At least four Kassam rockets fired from Gaza struck southern Israel.
Three rockets hit Wednesday night, according to the Israel Defense Forces, though some Israeli news reports put the number at five. An additional rocket hit about three hours earlier. No damage or injuries were reported.
In the last month, 29 rockets fired from Gaza have struck Israel, according to the IDF.
Kassams strike southern Israel Read More »
Aziz Tekin, a correspondent for the Kurdish-language newspaper Azadiya Welat, had the misfortune of becoming a news item himself over the weekend when he became the 105th journalist in Turkey to be put behind bars.
That places Turkey – a country usually hailed as an exemplar of democracy and Islam – ahead of such repressive regimes as Iran and China with the largest number jailed journalists in the world according to the Platform of Solidarity with Imprisoned Journalists.
Others take issue with exactly how many of the detainees are being held purely for doing their jobs, but they don’t deny that scores of media professionals are being detained and face laws and a judicial system that makes it easy to put and keep them behind bars.
“The press is quite pluralistic and rather free, but it remains dangerous for a journalist who writes a critical article against the government, especially on the Kurdish issue or criticizing the judiciary. The risk of getting arrested is really high,” Johann Bihr, head of the Europe desk at the international press freedom group Reporters Without Borders, told The Media Line.
The number of detentions has increased “exponentially” in recent months, he said. Turkey fell 10 places on Reporters’ International Press Freedom Index to 148 among 179 countries.
In December, some 30 journalists were rounded up in raids across the country targeting the Kurdish separatist movement. A day before Tekin was hauled in, a court in Istanbul refused to release 13 journalists including Ahmet Sık and Nedim Sener of the Oda TV news portal.
The wave of arrests prompted the U.S. author Paul Auster, whose books are popular in Turkey, to declare he is boycotting the country. “I refuse to come to Turkey because of imprisoned journalists and writers. How many are jailed now? Over 100?” Auster told the Istanbul daily Hurriyet this week.
The arrests come against a background of a changing power dynamic in Turkish politics. Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s Justice and Development Party (AKP), the first Islamist movement ever to rule in Turkey, is marking a decade in power, presiding over a booming economy while it gently inserts more religion into public life and its backers into key institutions like the courts and the military.
The army, which once dominated Turkish politics and served as a guardian of the country’s secularism, is in retreat.
Erkan Saka, who teaches at Istanbul Bilgi University’s communications school and blogs at Erkan’s Field Diary, said the arrests are part of that realignment, which is now encompassing the secular, establishment media. “Under normal conditions, mainstream media has values in parallel to establishment, but now establishment itself is changing,” he said.
The arrests almost always involve journalists linked to Kurdish separatism or a shadowy anti-government conspiracy called Ergenekon that officials have been investigating in what they say was a wide-ranging plot by the army and other members of the old elite to overthrow the AKP.
Critics say the judiciary, which is directly responsibility for the arrests, makes little effort to distinguish between people covering controversial issues and the people and movements they are covering. Thus last December, the scores people rounded up for alleged links with a Kurdish separatist movement included journalists and Kurdish activists alike.
“All their interrogations have focused on the articles they have written and trips they have made—why did you attend a conference by left-wing or pro-Kurdish academics? Why did you decide to cover a pro-Kurdish demonstration?” said Reporters Without Border’s Bihr. “It’s really likely that prosecutors have nothing on them except their profession.”
Arrests are not the only problem besetting the country’s media. Turkey has introduced tougher Internet censorship, has pursued what critics say is politically motivated tax cases against media groups and deals harshly with people who violate bans on denigrating the Turkish state.
Media observers blame the judiciary first and foremost for the arrests. Turkey’s anti-terrorism law and penal codes give them a lot of latitude to detain people and to keep them under lock and key without filing formal indictments. One of the reasons media experts are not sure about the number of journalists under arrest is that it is impossible to see the charges filed against them.
When the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) published in December its annual census of imprisoned journalists it could only verify that eight were actually being held for their writing and reporting, a fraction of the 64 or so others counted. The estimate triggered a sharp debate in the human rights community.
But Erdogan and others in the government have come to the defense of the country’s media freedom. “Turkey does not deserve the negative image portrayed to the world by the main opposition and some journalists and writers,” he said last week at an event marking the 25th anniversary of a pro-government newspaper, Zaman.
Others would beg to differ. They say that Erdogan has encouraged an atmosphere of press hostility with personal attacks on journalists who criticize him and his government and by personally pursing defamation lawsuits. Indeed, while defending the country’s record on media freedom, he decried in the same speech media conspiracies against the government.
“If you claim to have media freedom, you shouldn’t launch attacks on [newspaper] columnists who are critical of you. But he does that all that time,” Saka said. “That triggers anti-journalist feeling in the bureaucracy and judiciary.”
Turkey’s jails filling up with journalists Read More »
Following the Letter and Spirit of Kosher
Reading Jonah Lowenfeld’s “Can We Afford Kosher Lettuce?” (Jan. 27) was a déjà vu moment for my wife and me. We, too, bought the special worry-free, super-kosher romaine lettuce with the rabbinical seal of approval for our Pesach seder — and immediately came face to face with an enormous slug.
