January 8, 2010

LA City Councilwoman Jan Perry addresses congregants at Sinai Temple

Leave a Comment / Community / Jewish Journal

The following text is a reprint of a speech given by LA city councilwoman Jan Perry to Sinai Temple on Dec. 19, 2009.

It is a great pleasure and honor for me to be here today. Rabbi Wolpe has been gracious to extend an invitation for me to spend a few minutes with you and I was very happy to have the opportunity to do so. I was deeply honored by the Anti-Defamation League earlier this year as a recipient of the ‘Deborah Award.’ Many people were surprised when I accepted the award that I declared as an African American, and as a Jewish woman the award meant a great deal to me.

Deborah was known for her great courage and functioned in many leadership roles: Military, Prophetess and Judge – women of the Torah offer us lessons in leadership courage, and the wise use of power. As an elected official, I make important decisions and take actions that require fortitude of mind, strong convictions, and the courage that accompanies the development of public policy.

Strong leadership requires consistency, and a commitment to bringing understanding, compassion to decision-making, and faith in ones own ability. The Legislative process is detailed, and takes time. Reasoning ability, communication, willingness to debate and defend ideas, and the tenacity needed to win is effortful and at times very hard.

In part, the faith I have in myself comes from my deep belief in my family. The stern lessons they taught me are derived from their life experience and their first-hand accounts of some very harsh realities including fighting hard to find success in a divided country. It comes from the lessons about how determined efforts may not always win out, but that a determined effort grounded in faith, hard work, and belief in our ability to make things work better is worth the effort.

As a councilwoman, I am committed to making the mechanisms of government work harder and better for our city and for the people I represent. As a new office holder, you want to accomplish everything. You want to show the people that placed their faith in you what you are made of and how well you will do the job. And you want the perception about how you work to be a positive one, one that fits your own estimation of yourself and your values.

My journey as a Jewish, African American woman and elected official has also relied on my ability to place my faith in the political process. My faith has instilled in me the importance of a value-based decision making and sustained me in my work, my personal life and my desire to bring justice to my constituents.

I have worked hard to address environmental justice by undoing decades of degradation to our south Los Angeles neighborhoods where industrial uses were developed in single home communities. I have secured significant resources for our parks and development of affordable work force and family housing. I have worked to bring a greater focus on the homeless population and fought against indifference and a wrong-headed approach to addressing this chronic condition in our city.

Most of the homeless population in our city is African American men. The average age continues to go up. This is a disturbing trend since older homeless adults have the additional problems of aging and require a system of care to meet those needs as well.

The answer to homelessness is not complicated, the answer is housing. Housing that is designed to meet the needs of the homeless people whether it’s simply affordable family housing, or permanent supportive housing for persons with a history of long term chronic homelessness, mental illness and substance abuse.

For decades we allowed people to live on the street and conduct their lives in the most self destructive manner. We had to begin to change that. Addressing homelessness does not give you a political advantage, but it is the right thing to do. Choosing not to face the truly serious issues in our communities leaves that obligation to others. Good public policy should be based on what we know not what we choose to ignore.

One recent choice I made was to ride along with a Rabbi as Chaplain for the LAPD in South Los Angeles. It was an opportunity to see first hand what our officers face every day in real time. His calming presence was immediate at some truly horrific incidents.

Now, our city is facing unprecedented fiscal challenges that will continue to force us to make difficult choices, choices that will hurt a lot of people. Our social safety net is broken and a reduction in services will impact our citizens across the age spectrum from children to seniors.

It takes courage to make hard decisions. It will take a sense of justice to include all points of view in our debates and we will have to define what an “essential service” is. The term essential service” has a different meaning for so many, including my colleagues on the city council.

It will take leadership, and it will take faith in the values we hold both individually and as a political body to get through the next two years. My job along with my colleagues is to view the city as a whole during the challenging period ahead. It is not after all what I want or what any individual council member wants that is as important as what is best for the city.

