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Jewish Journal

Connect. Inform. Inspire.

October 26, 2011

Unique Capabilities: Parashat Noach (Genesis 6:9-11:32)

Leave a Comment / Judaism, News, Torah /

There are places in the Torah where many of us moderns have a hard time relating to our ancestors and the societies in which they lived. Oppression of women, slavery, animal sacrifice, a God that intervenes and directs our lives in a forceful and immediate way, to name a few. This parasha, however, is not really one of these moments. In fact, as I read through Noach again and again this year, I couldn’t help but think how much hasn’t changed since those fateful days, in primordial time, when the first humans brought about the destruction of the Earth.

“The Earth became corrupt before God; the Earth was filled with lawlessness (hamas). When God saw how corrupt the Earth was, for all flesh had corrupted its ways, God said to Noah, ‘I have decided to put an end to all flesh, for the Earth is filled with lawlessness because of them: I am about to destroy them with the Earth’ ”  (Genesis 6:11-13).

Our ancestors quickly devolved into corruption, violence, greed and anger. Sadly, destruction was the only way to stop them. Rashi, followed by Ramban and others, understands the word “hamas” as “robbery/violence,” and the Talmud teaches us that while humans committed every conceivable transgression, their “fate was only sealed when they put forth their hands to robbery and violence toward one another” (Sanhedrin 108a). I see violence here not only as the physical

manifestation of hate toward one another, but also as the mental and spiritual manifestation of greed and selfishness, both toward other humans and toward animals and the natural world. The human being believed that they were the end-all and be-all of creation, endowed with rights and privileges that permitted any actions, including murder, to advance their evil ways. We see this lesson is not truly learned, even after the flood, for the end of Parashat Noach teaches us about the Tower of Babel, read by commentators old and new, as another physical manifestation of greed and desire for power. We have short memories, even as God has a long, full memory.

And so, as I look at the world in which we live today, a world that is being quickly passed to my children and all of the children soon to be adults, I am both afraid and emboldened. I am afraid because the pace of our world, filled with violence, war, planetary destruction, greed, indifference, poverty, genocide, hatred and intolerance, is moving so fast with the technological advances we celebrate in the life of someone like Steve Jobs, that I fear we will not, we cannot, stop, turn around and repair the massive damage we have done and continue to do on a daily basis, both here in America and the world over. Yet, I am emboldened by the same Parashat Noach that gives us the rainbow, a sign that continues to inspire awe and wonder in the hopefulness of our world and our capacity to do the right thing. The same technology that is speeding us up, blinding us, is also being used to open our eyes, be it with the global satellite pictures of Darfur that we can see firsthand, the capacity to provide enough food to end poverty, the incredible advances in medicine and healing, most of which are emerging from Israel, the social media that helped spawn revolutions in the Arab world and right here in America — all signs that we have the capacity to make good decisions for the betterment of all life. Let’s not forget Deuteronomy, which teaches,

“I place before you a blessing and a

curse … .” While things change, they often stay the same.

Human beings were not given dominion in Genesis in order to dominate, but rather we were given “unique capabilities,” a better translation of the Hebrew word that is usually translated as “dominion.” The midrash teaches that it actually took Noah 120 years to build the ark so that people might ask him what he was doing, hear the answer and repent of their evil ways and change course. It was a long drive to the destruction, with many signs and warnings along the way. Our ancestors didn’t listen. Will we? Shabbat shalom!

Unique Capabilities: Parashat Noach (Genesis 6:9-11:32) Read More »

For downtown’s Persian Jews, work plus worship equals success

Leave a Comment / Blogs, California, Community, Is Featured?, News /

Fast-paced techno dance music blasts through Chikas, a retail clothing store off Santee Street in the heart of downtown Los Angeles’ Fashion District, which many call the Garment District. Robert Mahgerefteh, the store’s owner, helps the dozen or so young women looking for great deals on the latest fashions.

“Many of us from the Iranian-Jewish community working in the Garment District have a very hard work ethic, sometimes working six or seven days a week,” he said. “People like myself grew up seeing our dads and uncles put the time and effort into making their businesses a success, so we’re following in their footsteps.”

Mahgerefteh, 29, is among the more than 300 Iranian Jews who work as retailers, wholesalers or importers of clothing, fabrics and fashion accessories in downtown’s Fashion District. Over the last 30 years, their businesses and Iranian-Jewish investment in downtown real estate have helped transform the district into one of the major business hubs in Southern California.

In addition to improving the area, Iranian-Jewish businessmen have brought their faith and practice with them, establishing synagogues in the area and supporting several downtown kosher restaurants. Rabbis even travel to the Fashion District to teach Torah and other topics during lunch-and-learn sessions.

And while the flood of cheaper clothing and fabrics from China has driven some Iranian Jews out of the business, others have remained downtown, finding their niche in the new marketplace.

Following their immigration to Los Angeles from Iran, hundreds of Iranian Jews flocked to the Fashion District in the late 1970s and early 1980s, either because of their familiarity with the garment trade or because it seemed the easiest way to earn a living.

Iranian-Jewish real estate developer Behrooz Neman, who has owned properties in downtown’s Fashion District since the mid-1980s, said the area was in dire economic conditions when Iranian Jews first arrived.

“It looked like South Central with only old buildings and empty warehouses,” Neman said. “I can honestly say that if the Iranian Jews had never come to Los Angeles, there would be no Garment District as you see it today.”

Those Iranian Jews who first worked the Fashion District didn’t have the higher overhead costs of the larger American fabric companies, said Amir “Aby” Emrani, co-owner of Emday Fabrics.

“And, we also gave ourselves smaller commissions,” he said.

Today, Emday Fabrics and a handful of other Iranian-Jewish-owned businesses are among downtown’s largest and most successful fabrics importers, selling to both a national and international clientele.

“In the early days, we worked very hard and long hours — it was just myself, my brother and my father. … Little by little, the hard work and our ability to give much lower pricing to our customers allowed us to grow,” Emrani said.

Among the businesses that found a niche early was Donna Vinci, a division of Brasseur Inc., which specializes in plus-size women’s suits, among its other high-end women’s clothing.

“It was very successful for us, and we have continued over the years to build on that idea with many different designs and brands for the same customers,” said Danny Golshan, Donna Vinci’s co-owner. “Our focus is on being unique and bringing up-to-date clothing to our customers.”