According to the Rabbinical Council of California (RCC), that’s not a problem, because “that’s not the bug we’re worried about.” Well, I have news for the RCC: That very much is the kind of vermin consumers don’t want to find in their pricey, rabbinically supervised, guaranteed-kosher vegetables. Our family is not bothering with RCC-certified lettuce again, unless the RCC somehow wins back its credibility — especially after the article indicates that our own vegetable washing can be more effective.
Paul Kujawsky
Valley Village
Thanks to Jonah Lowenfeld for a very interesting article on kosher salad. Jews should keep kosher in observance of the Torah mitzvot, but not to the exclusion of other mitzvot, such as to not waste (Deuteronomy 20:19–20). How many thousands of gallons of water go down the drain washing off those insects in arid Los Angeles, where most of our water is taken from the Owens Valley, the Sacramento River Delta and the Colorado River? Which of God’s creatures suffers as a result of our letting the faucet run endlessly?
And what about the mitzvah of the Torah to not leave the land beyond reclaim, because God is the one who owns the land (Leviticus 25:23)? Does the amount of pesticides applied to kosher lettuce exceed the proportional amount applied to non-kosher lettuce? Is it possible that application of excessive pesticides to eliminate every last insect on the lettuce is inconsistent with this mitzvah? What happens to those pesticides after they are applied? How do they affect the rest of the ecosystem, including ourselves and our children? Is that really kosher?
Let’s keep kosher, but let’s be “eco-kosher,” too, for the sake of protecting and respecting all of God’s creation.
Elihu Gevirtz
via e-mail
I was appalled by the comparison of eating a bug to [eating] a Big Mac. Eating a salad with a few bugs is a rabbinic violation, whereas eating a Big Mac is a violation of a Torah prohibition. Additionally, if we must use anything other than the naked eye, like a microscope, then even water would be prohibited. The Avnei Nezer said halachah is based upon what the eye can see.
Rashi said one must wash vegetables, which would remove all of the prohibited insects. Rashba said one must wash vegetables and inspect them for anything that was immediately evident and all other insects that were not prohibited. This was also the position of Rabbi Moshe Feinstein, unquestionably the greatest halachic authority.
According to Pitchei Teshuvah, anyone who is strict about something not found in the Talmud is to be thought of as an apikores (heretic). Why should being strict make a person a heretic? It’s because you say you know more than God. The Torah has the exact number of prohibitions and obligations, and we may not change it.
Rabbi David Rue
Los Angeles
Don’t Underestimate Threat of Missionaries
It is painfully irresponsible of Dennis Prager to trivialize the loss of Jews to missionaries, saying that our fear “is out of all proportion to reality” (“Time to Rethink How We Relate to Christians,” Jan. 27). Tell that to the heartbroken families of thousands of children converted to Christianity by deceptive missionaries.
Our sages say the loss of a single Jew equals an entire world. Today, there are 250,000 messianic Jews, and according to the 2008 American Religious Identification Survey, “More than 500,000 adults who had a Jewish mother follow another religion, overwhelmingly some form of Christianity.”
Shifting the blame to secularism and apathy is like saying, “Don’t worry about pancreatic cancer because heart disease kills more people.” This ignores the multimillion-dollar crusades that deliberately misquote our Bible, fabricate rabbinic statements and promote a hybrid Christianity that masquerades as “kosher pork.” Millions of Evangelicals have adopted this deceptive ploy to entice Jews into their midst.
Unlike secularism and apathy, missionaries intentionally target Jews, infiltrating Jewish neighborhoods, distributing DVDs and flooding the Internet and airwaves with propaganda. This March they will descend on Los Angeles and replicate a crusade that sent shockwaves through New York’s Jewish community.
To dismiss these realities turns a blind eye to the truth and increases our vulnerability.
Rabbi Bentzion Kravitz
Founder, Jews for Judaism
Children’s Art or Propaganda?
With his article “Who’s Afraid of Children’s Art?” (Jan. 27), Jonathan Maseng legitimizes the propaganda of the totalitarian Islamo-Nazis of Hamas and the efforts of “peace activists,” who are either enemy agents or useful idiots. I especially liked the phrases “art is an incredibly important tool for peace” (too bad the Jews in the Warsaw Ghetto didn’t melt the hearts of the SS with children’s drawings), and the reference to a participant in this farce as being “all about the children.” The next time Islamist rockets are fired into Israel, perhaps the rockets will see the art of Jewish children and say to themselves, “It’s about the children and peace,” and will change direction and fall harmlessly into the sea.
Chaim Sisman
Los Angeles
Tossing a Kosher Salad
I didn’t realize that by eating lettuce I might become less Jewish (”Can We Afford Kosher Lettuce?” Jan. 27). Are our learned rabbis now studying and debating how small an insect might be to render our fruits and/or vegetable treif? Is this problem so significant that our rabbinical councils must figure out how kosher is kosher? I wonder if the same attention is given to illegally downloading music, videos or even “sharing” software.
Frank Ponder
via e-mail
Your article leaves out one important “ingredient,” Jewish holiness. Not only do secular Jews not understand the “bug” issue, they don’t understand the “holiness” issue. Kashrut is not a health code; it is a holiness code. When a Jew eats treif, he damages the soul, not the body. The essence of Torah Judaism is holiness, which emphasizes food (kashrut), marital intimacy (mikveh) and time (Shabbat). Elevating and sanctifying these aspects of Jewish life connects the Jewish soul with God.
