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Jewish Journal

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May 29, 2008

Ingredients for a successful marriage

Leave a Comment / Judaism, Torah /

What are the ingredients for a successful marriage? A great medieval sage once suggested the following four:

  1. Commit to permanence: We are in this forever, no matter what adversities enter into our marriage, and no matter how bored we may get with each other over time. So long as we’re together, I won’t fantasize about another man/woman that might be my “next.”
  2. Be a team: Share responsibilities; I have some duties, you have others. We’ll work out a system that delineates these shared duties, and we’ll truly complement each other’s good work.
  3. Trust each other: I will tell you about all my secret bank accounts, you will tell me about your circle of friends. We’ll never share our more intimate confidences with someone outside of our marriage.
  4. Know your spouse: I will get to know your personality, your emotional constitution, your idiosyncrasies, your likes and dislikes, and you mine. We will both learn to accept, maneuver and compensate for each other.

Sounds like something from Dr. Phil, but it’s actually contained in this week’s haftara.

The prophet Hosea describes the relationship of God and Israel as a husband-wife relationship. Hosea himself did not have the happiest of marriages. God told him to marry a loose, immoral woman, so that he would know God’s anguish over having a “wife” like the Jewish people who behaved scandalously in their religious choices during the prophet’s era.

As Hosea laments his own troubled marriage, God commiserates with him and shares about his own failing relationship with Israel, who often call out to their foreign gods and ignore their true “husband,” the Holy One, blessed be He.

But there’s always hope, God says. Yes, my “wife” may have strayed and forgotten about our love, but I know that things will be better in the future. She’ll one day realize that all her alleged “friends” are really not, and that I’m her one, true love.

On that day, we’ll be reconciled.

And then God states the most poignant words of reconciliation (Hosea 2:21-22): “I shall wed you forever; I shall wed you with righteousness, justice, kindness and compassion. I shall wed you with faith, and you will know God.”

The three “I shall weds” refer to the first three ingredients on our list:

  1. “I shall wed you forever” = Commit to permanence.
  2. “I shall wed you with righteousness,” etc. = Share responsibilities. God is saying: You treat your fellow man righteously and justly, and I will respond with kindness and compassion.
  3. “I shall wed you with faith” = Trust each other.

Finally, says God, “You will know God.” If you can commit to the first three on the list, the fourth and ultimate intimacy will occur naturally. Your devotion to Me will allow you to understand and know Me as much as I know you.

Our commitment to our spouses — just as our commitment to our faith — requires perseverance, integrity and sacrifice. It was as true two and a half millennia ago as it is today.

“Turn it over, and turn it over again, for everything is contained in [the Torah]” (Mishnah Avoth). Not to take anything away from Dr. Phil, but he’s got nothing on the Torah.

N. Daniel Korobkin is rabbi of Kehillat Yavneh in Hancock Park and director of Community and Synagogue Services for the Orthodox Union West Coast Region.

Ingredients for a successful marriage Read More »

Racism colors judicial bid: Candidate Bill Johnson advocates deportation of ‘non-whites’

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Because voters are notoriously uninformed about judicial races, the June 3 Los Angeles County election could see the election of a white-supremacist candidate who advocates restricting U.S. citizenship to non-Hispanic whites and deporting most non-whites, including anyone with more than one-eighth Semitic blood.

Bill Johnson, an L.A.-based international corporate lawyer who studied at Harvard Law before graduating from Columbia Law School, has twice before run unsuccessfully for political office, seeking congressional seats in Wyoming in 1989 and Arizona in 2006, and now he’s quietly competing for an open seat on L.A. County’s Superior Court bench.

BREAKING NEWS: Johnson loses race — details in The God Blog

In a two-man competition against Superior Court Commissioner James N. Bianco, Johnson remains a dark horse, observers say. Still, the possibility that Johnson might win the 125th judicial office has sounded alarms in legal, political and activist circles.

“A competent judge is one who parks his politics at the courthouse steps. Someone who holds such racist views and flaunts them so obviously is in no position to block them out of his courtroom,” said Bruce Einhorn, a retired immigration judge and national commissioner of the Anti-Defamation League. “It is far too dangerous to have such a person preside over the lives and liberties of people, particularly in a city as diverse as ours.”

Johnson is rated “not qualified” by the L.A. County Bar Association, while his opponent is rated “well qualified” and was endorsed by the Los Angeles Times. But endorsements and Bar ratings don’t always matter.

“People are voting on name and occupation. They make a split-second decision on a gut reaction,” said Fred Huebscher, owner of the campaign consultancy, The Political Scientists. “You could be a judge in Los Angeles County who was convicted of drunk driving and censured or reprimanded by the Commission on Judicial Performance and get re-elected because nobody will know. It’s impossible to get that message out.”

