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April 29, 2016

Julia Ioffe, meet the real Donald Trump

Leave a Comment / Opinion, Rob Eshman /

Back in February as the winds began to shift toward Donald Trump, they picked up  a distinct anti-Semitic odor.  It was more subtle then, like rotting jasmine in the night air, but if you inhaled deep enough, it really stank.

I wrote a column, “Donald Trump Has a White Supremicist Problem.”  This is what I sniffed: 

“White nationalist leaders including Jared Taylor and former Klansman David Duke have endorsed Trump. On Vanguard News Network, the largest white supremacist website, Trump is regularly referred to as “Glorious Leader.” Bloggers compare him to Hitler, treating him like the Second Coming of the Third Reich. In January, William Johnson, leader of the white supremacist American Freedom Party, paid for a series of robocalls in Iowa in support of Trump. Johnson convened a 2015 white power political event in Bakersfield at which Matthew Heimbach of the Traditionalist Youth Network gave a speech blaming Jews for destroying the white race.”

[Melania Trump: Ioffe ‘provoked’ anti-Semitic abuse]

As Trump has gained ground, he has not done anything — not a  speech, not a campaign strategy, nothing — to wash the stench off.  If anything, the same hate-filled, marginal voices that rose up to support him them feel even more empowered.

New evidence of that emerged this week in the vicious anti-semitic responses to a profile of Melania Trump.

Melania didn’t like the GQ journalist Julia Ioffee’s feature profile of her, and let it be known that she was suspicious of Ioffe's motives.  That mobilized the Trumpfers, whose Internet comments directed to Ioffe, who is Jewish, tell a story of rabid, unbridled, unchecked, and growing anti-Semitism, as documented in a Mediate column. 

“With Jews, you lose!” read one tweet, which featured a cartoon of a hook-nosed, money-grubbing caricature. 

@Gasthekikes tweeted to Ioffe, “Whacha doing kike? you sure will make a preeurdy lampshade then it's….” — and posted a mock poster of a movie, “Back to the Ovens.” 

(Question for @Gasthekikes, if you really did @gasthekikes, who would have written and produced “Back to the Future?”). 

It went on and on and on— with perhaps  the single most disturbing image tweeted to Ioffe being a cartoon of a Jewish-looking man on his knees with a bullet passing through his brain.  Trump 2016! 

Will Donald speak out?  Will his Jewish daughter and son-in-law at least publicly keep their mouths shut about this issue?  I don’t know. But it stinks.

Rob Eshman is publisher and editor-in-chief of TRIBE Media Corp./Jewish Journal. E-mail him at robe@jewishjournal.com. You can follow him on Twitter @RobEshman and Instagram @foodaism.

Julia Ioffe, meet the real Donald Trump Read More »

Walter Kohn, refugee and Nobel Laureate, dies at 93

Leave a Comment / Books, Culture /

Nobel Prize winner Walter Kohn, who fled Nazi-ruled Austria one month before the start of World War II, died April 19 at his home in Santa Barbara. He was 93.

Kohn received the 1998 Nobel Prize in Chemistry, which he shared with British-born scientist John Pople. His research, which spanned the fields of physics and chemistry, applied quantum mechanics and advanced mathematics to explain complex chemical reactions.

His studies also formed the basis for innovative materials custom designed for medicines and for advances in electronics.

In the fall of 1939, young Kohn left his native Vienna on one of the last children transports to England, where he was interned as an “enemy alien.” The following year he was shipped to Canada, where he subsequently joined the Canadian army as an infantryman.

His parents, Salomon and Gittel Kohn, perished in Auschwitz.

Throughout his academic career, Kohn was also deeply involved in Jewish life. While teaching at UC San Diego, he was instrumental in founding the Jewish studies department.

In 1979, he was appointed as the first director of the Institute of Theoretical Physics at UC Santa Barbara, where he served on the campus’ Hillel advisory board and regularly participated in faculty Torah study sessions.

He maintained close ties with Israeli colleagues and was a visiting scholar at the Hebrew University, Weizmann Institute of Science and Tel Aviv University

Kohn was an outspoken opponent of nuclear weapons research, particularly at UC’s Lawrence Livermore Laboratory.

