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Jewish Journal

Connect. Inform. Inspire.

November 12, 2010

In The Beginning…

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Welcome to Tattletales!  The place where I am going to reveal all the sordid details of living on the Los Angeles scene.  I will hold nothing back as I tell you about dating in LA, pursuing a writing career, and being the artsy Jewish girl at a conservative Christian law school.  Everything is fair game.

To kick-off this blog, I thought I’d start with a question I get asked all the time.  Will I date someone not Jewish?  To me, this is kind of like asking if I would date someone really poor.  I’m certainly not going to say no absolutely not.  I believe in true love and that it has nothing to do with the size of someone’s bank account.  But I’m also aware that we’d have some big obstacles to overcome first.  You don’t always have control over whom you fall in love with (believe me I know) and I suppose it’s possible I could fall in love with some bohemian who lives in poverty – maybe some attractive struggling artist in Venice who writes me poetry while I ignore the fact that he lives on welfare, uses food stamps, and knows what it’s like to panhandle. 

But let’s be honest, if you told me about this guy before I met him, I probably wouldn’t be thinking that this guy is marriage material.  And possibly I would subconsciously be less likely to even find him attractive.  I grew up ‘lower-upper class’ (yes that’s what they call it these days) and the fact is I want to provide the same opportunities for my kids that my parents gave me.  So at some point, these differences are going to come to a head in our star-crossed relationship.  Is he going to ask me to skip out on a bill when the check comes at a restaurant?  Is he going to feel comfortable when I take him to my parent’s house in a gated community at Calabasas?  Am I going to hate him one day when family dinners include dumpster diving?  I mean, I had a hard time dealing with dating someone who lived in the Valley so to make this relationship work, at some point one of us is going to have to change.  And I know already, it’s not going to be me.  I’m never going to convert to being poor.  Perhaps, my artist lover sees how important providing a good life for my family is, develops some ambition, gets an MBA and we live happily ever after.  So yes, I date poor.  But it’s going to be a lot easier if he doesn’t start out poor. 

It’s the same thing for me when it comes to religion.  I can not say that I absolutely will only marry someone Jewish.  But any guy I date that’s not Jewish is starting at a significant disadvantage.  Judaism is culturally incredibly important to me.  It’s part of my identity and therefore it will always be an important part of my life.  I was raised in it and I feel a connection to my ancestors who for thousands of years have identified in the same way.  I want my children to feel that connection also, to know their history, and to make it a part of whom they are.  It’s always easier to start a relationship with someone who comes from a similar background.  But is it possible that I fall in love with someone not Jewish?  (I’m sorry mom) but sure it’s possible. 

But for me to commit to building a life with him means that he’d have to recognize how important my religion is to me, he’d have to support my desire to raise children with a Jewish identity, and he’d have to want to be included in the Jewish aspects of my life.  So possible, but again unlikely.  So after people ask me, I usually tell them that just like I can’t say that I would never marry someone poor, I also can’t say that I would never marry a non Jew; but would it help if he were Jewish?  Definitely.  Would it help even more if he were very very rich?  Well, you can probably guess how my mother feels about that.  But let’s just say if he’s poor and not Jewish, the odds are heavily against him.

In The Beginning… Read More »

The Arc for Palestine Wins Big in Barcelona

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The Arc Project for Palestine, an innovative master plan for a future Palestinian state designed and conceived in Los Angeles, received the “2010 Future Project of the Year” at the World Architecture Festival, a coveted international architectural prize.

Designed by Suisman Urban Design of Los Angeles, in partnership with RAND Corporation, the project looks forward to a Palestinian state in peace with its Israeli neighbor.

Unfortunately, the recognition comes as the peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians that could lead to a Palestinian state become less and less likely.  But perhaps the prize may again shed a bit of light on a visionary proposal that would turn the West Bank and Gaza into a cutting edge region of mass-transit-linked, sustainable, and economically viable communities.

