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Jewish Journal

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November 9, 2007

Gelato bar scoops Italian flavor onto party scene

Leave a Comment / Bar & Bat Mitzvahs /

In the small Italian village of Panicale, L.A. native Gail Silverton said she was drawn to the piazza, the warm, welcoming town center where citizens of all ages gathered at gelaterias to enjoy a dish of stracciatella (vanilla with chocolate shavings), a hazelnut gelato cone, or even a raspberry sorbetto. They would sip an espresso, gossip with neighbors, and because it felt so good to be there, linger as long as possible.

When she returned home to Studio City, Silverton and husband Joel Gutman, longing to recreate that special sense of community, founded Gelato Bar in trendy Tujunga Village, where all ages and groups could meet. And because it feels so good to be there, folks tend to linger.

It’s not easy to find a place where everything seems right with the world.
But it’s possible to encourage the same camaraderie at our bar or bat mitzvah parties by creating a warm, welcoming environment. And at the center, your own gelateria, where guests are invited to sample the flavors, personalize their handmade cones or bowls with a variety of toppings, and kibbitz, laugh and linger with guests from every generation.

What Is Gelato?

Gelato is dairy-based dessert made with fruits, nuts, chocolate, toffee or any number of enticing ingredients. Sorbetto is dairy-free, made only of fruit, sugar and water, so it contains no fat or cholesterol.

As delicious as gelato is, it’s lower in calories, sugar, carbs and fat than American ice cream. Gelato uses more milk than cream so it contains 4 percent to 8 percent butterfat; American ice cream features 10 percent to 18 percent butterfat.

How to Pick the Best Gelato

When deciding on flavors for your party, a good mixture is four gelatos, such as stracciatella, vanilla, pistachio and hazelnut and two sorbettos, such as raspberry and mango.

If you’re feeling adventurous, experiment making your own gelato, but for a large party it’s easier to buy it from the gelateria in your neighborhood, like Gelato Bar or Piccomolo.

High-quality gelato is made in metal pans with fresh, natural ingredients and has no preservatives or artificial flavoring. Beware if the color is too intense, warns Silverton and Tyler George, vice president of operations at Piccomolo. It is probably filled with food coloring. Lemons are not sun-blinding yellow and pistachio nuts are not florescent green; in fact, they are a dull, grayish green color. The flavors should be just as they appear in nature.

To retain the high quality and flavor, gelato is made in small batches and stored in display cases at 6 degrees to 8 degrees so it retains its soft, creamy texture. Because gelato is not rock-hard, it has a sculptural, wavy presentation which can be accented with fresh fruits or nuts. It works best to use a flat, rather than a ball- shaped scoop.

For your party, arrange to pick up the gelato at the last possible minute; experts say it should be consumed within hours after it’s made. According to George, Piccomolo will pull a pan of gelato if it’s been in the case for more than 36 hours.

Toppings

Because gelato has such a rich, intense flavor, it doesn’t cry out for toppings; it is itself a topping, Gelato Bar’s Silverton says.

She loves to plop a scoop of gelato atop a brownie or a brioche, wedge it between a pair of Oreos or peanut butter cookies (Silverton prefers the cookies baked by her sister, La Brea Bakery owner Nancy Silverton) to make a gelato sandwich or even a double-decker gelato sandwich. Silverton also loves to top a scoop of gelato with a flat chocolate cookie so it resembles a graduation hat or even a fan made of a pizzelle wafer.

Since American teens love toppings, set out bowls of chopped toasted almonds, Valrhona chocolate pearls, English toffee, shredded coconut, miniature chocolate chips or even colorful gummy bears.

Adults will probably take their gelato plain or with a dollop of freshly whipped cream. In Italy, it is made with a smidge of sugar, vanilla or hazelnut flavoring.

Silverton says sorbetto needs little more than freshly whipped cream.

Gelato Cones

A good gelateria such as Piccomolo will have a commercial pizzelle iron, which resembles a waffle iron and produces thin pliable waffle cookies. You can shape the warm pizzelles into a cone or for the “spoon set,” a bowl, which actually holds more gelato.

Make them in advance or set out two irons on the gelato table at your b’nai mitzvah celebration and, under supervision of a knowledgeable pizzelle maker, let guests make their own.

The beauty is there will be no two alike. This appeals to the artist in me, but if you’d rather have a sea of cones of the same dimensions, you can order them from your local gelateria.

Although cones with a flat bottom are easier to serve, many people prefer the classic sugar cone, which comes to a point at the end.

Drinks

The lingering part of our gelato dessert table is enhanced by adding some do-it-yourself drink ideas, such as Affogato, Italian Soda, and Raspberry Verjus (see recipes).

Presentation is Everything

If you know a catering company or gelateria with a gelato cart for rent, think no further. It will keep everything at just the right temperature and make you feel like a pro as you deftly scoop out the gelato and allow guests to personalize their dessert. Silverton and Gutman sometimes come out with a gelato cart to cater an event themselves.
Even if you’re setting up the table yourself, keep the gelato in the metal pans they were made in and place them on top of a container filled with ice; dry ice is even better since it stays colder longer and leaves no moisture as it changes state. Remember, gelato melts quickly, so have an ice chest or freezer nearby and keep replacing the pans of gelato as needed. A pan of gelato can stay out of the freezer or ice chest for up to 15 minutes.
Your table should have plates of cookies used for making gelato sandwiches, the gelato toppings set out in pretty, colorful bowls, and all the ingredients and accessories for assembling the cold drinks and the pizzelle batter.

