January 25, 2007

Students translate charity lessons into action

Leave a Comment / California, Kids & Teens, Philanthropy, United States / Lisa Armony

For most kids, time off from school means hitting the beaches or other fun-filled attraction. For 17-year-old Neta Batscha, spring break sent her to the storm-ravaged Gulf Coast to assist with Hurricane Katrina relief efforts.

Under the auspices of Milken Community High School’s YOZMA social action leadership initiative, the 11th-grader and more than 100 of her classmates spent four days clearing away debris in parts of Natchez, Miss., and in New Orleans, which was still reeling from the hurricane’s destruction. She also built homes with Habitat for Humanity, and, with money raised by her Milken peers, replenished provisions at food shelters unable to meet the ongoing need for assistance.

“It made everyone feel good about themselves, that we can make a difference,” Batscha said. “In my school, we’re taught to give back, even when we’re younger. We’re taught not to be selfish. In Judaism, it’s important for everyone.”

More and more, Jewish kids are taking the lessons they’ve learned about tikkun olam, Judaism’s spin on community service, and translating it into action. Through school-based programs like YOZMA, b’nai mitzvah service projects or simply their own initiative, children are finding creative ways to channel their interests and desire to help others into unique, personal contributions to those less fortunate. In so doing, they are building a reservoir of critical skills and laying the groundwork for a lifetime of compassion and civic responsibility in the Jewish tradition.

“Doing mitzvot and tikkun olam are in everything we do in Judaism, in every book we read,” said Daniel Gold, director of the Los Angeles Bureau of Jewish Education’s (BJE) Sulam Center for Jewish Service Learning. When children perform charitable acts, Gold added, they connect teachings from God with the work they do on earth, and to their own identities.

Josh Lappen’s work on behalf of Jews in Ethiopia has played a formulative role in the development of his Jewish awareness. Since the age of 5, Josh, now 12, has been fundraising under the auspices of the North American Conference on Ethiopian Jewry (NACOEJ), a nonprofit group that helps Jews survive in Ethiopia and reach Israel.

He accompanies his grandparents, active NACOEJ members, to local festivals where they sell Ethiopian handcrafts, and he recently began his own initiative selling cookies at his Hebrew school.

“My work gets me involved in the community. I almost feel like I’m getting to know them,” said Josh, who has studied the history of Ethiopian Jews and occasionally speaks with groups to raise awareness of the challenges they face. While he has never seen the fruits of his labor firsthand, Josh feels a deep connection with Ethiopian Jews and is planning to participate in NACOEJ’s bar mitzvah twinning program with an Ethiopian boy in Israel next year.

Realizing tikkun olam as a central pillar of Jewish practice, synagogues throughout the country require children to perform service projects before becoming b’nai mitzvah, sensitizing them to their growing responsibilities toward others as they approach adulthood. In many cases, these projects have been the inspiration for ongoing philanthropic endeavors.

Clara Clymer had intended to donate books to a neighborhood school for her bat mitzvah project. Instead, on the advice of Hebrew school staff at Leo Baeck Temple, she decided to become a tutor for KOREH L.A., The Jewish Federation of Greater Los Angeles’ youth literacy program. The 12-year-old from Brentwood now meets once a week with a first-grade student, helping to strengthen her reading and comprehension skills. And while Clara was only required to fulfill five hours of service, her satisfaction knowing that she is making a difference in someone’s life has been all the encouragement she needs to continue as a KOREH L.A. volunteer for the foreseeable future.

“If everybody helps somebody who needs help, it makes it a nicer place to live,” she said.

In addition to the religious benefits, studies show that children who volunteer have higher self-esteem than those who do not, are happier and feel empowered by the knowledge that they are bringing about positive change, BJE’s Gold said. On the academic side, they consistently demonstrate higher test scores and rates of school attendance. Community service also helps children develop good work habits and job skills, such as leadership, planning and organization.

“Kids who participate in community service must determine what they want to achieve and figure out creative ways of meeting their goals,” said Sande Hart, who facilitates youth volunteer workshops for the Orange County BJE.

Hart saw proof of this when her son, Matt, organized “Shoot Away Cancer,” a basketball tournament to raise funds for pediatric cancer research at Children’s Hospital of Orange County, as his bar mitzvah project three years ago. Matt secured support from a local basketball league and brought together 180 elementary- to high school-age students for a day of three-on-three play in Santa Ana. While teams paid a $30 registration fee, most of the $7,200 Matt raised came from raffled gift certificates and donations he solicited from local businesses and attractions.

Now 15, Matt continues to volunteer to help those in need. For the past five years, he has been traveling to Mexico where he spends time with orphaned children and helps build houses for homeless families on behalf of the Irvine-based Corazon de Vida Foundation.

“Volunteering gives you a warm feeling that you’re dong something right,” the Rancho Santa Margarita High School sophomore said. “It has changed me as a person. If more kids would go out and do this, I think the world would be a lot better.”

