We're officially approaching the dog days. Shows are wrapping up their summer seasons– Teen Wolf is down for the count, and Twisted and Graceland have two episode left each– and while there's always reality to fill in the gaps (I mean, both reality television and the real world beyond the screen) pickings are going to be slim around here until the fall shows starts airing in September. Luckily Hulu has a End of Season Blues Read More »
Israel's air force bombed a militant target in Lebanon on Friday in retaliation for a cross-border rocket salvo on Thursday, a spokesman said.
An Israeli military source said the “terror site” bombed was near Na'ameh, between Beirut and Sidon, but did not immediately provide further details.
Four rockets fired on Thursday caused damage but no casualties in northern Israel. They were claimed by an al Qaeda-linked Sunni Muslim group rather than Hezbollah, the Iran-backed Shiite militia that holds sway in south Lebanon.
“Israel will not tolerate terrorist aggression originating from Lebanese territory,” military spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Peter Lerner said in a statement announcing Friday's air strike.
Israel and Lebanon are technically at war. Israel briefly invaded Lebanon during an inconclusive 2006 conflict with Hezbollah. The Israelis now are reluctant to open a new Lebanese front, however, given spiraling regional instability.
Writing by Dan Williams; Editing by Bill Trott
Israel says it bombed Lebanon in retaliation for rocket attack Read More »
President Richard Nixon is heard in the last set of his White House tapes making anti-Semitic statements in discussions with visitors to the Oval Office and by telephone.
The 340 hours of tapes, which cover from April 9, 1973 to July 12, 1973, were released Wednesday by the Nixon Presidential Library. They are the last set of tapes that will be released by the library.
In a phone discussion in mid-April with Henry Kissinger, a Jew who at the time was the national security adviser, Nixon expresses concerns that Jews would torpedo an upcoming U.S.-Soviet summit. If that happened, Nixon said, “Let me say, Henry, it’s gonna be the worst thing that happened to Jews in American history.” He added, “If they torpedo this summit — and it might go down for other reasons — I’m gonna put the blame on them, and I’m going to do it publicly at 9 o’clock at night before 80 million people.”
He continued: “They put the Jewish interest above America’s interest, and it’s about goddamn time that the Jew in America realizes he’s an American first and a Jew second.”
In a tape from May 1 that is labeled by the library as “Garment’s Jewish background,” referring to Nixon aide and lawyer Leonard Garment, Nixon is heard shouting “Goddamn his Jewish soul” after saying he wants to fire Garment for an inappropriate comment.
When asked about appointees, Nixon tells presidential counselor Anne Armstrong there should be “No Jews. We are adamant when I say no Jews. … But Mexicans are important. Italians, Eastern Europeans. That sort of thing.”
Nixon accused the Jews of holding American foreign policy “hostage to Jewish emigration from the Soviet Union,” and added that “the American people are not going to let them destroy our foreign policy — never!”
Future presidents Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush are heard in conversations recorded on the tapes offering Nixon support during the Watergate affair.
Nixon on previous tapes was heard making anti-Semitic remarks about Jewish politicians and others.
New Nixon tapes show more anti-Semitism Read More »
With his international credibility seen increasingly on the line, President Barack Obama on Thursday faced growing calls at home and abroad for forceful action against the Syrian government over accusations it carried out a massive new deadly chemical weapons attack.
While the White House said it was “appalled” by reports of hundreds of people gassed on Wednesday, it made clear any U.S. response would await confirmation of a chemical attack and again demanded that Syrian President Bashar Assad give U.N. inspectors immediate access to the site near Damascus.
The Obama administration's cautious response underscored a deep reluctance by Washington to intervene in Syria since the country's civil war erupted 2 1/2 years ago.
But, reflecting the pressures Obama could face in coming days, a U.S. official familiar with initial intelligence assessments said the attack appeared to be the deliberate work of the Assad government. It was “the regime acting as a regime,” the official said.
If allegations of a large-scale chemical attack are verified – Syria's government has denied them – Obama will surely face calls to move more aggressively, possibly even with military force, in retaliation for repeated violations of U.S. “red lines.”
Obama's failure to confront Assad with the serious consequences he has long threatened would likely reinforce a global perception of a president preoccupied with domestic matters and unwilling to act decisively in the volatile Middle East, a picture already set by his mixed response to the crisis in Egypt.
The consensus in Washington and allied capitals is that a concerted international response can only succeed if the United States takes the lead.
But Obama has shown no appetite for intervention. Polls by Reuters/Ipsos and others have indicated that Americans are increasingly aware of the conflict in Syria, but as the news has worsened, opposition to intervention may actually be growing.
Despite that, pressure was mounting as horrific photos and videos of alleged chemical weapons victims spread across the Internet.
French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius said world powers must respond with force if it is proved that Syria's government was responsible for the deadliest chemical attack on civilians in a quarter-century.
But Fabius stressed there was no question of sending in troops and his remarks appeared to be an effort to prod Washington and others to action.
Israel, a longtime foe of Assad, said it believed Syrian forces had used chemical weapons in the killing of hundreds of people in the rebel-held suburbs of Damascus, and it accused the world of turning a blind eye to such attacks.
NO 'CONCLUSIVE' DETERMINATION BY U.S.
State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki said the United States had not “conclusively” determined that chemical weapons were employed but that Obama had directed the U.S. intelligence community to urgently gather information to verify the reports from the Syrian opposition.
But another U.S. official said intelligence agencies were not given a deadline and would take the time needed to “reach a conclusion with confidence.” The administration held high-level meetings to deliberate on Syria policy, the official said.
Psaki said Assad's use of chemical arms would be an “outrageous and flagrant escalation,” but stopped short of saying what options were under consideration.
“If we find these reports are true, then we will feel that this has significantly expanded the escalation of the use of chemical weapons by the Syrian regime,” she said. “The president, the national security team, would certainly have decisions to make, and they have a range of options to decide between.”
Secretary of State John Kerry spoke about the crisis on Thursday with U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton and Kerry's counterparts from France, Jordan, Qatar and Turkey.
Western diplomats said their efforts for now were focused on persuading the Syrian government to allow the U.N. inspection team, already in Damascus, to the site of the alleged attacks.
“We will all have to be clear that there is a price to pay for not letting the team in,” one diplomat said, without elaborating. Russia's shielding of Syria in the U.N. Security Council, where Moscow holds a veto, could blunt any significant measures by the world body.
Psaki acknowledged that Obama's “red line” against Syrian chemical weapons use “was crossed a couple of months ago.”
Obama's decision in June to begin arming Syrian rebels was linked to a U.S. intelligence finding that Assad's forces had used chemical weapons in several small-scale attacks. But even the limited arms supplies authorized by the president have yet to start flowing.
'BLACK MARK'
The latest Syria controversy has added to a growing perception of foreign policy troubles for Obama early in his second term. He is facing criticism for his inability to restrain Egypt's generals in their violent crackdown on Islamists and for failing to persuade Russia to extradite fugitive former spy agency contractor Edward Snowden.
On Syria, White House officials have cited several factors to explain their caution: a fractious anti-Assad rebel movement, lack of direct U.S. security interests, and the high cost of intervention.
Pressing ahead with a bus tour in the U.S. Northeast to promote his economic agenda, Obama made no public mention of Syria. “The fact that we are doing this bus tour is an indication that the president has his priorities straight while he continues to monitor what is an increasingly tragic situation in Syria,” White House spokesman Josh Earnest told reporters.
