” target = “_blank”>The Honorable Bobbie Briscoe (photo above), a Sinn-Fein man elected for a one-year term in 1956 and again in 1961. His son Ben also served as Lord Mayor.
After hearing that there was a Jewish Lord Mayor of Dublin, Yogi Berra allegedly said “Only in America!”
I say: Happy Birthday, Daddy! 🙂
—The Web Guy
Today, we’re Jewish AND Irish Read More »
“We need towels.”
I turn to my husband as we poke through the linen closet.
“How is it we don’t have towels? We have a cabinet full of sheets for a bed we no longer have and yet we have no towels?”
“We have the towels in the bathroom,” he tells me.
“Yes, but those are the ‘show’ towels,” I tell him as he pulls out a Mickey Mouse towel for my 25-year-old cousin who is staying with us for the night. “I know we registered for towels.”
“We have the ones from Bloomingdales,” he says. “I think we took off the ones from the other registry.”
Ah yes, I remember. We were told the ones at Linens and things Read More »
Some of the country’s top medical researchers were honored at a gala event on March 16th held at the Los Angeles Airport Marriott, for their work by the Advancement of Research for Myopathies (ARM), a non-profit based in Encino. Close to 600 guests from various countries and backgrounds also gathered to help raise funds for additional research on a cure for “Hereditary Inclusion Body Myopathy” (HIBM), a progressive and debilitating genetic muscle disease. HIBM typically plagues Jews of Middle Eastern ancestry, including some Iranian Jews. Fortunately testing to determine if you are a carrier of the HIBM gene or disease is available.
One of the organization’s founders, Dr. Babak Darvish said ARM over the years has battled to remove the stigma the Iranian Jewish community has had in publicly acknowledging family members with HIBM. “My brother and I are both physicians, we were both effected by this disease—so we felt we had to take action and we first established ARM in 1997 in our living room,” said Darvish. Darvish said he had completed medical school and wanted to become a surgeon when he first felt the symptoms of HIBM. At that time, the two brothers decided to literally take on the disease, both as far as research and fundraising. I met both the Darvish brothers and discovered that they had helped diagnois this disease that had previously never been properly identified. I was struck by their strength of will, desire to fight this horrible illness and their passion to change the negative views some Iranian Jews have of openly discussing the disabilities of their family members. I can say for certain that it toke real courage for these brothers to outreach for help to in their community where many feel a sense of shame and fear in admitting their family member has any disease, let alone HIBM. Some mothers argue that their children will not be able to marry a person in the Iranian Jewish community because of the fear many Iranian Jews have of passing on the genetic disease. It is a sad reality, but no doubt with the Darvish brothers creating ARM and going public with the realities of HIBM, they have been able to gradually remove the walls of ignorance in the Iranian Jewish community over the years.
While the defective gene for HIBM has been located, an effective treatment for the disease has not been created, said Darvish. Even though HIBM primarily effects Middle Eastern Jews, some individuals of Asian and Caucasian ancestry also inherit the disease from their parents. For more information on ARM, visit their website here.
(Gala’s Mistress of Ceremonies, Cara Yar Khan and ARM volunteer Mansour Pouretehad)
(Iranian Jewish businessman Lotfollah Hay)
(Iranian radio personality Jaleh Benshian, translating speeches into Persian language)
(ARM’s Iranian Jewish co-founder, Dr. Babak Darvish)
(ARM’s Iranian Jewish co-founder and lead researcher, Dr. Daniel Darvish)
(Iranian painting placed for silent auction to raise funds for research)
(Iranian dolls placed for silent auction to raise funds for research)
Photo essay: A.R.M. is removing stigma of disabilities among Iranian Jewry Read More »
There were live animals in a petty zoo, a pony for little kids to ride, face painting, costume contests, carnival games, older Iranian Jewish men playing backgammon, with the scent of chicken and beef kebab in the air, …a true mix of the Iranian and American Jewish traditions of celebrating Purim at the Eretz-SIAMAK Cultural Center in Tarzana on March 16th. More than 500 children and parents crowded the large parking lot of the center which was transformed into a Purim Carnival for Iranian, Russian, and Israeli Jews from the San Fernando Valley. “We’re very pleased with the large turn-out of people from the community and glad to see they are enjoying Purim with their kids and grandkids,” said Asher Aramnia, director of events for the Eretz-SIAMAK Cultural Center. It really was a celebration of Purim with both cultural influences at the same time, something I’ve never seen before. A good part of funding for the carnival was also provided by the Neria Yomtoubian Foundation, that collaborates with the Center on many projects.
What impressed me about the Purim event at Eretz-SIAMAK was the substantial turn out of Jews of various backgrounds bringing their children to one place to celebrate Judaism. It’s really great to see members of the Iranian Jewish community here in Los Angeles opening up and welcoming other Jews to their events and gatherings. Some Iranian Jews in the city have been very tight knitt and deciding not to mix with other Jewish groups for whatever reason. Not so long ago the Eretz center did not have many young families or children attending any events and the synagogue primarly brought together older Iranian Jews. Yet things have really turn around since the Neria Yomtoubian Foundation helped fund a program to bring a new youth leader from Israel to promote and develop new programs for the younger generation and their parents.
