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Jewish Journal

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May 24, 2011

Where there’s music, there’s hope

Leave a Comment / Culture, Entertainment, Music /

It’s a sad fact of life that, for every soldier killed in a war, several more return home wounded.  Many of these injured soldiers face a difficult transition back into civilian life—post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), lingering injuries and the tough adjustment from the regimented reality of the military to civilian life often leaves soldiers feeling lost and adrift. 

When Raz Hagag was discharged from the Israeli army, he never expected that a career in music would be what would provide him and some of his fellow wounded warriors with an outlet for healing, but that is the genesis of 9 Lives, a band built around helping raise awareness about the struggles of ex-soldiers.

Like most young Israelis, Hagag joined the Israeli military as a teenager. He was assigned to be a medic for an elite unit, and he served with honor, but when his service was over, he found himself suffering from PTSD.  Hagag sought help and was soon connected with other wounded vets through the organization Hope for Heroism, a group run by and for Israeli soldiers to help those wounded in the course of their service. Hagag found the company of the other soldiers comforting, but his healing was taken to the next level by a campfire.

“We were sitting around a bonfire, and somebody said, ‘Let’s play some music,’ ” Hagag said. So he took a guitar and began to play some songs he’d written. They went over well, and someone suggested he start a band.  Soon, other soldiers were volunteering to join. “Guys would tell me, ‘Hey, I can play guitar, I can play drums, I can play bass,’ ” Hagag said. With that, a band was formed.

Hagag and his bandmates began crafting a sound for their group, and it quickly became apparent that their music was going to be as much about their personal stories as their influences. “It’s a real fusion,” Hagag said. “I grew up on metal, another one of the guys grew up on reggae, and some of us listened to Middle Eastern stuff.” Each member of the group brings his own experiences to their concerts, a fact that Hagag finds very important.

9 Lives’ music feels like an American jam band tinged with a Middle Eastern flavor. The band tends to be playful on stage, its members looking to each other and improvising over the constant, mellow groove of bass and percussion. When they sing, they often sing together, harmonizing and adding more layers to their sound. You can feel their enjoyment.

For Hagag and the other band members, it isn’t just about playing music, it’s about healing. “When you’re on stage, playing, you’re not thinking,” he said. “You’re in the music.” For many of the band members, it’s a chance to escape and to feel part of something greater. “When you’re in the band, you have a role.” In that sense, being in the band reminds him of the best part about being in the army — the camaraderie and the chance to be on a team.

Los Angeles resident Josh Donfeld first heard about Hagag and the other soldiers through friends, who encouraged him to attend an event in Los Angeles at which the ex-soldiers had been invited to appear. After that, he traveled to Seattle to see them again. For an American Jew like Donfeld, the chance to connect with Israeli soldiers who’ve put their lives on the line for the Jewish homeland was a special experience.

“Here, I am, the same age as these guys, and I’m here working at a hedge fund,” Donfeld said.

He spent some time with the soldiers and ended up becoming friends with a couple of the members of 9 Lives whose stories touched him. So when one of the band members asked him to come see them perform in London, Donfeld jumped at the chance.

During Thanksgiving weekend, Donfeld made a 36-hour turnaround trip to London to see the band perform and was not disappointed. “The Jewish community in London really came out to support them — there were 300 people there,” Donfeld said. He was so moved by the concert that he knew he had to bring 9 Lives back to Los Angeles. 

Donfeld began contacting friends and acquaintances to make arrangements to get 9 Lives to the United States. His sister set up a mini-concert at Milken Community High School for the band, and another friend managed to get the Viper Room donated free of charge for a full concert, which will be held May 30 at 8 p.m. 

Others were eager to help as well when they heard the story of the formation of the band and its mission to bring attention to the needs of injured veterans. When Yoni Saban heard about the band, he went to work contacting everyone he could to get publicity and help sell tickets. It’s been a real group effort.

As for 9 Lives, Hagag is optimistic about the group’s future. A documentary about the band is currently under way, and they plan to record their first album when they return to Israel after their shows in Los Angeles.  Hagag said that 9 Lives’ music “is not just for Israelis; the stories are universal.” He also joked that it was his girlfriend who “came up with the name 9 Lives, because all of us in the band are on a different number,” he said, noting that some of the members of the band have had brushes with death. Nevertheless, for its band members, 9 Lives is not about reliving close calls, it’s about celebrating second chances, and healing, and the power of music to change lives.

9 Lives will perform at the Viper Room, 8852 W. Sunset Blvd., West Hollywood,  on May 30 at 8 p.m. (doors open at 7:30 p.m.). Tickets are $25 in advance, $30 at the door, and can be purchased through ticketweb.com. All proceeds from the event will benefit Hope for Heroism (hopeforheroism.org).
If you wish to contact 9 Lives, e-mail {encode=”teshaneshamot@gmail.com” title=”teshaneshamot@gmail.com”}.

Where there’s music, there’s hope Read More »

With the Center for Jewish History debt free, its founding chairman steps down

Leave a Comment / United States /

One night back in 1985, businessman Bruce Slovin was walking home from a corporate board meeting with a lawyer named Joe Greenberger when Greenberger asked him about his involvement in the Jewish world.

Slovin responded that he wasn’t at all active, so Greenberger invited him to attend the next board meeting of YIVO, the research institute in New York on East European Jewry and Yiddish.

Slovin, who had recently lost his grandfather and father, attended the meeting and found himself spellbound.

“There was sitting my grandfather and father, who had just died—another Shlomo and a Yaakov,” he said, invoking his father and grandfather’s names.

“They were smoking with cigarettes like this”—he said, making an overhand gesture with his own Parliament cigarette. “They would drink schnapps after they had the board meeting. They were great storytellers. My father and grandfather were alive again.”

The flash of nostalgia set Slovin, a Brooklyn native, on a course that led to his joining the board of the YIVO Institute for Jewish Research and ultimately becoming the founding chairman of the Center for Jewish History in New York.

The center is a partnership of five historical organizations: the American Jewish Historical Society, the American Sephardi Federation, the Leo Baeck Institute, the Yeshiva University Museum and YIVO. It features the largest repository of Jewish historical artifacts in the Diaspora, with an impressive building near New York’s Union Square that contains 100 million artifacts and documents, and a library with half a million volumes.

More than 250 people gathered May 10 at a dinner to fete Slovin, 75, as he steps down as the center’s chairman.

The gala, held on the occasion of the center’s 10th anniversary, served as an opportunity to recognize the New Yorker’s lead role in the long, bumpy road to creating the center and putting it on sound financial footing.

An event that raised $1.2 million for the center also featured the unveiling of a stone plaque engraved with Slovin’s profile that will hang in its lobby.

