“THE MAD 7” Unhappy office drone Elliot Green undergoes a transformation — into a lighter, freer, more realized version of himself — after meeting a blind man who sees, a deaf man who hears, a stutterer who’s a great orator along with four other strangers.
Legislation that would cut off U.S. funds to countries that support granting the Palestinians a state unilaterally was introduced in the House of Representatives.\n
The Palestinian Authority will not recognize Israel as a Jewish state, President Mahmoud Abbas said.
Esther Edith Cohen died Aug. 6 at 89. Survived by daughters Shari (Gary) Effron, Ziva (Larue) Palmer; sons David (Michael) Serkin-Poole, Arnold (Cate); 10 grandchildren; 7 great-grandchildren; brother Leon (Joan) Prasow. Mount Sinai
Benson was born in Canada. “I call it Poland, because the winters are so bad.” He asks me about myself, and when I answer, he lifts his hands in the air and waves his fingers at me. He’s sending me “blessings,” he says. He has this spiritual/guru kind of bent to everything he says, and it’s not my kind of thing but I’m sure some girl reading this will be all over him like soybeans on tempeh. He’s got the charisma of a preacher, and as much as I blush around people who sincerely use the word “chakra,” I find Benson interesting to talk to.
Erik Larson attracted a loyal and appreciative readership — and that includes me — with his potent blend of social history and serial murder in the best-selling “The Devil in the White City,” a work of meticulous research that reads like a thriller. Now he puts the same skills to work in “In the Garden of Beasts: Love, Terror, and an American Family in Hitler’s Berlin” (Crown: $26), an account of the early years of Nazi Germany as experienced by William E. Dodd, who served as U.S. ambassador to Germany from 1933 to 1937.
In a photograph currently hanging in the Los Angeles Museum of the Holocaust (LAMH), Holocaust survivor Sophie Zeidman Hamburger drapes a garment she wore while escaping from a Nazi death march over her arms, one of which bears a number tattoo. In another, Toby Fainzylber Tambor holds her mother’s shawl and a handmade spoon, given to her by a friend tasked with caring for Tambor during the war should her mother die.
As part of The Jewish Federation of Greater Los Angeles’ yearlong centennial anniversary, 100 community members were asked to host a Shabbat dinner for a Night of 100 Shabbat Celebrations. To date, 550 hosts have registered with Federation to participate in the Sept. 9 event; they can follow any customs for their celebration and invite anyone they choose. Dinners can be intimate gatherings or large parties; hosts are responsible for providing the food and the location.
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