May 28, 2014 – Jewish Journal

Playing a girl cop on the mean streets of Los Angeles

Leave a Comment / Summer Sneaks, Television / Jewish Journal

Depicting a darker side of Los Angeles not seen on TV since “The Shield,” the gritty new crime drama “Gang Related” patrols mean streets where police wage an uphill battle against drug lords, gang wars and human traffickers. The series is centered on a conflicted cop (Ramon Rodriguez) with divided loyalties to the law and to a gang lord who took him in as a 10-year-old orphan.

The show’s cast is as diverse as the city itself — Latino, Asian, black, white, male and female. Representing the last of those is Israeli actress Inbar Lavi, who portrays Veronica “Vee” Dotsen, the only woman on the elite Gang Task Force. “She’s a woman in a man’s world, a very harsh and demanding world,” said Lavi, calling the role “a big challenge for me.”

Like her character, “the youngest and least experienced of the bunch,” she said, “I am the youngest and least-experienced actor. I was thrown in and had to figure it out. Vee has to fight every day to prove to everyone around her and to herself that she’s capable of keeping up with the dudes —physically and mentally — and I had to do the same thing.”

Not much is known about Vee at first, but subsequent episodes reveal her Russian background and criminal ties, as well as a potentially deadly health issue. “There are sides to Vee that she doesn’t show to anyone,” Lavi said.

Playing a cop has given her a new appreciation for law enforcement, and female officers in particular. “I have respect for the badge and the risks they take to make the community a better place. I take great pride in portraying a strong female character who is independent and can take care of herself. I don’t think we get to see that enough in television.”

Lavi was previously best known for her role as Raviva on “Underemployed,” the MTV series about struggling 20-somethings, though it might take a moment for fans to recognize her with lightened, smoother locks. “My hair is naturally black and curly, but I wanted a different look for this character,” Lavi said, adding that her background in ballet has been an asset in the high-action role. “I was a dancer. I use a lot of my body and physicality in every character, especially this one.”

Always interested in acting and inspired by seeing fellow Israeli Natalie Portman in “The Professional,” Lavi decided to move in that direction when injuries made a professional dance career unlikely. After studying modern dance and ballet at the Kiriat Sharet School of the Arts in her native Holon, Lavi attended the Sofi Moskowitz Acting School in Tel Aviv before moving to the U.S. at 17, seven years ago.

“My parents were nervous, but they believed in me and supported me,” Lavi said. She got a scholarship to the Lee Strasberg Theatre and Film Institute in Los Angeles and, while there, appeared as Cordelia in a production of “King Lear.”

Roles in film and TV projects followed, including “Street Kings 2: Motor City,” “For the Love of Money,” “Entourage,” “Criminal Minds,” “CSI: Miami,” “In Plain Sight,” “The Closer” and “Ghost Whisperer,” where she met actor Christoph Sanders, her boyfriend of five years.

Lavi has cultivated a circle of Israeli, American and Russian friends that serve as her surrogate family. “L.A. is wonderful like that, a big mix,” she said, but admits to missing Israel and her family, particularly around holidays. Raised “not particularly religious, but definitely traditional,” Lavi said her parents “raised me to believe whatever I wanted to believe.

“My mom’s side is very Orthodox, and my dad’s side is the opposite, very liberal,” she said. “I got a taste of both worlds, and I got to make up my own mind. I’m somewhere in the middle, which is a good place to be.”

“Gang Related” premieres May 22 at 9 p.m. on Fox. l

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Teens make museum of teens

Leave a Comment / California / Jewish Journal

Guests were ushered into a room filled with Nintendo Game Boys, typewriters and guitars by two students who dressed up as Daisy Buchanan (the love interest from “The Great Gatsby”) and rocker Elvis Presley. A cappella singers belted out the Beach Boys’ “Be True to Your School” against a backdrop of a 1968 Ford Mustang and 1973 Pontiac Firebird Trans Am.

Welcome to the Museum of the American Teenager.

Unveiled on May 20, the exhibition at New Community Jewish High School explored what has defined the American teenager over the past 11 decades. It was the result of a yearlong effort by the entire 11th-grade class.

“We realized teenagers are interesting to teenagers and went from there,” said Jaimi Boehm, the school’s English department chair who directed the project with history department chair Matthew Vacca. “It seemed like there would be a really natural overlap there in terms of getting them to be able to use their skills and all of the content they were learning and apply it toward something in a really meaningful way.”

Vacca added: “Basically, we wanted the kids to hone skills that they’re going to use in the real world beyond just regular humdrum history or English work, have them do something that’s relevant to their lives and, hopefully, something that will stick with them and last outside of their graduation.”

Artifacts and placards decorated the lobby of the main campus building in West Hills in an arrangement that told the story of the American teenager. Items ranging from 1900 to 2014 filled the shelves and the floor space to present how this concept has evolved throughout the past century. A vintage Beatles concert poster sat in front of clippings of Life magazine from the mid-20th century on one wall. Arranged in a row, four old-fashioned bicycles with large wheels and handlebars were next to the modern version. Black-and-white yearbooks sat open on bookshelves, offering a glimpse at retro hairstyles.

All 89 members of the 11th grade contributed to the exhibition, which ended May 23. Students spent the last nine months researching the history of the decades and soliciting artifacts from community members. Vacca and Boehm set up parameters at the start of the project, and the students went from there.

“At first they hated this idea. Hated it,” Vacca said. “We heard so much griping and groaning about it early on.”

That all changed as the project started taking shape.

“One of the main things I think all of us learned was working together as a team and the leadership that was needed to fulfill the whole museum,” said Noah Emanuel, a junior class project leader, who had a big role in curating the museum as well as in writing the placards.

Edan Evenhaim took on a different role, comparing Israeli and American teens. He was pleased with the results.

“It’s a great success, especially for a first-year thing. Just looking at it, it’s really beautiful. The history is there, the artifacts are there, a lot of things are there,” Evenhaim said. “It’s a phenomenal outcome.”

Parents like Carolyn Reznik-Camras called it a great example of outside-the-box education.

“This is extraordinary, not just [as] an event, but [also as] a year of educational excellence for these teams who put their hearts and souls into putting this together,” she said. “To have English, history, Judaic studies [and the] arts all come together and an entire class supported by such creative faculty to let them learn outside the classroom and bring real life to them so they could live it and get a glimpse into the past and the present is absolutely extraordinary.”

The project-based learning model put students in charge of the entire museum production.

“This is unique in the United States of America,” said Bruce Powell, head of school. “It’s the way education should be. It’s fun, it’s interesting, it’s embracing, it’s interactive, and the kids will never forget their history over the last 114 years.”

The joint English/history assignment helped the students — who were assigned specific decades to research — gain a greater understanding of the past and present, according to student project leader Carmelle Dagmi.

“I’ve enjoyed learning and being able to see how different yet the same the generations are,” she said. “Even though the way the teens act through the years is the same, it’s with different technology or different hobbies.”

Whether it was a jukebox that would play music for a quarter or a laptop computer with iTunes, nostalgia was inevitable for those who attended the opening. Every object in the room sparked some recollection of the past and reminder of the present.

It may not have been easy making it happen, but after nine months of research it paid off, Vacca said.

“It’s been a wild ride, but it’s been totally worth it at the end of the day.”

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All night with God: Picturing revelation

Leave a Comment / Culture, Holidays / Jewish Journal

In a City of Angels, with murals and figures of the agents of heaven fluttering everywhere, as we approach Shavuot and the time of Matan Torah — the receiving of the Torah — you would think that finding a place to have a revelatory moment would be as easy as stepping outside.

There are angel sculptures in the Farmers Market on Fairfax Boulevard, and there is one painted several stories high on a building across from the Greek Orthodox cathedral on Pico Boulevard; there is even a pair of wings on the side of a Oaxacan restaurant on Olympic Boulevard, ready for you to just step inside and, presumably, fly away. There are also angels’ wings in Union Station downtown, sheltering us on our journeys.

In anticipation of Shavuot, all these wings seem to beat the air with a question: Are we ready, like Israel in the Bible, to receive the Torah?

On Robertson Boulevard, a few blocks south of Pico Boulevard, and at the center of a large swath of Los Angeles’ observant community, there’s even an “Angel Wall” of a more contemporary sort. Artist Barbara Mendes has painted Whitney Houston, Marilyn Monroe, Bob Marley and Jimi Hendrix, as well as her own daughter Oma “Annie” Kunstler, who died in 2006, on a pulsating mural on a street-facing wall of a corner building that houses her artist’s studio. Radiating from one area, surrounded by a brightly colored wing-suggesting form, is an image predating pop culture: a personification of the Shechinah — the feminine attributes of God — painted with a smiling face and welcoming arms.

Recently, Mendes, standing on a gold-colored ladder, was touching up her mural, readying it for a commercial that will use the image as a backdrop. In L.A., even the Shechinah gets a close-up.

The image “is a metaphor,” said Mendes, who identifies as Orthodox. “Women need to experience spirituality as full-fledged creations of God.” Mendes became deeply religious at age 45 when, by chance, someone at the Pinto Torah Center on Pico Boulevard asked her to paint the synagogue’s courtyard.

When asked if Shavuot was in her mural, she responded by climbing down from her ladder, walking over to one side of the work and pointing up to a man in a striped caftan climbing a blue, pink and orange mountain. “It’s Moses at Sinai,” she said.

On the night of June 3, many Jews here will celebrate the first night of Shavuot by traveling to their own Mount Sinais, climbing a metaphorical mountain of ideas, impressions and words that will be presented to help them imagine what it means to receive the Torah.

Some will attend specially written plays, others a full-on sermon-slam. All over the city, Jews will stay up all night at study sessions called Tikkun leil Shavuot — repairing the night of Shavuot — seeking if not a high, then a perspective that will allow them to look out over the vastness of Jewish learning.