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Teen makes a difference for orphans in Kenya slum

Leave a Comment / Bar & Bat Mitzvahs /

Instead of splurging on a Wii or a state-of-the-art laptop, Ryan Silver, of Manhattan Beach, donated a portion of his gift money to orphans in a Nairobi slum.

“I think the best thing you can do is help another person,” said Silver, 13. “I have a better life than the kids [in the orphanage], and I wanted to help them.”

Silver’s inspiration stemmed from a 2006 family vacation to Africa. Silver, his parents and his younger sister went on safari and explored Kenya and Tanzania. While the incredible sights of wild animals and tribesman remain with him, Silver’s most memorable moments were meeting the children in the Nyumbani Orphanage in Mukuru, a slum in Kenya’s capital. The orphanage houses about 100 children whose families have been affected by AIDS/HIV.

Silver and his family had traveled with Micato Safaris and chose to participate in the New York-based tour operator’s nonprofit AmericaShare program, which allows travelers to spend time with the orphans in Nairobi.

AmericaShare supports about 2,000 Kenyan children, many of whom have been affected by the HIV/AIDS epidemic sweeping the continent. The organization places underprivileged children in schools and orphanages throughout East Africa. Through Lend a Helping Hand, a subprogram of America-Share, travelers can meet local children and offer financial support if they so choose.

It’s “main accomplishment is travelers hooking up with children whom they now support,” said Dennis Pinto, Micato’s managing director. “Many of these children were homeless or living on streets, and this gets them out of that situation.”

Often, this means living in the safety of the orphanage and getting a boarding-school education.

For Silver, Mukuru was a far cry from the clean, upscale neighborhood he knows in Manhattan Beach, where he surfs daily and plays on the school lacrosse team. Home to about 700,000, Mukuru has no infrastructure and little access to water and electricity.

“It was shocking,” Silver said.

After walking through narrow streets filled with mud, past large piles of trash and tiny, rundown shops, he arrived at the orphanage.

When Silver entered the facility, two toddler orphans, a brother and sister, took him by the hand and showed him their play area and vegetable garden. The juxtaposition of the devastation and the happy children was overwhelming. Silver says he was overcome with emotion.

“They were the cutest kids I’d ever seen, and they were so excited to see us,” said Silver, his soft-spoken voice evoking a mixture of sympathy and enthusiasm.

During Silver’s visit, the children and their caretakers sang songs for him in Swahili and played games. Although he only spent about two hours there, the experience changed his life.

“It definitely made me realize how lucky I am to have a home and a family and have the food and I water I need,” said Silver, who is in the eighth grade.

According to Pinto, Silver is not alone. For many children, especially teenagers, a trip through the slums of Africa can be life- altering.

“It is an experience that reaches quite deep into the psyches of teenagers,” Pinto said.

When Silver returned home, he began preparing for his bar mitzvah. Without hesitation, he knew that his mitzvah project would involve helping the children in the orphanage.

When it was time to send the invitations for his March simcha, Silver enclosed a letter about the cause and asked guests to donate money to AmericaShare at the reception. At the party, he played a video of the children from the orphanage and gave guests handmade decorative pins and bracelets that they bought from the women from the orphanage. Between the guests’ donations and his own, Silver raised more than $2,700.

In addition to completing a Jewish rite of passage, Silver was pleased that his celebration helped educate others about the plight of the children in Africa and to ultimately offer financial support.

“Instead of just coming for a party, [my guests] came to see what Mukuru is like and how they can help,” he said.

Silver now sponsors a teenage boy from the orphanage named Evans. The donated funds cover Evans’ $1,500 tuition for one year, and the remainder of the money will go to help support an additional orphan.

Silver says he plans to continue to support Evans and other orphans in the years to come.

“Ryan is quite a special kid who is sensitive to the world beyond him,” said Rabbi Mark Hyman of Congregation Tikvat Jacob in Manhattan Beach, who officiated at Silver’s ceremony. Hyman said that becoming a bar mitzvah means one becomes responsible for transforming the world — something the teen has certainly taken on.

Silver said his experience in Africa continues to influence him.

“It has definitely given me a more positive look on life,” he said. “We can make a difference helping kids less fortunate.”

For more information, visit http://www.americashare.org/

Teen makes a difference for orphans in Kenya slum Read More »

Briefs: Muggings mar Shabbat shalom in Pico-Robertson, ‘L.A. Eight’ case dropped

Leave a Comment / Community /

Orthodox Rabbi, 2 Others Mugged

For the first time since a rash of muggings in Pico-Robertson around Shavuot, three Orthodox Jews, including Rabbi Elazar Muskin of Young Israel of Century City, were held up at gunpoint on Oct. 26 as they walked home from Shabbat services.

“It’s a great neighborhood, and I don’t want people to get worked up over this,” said Muskin, who was not hurt and had nothing stolen in the attack. “The police are on top of this, and we are going to try to improve the homeowners association patrol.”

Police have made no arrests and have only general descriptions of the suspects — Hispanic, early 20s. As they have in the past, authorities advise observant Jews to walk in large groups on well-lighted thoroughfares, to stay away from bushes, buildings and alleys and to be aware of their surroundings.

Though they don’t carry money on Shabbat, Orthodox Jews have long been targeted because they often walk alone at night and often wear jewelry. Last May, many of the 30 people robbed during one week were walking to and from shul, sparking community meetings and warnings through e-mails.

