September 7, 2006

Radio Host Barry Gordon: It’s All Right to Be Left

Leave a Comment / Entertainment, Judaism / Robert David Jaffee

“I don’t come in until the sax solo,” Barry Gordon says to the technician in the cramped, second-floor studio in the North Hollywood area.

Gordon takes off his glasses, places them on a pile of books, and, light-green highlighter in hand, he begins marking up another text, this one by Noam Chomsky, Gordon’s first radio interview on this Sunday. Gordon has been host of “Barry Gordon From Left Field,” a political talk show on KCAA 1050 AM, since earlier this year, and as he tilts forward in his swivel chair, he studies the tome 15 minutes before his 1 p.m. show begins. With his gentle rocking motion, salt-and-pepper beard, and Talmudic concentration on the prose, Gordon suggests an Orthodox Jew davening during prayer, a fitting image for a man who may be most famous of late for his portrayal of the rabbi on “Curb Your Enthusiasm.”

But Gordon has played many roles over his long, multifarious career, which started when he was a 3-year-old singer on the “Ted Mack Amateur Hour.” He has morphed from child singer to recording artist (his rendition of “Nuttin’ for Christmas” remains one of the top-selling Christmas records), child actor on Golden Age TV shows like “Leave It To Beaver” and “Dennis the Menace,” Tony-nominated performer for his role in Herb Gardner’s “A Thousand Clowns” and president of the Screen Actors Guild.

He also graduated Summa Cum Laude from Cal State L.A. in his 30s; got a law degree in 1991, when he was in his 40s; ran as the Democratic candidate for Congress in the late 1990s; recently co-wrote the musical, “Dorian Gray”; and now, in his late-50s, has become a radio personality.

In working in radio as a political commentator, Gordon is returning to his roots in many ways. In addition to his own radio and TV performances as a child singer, his father was a DJ in Albany, N.Y., before the family moved to Southern California, when Gordon was about 7. A few years later, the young Gordon became entranced by the Kennedy phenomenon and read “Profiles in Courage.”

On this day, though, he is reading Chomsky as the technician cues Supertramp’s “The Magical Song,” a hit from the late 1970s. We hear the lyrics, “They’d be calling you a radical, a liberal…,” before segueing to Gordon, who says, “We’re here to cut through the white noise of the right wing.”

Dressed casually in gray corduroys and faded-pink floral shirt, Gordon speaks in animated fashion, and unlike many actors, he can do so off the cuff with great elocution and diction.

After telling listeners about his “packed” show, whose interviewees in the later segments include Sen. Byron Dorgan (D-N.D.), Gordon introduces in almost hushed tones his opening guest, “one of the most extraordinary minds of the 20th century, Noam Chomsky.”

In an era of talk radio, where political discourse is often reduced to shouting, Gordon conducts his program with much civility. The morning after the show, he will say over the phone, “The biggest mistake liberal talk radio can make is to copy conservative talk radio. I think you can have a passionate program without trashing people. There can be respectful disagreement, but it’s disagreement.”

There is no doubting Gordon’s political perspective, and not just because of the baseball metaphor used in the title of his eponymous program. Gordon ran for Congress in 1998 against James Rogan, the Republican representative from Glendale, best remembered for his role in the impeachment of President Bill Clinton. Gordon lost a close race but paved the way for Adam Schiff, a Democrat, who won two years later.

Yes, Gordon is on the left. On his blog, BarryTalk.com, he has criticized the Israeli reprisals against Hezbollah that resulted in the killing of civilians, even if many were used as shields by terrorists. Now, as he interviews Chomsky, Gordon says, “As you’re a professor of linguistics, let me ask you a question about language. ‘How would you define a terrorist?'”

Chomsky, who has written many books on the Middle East and has voiced his disapproval of U.S. foreign policy and Israeli military activity, responds that a terrorist engages in “the calculated use of violence against civilians.”
Gordon, who is extremely well-informed, holds forth about the Israeli media and Middle East politics. He mentions that he has joined the organization, L.A. Jews for Peace, which he regrets does not have a large membership.

He and Chomsky discuss the failed peace talks at Taba. According to the MIT professor, the Palestinians and even the Iranians had signed on to a two-state solution in Israel and the Palestinian territories, but the Israelis backed out of an agreement.

If Gordon seems to be one of the lone liberal voices on the radio (he jokes that listeners are as likely to hear Gordon Liddy as him on KCAA), he follows in a tradition that goes back to FDR, whose “fireside chats” showed his mastery of the then-new medium, and has included everyone from Orson Welles to Robert Scheer to Al Franken.

“The trend in the medium is not to take a position,” he says. “I’m not interested in playing devil’s advocate. ‘On the one hand, this; on the other hand, that.’ I’m interested in taking a position.”

As the first of his many interviews today ends, Gordon relaxes in his swivel chair. He says he is reaching as many as 3.5 million listeners on KCAA but is hoping to go national. That will take a lot of resourcefulness, but Gordon is great at improvising, and he’s a quick study. He once filled in for the cantor at the Synagogue for the Performing Arts (“I was the temple’s Ruby Keeler”), he learned how to write and read music without any formal training, and he returned to college and law school in middle age.

So, how will he take his radio show national?

“That’s what I’m trying to figure out,” he chuckles.

“Barry Gordon From Left Field” is broadcast live Sundays from 1-4 p.m., on KCAA 1050 AM, webcast live on ” TARGET=”_blank”>www.BarryGordonFromLeftField.com and the blog, Radio Host Barry Gordon: It’s All Right to Be Left Read More »

Israel Donations Stimulate — and Don’t Hurt — Local Fundraising

Leave a Comment / California, Community, Israel, Politics, United States, Worldwide / Marc Ballon

Israel’s military campaign in Lebanon has left the Jewish state spiritually and financially drained. The overall cost of the conflict, including the amount spent on the war and business losses in northern Israel, exceeds $7 billion, according to The Israel Project, a nonprofit, pro-Israeli advocacy group.

Responding to Israel’s plight, American Jews have sent tens of millions of dollars to the beleaguered country, much of it through Jewish charities, including Jewish federations across the country. Given that Israel’s needs remain vast, undoubtedly the upcoming High Holiday season will see rabbis across the Southland encouraging congregants to open their hearts — and their pocketbooks — to the Jewish homeland.

