\”What do you do?\” I ask. He\’s in computer programming. Wonderful. Can\’t make too much conversation out of that answer. I try my best. It lasts all of two minutes. And then it happens: he asks the same of me.
Irvin Kipper may be 88 years old, but he still loves wooden blocks and Tinker Toys.
In fact for 60 years, \”Kip\”
has spent his days thinking almost exclusively about dolls and trains and stuffed bears, because he owns Kip\’s Toyland in the original Farmers Market.
Kipper just can\’t stay away from his store.
\”The few times when I haven\’t gone to work, I feel like I\’m kind of lost,\” he said. \”I might do a few things around the house, but I think, \’What am I doing here? I should be over there working.\’\”
And work he does, Monday through Saturday, still making sure that his customers find that special toy for their children or grandchildren.
The Chasidic Reb Nachman of Bratslav tells of a king\’s son who goes mad: he believes he is a turkey.
The boy removes all his clothes, spends all his time under a table and refuses to eat normal food. Distraught and alarmed, his father summons in all manner of experts, but none can cure the boy.
His tale of disappointment turns into a tale of revisioning and change: After a long time, a wise man arrives at the palace, and asks to see the prince. The wise man joins the boy under the table, and declares himself to be a turkey. Little by little, the two become comfortable with one another, and gradually the man encourages the turkey-prince to put on his clothes, then eat human food and finally to join the rest of the family. In this manner, the Chasidic master says, the wise man cures the prince.
Shlepping around with swollen feet, a growing belly and mounting exhaustion is a challenge for any mom-to-be, but Beth Saltz is determined to go to Shabbat services as often as she can for the rest of her pregnancy.
\”I feel I need to do it now before the baby is born,\” said Saltz, a Woodland Hills resident who is five and a half months pregnant with her first child. \”Sometimes parents don\’t work on their own spirituality and beliefs until the child is older, but I think it\’s important to do it now.\”
At this turning point in her life, Saltz views Judaism as more important than ever — and she\’s not alone.
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More than 30 years after Gloria Steinem founded Ms. Magazine and Sally Priesand was ordained a rabbi, more than 25 years after Judith Resnick became an astronaut and more than 10 years after Ruth Bader Ginsburg was appointed to the United States Supreme Court, Jewish women, along with their non-Jewish counterparts, have discovered that they can have it all — at a steep price.
Christian children wearing their Sunday best for last week\’s Easter services understandably could forget, amidst their Easter egg hunts, that the Last Supper of Jesus was a Passover seder.
But in this season of Easter and Passover, connections between the holidays has inspired an art exhibit showcasing Christian and Jewish artists motivated by religious themes. The exhibit is housed in downtown Los Angeles at the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels. Its aspirations and the artworks themselves are impressive, though the effort has suffered from uneven presentation of the artwork.
The \”Passion/Passover\” exhibit could be viewed as a positive response to Jewish-Catholic tensions surrounding last year\’s \”The Passion of the Christ\” by filmmaker Mel Gibson. His film was praised by Catholic church officials, though many Jewish leaders said the film unreasonably cast Jews as villains.
\”Zucky\’s was designed by Weldon Fulton as a prime example of the Googie or California Coffee Shop Modern architectural genre,\” Biondo said. \”In any remodeling, we want to preserve the main Zucky\’s signboard, exterior ceramic tiles and stonework, the diagonal treatment along Fifth Street, and the brick wall and window sills.\”
Shin Bet Links Up
Israel\’s Shin Bet security service went online Tuesday at www.shabak.gov.il. The Hebrew-only site contains information on the domestic intelligence agency as well as application forms for would-be agents interested in countering Palestinian terrorism or foreign spies, or in joining one of Israel\’s diplomatic bodyguard units. The Shin Bet\’s overseas counterpart, the Mossad, put up its own Web site last year.
Prayers for Pesach
The Orthodox Union is again operating a program for Passover to help Israeli soldiers. The group is selling prayer cards for $1 apiece that can be placed at Passover seder tables. Proceeds from the cards will be given to help soldiers and their families. More information is available at www.ou.org/israel.
In America, celebrity divas are instantly recognizable by their first names: Madonna. Britney.
Israel has its own diva: Rita.
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