The attacks evoked fears of a time in the early 1990s when muggings were frequent, including a violent robbery of Rabbi Jack Simcha Cohen, the then-president of the Board of Rabbis of Southern California. Many Jews started carrying a gun to services.

“There was a time several years ago when people were afraid to walk outside,” said Rabbi Daniel Korobkin, Orthodox Union West Coast director of community and synagogue services. “But thankfully it hasn’t come to that, and God willing it won’t.”

— Brad Greenberg, Staff Writer

Government Drops ‘L.A. Eight’ Case

The U.S. government dropped deportation proceedings against two people accused of assisting terrorists. They are the last two of eight people, called the “L.A. Eight,” accused in 1987 of abetting Palestinian terrorists.

The Board of Immigration Appeals on Oct. 30 dismissed charges remaining against Khader Hamide and Michel Shehadeh, the last of the “L.A. Eight” jailed in 1987 for supporting the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), primarily through the distribution of the PFLP’s publication, Al Hadaf, which was freely available in public libraries.

Throughout the years, the government used many tactics and laws against the eight –seven Palestinians and a Kenyan married to one of the Palestinians — including their alleged affiliations with communists and terrorists. The case came to a head in January, when a Los Angeles-based immigration judge, Bruce Einhorn, blasted the government’s case as “an embarrassment to the rule of law.” The Department of Homeland Security settled the case after the court vacated findings of prosecutorial misconduct.

Briefs: Muggings mar Shabbat shalom in Pico-Robertson, ‘L.A. Eight’ case dropped Read More »

Writers’ strike is not a Jewish story

Leave a Comment / Uncategorized /

“Are you Jewish?”

With some discomfort, I asked that question repeatedly of the 300-plus picketers in front of CBS Studio Center in Studio City on

Monday, the first day of the strike by the Writers Guild of America.

It was an awkward query not because I feared dismissal — after accounting for noses and facial hair and eyeglasses, I was able to reduce uncertainty to about 20 percent — but because I knew these TV and film writers did not see a connection between Yiddishkayt and the failed contract negotiations that spurred some 12,000 members of the WGA to go on strike at 9:01 p.m. Sunday.

“What’s the Jewish angle?” Andrew Jacobson, a co-writer of “Not Another Teen Movie,” asked me. “I don’t see one except in the most stereotypical sense. This is an issue that affects people regardless of religion or race or gender. It’s writers united.”

Indeed, “Hollywood writer” is among the most Jewish job descriptions anywhere, which is why, as this long-anticipated strike approached, my editors asked me to report the news through a Jewish lens. The difficulty, however, is that this really isn’t a Jewish story. It’s a business story that just happens to deal with an industry built largely by Jewish immigrants and sustained by their successors.

Both sides of this fight count many Jews among their fold, and both claim the moral high ground — the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers accuses “irresponsible” writers of endangering the entertainment industry and the L.A. economy; writers say they simply want their fair share of a hugely profitable business, as well as a the livelihood for middle-class scribes who spend most years out of work.

“The Jews have such a history of fighting for the worker, and there is certainly some beautiful text material for one to draw on in fighting a fight like this,” said David N. Weiss, an observant Jew and WGA vice president. “But I would hate to have it characterized as a Jewish struggle. That would be just off the mark.”

In the end, this story is about money.

“There is an ethical component, but this is business,” said Robert J. Avrech, an Orthodox Jew who wrote “The Devil’s Arithmetic.” “I don’t understand why people need to bring in a moral, ethical argument. This is about business, about our share of the profits. Why is anything more needed?”

The last writers strike, in 1988, was a 22-week affair that cut deep into the pocketbooks of Hollywood scribes, and many felt it ended with few gains. Observers expect this strike to be long and bitter, with the WGA pushing for increased payment on DVD sales and for residuals for original and recycled content played on the Internet.

“We live off the residuals, and if people are watching reruns on the Internet, it’s going to change retirement plans for a lot of writers,” said Eric Lapidus, a consultant on “Two and a Half Men.”

Lapidus, who was picketing Monday in front of the main gate at the CBS lot, also has a lot to worry about right now. His journalist wife recently left the editorship at Angeleno magazine to give birth to their daughter and is now freelance reporting; he could be out of work for a long time. Fortunately, he said, the strike was anticipated, and he and his wife did what they could to prepare.

“Hopefully this will end soon,” Lapidus said, rejoining the picket line after a brief break. “And if not, I’m going to get in good shape.”

The writers marched in a circle. Young and old, successful writers and laboring grinders, wearing either blood-red union shirts or sweaters or cheap Ts with blue jeans and sneakers — always sneakers — picketed alongside each other. During the afternoon shift, children joined their parents on the line. Aiden Lewis, the 11-month-old son of TV writer Meghan McCarthy, sat smiling in his stroller, on which had been taped a sheet of paper that stated, “My mom’s not greedy, she just wants to feed me.”

This scene was repeated in four-hour shifts at 14 locations in Los Angeles and others in New York. This week, guild members were expected to spend 20 hours participating in the strike, either by picketing or volunteering at headquarters for WGA, West, at 7000 W. Third St.

“There are more Jews here than at my Hebrew school,” said Alan Marc Levy, who wrote the TV movie, “Searching for David’s Heart.” “It’s just that is who is swimming in the writing pool.”

