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Jewish Journal

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August 22, 2013

Cultivating Next Gen communities

Leave a Comment / Judaism /

It started with a cup of coffee.

About two years ago, Effie Braun and her husband, Nate, sat down with Rabbi Noah Farkas of Valley Beth Shalom (VBS) in Encino to discuss an idea — VBSnextGen.

The rabbi’s idea was to create a community within VBS for couples under 40 — dating, engaged or married — who were entering a period in their lives where active participation and membership with a synagogue would soon become a serious option. For Effie Braun, 27, the prospect of joining a relatively small, tight-knit community within VBS’ large congregation of 1,500 member families was a big draw.

“I wanted to meet people that were more stable, not people going to clubs until 5 in the morning,” she said. 

Farkas, a 30-something rabbi in his sixth year at the synagogue, wanted to focus VBS’ young adult outreach on couples like the Brauns because, as he put it, “When you think you found a partner in life who you are pretty serious about, your life begins to become more stable. 

“It’s at that moment that you are open to more stable types of institutions, like synagogues,” he concluded.

While it’s no secret that synagogues implement young adult programs in part to increase the number of paying members down the line, VBS and many other local congregations aren’t interested in simply adding names to a membership list — they expect young adult participants to meaningfully contribute to programming and to pursue growth in their own religious lives.

Like many local synagogues, VBS has tiered pricing, with reduced membership fees for younger congregants. Its significantly discounted fee for VBSnextGen members is $250 for married couples, $125 for unmarried couples. But like a growing number of local synagogues’ young adult programs, VBSnextGen also is laser focused on creating Jews who, in Farkas’ words, are “producers of Judaism, and not just consumers of Judaism.”

When couples first join VBS, Farkas’ first “ask” is for them to attend a Shabbat dinner hosted by another young couple. VBSnextGen members host about three Shabbat dinners per month. The goal is not only to build a social and religious community, but, as Farkas said, “to take those training wheels off and start practicing Kiddush,” to the point where the first-time Shabbat dinner guests will eventually become hosts who can “train” new members on the to-do list of Shabbat dinner. 

“That is the turning point,” he said.

At IKAR, a nine-year-old independent congregation located in the Westside JCC, the turning point comes at the moment of sign-up, when new members have to make a “membership brit” (covenant) — a commitment to Torah learning, a commitment to helping grow the IKAR community and a commitment to tzedakah, charitable work. 

Each commitment has several options. Someone, for example, can attend one prayer service a week (Torah), welcome people on Shabbat (community growth) and serve meals in homeless shelters (tzedakah). Like VBS, IKAR has a reduced fee for younger members in addition to its expectation that members will actively grow in their Jewish involvement.

“We want to lower the barriers of entry but raise the bar for participation,” said Melissa Balaban, IKAR’s executive director. “When you come, we are going to ask stuff of you. And we are going to make you think, and we are going to challenge you.”

Caroline Engel, a 24-year-old who moved to Los Angeles from Pennsylvania in February, joined IKAR when she arrived. Engel, who sometimes reads Torah on Shabbat for the congregation and volunteers at social events, said that IKAR “challenges you to be involved and to give your spare time to help build that very strong community.”

About two miles away is Beth Jacob Congregation, an Orthodox synagogue with 675 member families that has, over the last two years, created a “young professionals” minyan, the crux of which is a weekly Shabbat morning service and a monthly Shabbat dinner that consistently draws more than 100 people. 

Daniel Schwartz, 28, who helped create the young professionals group with four other young adults shortly after he moved to Los Angeles, said that the impetus behind the minyan was twofold — bring more young Jews into the door and get as many as possible regularly involved in what Schwartz says is a close-knit young adult community.

“It can be going to events, it can be coming to minyan, it can be taking a leadership role in some of the volunteer events. Our expectation is just for people to be more involved,” Schwartz said.  

That involvement can even be something as simple as being a greeter at Shabbat dinners and chatting with new guests to make them feel welcome.

Nikki Fig, 22, a recent college graduate, attended her first Beth Jacob young professionals Shabbat dinner in March, about six months after moving to Los Angeles. 

