Rabbi Arnold Rachlis, spiritual leader of Irvine\’s University Synagogue, earned a spot on OC Metro magazine\’s \”Hot 25\” list of people who are making a significant difference in Orange County.
The Chanukah effort is one of the first outcomes of Morasha\’s involvement with a three-year national research project of Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion in Los Angeles.
\”Intermarriage is a fact of Jewish life and it\’s time we opened our doors and made everyone welcome, not just Jews,\” said Monica Engel, who said that at her own synagogue that interfaith couples felt marginalized because of their ignorance of Jewish practices.
Most of my congregation knows from references I\’ve made over the years that I am a devoted sports fan. Ever since I was a youngster,
sitting with my dad watching football on TV, I\’ve had \”my teams\” — the Rams, the Dodgers and the Bruins. On rare occasions I have even gone to the games, and there, like everyone around me, I\’ve participated in cheering on the players. That has always seemed to me perfectly reasonable behavior — it is, after all, recreation — and, in the last analysis, it\’s just a game. There are limits, of course, to acceptable behavior in the stands — I never could get into booing and screaming epithets at the other side, or at the referees and umpires. Starry-eyed idealist that I may be, I have always believed in good sportsmanship.
At Universal Studios, all the usual characters — Spider-Man and the Rugrats — were out in force on Sunday, Nov. 24. But they weren\’t just there for photo ops with children, instead they were lighting menorahs, spinning dreidels and eating the world\’s biggest latke at the Chanukah celebration in Universal City.
\”We thought that Chanukah was one of the best Jewish holidays that lent itself to the fun family entertainment, and so we worked with a consultant and spoke with a number of rabbis from a variety of groups to create this event,\” said Brian Pope, Universal vice president of marketing services, who said he hopes that the event — attended by Los Angeles Mayor James Hahn, the Dodgers\’ Shawn Green, and actor Justin Burfield from \”Malcolm in the Middle,\” — will become an annual one.
Dr. Gordon and Hannareta Fishman fell for Newport Beach in 1956 while he served as a medical intern in Long Beach. The couple even considered putting down roots until they inspected a local phone book. But their hope turned to disappointment and shock at finding three other opthomalogists already listed in Corona del Mar.
During Orange County\’s annual \”Chanukah Concert\”, a corner of Costa Mesa\’s Performing Arts Center is transformed into an all-Jewish music store featuring CDs recorded by some Reform cantors who participate in the performance.
\”They don\’t have much opportunity to put their CDs up for sale,\” said Dr. Gordon Fishman of Newport Beach, who co-produces the concert with his wife, Hannareta. She and some friends supervise sales, which this year include works by Ruti Brier, Nancy Linder, Shula Kalir-Merton and Arie Shikler. Also available are CDs by the Orange County Klezmers, who play at the concert intermission.
Chanukah, the Festival of Lights, is a time to recall the miracle that occurred more than 2,000 years ago, and celebrate the discovery of the small amount of oil that burned for eight days, the amount of time needed to prepare pure oil from the local olive trees to rekindle the flame. That miracle is the focus of the Chanukah celebration that begins at sundown Friday, Nov. 29. Was it also a miracle that this event occurred at this time, since the months of November and December are the usual time for the olive harvest?
In early November this year, we joined Faith Willinger, our Florence-based food-journalist friend, on a trip to Naples and the Campania area of Italy. One of the highlights of our trip was spending several days at the hotel-restaurant La Caveja, located in the small village of Pietravairano, just a one-hour drive north of Naples.
\’I\’m a ham,\” said legendary actor-writer-director Carl Reiner.\n\n\”When you\’re a showoff, you\’ve gotta get on that platform.\”\n\nWhich is why 80-year-old Reiner is eager to regale the audience with tales of his life in a speaking engagement at the Orange County Performing Arts Center on Dec. 9. He\’ll cover everything from working on Sid Caesar\’s TV shows to playing straight man to Mel Brooks\’ 2,000-Year-Old Man to writing semi-autobiographical novels such as \”Enter Laughing.\”
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