Critics said the Obama administration's international credibility had already been damaged by his handling of the Syria conflict but that it would be even worse if chemical weapons use were confirmed and Washington failed to act.
“You don't want to lay down a red line and not enforce it,” said Andrew Tabler, a Syria expert at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, who called the Syria crisis the “biggest black mark” on Obama's foreign policy record.
Fred Hof, a former senior State Department adviser on Syria who is now at the Atlantic Council think tank, wrote on Thursday, “The Assad regime, Iran, its Lebanese militia, and Russia have taken the measure of the United States in the Syrian crisis and have concluded they can win.”
In the U.S. Congress, Republican Senator John McCain said the “credible reports” from Syria on chemical weapons use by Assad's forces “should shock our collective conscience.”
“It is long past time for the United States and our friends and allies to respond to Assad's continuing mass atrocities in Syria with decisive actions, including limited military strikes to degrade Assad's air power and ballistic missile capabilities,” McCain, a harsh critic of Obama's Syria policy, said in a statement.
Democratic Senator Robert Menendez, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said he was “shocked and deeply concerned” about the reported chemical weapons attack, but he stopped short of calling for military action.
The top U.S. military officer, Joint Chiefs chairman General Martin Dempsey, canceled a planned press briefing on security issues on Thursday. Dempsey, in letters to lawmakers, has made clear the U.S. armed forces judge that intervention in Syria would be costly and have an uncertain outcome.
Many members of Congress have echoed the administration's concerns about involvement in Syria, worried that weapons sent to anti-Assad rebels could end up in the hands of Islamists.
Unless U.N. inspectors are able to conduct an investigation, it could take some time for U.S. officials to sift through photographs, video and intelligence to determine whether the Syrian opposition's reports are credible.
An earlier U.S. investigation of alleged Syrian chemical weapons use took months to conclude that Assad's forces had used small amounts of sarin gas in attacks during the previous year.
Additional reporting by Tabassum Zakaria, Roberta Rampton, Jeff Mason, Susan Cornwell, Patricia Zengerle and Mark Hosenball; Editing by Warren Strobel and Peter Cooney
Obama faces growing calls to act over Syria gas attack allegations Read More »
Wilshire Boulevard Temple’s newly renovated sanctuary has been cleaned and fully restored. An extended bimah is more accessible for the first time. Photo © Tom Bonner 2013
Ask Rabbi Steven Z. Leder what the mission of Wilshire Boulevard Temple is, and he’ll tell you, “We make Jews.” The temple started making Jews two centuries ago, in 1862, when the country stood divided, engaged in Civil War, with Abraham Lincoln as the president of the United States. Then known as Congregation B’nai B’rith, it was located first at Temple Street and Broadway downtown, and then moved to a larger space at Ninth and Hope streets. Eventually, in 1929, the synagogue — now the oldest in Los Angeles — moved into its third historic home, on Wilshire Boulevard between Harvard and Hobart boulevards, dominating its portion of the city’s spine.
Since its grand opening, the congregation has played a central role among Los Angeles’ Reform Jewish community, but over the years, the building’s façade and interior eroded, becoming dilapidated and outdated. When a legally blind congregant, Bea Boyd, called Leder to tell him the sanctuary’s bathrooms were disgustingly dirty, and when a 10-pound chunk of plaster fell from the ceiling in the middle of the night, Leder knew he had to take action. The result is a $160 million project, to be done in three phases, to restore the sanctuary to its former glory and, along the way, to add all sorts of new attributes to an expanded campus.
Before he got started, however, Leder visited three respected and highly successful Los Angeles leaders, asking for advice. First, he went to Steven Sample, president of USC from 1991 to 2010, during which time he raised $3 billion for a school located in an area of Los Angeles that, as Leder put it, “No one believed in.” Second, Leder talked to Richard Riordan, mayor of Los Angeles from 1993 to 2001, because, Leder said, “He truly understands where Los Angles is heading.” And finally, Leder visited Uri Herscher, a rabbi and founder of the Skirball Cultural Center, who, according to Leder, is “one of the best rabbi fundraisers I have ever known.”
Through the encouragement of these three men, Leder gained confidence to move ahead. He brought on the renowned architect and congregant Brenda Levin to repair and enhance the neglected architectural gem, with its Byzantine dome and beautiful history-telling murals by Hugo Ballin that were commissioned by Warner Bros. studio chief Jack Warner. One of the congregation’s concerns, however, was the future of the neighborhood: Were there enough Jews in the Eastside area to sustain such a substantial investment? Leder said the guidance from Sample, Riordan and Herscher reaffirmed his belief that a resurgence was already taking place in the area and, more importantly, that if the passion and relationships established by the temple are real, the temple will succeed.
Leder admits he never would have raised the more than $118 million that he has so far without his already strong and longstanding relationships with congregants. At the 2005 High Holy Days services, Leder announced the plans for the project in his sermon. His main message was that the sanctuary of Wilshire Boulevard Temple is at “the center of the center of the center.” In other words, the sanctuary is the core of Wilshire Boulevard Temple, and it sits in a vital and diverse neighborhood essential to Los Angeles, which has the second-largest Jewish population in the United States.
“We are the luckiest Jews to have ever lived,” Leder said. Yet he maintains this privilege and freedom comes with responsibility. He asks, “What will we do with this good fortune?”
His answer: making Jews in various venues throughout the renovated Erika J. Glazer Family Campus of Wilshire Boulevard Temple. The newly refreshed and glowing sanctuary will be unveiled to the congregation at Erev Rosh Hashanah services on Sept. 4 and throughout the Days of Awe. The temple plans to finish the remaining two phases of the project by 2020. Phase two entails a large-scale Tikkun Olam Center, staffed by professionals and congregants, which will provide the surrounding communities with a variety of social services, rooftop gym facilities, new courtyards for celebrations and other gatherings, the renovation of the temple’s two school buildings and a large parking garage. Phase three includes an office building with conference rooms, administrative offices, meeting places, an events center, a mikveh, cafe deli on site and a kosher kitchen.
The temple’s renovation and transformation of an entire city block wouldn’t have been possible without the temple’s approximately 7,500 congregants; to date, an estimated 520 people among them have donated to the project at various levels.
For this article, the Journal had space to profile only a small selection of those donors, and this selection, all of whom gave generously, also gave graciously of their time to talk about their philanthropy and motives. There is an extensive list of other congregants who contributed significant sums to the temple’s new effort. Perhaps foremost among them is Erika Glazer, daughter of shopping mall developer Guilford Glazer, who will give a total of $36 million, $6 million for the Early Childhood Center and $30 million over 15 years to help cover the debt payments on the tax-free bond financing the next phase of the project. She also gave her name: What was formerly known as the Wilshire Boulevard Temple campus is now officially renamed the Erika J. Glazer Family Campus of Wilshire Boulevard Temple in honor of her gift. (Glazer was traveling and unavailable to speak with the Journal at this time.) Among the other major donors are Larry and Allison Berg, Janet Crown, Stephen and Peggy Davis, Marshall Geller, Uri Herscher, Bruce and Lilly Karatz, Tom and Barbara Leanse, Yehuda and Liz Naftali, past president of the board Rich Pachulski and wife Dana, Ellen Pansky, Larry Powell and wife Joyce, Rick and Debbie Powell, Reagan Silber and many more. A particularly fervent donor is Sandy Post, who entered kindergarten at Wilshire Boulevard some 83 years ago and remains a temple member today.
Leder’s fundraising total so far is believed to be the largest amount of money any rabbi has ever raised in the United States. Leder says his success is all due to the community, and he refers to the donors as the “finest, most generous, visionary human beings you will ever meet.”