Until that dinner, she said, breaking into the young adult Jewish scene was a grind. Now, Fig attends as many dinners as she can, participates in Shabbat morning services nearly on a weekly basis, and said that she met her closest group of friends in Los Angeles through Beth Jacob’s young professionals scene. 

She hopes to eventually become what every synagogue hopes its young adult programs produce — a new member. 

“They are showing me why I want to be Jewish, and ultimately that will translate,” Fig said. “When I do have a more stable position, of course I will become a member and hopefully give back.”

Cultivating Next Gen communities Read More »

New Mexico high court says photograper has no First Amendment right to refuse to shoot gay ceremony

Leave a Comment / Uncategorized /

In a long anticipated decision, the New Mexico Supreme Court ruled today that a photographer has not First Amendment protection against a state law that forbids her from refusing service to a potential client on the basis of sexuality. The case is Elane Photography v. Willock, and it's been kicking around since 2006, first with a complaint to the New Mexico Human Rights Commission and then up and down the state courts. And the opinion is going to be seen by conservatives as the next stone on the path to anti-religious tyranny.

You can read the “>Twitter, there are two major problems with this rationale.

The first is that it minimizes the speech component of conduct. It's cliche, but actions do speak louder than words. And First Amendment jurisprudence recognizes this. But the New Mexico Supreme Court overlooks it.

The second is a point that Eugene Volokh, my First Amendment professor, “>thoughtful post analyzing the opinion. Of particular interest is his discussion of Justice Bosson's concurring opinion, in which the justice says that, despite the pain this result will cause the owners of Elane Photography, “compromise is part of the glue that holds us together as a nation, the tolerance that lubricates the varied moving parts of us as a people.” To that, White responds:

Whether or not you agree with Justice Bosson's conclusion, I think it's important that he is explicitly recognizing that these laws — like so many others — involve some sort of intrusion into personal liberty of which we should be aware. You may believe that the intrusion is justified, or you may not, but our discussion of the subject is incomplete and even dishonest without that recognition.

The religion angle here should be obvious.

This is unlike court rulings that have taken prayer out of school, limited the teaching of creation and required interfaith surroundings of a municipal nativity scene. It also unlike courts ruling that a state must recognize same-sex marriage or the U.S. Supreme Court striking down DOMA. (All of which I think reach the right result.) The former opinions protected against the governmental promotion of religion and the latter extended equal protection of the laws to gay and lesbian couples.

But this opinion goes much further. It's about private, not public, actors. And it will be remembered by some as telling people who believe homosexuality is a sin that they need to do more than tolerate other beliefs and actions; they need to actually celebrate them.

“It is,” as Justice Bossom wrote, “the price of citizenship.”

New Mexico high court says photograper has no First Amendment right to refuse to shoot gay ceremony Read More »

Michael Israel Wins ‘Chopped!’– Now Where’s Our Restaurant??

Leave a Comment / Blogs, Opinion, Rob Eshman /

If L.A. has such great kosher chefs, why don’t we have at least one great kosher restaurant?

This month,  two L.A. kosher chefs competed on separate episodes of the popular Food Network show, “Chopped!” — and both won.  So our chefs can win national cooking competitions, but our city can’t sustain a great local kosher fine dining place?

Katsuji Tanabe, the chef/owner of Mexikosher on Pico Blvd. and Michael Israel, the chef/owner of the M.O.E. Better Deli food truck and blogger at Kosher Bacon, each took home the $5,000 prize in tough competitions.

Mexikosher features Tanabe’s bright, original takes on traditional Mexican food—but it is essentially a take-out place, not a restaurant.  And Israel, who together with his wife Emily run a non-kosher pop-up called Fress, devotes his day time hours to his rolling food truck—again, excellent, but not exactly fine dining.

LA’s best kosher restaurant is Tierra Sur, which is a good hour or more north in Oxnard.  It’s worth the drive— but it’s not exactly convenient.  (Side note: the last time I was there, Pat Sajak was sitting at the next table dining with a beautiful woman.   Pat Sajak. Go figure.)

As for LA, there are some nice fancier places—Pats, Shilos- and many good simpler kosher restaurants and take-out joints.   I’d put Ta’eem Grill’s schwarma and matbucha up against any in New York, or Tel Aviv.   But a chef-driven, fresh, local and inventive restaurant that  truly reflects all the exciting things happening in kosher food and wine?  Evidently the world’s 3rd largest Jewish community can’t sustain it.

