Letâs face it: we Jews were never really the sword-carrying type. And thatâs a good thing because you know what they say about those who live by the sword.
But, itâs amusing to read about Jews with swords in Michael Chabonâs latest novel, âGentlemen of the Road.â
Originally published earlier this year in serial installments in the New York Times Magazine, the book follows the exploits of a pair of 10th century Jews â Amram and Zelikman â who pursue adventure throughout the Caucasus Mountains. They fight with swords and battle-axes, swindle tavern dwellers, perform daring acts of thievery and ultimately help raise a rebel army to overthrow the man who usurped the throne of the Khazar Empire from its rightful owner.
Thatâs a lot to get through in 196 pages but with Chabonâs fine storytelling abilities, our heroes make it from beginning to end without leaving the reader feeling rushed.
These are the times for which Tu B’Shevat was created. The rabbis who envisioned this holiday were prophetic: They knew we would need to be reminded on a regular basis about howimportant trees are to our lives. And trees have never been more important to our survival than they are today.
Trees heal and protect us. They are our planet’s life support system. In our collective ignorance, we’ve unwittingly done so much damage to the natural systems upon which our lives depend that their ability to support us has been severely compromised. Climate change is just one consequence unfolding today.
So what do trees do? Most of us know they produce oxygen and take in carbon dioxide. Less obvious is the crucial role trees and forests play in moderating climate, preventing floods, filtering water pollution, ensuring water supply, lowering energy demands and preventing skin cancer.
Trees don’t ask for anything as they perform these services. As a result, humans forget how important they are. When we forget or no longer understand our need for trees and forests, we also neglect the need to plant, nurture and protect them. The result? Havoc.
Throughout history, as civilizations have forgotten and allowed forests to be destroyed, they’ve perished. It’s a fairly simple cycle. When trees and forests are cut down, they are replaced with deserts. Floods, erosion, desertification, drought and famine replace fertile soil, abundance and stability. Our rabbis knew this. People forget.
Today, climate change provides an urgent reminder of the connections between trees and life support. At the most basic level, more trees equals more carbon dioxide removed from the atmosphere.
But in Los Angeles, trees do much more. As trees shade asphalt surfaces, they reduce overall urban temperatures. Properly planted trees can reduce the “urban heat island effect” by as much as 10 degrees Fahrenheit. As trees shade buildings, they reduce our need for air conditioning. One mature tree located for maximum shade can reduce a homeowner’s energy bills by as much as 10 percent.
Perhaps even more important is trees’ potential for reducing what is the largest single use of electricity in the state of California — the 20 percent of our state’s energy required to run the pumps that bring water to Los Angeles.
But don’t Los Angeles’ trees use this water? To some extent they do. But over their lifetime, if appropriately planted and cared for, trees can provide amazing water conservation services. Essentially, trees recharge our groundwater. Think of them as nature’s sponges.
Imagine a typical L.A. winter rainstorm. First picture the water as it hits our typical cityscape of driveways, parking lots and streets. The drops hit the ground and quickly surge, picking up toxins and trash and washing through storm drains into the sea, polluting, wasting and costing taxpayers more than $1 billion a year in water and flood control costs.
Now picture this rainwater as it lands on a tree. Imagine a healthy, mature tree — one surrounded by mulched earth. Here the rain’s fall is broken as it hits the canopy of leaves, where it is softened and slowed down. From there, the water drips gradually into the ground, cleaned and filtered through the soil as it goes.
A very large, mature oak tree (with a 100-foot diameter canopy) in a deeply mulched setting can retain as much as 57,000 gallons of water — two swimming pools’ worth — over an average year. That’s water that, if allowed to soak into our local aquifer, could help replace the water we transport (with fossil fuels) from the Colorado River and other distant sources.
What I’ve just described is the forest’s natural water cycle — it’s what operated in our region before we came along and in our ignorance, disregarded, overpaved and broke it. At TreePeople, the organization I’ve led for more than 34 years, our dream is to restore this cycle and in the process heal our city and make it sustainable.