I take my faith seriously; it informs me and keeps me strong. Giving thoughtful consideration to the decisions I make as an elected official is made far easier because of my faith and the strength I draw from it. Making things happen in government is a challenge. The work I have done to create jobs, build housing for the homeless and working poor, and address environmental concerns has in part defined who I am as an elected official.

I recently read a piece by Rabbi Wolpe that I appreciate. He wrote, and, I paraphrase here:
“ . . . . . that we must live as if we are fine, even when we know that we are not. Life is to love more, care more, risk more and be more thoughtful . . . ” The journey continues, the lessons bring growth and strengthen my capacity as a leader. I believe that I have conveyed to my constituents, the values I bring to decision-making and that those values are what my faith as a Jewish woman have given me. Thank you Rabbi for inviting me to share my thoughts today at Sinai Temple, it is an honor to be here.

LA City Councilwoman Jan Perry addresses congregants at Sinai Temple Read More »

” UNORTHODOXICALLY ORTHODOX AND WHY I HATE THIS TERM”

Leave a Comment / Blogs / Chava Tombosky

We live in a society where first impressions are everything. We immediately size up each person we encounter. We can’t help it. It’s how we are made according to Malcolm Gladwell, the writer of “Blink”. But he says we do have the power to change our instincts.

When you meet an orthodox Jew what is the first thing that comes to mind? Come on. We’re all thinking it. The profile is so engrained in us. Even I can’t help but conjure up some image of an overbearing, judgmental, in the box, strict, dogmatic human being who smells of chicken fat. Or maybe I immediately think of a poor quiet female who never gets to go swimming or sing or speak in public, ever. Or maybe I think about some poor yutz wearing strings and a kippa who can’t make a living and spends his days “schnorring”. Either way, these are the “blink” images that can come to mind when I hear the term Orthodox Jew. Add the term “Ultra” to the phrase and you got a whole new group of negative blinks. I don’t even want to think about the “Ultra-ultra orthodox”.

Thanks to cool people like Mattisyahu I guess we’ve come along way in changing the “Orthodox” portrayal. But still, it’ll be years before anyone thinks of a cool Chassidic hip hopping rapper upon hearing the term “Orthodox”.

People say to me all the time, “I don’t know how you do it, it must be so hard to be…. (This part they say in a quiet whisper, like it’s some bad word we can’t say out loud in public) …….Orthodox. All the rules and the constant mandates, you must feel so trapped. ”

The truth is the only thing that really makes me feel trapped is the word orthodox that describes my lifestyle and all the connotations that comes with it. (That and never getting to eat Volcano burgers ever again. More about that later.) I think my lifestyle is pretty normal. My less observant friends would argue that because I stop using all electronic devices every Friday evening until Saturday an hour after sundown- that is far from normal. They point out that because I only choose to eat in Kosher restaurants limiting vacation eating options and TV dinner possibilities that is seriously abnormal.

The definition of Orthodox is:

1. Conforming to what is generally or traditionally accepted as right or true.
2. Of the ordinary or usual type; normal

NORMAL? That is a real word describing Orthodox? But I thought I wasn’t normal at all, well look at that, according to the dictionary I am normal.

Conforming to a truth….. I can deal with that. I am a truth seeker. I like this.

But here’s where I get tripped out…

Here are some words that come up in the thesaurus for the word orthodox:

conventional, mainstream, traditionalist, popular, unoriginal, devout, strict.

Unoriginal- conventional- mainstream?? Ok I’ll take traditional and devout and popular. I don’t mind being popular. And I like tradition. But Strict? I’m the least strict person I know, just ask my kids. (Ok ask the younger one, cause the older one is a teenager and would obviously feel differently). But unoriginal? This must be why I HATE the word orthodox, because in my mind I try every day to look at life in the most original and unconventional sort of way.

I am or at least try to be an orthodox renegade- a revolutionist, a non-conformist. I don’t even want to say it, but dare I say the word “Maverick” and us Americans have flashbacks of Sarah Palin and the 2008 elections. If you voted red, you won’t mind this word much, but blue voters may feel like our relationship is forever altered. See, we’re having another “Blink” moment.

