Quinn Lohmann closes his eyes and tilts his head slightly. His fingers find their place between the frets of his guitar, and his voice rings out, soft and crystal clear. \”We all got a life to live. We all got a gift to give. …\”
Disguised as an elderly woman in czarist Russia, Sheridan Pierce took the stage at Brentwood School. As the bright lights touched her face and the character took over her body, Pierce poured her heart into her role, and she realized that she was meant to act. The play was \”Fiddler on the Roof,\” and Pierce, a ninth-grader at the time, was playing Yente the matchmaker. The significance of the role, she said, was her connection with the character on a more personal level. \”Deep in my soul, I\’m already a little old Jewish lady,\” she joked.
Groman Eden Mortuary will be hosting a dedication ceremony on June 13 at 6:30 p.m. to commemorate its restoration. The ceremony will be officiated by Rabbi Jerry Cutler of Creative Arts Temple. He will be blessing the building and placing the prayers inside mezuzahs that will hang on the upper right side of certain doorways.
Naomi Western, who works with the Jewish Agency for Israel, worries that her two young children may lose the connection to their Israeli heritage once they start attending local public schools. Joining more than 2,000 other families nationwide, Western has enrolled her family in Sifriyat Pijama B\’America to keep her children connected to the Hebrew-speaking culture she grew up with.
On May 23, Valley Beth Shalom hosted an event designed to inspire the creation of new Jewish comedy and drama, and encourage the ongoing tradition of Jewish creativity and invention. Moderated by VBS Senior Rabbi Ed Feinstein, the program was a presentation of the synagogue\’s Jewish Writers Roundtable, a group of about 10 members.
Eeman Khorramian could see himself entering the political world. The Palisades Charter High School senior has been highly active in school affairs and with the school\’s student government since ninth grade. His leadership skills even earned him the position of student body president.
At 4:30 a.m. on Sunday, May 20, four cars headed from Los Angeles to the 2012 Pasadena Marathon filled with members of the Skirts for SOLA team. Despite training for weeks, many of these newly minted runners still could not fully grasp that the day truly had come. \”There were moments when I thought, ‘It\’s not going to happen,\’ \” said Sarah Chin, captain of the Skirts team, which is made up of a group of Orthodox women from the Chabad-Lubavitch community of South La Cienega (SOLA) who would be testing their abilities in the marathon or its accompanying shorter runs.
Hardly a day goes by where Renee Firestone isn\’t asked by some school, museum, reporter or filmmaker to talk about the Holocaust. \”Somebody has to tell the story,\” she said. \”I am fortunate enough, at my age, to still be able to walk and talk. So I have to do it.\” Firestone is 88, with pale blue eyes and a warm, Cheshire cat smile. She manages a 24-unit apartment building in Beverly Hills, where she lives with her daughter, Klaire.
The controversy last month over a Miami temple’s invitation and then disinvitation to Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-Fla.) — which prompted the resignation of an influential congregant who also is a Republican activist — has revived with a new vehemence a question common in every election cycle: What are the appropriate parameters for political visits to houses of worship?
Gitta Seidner — known at the time by the Christian name Jannine Spinette — was abruptly awakened around 4:30 a.m. by a large commotion outside her farmhouse bedroom in Waterloo, Belgium. \”No, no, no. What do you want with my goddaughter?\” she heard her godmother, Alice Spinette, say. SS soldiers then kicked open the door and pulled the crying girl from her bed. \”She\’s not Jewish,\” Alice insisted. The soldiers didn\’t listen. They ordered Alice to get Gitta dressed and drove them to SS headquarters in Brussels.
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