How do we do that? We are working with volunteers from communities across the county to literally break up the concrete and asphalt and put the forest back in place. We are educating people about all the things that a forest can do and engaging them to bring those natural cycles back.
Clearly we have a big job. At one time, Los Angeles was a lovely, natural ecosystem. Now the city is two-thirds paved.
We have become one of the most unsustainable urban areas on the planet. But we can turn that around. And it can start with you this Tu B’Shevat if we take Tu B’Shevat to heart and engage in stewardship and healing of nature, so that nature can heal and protect us.
Everyone can play a role in this healing. You can plant trees in your home landscape, schoolyards, streets and parking lots. You can do this as an individual, a family, a congregation, business or club. You can plant fruit trees with low-income families to help increase their access to nutrition. You can work with your neighbors to green and beautify your neighborhoods and restore your connection with community.
You can also be an advocate for sufficient county and city funding to ensure that public trees are properly cared for.
To successfully do this healing work requires learning the tree lessons we’ve forgotten and adding new skills of community engagement to ensure the new trees can both survive and thrive.
TreePeople can be a resource. We provide training, tools, resources and volunteers to help people bring green to schools, streets, parks and damaged natural areas.
These truly are the times Tu B’Shevat was created for. To honor the deepest intent of the holiday, consider making a deeper commitment to trees and the environment. Consider making it a priority to heal and restore our natural systems all year round. In the balance is a chance to repair the significant damage we’ve done, and a chance to be a healing force that benefits us all.
“I never sold weed after high school — I swear,” said 31-year-old filmmaker Jonathan Levine.
Instead, he said, “The Wackness,” which revolves around a dealer who trades pot for therapy sessions (and premieres in competition at the Sundance Film Festival this week), was inspired by his teen angst back in 1994, as he bemoaned his social status, bickered with his Jewish parents and obsessed about what he calls life’s “wackness, the awful stuff, rather than living in the moment.”
The movie — which stars Ben Kingsley as a druggie psychiatrist — is among the high-profile films of interest to Jewish viewers at Sundance, where many of the 121 features deal with existential angst and how individuals come to terms with painful realities, often in comic ways.
“The Mysteries of Pittsburgh” — also in competition — is adapted from Michael Chabon’s early novel about a young man who crosses his Jewish mobster father (Nick Nolte) and explores his own bisexuality; “The Deal” tells of a suicidal producer (William H. Macy) who cons a studio into financing a $100 million movie with a nonexistent script, starring a black action star who has converted to Judaism; the drama, “Strangers,” spotlights an affair between an Israeli man and a Palestinian woman; and Boaz Yakin’s “Death in Love,” chronicles a Jewish woman’s (Jacqueline Bisset) trysts with a Nazi doctor, and how that later impacts her grown sons. (A documentary, “Roman Polanski: Wanted and Desired,” recounts the sexual scandal that led the director to flee this country in 1978.)
Yakin (“Fresh,” “Remember the Titans”) previously appeared at Sundance in 1998 with “A Price Above Rubies,” which raised ire in the Jewish community (and earned mixed reviews) for its tale of a Chasidic woman battling her oppressive community.
“People will probably be more upset about this film,” Yakin, 42, said of “Death in Love,” which melds Holocaust themes with explicit sex.
“But it’s not a bone I’m picking with Judaism, as much as it is an expression of how difficult it is to be a human being,” he insists. “Because I happen to be Jewish, the story manifests in that way.”
“Death in Love,” Yakin said, is the most fantastical (in terms of plot) but the most “emotionally personal” screenplay he has ever written. It draws on the time — about five years ago — that he fell into a severe depression as work proved uninspiring, a longtime relationship ended and, he said, “I woke up and went to sleep thinking about suicide.” He said he went back into therapy and delved deeply into “the roots of my own psyche, which includes my relationship to the Holocaust.”
Most of Yakin’s mother’s relatives died in Auschwitz.