Writers’ strike is not a Jewish story Read More »

Skirball builds a real rainbow for Noah’s Ark

Leave a Comment / Entertainment, Video /


Danielle Berrin shows off the rainbow
Longtime collaborators architect Moshe Safdie and artist Ned Kahn were busy designing the new headquarters for the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms in Washington D.C. when Safdie invited Kahn to “think about rainbows.” Standing in a courtyard, staring into a design he describes as a reflecting pool, Kahn’s first thoughts were of water. Then came the flood — ice melting, rising sea levels, global warming; then artwork bridging man and nature; and the image of someone standing on a cliff becoming engulfed by a wave.

All he had to do was figure out how to break water into the perfect-sized droplets to create a rainbow. And then he did.

Just beyond the new Noah’s Ark installation at the Skirball Cultural Center, where Asian elephants and Boringo giraffes tower, a lushly landscaped courtyard has been designed as a rainbow arbor.

Rising from a base of rocks, Kahn’s rainbow is a curved metal form that wraps around a walkway, spraying droplets of mist that coalesce to form a rainbow. It is the marriage of a museum exhibit and a symbolic natural oasis, recalling both the benevolent and destructive elements of nature and symbolizing God’s promise to Noah not to flood the earth again.

To prepare for the arbor’s construction, Kahn studied many versions of the Noah story: “I remember being struck by how many different cultures had references to a flood, the way flood stories seem like part of the collective memory of humankind.”

Having studied environmental science, Kahn often blends natural and man-made elements to create contemplative sanctuaries that connect people to the forces of nature.

“I think you could say that most of my work is located in urban environments, where people are disconnected from natural forces and phenomena, so a lot of what I’ve created is part of this realization that everything is a man-nature hybrid.”

The rainbow arbor relies on the unpredictability of each day’s elements: “I stuck a bunch of pieces of metal together, put novels [apparatuses that break the water] into it and ran water. But when you turn it on, it’s the wind and sunlight that animates it … it’s not entirely my creation.”

The central image came to him in a dream: “I was with my father, and we were on a hillside watching a wave crash, and it was really gentle, and when it hit us, we were washed away by it. But it was this sweet, nice dream … probably the opposite of what most people think of floods.”

Indeed, the sculpture’s abstract shape resembles an undulating wave, but as in Kahn’s dream, it is a delicate form — with perforated metal that appears transparent and a mist that sprinkles your skin, the way it would if you were behind a waterfall.

Conceived as a climax to the whimsical and wild experience of the Noah’s Ark exhibit, the rainbow arbor provides a contrast in its soothing, sensory experience.

In a world where man is increasingly alienated from untainted nature and global warming threatens the planet, Kahn’s mist sculpture embodies the hope of a promising future — or, as he puts it: “The rainbow was the symbol that they had made it.”

The rainbow can be found at the Skirball Cultural Center, 2701 N. Sepulveda Blvd., Los Angeles. (310) 440-4500. Skirball hours: Tues.-Fri., noon-5p.m; Thurs., noon-9 p.m.; Sat., Sun., 10 a.m.-5 p.m. For more information, visit http://www.skirballcenter.org

Skirball builds a real rainbow for Noah’s Ark Read More »

Get ready Jewish leaders, the Next Generation is here

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We gave them melting ice caps, outsourcing and global terrorism. They’re giving us — energy and optimism?

If the group of Gen Y-ers — also known as Millenials or NextGens or iGens — who gathered for a Jewish leadership conference in Santa Monica last week are any indication, it seems that parents who did everything to build their children’s resumes and self esteem may have been on to something. This handpicked group of Jewish leaders in their 20s and early 30s have the self-confidence to think — to actually believe — that if the old people would just make some room for them, or maybe get out of the way altogether, they could fix this mess of a world. They are committed to social justice; they are willing to get their hands dirty; they have great ideas, time to volunteer, and they have the arrogance, self-centeredness and technological savvy to bring their ideas to fruition.

The question is how to channel all that into the Jewish community.

The Professional Leaders Project (PLP) took on that challenge when it was founded three years ago by some of American Jewry’s biggest philanthropists, who sensed that young people with leadership potential were staying far from a Jewish establishment they perceived as staid and uninterested in hearing new voices or developing the skills and careers of newcomers.

Through programs that combine mentoring, peer networking and a two-way conversation between top Jewish leaders and young people, PLP has made some inroads into this age group.

Over the past three years, PLP has identified and nurtured more than 200 young people, and it now has many success stories of professionals who have moved from careers in law or finance into professional Jewish leadership, as well as volunteers who have rechanneled their energies into Jewish causes. Among others, they targeted artists who might not have considered themselves leaders and people who are already working in –or had recently left — Jewish organizations, hoping to keep them happier in Jewish careers. With a budget of $1.5 million annually, PLP also funds about 12 graduate students in nonprofit management or pubic administration programs, with the requirement that the fellows then commit to careers in the Jewish community.

“I’m looking at the next 20 years, and I’m elated, whereas before I was disappointed, frustrated, and had written off the Jewish community to a large extent. PLP has made me optimistic,” said Ari Moss, a 28-year-old attorney who got involved with PLP three years ago. While he had been active in organizations specifically targeting young Jews, he felt the “pay to play” model of establishment organizations excluded young Jews.

“PLP sees a Jewish community that looks radically different than the organized Jewish community that exists today,” said Moss, who co-chaired last week’s conference. “They see a future Jewish community that is warm, inclusive and more inter-connected, that is more than just dinners and golf tournaments.”

PLP leaders have done an admirable job of getting out of their own Gen X or Baby Boomer mindsets and into the quirks and needs of this generation.