Students translate charity lessons into action Read More »

No ordinary orchestra — in war and in peace, the Israel Philharmonic plays on

Leave a Comment / Israel, Music, Worldwide / Carvin Knowles

If it were a novel, no one would believe the 70-year saga of the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra, with its astonishing cast of famous characters, including Leonard Bernstein, Arturo Toscanini and Albert Einstein. But it’s all true. It’s a history ripe for Hollywood: An orchestra that has lived through wars and constant strife, performed on battlefields and had more than its own share of internal drama and turmoil.

Even before there was an Israel, there was an orchestra in Israel.
It was the brainchild of Polish-born violin virtuoso Bronislaw Huberman, who, in 1934, at the height of his career, resigned from the Vienna State Academy to devote his time and efforts to creating the Palestine Symphony Orchestra in Tel Aviv. Huberman had long been outspoken in his stand against fascism, and he had seen the devastation of the riots in Vienna earlier that year.

I was there …

Upon reading our coverage of the history of the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra, Jewish Journal Contributing Editor Tom Tugend wrote this note to the editors:

This great piece on the Israel Philharmonic reminded me of my own encounter
with the orchestra and Lenny Bernstein.

It was back in October 1948, when I was serving as an American
volunteer in the Israeli army during the country’s War of
Independence. With a two-day pass in hand, I hitchhiked to Jerusalem,
where the Israeli equivalent of the USO scrounged up a ticket for the
evening’s performance of the Israel Philharmonic at Edison Hall, with
Bernstein as the guest conductor.

The audience was a curious mix of black-tie patrons and soldiers in
fatigues. Bernstein raised the baton for Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony,
stirring at any time, but never more so than for a people engaged in
a life-and-death struggle.

Toward the end of the first movement, machine gun fire started
crackling from the Old City, held by the Jordanian Legion, and
continued intermittently through the rest of the performance. What
would have been a distracting disturbance at any other time, melded
with the music as entirely appropriate to the mood and circumstances
of the occasion.

Lenny and the orchestra never missed a beat.

Best,

Tom

He saw his mission as both cultural and political — with the creation of a Palestine symphony orchestra, he announced, he would “unite the desire of the country for an orchestra with the desire of the Jewish musicians for a country.”

During the next 28 months, he devoted much of the proceeds of his sold-out concerts to the founding of the orchestra. In addition, he enlisted the aid of his fellow Viennese Jew, Albert Einstein, to help raise funds. Huberman rearranged his touring schedule to accommodate Einstein’s fundraising banquets, while convincing 75 first-chair Jewish musicians from major European orchestras to immigrate to Palestine.

In February 1936, Toscanini was music director of the New York Philharmonic Orchestra and considered the greatest conductor in the world. Having fled the Italian fascists himself, he agreed to conduct the opening concert of the Palestine Symphony Orchestra, declaring it his duty to “fight for the cause of artists persecuted by Nazis.”

On Dec. 26, 1936, Huberman’s vision became a reality, when Toscanini stepped onto the podium with the words, “I am doing this for humanity.”

The premiere of the Palestine Symphony Orchestra included works by Brahms, Beethoven, Schubert and — as a taunt to Nazi Germany — Jewish composer Mendelssohn.

Toscanini described it as the happiest moment of his life and one of the highest points of his career. After conducting four concerts in Palestine and four in Egypt, he refused any payment or even reimbursement for his travel expenses. He was so impressed with the orchestra and its “unique audiences” that he decided to return the next year. The press lauded the Palestine Symphony Orchestra as an “orchestra of soloists.”

In 1942, the orchestra performed for Allied forces and for soldiers of the Jewish Brigade in a 1944 concert conducted by concertmaster Joseph Kaminski in the Western Desert.

A young Leonard Bernstein made his first appearance in 1947 with the Palestine Symphony Orchestra in Tel Aviv, beginning a relationship that would last throughout the composer-conductor’s lifetime. His first tour included dates in Jerusalem, where, even though the war had not yet begun, bombs could be heard detonating during the concert.

On May 14, 1948, the Palestine Symphony Orchestra appeared at the official ceremony of declaration of independence at the Tel Aviv Museum to play “Hatikva,” the new national anthem. The orchestra proudly changed its name to the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra, and through the summer, the musicians traveled in armored cars to play in a besieged Jerusalem during the War of Independence.

An inspiration and comfort to all, Bernstein returned in November to conduct the orchestra in front of 5,000 soldiers on the Negev dunes, after the battle for Beersheba. Playing Gershwin’s “Rhapsody in Blue,” he led from the piano amid the rubble of war.

On another date, in the middle of playing a Beethoven concerto in Rehevot, an air raid siren loudly interrupted the music. Bernstein stopped and said, “Whoever has to leave, leave now.” No one left the concert. Bernstein resumed playing, finishing brilliantly to the roar of a standing ovation.

For the next two years, Bernstein would serve as the orchestra’s musical adviser, and in 1950 he headlined its first American tour, along with fellow conductors Serge Koussevitzky and Izler Solomon, who had been with the orchestra from the beginning.