“Her parents were the only ones of their respective families who survived, so the Holocaust is deeply ingrained in my psyche and the way I approach Jews and non-Jews,” he explained. “It’s a wariness, and a kind of masochistic relationship to the outside world. In the film I try to explore what I consider to be a kind of sadomasochistic relationship that Jews have had with their tormentors over the centuries — an almost sexual cycle of pain and suffering that keeps this relationship alive.”
(ART COLLECTING)
You know the voice: smooth, with a rolling Russian accent. You know the segments: candid, impassioned. You know the name: Edward Goldman. Now get to know the art, firsthand, with the man himself. Join the KCRW art critic for the winter session of “Fine Art of Art Collecting: A Unique Experience of the L.A. Art Scene.” Starting today, classes will be held every other Saturday and include meetings with prominent art collectors, visits to artists’ studios and art galleries, and discussions about the nuts and bolts of art collecting. $575. 10:30 a.m.-3 p.m., Jan. 19 through March 1. For information on how to register, e-mail Edward Goldman at edwardgoldman@earthlink.net.
(FUNDRAISER)
Although the recently released film “Juno,” about a 16-year-old’s journey through teen pregnancy, provides much comedic entertainment, teen pregnancy is no joke to Hollywood legend and women’s rights activist Jane Fonda. Join Fonda and representatives from Planned Parenthood in “An Evening With Jane Fonda,” where Fonda will be honored for her activism during an event benefiting teen pregnancy awareness. Joyce Schorr, president and founder of the Women’s Reproductive Rights Assistance Project (WRRAP), will host the evening. Enjoy wine and hors d’oeuvres while hearing guest speaker Fonda discuss her comprehensive plan to decrease teen pregnancy. 6:30-8:30 p.m. $150 (valet parking included). The Sunset Tower Hotel, 8358 Sunset Blvd., West Hollywood. (818) 501-4286. templenertamid1@juno.com.
(PLAY READING)
Mitch Albom’s acclaimed novel “Tuesdays With Morrie,” about a man who rekindles his relationship with his mentor during the final months of the beloved college professor’s life, will reach the stage starring Theodore Bikel, as part of the Celebrity Staged Play Reading Series. The heartwarming story takes audiences on an emotional journey to learn from Morrie that the most profound lessons are found in the everyday classroom of life. 7:30 p.m. $12-$16. Friends of Valley Cities JCC, 13164 Burbank Blvd., Sherman Oaks. (818) 786-6310.
(THEATER)
Imagine a dimly lit Harlem nightclub on a hot summer’s eve in 1920s New York. Now add some New Orleans voodoo, Harlem blues and watch the mixture erupt in “Prove It on Me,” a play presented by the Los Angeles Women’s Theatre Project in association with the Lily Tomlin/Jane Wagner Cultural Arts Center, produced by Racquel Lehrman. Tune in to exotic jazz and blues music created by Michele Weiss in this play about a wealthy white socialite and black blues singer who fall in love and realize racism is merely one obstacle among many they must face in their sultry affair. 8 p.m.; gala reception to follow. Stella Adler Theatre, 6773 Hollywood Blvd., Hollywood. (323) 960-7721. http://www.plays411.com, office@cicisrael.org.
(TU B’SHEVAT)
Going green has always been in vogue in Judaism and our friends at Chabad certainly know how to celebrate a holiday. For the birthday of the trees, the whole mishpacha is invited to Tu B’Shevat Family Day, where along with the usual food, fun and festivities, there will be a special tree planting in our precious environment. 2:30 p.m. Free. Chabad of Simi Valley, 4464 Alama St., Simi Valley. (805) 577-0573.
