On a recent weekend morning, sunlight lit up a band of eager workers in jeans and T-shirts who had ventured into a backyard at a home in Northridge. They were there to pick oranges.
Synagogues and Jewish community centers are among the traditional paths to connect with the Jewish community. But The Jewish Federation of the Greater San Gabriel and Pomona Valleys is taking a different approach to outreach to local Jews with the launch of its new Cultural Arts Program.
Blowing in the breeze, a pinwheel read, “In peace, there is no war. There is calm.” Nearby, another pinwheel read, “Kindness,” “Shalom” and “Day of Peace.”
Hofesh Shechter is unlike any other choreographer. Not only are his charged and awe-inspiring steps instantly recognizable, the 36-year-old Israeli also writes the powerful and personal music that accompanies them. And he often plays it himself, live.
Call it circumstantial Zionism. There’s been a recent uptick in North American aliyah — of basketball players.
If I have one wish for Sukkot, my favorite Jewish holiday, it’s this: no more plastic fruit. Each year, Jewish people are commanded to fulfill the mitzvah of building a sukkah — a temporary shelter in which they eat (and sometimes sleep) throughout the weeklong holiday, which this year occurs from October 12 to 19.
Chefs often speak of a magical moment during their childhood, when something they tasted — a food so new and bold that it shocked them — changed their life and sent them straight to the kitchen. For Micah Wexler, 29, the chef at West Hollywood’s Mezze, there was no such moment, just a childhood spent in his mother’s kitchen.
The trouble at Shaarei Tefila, one of Los Angeles’ oldest Modern Orthodox synagogues, began in 2008 with a disagreement over whether one member’s brother should be allowed to be called up to the Torah. Over the last three years, however, that dispute led to a competition between two groups of members for control over the struggling 77-year-old Beverly Boulevard congregation.
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