The 1950s saw a growth in the prestige of the orchestra and the beginnings of many lifelong friendships with great musicians, among them Yehudi Menuhin, Isaac Stern, Jascha Heifetz and Zino Francescatti, who remained in Israel even after the outbreak of the Sinai War in 1956.

The orchestra made its first recordings for DECCA in 1954, consisting mainly of works by Jewish composers Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy, Gustav Mahler and Arnold Schoenberg, conducted by Paul Kletzky. That same year, Philadelphia philanthropist Frederick Mann unveiled plans for a 2,800-seat concert hall that would become the orchestra’s home in Tel Aviv.

In 1957, Bernstein conducted at the inaugural concert at the new hall, with an appearance by pianist Arthur Rubenstein. And in a memorable gaff, in an address to the audience, Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion thanked “Leonard Rubenstein and Arthur Bernstein.”

No ordinary orchestra — in war and in peace, the Israel Philharmonic plays on Read More »

Coast-to-coast U.S. tour trumpets Philharmonic anniversary

Leave a Comment / Entertainment, Israel, Music, Worldwide / Carvin Knowles

Since the festivities kicked off in mid-December with a series of concerts in Jerusalem, Tel Aviv and Haifa, the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra has been celebrating its 70th anniversary in style, hosting appearances by many of the orchestra's friends from over the years.

The celebration continues with an American tour stopping in New York, San Francisco and, on Feb. 5-6, Los Angeles' Walt Disney Concert Hall.

“Everybody who is here has a history with the orchestra,” Avi Shoshani, the flamboyant secretary general of the orchestra, said the day before the celebration's Dec. 26 gala in Tel Aviv. “I want the orchestra's friends to be here … the music making is for real here.

People come here because they want to be here for the music, for Israel and whatever that stands for. Each of them is what we call a mensch.”

Indeed, that roster of mensches included violinists Maxim Vengerov and Gil Shaham; cellist Mischa Maisky; pianists Yefim Bronfman and Evgeny Kissin; conductors Lorin Maazel, Gustavo Dudamel and Valery Gergiev, and Daniel Barenboim on double duty as both conductor and pianist.

The festive gala concert at Tel Aviv's Mann Auditorium marked the anniversary of the orchestra's inaugural concert in 1936 and opened with celebratory excitement as Zubin Mehta, the orchestra's music director for life, conducted Pinchas Zukerman in the Bruch Violin Concerto.

When Zukerman began to play, the sound of his virtuosic violin rose into the air like a fiery klezmer from the past, with all the humor and musical interplay that only old friends can produce. The music was completely and irrepressibly Jewish, and at times conductor, orchestra and soloist seemed on the verge of laughter. Zukerman swayed with his violin in time with the conductor's baton, all the while grinning mischievously.

Outside it was raining, but inside the auditorium the thunder was from the enthusiastic applause of a delighted audience.

Next, maestro Mehta conducted a bombastic and decidedly unorthodox rendition of Ravel's “La Valse” that sent the critics screaming. Yet for a gala concert, it proved a crowd-pleasing treat.

The concert concluded with Barenboim at the piano performing Brahms First Piano Concerto in D Minor, with the audience reveling in a performance both strong and majestic and rising to their feet at the conclusion with a loud ovation.

After many bows and congratulations, Mehta wheeled out an enormous cake lit with 70 candles, as the orchestra struck up an impromptu “Happy Birthday to You.”

The American tour portion of the celebration begins in New York's Carnegie Hall on Jan. 30, with Maazel conducting Beethoven's Violin Concerto, featuring soloist Vengerov; Beethoven's Leonore Overture No. 3 and Mussorgsky's “Pictures at an Exhibition.” On Feb. 1, Mehta will conduct Weber's Der Freischütz Overture, Mahler's “Rückert Lieder” and Berlioz' “Symphonie Fantastique.”

On Feb. 4 the tour continues at San Francisco's Davies Symphony Hall, where Mehta will conduct Beethoven's Leonore Overture, Schoenberg's “Verklärte Nacht” and reprise Berlioz' “Symphonie Fantastique” from the Carnegie Hall appearance.

The tour comes to Los Angeles' for two nights, with Mehta repeating the San Francisco program on the first night, followed on the second by Maazel conducting Mendelssohn's Fourth Symphony and the Hebrides Overture, Tchaikovsky's “Romeo and Juliet”

Click the BIG ARROW to view the IPO perform the Fourth Movement of Berlioz' 'Symphony Fantastique'

Coast-to-coast U.S. tour trumpets Philharmonic anniversary Read More »

Keys to harmony — practice, practice, practice!

Leave a Comment / Entertainment, Music, Worldwide / Carvin Knowles

You would expect the backstage cacophony of voices to be energetic in Tel Aviv, but on this day the babble is louder than ever, the energy more frenetic. The Israel Philharmonic Orchestra is taking a brief break from rehearsing at its home in the Mann Auditorium, preparing for its 70th anniversary concert on Dec. 26.

