In a Santa Monica karate dojo, Adam takes aim at an orange-and-red foam pad that his teacher, sensei Bruce, has dressed up with electrical tape to look like a grimacing face. Adam, 7, emits a raucous “kiai!” and strikes the pad, sending it careening into the mirrored wall.
At the beginning of his senior year in high school, Amir Steinberg attended Yom Kippur services with his family in Houston and listened to what has since become known in their family as “the bitachon sermon,” referring to the Hebrew word for trust or faith.
When Idelle Davidson was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2005, the furthest thing from her mind was safeguarding her memory. Radiation and chemotherapy took her energy, and most of her time. But months later, she began to forget things and become more and more disoriented — losing her car at the mall, forgetting friends’ phone numbers. She became concerned something was wrong.
Nine years ago, while attending the United Jewish Communities’ General Assembly (GA) in Chicago, I had the privilege and pleasure of hearing Pulitzer Prize-winning author Herman Wouk — known for bestsellers like “The Caine Mutiny,” “Marjorie Morningstar,” and “The Winds of War” — address the opening plenary. What many do not know is that Wouk is a yeshiva-trained Orthodox Jew who studies Talmud daily.
It’s hard to be a Jew and even harder to be the artistic director of a Jewish theater in Los Angeles.
Venture capitalist Elliott Broidy, a major donor and activist in the Los Angeles Jewish community and a leading investor in the Israeli economy, is under scrutiny in a current U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission investigation, according to a report in The Wall Street Journal.
Potential converts or interested Jews looking for classes to teach them how to be Jewish have an increased menu of options this fall, as a new program gets established and an established program gets a facelift.
On Oct. 4, LimmudLA targeted the Israeli community, offering a sampling of what might be expected at the weekend-long learning conference to be held Feb. 12-15, 2010.
Zalman Schachter-Shalomi — “Reb Zalman” to his many friends, students and disciples — is considered the guiding light of Judaism’s Renewal movement. Recently he was in Los Angeles for Makom Ohr Shalom’s Rosh Hashanah services. Because he was so busy during the visit, he agreed to an interview via Skype after returning to his home in Boulder, Colo., where he lives with his wife Eve and their two cats, Mazel and Brakhah. Now 85, Zalman said he was “tired” from his holiday traveling, though he appeared as vital as ever. Bearded, eyes twinkling, animated, wearing suspenders and a knitted kippah, he chatted about topics close to his heart: Eco-kashrut, aging and the future of religion.
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