Asher Norman
Sherman Oaks
Screenwriter Roth and ‘Munich’
In the penultimate paragraph of the article “Writers Guild to Honor ‘Extremely’ Talented Screenwriter Eric Roth” (Jan. 27), Naomi Pfefferman quotes Eric Roth’s attempt to justify the morally senseless treatment of Israel in the film “Munich.” Roth reported that in some way he was sympathetic to the operation targeting the terrorists responsible for the Munich massacre but, “then the next day the Israelis had bulldozed some house with people [in it]. … “
Roth and Pfefferman might believe that Israel bulldozes houses with people in them or that it, at least, did so while he was working on the “Munich” script. Roth and Pfefferman might believe that. They might know that. But, they are wrong. The assertion is a lie, a falsification, a slander. Such a slander is altogether in keeping with the casual defamation of Israel found in many recent Journal articles, but it is profoundly objectionable to any decent person.
Chip Bronson
Stephanie London
Beverly Hills
Can Christians, Jews Be Friends?
Several ideas spring to mind why we should give pause to cozying up to our nouveau friends the Christians (“Time to Rethink How We Relate to Christians,” Jan. 27):
1) The idea that Jews are Christ killers will always be present in a segment of the Christian population despite repeated repudiations from the Christian world against that belief. These groups will always, therefore, pose some threat toward us Jews.
2) In a country where free speech and democracy flourish, anybody or any movement can rise up to a level of prominence to become a negative force. Couple this with groups that read the New Testament literally and the potential for harm against Jews will always be present.
3) Mainstream Christianity believes that Jews are all damned to hell. Some in Christendom may use this belief as an excuse to perpetrate evil upon us.
4) The proselytizing nature of Christianity can give rise to zealous behavior that may adversely affect our people.
Our friends the Christians come to our doors with some heavy negative baggage, and, while they certainly aren’t the threat at the moment that other groups appear to be, let’s not make our pragmatisms the decider over our principles. As a people, we are better than that.
Elliot Semmelman
Huntington Beach
Pros, Cons of Nuclear Attack on Iran
In my mind, The Jewish Journal has not presented a fair assessment of the pros and cons of an attack on Iran (“Why We Should Attack Iran” and “Why We Should Not,” Jan. 20). M.J. Rosenberg’s arguments that we should seek to use negotiations and diplomacy are unconvincing, although I believe the efforts should continue. I believe a more effective argument is that an attack would: (1) not halt, but only slow down Iranian pursuit of atomic weapons and (2) most definitely solidify Iranians’ support for Mahmoud Ahmadinejad as an attack would validate his assertions that the West is out to control Iran. Hence, an attack on Iran would further reduce the probability of regime change, the essential element to control Iran’s nuclear ambitions, and, in effect, hinder achievement of a key objective of the United States. There is no good approach to the problem, so we’ll continue playing “chicken” until someone gives in. Unfortunately, the most likely result is going to be a military confrontation and still further weakening of U.S. influence over Iran.
Michael Ernstoff
via e-mail
I have read several stories about Iran and its nuclear program. I think I am in the minority when I say we not only should not be concerned about Iran getting the bomb, but we should be helping them. I say this with the idea that the United States and the other countries in the nuclear club issue a warning to Iran and any other country that gets the bomb: If you use the bomb, you lose your country.
The nuclear club, with the United States in the lead, should warn Iran that if they use the bomb or if terrorists use one of the their bombs, it is the end of Iran. If any country, like Iran or Pakistan or Israel, is the origin of a nuclear bomb that is exploded anywhere, the nuclear club nations use nuclear bombs to wipe out the entire country where the bomb originated. A warning such as national extinction has a powerful deterrence on using a nuclear bomb.
Masse Bloomfield
Canoga Park
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Letters to the Editor: Kosher lettuce, Christianity, children’s art and Eric Roth Read More »
A secret U.S. military report says that the Taliban, backed by Pakistan, are set to retake control over Afghanistan after NATO-led forces withdraw from the country, The Times newspaper reported on Wednesday.
Lt. Col Jimmie Cummings, a spokesman for the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF), confirmed the document’s existence but said it was not a strategic study of operations.
“The classified document in question is a compilation of Taliban detainee opinions,” he said. “It’s not an analysis, nor is it meant to be considered an analysis.”
Nevertheless, it could be interpreted as a damning assessment of the war, now dragging into its eleventh year and aimed at blocking a Taliban return to power, or possibly an admission of defeat.
It could also reinforce the view of Taliban hardliners that the group should not negotiate peace with the United States and President Hamid Karzai’s unpopular government while in a position of strength.
The document cited by Britain’s The Times said that Pakistan’s powerful security agency, the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), was assisting the Taliban in directing attacks against foreign forces.
The allegations drew a strong response from Pakistani Foreign Ministry spokesman Abdul Basit. “This is frivolous, to put it mildly,” he told Reuters. “We are committed to non-interference in Afghanistan.”
