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Jewish Journal

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November 18, 2015

The happiness of paying it forward

Leave a Comment / Culture, Giving /

Michal Sayas remembers all too well those days when she couldn’t afford a peach at the supermarket. Today, she could buy the entire store — and all the peaches her heart desires. 

It is from this personal experience of being in need that the Israeli immigrant created the organization Be’Simcha (Hebrew for “happiness”) in order to give hope to local Israeli-American and Jewish families. The nonprofit assists people with everything from school supplies to utility payments.

It all started with a chance encounter while standing in line at Burlington Coat Factory, where she overheard the woman at the front of the line arguing with the cashier.

“She was pregnant and had three small children with her,” Sayas said. “And she was arguing in Spanish about an item she purchased in installments. … The woman at the register told her that she didn’t finish the payment plan and the customer insisted she did. For me, it was a sign that I’m at the right place and at the right time. When it was my turn to pay, I asked the cashier how much the woman still owes and paid the entire sum. The woman couldn’t believe what was happening. She couldn’t stop thanking me — things like that don’t usually happen to her.”

From that day on, Sayas, 52, said she took it upon herself to pay off the remaining balances of the store’s layaway customers who didn’t have enough money to pay for their items. She had only one condition: not to reveal her identity to the customers. She also didn’t reveal her secret charity work to her husband, Yossi, and three children, Adam, Orian and Roy.  

Sayas, who came to the United States in 1986, was not always  a woman of means living in a Calabasas mansion. And her husband was not always successful in the construction business (where Sayas used to help in the office).

“I remember us, a young couple with no money. We came here with nothing,” she said. “When I was pregnant with my first child, Orian [25 years ago], we went to the supermarket and saw a big and beautiful peach. I told my husband, ‘Oh, how much I would have loved to eat it.’ But of course, I knew we couldn’t afford it. … Later on that day, my husband went back to the supermarket and bought that peach. I told him, ‘Are you crazy?  We can’t afford it, go back and return it.’ He went to the kitchen and quickly cut it to pieces before I’d be able to do anything about it. Of course, I didn’t have a choice but to eat it.”

Today, even though the couple’s financial situation is much improved, Sayas said she has never forgotten those harsh days of calculating every dollar spent and serving sandwiches on Friday night instead of a warm and festive Shabbat meal. 

In November 2013, two months after the death of her mother, Simcha Koobi, Sayas decided to take her charity work to a new level. Her youngest child was already 16 and the two older ones in their 20s, and Sayas found herself with a lot of time on her hands. Her solution was to establish her own charity.

“I invited 14 friends over and asked my husband and children to join us and told them how I’ve paid all the debts of buyers in Burlington during the past seven years. My husband and children were shocked. They had no idea,” Sayas said. “My girlfriends were very supportive and agreed to join my charity organization, which I called after my mom’s name: Be’Simcha. The only condition my friends had was that we are going to support only Israeli or Jewish-American families, which I had no problem with.”

Sayas approached three Jewish schools, which provided her with a list of families needing help. Then she filled 135 boxes with school supplies for them.

Since it officially opened as a nonprofit in August 2014, Be’Simcha ( The happiness of paying it forward Read More »

New SoCal Jewish sports camp hopes to hit it out of the park

Leave a Comment / Culture, Sports /

Sports and Judaism are coming together next summer in SoCal — and it has nothing to do with Joc Pederson playing for the Los Angeles Dodgers.

An overnight camp focused on athletics called 6 Points Sports Academy California is set to open June 21 at Occidental College under the auspices of the Union for Reform Judaism (URJ). Alan Friedman, the camp’s founding director, expects 225 young Reform athletes to attend the inaugural year, enjoying baseball, basketball, soccer and tennis.

“It is a high-level training camp. The camp is for kids who are looking to really hone their skills and become better athletes in a specific sport,” he said. “Our camp is not for campers who have never picked up a tennis racket.”

But, he added in a phone interview, “We are a Jewish camp first. While we are sports specialty camp, we are a Jewish camp,” 

The California camp — which has a pre-existing sister program in North Carolina — will take place at Occidental’s 120-acre campus in Eagle Rock. Three 12-day sessions are being offered, with the inaugural one kicking off June 21. Tuition for a single session is $3,100. The camp has hired approximately 40 staff members and will serve children ages 9 to 16 (grades 4 to 11), Friedman said.

So, what makes 6 Points Sports Academy California Jewish? 

Shabbat is celebrated twice during each of the three sessions, the kids play in a Maccabiah color wars competition, and Jewish values are integrated into the curriculum. Additionally, counselors from Israel will come to the camp, thanks to the Jewish Agency for Israel, and will “help bring Israel to camp,” Friedman said.

“We teach a different value every day at camp, a Jewish value, like kehillah [community],” he said. “We present it at breakfast and weave it into everything we do during the day — not only on the ballfield, but in the dorms. … The faculty on staff, clergy and educators help bring those values to life both on and off the sports field.”