MON | JANUARY 21
(FILM)
Cozy up in ArcLight Sherman Oaks’ new and improved reserved movie theater seats, which are three inches wider than standard seats and provide six more inches of legroom, to watch Steven Spielberg’s “Close Encounters of the Third Kind,” back on the big screen thanks to the American Film Institute. Released in 1977, the landmark science-fiction film emerged amid a fascination and obsession with unidentified flying objects. Watch Richard Dreyfuss and Francois Truffaut contemplate spaceships and aliens in this sci-fi thriller. 7:30 p.m. 15301 Ventura Blvd. (818) 501-7033. The Calendar Girls: Picks, kicks and plugs for January 19 to January 25 Read More »
Sadly missing from Amy Klein’s thorough investigation from “Boro Park to L.A. (Dirty Laundry)” was the question that seems to be embedded in every news article when reporting on a perpetrated evil. Why? (“Following the Spinka Money Trail,” Jan. 11).
We are enjoined to search for the deeper meaning behind those who riot in the streets of Los Angeles or blow themselves up in Israeli pizzerias. Evil does not happen on its own, we are assured; there must be a “justification” or “rationalization” that explains it all.
So why would an otherwise holy and pious Jew — a leader of Chassidic sect — allegedly succumb to the temptation of being an accomplice to a crime just to help some greedy businessmen achieve an unearned tax write-off?
I can’t be sure of the reason but I do submit a challenge to the Jewish community at large. Have we done our part in helping our brethren — be they Chassidic schools in New York or any of our local Jewish day schools — maintain their bastions of Torah scholarship and Jewish culture? There are no yachts in Brooklyn as Amy Klein points out, but there are thousands of Jewish kinderlach that need a quality education.
Michael Steinhardt, the famed Jewish philanthropist wrote in the pages of this newspaper on July 28, 2006: “We are donors to universities, museums, orchestras and hospitals, but when it comes to Jewish philanthropy, we fall short. Today, perhaps 20 percent or less of Jewish giving goes to Jewish causes…. Of the $5.3 billion in megagifts given by America’s wealthiest Jews between 1995 and 2000, a mere 6 percent went to Jewish institutions……. Only 11 percent of Jews donate over $1,000 to Jewish causes.”
No one I know is condoning the crime or the chilul Hashem that the article speaks of. But is it perhaps a wake-up call to all of us — since a shande impacts all Jews, regardless of religious persuasion — to prioritize our tzedakah by first and foremost helping our struggling schools and yeshivas? Wouldn’t it be nice if a Chassidic rebbe could teach Torah and shepherd his flock without having to worry about covering an overwhelming daily budget?
Name Withheld Upon Request
In Amy Klein’s piece about allegations of corruption against Rabbi Naftali Tzi Weisz and other members of a segment of the Spinka Chasidic community, she writes, “Weisz is just one of a number of Grand Rebbes of Spinka, a Chasidic sect.”
I can’t help but wonder what makes Chasidim members of sects.
Yes, I know that many dictionaries define sect as a subdivision of a larger religious group but the truth is, that is not really how the word is used today.
For example, in recent years a number of articles have appeared in The Jewish Journal and other publication about the “Satmar Chasidic Sect.” There are approximately twice as many Satmar Chasidim in the world (100,000 to 150,000) as there are Reconstructionist Jews (50,000 to 75,000), yet when was the last time you read any left-wing Jewish journalist writing about “the Reconstructionist Sect.”
The simple truth is we know that the “nod/wink” meaning of people who belong to a sect is that they are weird, unenlightened, lack individuality and don’t think for themselves. The word sect robs people of their humanity. It is often used interchangeably with the word cult.
Let the case against Rabbi Weisz and other Spinka Chasidim play itself out, but treat individual Chasidim with the respect they deserve.
If sex discrimination is bad how can “sects” discrimination be good?
Rafael Guber New York, N.Y.
The circumstances and substance of the accusations involving the Spinka Rabbi and the Spinka institutions are quite troubling to this tax lawyer whose son now learns in a yeshiva in Israel.
Without jumping to judgment, and maintaining the presumption of innocence accorded to all of the accused under American law, the following matters are noted:
Rabbi Moshe Feinstein, the leading halachic authority of his generation, issued a responsum allowing a Jew to be an IRS agent, even where the audit assignments might uncover criminal tax evasion by Jews and lead to prosecution and imprisonment of the Jewish tax evaders.