According to a midrash, the Jewish people slept the entire night before receiving the Torah. “God had to come in the morning and wake them up to tell them, ‘Hey! I’m giving the Torah,” said Moshe Hildeshaim, who came to Los Angles five months ago from Crown Heights in Brooklyn to open a Chabad in the Carthay Circle area, northeast of Pico-Robertson. “To rectify the fact that the Jewish people prepared themselves by sleeping, we stay up all night and learn Torah,” Hildeshaim said.

“There are different customs — some people stay up and hang out with people. Our custom is that we learn a little bit of every parasha [weekly Torah portion], a little bit of Mishnah, a little bit of the Talmud and little bit of the Zohar, kabbalah,” said Hildeshaim, who will be hosting an all-nighter.

Within the history of Judaism, Tikkun leil Shavuot is a relatively recent development. Jewish history records that the first all-night Shavuot study session happened in Ottoman Thessalonica in 1533, a “kabbalist paradise and a flourishing city, where Jews exiled from Spain and Portugal found a safe haven,” wrote Mor Altshuler, a scholar of Jewish mysticism.

That night was organized by the famous author of the Shulchan Aruch, Joseph Karo, and was attended by Shlomo HaLevi Alkabetz (author of “Lecha Dodi”), who later wrote about the night in a detailed iggeret (epistle).

“Karo and Alkabetz envisioned themselves as Moses the prophet and Aaron the priest, and their kabbalist flock as the Israelites leaving Egypt,” Altshuler wrote. “That Shavuot evening in 1533 presented an opportunity to recreate the revelation on Mount Sinai, when the heavens opened and the entire people heard the voice of God.”

It was a night of text study and singing “so wondrous that the angels fell silent and an invisible wall of fire encircled its members,” Altshuler wrote. Then, at midnight the group heard a voice speaking out of Karo’s mouth, which they took to be the voice of Torah-Shechinah. “It was a loud voice with letters clearly enunciated. It was an exceedingly pleasant voice, becoming increasingly strong.”

“We all fell upon our faces and none of us had any spirit left in him,” Altshuler wrote, quoting Alkabetz.

Karo and Alkabetz soon moved to Safed, in what is now northern Israel, and their night “became a model for the kabbalists of Safed, including Rabbi Isaac Luria (the Ari) and his disciples,” Altshuler wrote.

Though he did not have an “otherly” voice coming from his mouth, Mark Rothman, who lives in the Pico-Fairfax area, recounted what he calls a “transformative moment,” at a Shavuot leil Tikkun, held at YULA (Yeshiva University High School) several years ago. “I had never been to a Tikkun, and I decided I wanted to stay up all night,” Rothman said.

Throughout the night, he went from study table to table. “There were all these guys lecturing. They would open a page of the Talmud and start reading in Aramaic, then translate into English,” said the former director the Los Angeles Museum of the Holocaust, who currently serves as director of the U.S. Campaign for the Auschwitz-Birkenau Foundation.

Then, sitting at one table, he heard a story that he recalled his grandfather had told him — “the story about the old man who planted a carob tree,” Rothman said, adding, “I never knew where the story had come from.”

In it, a holy man approaches an old man planting a carob tree. Puzzled, he asks: “Old man, why are you planting this tree, when you know you will never see the fruit?”

The old man responded: “My ancestors planted for me, knowing they would never see the fruit. Now I, too, am planting for future generations.”

“It was amazing,” Rothman said. “My grandfather had planted a seed in me that took 20 years to grow, and the experience helped compel me to be more religious,” said Rothman, who attends the Modern Orthodox Congregation B’nai David-Judea in Pico-Robertson.

As if taking a cue from Mendes, on the first night of Shavuot, the Conservative Temple Beth Am will offer an opportunity to experience how revelation may be reflected through art in a program called “Revelation Is Art Is Revelation … Is Art!”

“Here, Torah can be experienced,” said Rabbi Adam Kligfeld, Beth Am’s senior rabbi.

“Some people need to experience what wakes them up so that their souls can wake up,” said Kligfeld, whose synagogue is co-sponsoring the evening along with the Ziegler School of Rabbinic Studies at American Jewish University (AJU); Pico Egal, an independent congregation; and Reboot, an organization that aims to revitalize Jewish practice.

That evening, to “wake the soul up” a photographer will use images to ask, “What is revelation?” and a Zumba presentation will show another approach “to what it means to bring Torah into your life,” said Kligfeld, who is calling for a night of “soul-ignited Torah.”

“We’re trying to deliver meaning in an interactive way,” said Kligfeld, who also said there will be a session on “Chevruta [one-to-one study] as a spectator sport.”

The plan includes a “SermonSlam” and other sessions lasting until 4:30 a.m., with Shacharit on the roof, said Kligfeld, who himself experienced a revelatory Shavuot Shacharit while a rabbinic student in Israel:

“We were up all night studying in our apartment and at the Hartman Institute [in Jerusalem], and then we went to the Kotel [Western Wall] for morning prayers,” Kligfeld said. The year was 1998, and the group that went included both men and women. The experience was “revelatory in another way,” Kligfeld said.

Although the group stood far back from the wall, a group of ultra-Orthodox surrounded them and began to shout and throw things at them.

“If you receive the Torah with too much certainty and absolutes, then there are some pretty ugly things that can be done in the name of that revelation,” Kligfeld said.

At Sinai Temple, where a giant Torah sculpture dominates a corner of the Wilshire Boulevard façade, a different approach is being taken to the Tikkun leil Shavuot, as well. According to the synagogue’s Atid [young adult] coordinator, Ariela Emery, in a program called “Unscrolled,” adapted from a book of Torah interpretations put together by Reboot, actors “will perform a stage reading of three parashiyot: Bo, Balak and Vayera.”

“The ways that we experience culture are not what they used to be,” said Emery, who mentioned that the author for the portion “Bo” is Steve Bodow, the executive producer and a former head writer of “The Daily Show With Jon Stewart.”

Rabbi Elazar Muskin aims to spark curiosity with his lecture, “Fact or Fiction: Is the Menorah in the Vatican?” during a Shavuot leil Tikkun at Young Israel of Century City (YICC). “There have always been rumors,” Muskin said of the disappearance of the menorah from the Second Temple, which is depicted being carried off on the famous Arch of Titus in Rome. “Is the Menorah in the Vatican?” asked Muskin, who plans to explore talmudic passages for clues.

And, in a presentation also at YICC, Rabbi Zev Goldberg will address a question that on Shavuot night will be asked by other late-nighters: “How much was revealed at Revelation?”

“There’s just an energy of Torah learning that’s palatable,” Muskin said.

In terms of revelation, Muskin said “Matan Torah” is the essence of the holiday, and Shavuot celebrates the “centrality of Torah in our lives.”

For those interested in something more intimate, such as home study, either in groups or solo, Rabbi Patricia Fenton, manager of Judaica and Public Services in the Ostrow Library at AJU, as well as a teacher of Talmud at the Ziegler School, has a few books in mind. She suggested “The Book of Legends” edited by Hayim Nahman Bialik and Yehoshua Hana Ravnitzky, which includes sections on Shavuot, as well as the “Shavuot Anthology,” by Philip Goodman. Also, “There’s ‘Sammy Spider’s First Shavuot,’ ” she added, half-jokingly.

The first night of Shavuot is, she said, “an important time to come together without a lot of guidelines. Shavuot is a moment of revelation and receiving a great gift.” She recalled one Shavuot evening she attended at the Movable Minyan, “where people were encouraged to share their own ‘first fruits,’ ” poetry, songs, things that they had been working on.

Mendes has been sharing for years, bringing the Torah to life with her paintings and murals — book by book.

Hanging on a wall in her studio is a 16-foot-by-6-foot mural of Vayikra (Leviticus). Divided into 10 weekly portions, each containing even the smallest of details, if one is looking for a place to lose themselves in the text, this is it.

The artist, who in the 1960s worked in the underground comix movement, has shown this work to innumerable young school kids, Orthodox students and high-school kids from Hamilton High School, and more. Recently, another guest, filmmaker Darren Aronofsky, who was attracted by the mural on the outside wall, came to call, as well.

“Do you have a picture of Noah?” the director of the blockbuster movie of that story asked Mendes, who, fortunately, had been painting scenes from Genesis.

“I remind people of their pintele yid (Jewish spark)” she said.

In 10 minutes, the artist, pointer in hand, fervently took this reporter on a journey through the 859 verses in Leviticus, revealing in the text and, through her imagery, a different way of studying Torah.

“God has a special word balloon” she began, explaining how she used a simple illustrative device to delineate which drawings are directly inspired by God’s words.

Defined by balloons, but rushing out of them, are sacrifices, laws of kashrut, and cloves and hooves and scales and fishes; birds that are tamei (unclean) and four cartoony — but somehow elegant — grasshoppers that “the Jewish people can eat.” There is a cure for house disease, Tzaraat: “Two live birds, living water, cedar, hyssop and red thread.” And in the portion Kedoshim, she reminds us that “you gotta be holy because God is holy.” Then she revealed a stack of showbreads that never grew stale. “A miracle,” she said. Pointing at the shekels she had drawn for Vayikra’s last portion, B’Chukotai, she asked: “How much is an individual worth?”

“God gave us the Torah and we are really excited about learning it and sharing it. Everyone can connect with God,” said Mendes, connecting with the intention of the coming holiday.

“The angels would be singing.”

