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October 29, 2015

Dems push resolution on two-state solution in memory of Rabin

Leave a Comment / United States /

Several House and Senate Democrats are pushing for a resolution to commemorate 20 years to the November 4th anniversary of the assassination of Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin.

The partisan resolution, introduced to the Senate by Senator Dianne Feinstein, not only commemorates the life and accomplishments of Rabin but also “recognizes and reiterates its continued support for the close ties and special relationship between the people and Governments of the United States and Israel” and “reaffirms its commitment to the process of building a just and lasting peace between Israel and the Palestinians based on two states for two peoples, living side-by-side in peace and security.”

Senators Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.), Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.), Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.), Tom Carper (D-Del.), Al Franken (D-Minn.), Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.), Chris Murphy (D-Conn.), and Tim Kaine (D-Va.) signed on as co-sponsors.

Congressman Keith Ellison (D-Minn.) introduced the resolution to the House of Representatives, with Reps. Steve Cohen (D-Tenn.), John Yarmuth (D-Ky.), and Earl Blumenauer signing on as co-sponsors. “Twenty years ago, Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin was killed for trying to build peace. [He] gave his life to the heroic work of ending decades of war,” Rep. Ellison said in a statement. “The violence that killed Prime Minister Rabin stems from the same place as the violence we see today: the lack of two states for two peoples, living side-by-side in peace and security. We need Prime Minister Rabin’s courage now.”

Feinstein’s statement in the news release included the following line: “Today, with renewed violence in Israel and the Palestinian territories, his courageous leadership is an especially important model for all.”

Jewish Insider reached out to the offices of Ellison and Feinstein asking why the resolution has not been introduced in a bipartisan manner.

“We’re continuing to reach out to offices and are hoping to collect as many co-sponsors as possible,” Brett Morrow, a spokesman for Rep. Ellison, told Jewish Insider. 

A spokesperson to Sen. Feinstein did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The effort to mark Rabin’s 20th anniversary with a push for renewed peace negotiations was also reflected in a petition that was launched by J-Street, calling on New York Senators Chuck Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand to “support Rabin’s vision” and “saying that honoring Rabin means more than just remembering, it means acting.”

This post originally appeared at Jewish Insider.

Dems push resolution on two-state solution in memory of Rabin Read More »

Israel: Making Sense of a Senseless Situation

Leave a Comment / Cover Story, Israel /

Where I live (Israel), most everyone I know is busy trying to make sense of an insane situation. It’s not that anyone was surprised that violence has erupted once again in our tormented stretch of earth. It’s also not the mind-boggling cruelty demonstrated by hate-fed 13-15 year old children, or their families’ praise of their odious actions. More than anything, people in Israel are beginning to realize that we have entered a blind alley. When it becomes clear that dividing the land into theirs and ours, or staying put and maintaining military rule will both not work, it’s time to start thinking outside the box.

But first, we should take a look at previous attempts to see what didn’t work. We’ve tried applying military force to crush terrorists both inside and outside Israel. This hasn’t quelled terrorism. In fact, today there are more jihadists willing to give up their lives in order to take ours than in any time in recent history. We’ve tried political maneuvers; we’ve tried peace agreements, actually several of them, and not even one is still actually valid (though not all have been officially denounced by our co-signatories’ heirs). When agreements failed, we tried one-sided withdrawal (from Gaza), with appalling consequences. We’ve even tried developing a New Middle East, relying on technological entrepreneurship and the ample, cheap labor force of Gazans looking for provision. None of these ideas have worked. These days, no one even expects them to work, certainly not permanently.

The one thing that is common to all of the above solutions is that they required—or at least relied on—the other party’s good will. But in the absence of such a will, every agreement you attempt to implement is doomed before it has even started. Therefore, we need not look at the agreements we can or can’t achieve with our neighbors, but rather look at the agreements we can achieve with ourselves!

