Some people involved in promoting the film in the Orthodox community believe that fear of judgment from their colleagues explains rabbis’ resistance to the film, rather than a perceived anti-halachic message. "Rabbis are very concerned with the political ramifications of getting involved with the film," said Yehiel Hoffman, who volunteered to help promote the film within the Orthodox community in Los Angeles.

Though Rabbi Yitzchok Adlerstein, the director of Project Next Step for the Simon Wiesenthal Center, has not seen "Trembling," he did consult with Rabbi Avi Shafran on Shafran’s article in The Journal that called the film "incomplete and distorted." "It quickly becomes apparent what tack the film takes," said Adlerstein, who believes the filmmaker and advocates of "Trembling" want to reinterpret halacha to make homosexuality more acceptable. "The notion of reinterpreting is anathema to halachic life," he said.

"Trembling" subject David sees the goals of the film’s outreach program differently. "At the very most we want halacha to be reexamined," he says, "But at the very least, I want families not to reject their children, and kids not to reject themselves and commit suicide. For a rabbi to say he’s not going to screen the film, I think that’s disgraceful; I think that’s not Jewish. It’s saying we don’t want to discuss this, we want this to go away."

Adlerstein explains his opposition to the film: "On one hand, there is value in an educated laity, and open discussion, but it can also be seen as liberalizing some of the rules, and that’s where you get into trouble. Some will say, see, the Orthodox community is already changing."

"Even before the movie was released, I felt we ought to be doing something," Kanefsky said. "The law is the law, but there are a whole slew of attitudinal issues to deal with." But he adds, "The purpose of the screening and discussion was not to kick-start a process of changing halacha."

For DuBowski, who like his documentary subjects is both devout and openly gay, the discussion is the purpose. "The Orthodox community has the compassionate resources to deal with this," he told The Journal.

But as David says and all involved can certainly agree, "This is a very touchy subject."

L.A. Trembles Read More »

A Cup of Varon ‘Soup’

Leave a Comment / Entertainment /

Satirist Charlie Varon has a vision of the Messianic age, and it’s, well, crowded: "If everyone who ever lived ends up in Jerusalem, where’re you going to put 12 billion people?"

The acclaimed San Francisco solo performer, who regularly studies Torah, explores some of his Jewish questions in "Soup of the Day," which comes to the Beverly Hills Public Library March 21. Mixed into "Soup’s" eight monologues are riffs on what Torah says you can’t eat (vultures and bats are out), and the fate of the woman who grabs an enemy’s privates (her hand gets cut off). "It’s hysterically funny that they even thought to put this stuff in," said Varon, 43, who wrote the piece with collaborator David Ford during a feverish 10-day rehearsal period. "It’s like, what’s this doing in our holiest book? You’ve gotta struggle with it or laugh."

Varon, previously a lapsed Reform Jew, wasn’t laughing the day he first walked into a Jewish Renewal movement Torah study group two years ago. He’d been losing weight and battling anxiety and insomnia since performing "The People’s Violin," his 20-character monologue about a man struggling to find his Jewish identity. Torah, he discovered, was "much better than psychotherapy. There’s power in something that has thousands of years of resonance."

But Varon, whose previous shows have skewered Rush Limbaugh and Ralph Nader, couldn’t resist a little irreverence. In a "Soup" bit titled "Moses and Buddha," he made sure to kvetch about the slaughter of the Caananites and Jebusites. While Conservative Jews may raise eyebrows, Varon’s unfazed. "The Jewish [radical] Emma Goldman once said, ‘If I can’t dance, I don’t want to be part of your revolution,’" he noted. "I’d update that to say, ‘If I can’t make jokes, I don’t want to be part of your religion.’"

For information about Varon’s upcoming show, call (310) 471-3979.

A Cup of Varon ‘Soup’ Read More »

Women Who Don’t Need Men

Leave a Comment / Entertainment, Film /

When Jennifer Westfeldt and Heather Juergensen shared bunk beds at a 1996 Catskills theater workshop, they swapped stories about Mars-Venus angst.

Westfeldt, an Upper West Side Jew, was breaking up with her college boyfriend and dating for the first time. Juergensen, a downtown bohemian, was juggling three guys and feeling guilty. Their girl talk led to a 1997 play and a movie, "Kissing Jessica Stein" (now in theaters), in which two women escape heterosexual hell by dating each other.

The frothy if sometimes clichéd romance, a lesbian take on "Sex and the Single Girl," puts a new spin on the saga of the befuddled single woman ("Annie Hall" meets "Bridget Jones’ Diary"). Stein (Westfeldt) is a prudish Upper West Side Jewish copy editor with a mean ex-boyfriend and an overbearing mom (Tovah Feldshuh), who thinks she’s too picky. On a whim, she answers the perfect personal ad — except it’s in the women-seeking-women section. She meets Helen (Juergensen), a promiscuous, "bi-curious" Chelsea gallery owner. The comedy veers into bedroom farce when Jessica’s mom invites Helen to Shabbat dinner.

Westfeldt dates her relationship woes to her childhood in a WASPY Connecticut town. "My mom would say, ‘Why don’t you date a nice Jewish boy, and I’d say, ‘Because this one’s ugly and that one’s crazy,’ she recalls. "That’s how many Jewish boys there were around."