The Times said the “highly classified” report was put together by the U.S. military at Bagram air base in Afghanistan for top NATO officers last month. The BBC also carried a report on the leaked document.
Large swathes of Afghanistan have already been handed back to Afghan security forces, with the last foreign combat troops due to leave by the end of 2014.
But many Afghans doubt their army, security forces or police will be able to take firm control of one of the world’s most volatile countries once foreign combat troops leave.
The U.S. embassy in Kabul declined to comment on the report.
The accusations will likely further strain ties between Western powers and Islamabad, which has long denied backing militant groups seeking to topple the U.S.-backed government in Kabul.
Pakistani Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar was visiting Kabul on Wednesday on a mission to repair strained diplomatic ties with Afghanistan’s government and to meet Karzai to discuss possible peace talks with the Taliban.
Pakistan is currently reviewing ties with the United States which have suffered a series of setbacks since a unilateral U.S. raid that killed Osama bin Laden on Pakistani soil in May last year humiliated Pakistan’s powerful generals.
A November 26 cross-border NATO air attack that killed 24 Pakistani soldiers deepened the crisis, prompting Islamabad to suspend supply routes to NATO forces in Afghanistan.
Pakistan is seen as critical to U.S. efforts to stabilize Afghanistan, a feat one foreign power after another has failed to accomplish over the country’s turbulent history.
Islamabad has resisted U.S. pressure to go after insurgent groups like the Taliban and the Haqqani network, and argues Washington’s approach overlooks complex realities on the ground.
Pakistan says Washington should attempt to bring all militant groups into the peace process and fears a 2014 combat troop exit could be hasty, plunging the region into the kind of chaos seen after the Soviet exit in 1989.
“They (the Taliban) don’t need any backing. Everybody knows that after 10 years, they (NATO) have not been able to control a single province in Afghanistan because of the wrong policies they have been following,” Pakistani Senator Tariq Azim, a member of the Senate’s Defence Committee, told Reuters.
Pentagon spokesman George Little said: “We have long been concerned about ties between elements of the ISI and some extremist networks.”
Little said U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta “has also been clear that he believes that the safe havens in Pakistan remain a serious problem and need to be addressed by Pakistani authorities”.
The document’s findings were based on interrogations of more than 4,000 Taliban and al Qaeda detainees, the Times said, adding that it identified only few individual insurgents.
A State Department spokesman and Britain’s Foreign Office both declined comment on the report.
Despite the presence of about 100,000 foreign troops, violence in Afghanistan is at its worst since the Taliban were ousted by U.S.-backed Afghan forces in 2001, according to the United Nations.
The Taliban announced this month they would open a political office in the Qatari capital Doha to support possible peace talks with the United States.
But there has also been talk of efforts to hold separate talks in Saudi Arabia because Karzai fears his government could be sidelined by U.S. talks with the Taliban.
The report could boost the Taliban’s confidence and make its leaders less willing to make concessions on key U.S. demands for a ceasefire and for the insurgency to renounce violence and break all ties to al Qaeda.
Hoping to gain credibility with a population still haunted by memories of the Taliban’s harsh rule from 1996-2001, the group has tried to improve its image as its fighters battle NATO and Afghan forces.
The Times said the document suggested the Taliban were gaining in popularity partly because the austere Islamist movement was becoming more tolerant.
“It remains to be seen whether a revitalized, more progressive Taliban will endure if they continue to gain power and popularity,” it quoted the report as saying.
“Regardless, at least within the Taliban, the refurbished image is already having a positive effect on morale.”
Prominent Pakistani security analyst Imtiaz Gul described the report as alarmist, saying Afghan security forces backed by the international community would resist any Taliban takeover.
“This is simply preposterous to propagate this theory,” he said.
Additional reporting by Dan Magnowski in KABUL and Qasim Nauman in ISLAMABAD; Writing by Michael Georgy; Editing by Nick Macfie
Taliban ‘poised to retake Afghanistan’ after NATO pullout Read More »
Rabbi Jonathan Kupetz and his wife, Karen, are stumped. They’re trying to explain just how many varieties of lettuce they’ve been able to grow since an urban farming company called Farmscape installed an organic garden in their yard last year. It’s a Wednesday, and rather than roving the aisles at Ralphs or Trader Joe’s, they’re standing in their driveway, pulling a veritable cornucopia of vegetables from a narrow strip of land that once was grass.
According to Farmscape’s Rachel Bailin, the organization “started in Claremont three years ago … as a group of college graduates who wanted to change the food system and bring equal access to good-quality fresh food across Los Angeles.” While most of the company’s original clients were in the Claremont area, they’ve expanded throughout Los Angeles in the last couple of years, with clients as far away as Redondo Beach and Thousand Oaks.
Many of Farmscape’s clients, like the Kupetzes, are brand new to gardening, but that hasn’t dampened their enthusiasm. “We didn’t grow anything before this, no green thumb whatsoever, no idea how to do any of this. Had it not been for Farmscape, there’s just no way,” said Karen of her family’s journey into farming. It began when the City of Claremont started offering residents $3 per square foot of land if they’d get rid of their water-hogging grass. At around the same time, Jonathan, the senior rabbi at Temple Beth Israel in Pomona, was invited with Karen to a congregant’s house. The congregant had put in a beautiful garden with the help of Farmscape, and the Kupetzes were impressed.