Campers choose one of the four sports to focus on throughout a session, and they spend several hours each day on it. Two other sports can be pursued in a more recreational way. (Friedman said that, in an effort to attract more girls, there are plans to add volleyball and cheerleading in the future.) 

The original camp in Greensboro, N.C., was launched in 2010 with the support of the New York-based Foundation for Jewish Camp to develop specialty overnight camps that integrated Jewish culture. 

“One of the goals for the new specialty camps was to attract Jewish teens who were not attending Jewish camp,” according to the foundation’s website.

This URJ approach of creating niche camps to draw in Jewish kids with specific interests goes beyond sports; it also operates the 6 Points Sci-Tech Academy near Boston. The 6 Points name, a reference to the six points on a Star of David, has become a brand synonymous with URJ specialty camps, said Friedman, who spoke of plans to launch a 6 Points performing arts camp on the West Coast eventually. 

The sports camp on the East Coast drew 225 campers its inaugural summer and more than 700 campers last summer, Friedman said. But very few West Coast kids have been going to it — thus the need for a new camp.

“It’s one camp, two locations,” he said. “That’s what we are calling it.” 

The expansion of the camp to Southern California is part of the URJ’s goal of operating 20 summer camps by 2020 in order to take advantage of research showing a correlation between attending Jewish camp and future engagement with Jewish life. The California sports camp will be the 16th summer camp run by the URJ.

Among those who have helped to make the camp a reality are Marcie and Howard Zelikow, Temple Emanuel of Beverly Hills members, who donated $6 million to the Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion School of Jewish Nonprofit Management in 2014 (and for whom the school has been renamed).

“Our lead donor has been Marcie and Howard Zelikow, the ones who pushed for this to happen out here,” Friedman said. 

“I just think it is really important and definitely about time that we have a URJ camp here in Southern California. I am very excited about it, and I hope this is a camp that will attract people not only from the L.A. area but from San Diego and Orange County and the Inland Empire. … I am hoping we are going to fill a real need here,” Marcie Zelikow said in a phone interview.

Additionally, University Synagogue Rabbi Joel Simonds, who is also the associate program director for the West Coast branch of the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism, is helping to recruit youngsters for the camp, which satisfies a niche not filled by traditional camps.

“When I call up a rabbi, I say, ‘Can you give me names of 15 kids walking through the halls of Hebrew school dressed in a jersey or who are not coming this week because they went to a game for their team?’ ” Friedman said. “So, we are creating a place where there is not either/or — it’s and. Sports and Judaism.” 

To enroll in Six Points Sports Academy California, visit 6pointssports.org/register

New SoCal Jewish sports camp hopes to hit it out of the park Read More »

Chicago rabbi found guilty of sexually assaulting teen

Leave a Comment / United States /

A Chicago rabbi was found guilty of sexually assaulting a 15-year-old boy.

Rabbi Aryeh “Larry” Dudovitz assaulted the boy when he was supposed to be counseling the teenager for questioning his Orthodox Jewish faith, Cook County Judge Evelyn Clay ruled Monday in the bench trial, the Chicago Tribune reported.

Dudovitz, 48, the married father of nine, had rejected a plea deal that called for five years in prison, and now faces up to 15 years in prison, according to the newspaper. He was ordered taken into custody until he turned over his passport, after which he would be released to electronic monitoring until sentencing.

The assault occurred at the victim’s home in Chicago’s West Rogers Park neighborhood during the Sukkot holiday in 2006. Criminal chargeswere brought against Dudovitz in 2013 after the teen sought counseling in the wake of the incident.

Dudovitz admitted to the abuse at a hearing organized by the Chicago Rabbinical Council, rabbis testified in court. The rabbis banned Dudovitz from being around minors, but he did not adhere to the guidelines, according to testimony, the newspaper reported.

Chicago rabbi found guilty of sexually assaulting teen Read More »

Adam Milstein: Leading by example

Leave a Comment / Culture, Giving, Special Sections /

Adam Milstein is among Los Angeles’ most visible Israeli-American philanthropists. Through the family foundation that he runs with his wife, Gila, the San Fernando Valley resident gives upward of $1 million annually to dozens of organizations, including the Birthright Israel Foundation, the American Jewish Committee’s Project Interchange and Hillel. 

But Milstein, 63, who was born in Haifa and served in the Israeli army during the Yom Kippur War with Ariel Sharon’s brigade, wasn’t always so giving.

Three years after moving to Los Angeles in 1981 to attend business school at USC, he began what has been a successful career in commercial real estate with Hager Pacific Properties, where he continues to work full time as a managing partner. In 2007, Milstein — a member of Valley Beth Shalom and father of three — co-founded the Israeli-American Council (IAC), and he recently was named national chairperson.

Somewhere along the line, Milstein was introduced to the idea of philanthropy. He recently sat down with the Jewish Journal to talk about Israeli philosophies on giving, who and what led him to take a different route, and what he’s doing to instill the value in the next generation. An edited version of that conversation follows.

Jewish Journal: Did you learn to be philanthropic from your parents?