When the family shleped into Manhattan to B’nai Jeshurun services — today the ultimate singles’ synagogue — led by Westfeldt’s esteemed great-uncle, the late Rabbi Marshall Meyer, mom pointed out cute guys for young Jennifer to check out. The memories inspired a "Stein" Yom Kippur scene in which Jessica’s mother is so obnoxious, Stein finally blurts: "Will you shut up? I’m trying to atone!"

Though the characters’ dating histories are loosely based on the authors’, Westfeldt and Juergensen, both "30-ish" say they’ve never dated women (including each other). But Westfeldt insists the concept isn’t far-fetched. "While writing the story, we interviewed dozens of women, straight, gay, crossed-over, crossed-back," says the actress. "Plus, we all have these wonderfully close women friends, and lots of us wonder, ‘What if my girlfriend made the perfect b.f.?’"

The film also features hilariously exaggerated versions of the authors’ crummiest dates: The lech who suggestively rubbed his chest; the nerd who meticulously split the check; the malaprop-prone doofus who declared he was a "self-defecating guy." "Like Jessica, I’m something of a wordsmith, so that was absolute torture," says Westfeldt, a Yale theater grad.

Less icky was rehearsing her first girl-on-girl smooch, courtesy of Juergensen, though "We were both nervous," she confides.

Juergensen, an earthy lapsed Protestant, agrees: "I knew there wasn’t a man attached to those lips, but eventually our professionalism kicked in," she says.

After their 1997 play version of "Kissing," "Lipschtick," created a deafening Hollywood buzz, Westfeldt and Juergensen were barraged by studio offers. "Our play closed on a Saturday, and by Monday my agent’s phone was ringing off the hook," says Westfeldt, who previously starred in the ABC sitcom "Two Guys, a Girl and a Pizza Place."

"It was the classic Hollywood bull—- machine; people were like, ‘We need to sit down with these girls and option their play, but they hadn’t seen it or read it or met us.’" Eventually, the actresses sold the script and completed more than 100 rewrites, but decided to go independent when their dating-hell flick turned into development hell. Westfeldt’s favorite indie film moment: The time they shot in a cab with the sound guy locked in the trunk. &’9;

The filmmakers’ perseverance paid off when they sold "Stein" to Fox Searchlight and won the audience award for best feature at the 2001 Los Angeles Film Festival. Observers compared them to Matt Damon and Ben Affleck, who also jump-started their acting careers by writing a scrappy independent film (1997’s "Good Will Hunting").

Since then, the actresses have encountered criticism from people who charge that "Stein" suggests sexuality is a choice. "But we had no interest in a political agenda," Westfeldt says. "We just wanted to show how diverse we all are." That’s why she thinks "Stein " would have pleased her famously progressive great uncle, who welcomed gays at B’nai Jeshurun and chastised the Conservative movement for refusing to ordain homosexuals. "The movie is all about tolerance and acceptance," Westfeldt says.

During a lighter moment, she notes that viewers still assume she and Juergensen are lesbians (they actually live with their respective boyfriends in Los Angeles). "People ask us, and we say no," she says, with a laugh. "But we’re almost embarrassed to admit we’re not."

Women Who Don’t Need Men Read More »

Expressions of Evil

Leave a Comment / Entertainment /

I have seen each of the works planned for the "Mirroring Evil: Nazi Imagery/Recent Art" exhibit slated to run March 17-June 30 at the Jewish Museum in New York. I have seen the video and have most recently, after the exhibition became controversial, been party to the discussion. While not every piece is to my liking, every work in the show has a point. (The show focuses on 13 contemporary, internationally recognized artists who use imagery from the Nazi era to explore the nature of evil.)

Each tells us something important, either about our world and ourselves or about the killers and their world. Some pieces offend — deliberately and provocatively. (Exhibits include "Giftgas Giftset," by Tom Sachs, which features colorful poison gas canisters with Tiffany, Chanel and Prada logos; Zbigniew Libera’s "LEGO Concentration Camp Set," and Alan Schechner’s "It’s the Real Thing: Self-Portrait at Buchenwald," a self-portrait of the artist holding a Diet Coke superimposed over a photo of Buchenwald inmates.)

Religious Christians who have never faced the dark side of Christian anti-Semitism will be offended to see that with proper lighting, the cross can be transformed into a swastika, but the offense reveals a painful truth that it is better we — Christians and non-Christians alike — confront than avoid.

Menachem Rosensaft, the distinguished child of survivors and brother of one of the 6 million Jews who were killed, was offended by the Lego set that resembled a concentration camp, replete with barracks and perhaps even crematoria. Perhaps they are right. But, perhaps Robert Jan Van Pelt is more insightful when he recovered the plans that allowed architects and ovenmakers, builders and planners to create a place where 35,000 prisoners were herded into barracks with only 70 latrines, without adequate water and with only one exit. Van-Pelt has demonstrated that the excremental assault, which Bruno Bettelheim once blamed on the victims for succumbing to their infantalization, was a deliberate part of the architectural planning, the most predictable result of their planning efforts.

Boys can assemble toys — ugly toys. Men can build big toys –death camps where systematic murder is commonplace. If a Lego set can make that point, it has much to say, even if it offends. If it is seen in this light, it will not offend.