Which is why for 18 years, a judicial incumbent hadn’t lost a county race. That is, until the “exceptionally well-qualified” Dzintra Janavs, a more than 20-year-veteran of the bench with a foreign-sounding name, was defeated in 2006 by “not qualified” Lynn D. Olson, an inactive attorney who had spent most of the previous 10 years running a Manhattan Beach bagel shop.

Bianco, however, has a significant advantage in this race, Huebscher said. As a commissioner, he’s already handling many of the responsibilities he would have if elected judge. Additionally, Huebscher said, “people know the name Superior Court,” which they will see next to his name on the ballot, one reason commissioners fare best, along with prosecutors, in open races.

But because many choose not to vote for judicial candidates and turnout is expected to be low due to few contested representative races, it would only take a strong outpouring of loyal supporters to sweep Johnson onto the bench — not a stretch when considering that his campaign manager is also the state coordinator of Ron Paul for President.

Johnson has long been an enigma to outsiders, shunning press requests, including those from The Jewish Journal for this article, and offering only vague biographical details on his campaign Web site.

“For the last 25 years, Bill has provided legal aid to individuals at every income level to help them solve their legal problems, both in the courtroom and before administrative hearings,” his bio, in part, states. “Bill has been married for over 25 years to his wife, Lois, with whom he has five children. They live on a 78 acre ranch in La Cañada where the family raises horses, cows and alpacas.”

But a few weeks ago, the Metropolitan News-Enterprise, a newspaper catering to the legal community, dug deep into Johnson’s past, piecing together disparate details and reports from the last three decades.

The “mystery man,” as the Arizona Daily Star called him in 2006, used a different variation of his full name — William Daniel Johnson — in each of his three campaigns and a pseudonym, James O. Pace, in authoring the 1985 book, “Amendment to the Constitution,” which advocated repealing the 14th and 15th amendments because of guarantees of citizenship and equal rights to nonwhites.

“The ‘Pace Amendment’ would add this verbiage,” the paper reported:

“‘No person shall be a citizen of the United States unless he is a non-Hispanic white of the European race, in whom there is no ascertainable trace of Negro blood, nor more than one-eighth Mongolian, Asian, Asia Minor, Middle Eastern, Semitic, Near Eastern, American Indian, Malay or other non-European or non-white blood, provided that Hispanic whites, defined as anyone with an Hispanic ancestor, may be citizens if, in addition to meeting the aforesaid ascertainable trace and percentage tests, they are in appearance indistinguishable from Americans whose ancestral home is in the British Isles or Northwestern Europe. Only citizens shall have the right and privilege to reside permanently in the United States.'”

These sentiments seem deep-seated in Johnson’s politics.

When he ran in a special election to fill Dick Cheney’s Wyoming congressional seat, Johnson, having just taken residence in Casper, was quoted as saying, “Whites don’t have a future here in this country, and that is … one of many issues that I am addressing.” The Metropolitan News reported that Johnson was endorsed by a publication of the Nationalist Movement, and his campaign managers were both involved with the Ku Klux Klan, the first an organizer and the second a former Grand Dragon in Texas.

Two years ago, promoting the same values and trying to capitalize on anti-immigration attitudes exemplified by the Minutemen Project, Johnson sought a congressional seat representing Arizona. Granting a rare interview, he told the Jewish News of Greater Phoenix that Israel’s best chance for survival would be, essentially, to adopt the Pace Amendment model.

“In 20 years,” he said, “Israel will cease to exist unless Israel deports all non-Jews from its borders [and] establishes a demilitarized zone around the country; America and Europe repatriate their anti-Israel Arab/Muslim populations; and Israel renews its efforts to call Jews home. Israel’s policy should be to encourage all Jews in America … who desire the continued existence of Israel to emigrate there.”

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Major Villaraigosa going to Israel, AJ Committee Asian Pacific outreach

Leave a Comment / California, United States /

Mayor Villaraigosa Plans Trip to Israel

Antonio Villaraigosa, who twice visited Israel as a member of the California Assembly, will lead his first trip to the Jewish state next month as mayor of Los Angeles.

“This is something he wanted to do,” spokesman Jonathan Powell said. “Especially surrounding Israel’s 60th anniversary and everything that is happening in Sderot, this is just the right time to go.”