Bram GoldsmithBram Goldsmith, who served as chairman of the board and chief executive officer of City National Bank and City National Corp. from 1975 to 1995, was raised in a middle-class Orthodox home in Chicago. His father immigrated to the United States from Poland in 1916 and, soon after, brought over Goldsmith’s mother and two older sisters. Goldsmith himself was born in the United States in 1923, and he remembers from his childhood the family’s staple pushke box, a tin can for alms, in their home. Although not wealthy, the Goldsmiths always put a portion of what they had into the pushke to be picked up by the Jewish National Fund and sent to Israel.
With that box, young Bram was taught early the importance of giving back, and philanthropy became a guiding principle throughout his life.
“My personal work ethic starts with the issue of integrity and includes taking personal responsibility, being helpful to others, by being charitable with your contributions and your personal involvement,” he said during an interview at his City National Bank office in Beverly Hills.
In keeping with this mission, Goldsmith has donated $1 million for the restoration of the ark in the Wilshire Boulevard Temple’s sanctuary, which he sees as the heart of the temple. The donation was made through the Goldsmith Family Foundation, which was established in 1960.
For 25 years, Goldsmith served as president and chief executive officer of Buckeye Realty and Management Corp., the largest privately owned commercial real estate development company in Southern California at the time. He then took over City National Bank and guided the company’s growth, increasing assets from $600 million to $3.3 billion. Now, City National Corp. has assets of $27.4 billion and operates in more than 70 locations around the country.
Goldsmith’s first act of philanthropy occurred rather spontaneously, in 1942, when he was a young man in college at the University of Illinois at Chicago. At a dinner for the United Jewish Welfare Fund that he attended with his father-in-law, Goldsmith pledged $100, an amount so large for him at the time, it took him six months to pay it off. But it was the beginning of a commitment, and, he said, since moving to California in 1953, he has been “involved with the major Jewish philanthropic organizations in the community” here. Among them, Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, the Wallis Annenberg Cultural Center Foundation, The Jewish Federation of Greater Los Angeles, the Los Angeles United Jewish Fund Campaign, the United Jewish Appeal and the Weizmann Institute of Science in Israel.
As another Wilshire Boulevard Temple donor, Stanley Gold, put it, “Bram is the epitome of giving back to this community. In my opinion, he is the senior mensch in town.”
“I set a standard that all of us must encourage and respect every human being and do the right thing,” Goldsmith said.
A temple member since 1965, Goldsmith has been part of his five grandchildren’s bar and bat mitzvahs at Wilshire Boulevard and heard his granddaughter sing at Yom Kippur services. Goldsmith has seen the temple grow and change over almost 50 years, and has watched its role evolve in the Jewish world and Los Angeles at large.
“I think that today, the temple has achieved a new level of respect and leadership in the community,” he said.
“The restoration of this facility to service the needs of Reform Judaism in greater L.A. is very critical,” he said. “A spiritual sanctuary, with thousands of members, represents a very strong foundation for the future education of kids, whom I consider to be most valuable.”
From putting a few cents in a pushke box to renovating Wilshire Boulevard’s sanctuary, Goldsmith continues to build upon his family’s tradition of giving.
Alan BerroThe lasting impact of a trip to Israel can be hard to measure, but for Alan Berro, Capital World Investors senior vice president and portfolio counselor, the experience went beyond connecting to the Jewish state. On a Wilshire Boulevard Temple trip there in 2007, Berro deepened his ties to his now-18-year-old son, Bailey, as well as to the synagogue’s Rabbi Steven Z. Leder and the 30 other congregants on the trip. In traveling the 7,000 miles to Israel, Berro discovered his community back home.
The connection inspired Berro to become more involved in the congregation, which led to his underwriting the new ramps leading up to the bimah, enabling, for the first time, accessibility for all — young, old and the disabled.
A member of Wilshire Boulevard Temple since 2000 and a current board trustee, Berro said, “Being Jewish is just part of who I am, and I’m proud of that. I really like being a member of a Reform congregation that’s more open and more inclusive.”
A Laguna Beach native, Berro moved back to Los Angeles in 1991 after living in Boston for seven years, arriving just in time for the Rodney King verdict riots in the spring of 1992. The chaos and destruction of neighborhoods during that time, which hit especially hard the Koreatown neighborhood surrounding the temple, made a deep impression on Berro. He has felt motivated ever since to play a part in community building.
In 1998, Wilshire Boulevard Temple solidified the congregation with the addition of a new campus on the Westside, but Berro saw the importance of rehabilitating the historic location on Wilshire Boulevard and reinvesting in that neighborhood, as well.
Berro said he especially supports the temple’s efforts to create the Tikkun Olam Center, which will serve people from the diverse surrounding neighborhood of all ages and denominations.
“L.A. has been through some difficult times,” Berro said, adding, “I think the people who can afford to should try to help all parts of the city. We’re all here together; we’re not very far apart. This is just one more step in that direction.”
Berro attended UCLA as an undergraduate and earned an MBA from Harvard Business School. He worked at Fidelity Investments before joining the Capital Group.
Berro has served on the board of Inner-City Arts since 1998 and as chairman of the board of that skid-row arts education project for three years. He also has donated money to the California Science Center and Children’s Hospital Los Angeles, and in 2012 he joined the board of directors of the Jonsson Cancer Center Foundation at UCLA. Berro said he tries to extend his giving over a wide variety of areas, focusing on health, arts, education, religion and community.
Berro also said he views his contribution to Wilshire Boulevard Temple from a businessman’s point of view: “I see Wilshire Boulevard Temple as a pillar of the Jewish community in Los Angeles,” he said. “We’re really investing in a good place. … The fact we’re making a community and educational center will give a big return to the community.”
“I hope my son becomes a member,” Berro said, “and that for each generation, hopefully, the cycle continues. I think we have a rich a beautiful history, and I’d like to keep it going.”
Every part of the temple’s exterior was repaired, including bringing back the original color. Photo © Tom Bonner 2013
Fred SandsLos Angeles real estate mogul Fred Sands hesitates, on the verge of tears, as he explains his emotional connection to the Jewish people and religion. “I’m not aware I lost any relatives in the Holocaust, but the Holocaust is right here,” he said pointing to his heart. “It doesn’t go away.”
For Sands, the spiritual tie he feels to Judaism often remains inexplicable. To him, the important thing is how he responds to this deep-rooted connection.
The persecution of his Jewish ancestors and the survival of the Jewish people despite the odds spur him to give back, and inspired his donation of $500,000 to Wilshire Boulevard Temple’s renovation of the sanctuary’s triple lancet window.
“Rabbi Leder says you have to be a good ancestor. You’re not doing this for yourself; you’re also doing this for your heirs, future generations,” Sands said.
A temple member for 10 years, Sands often has lunch with Rabbi Steven Z. Leder, seeking his advice. In this instance however, it was the rabbi who came to Sands for guidance. According to Leder, Sands was the fourth person he consulted before starting the restoration project .
Sands has lived in Los Angeles since the age of 7, and in 1969 he created Fred Sands Realtors, now California’s second largest and the United States’ seventh largest independent real estate company. After selling the company to Coldwell Banker in 2000, he formed the investment firm Vintage Capital Group. He now serves as chairman of Vintage Real Estate, LLC, and Vintage Fund Management, LLC.
Many people encouraged Leder to sell the temple building, citing the large move of the Jewish population to the Westside. Sands, however, advised against that. He cited the increase of Jewish families and young couples living in Hancock Park, Los Feliz, Silver Lake and, more recently, an increasingly gentrified Echo Park — all neighborhoods close to the temple.