With Hollywood not too far away, Iranian-Jewish-owned businesses such as the Italian Fashion Group have also supported the needs of costume designers for major television shows and films. The company, run by three Iranian- Jewish siblings, has become a top manufacturer of high-end, custom-made Italian suits that attract entertainment industry designers and celebrities such as Al Pacino, Terrence Howard and James Belushi.

“Our custom line of suits, Di Stefano, has become the pearl of our company,” said Shahrouz Stefano Kalepari, co-owner of the Italian Fashion Group, adding that their suits have appeared on such televisions shows as “The Mentalist,” “Castle,” “Law & Order: Los Angeles” and “The Defenders.”

“Our suits and shirts are 100 percent hand made and the patterns are designed from scratch for each individual order, to create a very personalized and custom fit for our customers. We use the most precious accessories such as horsehair canvas inside our suits, pure silk linings and mother-of-pearl buttons,” Kalepari said.

But with cheaper labor and raw material in China and the Far East flooding the Fashion District, Iranian-Jewish businesses have found it increasingly difficult to compete with Chinese goods.

Businessmen like Kalepari say they have had to be more aggressive in marketing their products and educating their customers about the higher quality of their clothing in order to survive.

“Unfair competition with China, combined with the lack of knowledge from some customers, makes it very frustrating at times,” Kalepari said. “But in the end, a high-quality product speaks for itself, and when a famous designer of top-quality clothes in Beverly Hills uses our company’s line for his own personal use, this gives us the utmost satisfaction that we have done the right thing and can survive in this market.”

Aside from the district’s retail and wholesale businesses, nearly 40 Iranian-Jewish real estate developers have purchased or constructed buildings and other properties over the years to further solidify the community’s influence in the area.

These Iranian-Jewish developers have not only upgraded the appearance of the stores and buildings in the area, but were pivotal in the creation and growth of the widely popular “alley” shopping area within the heart of the district — a nearly three-block stretch along Santee Street that resembles a Middle Eastern-style open bazaar.

“In the early 1980s, there was no alley in existence,” Neman said. “The idea to use the space in the alley area came from mostly Iranian Jewish developers who wanted to get the maximum use of their properties in the area by making these smaller spaces behind their buildings available for retailers.”

Not only have Iranian-Jewish businesses thrived and prospered in the fabrics and clothing industry, but city officials have praised the community’s entrepreneurial efforts during the last three decades of the Fashion District’s revitalization.

“The Persian community has helped to reshape the district by partnering with stakeholders in the area to form business development districts to keep the area safe and clean for business to thrive,” L.A. City Controller Wendy Greuel said. “This community has been at the forefront of growth in the Garment District, and I am confident that the future will bring greater prosperity as downtown continues its transformation.”

The financial growth over the last 25 years alone in Southern California’s garment business speaks for itself.

“In 1984, California Mart in downtown’s Garment District did about $50 million in sales annually, which was for all the U.S. sales of garments on the West Coast,” Neman said. “Today the annual sales for the garment business in Southern California alone is $150 billion — and without a doubt it is because of the hard work of Iranian-Jewish- and Korean-owned businesses in downtown.”

Many local Iranian Jews also credit Ezat Delijani, one of the community’s most prominent real estate developers, who died in late August, for having transformed the area by pioneering mixed-use developments in downtown Los Angeles as well as for purchasing and renovating four historic theaters on Broadway near the Fashion District.

“The investment Ezat Delijani made in the historic area of Broadway brought new life to an area that was stricken with graffiti and blight,” said David Rahimian, a former special assistant to L.A. Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa. “The Delijani family led a preservation effort that brought the theater back to life, not only making it a jewel on Broadway but a proud site for all Angelenos to enjoy.”

With all of their financial success, Iranian- Jewish businessmen in the area have still maintained their strong Jewish bonds in the district, even establishing three synagogues in the area.

Ohr HaShalom, also called the Downtown Synagogue, is perhaps the most popular synagogue in the Fashion District. Located inside a 300-square-foot storefront, it attracts up to 30 Iranian-Jewish businessmen for daily prayers.

“It’s more convenient for businessmen from our community to come to the synagogue that is close to their businesses in the area in order to do their early morning prayers or to say the Kaddish prayers on the anniversary of the deaths of their loved ones,” said Abner Cohen, a fabrics businessman and co-founder of Ohr HaShalom.

The other two synagogues in the area are located within the offices of Iranian-Jewish businesses, housing Torahs as well as other prayer books. Yet the business owners operating these office synagogues would not grant The Jewish Journal entry out of concern that the publicity could attract unwanted security challenges.

In addition to the synagogues, a handful of local rabbis frequent the different Iranian-Jewish-owned businesses in the Fashion District, providing free lunchtime classes on Torah and religious practices.

“We love teaching Judaism, and we offer these businessmen insights on how they could benefit from Torah in their everyday lives to become better fathers, better partners and better community members,” said Rabbi Yosef Shemtov, executive director of the Yachad Outreach Center, which is affiliated with the Pico-Robertson-based Torat Hayim synagogue.

Over the course of each week, Shemtov and two other Iranian Jewish rabbis from his group visit more than 50 Iranian-Jewish businesses in downtown’s fashion and jewelry districts. Their group began the teaching program for Iranian Jews working in downtown Los Angeles eight years ago and, Shemtov said, it has gradually grown in popularity.

Kosher restaurants in recent years have also popped up the Fashion District, including Snack 26 deli, offering sandwiches to Iranian-Jewish businessmen on the run, and Afshan Restaurant, providing customers with kosher chicken and beef kebabs as well as popular Persian stews and rice dishes. Both eateries also deliver to their clients downtown.

With all of the ups and downs in their businesses, Iranian Jews working in the Fashion District said their strong sense of spirituality and Jewish values have enabled them to continue working hard to achieve success in the fashion industry.

Shervin Arastoozad, an Iranian-Jewish designer and owner of Cut n’ Paste Handbags, says the one thing he’s learned about business is that you must build a foundation to get anywhere.

“One very important foundation for me has been Judaism and the morality it brings into [my] business and everyday life,” he said.

For more interviews with Iranian-Jewish businessmen in downtown’s Fashion District, visit Karmel Melamed’s blog at jewishjournal.com/iranianamericanjews.