The Talmud (Baba Kama 113a) specifically requires that taxes imposed by a legitimate and just secular government be paid. Maimonides further expounded on this rule.
The very first paragraph of the first chapter of Pirkei Avot admonishes us to “erect a fence for the Torah,” meaning that we must impose stringencies beyond the letter of the law so that we do not inadvertently transgress it.
Kenneth H. Ryesky, Esq. East Northport, N.Y. The author formerly served as an attorney for the Internal Revenue Service, Manhattan District.
I read the Journal article, “Following the Spinka Money Trail” with embarrassment and shock.
My greatest shock is in observing that I hear little from those who revere the Spinka rabbi about the enormous illegal inflow of money to those laundering it without shame for donors who are scofflaws. Rather is the anger directed against the informant, and the misguided self-righteousness that defrauding the government is justified?
A strong principle in Jewish law, stated in Baba Batra and Gittin, is Dina d’Malchuta Dina: the law of the government is the law, (binding upon the Jewish people.) This is stressed by leading authorities from the Rambam to Rabbi Moshe Feinstein. He wrote in Igrot Moshe: We are certainly forbidden by God, may He be blessed, who commanded us in his holy Torah from taking more funds or assets than is permitted by the laws and regulations of the government. This is true even if we can somehow get more from certain functionaries who would like to help our institutions not in accordance with established governmental guidelines … so that they should not cause stealing and losses to the government, even inadvertently, in violation of the laws of the Torah and laws of the government.”
My hope is that this current public exposure will lead to a complete sanitizing of the treatment of monies donated to all our Jewish institutions. Let the Jewish name be identified with honesty and integrity. Let us demonstrate that the Jewish community will keep its promise to Peter Stuyvesant that we will always assume responsibility for maintaining our Jewish life in this land, which has given us the opportunity to conduct it in peace.
“You call yourself a tzaddik, you’re a liar!” Rabbi Steven Weil told his congregation in a fiery speech from the pulpit last Shabbat, regarding someone who acts very religious but may be involved in stealing, lying or cheating.
The rabbi of Beth Jacob, an Orthodox congregation in Beverly Hills, was reacting to the Spinka case, in which eight ultra-Orthodox men were indicted for tax fraud and money laundering.
A member of Beth Jacob is alleged to have been involved in the scheme, and served as a subject of the three-part speech. Robert Kasirer, the state’s confidential witness, has donated funds to the synagogue, including a kollel named for his father, Jacob Kasirer, and machzors (high holiday prayer books) embossed with the family name.
Weil declined to be interviewed for this article, saying his speech was a private sermon for community members and not for publication. But past-president Marc Rohatiner confirmed the content of the three-part speech. Firstly, Weil condemned the alleged actions in the Spinka case, noting that the United States government has treated the Jewish community wonderfully, and that there is no excuse for defrauding the government.
“He said that when non-Jews look at our behavior, they don’t look at whether you keep Shabbos or wear tzitzit or keep kosher, they look at how you treat your employees, how you deal with the government, are you an honest and straightforward person?” Rohatiner recounted.
Actions like these play into negative stereotypes about Jews, Weil said.
Shul President Steve Tabak then announced that “at the request of Robert Kasirer and with the agreement of Beth Jacob,” Kasirer will remove his family’s name from Kollel (the adult learning center and its program), the Torahs and from the prayer books.
Weil, who has come under fire for evicting members from synagogue, then resumed his speech and said that they will not “engage in collective punishment” by barring the family from the shul. Kasirer was not one of the anonymous donors who contributed to the purchase of a new lot for Beth Jacob, Weil said.
Weil concluded by saying no one should point fingers at other religious Jews. He did not talk about the issue of moser (being a Jewish informant on other Jews).