(Even Eretz-SIAMAK’s founder, Dariush Fakheri gets his face painted with an Israeli flag!)
Photo essay: Eretz-SIAMAK celebrates Purim in the Iranian American way! Read More »
Remember that Holy Land hotties spread from last June? Well, AdWeek reports that those women of the Israel Defense Forces was “part of a larger effort to give a new face to the nation” as the Jewish state prepares to celebrate it’s 60th anniversary this May. Visiting Israel has long been the charge given to all good Zionists. But places like Tel Aviv also cater to Mediterranean and European tourists. I guess Israel is looking to capitalize on that.
Interestingly, tourist numbers in Israel were already improving before some of the ministries’ latest efforts were put into place. Since a near-decimation of its tourism industry earlier this decade, a result of ongoing violence in the Gaza Strip and stalled peace processes with its Palestinian neighbors, the country has been attracting an increasing number of tourists. Last year, a record 542,000 Americans visited the country—more than double the figure in 2002 during the height of the last intifada. But Israeli government agencies are keen to grow these numbers—and public favor—even further. …
Israel’s Ministry of Tourism has been ramping up the PR, as well. It worked with Sports Illustrated to have the magazine’s 2008 annual swimsuit issue photographed in the Mediterranean resort town of Ceseara and on the Dead Sea coast, and worked as well with French Vogue, which dedicated two articles to Israel as a lifestyle and culture destinations in its February 2008 issue.
The tourism ministry also has been investing in more traditional marketing efforts, mostly in Europe and the U.S. For TV, Communications Plus re-cut a 30-second spot from its “Israel—you’ll love us” campaign, which ran in December. The spot, “60th Anniversary,” features a new logo—a boy flying the Israeli flag as a kite—and contrasts the youth of the nation against the country’s ancient history.
Such ads, says the Media Kitchen’s Lowenthal, “help redirect the conversation, while reaching specific target groups.”
Reaching new target groups was certainly the intent behind the most ambitious project undertaken by Israel this spring: a special 40-page supplement in British Conde Nast Traveller’s April 2008 issue dedicated solely to Israel and its 60th anniversary. Produced in conjunction with the London office of Israel’s Ministry of Tourism and poly-bagged to 85,000 magazines, the one-off supplement is “intended to expose Israel as a normal country to travelers beyond the ‘ethnic markets’ of Jews and Christian pilgrims,” explains Uzi Gafni, director of the Israel Tourist Board in London.
Adds Roberto D’Andria, cd of Bear Design in London, which develops all of Israel’s U.K. TV, print and shelter advertising: “It also provides Israel with a sense of credibility through brand association. Being linked with Conde Nast automatically gives Israel a sense of fashionability and exclusivity.”
Israel working on PR and marketing Read More »
Was it rumor, innuendo, fabrication or simply sloppy journalism that laid the groundwork for the apparently erroneous article last week that reported Pope Benedict XVI was about to make nice with the long-dead troublemaker Martin Luther? Here’s what seems to have happened.
It all appears to have started on March 2, when ApCom, an Italian news agency, ran a three paragraph article, here in Italian , merely saying that the pope and some of his former PhD students (the so-called Ratzinger- Schlerkreis), would discuss Luther during their yearly summer encounter in August at the papal summer villa at Castel Gandolfo, south of Rome.
APcom, said the seminar would discuss whether Luther âwanted a rupture ⦠or intended to reform the Church but without traumasâ.
On March 5, two days after the APcom report, the Turin newspaper La Stampa ran a story with the headline âRatzinger reforms Luther. âHe had many Catholic ideas. The theologian pope summons his students for a seminar of study on the heretic.âThe article, seen here in Italian,Cardinal Walter Kasper, president of the Council for Promoting Christian Unity, as saying the choice of topics was meant âto favour a climate of encounter with Protestants.â
The only problem? It’s a minor one in journalism, but the story’s not true.
The day after the article in La Stampa, the Times of London reported that âPope BenedictXVI is set to rehabilitate Martin Luther, arguing that he did not intend to split Christianity, but only to purge the church of corrupt practices.â
From there, the story took off,was repeatedby some news organisations around the world, was the buzz on the blogs, and even prompted an editorial critical of the pope by the Financial Times, called âPapal Indulgence – Cosmetic changes cannot hide Benedictâs dogmatismâ.
The Vatican itself finally weighed in on March 8, when Father Federico Lombardi, the Vaticanâs chief spokesman, told the Italian news agency Ansa, that the Financial Times editorial was âtotally without foundation because no rehabilitation of Luther is foreseen.
Luther still not on pope’s good side Read More »
