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Jewish Journal

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November 10, 2011

Sherman gets a Democratic endorsement; Berman gets a Super-PAC (part 1)

Leave a Comment / California, Community, News /

It’s been an eventful week in the Berman-Sherman race.

With a San Fernando Valley group of Democratic activists voting on Nov. 7 to endorse Rep. Brad Sherman (D-Sherman Oaks), and, two days later, the Los Angeles Times uncovering the existence of a new “super PAC” created to support the candidacy of the other Democratic incumbent in the race, Rep. Howard Berman (D-Valley Village), you’d barely know that the election for the 30th congressional district isn’t until November 2012.

The endorsement of Sherman by the Democratic Party of the San Fernando Valley (DPSFV) raises two questions: Who is this group, and how much does their endorsement mean?

Sherman’s campaign manager, Parke Skelton, said it was “the most substantial endorsement” in the race so far—and that’s coming from the campaign that had Bill Clinton’s picture topping their list of early endorsers in August.

At the DPSFV meeting on Monday night, about 50 people voted in the secret ballot election, representing 27 local Democratic clubs, including Democrats for Israel. Sixty-two percent of those voting chose to endorse Sherman.

Berman, later, downplayed the result. “I think this is of minimal significance in terms of the election,” he told a reporter from the Studio City Patch. “Brad has lived with the group for many years.”

According to Eric Bauman, the vice chairman of the California Democratic Party and chair of Los Angeles’s Democratic Party, the group, which politicos refer to by its barely pronounceable acronym (just say Dip-Suv), is not the same as the Democratic Party. It is a coordinating body for 27 local Democratic clubs, and DPSFV’s endorsement of Sherman doesn’t necessarily indicate what the Democratic party itself will do at its convention in February 2012, Bauman said. But the group’s endorsement is, he said, “definitely important,” particularly in light of the very real possibility that the Democrats may not officially endorse either candidate at the convention.

“The party endorsement, in competitive races, is often very difficult,” Bauman said. “I believe that will be especially so in the race between Sherman and Berman because they both have relationships with the delegates and the other elected officials that are very deep.

“But one thing the DPSFV endorsement shows is that Brad’s work over the years with grassroots Democratic activists has had an important payoff,” Bauman added, “and that will certainly have an effect on the party’s endorsement.”

California Assemblyman Bob Blumenfield, who represents part of the San Fernando Valley, and who worked for Berman for years, spoke at the meeting on Monday on behalf of his former boss.

“From my perspective, it’s too bad,” Blumenfield said of the endorsement, but added that he wasn’t worried about Berman’s chances.

“There are tons of Democratic clubs that will be endorsing Congressman Berman,” Blumenfield said, noting that in his own experience, DPSFV’s having endorsed another Democrat in 2008 did not stop Blumenfield from winning that election.

“There’s a long history of [DPSFV] not endorsing the person who wins,” Blumenfield said.

Skelton, Sherman’s campaign manager, thought that Berman and his supporters were being disingenuous by downplaying the importance of DPSFV, and its choosing to endorse Sherman.

“If it’s of minimal significance,” Skelton said, “why is he [Berman] going down to beg for their endorsement?”

(More on the Berman-backing Super-PAC, the Valley-Israel Alliance, soon.)

Sherman gets a Democratic endorsement; Berman gets a Super-PAC (part 1) Read More »

Holocaust survivors’ 11th hour

Leave a Comment / Giving, Opinion, Susan Freudenheim /

Last week, everyone was scurrying around Zane Buzby’s small but serviceable office, high up in a rather creaky building in downtown Los Angeles. Right inside the door, one person packed tubes of arthritis creams, soaps, magnifying glasses and Star of David necklaces. Someone else carefully counted cash into envelopes. And yet another entered data into a computer.