It’s not because we don’t have the cooking talent. Both Tanabe and Israel have solid chef creds.  Tanabe worked in high-end starred restaurants, and Israel trained in Europe, New York and the Culinary Institute of America.  And winning “Chopped!”  is not chopped liver. There are four contestants.  Each must make an appetizer, main course and dessert using a mix of ingredients that they see just seconds before the cooking begins.  In Israel’s case, the contestants had to make an appetizer course using blood sausage, smoked pork, ginger snaps and Savoy cabbage.  They can draw from a well-stocked pantry, but they only have 20 minutes to a half hour to cook.  It’s challenging, nerve-wracking and slightly gross.

Israel, who writes the Kosher Bacon blog at jewishjournal.com, stuck to his theme of modernizing Jewish food.  He made a version of matzo ball soup with crushed ginger snaps standing in for matzo meal.  It looked like a Mad magazine version of iles flotantes, but it won points for originality. 

In the next round the mystery box revealed halibut, orange flavored drink, pepperoni risotto and Chinese celery. Israel made a beautifully presented seared halibut topped with a  salad of fresh apple and celery.  That, he said, was to represent the food of Passover.

For dessert he took guanabana nectar, white chocolate chips, pecans and chipotle chilis and made a white chocolate kugel.

“You’re really keeping with the Jewish thing, aren’t you,” said a judge.

It worked for him: Israel won.  He said he would use the prize money to take his wife Emily on a trip to Israel—sticking to the Jewish thing to the end.

I wrote about Tanabe’s equally impressive victory here.  Both men were cool under pressure, showed some sass, and both were intensely competitive.  Just the qualities you need to open a fine dining kosher restaurant in LA.

So, who’s going to back them?

Michael Israel Wins ‘Chopped!’– Now Where’s Our Restaurant?? Read More »

NFL chooses official dip…Spoiler alert: It’s hummus!

Leave a Comment / Uncategorized /

The American snack food community just got a healthy addition – hummus. Yes, this loved chickpea spread from the Middle East has won new fame in the US following the National Football League’s announcement that hummus is now the official dip of the NFL.

The league chose Sabra hummus – made by Sabra Dipping Company and jointly owned by PepsiCo and Tel Aviv-based Strauss Group– as its official dips sponsor.

But whereas Israelis are used to eating this spread in a pita with falafel or shwarma, Sabra hummus is being marketed as a healthier alternative to mayonnaise.
Sabra’s Israeli CEO Ronen Zohar told Bloomberg that he believes Americans will go gaga over the new dip option. Sabra recently launched its first batch of US television commercials in which they explain to the American masses how to eat hummus.

To continue reading this
 article, click here:  NFL chooses official dip…Spoiler alert: It’s hummus! Read More »

Unorthodox venues for High Holy Days services

Leave a Comment / Holidays, Judaism /

The question “Where are you going for services?” is a mainstay among Jews around this time of year. Numerous congregations that ordinarily perform Shabbat services at their own locale often need to find larger, and more spacious, nontraditional venues — often churches, theaters or hotels — for the High Holy Days to accommodate the many who come only then to meet their spiritual needs. 

Congregation Or Ami, the Calabasas-based Reform shul, rents the Fred Kavli Theatre at the Thousand Oaks Civic Arts Plaza to accommodate the more than 1,000 ticket holders for their High Holy Days services. Rabbi Paul Kipnes, Or Ami’s spiritual leader, wanted a location that would be both comfortable and provide outside space to welcome the community to the prayer services. “The High Holy Days are not meant for pain and distress, but to be transformative and introspective,” Kipnes said. “The more we remove any obstacles of discomfort, the more we can open our hearts and our minds to the purpose of the holidays — it becomes more meaningful.”

Up until four years ago when Or Ami began to rent the Kavli Theatre, High Holy Days services were held in a community center auditorium with limited seating. The theater, by contrast, is comfortable and has a sophisticated audio and visual system, with plenty of stage space for the medley of instruments and performers, including a violinist, cellist, pianist and soloist who enhance the services. “We have an incredibly musical and dramatic service,” Kipnes said. “The theater undergoes a shift from just a stage and curtains to an ark and podiums, all set up by experienced movie set installers, with the exception of the Torah, which travels with me.”