But will Israel’s needs trump those of local synagogues and Jewish nonprofits? Will the charitable dollars flowing to Israel during the giving season mean less support for maintenance of Southland temples and for the social services that Jews traditionally support, such as Jewish day schools or food and psychological counseling for the needy?

An informal survey of rabbis and agency executives suggests that they remain optimistic that donors this year will not hold back. They will find a way to help both the Holy Land and causes closer to home.

For synagogues, the stakes appear especially high. That’s because fundraising during Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur can generate the largest portion of a year’s total fundraising. With a large, semicaptive audience, it is not uncommon for rabbis or temple presidents to make three or four appeals during holiday services. The season’s emphasis on teshuvah (repentance); tefillah (prayer); and tzedekah (righteous) giving, helps Jews understand the importance of contributing and puts them in the right frame of mind to do so, said Rabbi Mark Diamond, executive director of the Board of Rabbis of Southern California, which has 285 members.

Rabbi David Eliezre of the Chabad synagogue, Congregation Beth Meir HaCohen in Orange County, feels confident that the act of giving only begets more generosity.

“People with a charitable heart will reach a little deeper in their pockets this year,” he said.

Similarly, Rabbi Don Goor, senior rabbi of Temple Judea in Tarzana and West Hills, said he is hopeful his synagogue will raise as much for its own operations this year as last. In a reflection of the appeal’s importance, which accounts for more than 50 percent of Temple Judea’s annual fundraising, Goor will make the pitch himself at services, while another rabbi will make an appeal for Israel. Goor said that his sermon will address how centrifugal forces, including America’s rugged individualism, have pulled the Jewish community to “the outside, while the synagogue pulls Jews back to the core of Judaism.”

Goor said he has little concern that charitable giving to Israel will dilute the synagogue campaign. Last year, he said, congregants gave generously to victims of Hurricane Katrina but still managed to keep up their temple giving.

University Synagogue in Brentwood, with 60 full- and part-time employees and a planned renovation, relies on holiday fundraising for a “significant” portion of its operating budget, said senior Rabbi Morley Feinstein. That’s why its president will make a pitch for synagogue donations on Rosh Hashanah, while a separate appeal for Israel will be made on Yom Kippur.

Feinstein said he is hopeful that temple members will come through, even though they have already contributed tens of thousands of dollars to various Israel emergency campaigns.

“Our people are known as compassionate, and our children are compassionate,” Feinstein said. “Our compassion has to enter our checkbooks so that we help those in need.”

Like synagogues, local Jewish philanthropies often build fundraising campaigns around the High Holidays, although to a lesser extent. The picture here seems a bit murkier.

Because Jews “get that warm, fuzzy feeling of Judaism” during Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, the Jewish Free Loan Association (JFLA) steps up its fundraising in the last three months of the year, said Mark Meltzer, the organization’s executive director. Typically, the nonprofit takes in about one-third of its donations from October through December, he said.

However, Meltzer worries that charitable dollars now earmarked for Israel could impact JFLA fundraising and cause the nonprofit to miss its 2006 targets. If that happens, he said, Free Loan would have less money available for interest-free loans for university students or Jewish couples seeking fertility treatments or Jewish campers.

“For the donor who wants to make an impact both locally and internationally, it’s going to stretch their pocketbook,” Meltzer said.

To coincide with the High Holidays, Mazon: A Jewish Response to Hunger recently kicked off its campaign “Corners of Our Fields,” a reference to the biblical practice of leaving corners of a field untouched for the poor to harvest. For a variety of reasons, though, Mazon can’t predict how this year’s holiday drive will fare, said Jeremy Deutchman, Mazon’s director of communications and development. Deutchman said at least two rabbis he tried to enlist to talk up Mazon told him they plan instead to focus their holiday sermons on Israel this year.

Mazon funds food banks, food pantries and soup kitchens locally, as well as nationally and internationally. The nonprofit, Deutchman said, has seen demand for its contributions jump in recent years because of the squeeze on America’s middle class.

By contrast, The Jewish Federation of Greater Los Angeles has seen an increase in contributions, including from new donors in recent months, because the Jewish philanthropic organization set up one of the major Israel emergency campaigns, according to Craig Prizant, executive vice president of financial resource development. The Federation now has the chance to “convert” crisis-fund donors into regular givers, Prizant said. It hopes to do so by making first-timers aware of all the ways the organization supports the Jewish state — and then ask for a donation at a later date.

The success of the L.A. Federation’s Israel in Crisis fund, which has raised $15 million so far, appears to have had little or no impact on The Federation’s annual campaign, Prizant said. He projects this year’s campaign to hit $50 million, a 5 percent jump over last year.

There are those who would like to keep discussions of money out of the sacred days. At least one Southland rabbi, Sheryl Lewart of Kehillat Israel in the Pacific Palisades, thinks Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur should not be synonymous with fundraising. She said her temple makes, at most, a quiet solicitation during the High Holidays and holds its two major fundraising events at other times during the year.

“We try to keep the sanctity of the High Holidays without having it be so commercialized,” she said.

Israel Donations Stimulate — and Don’t Hurt — Local Fundraising Read More »

How to Get Married in 1858372364 Easy Steps

Leave a Comment / Singles / Seth Menachem

“So, when are you getting married?” asks anyone who knows I got engaged last May. They all seem to take on the New York inflection of my mother, even
my black Southern ex-girlfriend from Georgia.

The question drives my fiancee, Carrie, crazy, and I tend to try to brush it off with some kind of bad joke, as in “as soon as Carrie’s divorce goes through…” as I cross my fingers in a real hopeful sentiment.

In fact, Carrie’s never been married before (at least I don’t think so), but the question leaves me with the choice of deflecting or trying to be as truthful as possible. The latter seems so odd when making small talk with an acquaintance outside of a Banana Republic at the Grove.

“Actually, we had planned to marry quickly, but then I moved in, and boy has it been a mess! I mean, who knew that I couldn’t deal without my privacy and that Carrie would turn into a pestering, overbearing lunatic? There are times I think about holding a pillow over her face while she’s sleeping. But, anyway … how are you?”

The truth is Carrie’s not a lunatic. And, I don’t want to suffocate her with my pillow. I would like to suffocate myself. She’s just a girl who anticipates everything so much that life doesn’t get to just happen. We fight about the house we don’t have, the toys our kids won’t be able to afford and the toilet seat that gets left up every time I go to the bathroom. OK, that one isn’t exactly anticipating. In fact, if she would anticipate that one she’d have a much drier backside.