As I wrote during the unveiling of the project back in April 2005:

This is what the Rand people did—treated the existing topography, resources and society as a kind of blank slate for state-of-the-art, sustainable urban planning. 
The result makes you wish Rand was around to plan Los Angeles 60 years ago.
The plan’s centerpiece is visually and intellectually simple, in the best sense of the word. It calls for a light-rail line, which it calls “the arc.” The rail line would essentially bisect Palestine, freeing the proto-nation from a future dependence on cars while also providing the backbone for a high-tech infrastructure and adjacent green space. Picture a stylized “J.” The top of the letter starts in the upper West Bank, in Jenin, and the stem runs down along the ridge of already settled towns—Nablus, Ramallah, Jerusalem, Bethlehem. The hook goes through Israel via a secure path, and reappears in Gaza, where it runs upward through that narrow strip from Rafah to Gaza City.
The “J,” located just east of existing towns, would connect the major Palestinian population centers in an efficient, car-free way. (“Cars ruin everything,” Glazer told me. “Israel’s all car-ed up.) Water, utility, sewage and fiber-optic lines would follow the same J-shaped trunk line. Efficient, relatively cheap high-speed buses would link the old town centers with new high-tech, industrial zones and settlement corridors forming horizontally along its route. A greenbelt would border the line, forming a single park up and down the country’s length. Electricity would flow from wind and solar generators.
This “J” would contain sprawl, preserve other open spaces, obviate the need for most cars, smooth the flow of goods and services, and help preserve the character of old, tourism-friendly Palestinian towns while allowing for new industrial and residential growth. In Palestine, demography is destiny, and the Rand report assumes that the population will double over the next 10 years. 
The plan is estimated to cost $41.5 billion over the next 10 years. That’s about the same amount the international community pays to keep the peace in Bosnia—over $700 per person per year.

Also in my column, I addressed the unusual fact that the Arc project funding came in part from a Los Angeles Jewish businessman named Gulford Glazer.  I wrote:

Glazer had been involved with Rand for years, ever since his close friend Moshe Dayan urged him to retain Rand to assess Israel’s financial contribution to America’s Cold War struggles. 
The Santa Monica-based think tank was already at work on a Palestine study, initially funded by Santa Monica residents David and Carol Richards, when it contacted Glazer and tapped into his long-standing interest. 
“My father used to tell me that a man with nothing to lose is very dangerous,” Glazer said. “We need in our self-defense to make sure they have something,” he said, referring to the Palestinians.
In other words, Glazer and the Rand people have turned the old formulation on its head. Is it good for the Jews? now has a corollary: “Is it good for the Palestinians?”
Failure, Glazer said, is not an option. A seething, destabilized state of Palestine would pose a constant security threat to Israel. A viable, sustainable state might just ensure a regional calm. 
“You need to do something to get them started,” he said. “These people are not just gonna lose everything anymore for no reason.”

The announcement of the prize electrified the crowd. According to The Swedish magazine Arkitektur, “The greatest jubilation in the festival hall was heard when the winner in the category of “Future projects – master planning” was presented. Winner Suisman Urban Design, in its Arc project for Palestine, has produced a stunning vision of infrastructure for a future Palestinian state.”

According to a press release from Suisman, The three judges – from the U.S., England, and China – were unanimous in their decision. They praised its “fearless example of architecture and masterplanning, helping to promote a political solution…The Arc excels in translating a complex context into a clear and powerful diagram…it is rigorous, practical, and believable.”

“The team at Suisman Urban Design, and our partners at RAND Corporation, are thrilled to accept this award. It has been a privilege to work on a project related to the peaceful hopes of two peoples, Palestinians and Israelis,”  said Doug Suisman, FAIA, Principal of Suisman Urban Design,  “Through architecture and urban design, we have tried to show that a successful Palestine, living side by side with Israel in peace, security, and prosperity, is not only imaginable, but feasible, and could begin now. It is our deepest hope that this project can contribute in some small way towards peace in the Middle East”.

Now that there is talk of a unilateral Palestinian statehood declaration—something Israel and the United States firmly oppose—the question is how a plan like this could take hold under such circumstances. Five years after Suisman & Co. dreamed up the plan, peace seems as elusive as ever. Too bad: look what everyone is missing.

You can watch a film presentation on the Arc here:

The Arc for Palestine Wins Big in Barcelona Read More »

Glenn Beck and the Jews: He Doesn’t Get It

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“And George Soros used to go around with this anti-Semite and deliver papers to the Jews and confiscate their property and then ship them off … Here’s a Jewish boy helping send the Jews to the death camps. And I am certainly not saying that George Soros enjoyed that, even had a choice. I mean, he’s 14 years old. He was surviving. So I’m not making a judgment. That’s between him and God. As a 14-year-old boy, I don’t know what you would do.”