Villaraigosa has worked hard to establish a relationship with L.A. Jewry and has extended those efforts to Israel, rallying in front of 6505 Wilshire Blvd., the home of The Jewish Federation of Greater Los Angeles, during the 2006 war with Hezbollah and occasionally speaking by phone with Sderot Mayor Eli Moyal and raising money for after-school programs at the Consulate General’s “Live for Sderot” concert. The mayor is expected to dedicate a new computer room in that city, which continues to be shelled daily by Qassams from Gaza, though for security reasons Powell would not confirm this plan.

Villaraigosa’s delegation, which is scheduled to visit Israel June 11-18, will include City Councilmen Jack Weiss and Dennis Zine; Department of Water and Power CEO and general manager David Nahai; and Alan Rothenberg, president of the Los Angeles World Airports Commission. The group is scheduled to meet with the most prominent Israeli politicians — Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, President Shimon Peres, Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni and Likud Chairman Benjamin Netanyahu, to name a few.

The focus of the trip is counterterrorism and green technology, and the Angelenos hope to bring back strategies to improve Los Angeles’ homeland security and environmental sustainability, particularly water conservation. In March, the mayor’s office participated in a “green exchange” that, through The Federation’s Tel Aviv-Los Angeles Partnership, brought about a dozen Israeli environmental leaders here. With similar climates and lack of available water, Los Angeles and Israel have a lot in common environmentally.

They also both have seriously toxic rivers, and Villaraigosa is scheduled to participate in the signing of a “sister river agreement” to restore both the Los Angeles River and the Yarkon River in Tel Aviv.

— Brad A. Greenberg, Senior Writer

American Jewish Committee Reaches Out to Asian Pacific Leaders

When Chinese officials tell James Busis that Jews are shrewd businessmen and control the American economy and government, it’s not anti-Semitism but a heartfelt compliment.

But this naive view can backfire, as when the Chinese blame “Jewish control” of the Federal Reserve Board for U.S. pressure to raise the value of the yuan against the dollar to narrow the trade imbalance between the two countries.

The same belief in Jewish power, with its mixture of awe and resentment, prevails in Japan, Korea and much of Asia, says Busis, who last year became director of the Washington-based Asian Pacific Institute of the American Jewish Committee (AJC).

A native of Pittsburgh and long active in its Jewish community, Busis, 52, came to the job with an extensive background as an American business executive in Japan, Indonesia and Singapore.

He believes that this kind of experience is vital to an understanding of his “territory,” which encompasses most of eastern Asia, India, the Pacific Islands, Australia and New Zealand.

“We’re approaching the Asian century, when the region’s dominant economic power will be followed by political and military influence,” he said during a visit to Los Angeles. “These developments will impact all other countries, including Israel.”

In contrast to dealing with Europe and the Middle East, eastern Asia comes without the baggage of traditional anti-Semitism, despite a larger concentration of Muslims in the region than in the Middle East.

There was a rash of anti-Semitic publications and comic books in the 1980s and ’90s, particularly in Japan, but this “fad,” fed by complete ignorance of Judaism, has largely disappeared, said Neil Sandberg, the AJC’s veteran Asia expert and a consultant to the institute.

Sandberg also encountered the delusional Asian estimate of Jewish clout, and a concomitant conviction that he, as representative of an influential Jewish organization, could dictate American policy.

When Sandberg demurred that American Jews weren’t all that powerful, his listeners smiled politely while remaining unconvinced.

Busis points to three segments of Asian society with their different views of the West.

  • The large Muslim population, which listens to Al Jazeera and is influenced by the attitudes of its Middle Eastern co-religionists, tends to be anti-Israel and suspicious of the United States.
  • A modern business-oriented class, which is generally pro-Western and eager to trade with America. Its members admire President Bush for his free trade policy and access to American markets.
  • A conservative segment that identifies with the Third World, especially in India, still bears resentment toward its former colonial masters, and is suspicious of the United States and Israel.

Although AJC’s main overseas activity is still oriented toward Europe, with several offices there, it has one Asian office in Mumbai (formerly Bombay). The organization is increasingly cultivating Asian opinion leaders.

Under AJC’s long-running Project Interchange program, the Asia Pacific Institute took two groups to Israel last year.

One was for Indian Muslim leaders, who participated in a weeklong educational seminar, the second for a delegation of Indonesian journalists.

AJC’s outreach to the Orient has been funded mainly by Pacific-oriented Jewish businessmen in Los Angeles, but New Yorker Marvin Kimmel recently signed a check for $2.5 million in support of the Asia Pacific Institute.

— Tom Tugend, Contributing Editor

Major Villaraigosa going to Israel, AJ Committee Asian Pacific outreach Read More »

Iranian American Jews mentoring new generation of leaders

Leave a Comment / California, Community, Family, Mensches, Parenting, San Fernando Valley, Tehrangeles, United States /

“It’s amazing. It’s awesome,” Nicole Lavi said. “I have an older ‘sister.'”