(The Story Behind) Harry Potter and the Threats to Israel Read More »

After more than 70 thrillers, the writing Kellermans go on tour

Leave a Comment / Books, Culture /

Jonathan and Faye Kellerman are happily married, have four talented children, live in a spacious Beverly Hills home and have a joint family business that probes the darkest crevices of the human psyche and soul.

The parents, together with son Jesse, are arguably the first family of crime fiction, with a combined output to gladden the heart of any bibliophile.

And now, in a rare break from their strict daily writing regime, parents and son are hitting the road — at least as far as Orange County. They will talk about the Jewish writer’s life and their new books on Oct. 29 and Nov. 3 at the Book Carnival in Orange, and on Nov. 8 at University Synagogue in Irvine.

Together, the Kellerman clan has written more than 70 crime novels, which have sold more than 100 million copies in this country and abroad. Jonathan leads in the family derby with 39 novels and six texts on psychology; followed by Faye, with 27 suspense novels; and Jesse, who has written or co-written nine novels and plays. These works have won more awards than can be listed in one article and are fixtures on The New York Times best-sellers lists.

Apparently, none of the Kellermans has ever encountered the bane of writer’s block, they testified during a nearly two-hour interview in the couple’s living room, joined via phone by Jesse in Berkeley.

 “We’re professionals,” Jonathan said, and he would no more use a writer’s block affliction to miss a publisher’s deadline “than a plumber would cancel a job because of plumber’s block.”

Yet, with all that success and experience, writing is still a demanding task for Jonathan, 67, and Faye, 63. “It doesn’t get any easier, though you reach a certain level of self-confidence,” Faye said.

The family is intensely Jewish and Zionist. Both parents define their religious Judaism as “traditional” and they worship at the Beverly Hills Synagogue, an Orthodox congregation.

In their writing, both draw on Jewish characters and experiences, most obviously Faye, whose Rina Lazarus is a Torah-observant lead protagonist. Jonathan’s Alex Delaware, a fixture in most of his novels as the author’s more glamorous alter ego, is a self-described “mutt,” likely with an admixture of Jewish genes.

Lazarus aids her husband, Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) Lt. Peter Decker, in solving crimes, and both reappear in Faye’s latest thriller, “The Theory of Death,” which the author will discuss during her Orange County tour. (She visits the Book Carnival on Oct. 29.)

The book starts with the discovery of a nude male body with a single gunshot through the head. The trail leads to “scheming academics, secret cyphers and hidden corruption, where even harmless nerds can morph into cold, calculating geniuses” who orchestrate a “dark, twisted tale created by depraved and evil masterminds,” according to the book jacket.

Jonathan, in turn, will introduce his new work, “The Golem of Paris,” his second collaboration with Jesse, 37. (The pair will appear Nov. 3 at the Book Carnival.)

At the center of the book is LAPD Detective Jacob Lev, who has been on a downward spiral but pulls himself together as the search to solve a gruesome murder takes him to the bright lights — and dark corners — of Paris.

A former yeshiva student, Jonathan was born in New York City; his wife is a St. Louis native raised in Sherman Oaks. They arrived at their craft from distinctly different backgrounds.

Jonathan worked his way through UCLA as an editorial cartoonist, writer and guitarist, and at 22 received the Samuel Goldwyn Writing Award for Fiction. Winners of this award usually turn to a screenwriting career, but Jonathan has resolutely stayed away from Hollywood. Like Alex Delaware, his fictional protagonist, Jonathan received a doctorate in psychology at 24, specializing in the treatment of children.

Indeed, his first published book was a medical text, “Psychological Aspects of Childhood Cancer,” followed by “Helping the Fearful Child.” Although no longer active as a psychotherapist, he is a clinical professor of pediatrics and psychology at the USC Keck School of Medicine.

While Jonathan has drawn heavily on his professional background for his suspense novels, Faye has found her UCLA doctoral degree in dentistry less applicable to her writing. Nevertheless, her first novel, which introduced Lazarus and Decker in “The Ritual Bath,” won a top writing award. The New York Times praised the two lead characters, noting that “this couple’s domestic affairs have the haimish warmth of reality, unlike the formulaic lives of so many other genre detectives.”