Transporting the Torah, Kipnes said, takes special care. “We recite the traveler’s prayer, Tefilat HaDerech, before the Torah is transported to the theater in my car,” he said. “It is lovingly wrapped and goes from Or Ami straight into the ark.”

To help offset the expense of the Kavli Theatre, Congregation Or Ami budgets for the venue with ticket sales and a High Holy Days appeal.

Paying a rental fee for a larger space for the High Holy Days is a necessary expense says Rabbi Mordecai Finley of Ohr HaTorah Congregation in Mar Vista, which he co-founded with his wife, Meirav. Since 1995, Ohr HaTorah has spent the holidays at the Wilshire Ebell Theatre, a Broadway-style, live-performance venue, with attendance that fluctuates from 700 to more than 1,000 worshippers. “There is a cost benefit,” Finley said of renting the theater. “We don’t want to miss all the prospective members who come to the High Holy Days services; but we don’t turn anyone away because of cost.”

“The Ebell is really a beautiful setting,” he added. “It looks like an old-style synagogue, with full-backed theater seats facing toward the bimah. When people see the carefully constructed stage, the Torah tables covered with tablecloths, and the holy ark, it makes the room a sanctuary — it’s a nice facility and becomes familiar to everyone.”

Ohr HaTorah used to rent space from churches for their High Holy Days services, but Meirav Finley said she loves that the Wilshire Ebell is now their spiritual hub. “When you create or enter a space, that becomes a tradition — the traditions and the values of the old create a wonderful, sacred space,” she said. “People connect and find their own space within the holy environment.”

Ohr HaTorah Congregation in Mar Vista has held High Holy Days services at the Wilshire Ebell Theatre, a Broadway-style, live-performance venue, with attendance that fluctuates from 700 to more than 1,000 worshippers.

Art Pfefferman, vice chair of The New Shul of the Conejo, a Conservative congregation in Agoura Hills, was the facilitator in securing its current venue for High Holy Days services. Growing under the spiritual leadership of Rabbi Michael Barclay, The New Shul has held Friday night services at a local hotel but found that space could not accommodate the increasing High Holy Days turnout. “We were looking for a location that would house the estimated attendance of typically 700 people,” Pfefferman said. They found it at The Canyon Club in Agoura Hills.

A popular concert venue, The Canyon Club offers a dedicated sound and lighting person, along with security and free parking, which made it attractive. “We bring in everything that makes a shul a shul,” Pfefferman said. “We hang white curtains, bring in an ark, Torahs, a Torah table — all the necessary accoutrements.”

“It’s an intimate, yet large venue,” Barclay added, saying its wide layout makes it easy to connect with the congregation to create a sacred space. “When a rabbi is performing on an elevated bimah,” Barclay said, “people are observing, not practicing, Judaism — everything is so far away — it’s like watching a performance. The Canyon is set up in a way that allows us to all be together — I’m with everyone.”

Lance Sterling, owner of The Canyon Club, also created movable standing screens that can condense and expand as needed. “If you have 500 people on the first day of Rosh Hashanah, and then maybe 150 on the second day, people may feel lonely when surrounded by empty seats,” Barclay said. “The benefit is that we can move these screens around, creating a smaller, more intimate space, and now the venue becomes a place that holds 150 people.” 

Joe Lehrer, a member of The New Shul pointed out that the intimacy of a performance venue is one of its advantages. “There are no obstructed seats,” he said. “You can see the rabbi and be a part of what’s going on — it’s roomy and comfortable.”

Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur are meant for creating a personal relationship with God, Barclay said. “The venue becomes our sacred space — kavanah, our intention — it’s a reflection of how we are and how we want to be in the world.” 

Rabbi Moshe Bryski of Chabad of Agoura Hills officiates High Holy Days services at the Hyatt Westlake Plaza Hotel. Anticipating more than 1,800 people, Chabad uses the grand ballroom and the ancillary rooms, including the foyer and lobby. 

