Jewish community. With courage and vision, we need to act on this opportunity by understanding the important changes that have occurred over the last decades and rethinking the way we engage the broader Jewish community.
A few weeks ago, I had just returned from a trip to New York to meet someone my rabbi tried to set me up with — a member of his
former congregation there. On my first Friday night back in shul, I was confronted by close married friends of mine with the question.
I have a perfect record in setting up my friends on dates: I have struck out every single time. I am 0 for 20, maybe worse. Only one relationship that I tried to initiate made it past the first date. That one lasted for four years and ended in tears, anguish and confusion. The only thing those two friends agreed on in the end is they would never accept my offer to set them up again with anyone, ever.
Stories abound of natural tensions between sons-in-law and their fathers-in-law. One is about the man speaking with his future son-in-law, who was studying to be a rabbi.
Parshat Vayetze (Genesis 28:10-32:3)
fear of Isaac
A lively, heartfelt tribute to former Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin brought more than 400 people to the University of Judaism to mark the 10th year since an assassin took his life.
When California voters passed a $3 billion stem cell research initiative, they not only opened the door to medical advances but also to a collaboration with scientists from Israel, which is an established leader in the field.
To seed that partnership, Cedars-Sinai Medical Center recently hosted a two-day symposium that attracted more than 300 physicians, scientists, bioethicists and entrepreneurs.
But perhaps a better reflection of Los Angeles\’ overall civic health might be to look at Temple Israel in Hollywood. There, a $20 million new building program — this being Los Angeles, an expanding parking lot is one centerpiece — will soon be tearing down aging adjacent apartments to make way for an expanded campus, including a new education complex and chapel.
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