Adam Milstein: No. Really what the Israeli and Israeli-American community is missing is philanthropy. But the Orthodox Jews have grown up with philanthropy … and the fact that I had a [business] partner who is Modern Orthodox, I got introduced to philanthropy at a very young point in my life, and introduced to the joy of giving and the rewards of giving. I remember about 15 years ago I had many discussions with him, as to, “So, what do we do now?” It’s not satisfying just to continue to make more money and more money. At some point, you want to do something valuable with your money, leave an impact, create a legacy, make your community better. This was really the point that I got more involved in philanthropy. 

My wife and I established the Adam and Gila Milstein Family Foundation. Over the years, we have established a specific mission. We want to strengthen the Jewish people, we want to strengthen the State of Israel, and we want to strengthen the U.S.-Israel alliance. So, all the charities and entities we give money to need in some way to accomplish our mission.

JJ: Would Israelis and Israeli-Americans argue with your point that they aren’t naturally charitable?

AM: They would not argue. In Israel, there is a phrase called “freier.” Freier is a sucker. In Israel, to give money to charity, you are a sucker. This is the attitude. In Israel, the public gets everything free from the government — from social services to schools to temples. So people aren’t used to giving money. As of now, it is being introduced more and more because there are a lot of people in Israel who don’t have a home or don’t have food. So when we created the IAC, we said we want to encourage and inspire philanthropy.

JJ: How do you do that if people aren’t used to giving?

AM: One of our slogans is, “We aspire to be a freier.” You think that to be a sucker is stupid; we think it’s smart. We want to lead by example. We are givers. People see that we get respect and make accomplishments by giving. They see if it’s good for [entertainment mogul] Haim Saban to give, if it’s good for Adam Milstein to give, if it’s good for [IAC co-founder] Shawn Evenhaim to give, then it must be a good thing to give. 

The other thing is [to] speak about it, speak about the fact that the giver gets much more than the receiver. In fact, there was an example that happened to me in my early partnership that convinced me that charity is a no-brainer. The way that the Modern Orthodox present philanthropy is they say it’s not that you have to give 10 percent of your earnings as philanthropy. It’s the opposite. Whatever you give, God gives you 10 times more. …

I had some incidents with my partner where we were philanthropic one day and the next day something beautiful happened — suddenly we made a lot of money. The examples were so close that I couldn’t argue. It works this way: I think God is blessing the people that are blessing anyone else. God wants to really empower the people who are givers. And if I am a giver, God will say, “Let me make this person more successful so [he] can give more.”

JJ: Was this a hard talk with your wife?

AM: She was a partner from the get-go. We discuss the different program and grant requests. We make mutual decisions. She is the president of an organization called Stand By Me that helps families combat [cancer]. … So, my wife is more the soul of the philanthropy. Her heart is more into social justice, and I am more focused on strengthening Israel, the Jewish people, the U.S.-Israel alliance.

Obviously there are hundreds and hundreds of Jewish organizations in the United States. The names are confusing and you never know who is doing what. So over the years, we took it on ourselves every year to help another five organizations. I thought the only way you can learn about an organization is to give them money, come to their meetings. Now I think we have, like, 100, and I’ll tell you how we give: Besides the mission statement, we have a model of operation, and the model of operation says, first of all, we want to be active philanthropists, not just give money and forget about it, to make sure that there is an impact. Many times, we will create programs that didn’t exist. Organizations would come to us and say, “Can you help us?” And we will ask the organization, “Which programs are you running or which program would you like to run if you had the money?”

JJ: Can you give me an example?

AM: Let’s talk about AIPAC. … They said, “There is a program that we love, [but] we don’t have money for it. We would like to take non-Jewish student leaders to Israel, the people that will be the senators and congressmen of the world. They are in college today. We have identified them.” We said it’s a no-brainer to take non-Jews. Anyone you take to Israel comes back as a friend. So it has been maybe eight years since we established a program called the Milstein Family Foundation Campus Allies Mission to Israel.

The other program, for example, is Sifriyat Pijama B’America. Gila and I met Harold Grinspoon, the founder of PJ Library, on a trip to Egypt in 2010. We got friendly and we said, “We need to do a program together.” Then I thought, “We want to reach Israeli-Americans. The easiest way to reach the Israeli community is to give books in Hebrew to their kids.” I told Harold, “Why don’t we create the PJ Library in Hebrew in the United States?” And he loved it. We started with 1,000 families in 2011 and now we have 18,000.

JJ: I imagine you have to say no sometimes. Is it hard to say no?

AM: No. It is very easy. I am going back to the model of operation for our foundation because it is important. The first concept was active philanthropy. The second concept is synergy. That means every program we do needs to help other programs. We don’t like to help projects that are stand-alone and have no impact on anything else. We are looking for partnerships. We are looking for ways to make stronger relationships between organizations and to be creating a force multiplier so that one plus one equals five. … And the last [concept] is life path. … Life path impact means we don’t want to shoot and do one program here and one program there. We want to impact the life of our next generation, our young generation, in a systematic way. We have programs for every age group. The programs that we support are going from age 2 to age 40.