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2014 Shavuot services

Leave a Comment / Holidays / Jewish Journal

Chabad’s “Conejo Mount Sinai Experience” celebration of Shavuot features a reading of the Ten Commandments on June 4 at 10 a.m., followed by a sit-down dairy lunch of pizza and cheesecake. Also featured: Mount Sinai Ice Cream Cones for everyone. Evening services June 3 and 4 at 7:30 p.m.; Yizkor memorial service June 5 at 10 a.m. Open to all. All services will be held at six Chabad Centers: Chabad of the Conejo, Agoura Hills; Chabad of Oak Park; Chabad of Westlake Village; Chabad of Thousand Oaks; Chabad of Calabasas; and Chabad of Newbury Park. For more information, call (818) 991-0991.

Sinai Temple, in partnership with The Jewish Federation of Greater Los Angeles, invites you to Atid and Reboot’s “Unscrolled: A New Spin on Shavuot” on June 4. Study the Torah in a fun and innovative way with the help of 54 writers and artists. Shavuot dinner at 7 p.m.; program follows at 8 p.m. $10 (advance), $15 (at the door, cash only). 10400 Wilshire Blvd., Los Angeles. (310) 474-1518. For tickets, visit atidunscrolled.eventbrite.com. For questions, contact lisa@rebooters.net or aemery@sinaitemple.org.

Shavuot at Beth Jacob is an all-night experience. Sushi, refreshments and drinks will be provided. Featuring several rabbis, this event starts with Rabbi Baruch Taub, Shavuot scholar-in-residence, June 3 at 11:15 p.m., and ends with Shacharit in Shapell Sanctuary at 5:10 a.m. the following morning. 9030 W. Olympic Blvd., Beverly Hills. (310) 278-1911.

Explore the purpose and significance of Jewish prayer this Shavuot at Valley Beth Shalom. “Shiru L’Adonai Shir Hadash — Sing to God a New Song” features guest artist Craig Taubman with a musical presentation on the revolution in Jewish worship, hosted by Rabbi Ed Feinstein — an evening of learning, music, prayer and blintzes. June 3 at 7 p.m., followed at 10:30 p.m. by late-night Torah study with Rabbi Noah Farkas. Additional services June 4 at 8:40 a.m. and June 5 (Yizkor) at 8:40 a.m. Everyone is invited to participate. 15739 Ventura Blvd., Encino. (818) 788-6000.

Temple Aliyah opens its doors to the entire community for an evening of learning followed by a late-night Tish for those who want to continue the celebration. This event is free of charge for all. On June 3, Ma’ariv begins at 7 p.m.; learning takes place 7:30-11:30 p.m. 6025 Valley Circle Blvd., Woodland Hills. (818) 346-3545.

Join Young Israel of Century City Young Professionals for a fun night full of wine, cheese, sushi and Torah! June 4 at 9 p.m. Space is limited. RSVP to zevgoldberg@yicc.org, at which time the location will be disclosed. (310) 273-6954.

What could be better than pizza and ice cream to go along with the reading of the Ten Commandments? Chabad in Simcha Monica opens its doors free of charge to all for this Shavuot celebration. June 4 at 5:30 p.m. 1428 17th St., Santa Monica. (310) 829-5620.

Chabad of Simi Valley offers a variety of events to commemorate Shavuot, starting with an all-night study session June 3 at 11:59 p.m. On June 4, the Ten Commandments will be read at 11 a.m., followed by a dairy Kiddush lunch; an ice cream party and reading of the Ten Commandments will take place at 6:15 p.m. Yizkor service June 5 at 11:30 a.m. 4464 Alamo St., Simi Valley. (805) 577-0573.

Spend Shavuot at Chabad of Greater Los Feliz. On June 4, the Ten Commandments will be read at 11 a.m., followed by a dairy Kiddush brunch; at 6:45 p.m., there will be an additional reading of the Ten Commandments and an ice cream party, followed by services at 7:45 p.m. and a communal Shavuot dinner at 8:45 p.m. Yizkor service June 5 at 11:30 a.m. 1930 Hillhurst Ave., Los Angeles. (323) 660-5177.

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Moving and Shaking: VBS honors Vets, Bob Blumenfield loves Israel, Marilu Henner honored

Leave a Comment / California, Moving & Shaking / Ryan Torok

Valley Beth Shalom (VBS) honored 200 veterans during a special pre-Memorial Day Shabbat service on May 24. The program spotlighted veterans of World War II, the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, and conflicts in between.

Bea Cohen, 104, believed to be the oldest living female veteran of World War II in California — and perhaps the country — was among the honorees. She was born on Feb. 3, 1910, in Bucharest, Romania. After working for Douglas Aircraft Co. in Santa Monica, she joined the Women’s Auxiliary Army Corps (WAAC) toward the end of 1942. Later, she enlisted in the new Women’s Army Corps (WAC), which, unlike WAAC, was part of the regular Army. Stationed overseas in Great Britain, she worked with top-secret mimeographed documents.

Cohen, who became a bat mitzvah at age 100 at Culver City’s Temple Akiba, appeared in uniform and served as a guest speaker at the third annual event, which took place two days before Memorial Day and also paid tribute to American soldiers who liberated concentration camps in Europe.

“Now [Cohen] volunteers with the VA to the extent that she can. She said that men come in there with shoes and no socks. She started to cry,” Rabbi Ed Feinstein, who led services at the Conservative Encino synagogue, told the Journal. “At that moment I stood up and said, ‘We pledge 10,000 pairs of socks.’ ”

The VBS event — which was attended by some 700 people — included a blessing for the veterans and a singing of “God Bless America,” as well as an opportunity for all the veterans to introduce themselves, Feinstein said.

“How could you not say thank you to people like this,” he said. “I wanted kids to meet these people. I wanted kids to see what heroes look like.”

The program was created and organized by VBS congregant Harvey Keenan. Dignitaries in attendance included Paul Cohen, commander of Post 603 (San Fernando Valley) of the Jewish War Veterans (JWV) of the United States of America; Greg Lee, commander of the department of California for the organization; Art Sherman, leader of Wings Over Wendy’s, a veterans group that meets in the San Fernando Valley; and Mort Schecter, who was named Veteran of the Year by the Los Angeles County Department of Military and Veterans Affairs in 2012 — an award that went to Cohen the following year.

From left: Larry Gold, Jacob Segal, Glenn Yago, Councilmember Bob Blumenfield, Consul General David Siegel, Councilmember Curren Price, Lee Wallach, Jacob Lipa and Mark Levinson at Los Angeles City Hall. Photo courtesy of the Office of Councilmember Blumenfield.

Los Angeles City Councilmember Bob Blumenfield wasn’t joking when he declared his love of Israel at Los Angeles City Hall on May 23.

“Am Yisra’el Chai,” the elected official said, joined by Israel Consul General in Los Angeles David Siegel, Israeli American Council (IAC) chairman Shawn Evenhaim, IAC board member Naty Saidoff and others during two presentations that underscored the robust partnership between Israel and Los Angeles.

During the first presentation, which took place on Friday morning, L.A. City Council considered a motion to create a cooperative task force between Los Angeles and Eilat. Its purpose would be to encourage mutually beneficial development between the two cities.

“The Los Angeles/Eilat Innovation and Cooperation Task Force builds on the 55-year-old sister-city relationship with Eilat and is designed to promote collaboration and advancement in technology investment, business development and research opportunities in clean technology, water resources, solar energy and environmental technologies throughout Los Angeles and the State of Israel,” according to a city council press release.

According to press material, the partnership would build on a two-way trade agreement that California and Israel signed on to together back in March. Blumenfield successfully “secured City Council support” for the task force’s creation, the statement states.

Representatives of Los Angeles City Council, the Israeli government and local community organization Israeli American Council schmooze at Los Angeles City Hall on May 23. Photo by Abraham Joseph Pal.

During the second presentation, Blumenfield presented an award to the IAC in recognition of the IAC’s May 18 Celebrate Israel festival. The Yom HaAtzmaut event drew a crowd of 15,000 people to Rancho Park and has become an annual tradition in West Los Angeles.

Last week, Evenhaim credited City Council with making the event, which required the participation of multiple city agencies, possible.

“I want to thank you for your support,” the IAC leader said.

Blumenfield was not the only council member to express his affinity for Israel last week. From his desk in the council chambers, L.A. City Councilman Jose Huizar called for a lasting friendship between Israel and Los Angeles.

“I think Los Angeles and Israel have a lot in common, and we have our future bound together as we move forward,” he said.

Shalom Institute vice president Gil Breakman and his wife, Jennifer, join Shalom Institute executive director Bill Kaplan at the Shalom Institute’s boys cabin donor wall. Photo by David Starkopf

Feast on the Farm, an annual donor appreciation event at the Shalom Institute in Malibu, turned the spotlight on a host of honorees May 4.

Those people and organizations honored included: the JCC Development Corp.; the Real Estate Principals Organization of The Jewish Federation of Greater Los Angeles, the Jewish Community Foundation of Los Angeles, Mick Horwitz, the Harold Grinspoon Foundation, Abby and Stephen Solomon, Andrea Spatz and Robert Wunderlich, Gosia and Adam Weiss, and an anonymous donor.

They were chosen because they assist Jewish groups and financially supported the renovation of the 75-year-old boys’ cabins and restrooms used by more than 500 campers every summer, as well as educational programs and retreats throughout the year.

“This renovation allows us to provide a better experience for our Camp JCA Shalom campers and for our year-round retreat participants and rental groups. It also increases our capacity during our summer camp and year-round for community organizations that use the Shalom Institute as their retreat center,” Bill Kaplan, Shalom Institute executive director, said in an email.

More than 100 donors attended the appreciation party for the Boys’ Side dedication, wine tasting, dinner and tours of the campgrounds. They were thanked for their help that enables scholarships for children to attend programs and facility improvements.

“Support is critical for Shalom Institute to continue to strive for excellence as a year-round experiential Jewish education center and Jewish overnight camp. We feel grateful for the support of all the organizations and individual donors who helped make our dream of renovating the boys’ side into a reality,” Kaplan said.