“In urban planning, you discover when you study cities, a city starts at the core and works its way out. Ultimately the core rots, and then it starts all over again,” Sands said.
This is the evolution that is occurring in Los Angeles today, Sands said. Where Wilshire Boulevard Temple was once at the city’s core, and then was not, now that core is being rebuilt again, and the temple can play an integral part in the revitalization.
“There’s a saying, ‘If you build it, they will come.’ They’ll be there,” Sands said. “The place is beautiful; people gravitate toward places like that. That’s a very vibrant community. No question, there’s going to be a resurgence.”
Sands even compares the temple’s rebirth to his own work with Vintage Capital Group, which buys rundown or underperforming shopping centers to improve them, and also focuses on turning around distressed companies and bankruptcies.
For him, the artistic component is important, too. Sands is a founder, vice chairman and trustee of Los Angeles’ Museum of Contemporary Art and also serves as chair of the museum’s Investment Committee. He also serves on several boards, including those of the Los Angeles Opera, the Los Angeles Police Foundation and Chrysalis, an organization that aims to rehabilitate the homeless.Sands said he believes any type of renovation, whether for a city, temple, commercial mall or company, requires a kind of generosity and kinship.
“We’re all in this together, rich and poor. It’s the right thing to do,” Sands said. “We’re supposed to be good people, to help other people. It’s part of life, giving back.”
Stanley GoldStanley Gold sits relaxed and content in his Beverly Hills home as he explains his involvement in Wilshire Boulevard Temple’s renovation plan. The Shamrock Holdings president and CEO — and recent chair of The Jewish Federation of Greater Los Angeles — leans back, chewing on a cigar after finishing a summer salad for lunch, and describes his personal connection to the temple and his thoughts on its role in the greater Los Angeles community. Jocular and loquacious, Gold doesn’t hold back as he also describes his overall philosophy on philanthropy.
He says Wilshire Boulevard Temple means so much more to him and his family than simply a historically and architecturally significant monument. For Gold, the 100-foot-by-100-foot sanctuary holds poignant memories of his son’s bar mitzvah and daughter’s bat mitzvah, and is the place where he’s established important friendships with the temple’s members, as well as its clergy. For the Gold family, Wilshire Boulevard is both a place of worship and a compassionate community. Gold and his wife, Ilene, have both served as members of the congregation’s board at various times during their four decades of membership.
“For the most part, we have given to places that have improved and bettered our lives. … Wilshire Boulevard fits that role perfectly,” Gold said. “They have helped us grow as a family, helped us raise our children and answered difficult questions.” To that end, the Golds have donated $2 million to help pay for and name a new play yard for the nursery school, which will be built later.
And while he acknowledges a strong personal connection, Gold said his reasons for donating also go far beyond that tie — he wants to support the temple’s role as a strong leader within the Jewish community as well as a gateway to the non-Jewish community.
“I think we have a responsibility within the community. We need to be supportive of our neighbors and the non-Jewish world. I think the temple does that in a big way,” he said.
Gold has seen the temple grow with changes in leadership, the building of the Audrey and Sidney Irmas Campus in West Los Angeles, and now the renovation of the new Erika J. Glazer Family Campus.
Gold said that with the expansion, he hopes the temple will continue to attract young, dynamic, growing and important families.
“We should never forget, as great as our buildings are, we are a People of the Book, not of the building, and that means we need to have new, interesting people to interpret that book and how it goes forward. I’m hoping the new facilities will attract such people,” Gold said.
Gold added that he thinks all Jewish people have a responsibility to serve the rest of society, a viewpoint he himself tries to live by.
Gold is a graduate of UCLA; he also has a degree from USC and completed postgraduate work at the University of Cambridge. He worked for the Gang, Tyre, Ramer & Brown law firm before becoming the president and CEO of Shamrock Holdings Inc., which is Roy E. Disney’s private investment company. He served on the Walt Disney Co.’s board of directors for more than 15 years, and donates money and gives his time to numerous Jewish and educational organizations. He served as chairman of the board at USC for six years, as chairman of the Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of religion for six years and chairman of Federation for two years.
“I think the Jewish people have an important contribution to make to this society,” Gold said. “I think our values, our outlook on life, our goals are consonant with the American dream. … We improve the quality of society.”
For Gold, this responsibility to contribute doesn’t only apply to Jews.
“I think it’s the job of everybody who’s on the earth to make the world a better place while you’re here,” he added. “Giving to organizations whose main focus is to enrich people and broaden people and show them opportunities is a way to make this place better. I give to those kinds of organizations,” he said. “I think I’m fulfilling what is my real duty for being here.”
The sanctuary’s ornate ceiling culminates in an oculus outlined by the words of the Shema. Photo © Tom Bonner 2013
Jonathan MitchellJonathan Mitchell likes to crane his neck backward as he sits in the sanctuary of the historic Wilshire Boulevard Temple, taking time to look 100 feet upward at the omnipotent Byzantine dome, with its centerpiece oculus outlined by the words of the Shema. As the rest of the congregation closes their eyes in prayer, he likes to gaze above, in honor of the memory of his now-deceased mother, Beverly Mitchell.
When Mitchell was a boy, his mother would soothe him to sleep by chanting the Shema. That prayer evokes the memory of her comforting voice, especially, during the High Holy Days services in the resplendent sanctuary. Mitchell fixates on the words above, remembering as well how his mother would surreptitiously point at the dome when they went to services together. This clandestine moment between mother and son established a personal tradition amid the sea of fellow temple members whose eyes remained closed, unaware of what had transpired.
This ritual, as well as the community he has found at Wilshire Boulevard Temple, inspired Mitchell to support the temple’s renovation and expansion project. Indeed, his family’s connection to the congregation reaches back generations: Both sets of his grandparents belonged to the temple, the temple confirmed both of his parents, the longtime stalwart Rabbi Edgar Magnin presided over the marriage of his parents and assisted in officiating Mitchell’s own bar mitzvah. Mitchell’s mother was also the first female member of the board.
Mitchell now heads the Edward D. and Anna Mitchell Family Foundation, named for his grandmother and for his grandfather, founder of the Beneficial Standard Life Insurance Co., and it was through the family foundation that he donated $1 million to build the campus’ new central walkway, which will be completed by summer 2016. The walkway will act as a main artery extending between the parking pavilion and sanctuary.
“We had a tradition of going there on the High Holy Days,” Mitchell said during a conversation at his home in Beverly Hills “It was kind of a special time for the family to all be together; I always looked forward to it from that standpoint.”
Mitchell was born and raised in Los Angeles, and he now oversees his family’s investment portfolio and serves as president of the family foundation. He has also been a committed and generous supporter of organizations benefiting education and Israel. The Mitchell Family Foundation donated a major gift to the Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center and established the Mitchell Academy of Science and Technology at the Milken Community High School. He has also given time and financial support to the Anti-Defamation League, Cedars-Sinai, the Music Center, Goodwill Industries, Sheba Medical Center and the Technion, to name a few. He also has served as a national officer and board member of AIPAC, ultimately becoming chairman of its Political Education Program, from 1995 to 1997, encouraging the building of relationships among government leaders and members of the Jewish community.
“The keeper of the Jewish traditions is Israel. It’s the heart and soul of the Jewish people,” Mitchell said.