Carrie didn’t always anticipate things. She used to be more — what’s the Yiddish expression? — laissez faire in her approach to the world. She’s very funny, likes that I make her laugh and loves to travel and meet new people. But, something about that engagement ring on her finger acted like a crystal ball, and suddenly she could see her future, and she didn’t like what she saw. She saw financial struggle and children who had to beg to eat.

“That’s crazy talk,” I told her. “Our kids won’t have to beg on the streets. I’ll teach them a trade, like pick-pocketing.”

Carrie works very hard, and although my acting career has ups and downs, I spent my last job on the set of the TV show, “Las Vegas,” repeatedly kissing an attractive girl, while Carrie got berated for forgetting some rich curmudgeon’s name tag at an event she was running. I hate when she has bad days at work, and I wish I was successful enough so she would never have to worry about money, but it’s not so. At least not yet. I know she gets scared, and her fear manifests itself through anxious behavior. I know she loves me but has trouble showing it because she’s so stressed and vice versa. Why is living together so hard?

We recently started seeing a couples therapist on Sundays, and I think it’s going to be good for us. I even decided to see my own therapist on Mondays. And Carrie will start seeing her own therapist, too — maybe on Tuesdays. This leaves four therapy-free days, which we will now need to fill with other things to do, such as eating, making love and finding new and more dangerous things to throw at each other.

My most recent therapy sessions have revolved around Carrie and me. But, as I find myself talking about the issues each week, it has this paradoxical effect at home; they no longer seem to hold any weight. As our first year of living together comes to a close, we have stopped trying so hard to prove things to each other. Carrie has worked on not anticipating things, and I have worked on focusing on what’s right instead of what’s wrong. The wrong list was too short, anyway. I was just repeating myself. But, the right list seems to go on forever.

As much as Carrie and I might argue about silly things — most of which haven’t even happened yet — I know that she forgives me when I screw up and does her best to make me a better person. I know that she cares enough about me to follow me to hell and back (we’ve never actually been to hell, but our unairconditioned apartment in the summer felt eerily similar), and that she sees in me the potential to be a greater person than I even know I can be.

She will always look like the most beautiful girl in the world to me, no matter how fat she claims she’s getting or how big the zit is on her forehead. I have never, ever looked at her and seen anything other than a gorgeous, caring woman whom I want to be with me for the rest of my life. So, when are we getting married?

Seth Menachem is an actor and writer who lives in Los Angeles.

How to Get Married in 1858372364 Easy Steps Read More »

John Rauch, Founder of Center for Jewish Culture and Creativity, 75

Leave a Comment / Obituaries / Jewish Journal

“When you looked in those deep blue eyes you saw a man with a burning vision,” reminisced Israeli composer Ofer Ben-Amots. He was referring to John Rauch, the founder of The Center for Jewish Culture and Creativity, whose recent death at the age of 75 is a blow to the Los Angeles Jewish cultural scene.

John’s name is not familiar to the general public. He shunned the spotlight, insisting it stay focused on the hundreds of artists he loved, nurtured and supported for more than 16 years.

“He was my rabbi, my biggest fan,” said actor Stephen Macht. “I know he felt the same way about all his artists and friends. He sat or stood in the aisles clapping and laughing and crying during all of our performances.” When Chaim Potok learned about the work of the Center he wrote a letter to Rauch: “Dear Mr. Rauch, the program of the Center seems to me to be wide and deep and eminently worthwhile with the potential for making a significant contribution to the culture of our world. How may I be of help to you?”

Rauch, a Viennese born banker and attorney founded the Center for Jewish Culture and Creativity along with his wife Ruth because he believed that creating opportunities for promising, talented Jewish artists (composers, playwrights, filmmakers, painters, etc.) to work together with Jewish scholars would spark an explosion of Jewish cultural expression. Rauch was legendary for thousands of hand-written notes of encouragement to artists written between 9 p.m. and 2 a.m. from his booth in Jan’s Coffee Shop on Beverly Boulevard.

The Center began in 1991 with a pilot program called, The Creative Artists Institute. Jewish artists from Canada, Russia and the United States were given fellowships to fly to Jerusalem to participate in workshops covering everything from “Talmudic playwriting” to lectures on the erotic poetry of the 12th Century Sephardic Rabbis.

Another ambitious Center program is the Jewish Arts Festival (Philadelphia, Santa Fe and the San Diego Festival, now in its 13th year.) These Festivals provide precious performance opportunities for established and emerging Jewish artists whose work is often outside the mainstream of popular culture. For the 1992 Philadelphia Festival, the Rauches sought out and invited a fairly unknown composer to perform his work. Today, the music of Grammy-nominated Osvaldo Golijov is performed to sold-out houses at Disney Concert Hall and Lincoln Center. Golijov writes, “John’s tireless and loving work is what gives Jewish artists of our time the possibility to reach their full potential. We are all blessed by him.”

“His vision was to create tikkun olam” says Yale Strom, award-winning filmmaker (“The Last Klezmer”) whom the Center helped secure funding for his projects through grants and commissions. “John had the vision and tenacity to take me from a street musician to where I am today. I can honestly say that John had a major hand in my success, because he encouraged me and never wavered in his belief of what I could achieve.”

John Rauch is survived by his wife, Ruth; sons, Danny and Mark; and six grandchildren.

Donations may be made to the Center for Jewish Culture and Creativity, 6399 Wilshire Blvd., Suite 305, Los Angeles, CA. 90048

Barbara “Bobbi” Asimow, Federation Fundraiser and Mentor, 63

Bobbi was born in Brooklyn in 1943 and came to Los Angeles as a teenager, attending Fairfax High School. She received an master’s in psychology from San Francisco State and an MBA from the University of Judaism. For the past 22 years, she worked for The Jewish Federation of Greater Los Angeles as a professional fundraiser. She directed the Metropolitan Region and, for the last 12 years, the Women’s Campaign. She was a legend in the Women’s Campaign, raising more than $12 million a year for Jewish causes; supervising a devoted staff; and mobilizing an army of dedicated volunteers. She was one of the most respected professionals at the Federation.

In her honor, an endowment will be established, within the Jewish Community Foundation, that will fund the Bobbi Asimow Award for the best Jewish communal worker of the year. This award will recognize the person who best exemplifies Bobbi’s spirit; leadership, teamwork, dedication, love of Judaism, and a deep concern for those in need.

