Back in the social-action heydey of the 1960s, tikkun olam was everyone\’s favorite mitzvah. Repairing the world was hip, and folk anthems such as \”Times They Are a Changin\’\” were as de rigueur around Jewish campfires as that ditty about animals boarding Noah\’s ark two by two.
When friendly strangers find out I\’m a convert to Judaism, they want to know why.
And I\’ve learned to be ready.
I have two stories: One is
respectable, and one involves comic books and video games.
There\’s nothing bashful about Jewish organizations, but in 2004, many suddenly go mute if the subject involves potential conflict with the Bush administration.
When we open our doors at the seder and invite Elijah the Prophet to sip the glass of wine that we have designated for him, we express our longing for
the Messiah. Elijah, in our tradition, will herald the arrival of a ruler who will enable a world of peace. The message of the seder is of hope: God, the Creator, entered history to free us from bondage, providing reason to believe that God will re-enter history to facilitate the final redemption.
Sheryl Krok often drives from Irvine to Los Angeles on business for her cleaning products line. But before the South African immigrant returns home, Krok makes a kosher pit stop, buying a month\’s supply of chicken to feed her carnivorous family of five.
\”Because, hello! Irvine doesn\’t know there are kosher Jews down here,\” said Krok, who would be happy to give up bulk buying.
Isidore Myers and his three siblings had a less-than-carefree childhood. Their parents, penniless immigrants, eked out a living early in the last century in Akron, Ohio, where their barely literate father painted houses. Although the family managed food and shelter, they scrambled for odd jobs like peddling papers so they too could to contribute something to the household.
From such hardscrabble beginnings, Myers nonetheless recently made a gift of more than $3 million to Newport Beach\’s Temple Bat Yahm, the largest single contribution in the synagogue\’s 31-year history. To honor the philanthropist and his late wife, the 7-acre site recently was renamed The Isidore C. Myers and Penny W. Myers Temple Bat Yahm Campus.
When newer, color versions supplanted the 1923 Union Haggadah Revised, Tamar Soloff\’s brother and father hoarded enough copies of the original to ensure that their extended families would have a supply of their own.
Next month Sevy will relive, in part, his parents\’ journey with his 18-year-old son, Nadav, as they traverse the 2-mile walk from the so-called \”death gate\” of the former Auschwitz Nazi death camp to the International Monument of Holocaust Victims of the Birkenau death camp.
Nadav is one of about 23 students committed to a three-week senior class trip planned for the fourth graduating class of Irvine\’s Tarbut V\’Torah Community Day School. Their sobering itinerary includes Auschwitz, Schindler\’s factory and the Warsaw ghetto, followed by Israel\’s modern cities, historical sights and natural beauty.
The high-profile defendant is a head of state accused of adultery and murder. The prosecutor is a trial veteran familiar to a nation of cable TV junkies enthralled by the O.J. Simpson case.
Last year\’s Israeli merchant fair in Irvine — the first stop in a three-month caravan — spoiled vendors with large crowds open pocketbooks and home-cooked meals.
More news and opinions than at a Shabbat dinner, right in your inbox.