My husband tells everyone we have a “mixed marriage”. He’s a Rabbi and I’m a screenwriter. He’s an idealist and I’m a cynic. He’s hairy, I’m- not. He’s an orthodox orthodox and I’m an unorthodox orthodox. Although I believe he has his own renegade unorthodox nonconformist brewing in him somewhere. (I wouldn’t have married him if he was too straight laced.)

I have been blessed to straddle two different worlds for most of my life. Although I went to a Jewish Day school as a kid, we were far from orthodox Jews. By the time I had my Bat Mitzvah we had drank the Kool-aid thereby reforming ourselves to “Chassidic Jews”. (Some would call that ultra-ultra)

I always wondered why this was my journey. It seems so odd and yet it was so “normal” for me.

Over the past five years, I’ve given a class on finding your personal Mission. The key to finding your personal mission according to my dear mentor, Rabbi Simon Jacobson is to find your PPOPS.** I’ve added a fourth P, which would be spelled out as PPOPPS. It stands for:

-People
-Personalities
-Opportunities
-Places
-Pain (this one I added)
-Situations

These are your basic clues to finding out what your mission is in this world.

After much soul searching, I have come to realize part of my life’s mission is to bring these two very opposing worlds, the modern, and the archaic to the forefront by figuring out a way to share with others that it is possible to live in a modern world and still be a traditionalist. It is possible to be original and still be part of an ancestral collective consciousness.

My hope for this blog is to share with the world my unorthodox approach to my orthodoxy thereby proving that Judaism can be the wings on our backs and the wind to our sails.

Our relationship with G-d is a complicated one. One minute we are grateful, the next minute we are angry, then we have severe guilt, which can lead to depression then to reconciliation, back to jubilation, only to find ourselves in major rehabilitation.

It is a windy road, but as long we are able to realize that within this journey there is room for constant questions which can lead to aha moments which can give us great insight into seeking truths about our Jewish experience then our “blink” can change.

I’m bringin’ orthodox back in the most unorthodox way. I have no agenda except to seek truth and to write about my life’s experiences as authentically as possible. Whether it is as a Rebbetzin, a wife, a mother, a screenwriter, a singer, or even just a woman, I plan on writing about my journey even if I have to utter that foul word before my “Jew” title. Say it with me…. (In a whisper) “Orthodox”.

**I will expound at greater length about this concept in my next blog. For Rabbi Jacobson’s take on this concept go to; http://www.meaningfullife.com/oped/2004/10.14.04$NoachCOLON_The_Journey_Begins.php
I highly recommend this site, which I love to teach from regularly

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Antidepressants for Mild Depression May Not Help Much

Leave a Comment / Blogs / Albert Fuchs, M.D.

Treatments for depression are difficult to study. First, depression is a condition that can improve without treatment. So any treatment must be compared to placebo to see if the treatment is responsible for the improvement or if the depression improved on its own. Also, depression can not be measured objectively. There is no objective test like an X ray or a blood test that can diagnose depression. (At least not yet. As our understanding of brain function improves, such a test is certainly conceivable.) For now, the most reliable measures of depression used in research are standardized questionnaires. Another difficulty is that depression has a high response rate to placebo, so demonstrating that a treatment is better than placebo isn’t easy.

Because of these difficulties, most randomized trials testing antidepressants tend to study severely depressed patients, and they clearly show that antidepressants are beneficial. But is the benefit the same in patients with milder depression? A study in this issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association answers that question.

The study collected the data from six trials which randomized a total of 718 patients with depression to an antidepressant or to placebo. It then compared how much more improvement antidepressants offered over placebo in patients with different levels of depression severity. Surprisingly, for patients with mild or moderate initial symptoms, the difference between antidepressant and placebo was not significant. The benefit of antidepressants over placebo grew in those with more severe symptoms.

The authors conclude:

The magnitude of benefit of antidepressant medication compared with placebo increases with severity of depression symptoms and may be minimal or nonexistent, on average, in patients with mild or moderate symptoms. For patients with very severe depression, the benefit of medications over placebo is substantial.