She is survived by her husband, Michael; sons, Ian Lennard, Daniel (LeAnn Bischoff), and Paul (Colette Caggiano); daughters, Hillary (Peter Blum) and Courtney (Craig Broscow) Lennard; sister-in-law, Myra Bennett; brother-in-law, Steven; former husband Colin Lennard; and seven grandchildren.

In her memory, donations can be sent to the Women’s Campaign of The Jewish Federation of Greater Los Angeles, 6505 Wilshire Blvd, Suite 750, Los Angeles, CA 90048

I fell in love with Bobbi Asimow the first time we met. I had just come to Los Angeles from the East Coast, was brand new to our professional field and a stranger here. Bobbi flashed her famous contagious smile and welcomed me with open arms.

It didn’t matter to Bobbi that she was a senior pro and I was young and inexperienced, or that she was a top fundraiser and I was working with college students. That day, for the first time, I knew that I had made the right career choice, because Bobbi became my mentor. In our short exchange, she modeled the Jewish values that I spent years leaning with astounding beauty, grace and passion.

Over the years that followed I watched Bobbi develop hundreds of community leaders. In her quiet way, she helped shape much of the professional landscape of Jewish Los Angeles.

How many of us went to Bobbi when we needed advice, a shoulder to cry on, or to admit mistakes? How many times did she look deep into our eyes with both love and wisdom and guide us? How often did we then get back on our feet and aspire to be even half as talented a professional as Bobbi?

And finally, how did she make the time to help us all, while living her personal life with immense passion as wife, mother, grandmother, relative and friend.I sat last Thursday in awe of what you accomplished Bobbi in your 63 years. Your funeral was not an ending, but truly a map for living, loving, leading,and not giving up.

It’s fitting that you left this difficult world at the start of Elul, the opportunity for a new spiritual beginning. Bobbi, your life lessons are guides to better ourselves, one another, and the Jewish community you deeply embraced for so long.

You are with us in our hearts. Shalom dear mentor.

— Rhoda Weisman Uziel, executive director of the Professional Leaders Project at the Jewish Federation.

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Rose Abrams died Aug. 9 at 90. She is survived by her son, Steven; daughter, Elinor Blum; four grandchildren; and six great-grandchildren. Groman

Zafira Arakanchi died Aug. 17 at 94. She is survived by her nieces, Lina Dyen, Jeanette Resnick and Sara Helfing; and nephews, Jim and Dr. Daniel Lahana. Malinow and Silverman

Barbara “Bobbi” Asimow died Aug. 22, a 63. She is survived by her husband, Michael; sons, Ian Lennard, Daniel (LeAnn Bischoff) and Paul (Colette Caggiano); daughters, Hillary (Peter Blum) and Courtney (Craig Broscow) Lennard; seven grandchildren; and former spouse, Colin Lennard.

Harold Bergman died Aug. 21 at 85. He is survived by his wife, Bernice; and son, Sandy. Mount Sinai

Pearl Sisson Bloomgarden died Aug. 17 at 93. She is survived by her daughter, Karyl Sisson; and one grandson. Malinow and Silverman

Hershey Binder died Aug. 15 at 66. He is survived by his wife, Farla; sons, David and Michael (Ismone); daughter, Ruth Ann (Matt); and sisters, Anna (Mike) Brasch and Etta Zivian. Mount Sinai

Harry Brenner died Aug. 27 at 80. He is survived by his sons, Dr Mayer (Sandra), Sunny (Susan) and Matthew (Sarah); five grandchildren; and brother, Bernard (Jane). Mount Sinai

Robert Caine died Aug. 15 at 70. He is survived by his wife, Sunny; daughter, Edye; son, Andy (Laurie); five grandchildren; and sister, Harriett (Mitchel) Cohen. Mount Sinai

Dr. Sidney Collender died Aug. 10 at 91. He is survived by his wife, Roslyn; sons, Robert (Susan), Michael (Phyllis) and Jack (Ellen); daughter-in-law, Stacey Collender; and seven grandchildren. Malinow and Silverman

Celia Farmilant died Aug. 23 at 98. She is survived by her daughter, Meredith (Sherman Pearl) Gordon; sons, Edward (Barbara) and Eugene (Kim); six grandchildren; 10 great-grandchildren; and sister, Rochelle Rappaport. Mount Sinai

Abraham Grossman died Aug. 13 at 92. He is survived by his wife, Thelma; sons, Jack (Deborah) Wallace and Robert (SueEllen); daughters, Sandra (Rob) Ludlow and Tina (David) Borenstein; nine grandchildren; and two great-grandchildren. Mount Sinai

Mara Grossman died Aug. 16, at 83. She is survived by her nephews, Daniel (Linda Gerard) and David (Cezanne Garcia); and nieces, Pamela (David Kahn) and Deborah (Jonathan Garber). Mount Sinai

Massood Haroonian died Aug. 17 at 83. He is survived by his wife, Pari; sons, George, Alex and Moussa; and nine grandchildren. Eden Memorial

Sonia Harris died Aug. 14 at 73. She is survived by husband, David; son, Scott; daughters, Susan (Marcus Russell) and Victoria (Barry Gleiberman); and five grandchildren. Mount Sinai

Murray Hoffman died Aug. 23 at 88. He is survived by his wife, Vivien; daughters, Randi (Kit) and Shelley (Jeff); and three grandchildren. Mount Sinai

Margot Honig died Aug. 9 at 98. She is survived by her niece, Monica Minden. Malinow and Silverman

Daniel Jaffee died Aug. 26, at 83. He is survived by his life partner, Barbara Fagan; daughter, Heidi Trotta; stepchildren, Robyn (Harry) Allen and Randy Fagan; and three grandchildren. Mount Sinai

Marilyn Bauer Kandel died Aug. 22 at 78. She is survived by her half-brother, William (Marjorie) Bauer; and friends, Blossom and Mark Roysner. Mount Sinai

Bennie Simmon Kaplan died Aug. 10 at 83. He is survived by his wife, Shirley; son, Larry (Robin); daughter, Roslyn (Douglas) Suman; and four grandchildren. Malinow and Silverman

Artur Kayne died Aug. 25 at 48. He is survived by his wife, Lauren; children, Michelle and David; father, Norman; sister, Lisa (Steve) Joyce; brother, Bob (Sherri); mother-in-law, Dr. Bebe Jacobson; and sister-in-law, Gail (Fred) Jacobson-Pell. Mount Sinai

Charles Kramer died Aug. 25 at 90. He is survived by his wife, Betty; daughter, Alene (Ted Bowen); son, Scott (Judy); and grandchildren, Nathan and Jolene. Mount Sinai

Robert Kramer died Aug. 18 at 57. He is survived by his sons, Daniel Laub and Aaron; sisters, Shira, Lisa and Kim; and ex-wife, Judith Laub.