George Soros is—many people would call him an anti-Semite. I will not. I don’t know enough about all of his positions on Jews… He’s also an atheist.”
– TV and radio host Glenn Beck

Glenn Beck’s description of George Soros’ actions during the Holocaust is completely inappropriate, offensive and over the top.  For a political commentator or entertainer to have the audacity to say – inaccurately – that there’s a Jewish boy sending Jews to death camps, as part of a broader assault on Mr. Soros, that’s horrific. – ADL statement
——-
I don’t know how well Glenn Beck knows the organized Jewish community, but he definitely has a Jewish problem. This week he gratuitously slandered a prominent Jewish philanthropist in probably the worst way that you can slander a Holocaust survivor, and many Jewish leaders are justifiably outraged. The ADL and the American Gathering of Holocaust Survivors and their Descendants have denounced Beck’s comments, which are presented in a negative light in every Jewish news source that has run the story. As a Mormon who has worked for years to promote LDS-Jewish relations worldwide, I have a few words of advice for my coreligionist.

First of all, know your limits vis-à-vis Jews. It’s almost always a bad idea for a Gentile to call a Jew an anti-Semite. You can criticize Soros’s politics and organizations all you want, but lay off the references to his ethnicity. Believe me, every Jewish reader sees through your “they-say-he’s-an-anti-Semite-but-I’m-not-sure” nonsense. If I were to write something like “They say Glenn still drinks and does drugs and may even beat his wife, but I don’t know enough about his home life to judge,” I don’t think too many of your fans would give me a pass. By the way, many Jews are atheists, and their unbelief doesn’t affect their membership in the tribe.

It’s an even worse idea to invoke the Holocaust inappropriately, which you continue to do (and have apologized for doing in the past). Accusing a Jewish Holocaust survivor of having been a teenage Nazi is simply inexcusable. To make matters even worse, your facts are wrong in this case. According to Ron Kampeas of the JTA (who has slightly more credibility on Jewish reporting than you), a young Soros on one occasion accompanied his non-Jewish protector (a necessity in a country where 2/3 of Jews were killed) when the Nazis ordered the man to inventory the estate of a Hungarian Jew who had fled. On another occasion, the local Jewish council ordered Soros to deliver letters to local Jewish lawyers. Soros’ father immediately realized that the letters were meant to inform them of their deportation, and he told his son to warn the targets to flee. He also ended the boy’s work with the council. No reasonable person could possibly think that the young Soros’s actions rose to the level of “helping send the Jews to the death camps.” This outrageous accusation clearly violates LDS moral teaching, which prohibits lying and slandering others. You should be ashamed of yourself.
   
Finally, traveling to Israel and making occasional pro-Israel remarks, while welcome, won’t protect you from Jewish outrage when you cross red lines. You simply don’t have enough bona fides in the Jewish community to get away with Holocaust exploitation and ad hominem attacks on prominent Jews. Your remarks were universally condemned in the Jewish press, and there is every reason to expect that your future statements on Jewish issues will receive heightened scrutiny (as they should). Everyone in the Jewish community knows that Soros is a completely secular Jew who does not identify himself closely with Israel or with most Jewish causes. However, he is still a Jew and a Holocaust survivor, and deserves better than to be labeled a former Nazi by a non-Jewish pundit who has never lived abroad, has never lived in a country that has been invaded, has never been the target of a genocidal campaign, and has minimal contact with the organized Jewish community. You can make all of the pro-Israel statements you like, but Jews also pay attention to how you treat individual Jews.

——-

The Jewish leaders’ reactions say to me that they’re not convinced that Beck really loves Jews, which should be a cause of great concern to him if he cares at all how he is perceived by the Jewish community. I think Jews have reason to be skeptical of Beck, and I hope they keep his feet to the fire. In the spirit of Glenn, let’s just say that while some people might say he’s an anti-Semite, I’m not saying that. I’m just saying that sometimes he acts like one.   

——-

I will be speaking to Mormons and Jews at the Jewish Community Center in Salt Lake City on January 12. I will also be making a joint presentation with Rabbi Alan Cohen in Kansas City on January 16.

Glenn Beck and the Jews: He Doesn’t Get It Read More »

Ariel Sharon moved to ranch first time since coma

Leave a Comment / Ariel Sharon, Israel /

Ariel Sharon was moved to his ranch for the first time since he fell into a coma in January 2006.

The former Israeli prime minister will spend the weekend at the ranch in the Negev desert, aides said of his move Friday.