What does that mean in practical terms? First, it’s another reminder that antidepressants help patients with severe depression. But for patients with mild symptoms it suggests that the visit with an attentive doctor, the anticipation that the medication may work, and the simple passage of time help more than the medicine itself.

Learn more:

Wall Street Journal article: ” target=”_blank”>Study finds medication of little help to patients with mild, moderate depression

Journal of the American Medical Association article: Antidepressants for Mild Depression May Not Help Much Read More »

The “New” Face of Terror is Old

Leave a Comment / Uncategorized / Joe R. Hicks

When the son of a wealthy Nigerian banking official tried to blow up a Detroit-bound aircraft, there was much that was new or unique about him – other than the explosive underwear he wore. This was an updated version of the shoe-bomb method employed by Richard Reid in 2001. Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab seems to have been driven by the same religious and political demons that have propelled virtually every terrorist from Ramzi Yousef to Osama bin Laden.

Abdumutallab’s socially advantaged status was not unique – the vast majority of international terrorists have not been poor, ignorant or disadvantaged. All of the nineteen 9/11 terrorist were educated and came from the ranks of the middle-class and the well-to-do. A review of the education levels and income status of many terrorists quickly destroys the long-held belief that poverty and political neglect, like weeds, grow terrorists.

His skin color wasn’t noteworthy either. Africans from various nations have played major roles in international terrorism. If there is any doubt, a brief scan of the images from the prison at Guantanamo Bay will confirm this fact.

But try telling that to Yvonne Davis whose recent posting at the ” title=”speech”>speech he cited a surey which revealed that 66 percent of whites supported the ethnic profiling of people of Middle-Eastern descent. More interesting perhaps is that

77 percent of blacks also suppored this sort of profiling

. It doesn’t sound as if blacks are “cringing” in the face of terrorist threats. Like other Americans, blacks want to employ every measure possible to help insure our safety.

No matter the loss of privacy or potential for misuse, most Americans understand that we live in difficult times and that we are at war with forces that would willfully slit every Americans throat given half a chance. “Profiling” is but one weapon at our disposal in this war with ideologically-driven killers like Khalid Sheik Muhammad, last seen on video demonically decapitating an innocent journalist whose crime was being American and Jewish – Daniel Pearl.

There is no “new” face of terrorism. It’s the same old face that assumes many forms – all wanting to destroy this country and its people.

The “New” Face of Terror is Old Read More »

“All in the Family” writer Mickey Ross leaves Yiddish Center $3 million

Leave a Comment / Uncategorized / Danielle Berrin

Yiddish has a brand new bag—- of cash—thanks to the late comedy writer Mickey Ross who surprised The National Yiddish Book Center in Amherst, MA with a $3 million donation from his estate.

And that’s not all: the writer/producer of hit sitcoms “All in the Family,” “The Jeffersons” and “Three’s Company” also bequeathed 25-percent of his residual rights to “All in the Family” and other shows to the Yiddish Center, amounting to the largest gift the center had ever received.

The center’s founder and president, Aaron J. Lansky said he never knew Ross and doesn’t believe he ever visited the center, though Ross had a history of supporting Yiddish causes.

Lansky first learned of the gift last summer, though he didn’t know of the amount until he received the check.

“The donation couldn’t possibly be more timely,” he said, noting that the center has spent 30 years rescuing and cataloging Yiddish literature from around the world. “Now we can move to the next step in our work of opening up these treasures and shifting to education and young people.”

The donation will go directly to the center’s endowment, bringing the total to $11 million. It will help subsidize a broad range of programs, including a year-round school of Jewish culture and activism, summer institutes for college students and recent graduates, and a major oral history project that aims to chronicle the contemporary Jewish experience. Lanksy said he is also searching for a full time Yiddish professor.

While Ross’s gift is the largest the center has received, it is not the first to come from Hollywood. Steven Spielberg has been a major source of support to the center for more than fifteen years. His Righteous Persons Foundation provided the first gift to build the building they inhabit, and also created The Steven Spielberg Digital Yiddish Library, which enabled the center to make 11,000 Yiddish volumes available online.