Lavi, 17, a senior at Beverly Hills High School, reached over to Donna Pouladian, 23. “She’s the best. I love her,” Nicole said.

The two were meeting in person for only the second time, but already they’d discovered many common characteristics — both are outgoing and energetic, both have an older brother and both want a career that will help people.

And most pertinent, both are Iranian American Jews born in the United States and assimilated into American society but raised by parents steeped in the culture and traditions of Iran.

Pouladian, who is finishing her doctorate in occupational therapy at USC, and Lavi are part of a pioneering Young Iranian Jewish Leadership Program developed to give motivated Iranian American high school students the direction, encouragement and skills needed to shine as professional and community leaders.

This is a project of 30 Years After, an organization founded a year ago to engage the Iranian Jewish community more intensely in American civic life and the broader Jewish community, in partnership with Jewish Big Brothers Big Sisters of Los Angeles and Beverly Hills’ Nessah Synagogue.

On this night, the two young women are one of 11 pairs of mentees and mentors — Los Angeles area high school students matched with successful young professionals in their 20s and 30s — who have gathered at Berri Good on South Robertson Boulevard in Beverly Hills to chat, play board games and feast on frozen yogurt, competing against a background of piped-in hip-hop techno music.

Some, like mentee Aaron Eslamboly, 17, and mentor Sam Yebri, 27, sit together at a table, swapping life histories and aspirations.

For Eslamboly, a junior at Santa Monica High School with dreams of becoming a journalist, lawyer and/or entrepreneur, it’s an opportunity to explore those options one-on-one with Yebri, an attorney.

“My parents are not as immersed in American culture as Sam and the other mentors,” Eslamboly said, adding that he and other Persian American high schoolers feel pressure from their parents to be successful.

The genesis of the Young Iranian Jewish Leadership Program can be traced to Nessah member Fariba Behnam, who helped organize a Career Day panel for students at Milken Community High School. “This is something the Persian community needs,” she thought at the time.

Later, in April 2007, Behnam convened two panels of young professionals at Nessah Synagogue to speak to an estimated crowd of 350 high school students and their parents, allowing them to see that different professional paths — such as careers in entertainment, engineering and psychology — were available, in addition to the standard occupations in business, law and medicine.

Afterward, the panel participants, most of whom had not previously met, remarked about how they wished they had had someone to help them navigate the challenges and decisions regarding colleges, careers and community involvement.

But what the panel discussion couldn’t do was provide meaningful opportunities for individual mentoring, according to Yebri, co-founder of 30 Years After.

Thus, a series of discussions ensued between Morgan Hakimi, a psychologist and president of Nessah Synagogue, and representatives from Jewish Big Brothers Big Sisters and 30 Years After. And the Young Iranian Jewish Leadership Program, which Hakimi said is revolutionary for the Iranian Jewish community but generally welcomed, took form.

Hakimi sees the program as an effective means to bridge the gap for a generation going through an identity struggle.

“It will help these kids cherish the traditions and identity of their parents, but meanwhile practice and live as American Jews,” she said, ideally resulting in what she calls the “Iranian American descended community.”

Nessah is providing meeting space, food, public relations and some financial support, while 30 Years After is creating activities and coordinating the overall program.

For Jewish Big Brothers Big Sisters, it is “important to reach populations in new ways,” according to Dan Witzling, director of communications. Thus the organization, with its long history of mentoring and administrative expertise, interviewed potential mentors and mentees, conducted background checks, trained the mentors and made the matches.

Eleven mentors were chosen, receiving an initial one-and-a-half-hour group-training session that was facilitated by Ze’ev Korn, director of school-based mentoring at Jewish Big Brothers Big Sisters.

The training helped the mentors understand that they are not therapists, parents, classroom teachers or occasional ATMs, said Korn, who explained that ideal qualities in a mentor include “listening, empathy and curiosity as to who this [mentee] uniquely is and uniquely wants to become.”

Korn added, “The gift they give to the young person is themselves, with all their limitations.”

To give mentees a full range of possible opportunities, mentors and mentees are not matched according to specific career goals but rather by common interests, needs and strengths and personality characteristics.

The inaugural group has committed to the program for a full year and met for the first time on April 8. The long-term goal is to come together as a group twice a month, with one event or workshop focused on a substantive topic such college or social justice and another purely social, such as bowling, where mentors and mentees can continue to forge deeper relationships.

Additionally, optional activities will be offered such as “You, Me & the Troops,” a community service event sponsored by Nessah and Jewish Big Brothers Big Sisters, which took place on Sunday, May 25. Mentors and mentees were invited to help assemble care packages for American soldiers serving in Iraq.