For downtown’s Persian Jews, work plus worship equals success Read More »

Brits put polite spin on Amy Winehouse death, citing ‘misadventure’

Leave a Comment / Hollywood, Is Featured?, News /

The official ruling on the death of soul chanteuse Amy Winehouse was pronounced this morning by British coroner Suzanne Greenaway as “death by misadventure”. But that was really a polite way of saying that Winehouse drank herself to death.

According to the coroner’s report, Winehouse had a lethal amount of alcohol in her system that ranks at five times the British legal limit on drunk driving. Winehouse was found dead in her apartment last July, surrounded by empty bottles of vodka—“two large, one small,” according to the Associated Press and Detective Inspector Les Newman, who found her body.

Despite speculation that Winehouse, whose dark and troubling lyrics suggested depression, may have committed suicide, the death was ruled accidental. According to reports, Winehouse had begun to give up drinking and reportedly endured a period of abstinence just prior to her death. But in the end, the bender of late July shocked her system which had begun to clean itself out. The only surprise to come out of the coroner’s report was that Winehouse had no trace of illegal drugs in her blood, just a hint of a prescription drug which helped to reduce the side effects of alcohol withdrawal.

“Misadventure” strikes me as a foolish and misleading attribution of her death since it implies one-time recklessness. Even if Winehouse was on the mend, her death was the result of many years of a painful, powerful and self-destructive addiction.

Brits put polite spin on Amy Winehouse death, citing ‘misadventure’ Read More »

I believe pain and anger may offer opportunities for growth

Leave a Comment / Ani Ma'amin, Is Featured?, Judaism, News /

I was 10 years old. My father left us and moved to the United States from Winnipeg, leaving my mother, my 6-year-old sister and me destitute. After spending a bitter Canadian winter and spring with friends, we moved into my mother’s parents’ home in Minneapolis.

I was bitter and angry, yet unable to verbalize my feelings. I had “lost” a father without explanation; my mother went to work — I later found out for $12 a week, 12 hours a day. I lashed out at my mother, even chasing her with a butcher knife at one point.

Luckily, my grandfather was a great influence on me. Once, late at night, he took me with him to a small property he owned. His tenants were not paying their rent, but I watched as he left food at their doors so they would not know who’d brought it. I learned through his actions. I came to appreciate what he stood for and what my mother was going through. Only when I returned from the Army, years later, did she tell me that my father was an embezzler who escaped prison by leaving for the United States. She and her father became great role models. I learned that people can change and work through the worst of times and feelings. That led me to believe that everyone, under the proper circumstances, can be helped through the pain of disappointment, rejection, loss of material assets, and the like.

I Believe Group Experiences and Sensitive Adults Can Shape Our Values.

I attended the Talmud Torah and became involved in various youth groups over the years at the JCC. Many adults guided me through those years until I left for the Army.

I had begun university before Army service and returned to my studies, where I was further shaped by some remarkable mentors. They ranged from an Orthodox Hillel rabbi to faculty and field instructors in the school of social work. I learned to accept differences while still continuing the great Jewish learning adventure first lived by my grandfather. My greatest gift was meeting my future wife, Ruby, on a blind date at Hillel and being married before I began graduate school. In school, I was exposed to powerful figures who further contributed to my growth as a human being. My lifelong professional mentor was an assimilated German Jew who had fought in the underground. Our schoolmates included former Luftwaffe pilots, Dutch pacifists, U.S. veterans and others. We learned about conflict resolution, confronting the past, fighting ideological battles and being civil. When Ruby and I moved to Oakland, I first met another influential shaper of my values and world outlook, Rabbi Harold Schulweis, who became our rabbi and whom I continue to learn from today. These people and teachings became the foundation for my life.

I Believe in Hope.

A dear friend, Rabbi Hugo Gryn (z”l), was in Auschwitz with his father. In December 1944, when he was 14, they somehow got hold of a pound of margarine, and Hugo’s father somehow found some wood and proceeded to make a Chanukiyah. Each night Hugo lit margarine “candles.” At the end of Chanukah, Hugo asked his dad why he had chosen to do this, given the things they could have used the margarine to barter for in Auschwitz. His father responded, “Hugo, we have learned that we can live 10 days with a little water and a bit of food. We cannot live one day without hope.”

Think of all the opportunities we have to celebrate and intensify our Jewishness. How can we ever have other than hope for the creative, energetic, purposeful future for Jewish life today and the tomorrows to come?

This essay continues our Ani Ma’amin series begun in our Rosh Hashanah issue. We want to hear your stories. For information on how to contribute, go to jewishjournal.com/ani_maamin.

I believe pain and anger may offer opportunities for growth Read More »

Obituaries: Oct. 28-Nov. 3, 2011

Leave a Comment / Obituaries /

Esther Irene Alexander died Oct. 4 at 103. Survived by daughter Marsha (Allan) Muller; 1 grandchild; sister Sylvia Broday. Hillside

Fay Amster died Oct. 11 at 91. Survived by daughters Linda (Jack) Goldman, Arlene Saretsky; 3 grandchildren. Mount Sinai

Sheila Rose Amsterdam died Oct. 11 at 84. Survived by husband David; daughters Fiona (Tommy) Steele, Lisa (Matthew) Friedman; son Joel (Amy); 9 grandchildren. Mount Sinai

Judith Ann Arnold died Oct. 10 at 68. Survived by husband Myron; son Brian (Naomi); 1 grandchild; sister Sandra (Arthur) Skop. Mount Sinai

Martin Baer died Oct. 11 at 80. Survived by companion Mary Levy; son Alan.