Although he famously declared “Physics isn’t what I do; it is what I am,” he was also deeply interested in classical music, history and literature – and in roller blading, well into his Seventies.

Kohn is survived by his wife Mara Kohn, the daughter of famed photographer Roman Vishniac, three daughters from his first marriage, and three grandchildren.

Walter Kohn, refugee and Nobel Laureate, dies at 93 Read More »

Koreatown fire destroys 2 homes, damages another; no injuries reported

Leave a Comment / Los Angeles /

A fire in Koreatown, at 173. S. Ardmore Avenue, on Friday afternoon caused serious damage to two homes and damage to a third home.

The cause of the fire was unknown as of press time.

There were no reported injuries, according to Los Angeles Fire Department West Bureau Commander Charles Butler, who appeared in a press conference as firefighters finished up extinguishing the flames.

The firefighting chief described the episode as “a two-story residential structure well involved in fire, exposing two additional residences. It took 43 minutes to knock the fire down. Almost 100 firefighters were on the scene controlling the fire. We had no victims. The reported cause is under investigation. We had reports of some kind of explosion we’re looking into right now.”

Firefighters responded to the scene at approximately 11:45 a.m., Butler said.

As firefighters stood on the roof of one home and hosed down the flames and billowing smoke, Marita Geraghty, a science teacher who was on on her way to work when she saw the fire and pulled over to see what was happening, said she feared a fire breaking out at her own home someday.

“This is my worst nightmare,” said Geraghty, a former actress (“Groundhog Day,” “Seinfeld”) and one of many people who crowded at the blocked-off corner of 2nd street and Ardmore avenue to watch firefighters combat the flames.

Others were there for business reasons, including Zack Galajyan, CEO of a Koreatown-based Servpro, a franchise that conducts cleanup of places affected by water and fire damage. He said he did not know what the cause of the fire could be but that an investigation was necessary.

“We’ll get there, it takes time,” he said. “At this point all you can do is fence it up and make sure no one is going inside.”

Another home burned in the fire. Photo by Ryan Torok

Los Angeles Fire department west bureau commander Charles Butler delivers press conference after the firefighters put out the fire, which damaged three homes. He said there were no victims and that the cause was under investigation. Photo by Ryan Torok

The view of the structure fire from the Jewish Journal office. Photo by Julie Bien

Koreatown fire destroys 2 homes, damages another; no injuries reported Read More »

Recipe: Bengali lemon coconut fish

Leave a Comment / Food, Recipes /

Gandhoraj Maach (Bengali lemon coconut fish)

This delicate fish dish is traditionally made with the Bengali lime, called Gandhoraj. I have adapted this recipe using lemons and Kaffir lime leaves, offering a delicate and simple dish perfect for spring and summer.

Prep time: 30 minutes

Cook time: 25 minutes

Total time: 55 minutes

Yield: Makes 4 to 6 servings

Ingredients

  • 1 cup freshly grated coconut (about 1/2 regular coconut)
  • 1 cup hot water
  • 1 piece fresh ginger, 1 1/2 inches long, peeled
  • 1 or 2 green chilies
  • 1/2 teaspoon turmeric
  • 3 fresh lemons
  • 2 Kaffir lime leaves, thinly sliced
  • 1/4 cup coconut milk
  • 1 teaspoon nigella seeds
  • 2 to 3 dried red chilies
  • 3 tablespoons plus 1 tablespoon chopped coriander
  • 2 pounds halibut or any other firm-fleshed fish
  • 1 teaspoon salt, or to taste
  • Banana leaves (if available) for steaming

 

Directions

Place the freshly grated coconut in a blender with the hot water and blend until smooth.

Strain the mixture through a fine-mesh sieve.

Return the coconut mixture to the blender, with the liquid strained off. Add in the ginger, green chilies and turmeric and blend until smooth. Pour the mixture into a mixing bowl.

Zest 2 of the lemons and add the zest to the coconut mixture. Cut one of the zested lemons in half, remove the seeds and squeeze in the juice. Set aside the other zested lemon and thinly slice the third lemon for garnish.

Add the Kaffir lime leaves to the coconut milk and stir well.

Stir in the nigella seeds, red chilies and coriander leaves. You should end up with a pale yellow sauce flecked with nigella and coriander. Salt the fish, then add it to the coconut milk mixture and mix well.