Next week, he will return to the Tel Aviv hospital where he has been since he suffered a massive stroke while prime minister.

He will return to the ranch in upcoming weekends to test the possibility of moving back to his home permanently.

More on this story from these sources:

New York Times: In Coma, Ariel Sharon Is Moved Home
Ha’aaretz: Comatose ex-PM Ariel Sharon about to return home

Ariel Sharon moved to ranch first time since coma Read More »

Terrorist Groups Using YouTube to Distribute Propaganda

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One of the major features of modern, “web 2.0” internet technologies is the ability for anyone to publish material that can quickly be disseminated across the world. This has been utilized by politicians attempting to widen their election campaigns, companies trying to establish new brands … and terrorists seeking to spread their hateful messages. Despite efforts to block offensive material, leading video website YouTube has fast become a focal point for terrorist groups pursuing new viral mechanisms for distributing their propaganda across the internet. Youtube has recently responded to numerous government requests to remove videos of radical Muslim cleric Anwar al-Awlaki urging Muslims to take up arms against the United States. Despite their efforts however, many videos remain available and even more terrorist propaganda is constantly being posted.

A simple search for prominent Al-Qaeda member Anwar al-Awlaki on YouTube will reveal dozens of video clips, many of which preach hatred towards the USA and all non-believers in Islam. According to the ” title=”sermons on the Biblical/Qu’ranic figure of Lot ” target=”_blank”>sermons on the Biblical/Qu’ranic figure of Lot (which quickly turns into an anti-homosexuality rant) to ” title=”rants against the Freemasons” target=”_blank”>rants against the Freemasons to ” title=”attract abusive and violent responses” target=”_blank”> abusive and violent responses from jihadist supporters.

Many jihadist groups post their videos in a number of different languages such as Arabic, English, French and Russian in an effort to broaden their reach and influence. And the range of groups using YouTube stretch way beyong Al-Qaeda.

Read the full story on the Terrorist Groups Using YouTube to Distribute Propaganda Read More »

Holiday wishes from your friendly neighborhood atheists

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Remember when Richard Dawkins put up those “There’s Probably No God” bus ads? I wonder if a similar reaction will be spurred by an American holiday anti-God campaign, reported here by The New York Times:

Four separate and competing national organizations representing various streams of atheists, humanists and freethinkers will soon be spreading their gospel through advertisements on billboards, buses and trains, and in newspapers and magazines.

The latest, announced on Tuesday in Washington, is the first to include spots on television and cable. This campaign juxtaposes particularly primitive — even barbaric — passages from the Bible and the Koran with quotations from nonbelievers and humanists like Albert Einstein and Katharine Hepburn.

The godless groups say they are mounting this surge because they are aware that they have a large, untapped army of potential troops. The percentage of American adults who say they have no religion has doubled in the last two decades, to 15 percent, according to the American Religious Identification Survey, conducted by researchers at Trinity College in Hartford and released in 2008. But the ranks of the various atheist organizations number only in the tens of thousands.

That is one reason for the multiple campaigns: the groups are competing with one another to gain market share, said Mark Silk, founding director of the Greenberg Center for the Study of Religion in Public Life, which is also at Trinity College.

“There’s a competitive environment for ‘no religion,’ and they’re grabbing for all the constituents they can get,” Mr. Silk said.

Read on. It’s an interesting story and the latest iteration in an ongoing atheist evolution.

Holiday wishes from your friendly neighborhood atheists Read More »

Not even the Mila Kunis-Natalie Portman sex scene can save ‘Black Swan’

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It never ceases to amaze me what passes for Oscar-material these days. Admittedly, I gave up hope that an Oscar meant anything of significance when Julia Roberts won for Erin Brockovich; it was a great Julia Roberts performance, yes, but the performance of a great actress? Not so much. Roberts is one of those actors who is immensely compelling to watch, not because she transcends herself and becomes a character, but because Julia Roberts—the movie star—is intensely compelling on screen. She is charismatic, but rarely a character, and this is something that afflicts many movie stars, when an actor’s celebrity becomes so big, they can no longer convince an audience they are anything but their celebrity persona. 

But I digress.