JJ: You have a pretty robust presence on social media, including nearly 40,000 Twitter followers.

AM: In general, anything I do I want to be good at. About two years ago, I was introduced to Twitter as a way to reach a wider audience of younger people. I decided to experiment with it. I think what it does is expand our circle of friends and partners, people reaching me from all corners of the world with ideas. 

JJ: It seems like you really enjoy your role as a philanthropist.

AM: Yes. I am really very lucky to be in this situation. I have the resources to do whatever I want. If I want to sponsor something, I don’t have to look for money. I have enough experience with what works and what doesn’t work. I have enough connection with other organizations to see how it helps everybody. I am in a situation where I can really make an impact. For me it’s easy, but I think I am very fortunate to be there. 

Adam Milstein: Leading by example Read More »

‘The Age of Aging’: New discoveries in longevity science

Leave a Comment / 50 Plus, Culture, Health /

Only a fortunate few live to be 100 in good health, but researchers hope to increase that number, thanks to scientific advances in understanding why we age and how to slow the process.  

This developing knowledge is the subject of “The Age of Aging,” the fourth episode of the documentary series “Breakthrough,” airing Nov. 29 at 9 p.m. on the National Geographic Channel.

Directed and narrated by Ron Howard, who produced the series with Brian Grazer, the program features scientists at the forefront of longevity research such as S. Jay Olshansky, professor at the School of Public Health at the University of Illinois in Chicago and researcher at its Center on Aging, and Dr. Nir Barzilai, director of the Institute for Aging Research at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York.

“We’ve added 30 years to how long we live in the last century, and we’ve traded one set of diseases for another. Instead of dying early from infectious diseases, we live longer and get cancer, heart disease, stroke and Alzheimer’s,” Olshansky said. “The general public, physicians and public health leaders have been trained to think in a disease-specific model: Treat one disease at a time. But you get so much more bang for your buck when you slow aging instead of going after specific disease. You simultaneously influence heart disease, cancer, stroke and Alzheimer’s, diseases of frailty, disability and mortality, all at once.”

Toward that end, Israeli-born endocrinologist Barzilai is involved in several important research studies. The first is the Longevity Genes Project, a study of Ashkenazi Jewish centenarians that seeks to determine why some people age more slowly than others.

“We have the capacity to live between 100 and 120 [years]. What’s unique about Ashkenazi Jews from a genetic perspective is there’s less ‘noise.’ It’s a genetically homogenous population,” Barzilai said.

Of Russian-Jewish descent himself, Barzilai became interested in aging when he observed the signs of rapid decline in his grandfather. “I thought this process was really important to understand. Aging is a risk factor for so many diseases,” he said. 

Barzilai, who moved to the United States in 1990 to marry the American woman he met while on a fellowship at Yale three years earlier, is also doing research on the children of Ashkenazi Jewish centenarians. Any Ashkenazi Jew who has a parent who lived to be 100 or older can be part of the research via the Longevity Genes Project website (einstein.yu.edu/centers/aging/longevity-genes-project/).

Barzilai’s other major project is the Targeting Aging With Metformin trial. A widely available drug used to treat Type 2 diabetes, Metformin has slowed aging in mice, and researchers hope to study whether it can lower the risk of heart disease and cancer in people. 

Studies using the organ transplant rejection drug Rapamycin in mice also have been promising. According to Brian Kennedy, CEO and president of the Buck Institute for Research on Aging, mice given Rapamycin lived 30 percent longer and remained healthy 30 percent longer. 

Olshansky said he is concentrating on research into “how we can predict health and quality of life more efficiently than we do now. Even minor success in slowing aging would have a profound influence on all aspects of health, including health-care costs.”

A Detroit native who is Jewish, Olshansky was originally studying adolescent fertility as a grad student when he was given a book about slowing the aging process. “I wrote a paper on the demographic consequences of slowing aging that turned into a master’s thesis, and I couldn’t let go,” he said. 

He’s excited about the progress being made across the board. 

“We’re in the trenches now working on some extraordinarily exciting research that we think will influence the quality of life of almost everyone currently alive,” Olshansky said. 

“Numerous scientists have already slowed aging in other species. Does it translate to humans? Will it extend the period of healthy life? There’s every reason to believe it will,” he said. “I think we will find the answer in our lifetime. But don’t expect us to live [a] radical life expectancy any time soon. Just because you can double the lifespan of a fruit fly doesn’t mean you can double the lifespan of a human.” 

In the meantime, there are things people can do to improve their health and possibly live longer, the researchers said.

“Watch your diet, treat high cholesterol, exercise every day, have a drink of wine,” Barzilai said, advice that Olshansky echoed.

“Exercise and eat right. Take control of what you can. There’s no guarantee it will make you live long or ward off disease,” Olshansky said. “But you’ll be healthier along the way.” 

‘The Age of Aging’: New discoveries in longevity science Read More »

The Paris attacks: Through a photographer’s lens

Leave a Comment / Worldwide /

The weekend appeared calm. I had the evening off and was at home, Philippe Wojazer was “on call,” Benoit Tessier and Gonzalo Fuentes were covering the France v Germany friendly at the Stade de France, while Jacky Naegelen was editing the game from home in Alsace using remote editing software.