The Kellermans’ four adult children apparently share their parents’ professional interests.

Jesse studied at a yeshiva in Israel before earning a bachelor’s degree in psychology at Harvard and a master’s degree in playwriting from Brandeis University. He has written five mystery novels on his own and two in collaboration with his father, and was recognized as America’s most promising young playwright in 2003.

Of the couple’s three daughters, Rachel and Ilana specialize in child psychology, while Aliza, after writing a book jointly with her mother, is now working on her own novel.

In their large home, crammed with books and decorated with posters and book jackets of their own works, husband and wife work in separate offices. In the beginning of their writing careers, Jonathan said, “We used to read each other’s drafts in progress, but now we are both confident enough that we just read the finished books.”

During our interview, Jonathan, Faye and Jesse shared some observations on their work and reflections on society in general.

Faye: I am a very rosy person who writes like a dark, cynical one.

Jonathan: The appeal of a crime book is that it ends with a 100 percent resolution.

Jesse: We crime novelists have a great pulpit. We write about justice and about correcting injustice.

Jonathan: I like to solve problems in my writing. It’s like dealing with a new patient.

Jonathan: We hear a lot about serial killers, but we’ve had those in the past. One difference is the speed with which information travels.

Jonathan: The most fearful experience for kids is to watch the nightly TV news. … The parents should always be with them to put the events in context.

Jesse: As a species we humans are getting a little bit better — but not a whole lot. In general, the human race is still a young organism.

Faye: All of us think we live in unusual times and the next generation is going to hell. But we’ve been through it all before.

Click After more than 70 thrillers, the writing Kellermans go on tour Read More »

WATCH: Bernie Sanders hugs Muslim student, vows to fight racism as Jew

Leave a Comment / Election 2016, Is Featured?, Mobile, Mobile-Homepage, News, United States /

Democratic presidential hopeful Bernie Sanders embraced a Muslim student and referenced his Jewish background in condemning all forms of racism.

In the Q&A portion of a town hall meeting at George Mason University in Fairfax, Virginia, Wednesday night, hijab-wearing senior Remaz Abdelgader identified herself as “an American Muslim student who aspires to change this world” and complained about the “rhetoric that’s going on in the media.”

In response, Sanders, a Vermont senator who identifies as democratic socialist, hugged her and said, “Let me be very personal here if I might. I’m Jewish. My father’s family died in concentration camps. I will do everything that I can to rid this country of the ugly stain of racism which has existed for far too many years.”

Sanders went on to say that racism, sexism and homophobia have long been tools used to divide workers. “They played one group off against another. The rich got richer while everybody else was fighting each other. Our job is to build a nation in which we all stand together as one people.”

He also noted that “there is a lot of anger being generated, a lot of hatred being generated against Muslims in this country …”

WATCH: Bernie Sanders hugs Muslim student, vows to fight racism as Jew Read More »

Moving and shaking: AFMDA Humanitarian Award, Tour de Summer Camps and more

Leave a Comment / Los Angeles, Movers & Shakers, Moving & Shaking /

The Beverly Hilton was filled with laughter and emotion on the evening of Oct. 22 as Jerry Seinfeld emceed the American Friends of Magen David Adom’s (AFMDA) Los Angeles Red Star Ball, which drew 1,100 guests and raised $12 million. 

Those funds will go toward ambulances, medical supplies and the construction of an underground blood-supply facility in Israel that will be immune to rocket attack and natural disasters and will provide 97 percent of the blood used by Israel’s hospitals and the Israel Defense Forces.

From left: Michael Richards and Jerry Seinfeld attend the American Friends of Magen David Adom Red Star Ball. Photo courtesy of AFMDA

The world-famous comedian and sitcom star took the stage after a series of intense videos highlighting the life-saving role in Israel that Magen David Adom has played, particularly during the spate of Palestinian knife attacks in recent weeks.