“There would be no Center for Jewish History without Bruce Slovin,” Michael Glickman, the center’s chief operating officer, told JTA.

After attending that first board meeting in 1985, Slovin was shocked to discover that the documents in the YIVO archives were not well preserved.

“I saw these records degrading. There was no proper humidification, the warehouses were a mess,” he said. “We were broke all the time; that’s all we could afford.”

Slovin, then the president of MacAndrews & Forbes Holdings and of the Revlon Group, was soon installed as YIVO chairman. He began to push the often-resistant board to sell the building and move to a lower-priced area.

Greenberger, however, was thinking bigger: He suggested bringing in other Jewish organizations.

The idea for the Center for Jewish History was born.

Between 1994 and 2000, when the center opened to the public, Slovin had raised $67 million using strategies that many at the gala joked were “unique.”

“He came to my office and asked me for money,” Simon Ziff, whose name now adorns the center’s Ackman & Ziff Family Genealogical Institute, told JTA at the gala. “I’m not a big giver, but Bruce is tireless.”

“I was astounded by the amount of time he put into this venture,” added Ted Mirvis, co-chair of the board of trustees for Yeshiva University Museum and secretary of the center’s board of directors, at the gala.

Slovin, who received a bachelor’s degree in economics from Cornell University and a law degree from Harvard, had honed his ability to raise money as a child. He was so adept that eventually he was banned from a fundraising competition for planting trees in British Mandate Palestine because he won so often.

Despite his prowess, the center faced consistent financial difficulties. In 2007 there was controversy over a proposed takeover by New York University of the financially troubled center.

More recently, the Forward reported that Slovin was asked to step down from the YIVO board amid a string of painful layoffs. Slovin described the story as untrue and “dead wrong.”

The center also faced accusations of mismanagement and detractors who questioned its very raison d’etre.

Among the critics was Jonathan Sarna, the Joseph H. and Belle R. Braun Professor of American Jewish History at Brandeis University and a prominent historian of American Judaism. Sarna repeatedly called for the center to be dissolved into its constituent parts.

But Sarna, among others, reconsidered his position with the announcement in January that the center had raised more than $30 million in 15 months from 22 donors—allowing it to wipe out its debts for the first time.

In February, Sarna called the center one of the most important Jewish archives in the world.

“Now that it’s financially viable,” he said, “it’s perfectly clear that it has found a place.”

Slovin points to the academic’s endorsement as a benchmark for the center.

It is this relative peace from debtors and critics that has allowed “everyone to relax a little bit,” he said, and made him comfortable with stepping down as chairman.

The chair will pass to William Ackman and Joseph Steinberg, who together led the recent capital campaign and were its largest donors.

While he will remain on the center’s board and as YIVO’s chairman, Slovin plans to focus on his business, the real estate and financial holdings company 1 Eleven Associates, as well as bringing in more scholars to the center and writing its history.

“Bruce doesn’t claim to be a scholar,” Mirvis said, “but he understands the needs of scholars.”

Hearing this, Slovin smiles wryly.

“I’m just smart enough to understand the need to have a history,” he said. “As a people as valuable to human kind as the Jewish people are, it seemed dead wrong not to have as much of history as we can save—and we have tons more work to do.”

With the Center for Jewish History debt free, its founding chairman steps down Read More »

A skeptic looks at why we believe

Leave a Comment / Books, Culture, Entertainment, Judaism /

Based on firsthand experience, I can say that if you find yourself in a room with Michael Shermer, he’s likely to be the smartest guy present, and I do not mean in the Enron sense.  Shermer, author of “Why People Believe Weird Things” and “The Science of Good and Evil,” among other books, is the founder of Skeptic magazine, and a fearless and tireless advocate of rationalism in the face of extraordinary popular delusions and the madness of crowds. And he brings a scalpel-sharp and laser-focused intelligence to his work as America’s arch-skeptic.

“When I call myself a skeptic I mean simply that I take a scientific approach to the evaluation of claims,” he writes. “Science is skepticism and scientists are naturally skeptical.”

Shermer’s latest book is “The Believing Brain: From Ghosts to Gods to Politics and Conspiracies — How We Construct Beliefs and Reinforce Them as Truths” (Holt: $28), a wholly fascinating account of how our brains are hard-wired to turn raw data into true belief. Indeed, Shermer argues that the brain is a “belief engine,” and he shows us exactly how and why the capacity to believe may be the most important distinction between homo sapiens and all other forms of animal life. 

“Here I am interested in more than just why people believe weird things,” he explains, “but why people believe anything at all.”

Shermer offers a bit of personal background to frame his inquiry. He was raised in a nonreligious home, briefly embraced born-again Christianity as an adolescent, then put aside childish things to devote his life and work to science. “For a materialist such as myself, there is no such thing as ‘mind,’ ” he insists. “It ultimately reduces down to neurons firing and neurochemical transmitter substances flowing across synaptic gaps between neurons, combining complex patterns to produce something we call mind but is actually just brain.”

That’s not to say that Shermer dismisses the power of belief. Quite to the contrary, he shows how our beliefs, whether true or false, shape not only our own lives but also the world we live in and even our destiny as a species. A rustle in the tall grass on the plains of prehistoric Africa might have been understood as a gust of wind, or the breath of God, or a tiger preparing to attack, and evolutionary biology favored the hominid who entertained the belief that it was a tiger. “[P]eople believe weird things,” he writes, “because of our evolved need to believe nonweird things.”

As he drills down ever deeper into the fundamentals of human brain function, Shermer offers a wealth of surprising information and insights — why we love sweet foods and rich foods even though they make us fat, why a 0.7 waist-to-hip ratio is sexually attractive, why incest taboos are genetically imprinted and why we are hard-wired to see faces in photographs of distant moons and planets. None of these characteristics were bestowed upon us by an Intelligent Designer, he argues, but we are here today because all of them favored the survival of the fittest among our far-distant progenitors.

But he also shows how the wiring of the human brain provides the “cognitive basis” for a whole range of beliefs that can be seen as barriers to reason, including not only “shamanism, paganism, animism, polytheism, monotheism, and all modes of Old and New Age spiritualisms,” but also alien abduction, astral projection, conspiracy theories, the search for UFOs, telekinesis and much else besides, all of which he dismisses as “superstition and magical thinking,” and even plain madness.

For anyone who cares about religion, whether as an artifact of human civilization or a source of moral instruction or even a divine revelation, “The Believing Brain” will be challenging but also illuminating and enriching. “Why do so many people believe in God?” Shermer ponders. “Your culture may dictate which god to believe in and which religion to adhere to, but the belief in a supernatural agent who operates in the world as an indispensable part of a social group is universal to all cultures because it is hardwired into the brain.”