Conversations in Hebrew, Russian, German and English fill the air. Two of the orchestra’s musicians play chess, loudly clapping down on the timer after each move. The creative chaos is just a little heady.

Renowned violinist Pinchas Zukerman casually greets friends as he wanders through the crowd of musicians, waiting his turn to rehearse.

Just moments before, they had been sitting before their music director, Zubin Mehta, rehearsing the orchestral parts to Brahms’ First Piano Concerto. Soloist Daniel Barenboim was absent from the rehearsal, because he was playing in Ramallah on this morning and was delayed getting back. But now, after the break, the ever-provocative Barenboim is here, and Israel’s premier orchestra is ready to work.

The orchestra is laid out on the “Beethoven Model.” First and second violins are split on the far left and right sides of the stage. On the left, cellos sit next to the first violins, and violas sit next to the seconds. Contrabasses sit behind the cellos, and fanned out next to them are the woodwinds. The back rows are made of brass and percussion.

Mehta lifts his baton, and they begin. Barenboim’s playing is passionate, giving the impression that he is about to lose control. Then, as the music quiets, he resumes a kind of contained intensity, allowing himself a free tempo rubato that carries the listener along the rising waves of pure emotion. He isn’t so much playing Brahms as channeling his spirit.

The violins join the piano, and the orchestra grows behind the soloist. A horn sweetly pierces the quiet. Then, suddenly, the spell is broken as Mehta stops the orchestra to go over the section they just played, rehearsing a single phrase several times, tightening the interpretation to a perfect balance of its parts.

The spell resumes for an extended time, then screeches to a halt. “The crescendo at 304 is too early,” Mehta says. “Put the crescendo at 305. Can we now go to 335?”

Immediately, the cellos and basses thunder, picking up an arpeggiated motive. Again the orchestra builds, then stops to allow the piano room to play. Again Mehta stops them.

“His piano is too much. Too much,” the conductor says. “Please, can you do that again?”

Barenboim repeats the section, only quieter this time, then sips from a bottle of water as the violins take up the melody. In a flash, he is playing again. To call it mesmerizing is to miss the point. This is no trance. This is possession.

The orchestra builds to a great fortissimo, holding a strong tremolo. I sit close enough to hear the rosin on the bows of the first violins. Barenboim is pounding the keys with fierce intensity; the melody in octaves breaks into arpeggios that fall down the piano like a driving rain. Intellectually, I know that Brahms wrote these notes, but Barenboim is pounding his heart out on stage, as if the music is being created on the spot.

The music grows quietly majestic. Beneath the piano, a bassoon begins a bass line that is taken up by the lower strings, then quiets to let the piano speak in a language of chordal tension. As the piano lapses into arpeggios, the woodwinds lean in to support it.

Now Barenboim is playing the finale, giving it all the fire it deserves. Violins take up the melody, then all quiets down to an agitato pulse of violas, then basses before erupting into a blast of trumpets and French horns from the back of the stage.

Mehta works the section over and over, each time stopping the orchestra before the end of the section. At one point, a frustrated kippah-clad violinist rushes forward and cries, “Just let us finish the section.”

Mehta brushes aside the orchestra’s fatigue. These are seasoned professionals who, despite their notorious temperament, can keep playing even in the harshest conditions.

“We continue right after the pa-pa-pa,” Mehta announces.

A cello player asks, “Which pa-pa-pa?”

Mehta answers, “Right here.”

And then they are playing again, the dialogue between piano and orchestra moving toward its inevitable conclusion, breaking into a brief march for bassoon and tympani, then to impossibly fast arpeggios before the cadenza. As the strings approach the final notes, the whole thing falls apart.

“What a mess” Mehta cries. “Again at the end of the cadenza. Not too slow this time.”

Barenboim trills the end of the cadenza, the horns and winds ring their fanfare, and this time the ending is perfect.

Keys to harmony — practice, practice, practice! Read More »

Art Buchwald, humor columnist, 81

Leave a Comment / Obituaries / Jewish Journal

Art Buchwald, Humor Columnist, 81

Do you know anyone in American history, or world history for that matter, who has gone from dying in a hospice to living another year with renewed fame, international acknowledgment, plaudits and gifts from world celebrities?

During his last year, one man wrote a dozen newspaper columns to add to the 8,000 he already had written, added a new book to the 30 he already had published.

The man is Art Buchwald — a Jew, a writer, a celebrity and a mensch.Suffering from kidney disease, Buchwald entered Washington Hospice Center Feb. 7 after deciding that he didn’t want to prolong his life by having dialysis five hours a day, three days a week.

From February until July, he entertained family and friends, political and artistic glitterati at the hospice. When he didn’t die and his kidneys seemed to be functioning again, he returned to summer at Martha’s Vineyard, continuing his tradition of working the annual auction to raise funds for local social service agencies.

The hospice stay became almost a well-publicized celebrity roast. Visitors came by the hospice not only to shmooze and reminisce but to bring Buchwald his favorite foods. The mere mention from Buchwald that he liked hot pastrami resulted in 10 sandwiches from guests the next day.