Tibor Kramer died Aug. 14 at 55. He is survived by his wife, Suzan; daughter, Diana; and brother, Ladislav. Mount Sinai

Henry Laub died Aug. 18 at 77. He is survived by his brother, Morton (Marsha). Mount Sinai

Leah Mary Levine died Aug. 11 at 81. She is survived by her son, Arnold; daughter, Sharon Feeder; and two grandchildren. Groman

Dorothy Levinson died Aug. 23 at 95. She is survived by her daughters, Judith (Mel) Sisson, Joyce Rosenbloom and Susan Smith; eight grandchildren; seven great-grandchildren; and brother, David Sher. Mount Sinai

Sylvia Liner died Aug. 16 at 70. She is survived by her son, Joel Greenberg; sisters, Carole Miller and Karen (Allen) Lehrich. Malinow and Silverman

Irvin Motty died Aug. 26 at 82. He is survived by his wife, Sylvia; daughter, Teri Elaine (Alfred) Curtis; and four grandchildren. Mount Sinai

Ruth Perl died Aug. 13 at 94. She is survived by her daughter, Barbara (Harry) Wurmbrand; son, Martin (Lila) Speciner; and four grandchildren. Malinow and Silverman

Clifford William Price died Aug. 11 at 84. He is survived by his sons, Mark (Barbara) and Bradley; one grandson; and brother, Maurice. Malinow and Silverman

Harry Sanders died Aug. 20 at 84. He is survived by his wife, Anne; son, Mark (Fran); grandchildren, Genelle (Scott) and Melanie (Jonathan); sister-in-law, Claire; and brother-in-law, Norm Weinberg. Groman-Eden

Howard Stephen Secof died Aug. 12 at 52. He is survived by his sister, Sandy (Bill) Cummings. Malinow and Silverman

Rebecca Shamash died Aug. 23 at 92. She is survived by her children, Ellis, Florence, Leah and Albert; eight grandchildren; and one great-grandchild Hillside

Benjamin Shankman died Aug. 22 at 81. He is survived by his sister, Eileen Harrison; nieces; and nephews. Mount Sinai

Barbara Jean Silverman died Aug. 9 at 89. She is survived by her son, Dr Robert; daughters, Jean Dodson and Marilyn Rehberger; six grandchildren; and six great-grandchildren. Mount Sinai

Esther Simon died Aug. 10 at 93. She is survived by her sons, Ronald (Barbara) and David (June); five grandchildren; and 11 great-grandchildren. Chevra Kadisha

Lawrence Simon died Aug. 23, at 41. He is survived by his wife, Lydia; sons, Jacob and Tyler; brother, Michael (Kathryn); mother, Dee Ann. Mount Sinai

Ruth Statland died Aug. 12 at 89. She is survived by her husband, Joseph; daughters, Irene (John) Robbins and Carol Hagberg; two grandchildren; one great-grandson; and sister, Pearl Jacobs. Malinow and Silverman

Earl Stuart Taxy died Aug. 19 at 48. He is survived by his mother, Sylvia; and brothers, Mark and Neil (Marlee). Malinow and Silverman

Charlotte Tiger died Aug. 21 at 74. She is survived by her husband, David; sons, Steve and Mark (Angella); five grandchildren; and brother, Marvin (Esther) Lichtig. Mount Sinai

Marlene Tobin died Aug. 25 at 77. She is survived by her husband, Jerome; daughters, Janet (David) Suber and Linda (Steven) Katz; three grandchildren; and brothers, Joe (Molly) and Mack (Geri) Novak. Mount Sinai

Alfred Vener died Aug. 25 at 87. He is survived by his wife, Rochell; son, David; daughter, Yardena (Allan Mac Donald); and stepgranddaughter, Devyn Noonan. Mount Sinai

Berel Weinstein died Aug. 14, at 84. He is survived by his daughters, Marsi (Jeff) Rubin and Randi (Brian) Devine; four grandchildren; brother, David (Ethel); and sister, Ethel Greene. Mount Sinai.

Edith Wendel died Aug. 14 at 83. She is survived by her daughter, Lillian (Mark Geisert); and three grandchildren. Mount Sinai

Elsie Wilderman died Aug. 19 at 91. She is survived by her husband, Reuben; daughter, Sharon (Bernard) Adamson; and grandson, Jeremy Adamson. Mount Sinai

Maurice Winnick died Aug. 15 at 89. He is survived by his daughters, Judy and Joie; and sons, Sherman and Dr Jerold (Dr Andrea). Mount Sinai

Ted Winkler died July 5 at 85. He is survived by his friends. Malinow and Silverman

Jonathan David Wolfe died Aug, 23 at 35. He is survived by his parents, Eliane and Kenneth; and brother, Greg.

Ruth Young died Aug. 10, at 75. She is survived by her son, Robert Kolbert; brother, Sam (Sandra) Kresner; and sister, Sylvia (Jerome) Gordon. Mount Sinai

Carol Zand died Aug. 23 at 60. She is survived by her husband, Nelson; daughters, Stacy (Scott) Strauss and Heather; grandson, Jackson Strauss; mother, Phyllis Tobin; brother, Robert (Marjorie) Tobin; and sister, Laurie (Morton Katz) Leiner. Mount Sinai

The Journal publishes obituary notices free. Please send an e-mail in the above format with the name, age and survivors of the deceased toobits@jewishjournal.com.Please note: Longer notices will be edited. Thank you for your understanding.

John Rauch, Founder of Center for Jewish Culture and Creativity, 75 Read More »

God Is in the Details — Even in the Busy Carpool Lane

Leave a Comment / Celebrations/Simchas, Family, Holidays, Judaism, Parenting, Travel / Wendy Mogel

Preparation for the High Holidays means engaging in cheshbon hanefesh, accounting of the soul. This includes taking a personal inventory of your own behavior and
the lessons you may unwittingly be teaching your children. In Judaism, God is in the details, and one of the most important details is everyday courtesy.