On the surface, PLP has created an image that is slick and hip, using the lingo and the look of a new generation. Participants are known as “talent,” a word that even when spoken seems to require quotation marks; trendy word treatments — like ThinkTank3 — adorn printed materials worthy of the graphic design generation, and, of course, everything is online, and everything is green. (At the closing session, it was announced that the hotel staff had picked the plastic cutlery out of the garbage for recycling; where’s the social justice in that?).

The catering at the conference was elegant, but outside of every meeting room was an oversized bucket of Red Vines licorice and a shiny pile of Israeli Bisli snack bags, a testament to the fact that this generation isn’t quite ready to admit to being adults.

But it’s not just the trappings that are Next Gen. At the centerpiece of PLP is LiveNetworks, a one-year program where 20- and 30-somethings dialogue with one another and with high-profile Jewish leaders about the larger vision and smaller practicalities of maintaining a vibrant Jewish community. In monthly meetings in five regional hubs, high-ranking professionals and volunteers discuss with the talent real case studies, and the group also participates in Jewish text study and leadership skills. They receive one-on-one coaching from their hub director and are paired with mentors from the established Jewish community.

“They are very interested in the generations above them and want to be mentored,” said Rhoda Weisman Uziel, founding executive director of PLP. “Maybe it’s because many of them had good relationships with their parents, so they are not angry and intimidated by boomers — in fact they see a lot of wisdom that can help them move forward, and they want to network with them.”

They are entrepreneurial and high achieving, yet team players, she said, although they have little tolerance for hierarchical bureaucracies.

“Respect is very important to them, and if they’re respected, they’ll respect you and be more courageous and be willing to take leaps,” Uziel said.

At ThinkTank3, the talent — a new cohort of about 75 people, along with about 60 from last year’s LiveNetwork, a dozen or so academic fellows, and some 35 other potential leaders — spent three days talking with each other, as well as about 180 Federation heads, rabbis, major philanthropists and veteran volunteers.

There were big name keynotes, such as Harvard’s positive psychology guru Tal Ben-Shahar. Mega-philanthropist Michael Steinhardt had to cancel at the last minute, so Jewish rockers Blue Fringe overnighted in from New York. Keynoters Scott Sherman and Jennifer Robin came, respectively, from the Transformative Action Institute and The Great Place to Work Institute, which pretty much speaks for itself.

But the conference was mostly about schmoozing. All the sessions were led by as many as four people, so that, rather than presentations, there were conversations on issues like interdating, spirituality, volunteerism, Jewish identity, the work-life balance, harnessing the power of the new media and lots and lots about social justice. There was a painful discussion on Israel, making evident that Gen Y-ers are not as passionate or as convinced about Israel as their elders — a message the establishment has been slow to take in.

Get ready Jewish leaders, the Next Generation is here Read More »

Kidnapped Iranian Jew’s family finds closure

Leave a Comment / Blogs, Community /

On a spring morning in 1980, following the turbulent Islamic revolution in Iran, Isaac Lahijani, an affluent Jewish architect and real estate developer, said goodbye to his wife, Farzaneh, and his children, and left his home in Tehran for another routine day at work.

Soon after, he was kidnapped and held for ransom by unknown armed thugs of the newly-formed Iranian government.

For 26 years there was no word of Lahijani’s fate. His wife and three children say they wept for weeks and months, unable to hold a memorial for him because they had no information about his whereabouts. The Lahijani family continued living in grief until this September, when Farzaneh Lahijani was finally given an official letter from the Iranian government telling her of her husband’s death.

“After agonizing searching and denials from the Iranian authorities telling my mother to go and come for 26 years, she found out from a two-sentence letter that they indeed have killed my father and that they want to pay restitution for his blood,” said Kaveh Lahijani, the 45-year-old son of Isaac Lahijani.

The timing of the letter’s arrival was indeed unique for Kaveh Lahijani, who is a member of the Laguna Beach Chabad and had long been planning to dedicate a new Torah to the synagogue in memory of his father.

“In Judaism, you cannot do anything in memory of someone when you don’t know if they are alive or not,” Laguna Beach Chabad Rabbi Eli Goorevitch explained. “So the letter from Iran was perfect timing for us because Kaveh wanted to keep his father’s memory alive with this Torah dedication.”

Lahijani said he had planned the dedication for the past year, but was unable to locate an appropriate time to do so because of schedule conflicts. As it turned out, the only time available — Sept. 9 — was Isaac Lahijani’s birthday.

“The fact that we dedicated the Torah on his birthday when we couldn’t have done it on any other day was a sign for me that he was with us and supporting us,” said Lahijani, a Laguna Beach resident. “It was just one of many amazing things that have happened where I know my father is with me.”

Kaveh Lahijani and other members of his family said they were uncomfortable with sharing the exact details of Isaac Lahijani’s kidnapping, because of the years of suffering they have had to endure. However, Kaveh Lahijani said shortly after the kidnapping occurred, his family received a ransom note and a tape recording of his father’s voice asking for the ransom to be paid.

“We paid the ransom but never saw him. Instead we got another letter demanding that we pay more in ransom,” he said. “Then my mother received news that my father was being held in Evin Prison, but she was not permitted to visit him. Since then we have not received any information from the government about my father — until now.”

Evin Prison is a maximum-security facility allegedly used by the Iranian government to house and torture political dissidents, student protesters, journalists and anyone else believed to pose a threat to the Iranian regime, said Frank Nikbakht, a local Iranian Jewish activist.