With the promise of more climate-friendly landscaping and a chance to teach their kids about gardening, it didn’t hurt that they would also be saving money in the long run. “It takes a tremendous amount of water in the hot climate here to keep the kind of grass we had growing,” Jonathan said. “And not only is water a really scarce resource, but out here especially, it’s tremendously expensive. It was by far our biggest bill.”
Bailin, who grew up Jewish in Iowa, said that, despite Farmscape’s not being a specifically Jewish organization, a majority of its clients are Jewish. It’s a fact she’s proud of, even though she didn’t set out for it to be that way. “It was very ingrained in me (growing up) that you are connected to the earth,” she said. So when the Kupetzes asked for a garden with a biblical touch, Farmscape was more than happy to oblige. Besides biblical classics such as figs, pomegranates, grapes, onions and apples, the Kupetzes grow everything from watermelons to mustard greens.
Jonathan was particularly taken with the idea of using their garden for a greater good. “The Torah teaches that we’re to guard and to till the earth and also that we have dominion over the earth, but with dominion comes a sense of responsibility,” he said. To that extent, the Kupetzes hope to donate much of their crop once their 18 fruit trees mature. “Inland Valley Hope Partners, which is our regional food bank, has a program now where college students … once you’ve picked what you want, come up to your fruit trees and pick the stuff and hand it out to families who need it,” Jonathan said.
One of the Kupetzes’ Farmscape plant beds.
Karen said their three children have also responded to their parents’ new obsession with farming: “They’re more willing to try things when they know that it’s been grown here.” “We eat better,” Jonathan said. “So much better,” Karen added, emphatically. “We didn’t use our yard the way we use it now; we didn’t appreciate it.”
Once upon a time, the Kupetzes were intimidated by the idea of gardening. One of the reasons they chose to work with Farmscape was the promise of having a full-time farmer come out every week to help grow their crops, a service Farmscape provides for $60 per week. “The idea was all we had to do was watch it grow,” Karen said. But soon, she found herself slipping outside to learn from their farmer, Todd Lininger, and becoming something of a farmer herself. “My learning curve in the last year has been incredibly steep, and it’s been an amazing challenge and an incredible experience,” she said.
The average Farmscape garden, which includes two large vegetable beds, special soil, plants and a drip irrigation system, runs around $2,700, Bailin said, though some people choose to go larger or smaller. “We have clients who sign up with us for a year, they come out, they learn how to exactly tend an organic garden, and then they’ll do it themselves.”
With Tu B’Shevat around the corner, the Kupetzes are also mindful of how their garden has helped deepen their religious lives as well. “We’ve certainly never experienced Tu B’Shevat in the way we’re experiencing it this year,” Karen said, looking around at her semi-dormant winter garden. “Tu B’Shevat doesn’t come at a time when things are colorful … it’s sort of the promise of spring.
“We do a lot of hosting, especially around Sukkot time. So that’s a wonderful time to have people here, because the summer crop is still going,” she added.
Karen said she’s still amazed every time someone comes over and is shocked by how clueless they were about the origin of the food they eat. “Adults have no clue that kiwis grow on a vine, or that blueberries grow on a bush, or that onions grow in the ground. We’re just so disconnected with where our food comes from,” she lamented.
The Kupetzes take solace in the fact that their example has already helped to make a change in their community. “There are at least a half-a-dozen people who have started doing some kind of garden stuff because of our garden,” Jonathan said. “You can’t experience the garden by looking at it. You have to get dirty; you have to taste it; you have to feel it. It’s a very sensory experience,” Karen said. “We hope, as things continue to grow and bloom, that we can integrate it more into not only our Jewish lives, but the community’s Jewish lives as well.”
A Biblical garden story Read More »
Over Presidents Day weekend last year, nearly 500 Jews of all affiliations holed up at the Hilton hotel in Costa Mesa to attend virtually round-the-clock lectures, workshops, musical performances and more. Volunteers serving as speakers covered the growth of European Jewry, alternative Jewish travel in the West Bank and whether morality can be achieved without God, among other topics. They were all participants of LimmudLA, the annual Jewish conference for study and community.
Then, at the end of February last year, approximately 900 college students and young professionals gathered in the Alpert Jewish Community Center in Long Beach, also for discussions — on topics including the unrest in Libya and Egypt, urban Jewish gardening and oil sustainability, to name a few — and for live music and comedy sets, and, yes, much more. These were attendees of Jewlicious, an annual Jewish arts, culture and music festival geared toward Jewish youth.
On its Web site, LimmudLA advertises itself as a “Jewish celebration of life and learning,” while the Jewlicious site bills its festival as “pluralistic, apolitical and about Jewish unity.” However, LimmudLA could as easily use the Jewlicious description — and vice versa — and both statements would be honest. Both are opportunities for Jewish education and are designed to be experiential, with multiple sessions happening simultaneously, and both cater to all affiliations, as well as the non-affiliated.