Several years ago, the center partnered with KCRW to produce “Jewish Short Stories from Eastern Europe and Beyond” featuring the works of Sholom Aleichem, Isaac Bashevis Singer, Cynthia Ozick and S.Y. Agnon read by Hollywood actors Leonard Nimoy, Lauren Bacall, Walter Mathau, Jerry Stiller and others.

Ross, who died last May at age 89 of complications from a stroke and heart attack left no survivors. His wife, Irene died in 2000. The couple had no children.

Ross’s legacy will continue through his philanthropic commitments. In 2008, he donated $4 million to endow an academic chair in Yiddish language and culture at UCLA, his alma mater. After his death, he also left money to The Jewish Community Foundation of Los Angeles.

“All in the Family” writer Mickey Ross leaves Yiddish Center $3 million Read More »

Latest shot in hummus war: Israel doubles record

Leave a Comment / Israel / Jewish Journal

Israel has taken the upper hand in a new kind of Mideast conflict, one in which bullets are replaced by chickpeas.

Using a satellite dish on loan from a nearby broadcast station, cooks in an Arab town near Jerusalem whipped up more than four metric tons of hummus, the chickpea paste that is a staple – and a near-religious obsession – for many in the Middle East.

The cooks doubled the previous record for the world’s biggest serving of hummus, set in October by cooks in Lebanon. That record broke an earlier Israeli record and briefly put Lebanon ahead.

Read the full story at HAARETZ.com.

Latest shot in hummus war: Israel doubles record Read More »

Obama’s Security Efforts and Carping

Leave a Comment / Blogs, Uncategorized / David A. Lehrer

Watching President Obama yesterday and listening to the predictable posturing by the interest groups who have a stake in the security debate gets a bit depressing. It’s a bit like a Greek tragedy where the ending is obvious yet the various roles are being played out with no chance that any of the players will diverge from their prescribed roles and paths.

The ACLU, predictably, ” title=”New York Times”>New York Times about the administration’s selection of fourteen countries for extra security scrutiny—-because “profiling communities” is “ineffective.” However ineffective it might be, it’s a lot more effective than spreading limited resources across all travelers from all countries and acting as if we have collective amnesia as to where virtually all the world’s air terrorists have come from and what their common ideology is.

Finally, an all too frequent voice in the media, Prof. Juan Cole of the University of Michigan, offered his unequivocal analysis on Public Radio International’s ” title=”National Review On-lin”>National Review On-line.

Brooks, in his usual, thoughtful way, reminds us in Obama’s Security Efforts and Carping Read More »

Picks and Clicks for January 9-15, 2010

Leave a Comment / Picks and Clicks, What's Happening / Dikla Kadosh

SUN | JANUARY 10

(LECTURE)
Archaeologists and biblical scholars examine how monotheism has shaped our current religious landscape in a Whizin Center program, “What Do We Mean When We Say Monotheism?” The panel includes Steven Fine of Yeshiva University New York, Ziony Zevit of American Jewish University, Jeffrey Tigay of University of Pennsylvania and others. Sun. 10 a.m.-4 p.m. $55 (lunch included). AJU Familian Campus, 15600 Mulholland Drive, Bel Air. (310) 440-1246. ” title=”skirball.org”>skirball.org.

(READING)
Andrea Lisa Leeb was a nurse, scuba diving instructor and attorney before discovering her passion for writing. The Venice-based Jewish writer’s “Painted Bicycles” and other stories will be performed by spoken-word artist Sally Shore and a guest cast in The New Short Fiction Series’ 14th season kickoff. Sponsored by the Los Angeles Municipal Art Gallery at Barnsdall Park and the City of Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs. Sun. 7 p.m. $10 (prepaid), $15 (at the door). Municipal Art Gallery, 4800 Hollywood Blvd., Los Angeles. (866) 811-4111. ” title=”clubnokia.com”>clubnokia.com.