Shalom Institute is located at 34342 Mulholland Highway in Malibu and welcomes more than 25,000 people annually.

— Michelle Chernack, Contributing Writer

Women’s Guild-Cedars Sinai honored actress, author and wellness advocate Marilu Henner with the Woman of the 21st Century Award during a April 22 luncheon at the Beverly Hills Hotel.

Henner, who is the author of books on health and fitness, starred on the legendary sitcom “Taxi.” Her neurological condition, highly superior autobiographical memory (HSAM), inspired the CBS drama “Unforgettable.”

The Cedars-Sinai group also honored author-producer Jackie Collins with the Trailblazer Award. She is a supporter of the Children’s Diabetes Foundation, among other causes.

Guild board member Gina Furth received the Evelyn Clayburgh Award in honor of her “leadership, service and dedication,” according to a Guild press release.

Annabelle Gurwitch, actress and author of “I See You Made an Effort: Compliments, Indignities and Survival stories From the Edge of 50,” served as the master of ceremonies. Attendees included actresses Jami Gertz (“Twister”) and Lori Loughlin (“Full House”).

The event also inducted the group’s new president, Hella Hershon. The organization describes itself as a “volunteer group dedicated to patient care.”

Moving and Shaking highlights events, honors and simchas. Got a tip? Email ryant@jewishjournal.com.

Moving and Shaking: VBS honors Vets, Bob Blumenfield loves Israel, Marilu Henner honored Read More »

Calendar June 1 – August 30

Leave a Comment / Summer Sneaks, What's Happening / Laura Donney

TUE | JUN 3

“JOSEPH AND THE AMAZING TECHNICOLOR DREAMCOAT”

You’ve seen the banners around the city and we’re here to confirm it: Israel’s favorite son is coming to Los Angeles. Following the triumphs and tribulations of Joseph (son of Jacob and Rachel), the musical is the collaborative effort of Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice. Directed by Andy Blankenbuehler, the production combines pop, country and rock with a good old-fashioned Torah tale. Starring Ace Young and Diana DeGarmo. Tue. 8 p.m. Through June 22. $32.25-$140.70. Pantages Theatre, 6233 Hollywood Blvd., Los Angeles. (323) 468-1770. ” target=”_blank”>geffenplayhouse.com.

WED | JUN 4

MATISYAHU

Ameoba Music sponsors an intimate performance by one of our favorite Reggae Jews. Matisyahu’s most recent artistic exploration — his fifth studio album, “Akeda” — deals with love, humility, humanity, struggle and sacrifice. The musician, whose hits include “Jerusalem,” “One Day” and “King Without a Crown,” always brings a moving sound to moving topics. The program also includes a moderated discussion with vice president of the Grammy Foundation and MusiCares, Scott Goldman. Wed. 8 p.m. $20. The Grammy Museum, 800 W. Olympic Blvd., Los Angeles. (213) 765-6800. FRI | JUN 6

“OBVIOUS CHILD”

Donna Stern (Jenny Slate) is an aspiring comedian in New York, and if that doesn’t sound tricky enough, she’s newly pregnant after a one-night-stand with a surprising suitor. Caught up in the ruckus of her mid-20s, Donna must grow up without growing old. In the film, written and directed by Gillian Robespierre, Slate delivers a sweet, sassy, totally funny performance. Also starring Richard Kind and Gaby Hoffman, the ensemble is as impressive as a cast as the characters are supportive of Donna. Fri. Various theaters and times. Check local listings.

THU | JUN 12

“NARCO CULTURA”

Check out Israeli documentary film director Shaul Schwarz’s first feature. Schwarz, who is also a cinematographer, award-winning photographer, and contributor to Time magazine and National Geographic, follows a specific story that can’t help but be universal. Contemporary Mexican folk saints, or “Narco Saints,” are virtually patrons of illegal acts. Responsible for drug ballads that glorify and celebrate narcotics, money and violence, these Narco Saints contribute to the mainstreaming and romanticizing of bein’ bad — a cultural instinct that never seems to go away. Thu. 7 p.m. Free. Fowler Museum, North Campus of UCLA, Los Angeles. (310) 825-4361. FRI | JUN 13

“SUPERMENSCH: THE LEGEND OF SHEP GORDON”

Good news for those who have been waiting for Mike Myers’ directorial debut. It’s here! Documenting the stellar career of music manager Shep Gordon, Myers leads audience members through a life where Janis Joplin, Jim Morrison and Jimi Hendrix are your friends, and Alice Cooper, Emeril Lagasse and Pink Floyd are your clients. If you miss the ’70s, or just love them from afar, you’ll enjoy the great archival footage and even better stories. Fri. Various times. $11 (general), $8 (seniors, ages 11 and under, bargain matinee). Playhouse 7, 673 E. Colorado Blvd., Pasadena; Town Center 5, 17200 Ventura Blvd, Encino. (310) 478-3836. SAT | JUN 14

“CENTRIFUGE”

There’s really no one way to capture what life in Israel is like. This exhibit, which debuted in New York, features artists who use photography, video, sculpture and work on paper as a way to tap into the complexities and multiplicities of Israeli identity. Artists Inbal Abergil, Anisa Ashkar, Luciana Kaplun, Aim Luski, Ido Michaeli and Rosee Rosen will be represented at the gallery — as will their takes on Israeli culture, politics and nationalities. Sat. 7 p.m. (opening ceremony). Through Aug. 2. Free. Shulamit Gallery, 17 N. Venice Blvd., Venice. (310) 281-0961. ” target=”_blank”>kindredspirits.org.

MON | JUN 16

THEODORE BIKEL CONCERT

Happy 90th birthday, Theodore Bikel! Touting a career that includes the roles of Tevye and Captain von Trapp on Broadway, an Oscar-nominated performance in “The Defiant Ones” and co-founding the Newport Folk Festival, Bikel reminds us that life should be filled to the brim. Ed Asner will serve as master of ceremonies for this musical tribute featuring Arlo Guthrie, Cantor Alberto Mizrachi, Craig Taubman and many others. Mon. 7:30 p.m. $29.45-$203.85. Saban Theatre, 8440 Wilshire Blvd., Beverly Hills. (323) 655-0111.

SUN | JUN 22

DANIEL SCHLOSBERG

A little summer piano never hurt anyone, especially when there’s talent like Schlosberg’s. With favorable reviews from both the Boston Globe and the Washington Post, the former soloist of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra will play Bach, Debussy and a West Coast premiere of Augusta Read Thomas. In 2000 he was the recipient of the Leonard Bernstein Fellowship in piano at Tanglewood, and today, you can hear why. Sun. 6 p.m. Free. Bing Theater, LACMA, 5905 Wilshire Blvd., Los Angeles. (323) 857-6234. FRI | JUN 27

ARIEL SCHRAG

In the world of new, fresh-faced artistic renovators, Schrag does not disappoint. Already established as an autobiographical cartoonist and writer for shows such as “The L Word” and “How To Make It In America,” the California native has a debut novel that is not only insightfully funny but hugely relevant. “Adam” tells the story of a young man caught up in frank and progressive New York City, where gay marriage demonstrations and transgender rights leave plenty of room for an awkward teenager to learn about love and lies, and the stuff in between. Fri. 7:30 p.m. Free. Skylight Books, 1818 N. Vermont Ave., Los Angeles. (323) 660-1175. SAT | JUN 28

KCRW PRESENTS: “THREE ACTS, TWO DANCERS, ONE RADIO HOST”

Ira Glass, host of “This American Life,” took his radio show to television, and is now bringing it to the stage. At the core is storytelling: mostly true stories of real people, centered around one theme. Joining Glass’ aural contributions are dancers Monica Bill Barnes and Anna Bass, bringing audiences a sort of radio narrative cabaret. Whether you feel your radio-listening needs more movement or your dance-viewing could use more spoken word, this performance will inspire a new appreciation for what can happen on a stage. Sat. 10 p.m. $38.15-$78.10. Royce Hall at UCLA, 340 Royce Drive, Los Angeles. (310)450-5183. THU | JUL 10

“DIARY OF A MAD DIVA”

Joan Rivers is at it again, thank goodness. Following her New York Times best-seller, “I Hate Everyone … Starting With Me,” this book found its footing when Rivers’ daughter Melissa gave her a diary for a gift. Feeling the pressure — many famous people have published diaries — Rivers has certainly pulled out all the stops. Sometimes it’s insights on everyday life, and other times it’s an anecdote only a diva could dish. Regardless, it’s Joan. Thu. 6:30 p.m. Free. Barnes & Noble at The Grove, 189 The Grove Drive, Los Angeles. (323) 525-0270. ” target=”_blank”>hollywoodbowl.com.