That’s not to say that Shermer reduces all of human experience to biochemistry and evolutionary biology. The fact that he does not believe in a supernatural deity or an afterlife only sharpens his appreciation for life in the here and now: “If this is all there is, then how meaningful become our lives, our families, our friends, our communities — and how we treat others — when every day, every moment, every relationship, and every person counts. …”

To which even a skeptic can say: Amen!

Jonathan Kirsch, author and publishing attorney, is book editor of The Jewish Journal. He blogs on books at books@jewishjournal.com.

A skeptic looks at why we believe Read More »

The 36th contenders: Both pro-Israel, different on all else

Leave a Comment / California, Community, Politics /

When South Bay Republican Craig Huey, who has never before held public office, finished second in the May 17 special election to fill the empty seat in California’s 36th Congressional District, he didn’t just surprise political observers.

He also surprised the only candidate who got more votes than he did in the first round of the race to replace former Congresswoman Jane Harman.

“I think everyone thought it would be Debra Bowen,” first-place finisher and Los Angeles City Councilwoman Janice Hahn said in an interview with The Jewish Journal.

In a first round of voting that included 16 candidates, Huey finished behind the Democratic Hahn but managed to edge out the better-known Bowen, also a Democrat, who has served as California’s Secretary of State since 2007. The final margin between the second- and third-place candidates ended up being fewer than 1,000 votes.

The election was California’s first ever “jungle primary” — a system that was voted into practice by Californians in a 2010 ballot initiative that replaced the old system of party-based primaries. And although many expected the runoff to be between two Democratic candidates — the district has twice as many registered Democrats as Republicans — the two candidates in the election on July 12 will be from opposing political parties.

Hahn and Huey differ on nearly every issue — tax policy, the future of the country’s health care system and gay marriage, to name just three — but the two seem in almost complete agreement when it comes to unhesitating support for Israel.

At least Hahn thinks so: “There’s a lot of things that we’re miles apart on, but I don’t know if there’s any differences in the way that we would support Israel,” she said.

Huey, speaking in an interview after President Barack Obama’s speech at the State Department on May 19 (but before he spoke to the AIPAC convention on May 22), disagreed.

“I’d like to have Janice Hahn be clear on her position with regards to President Obama calling for a freeze on building in Israel,” Huey said. “I would like her to be clear on whether or not she supports the call to take the boundaries back to 1967, which would make Israel unsafe.”

Hahn was asked about Israeli settlements at a candidates’ forum sponsored by Democrats for Israel last month. She said that the focus on settlements was unhelpful to the peace process, but she also said that the decision by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government in March 2010 to announce the approval of 1,600 new housing units in East Jerusalem at precisely the moment when Vice President Joe Biden was visiting the country “probably didn’t help the peace process.”

Asked on May 23 about Obama’s two much-dissected comments about using Israel’s pre-1967 borders as a starting point for negotiations between Israelis and Palestinians, Hahn said she “was concerned by his remarks [at the State Department], as were many of my Jewish friends.” 

Hahn’s worry was that the president “would put conditions on Israel in terms of where they started in the negotiations about the ’67 borders — without putting a similar condition on the Palestinians and what they had to do to come to the table.”

Huey, who runs a direct-marketing business and publishes multiple Web sites to help guide voters to support conservative candidates in elections, raised more money than any other candidate in the electoral race — mostly by personally lending his campaign $500,000.

He was not surprised by his own good showing in the primary: “It was quite a surprise to Washington and to the political elite and to the news media,” Huey told The Jewish Journal. “It was not a surprise to me, no, based upon what I was hearing from the folks in the district. They’re very upset with the status quo and the policies that are backed by the special interests.”

In terms of policies, Huey supports term limits of 12 years for representatives in Congress and would repeal the 2010 Affordable Care Act, which he termed “Obamacare.” He would vote against all tax increases, for an end to the estate tax and for making the Bush tax cuts permanent. He supports Rep. Ron Paul’s (R-Texas) call to abolish the Federal Reserve. And although Huey hasn’t been endorsed by the Tea Party, he said he does have “a lot of Tea Party support because they like my economic message.”

Craig Huey (Photo by Marta Evry)

“But,” he added, “I also have longshoreman support and union support, because they like my message.”

Huey’s Web site includes endorsements from a handful of elected officials, a few dozen business leaders and hundreds of “our neighbors” — but as of early this week, it didn’t list any unions that support him.

Hahn’s Web site, by contrast, listed dozens of unions’ endorsements. They were printed just below a lengthy list of national, state and local elected officials who have thrown their support behind Hahn.

Most of Hahn’s positions differ from Huey’s: “It’s such a clear choice on so many issues,” Hahn said. “Social Security, Medicare, a woman’s right to choose — there’s just so many issues that we’re so different on.”

“He wants to balance the budget on the backs of seniors, the poor and the disabled,”

Hahn said of her opponent. “I believe that there are other ways to cut spending and bring in revenue.”

Speaking specifically about the budget plan proposed by Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) and approved by the Republican majority in the House of Representatives last month — which Huey said he would support — Hahn called it a bad idea. “The Ryan plan would dismantle Medicare,” Hahn said. “And the seniors I talk to are very worried about that.”

How would Hahn balance the budget?

“First of all, I would bring our troops back from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan,” Hahn said. She also would vote to repeal the Bush-era tax cuts — “millionaires and billionaires ought to be paying their fair share of taxes,” she said, adding that Obama’s health care bill deserves a chance to work.

“I believe that [Huey] does not represent this district,” Hahn said. I believe that his interests are just so to the right of this district.”

“He ain’t gonna win the July runoff,” Allan Hoffenblum, a Republican political consultant and the publisher of the “California Target Book” said of Huey’s chances. “The question is, is he really going to spend more of his own money in a race that he really can’t win?”

In the first round, 56 percent of the votes cast were for Democratic candidates, while 41 percent of voters went with a Republican candidate.

Huey, however, remains confident he can swing enough independent voters to make it a race.

“What we’re finding is that people are very upset about the huge, $1.6 trillion budget deficit,” Huey said when asked about his crossover potential.

He also talked about the national debt, which he described as “$427,000 of debt for every man, woman and child.”

“The issue of the debt is something that really angers people,” Huey said. “We’re paying 12 billion a month in interest and a lot of it is going to China — and people don’t like that.”

“The independents get it,” Huey added.

Huey and Hahn did appear at events together in advance of the primary round of voting, and the two campaigns are still negotiating when and where the candidates will appear between now and the second round.