“As a comedian, I always like to perform after emergency activities are shown with injured people and blood flowing,” Seinfeld joked. He then went into a routine touching on many of his classic observations of life, ranging from marriage and children to smartphones and voicemails.

Dina and Fred Leeds, the evening’s hosts, told the audience that in the first three weeks of October, Magen David Adom had provided treatment for 174 casualties since the knife attacks began. After the names of the nine Israelis who were murdered in the attacks were read, several Magen David Adom volunteers were brought onstage, including Hananel Alvo, who was stabbed several years ago on his way to work, then became a paramedic for Magen David Adom after his life was saved by the group’s paramedics.

AFMDA presented the Humanitarian of the Year Award to Adam and Gila Milstein, who are major donors to groups such as the Israeli-American Council (IAC) and StandWithUs. (Adam Milstein was recently named national board chairman of the IAC.) Ruth Flinkman-Marandy and Ben Marandy received the Lifetime Achievement Award, and Barak Aviv received the Next Generation Award.

Following a 30-minute after-dinner fundraising appeal — which included a $5 million gift from casino mogul and philanthropist Sheldon Adelson and his wife, Miriam — Seinfeld took the stage again before dessert to close out the evening.

Joining Seinfeld in attendance was one of his co-stars from “Seinfeld,” Michael Richards, who played lanky goofball Kramer. Actresses Odeya Rush and Karla Souza also came to honor Magen David Adom. 

Joining them was a distinguished group that included Michael Milken, Art Bilger, Antonio Villaraigosa, Elan Carr, Sam Yebri, Geoffrey Gold, Shawn Evenhaim and Naty Saidoff. 

— Jared Sichel, Senior Writer

This year’s Tour de Summer Camps — the annual community cycling event organized by The Jewish Federation of Greater Los Angeles — drew more than 500 cyclists on Oct. 25 and raised $1.2 million through riders and sponsorships for summer camp scholarships, according to Jay Sanderson, CEO and president of The Jewish Federation of Greater Los Angeles.  

Tour de Summer Camps, the annual community cycling event organized by The Jewish Federation of Greater Los Angeles, raises money for summer camp scholarships. Here, some of the beneficiaries express thanks to Federation for its efforts. Photo by Howard Pasamanick Photography 

Rodney Freeman, a Federation supporter who is active in a Federation real estate and construction group and who was instrumental in launching the event three years ago, raised more than $20,000, making him this year’s top individual fundraiser. Wilshire Boulevard Temple Camps, the top fundraising team, brought in nearly $43,000 at the event presented by the Rosalinde and Arthur Gilbert Foundation. 

Accommodating all skill levels, the event featured 18-mile, 36-mile, 62-mile and 100-mile rides. Ages 16 and older were eligible to participate. Riders began and ended at Camp Alonim on the Brandeis-Bardin Campus of American Jewish University.

Children were able to enjoy arts and crafts and visit farm animals, as well. Those younger than 16 who raised funds were considered “virtual riders,” according to the Tour de Summer Camps website. 

“It’s about the kids and the family,” Sanderson said. “It’s not about any one camp or institution.”

Entertainment executives mingled with Jewish community leaders at an Oct. 20 American Jewish Committee (AJC) awards dinner at the Globe Theatre. More than 200 people turned out, including dinner co-chairs Ron Meyer, NBCUniversal vice chairman, and Donna Langley, Universal Pictures chairwoman.

From left: NBCUniversal Vice Chairman Ron Meyer; Warner Bros. Chairman and CEO Kevin Tsujihara; Universal Filmed Entertainment Group Chairman Jeff Shell; Universal Pictures Chairwoman Donna Langley and Universal Pictures President Jimmy Horowitz attend an American Jewish Committee dinner Oct. 20 at the Globe Theatre. Photo by David Medill

AJC, an advocacy organization focusing on Israel and domestic issues, awarded Jeff Shell, Universal Filmed Entertainment Group chairman, the Dorothy and Sherrill C. Corwin Human Relations Award — the highest honor AJC bestows upon members of the entertainment industry.