Last September, Iranian Jewish families in the United States and Israel filed suit against Iran’s former president, Mohammad Khatami, in U.S. Federal Court over the kidnapping, imprisonment and disappearance of 12 Iranian Jews who sought to escape Iran between 1994 and 1997. Iranian government officials have repeatedly denied holding these missing Iranian Jews in custody and claim they were killed by border smugglers while trying to flee the country.

According to a 2004 report prepared by Nikbakht, the Jewish community still in Iran lives in constant fear for its security amid threats from terrorist Islamic factions. Since 1979, at least 14 Jews have been murdered or assassinated by the regime’s agents, at least two Jews have died while in custody and 11 Jews have been officially executed by the regime.

Kaveh Lahijani said that while he and his siblings are content with having closure regarding the fate of their father, his mother, who resides in Iran, has refused to accept the government’s explanation and will press on with her own investigation.

Representatives at the Iranian Mission to the United Nations did not return calls for comment.

Kidnapped Iranian Jew’s family finds closure Read More »

Coulter and Jerusalem, Jerusalem, Jerusalem

Leave a Comment / Letters to the Editor /

Crazy Coulter
Ann Coulter claimed that “Jews believe that my savior, a Jew, was [a] raving lunatic” (“Over-Clamor Over Coulter’s Comments,” Oct. 19). No Ann, we don’t. But many of us think that Ann Coulter is a raving lunatic.
Stephen Krashen
Malibu

I’m no fan of Ann Coulter and her rhetoric and public persona is quite nasty (“Over-Clamor Over Coulter’s Comments,” Oct. 19). However, I must disagree with the characterization of Coulter’s comments as “hate speech” or “anti-Semitic.” Her statements reflect long-standing Christian doctrine for millennia to the present.
If Jews want to be offended — consider this: From 1950-2000, there has been little or no change in the Jewish population (at about 5 million to 6 million) in the United States despite large migrations of Jews from the Middle East and the former Soviet Union. There are studies that suggest that with comparable overall population growth in this region—-there should have been 25 million Jews in America in 2000. Where are the “missing” 20 million Jews? I’m not aware of any forced baptisms, inquisitions, nor an auto-de-fe during that time interval.
In addition, Time magazine in an article on religion in America showed statistically that Jews are the least religious, the least observant and the least likely to believe in God compared to Protestants and Catholics.
Just this week, with reference to the Southern California fires, Bill Handel on KFI 640 interviewed an FBI profiler on the personality characteristics of an arsonist. Handel referred to a fire started in a warehouse or business for the purpose of collecting on the insurance as “Jewish lightening.” Handel is a Jew. Offended?
By the way — Tomas Torquemada, the chief inquisitor was likely of Jewish ancestry as were many antagonists of the Jewish community during that terrible period.
Jewish ethical and character “perfection” is a worthy goal — “we” just disagree with Coulter on the means to that end.
Howard Winter
Beverly Hills

Divided Jerusalem
Having just returned from an extended stay in the center of Jerusalem, I can tell you that it is most common to see many Arab families peacefully walking through malls, shopping in supermarkets and picnicking in public places. (“An Orthodox Rabbi’s Plea: Consider a Divided Jerusalem,” Oct. 26).
In fact, it is so common, that it evokes my anger to think that I would not feel comfortable doing the same in East Jerusalem.
Almost all of the workers and staff in the hotels are Arabs and it is difficult to discern the difference between a Jewish taxi driver and an Arab. Socialized medicine affords Israeli Arabs medical care equal to Jewish citizens and Arabs have their own political parties and seats in the Knesset. What practical improvement would the Arabs receive by giving away part of our precious and holy city?
We must never let our bleeding hearts cloud the essence of who we are as a people. We are Jews because of our heritage and the center of that heritage is our beloved capital, Jerusalem.
Andrea Yekutiel
via E-mail

I thank Rabbi Yosef Kanefsky for reminding me, and so many of my colleagues, what it means to be a rabbi. Sometimes the circumstances of the world demand that we speak out in unpopular ways, but most of us lack the moral courage to do so. Even those who disagree with Rabbi Kanefsky must know that we will only achieve peace in our beloved Israel when Jewish and Palestinian leaders guide our communities toward honest and even painful discourse.
I hope that the trust that Rabbi Kanefsky has built over many years of working with deep sensitivity across political and denominational lines will cause people to treat him with the respect and understanding that I know he would offer each of us. I call on all of my colleagues, beneficiaries of Rabbi Kanefsky’s humility, grace and courage, to support him and follow his lead in serving as true luminaries in this time of darkness and confusion.
Rabbi Sharon Brous
IKAR

I applaud Rabbi Kanefsky’s courage and support wholeheartedly his comments. Nothing should be off the table in the search for real peace for Israel, the Mideast and the world.
Gershon Lewis
Pacific Palisades

It was interesting to read the letters in response to Rabbi Kanefsky’s opinion piece (“An Orthodox Rabbi’s Plea: Consider a Divided Jerusalem,” Oct. 26). It is apparent that the letter writers divide into 2 camps-non-Orthodox, secular or non-Jewish pacifists/leftists/dreamers; and the Orthodox mainstream, and political conservatives. The Orthodox community will not be influenced by Kanefsky’s opinions [political or religious], and one can only pray that he does not become a tool of leftists and anti-Zionist elements to harm Israel.
S. Z. Newman
Los Angeles

We Jews have more than our share of delusional egotists like Rabbi Kanefsky who sets himself up as more wise than the Torah. And recall also the Netura Karta “rabbis” who ran to attend the anti-Israeli hate-fest in Iran and were photographed with Mahmoud Ahmadinijad. They even offered a prayer for divine support in response to Iran’s promise to destroy Israel. Kanefsky and his ilk, in a related type of action, now revel in undeserved attention while other Jewish leftists are joining in to support him. We Jews are a strange people with some who are true saints and others who sink to the depths of moral self-debasement.
Bertram Cohen
Via e-mail

Bravo Rabbi Kanefsky for breaking the Orthodox taboo on discussing the possibility of sharing Jerusalem!
Deborah Fogel
Newton, Ma.

