fbpx

GET HOME DELIVERY! CLICK HERE »

ADVERTISE
pick up locations
HOME DELIVERY
donate

Jewish Journal

Connect. Inform. Inspire.

October 27, 2010

Seeing the invisible

Leave a Comment / David Suissa, Opinion /

What is it about the word “spiritual” that throws so many people off? Why is it that when I invite people to a Torah salon, I get a great reaction, but when I invite the same people to a “spiritual” salon that includes meditation, I get a rolling of the eyes? Is it just that the notion of spirituality is too nebulous to be taken seriously?

I’ve had a chance to reflect on these questions over the past week as I’ve hosted Rabbi Yoel Glick, a spiritual teacher with an unusual background. Glick, who lives in France and Jerusalem, trained in the classic Modern Orthodox world of Yeshiva University but also spent years studying with the Chasidic mystic Rabbi Shlomo Carlebach and dabbling in the Eastern arts of yoga and meditation.

His blend of Torah intellect and spiritual intensity was on full display the other night as he led a session in my home on “Building the Temple of the Heart: The Three Pillars of the Spiritual Life.”

It didn’t take long for the 20 or so attendees to realize this would not be an ordinary class. As soon as we sat down, Glick asked us for something I don’t recall ever experiencing in my house, especially when the kids are home: five minutes of total silence.

The idea was to put us in the mood to receive and experience the message itself.

For the next hour or so, Glick took us on a little expedition where the three pillars of the spiritual life became progressively deeper and more personal. He started in the classic tradition, quoting Pirke Avot (Ethics of the Fathers), which teaches that “the world stands on three things: Torah, avodah (worship) and gemilut chasadim (acts of loving kindness).” The combined practice of these three principles, the rabbi told us, brought “balance, harmony and firmness” to the world of our sages.

He connected the three pillars to the three paths in yoga: jnana (wisdom), bhakti (devotion) and karma (action). Torah is the equivalent of jnana, the path of the mind; avodah is the equivalent of bhakti, the path of the heart; and gemilut hasadim is the equivalent of karma, the path of the hands and feet, or action.

Glick went on to explain that each of us has one path that seems to come more naturally, that “resonates more fully with our soul.”

At this point, he could easily have finished an excellent class. He would have tied classic Torah with Eastern philosophy and encouraged people to follow the spiritual path that speaks directly to them.

But it’s what followed that took the session to a more intensely spiritual level. Glick took the three pillars and connected them to the ideas of “expansion of consciousness,” the “remembrance of God” and “self-transformation.”

He quoted from Bible stories, Chassidut and many other sources to further develop the three pillars. He spoke about the importance of “expanding the boundaries of both our inner and outer reality,” of “bringing the awareness of God into every moment of our life” and of “transforming ourselves from animal creatures into Divine instruments — from what we are to what God wants us to be.” 

As he spoke, almost in a meditative trance, I couldn’t help but think back to earlier that day, when Glick and I were having lunch with my marketing colleague Gary Wexler, and we were discussing how on earth one would market something as nebulous and intangible as “spirituality.” There were no simple answers, we concluded, because while the idea of marketing is to make noise and be visible, the magic of spirituality is that it is quiet and invisible.

Selling spirituality with the usual tricks of branding and benefits would just cheapen it, Glick told us. And he was right. Maybe this is why spirituality is still on the fringes of mainstream Judaism.

Ironically, I realized a few days later that the secret to marketing spirituality was walking right beside me on Pico Boulevard. It was Glick himself. The way he concentrated on every moment; the care he took to prepare his drash at the Happy Minyan; his ability to explode in joy when the feeling overtook him; how slowly and little he ate at our Shabbat table while he told stories and encouraged everyone to sing; how he paid so much attention to the kids; the sweetness of his words.

I know that, for many people, spirituality and meditation will always be a tough sell. The experience seems too mushy. It doesn’t feel as concrete as history, as artsy as poetry or as intellectually challenging as Talmud.

While there may be some truth in that, there’s also something simple and powerful at work for the serious practitioner of the spiritual arts: It’s what it does to you as a person. 

I saw it with Rabbi Glick.

The rabbi explained that real spiritual work ends up permeating all of one’s thoughts and actions — not just helping us handle crises but also influencing how we go about our daily lives. Inevitably, it permeates how we practice our professions and influences the quality of all our relationships.

The work might be silent, Rabbi Glick seemed to be saying, but the effects are loud and clear.

Seeing the invisible Read More »

Startup Governor: Meg Whitman

Leave a Comment / Elections, Opinion, Politics /

If Meg Whitman is elected governor of California, hers could become a crucial bully pulpit for the future of the U.S.-Israel relationship. She is running to lead a state that — more than any other in our nation — is the central battleground in the effort to delegitimize Israel. And she is uniquely equipped to take on this anti-Israel campaign.