LimmudLA returns to the Hilton in Costa Mesa on Feb. 17- 19, and highlights at this year’s conference include discussions led by Rabbi Shmuley Boteach, author and educator Everett Fox, hip-hop artist Y-Love and Israeli academic Nathan Lopes Cardozo. More than 100 presenters, including rabbis, artists, academics and lots of lay people — for instance, an architect will discuss architecture at mikvehs worldwide — will lead the sessions.
Most LimmudLA speakers are local, but a handful travel here, from Israel and other countries. They’re all volunteers — no one is paid — including the out-of-towners. The lineup reflects Limmud’s attempt to be all things to all people.
“We’re interested in creating a space for people to get out of their comfort zone, to connect with other people and to be inspired to transform themselves and their communities,” said Yechiel Hoffman, executive director of LimmudLA.
Jewlicious is entering its eighth year, and fewer presenters are booked for Jewlicious than will be at LimmudLA, but the Jewlicious lineup is just as diverse. Ska and reggae band The Aggrolites are headlining; regulars Moshav and Venice, Calif.-based jazz-fusion band Dustbowl Revival are among the handful of musical performers. Mayim Bialik — the actress who became famous on “Blossom” and who now appears on CBS’ “The Big Bang Theory” — is the festival’s keynote speaker, and discussion topics include alternative health, Israeli politics and relationships, and the entertainment industry. Irreverent stand-up comic Moshe Kasher also performs.
“We put the same amount of effort into both who’s presenting and who’s playing because we want the program to be compelling from a musical standpoint, and we also want it to be inspiring and thought provoking,” said Rabbi Yonah Bookstein, director of Jewlicious Festivals.
True to form, both events are as conducive to letting loose as they are to provocative conversation — and both offer new features this year.
At LimmudLA, an “open space” session will allow attendees to experience “free-form learning,” with participants deciding on topics of interest and forming groups to explore these during two-hour discussions, Hoffman said. Expert speakers will explore their ideas more intensely during TED-talk-style presentations, and attendees ages 18 to 30 will be eligible to receive subsidies for their admission by volunteering three hours each day via the YAD — Young Adult Development — program.
This year, LimmudLA will extend over three days, instead of four, making good on attendee feedback from last year’s conference that deemed programming on Monday unnecessary. This year’s conference begins on Friday and ends Sunday. Various deals are available for accommodations at the Hilton, depending on how many people are booked per room, and day passes are only available on Sunday.
Jewlicious, meanwhile, is undergoing a major venue change. This year’s festival, Feb. 24-26, will take place aboard the Queen Mary, the famous art deco cruise ship, harbored in Long Beach. Jewlicious’ programs will take place in the Queen’s Salon, a 4,600-square-foot room that once served as the first-class main lounge for the ship. Shabbat services will be held on the ship’s sun deck, overlooking the ocean and the bay.
“The move to the Queen Mary was a way of [keeping things] fresh,” Bookstein said. Indeed, it’s the first year that the JCC isn’t hosting the festivities. Festivalgoers staying overnight will get to bunk in cabins and suites on the ship.
Although the two events share characteristics, their origin stories are different. LimmudLA is one of 50 annual Limmud conferences worldwide; Limmud originated in the United Kingdom in 1980, before expanding to cities worldwide.
Jewlicious, on the other hand, is homegrown and one-of-a-kind. The festival began in Long Beach and has been held in that city every year. Bookstein founded Jewlicious as a way of creating community in Long Beach, and it’s the only Jewlicious festival in the world. It should be noted, though, that in a way, Jewlicious’ roots can be traced back to Europe — Bookstein and his wife were living in Poland in the 1990s, and they organized Jewish cultural festivals there, an experience that informed their creation of Jewlicious years later.
The main difference between LimmudLA and Jewlicious is in the ages they attract. Limmud appeals to families. Jewlicious draws college kids and 20-somethings, although all ages are welcome. “We’re on a Boat!” reads the tagline for this year’s Jewlicious, borrowing from a song by “Saturday Night Live” star Andy Samberg, to give one the idea who Jewlicious is targeting.
Distinction in demographics aside, LimmudLA and Jewlicious both are staffed by volunteers who are highly committed — borderline radical — in their love for the events.
A 37-year-old actress from Hancock Park, Debbie Jaffe has been volunteering at LimmudLA since 2008. For Jaffe, fellow volunteers and attendees matter just as much — if not more — than the musical acts or the presentations at LimmudLA.
After attending several LimmudLA conferences, Jaffe realized that “hanging out and getting to know people was actually as important” as attending sessions.
Jewlicious volunteers sound similarly passionate when describing their experiences at the festival.
“I truly believed in what I was doing,” said Daniella Dolgin, who helped with scheduling at last year’s Jewlicious. For Dolgin, a sociology student at Santa Monica College, the best part about Jewlicious is the festival-wide Shabbat dinner. The dinner reinforces that Jewlicious is about community.
“I had never seen anything like that, where you have people from different denominations from different parts of our community, coming together and having a Shabbat meal,” she said, recalling last year’s festival.
Both events expect turnouts similar to those of previous years. Hoffman expects that 500 people will come to LimmudLA, and Bookstein estimates that approximately 800 people will attend Jewlicious.
As with Jewlicious, “community” is a key word for LimmudLA. A core group of dedicated volunteers — about 30 — band together to plan the conference each year, and they work to organize a conference that will allow people to feel united by their shared interest in Jewish renewal.