I am not fond of the picture in which a child of concentration camp survivors puts himself inside the Buchenwald barracks with a Diet Coke can. As one who has wrestled with the exhibition of Holocaust artifacts and photographs, I do not like retouching or transforming original images. It falsifies, even if it reveals.

Yet, by their masterful writings, Elie Wiesel and Primo Levi have put those of us who were not there back into the concentration camp. What child of survivors has not put himself/herself in the camp? What student of the Shoah has not attempted to penetrate the inner kingdom of night?

The Passover hagaddah bids the Jews: "In every generation one must see oneself as if he emerged from Egypt." Future generations may hear the same admonition regarding the Holocaust. The picture may teach us humility. We cannot enter that kingdom of night. We can only approach as if we were there.

Those of us who study the experience of life and death within the camps have learned to respect the experience of the survivors. Wiesel has said, time and again, that "only those who were there will ever know and those who were there can never tell." That cannot be the end of our journey, because we have to listen to those who have spoken — however inadequate may be some of their words. But in the end, our attempts to get there are futile, as this artwork so clearly demonstrates.

I don’t like confronting the eroticism of the Nazi world, but unless we do, we will neither understand its power nor our ongoing fascination with its perpetrator. At its best, art raises provocative questions. And this exhibit, together with its catalogue and its public programs will certainly provoke. Such is its virtue. But it is not provocation for its own sake. This art provokes because the Shoah provokes.

Abraham Foxman, a survivor of the Holocaust and the longtime director of Anti-Defamation League, has said that the exhibition is premature. "Not in the life of the survivors," he said, but he too may be wrong. The exhibition deals with not how we understand victimization, but how we approach the perpetrators. The offense is not a trivialization of the dead or the means by which they were killed but a confrontation with their killers.

Let the question be asked: Can we confront the perpetrators without in some way doing violence to the victims? Permit me to speak from experience. I worked as a consultant to HBO’s Emmy Award-winning film, "Conspiracy," which was a reenactment of the Wannsee Conference, the Jan. 20, 1942, meeting convened by Reinhard Heydrich and attended by 15 high-ranking German and Nazi party officials, at which the "Final Solution to the Jewish Question" was coordinated. The victims were not present at that table; they were inconsequential.

The killers spoke a language that did violence to their victims and to portray that history, we had to use that language. Not every portrayal of the Holocaust can be a memorial to its victims. Even some great works of history, such as Raul Hilberg’s magisterial work, "The Destruction of the European Jews," which considered the Holocaust from the record of German documentation, offended the victims.

But there is a corrective. Let survivors speak with these artists. Let the artists speak in the presence of the survivors. Let the conversation be genuine. The chambers of the Jewish Museum are safe enough, open enough and respectful enough for it to be the forum where generations talk to one another deferentially, openly, seriously.

The Jewish Museum has responded to the complaints by doing what museums do best: preserving the exhibition and respecting the freedom of the visitor to see the exhibition without imposing the most controversial works on those visitors who want to see the rest of the exhibition but not the controversial pieces. By its signage, it will warn visitors of what they are about to see. By the exhibition path, no one will have to come across one the three pieces that some found offensive.

To realize what this means, we should understand the difference between a film and a museum exhibition. A film has a captive audience and moving imagery. A museum has captive imagery and a moving audience. The Jewish Museum will respect the freedom of movement of the visitors so they can see what they want to see and — equally importantly — not to see what they do not want to see. By signage, by placing a piece or two behind a screen and by providing a mouse for the visitor who chooses to see a computer screen, the visitor’s freedom is preserved — all visitors — those who appreciate these works, those who are offended by them and even those who appreciate the work even as it offends.

Let the exhibition open, let the works be seen in context and then let the criticism begin. Perhaps Rosensaft and Foxman are right and their views will prevail, or perhaps we have reached a moment where the intergenerational transition is well underway. Better such a discussion should occur in the presence of those who were there — with their overwhelming moral stature — then when it is too late to receive their searing criticism and respond.

Expressions of Evil Read More »

Now Hear This

Leave a Comment / Entertainment /

Jewish (and other) radio listeners will be able to time travel back to the world of their immigrant ancestors when "The Yiddish Radio Project" debuts March 19 on stations coast-to-coast.

The 10-part National Public Radio (NPR) series will resurrect the golden age of the Yiddish radio, roughly from 1930-1955, with its rich daily fare of dramas, music, game shows, advice columnists, talent shows, man-on-the-street interviews and commercials for Manischewitz matzah and Barbasol shaving cream.

Among the highlights will be the amazing story of "Levine and His Flying Machine," Yiddish melodies in swing, sage advice by "The Jewish Philosopher" C. Israel Lutsky, the gripping dramas of Nahum Stutchkoff and Rabbi Rubin’s "Court of the Air." Showcased will be Seymour Rexite (the Frank Sinatra of Yiddish radio) singing "The Battle Hymn of the Republic" and "Surrey with the Fringe on Top" in the mamaloshen.

For the linguistically challenged, English translations will be rendered by the likes of Carl Reiner and Eli Wallach.

The 10 segments will air on consecutive Tuesday afternoons, March 19-May 21, during NPR’s "All Things Considered" program.