Yetta Bates died Oct. 15 at 98. Survived by daughter Marlene Berman; 2 grandchildren; 5 great-grandchildren. Hillside

Edward Norman Blair died Oct. 11 at 65. Survived by wife Lucille; daughters Xenia Bianca, Bonnie Maria (Eric) Mauilleron; 2 grandchildren. Hillside

Elaine Breslow died Oct. 11 at 65. Survived by husband Warren; son Jamie; 3 grandchildren; sister Barbara (Ron) Lerner. Hillside

Virginia Conae died Sept. 30 at 93. Survived by daughters Shirley (Mark) Wold, Madeline Gordon; son Martin; 8 grandchildren; 12 great-grandchildren. Hillside

Margaret Danies died Sept. 23 at 97. Survived by daughters Eileen (Joel) Yager, Emily; 4 grandchildren; 1 great-grandchild. Malinow and Silverman

Renee Diamond died Oct. 10 at 80. Survived by husband Arthur; daughter Stefanie; son David (Amy); 5 grandchildren.  Mount Sinai

Howard Deutsch died Sept. 22 at 93. Survived by wife Grace; stepdaughter Diane (Steve) Siegel; stepson Kenneth (Evelyn) Hausman; 3 grandchildren. Malinow and Silverman

Martin Feldman died Oct. 13 at 81. Survived by daughter Wendy (David) Perlmutter; son Alan (Barbara); 3 grandchildren. Hillside

Herman Fleisher died Oct. 10 at 90. Survived by daughters Debra (Michael) Buter, Judy Levy;  2 grandchildren; 1 great-grandchild. Hillside

Eugene Foxman died Oct. 11 at 86. Survived by wife Judith; daughters Sarah (Tim) Pattison, Alice (Burton) Cusner, Sophie (Devin) Cutler; sons Ernest, Alan (Irene) Magat, Eric (Cindy) Scott, Dana (Cheriel) Magat; 20 grandchildren; 5 great-grandchildren. Mount Sinai

Phyllis Friedel died Sept. 19 at 82. Survived by daughters Randi Sherman, Lynn Gellman; 4 granchildren. Malinow and Silverman

Beatrice Gersh died Oct. 9 at 87. Survived by sons Robert (Linda), David (Susan); 5 grandchildren; brothers Leon, Charles Aberle.  Hillside

Josephine Hortense Gorman died Oct. 8 at 91. Survived by son Robert (Beth) Owens; 2 grandchildren; sister Rochelle Lowenfeld. Hillside

Rose Green died Oct. 10 at 84. Survived by daughter Deborah (Ross Redding) Steinberg; sons Stephen (Leinaal) Kineret, Mitch Reed Steinberg; 6 grandchildren. Hillside

Bella Greenberg died Oct. 12 at 93. Survived by husband Seymour; daughter Sandra (Ric) Royce; son Lawrence (Arlene); 6 grandchildren; 14 great-grandchildren. Hillside

Sylvia Greenberg died Sept. 24 at 89. Survived by husband Nathan; daughter Linda Miller; son Steven (Roberta); 2 grandchildren. Malinow and Silverman

Sylvia Greenberg died Oct. 13 at 97. Survived by sister Caryn Manabach. Mount Sinai

Gladyce Karlin died Sept. 29 at 91. Survived by sons Andrew, Robert, Peter; 4 grandchildren.  Malinow and Silverman

Gerry Katz died Oct. 5 at 96. Survived by daughter Sandy (Stan) Melnick; son Brian (Karen) Franklin; 6 grandchildren. Hillside

Bruce Klein died Oct. 10 at 47. Survived by wife Laura; daughter Samantha; sister Karen (Ira) Chazan. Malinow and Silverman

Monte Krimston died Aug. 20 at 77. Survived by wife Fran; daughter Joan (David Korduner); son Josh (Celine); 5 grandchildren. Hillside

Ruven Kurtz died Oct. 13 at 65. Survived by daughter Limore; son Amir (Jenn); 3 grandchildren; sister Ahuva (David) Erez. Mount Sinai

Frederick Levine died Oct. 6 at 84. Survived by wife Helen; daughters Julie (Mark) Wasserman, Lori (Mark) Wyman; 2 grandchildren. Mount Sinai

Anina Louis died Oct. 4 at 62. Survived by motHer Rochelle; father Manuel; brother Craig. Malinow and Silverman 

Elizabeth Meyers died Oct. 9 at 100. Survived by nephew Leon Metz. Mount Sinai

Joel Miller died Oct. 5 at 61. Survived by sister Ronnie Gerstein.

Paul R. Miller died Sept. 14 at 82. Survived by son Steven; sister Diane J. Sweet. Riverside National Cemetery

Leonard Pill died Oct. 4 at 91. Survived by wife Marceline; daughters Andria (Louis) Senini, Deborah Taggart; son Robert (Trisha). Hillside

Roselyn Poe died Oct. 8 at 85. Survived by sister Frances Linsk. Malinow and Silverman

Sylvia R. Radiloff died Oct. 10 at 86. Survived by daughter Nancy (Daniele) Capisani; son Steven (Milla); 4 grandchildren; sister Loretta Berker. Mount Sinai

Jacqueline Resnick died Sept. 26 at 78. Survived by daughter Pamela Rosenthal; 1 grandchild.  Hillside

Dan Ross died Sept. 26 at 94. Survived by daughter Carol (Robert) Edmonston; son Steven (Mariane); 1 grandchild.  Hillside

Lina Rouss died Sept. 28 at 91. Survived by daughter Ellen; sons Jeff (Sylvia), Larry (Debbie; 9 grandchildren; 5 great-grandchildren. Hillside

Rose Rudis died Oct. 12 at 92. Survived by daughter Esther; sons Alfred (Ruth), David (Pauline); 5 grandchildren; 4 great-grandchildren.  Mount Sinai

Beverly Ryan died Oct. 6 at 79. Survived by daughters Ruth (Michael) Weintraub, Claire (Sandy) Warshaw, Kathryn Hicklin, Deborah Lipson; 7 grandchildren; 1 great-grandchild; sister Patricia (Dwayne) Hough; brother Ronald (Grace) Hendrick. Mount Sinai

Morrie Sage Schrage died Oct. 7 at 80. Survived by sons Lenny (Tema), Joe (Kimberly), Mike (Cathi); 8 grandchildren; sister Helen. Mount Sinai

Ruth Schreiber died Sept. 25 at 88. Survived by daughters Lori (Evan) Klase, Nancy (Steve) Marcus; 4 grandchildren; 3 great-grandchildren. Malinow and Silverman

Leonard H. Stein died Oct. 11 at 77. Survived by son Jason (Keri); 2 grandchildren. Mount Sinai

Marilyn Sternfeld died Oct. 2 at 82. Survived by daughters Ruth (Martin) Knapp, Sharon (David); sons Jeffrey (Janice), Thomas (Barbara), Paul; 9 grandchildren.  Hillside

Shirley Strozenberg died Oct. 13 at 103. Survived by daughter Helen; son Abraham.