To be clear, this is not because her opponent, Jerry Brown, comes from the very political circles most hostile to Israel. (He does. Jimmy Carter is one of his role models, in fact.) Nor is it because Jerry Brown has trivialized Nazi genocide. (He has. The Anti-Defamation League said that Brown and his comments “diminish the suffering of [Holocaust] survivors, and offend those who understand the profound evil that Nazism represented.”)

Rather, the opportunity here is about Whitman’s perspective on Israel and the mood in California. Polls show that most Americans strongly support Israel, in California and nationally. Yet California campuses have witnessed an extremist campaign to deny Israel’s supporters the right to free speech. At UC Irvine, students severely disrupted a speech by Israeli Ambassador Michael Oren. The same campaign succeeded in passing a resolution for divesting from Israel at UC Berkeley. All while the San Francisco City Council tries to pass a resolution condemning Israel for its enforcement of its blockade of Hamas-controlled Gaza.

While these are the actions of a small vocal fringe, these incidents do succeed in labeling Israel as “controversial,” thus reducing the prospects for deeper cooperation between the United States and Israel.

Such a chilling effect would be a loss for both countries, something that few understand as well as Whitman. Which brings us to the importance of her election. Whitman’s experience with Israel is in the realm of economic growth and innovation: “When I was at eBay,” she said, speaking recently in Los Angeles, “one of our biggest challenges was fighting fraud and identity theft. We thought we were pretty good at it — until we met a couple of alumni from an elite IDF [Israel Defense Forces] unit who founded a company called Fraud Sciences.”

Whitman quickly realized that the Israeli startup’s breakthrough technology for beating fraud was a game-changer for the industry and that eBay needed to buy the entire company.

Now Whitman says that “Fraud Sciences transformed eBay. To this day, when our engineers are presented with some of the toughest problems, they immediately reach out to the team at Fraud Sciences in Israel for help.” Previously, eBay had bought another Israeli startup, called Shopping.com.

She’s chock-full of stories about Israelis and Californians partnering on innovations on just about everything: Israel is where many of Intel’s computer chips were developed and built, and where Internet firewalls, the disk-on-key and voice mail were invented. It is the world leader in medical device patents, producing inventions such as a disposable camera-in-a-pill that can beam out live video images from inside the intestine (on the way to making very painful diagnostic procedures all but obsolete). BrightSource, a company based in California and Israel, already operates the world’s largest solar power facilities and is about to build what may be the world’s most efficient solar power plant in Ivanpah, Calif.

California exports $1.5 billion annually to Israel, while California companies are at the forefront of buying and investing in Israeli startups, as well as opening research and development centers in Israel — all of which fuel the expansion of California businesses. So, Israel connects directly with Whitman’s top priority: creating jobs in California.

California, like Israel, runs on creative energy. Israel has the largest concentration of high-tech startups outside of Silicon Valley, and many entrepreneurs routinely shuttle between them and feel at home in both places. Whitman understands that there is no greater job engine than small businesses and startups that create or transform whole industries. But startups, whether they are in Silicon Valley or Israel or both, could be the key not only to helping revive California’s economy but also to it once again becoming a national innovator.

Whitman is a leader who truly understands this — from firsthand experience — and has the drive and ability to put it into action. She has a plan to return California to prosperity and won’t be intimidated by extremists who call for boycott and divestment from Israel. We strongly endorse her efforts to build A New California and grow the California-Israel relationship.

Zvi Alon is CEO of Alon Ventures and chairman of the California Israel Chamber of Commerce. Dan Senor is the co-author of “Start-Up Nation: The Story of Israel’s Economic Miracle” and a former adviser to Meg Whitman.

Startup Governor: Meg Whitman Read More »

Why I support Jerry Brown for governor

Leave a Comment / Elections, Opinion, Politics /

For California’s Jewish voters, the gubernatorial contest represents a clear choice between a candidate, Jerry Brown, who has a proven track record of support for Israel and a robust commitment to the progressive Jewish values of tikkun olam, and his opponent, Meg Whitman, who has a thin public record that tells little about her views toward Israel or her commitment to the ethical values of tikkun olam.

I served in the Assembly during most of Jerry Brown’s tenure as governor. As chair of the Subcommittee on Energy, I worked closely with Gov. Brown in his efforts to make California less dependent on imported foreign oil and to lead the country in innovations in renewable resources.

As governor, he was fresh, innovative, visionary and anti-bureaucratic. He shunned the trappings of his office — drove a Plymouth, ditched the Governor’s Mansion — but he knew how to make things work, and he can do it again.