Complementing the radio programs will be a live touring company presenting a multimedia show with archival photos, radio excerpts, projected English translations and music by the Yiddish Radio All-Star Band, whose five instrumentalists range in age from 62 to 84.

Included will be a documentary on the last of the radio segments, dating from 1947, in which a Holocaust survivor — before the term was even in use — is reunited with relatives live on the air.

In Los Angeles, the show’s one-night stand will be on April 15 at the Skirball Cultural Center, sponsored jointly by KCRW and the National Foundation for Jewish Culture.

Responsible for the radio series are historian-musician Henry Sapoznik and producer David Isay, founder of Sound Portraits Productions, who will also host the live show.

Historically, Yiddish was the language of some 2 million Jewish immigrants who came to America from Eastern Europe at the turn of the last century. As the last great wave arrived at Ellis Island in the 1920s, radio was beginning to make its mark on American society.

The Jewish immigrants embraced the new medium and, by the early 1930s, Yiddish radio flourished across the country, with more than a dozen such stations in New York alone.

In 1985, Sapoznik came across a large reference recording of one of the Yiddish radio programs. These recordings were required by the Federal Radio Commission so it could investigate any complaints about the content.

The recordings were mainly on large acetate discs with aluminum base, most of which were melted down during World War II scrap metal drives.

For the next 15 years, Sapoznik searched through attics, storerooms and even trash cans and rescued more than 1,000 of the fragile discs for his archives.

The radio project will also spawn two CDs. The first set will feature music and commercials from the broadcasts. The second set, not available until the fall, will include stories from the series and a historical account of the rise and fall of Yiddish radio.

The series will air on KCRW (89.9 FM) in Santa Monica at 5:30 p.m. and on KPCC (89.3 FM) in Pasadena at 3:30 p.m. Following each of the 10 radio segments, the program will be available online via Real Audio at www.npr.org. To order the broadcasts on CD, visit www.yiddishradioproject.org. For tickets to the live broadcast at the Skirball, call (323) 655-8587.

Now Hear This Read More »

The Circuit

Leave a Comment / Circuit /

Bravo For SoCal’s Educators and Administrators!

You might call him the event’s “grand Marshall.”

Garry Marshall — director of “Pretty Woman” and “The Princess Diaries” and creator of TV shows such as “The Odd Couple” and “Happy Days” — hosted this year’s 20th annual Bravo Awards, as he had last year…and the year before…and every other year since the inception of the event that recognizes the achievements Southern California’s educators, school administrators and schools.

Goofing on the banquet’s expensive centerpieces, Marshall quipped, “Someone in the art classes, they should say, ‘We’ll do the centerpieces.'”

Marshall was all jokes, but his devotion to the cause, sponsored by the Music Center Education Division, is very serious.

This year, Arcadia High School was singled out from among 11 schools for top honors. Also honored were choral music teacher Mike Short of Orange High School; Laura Hamlett, second-grade teacher at Eagle Rock Elementary; Jennifer Fry, a fifth-grade teacher at Meadows Elementary in Thousand Oaks; and Jeff Lantos, fifth-grade teacher at Marquez Elementary in Pacific Palisades.

The Millennium Biltmore gala was sponsored by Club 100, a Music Center membership support organization headed by President Astrid Rottman. Club 100 member Janice Wallace chaired the event, while Sharon Reisz served as the Bravo endowment chair. Music Center CEO Andrea Van de Kamp, Music Center President Joanne Kozberg, and state Superintendent of Public Instruction Delaine Eastin all graced the stage, as did the John Burroughs High School Chamber Choir and the Washington Preparatory High School Jazz Band, both of which performed at the event.

At The Circuit’s table sat Mark Slavkin. It was about this time last year that Slavkin assumed the post of Music Center Education Division director, taking over the position from Joan Boyett, who created the arts education branch in 1979. Slavkin oversees a staff of 30 and a budget of $4.8 million annually, which goes toward sending visual and performing artists to 1 million children in LAUSD and private schools throughout L.A. County.

Accompanying Slavkin at the banquet was his wife of 16 years, Debbie Slavkin. The Slavkins, USC sweethearts, belong to B’nai Tikvah in Westchester.

“Regardless of the work, he’s very much a people person, interested in the back story because that’s what makes everything tick,” said Debbie, an Arizona native.

The Circuit also kibbitzed with Los Angeles Board of Education President Caprice Young, five months pregnant with her third girl.

“It’s not just about self-esteem,” Young said, before taking to the dais for the program. “It’s about kids having the confidence to be courageous learners.”

“It’s not just exposing them to every culture but combining it with a twist on the art form,” Slavkin added, citing classes in everything from African drumming to jazz vocalists to mariachi music.

Slavkin, who has four children with Debbie, previously worked in similar capacities with the Annenberg Foundation and Getty Education Institute. He told The Circuit that there’s no better job than working with the nexus of the arts and children.

“It’s a joyous challenge,” he said, smiling.

For more information, visit www.musiccenter.org/BRAVO.html or contact Lynda Jenner, director of special projects, at (213) 202-2286.