The 36th contenders: Both pro-Israel, different on all else Read More »

Malibu’s HaLevy a leader of rabbis, a face of change

Leave a Comment / California, Community /

When Rabbi Judith HaLevy came to Los Angeles in 1992 to help start Mesivta, a Center for Jewish Spirituality, she committed to stay for just a year. Nineteen years later, she is deeply rooted in the L.A. community with the thriving Malibu Jewish Center & Synagogue and a new post as the 36th president of the Board of Rabbis of Southern California.

HaLevy, installed on May 17 during a ceremony at her synagogue, is only the second woman to lead the 330-member organization — the first being HaLevy’s immediate predecessor, Rabbi Denise Eger of Congregation Kol Ami.

“I was given incredible gifts to become the rabbi I am at a time when women didn’t really become rabbis,” said HaLevy, 68, who began her rabbinic education in the early 1980s. “A very well-known Conservative rabbi, who I won’t name, urged me to take a position on the Board of Rabbis 15 years ago. He said that I owed it to the women of L.A. I was resistant, but over the years his admonition has been in my consciousness.”

She said that while change for women has come rapidly since the 1960s, the movement of women from the margins to the center of Jewish life took 2,000 years.

“I feel responsible to stand up and take a role that is perhaps out of my comfort zone to validate the women that made all these changes happen over the last 50 years,” she said, adding that in order to be treated as co-partners with men, women need to be willing to take on difficult roles.

HaLevy, who has served with the Board of Rabbis’ executive committee since 2002, said that her top priority during her two-year tenure as president is to be responsive to the diversity of the Los Angeles Jewish community and continue on the path of creating opportunities for civil discourse around difficult issues.

“It’s time to start listening to each other or people will disengage around crises, including dangers posed to the State of Israel and dissensions within Judaism itself,” she said.

The organization’s 330 rabbis, who come from all walks of Jewish life, need to be able to sit down together and discuss these issues so that they can go back and promote civil discourse within their communities, she says.

She also wants to strengthen the relationship between the Board of Rabbis and The Jewish Federation of Greater Los Angeles, saying that the two “make up the arms and legs” of the Jewish community.

“There’s a spirit of cooperation and shared goals that needs to be both expanded and affirmed,” HaLevy said, explaining that the rabbis are the important connectors back to the Jewish community, the key to engaging people in Jewish life and transforming them on a daily basis.

Jewish Federation President Jay Sanderson says that that HaLevy’s passion, dynamism and enthusiasm make her the perfect catalyst to bring The Federation and the Board of Rabbis into a closer working relationship.

“We look forward to Rabbi Judith HaLevy’s inspired leadership as the Board of Rabbis continues to connect our community’s rabbis and synagogues closer to our work in caring for Jews in need, engaging in our broader community and, most importantly, ensuring our Jewish future for our children and grandchildren,” he said.

Rabbi Judith, as she is known to her friends and congregants at Malibu Jewish Center & Synagogue, comes from an international education and performing arts background. Before moving to Los Angeles, she lived in New Mexico, where she discovered her calling to become a rabbi and first led services for a small Jewish community.

Her passion and enthusiasm have helped her Malibu Reconstructionist congregation grow and flourish — a reflection both of the needs of the community and the creativity that it has incorporated into its shul, she said. She explains that her board was always supportive, even when her ideas seemed crazy.

“Our first Shabbat on the Beach was five chairs in a circle and a bunch of dolphins showing up,” she said, adding that the service has since become a popular event among the congregants while continuing to be popular with the dolphins.

She also explains that despite stereotypes, study is a key component of the Malibu congregation, which features 250 families.

“Jews are far more hungry for meaningful Jewish study than one would think. In a place like Malibu, where you would think it would be far more about social events and less philosophically engaged, it turns out the underpinnings of the congregation is that almost everyone participates in some sort of study program,” HaLevy said. 

And she credits their success to her close bond with Cantor Marcelo Gindlin, explaining that “his song reflects my soul,” and their openness to Jews of all kinds, including mixed marriages. “We are very embracing, bringing Jews who might otherwise have slipped away into a place that they feel comfortable without compromising the Judaism that is offered.”

Her creative background, she said, is something unique that she brings to her position.

“I came to the center from the margins,” she explained, referring both to her roots in theater and being a woman in rabbinical school at a time when that was rare. “I understand the creativity that exists at the margins of Jewish life and have been able to incorporate that creativity in my own rabbinate.”

She said that she personally resonates with the experiences of spirituality and creativity and seeks to bring that to others. “If a spiritual experience hasn’t happened in the room, then I didn’t do my job.”

Rabbi Mark S. Diamond, executive vice president of the Board of Rabbis, has worked closely with HaLevy for the last decade and said she is a rabbi and a woman of enormous soul.

“She has a beautiful neshamah [soul] and has a deep appreciation for the mystical and spiritual side of Jewish life. Those are precious gifts that she brings to the Board of Rabbis,” he said.

Malibu’s HaLevy a leader of rabbis, a face of change Read More »

Calendar Picks and Clicks: May 24-June 3, 2011

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

WED | MAY 25

ONCE IN 100 YEARS
Comedian Craig Ferguson, host of “The Late Late Show,” and the Grammy-winning band Train (“Drops of Jupiter”) perform at The Jewish Federation of Los Angeles’ centennial celebration. Wed. 5:30 p.m. $180 (35 and under), $500 (general). Barker Hangar, 2031 Airport Ave., Santa Monica. (323) 761-8297. jewishla.org.

THU | MAY 26

MAX MAVEN — JEWS IN MAGIC
The acclaimed mentalist, magician and author explores why and how Jewish magicians flourished in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Arrive early and view the “Houdini: Art and Magic” and “Masters of Illusion” exhibitions for free. Thu. 8 p.m.  $12 (general), $10 (Skirball members), $6 (full-time students). Skirball Cultural Center, 2701 N. Sepulveda Blvd., Los Angeles. (310) 440-4500. skirball.org.

FRI | MAY 27

“SOUTH OF DELANCEY”
Before Judge Judy or Jerry Springer, there was Rabbi Rubin. Inspired by true stories broadcast on Yiddish radio from a Lower East Side Jewish arbitration court, “South of Delancy” re-enacts three cases from the 1930s and ’40s: a woman who doubts her husband’s feelings for her, two feuding sisters who share a home, and a lustful couple who married to save face. Fri. Through June 26. 8 p.m. $25 (general), $20 (students-seniors). Centre Theatre, 1000 Fremont Ave., South Pasadena. (866) 811-4111. www.southofdelancey.com.

SHABBAT AT THE PROMENADE
Sing, dance and celebrate Shabbat on Third Street Promenade. Rabbi Monty Turner from Makom Ohr Shalom, a Jewish Renewal synagogue in Encino, leads services tonight. Fri. 7-8:30 p.m. Free. Third Street Promenade, 1460 Third St., Santa Monica. (323) 472-7484.