Brown’s entire public career reflects a commitment to the values of tikkun olam. As governor, he passed America’s toughest anti-pollution laws, added more than 700,000 acres to the state parks system and implemented innovative clean energy programs that led to the creation of 1.5 million jobs.

If elected, he will ensure the full implementation of AB 32, the California Global Warming Solutions Act, which will reduce greenhouse gas emissions by approximately 25 percent over the next decade.

Brown has protected all of us by fighting for equal rights and against discrimination. He appointed more women and minorities to state positions than any previous governor. He has been an unambiguous supporter of a woman’s right to choose.

Since becoming attorney general, he has continued to work for the rights of all Californians. He opposed Proposition 8, which banned same-sex unions, and petitioned to have it declared unconstitutional.

For his entire public life, Brown has been committed to protecting Israel’s security. At his first meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin in 1978, Brown said he offered the “clear message that peace will not come from making concessions before you even sat down to the negotiating table.”

Brown continues to send that clear message. As the current attorney general, he has been outspoken in his support of a state law requiring public pension funds to divest from companies doing business in Iran.

Gov. Brown’s vigorous promotion of trade between Israel and California has benefited both places. In 1978, he nurtured the growing Israeli-California high-tech alliance by announcing a joint solar energy research project.

Now the innovation economies of Israel and California are intertwined, and partnerships between Israeli and Californian businesses flourish. More than 1,500 California firms do business in Israel, and, in 2007, we exported more than $1.7 billion worth of goods to Israel.

Brown’s commitment to clean energy will only strengthen trade and ties between California and Israel, the world’s leading incubators of alternative energy companies. About half of all U.S. clean-tech investment is in California, and Israel has more than 400 firms working on clean and green technology.

Clean tech promises both to create jobs in California and to enhance Israel’s security. As governor, Brown will implement an innovative jobs plan that would make California a leader again in clean-energy technology and will spur job creation and investment — both here and in Israel — in the clean-energy market.

Brown’s opponent, Republican Meg Whitman, has a scant public record of support for Israel and has demonstrated little commitment to the values of tikkun olam. She has failed to vote for most of her adult life; she paid $200,000 to an employee she assaulted and paid another $1.8 million to settle a shareholder lawsuit for her ethically dubious insider stock deals while on the board of Goldman Sachs. Whitman promises to stand in the way of our environmental protection laws by vowing to suspend implementation of AB 32 for at least a year. Whitman has made the abolition of the capital gains tax the centerpiece of her “job plan” — a proposal that will benefit California’s richest residents while creating a $5 billion shortfall in our already strained budget.

Whitman opposes federal funding for abortion; she criticized her opponent in the primary election for receiving the support of Planned Parenthood; she opposes same-sex marriage; and she supports kicking undocumented immigrants out of our state-funded colleges and universities. Simply put, these are not the values of tikkun olam.

In contrast, Brown’s support for Israel and his dedication to a career of public service in sync with the values of tikkun olam makes him the right choice for Jewishvoters and the right choice for a better California.

Mel Levine is a former member of the U.S. House of Representatives and the California State Assembly. He is a former chair of the Jewish Community Relations Council of The Jewish Federation of Greater Los Angeles.

Why I support Jerry Brown for governor Read More »

Parashat Chayei Sarah (Genesis 23:1-25:18): Teach us to count our days

Leave a Comment / Torah /

“Sarah’s lifetime was one hundred years, twenty years, and seven years; the years of Sarah’s life. Sarah died. …” (Genesis 23:1-2).

“Now these are the days of the

years of the life of Abraham that he lived: a hundred years, seventy years, and five years. And Abraham expired and died. …” (Genesis 25:7-8).

This week’s portion contains one of the most basic and important lessons in our tradition: how to live and die. The portion begins with the story of Sarah’s death and burial, and ends with the deaths of both Abraham and Ishmael. Seemingly, there is an emphasis on death and mourning. But the text first describes the years of their lives before mentioning each person’s death. Clearly, ours is a tradition based on living fully, passionately and with integrity — not on worshipping death.

Clergy and doctors are the professionals who are most with people in the moments of transition from this life, and the old adage is true: No one on their deathbed wishes they had spent more time in the office. Each moment is precious, and all too often it takes a death or tragic occurrence for us to realize that we need to treasure each day of our lives. How often do we realize that every moment is unique, precious and not to be repeated? How often do we really live fully?

Maybe this is why the Torah reminds us of the different cycles of the lives of Abraham and Sarah when discussing their deaths: They both lived fully without wasting even one day. Both individuals were present in their relationships with other people, with God and with all aspects of life. In the introduction to his Chayei Moharan, Rabbi Nathan of Breslov wrote, “There are countless gradations in the life and vitality found in the world. … The closer one comes to God, the more his life is genuine life.” Sarah and Abraham are the archetypes of living genuine lives.