“AJC plays an irreplaceable role for the Jewish community,” Shell said, as quoted in a press release. “AJC isn’t just an organization that fights anti-Semitism across the globe — it promotes freedom and tolerance of all religions and cultures and builds bridges at a time when we desperately need them.”

Dana Shell Smith, the honoree’s younger sibling and the United States ambassador to Qatar, delivered a keynote address about U.S. foreign policy in the Middle East, and AJC Regional President Dean Schramm discussed the mission of the organization.

Mark Hoppus, vocalist and bassist for rock band Blink-182, served as master of ceremonies. Level A Cappella performed. 

Other attendees included Kevin Tsujihara, Warner Bros. chairman and CEO; Universal Pictures President Jimmy Horowitz; and former national AJC president and prominent entertainment attorney Bruce Ramer, as well as the Corwins’ children, Bonnie Corwin Fuller and Bruce Corwin.

The Tower Cancer Research Foundation (TCRF) Magnolia Council Spirit of Hope Luncheon at the Beverly Wilshire honored Harriet Rossetto, founder and executive vice president at Jewish addiction recovery center Beit T’Shuvah, and Nancy Mishkin, chairwoman of the board at TCRF.

Rossetto spoke about how her work with Beit T’Shuvah has helped her understand what it is to be human.

From left: Tower Cancer Research Foundation (TCRF) Magnolia Council President Beth Goren; Harriet Rossetto, founder of Jewish rehabilitation center Beit T’Shuvah; Nancy Mishkin, Tower Cancer Research Foundation board chairwoman; and Shelley Warsavsky, TCRF Magnolia Council chairwoman attend a luncheon to support cancer research. Photo by Tiffany Rose

“I have accepted I matter and I’m good enough, with all my flaws and imperfections, and so are all of us; I make peace within myself with right action; I defeat sloth and existential despair by making my bed; I have resolved my good boy-bad boy problem by finding a Jewish bad boy and helping him become a rabbi,” the wife of Beit T’Shuvah spiritual leader Rabbi Mark Borovitz said.

Mishkin, former board chairwoman at Beit T’Shuvah and the child of Holocaust survivors, focused on how TCRF is making a difference, addressing approximately 400 people at the Oct. 12 event.

Among those present were TCRF Magnolia Council President Beth Goren and Chairwoman Shelley Warsavsky.

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

Moving and shaking: AFMDA Humanitarian Award, Tour de Summer Camps and more Read More »

Yuval Sharon’s ‘Hopscotch’ an opera on wheels

Leave a Comment / Culture, Entertainment /

Call it the first Uber opera. 

Performed live in 24 limos, Yuval Sharon’s “Hopscotch,” which opens Oct. 31 and is scheduled to run through Nov. 15, is loosely inspired by Julio Cortazar’s 1963 stream-of-consciousness novel of the same name. With four audience members in each vehicle, it unfolds along three winding geographical routes (red, yellow and green — the colors of a traffic light) through downtown and the East Side of Los Angeles. 

So pay attention: That stranger sitting in the back seat or next to you may be one of the performers; or, as your limo turns a corner, you might miss some of the opera’s action suddenly occurring on the street. And be prepared to get in and out of a number of limos as different parts of the story develop.

Sharon, artistic director of the experimental opera company the Industry, clearly wants to shake up the passive sit-and-watch of conventional opera-going. Sharon has also shown an interest in exploring the fraying boundaries between people, different environments and technology. 

Two years ago, Sharon’s site-specific “Invisible Cities,” an operatic riff on Italo Calvino’s 1972 Italian novel, asked audience members to listen to the music on wireless headsets while following the story walking through downtown’s bustling Union Station. 

“The audience is always first,” Sharon said by phone from the central hub of “Hopscotch,” a temporary structure built in the parking lot of the Southern California Institute of Architecture (SCI-Arc). That’s where all 24 cars arrive for the “Hopscotch” grand finale after the 90-minute performance. 