Born to Joseph and Helen Buchwald in New York in 1925, Buchwald saw his mother institutionalized for acute depression when he was 3, and never saw her again. His father, unable to care for Buchwald and three older sisters, placed them in a Seventh-day Adventist home in Flushing, N.Y. Two years later they were transferred to the Hebrew Orphan Asylum in Manhattan.

Buchwald ran away at age 17 in 1942 to join the Marines. He said he hired a guy from Skid Row to act as his father because kids under 18 needed parental approval to enlist. He served more than three years in the Pacific and, while never a great supporter of war, he always cherished and helped the Marine Corps.After World War II he attended the USC and edited the campus magazine — but he never graduated because the school discovered he didn’t have a high school diploma. So Buchwald went to Paris, where a small job at the International Herald Tribune morphed into several humor/gossip/satire columns that were very well-received by expatriates, tourists and soldiers.

In 1962 Buchwald took his column to Washington, churning out three columns a week that were syndicated in 700 newspapers.

He always seemed amazed that politicians made his job so easy: “Just when you think there’s nothing to write about, Nixon says, ‘I am not a crook’; Jimmy Carter says, ‘I have lusted after women in my heart’; and President Reagan says, ‘I have just taken a urinalysis test and I am not on dope.’ You can’t make up anything anymore. The world itself is a satire. All you’re doing is recording it.”

Buchwald and his wife, Ann McGarry, adopted three children. Though they divorced in the 1990s, they remained good friends. He will be buried next to Ann on Martha’s Vineyard.

Buchwald always had a marvelous relationship with colleagues, readers and aspiring writers. Many stories tell of his availability, his phone number listed in the Washington directory and his invitations to aspiring writers to have coffee, bagels and talk.

A memorial service will be held in Washington, and lots of people will be remembering Art Buchwald with his own words. After all, how can you not love and quote the man who said, “Now that Henry Kissinger has left Washington, I am the last remaining sex symbol here.”

Lehitraot, Art.

From all of us.

— Dov Burt Levy, former political science professor and a columnist for the Jewish Journal–Boston North.

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David Arditti died Jan. 1 at 75. He is survived by his son, Hal. Malinow and Silverman

Muriel Bleifer died Jan. 8 at 83. She is survived by her daughters, Alene (Dan) Whicker and Ronda (Gordy) Crane; son, Gregg (Lisa); eight grandchildren; four great-grandchildren; and brothers, Sidney (Freida) and Alan Silverman. Mount Sinai

Harry Ferdman died Jan. 9 at 96. He is survived by his daughter, Lisa, and son, Dr Ronald (Susan). Mount Sinai

Ruth Goldberg died Jan. 5 at 92. She is survived by her daughters, Beverly (Dr. William F.) Bierer and Barbara Moore; and son, Joel. Malinow and Silverman

Sandra Hart died Jan. 8 at 46. She is survived by her husband, Robert; son, Daniel; parents, Paul and Marilyn Freeman; and sister, Louise (David) Goldstein. Mount Sinai

Frank hozinsky died Jan. 3 at 86. He is survived by his wife, Mildred; sons, Barry (Barbara), David (Yvonne) and Steven; four grandchildren; one great-granddaughter; brother, Harold (Rhoda); and sister, Ethel Einwahner. Malinow and Silverman

Ruth Kaminsky died Jan. 9 at 77. She is survived by her husband, David; son, Michael (Tamilyn); and granddaughters, Christine Perez and Jennifer. Mount Sinai

Steven Eliot Kaufman died Dec. 7. He is survived by his wife, Dr. Jill Taft-Kaufman; mother, Cynthia; brother, Bruce; sister, Glynne Rochon; niece, Cortni; and nephew, James.

Murray Kert died Jan. 8 at 82. He is survived by his wife, Beverlee; daughters, Sheila and Carolynn; and nephew, Marty (Felicia) Bresin. Mount Sinai

howard kunin died Jan. 1 at 75. He is survived by his wife, Claire; sons, Gary, Jeff (Audrey), Randy (June) and Bill; three grandchildren; brother, Larry (Sue) Kunin; and sister, Lorraine (Bob) Dennis. Mount Sinai

Ella Levin died Dec. 24 at 55. She is survived by her husband, Herbert; daughter, Jamie; and sisters, Yardena Cohen and Anat Finck. Chevra Kadisha

Loretta Dianne Nehouri Meraj died Jan. 8 at 61. She is survived by her son, Darian Merage; and cousin, Henry (Nouri) Nehouri. Mount Sinai

Dvosya Mintskovsky died Jan. 6 at 95. She is survived by her daughter, Bella Tsarovsky. Malinow and Silverman

Art Buchwald, humor columnist, 81 Read More »

Three Iranian Jews run for seats on Beverly Hills City Council

Leave a Comment / Blogs, California, Community, Politics / Karmel Melamed

Beverly Hills voters head to the polls on March 6 to fill two vacant City Council seats, and among the six contenders vying for the spots are three Iranian Jews.