Minnette Talpis died Oct. 14 at 91. Survived by daughter Marcie (Mark) Feldman; 2 grandchildren. Mount Sinai

Obituaries: Oct. 28-Nov. 3, 2011 Read More »

Magician Max Maven Reads My Mind [VIDEO]

Leave a Comment / Culture, News /

I’m sitting across from Max Maven at a tiny table in the parlor at the Magic Castle, and Maven – a legend in the magic world – is reading my mind.  I’m staring at his third eye as he’s preparing to intuit exactly what I’ve drawn on a card tucked into a tiny envelope, sealed with tape and hidden inside a purse. 

“I generally don’t use the word, ‘mentalist,’ to describe myself,” he had told me earlier in our conversation in advance of his one man-show, “Max Maven Thinking in Person:  An Evening of Knowing and Not Knowing,” which will take place at the Cerritos Center for the Performing Arts on Oct. 28.  “If pushed, I’ll say that I’m a theatrical mind reader.  Often I will define myself as an artist who uses mystery as his medium.”

I experienced a sample of that mystery as Maven, donned in his signature goatee, all-black attire and a widow’s peak carved far into his forehead – instructed me to draw a picture on the back of a card (he wasn’t looking, having turned his back), which was, in turn, taped shut and placed in one of three purses that I mixed about on the table. 

After eight minutes and sundry dramatic flourishes, Maven brandished a purple marker and, with broad strokes, sketched the exact image that I had drawn: a sailboat floating above a “sea” depicted by three wavy lines.  “Deep waters,” he intoned, in a mellifluous baritone.

The routine is only a glimpse of the spectacle Maven presents onstage; his show is “a magic act woven into slivers of metaphysics,” the L.A. Weekly said; a “category defying mind-reading show that veers into conceptual art,” as The New York Times put it.

In “Thinking in Person,” Maven veers from haughty to self-deprecating to formidably erudite, exhibiting a lacerating – some have said, “serpent-like”—wit.  His persona makes him appear larger than life, even though in his own words, “I’m not a tall man.”  The show features ESP card tricks, drawings guessed even after Maven has been blindfolded with his eyes taped shut; Maven has even been known to guess the serial number of a dollar bill presented by the audience.

“I do what you loosely refer to as mind readings, and I also do the reverse:  what I sometimes refer to as mind-writing, in which I steer a person’s behavior in ways they initially may not realize,” Maven told me of his show.  “But intermixed, I do monologues, talking about people and historical moments that have had some impact on me.”  He’ll demonstrate the stylized poses of Kabuki theater; refer to critic Alexander Woollcott of the Algonquin Round Table, or the Hungarian mathematician Paul Erdos.  “Things that seem very far apart gradually fit together in a way that suddenly makes sense—and that’s another example of how the show attempts to make people look at things in a slightly different way.”

Can Maven actually read minds?  “I sometimes liken my work to professional wrestling,” he said. “The audience knows some of it is real, some is fake, and they’re not entirely sure where to put the mark.  What I’m doing is, [similarly] somewhere in the middle.

“I don’t claim any psychic abilities; to me, the word, ‘psychic’ is one step from claiming that aliens secretly control the government,” he said.  “On the other hand, if I were to say that everything I do is a magic trick in the sense of slight of hand, or mirrors, or whatever else you associate with the term, that wouldn’t be accurate, either. I build upon psychological principles and a lot of experience with people, and it’s all theatrically embellished.  At a given moment, my work might involve the use of nonverbal cues in both directions, plus some psychological management and maybe a sneaky bit or two ….It’s pretty busy in here when I’m working,” he said, tapping his head. 

CAMERA WORK AND EDITING BY JAY FIRESTONE, WEB AND MULTI-MEDIA DIRECTOR

Now in his early 60s, Maven has been performing at the Magic Castle since 1977; walking with him through its ornate, Victorian-style halls, he paused by posters of Chung Ling Soo – actually an American from Scotland who performed in in the guise of a Chinese magician in the early 20th century.  In 1910, Chung Ling Soo was one of five or six headliners among 31 magicians working variety clubs in London – all the others were Jewish.

Maven discovered this arcane fact while researching a lecture on Jews in magic he gave at the Skirball as an auxiliary program of its “Houdini” exhibition; some 30 percent of artists in the field between 1900-2000 were Jewish, he approximated.  “The reason that magic has drawn Jews in particular is that it is such an intellectual style of show business,” Maven told me.  “If you examine the noteworthy names, there are concepts involved; it’s not just about the flashy spectacle.  With very few exceptions, Jewish magicians are talking magicians.  There are styles of magic where the performer doesn’t talk at all – they’re called dumb acts.  Some of the greatest magicians of all time chose that form, but the number of Jews who have chosen silence is relatively small.”

Maven himself (born Philip Goldstein, which he describes as “the Jewish equivalent of John Smith”) grew up in a Jewish home filled with books and with people who read them.  His mother studied Chinese art; his father, an astrophysicist, taught at Brandeis University and was treated “like royalty” by relatives who revered him for his advanced degrees.

Older relatives taught Maven his first card tricks when he was 7; the boy was hooked.  “One of the prevalent reasons that children get into magic is that it’s a coping mechanism,” he said.  “My family lived in a particular suburb of Boston that was almost entirely WASP; all the other kids went to Sunday school, but I didn’t.  I was this sort of strange, relatively swarthy little runt who didn’t quite fit in.

“If a child is bullied, and suddenly you can make a quarter disappear and the other kids are baffled, suddenly you have leverage, and the power imbalance shifts,” he said.  “Of course, people who continue on in magic realize that it’s much more than power or leverage; it’s an art form that has as much depth as any other art form.”

Maven devoured books and magazines on all forms of magic and although he floundered for a while and was rather “vagabondish,” as a young adult, in the 1970s, he decided to turn his love for the field into a career.  “It occurred to me that if my work was exploring fantasy, mystery, strange things, in a sense exploring dreams, then I ought to start with my own,” he explained of developing his “look.” “From an early age, I had been upset that I wasn’t born with a widow’s peak; Peter Cushing had one and I didn’t.”  Maven convinced a hairdresser to shave one into his hairline:  “When I think back on how radical my appearance was at that time, it’s a wonder that I wasn’t beaten to a pulp,” he said.

He chose the stage name, Max Maven, in part, because “maven” means “expert” in Yiddish, but can also refer, sarcastically, to a know-it-all. 

Shifting back to the present, the magician emphasized that while he is now known as a mind reader, he does not call himself a mentalist—despite the term’s new popularity since the premiere of the CBS hit, “The Mentalist,” starring Simon Baker. 