Come on Everybody, Let’s Do the Conga…

Call this a case of banging the conga drum for a good cause. The Presidents Club, which supports Vista Del Mar Child and Family Services, held a benefit event at the Conga Room. More than 150 guests enjoyed an evening that included a buffet dinner, Latin music and Salsa lessons. The event, chaired by Cheryl Paller, raised more than $20,000 for the nonprofit, which aids children in Southern California undergoing emotional distress, abuse or neglect. Stacie and Bruce Kirshbaum, Gisele and Steve Paul and Lucienne and David Soleymani were among the evening’s co-sponsors.

For more information on Vista Del Mar, visit www.vistadelmar.org.

Freewheeling Freehling

University Synagogue will honor Rabbi Allen Freehling and his remarkable career at a Regent Beverly Wilshire banquet on April 23. After 30 years of service, Freehling will step down from his post as the synagogue’s spiritual leader at the end of June and become the shul’s first rabbi emeritus.

Come, Union!

Yoav Sarraf and a band of fellow UCLA students are creating a new organization, tentatively called the Persian Jewish Student Union. The goal is to develop a social, cultural, political and educational agenda. If you are a Persian student and you would like to get involved, contact Sarraf at (310) 749-9628.

A Lot of Shabbat

On March 8, nearly 70 synagogues across the continent participated in Shabbat Across America/Canada. Now in its sixth year, the project, sponsored by the National Jewish Outreach Program, hopes to increase and enhance synagogue life.

‘Celebration,’ a Community Invitation

Come April, Israel will turn 54. However, you don’t have to go to Israel to celebrate. The people behind “Celebration 54,” a free community celebration in honor of Israel’s 54th year as a recognized country, promise a festive family event highlighting Israeli music and dance performances, a children’s choir and a video show. The April 16 program, to be held at the Bernard Milken Jewish Community Campus in West Hills, will include an outdoor picnic on the grounds, where guests can either bring their own picnic dinners or purchase kosher food from on-site vendors. Organizers are requesting that attendees wear blue and white in honor of the occasion. Israeli dancing also is planned.

The event — sponsored by a team of Valley Alliance synagogues, schools and Jewish organizations — will kick off with a tribute to Israel’s Memorial Day. For more information, call (818) 530-5001.

The Circuit Read More »

Community Briefs

Leave a Comment / United States /

Rally for Freedom

“Avadim hayenu, ata bnei horin.” We were slaves, but now we are free. Pesach’s refrain is not true for many. For years, Charles Jacobs, along with many others, fulminated in print and in person against slavery, and particularly against those states, most notably Sudan, where slavery, slave raids and outright genocide, are major tools of a generations-old civil war pitting southern Sudanese tribal peoples against an Islamicized-Arabized central government in Khartoum. With the attack on the United States, Jacob’s call gains added poignancy: many of the organizations and states that profit from Sudan’s slavery have ties, direct and otherwise, with Islamo-fascism’s shadowy international movement. The American Anti-Slavery Group and iAbolish.com, in cooperation with the Museum of Tolerance and Standwithus.com, presented both Charles Jacobs and Francis Bok on March 14 speaking about slavery in Sudan and many international efforts to redeem Sudanese slaves from captivity. The story of Bok’s travails — abduction as a child, years of slavery and subsequent escape — give this great tragedy a personal face. Other events include: Saturday, March 16, 10:30 am, Beth Am (1055 S. La Cienega Blvd.); Saturday, March 16, 4:30 pm, B’nai David-Judea Congregation at Pico and Livonia. Rally for Freedom on Sunday, March 17, 4:00 pm, at the First AME Church at Adams and La Salle. — Dennis Gura, Contributing Writer

L.A. Armenians Protest

An Armenian rally was held in front of the Israeli Consulate on Wilshire Boulevard to protest what they allege is Israel’s refusal to recognize the Ottoman massacres as a “genocide” and a cultural tragedy akin to the Jewish Holocaust. About 70 people protested peacefully for two hours on March 7. According to Yuval Rotem, Israel consul general in Los Angeles, the anger is based on a misinterpretation of some comments Rifka Cohen, the Israeli ambassador to Armenia, made earlier this year. The rally left officials at the Israeli Consulate baffled. They believe that the anger is misplaced. “Some elements want to use it as a vehicle against Israel,” Rotem said, “which is unfortunate.”

“I understand it’s a very sensitive issue for them. It’s a horrifying thing that happened,” said Zvi Vapni, deputy consul general in Los Angeles. “But generally, Israelis have a close relationship with the Armenian people.” Vapni noted that one of the oldest quarters in Jerusalem is an Armenian community. Rotem added that after a major earthquake hit Turkey several years ago, “we were the first to go and assist them.” Vapni added, “We are not historians. We do not deny anything. They must understand that the Consulate are not the ones that make any decisions or comments on this matter.” — Staff Report

Holocaust Scholars Hold Roundtable

The Directors Roundtable is holding the Los Angeles leg of its worldwide conference at UCLA on March 20. The conference topic: “What Remembrance of the Holocaust Is Doing For Mankind.”