Buzby, meanwhile, pulled out books from her vast archive to show me pictures of who this stuff will go to on her trip next month to Latvia and Lithuania, where she will personally hand out money, as well as a few small gifts, to more than 150 Holocaust survivors living in abject poverty. She’ll also bring goods for another 50 people in Belarus she won’t visit this time, but to whom her guide will deliver.

Since 2001, Buzby has been traveling at least once a year to Eastern Europe on a mission that has come to consume her life. Along the way, she co-founded, with Chic Wolk, the nonprofit Survivor Mitzvah Project, dedicated to providing direct aid to people who got through the horrors of the Shoah only to struggle throughout their lives, and who now find themselves living on pensions insufficient to take care of their basic needs. These are people who do not fit the Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany’s strict definitions of survivors, so they can’t get reparations money. But they are, nevertheless, Jews who suffered greatly under the Nazi occupation of their homes in Hungary, Belarus and other parts of the former Soviet Union. So when Buzby came across some of these survivors a decade ago, on a trip to visit her family’s ancestral cemetery, she began to give everything she could — from her own pocket.

Buzby was the subject of a Jewish Journal cover story four years ago, and I’ve been fascinated by her level of devotion to doing all that she can ever since. Given that this is our annual Giving issue, I sought her out to catch up on how her work is going. We met for lunch and she told me that on her trip, starting Dec. 25, she’ll visit as many survivors as she can in three weeks, traveling with a guide and a documentary filmmaker with whom she’s planning to create a movie. She was clearly frantic but extremely funny throughout our conversation — her passion for a very serious cause is softened by echoes of the comic writing, producing and acting that is her professional calling.

The enormity of her rescue effort is a bit daunting. “I started with eight, and that I could handle,” she said. “I could even handle 80. Now, it’s 1,500 people.” She writes personalized letters to each one she works with — starting with a form letter that describes her life, but adding a personal note to each. She tries to give as many of the 1,500 survivors as she can about $1,200 to $1,800 a year to supplement their incomes.

She started it all by handing out her own money, but now she’s got some donors, big and small, to help. It’s not enough, though: “Last year we raised the most ever, $334,000,” she said. “Still, it’s not enough to do everybody.”

Repeatedly, she talks about the joyfulness of the survivors, how, despite their living conditions, they are always grateful not only for her gifts, but what they have. “A goodly portion of these people have every reason to hate everyone,” Buzby said, “but they are the kindest, most hopeful people I’ve ever met. They never, ever talk about material things.”

Some have no plumbing, she said. Their response: “I’m not naked!”

One of their favorite gifts is the Jewish star necklace, because they’ve never had anything like it. Their Jewish identity remains strong, despite the fact that many have spent much of their lives under communist rule, unable to practice, or even reveal, their religion.

A book the project published collecting reproductions of the survivors’ personal letters tells some of their stories. “Before the war our parents were young, took an active part in social life, but we didn’t celebrate religious holidays,” a letter from two women, identified as Nina and Anna from Grodno, Belarus, wrote in 2005. “But I remember how our grandfather put on his striped tallis and prayed; how he treated us grandchildren with challah and I also remember the Pesach matzoh, not square as it is now, but in big rounds.”

Many of these people are in their 90s; the youngest is 72, Buzby said. They often have no family anywhere, because they lost them all in the Holocaust.

“I always feel like this is our last chance,” she told me about her upcoming trip. “Since I was there the last time, seven people have died.”

It’s a labor of love for one who used to spend her time on sets, not on overnight trains without plumbing or in hotels where the shower spits out dirt. Traveling to these countries isn’t easy, but Buzby regales with stories of her adventures.

What she needs now, though, is more money. “We are in the 11th hour with these people,” she said, “we can’t wait five years.” Her immediate goal is to raise $1.6 million a year. “If we could get that, we wouldn’t have to scramble every day. That would take care of the 1,500 we handle.” Then she added, “there are also thousands more out there to be discovered.”