The current program has openings for two mentees. And next fall, according to Yebri, the Young Iranian Jewish Leadership Program will expand to include a second contingent of two-dozen mentors and mentees, who will also sign on for a full year.

In the meantime, the Young Iranian Jewish Leadership Program gives successful twentysomething and thirtysomething professionals a grass-roots, cost-free opportunity to give back to the Jewish and American communities and to inspire and guide a new generation of Iranian American Jews.

Many of the mentees already expect the program to extend beyond a one-year relationship.

“I’m building a friend for life,” said mentee Lavi.

For those interested in becoming involved, contact Jewish Big Brothers at C323) 761-8675. For more information:

30 Years After,
Jewish Big Brothers Big Sisters of Los Angeles and
Nessah Synagogue.

Iranian American Jews mentoring new generation of leaders Read More »

Interfaith pep rally for Israel rocks the Forum

Leave a Comment / Uncategorized /

Karen Lyons kept smacking my leg and acting as if she was going to jump out of her seat. She’s a church-going Christian from Pacific Palisades, married to atemple-attending Jew, and she’s prone to such reactions when asked why she loves Israel and what she thinks of those who criticize its actions.

“It makes me physically ill, because that is not the Word of God. God have mercy on their souls because they are ignorant,” she said. “He says pray for the peace of Jerusalem. Pray for the peace of Jerusalem! That is where he is coming back!”

Such faith — the kind that Lyons said prevents her from voting for a presidential candidate who would promote a peace process that included dividing the Holy City — was what drew her last week to the last major local celebration of Israel’s 60th birthday.

On May 21, about 5,000 people streamed into the Forum in Inglewood, once the house of worship for the Lakers and now that of Faithful Central Bible Church, for a three-hour ceremony honoring three “Heroes of Israel” retired from the military: Col. Shimon Cahaner, who was senior commander during the 1967 capture of East Jerusalem; Brig. Gen. Dov Tamari, the first chief intelligence officer; and Lt. Gen. Moshe Yaalon, who was chief of staff during the second intifada.

“We are strong because of the spirit, the spirit which inspires me tonight here in Los Angeles,” Yaalon said, noting Israel’s achievements in science, technology, agriculture and the military. “The spirit of Judaism, Christianity, the faiths who believe in God and believe in good and believe in compassion, fighting the evil, those who are trying to destroy the State of Israel.”

The event was hosted by the Israel Christian Nexus, its biggest gathering in years, and was sponsored by the Israeli consulate, The Jewish Federation of Greater Los Angeles and a plentitude of local synagogues and churches. Christian clergy offered prayers in Hebrew, a Jewish choir sang “Avram Avinu” in Ladino and Christian speakers reminded Jews over and over that they were God’s first love, that salvation came to the world through David’s offspring and, by extension, that every good Christian considers them spiritual brethren.

“I love God; I love Israel; I love the Israeli people,” the Rev. Billy Ingram, of Maranatha Community Church, proclaimed.

With shofars blowing constantly throughout, philo-Semites waving plastic blue-and-white flags and regular interruptions from raucous applause, the celebration felt a lot like a pep rally for a league-winning sports team.

I wasn’t sure all the children of Jacob in the crowd knew what to make of the outpouring. After all, the shouts they were hearing of “hallelujah” and “amen” were coming from Christians.

Sure, no group has proven more essential to American support for Israel than evangelical Christians, but the relationship between Jews and their apostate neighbors — or vice versa depending on the perspective — has been filled with many more moments of tension than transcendence: the Crusades, countless expulsions from European countries, passion plays and blood libels and pogroms, not to mention the Holocaust.

“I grew up in a world in which it would have been absolutely unfathomable that I would stand at a podium in a Christian house of worship, embracing Christian colleagues,” said Rabbi Isaac Jeret of Congregation Ner Tamid of the South Bay, the evening’s emcee. “The world has changed, ladies and gentlemen.”

Indeed it has, evident in the two dominant strands of Christianity regarding God’s chosen. While Catholics, Orthodox Christians and many in liberal mainline denominations believe Jews stopped being the elect when they rejected Jesus as lord and savior, evangelicals hold that the Tribe remains the apple of God’s eye and that it is the duty of Christians to defend Israel and redeem Jewish souls.

“God brought Israel into being. It is part of his eternal plan, and anyone who doesn’t love Israel doesn’t love God — plain and simple,” Jim Tolle, pastor of The Church on the Way, a 20,000-member congregation in Van Nuys, said before the celebration began. He added, “I want Jews to love the idea of the messiah as is spoken of in the Prophets. I know him as Jesus Christ.”