SAT | MAY 28

“JOSEPH AND THE AMAZING TECHNICOLOR DREAMCOAT”
Kids 7 to 15 years old perform composer Andrew Lloyd Webber’s biblically inspired, pop-infused musical. Sold into slavery by his 11 brothers, who resent him for being their father Jacob’s favorite son, Joseph eventually becomes one of the most powerful men in Egypt after interpreting the Pharaoh’s dreams and correctly predicting a coming famine. Sat. Through June 5. 2 and 7 p.m. $5-$15. Madrid Theatre, 21622 Sherman Way, Canoga Park. (818) 347-9938. www.ci.la.ca.us/cad/madridtheatre.

WED | JUNE 1

“DISSOLUTION”
Fyodor Dostoevsky’s “Crime and Punishment” inspires director Nina Menkes’ 2010 Israeli art film, which follows a morose young Israeli Jew (Didi Fire) who murders a female pawnbroker. Shot in Yaffo, a predominantly Arab part of Tel Aviv, the film won the Anat Pirchi Award for Best Drama at the 2010 Jerusalem International Film Festival. Wed. Through June 5. 7 p.m. $10. Downtown Independent, 251 S. Main St., Los Angeles. (213) 617-1033. downtownindependent.com.
 
THU | JUNE 2
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ISRAEL CONFERENCE
Haim Saban, Yossi Vardi and dozens of other top American and Israeli executives speak during this annual showcase, which shines a light on innovative Israeli technology and products. Meet movers and shakers doing business with or investing in Israeli companies, or sit in on panel discussions covering such topics as “Social Advertising,” “Cool Content and Convergence” and “From Seeding Ideas to Selling Shares.” Breakfast and lunch will be served. Thu. 7:30 a.m.-9:30 p.m. $260-$380. Luxe Hotel, 11461 Sunset Blvd., Los Angeles. (310) 445-5388. theisraelconference.org.

NIGHT OF COMEDY AND COCKTAILS
The Anti-Defamation League’s Asian Jewish Initiative hosts an evening mixer for young professionals followed by a performance from Cold Tofu, an Asian American improv and sketch comedy group. Thu. 6:30 p.m. (cocktail reception), 8 p.m. (Cold Tofu). $15. Japanese American National Museum, 369 E. First St., Los Angeles. (310) 446-4257. adl.org.

“NUREMBERG: ITS LESSON FOR TODAY”
Suppressed in the United States for more than 60 years, “Nuremberg” follows the prosecution of top Nazi leaders during the 11-month Nuremberg war crimes trials, blending courtroom footage with Nazi propaganda films and heart-rending images of human cruelty. Directed by Stuart Schulberg, the film was widely shown in Germany during 1948 and 1949, as part of the campaign to re-educate German society, but U.S. officials got cold feet when it came to showing the film in America. Following tonight’s Museum of Tolerance screening, Schulberg’s daughter, Sandra Schulberg, who produced this restored version of the film, appears in conversation with Stephen Rohde, a constitutional lawyer. Thu. 7 p.m. $10 (general), $7 (Museum of Tolerance members). Museum of Tolerance, 9786 W. Pico Blvd., Los Angeles. (310) 772-2505. museumoftolerance.com.

BRAD GARRETT
Known for his Emmy-winning role as Ray Romano’s older brother on “Everybody Loves Raymond” —  and more recently as Eddie Stark on “ ’Til Death” — the Woodland Hills native performs tonight at the Comedy and Magic Club. Fair warning: Garrett’s routine features adult themes. Thu. 8 p.m. $25. The Comedy and Magic Club, 1018 Hermosa Ave., Hermosa Beach. (310) 372-1193. comedyandmagicclub.com.

FRI | JUNE 3

SHABBAT IN THE PARK
Celebrate summer early by packing a picnic and spending Shabbat outdoors:

SINAI TEMPLE’S DOR CHADASH SHABBAT IN THE PARK
Bring your own kosher-style dinner and welcome Shabbat amid friends, family and monkey bars. Fri. 5:45 p.m. Free. Holmby Park, 601 Club View Drive, Los Angeles. (310) 474-1518. sinaitemple.org.
 
IKAR’S PICNIC AND KABBALAT SHABBAT
A traditional Friday night service featuring familiar melodies, rhythmic drumming, insightful study and joyous celebration. Childcare available during services. Fri. 5:45 p.m. (Shabbat dinner), 7 p.m. (services). Free. Roxbury Park, 471 S. Roxbury Drive, Beverly Hills. (323) 634-1870. ikar-la.org.

TEMPLE BETH SHALOM’S SHABBAT IN THE PARK
Join the Prayer Walk to Greet the Shabbat Bride and stay for a shared feast after services. Fri. 6-7:30 p.m. (Kabbalat Shabbat), 7-8:30 p.m. (dinner).  Free. El Dorado Park, Golden Grove Picnic Area, 7550 E. Spring St., Long Beach. (562) 426-6413. tbslb.org.

Calendar Picks and Clicks: May 24-June 3, 2011 Read More »

Financier Namvar’s conviction reveals community wounds

Leave a Comment / Blogs, California, Community /

Once a pillar of the local Iranian Jewish community, businessman and philanthropist Ezri Namvar was a trusted friend to whom many in the community loaned money freely and without fear. Namvar’s reputation, which has been tarnished during the last several years, was dealt another blow on May 19, when Namvar, 59, was convicted on four counts of wire fraud in a downtown Los Angeles federal court.

After only three hours of deliberation, the jury found that Namvar had failed to return $21 million entrusted for safekeeping to his company, Namco Financial Exchange Corp. (NFE), and instead invested the money in risky real estate deals. NFE’s controller, Hamid Tabatabai, 62, was also convicted on four counts of fraud for a scheme with Namvar from March 2008 to August 2008 to defraud five of NFE’s clients of 1031 funds. According to the federal tax code, 1031 funds are profits realized from the sale of a business or investment property that are not immediately liable for capital gains taxes when the money is used to purchase a similar replacement property.

Namvar was indicted in September 2010 on charges that he returned only $4 million of the $27 million in 1031 funds given to his company for safekeeping. The indictment charged that the funds were used by Namvar without authorization for various purposes unrelated to the clients; it also indicated that Namvar, with the help of Tabatabai, used NFE’s clients’ funds to pay off creditors and investors of Namvar’s investment company, Namco Capital Group Inc., as well as Namvar’s personal creditors.

Namvar’s criminal conviction is the latest in a slew of problems he has encountered. In late 2008, two dozen creditors — most of them from Southern California’s Iranian Jewish community — filed an involuntary bankruptcy petition against Namvar and his Namco Capital Group company, accusing him of losing as much as $500 million loaned to him in an alleged Ponzi scheme. That case is still ongoing.