It has often been said that one of the major theological differences between Judaism and other traditions is that although we may accept an Olam Haba, a “world to come,” our lives today are important. We do not do good deeds as a bribe to get into heaven, rather because they must be done and it is our duty and privilege to do them. There are countless stories of Chasidic masters offering their place in that Olam Haba to achieve something worthwhile for a community or individual in this world. We are not living with an eye to that “other world” but with a passion and desire to do the will of Hashem in this world — now. To treat each other with respect — now. To learn Torah, live with integrity and repair the world — now.

Where else do we learn this lesson about worshipping life and not death, of treasuring each moment? We have only to look at that great moment of Abraham’s life in last week’s portion, Vayera, to find a teaching in how to live. We read of Abraham almost sacrificing his beloved son, Isaac; of God speaking to Abraham; and Abraham responding, “Hineni,” “Here I am” (Genesis 22:1). It is this phrase that demonstrates living life fully. When God speaks to each of them in life-changing moments, Abraham, Jacob, Moses, Samuel and others respond with this simple word: hineni. It is a one-word teaching of how to live.

Like Sarah and Abraham, we will all eventually die. Sadder even than our deaths, though, is how often our fears hold us back, and how many of us don’t really live. This week’s portion is a reminder that when we die, we should have lived each moment as fully as Abraham and Sarah. We need to simultaneously interact with life with the innocence of a child, the passion of an adult and the wisdom of an elder. If we can be present in each moment, living fully, then we, too, can emulate Abraham and Sarah and have “genuine lives.”

Throughout our texts, God speaks to our leaders, and they respond with that simple phrase, “Hineni.”

I contend that each moment, God is speaking to each of us, but most of us don’t really listen. Each moment, God is asking every person the same question He asked Adam in the Garden of Eden: “Ayeka?” “Where are you?” (Genesis 3:9). The people who we remember, the ones who made such a difference in the lives of others, were the ones, like Abraham, who were able to say, “Here I am.”

May all of us have the ability, willingness and courage to stand up and be counted; to say, “Here I am!” May we each be blessed to be present and treasure every moment in our lives; to live passionately and with integrity; to love rather than fear; and to serve life and God fully and with joy each day. And in doing so, may we be like Sarah and Abraham and truly be blessed with “genuine lives.”

Rabbi Michael Barclay is the associate rabbi at Temple of the Arts in Beverly Hills (templeofthearts.org) and the spiritual leader of Temple Ami Shalom, a Conservative congregation in West Covina. He can be reached at {encode=”rabbibarclay@aol.com” title=”rabbibarclay@aol.com”}.

Parashat Chayei Sarah (Genesis 23:1-25:18): Teach us to count our days Read More »

Virginia Thomas and the question of true forgiveness

Leave a Comment / Opinion /

Virginia Thomas and Anita Hill are at it. This is quite a story.

Justice Thomas’ wife calls professor Anita Hill at her Brandeis University office and leaves a voice mail that apparently says, according to The New York Times:

“Good morning Anita Hill, it’s Ginni Thomas. I just wanted to reach across the airwaves and the years and ask you to consider something. I would love you to consider an apology sometime and some full explanation of why you did what you did with my husband. So give it some thought. And certainly pray about this and hope that one day you will help us understand why you did what you did. OK, have a good day.”

The call apparently was left on the phone machine at Hill’s office at 7:30 a.m.

Hill reacted by contacting the Campus Department of Public Safety, which in turn passed along the message to the FBI.

Our congregation recently emerged from the High Holy Days season, a season of forgiveness. During the weeks leading up to Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, we learned — directly, in the text of the Rambam Mishneh Torah, Hilkhot Teshuvah (Laws of Repentance) — the laws of seeking forgiveness. We considered times when circumstances point to seeking forgiveness directly from God (as when we have transgressed in terms of ritual observance), and situations when they point instead, first, to asking forgiveness from the person wronged (as when we have wronged another person). There were, through many of the classes and sermons, piercing and intelligent questions: “What if we don’t ask forgiveness — will God forgive us anyway?” “What if we are asked to forgive, but the wrong perpetrated against us makes it too painful to forgive?” We had deep discussions on the parameters of forgiveness, even the very tricky and awkward question of how, or even whether, to ask forgiveness if the wronged person does not even know what we did hurtfully behind his back. Sometimes, perhaps in the context of unawareness, it may be best to let sleeping dogs lie.

Here we see much of that teaching and those questions playing out in a non-Torah context between two ostensibly accomplished and intelligent women. For our pedagogic purposes, let us assume that The New York Times report is correct — even though we know, from experience, that The New York Times can report incorrectly, too. But let us assume accuracy here.