Even a donated necklace can make a difference. “You can dramatically change someone’s life by a simple act of kindness,” Buzby said. An old Chanukah menorah. A letter. A $34 magnifying glass can allow someone to see. “So they know they haven’t been forgotten.”

As we finished talking, Buzby said one simple sentence that continues to haunt:

“I just want to give a different ending to the story of the Holocaust.”

To find out more about The Survivor Mitzvah Project, and how to donate, visit Holocaust survivors’ 11th hour Read More »

Occupy Obama

Leave a Comment / David Suissa, News, Opinion /

From the start, something has annoyed me about the Occupy Wall Street movement. I’m not sure why it’s taken me so long to put my finger on it. Maybe, like much of the country, I’ve been caught up in the spontaneous fervor and social ideals of the movement. There’s something about people taking to the streets to protest injustice that seduces democracy lovers like myself — especially when you throw in colorful tents, clever slogans and drum circles.

The reports of anti-Jewish and violent elements among the demonstrators have bothered me, of course, but these are on the fringes. My concerns are with the mainstream of the movement.

And it’s not the general ideology of the movement that bothers me. I may not share many of the protesters’ political views, but I love that they can express their views loudly and freely. Even if the movement is somewhat scattered, many of the protesters’ demands — such as reducing the influence that corporations wield in politics, and generating more and better jobs — are eminently reasonable.

So, what is it that annoys me so much about the movement?

I found the answer, it turns out, in my favorite progressive magazine, The Nation, in a commentary written last week by Bill Moyers. 

Moyers began his piece by harking back to the prairie revolt that swept the Great Plains in 1890, quoting a popular orator from that era, Mary Elizabeth Lease: “Wall Street owns the country. … Money rules. … Our laws are the output of a system which clothes rascals in robes and honesty in rags. The [political] parties lie to us and the political speakers mislead us.”

Moyers then came to the present: “She should see us now. John Boehner calls on the bankers, holds out his cup and offers them total obeisance from the House majority if only they fill it. Barack Obama criticizes bankers as ‘fat cats,’ then invites them to dine at a pricey New York restaurant where the tasting menu runs to $195 a person.”

Here’s the part that really got me: “The president has raised more money from employees of banks, hedge funds and private equity managers than any Republican candidate, including Mitt Romney. Inch by inch he has conceded ground to them while espousing populist rhetoric that his very actions betray.”

Yes, it is our very own “hope and change” president, Moyers reminded us, who has raised the most money from Wall Street, and whose actions have betrayed his populist rhetoric. You can attack greedy fat cats all you want, but at least they never promised us they’d become socially responsible skinny cats. Our president and many of our politicians, on the other hand, did promise us they’d take on those greedy fat cats and reform the system. That’s why we hired them.

The really guilty ones, in my view, are not the 1 percent “greedy class” who follow human nature, but the 1 percent political class who have the power to reform the system, but don’t.

This, then, is what annoys me about the Occupy Wall Street movement: It beats up the money class but ignores the political class — in particular, the leader of that class who is running our country. Remember, it was Obama himself who said, “I want you to hold me accountable,” and who promised, among other things, that “lobbyists won’t work in my White House.”

That promise didn’t last very long. According to a Nov. 15, 2008, report in The Washington Post: “Barack Obama campaigned on a pledge to change Washington, vowing to upend the K Street lobbying culture he encountered when he joined the U.S. Senate. But more than a dozen members of President-elect Obama’s fast-growing transition team have worked as federally registered lobbyists within the past four years.”

“Let’s name this for what it is,” Moyers writes, “hypocrisy made worse, the further perversion of democracy. Our politicians are little more than money launderers in the trafficking of power and policy — fewer than six degrees of separation from the spirit and tactics of Tony Soprano.”

And the primo power trafficker is our fundraiser-in-chief, President Obama, the one name glaringly missing from the protest movement sweeping the country.

Look, I understand all that anger toward greedy fat cats without a social conscience. But human greed has been around since Adam and Eve. It’s not going away. If you don’t regulate greedy bankers, they just go on being greedy bankers.