Several Iranian Jews who lost money through Namvar’s actions expressed satisfaction at the jury verdict last week, particularly because Namvar has denied wronging anyone in his own community.

“Many of us victims feel that justice has been served somewhat today with this conviction,” said Abraham Assil, an Iranian Jewish businessman and Namvar creditor. “But we still believe more criminal charges need to be brought against the other Namvar family members involved for their role as accomplices to the criminal actions of Ezri Namvar.”

According to a statement released last week by the U.S. Department of Justice, both Namvar and Tabatabai are facing sentences of up to 80 years in federal prison.

David Peyman, a Los Angeles-based attorney specializing in white-collar criminal defense, said Namvar will more likely face concurrent sentences of about 78 months for each count he was convicted on (a total of about seven years) —  because federal sentencing guidelines are driven by the amount lost in each case. At the same time, Peyman said, the judge in the case will have some discretion.

“One of the factors judges always look at in coming to a sentencing decision is deterrence — will their sentence in one case send a message to others,” said Peyman, who has successfully served as a defense attorney in federal criminal securities cases. “That can never be the dominant factor, but it’s always in the mix.” 

U.S. District Court Judge Percy Anderson ordered Namvar released on bail and subject to home incarceration with electronic monitoring. Anderson has scheduled a June 1 hearing to determine whether Namvar will be sent back to jail prior to his sentencing, scheduled for Aug. 22.

The U.S. Attorney’s office in downtown Los Angeles and Namvar’s attorney did not return calls for comment on the case. A. David Youssefyeh, a Century City Iranian Jewish attorney representing some of Namvar’s Iranian Jewish creditors, said Namvar’s conviction has been a long time coming for many of his creditors.

“The fact that Ezri Namvar was convicted of fraud is a surprise to no one,” Youssefyeh said. “However, justice is not done yet. Justice will be done when Mr. Namvar is sentenced to prison for the rest of his life.”

In addition to Namvar’s involuntary bankruptcy nearly three years ago, 17 more lawsuits have since been filed against Namvar, Namco, entities owned by Namvar and other Namvar family members, alleging breach of contract and contractual fraud in a case that attorneys estimate involves 300 to 400 creditors — the majority of them Iranian Jews.

Youssefyeh said Namvar’s creditors have been particularly frustrated during the last nearly three years because they have had to endure tremendous financial hardships while Namvar has continued to enjoy a lavish lifestyle and made a concerted effort to hide his assets during the bankruptcy proceedings.

A report released in early 2010 by the trustees in Namvar’s bankruptcy case states that Namco owes more than $500 million to more than 170 secured and unsecured creditors. The report also states that Namco is owed more than $600 million from loans it made to 16 members of Namvar’s family, various limited liability corporations owned by Namvar and to more than 60 individuals and entities. In addition, the report indicates that Namvar gave himself a loan of more than $32 million, and he also gave $50 million to each of his four children.

Many of Namvar’s Iranian Jewish creditors are low- to middle-income couples, individuals or retired seniors who invested their savings with Namvar and his company, hoping to receive higher interest rates than what most banks were offering. Their investments ranged from $10,000 to $300,000, and most said they have lost all hope of regaining their funds.

The Namvar case has bitterly divided Southern California’s tight-knit Iranian Jewish community, with many of the Namvar creditors expressing frustration with the community’s social and religious leadership, whom they accuse of remaining largely silent about Namvar’s culpability.

“Early on, Rabbi David Shofet [of the Nessah Synagogue in Beverly Hills] indicated in a formal letter that if Namvar was proven in court to be a thief, then he and his family must give back the money that they took from people,” said Assil, one of the first creditors to initiate the involuntary bankruptcy proceedings against Namvar. “Today I’d like to see what the rabbi’s statement is to Namvar’s conviction.”

Calls to Nessah Synagogue requesting comment were not returned. Nor were calls made to the West Hollywood-based Iranian American Jewish Federation, an umbrella group for the community.

Under community pressure, in April 2010, Namvar voluntarily quit his post on Nessah’s board.

Some other Namvar victims have strongly defended Shofet and other community rabbis for their efforts to resolve the financial dispute through the beit din, or religious courts. Both Namvar and the creditors rejected this option.

“I can say with certainty, since I have attended many meetings on this matter, that our rabbis — particularly Rav David Shofet — were involved in helping with this case, even before the case was taken into bankruptcy, so as to resolve the matter without causing so much hardship,” said George Haroonian, a Namvar creditor and local Iranian Jewish community activist. “Now some in this community wrongly expect the rabbis to have executive power, which they don’t.”

Several older Iranian Jewish activists said cases involving financial disputes among Jews in Iran traditionally were settled by the community’s leadership, key businessmen and elders — outside the court system — gathering all parties involved and helping out those who had suffered the economic loss, a practice that no longer is feasible in the United States, at least in this instance.

Haroonian said Shofet and other local Iranian rabbis also have been wrongly accused of financial misdeeds through an ongoing smear e-mail campaign.

“Many wrongly thought that the rabbis were financially involved with Namvar, but this has been proven to be a false and vicious rumor — a letter released by the bankruptcy trustees has proven that there was no such involvement by the rabbis,” Haroonian said.

For his part in defending the rabbis and advocating for a more moderate community dialogue and approach regarding the Namvar case, Haroonian said he has also been targeted by the e-mail campaign, falsely accusing him of “collaborating with Namvar.”

“The fact is, my family and I have not gotten back a dime of our money, when a couple of individuals who support this lie [about my family], have gotten back some of their money from Namco,” Haroonian said.

Emotions continue to run high in the community. Representatives of a handful of local nonprofit Iranian Jewish organizations that offer relief to those in need said that over the last few years they have been overwhelmed by calls from Iranian Jews in need as a result of the fraud. With their budgets already hard-hit by the economic downturn, the organizations have been unable to help everyone.

Investment fraud scandals involving two other local Iranian Jews have added to the local community’s difficulties.

In January 2010, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filed a lawsuit against John Farahi, 52, a popular Iranian Jewish radio talk-show host, who also served as an investment adviser and stockbroker for local Iranian Jews. That suit alleges that Farahi and his Beverly Hills firm, NewPoint Financial Services Inc., defrauded Iranian American investors of millions of dollars and that Farahi; his company; his wife, Gissou Rastegar Farahi; and the firm’s controller, Elaheh Amouei; misled investors by telling them their funds were being invested in unsecured corporate bonds, FDIC-insured certificates of deposit, government bonds and corporate bonds issued by companies backed by funds from the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP).