Just before ten the phone rang and in a grave voice Senior Editor-in-Charge John Schults told me that a shooting had occurred at a café on the rue Bichat in eastern Paris and I should get there as fast as possible. I was to join Philippe, who had called in the initial report, and was already heading to the scene on his motorbike.

Around the same time, Benoit and Gonzalo heard explosions at the Stade de France. They turned their lenses away from the match and scanned the crowd to try and catch something. As soon as they heard reports that the explosions were outside the stadium they headed out. John had also called in Charles Platiau to reinforce them.

I took the bulletproof vest out of the trunk of my car – it had been there since the Charlie Hebdo attacks in January – and got on my scooter. I stopped by the bureau to pick up a 400mm lens, certain that the security perimeter would be wide, so I would need a long lens.

While I was en route to rue Bichat, Benoit called to report a second shooting incident, 2 km from the first one, on the rue Charonne. I changed direction to head there. As I listened to the radio for updates, France Info reported that there was a hostage incident taking place at the Bataclan concert hall, a historical theatre that can hold some 1,500 people, where rock band “Eagles of Death Metal” were playing. I could be there in just a few minutes.

As I tried to navigate to the theatre, looking for streets that weren’t blocked by police lines, I quickly checked the wire on my iPhone and saw the first terrifying photos captured by Philippe. The full horror of what was transpiring hit.

Philippe had sent pictures from his camera body using Wifi while Regional Chief Editor Mal Langsdon, John and Jacky cropped, edited, captioned and transmitted the images to global clients.

Moving quickly, I tried to get as close as possible to the Bataclan and found a position on Boulevard Richard Lenoir. The police warned journalists that the attackers were active and we could be considered targets. They ordered us to take cover.

The streets were silent. Security forces evacuated some victims, who were taken to safety by police and rescue crews. The 400mm lens enabled me to capture images of the scene. The pictures were transmitted from my camera to editors and were out on the wire within minutes.

Information coming from the police on the scene and news reports on the radio got more and more frightening: there were several hundred people inside the concert hall being held hostage by heavily armed attackers. Special forces units started arriving on the scene in huge numbers. With two colleagues we decided to seek shelter. A young Polish man let us into his apartment on the sixth floor and we took up position at the windows.

Philippe called me and said he was moving to get closer to the Bataclan. He found a position on the other side of the street from me, giving us two angles to cover the scene.

Meanwhile, outside the Stade de France, Benoit, Gonzalo and Charles were covering the evacuation and rescue operations.

Just before midnight explosions were heard at the music hall. We could not see what was happening; no angle gave us a direct view to the entrance to the Bataclan. Once the special forces operation finished people covered in blood and wrapped in blankets came flooding out of the theatre. We descended from our window perches to photograph the victims.

The news reported heavy losses of life, perhaps more than one hundred dead and many, many wounded. Exhausted people, covered in thermal survival blankets, wandered in the street, waiting to be evacuated.

With Philippe, and now Benoit who had arrived from the soccer stadium, we tried to record the emotion that these instants provided.

Some people, covered in blood, spoke to us. They were not wounded: the blood on their clothes came from other victims of the shooting. Their stories were chilling. The moments they lived will remain with them forever. They also mark the life of a photojournalist.

The Paris attacks: Through a photographer’s lens Read More »

Best friends still wowing crowds with variety shows

Leave a Comment / 50 Plus, Culture /

On a recent Thursday, 81-year-old Saul H. Jacobs looked out from behind a microphone at the crowd gathered in Culver City Senior Center’s main auditorium and issued a warning. 

“This is the first time we’ve done this show in front of a live audience,” Jacobs told the 150-plus attendees. “This is our show — ‘Fred Astaire: His Songs and His Dancing Girls’!”

Audience members briefly put down their song sheets — complete with lyrics from Astaire musical numbers — and erupted into applause. Bob Lipson, 80 and Jacobs’ close friend of 63 years, took his cue at the piano and launched into “Lovely to Look At” from the 1935 film “Roberta,” starring Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers.

Despite the disclaimer, Jacobs and Lipson put on a stellar show, craftily infusing showmanship and audience participation with a history lesson on Astaire. Jacobs detailed Astaire’s ascent from humble beginnings to Hollywood royalty; his relationships with frequent collaborators such as Rogers; and theorized about what separated Astaire’s athletic skills from those of his contemporaries. 

“Astaire pioneered a new form of tap,” Jacobs told the crowd. “It had always been all legs. Think Gene Kelly. Astaire used his whole body. He incorporated use of his arms, legs and torso for visual ornamentation.” 

Intermittently, they broke into song. That’s when Lipson took over on piano, backed by bassist Steve Fry and vocalist Jan Lacey. They covered famous Astaire hits such as “I Won’t Dance” (also from “Roberta”), “Let’s Call the Whole Thing Off” (from 1937’s “Shall We Dance”) and “Puttin’ on the Ritz” (from 1946’s “Blue Skies”). On some numbers, Jacobs encouraged audience members to join in using their song sheets, though most didn’t need the printed lyrics to recall every line of the classics on which they grew up. 