“The whole notion of Limmud as a movement is about letting each community build something for itself that can be partaken by the wider community,” LimmudLA co-founder Shep Rosenman said in an interview.
Likewise, the loyalty of the attendees who come every year — and bring along with them a few new people each time — keeps Jewlicious going.
“People, when they’re done with the festival, they inspire us to do it again. Their enthusiasm for what went on is great, and we’re like, ‘OK, we’ve got to do this again,’ ” Bookstein said.
It isn’t easy, said Bookstein. “It takes an enormous amount of effort to pull this off.”
For more information about LimmudLA, visit http://limmudla.org/. For more information about Jewlicious, visit http://www.jewlicious.com/jf8/
LimmudLA, Jewlicious: Two gatherings, one goal Read More »
The Susan B. Komen for the Cure foundation cut funding for Planned Parenthood breast cancer testing.
The foundation said the decision, which was announced Tuesday, was prompted by its ban on dealing with groups under investigation in Congress.
Planned Parenthood’s defenders say the congressional investigation is based on debunked allegations that it misuses federal funds.
Planned Parenthood had joined with Komen in providing preventative breast exams for low-income women.
The National Council of Jewish Women on Wednesday accused Komen of caving into pressure from right-wing groups, noting that such groups oppose Planned Parenthood for the abortion services it provides.
“Komen’s action puts politics before women’s health, placing the foundation in the same company as those who seek to defund Planned Parenthood altogether as part of anti-choice agenda and in complete disregard for women’s welfare,” NCJW said.
U.S. Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) also said that because of the decision, she would no longer support the Komen foundation.
Komen was founded by Nancy Brinker, a prominent Texas Jewish Republican activist, in her sister’s memory.
Komen foundation cuts funding to Planned Parenthood Read More »
Jews and people with autism have a lot in common, if you ask Ezra Fields-Meyer.
As an autistic young man, he knows he has a good memory and likes to repeat things. As a Jew, he’s noticed similar qualities, which he pointed out during his bar mitzvah speech a few years ago.
“We repeat Shabbat every week. And we sing the same songs, like ‘Shalom Aleichem’ and ‘Adon Olam’ and the Kiddush. And we also have holidays that help us remember things that happened thousands of years ago,” he said.
This story is one of many related by the youth’s father, Tom Fields-Meyer, in the book “Following Ezra: What One Father Learned About Gumby, Otters, Autism, and Love from His Extraordinary Son” (Penguin: $15). The book was named a 2011 National Jewish Book Award Finalist in the category “Biography, Autobiography, Memoir” earlier this month.
“Following Ezra” chronicles a father-son relationship as it evolved over 10 years, and how Ezra grew from an isolated 3-year-old to someone who started making connections — unexpected as they might be — to the world around him.
“I wanted to write about what it’s like to live with someone like this and how I gradually came to appreciate my son and celebrate him and find all these really incredible qualities that he had,” said Tom, 49, a former senior writer for People magazine who lives in the Pico-Robertson area.
This was different from the kind of books on special-needs children that were available when Ezra was young, he said.
“I found all these other books that were either really clinical or they made it look like having a child with special needs or a child with autism was just sort of the end of your life and was going to be this horrible experience,” said Tom, who will speak about the book Feb. 6 at American Jewish University (AJU) and Feb. 21 at Vista Del Mar.
At first, Tom and his wife, Shawn, a rabbi at Milken Community High School and instructor at AJU, were confused and challenged by Ezra’s asocial behavior. The boy didn’t engage in conversation or interact with other children, preferring to line up plastic dinosaur toys in symmetrical patterns.
“My first instinct as a parent was to try to find ways to solve this problem and get him the help that he needed,” Tom said. “I figured if we found the right specialist or the right therapy for him or … if I did the right research, then we could figure out what we needed and sort of get on with our lives.”
But when a therapist suggested he take the time to “grieve for the child [Ezra] didn’t turn out to be,” Tom thought about things and realized that he saw the situation differently.
“It was really my instinct to just get to know him really well and see how he developed and sort of celebrate the child that I had, and help him to be the best version of himself that he could be,” he said.
There turned out to be plenty about his son worth celebrating. Now 16 and somewhere in the middle of the autism spectrum, Ezra has developed a number of passions, including a love of Gumby, animals and animation.
Tom said he’s probably been to the Los Angeles Zoo and Botanical Gardens 300 times with his son, and the family regularly attends animated movies. Ezra knows that “101 Dalmatians” is 79 minutes long and was released on Jan. 25, 1961, and his memory is so good that when he finds out a person’s birthday, he can tell them what cartoon was released on that day.
The family has embraced these eccentricities.
“Instead of trying to say, ‘No, why don’t you play soccer like all the other kids?’ we’ve really encouraged him to pursue the things he’s really interested in,” Tom said.
So, in addition to being a student at Village Glen School in Culver City with other autistic youths, Ezra also takes animation classes at Media Enrichment Academy in Sherman Oaks.
“At first he just liked to obsessively talk about animation,” his father said. “But then, a few years ago, he started creating his own, which was a big leap.”