The Roundtable will hold parallel events in London, Paris,
Berlin, Rome, Moscow, Buenos Aires, New York, Washington D.C., Florida, and
Israel. Speakers at the conference will include a who’s who of the Holocaust
scholarship community, including Darlene Basch, Dr. Michael Berenbaum, professor
Mark Jonathan Harris, Gregory Laemmle, Curt Lowens, Dr. Gary Schiller, professor
Cornelius Schnauber, Dr. M. Mitchell Serels, the Rev. Alexei Smith (retired) and
Nick Strimple. To register, call (323) 655-7001 or e-mail your reservation to mlakediroundtbl@aol.com . — Staff Report

An ‘Open Orthodox’ Rabbinical School

Rabbi Avi Weiss visited Los Angeles last week to promote his new “open Orthodox” rabbinical school, “Yeshivat Chovivei Torah,” now in its second year in Manhattan. Weiss spoke at Temple B’nai David-Judea, the shul of his former assistant rabbi, Yosef Kanefsky. The rabbinical school offers a four-year program for men who only plan to serve as pulpit rabbis, and each student must commit to three years of community service work. (One rabbinical student might intern in Los Angeles next year.)

“Openness in Orthodoxy means the preparedness to discuss openly some of the critical issues related to the role of women, a dignified and respectful dialogue with the Conservative and Reform,” Weiss said. “We believe we can transform the Modern Orthodox community if there are rabbis open to dialogue with Jews of all backgrounds — this could be phenomenally impactful. Weiss, a longtime activist on behalf of Soviet Jewry and Israel, called this project “the highlight of my life.” — Staff Report

Culver City Peace Debate

More than 100 people attended a lecture “Is an Israeli-Palestinian Peace Treaty Possible?” at Culver City’s Temple Akiba on March 10. A spirited debate took place between David Pine, western regional director of Americans for Peace Now, and Jerry Blume, spokesperson for Americans for a Safe Israel.

The audience at the Reform temple, most over the age of 50, expressed anger over suicide bombings, and disappointment with both Yasser Arafat and Ariel Sharon. While both advocates strongly support Israel, they presented different solutions to the current crisis.

“Jews argue,” concluded Rabbi Allen S. Maller, who moderated the debate. “That’s what we do best.” — Eric H. Roth, Contributing Writer

Community Briefs Read More »

CSU Might End Israel Trips

Leave a Comment / Community /

Two Cal State University (CSU) students spending their junior year on a foreign campus are enthusiastic about their experience. Ayelet Arbel loves the beautiful campus setting, the nearby beaches, the unique cultural exposure and the vibrant city life. Adam Ascherin is most impressed by the philosophy and outlook of the local people and their ready acceptance of strangers into their extended national family.

The good news, says their resident advisor Norma Tarrow, education professor at Cal State Long Beach, is that her two charges have quickly integrated into life at Haifa University and enjoy mingling with students from Europe, Canada and the East Coast states, as well as with local Arab and Druse classmates. Tarrow was among CSU faculty, who, together with the Jewish Public Affairs Committee, persuaded the administration to reinstate its overseas program in Israel after it was canceled following the outbreak of the intifada in September of 2000.

The bad news, she says, is that there are only two students from Cal State, and unless at least eight to 10 students enroll in the Israel program for the fall semester, the Cal State administration — which pays for her salary and heavily subsidizes the program — will probably have to cancel it for budgetary reasons.

Tarrow acknowledges that some applicants may have dropped out because they wanted to study at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem or Tel Aviv University. The two locations were vetoed by Cal State, which deemed Haifa — though it had two attacks with loss of lives in November — the safest major city in Israel.

Nevertheless, Tarrow is disappointed that there was not a single Cal State enrollment from the populous Jewish community in Southern California, and little time is left to turn the situation around. "By April, we will have to notify our students whether or not we will have a program in Israel for the coming fall semester," she says.

Tarrow lauds the support of Haifa University’s overseas program, which is headed by Dr. Hanan Alexander, formerly dean of students at the University of Judaism.

The two CSU students chose to enroll at the University of Haifa at a time when many other American students — and tourists — have been scared off by the continuing unrest and violence in Israel.

Not that Arbel and Ascherin are blind to the situation.

"We have been told to avoid public transportation, not to go to Jerusalem without telling our adviser and we have agreed to stay away from the West Bank and Arab neighborhoods," says Ascherin, 26, who arrived from his home campus in Chico.

Arbel, 20, from the San Jose campus, agreed to the same restrictions, but couldn’t resist visiting relatives in Jerusalem.

Ascherin and Arbel both come from Northern California and from different backgrounds.

Ascherin was raised as a Mormon, though "not diligently," he says. After viewing an exhibit on the 1936 "Nazi Olympics," he started reading about the Holocaust and became intensely involved.

After working as a personnel manager for Wal-Mart for five years after high school graduation, he enrolled at Chico State, majoring in business administration and in Jewish-Israel studies under Professor Sam Edelman.

He decided to spend his junior year in Israel to learn more about Judaism and to use the Holocaust archives at Yad Vashem in Jerusalem. He shares a dormitory with Israeli students, is close to mastering conversational Hebrew and downplays security concerns.

He is now weighing whether to convert to Judaism. "I am still searching, trying to find an amalgamation," Ascherin says. "But I am discovering that there is much in Judaism that I have always believed."

Arbel has had an easier time fitting in than most American students. She was born in Israel and came to California with her parents when she was 8 years old.

She speaks Hebrew fluently, which allows her to take the regular classes with Israeli students in art and art history. She also shares a dorm with five Israeli girls.