It is the ultimate chutzpa for Rabbi Kanefsky to advocate dividing the holy city of Jerusalem. Hasn’t he learned anything from the tragedy of Israel’s unilateral withdrawal from Gaza? Sixty percent of its former residents have still not found permanent housing. The sad truth is Gaza has become home to Hamas terrorists who vow to destroy the Jewish state. If Rabbi Kanefsky is honest with himself he will admit that appeasement never works. Israel must wait to have a sincere peace partner before any division of land can begin.
When Rabbi Kanefsky makes aliyah he will have a legitimate right to publicize his political views.

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Authors explain Jewish influences on their works

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The Jewish Journal invited writers who will be featured at Sunday’s Festival of Books to answer the simple, essential question that every Jewish writer is often asked: “What Jewish sources — ideas, writings, traditions — inspire you, and how do they show up in your work?”

The following show that there is no easy answer to what defines a Jewish author, but there is no question that there’s much to draw upon within the faith.

Daniel Handler (Lemony Snicket)

The Jewish sources that have most affected my work are stories of my father’s family leaving Germany in 1938, for the usual Jewish reasons that one would leave Germany in 1938. And the independence of suffering from redemption — in other words that you’re not rewarded for behaving well, and you shouldn’t behave well because of a possible reward.

These seem to me manifestly Jewish ideas, and it is pretty easy to find them in my work. I’ve written 13 books about terrible things that happen to children who do their best to behave well. This is arguably an encapsulation of Jewish history in its entirety.

Novelist and screenwriter Daniel Handler is perhaps best known for his 13-book children’s series collectively known as “A Series of Unfortunate Events,” penned under the pseudonym of Lemony Snicket. Under his own name, Handler has published three novels, “The Basic Eight,” “Watch Your Mouth” and “Adverbs.” An accomplished musician, Handler has played accordion on a number of recordings, including “69 Love Songs” by The Magnetic Fields.

Anita Diamant

Having written six books about Jewish practice — from weddings to birth, from conversion to mourning — it’s pretty clear that I have been inspired by the way Judaism gives expression and shape to the fluid and ineffable cycle of human life. As a journalist and adult Jewish learner, it was a pleasure, as well as a challenge, to translate the wisdom and joy of our tradition into a contemporary idiom.

The other major inspiration I find in Jewish life and letters is our history of debate. The ongoing, sometimes sublime and sometimes silly, argument found in even our most sacred books (Talmud, et. al.) gives me, as a liberal Jew, a sense of belonging to a grand, ongoing and ever-changing wrestling match with the past, with the sacred, with one another.

Anita Diamant is the author of six handbooks of Jewish life and life-cycle events, including, “The New Jewish Wedding” and “Choosing a Jewish Life.” This year marks the 10th anniversary of the publication of her first novel, “The Red Tent,” based on Chapter 34 in the Book of Genesis, but told from Dinah’s point of view. Her latest novel, “The Last Days of Dogtown,” is set in Massachusetts in the early 1800s and chronicles the lives of a group of society’s cast-offs in a poor, rural community. For more information, visit www.anitadiamant.com.

Kirk Douglas

When I was writing my last book , “Let’s Face It,” Peter, one of my sons, said, “Dad, don’t make it too Jewish.” It’s hard for me to obey him, because being a Jew is, as Cole Porter would say, “Deep in the heart of me.”

The history of the Jews fascinates me. We are only about 13 million in number, way out of proportion to what we have accomplished in life and what we have contributed to the welfare of people in so many areas. I am proud of that. And yet, anti-Semitism grows.

Being a Jew is a challenge. It’s often said, “Schwer zu sein a Yid” (It’s hard to be a Jew). To me, it’s been a challenge that I try to accept gracefully, and it has given me many rewards.

Actor, producer, director and author, Kirk Douglas was born to Russian Jewish immigrant parents in Amsterdam, N.Y. He was a wrestler at St. Lawrence University and worked as a bellhop to put himself through school at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts. Douglas’ books include “Dance With the Devil” (1990); “The Secret” (1992); his autobiography, “The Ragman’s Son” (1988), and “Let’s Face It: 90 Years of Living, Loving, and Learning,” which will be published by Thorndike Press in March.

Gina Nahai

The sources that inspire me are the men and women whose lives I try to render in my stories. They’re the people I grew up with or that I grew up hearing about. I watch them now as I did then and describe what I see, hear them, and write what they say. I don’t invent so much as reveal, don’t comment so much as bear witness. I think a writer’s job is to tell the truth as she sees it, and, having done that, be prepared to defend what she has said.

I’m an Iranian Jew, and most of the people I write about are Jews. I don’t pretend to capture an entire history or to portray an entire nation. I don’t believe that’s possible. But I do believe that by telling the truth of an individual’s life — a personal truth — one can arrive at a universal understanding, and this is what I aim for.