Also over the last few years, nearly a dozen lawsuits have been filed by various L.A.-area Iranian Jews and other businesses alleging that Beverly Hills Iranian Jewish businessman Joseph Boodaie defrauded them of a combined total of close to $100 million, according to one local attorney. No criminal charges have been filed against Farahi or Boodaie.

Nevertheless, Namvar’s creditors said that Namvar’s criminal conviction would send a message to other Iranian Jewish businessmen seeking to potentially defraud investors. Still, the community will need many years to heal from the fallout from this crisis.

For more in-depth interviews regarding the Namvar case, visit Karmel Melamed’s blog: jewishjournal.com/iranianamericanjews/.

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Opinion: Groping in the Dark

Leave a Comment / Opinion /

The swirl of news about the International Monetary Fund’s (IMF) former managing director Dominique Strauss-Kahn, who was accused recently of sexually assaulting a chambermaid in his expensive Sofitel hotel suite, contains another juicy nugget of information. Strauss-Kahn is Jewish. His wife is Jewish. In fact, Strauss-Kahn was born, like many French Jews, to a Sephardic mother from Tunisia. He participates in public Jewish life. He does not hide his Jewishness. Should we?

Well, that’s what many people right now would like to do. When we read about a Jew connected to a public exploit of a criminal nature — be it a rape, Ponzi scheme or Medicare fraud — most of us cringe and wish we somehow weren’t ethnically or genetically connected. When breaking news of crime is exposed, our knee-jerk impulse is to pray that whoever is involved isn’t Jewish.

Sadly, in the past few years, we have become used to seeing more Jews exposed for white-collar crimes in the news. And in some pathetic and ironic way, we’ve managed to unify Jews under the same banner — from Reform to Satmar Chasidim, Syrians and Ashkenazim, Jews from Chicago and Jews from Australia. What has brought us together? Crime. How else to explain a joke that took a spin in cyberspace recently: “The Top 10 Signs Your Rabbi Was Indicted.” These included, 1) your synagogue charity auction now includes “kidney,” 2) your rebbetzin is suddenly on JDate, and 3) the rabbi’s sermon comes in the form of an affidavit.

But if you have nothing to do with Strauss-Kahn, Bernard Madoff or any other member of the criminal glitterati other than share a religion, why should you care?

We do care, and we care for the same reason that when a Jew wins a Nobel Peace Prize, we take just a smidgen of credit for it, and when a popular celebrity announces he or she is Jewish, we stand a little taller. We are connected by a mysterious bond called peoplehood, a psychic sense that we are part of an extended family with deep historical roots and a moral and spiritual vision. This is not something we give explicit voice to, but it is something many of us feel deep down in our kishkes (gut).

It’s the quiet nod of recognition we give to a woman in a grocery checkout line with a Star of David around her neck. It is the subtle intimacy we experience as a minority people who are experts at the world’s most boring game: Jewish geography. We play it because six degrees of separation is way too many. Six one-hundredths is a lot more comfortable. After all, it’s a hostile world out there. You need to know who your family is.

Yet, just like we’re not proud of every member of our family, we put up with those criminal few (yes, it is only a few) who need to zip up their pants, get a better accountant or have a time-out from Wall Street. The downside of peoplehood is that just like we may feel psychically connected to strangers merely because they are Jewish, we are also connected to Jews who commit crimes in the public eye.

The ancient rabbis shared this worry and created the term ma’arit ayin (literally, what the eye sees) to help people model moral excellence everywhere lest others observe spiritually contradictory behaviors and assign them to the Jewish people as a whole. This falls under a larger legal rubric of Kiddush Hashem, sanctifying God’s name. When a Jew in the public eye is morally upstanding, we all bask in his or her light. When a Jew in the public eye tries to rape a woman who is powerless, we squirm.

This is not the same as the Yiddish expression, a shandah for the goyim. When we adjust our behavior because of self-conscious modeling, we do so for the sake of righteousness and goodness. When we worry about being a shandah for the goyim, we care less about what we do and more about what we look like. It’s like being caught in a perp walk but worried that you forgot to put on lipstick. It’s an ethically superficial way of moving in the universe.

Are these just isolated cases of a few Jews gone bad or are they symptomatic of something much darker that we’re not willing to confront? I’d like to believe the former. I’d like to believe that Jewish affluence and influence in the world has presented us with new/old challenges. If we want to make a difference on the global stage, be it in economics, research or politics, then we must move with the ancient weight of Isaiah’s teachings, “Learn to do good.” Goodness is not assumed. It is taught. It must be taught and reinforced in our synagogues and schools and adult education programs. It is not a given.

Dominique Strauss-Kahn’s Jewishness may not have even crossed his mind as he acted, but his Judaism was not something detached from his identity when others reported his alleged crime. We, the Jewish public, all pay some small psychic cost in pride for the acts of strangers. It’s the price we pay for being in the same family, whether we want to or not. If it is the label others give us, then perhaps it’s time to have a difficult family conversation about raising the ethical bar. After all, when it comes to the reputation of the Jewish people, we’re all stakeholders.

Erica Brown serves as the scholar-in-residence for The Jewish Federation of Greater Washington. Her latest book is “In the Narrow Places” (OU/Maggid). She also wrote “Confronting Scandal” (Jewish Lights) and can be reached at leadingwithmeaning.com.

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Opinion: Circumcision wars in California

Leave a Comment / Circumcision, Opinion /

The attempt to make circumcision illegal, including those performed for religious reasons, is spreading beyond San Francisco, which aimed last week to become the first American municipality to ban the practice. Now, residents of Santa Monica have filed a petition indicating that they, too, intend to get a similar measure on the November ballot for their city. While these are the two most aggressive attempts to curtail the practice of circumcision, they represent an increasing trend away from the practice, or at least away from the presumption of its necessity.

Like most things associated with circumcision, it’s a very sensitive issue. In fact, as I write this, I know that whatever I commit to words here will be seen as brutal and/or betraying by many who read it.

Were I to begin with the fact that with the birth of each of our three daughters, I experienced not only profound joy but also a certain inchoate sense of relief at being spared the obligation to circumcise them eight days later, many readers would accuse me of betraying Jewish tradition for simply admitting my ambivalence. Were I to begin by saying that had we had sons, they would have been circumcised in full accordance with Jewish tradition, including the genuine celebration that accompanies the performance of this sometimes disturbing and deeply beautiful 3,500 year old tradition, I would be branded a barbarian by yet other readers.

Both propositions accurately reflect my feelings, and it is precisely that level of complexity that is rarely present in the ongoing debate about infant circumcision in America. Instead of admitting that the sensitivity of this issue is what makes it absurd to legislate and litigate, each side wraps itself in competing claims about the health, legality and morality of the issue in order to get others to see it its way.

