After some relatively lean years, Hollywood\’s Jewish talent made a solid showing as nominations for the 80th Academy Awards were announced Tuesday. The biggest winners were brothers Ethan and Joel Coen, whose thriller \”No Country for Old Men\” earned seven nominations, while Daniel Day-Lewis, son of British Jewish actress Jill Balcon, qualified in the best actor category.
Dr. Beth Y. Karlan is the director of the Cedars-Sinai Women\’s Cancer Research Institute at the Samuel Oschin Comprehensive Cancer Institute. Her specialty is ovarian cancer, the deadliest of gynecologic cancers and one that is diagnosed in more than 22,000 women annually.
While studying this Torah portion several years ago, I enjoyed one of those peculiar delights vouchsafed to those who learn to study great Jewish texts in the Hebrew original — the discovery a great mistranslation. The concept is \”ein mukdam u\’m\’uchar ba\’Torah\” — usually mistranslated as \”the Torah [often] is not written in chronological order,\” or more literally, \”there is no before and after in the Torah.\”
Collection of news briefs
Museum launches service for Holocaust archive searches
In many ways Tunisia is unique in the Arab world. Tunisia\’s president promotes education and protects Tunisian Jews from the chaos and religious extremism enveloping much of North Africa. Tunisia has also played a very constructive and positive role in the Middle East peace process. However, stability in Tunisia — for its Jews and for the country as a whole — has come at the expense of democratic rights.
What makes a good politician? What makes a good Jewish politician? Zev Yaroslavsky, Henry Waxman and Laura Chick each, in his or her own way, illustrates how the values of Jewish life can be carried over into the secular obligations of public affairs. They have set an example for a new generation that will make sure our community is deeply involved in Los Angeles civic life.
Ruthie Rotenberg is the executive director of Limmud in Los Angeles. The idea behind Limmud is to gather Jews of all denominations to celebrate the kaleidoscope of the Jewish experience. For the conference on Presidents\’ Day Weekend, there will be up to 14 different classes from which to choose. They have almost 400 reservations from Jews of all denominations, and they have maxed out on presenters.
Pro-Israel media watchdog group CAMERA (Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting in America) has attempted to pressure the All-Saints Episcopal Church in Pasadena to cancel the appearance of a prominent Palestinian activist, the Rev. Naim Ateek, founder of the Sabeel Ecumenical Liberation Theology Center and its sister organization in the United States Friends of Sabeel North America (FOSNA). Ateek has championed the cause of nonviolent resistance to Israel in the West Bank.
Rising costs, crowded waiting rooms and decreasing access to doctors are among the reasons medical patients in Southern California and across the nation use words like \”headache\” and \”frustration\” to describe America\’s health care system. And with declining insurance reimbursements, rising malpractice premiums, claims frustrations and growing paperwork, individual practitioners are often forced to increase the volume of patients they see as they decrease time spent in the examination room.
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