WED | JUL 16

LEE GRANT

In her new memoir, “I Said Yes to Everything,” the Academy Award winner chronicles a life filled with just as much drama onscreen as off. Starring in such films as “Valley of the Dolls” and “Shampoo,” Grant refused to testify against her husband Arnold Manoff before the House of Un-American Activities Committee, which then put her on the Hollywood blacklist for 12 years. But Grant didn’t let a little politics get her down. After success as an actress, she made a name for herself as a director of both stage and screen, eventually becoming the first woman to win the Director’s Guild of America Award. Channel your inner Grant and say yes to this book. Wed. 7 p.m. Free. Barnes & Noble at The Grove, 189 The Grove Drive, Los Angeles. (323) 525-0270. SAT | JUL 26

NATIONAL DANCE DAY

Put on your Hora shoes and grab a partner! The Music Center and Grand Park partner up with the Dizzy Feet Foundation, an organization co-founded by renowned artist and dancer Adam Shankman, for the West Coast’s flagship celebration of National Dance Day. Experts and amateurs alike are invited to join in the hoopla — learning from esteemed dance companies and viewing a dance film screening after sunset. Maybe you’ll choose to hip hop, maybe you’ll choose to tap; but definitely choose to dance. Sat. 10 a.m. Free. Grand Park, 227 N. Spring St., Los Angeles. (213) 972-8080. TUE | AUG 12

“RUSSIAN JOURNEY”

If you didn’t make it to Sochi this past winter, don’t panic. Conductor Leonard Slatkin is bringing an all-Russian musical program to Hollywood. Slatkin, the music director of the Detroit Symphony Orchestra and a tenured music director of the Orchestre National de Lyon, will lead the L.A. Philharmonic in Glinka, Prokofiev and Rimsky-Korsakov. Violinist Gil Shaham, recipient of the 2008 Avery Fisher Award, will be featured. It will be an evening of colorful, rich drama — Russian to the core. Tue. 8 p.m. $11.10-$118.10. The Hollywood Bowl, 2301 N. Highland Ave., Hollywood. (323) 850-2000. SUN | AUG 17

COUNTING CROWS

Front-man Adam Duritz and the rest of the gang are flying in for a little song and nostalgia. Whether you experienced their hits in real time during the ’90s or are fans after the fact, the upbeat rock band can guarantee a funky rhythm and clever lyrics. Hits include “Mr. Jones,” “Accidentally in Love” from the movie “Shrek” and that fun cover of Joni Mitchell’s “Big Yellow Taxi.” Sun. 7 p.m. $35-$75. The Greek Theatre, 2700 N. Vermont Ave., Los Angeles. (323) 665-5857. Calendar June 1 – August 30 Read More »

Fusing ritual and theater

Leave a Comment / Summer Sneaks, Theater / Avishay Artsy

In Encino, seven actors move across the scuffed hardwood floor of a gymnasium. It’s after 10 p.m. on a Tuesday night, and this is only the third rehearsal for the play “Tefillah or Prayer: A Transition.”

Paul Vroom, a middle-aged actor sporting camouflage shorts and a goatee, plays a Jewish prisoner in the Terezin work camp waiting to be taken to Auschwitz. He addresses the other six actors, who are tightly huddled together. “How do we close the distance between here and there, between this place and life?” he wonders aloud.

The play’s writer and director, Aaron Henne, is also the artistic director of Theatre Dybbuk, an experimental theater group that also partnered with Valley Beth Shalom a year ago on the work “Vessels,” about the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising. Henne repositions the actors, paying attention to their body language as much as to the lines they deliver. In one scene, they hold memorial candles, slowly waving them in front of their faces and across their chests, tracing the contours of their bodies. “Blessed are you who made me,” the actors repeat.

The flickering light illuminates them, yet the movements seem disconnected. It suggests that they haven’t internalized the meaning of their prayers, thanking God for creating their bodies. Their actions and speech are at odds with one another, creating a powerful sense of tension.

“Pay attention to your physical actions,” Henne tells the actors. “That’s what’s going to make this a journey the audience will want to go on.”

A previous Theatre Dybbuk performance, “Cave … A Dance for Lilith,” was co-produced with the L.A. Contemporary Dance Company in 2012. “I’m a huge believer in the vocabulary of movement,” Henne said. “It’s a vocabulary as much as language is, and it communicates as much as language does.”

Theatre Dybbuk performs new works that are deeply rooted in Jewish tradition, myth and history. It draws its name from a demon that, according to Jewish folklore, possesses the body of a living person and takes control of that person’s behavior, a reference, perhaps, to how a character takes over the body of an actor.

Not all of the company is Jewish, however, including Julie Lockhart, who sees her involvement in the play as an opportunity to explore a faith outside her own. “As an actor, I have to investigate the role that I’m playing. Just like if I were a character in a Chekhov play,” she said.

Henne has worked with many of the actors on previous productions. A longtime member of the Los Angeles theater scene, he chooses his cast based on his familiarity with their work, not on whether they’re Jewish. “I’m not generally asking the question about their culture, religious heritage, background or spiritual beliefs,” Henne said. “I’m asking the question, are they the right performer and collaborator for the role?”

But the idea of using non-Jewish actors in a very Jewish-themed production gets to the heart of Theatre Dybbuk, Henne said. The mission of the group is to “illuminate the universal experience.” It’s theater from a Jewish perspective, but it is meant for everyone. The play will be performed in various sacred spaces, including synagogues in the San Fernando Valley and West Hollywood, as well as at The Pico Union Project (an interfaith cultural center) and an Episcopal church in San Gabriel.

The play combines prayer with poetry from various periods of history. Onstage, Lockhart looks at a candle in her hand as she recites this verse by Yiddish poet Peretz Markish, translated by Aaron Kramer:

From the Bug River, a ferocious blizzard blows,

wiping out every footstep with its lashing snows;

but on menorahs in the shuls of Bialystock,

like worn-out fiddles, they have hung their exile up.

Woven between the actor’s lines are passages from various prayer services, recited by Seth Ettinger, a student cantor at Wilshire Boulevard Temple in Los Angeles. “More people need to go ahead and explore how to bring theater into the service,” Ettinger said. “It’s not novel for Judaism. In biblical times, animal sacrifice was accompanied by a Levitical choir, and a massive band and orchestral arrangements. The Levites had five years of intense training to sing and play instruments perfectly.”

Theatre Dybbuk’s development process is unique. Henne casts the actors before he writes a script. He then meets with the actors, designers, a dramaturg or script consultant, scholars and clergy several times over the course of six months to a year. Each time, he brings more pages of the script and rewrites throughout the process. “These meetings make a huge difference,” Henne said. “They really do affect the shape of the piece.”

During rehearsals, scenes are rewritten and entire sections moved or dropped as needed. The actors treat the script as a living thing that can be altered and improved. “We all offer our ideas and input,” Vroom said. “You’re expected to bring something to the table.”

One of the script consultants is Andrea Hodos, a dancer and performance artist who also works with Jewish subject matter. “[Henne] was honestly interested in people’s responses to the work, with very little ego,” she said. “I was very impressed with his ability to take it in, synthesize it, and trust the people in the room.”

Rabbi Ed Feinstein, Valley Beth Shalom’s senior rabbi, has worked with Henne for about a year on this production. He said he wants artists to be in dialogue with the synagogue, to offer up their wisdom while also gaining something from examining Jewish traditions.

“It seems to me that the Jewish community long ago tossed the artists out, and for that reason, we really lost our aesthetic. And I think it’s time to bring them home,” Feinstein said.

One of Henne’s challenges in this production was building a narrative out of a daily prayer service, which lacks the structure of a holiday service, such as a Passover seder. A typical prayer service is episodic, with each individual prayer disconnected from the others, Feinstein said, yet each prayer tells its own story.

One example is the Amidah, the silent devotional prayer. “The structure of the prayer represents the journey of the pilgrim in ancient times, from the countryside, say, to Jerusalem, and from Jerusalem to the Holy Temple, and then from the Holy Temple into the inner core of the Temple, the Holy of Holies. Which parallels the journey of the pilgrim from the extremities and peripheries of life into the core of who we are,” Feinstein said. “There are literary cues in the text of the prayer book which suggest narratives that most people don’t know about.”

Henne said he’s fascinated by the intersection of theater and ritual, and the theatricality of prayer. “I begin with the idea that the siddur [prayer book], and the prayer itself, is a container for history,” Henne said, “that these prayers are our way of connecting to the past, quite literally. So that every time we sit down in a synagogue to pray, we are time traveling. We’re communing with our heritage and who we are.”

Ultimately, he wants the audience to see prayer and theater as similar — both efforts to transcend our individual selves and connect with those around us and the world at large.

“This thing we call prayer is a universal experience of looking to reach beyond ourselves,” Henne said, adding that the same is true of theater. “We’re gathering together as a community to experience something for a reason. Let’s find out what that reason is.”

“Tefillah or Prayer: A Translation” will be performed June 22 at Valley Beth Shalom in Encino, June 29 at Congregation Kol Ami in West Hollywood, July 6 at The Church of Our Saviour in San Gabriel, and July 12-13 at The Pico Union Project in Los Angeles. For more information, visit theatredybbuk.org.

Fusing ritual and theater Read More »

LACMA ’s upcoming brush with German, French expressionists

Leave a Comment / Entertainment, Summer Sneaks / Tom Freudenheim

Los Angeles County Museum of Art’s (LACMA) pre-eminent role as the American museum most regularly engaged in exhibitions to re-examine German Expressionism, its offshoots and variants was firmly established decades ago. The museum’s Robert Gore Rifkind Center for German Expressionist Studies also has secured the museum’s scholarly role in this field. So there’s a special sense of anticipation with the prospect of this summer’s major exhibition, “Expressionism in Germany and France: From Van Gogh to Kandinsky,” opening June 8 in the Resnick Pavilion. For most of us, the term “Expressionism” seems automatically connected with the word “German” — at least when it’s not connected with “abstract.” This may soon change, as the exhibition means to suggest that Expressionism is less a national style than an international movement, in which both French and German artists played critical roles.

Maybe this is the exhibition we’ve all been waiting for. After all, even our superficial visual recollections would somehow insist on a relationship between the intense colors of the so-called Fauve painters in France in the first years of the 20th century and the Germans painting at the same time. Yet, these two movements generally are presented to us as distinctly different ways of making art. A more reasonable, transnational understanding of art enriches our potential for viewing works without always categorizing them. To name just two predecessors, Cézanne’s cool proto-abstract paintings are contemporaneous with Van Gogh’s hotter and intense color essays, and we can anticipate that the exhibition will help us make sense of, and presumably even realign, such presumed opposing sensibilities in the Expressionist works. Expressionism with a Parisian “spine” sounds like a stretch, but this French core will form the central part of the exhibition’s installation. With works by Gauguin, Cézanne, Rousseau and Matisse, this means of display is intended to show us what German artists saw when they visited Paris. Various thematic groups will be offshoots of this central corridor, giving us the opportunity to reconsider their works and to rethink convenient and conventional pigeonholes: the French Fauves and mostly French Cubists, as compared to the German Der Blaue Reiter and Die Brücke. It’s the interplay that should prove most instructive, making us see, it is hoped, familiar works in new ways. And, if it’s as interesting an exhibition as it promises to be, perhaps this way of looking at the art will also upend some of our ideas. Whoever thought works by Erich Heckel, Gabriele Münter and Max Pechstein would be featured in an exhibition with Pierre Bonnard and Théo van Rysselberghe?