The rabbis teach that respectfulness and courtesy are redeeming virtues, even when the Jewish people do not fulfill the other precepts of the Torah. They call these practices derech eretz, and say: “A Torah scholar who does not have derech eretz is worse than a dead animal.”

Whoa, Nelly. In our competitive, overscheduled world, we so often get in the habit of looking for shortcuts and finding creative justifications for breaking rules and putting our own needs ahead of those of the community, that it’s easy to forget that our children are watching.

You need look no further than the carpool drop-off lane at your child’s school to know exactly what I’m talking about. Rudeness is so rampant, that administrators nationwide are forced to write parents letters begging them to be polite and follow the rules. I know, because I have a collection of these letters. They range from moving sermons to stand-up comedy routines, but all have a shared goal: to convince parents — those same parents who so badly want children to follow rules at home — to follow carpool rules that are designed for safety, efficiency and fairness.

All of us do things we don’t want our children to emulate, more often than we realize and often in undramatic, everyday ways. The High Holidays are a good time to switch gears and to find ways to practice derech eretz, beginning with the details of daily living.

Our sages have plenty of suggestions on how to do this. The rules are as sensitive, countercultural and ethically sharp today as they were 2,000 years ago. Here are some of my personal favorites. Many of these laws come from “Guide to Derech Eretz” (Feldheim, 1993), an introduction to the subject, by Rabbi Shaul Wagschal:

To protect a rabbi from possible embarrassment, you shouldn’t ask a question if you suspect he may not know the answer.
Invite guests to Shabbat dinner by Wednesday, so they won’t think the invitation is an afterthought.
In the days before locks, people were required to knock on the door of their own house so that they wouldn’t startle those already home. The proof text? God stood by the portal of the Garden of Eden and summoned Adam, as the verse says, “And the Lord called to Adam and said to him, ‘Where are you?'”
Laws of lashon hara prohibit gossip, even in its most subtle, peripheral form, called avak lashon hara, the dust of gossip. For example, the rabbis warn us never to praise anyone too highly, because too much praise can invite the other person to compare the image you’re presenting to his own.
If the court sentences a man to death by hanging, one must never say to one of his relatives, “Hang up the towel,” because the word “hang” evokes shameful memories.
When the rabbis noted that the rich brought their bikkurim, or first fruit offerings, in silver bowls and the poor in woven baskets, they instituted a “baskets-only” rule.
When dancing on certain holidays, some of the daughters of the rich exchanged dresses with the daughters of the poor in order that the latter would not be embarrassed.

To these venerable laws I would like to add three suggestions of my own that will give parents frequent opportunities to teach by example.

A parent must lay down his or her phone when greeting his child. The laws of derech eretz state that when in public, you should try to greet others as soon as you spot them, so they won’t think you’re ignoring them or trying to avoid them.
Your child deserves as much consideration. Get off the cellphone before they get in the car. If the phone rings during the first few minutes of your greeting, don’t answer it. Think of the phone as the snake in the garden. It’s an alluring temptation to always connect, but the caller knows how to leave a message. If you don’t answer the phone immediately, your child gets a message, too — that greeting someone in person takes precedence over any other activity.

It is forbidden to cut ahead in the carpool line. Why? Because it is a theft of time. The Babylonian Talmud explores the problem of two boats simultaneously approaching a bottleneck in a river. If it is impossible for both to pass together, they should compromise in the following way: One boat goes first, and the captain of this boat compensates the second boat for the time that it lost waiting. What is your compensation for waiting your turn in the carpool lane?
The knowledge that you are teaching your child patience and courtesy.

A mother or father shall not fib on a child’s behalf, not even to maintain the purity of the college transcript. In my travels to schools around the country, I hear stunning examples of parents who commit unethical acts in the name of helping their children — the father who signed his daughter’s name to an e-mail he wrote to her English teacher contesting a grade; the mother who rewrote her son’s college application essay without his knowledge; the parents who research and even write their children’s papers for them.

The rabbis say that one should not break a promise to a child, because doing so will teach the child to lie. If you tweak the rules for your children, you are breaking the agreement you made with them when they were young. Back then, you taught them to tell the truth. When they see your hypocrisy, they will lose respect for you, imitate your behavior or both.

Jewish law provides rules that are meant to be followed, even when your daughter absolutely must get to the orthodontist on time, even when you’re tempted to say, “Just this once.”

The commandment to honor one’s parents helps elevate the laws of derech eretz to prominence in our High Holiday inventory. We can ask, “Do I deserve the reverence of my child? Am I the kind of parent my child can learn from and be proud of?”

Whatever motivates you — your entry ticket to the gates of heaven, how your children will treat your grandchildren or your child’s next letter of recommendation — this is the time to think about not only crimes but misdemeanors and, if we are right by the rabbis, even dust.

Wendy Mogel is a clinical psychologist. She is the author of “The Blessing of a Skinned Knee: Using Jewish Teaching to Raise Self-Reliant Children.” She is currently writing a book for parents of teenagers, “The Blessing of a B Minus.”

God Is in the Details — Even in the Busy Carpool Lane Read More »

Finding My Own Way

Leave a Comment / Judaism, Lifecycles / Robin Chotzinoff

I hear you snuck off to shul,” my dad says. “Why?”

“It was Shabbes,” I say. Then I realize that even if he understands the word, he’ll pretend he doesn’t.

“It was what?”

“Shabbes. Friday night. The Sabbath for Jews, when –”

“Yeah, yeah. So you’re still mixed up in that?”

For six years now. Unlike the Tibetan Buddhist summer, the year of carrying a briefcase, or my entire first marriage, Judaism doesn’t seem to be a passing fad.

“Religion is for stupid people,” my father observes. “Didn’t I tell you that?”

“You did,” I say. “Lots of times.”

“It’s a crutch.”

“Definitely.”

“>

From the book, “Holy Unexpected: My New Life as a Jew,” by Robin Chotzinoff. Copyright 2006. Reprinted by arrangement with Finding My Own Way Read More »

Limmud L.A. in the Works

Leave a Comment / California, Community, Education, Judaism / Julie Gruenbaum Fax

When attorney Shep Rosenman attended the interdenominational, interdisciplinary, cultural/experiential/academic Limmud conference in New York, what surprised him most was how much he was able to step out of his comfort zone.

“I would normally not take a class called ‘Do Jews Believe in Astrology.’ It’s not really my bailiwick, nor is ‘Facing an Abusing God, a Theology of Protest.’ But those were two of the most moving classes I took,” Rosenman said.