“We have a team of about 10 that are both volunteers from Chabad and the hotel staff, who transition the facilities in about three to four hours,” he said. “We have a mobile ark and we set up the bimah, with the Torahs arriving the night before services.”

Chabad has a history of outgrowing their High Holy Days venues in the Conejo Valley, moving from a local elementary school to several area hotels before finding the much-needed space at the Hyatt. “They really go above and beyond for us,” Bryski said of the hotel staff. The variety of spaces at the Hyatt also allows Chabad rooms for childcare, a youth shul and prayer discussion groups.

Chabad and the Hyatt also have created an optional retreat program for the observant who live too far away to walk to services. “We have a few hundred people who stay at the hotel,” Bryski said. “It’s like Little Jerusalem.”

But the real sanctity of High Holy Days services always comes from the people once the room fills up and everyone begins chanting, Bryski said. Being in such a large venue allows all Jews to come together. “Observant, secular, affiliated, nonaffiliated, Sephardic, Ashkenazi — it doesn’t matter if you are totally secular or totally observant,” Bryski said of the High Holy Days. “We are all Jews, We are all one, and being all together in this location brings out the real spirit of what the holidays are all about.”

For a guide to where you can attend High Holy Days services, visit jewishjournal.
com.

Unorthodox venues for High Holy Days services Read More »

Florentin: 10 things I learned about Tel Aviv’s hippest neighborhood on Guy Sharett’s walking tour

Leave a Comment / Blogs, Culture /

The slow yet steady gentrification of Tel Aviv's Florentin neighborhood is hardly news around here.

Florentin, a Los Feliz-sized patch of warehouses, workshops, bakeries and bars — “>an entire 13-pager on Florentin as “a key-space where to observe and decipher how globalization impacts on the daily-life scale and banal forms of identification and territorial appropriation.” Yikes.

All of which made it difficult for this recovering snarky news blogger to resist tagging along on “>New York Times “>an Israeli fisherman's village upbringing any hipster would die for, and knew his way around Florentin like the Little Mermaid around a quirky shipwreck.

In short: I had a lot to learn. Below are the top 10 things I'm glad I now know about Florentin that I didn't know before.

“>Nitzan Mintz, a local street artist who regularly stencils Hebrew poems onto telephone poles and other outdoor surfaces. Sharett said that she was once caught in the act by some policemen, who then proceeded to live debate over whether her half-finished poem would be considered art or vandalism. As the story goes, they decided it wasn't, yet still wouldn't let her finish the piece — so she had to come back in the shadows of night to top off her poem.

Still better than we can say for “>Anita Falali (or אניטה פללי in Hebrew), an Israeli singer and former underwear model who in her prime was known as “the ass of the country,” has become one of Florentin's finest local characters. She walked by with her little dog during the tour, giving a coy ex-model wave to our guide as he explained the nuances of a manhole cover inscription at our feet. It was all very… Venice Beach.

“>Which exists.

5. The rundown maze of warehouses and artist workshops, and even a longboard factory, on the west end of Florentin — known widely as the “workshop area,” or “that cool part of Tel Aviv with all the graffiti” — is scheduled to be torn down and replaced with modern buildings in the next few years, according to Sharett. This helps graffiti artists feel more free to scrawl as they please, but is obviously depressing because, R.I.P. everything awesome in Tel Aviv that isn't a skyscraper. 

“>Dede; the one who does the gangster eggplants is Eggplant Kid (EPK); the one who draws the tiny box people is “>the Florentin 28 apartments. He also happened to be the neighborhood psychologist. “We would come to fix our shoes and talk about life,” said Sharett. Tragically, though, the shoemaker recently died, and all that's left of his practice is a tattered paper obituary taped over the door.

1. There is such a concept as the “archaeology of graffiti,” and Sharett would love to tell you about it. Worth the 50-shekel tour fee in itself, even if I feel a little geekier for knowing it.

Florentin: 10 things I learned about Tel Aviv’s hippest neighborhood on Guy Sharett’s walking tour Read More »

The Guilt of Success

Leave a Comment / Blogs, Culture /

By Nicole Goodman

“Mr. and Mrs. Marvin Grossman are proud to announce the arrival of their son, Dr. Jonathan Grossman.”