In their zeal to target those greedy big-business types who put profit ahead of social responsibility, the Occupy Wall Street movement has ignored the guiltiest target: those charming political types who buy our votes with cheap promises to fix the system and then head for the hills when the bill comes due.

The funny thing is, when progressives demonstrated against the Iraq War, they had no problem targeting President Bush. There were other guilty parties (like an easily fooled press and a greedy military-big oil lobby) but the protesters focused their venom on the person ultimately responsible, their president — a man we can assume most of them didn’t vote for.

Because we can assume most of today’s protesters voted for the man now in the White House, could that explain why they are so reluctant to target him and hold him accountable — because he’s “their man”?

Maybe their real anger comes from being fooled by a politician once again.

Occupy Obama Read More »

Poor sports

Leave a Comment / Opinion, Rob Eshman /

Eventually, there is one thing every aspiring American political writer must do: write a long feature story about how Jews are turning Republican.

Scroll back a decade or two through various election cycles, and there it always is, the portrait of a Jewish Republican moment, repackaged as original insight.

“As Jewish voters begin to realize that their continuing support of a Democratic party [is] increasingly dependent on interests hostile to them,” reads a Washington Times piece from November 1994, “yet another traditional Democratic group of voters could fall away …”

“Pundits believe that the Jewish vote is up for grabs,” a 2004 Boston Globe column states. “As the American Jewish community grows wealthier, more suburban, more deeply rooted in America, and more estranged from liberal critics of Israeli policy, Jewish voters — so the argument goes — are growing restless.”

The “Are Jews Turning Republican?” headline — it’s as traditional as Thanksgiving. And this year, the cornucopia came early. In the wake of former Rep. Anthony Weiner’s (D-N.Y.) oh-so-tasteful text messages, a usually Democratic Congressional seat was in play last September. The Democratic candidate lost to the Republican, and out popped a slew of exposés on how the Jewish American dissatisfaction with President Barack Obama’s policies vis-à-vis Israel has finally forced Jews to turn away from the party of Roosevelt and into the GOP.

New York Magazine, the Wall Street Journal, the Los Angeles Times, National Public Radio and The New York Times all weighed in. Jews make up 2 percent of the population, but apparently 80 percent of the news. 

“Republicans see a chance in 2012, with President Obama locked in a tense relationship with Israel’s leaders and criticized by many American Jews as being too tough on a close and favored ally,” the New York Times’ reporter wrote. “Tuesday’s Republican upset in New York’s Congressional election, they say, is a sign of bad things to come for Mr. Obama.”

Or, if every election since 1916 is any indication, maybe not. That’s the last time a Republican managed to get almost half the Jewish vote. 

The problem with the vast majority of these stories is the reporters speak largely to Jews who have — to paraphrase Mel Gibson — a dog in this fight. So the Republican operatives say, “Yes, it’s true,” and the Democrat flacks say, “No, it’s not.” And the headline writers go right for the dramatic question mark. “Are Jews in Play?” was my favorite from this year’s crop — it made us sound like such fun.

But for those predicting a sudden Jewish swing right, the fun ends on Election Day.

This is neither spin nor wishful thinking nor sour grapes; this is a combination of historical record and current fact. Every poll shows that Israel is not the No. 1 issue for most Jews. It’s behind concerns like the economy, health care, entitlements, the environment. 

Maybe imminent conflict or some clear evidence that a president or candidate represents a clear and present danger to Israel would goose that percentage. But even more likely is that, despite the efforts to turn Israel into a partisan issue, Jews understand that both parties have a longstanding record of commitment to Israel’s wellbeing. The U.S. government generally does fine by Israel, no matter which party is in power. If only we could say the same for the economy, health care, entitlements and the environment.

Unfortunately, none of this stops hacks from trying to use Israel as a political wedge, a way to turn Jewish voters away from one candidate and toward their guy. In our pernicious political culture, it’s only getting worse.