Rosenman and a handful of other community leaders are trying to bring Limmud to L.A.

Founded in England more than 25 years ago, Limmud conferences have been spreading across the globe in the past 10 years, reaching New York two years ago. In three- to four-day conferences, Jews of all denominations, interests and backgrounds gather for classes, concerts, prayers, art workshops, food and a cohesive Jewish experience.

Rosenman said about 25 people are involved in an effort to have a Limmud L.A. conference during President’s Weekend 2008. Working groups have been formed, and venues, teachers and funding are all being sought.

Rosenman hopes the varied offerings and experiences can serve as a galvanizing force for L.A.’s fragmented Jewry.

“Limmud represents a real opportunity for people who don’t otherwise mingle in their learning or social circles, or in their shared passion for Jewish art, music or culture, to be in a safe environment together,” Rosenman said. “Some beautiful stuff has the potential to gestate and grow us into a community that is much less fractured.”

To learn more or get involved, call Shep Rosenman at (310) 867-3640 or visit www.limmud-la.org.

Women and the Machzor

What did women have to do with developing the High Holiday prayers? That is the topic to be explored at Netivot Women’s Torah Study Institute’s Elul Seminar on Sunday, Sept. 17 at Beth Jacob congregation in Beverly Hills. Netivot offers a full schedule of text-based classes for women throughout the year, including classes in prophets, the weekly portion and Gemara. A highly successful mother-daughter bat mitzvah class will begin again in January. For more information, visit www.netivot.org.

Kadima Students Reach Out to Israel Over Summer

Even before school started, the students and families of Kadima Hebrew Academy in West Hills were supporting the victims of war in Israel. Kadima’s seventh-graders were especially affected by the war, as a peer at the Teva School, Kadima’s sister school in Tel Aviv, lost her brother during the fighting in Lebanon. Kadima’s preschool director, Hana Livni, who was in Israel at the time, paid a condolence call to the family and brought them gifts from Kadima.
During the summer, students wrote letters offering moral support to Israeli soldiers, and urged Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and L.A. Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa to continue supporting Israel. Kadima parents and trustees Shawn and Dorit Evenhaim paid for the relocation costs of 30 Israeli families to move from their homes in the north to the safer southern areas.

For information visit www.kadimaacademy.org.

Tooting Their Horns

Weizmann Day School in Pasadena opens school every year by inviting faculty and students, past and present, to gather to blow the shofar, an event repeated every morning throughout Rosh Hashanah. With less than 50 students and 14 teachers, the small school has made its mark. Historically over 60 percent of its students have achieved standardized test scores at or above the 97th percentile nationally. Weizmann recently received the city of Pasadena’s Model of Unity Award, presented to the school for the 2005 Daniel Pearl Harmony for Humanity Concert, which brought Weizmann students together with Muslim and Christian students from Pasadena’s New Horizon and St. Marks schools.

For information, visit www.weizmann.net.

New Faces

Sam Edelman, a scholar in Holocaust education, is the new dean of the College of Arts and Science at the University of Judaism.

Edelman spent 27 years at Cal State University at Chico, where he was a professor of rhetoric and communication studies as well as Jewish and Holocaust studies. He was the founder and director of the program in Modern Jewish and Israel Studies. Edelman will remain in his position as the co-director, with his wife, Carol, of the state of California Center for the Study of the Holocaust, Genocide, Human Rights and Tolerance. For information, visit www.uj.edu or www.csuchico.edu/mjs/center.

New Faces II

Jenna Rubin, a 15-year Jewish education veteran, is the new director of religious education at B’nai Tikvah Congregation in Westchester.

“My mission is for our students to develop to their full potential as both Jews and human beings. We’ll focus on nurturing each student’s self-identity, cultivating each student’s place within the community, and developing each student’s relationship with God,” Rubin said.

For information visit www.BnaiTikvahCongregation.org.

New Jew Principal Goes To Harvard

Ellen Howard, principal of New Community Jewish High School in West Hills, was one of 10 day school principals from around the country sponsored by the AviChai Foundation to attend a summer seminar for educators at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. Participants in “Leadership: An Evolving Vision” combined rigorous study with writing, reflection and peer interaction, identifying priorities and sharing ideas and solutions.

“We learned how to enhance the quality of the school experience for everyone — students, teachers, and administrators alike,” Howard said.

For more information on New Community Jewish High School, visit www.ncjhs.org.

Limmud L.A. in the Works Read More »

Greeting the Stranger

Leave a Comment / Community, Judaism, Torah / Rabbi N. Daniel Korobkin

One of the most daunting and intimidating experiences in life is walking into a new synagogue for the first time. You enter the sanctuary, and it feels like 1,000 eyes
are focused only on you. You’re not sure what prayer book they’re using, what page they’re on, and where you can find a tallit.

What happens next either makes it or breaks it for the visitor. In a good shul, someone comes over to you and says, “Hi, you look new here. Shalom Aleichem. Can I help you find a seat? Would you like a siddur?” In the bad shul, the only time someone comes over to you is to tell you, “Excuse me, you’re in my seat.”

This is not exclusively a Jewish problem. The book, “The Inviting Church, a Study of New Member Assimilation” (Alban Institute, 1997), reports that one congregation handled this situation by putting the following two notices in the Order of Service:

“Notice to Visitors: People who attend St. Mark’s regularly are for the most part kind and friendly people, but they tend to be a bit shy and self-conscious with strangers. They are afraid of greeting people they think are new and discovering that ‘the visitors’ have been attending St. Mark’s for years. So please help. Identify yourself to the people nearest you and ask them to tell you about our church.”

“Notice to St. Mark’s Members: Please do your best to make everyone feel welcome. Always introduce yourself to the people sitting near you if you don’t know their names. To avoid the embarrassment of mistaking a longtime member for a visitor, use the following ploy: ‘Good morning. My name is ____________. I’ve been coming to St. Mark’s for _________(years/weeks). How about you?'”

As a rabbi, I know that my congregants aren’t bad people; some of them are simply a bit shy and unaccustomed to greeting total strangers. I use the argument that we have to put ourselves in the stranger’s shoes. If we were to be the visitor and they the host, wouldn’t we want to be treated with friendliness and a smile instead of silence and a cold shoulder? This week, they came to daven with us; next week, we may be guests in their shul.