Even before we, as Jews, learned to speak we were pressured by our parents and the Jewish community to be successful. The success is usually defined as a doctor, lawyer, investment banker, accountant, consultant, producer, agent, or politician. With these jobs being set as standards in a household, kids are pressured to do their absolute best from the first day of school. Kids and their parents will stop at nothing to be sure they have the best scores on the SAT, ACT, AP tests, GRE, LSAT, GMAT, MCAT, etc. Kids are trained to put everything they have into these exams because the theory is those scores will make or break their chance of success. This is a concept that pushes the abilities of kids to be the best students they can be. But when does it get to be too much? Getting into the best college is hard enough as it is, but what happens after graduation when it is time to build a career? What are the lengths it takes to be successful today even after graduating from The Deans List at an Ivy League?

With many people struggling to find jobs after college, the competition has become so extreme that people will cross completely new boundaries for a chance to become successful. Take the financial world for instance. During college many young Jews decide they want the high power, intense job of working as a banker. If they have the chance of getting a job or internship they find out that the competition is so high that they are worked liked slaves, working an average of 15 hours days and they cannot do a single thing about it. If they complain, they’ll get fired and the firm will bring the next desperate Jew around.  Just this week there was a student from Michigan University who was working at a Bank of America’s London office. This student probably spent his whole life working hard to nail an internship like this. The pressure to be successful ended up taking his life. His extreme workdays took a huge toll on him and he ended up being found in his shower, dead, at 21 years old. In today’s society it is a brutal battlefield for a chance at success. But how hard will you push your body and mind to overcome your Jewish guilt? I believe life is a balance. Working hard and being motivated are extremely important but learning how to balance school, work, fun, friends, family, etc. is the most important job we have.

The Guilt of Success Read More »

Rabbi Ron Li-Paz’s long and winding road

Leave a Comment / Judaism /

Ron Li-Paz certainly took the long way to the rabbinate.

The experienced cantor and spiritual leader of Valley Outreach Synagogue (VOS) describes his recent ordination at the Academy for Jewish Religion, California (AJR-CA) as one of the most transformational experiences of his life. But it was never obvious that the now-44-year-old would one day take a spiritual path. 

During his 20s, Li-Paz of Agoura Hills recalls feeling indifferent toward his faith, even though he grew up in a devout Jewish household. Born in Haifa, he moved to the United States in 1971. 

He served for three years in the U.S. Air Force in England doing base operations and flight planning and then switched to a career in theater and broadcasting, including work for the BBC. He later changed directions again, becoming a management consultant and helping international corporations create communications strategies. 

Restless and in search of his true calling, Li-Paz took up opera singing in his 30s and found great success. Having studied at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London and trained for opera with his father, Michael, world-renowned opera singer Giorgio Tozzi and others, Li-Paz traveled the world, singing as a soloist in some of the world’s greatest cities and theaters. In Los Angeles, he sang in places like the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion and Walt Disney Concert Hall. 

It was gratifying work, but something still wasn’t quite right, Li-Paz said. The frequent traveling for concerts meant he was often away from his family for extended periods, and that didn’t sit well with his Jewish values. 

“I remember my dad saying to me, ‘I’m not sure [opera] is a very Jewish profession,’ ” Li-Paz recalled. “I knew what he meant: How can you be in a profession where, months at a time, you’re away from your family? And that was really the painful truth.”

However, there was another aspect of his life that made sense. In between traveling as an opera singer, Li-Paz started singing at temple. In 1996, he became cantor at VOS, which worships at the Hilton Woodland Hills/Los Angeles and, during the summer, at Oak Canyon Community Park in Oak Park. He combined his cantorial work with opera singing for a decade until he became the temple’s sole spiritual leader and decided to dedicate himself to Judaism. 

Li-Paz said he learned to be a cantor through self-study and from his father, who served as the cantor of Creative Arts Temple in Los Angeles and sang during the High Holy Days at a number of area shuls.

Seven years ago, when retiring Rabbi Jerry Fisher asked Li-Paz to become the full-time spiritual leader of VOS, a transdenominational synagogue, the latter felt it wasn’t enough to simply accept the new role without additional training. He wanted to become an ordained rabbi himself.