Is Ginni Thomas forging a bond, seeking to move forward from the past? Is she “reaching out” to Hill, as she has told the news media she is doing? Well, yes, she is reaching out — but …  in friendship? Or with unresolved anger? Has Ms. Thomas let go of the anger, the resentment of 20 years ago? What is she hoping to accomplish with her phone call?

On the one hand, we can say that she essentially meant well, hoping finally to bury the hatchet, or she would not have left such a message on a voice machine. On the other hand, Mel Gibson and Alec Baldwin also have recently left messages on voice machines. If they were looking to bury the hatchet, they still — as Garth Brooks once put it — were leaving the handle sticking out.

And what of Hill? If you had received such a message, from a person whose identity you clearly know, someone you know will not conceivably represent a harm to you — even if you never liked her and still cannot stand her — would you respond to it, particularly if the call were once in a decade (rather than part of a campaign of harassing, midnight phone calls)? Would you, if you found such a message inappropriate, merely delete it? Or would you call the police, and initiate a process reaching an FBI that, we would hope, is otherwise busy monitoring voice messages from al-Qaeda and from local crime mobs?

The story is sad but profoundly instructive. It is imperative for each of us, little by little, to “let go” of the hurt. We Jews believe, in one of our core 13 beliefs gathered by Rambam as the essence of Jewish faith, that God punishes those who have perpetrated a wrong, and He rewards those who have acted justly. There is no guarantee that He strikes immediately. Rather, He acts in His own good time, whether dropping a surprise cash award on someone’s doorstep or miraculously healing someone who is ill . . . or otherwise acting. Sometimes he acts a year later, sometimes two, sometimes 10 or 20 years later. But He balances all, consonant with the teaching of Rabbi Hillel recorded in Pirke Avot, who said when seeing a skull floating on the water: “Because you drowned others, you were drowned — and those who drowned you will themselves ultimately be drowned.”

So it is incumbent on us to let go of the hurt. It may take time. No one, but no one, has the moral right to tell someone else in the heat of her hurt exactly when to let go of it, but it must be let go. Certainly, the hurt and evil may be remembered. Sometimes, it must never be forgotten. Thus, it may even be taught to others, as we recount every Yom Kippur what the Romans did to our rabbinic martyrs, and as a new generation builds Holocaust museums to teach what happened in the 1940s. We may hold the memory, refuse to forget, and teach it to others with a determination that, maybe it will happen again, but never again with such abject Jewish silence the world over . . . and, maybe, just maybe, if we resist the tendency toward apathy and silence, then it will not happen again so easily either.

But, even then, we must let go. We mourn the sorrow of a parent’s death for a year because, sometimes, the pain is so intense that it takes a year to let go. But then we move on. We ultimately have to let go.

If we fail to let go, we emerge with an embarrassing dogfight or catfight between people who have attained prominent positions of achievement in our society. If we fail to let go, we cannot reach the zenith of our potential. We cannot perfect our souls to their apex. Warm and loving people around us will shy away, while we attract bitter and vengeful friends who listen patiently to our bitterness in exchange for enjoying our audience to hear them rant about theirs. No one enjoys the stereotypical curmudgeonly man or bitter woman. By contrast, as we let go — yes, remembering and knowing what was done to us and who did it, but moving on with love, warmth and humor — we attract the kinds of people we would most cherish as friends: people whose victories and joys we celebrate, even as they rejoice in our achievements and great moments. And we leave it to God Almighty to reckon accounts with a Perfect Justice that only He can mete.

Rabbi Dov Fischer, adjunct professor of law at Loyola Law School, is a columnist for several online magazines and is rabbi of Young Israel of Orange County. He blogs at rabbidov.com.

Virginia Thomas and the question of true forgiveness Read More »

“The Desperate” wins best short film at Hollywood Film Festival

Leave a Comment / Blogs, Uncategorized /

Iranian Jewish filmmaker Ben Hur Sepher was shocked on Sunday night Oct. 24 when his independent short film “The Desperate” was announced as the best short film at the Hollywood Film Festival. A humble Sepher accepted the trophy for the heart-wrenching film that deals with an eminent Jewish surgeon imprisoned at a Nazi concentration camp during World War II who is conscripted at gunpoint to perform emergency surgery on the son of a fearsome Nazi general. The film stars television series regular Peter Mark Richman, who gives a remarkable performance as the guilt ridden Jewish surgeon Dr. Blumenthal in the film.

But this latest award is not the only acclaim the film has received since it was released earlier this year. “The Desperate” has so far won 17 top honors at a whole host of national film festivals including best Short Film of 2010 at the California Independent Film Festival and runner up for best Short Film of 2010 at the Los Angeles Jewish film Festival.