“Fred Astaire: His Songs and His Dancing Girls” is the 40th show Jacobs and Lipson, both of West Hills, have developed. For the past nine years, they’ve been performing the shows in rotation all over Southern California. Others include “Musical Ways to Say I Love You,” which celebrates the art and evolution of the love song, and “Salute to Yankee Doodle and Other Patriots,” which delves into the history and merit of famous patriotic songs. 

The duo performs an average of three times a week, mostly at retirement and senior facilities. One of their favorite sites is the Keiro Retirement Home, a Japanese retirement community. (The Boyle Heights facility was formerly the Jewish Home for the Aging.) Shows there incorporate a Japanese translator. “The laughs there are a bit delayed,” Jacobs said. 

They also perform at the Simi Valley Public Library, The Village at Sherman Oaks and numerous other locations. (For their upcoming shows, visit composershows.com.)

Jacobs, a former writer and director of informational films, outlines the show’s educational segments in script form. During performances, Lipson, a former industrial real estate broker and a classically trained musician, plays piano and chimes in off-script, often directing one-liners at pal Jacobs, who fires back with witty verve. These are two good friends having a good time together onstage. 

Jacobs and Lipson met at UCLA (class of ’55 and ’56, respectively) as members of a Jewish fraternity and they formed a lifelong friendship, one that has seen their families grow close over the years as well. Late in their careers, both returned to UCLA to teach: writing for Jacobs, industrial real estate for Lipson. 

In 2007, while on a cruise through the Panama Canal, Jacobs saw a show by Chet and Marlene Solender, a husband-and-wife act who sang and told stories about great American songwriters. 

“As soon as I saw them perform, a light went on in my head, and I visualized me doing those same kinds of shows with Bob at the Milken JCC in West Hills, where I was extremely active at the time,” Jacobs said. 

When he returned to L.A., Jacobs wrote out his own take on those same songwriters and approached Lipson about putting together the music. Lipson was ecstatic. 

“This is how we keep young,” Jacobs said. (Lipson was quick to point out that he’s a solid nine months younger than his good friend.) 

Later that same year, they began performing their show as a monthly event at the now-defunct JCC at Milken in West Hills, focusing on American-Jewish songwriters such as George and Ira Gershwin, Stephen Sondheim, and Rodgers and Hammerstein. It was titled “Those Nice Jewish Boys and Their Wonderful Songs.” 

Lipson’s musical background and Jacobs’ scriptwriting experience infuse their creative process with something akin to the complementary working relationship of the songwriting teams they admire. A shared passion for those musical teams of the first half of the 20th century is a big part of why Lipson and Jacobs do what they do. 

“The impetus was to present this music. It’s all real melodies and you can really sing to it,” Lipson said. 

Lipson, who plays with a jazz band at the Colburn School of Performing Arts, said he has seen his musical ability reach new heights as a result of their shows.

“In the old days, I used to play for myself,” he said. “Now there’s an audience. I have to be a virtuoso. I have to play up to 30 songs for a show sometimes. I’ve made a huge leap.” 

They get something else from the experience of playing shows, too: “Joy. We get back unbelievable joy,” Lipson said. 

Jacobs then recalled a passionate audience member from a gig in South Pasadena. 

“She comes to every show we do there. One time, she came up to us and said, ‘I postponed my surgery to come see your show today.’ It was a triple bypass surgery,” Jacobs said. “We touch something. We have fun.” 

Best friends still wowing crowds with variety shows Read More »

Mind over matter: Treating Parkinson’s through martial arts

Leave a Comment / 50 Plus, Culture, Health /

Many Israelis are hard at work looking into the causes of Parkinson’s disease, new treatments to relieve symptoms and technologies to manage the disease.

One Israeli, however, has focused his efforts on a mind-body approach. Alex Kerten said his gyro-kinetic program of martial arts, movement and music has helped hundreds of Parkinson’s patients from Israel and abroad over the past 20 years in slowing the progression and easing symptoms of this disorder, which affects the brain’s control over muscle movement.

As many as 10 million people worldwide suffer from tremors, impaired balance and rigidity associated with Parkinson’s disease, which has no cure. Drugs prescribed to lessen the symptoms also often cause unpleasant side effects.

“I don’t know what is worse: Parkinson’s or the cocktail of medications people receive to treat it,” Kerten said from his Gyro-Kinetics Center in Herzliya. “They get addicted to the drugs and need medication for its side effects.”

Kerten’s approach targets the physiology of behavior to provide a placebo effect on symptoms as a complement to medications and to reduce the amount of medication needed.

“The physiology of behavior means that our behavior patterns are based on how our nervous system reacts to situations,” he said. “Our biochemistry and our psychology start to change as we learn to control our way of thinking. They begin to interact through body/mind awareness and language, and when they do that, we begin to see a change in our physiology. And that’s when we begin to feel better.”