WED | JANUARY 13

(ART)
The UCLA Dortort Center for Creativity in the Arts is hosting three art openings and a book event — all in one night. “Jews in Cuba” is Debbie Rosenfeld’s black-and-white photography exhibition chronicling the hardships of life in Cuba as a Jew; the Student Fine Art Exhibit features works by students from the UCLA School of Art and Architecture; and “Discovering Hope: Faces of the Holocaust” by 23-year-old photographer Eli Rubel is showcased on the Emerging Artist Staircase. That same evening, Leslie Gilbert-Lurie will be on hand to discuss and sign her book, “Bending Toward the Sun.” Wed. 7-9 p.m. Free. Hillel at UCLA, 574 Hilgard Ave., Los Angeles. (310) 208-3081, ext. 108. ” title=”thisworld.us”>thisworld.us.

(PARTY)
JDub Records and LA Record’s free monthly DJ party with free drinks is back with Milk & Honey V featuring music by DJ Joro Boro and an open vodka bar for the first hour. Wed. 8 p.m.-2 a.m. Free. Bar Lubitsch, 7702 Santa Monica Blvd., West Hollywood. ” title=”latw.org”>latw.org.

FRI | JANUARY 15

(THEATER)
Jeff Bernhardt, author of the dramatic readings, “Who Shall Live…?” and “Standing at Sinai” and a Jewish Journal contributor, wrote, produced and directed “Mixed Blessings,” a light drama that explores identity via the tale of a gay German college student and his straight, Jewish roommate. Fri. 8 p.m. Through Jan. 31. $20. NoHo Actors’ Studio, 5215 Lankershim Blvd., North Hollywood. (800) 838-3006. Picks and Clicks for January 9-15, 2010 Read More »

Holy Knishes

Walk of Shame

Leave a Comment / Blogs, Uncategorized / Mihal Levy

“Well…I guess I’ll see you around,” she said while walking away

It’s over? And just like that, it was.

If it had not occurred to me before, it struck me like a bolt of lightning dead on that this was just a pattern that kept repeating itself in my life. And now once again…I walk away; confused, empty and feeling used.

It all started over “Is this seat taken?”

“Um…“I smiled thinking of something polite to say avoiding having to share a table, but I could not think fast enough.

She didn’t wait for an answer and just sat down along side my son and I with her three year old sonl (I came to find out).

So, there we were at a table for four in an uncrowded restaurant. We made small talk, “How old is he?” “Are you JUST a mom” ( I love that one) and “can you please pass the ketchup.” Before we knew it, we were sharing fries, racing after our sons who were playing together while we shared typical toddler stories. Here we go again, I thought. (A mom encounter leading no where…but maybe I would be wrong this time.)

Just then, her son turned to my son and said, “I love you.” My son replied, “I love you too.” (It is not too difficult to fall in love when you are three years old, no judgments.) I told her we were heading to the park across the way after lunch, in case they would like to join. She said they just came from the park, “I’m sure I’ll see you around, though.” Of course, the chances of seeing each other around in this great big city, and choosing to go to the same place at the same time is…extremely rare. It did not even lead to a “one-park stand,” where we spend time at the park and never see each other again. (See one of my earlier post-“Found Mr. Right, Looking For Mrs. Right”)

We headed out as well. My son asked, “Will we see Fenton again?”
“Probably not,” I answered honestly. “But we will go to the park”…and there it will all start over again, I said as we made our way back to the car.

Walk of Shame Read More »

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Jewish Journal

LA City Councilwoman Jan Perry addresses congregants at Sinai Temple

” UNORTHODOXICALLY ORTHODOX AND WHY I HATE THIS TERM”

Antidepressants for Mild Depression May Not Help Much

The “New” Face of Terror is Old

“All in the Family” writer Mickey Ross leaves Yiddish Center $3 million

Latest shot in hummus war: Israel doubles record

Obama’s Security Efforts and Carping

Picks and Clicks for January 9-15, 2010

Holy Knishes

Walk of Shame

Jewish Journal