One of the benefits of the recent Cubism exhibition at New York’s Museum of Modern Art was it gave us a better understanding of the complex skeins of interconnections among and between various abstract movements. Orphism, Synchronism, Vorticism and De Stijl were all more or less contemporaneous, if somewhat localized, manifestations of the mode for abstraction. This exhibition at LACMA promises to enlarge our understanding of how the mania for applications of intense color and rethinking representational art was no less radical.

In addition, by focusing on the impact of specific collectors and art dealers, among them the legendary Paul Cassirer and Alfred Flechtheim, and their influence in spreading and supporting aesthetic ideas, there may well be an opportunity to consider whether and how these forces operate in today’s far more interconnected art world. It’s also not coincidental that the exhibition will be on view during the summer of 2014 — a century after that last summer of what appeared, at least superficially, to be a world more or less at peace. These works can offer a vision of what the world felt like at that time, and also serve as a prelude to the World War I commemorations that will soon commence everywhere. An art exhibition that looks at the transmission of ideas about national identity and cultural heritage thus becomes especially timely.

The exhibition opened first in Zurich, but Los Angeles is the only United States venue for the show, which will then go on to Montreal. It will include loans of major works from museums in New York, Washington, London, Paris, Berlin, Hamburg and Zürich, but the most exciting aspect remains the reorientation of so many familiar artists into relationships that generally have not been emphasized. LACMA curator Timothy O. Benson led the team that organized this exhibition and edited the catalog, which includes a range of essays by an international group of scholars. There’s something deeply satisfying in seeing LACMA continue its leadership role in this arena.

“Expressionism in Germany and France: From Van Gogh to Kandinsky” will run June 8-Sept. 14 at LACMA. For more information, visit lacma.org.

LACMA ’s upcoming brush with German, French expressionists Read More »

A voter’s guide to the races for the 33rd Congressional District and Los Angeles County’s 3rd Superv

Leave a Comment / California, Mobile, Mobile-Homepage, News / Jonah Lowenfeld

When voters in and around Los Angeles head to the polls on June 3, they will confront a buffet of candidates running for a wide array of powerful positions. A handful of Jewish candidates are among the hopefuls — including Ben Allen, the candidate for California’s state Senate whose supporters have sometimes unselfconsciously described him as “a nice Jewish boy.”

But it will be the absence of two lions among Jewish pols from the ballot that will offer this election its unique character: For the first time in decades, neither Los Angeles County Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky nor Rep. Henry Waxman is running for re-election.

They are just two of the long-serving leaders on their way out of power in the Southland. Another L.A. County Supervisor, Gloria Molina, is also termed out. The resignation of former L.A. County Sheriff Lee Baca, who stepped down in January after 16 years on the job, has given way to stiff competition for the scandal-ridden department’s top job.

Even so, the choice facing voters in Yaroslavsky’s 3rd Supervisorial District and Waxman’s 33rd Congressional District is tough because voters will have to choose a successor from among fields of less-experienced and/or less-familiar candidates.

The Journal posed the same questions to each of the leading candidates in these two important and hotly contested races, and also examined their records and public statements, to give you a better understanding of each candidate before you cast your ballot.

33RD CONGRESSIONAL DISTRICT

This tony coastal district stretches from Rancho Palos Verdes up to Malibu and cuts inland eastward to include Beverly Hills and parts of Hancock Park, and the race to fill this seat in Congress has drawn candidates of all stripes and backgrounds.

Eighteen names will appear on the ballot; at least 16 of the candidates are still in the running. Waxman, who hasn’t said yet what he’ll do in his post-Congressional career, was a prolific lawmaker during his 40 years on Capitol Hill, passing landmark legislation that focused on health care, food and drug safety, and environmental protection. Every leading candidate — in one way or another — is aspiring to follow in his footsteps.

But given the current state of Congress, and the inevitable lack of seniority, whoever succeeds Waxman will have far less clout — especially if the overwhelmingly Democratic voters in the district elect one of their own, which would almost certainly mean that the freshman representative would be in the minority.

Even while one member of the Washington, D.C., press corps snarkily dismissed this contest as a reality-TV-esque competition to represent the “Botox belt,” a seat in Congress is nothing to sniff at. The following five candidates appear to have the best chances of advancing to the second round of voting in November, which will be a runoff between the top two vote-getters on June 3.

Elan Carr

Perhaps the single foremost fact to note about Elan Carr’s candidacy is his party affiliation — Republican. As a result of running in a nonpartisan primary against a raft of Democratic candidates, Carr is “very likely” to finish first on June 3,” according to Scott Lay, a former Democratic Party activist who writes a daily newsletter about California politics and policy.

But Carr himself said his Jewish values are what’s key to his work and his candidacy.

“Judaism is a central and defining part of who I am, and the main source of my worldview and my moral compass,” Carr, a criminal gang prosecutor at the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office, wrote in his response to the Journal’s questions. In addition to celebrating Shabbat, speaking Hebrew with his kids (two girls, a boy on the way), and visiting Israel every year, Carr, who is international president of Alpha Epsilon Pi fraternity, can claim the unusual distinction of having lit a chanukiyah in the former presidential palace of Saddam Hussein during his deployment as a U.S. Army officer in Iraq.

Foreign policy is a “central concern” for Carr, he said, “especially as it relates to a strong U.S.-Israel relationship.” He pledged to be a “reliable vote for Israel” and stated that American support for Israel had to be “constant, unequivocal and bipartisan.”

(That was enough to win support from the most generous pro-Israel donor in the Republican Party, Sheldon Adelson, who was scheduled to host a fundraiser for Carr on May 29 in Las Vegas.)

Whether Carr can win in November in a district where 44 percent of voters are registered Democrats is anyone’s guess — but Carr improves his chances by appearing to be a moderate Republican on the campaign trail. According to his website, Carr supports “a pathway to citizenship for the many honest and hardworking undocumented residents currently living and working here,” and he has promised to continue the work Waxman has done to protect the environment, while also “growing our economy and bringing good jobs back to California.”

“Voters are looking for a candidate who can reach across the aisle, compromise and move the country forward on such critical issues as fixing our broken schools, growing our economy and producing quality jobs, and keeping our families and our streets safe,” Carr told the Journal.

“Even my home is bipartisan,” Carr added. “My wife is a lifelong Democrat.”

Wendy Greuel

On the ballot, she’s described simply as a “businesswoman,” and Wendy Greuel is quick to trumpet her experience in both the public and private sectors among her qualifications to run for Congress. But it’s her time serving the City of Los Angeles, first as a member of its City Council and later as its controller, that Greuel hopes will convince voters to send her to Washington.

“As a councilwoman, I gained a reputation as an effective legislator, someone who never shied away from the tough issues and achieved tangible results because I brought everyone to the table and built consensus,” Greuel told the Journal. “Later, as City Controller, I demonstrated my ability to stand up for what is right even though it’s not a job that makes you friends.”

Many voters in the district aren’t residents of the City of Los Angeles, and so might not be familiar with her work, plus, of the voters in the 33rd District who do live in the city, many may better remember one of Greuel’s less-proud moments — her failed 2013 bid for mayor. She’s said that the experience has made her a stronger candidate and would make her a stronger lawmaker.

“Congressman Waxman has been a fighter and a doer,” Greuel said, and the issues he worked on — maintaining clean air and water, making health care as widely available as possible, and ensuring that people living with HIV/AIDS get the care they need — “keep [her] up at night.” In Congress, Greuel also would have the opportunity to focus on another issue close to her heart — passing legislation to protect the rights of women and help them advance in a society that is, still, unequal.

Greuel is not Jewish, but her family, she said, is “deeply committed to core Jewish values, like repairing the world and the responsibility to care for our community.” Greuel’s husband, Dean Schramm, was recently elected to serve as president of the Los Angeles chapter of the American Jewish Committee; the couple is raising their son, Thomas, Jewish, and “just got his bar mitzvah date, two years in advance!” Greuel told the Journal. (Both Dean and Thomas make frequent appearances in Greuel’s campaign literature and fundraising emails — including a Passover e-card, with the subject line, “Chag Sameach — ‘Next Year in Washington, D.C.’ ”)

Greuel has also been a consistent advocate for Israel. In March, this reporter spotted her at the most recent policy conference held by the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), and Greuel told the Journal that she would support one of that group’s priorities — fully funding foreign aid to Israel both “to ensure Israel maintains its qualitative military edge and because I understand foreign aid is also an investment in our own economy.”

When rated on her pro-Israel bona fides by the L.A. chapter of Democrats for Israel, Greuel received a “support” rating.

Ted Lieu

If Ted Lieu isn’t as well known to Jewish voters as some of the other candidates in the race, it’s at least partly a matter of geography: Lieu lives with his wife and two sons in Torrance, and while he’s been representing the region in Sacramento since 2005 — first in the Assembly and, for the last three years, in the state Senate — his current seat did not include the northern parts of the 33rd District until the 2012 round of redistricting.

That hasn’t hurt him on the campaign trail, though, where Lieu has benefited from his long history of service in California Democratic politics — which helped him secure both the Democratic Party’s nomination and numerous endorsements from local politicians, including retired L.A. City Councilman Bill Rosendahl.