I caught up with Sepher who was caught off guard with his film’s latest win when he said “I am honestly surprised to receive such an honor at the Hollywood Film Festival— I wasn’t expecting it at all”. Sepher is one of the Iranian Jewish community’s rare filmmakers who has made a name for himself in Iran and the United States for writing, directing and producing provocative films. His occupation as a filmmaker is indeed unique in the Iranian Jewish community because individuals who pursued careers in the arts or entertainment in Iran were typically not looked highly upon or even respected. Nevertheless Sepher was trained in his craft at the Swedish Film Institute and began his career at the Stockholm State Theatre as a protégée to renown film director Ingmar Bergman. Sepher went on to direct films and plays in Iran and was the personal filmmaker to the late Shah of Iran— shooting the Shah’s private meeting and gatherings. Since immigrating to the U.S. three decades ago, he has gone on to direct a whole host of television programs and short films in Hollywood.

Photo

(left to right; cast member Leonardo Foti, Ben Hur Sepher and cast member Alexander Leeb.

What I found truly remarkable was the fact that the “The Desperate” was produced by a filmmaker of Iranian descent. This speaks volumes in light of Iran’s current president denying the existence of the Holocaust. No doubt this short film will draw the attention of Iranians living worldwide who are interested in learning more about the realities of the Holocaust.

Here is a clip from “The Desperate”….

The following is my brief January 2010 interview with Sepher about his film “The Desperate” and his career in the industry….

“The Desperate” wins best short film at Hollywood Film Festival Read More »

Sisterhood strikes gold with adult ed

Leave a Comment / Community /

In a brightly lit classroom on a Wednesday morning, Rabbi Deborah Silver leads a standing-room-only crowd of pupils in an absorbing dissection of Psalm 27.

Some 35 “students” — most silver-haired, some with canes or walkers — offer their thoughts on the rhythm of the psalm, the author’s fears and hopes, and how the text would look drawn as a geometric shape. In the midst of the discussion,  Silver homes in on a key word in the text. She raises her arms to halt conversation and rushes over to the blackboard to write it out.

“Will you forgive me? One of the things that’s going to happen in this class is I’m going to get all excited about the Hebrew,” she says, her eyes sparkling.

Her students don’t mind. That kind of spirited teaching is why more than 100 adults flock to Adat Ari El’s Multi-Interest Day (MID) education program year after year. And this fall, there’s an extra element of joy in the air: The landmark program is celebrating its 50th anniversary.

On Oct. 20, the Adat Ari El Sisterhood kicked off MID’s golden year with a catalog of classes on the Bible, the arts, “Jews of the World” and current events. Offering two semesters of learning, fitness and friendship for adults, MID is now one of the longest-running synagogue-based continuing education programs in the country.

“There is a hunger for learning in the community,” said Sisterhood vice president and MID chair Jan Chernoff. “People are looking for intellectual stimulation. We have a real variety here — excellent instructors and interesting classes. Everyone looks forward to it.”

As they have for half a century, participants in the program meet at the Valley Village synagogue once a week for a full day of classes and activities, complete with a low-impact exercise class first thing in the morning to get the blood flowing.

It’s not unlike high school, except with no report cards, exams or tardy slips from the principal if a student, ahem, cuts gym.

First period starts at 9:40 a.m. with three class options. This fall, there’s “Wisdom of the Book of Psalms” with Silver; a course on the arts, covering opera, ballet and theater; and “Israel: From Alef to Tav,” a crash course on the history and culture of the Jewish homeland. Second period, students choose among current events, a lecture on little-known Jews throughout history, and a class that brings back favorite teachers from past years for encore presentations.

Students break for lunch in the social hall and then stick around for “Contemporary Challenges,” a lecture series featuring community organizers, local politicians, authors and anyone else Chernoff deems appealing to MID’s “very with-it” crowd.

After lunch, participants can gather at the social hall tables for open mah-jongg play, bond over memories in a life-story writing class, or join the MID book club. In all, the day is about six hours long, and to Marcia Fink, it’s worth every minute.

“There’s always more to learn, and it’s such a warm environment with wonderful people,” said Fink, 75, who has traveled to Adat Ari El from Northridge for the program for 25 years. In fact, so many of the same people return every year that the first day of class each fall is “almost like a reunion,” she said, waving to friends across a classroom.

Chernoff sums it up: “Friendship, fun and facts — and all for a couple of dollars a day.”

Participants can sign up for the fall and spring semesters together ($130 for Sisterhood members, $165 for nonmembers) or take it one session at a time ($10 per day). Registration is still open.

Two-dozen students gather in the classroom of Jerry Binder just before 11 a.m. for his ever-popular class, “Jews of the World: Who Knew?” Today he leads a discussion on influential Jewish members of the Dada art movement of the early 20th century, as his audience takes notes from a slideshow.