“With the hub, we built a center in the middle of the city,” Sharon said. “The idea is these isolated car rides that all come together — our independent journeys coming together in one unified expression.”

Sharon said the hub at SCI-Arc allows 180 people to watch all 24 live chapters at the same time. Admittance is free, but first come, first served. 

“The story is a search for a spiritual center, and how that gets mapped geographically,” Sharon said. “It’s not a piece with a message. It’s a piece with ideas and provocations. There will be a different meaning for everyone. I’m not trying to impart my own. It’s about creating an openness to a wide range of responses without being vague or unspecific. ‘Hopscotch’ is not a riddle people need to solve.”

Actually, “Hopscotch” leans on one of the most reliable of operatic genres — the love story. It’s an urban reimagining of the Greek myth of Orpheus and Eurydice, in which Orpheus follows his late wife, in this case, a Latina protagonist named Lucha, into the underworld in an attempt to bring her back to life. Indeed, a winding snake-like animation still from one of 10 animated chapters of the 36-chapter production route looks like the bowels of some strange car-eating creature. (The animated chapters can be viewed at ” target=”_blank”>click here.

Yuval Sharon’s ‘Hopscotch’ an opera on wheels Read More »

Lebanon’s human rights record up for review

Leave a Comment / Worldwide /

This article first appeared on The Media Line.

Lebanon is due to go before the United Nations Human Rights Council next week for a review of its human rights policy. Activists say that since the last human rights review five years ago, the situation has not improved.

“Over the years we have had many meetings on the issue of torture including talks with the Prime Minister last January,” Nadim Houry, deputy Middle East director at Human Rights Watch, told The Media Line. “When we look at Lebanon’s record over the past five years, we see missed opportunities, procrastination and a lack of leadership.”

Lebanese authorities deny these charges. In its national submission to the Human Rights Council last month, the Lebanese government asserted that “vigorous steps are also being taken to prevent torture by prosecuting perpetrators of torture and either sentencing them to imprisonment or subjecting them to severe disciplinary measures, such as dismissal from office.”

The problem, activists say, is that the military investigates itself, making convictions almost impossible. Lebanon committed itself to establishing the National Preventive Mechanism to visit facilities like jails and police stations where torture is believed to take place, and to stop it before it starts.

“According to our statistics, in prisons and police stations, at least 60 percent of the detainees are subjected to torture and ill treatment during their investigation,” Marie Daunay, of the Lebanese Center for Human Rights told The Media Line. “During detention people are kept in underground places where they never see sunlight which is a form of psychological torture.”

In the past few months there have been growing protests against the government which closed the main landfill in the country without offering an alternative. Mounds of garbage have piled up in the streets.

“I filmed militia groups throwing rocks and concrete blocks during the recent protests,” Habib Fattah, an investigative journalist in Lebanon told The Media Line. “The militia is part of one of the political parties in Lebanon, and my footage went viral. The party later claimed they had nothing to do with the attacks but I showed that the men were close to the speaker of parliament.”

The only bright note is a 2014 law on domestic violence that makes it easier for women to file complaints against their husbands, and encourages the government to prosecute them.

Officials blame the current political crisis in Lebanon for their inability to do more to safeguard human rights. Lebanon currently has no president, and the government is a caretaker one that hesitates to take decisions. In addition, Lebanon is struggling to handle the 1.2 million Syrian refugees who fled to the country.

Refugees from Syria have to pay about $260 to renew their residency permits each year, more than many of them make in a month. As a result the number of illegal asylum seekers is increasing each year, which presents its own human rights challenges. These refugees will not turn to the police if a crime is committed against them, fearing they could be arrested and deported back to Syria.

Houry recognizes the challenges that Lebanon is facing but says they cannot be an excuse for human rights abuses.

“The scale of the problem is like the garbage crisis – it’s just getting worse,” he said. “Procrastination and mediocrity are not doing Lebanon any service at this stage.”

Lebanon’s human rights record up for review Read More »