Li-Paz had already acted as part-time spiritual leader as well as cantor for several years at the synagogue, and there were fast-track options available to help him achieve his goal. Possibilities included online programs with minimal time requirements or going to another rabbi to get ordained, he said. 

Instead, he opted for six years of disciplined study, taking classes three days a week at AJR-CA, which also is transdenominational. He pored over books in between the daily demands of weddings, funerals, bar and bat mitzvahs and other synagogue duties.

“It wasn’t that I wanted a title, it’s that I wanted the education,” Li-Paz explained. “I couldn’t stand in front of a congregation without enriching what I could offer them.”

On June 10, his efforts finally paid off when — with his wife, Bronwen, two children and a very proud father watching — Li-Paz was ordained as a rabbi during a ceremony at Stephen S. Wise Temple in Bel Air.

The life-changing moment ranked alongside his marriage and the births of his children, he said. 

“I’ve been a part of thousands of services and ceremonies, and this was just incredible,” Li-Paz said. “The moment of being called ‘rabbi’ for the first time in your life after so many years of hard work is pretty awe-inspiring.” 

Tamar Frankiel, president of AJR-CA, said it’s not unusual for people to seek second careers in the clergy. About half of the students at the seminary come from non-religious careers, she said. Graduates include architects, people from the film industry and scientists, among others, she indicated. 

“Often I think it’s as people become more mature, they’re looking deeper within themselves, they’re looking more at the bigger purpose of their life,” Frankiel said. “Our institution really emphasizes the support for, you might call it a spiritual quest, or a deepening of purpose.”

Frankiel added that Li-Paz is unusual in that he has a broad range of skills.

“He’s an extraordinarily talented person musically as well as intellectually,” she said. “You don’t get so many people who are both rabbis and cantors.”

Larry Rudner, president of VOS, which has a membership of about 700 families, said Li-Paz’s ordination by a respected seminary adds a lot to the synagogue, in part by connecting it with the larger rabbinic community. But, he added, he’s always been a believer in his spiritual leader.

“He’s changed my life,” Rudner said. “It’s this charisma that he has. There’s just this feeling from him that [he’s] someone special.”

Li-Paz has proven particularly popular with kids, and there has been a marked increase in the participation of young families since he became spiritual leader, Rudner said.

For Li-Paz, his responsibilities at VOS won’t change because he’s a rabbi. However, his journey has given him a much fuller understanding of Judaism to share with his congregation.

“I’ve been leading a community, and that’s what I’ll continue to do,” Li-Paz said. “It’s still very good to have worked this hard to now be able to stand alongside my colleagues as a rabbi.”

Rabbi Ron Li-Paz’s long and winding road Read More »

Holiday reading round-up for kids

Leave a Comment / Books, Culture, News /

The good news for Jewish children’s books this year is the occasion of the 20th anniversary of beloved picture book character Sammy Spider. There is even a colorful plush toy available on the publisher’s Web site (karben.com). Sammy’s creator, the prolific L.A.-based children’s author Sylvia Rouss, continues to turn out new titles for Jewish children, and her two newest books are highlighted here. One of them does not feature any talking spiders, but it is a delightful Sukkot-themed collaboration with Sylvia’s daughter, Shannon Rouss. Unfortunately, the same economic issues affecting the secular world of children’s publishing have hurt Jewish children’s book publishing; it is hard to justify publication of books about Jewish holidays when the likely sales of such books will be minimal, thus leaving few to choose from. However, the following new titles rise above the rest and will make fine holiday choices for the coming new year. 

“Sammy Spider’s First Yom Kippur” by Sylvia A. Rouss, illustrated by Katherine Janus Kahn (Kar-Ben, $16.95 hardcover, $7.95 paperback).

Josh Shapiro and his family, along with Sammy and his patient spider mother, again appear in a holiday tale — this one focusing on the meaning of Yom Kippur. As usual, little Sammy is the curious observer of all things human, who never quite gets the fact that he is actually a spider and is supposed to spend time spinning webs, not celebrating Jewish holidays. And, again, his wise spider mother is a font of all Judaic knowledge, explaining various rituals in simple, preschool-appropriate language. Young Josh has disobeyed family rules and played with his ball inside, inadvertently breaking the honey dish, and disturbing Sammy and Mrs. Spider’s intricate web. Josh has been learning about Jewish holidays in school, and his parents help him to write up a list of “people you want to apologize to before Yom Kippur.” In the end, it is not only his parents who deserve to hear, “I’m sorry,” but Sammy Spider as well. The colorful cut-paper art by Katherine Janus Kahn is reminiscent of Eric Carle’s work and is the most appealing aspect of this fun series for children. Other appropriate titles for the season include “Sammy Spider’s First Rosh Hashanah,” “Sammy Spider’s First Sukkot” and “Sammy Spider’s First Simchat Torah.” 