Binder, a UC Irvine and UCLA professor who has taught at MID for five years, said he crafts his presentations “so you can leave going, ‘Wow, I didn’t know that!’ ” He added, “It’s partly educational, partly entertaining. People can walk out and feel a little bit more informed and a little bit prouder.”

Most of the MID teachers volunteer their time to lead classes. Chernoff said she’s become adept at finding people with interesting life stories or fields of specialty and convincing them to “donate an hour” to educate others.

For anyone seeking stories about MID’s history, the buck stops with Bea Reynolds.

Reynolds remembers when Evelyn Neuman, Sisterhood president from 1959 to 1961, returned from a conference excited to create a wide-ranging continuing education course for women. Reynolds and the rest of the Sisterhood board worked with the late Rabbi Aaron M. Wise, who led Adat Ari El for 30 years, to put the curriculum together.

“It just took off — we grew like Topsy,” said Reynolds, 86, a soft-spoken woman with neatly coiffed hair who in 50 years has not missed a single MID season. “We’ve all grown together with it and nourished it and loved it. It’s really a model for the country and an opportunity for personal improvement.”

Since the 1960s, MID organizers have opened the program’s student base to men. Participation has fluctuated over the years, as has the average age — as more young women began taking day jobs, the majority of students became retirees — but the program still breeds the kind of loyalty that brings adults back eagerly each autumn.

MID’s 50-year milestone won’t go unrecognized by the Jewish community. At the Women’s League for Conservative Judaism’s national convention in Baltimore this December, the Adat Ari El Sisterhood will receive an award for its commitment to adult education.

In the meantime, Sisterhood board member Edith Marcus hopes more locals drop in for a class and broaden their horizons.

“There’s always something for everybody,” Marcus said. “The fact that it’s been around for 50 years speaks for itself.”

For more information or to sign up, call Jan Chernoff at (818) 784-0651 or Adat Ari El at (818) 766-9426, ext. 207.

Sisterhood strikes gold with adult ed Read More »

Jon Stewart fans to bring rally to restore sanity to Los Angeles

Leave a Comment / Community, Elections, Politics /

On Oct. 30, as talk-show host Jon Stewart’s Rally to Restore Sanity and Stephen Colbert’s March to Keep Fear Alive take place in Washington, D.C., they will be simulcast at a Los Angeles rally at the Levitt Pavilion at MacArthur Park.

Organizers Amy Lee and Ashley Wright decided to hold the local event — titled “Rally to Restore Sanity: Los Angeles” — shortly after Stewart announced his plan on Comedy Central’s “The Daily Show” and after they realized that they couldn’t afford the trip to Washington.

Wright said she admires both Stewart and Colbert and identifies with the language of Stewart’s rally, though she aligns neither with left or right politics.

“I’m a big fan of Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert, and I love the quote, ‘Take it down a notch for America,’ ” Wright said, referring to a tagline for Stewart’s rally. “There’s a lot of political rhetoric that’s reported in the media that’s very extreme. I feel like I’m in the middle for most issues.”

As of Oct. 25, Wright said she and Lee had raised $9,000 to pay for their event. They need to raise $11,000 to break even, according to the event’s Facebook page. Nearly 5,000 people had joined the L.A. rally’s Facebook group. Wright said she expects thousands of people to come out on Oct. 30, a number she can’t quite fathom.

“We definitely have been surprised by what it’s turned into,” Wright said. “We thought it would be a couple hundred people hanging out at the Federal Building with some signs.”

The rally will last from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m., according to the Facebook page, with the first three hours devoted to a live feed via a Jumbotron screen and the last two hours filled with comedians and speakers (Wright had not yet confirmed the lineup as of press time). In the spirit of Colbert’s March to Keep Fear Alive, a large group of people will dance to Michael Jackson’s “Thriller” during the Los Angeles rally.

During the past two weeks, Wright and other rally organizers — a team of 15 people, she said — have scrambled to host fundraisers around the city and find a new location after a scheduling conflict at Pershing Square disrupted plans to hold the rally there. L.A. resident Linda Kasoff, who said she had donated $25 toward the rally, expressed what she thinks distinguishes the upcoming event from typical rallies.

“It feels like a peace event or an anti-war protest,” Kasoff said. “Sounds very kumbaya when I say it like that, but that’s how I feel.”

Jon Stewart fans to bring rally to restore sanity to Los Angeles Read More »

Israel film fest event honors entertainment industry leaders [VIDEO]

Leave a Comment / Blogs, Community, Entertainment, Film /

“I’m not a temple Jew, I’m not a ritual Jew, I don’t follow the holidays, but I am a Jew from the tip of my toes to the top of what remains of my hair,” actor Richard Dreyfuss announced at the International Ballroom of the Beverly Hilton, where the Gala Awards Dinner, celebrating the 25th anniversary of the Israel Film Festival (IFF), took place Oct. 20. “I have a pride that I am a member of a group of people who have astonished the world in such a consistent way and who have given more gifts to mankind than anyone else.”