— Amy Klein, Religion Editor
Beth Am Losing Rembaum, Netter
Temple Beth Am, the flagship Conservative Synagogue, announced that its senior rabbi, Joel Rembaum, will retire in June 2010 after leading the synagogue for 25 years. Rabbi Perry Netter, who has been with the synagogue for 16 years, leading Beit Tefila, a minyan in the synagogue, will also be leaving the synagogue in the immediate future in search of another position. Cantor Jeremy Lipton also is leaving, according to a Jan. 11 letter to congregants.
Rembaum, who will be 66 when he retires, said he wants to be “young and vibrant” enough to continue to write, research, teach and volunteer, as well as spend time with his children and grandchildren. “I believe that institutions require a change of leadership after a designated period of time,” Rembaum said. “I’m all in favor of a long tenure for a rabbi, but at the same time I think there’s a time for an institution to get a new direction and new vision.” The synagogue will form a search committee for a new senior rabbi, as well as defining the mission for the future.
“Change is a difficult thing,” Rembaum said. “The more you can prepare the community, the easier it will be.”
— AK
Golden Globes for Day-Lewis, Coen Brothers ‘There Will Be Blood’ theatrical trailer
The size of Jewish Golden Globe winners’ contingent was slightly more impressive than the modesty of the hour-long newscast on Sunday evening, with two half-Jews — Daniel Day-Lewis and David Duchovny — helping to up the ethnic score.
Day-Lewis snagged the best dramatic actor award for his role as a tough oil prospector in “There Will Be Blood.” He is the son of British Jewish actress Jill Balcon, and his wife Rebecca is the daughter of the late playwright Arthur Miller.
Neither Day-Lewis nor any other A-list stars in all their finery were in attendance to accept their awards, in view of the writers’ strike against major film and television studios. Their absence reduced the customary three-hour blowout to a drab reading of names at a press conference.
Nevertheless, the Golden Globe Awards, conferred by the otherwise insignificant Hollywood Foreign Press Association, are considered a kind of audition for the prestigious Oscar awards on Feb. 24, and the winners’ names were trumpeted in the local media.
Full, unhyphenated Jewish winners were:
Julian Schnabel, the painter and musician, as director of “The Diving Bell and the Butterfly.” The film about a stroke victim who can communicate only by blinking his left eyelid also won top foreign language film honors for France and the United States.
Brothers Ethan and Joel Coen were awarded best screenplay kudos for the thriller “No Country for Old Men.”
Hollywood icon Steven Spielberg (“Schindler’s List’) was to be honored with the Cecil B. DeMille Award, but the presentation has been postponed to next year.
Among television awards, Jeremy Piven topped the best supporting actor category as acerbic Hollywood agent Ari Gold in “Entourage.”
Finally, Duchovny, star of the adult sitcom “Californication,” was selected best actor in a musical or comedy series.
Duchovny, whose father is Jewish, told reporters that he had been too nervous to listen to the results and went instead to a movie.
“I knew if my phone was ringing when I walked into my hotel room that I would have won,” he said. “And it was. Nobody calls a loser.”
— Tom Tugend, Contributing Editor
Prime Grill Still in Business Prime Grill is not closing. The upscale Beverly Hills kosher restaurant is not becoming non-kosher, and it is not changing its menu.
Despite rumors around the Jewish community — people call the restaurant every day to find out if it’s still open — Prime Grill has no intentions of closing.
“There is absolutely no truth to this rumor,” general manager Mikael Choukroun said.
According to Steven Traub, the director of operations in New York, the rumors were started by a disgruntled employee and a produce supplier with whom there was a payment dispute. But the dispute has been resolved — although the rumor still circulates. Prime Grill is located on Rodeo Drive, away from the main strip of kosher eateries on Pico Boulevard, and operated by the owners of Prime Grill in New York.
“There is a different mentality between New York and Los Angeles,” Choukroun said. “People don’t like to be rushed. They like to eat leisurely. People are not willing to pay the same amount,” he said.
Los Angeles, he said, is a family-oriented place, where people are not willing to spend $100 per person for a meal on a regular basis. To adjust to the L.A. customer, he said they are going to be adding lower-priced items to the menu, and they will have specials.