Christian Zionism has not been without controversy, though, because it’s based on the belief that Jesus will not return until the Jews are back home, which — as was recently revealed — led the Rev. John Hagee, the influential leader of Christians United for Israel, to say in one sermon that Adolf Hitler was anointed by God to prod the Jews back to Palestine. (The release of this statement prompted Republican presidential hopeful Sen. John McCain to repudiate Hagee, whose endorsement he had embraced.)

But, in general, Israel has welcomed support from the American Christian community, partially because the two have a common enemy in Islamic extremism and a common struggle in the existential fight for Israel’s survival.

“Tonight we send a steadfast message: Evildoers and your followers, you will never win!” Israeli Consul General Jacob Dayan shouted. “Today, for the first time in perhaps 2,000 years, we are seeing that we are no longer dealing with Jews vs. Christians but good vs. evil, humanity vs. brutality, freedom vs. tyranny and love of life vs. the glorification of death.”

“To our brothers and sisters in the Christian community, I want to thank you for your support. It is a testament to your love and to your faith,” he added. “By herself, Israel is strong, but with your support, Israel is almighty!”

Interfaith pep rally for Israel rocks the Forum Read More »

Los Angeles Israeli Film Festival put focus on social justice — and secrets

Leave a Comment / California, Entertainment, Film, Israel /

Critics and audiences alike can try to search for a political message in the 23rd Israeli Film Festival’s premiere films.

It’s not easy being apolitical when it comes to Israeli films — films that foreign audiences often view through the prism of the Israel-Palestinian/Middle East crises and hopes for the future.

Take the “The Band’s Visit,” Eran Kolirin’s poignant and humorous feature about an Egyptian police orchestra that gets lost in a small Israeli town. Although the film portrays Egyptians and Israelis, Jews and Muslims, the story is more about cultural understanding, love and friendship than any high-falutin’ political statement.

But New York Times film critic Manohla Dargis insists on putting “The Band’s Visit” into the context of a political landscape.


Trailer: ‘The Band’s Visit’

“Mr. Kolirin also seems to be saying that a specific loneliness haunts Israel as well,” she wrote in a Dec. 7 review. “Surrounded by desert, a few longingly invoke the sea, summoning a desire, but for what? Mr. Kolirin, I think, suggests that this longing is for something the poet Marcia Falk calls the ‘Eternal wellspring of peace.'”

But they won’t find a political message in “The Secrets,” which premieres opening night, June 12, or in the spotlight premiere screening of “Noodle” on June 14.

That’s because neither film deals with the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, the crisis in the Middle East or military life and its consequences, as many movies have in the past.

“The Secrets” is a tale of two rebellious ultra-Orthodox girls who befriend each other at a yeshiva seminary in Safed and try to help a woman using kabbalistic remedies. “Noodle” is about a Tel Aviv flight attendant who must deal with a young Chinese boy after his mother, her cleaning lady, is deported from Israel.

Religious themes? Yes. Social themes? Maybe. Political? Not at all.

The two films are part of Israel’s growing trend toward smaller, character-driven films that cast Israel in a far different light from what one we might expect from watching CNN or reading the newspaper.

“If you make a movie about ‘the situation,’ which is bigger than anything else, you might as well write an essay in a newspaper,” said Avi Nesher, director and co-writer of “The Secrets.”

“People are no longer compelled to make a movie about this one subject; I think it’s a maturing of the country and the culture,” he said.

This trend might be one of the reasons behind the startling fact that Israelis, for the first time, went to see their own local movies more than American imports. For the second time in 20 years, Israeli films hit the $1 million mark at the local box office with five films: “The Band’s Visit,” “Noodle,” “The Secrets,” “Jellyfish” and “Beaufort,” Joseph Cedar’s Oscar-nominated film about the Lebanon withdrawal, the only one with a war theme.

“Israel is about many things, and if you stick to one subject, you trivialize it,” Nesher said.

Nesher, 53, knows from politically themed films. His first, at age 23, was “HaLahaka,” which has since become a cult classic, about an Israeli-type USO troupe entertaining soldiers after the 1967 war. It was actually another of his political films, “Oriental,” a 2004 documentary about the failure of the peace process, that got him thinking about what would later become the apolitical “Secrets.”

“The more you talk to people, the more you see that there is this whole agenda: women’s rights,” Nesher noticed after interviewing Israelis and Palestinians for “Oriental.” There is a “revolution” for women’s rights all over the Middle East, he said. “That’s one of the main themes, as far as I’m concerned.”