Kerten said he gets thousands of requests from people across the world interested in his method, and he has treated people at his Israeli clinic from Australia, the United States, United Kingdom and France. He long felt that a how-to book would enable him to reach a greater audience with the message that “there is an option.”

The project came together when Michael Wiese, head of American publishing company Divine Arts, came to Kerten for treatment and then offered to publish his book. David Brinn, managing editor of The Jerusalem Post (and founding editorial director of Israel21c), agreed to co-write “Goodbye Parkinson’s, Hello Life! The Gyro-Kinetic Method for Eliminating Symptoms and Reclaiming Your Good Health.” It is scheduled for a January 2016 release on Amazon.

Although there is scientific evidence that movement and music open up new pathways in the neural networks and make them more efficient, the 70-year-old Kerten is not a scientist and has no medical degree.

He studied martial arts, structuring and healing movement, as well as somatic exploration and movement education. That was prior to working with Parkinson’s patients for four years at Reuth Hospital in Tel Aviv and teaching at the Maccabi Health Institute in Israel, then opening his private practice.

“Having seven black belts in martial arts is the only ‘diploma’ I need, and my clients provide all the proof I need,” he said. “They’re really rehabilitating and treating themselves.”

Most clients come to his clinic twice a week for four or five months, and then occasionally for maintenance. He prefers to work with people who have recently been diagnosed, before they have become dependent on medications.

The first time Kerten meets a client, he observes and asks questions to ascertain the level of disease and its physical and psychological effects.

“In many cases, the effect of the shock over having Parkinson’s is bigger than the Parkinson’s itself,” he said. “The most important thing is I try to see what medications they have gotten and how their behavior patterns have limited or entered their systems.”

Two phenomena he often sees are incorrect breathing, which harms the diaphragm and causes speech difficulties, and less usage of the hands because of trembling, which he said leads to memory problems.

“By seeing where their limits are in movement and rhythm, I tell them what we have to improve, and then I enter into systematic, methodic work. I have built four basic exercises that answer most of the problems and harmonize the body’s systems,” Kerten said.

He explained that when people have internalized the message that their body is going to get worse over time, the autonomic nervous system goes into survival mode and the disease becomes chronic.

“We teach people to communicate with themselves so as not to pass over messages that are not correct,” he said. “And with time, something very interesting happens: All the systems become entrained toward better health.”

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Hebrew word of the week: Datlashim

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Currents and counter-currents are common in every democratic society. So, while there are many Hozrim bitshuvah, “secular or atheist Jews who become Orthodox (frum),” there are also many Hozrim bish’elah, “Orthodox who become secular.”* Recently, these have been called datlashim, an acronym for datiyyimle-she-’avar, “formerly religious, or ex-Orthodox).” 

However, there seem to be various kinds or levels of “de-frum-ing,” such as Hardalashim, meaning “ex-Charedic”; datlashim layit, meaning “light ex-frum”; datlashim kippah, “ex-frum who still wear a yarmulke”; and datlashim lashim, “ex-frum who become frum again.”

*Literally: “return with a question,” a wordplay with the traditional expression Hozrim bi-tshuvah (literally, as if “return with an answer”), the traditional idiom for “repentant Jews, returning to God” (as in Isaiah 55:7).

Yona Sabar is a professor of Hebrew and Aramaic in the department of Near Eastern Languages & Cultures at UCLA

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When art becomes a means of support

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Audrey Irmas, a noted philanthropist and one of the most prominent art collectors in the United States, laughed as she recalled a friend’s response to her purchase of Cy Twombly’s “blackboard” painting, “Untitled, 1968,” back in 1990.

“He was a very important, famous attorney in town, and he was handling a divorce for a very wealthy family,” Irmas, 86, recalled in her airy den in a Westwood high rise, where she sat surrounded by museum-quality works by artists such as John Baldessari and Jean-Michel Basquiat. “He went to New York, because the couple had to do a division of their holdings, and he came in and said, ‘You will not believe it! There is a painting that just sold at Sotheby’s for $3.5 million, and it was just scribbles on a blackboard.’ And I said, ‘I’ll believe it, because I just bought it.’ And he looked at me like, ‘Why would you buy that?’ ”

Fast-forward to Nov. 11 of this year, when Irmas, renowned for her discerning eye, sold that same Twombly for a stunning $70.5 million at a Sotheby’s auction in New York, believed to be a record sum for the artist’s work.  

Audrey Irmas

“But I won’t take one cent of the proceeds,” said Irmas, who is down-to-earth and amiable in conversation. Rather, she has pledged $30 million of the proceedings toward Wilshire Boulevard Temple’s planned Audrey Irmas Pavilion, a $60 million, 55,000-square-foot events center that will stand just east of the synagogue’s 1929 Byzantine-Revival sanctuary in Koreatown. The rest of the Twombly sum will go toward projects sponsored by the Audrey Irmas Foundation for Social Justice, which has funded a school and an orphanage in Africa, among many other endeavors.