One result: Ezra made a short movie, “Alphabet House,” about letters living together and how they reacted when one of them was injured. It has been adapted with author and illustrator Tom Lichtenheld into a children’s book, “E-mergency.”
Judaism has played a role in how the family has dealt with Ezra’s special needs, too, although Tom acknowledged that it’s not that way for everyone.
“A lot of parents who are involved and active with the Jewish community and then have children with special needs find that that can isolate them,” he said.
To make things easier, Shawn started Ozreinu, meaning “our help,” a Torah study group for parents of special needs children. The family, members at the Conservative Temple Beth Am in Los Angeles, also attends Shabbat morning services there that are designed for special-needs children.
“I don’t think a lot of synagogues are doing that, but they should be,” Tom said. “[Ezra] really likes to pace around and doesn’t really like to sit down for very long, but he likes to be part of the Jewish community. Synagogues should be open to people like that and make them feel welcome. That makes everyone realize that we’re all created in God’s image, and we’re all part of the same community.”
That’s why Tom loves the way the Conservative Movement’s Camp Ramah in Ojai handles things, integrating special-needs campers with other youths in certain areas, such as art class and sports.
“At Camp Ramah, all the kids know Ezra, and they all know [he’s] the kid who can tell you what Disney movie came out on your birthday,” said Tom, who is a board member at the camp. “That’s a great model. Jewish day schools have been a lot slower.”
There are other things that help, of course, like being the middle child. Ezra has two brothers, Ami, 17, and Noam, 14.
“Ami and Noam don’t treat him like a ‘special-needs child,’ ” Tom said. “They just treat him like their brother.”
That, at its most basic, is what the book is about: getting past a diagnosis to the very human and very fascinating person behind it. What Tom said he found was pure joy.
“He’s a really happy person,” he said.
As proof, Tom recalled a visit to the zoo during which he and Ezra encountered baby otters for the first time.
“That day he was so excited, and we spent half an hour looking at the otters. Ezra kept saying, ‘I’ve never seen this before! This is something that’s never happened at the zoo before!’ ” Tom remembered. “He’s jumping up and down and thrilled to see baby otters. It’s amazing to be able to be with someone like that.”
Tom Fields-Meyer will appear at American Jewish University on Feb. 6 at 11 a.m. for conversation and a book signing. The cost is $10. He will also appear at Vista Del Mar on Feb. 21 at 7 p.m. on a book panel, “Two Fathers’ Journeys: Raising and Being Raised by Sons With Special Needs” (with Leonard Felder). Book signing to follow.
For information or reservations for Feb. 6 event, call 310-440-1246 or visit wcce.ajula.edu. For information or reservations for Feb. 21 event, visit jewishla.org.
To watch Ezra’s animated short, “Alphabet House” on YouTube, visit http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d0LPfQLm4WA.
Beyond labels, raising autistic son yields treasure Read More »
Jay Sanderson visited Vista Del Mar’s Ness Gadol Shabbat services last week, and it was a personal as well as communal inspiration for him to see kids and young adults with autism and other disabilities lead prayers for the wider community.
Sanderson, president of The Jewish Federation of Greater Los Angeles, has a brother who is severely mentally disabled, and his son has serious learning disabilities. So he knows what it’s like to grow up in a family isolated from the Jewish community because of differences, he said.
“These families want a Jewish experience, they want their kids to get bar mitzvahed. And these kids were singing and praying and want to be part of the Jewish community. It’s very powerful,” Sanderson said of Ness Gadol, which Federation partially funds.
February is national Jewish Disabilities Awareness Month (JDAM), and Sanderson wants to see the events scheduled throughout the month raise consciousness in the Jewish community.
The Jewish Federations of North America has published a resource guide for communities to increase awareness, funding and inclusion for those with disabilities, and Jewish organizations across the country are focusing programming on disabilities this month.
The L.A. Jewish Federation, which is calling February Inclusion Awareness Month (I.A.M.), lists events on nearly every day of February on its I.A.M. Web site. Events are sponsored by organizations such as the Friendship Circle, Etta Israel, Hand in Hand, Jewish Family Service (JFS), Jewish Community Centers and various synagogues. Sanderson said Federation convened the organizations to encourage them to create events for I.A.M. or to move scheduled events to February. Federation also created some of its own programming.
Federation’s Super Sunday, Feb. 12, will feature community service events oriented around special needs, many of them offering opportunities for individuals with disabilities to volunteer alongside others.
On Feb. 17, rabbis across the city will dedicate their sermons to inclusivity.
The month culminates with Better Together on Feb. 29, an evening conference at the American Jewish University for professionals and volunteers who work with individuals with disabilities. Better Together is sponsored by Federation, along with JFS/HaMercaz, Builders of Jewish Education and the Board of Rabbis of Southern California.
Sanderson said inclusion was identified as a priority when Federation canvassed the community when he took over as president two years ago.
“We’re intensifying our efforts on every level in terms of funding, programming and partnering with these organizations working in the area of special needs,” Sanderson said. “We’re moving more resources into this area than we ever have.” But he added that Federation is not yet doing enough.
“The community is far better today than it was 10 years ago … but we have a lot of work to do,” Sanderson said.
For more on Inclusion Awareness Month, visit February is Inclusion Awareness Month Read More »