To call a driving theme of “The Secrets” women’s rights is somewhat surprising.

Los Angeles Israeli Film Festival put focus on social justice — and secrets Read More »

History plays a role in Festival selections

Leave a Comment / California, Entertainment, Film, Israel /

From the titles alone, one might guess that this year’s documentaries at the 23rd Israel Film Festival in Los Angeles have something to do with Israeli history. Indeed, according to Meir Fenigstein, the founder and executive director of the festival, who is a Tel Aviv native, this year’s documentaries were chosen to celebrate Israel’s 60th birthday in a way that is both interesting and educational.

“This is a special year for us, and we want people to learn something about Israel through one of the most powerful and touching mediums in existence — film,” said Fenigstein, a former rock musician and actor who founded the Israel Film Festival in 1982 while a student at the Boston College of Music.

In “Children of the Sun,” best documentary winner at the 2007 Jerusalem Film Festival, director Ran Tal examines the lives of the children on the first kibbutzim in Israel. Born to hopeful, idealistic parents, they have been nicknamed Children of the Sun since they were part of the utopian experiment known as the “Sun of Nations Revolution” in Israel. Destined to become the “new man” — a hard-working individual free of capitalist vices who preferred the common good and a life of equality to individual aspirations — these children were educated in a system that replaced the traditional family with a collective one. Raised by nannies with the other kibbutz children, they were separated from their parents in unnatural conditions and taught to sacrifice the “I” in favor of the “we.”

“Children of the Sun” includes more than 80 amateur films shot at the kibbutzim between 1930 and 1970 that are woven together and narrated with recordings and conversations between Tal, who was raised on a kibbutz, and his family members and friends.

“I was trying to look at the kibbutz without making a judgment about the bottom line,” he said. “It’s not about whether the experiment was good or bad. It questions the ideology, but I see it as an aesthetic, emotional film rather than a strictly educational one.”

In “I’m a Civil War,” taken from the title of one of the Israel Prize Winner Chaim Gouri’s books of poetry, director Omri Lior explores the life and work of one of Israel’s most celebrated living authors. Born in Tel Aviv in 1923, Gouri left home to live on a kibbutz at the age of 15 and later became a member of the Palmach.

“This film gives a cross-section of Israel’s history over the last 60 years through the eyes of Gouri. It starts with his childhood in Tel Aviv and moves into his youth on the kibbutz and then his experiences in the ’30s and ’40s in the Palmach and later, the Six-Day War,” Lior said.

Although Gouri does read several excerpts and discusses the influences on his work, Lior says that the film is not about his poetry. Rather, it’s about the life that created that poetry.

“This is a rather nostalgic look at Israel, at the way people saw themselves and how they identified with the state,” he said.

Today, the 84-year-old Gouri still feels conflicted by the political and social reality in Israel today. As he stands on the northern border near Mettula with his beloved wife, Gouri says, “Everything has changed and the feeling of hatred and being under siege continues and the land continues to bleed.”

“Ben-Gurion Remembers,” which was filmed in 1972 by Simon Hesera, is one of the older documentaries at the festival this year. Filmed for Israel’s 25th birthday, it includes scenes with the young Ariel Sharon, Abba Eben and Golda Meir.

“It opened in Israel over the Yom Kippur War so no one went to see it,” Fenigstein said. “It shows Ben-Gurion as a young man and explores his role in the creation of the Jewish state.”

“Rabin-Peres: Everything Is Personal” (2007) is also a look at the history of the state through the personal relationship of Yitzhak Rabin and Shimon Peres. These two well-known politicians were members of the same party and often shared opinions and views, but their feuds and political battles were legendary. Rabin was a native-born sabra, and Peres represented the new immigrant. Their relationship illuminates many of the decisive moments in Israeli politics since its foundation in 1948.

In “The Mystery of Aris San” and “Waiting for Godik,” a piece of Israel’s history is explored through the personal lives of two very different men in the entertainment industry.

“The Mystery of Aris San” explores the life of a non-Jewish Greek singer who came to Israel in 1957 and became a superstar. In the 1960s, San was friends with Israel Defense Forces commanders and politicians and had affairs with famous actresses and singers. His songs, “Sigal” and “Boom Pam” were giant hits, and his forbidden love affair with Aliza Azikri was the talk of every gossip column. Suddenly, rumors that he was a spy and involved in violent domestic disputes began to circulate. He left for the United States, where he opened a New York nightclub and befriended stars like Anthony Quinn, Telly Savalas and Harry Belafonte. At the end of his life, he met a mysterious end in Budapest. The film, shot in Israel, Greece, the United States and Hungary, exposes the man behind the artificial wig, huge glasses and white suits and presents an interesting look at the glitzy world of 1960s stardom in Israel.