Maven also answered the question, “Is everyone’s mind readable?”  “I can usually work with just about anyone,” he said, “although it’s a bit tough when you’ve got a drunk:  Because they’re not organized, they’re not predictable.  I’ve also had situations where someone doesn’t want me to succeed; sometimes I can handle that …by using their contrary attitude as part of my method.”

In his show, Maven tells a story about a critic who complained to Picasso that his canvases weren’t realistic.  The critic showed Picasso a photograph of his wife as an example of realism:  This is precisely, exactly what she looks like,” the critic said, to which Picasso observed, “She’s very small.” 

Maven hopes to open viewers’ eyes to mysteries of all shapes and sizes.  “You can live a life without mystery, but I don’t think it’s a life worth living,” he said.

For tickets to “Max Maven Thinking in Person:  An Evening of Knowing and Not Knowing,” call (562) 467-8818 or visit www.cerritoscenter.com.  The show is not suitable for children younger than 12.  Below are excerpts from his show:

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JDate study claims more Jewish marriage matches than its competitors

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The Jewish dating Web site JDate recently announced results from a study that claims the site is responsible for facilitating more Jewish marriages than all other dating Web sites combined. The study, commissioned in-house by JDate’s parent company, Spark Networks, and conducted by the research company ResearchNow, reportedly was based on a survey of 948 Jewish Internet users who have married since 2003. Of those surveyed, 52 percent said they met their match on JDate, compared with Match.com, which facilitated 17 percent, and eHarmony, which can claim 10 percent.

Spark Networks released the results of the study on a single-page press release that contained several added statistics to support its claims, but did not provide any additional supporting materials, including how the participants were selected and specific details on what questions were asked. Requests to obtain the full study were denied by Spark Networks and by ResearchNow, which operates under terms of strict confidentiality.

Steven M. Cohen, a research professor of Jewish social policy for Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion and the director of the Berman Jewish Policy Archive at NYU Wagner, said that while the results of the study may be credible, they are not verifiable.

“The recently conducted study, while promising, doesn’t provide enough of the critical details that we need to assess the validity of its claims,” Cohen said during a phone interview. “It’s like getting an untested product from an unknown manufacturer — it may be a good product, but there could be serious flaws.”

In addition to claiming credit for the majority of Jewish marriages facilitated online, the study also notably claims that 63 percent of all Jewish dates since 2008 were fostered by JDate (up 6 percent since 2003), compared with Match.com’s 19 percent and eHarmony’s 7 percent; that 76 percent of those Jews who used an online dating service used JDate; and more than half the Jews who have married since 2008 report having used an online dating site in their search for a partner.

If true, those are the kinds of claims that JDate, which bills itself as “the premier Jewish singles community online,” should be proud to publicize. So why is the company refusing to disclose the full results of the study?

Cohen wondered whether JDate’s parent company fears subjecting the study to the academic community’s scientific standards. But he also said that it is not unusual for a commercial enterprise to conduct its own research and use select claims in their advertising. “The behavior is not the most admirable, but it is not illegal or unethical,” Cohen said.

Cohen said he sees value in the company regardless of the results, saying that the very existence of JDate promotes Jewish marriage at a time when more and more Jews are marrying later — or maybe not at all — or, alternatively, intermarrying. “Right now we are seeing significant adverse demographic consequences of nonmarriage and intermarriage for the Jewish population in America,” he said. “And JDate promises to promote marriage and probably in-marrying,” and that as long “as we can promote marriage and in-marriage, we can promote the stability, if not the expansion of, the Jewish population in the coming generations.”

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Gadhafi and the Jews

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Now it can be told: For the last decade or so, the Jews had secret back channels to Muammar Gadhafi.

What led the pro-Israel community into a careful relationship with Gadhafi 10 years ago were considerations of U.S. national interests, Israel’s security needs and the claims of Libyan Jews.

After his overthrow by Libyan rebels and his killing last week, the conclusion among many pro-Israel figures in America is that it was worth it, despite the Libyan strongman’s erratic behavior and his ignoble downfall.

The reason: Gadhafi’s shift away from state terrorism after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks eliminated a funder and organizer of threats to Israeli and U.S. interests.

Gadhafi’s overtures to the pro-Israel community began in 2002, when a leader of the Libyan Jewish community in exile, David Gerbi, returned to Libya to bring an elderly aunt to Italy, where he and his family now live. His aunt, Rina Debach, is believed to be the last Jew to have lived in Libya.

Through interlocutors, Gerbi said, “Gadhafi asked me if I could help to normalize the relationship between Libya and the United States.”

Gadhafi’s motives were clear, according to Gerbi: Saddam Hussein was in the U.S. sights at the time, and Gadhafi, who already was tentatively reaching out to the West through Britain, did not want to be next on the list.

Gadhafi agreed to end his nascent weapons of mass destruction programs and to a payout in the billions of dollars to families of victims of the terrorist attack that brought down a Pan Am flight over Lockerbie, Scotland, in 1988.

Gerbi, who still hopes to re-establish a Jewish presence in Libya, immediately launched a tour of the United States in hopes of rallying support for bringing Libya into the pro-Western fold. He met with pro-Israel groups and lawmakers.

“There were extensive discussions about what would be appropriate and not appropriate,” recalled Malcolm Hoenlein, the executive vice president of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, the Jewish community’s foreign policy umbrella group. In the end, “We didn’t want to stand in the way of Libyan Jews having the opportunity to visit.”

Especially notable was the fervor with which the late U.S. Rep. Tom Lantos (D-Calif.), a Holocaust survivor who then was the senior Democrat on the House of Representatives Foreign Affairs Committee, embraced the cause. Lantos, with the blessing of a George W. Bush administration seeking to contain radical Islamist influence, visited Libya five times.

“I am rational enough to recognize that we must accept ‘yes’ for an answer,” Lantos told the Forward newspaper in 2004 following his first visit. “Gadhafi’s record speaks for itself — it’s an abominable record — but the current actions also speak for themselves. He has now made a 180-degree turn.”

Steve Rosen, now a consultant to a number of groups on Middle East issues, was at the time the director of foreign policy for AIPAC. He said the pro-Israel community decided not to stand in the way of U.S. rapprochement with Libya because of the relief it would offer Israel.