This week, at the General Assembly of Jewish Federations in Denver, Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schulz urged the thousands of delegates not to fall for it.

“Many of you received e-mails distorting the president’s record on Israel,” she said. “Israel should not be used as a political football.” Watch the YouTube footage — the audience response was just a bit better than a shrug.

Given the creeping rancor among pro-Israel groups, it’s almost quaint that, a few weeks ago, two major nonpartisan Jewish organizations — the American Jewish Committee (AJC) and the Anti-Defamation League —tried to get Jewish groups to promise not to use Israel as a partisan issue in the 2012 presidential election.

Very quickly, the Republican Jewish Committee and the Emergency Committee for Israel rejected the plea for civility, while the left-leaning JStreet remains “undecided.”

No administration’s record is perfect. George W. Bush had a close relationship with then-Prime Minister Ariel Sharon. But it was the Bush administration that produced the 2007 National Intelligence Estimate on Iran, which concluded that Teheran had ceased its nuclear weapons activities. We’ve seen this week what a foul-up that was.

Meanwhile, Israelis who give the Obama administration high marks for confronting Iran say it proved clay-footed at Israeli-Palestinian negotiations.

Like Israel, nobody’s perfect.

But, as the AJC’s David Harris wrote this week, “One thing is a safe bet: Vital, even existential, issues affecting the Middle East are likely to arise in every presidential term. When both major parties see support for Israel as central to their world outlook, then everyone is better off.”

I don’t expect partisan groups to sign unity pledges or back off. What I hope is that intelligent Jewish voters see through their politicking.

I am not going to say whether Jews should vote Democrat or Republican. Make up your own minds. But I will say this: When you suspect either party is using Israel as a political football, just do Israel a favor, and cry foul.

Poor sports Read More »

Another Soros steps out

Leave a Comment / Giving, News, United States /

Alexander Soros — what a catch! And not just for the obvious reason. Sure, papa George is worth $22 billion, and as your bubbe says, it’s as easy to fall in love with a rich man as a poor one.

But any grandmotherly nudge would be superfluous for young, liberal Jews who have embraced Democratic Party membership and the concept of tikkun olam as pillars of religious identity. For them, and they are many, Soros’ politics will be as appealing as his paternity.

Soros fils could easily buy what most of the world considers the good life: leisure, parties, private planes. But his definition is different and involves not spending money but giving it away, and more studying than partying.

Soros, 25, is pursuing a doctorate at the University of California, Berkeley, along with a higher profile as a philanthropist.

Read more at www.thejewishweek.com.

Another Soros steps out Read More »

Can young Jews give as good as they get?

Leave a Comment / California, Community, Cover Story /

On the last day of a Birthright alumni mission to Israel last year, participants got a taste of something that was not a part of their initial trip to Israel: a fundraising pitch.

Birthright is credited with reframing the formative Jewish years for 200,000 young North Americans who have received the gift of a free trip to Israel over the last 11 years. The experience also put them squarely on the receiving end, and some wonder if it has also imbued this generation with a sense of Jewish entitlement.

But this group of 25 alumni — who each paid only $500 to go on the mission organized by the Jewish Federation of Greater Washington — donated $14,000 to Federation while on the trip, signaling their readiness to pay it forward. The same group raised $22,000 for Federation in 2011, and, on top of that, members of the group organized a photo exhibit to benefit a program for Ethiopians they had visited in Israel, bringing in hundreds of people and raising thousands of dollars.

“I think Millennials will act and become those funders, but only after they see where the money is going, and after they’ve been inspired,” said Rachel Cohen Gerrol, a Birthright alumna who led the mission and is a founder of The Nexus: Global Youth Summit, an organization for young philanthropists.

Figuring out how to get these 20- and 30-somethings — alternatively called Gen Y, Next Gen or Millennials — to pivot from receiving to giving Jewish philanthropy is a challenge whose outcome will define the Jewish future.