Gina Nahai’s novels include “Cry of the Peacock” (1991), “Moonlight on the Avenue of Faith”(1999), “Sunday’s Silence”(2001) and her new novel, “Caspian Rain” (MacAdam/Cage, 2007). A lecturer in the Professional Writing Program at USC, her writings have also appeared in the Los Angeles Times, Chicago Tribune, San Francisco Chronicle and Los Angeles Magazine. Her column appears monthly in The Jewish Journal.

Rabbi Shmuley Boteach

The most important Jewish inspiration that I have is the Torah, and especially great characters of the Bible. I am moved whenever I read of the kindness of Abraham, the struggles of Jacob, humility of Moses and the daring and commitment of King David and righteousness of Hebrew prophets.

Discovering these great men in the Bible fills my Jewish spirit with passion and inspiration. It is especially moving to learn of those who embody the patriarchs. In my life, a great inspiration was the Lubavitch Rebbe, who lived with the passion to serve my people and spread the word of Judaism to all corners of the world.

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I’ve never had real heroes

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If you grew up as I did, on more than one continent and surrounded by people of different faiths, you know what I mean when I say I’ve never had real heroes: For every truth in one place, I’ve encountered doubt in another; for every icon in one culture, I’ve met iconoclasts in another.

As I look back, I realize that the only public figures I have admired and perhaps trusted were authors — those authors, that is, who wrote about the time and place they lived in, whose purpose was to discover the truth, bear witness, unveil secrets, no matter what the cost to themselves or others. Most of these authors — Albert Camus, Marguerite Duras, Oriana Fallaci — lived through World War II. Most of them explored the mysteries of the human soul — how it’s at once capable of great kindness and unspeakable cruelty, how it tends to shy away from taking ownership of its sins.

Among them, of course, was Gunter Grass, Germany’s greatest author since World War II, who wrote “The Tin Drum” and a dozen other books; who has dedicated his career and his public life to exposing the dark corners of his nation’s psyche, making sure it doesn’t forget, doesn’t rationalize, minimize or move on from — the Holocaust.

Grass has been quick to denounce hypocrisy and deceit anywhere he has found it, and he has done so with a vigor — some would say brutally — that has not softened with his advancing age. He has pointed a finger at the mighty and the weak; deplored the lack of moral righteousness in Europe and the United States. Most of all, he has held his own people accountable for crimes against humanity. As recently as 2002, he wrote, in “Crabwalk”: “History, or, to be more precise, the history we Germans have repeatedly mucked up, is a clogged toilet. We flush and flush, but the shit keeps rising.”

Born in 1927 in the then-German city of Danzig (now Gdansk in Poland), Grass had, until this year, always maintained that he was recruited by and served in the German army in the last days of the war, but that he was not a part of the SS. He made a point of this, in fact, when he spoke in Israel in 1967: “You can tell by the date of my birth that I was too young to have been a Nazi but old enough to have been molded by [the Nazi] system. Innocent through no merit of my own, I became part of a postwar period that was never to be a period of real peace.”

That he refused to take credit for not having joined what he calls the “Nazi system” is one reason he was admired the world over — enough to win the Nobel Prize for Literature. It’s also one reason he has been denounced so vehemently in some circles by what he revealed this year in his memoir, “Peeling the Onion,” that he had, in fact, willfully joined and served in the Waffen SS during the war, that he did so in spite of opposition from his parents, that he had admired Hitler and never believed the stories about concentration camps until later, during the Nuremberg trials.

Suddenly, the man who has made a career out of digging for truth in other people’s lives turns out to be a liar himself.

In the memoir, he speaks movingly of the suffering of the German people during the war, while admitting that it paled in comparison with that of Jews and other victims of the Holocaust. He talks, with not a trace of self-pity, about how he suffered from hunger and loss and fear, how he lived as a refugee for years after the war, how he learned later that his mother had been raped repeatedly by Russian soldiers.

Perhaps, understandably, he stands at a safe distance from the young man whose story he has set out to tell, reminding the reader often that he is not — doesn’t even recognize — the 15-year-old who joined the Hitler Youth. He says he was called up by the SS only when Germany had lost the war and never actually fired a shot. He says he kept silent about his past because he was ashamed. He says that his confession now, when he is 84 years old and near the end of his life, is impelled by a conscience that has weighed on him from the start.

Publicly, Grass has insisted that his books and his involvement in German politics for over half a century should serve as proof that he had learned the lessons he has tried to teach others; that he should be judged for all the good he has brought to the world through his work and not for his personal conduct.

No wonder he wrote in “The Tin Drum”: “I expected more from literature than from real, naked life.”

Do I believe him?

I’m not sure. But I don’t think it matters. Too old, perhaps too cynical myself to look for heroes anywhere, I think Grass has taught us, through his own life, a lesson that transcends his influence as an individual.

Asked to comment on the Grass controversy, Italian playwright Dario Fo, also a Nobel laureate, responded: “Pity the land that needs heroes.”

It is true that Grass has brought much good into the world by his writings. It is also true that his late-in-life revelation calls into question or, depending on your point of view, entirely invalidates his right to the high moral ground he has for so long occupied. But in doing so, he has proven to those of us who have followed his life and career what he says he learned as a POW after the war: That no truth is ever entirely true, that what we revere today may become indefensible tomorrow, that the wisest path through life is to distrust certainty and instead to walk, in Grass’ own words, “the long route, paved with doubts.”

Gina B. Nahai is an author and a professor of creative writing at USC. Her latest novel, “Caspian Rain,” was published this fall. Gina Nahai’s column appears monthly in The Jewish Journal.

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