Black Swan deserves Oscar buzz because it is the work of Darren Aronofsky, who manages to push past the prettiness and delicacy of ballet to expose the psychotic inner-life of a ballerina. He succeeds here in turning highbrow into high drama, making the erudite echelons of dance culture accessible to folks who either don’t like, or know anything about, the world of toe shoes and classical music. But style cannot replace substance, and ultimately, Aronofsky’s indelible cinematic style is the only thing Black Swan has going for it—that, and a lubricious sex scene between Mila Kunis and Natalie Portman.

Depth, the film sorely lacks, but sex it has in spades. And it’s a predatory, violent sex, which doesn’t seem to stop Portman from enjoying it. But even the sex is a hard sell: Portman seems to climax at first touch, so between the lesbian lust-fest and a masturbatory scene in which she tries to please her director by pleasing herself, I began to wonder what pills she was taking. The most erotic scene in the film actually takes place when Portman and her director, Thomas, played by Vincent Cassel, dance together: “Now I’ve seduced you,” he reprimands. “It should be the other way around.” Which is exactly how the audience feels; they want and wait to be seduced, but unlike with Portman, the climax never comes.

Black Swan ultimately fails because it descends into high melodrama without a single sympathetic character. Portman’s Nina becomes so one-dimensionally deranged it becomes impossible to feel for her, and for this we can only blame the script. The same goes for Winona Ryder’s character, Beth, who is there to warn of every ballerina’s inevitable decline but without any insight into her personal struggle. She is like a stick figure or scarecrow, portending some horrible evil without being frightening. Nina’s mother, played by Barbara Hershey is another shallow figure, her balletic past alluded to but never explained, yet we’re to believe it was powerful enough to transform her, afflicting her with nightmare stage-mom syndrome as she tries to fulfill her own broken dreams through her daughter.

In the end, which is foreshadowed in the beginning—and in the trailer, and in the title—I cared less about Nina’s fate than the the fact that in meeting it, she sullied her feathery white swan costume.

Not even the Mila Kunis-Natalie Portman sex scene can save ‘Black Swan’ Read More »

November Newsletter

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Color My Hanukkiah | Thursday, November 18th @ 6:30 p.m., Encino
Create and decorate your very own hanukkiah! Pizza and drinks will be provided and we’ll have a great discussion on the history of the holiday. $12. >> “>SEE MORE

Cooking Class: A Hanukkah Fry-Up | Tuesday, November 30th @ 6:30 p.m., The Grove
This cooking class will teach you how to perfect the craft of latke making, as well as how to make delightful soofganiot and other traditional Hanukkah foods. $22. >> “>BUY TICKETS

November Newsletter Read More »

Glenn Beck’s anti-Semitic crusade

Leave a Comment / Glenn Beck, Opinion /

“Here’s a Jewish boy helping send the Jews to the death camps.” – Glenn Beck, November 10

“You’re being duped” by Soros, Tides, ACORN, and PBS – Glenn Beck, October 21

“I would have never started watching Fox News if it wasn’t for the fact that Beck was on there. And it was the things that he did, it was the things he exposed that blew my mind.” – Byron Williams

On July 18, 2010, Byron Williams opened fire on California Highway Patrol officers who had stopped him on an Oakland freeway for driving erratically. For 12 frantic minutes, Williams traded shots with the police, employing three firearms and a small arsenal of ammunition, including armor-piercing rounds fired from a .308-caliber rifle. In an affidavit, an Oakland police investigator reported that during an interview at the hospital, Williams “stated that his intention was to start a revolution by traveling to San Francisco and killing people of importance at the Tides Foundation and the ACLU.”

If I try to defend George Soros against Glenn Beck’s attack, by dissecting all the ways that Beck is twisting a few pieces of a larger story, I lose. The damage is done. The particulars of Soros’ childhood experience are irrelevant. His real crime, for Beck and the right wing, is that among the billionaires, he seems to be the only one to spend money on left wing causes the way right wing billionaires have been spending on theirs. Not every billionaire is fascist, and if more of them followed Soros’ example, the left might have the kind of intellectual army sent to the field by the Heritage Foundation and the American Enterprise Institute, with cadres of pundits trained in the daily talking points, and given extra cash by speaking at seminars.

The psychotic confusion of Beck’s punditoracy…. Did you think it wouldn’t end with Jew hatred? All conspiracy theory has to end blaming us, the Jews. All political lies converge on us. Political lies on the left converge on us, too, but anyone who wants to give Beck a pass and make this an example of how both sides are guilty, is guilty of Jew hatred.