The synagogue’s new building, designed by the esteemed Rotterdam-based architect Rem Koolhaas, will not only host weddings and bar mitzvahs but also nonprofit and other events, in a venue that will include an arched banquet room with 36-foot-high ceilings, as well as a large rooftop garden overlooking the Hollywood Hills. You’ll see the Hollywood sign and the observatory and palm trees — it will be very beautiful and very ‘California,’ ” the temple’s rabbi, Steven Leder, told the Journal in September.

This gift is one of many Irmas has made to the synagogue, which has provided a spiritual home for her family for five generations.  In 1994, she and her late husband, Sydney Irmas, an attorney, entrepreneur and fellow philanthropist, contributed $2.5 million toward building the synagogue’s Audrey and Sydney Irmas Campus in West Los Angeles.  And when the synagogue’s Koreatown campus embarked upon its $160 million building and renovation project some years later, Audrey Irmas donated $5 million to build the Irmas Family Courtyard at the temple’s historic location.

For Irmas — who served as a leading trustee of Los Angeles’ Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA) from 1992 to 2006 — “Untitled, 1968” had been a favorite piece within her extensive art collection.  The image of swirling loops against a gray background had previously graced her living room in a place of honor above the mantel. “I loved the freedom of the movement,” she said of the painting.

But after Leder showed her Koolhaas’ designs for the new events center, Irmas made the difficult decision to part with the painting. “I adored it, but I had had it for 25 years, so I just decided it was time, because it could do so much good,” she said. “Once I made up my mind to sell it, I was facing it one day at dinner and coming to grips with losing it, not seeing it. But I was very much ready.”

There was, as well, a more tragic reason Irmas was prepared to sell the piece: Her son, Robert Irmas, died of brain cancer at age 62 in January. That blow came almost two decades after Irmas lost her husband to leukemia in 1996 when he was 71.

“Losing a child has been extremely difficult, and it’s changed my whole attitude of living,” she said. “That’s why I gave away the picture.  I don’t need anything, and I don’t want anything. … I’ve become less attached to things, I guess.”

In the past, Irmas has donated myriad artworks to the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) as well as to MOCA, where she is now a lifetime trustee.

A long gallery adjacent to her den is hung with art, including Roy Lichtenstein’s playful “Emeralds,” and Fabio Mauri’s 1970 “Schermo The End (Screen The End),” in which the words “The End” are inscribed on an otherwise blank canvas that appears to be a movie screen. Irmas said she purchased the latter work when, devastated by her son’s death, she saw the piece in a gallery.

Irmas’ roots at Wilshire Boulevard Temple (WBT) run deep. The synagogue had been her husband’s family temple, and she joined when WBT’s Rabbi Edgar Magnin married her and Sydney in a backyard ceremony at her in-laws’ home in 1949.  “We just started going,” she recalled of the temple.  “Our three children went to [religious] school and were confirmed there. I got more involved because [the temple’s Rabbi Harvey Fields, who died in early 2014] was a very wonderful man, and then I got friendly personally with Rabbi Leder; he’s exuberant,” she said.

Irmas praised Leder as a spiritual leader who has spearheaded much work not only on behalf of congregants, but also the general community; for example, next year, WBT’s new Karsh Family Social Service Center will start providing free food, dental and vision care, as well as mental health services, for residents of the neighborhood and beyond.

It was Sydney Irmas who spearheaded the couple’s own ample work on behalf of the impoverished and the homeless. Their family foundation contributed funds to help form the Los Angeles Family Housing Foundation, which creates housing for low-income families, as well as the Sydney M. Irmas Transitional Living Center in North Hollywood.

Audrey Irmas said she knew little about art collecting when her daughter Deborah, a photographic historian, suggested that her parents begin acquiring photographic self-portraits in the 1970s. “In those days, the photographs were at the back of the galleries, so you had to walk past other art to get to them,” she said. “And that opened up my eyes to other art; it was something that hit me and opened up a new world.”

Over the years, she said, “People would say I have an excellent eye. I don’t just go for the pretty pictures. I go for contemporary art.”

In 1992, the Irmases donated their photography acquisitions to LACMA, and Audrey Irmas contributed $3 million to MOCA, among many other gifts over the years, according to the Los Angeles Times.

Yet Irmas said that her husband had sometimes raised his eyebrows at the idea of collecting art. “He said, ‘If there’s a downturn and you need money, if it’s in stocks or cash, you can have the money in hand. But who knows what’s going to happen to the art?’ So he wasn’t that enthusiastic,” she recalled. 

Of the recent Twombly sale, she added, “Many times I’ve thought, ‘I wish he’d known about it.’ ” 

In an interview the day after the auction, Leder praised Irmas for her $30 million gift to the temple.  

“Audrey herself has now guaranteed a bright future for our congregation and the Jewish community as well as the city of Los Angeles, certainly in our neighborhood,” he said.

“But, more importantly,” Leder added, “Audrey has set an example for other collectors of what is possible after they’ve fully enjoyed their collection and are ready to pass on its benefits to the next generation.”

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