The event brought together leaders from the American Israeli entertainment community, friends of the honorees and filmmakers being represented at the Israel Film Festival, being held at Laemmle theaters in the Los Angeles area through Nov. 4. Comedian and actor Elon Gold emceed, and IFF founder and executive director Meir Fenigstein made opening remarks.

Longtime UCLA Hillel director Rabbi Chaim Seidler-Feller presented Dreyfuss with the Career Achievement Award for a career spanning five decades. He is best remembered for his roles in such films as “American Graffiti,” “Jaws” and “Mr. Holland’s Opus,” but Seidler-Feller also acknowledged the actor’s political activism and dedication to ethical values and social justice.

Sylvester Stallone introduced Avi Lerner, blockbuster action film producer and co-chairman and CEO of Nu Image/Millennium Films, as the man who “put his money where my mouth is.” Their working relationship dates back to Lerner’s production of the “Rambo” franchise and continued with the recent release of the box office hit “The Expendables.”

Story continues after the jump
Israel film fest event honors entertainment industry leaders [VIDEO] Read More »

Tikkunfest brings much-needed TLC to Pico-Robertson [VIDEO]

Leave a Comment / Community, Multimedia, Videos /

Volunteers spent five hours uprooting dead trees and planting new ones; setting up herb planters in front of stores; repainting curbs, poles and fire hydrants; sweeping mulch and dirt off the sidewalks; and lugging heavy garbage bags in the predominantly Orthodox neighborhood of Pico-Robertson in West Los Angeles.

The Jewish community needs a clean Pico-Robertson, Rabbi Yonah Bookstein said during Tikkunfest, an Oct. 24 community service event organized by his group, Jewlicious.

“This is the thriving heart of much of the Jewish community, a place with shuls and schools and restaurants and stores,” he said. “It really needs some TLC.” 

Between 100 and 150 volunteers worked on projects along 10 blocks of Pico Boulevard, between Doheny Drive and La Cienega Boulevard, organizers said.

Most volunteers cited a similar reason for participating: a desire to give of themselves to something bigger than themselves.

“I wanted to come because it’s a great way to give back to the Jewish community, to give to the community in general,” said Samantha Eddahabi, a Santa Monica College student, who knelt close to the ground on Pico Boulevard with traffic whizzing by as she repainted a curb’s red zone. “It’s a major mitzvah.”

Rabbi David Bluman of Kadima Day School in West Hills said he came “to give back to the community, to do some tzedakah [charity]. I live in the neighborhood, and it’s time to clean it up.”

In addition to cleanup and repair, volunteers also assisted seniors and collected clothing and food for the needy.

Event sponsors included The Jewish Community Foundation of Los Angeles and City Council member Paul Koretz’s office.

Koretz, whose District 5 seat includes Pico-Robertson, dropped by to show support for the clean-up.

“The Pico-Robertson area, I think, sometimes looks a little run down and needs to be cleaned up. This will give it a shiny new face and it’ll also give folks in the community a chance to participate,” Koretz said. “Especially in this era where government services are being cut and the city’s budget is hundreds of millions of dollars short, I think the community stepping up and helping out is critically important.”

Story continues after the jump.

Noah Bleich, founder of L.A. Green Mile Project, an environmental group that partnered with Jewlicious, said that Tikkunfest shows how small community groups can organize service events with cooperation from businesses and the city — a bottom-up approach to social change.

Bleich said he wants to “turn Pico Boulevard, from La Cienega to Beverly Drive, [into] a green mile, where, ecologically outside and ecologically inside, community and businesses and government work together.”

After hours of work, the volunteers returned to the event staging site — a parking lot near Pico and Robertson boulevards — for a concert featuring the band Cousin Junebug and Jewish rapper Kosha Dillz.

Despite organizers’ best outreach efforts, they were not able to attract enough people to fulfill Tikkunfest’s ultimate goal, which was to have volunteers work approximately 18 blocks of Pico-Robertson, Bleich said.

Bookstein said volunteers planned to gather again Oct. 31 to continue beautifying the area, and that his group will continue to make planters available to businesses in the neighborhood. 

Volunteer Neda Zarabi said she participated for the sake of “tikkun olam, [to] repair the world,” adding that people should not mistake the concept as merely a cliché. “It’s one of the foundations of Judaism. You have to make it real to not be a cliché; that’s how you make it tangible.”

For more information, send an e-mail to {encode=”tikkunfest@gmail.com” title=”tikkunfest@gmail.com”}.

Tikkunfest brings much-needed TLC to Pico-Robertson [VIDEO] Read More »