"It’s a very warm feeling here," Arbel says. "The whole culture is very open and accepting, and I already feel half an insider."

Arbel plans to return to San Jose State for her senior year, but the rest of her future is up in the air.

"I may return to Israel for a graduate degree," she says, "or just decide to live there."

CSU Might End Israel Trips Read More »

Viva la Similarities

Leave a Comment / Community /

It was a great idea: a restaurant gathering at Tomayo’s, an East Los Angeles eatery known for its vibrant Latino cultural life, hosted by Israel’s consul general in Los Angeles, that would unite Los Angeles’ Jews and Latinos.

“The idea was to bring the Jewish people to the Eastside and have half Jewish food, half Mexican food,” said Yuval Rotem, the Israeli consul general.

That event was scheduled to take place on Sept. 12. In the aftermath of the World Trade Center and Pentagon attacks, the consulate’s cross-cultural event never materialized. Six months later, on a clear March evening, 210 people set sail on a FantaSea Yacht from Marina del Rey’s Pier 52. And aboard the ship, the Israeli consulate, in conjunction with New America Alliance (NAA), finally realized its multicultural mission by holding its inaugural Jewish-Latino event.

Such bonding is only natural in Los Angeles, said Rotem of the city that happens to be home to the second-largest Jewish community and the largest Latino community in the United States.

“I think these kind of events help introduce different perceptions about each other, as well as sensitivities toward each other,” Rotem said.

“It was extremely festive,” said Naomi Rodriguez, the Israeli consulate’s liaison to the Latino community. “It was a huge party of community. It just felt like family.”

On the dinner cruise, the mariachi group Mariachi Sol de Mexico and Israeli singers, such as Pini Cohen, performed for a wide range of dignitaries from both communities.

Jewish Federation of Greater Los Angeles President John Fishel, University of Judaism President Dr. Robert Wexler, L.A. County Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky and attorney Gloria Allred were among those present from the Jewish community.

Representatives of the Latino community included Rep. Joe Baca (D-Rialto); former mayoral candidate Antonio Villaraigosa; Ruth Castro, president of the Alhambra School Board; Dorene Domiguez, NAA’s human capital committee vice chair and vice president of Vanir Construction Management, Inc.; and film producer Moctesuma Esparza.

The Jewish-Latino function is not the consulate’s first gesture to bring the two cultures together. A year-and-a-half ago, the Israeli consulate took a bold step by hiring Rodriguez as its liaison to the Latino community.

According to Rotem, it was the first time that a non-Jewish Latino was brought in on this level in any Israeli consulate. Only this week, an Israeli consulate in Texas began employing a Latino liaison.

Rodriguez will be stepping down from the position she inaugurated to work on L.A. Mayor James Hahn’s staff.

“We were able to introduce ourselves to dozens of leaders in academia, church, education, security — different elements of leadership. Not necessarily politicians,” Rotem said.

Rodriguez told The Journal that she is “both excited and sad that I’m leaving, because it’s just starting to pick up momentum.”

“A lot of my work has been groundwork,” continued Rodriguez, who spent her time facilitating introductions between Jewish and Latino community leaders. “Now what’s starting to happen is that more things are coming of it. So I’m very optimistic about the future of these relations. think I helped build a good foundation and the relationship between the communities will continue.”

In assuming her role as the mayor’s deputy director of protocol, Rodriguez said that she will still work with the consulate on some level.

“I’m still going to do whatever I can to move this agenda forward,” Rodriguez said. “I had a wonderful time working here. I just think I ended on a good note.”

Despite Rodriguez’s departure next week, “this position is going to be an integral part of the consulate,” said, Rotem, who added that the consulate is currently interviewing candidates to fill Rodriguez’s shoes.

Esparza formed the NAA three years ago in hopes of strengthening the world of American-Latino commerce. Today, the NAA is a thriving coalition of 70 Latino entrepreneurs who Esparza said pay $10,000 in dues annually to belong to the organization.

Esparza sees much overlap between the Jewish and Latino communities.

“There are several areas of commonality — historical experience of persecution and suffering of immigrant blocks and discrimination,” Esparza said, adding that both people are always “seeking tolerance, justice and acceptance.”

Then there’s the Jewish lineage that harkens back to pre-Inquisition Spain.

“Most Spanish names that end with a ‘Z’ are Sephardic origin,” Esparza added.

“By building bridges and understanding each other’s heritage and traditions,” said Baca, “we begin to respect one another. There is no difference between us. This is about inclusion.”

“We live in a city where we often don’t talk to each other,” said the Boyle Heights-raised Villaraigosa, who has long worked side by side with the Jewish community. Villaraigosa saw the cruise event as “an opportunity to reach across and embrace each other.”

Among those present on the dinner cruise was Teresa McBride, a self-made business success story who, after modernizing her Albuquerque restaurant, began helping others do the same. By 1986, she had turned her formula for computerizing businesses into a national computer consulting firm. Now based in Virginia, McBride commands a nationwide staff of 350 people.

She said that the American Latino community can learn a lot from American Jews.

“The Jewish community has years of experience and knowledge to establish programs, and they have done a phenomenal job in this area,” McBride said. “What they offered us very graciously is to give us insights on what they’ve done around the world.”