And when speaking to Jewish audiences, he frequently touts his support for the legislative priorities of local Jewish organizations.

“I am the only candidate who has a legislative record on Israel and Iran,” Lieu told the Journal, citing his role as primary co-sponsor of AB221, a 2007 bill that divested California’s pension funds from companies doing business with Iran’s nuclear and energy industries. That sponsorship, along with other legislative efforts, helped Lieu garner “strong support” — the highest rating — of the L.A. chapter of Democrats for Israel.

Lieu also won the top nod from the Los Angeles Daily News (which hedged its bet by naming Greuel its second pick) because he’s “a progressive Democrat of the kind that can represent the voters of this progressive district” who has also shown himself to be business friendly and willing to buck the authority of his party.

Born in Taiwan, Lieu grew up in Cleveland, went to Stanford University for college and Georgetown Law School. He then entered the U.S. Air Force as a member of the JAG Corps, and is currently a member of the reserves.

Lieu presents himself as someone who came to this country as an immigrant, lived humbly watching his parents struggle, lived out the American dream — and then stood up to help the voiceless.

“I have repeatedly stood up to powerful interests on behalf of working families, consumers, seniors, children and those without a voice,” Lieu told the Journal, and pledged to follow in Waxman’s model, to be “a bold and patient leader for our community in Washington.”

Matt Miller

What makes Matt Miller run? Ask the candidate, and Miller — who has worked in the Clinton White House, as a management consultant with McKinsey & Co., and has been hosting the radio show “Left, Right and Center” on KCRW for the past 18 years — will tell you it’s because Congress needs new ideas.

“I’ve spent years thinking and developing ideas of how we can change public policy in ways to improve people’s lives,” Miller told the Journal in February when he announced his candidacy, and, since then, he’s been republishing, reworking and reminding people of the proposals he’s made in the past. Drawing on his two published books and his many columns for the Washington Post, Miller has been advancing ideas on how to solve problems of all sorts, from the proliferation of guns on the streets to the low quality of instruction in American schools.

“The best-performing school systems in the world (in places like Finland, Singapore and South Korea) lure their top talent to the classroom,” Miller told the Journal in response to our questionnaire. In those countries, people can become teachers only if they graduated in the top third of their high school and college classes. In the United States, by contrast, no more than 30 percent of teachers did quite that well in school. “We’re the only country that thinks we can take mediocre students and make them excellent teachers, and it’s not working.”

The Los Angeles Times cited Miller’s “creative and forward-looking proposals” as part of its reason for endorsing his candidacy — despite his being, in their words, “a long-shot political figure.”

When speaking to Jewish audiences, Miller frequently reminds prospective voters that he is the “lone Jewish Democrat” running in the 33rd District. His family belongs to Kehillat Israel in Pacific Palisades, where they live, and in his position paper on Israel, he hit nearly every note that might concern a pro-Israel voter. He not only announced that he is “deeply skeptical” of Iran’s intentions, that he condemns “the unjust Boycott Divestment Sanctions (BDS) campaign” and that he views the $30 billion foreign aid commitment made by the United States to Israel in 2007 “as a floor, not a ceiling”; he also included photographs of his grandfather with Moshe Dayan and Golda Meir.

Marianne Williamson

Get money out of politics: That’s the repeating motif of Marianne Williamson’s campaign, and the writer and entrepreneur (who hates being called a “new age guru”) said that priority — along with the need to create jobs in the South Bay and protect the environment — is at the top of the minds of the district’s voters.

Williamson presents her candidacy as part of a movement — in the vein of the civil rights movement and the suffragettes’ struggle. Leaders of the political left — including Rep. Keith Ellison and former Rep. Dennis Kucinich — have thrown their support behind her, as have Hollywood-ites such as Eva Longoria, Alanis Morissette and Jane Lynch. That support has, somewhat ironically, made Williamson’s candidacy the best-funded of the leading candidates in the race; she had collected more than $1.6 million in donations by mid-May.

But the reason is also partially that Williamson declared her candidacy in October 2013, before Waxman announced his retirement — and before every other leading candidate jumped into the race.

“Many people living in District 33 were not even born when Congressman Waxman first entered the House,” Williamson told the Journal. “While I deeply respect much of what he has accomplished and feel he deserves all the accolades he is receiving, I also feel it’s our responsibility to always make room for new input in the halls of power.”

Williamson, 61, was born in Houston to a Jewish family and she speaks of her “very strong” connection to Judaism, both in its spiritual aspects and its “service to tikkun olam that guides [her] life’s work.” A member of the Temple of the Arts in Los Angeles, Williamson speaks of her support for Israel in terms much less specific than her rival candidates. “I unconditionally support Israel’s right to exist,” Williamson told the Journal, adding that she supports the efforts by Secretary of State John Kerry to guide Israelis and Palestinians to a two-state peace deal and “would never vote for anything that undercuts Israel’s ability to deal with the existential threat constantly weighing upon her.” (She did not, however, make any mention of what those threats might be. Neither Iran nor the growing BDS movement was featured in her response.)

Running as an independent, Williamson told Businessweek, has made her “a Pariah to the Democratic establishment,” and she’s not kidding: Local Democratic Party Chairman Eric Bauman, speaking to the LA Weekly in January, derided Williamson’s “ very unusual beliefs about the world” and said she was “not a credible candidate.”

Despite that cold reception, Williamson said she’d caucus with the Democrats if elected, and at least some in the party would welcome her arrival:

“I think all the candidates have significant strengths,” Rep. Alan Grayson said when he endorsed Williamson. “In my opinion, however, only Marianne has the possibility of making a dramatic difference if she wins the seat. I can picture Marianne becoming a national progressive leader in the vein of Elizabeth Warren.”

LOS ANGELES COUNTY 3RD SUPERVISORIAL DISTRICT

Nearly 2 million people live in the 3rd District of Los Angeles County, and eight candidates have lined up for the chance to represent them. Observers agree that the top candidates are competent; the L.A. Daily News went further, calling the three leading candidates “strong.”

And yet: The media seems bored and, as is often the case with local races, voters haven’t demonstrated as much enthusiasm as ought to be warranted, considering just how much influence the county government has.

“People are getting excited by the once-in-a-generation race for Congress,” Sam Yebri, president and founder of the Iranian-American-Jewish affinity group 30 Years After, said, “but, in a lot of ways, the issues that our supervisors will be dealing with for potentially the next 12 years will have a much greater impact on our daily lives.”

Maybe — and maybe not. Because the county provides social services for the region’s poorest residents, and District 3 is a largely middle-class or affluent part of the county, Yaroslavsky’s constituents for the past 20 years have not actually been the direct beneficiaries of much of his work. Nevertheless, Yaroslavsky has been devoted to issues like homelessness as well as to fiscal responsibility.

The role of this seat is set to change — and then some. As the Los Angeles Times’ Robert Greene pointed out, it will be the first time in nearly half a century that a supervisor from the 3rd District will not be an alumnus of the L.A. City Council —hailing instead from one of the smaller cities in the region. This election could also bring to an end the four-decade stretch of Jewish leadership for the 3rd District.

John Duran

Like many local elected officials, John Duran, a city councilmember and former mayor of West Hollywood, focuses his attention on the basics. He’s pledged to spend his energy ensuring that Los Angeles’ neighborhoods are safe, that transportation infrastructure is expanded and that he will support after-school programs.

But above all, Duran is trying to convince voters, few of whom are familiar with his record, that he is both the most-committed and the best-qualified candidate to ensure that these and other county services are provided in an efficient and cost-effective manner.

The Los Angeles Times editorial board offered its support, calling Duran “the one most likely to lead the county toward new and better ways of thinking about and doing its business.”

Duran, 54, was born and raised in L.A. County, and grew up living next door to a Jewish family. Last year, he traveled to Israel with AIPAC. “Now that I have visited the Golan Heights, the Gaza Strip and spent a week in Israel, I have a better understanding of the security issues facing Israel,” Duran told the Journal in his response to its questionnaire. “I consider myself a strong advocate for Israel.”

Duran, who is openly gay and is one of the very few openly HIV-positive elected officials in the country, said he aimed to follow in Yaroslavsky’s footsteps, serving as a “watchdog for taxpayers, much as Yaroslavsky has.” That’s of tremendous importance, Duran said, because, in his view, few voters truly understand the scope of the county government.

“This year, the County will spend over $26 billion on a wide variety of programs,” Duran told the Journal, “and it is critical that our next Supervisor be a watchdog for local taxpayers to make sure we are delivering government services in the most effective ways possible and we are rooting out waste, fraud and abuse.”

Unfortunately, there’s a perception that business leaders are hesitant to support Duran, because they’re not sure he can beat the two better-known and better-funded candidates in the race.

But he’s hoping his leadership of West Hollywood will convince them of his fitness to serve this much larger population. “As a Mayor and Councilmember, I have experience bringing together diverse groups of people to get things done in local government,” Duran said. “Under my watch, crime is down, thousands of new jobs have been created, new parks have opened, and city government is more transparent, accessible and accountable.”

Sheila Kuehl

It’s a tried-and-true strategy: Sheila Kuehl is running on her record of accomplishment.

“In my 14 years in the state legislature, I authored 171 bills that were signed into law, many of them barring discrimination or extending equality on various bases,” Kuehl told the Journal. “I authored specific legislation that made it illegal to put anti-Semitic literature in cereal boxes. I also authored and passed legislation to pay state reparations to those whose property was confiscated in the Holocaust.”

A one-time child actor, Kuehl, 73, whose mother was Jewish and father Catholic, is a self-described progressive. She was the first openly gay member of California’s state legislature. She didn’t win the Los Angeles Times editorial board’s endorsement, but the Times praised her “encyclopedic knowledge of county operations and a record of fighting for the underserved.”