Rosen and Alan Makovsky, a staffer for Lantos, were surprised when, around 2002 — the same time that Gerbi was making the case for Libya in New York and Washington — Gadhafi’s son Seif al-Islam sought them out at a conference on the Middle East in England.

“He kept finding ways to bring us into the dialogue,” Rosen recalled. “He considered us influential in Washington, because we were pro-Israel.”

Rosen took the younger Gadhafi’s case to the Israelis, who gave AIPAC a green light not to oppose Libya’s overtures — but they also counseled caution.

“Most of them raised an eyebrow, saying you can’t trust Gadhafi, but the idea of a rogue state becoming moderate appealed to them,” Rosen said.

That view seemingly was vindicated when Libya destroyed its weapons of mass destruction under U.S. supervision.

“Israel and its friends are nothing if not pragmatic,” Rosen said. “There are no permanent friends and no permanent enemies.”

AIPAC would not comment on the affair. Keith Weissman, Rosen’s deputy at the time, confirmed the account, recalling his own trip to England, at Seif al-Islam Gadhafi’s invitation, in 2003.

“The Israelis liked it, because there was one less guy with a lot of money to spend on bad things,” Weissman said.

Congress removed Libya from the 1990s Iran-Libya sanctions act, and Western oil companies returned to the country.

Most Jewish groups chose not to respond to invitations to visit Libya, noting that while Gadhafi had removed himself as a threat to others, he was still dangerous to his own people.

“Nobody was fooled, everybody knew what Gadhafi was,” said Hoenlein, who, like Rosen, had turned down invitations to visit Libya.

However, Gadhafi’s promises of restitution to Libya’s Jewish exiles — driven out two years before he took power in 1969 — came to naught.

Gerbi, a psychologist invited to Libya in 2007 to assist in Libyan hospitals, suddenly was thrown out of the country, and the items and money he had brought to refurbish synagogues was confiscated.

Much hope now rests on the provisional government that has replaced Gadhafi. Gerbi advocates caution. At the revolutionaries’ invitation, since May he has spent weeks on and off in Libya assisting its people overcome post-traumatic stress.

Yet at Rosh Hashanah, when Gerbi attempted to reopen a shuttered, neglected synagogue in Tripoli, he was met with a virulently anti-Semitic Facebook-organized campaign. Protesters outside the synagogue held up signs proclaiming what Gadhafi had once promised: no Jews in Libya.

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“Friends” co-creator Marta Kaufman closes in on a comeback with big ABC deal

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It pays to have friends, as Marta Kaufman, co-creator of NBC’s decade-long mega-hit “Friends” can attest – especially if their last names are Silverman and Spielberg.

After a long hiatus from high profile success, Kaufman may be close to getting back on top. According to Deadline.com’s Nellie Andreeva, Kaufman got a whopping 7-figure commitment to develop two projects for ABC; Red Band Society, a hospital drama, and The Avalon, a musical show set at a cabaret. Steven Spielberg reportedly liked the concept for Red Band Society because Dreamworks TV signed on to co-executive produce. And Ben Silverman, CEO of Electus and producer of “The Office” is co-executive producing The Avalon, which is based on a popular Asian format, The Kitchen Musical. Andreeva wrote that it is being described as “a ménage à trois of sensual food, sexy performances, and adult drama” and that “the setting is reminiscent of the Moulin Rouge.”

This news represents a big change for Kaufman, who has privately struggled with what to do next. After the immense success of “Friends” Kaufman worried she couldn’t replicate that the scale of that achievement. In an interview in 2009, she described the transition as a kind of identity crisis that led her to channel her passion into more personal projects. “[Y]ou don’t know, when you’re going to change your identity, if it’s going to work,” she told me. But in reality, changing her career identity meant digging in deeper to her Jewish identity. She partnered with filmmaker Roberta Grossman to produce a series of Jewish-themed documentaries. The first, “Blessed is the Match: The Life and Death of Hannah Senesh” was about the WWII resistance fighter who was tortured and killed after a failed mission to rescue Hungarian Jews from death camps; next, came “Hava Nagila: What is it?” about the classic Jewish ditty and its complex history (the movie is currently in post-production and has not yet been released). 

The high-profile ABC projects and the prestigious partnerships involved sound promising, plus, Kaufman will return to her roots as a scribe since she is working on scripts for both. But of course, without a completed pilot, Kaufman is a long way from knowing whether either of these projects will re-invigorate what was once an enviable career.

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Paideia Conference Considers Jews in a Multicultural World

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Recently, I attended a three-day conference celebrating the 10th anniversary of Paideia, the European Institute for Jewish Studies in Sweden. The brainchild of Barbara Spectre, an American-Israeli-Swedish philosopher who has led the program since its inception, Paideia brings together young Jews for a year of intensive study. Imagine in an American context a Wexner Jewish Heritage Program leadership retreat that is sustained for 10 intensive months. By now, Paideia has several hundred alumni working, living and creating throughout Europe. They were returning to learn, celebrate and renew.

Paideia’s origins are an act of penance by the Swedish government, which chose to apologize for the ignominy of its wartime predecessor’s involvement in Nazi gold by contributing to the Jewish future.

A word of history: Postwar Sweden’s national myth held that Sweden was neutral during the war, not taking sides. Actually, its neutrality, like that of

Spain and Switzerland, was determined by the Germans to serve their own needs. Germany had had the power to conquer each country but chose not to. Switzerland provided Germany with vital access to foreign currency; Spain was essential for information and Sweden for trade. Throughout the war, Sweden profited handsomely from its relationship to Nazi Germany; late in the war, it understood that it had to position itself for the postwar world and an all-but-certain German defeat, hence the mission of Raoul Wallenberg, who, operating under cover as a Swedish diplomat, worked for the American War Refugee Board to rescue Hungarian Jews.

In the late 1990s, Sweden was implicated in the trail of Nazi gold, and, recognizing the shame of its record, it chose a creative response: In a very public act, it gave a $10 million grant to advance Jewish studies in Sweden. Spectre, a charismatic and brilliant American-trained philosopher who had lived her adult life in Israel and came to Sweden only when her husband, Philip, was chosen in 1999 as Chief Rabbi of Sweden, was asked to direct the program. She established a training center for young adults, primarily from the lands of the former communist countries — some reclaiming their Jewish roots; some newly discovering their Jewish origins, however distant and faint, and exploring their options in depth; while others are non-Jews interested in Jewish culture and Jewish life.