Mitchell first realized the importance of helping Jews in 1968, on a trip to Israel and Eastern Europe sponsored by the United Jewish Appeal (UJA). At the former Jewish ghetto in Eisenstadt, Austria, he met the only living Jew from among those who stayed there after World War II. When Mitchell asked why he hadn’t left the ghetto, the man explained that if he moved, Jewish life in Eisenstadt would come to an end.
Mitchell especially remembers that moment, and how Rabbi Herbert Friedman, then the executive director of the UJA, sparked in him a drive to live by and support Jewish traditions: “Rabbi Friedman said it doesn’t matter how many Hitlers come and go. All of them put together cannot destroy the Jewish people. The only thing that can destroy the Jewish people is if we forget our traditions,” Mitchell recalled.
This notion, Mitchell says, has governed his entire life and was the motivation behind donating to the synagogue.
“I don’t want the end of the Jewish religion to ever happen in Los Angeles, and having an institution that’s substantial, financially strong, that makes a strong statement in the community, like Wilshire Boulevard Temple — that helps to keep the Jewish tradition alive in Los Angeles,” Mitchell said. “And I would like to see that continue forever.
“I believe that in the end people will look back and say we did the right thing.”
And this year, with the dome fully restored and newly glowing up above, Mitchell might not be the only one craning his neck back to read the words of the Shema prayer.
Martha Karsh“Sharing just feels like the right thing to do.” Martha Karsh, a philanthropist and attorney, said as she reflected on why she chose to donate to Wilshire Boulevard Temple’s renovation and expansion plan. Karsh said she and her husband, Bruce Karsh, were particularly moved by the temple’s plan to reach out with social services for its surrounding neighborhood, practicing the Jewish tradition of tikkun olam — repairing the world.
Karsh admits she didn’t need a lot of convincing to show her support. She said that along with the temple’s altruistic efforts, the preservation of the temple building “just spoke to us.”
Before the restoration began, Karsh toured the 1929 building and saw firsthand its neglected state, including portions of the ceiling in the main sanctuary that had fallen to the ground. Karsh described her emotional reaction to seeing the extraordinary structure eroding in front of her eyes.
“I’m really an architecture and preservationist buff,” she said. “I love that temple building.”
Once the renovation of the sanctuary is completed, Wilshire Boulevard Temple plans to build the Tikkun Olam Center, which will provide a variety of free or low-cost services, including medical, dental, legal and food assistance, as well as mental health counseling and English classes, for anyone in need living in the greater Koreatown area — a multicultural neighborhood that includes many low-income residents. The Karsh family has given $5 million to fund the center in hopes of improving the quality of life for both Jewish and non-Jewish neighbors.
Karsh said she and her husband felt most passionate about this particular outreach programming because of their ardent belief in helping others. Their three children have worked for the food pantry that the temple has operated for more than 25 years.
“I feel like my Judaism is very much a part of me,” Karsh said. “Many of the things that guide the work I do are really governed by both democratic and Jewish principles. Tikkun olam, for example — you heal the world, you help others that are less fortunate than you,” Karsh said. “Those are things that are really a part of the fabric of our lives.”
Martha and Bruce Karsh met at University of Virginia School of Law in 1978. The couple moved to Sacramento in the early 1980s for Bruce to work as a clerk for now-Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy. Bruce later transitioned into money management, ultimately becoming president and co-founder of Oaktree Capital Management, in 1995, which as of December 2012 managed $77.1 billion. Martha practiced law as a business litigator and counseling attorney. She also lectured at UCLA and volunteered at the Office of the County Counsel’s Department of Children and Family Services, earning volunteer-of-the-year in 1987. In 2009, she formed an architecture and design firm, Clark & Karsh, with architect Brad Clark.
Even as they were working and raising their three children, the Karshes also created the Karsh Family Foundation, which has donated more than $120 million to a variety of philanthropic organizations, mostly ones involving education.
Their philanthropic focus has been primarily on education, including giving to Duke University, University of Virginia, University of Pennsylvania, Teach For America and the Knowledge Is Power Program, and Martha Karsh said she believes education is key to bringing people together. She sees the Tikkun Olam Center as working to promote that goal, as well.
“When you reach out to your neighbors, you build bridges — bridges of understanding and bridges of sharing. Those are the kind of bridges we need to have more of in the world,” Karsh said.
“Part of the Jewish values, and just our personal values, are that you help people who are not as well off,” Karsh said. “What you’re doing is paying it forward. That’s why we’re doing it. That’s why it resonates with us.”
Audrey IrmasWell-known as among Los Angeles’ most important art collectors and arts philanthropists, Audrey Irmas discovers beauty wherever she goes — whether it’s a Roy Lichtenstein painting in her apartment or the artwork that adorns the walls of the Wilshire Boulevard Temple sanctuary.
Indeed, the sanctuary, built in 1929, is a work of art unto itself, with its audacious dome, resounding organ, delicate stained glass and more. However, for Irmas, one attribute in particular stands out: the Hugo Ballin murals.
Irmas said she loves to look at, in particular, a portrait of Ruth Dubin, the wife of past Rabbi Maxwell Dubin. Draped in blue, Ruth poses on her knees, as if offering up something, but it’s a mystery as to what she’s offering. “I always kind of say hello to [Ruth] when I go. I feel very much at home,” Irmas said. “There’s something so beautiful and welcoming about the temple. I love it very much.”
Irmas and her late husband, Sydney Irmas, are the third generation of the Irmas family to be members of the temple, and Irmas’ grandchildren constitute the fifth generation to belong to the congregation; indeed Audrey’s name, along with that of her husband grace the temple’s Westside campus, which opened in 1998. Now she has donated $5 million to create the Irmas Family Courtyard, which will include benches designed by the American artist Jenny Holzer.
When Irmas — who was born and raised in Los Angeles and attended Fairfax High School — was just a 20-year-old newlywed, she said, she took her first steps into the Wilshire Boulevard synagogue with her in-laws, when Sydney was out of town. She embraced the temple, sending her children to Sunday school there and attending services with her family — always sneaking a glance at the image of Ruth Dubin.
It was in 1948, while a student at UCLA, that she met Sydney, who went on to become an attorney and investor. By 1983, the couple had formed the Audrey and Sydney Irmas Charitable Foundation, and since her husband’s passing in 1996, Irmas said, she has tried to address local, national and global problems through the foundation, as well as focus on women’s and children’s issues. The foundation also has donated money to USC, created the Audrey and Sydney Irmas Los Angeles Youth Center and the Sydney M. Irmas Therapeutic Living Center. Audrey Irmas also has served as president and chair of the board of the Los Angeles’ Museum of Contemporary Art and as chair of the Los Angeles Family Housing Corp.
“I just feel that I am so fortunate. It’s just part of my background to give back. That’s just part of the family tradition,” she said.
She recalls, as a young girl during the Depression, witnessing her parents give $15 to charity. That donation, from more than 70 years ago, still influences her today, as she remembers how difficult times were for her family financially.
She said there was no question that she would be a donor to the temple’s rebirth. She reflects back on the times she spent at the temple with her in-laws and said she is comforted by her children’s continuation of the tradition.
“We’re a clan. Jews are a clan, [and] I’m a member of that clan,” Irmas said. “Everybody is so excited about the new temple and the campus. It has reinvigorated the congregation.”
Irmas said she believes the temple’s project will rejuvenate what is already a thriving and tight-knit community. The High Holy Days services, in particular, are a time when she is reminded of the support and kindness she has received from the people who make up the congregation.
“Usually, once a year, I’m invited to sit on the bimah and participate in the holiday readings. I love looking out to see all my friends from high school and my early marriage. We’re all sitting there together and worshiping. And it’s the temple that brings them together, that brings us together,” she said.