Likewise, McBride said that the Jewish community will exact much knowledge and inspiration from the Latino world “culturally — through our values, our work, our food, our art, our music. California has benefited greatly from Latino involvement in this state. Just look around you.”

McBride, indirectly invoking the Jewish notion of tikkun olam, affirmed that both communities have much to gain from forming a cultural and commercial exchange.

“When you help anyone, it improves everyone,” she said. “By helping others, you improve their environment, as well as yours. You make the world a better place.”

The grand irony of the evening did not escape Yaroslavsky.

“It’s funny how it took a foreign diplomat to put this together,” said Yaroslavsky from the podium.

Esparza said that he hopes that the goodwill continues, and added that he welcomes his Jewish friends to attend the NAA banquet-conference scheduled for May 19 at the Four Seasons Hotel, where Latino entrepreneurs will learn more about capital foundations and angel investors.

“Our communities should, on a social basis, break bread and get to know each other,” Esparza said.

Rotem plans to host more events like the cruise and to introduce visiting Israeli politicians to Latino community leaders and the Spanish-language La Opinion newspaper.

“This is an ongoing effort, not a one-shot event,” Rotem promised.

Viva la Similarities Read More »

The Trials of Ted Deutsch

Leave a Comment / Community /

Auschwitz survivor Tibor (Ted) Deutsch will never forget the dark day in 1944 that forever shaped his life. Deutsch was only 16 when he and his older brother, Georg, were among the 1,000 Jews assigned to slave labor at a Trzebinia subcamp assigned to the service the venerable German construction company Hochtief.

A Hochtief employee prone to terrorizing the Deutsch brothers with physical violence ended Georg’s life with one final, brutal, unprovoked assault, before his brother’s eyes. Georg was only 18.

"I can still see his face," Deutsch said as he recalled his brother’s murderer. "I still hear his voice. It rings in my ears."

Deutsch, now a 74-year-old retired jewelry manufacturer residing in Studio City, has waged a lawsuit against Hochtief, a company established in 1875 and still thriving in Germany today. Deutsch filed a reply brief with the Court of Appeals on March 13. If he wins the appeal, the case will go to trial.

Unlike many Holocaust reparation class-action lawsuits against banks, insurance companies and countries, the Duetsch case targets a privately owned corporation.

The protracted legal saga began back in 1999, when Deutsch’s longtime companion, Judy, received a book in the mail from friends in Israel: the 1989 volume, "The Auschwitz Chronicles" by Danuta Czech. When Judy opened the book, she stumbled onto something that made her scream: a photo detail of a Holocaust-era Hochtief document listing slave labor employees. On that list were the names of Tibor and Georg Deutsch. Georg had downplayed his age by two years so that he would not be separated from his younger brother. Unfortunately, he paid for this gesture with his life.

The list provided the solid evidence Deutsch needed to pursue a wrongful death lawsuit against Hochtief, which recently merged with an American company called Turner Construction. (Deutch filed a lawsuit once previously, but was unsatisfied with his settlement.)

It was while attending services at Congregation Beth Meir of Studio City, that Deutsch met a woman whose brother is Nate Kraut, a Los Angeles-based attorney who is a certified appellate specialist with nearly 20 years of experience.

For Kraut, Deutsch’s story resonated on a personal level for the appellate attorney.

"My father was in Auschwitz," Kraut said, "and a slave laborer as well."

Kraut took on Deutsch’s case because of his "admiration for Ted’s insistence for what was morally right. The challenge for me is to make sure that what’s legally right fits in with what’s morally right. He’s very driven in wanting to expose what Hochtief did to him. These corporations are being allowed to hide. [They say,] ‘Here we’ll toss him some money and no one will know the difference.’"

In the summer of 1999, Hochtief successfully moved the case from state court to federal court, where the federal court judge granted the defendants’ motion to dismiss, based on the conclusion that the case presented a "nonjusticable political question."

Initially, the German government and German corporations refused to allow distribution of any of the money until all lawsuits had been dismissed. Hochtief accused the Deutsch lawsuit of holding up the reparations process, but Kraut said that this accusation is false.

"The other side managed to convince the courts that this involved a political question and therefore the court stayed out of it," Kraut said. "But the matter is Deutsch directly filed a claim against Hochtief, a German corporation, not the German government."

Moreover, the District Court’s ruling effectively declared California’s statute on the subject to be unconstitutional.

After the District Court dismissed Deutsch’s case, the German government, bowing to international pressure, was forced to pass the necessary legislation to release compensation funds anyway.

"Part of the silliness," Kraut said, "is that they aren’t denying that this went on. They’re saying that ‘you can’t pursue this. This can’t touch us.’ It is clear that a company like Hochtief will only respond by money. That’s all they understand."

Lawsuits notwithstanding, the rage and sadness over his brother’s death has been balled up inside Deutsch for years. His pain has not only taken a toll on his health — he recently underwent open-heart surgery — but on the emotional health of Judy, his companion of three decades, he said.

"Through the years Ted became narrowed by this," said Judy. "Day and night, he cannot sleep, and we’re at the breaking point. Especially me."

"What they did," Deutsch said, "couldn’t be done 50 years ago, and it can’t be done today. Murder has no statute of limitations."

The Trials of Ted Deutsch Read More »