As teens, Jewish Millennials were beneficiaries of the Jewish community’s “anything to get you through the door” response to their alarming indifference to Jewish involvement — free pizza to come to Jewish clubs, free Hillel Shabbat dinners, services and events in college, capped off with a free trip to Israel. Raised by parents focused on building their self-esteem and their college resumes, they turned out to become more dedicated to community service and more diverse, tolerant and fearlessly active than generations before them. But, they have shown little patience for formalities, bureaucracy and hierarchical structures, believing passionately in their own power.

How that will play out in terms of financial giving is still unfolding.

“There is an incredible amount of education and awareness that needs to happen,” said Irit Gross, who heads the Birthright Israel Foundation’s Alumni and Young Leaders Campaign, a fundraising department founded last year. “If you can create awareness that other people have done things for you, and if you can make a good enough case for giving, and get people to understand that we’re not looking for millions and that every $18 check counts because collectively we can make a difference, then it actually clicks that they’ve received a gift and want to do whatever they can to pay it forward and make a difference for the future. It’s about changing the mindset of giving,” she said.

The largest challenge, to be sure, is that the vast majority of 20- and 30-something Jews are not actively connected to an organized Jewish community, and so have no reason to give Jewishly. For the small percentage that has a strong Jewish identity, Judaism might be one of many pieces of an identity that may or may not rise to the top as they determine where to focus their giving.

Gerrol asserts that because this is a generation so focused on community service, to give them a Jewish context for that work and for their charitable giving might accomplish the dual goals of making them stronger Jews while also making them bigger givers.

“I think we are plagued as a generation by a picture in our minds of what it looks like and sounds like and feels like to be Jewish — Federation happy hours, pro-Israel rallies and High Holy Days services. But I think our generation is actively choosing not to opt into those activities in big numbers,” said Gerrol, who sits on the board of The Jewish Federation of Greater Washington. “It seems like the Jewish community needs to work to connect the dots between the values that Millennials are already living by and how those values are Jewish. …We need to reframe the Millennial experience.”

Next summer, Gerrol hopes to take 100 Jewish philanthropists to Rwanda through a new organization she founded, the Olam Project, which will bring young Jews to rebuild in areas torn apart by genocide.

Gerrol was inspired to found the Olam Project after she realized at a Nexus: Global Youth Summit that, of the 400 young wealth holders there, many were Jewish.

“I started asking people, ‘How does being Jewish inspire or influence where you give your money?’ And the resounding answer was there was no correlation. One is about my family and where I celebrate holidays, and the other is where I spend the money I earn,” said Gerrol.

The 2011 Millennial Donor Study, conducted by nonprofit consultants Johnson, Grossnickle and Associates and Achieve, surveyed 3,000 mostly college-educated 20- to 35-year-olds, not specifically Jews. It found that 93 percent had donated money to nonprofits in 2010, and that most gave small gifts to multiple organizations. Nearly 80 percent volunteered time, and while they do their giving through online mechanisms and research the organizations online, they are most likely to give to organizations that are endorsed by peers or to which they are personally connected. Eighty-five percent reported they are most driven to give by a compelling mission or cause.

They want to know how their money is being spent, and to believe they can trust an organization to use the money to make the impact they seek.

In its first foray into turning to alumni as funders and fundraisers, The Birthright Israel Foundation has found some of this out firsthand.

The Birthright Israel Foundation doesn’t solicit alumni in the first 12 months after participants return, other than giving them the opportunity to donate back some or all of their $250 deposit. In 2010, more than 1,000 participants donated $165,000 of their deposits.

While the Birthright Israel Foundation works with Birthright Next — the alumni programming arm — for the most part, Birthright Next stays away from fundraising and focuses on building on the positive Israel experience with opportunities for engagement and networking. A Birthright Next office in Los Angeles has two full-time employees and eight community engagement fellows, who plan events and meet personally with some of the 18,000 alumni in Los Angeles.