“A Watermelon in the Sukkah” by Sylvia A. Rouss and Shannan Rouss, Illustrated by Ann Iosa (Kar-Ben, $16.95 hardcover, $7.95 paperback).

All the kids in Miss Sharon’s class are excited about being able to bring their favorite fruits to school in order to hang them in the sukkah. Michael is especially excited because his favorite fruit is a … watermelon. Uh-oh! This funny premise will engage children while they are learning about how the holiday is celebrated. Miss Sharon is unusually accommodating to Michael’s request to find a way to hang up the watermelon, and the other children in class are depicted as enjoying the various attempts to solve the conundrum. But before Michael resigns himself to bringing his “second-favorite fruit” to school, the class figures out an ingenious solution and all ends well. The bright and cheery artwork accents the moods of the happy schoolchildren along with a curious squirrel who seems to enjoy watching the problem-solving process. Luckily for everyone, Michael’s second-favorite fruit — a pumpkin! — gets left at home.

“Jewish Fairy Tale Feasts: A Literary Cookbook” by Jane Yolen, recipes by Heidi E.Y. Stemple, illustrated by Sima Elizabeth Shefrin (Crocodile Books, $25).

Is it a cookbook or a story collection? It’s both — the unusual format of this handsome book will appeal to families who like good food and good stories. Noted storyteller Jane Yolen retells 18 Jewish tales (adding interesting tidbits about her source material on the final page of each story) followed by Stemple’s tasty recipes, which correspond to each story in obvious ways. The book is broken up into categories of brunch, soup, main courses and dessert. Each story is preceded by an appropriate Jewish saying, such as, “The reddest apple may have a worm,” which begins the Middle Eastern story of “The Three Skillful Brothers,” in which an apple plays an important role. For the upcoming holidays, “Two Jars of Honey” or “The Loaves in the Ark” would work nicely. Afterward, families can enjoy making honey cake or challah with the provided recipes. Later in the year, there are many other stories and correlated recipes to enjoy. It is nice to see that the authors have included Jewish ethnicities other than Ashkenazi. Young people can learn how to make shakshuka after hearing the story of Chaim, the yeshiva boy who comes back to an inn 25 years after eating an egg that he did not pay for. Pomegranate couscous is another surprise main course with kid appeal. Although the oversized book’s layout, design and colorful collage illustrations are particularly engaging for reading, it may be a bit cumbersome for the actual cook. Note to gift givers: The level of sophistication is high, and some of the stories are complex, so this book is recommended for well-seasoned readers age 10 and up.

“The Very Crowded Sukkah” by Leslie Kimmelman, illustrated by Bob McMahon (Two Lions, $17.99).

Sam, his parents, and his sister Ava are busily preparing the family sukkah by hanging paper chains, cranberry strings and fall fruits and vegetables, when a sudden rainstorm surprises them and they run inside the house to avoid a soaking. The forlorn children watch and wait by the window for the sun to make an appearance. Meanwhile, other outside creatures have the same idea. Into the sukkah flies a ladybug and a butterfly to dry off their wings. Ants march in the dirt and bunnies shake off their wet, puffy tails. When the rain stops, Sam’s family does get to enjoy their holiday meal in the cozy, uncrowded sukkah, and they eventually clean up and go to bed. Kids will get the joke on the final two-page spread: Night has fallen and the sukkah is again populated by myriad curious animals seeking out whatever crumbs they can find. The large and brightly colored illustrations depict a joyous family celebration, and the text is written in the perfect meter to be read aloud to very young children, who will enjoy naming the cute animals and finding the hidden ladybug. An author’s note on the final page provides useful information about the holiday of Sukkot. 

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