Jewish Women International feted their favorite females of 2007 at the annual Women to Watch gala in Washington D.C. on Dec. 3. This year’s formidable femmes included: Jamie McCourt, president of the Los Angeles Dodgers and consequently the highest ranking female executive in the sports arena; Miri Ben-Ari, the Israeli-born, Grammy-winning “hip-hop violinist”; and Monica Levinson, Hollywood producer of “Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan,” “Zoolander” and “Dodgeball.”Cruisin’
Sinai Temple’s ATID swept 60 people out to sea on Royal Caribbean’s Monarch of the Seas for a “Chanukah Cruise” Dec. 7-10. En route to Baja, the group celebrated both Chanukah and Shabbat (with fresh challah and hot latkes), uttered countless references to “The Love Boat” and “Titanic” and endured the undulating waves that brought new meaning to the Amidah (standing prayer).Stephen S. Wise Temple’s “W Group” for young professionals took over Guy’s in West Hollywood for their fourth annual Chanukah Party and Fundraiser on Dec. 13. Coveted auction items helped inspire the 500-person crowd to raise $10,000 to benefit Jewish World Watch’s “Backpack Project.”
Remembering Soviet Jewry Campaign
Movers and shakers from Israel and Los Angeles attended a special reception sponsored by the National Council on Soviet Jewry (NCSJ), which commemorated the struggle to free Soviet Jews from oppression, at a private home on Dec. 11. NCSJ advocates on behalf of Jews in Russia, Ukraine, the Baltic States and Eurasia.Yuli Edelstein, deputy speaker of the Israeli Knesset and former refusenik; with NCSJ President Ed Robin, right; Robin’s wife, Peggy; and Rep. Henry Waxman (D-Los Angeles). Photo by Ron Sachs
Three of the 63 foreign language films in this year’s Oscar race are on Jewish/Israeli themes, and all three have made the cut to qualify among the nine semi-finalists.
The three are Israel’s entry “Beaufort,” Austria’s “The Counterfeiters” and Brazil’s “The Year My Parents Went on Vacation.”
Next Tuesday (Jan. 22), the shortlist will be winnowed down to five finalists and the winner will be announced at the Academy Awards on Feb. 24.”Beaufort,” directed by Joseph Cedar, is a wrenching war movie depicting the final action of the first Lebanon War, when a small Israeli unit evacuated the medieval Beaufort fortress.
In “the Counterfeiters” by Stefan Ruzowitzky, the Nazis round up a hundred skilled Jewish craftsmen from concentration camps to create perfect counterfeits of British and U.S. currency, in a last-ditch ploy to wreck the economies of the two allies.
The Brazilian entry is the story of a half-Jewish boy suddenly thrown into an Orthodox environment when his parents flee the 1970 military dictatorship. The director, Cao Hamburger, is the grandson of Jewish refugees from Hitler’s Germany.
Also shortlisted are films from Canada, Italy, Kazakhstan, Poland, Russia and Serbia.
Poland’s entry is “Katyn” by Andrzej Wajda, which dramatizes the massacre of some 20,000 Polish officers and intellectuals by the Soviets in 1940.To the surprise of most film critics, the Romanian entry, “4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days” didn’t make the cut. The film on the tribulations of getting an abortion in Communist Romania had won the Palme d’Or at last year’s Cannes Film Festival and top honors at the European Film Awards.
Spray-painted swastikas and anti-Semitic graffiti over a wide area in upscale neighborhoods of Encino and Tarzana are being investigated as possible hate crimes by Los Angeles police.
Early Thursday morning, residents discovered the vandalism, which included such insults as “F… Jews” and “Burn Jews,” painted in front of four homes along a two-mile stretch of walls along Wells Drive, between Tampa and Louise avenues.At this point, police are not certain of the perpetrators’ motivation and one of the more heavily targeted homes is owned by a non-Jewish family.