“Waiting for Godik” is a musical documentary that portrays the rise and fall of legendary producer Giora Godik. Through his personal successes and failures, a bygone historical era in Tel Aviv is also exposed. Godik partially accomplished his dream of bringing the American musical theater to Israel in the 1960s, including “My Fair Lady” and “Fiddler on the Roof.” But his crash was as dramatic as his rise to stardom, fleeing Tel Aviv for Germany on the eve of his final premiere. There he sold hot dogs for a living at the central railway in Frankfurt and always believed that he would one day return to his former position as the “King of Israeli Musicals.”

The film combines contemporary interviews with his widow, children, and the writers, actors and singers who performed in Tel Aviv and Yaffo, and includes original footage from the musicals Godik produced.

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Stars expected to shine at Israel Film Festival

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Adam Sandler and Borat (a.k.a. Sacha Baron Cohen) turned out to fete the Israel Film Festival last year, and more celebrity surprise guests are expected to speak at the gala dinner kicking off the 2008 festival June 12-26 (honorees include ICM’s Jeffrey Berg).

It’s a sign of just how far the event has come in the last two decades, mirroring the increased profile of Israeli cinema on the international scene (Ari Folman’s “Waltz With Bashir” competed for the top prize at Cannes this month).

But “Waltz With Bashir” won’t be on the program this year; Israeli films in competition at Cannes often make their North American debut at major international festivals (think Toronto or Telluride).

“That can be frustrating, but there are more important things than competing with other festivals,” said Meir Fenigstein, founder and director of the Israel Film Festival.

“Because of the two intifadas, there has been almost no American productions in Israel over the last 20 years,” he continued.

At the gala dinner, he might get to unveil a possible government incentive to lure Hollywood directors back to Israel. “I’m hoping to announce something very big,” he said.

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Magnificent Seven: The Israeli Film Fest salutes Oscar nominees

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This has been a banner year for Israel’s small but increasingly prestigious movie industry, but even in earlier decades, the country’s filmmakers came up with Oscar-worthy presentations.

To mark these achievements, the 23rd Israel Film Festival will screen all seven Academy Award-nominated pictures from Israel during the June 11-26 run.

The nominated films (none has taken home the golden statuette itself, but just wait) also reflect the life and problems during the state’s 60-year existence, often viewed with a critical or ironic eye.

In chronological order, the films are:

“Sallah Shabati” (1965)
The film introduced a young Haim Topol in the title role as an immigrant from North Africa with a large family and his misadventures as he tries to become part of Israeli society. The Ashkenazi Topol, then a young man, plays the middleaged Sephardi so convincingly that even Moroccan Sephardim took him as one of their own.

Written and directed by master satirist Ephraim Kishon, the film spears everything from Israeli party politics and ideological kibbutzniks to religious and ethnic misunderstandings. “Sallah” is arguably Israel’s best, and certainly funniest, film and should not be missed.

“The Policeman” (1971)
In another work by the prolific Kishon, Azulai (Shaike Ophir) is a good-hearted cop so incompetent that he hasn’t received a promotion in 20 years. When he is about to be fired, the Israeli underworld takes matters into its own hands to make sure Azulai keeps his job.

“I Love You Rosa” (1972)
The offbeat love story by director Moshe Mizrahi explores the complications when 11-year-old Nissim tries to uphold the Jewish law under which a brother is obligated to marry the widow left behind by his deceased older brother. Rosa is understandably not enthusiastic, but years later a grown-up Nissim gives it another try. Beautifully photographed in Old Jerusalem.

“The Home on Chelouche Street” (1974)
In a change of pace, Mizrahi goes back to the last days of the British Mandate in Palestine. The film focuses on Sami, recently arrived with his impoverished Sephardi family, who falls in love with an older woman, a Russian immigrant, and joins the anti-British resistance.

“Operation Thunderbolt” (1977)
The film documents one of the most daring operations of the ingenious Israel Defense Forces, when commandos free hijacked Israeli hostages held by Palestinian and German terrorists at Uganda’s Entebbe airport.

“Beyond the Walls” (1984)
A hard-boiled prison drama, with outstanding performances, in which Jewish and Arab factions battle for supremacy, but unite against the brutal Israeli official who runs the maximum-security facility.

“Beaufort” (2007)
The man-at-war drama, directed by American-born Joseph Cedar, broke the long drought for Israeli Oscar nominations. The action centers on the first Lebanon war, when a contingent of Israeli soldiers defend a massive Crusader fortress before the withdrawal from Lebanon in 2000, after an 18-year struggle.

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