Our parsha describes the mitzvah of bringing one’s first fruits (bikurim) as a gift to the Temple. This was a way of showing one’s gratitude to God for a good crop.

The Torah concludes the mitzvah by saying, “And you shall rejoice in all the goodness that God has given to you and your household; you, the Levite, and the stranger that is within your midst.” This commandment to rejoice with the Levite and the stranger, people who aren’t local landowners, teaches us that there’s more to this mitzvah than just mustering proper gratitude. It’s also meant to remind us that no matter how comfortable we’ve become as the ba’al habayit, as the owner of our home and our field, we are still no different from the stranger. He may have just arrived to town a few days ago, but we also arrived from a strange land. We know what it feels like to be treated like the outsider, and remember that feeling of “otherness” we had in Egypt. Hopefully, this will spur us to treat the strangers in our society with the compassion that we never received from the Egyptians.

Right after World War II, refugees were pouring in by the thousands to the United States. Many Jews, recognizing these “greeners” as their cousins, welcomed them with open arms. Other, more Americanized Jews kept their distance. The bitter irony was that many of these Yankees were themselves just first- or second-generation Americans, and their parents or grandparents were the same “greeners” just a few years previously. Many of us are faced with the same challenge when dealing with new immigrants from Israel, Iran, or the former Soviet Union. The “greener” that I see before me today may be the spitting image of my grandfather 70 years ago.

During the recent war in Lebanon, thousands of northern Israelis had to temporarily relocate to cities further south. One of Israel’s proudest moments was when fellow Israelis opened their homes with open arms to their brethren from up north, and shared their shelters and meals with complete strangers for weeks at a time. Similarly, one of America’s proudest moments was when evacuees from last year’s Hurricane Katrina were welcomed with open arms to their new communities and treated like family.

As the High Holidays approach, and we all make our way back to our respective congregations, some of us may feel inadequate as a greeter. You might think: “Who am I, after all, to be the one to go over and say hello? I barely come to shul anyway.” But that may be precisely what a dozen other people are thinking, and in the end, the stranger will remain the stranger, and both you and the shul will have lost out. Let’s remember that we are all equally strangers, but at the same time all equally the ba’al habayit when standing before God. What binds us is that we are God’s children, and that makes us all brothers and sisters — mishpacha, family.

Shana Tova.

Rabbi Korobkin is rosh kehilla of Kehillat Yavneh, and is director of community and synagogue services for the West Coast Orthodox Union.

Greeting the Stranger Read More »

Silver Jews Singer Polishes Up Dirty Past

Leave a Comment / Entertainment / Karla S. Blume

What kind of precious metal is shiny, hard as a rock and sings the Shema?

A Silver Jew of course!

David Berman, lead singer, songwriter and head-miner of the alt-rock group the Silver Jews is finding out that the depression of his musical past has been rejuvenated by of all things, hope for his musical future.

Although Berman has always been the primary songwriter, singer and guitar-player of the Silver Jews, a man capable of turning out truthful, yet sometimes painfully depressing love songs to an eager cult audience, he has often been overshadowed in the media by the bigger, blacker shadow of his friend and musical colleague, Stephen Malkmus.

After battling drug addiction, which gave birth to a deep belief in Judaism and moved him to discover a love for playing live on stage, Berman is now stepping into the spotlight with a renewed interest in whatever kind of trouble he can muster up and whatever kind of silver he can make shine.

David Berman was born into a secular Jewish family in Williamsburg, Va., and lived there, until the age of 7, when his parents divorced. In the years before he landed in college in 1985, he split his time between living with his dad in Texas and his mom in Ohio. While in college, he met up with two random guys while carpooling to see an out-of-town band. The passenger on that fateful ride was Malkmus, who would later gain worldwide fame as the singer of Pavement. But while Malkmus was the darling of all the record execs in the early ’90s, another group had surfaced with Malkmus as a member, using an obvious pseudonym. Yes, that band was the Silver Jews. And no, the band was never meant to be just a “side project” for Malkmus, it has always been Berman’s baby, although recently, Berman has learned to take more control over the artistic decisions than he used to.

“Steve and I were always very competitive as far as music was concerned,” Berman remembers. “When Pavement happened, I just sat back and watched. It might’ve been easy for me to join that band, but in all of my life plans, none of them ever involved being a sideman for someone else. I guess my ego just never saw things that way.”

Malkmus, along with scores of other musicians, participated in the making of the first four Silver Jews albums, but all the songs were written by Berman, even though he wasn’t as deeply engrossed in determining the final product of those as he was for his fifth offering, “Tanglewood Numbers.”

“On this last record, I just decided that after the recording process, I would just take off and force myself to make the decisions instead of just sitting on the couch nodding my head going, ‘Yeah, that’s good,'” Berman recalls. “I made this record more about me.”

Taking control of the album’s musical process was one in a line of decisions that have changed Berman’s perspective. Berman had little interest in taking responsibility for his life until two years ago, when he suffered a meltdown from purposefully overdosing on Zanax and wound up in a psychiatric ward. After much encouragement fro
m his wife and mother, Berman checked himself into rehab for drug addition.

“It took a lot of energy to be a drug addict,” he says. “It was work to get drugs every day. I got to a point in my life where I wouldn’t do anything that required a lot of trouble. The idea of going on tour was something I would have never considered before, because touring is a lot of potential trouble, and I tried to put myself in environments where I would feel safe. In my own little small crack house of my Nashville community, it felt safe and everything else had become too much trouble.”

Interestingly enough, his determination to rehabilitate brought about an unforeseen twist, a renewed interest in his faith.

“In the rehab unit, you couldn’t leave the facility except for this one loophole, which allowed you to go to church or temple if you wanted to,” he says. “So what started out as a ploy on my part to see the countryside by letting them transport me to a conservative synagogue once a week, turned out to mean more to me than I expected.”

This shift in Berman’s priorities was engaging, especially when you learn that the Silver Jews were not named as a tribute to the Jewish people.

“That’s part of the irony of the whole experience of turning to Judaism for me was that the name had always helped us ensure our obscurity in the music industry, and sometimes I’d thought the name was a burden, because it seemed so serious,” Berman adds. “But now it’s become an incredible blessing that I accidentally gave myself, something that became fruitful to me.”

Berman’s new comfort with himself has transformed into an ease with playing live shows. “Yup, the 40 shows of this current tour are my first 40 shows ever,” Berman says with a laugh.

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