An early model of the campus expansion shows a preliminary vision for a Tikkun Olam Center on Sixth Street, at rear.
Wilshire Boulevard Temple: How do you raise $120 million? Read More »
My first memorable experience with Parashat Ki Tavo came when I was a child. My father and I were invited to a Bar Mitzvah in an Ashkenazi synagogue, and the parasha was Ki Tavo. The Bar Mitzvah family was kind enough to honor my father with an aliyah to the Torah, so it was a real shocker to them when my father refused to go up to the Torah. What was the problem? How could my father refuse such an honor?
The aliyah was the sixth aliyah in Parashat Ki Tavo, which contains a description of the most devastating curses in the Torah. In Morocco (where my father grew up), nobody ever wanted that aliyah. It was actually the custom for the community to pay someone to take that aliyah! Just imagine – we usually make donations after receiving an aliyah, but for this one aliyah in the year, you had to pay someone to take it.
What’s so spooky about this aliyah?
“If you will not listen to the voice of God … all of these curses shall come upon you and overtake you” (Deuteronomy 28:15).
The aliyah proceeds with 54 verses filled with detailed descriptions of some of the most dark and devastating curses. Understandably, this aliyah has instilled fear and superstition in generations of synagogue goers. In fact, the list is so gloomy, that it is customary for the person reading the Torah to soften his voice and read this section almost silently. Jewish law is even sensitive to this frightening section of the Torah, in that the schedule of Torah readings on the Jewish calendar is permanently fixed to assure that we always read Parashat Ki Tavo before Rosh Hashanah, so that we do not begin the New Year and then go to the synagogue on the Shabbat between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur to hear all of these curses.
Enough with curses. What about blessings? With Rosh Hashanah around the corner, we should all have blessings on our mind. In the Sephardic tradition, we not only think about blessings – we cook them! Sephardim turn blessings into a tasty array of foods on the first night of Rosh Hashanah — a “feast of blessings.”
When we come home from Arvit (evening) services, Sephardim sit around the table and conduct a Rosh Hashanah Seder, eating a wide array of symbolic foods whose theme is rooting out curses and praying for blessings.
We eat pumpkin or gourd, which in Aramaic is called kra (in Hebrew the word for “tear up” is also kra), and in a play on words, we pray that God will “tear up [kra] any evil decrees against us, and let our merits instead be read before God.”
We then eat pieces of a fish or lamb's head, and we say, “May we always be the head, and not the tail” (see Deuteronomy 28:13 — “And God will make you the head, and not the tail”).
We then eat dates, leeks and beets. All three foods are eaten accompanied by prayers for the termination of our enemies. The Hebrew word for date is tamar, and before eating the date we say “She-yitamu oyvenu” (May our enemies be consumed; yitamu — consumed — sounding like tamar). The Aramaic term for leeks is karti, and before eating the leeks we say “She-yikartu oyvenu” (May our enemies be cut off; yikartu — cut off — sounding like karti). The Aramaic word for beets is silka, and before eating the beets we say “She-yisalku oyvenu” (May our enemies disappear; yisalku — disappear — sounding like silka). These beautiful (and tasty) customs reflect our innermost desire to begin a year void of some of life's most brutal curses: strife, conflict and war.
We then eat pomegranate seeds and say “May we be full of mitzvot as a pomegranate is full of seeds” (according to one tradition, there are 613 seeds in a pomegranate). My family has the custom of eating sesame seeds mixed with sugar, and we say, “May our mitzvot be as abundant as sesame seeds, and as sweet as sugar.”
As sweet as all of these foods are, we know that the blessings they symbolize are even sweeter.
In Sephardic synagogues, the Arvit (evening) prayers on Rosh Hashanah open with a beautiful liturgical poem – Ahot Ketanah. Each stanza of the Ahot Ketanah poem concludes by saying “May this year and all of its curses come to an end,” and the finale of the poem is “May this coming year with all of its blessings come to a good beginning.” As we read Parashat Ki Tavo on Shabbat, we do so knowing that we will soon gather in synagogues and around our tables, ushering in the New Year and all of its blessings, thus leaving behind the awful curses of Parashat Ki Tavo.
Tichleh Shanah V’Kileloteha — May this year and all of its curses come to an end.
Tahel Shanah U’Birchoteha — May this coming year with all of its blessings come to a good beginning.
Sephardic Blessings Read More »
Rabbi Barry Diamond
Temple Adat Elohim (TAE) has named Southern California native Rabbi Barry Diamond as its interim rabbi. He replaces Rabbi Ted Riter, who ended his 16-year tenure at TAE in May.
Diamond, who grew up in Huntington Beach and Newport Beach, has served in several posts since his ordination at Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion, including time as interim rabbi in Houston, Texas, at Temple Sinai. He has worked as a part-time rabbi at Congregation Beth Shalom of Bryan/College Station, Texas, and spent 14 years leading the education programs at Temple Emanu-El in Dallas.
TAE, a Reform congregation in Thousand Oaks, announced Diamond’s appointment on July 5. A congregational meeting to approve Diamond was held on July 14.
From left: Actress and model Brooke Burke-Charvet with Barbara Lazaroff, California Spirit co-founder and restaurant designer. Photo courtesy of Amy Williams
Last month, American actress and model Brooke Burke-Charvet was honored at the 29th California Spirit, an annual gala that raises funds for the American Cancer Society.
During the July 28 event, which was held at the Pacific Design Center in West Hollywood, Burke received the Inspiration Award. In 2012, the multifaceted performer who co-hosts “Dancing With the Stars” shocked fans when she announced that she had been diagnosed with thyroid cancer. That same year, Burke’s cancer was successfully removed.
Co-founded by film executive Sherry Lansing, restaurant designer Barbara Lazaroff and chef Wolfgang Puck, California Spirit features cuisine, wines, live entertainment and a live silent auction. Since 1984, it has raised millions of dollars in support of research, patient services, early detection and more at the American Cancer Society.
Former “Project Runway” contestant Nick Verreos presented the award to Burke. Additional honorees included John Shaffner, Joe Stewart, Dr. Philomena McAndrew and Dr. Solomon Hamburg.
Delegates of AJWS’ rabbinic trip to India included Rabbi Peter Levi (top row, standing), Rabbi Ron Li-Paz (top row, second from left) and Rabbi Sue Levi Elwell (top row, second from right). Photo by Ruth Messinger of AJWS.
Rabbis Ron Li-Paz, of Valley Outreach Synagogue, and Peter Levi, of Temple Beth El in Orange County, traveled to Lucknow, India, last month on a rabbinic delegation trip.
American Jewish World Service (AJWS), an international humanitarian nonprofit led by activist Ruth Messinger, organized the trip, which provided the local clergy with the opportunity to join national Jewish leaders and volunteers in reflecting on connections between traditional Jewish teaching, service activities and human rights. It was AJWS’ fourth rabbinic delegation to visit somewhere aboard.
In total, 17 rabbis from across the country — including Rabbi Sue Levi Elwell, the Philadelphia-based founding director of the Los Angeles Jewish Feminist Center — participated in the 10-day excursion. It ended July 31.
“We are deeply gratified to have leaders of Rabbis Elwell, Levi and Li-Paz’s caliber as part of our rabbinic delegation to India,” said Messinger, president of AJWS, in a statement released prior to the trip. “Rabbi Elwell, Rabbi Levi and Rabbi Li-Paz, like the other rabbis traveling with us, are tremendous leaders not only in their synagogues and organizations, but also in their local communities.”