In fairness, those opposed to circumcision are far more aggressive in the use of this approach, though I genuinely feel for people, especially Jews, who admit their ambivalence about circumcising their infant sons. Too often they are immediately lectured about the fact that if they do not do so, their kids will not be Jewish (not true), or that circumcision is clearly healthier and failing to circumcise their kids endangers them (a matter of debate, though most evidence still suggests that it is).

Meeting genuine questions with questionable assertions is hardly the way to go. There are many good reasons to circumcise our sons, but they are not strengthened by failing to seriously address the questions people have.

In fact, the intensity of the debate around circumcision, like so many issues in religion, is about much more than we let on. Anxiety about not circumcising, among Jews at least, is often about fear of assimilation as much as it is about the importance of one particular commandment. The same anxiety among non-Jews, for whom there is no such commandment, is often about the rights of parents to shape their children’s future. Those are big, important questions — ones that deserve to be discussed openly, not fought over by proxy.

On the other hand, there is something truly wrong with people attempting to strip parents of their rights as guardians and undermining the free exercise of religion. The legal experts will battle over that one, I am sure. But those seeking to ban circumcision don’t pursue banning other medical procedures that parents believe are right for their kids to have. This indicates that the fight about circumcision is really an expression of the opponents’ hostility to religion in general or to parents’ rights to make decisions that may shape their kids’ future identities.

It’s as if people fight about what to do with our kids, or, worse, what other people should do with their kids, because of what was done to us by our parents. That strikes me as a poor way to make decisions about parenting, public policy or the various spiritual paths we follow. 

Instead, I suggest that people focus on the hopes and aspirations they have for their own children, and pursue, as their consciences dictate, those practices they believe will aid in their attainment. Sometimes parents will get it right, sometimes not, but maximizing the freedom to give it their best shot – short of endangering the health or life of the kids involved — should remain, as it has for hundreds of years in this country, a sacred trust.

Rabbi Brad Hirschfield is the author of “You Don’t Have to Be Wrong for Me to Be Right,” and is the President of Clal – The National Jewish Center for Learning and Leadership.

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Bill Boyarsky: Galatzan’s Concern for Public Schools Is Personal, Too

Leave a Comment / Bill Boyarsky, Opinion /

Much of the recent history of the Los Angeles Unified School District is also part of the past of Tamar Galatzan, who now sits on the governing board of that giant bureaucracy of a school district.

She was a student at Hesby Elementary School in the San Fernando Valley when a court ordered the LAUSD to desegregate in the late 1970s. Galatzan’s parents, fearing the plan would require her to be bused to a distant East Los Angeles school, pulled her out of Hesby and enrolled her the day school at Valley Beth Shalom. Many parents, generally white and middle- and upper class, did the same in an exodus from Los Angeles schools that severely damaged public education here.

From Valley Beth Shalom, Galatzan went to the private Brentwood School and, finally, back to the public Birmingham High School, from which she graduated.  By then, the desegregation plan had been abandoned and, she said, “My folks believed in public schools.”  Galatzan’s own sons are currently first- and third-grade students in a Los Angeles public school.

Today, she said, that belief is shared by “a lot of parents, especially in the Jewish community” where there is “support for public schools.” In addition, she said, “We are seeing many kids returning to public schools from private schools because of family finances. It will be interesting to see if these kids stay in the district once the economy picks up.”

Now, as a LAUSD board member, Galatzan, an attorney, is involved in another major educational development — a big change in the hiring, firing and assessment of teachers and the management of schools.  While not nearly as dramatic as the desegregation controversy, this new change will eventually reach classrooms throughout the district, affecting the education of every student.

I interviewed Galatzan recently at her district office on the edge of the campus of her old high school — now Birmingham Charter Community High School. She represents LAUSD’s District 3, which extends from Studio City, Sherman Oaks and parts of Encino north to Porter Ranch and Granada Hills. 

She is one of a four-member majority of the seven-person board who are fighting the teachers union, the United Teachers of Los Angeles (UTLA), over the proposals. Galatzan and the others consider themselves reformers, although the UTLA does not describe them as such.

Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa backs Galatzan and the others in their fight against the union. Although the mayor of Los Angeles has no power over the public schools, he campaigned hard and raised money for Galatzan and her school board allies. “One of the things the mayor has done is really make education an issue people are talking about in our community,” she said.

Galatzan and her allies on the board, along with new LAUSD superintendent John Deasy and Villaraigosa, are strong supporters of a policy that would change the management of many schools — Public School Choice. It would allow outsiders, such as private charter school companies, to take over low-performing schools. Insiders, such as groups of teachers, could also compete for running their school. Both have already happened in some Los Angeles schools, where charter firms and teachers are operating campuses.

Charter schools are supported by public funds but are run independently, either by a charter school company or by other groups that have taken over a school.

At present, the community around a school can vote for school choice in an advisory ballot. “I hated the community vote,” Galatzan said. “I foresaw it would be like a political campaign, with fliers and busing people” (to vote).

Instead, her version of school choice would forgo the community advisory vote and make it easier for charter companies or other groups to take over public schools.

The new arrangement changes life for teachers. At present, schools operate under a long, detailed UTLA contract, with many rules governing working conditions. Deasy, Galatzan and the other board supporters want a simplified contract, much shorter and with fewer rules, that would give more power to each school in making teacher assignments, as well as hiring and firing. In some schools, for example, teachers are evaluated every year, and those who don’t make the grade aren’t rehired.

“Union rules, that’s what keeps coming back,” Galatzan said of the disputes with the teachers union. “That’s what it’s about. When you delve into it, it’s not the teachers, it’s the rules, about staffing and firing.”

Deasy and the board want to turn over all or part of two low-performing Los Angeles schools to Green Dot, a major privately owned charter school organization that currently runs 17 public charters in the LAUSD and one in Inglewood. Involved are parts of Jordan High School and Clay Middle School. The UTLA is trying to block the move.

I sympathize with everybody involved in this fight. The issues are arcane. They are hard to explain. There are huge disagreements over the best way to evaluate teacher performance. In fact, few agree on the best way to teach kids.

But one point stands out. The Los Angeles public schools are worth saving and worthy of our attention. As Galatzan told me, “A lot of the values I was raised with — [such as] respect for different cultures and religions — [are] something you find in the public schools.” Finding a way to preserve these values while improving the quality of education is the latest chapter in the public school life of Tamar Galatzan.

Bill Boyarsky is a columnist for The Jewish Journal, Truthdig and L.A. Observed, and the author of “Inventing L.A.: The Chandlers and Their Times” (Angel City Press).

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