That depth of knowledge and focus on the neediest came through in Kuehl’s responses to the Journal. In talking to residents, Kuehl said that they frequently express concern about the “lack of useable public transit, access to affordable high-quality medical care and concern about the mistreatment of children in the foster care system.” Kuehl suggested some concrete steps she would take as supervisor to address some of these challenges — including upgrading county medical facilities and changing the foster care system to make each social worker’s case load more manageable.

Although it doesn’t come up as often in her conversations with voters, Kuehl also intends to continue her work to preserve the Santa Monica Mountains — a project she embraced while in Sacramento, often working together with Yaroslavsky. If elected, Kuehl said she hopes to follow in her predecessor’s footsteps in other ways as well, including being “a champion for public transportation and the arts.”

Public transit came up as a point of contention between Kuehl and her rivals, after she won the endorsement of the Beverly Hills Courier on May 15, solely by expressing her preference that Metro’s extension of the Purple Line subway take a route that did not go underneath Beverly Hills High School.

“She is adamantly opposed to the routing under Beverly Hills,” the Courier’s endorsement read, “and ‘never understood why it was moved from Santa Monica Boulevard.’ ”

Pressed during a debate, Kuehl didn’t take back the comment, but she did say that given the state of the project, her opinion, in effect, did not matter.

“I’m not going to get up in any meeting, anywhere, and say I don’t want the Purple Line to go through,” Kuehl said in a debate on May 18 at Leo Baeck Temple, according to the Los Angeles Times.

Bobby Shriver

When The New York Times recently covered the race for L.A. County Supervisor, the article led with Bobby Shriver. As the nephew of John F. Kennedy, Shriver frequently gets — and doesn’t always appreciate — this kind of attention.

“Dude, I’m 60 years old,” Shriver told the reporter from the Times. “You know it’s cool. It’s all good. But say I did something — something — other than be John Kennedy’s nephew.”

By any account, Shriver has done things worth mentioning. He’s a lawyer and a venture capitalist; he has served as a councilmember and mayor of Santa Monica; he co-founded (Product) RED, with pop singer Bono, a charitable organization that raises support from businesses in fighting HIV/AIDS, as well as the ONE Campaign, which fights extreme poverty.

And, since entering the race for supervisor, Shriver has kept busy. He rejected the county’s voluntary spending limits and has injected $1 million of his own into funding his campaign. He won the endorsement of the Los Angeles Daily News, based on his promise “to give the Board of Supervisors a much-needed kick in the county seat.”

In his responses to the Journal, Shriver said that if elected, two of his top priorities would be to reform the county’s foster care system and reduce the number of people incarcerated at the Men’s Central Jail downtown by creating “a viable diversion program that treats those with mental illness rather than jailing them.”

Shriver, who has served as chair of the California State Parks and Recreation Commission, also said he hoped to focus his attention on water conservation and cleaning up the local water supply in L.A. County.

Shriver said his favorite part of campaigning has been “getting to talk to real people about real issues that matter to them,” and the three that come up most often are “jobs, transportation and homelessness/housing.” That last policy area was a longstanding priority of Yaroslavsky’s, and Shriver said he planned to carry on Yaroslavsky’s commitment to service in his “own Shriver style.”

Shriver said his Catholic upbringing inculcated in him values that are “similar to those of Judaism: service, faith and commitment.” In his response to the Journal’s questionnaire, Shriver mentioned two summers he spent in Israel as a teenager, and said that he “hope[d] to continue to grow [his] long standing connections within the [Jewish] community, and to use our shared values as Zev did to do great things for the whole district.”

A voter’s guide to the races for the 33rd Congressional District and Los Angeles County’s 3rd Superv Read More »

Hans Zimmer: Proud to say ‘My people’

Leave a Comment / Culture, Entertainment, Summer Sneaks / Jared Sichel

When Hans Zimmer stepped up to the podium during a press conference at the Berlin Film Festival in 1999 to discuss his score of “The Last Days,” a Holocaust documentary produced by the Shoah Foundation, he was asked why he chose to work on the movie.

And that’s when Zimmer revealed a family secret on German national television: The Zimmers are Jewish.

“As soon as I said it, I thought, ‘Oh my God, I’ve outed my mother,’ ” Zimmer recalled in a recent phone interview. “I couldn’t wait for this press conference to finish, and I got to the phone, and I phoned her in Munich.”

Filled with anxiety and guilt, Zimmer relayed to his mother what he had done, then listened as she paused for a moment, and then told him, “I’m very proud of you.”

“I think that was the only time she said, ‘I’m very proud of you,’ ” Zimmer joked.

Regarded as one of the world’s most accomplished film composers, Zimmer, 56, has written music for more than 100 movies and has been nominated for eight Academy Awards, nine Grammys and 11 Golden Globes. He won an Oscar in 1995 for best musical score for “The Lion King,” and his music can be heard in such classics as “The Prince of Egypt,” “Gladiator,” “Pirates of the Caribbean,” “Inception,” “The Dark Knight” and this year’s best picture-winner, “12 Years a Slave.”

On July 16, the American Friends of the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra (AFIPO) will honor Zimmer with a lifetime achievement award at the Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts in Beverly Hills. Zubin Mehta will conduct, as members of the orchestra perform some of Zimmer’s most memorable works.

Zimmer has certainly come a long way since his days living in Frankfurt and London, when he felt ambivalent, even uncomfortable, about being Jewish. Growing up in the 1950s and ’60s in post-World War II Germany only made his identity harder for him to grapple with. Zimmer’s father died when he was a young boy, and his mother rarely discussed her Jewish roots. He knows she escaped Germany in 1939 and survived the war in England, but her silence about the family religion led him to feel that it was, in a way, their secret.

“Quite honestly, I think my parents were always wary of me telling the neighbors,” Zimmer said. “There was always still that cloud, and I felt it.”

Today, living in Los Angeles with his wife and four children, Zimmer said he is thrilled to help the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra in any way he can and hopes one day to travel to Israel to work on a film score (he doesn’t take vacations). Nowadays, he openly calls the Jews “my people.”

In fact, Zimmer said one reason he was excited to accept AFIPO’s award was that he had hoped the event might be held in Israel, which would have given him an excuse to travel to the country his mother used to visit every year.

“Instead, they are all turning up for dinner at my house, pretty much,” Zimmer said, laughing. “I get to travel so much for these movies — sooner or later I’ll get there.”

Zimmer’s work has also brought him to some of the world’s top artistic landmarks — he got exclusive middle-of-the-night access to the Louvre in Paris for “The Da Vinci Code” and got the same treatment for Michelangelo’s “David” sculpture in Florence, Italy.

Speaking from his Viennese Renaissance-style Santa Monica recording studio, Zimmer said he was just coming out of a meeting. “Deadlines are a good thing,” he said, though he would not divulge what his next project is. Zimmer was, however, happy to discuss some of the more intimate aspects of working with so many stellar writers and directors.

“You are very vulnerable when you play a piece of music to somebody for the first time,” he confessed. “I’m hiding behind the inefficiency of words. I’m hiding behind my lack of speaking English properly,” Zimmer said in an accent that mixes his German, British and American roots.

“The true me, I can only be caught in my music. It’s the only time I let you see into me.”

Although it’s tough to choose a favorite from Zimmer’s vast filmography, millions of moviegoers would recognize Zimmer’s trademark mixture of classical orchestras and electronic music, most notably in his work with writer/director Christopher Nolan on “Inception” and “The Dark Knight” trilogy.

“I didn’t know we were making a trilogy,” Zimmer said of the latter series. “I don’t think Chris knew we were making a trilogy. We were just making ‘Batman Begins’ — it turned into nine years of our lives.”

“Inception,” meanwhile, revealed something that bothers Zimmer about Hollywood — a propensity to imitate effects audiences respond positively to, specifically the ominous-sounding “braaam” sound effect that popped up in one thriller after another following the release of “Inception” in 2010.

“Hopefully, going forward, I won’t sound anything like those movies again,” Zimmer said. “If other people still find it interesting to go and work in that style, let them. I think an audience will get bored with it.”

What Zimmer loves about Nolan and some of his other favorite directors (including Ron Howard, Steve McQueen and James L. Brooks) is their experimentation and their willingness to let Zimmer push the envelope, allowing him to be original with the music, which helps add a new layer to the story they want to tell.

“They are all fearless. They never stop searching; they never stop looking for the next idea,” Zimmer said. “They are all trying to illuminate the human condition.”

An attempt to get Zimmer to discuss his collaboration with Nolan on “Interstellar”— the sci-fi thriller starring Matthew McConaughey that is due out in November — went nowhere, with the composer apologetically saying he’s not allowed to utter a word. All Zimmer would say about Nolan is, “he encourages, probably, my most reckless behavior.”

Zimmer’s goal with his score, he said, is not necessarily to find the musical way of telling the film’s story — he has his own story to tell.

Take “The Lion King,” which Zimmer says he initially took on in order to impress his daughter, who was 6 at the time. He wanted “to show off as a dad and take her to the premiere” of what, on first glance, he thought was really just a film about “fuzzy animals.” As his work progressed, though, he realized he could see himself in Simba — both had lost their fathers when they were young.

“Really, the story is about a son losing his father,” Zimmer said. “And it was the first time I actually dealt with it.”

As majestic and perfectly fitting as so many of Zimmer’s scores sound, the creative process that gets him to the final product is anything but clean. When a filmmaker approaches Zimmer about a project, the composer does not want to read a script and create music from that — he wants to be told what the story is about. From there, it’s all uphill.

“To be really honest, it’s just a lot of sitting around and bashing your head against the wall, and despair, and not knowing where it comes from and going through that whole process of, ‘Oh my God the notes will never [come],’ and then suddenly — they appear.”

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