AJWS reports that it has sent more than 400 rabbis, rabbinic students and graduate students in Jewish communal programs on learning and service trips in the developing world since 2004. Upon returning home from these trips, delegates work with fellow alumni to form like-minded communities of Jews interested in global justice.
Moving and Shaking acknowledges accomplishments by members of the local Jewish community, including people who start new jobs, leave jobs, win awards and more, as well as local events that featured leaders from the Jewish and Israeli communities. Got a tip? E-mail it to ryant@jewishjournal.com.
Moving and Shaking: Temple Adat Elohim names interim rabbi, Brooke Burke-Charvet honored Read More »
Rumors circulated through Amsterdam’s Jewish community that married men were exempt from labor camp duty. Max Stodel — then known as Mozes or Mauritz — submitted the paperwork necessary to marry his fiancée, Jeannette van Praag. But during the mandatory two-week waiting period, he received orders to report on April 1, 1942, the day of the wedding. Max appealed to the German authorities. He and Jeannette married as planned in a civil ceremony at City Hall, with Jeannette’s aunt and Max’s brother-in-law serving as witnesses. There was no celebration. The next morning, on April 2 at 7:10 a.m., Max, as ordered by the Germans, boarded a train headed to Kremboong, a labor camp in the northern Netherlands. He was not quite 19 years old.
Max Stodel was born April 12, 1923, in Amsterdam, the youngest of Betje and Izak Stodel’s seven children.
Before the war, Max’s father worked in a slaughterhouse, curing animal hides with chemicals to make leather. It was low-paying and unstable employment, and the family was poor, living in a modest two-bedroom apartment with six children sharing one bedroom and one sleeping on the couch. Max remembers Shabbat dinners every Friday night.
Growing up, Max lived for soccer and played center half on his Jewish school’s team, as well as, later, on a city team. He was always the captain. He also attended a Talmud Torah school, but his family needed money, and in 1937, when he was 14 and eligible for a work permit, Max found a job as a presser at a men’s clothing company, working eight hours a day, six days a week.
Then, two years later, Max’s mother, who had been ill, died. “I mourned her for a year,” he said.
On May 10, 1940, Germany invaded the Netherlands, and the Dutch surrendered just five days afterward. Max continued to work, as Germany’s anti-Jewish measures slowly took effect. Sometime in 1941, Max said, the Germans began picking up Jews off the streets, and life became more treacherous. Max still worked, but, he said, “My father didn’t allow me to show my face in the city for luxury.”
When he arrived at Kremboong, Max was one of about 80 prisoners. He dug trenches eight hours a day in nearby farmland, a 20-minute walk. The food was sparse, but the prisoners could buy bread from local farmers.
Then, in July 1942, the Kremboong prisoners were marched an hour or more to Westerbork, a transit camp controlled by the Germans. Max was selected to oversee a group of about 12 men assigned to dig trenches eight hours a day to create the foundation of a morgue. Camp officials, impressed with Max’s strength and leadership ability, exempted him from deportation to Auschwitz and other death camps — trains leaving Westerbork were carrying carloads of Jews once each week.
Max’s wife, father and aunt were also sent to Westerbork, and on Nov. 16, 1942, with Max’s work finished, they were all transported by train to a camp in Annaberg, Germany, and immediately were separated. “That was the last time I saw my father and aunt and first wife,” Max said. After the war, he learned they had been killed at Auschwitz three days later.
Max was taken to another transit camp in Bissingen, Germany, and then, on Dec. 4, 1942, to Blechhammer, a complex that included forced labor camps, prisoner of war camps and chemical factories. Max was assigned to oversee a crew that used a four-wheel cart to transport iron pipes and other building materials to various construction sites. He worked the daytime shift, with a half-day off every other Sunday.
At Blechhammer, he befriended a group of Dutch POWs, who brought him the Dutch newspaper. They also provided cement sacks on which Max secretly wrote notes to his wife’s sister and her non-Jewish husband in Holland. They sent back 100 guilders, enabling Max to buy items from other POWs, including bread and a tin of dog fat.
One day, returning to camp from work, with the guilders tucked in the waistband of his pants, Max was stopped for inspection. Max tossed the money on the ground, but a German soldier saw him and slapped Max across the face 25 times and pocketed the money.
Another day, Max came upon a truck delivering bread. He stole a loaf and ran. But a German soldier stopped him, ordered him to drop his pants and gave him 25 lashings with a whip.
On Jan. 21, 1945, Blechhammer was evacuated, with approximately 4,000 prisoners taken on a death march. “We walked for two weeks,” said Max, who had one blanket to fend against the bitter cold, no socks and shoes with wooden soles. The prisoners slept in haystacks at night.
Max walked with two friends. They took turns entering houses en route and stealing bread. When Max’s turn came, he stole a pot of potatoes cooking on a stove, sticking the pot under his blanket. A Hitler Youth member saw the steam rising from under Max’s blanket and took out his revolver. “Don’t shoot,” German civilians shouted at the boy, who put down his gun.
On Feb. 2, the prisoners reached Gross-Rosen, minus 800 killed by SS soldiers on the march. Max was so exhausted he couldn’t move. “You cannot imagine what we went through,” he said.
After a short stay at Gross-Rosen, Max and the other prisoners were put in open cattle cars, with bombs falling around them, and taken to Buchenwald.
Outside his barracks in Buchenwald, Max saw hundreds of bodies piled up, some stacks five bodies high. “They couldn’t bury them fast enough,” he said.
The prisoners were transferred to Klein Mangersdorf and then loaded on a cattle car to Dachau, where they waited six hours for an engine. Next they were taken to Salach, a village in southern Germany, where they remained in the cars. One night they were brought individual Red Cross packages. “There were chocolates, cigarettes, you name it,” Max said.
The next evening the prisoners were let out of the train to get water. A German soldier said to Max, “We’re taking you to the Americans.” Max reported the conversation to the prisoners in his car, who started to pray.
The next day, American soldiers liberated the prisoners and rounded up the 50 or so German guards. It was April 30, 1945. Max had recently turned 22.
He returned to Amsterdam in May 1945 to live with his sister-in-law and brother-in-law. From his own family, only Max and one nephew survived.
At a Jewish community dance, Max met Sara Carles, and they married on Nov. 28, 1946. They had one daughter, Betty Sofia.
Max and his family left Holland on May 8, 1956, and, after a short stay in Trenton, N.J., they came to Los Angeles on Aug. 16, 1956. They lived in Culver City, and Max worked as a presser until he retired in 1977, at 53.
Sara died on Sept. 2, 2010. Max then cared for Sara’s sister, Klara Halberstadt, who lived at the Palm Court retirement community in Culver City. She died in January 2013.
Nowadays, Max, 90, rides his bike four mornings a week to Culver City’s Senior Center, where he plays pool. He also spends time with his daughter and speaks daily with his grandson, who lives in Singapore.
“They asked me how come I came back. There is no answer,” Max said. “I cannot say because I did, or because I did not. I cannot say it. Nobody can say it.”
Survivor: Max Stodel Read More »
Cardboard Sukkah Idea Has a Few Holes In It
It’s a brilliant idea, though the street folks will now be cardless as well as homeless until they can invest donations in new, and, perhaps better, art supplies (“HomelessSukkah.com,” Aug. 16). Here’s hoping your metaphor will be supported and addressed this season in a new year and new form of giving.
Melanie Chartoff via jewishjournal.com
I saw your article. It’s a great idea, especially if you can get the mayor to come.