The candidates, incumbent Beverly Hills Vice Mayor Jimmy Delshad, business consultant Shahram Melamed and attorney Maggie Soleimani, have been stumping for votes in the Iranian community since last summer. It’s estimated that 20 percent to 25 percent of Beverly Hills residents are Iranian, many of them Jewish.

Nearly three decades after arriving in Southern California and adjusting to a new way of life, some successful Iranian Jews are venturing into the political arena. That half of candidates on the ballot for the Beverly Hills City Council races are from the Iranian Jewish community speaks to a shift among immigrants who were historically denied political participation in their native country.

“This community [Iranian Jews] truly appreciates the freedoms granted to it by the United States, and it sincerely wishes to pay back for what it has received,” said Sam Kermanian, secretary general of the Los Angeles-based Iranian American Jewish Federation. “I have no doubt that in this area, too, members of our community will prove to be worthy citizens who can contribute to their environment in the most positive way.”Delshad is perhaps the best known of the three candidates. His successful grass-roots campaign in 2003 energized Beverly Hills’ Iranian Jews and catapulted him into office, making Delshad the first Iranian Jew elected to public office in the United States.

(Businessman Joe Sushani was the first Iranian Jew to run for the Beverly Hills City Council in 1996, but was unsuccessful in his bid.)

Prior to his term with the Beverly Hills City Council, Delshad served as the full-time president of Sinai Temple in West Los Angeles from 1999 to 2001 after selling a computer storage technology firm he founded in 1978.

If elected to a second term, Delshad said he wants to implement an initiative to bring a new digital infrastructure to Beverly Hills after seeing the successes of similar technology put into place in the Israeli city of Ariel.

The vice mayor is now hoping to tap the same voters who elected him in 2003, but this time he has to compete with candidates from his own community.

“It’s a misnomer that I’m going to lose some votes,” Delshad said. “Actually I’m going to get more votes from them because I was singularly trying to get the community to vote before, and now I have two other people trying to get the community to vote.”One of the candidates wooing Iranian Jewish voters is Melamed, whose role as a Beverly Hills City planning commissioner has put him in the middle of often controversial development projects.

“As a planning commissioner my hands are tied. I’m only allowed to look at land use, so here I am trying to help the community but I can only use part of my skills,” Melamed said. “Some of my best skills are from my business background, education in finance and my training on Wall Street that is left unused, so I’m hoping to put it to use on the Council.”

Between 2000 and 2004, Melamed also served on the city’s Recreation and Parks Commission. In 1998, Melamed’s mother, Soraya, also made an unsuccessful run for a spot on the Beverly Hills School Board.

Melamed said he is looking to help both Iranian and non-Iranian city residents find common ground on various divisive issues, such as the construction of “Persian palaces,” a local pejorative term for mansions built in a Mediterranean revival or Middle Eastern style on small parcels of land.

“I have explained to many that our families are extended. That when we get together for small family gatherings, with 40 and 50 people in a living room, you need a more spacious one and a higher ceiling so that the noise doesn’t bother you,” said Melamed, who is a fourth cousin to this reporter. “Through dialogue we have to find common ground that satisfies both segments of the community. From talking to architects, I understand there are styles out there that can maintain the integrity of the City of Beverly Hills and at the same time address the needs of an Iranian American family.”Attorney Soleimani is taking a more conservative approach to the development issue. Positioning herself as a political outsider, Soleimani is appealing to voters frustrated with city officials who have approved numerous development projects around Beverly Hills.

“I have not been a part of the nasty and angry battles of the past,” Soleimani said. “I want to be a voice of unity, professionalism, healing the community and ending the division that has occurred over every single development project.”

Soleimani said one of the reasons she decided to run for City Council was to bring a stronger ethics ordinance prohibiting council members from appearing as lobbyists on behalf of real estate developers.

Current city codes forbid former council members from serving as lobbyists for one year after they leave office.

“I think it should be at least two years and I personally promise not to ever represent anyone as a client who has their case come before the council, if I am elected,” said Soleimani, who could become the first Iranian Jewish woman elected to political office in the United States.

Beverly Hills Mayor Steve Webb, Planning Commissioner Nancy Krasne and Lizza Monet Morales are the three other candidates running for the Beverly Hills City Council.

Proof of the Iranian Jewish community’s growing political muscle came in March 2005, when Beverly Hills Iranian Jews were able to cast ballots featuring Persian-language directions in Beverly Hills elections. They also received help from poll volunteers who also spoke Persian, Delshad said.

“Persians are beginning to realize that they can wield influence by participating in political life,” said H. David Nahai, a Century City attorney and political activist. “Many are also beginning to see that there is a unique sense of fulfillment in public service which private gain can never equal.”

Three Iranian Jews run for seats on Beverly Hills City Council Read More »

Abusive clergy; Bibi is a realist, not a racist; The ‘un-Jewish Journal’

Leave a Comment / Letters to the Editor / Jewish Journal

Abusive Clergy

I attended a Jewish day school in the Midwest (“Don’t Kid Yourself,” Jan. 12). From the time I was 9 until 15, I was sexually molested by my Torah/history/Judaica/ ethics teacher who was also a trained cantor and a Shabbat-observantJew. I was molested in the boiler room of the school and in his car.