Why are vampires and zombies the metaphors of the age? Because no other metaphors better describe the world in which we live. The vampires are the seducers who bring the herd to violence, and make the herd their slaves. Glenn Beck is a vampire, Byron Williams was his zombie. Anyone who exuses Glenn Beck after this latest rant is either a vampire or a zombie.

There is no reasoning possible with them anymore, and the ballot is the only stake you can drive through their heart. Violence can’t work against them because the provocation gives them everything they want, the excuse to suspend what remains of liberty, in the name of liberty

Again, the only resistance is the ballot, thus, their attack on voters and voter registration and their history of voter suppression and the reason why the conservatives on the Supreme Court have given corporations the power to fund unlimited cash into election campaign.

So, the TIDES foundation is targeted by Beck, because, as TIDES states,  “Our mission is to partner with philanthropists, foundations, activists, and organizations across the country and across the globe to promote economic justice, robust democratic processes, and the opportunity to live in a healthy and sustainable environment where human rights are preserved and protected.”

What Beck fears most, more than the truth, more than being called an anti-semite, is high voter turnout.

Soros gave money to the Prop 19 campaign not to legalize pot as much as to get out younger voters, hoping that this would defeat the Republicans.

The incoherence of the right wing is the product of careful study, the product of the right wing think tanks. There is no coherent argument against Beck or Limbaugh or Palin, because under – I was about to say fascist, but that’s not accurate anymore, call them what they call themselves, Tea Partiers – under Tea Party thinking, language can’t hold thought anymore. It’s easy to refute Beck point by point, but impossible to stop him, because the arguments we make against him have to be carefully researched and organized, and organized thoughts are to the Tea Party mind like organized labor; the enemy.

Beck, Murdoch, the Kochs, Limbaugh, Ailes… their wet dreams don’t allow them fantasies of death camps, but something more like Chile under Pinochet or Argentina under the generals. We’ve already sanctioned torture, and the enhanced interrogators have been trained and are surely willing, if not waiting.

Do you remember Jacobo Timerman? He was an Argentine journalist who was tortured in a secret prison for two and a half years starting in 1977, in the years when the Argentine military killed thirty thousand people. He was then released on condition that he leave for Israel. In 1981 he published “Prisoner Without a Name, Cell Without a Number,” his memoirs of that time. For attacking Ronald Reagan’s support for the Argentine regime, his credibility was attacked by William F. Buckley, of course, but also Irving Kristol, because the Argentines were anti-communist.

I bring this up, because even as death squads knock on American doors, taking away Jewish opponents, there will be right wing Jews who say it isn’t true.

Then, ten, fifteen years from now, there’ll be some dreadfully sentimental reconciliation ceremonies on national television, hosted by Jon Stewart, in which prisoners and torturers will be given new cars in celebration of the government imposed civility.

On Halloween, I went out in the neighborhood on a get out the vote drive with the Progressive Jewish Alliance. I was dressed as someone who gets the out vote, no mask. I’m safe, for now. But just for now.

Michael Tolkin is a filmmaker and novelist whose novels include The Player and Under Radar and whose films include The Player, Deep Impact and Nine.

Glenn Beck’s anti-Semitic crusade Read More »

Q&A with Fakheri about new “Project Jacob” program

Leave a Comment / Blogs, Uncategorized /

I have known Dariush Fakheri, the president of the L.A.-based International Judea Foundation (SIAMAK) for the last 10 years. During that time I’ve come discover that he is by far is one of most out-spoken and dynamic leaders of Southern California’s Iranian Jewish community. SIAMAK under his leadership has without fear tackled some of the most controversial, taboo and downright difficult challenges our immigrant community living in L.A. has encountered. Whether it be drug abuse, pre-martial sex among youngsters or issues of divorce, SIAMAK’s board members and Fakheri have been unafraid to seek real solutions to these problems plaguing L.A.’s Iranian Jews. With the local Iranian Jewish community well established, SIAMAK, along with other community groups are increasingly turning their attention to aiding Israel in different ways.

Earlier this year, the organization along with Israel’s Ben Gurion University unofficially launched “Project Jacob”, a program to fund, nurture and develop innovative medical, high-tech and alternative energy research at Israel’s Ben-Gurion University (BGU). The longstanding objective of the program is to help spur economic growth in Israel and job creation in the country.

Earlier this week my piece in the Journal highlighted Fakheri’s efforts to develop “Project Jacob” and the following is portion of my interview with him…

Can you give us some background on your organization, SIAMAK?