However, if the roof is cardboard it won’t be a kosher sukkah. The cardboard often comes from boxes, which are susceptible to ritual contamination since they had an interior, and are therefore not capable of being a kosher sukkah roof material (called schach in Hebrew). This is why bamboo mats or branches are commonly used.
Joshua Kovacs via e-mail
Rob Eshman responds:
Yes, Mr. Kovacs is 100 percent right. I neglected to check with my very local rabbi first — I was under the impression cardboard counted as natural schach. She set me straight, as usual. The online version is correct, and, thankfully, several organizations and people have joined the effort at HomelessSukkah.com.
Child Abuse: The Shock Heard Round the Jewish World
It is dismaying to read the latest of so many accusations of child abuse in the Orthodox community, and as a teacher it is such a disconnect to read L.A. District Attorney Ben Forer’s words, that “people don’t want to believe” allegations of sexual abuse (“Childhood Abuse Victims Name Alleged Abuser,” Aug. 16).
“Families come out in support, in every community, in support of the predator, no matter what the evidence is,” Forer said. Contrast that to allegations against a teacher in a public school district. There, people want to not only believe that any allegation is true, but that more and others must be involved.
Teachers in the LAUSD, who must be annually certified by passing a test on child abuse awareness, are mandated reporters to law enforcement (not to parents, or school administrators, or school police) of suspected child abuse, on penalty of possibly losing their job, arrest or both. Why is the standard in the Orthodox community, of all places, any less?
One must be very sure before accusations (not to mention photos) are made public, but hopefully as much energy is being put into a concerted effort to get the victims to go to the authorities and seek whatever due process is still available to them.
Mitch Paradise, Los Angeles
Is this article the reason why there have been no copies of the Jewish Journal in their usual stands in the Pico-Robertson neighborhood since last Thursday? There are usually leftover copies that are removed only when the subsequent week’s issue is released. If so, the article should be reprinted weekly and the newsstands monitored for those abetting abusers.
Aaron Gross via jewishjournal.com
This is a beautiful article (“The Torah and Child Sexual Abuse,” Aug. 16). Having lived this crime with my sons, I know its truth so well. Protect all children always by being public.
Betty Backus Martin via jewishjournal.com
Clarifying Sex, Sexuality, Gender Terminology
I was extremely upset by Dennis Prager’s article, “Do Men and Women Matter?”(July 19) and the responses by Alex Romano and Prager (Letters, Aug. 1). As a queer Jewish feminist with a bachelor’s degree in gender studies and a minor in LGBT studies, the choice by the Jewish Journal to publish comments and articles that confuse feminism, gender, sex and sexuality was extremely disappointing and hurtful.
In the simplest explanation, biological sex refers to whether we are female, male or intersex. Gender is a social construct that defines people as men or women. Transgender and cisgender refer to gender identity. Sexual orientation is attraction, including lesbian, gay, straight, bisexual, queer and more. Feminism is about equality.
Please note that it is very difficult to simplify identities and labels, and there are numerous identities I have not mentioned due to the word limit. Understandings of sex, gender, gender identity, sexual orientation and feminism change from person to person; they are very personal and individual. I personally think our world should be more gender neutral and treat all people with humanity and respect. I look forward to you publishing articles that do not erase women, non-binary people and the LGBTQ community.
Emily Kunstler via e-mail
Letters to the Editor: Cardboard Sukkah, Child Abuse, Gender Terminology Read More »
Six years ago, when Rabbi Jackie Redner was hired as a full-time rabbi at Vista Del Mar Child and Family Services center, she decided to visit the kids in the Nes Gadol program first. Nes Gadol is designed to prepare children with autism for their bar and bat mitzvahs — they learn about Jewish history and religious practice and write speeches about their relationship to Judaism and faith. Many of the kids are nonverbal, so through a program called the Moses and Aaron Cooperative, each child selects someone who will speak their words aloud from the bimah on the big day.
The first child Redner interacted with was a boy named Dov. He was one of their toughest cases — “When I came into the Nes Gadol classroom, he was sitting on the floor, rocking, you name it, just really not focused,” she said of that initial encounter.
But Redner decided that if she was going to work with these children, she shouldn’t shy away from the challenges, so she sat with him and tried to get to know him. Dov doesn’t speak, but he can communicate by typing. The first thing he typed to her — one letter, one finger at a time — was: “Will you help me prepare for my bar mitzvah?” At the end of the session, he thanked her for her patience.
One hundred years ago, Vista Del Mar was a Jewish orphanage, a West Los Angeles refuge for children who didn’t have anywhere else to go. Now the 18-acre campus serves children and families from a variety of religious backgrounds and with a variety of needs, providing residential programs for kids in the foster system and nonpublic elementary and high school classrooms for children with learning and behavioral disabilities.
Redner is in charge of the Jewish life aspects of Vista Del Mar’s programming. It’s a smorgasbord of undertakings, including the Nes Gadol program, as well as creating High Holy Days services designed to welcome families of children with disabilities. Although Nes Gadol focuses specifically on kids with autism who are also nonverbal, the point of the High Holy Days services is to provide a welcoming Jewish space to all families who otherwise have trouble finding places where they can worship with children who have trouble focusing, reading, sitting still or just staying quiet.
“Our demographic is any kid who would get kicked out of any other program,” said Redner’s colleague, Elaine Hall, who runs the acclaimed Miracle Theater program at Vista.
Nes Gadol grew out of Hall’s Miracle Project, a 22-week program that culminates in the performance of a musical starring kids who are typically developing or who have autism spectrum disorder. Hall created the project as a response to the lack of creative, social outlets for her own son, Neal, who was diagnosed with autism. For her part, Redner comes to this work from a background in therapy: She was a registered occupational therapist interested in Jungian psychology before she became a rabbi. Both women agree that the goal of their work is to encourage self-expression in children through creativity as well as a sense of their own worth in the world.
“The Nes Gadol kids are very active in the service,” Redner said of Vista Del Mar’s High Holy Days programs. “They’re completely integrated, and they’re not just welcome, but they actually get to be leaders.” She considers this a crucial piece of the puzzle.
“Parents of kids with special needs don’t get to brag about their kids,” she added. “They don’t get the nachas.” But when the kids are encouraged to study and to speak, “they allow the congregation to find their own light, and by including them we elevate our services.”
Both Hall and Redner are quick to clarify that what they’re doing isn’t service work in the traditional sense.
“We don’t know who’s before us,” said Redner, who added that her default mode is to “assume intelligence” in the kids she works with. She takes their unique perspectives and perceptions as open windows onto new ways of seeing the world.
To that end, Redner and Hall have recently secured a grant from the Jewish Community Foundation to create the Vista Inspired Community Inclusion Program, which will pilot a program focusing on including special-needs families into more traditional congregations.
“This isn’t about doing good for some poor person,” Redner said. “We’re hoping to partner with them to help them engage with, support and be elevated by these children.”
At the end of an interview, Redner screens a video of Dov’s bar mitzvah, a montage that includes his process of writing his speech and then someone delivering it for him on the bimah. Dov’s talk begins with a simple assertion: “Everyone desires some way to reach somebody.” Before he learned to type, there was no way for Dov to communicate with the people around him; he was 11 before his parents knew what was going on inside their son’s head. When they asked him what he’d been up to all those years, Dov replied simply: “Listening.”
The Jewish Life programs at Vista Del Mar return the favor for those years of listening, encouraging children with autism to speak their minds, to engage with their faith and to find a way to reach out to their community.
Welcoming special-needs families at Vista Del Mar Read More »