In June 2010, The Birthright Israel Foundation set up the Alumni and Young Leaders Campaign to reach out to the maturing population of alumni — the oldest alumni are now 37. In 2010, the alumni campaign raised $230,000 from 1,400 past participants, and so far this year it has already reached nearly 1,900 alumni and young donors, who contributed a total of $272,000.

Most of the alumni fundraising for Birthright has been through personal solicitations with select participants — those who stepped forward wanting to give back after the trip transformed their lives, or those who had been identified as potential donors or having connection to potential donors.

Birthright’s fundraising material lets past participants know that tens of thousands of young people are wait-listed because of lack of funds and gives them specific giving targets — $36 for a night in a Bedouin tent for one participant, or $150 to pay for five people to hike Masada at sunrise.

But the campaign revealed some surprising results, too.

“Although this generation lives and breathes e-mail and handheld devices, we have not yet had tremendous success from e-mail campaigns,” Gross said.

Jeffrey Solomon, president of The Andrea and Charles Bronfman Philanthropies, said the Millennials who choose to engage in philanthropy fall into two extremes.

“The first extreme is the growth of Twitter philanthropy — when there’s a spontaneous, almost impulsive giving, whether to the Haiti earthquake or because it’s Justin Beiber’s birthday,” Solomon said.

“There is a second group that studies philanthropy a bit more, and thinks about it more, and engages with a quest for information that has the potential to make them far more effective in philanthropy than their parents and grandparents, because in every aspect of life, information is available and they want that same information about their philanthropy, and want to be certain they are making the impact they want,” Solomon said.

Solomon has worked with the population through two organizations the Bronfman Philanthropies spawned — 21/64, which guides family foundations in involving all the generations, and Slingshot, which produces a Zagat-type guide to innovative Jewish organizations.

Slingshot was founded in 2003, and in 2007 it added the Slingshot Fund, composed of 30 young philanthropists who pool their resources to support a subset of undercapitalized organizations featured in the Slingshot guide. Over the last five years, the fund has distributed $1.8 million to organizations from the list, giving members experience in analyzing institutions and making thoughtful grants.

Can young Jews give as good as they get? Read More »

UCLA Protesters cause brief traffic closures in Westwood

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

On Wed. afternoon, a group of demonstrators shut down traffic at the corner of Wilshire and Westwood Boulevards in protest of tuition increases and budget cuts for California universities.

The protest was organized by a local branch of the ” title=”local ABC News affiliate”>local ABC News affiliate, the group of about 200, many of whom were students, marched from Bruin Plaza to a nearby bank.

Unconfirmed reports said that the protest began around 1 p.m., and that at one point protesters were lying in the middle of the street.

Michael Weinstein, postdoctoral fellow at UCLA, told The Journal that at around 3:30 p.m. police had just begun clearing caution tape and the three helicopters had left the scene. 

UCLA Protesters cause brief traffic closures in Westwood Read More »

Interview with (Almost) Lingerie Football Player Julie Farby

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

A while back we interviewed a player from the newly formed Lingerie Football League, Eliese Zukelman. I thought that would be it for the LFL. But recently, I was flipping through my channels and saw a LFL game on MTV2 (don’t worry I don’t frequently watch that channel). Yes, the women are dressed in less than modest attire, but once the whistle is blown they hit hard and bruise just like the men. It dawned on me that I had heard rumors that a former campmate of mine was on the Chicago team. Turns out that wasn’t entirely true. Julie Farby, the girl all the guys had crushes on at Camp Ramah, had tried out but unfortunately did not make it. Farby was always an athlete. She was one of the stars of the girls basketball and softball team and we were on sports staff together as counselors. Farby took her passion for sports to the field in her tryout and here is a her experience.

Interview with (Almost) Lingerie Football Player Julie Farby Read More »