Judy Silver, a neighbor whose home was not affected, told TV station KCAL9, “I’m frightened. I don’t know if it’s a sign of the times or if it’s just kids, because we’re surrounded by two schools.”
Amanda Susskind, regional director of the Anti-Defamation League, said that her office had received a large volume of calls by citizens expressing their outrage.
ADL associate director Matthew Friedman said that “A hate crime like this targets not just those who live in the home, it targets the entire community.”Police request anyone with possible information to contact West Valley detectives Foster Rains or Andrew Purdy at (818) 374-7730.
The above Persian language television commercial is to advertise the release of a new book about the lives and history of Iran’s Jews during the 20th century. I typically do not reflect much on material produced in Persian language about Iranian Jewry, because I like many younger Iranian Jews, am unable to read such books. I found it substantially ironic how the commercial advertising this Persian language book was placed on “Youtube.com” which typically appeals to those who are fluent in English and not Persian. The commercial features the book’s author Dr. Heshmatollah Kermanshahchi, the former treasurer for the central Jewish organization in Iran. He has also been a long standing community activist and leader in the local Iranian American Jewish Federation.
I have met Kermanshahchi on a number of occasions and have respect for him, but find that the release of his new historical book in Persian language to be a horrible choice. Typically history books are complied for the primary purpose of educating younger generations of people about past events and enlightening their minds. Yet when a substantial portion of young Iranian Jewry living in the U.S. are not fluent in the Persian language, books like the ones written by Kermanshahchi are useless! While one can argue that Kermanshahchi’s book was marketed toward older individuals including parents and grandparents—it’s long term legacy, like most other history books is to reveal insights about Iranian Jews for future generations. But when not many young people in the community can access the information contained in this very important text, what long term benefits does it offer? Unfortunately none.
Now I know many individuals in the local Iranian Jewish community may brush my critic of this book not being in English aside by stating that it can be translated down the line for younger generations. However, wouldn’t Kermanshahchi and other older Iranian Jewish community activists want to engage and educate those young people today? Wouldn’t publishing this book in English potentially capture the hearts and minds of younger Iranian Jews today who are unaware of their history and heritage? Kermanshahchi’s book should have been published in English today so it could be passed onto teens and young professionals who are still impressionable. By the time today’s young Iranian American Jews are in their 40’s and 50’s it may be too late to engage them in social issues when they were not given this education or community background at a younger age. In an era when Iranian Jews in the U.S., like other American Jews are leaving the faith in large numbers and inter-marrying with non-Jews, this community needs to make a more conserted efforts to educate it’s youth! When certain members of the Iranian Jewish community are still living with the same mentality they brought out from Iran, the younger generations suffer in certain ways.
How else will little Johnny or Sally know about the anti-Semitism their grandparents faced in the Jewish ghetto in Tehran? How else will young Iranian Jews discover the hardships their families endured by leaving behind their fortunes in Iran during the 1979 Islamic revolution? The only solution is to offer oral education and books in English which can be understood by the younger generation who will no doubt embrace their heritage when they learn about it. English fiction and non-fiction books written by Iranian Jewish authors Gina Nahai and Roya Hakakian about the experiences of Iranian Jews have captured the attention of younger Iranian Jews living in the U.S. The books written by these authors with regards to life in Iran for Jews have been quite popular across the board for young individuals and adults in the Iranian American Jewish community. Their books are proof that our youth are interested in learning about Iranian Jewry but need such information be easily accessible to them.
What’s really funny about this book is the fact that the Persian language commercial advertising it’s release was placed on the English language Youtube.com website! The last time I checked Youtube was by in large viewed by folks under the age of 35… and if young Iranian Jews can’t understand the commerical they are most likely not going to purchase the book either. So placing this video/commercial on the web is ultimately a fruitless marketing effort.
In closing, I do applaud Kermanshahchi and Bijan Khalili—the publisher of this new book on contemporary Iranian Jewish history, because they have at least recorded our community’s history in some format. Nevertheless, it would better suit Iranian Jewry if such books in the future were also published in English.
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