There was no one to tell, and as a child, I didn’t think anyone would believe me. Every day I lived in fear, because my Jewish school, located in a synagogue, was not a safe place.

He destroyed my life by making me feel less than a piece of dirt. Today, I have chronic illness which in some part was caused by this massive trauma to my body and soul. My ability to trust people is severely limited.

Child sexual abuse knows no boundaries, and our clergy, the individuals in whom we have placed our trust, must accept that this behavior of abuse is evil and unacceptable. The scared child is the one who needs our protection and support.
Name Withheld

There is actually something more cruel and humiliating than being sexually abused. It is the perpetration of community denial fostered by our rabbinic leaders (“Reining in Abuse,” Jan. 12).

Denial of the existence and the extent of child sexual abuse isolates the victim from comfort, help and treatment. Trauma, by definition, lacks the coherence of words, but when there is no one to listen, the horror is magnified.

Without the understanding that sexual abuse is perpetrated even by Jewish clergy, there is no way to stop the perpetrator and warn the community. You enable and empower the perpetrators by disallowing attention to the victims’ voices and thereby become responsible for the next victim.

If the crime doesn’t exist, then it is the victim cum accuser who is the culprit making up allegations against esteemed people in the community. The community treats them as the culprits, and the victims now feel guilty.

There is no safety for our children as long as you ally yourselves with the perpetrators of abuse. When you keep these events secret and don’t warn the community, you give these clergy perpetrators free reign. You have no idea of the permanent damage they create in innocent children – while our rabbinic leaders stand idly by making the conscious choice to be deaf to their cries.

Ian Russ
Vice Chair
California Board of Behavioral Sciences

Thanks for another cover story addressing issues of sexual impropriety and abuse by our clergy and others. Let’s continue exploring care for both our injured and injuring parties (both need our loving assist) through dialoguing, compassionate therapy and educating awareness.

After The Jewish Journal’s cover story months ago, I gently offered (nonsexual) tantra yoga instruction — an oft-taught ancient path that redirects sexual energies toward God consciousness — to a rabbi sentenced to prison for child porn.

Uninterested in learning, he left me puzzled and frustrated that this perfect tool goes unrecognized and unused, relegating us instead to cycles of ignorance, shame, denial and abuse. There are several of us yogis in Los Angeles of Jewish heritage: Please, let us help.

Marcia Singer
Woodland Hills

Not a Racist

What Larry Derfner defines as racism, Benjamin Netanyahu regards as necessary for Israel’s survival (“Netanyahu Ranks High as Racist Demagogue,” Jan. 19). He insists this war is far from over. Because the former prime minister says the things we don’t want to hear, but deep down we know to be true, he is condemned.

He’s not a racist; he’s a survivalist. Israel lives in the thick of the growing Jihad menace and will need to defend itself in the coming months and years like it has never done before. David Ben Gurion, Israel’s first prime minister, presided over the most dangerous time in Israeli history, the first 10 days of the state’s existence in 1948. He would roll over in his grave if he knew what kind of peril Israel faces in the near future.

Its time we as Jews realize our responsibility. We must face this evil down as a community and stand as one, because not to is to face the unthinkable.

Larry Hart
West Hills

Children of Intermarriage

Once more The Jewish Journal proves again that it should be called the un-Jewish Journal. The article, “Jewish Parent + Christian Parent = Jewish Kids,” (Jan. 19) doesn’t once mention the word “halacha,” which apparently is an anathema to The Journal.

The article completely omits that if the Jewish parent is the father, then the children are only considered Jewish in the eyes of the Reform movement. According to the Orthodox and Conservative movements, they are not Jewish.

The article also fails to state what would happen if the girls wanted to marry someone who is Orthodox or Conservative. They would then have to convert.

By prolonging this, the parents are putting more heartache on their children who consider themselves Jewish already but in actuality are not. Instead of the big metsieh that the article portrays of “raising the children Jewish” (Jewish children don’t attend church services or celebrate Xmas) it should have gone in depth into the consequences of such actions.

If I wanted to read a paper that is a shill for the Reform movement, I could subscribe to the Reform movement’s own publication directly.

Morton Resnick
Oxnard

Muslim-Jewish Dialogue

The Journal is right to devote significant attention to Muslim-Jewish dialogue and pioneers like Salam Al-Marayati and Daniel Sokatch (“Try, Try Again,” Jan. 19). Even though many of us may disagree on how best to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian morass, Muslims and Jews share theological, legal and ritual concerns that differ significantly from those of the Protestant Christian and secular majorities in America.

Progressive Jewish Alliance’s (PJA) and the Muslim Public Affairs Council’s (MPAC) cooperation in 2002 and 2003 during the roundup of Iranian immigrants with visa irregularities speaks to our shared political concerns.

