Bet Tzedek has won a significant victory for low-paid Latino and Asian garment workers, successors to the Jewish immigrants who labored in sweatshops a century ago. The settlement, reached by the free legal counseling service, is somewhat technical, but is likely to have a major impact on California\’s $22 billion apparel industry, employing 140,000 workers.
Jewish leaders are talking — but also wary of talking too much — about filmmaker Mel Gibson\’s controversial religious film, "The Passion of the Christ," opening Feb. 25.
Jesus will appear on the Christian holy day of Ash Wednesday — thanks to Mel Gibson. The Hollywood star directed and financed the $25 million epic "The Passion of the Christ," which is emerging from a nearly yearlong media storm and is due to hit 2,000 screens nationwide Feb. 25.
Marcus Weston is a thin, good-looking Londoner who in his casual attire and unobtrusive kippah could pass for typical Pico-Robertson Modern Orthodox guy. On this cool Tuesday night in December, he offers his audience a reassuring smile.
After you\’ve spent a couple hours puzzling over Daniel Matt\’s Zohar or trying to sort truth from hype in the teachings of the Kabbalah Centre, it\’s a welcome relief to turn to a lucid academic rendering of kabbalah. Arthur Green, a professor of Jewish thought at Brandeis University, wrote the introduction to Matt\’s translation and is also the author of a useful new book titled \”A Guide to the Zohar.\” Published by Stanford University Press as a companion to Matt\’s work, this diminutive, accessible volume tells you everything you need to know about the Zohar — its history and influence plus honest but easy-to-read crystallizations of some of the main Zoharic themes — albeit from an entirely secular perspective.
When I help my mom with her banking, she\’ll invariably talk to me in Yiddish to avoid anyone overhearing the details of her financial situation. Unfortunately, I\’m in the dark as well, just as I was growing up when she and my Dad spoke Yiddish at the dinner table to avoid disclosure of secrets they wanted to keep.
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