Chasidic pop star Matisyahu, best known for his hit “King Without a Crown,” blends reggae with Middle Eastern rhythms and American pop, conjuring up a fresh medley of unique and powerful beats. Sat. 8 p.m. $25-$45. The Luckman Fine Arts Complex, 5151 State University Drive, Los Angeles. (323) 343-6610.
The elderly man was hunched over, walking slowly with the help of a cane toward a small stage where a table, chair and microphone awaited him. The medium-size conference hall was utterly silent despite being packed with people, most of whom knew him well, some of them wondering, perhaps, whether he would make it up the steps to the stage. I was one of those people, sitting in the back. I had waited years for this moment — the chance to be in Jerusalem at the Shalom Hartman Institute and listen to the words of its founder, Rabbi David Hartman.
The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) honored NBC Universal Chair Jeff Gaspin with its Humanitarian Award during the Entertainment Industry Awards at the Beverly Wilshire Hotel on Oct. 7.
When I walked into our local Kmart the night after Labor Day, Christmas music already beckoned shoppers to do what they do best during the great white winter holiday: consume. Traditional Christians probably decry the way in which the focus of their holy day has shifted away from their Messiah toward consumerism. Jewish folks decry this as well (and certainly this Jewish folk does) because it pressures us to celebrate our less significant winter holiday, Chanukah, in a similar way. The irony couldn’t be more striking. Chanukah is the holiday that celebrates Jewish distinctiveness over assimilation. The Maccabees — zealots to some, freedom fighters to others — fought to preserve a sense of Jewish distinctiveness in the face of the Assyrian Greeks and other Jews who were attracted to their ways.\n
It was nearly 5 o’clock when Susan realized she didn’t have the fresh basil and black olives she needed for the chicken dish she was preparing for dinner. Guests were arriving at 7 and she still needed to shower and change. Scribbling the few items down on a scrap of paper, she dashed out of the house — hair a mess, T-shirt stained with olive oil. She flew from the parking lot into the store and headed straight for the spice aisle. What was it she needed again?
Jerry B. Epstein is probably best-known as the developer of two apartment complexes in Marina del Rey. He and his wife also have long been very generous supporters of Saint John’s Medical Center in Santa Monica. But as much money as Epstein has donated to his favored causes, which also include AIPAC and the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, some of his most notable contributions can’t be totaled up in dollars and cents. That’s because Epstein, 87, has made something of a second, unpaid career out of offering advice on every topic under the sun, even when some of it is unwelcome.
How many lawyers does it take to build a library? If you’re expecting a punch line, think again, because despite attorneys’ sharklike reputations, many law firms are generous charitable givers and many attorneys are getting personally involved in the charities their firms support. A few years ago, Mitchell Silberberg & Knupp funded a library at Richland Avenue Elementary, a school with many economically disadvantaged families and disabled students right next to MS&K’s West Los Angeles office. In addition to paying for the library, about a dozen of the firm’s lawyers continue to volunteer as reading tutors for kids in the school through KOREH L.A., a literacy program sponsored by The Jewish Federation of Greater Los Angeles.
For a little more than three decades, the Los Angeles-based International Judea Foundation (known as SIAMAK), among the oldest and most active of the local Iranian Jewish nonprofits, was known for looking out for the needs of the Iranian Jewish community here and abroad. Now, as the local Iranian Jewish community has matured and prospered in Southern California, SIAMAK has turned some of its focus to Israel, creating a program to nurture and develop innovative medical, high-tech and alternative energy research at Israel’s Ben-Gurion University (BGU). Dubbed “Project Jacob” after the biblical patriarch, the program is the brainchild of Dariush Fakheri, SIAMAK’s president, a businessman and entrepreneur who lives in Encino. With an initial investment of $200,000 last February, SIAMAK funded three projects at BGU.
Walk into Café Europa at Westside Jewish Community Center on Tuesdays, or the Valley version in North Hollywood on Thursdays, and you’ll find dozens of elderly men and women, sometimes as many as 60 or 70 of them. Some are frail, some feisty, many are both. They chat, they snack, they listen to lectures or watch movies or play Bingo. The name itself — Café Europa — sounds romantic, evocative of pre-World War II Europe, of Linzer tortes and intense political discussions and a world that’s disappeared. And, yes, almost all the group members were born in Europe and have European accents.
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