Abusive clergy; Bibi is a realist, not a racist; The ‘un-Jewish Journal’ Read More »

Kadima and Heschel West merge middle schools

Leave a Comment / Community, Kids & Teens / Julie Gruenbaum Fax

Two Jewish days schools in the West Valley are merging their sixth through eighth grades to form a middle school with a wider range of classes and a more diverse pool of friends.

Kadima Hebrew Academy in West Hills and Heschel West in Agoura will open the new Kadima Heschel West Middle School with 150 students in September 2007 on Kadima’s Evenhaim Family Campus.

“I think this is one of the most visionary and strategic community events that has happened in a long time,” said Bruce Powell, head of school at New Community Jewish High School, which features many Kadima and Heschel West graduates. “Sometimes we adults get so caught up in our own ego needs and institutional needs we forget that our first order of business is to serve our children.”

By pooling resources and combining two small programs into a larger school, administrators say they can enrich academic offerings and give students more social opportunities.

Both Heschel West and Kadima have experienced sustained growth in the last few years, and this marriage is not a result of either school being weak or needing help, administrators say.

The idea took form after Kadima and Heschel West lay leaders began to meet to compare notes on budgetary and governance issues, and at one Starbucks meeting last year they tossed around the idea of a joint middle school dance.

While the dance never happened, it eventually lead to the idea of a full middle school merger — an idea professional and lay leaders quickly jumped on and brought to fruition within just a few months.

“What this is really about is two institutions pulling themselves together and saying what is the best thing to do for our communities, and let’s erase superficial differences and see if we can build something that is far better than what we can do by ourselves,” said Barbara Gereboff, Kadima’s head of school.

Renewed attention has recently focused on the challenge of how best to educate 11- to 14-year-olds — ages when children’s bodies, emotions and intellect undergo more changes than at any other time other than the first three years of life.

Recent research has shown national standardized test scores plummeting between fifth grade and eighth grade.

In Los Angeles, Superintendent David Brewer has set up a task force to look at the question of the middle school years. In New York, Mayor Michael Bloomberg has begun to dismantle middle schools, reintegrating them into a K-8 format or grades 6-12 schools.

Jewish day schools have traditionally been set up as K-8 schools, but with smaller student populations than public schools, which could mean that an eighth-grader might be with the same 20 to 30 kids for 10 years.

“The right thing for the children is that they leave the nest of elementary school and go into a larger pool of students that is a more diverse population, where they can develop their own Jewish identity and their own understanding of the way their world works,” said Rabbi Yuri Hronsky, Heschel West’s middle school director, who will become the principal of the joint middle school.

He will be supervised by Kadima’s Gereboff, and Jan Saltsman, Heschel West’s head of school.

The schools unveiled the plan to parents, staff and students in mid-December, days after the boards approved the merger and after just a few months of negotiating between the executive committees of both schools’ boards. Administrators say no teacher jobs will be cut.

“I am absolutely thrilled,” said Mira Winograd, mother of Kadima seventh-grader Darren and fourth-grader Toby. “We were told about this at an assembly, and every single question I thought of asking was answered in a way that left me extremely comfortable. I didn’t hear one negative remark from anyone I was sitting with.”

Kids wanted to know what the new school would be called, what the new mascot and team colors would be and whether they would have lockers and hot lunches.

“For a while we’ve had under 30 kids and only one or two classes,” said seventh-grader Brian Hertz, who has been at Kadima since kindergarten. “Now with more people we’ll have more friends and their will be more people in our classes. It just feels like everything is going to be better.”

Hronsky, Gereboff and Saltsman have been working closely to craft the new program.

“The first thing we had to do was break down these perceptions of our differences and determine how we are alike,” Saltsman said.

One of those perceptions had to with religiosity. Kadima is a Solomon Schechter school affiliated with the Conservative movement, while Heschel West is an independent community school, dedicated to pluralism. (The joint school will not be affiliated with any movement.)

But it soon became clear that the schools had the same policies regarding Shabbat, kashrut and kippahs, and that they spend the same number of hours per week in prayer. The “academic” versus “developmental” labels also proved to be specious.

“Sitting across the table from Kadima was more about brainstorming than negotiating,” said Roger Bloxberg, Heschel West’s president. “It was like looking in the mirror.”

Kadima Heschel West Middle School will operate as an independent entity with its own board, staff, budget and bank account. A bus will run from Heschel West to Kadima, about 7 miles east.

The move solves a growing space problem for Heschel West. Founded 13 years ago, Heschel West has rented a campus since 1997 just off the 101 at Liberty Canyon. Heschel West opened its middle school two years ago, and has grown from 140 students in 2002 to 260 today.

Heschel West is planning to build a 750-student facility, which would eventually also house the joint middle school on 72 acres of land it purchased in 1997 near Agoura Hills in unincorporated Los Angeles County. In 2005, the county approved the project, but the Agoura Hills City Council is appealing that approval.

School officials are confident they will be able to move forward with the building, but in the meantime the joint middle school will be housed on Kadima’s West Hills campus, a four-acre site it purchased three years ago after renting for the previous 34 years of its existence.

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