We were one of the first organizations formed more than 30 years ago. During these 30 years we were involved with some many projects with new Iranian Jewish immigrants to the U.S. to help them with acculturation, resettlement, find housing and work. It was a huge job, but we were a bunch of young energetic people and we took on that challenge head on. Thankfully we were successful with these efforts. Every decade our priorities changed, once people were settled they had families who could help them. We then turned our attention to young people in our community to encourage them to stick to Judaism, or help them with their drug problems or violence occurring in their home. Every ten years we changed our goals as the community became more settled and we tried to adapt to helping the community in different ways. Later on once we were settled, more affluent and comfortable in our settings, we started to help Israeli causes more than before. We were also involved in raising funds for Muslim refugees in Bosnia, different food banks in Israels, Rambam hospital in Hafia after the Hezbollah war in 2006 and even supporting the late professor Amnon Netzer’s research in Judeo-Persian language at Hebrew University in Israel.

Your organization two years ago separated from another local Iranian Jewish group, what about that split helped to bring “Project Jacob” to life?

After the split from that other organization, we ended up with having close to a quarter of million dollars. So what happened was for a few months was that we tried to get over the hurt of all of the ideas we had had and to bury many of them that were very dear for us. After a few months I realized that we were not going to reignite our organization (SIAMAK) anymore because we were short handed locally. So our board got together with how we could best use this money. We had seen that for the last 30 years we had many people from Israel who came to us begging for money because they were living below the poverty line. To me it was insulting for Jews to go around the world and begging for money in the 21st century! So we thought, why don’t we teach them how to fish instead of giving them fishes? If we explore the “oil wells’ that we do have in Israel— the talent and brains of the Israeli people, then Israel will become more successful. This were we came up with the idea for Project Jacob.

So Project Jacob will be funding and helping to spur the creation of new innovations at Ben Gurion University and Israel. What are some of the benefits and unique aspects of this program from other programs?

This is a multifaceted program. A portion of that money the innovators of these inventions make, will come back to fund the next generation of people involved with the project. We did this because we saw that a lot of inventions created in Israel are being sold for hundreds of millions of dollars around the world but not really benefiting Israel. So we wanted to create a solution to this problem where such inventions would benefit for Israel. For example, with Project Jacob will end up making a lot of people millionaires because they will sell their invention and fulfill their dreams. Also the Israel government will benefit from the taxes generated by the sales of these inventions and those funds that could be used for any use that the government sees fit. This project will also help to prevent “brain drain” from Israel because scientists and innovators will stay in the country when they know the money from their inventions will to stay there. The overriding effect of inventions created in Israel is also good for Israel’s image because it shows that Jews and Israel are interested in “Tikkun Olam”. Likewise, if we have a vibrant economy, then this may encourage more aliyah to Israel. Lastly, if we can help Ben Gurion University, then we can help the Negev region prosper, release the traffic that is suffocating Tel Aviv and encourage development with more young people moving to the Negev.

What are the overhead costs for running Project Jacob?

No one from our organization makes a penny working for this organizations and any costs associated with it are paid by us. If I have to visit someone to encourage them to get involved with this program, I will pay for it out of my own pocket— and there are no administrative costs. This project was not named after anyone’s family name because it will allow anyone interested to join the project. If we could sponsor an inventor or a brain, then one invention by itself could support the whole project.

Can you explain how Project Jacob will advance the concept of “Tikkun Olam” or healing the world?

This project is a humanitarian effort in our eyes— for example, if we support the discovery of a vaccination it will not just help sick Jews, but aid all people around the world who are in need of it. Whatever we are doing, the beneficiaries are humanity. Anyone who wants to come to join this crusade we are involved with is more than welcomed. This is something that will help all humanity. After working 40 years on behalf of the community and not spending as much time with my family I said it’s enough— but you can’t stand still and see an opportunity like this that can benefit so many people in so many ways and do nothing.

What feedback have you received so far from those who have been introduced to Project Jacob in the U.S.?

Everyone I have spoken to is very excited about it. We’ve even had an offer by a U.S. company to buy one of the inventions that we have sponsored in this project. I am totally convinced that this project will cause an avalanche. If we have one successful project that is offered to the market and is picked up it will create more. We paid $200,000 in February 2010 to start the project and have made a commitment of $1 million. But I believe the contributions to this project will be much more once people see the potential and success of these inventions.

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