On a beautiful Sunday morning last spring, thousands of Israel supporters lined Wilshire Boulevard to wave banners, sing, chant and let the world know that the Jewish State isn\’t alone.
On a single day during Passover 1986, most of Israel\’s major dailies ran oddly identical front-page stories describing a secret negotiation, recently collapsed, between Israel and Iraq. Iraq, it was said, had approached Israeli representatives in New York, asking that Jerusalem switch its covert support from Iran to Iraq in the war between them. In return, Iraq would exchange ambassadors with Israel after it won the war. Israel reportedly demanded recognition now, not later, and then ended the contacts abruptly after Washington caught wind of them.
With all the discussion, confusion and controversy about the Bush administration\’s planned actions against Saddam Hussein, it\’s ironic that President Bush, a born-again Bible reader, appears to have rejected the Christian position and adopted instead the Jewish stance on self-defense and responding to evil people.
About this time two years ago, congregants of Tustin\’s Congregation B\’nai Israel lined their synagogue\’s sanctuary, making a human chain as Rabbi Eli Spitz unrolled a 150-year-old Czech Torah that survived the Holocaust. In places, its letters were faded and illegible making it un-kosher, ritually unfit for use.
Few performers have the talent and magnetism to carry a one-person show by singing old Broadway show tunes, sentimental ballads and Yiddish classics. But Mandy Patinkin, the Tony and Emmy Award-winning showman, consistently entertains, even electrifies, the most urbane audiences singing his eclectic mix of popular songs, usually sharing the stage only with his piano player and a flowering pot or two.
Attempting to broaden its outreach to adults with little understanding of Judaism, the Chabad-Lubavitch Orthodox movement has professionally developed a suite of college-style courses and schooled a select group of rabbis in modern teaching methods.
When artist Ted Meyer was first diagnosed with Gaucher disease, a lipid-storage disorder that is the most common genetic disease affecting Jews of Eastern European descent, he used his artistic talents to express his pain.
Time does move on. When Irwin Greenfield\’s wife died 16 years ago, he figured he had two choices: either stay alone behind closed doors curled up on his couch or get out and mingle with the rest of the world. He chose the latter, and he hasn\’t looked back.
I found a job! After spending three years in Jerusalem, I am now gainfully employed in Orange County. I\’m also in deep culture shock. Before moving to Israel I had lived in Los Angeles, where Jews abounded at each of my jobs. I rarely interacted with non-Jews in Israel, much less worked with them.
Every Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday, in the early afternoon, I visit my younger brother at his nursing home, a mile from my home in Providence, R.I.
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