Students spend a year in Stockholm, where they are taught the classical texts of Judaism, Jewish history and Jewish culture, living in intense dialogue with one another and with their very distinguished faculty from Israel and Europe. It is a rigorous academic program but not purely academic in its intent. It aims to enrich the mind and transform the soul. Learning is for learning’s sake, but also in service of a newly acquired or newly deepened Jewish identity. In recent years, with the participation of international organizations such as Lynn Schusterman’s ROI Community, Pears Foundation JHub of London, and Shawn Landres and Joshua Avedon and their Los Angeles-based think tank Jumpstart, the Paideia project incubator trains its own graduates and other emerging European innovators to la to launch and grow new projects in their home countries that can be instrumental in reinvigorating Jewish lives.

The effect of this program is to magnify the impact of Paideia’s impressive students. Unfailingly intelligent, they are also courteous and curious, willing to engage text and ideas, confident in their skills and their rootedness in their countries of origin, but willing to move creatively and imaginatively from those roots in many other directions.

American Jews who encounter this program and its students must rethink our all too conventional opinions about European Jewry. Time and again, we hear that Jews in Europe had such a glorious past and such a tragic end but are doomed to be without a future. Anti-Semitism, now at best only slightly masked as anti-Zionism, makes their situation ever more precarious.

Yet Paideia’s students are neither on a suicide mission, nor are they without the option of assimilation and successful participation in European life and culture. They have chosen to embrace their Jewish identity, not to enhance it and flee to a haven elsewhere in Israel or the United States, but to remain in diverse parts of Europe, where they will make much of it.

It is too early to determine the magnitude of the process that is taking place, but not too early to name it: Dis-assimilation — the deliberate decision to turn one’s back on the process of assimilation and to reclaim oneself, reimagine oneself as a Jew.

They are not primarily exploring religious options — few are attracted to Chabad, which offers them a prescriptive Jewish religious life that negates their own cultural identity and a Chabad rabbi who is where he is because he has assured the powers at 770 headquarters that he will remain unchanged by the world he encounters. Rather, their direction of return is cultural, historical and intellectual. They will find new ways of engaging the religious traditions of the Jewish people, and it will not be imposed from without, but created from within, indigenously and imaginatively, as serious Jews exploring all dimensions of Jewish life.

Each morning, the conference began with a beit midrash in which Paideia students and alumni examined classical texts, much as students might do in any traditional setting, yet the conversation was anything but Orthodox, and Jewish ideas had to compete in the marketplace of world literature and philosophy as well as in the experience of this 20-something generation. The day was marked with lectures and workshops by some leading European, Israeli and American intellectuals — Jews and non-Jews — and by probing responses by Paideia’s alumni and students.

The keynote address that launched the conference was presented by Israeli philosopher Moshe Halbertal, a Hebrew University professor and chair of Paideia’s Academic Council — of which I, too, am a member — and whose spirit, together with Spectre’s, shapes the entire program. His topic was the theme of the conference: Jews in a Multicultural Europe.

The question he raised is perhaps the most urgent of our generation: How do we live with the other? This is a question quite critical to Europe but also central to Jewish life in Israel and the United States. He offered four options, each rooted in Western tradition, contrasting a tolerant society, an open society, a pluralistic society and a multicultural society.

John Locke offered us a vision of a tolerant society; confident of the truth he held, Locke insisted that others have the right to be mistaken. Locke offered a pragmatic argument against religious coercion. If the church’s – synagogue or mosque – aim is to save the other, to convince the other of the veracity of one’s own faith position, dialogue is essential to bring the other to one’s own point of view: conversion by persuasion.

Contrast that with John Stuart Mill, who wrote not of a tolerant society, but of an open society, where multiple points of view are acceptable because none of us has a monopoly on truth. In the clash, in the dialogue, in the engagement between multiple points of view, society advances closer to the truth.

Isaiah Berlin, the great British Jewish philosopher, spoke not of a tolerant society or an open society but of a pluralistic society, in which we encounter different forms of life, different forms of society, different standards and different norms. Because human life is by its nature finite, no single life can encompass all good. Berlin rejected the very notion of a unified scale of truth.

Still, pluralism is distinct from relativism; relativism holds no values, while pluralism embraces a multiplicity of values, each with a validity of its own.  How does one live with the other? Pluralists must be willing to tolerate those cultures that are willing to give the same space to others that they expect others to give to them.

In contrast to all of these, multicultural societies experience different cultures standing side by side. Affirming the value of the other, they support them and allow them to flourish.

The existence of the other impacts my own form of life. Halbertal said:  “I have to explain myself and understand myself in the light of the other.” The presence of the other enriches our own lives just by being the other.

Jewish philosopher that he is, Halbertal was most powerful and most original when he spoke of the theological dimension of multiculturalism.

Conventionally understood, monotheism insists on the oneness of God — one truth, one understanding: “You shall have no other gods beside Me.” This is, Halbertal argued, “a firm, jealous, ungenerous form of monotheism” if it is not balanced by another of the Ten Commandments.

“You shall not make a graven image …” God is not only unique. God is also transcendent. No body can fully capture the transcendent God in a single system. God cannot be concretized, and thus all believers must also have a sense of their own theological humility. We know only so much; much more remains unknown and unknowable.

The deepest function of worshiping one God, of worshipping the same God, Halbertal argued, “is to relativize the absolute claims. The opposite is the case with the religions of our time, which absolutize relative claims.” In the Middle East — and elsewhere — the very notion of the sacred transforms a political conflict into a religious one, and, when it does, claims become absolutized, and compromise impossible.

In a true multicultural society, there are different cultures standing side by side, affirming the value of the other. Unlike the tolerant society, because they affirm the value of the other, they are not just going to tolerate it as a practical, tactical step, but they will celebrate the other, for the other reinforces the sense of self and expands the possibility of what the self can become.

Clearly, Halbertal was offering young Jews an honored place in the newly emergent Europe, just as he was offering Jews in his own country another way of understanding how a Jewish state can aspire to embrace and to celebrate the diversity of its own citizens. He also offered us, American Jews who have moved beyond the melting pot, another way of understanding our culture in a globalized world.

Michael Berenbaum is professor of Jewish studies and director of the Sigi Ziering Center for the Study of the Holocaust and Ethics at American Jewish University.

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