Heat the oven to 300 F and prepare a large baking dish with about 2 inches of water.

Line a heat-proof casserole dish with banana leaves and pour in the fish mixture.

Cover with a piece of foil and bake for about 20 to 25 minutes, until the fish is cooked through.

Cool slightly, remove and taste the sauce. It should be smooth and gently tangy. Depending on your preference, add in a little more lime juice.

Garnish with the remaining coriander and the lemon slices and serve hot, ideally with steaming rice.

Recipe: Bengali lemon coconut fish Read More »

A California dream-come-true as Rams take QB Jared Goff

Leave a Comment / Culture, Sports /

Quarterback Jared Goff was less than a year old when the National Football League Rams left Los Angeles in 1995.

Now the California native and No. 1 pick in Thursday's NFL Draft will be a face of the franchise when it returns to Los Angeles, after 21 seasons in St. Louis.

Goff, who set Pac-12 conference records for passing yards and touchdowns at the University of California, Berkeley, will join running back Todd Gurley in an attempt to turn around a Rams team that has not had a winning record in any season since 2003.

“Just truly a dream come true,” Goff said. “I'm taking it as an honor and I'm going to have to prove them right, that they made the right decision.”

The Rams traded up to take Goff, dealing numerous later-round picks to the Tennessee Titans earlier this month to acquire the first overall selection.

“If you're a first-round quarterback, there's going to be pressure regardless,” he said. “I'm very excited, very ready to go, ready for the challenge.”

The lanky 21-year-old is known as a cool presence in the pocket.

The first true freshman to start a game at Berkeley, Goff said his biggest adjustment will be the speed of the pro game. The Rams said earlier this year that Case Keenum would be the Rams starter going into training camp.

“I'll come, work hard, see what happens. Hopefully I can play early,” Goff said.

The draft, held at Chicago's Roosevelt University for the second year in a row, took a decidedly California turn after Goff was selected and he took to the stage to the music of the rapper 2Pac's song “California Love.”

Jared's father, Jerry Goff, was a former Major League Baseball player who also made sports memories in Chicago, hitting his first home run for the Montreal Expos in 1990 at Wrigley Field.

Jared Goff had spoken with many teams, including the Cleveland Browns, about being a potential pick.

“When the Rams traded up, I had a good feeling about it,” he said. “It's been an unbelievable experience, and something I'll remember the rest of my life.”

A California dream-come-true as Rams take QB Jared Goff Read More »

An LGBT congregation connects to a Czech Holocaust Torah

Leave a Comment / Judaism, Los Angeles /

The lesbians and gay men who founded Congregation Beth Chayim Chadashim in Los Angeles, also known as BCC, in 1972—the first-ever LGBT synagogue—reflected the depth of its importance to themselves and their community by choosing a name meaning “House of New Life.”

[RELATED: Czech Torahs reunite at Holocaust Museum]

The very next year, 1973, BCC welcomed its Holocaust Survivor Torah Scroll, which comes from Chotěboř, located southeast of Prague in today’s Czech Republic—a town whose last Jewish residents were deported in 1942. BCC’s scroll, on loan from the Memorial Scrolls Trust in England, is featured in a special exhibition of rescued scrolls at the Los Angeles Museum of the Holocaust through May 9.

The story of how BCC met a survivor of Chotěboř began in 2005, when BCC engaged a Sofer, a Torah scribe, to help us repair a passage from our scroll.

New York-based Sofer Neil Yerman spent a weekend at BCC, guiding more than 100 BCC members as we each re-inscribed a letter in a portion of our Shoah Torah scroll that includes the passage from Deuteronomy 30:19—“Life and death have I set before you…that you may choose life.”

That is a verse that especially resonates for BCC, says Lisa Edwards, Senior Rabbi of BCC, “for we are part of a community that historically has faced rejection, discrimination, persecution and even death. For us, to ‘choose life’ means to live proudly and joyfully, knowing that we are all created in God’s image.”

As a community (I have been a member since 2000) we read these Torah verses each Yom Kippur, made all the more poignant and powerful for us by the history of the survivor scroll from which we read.

Later in 2005, in observance of the 67th anniversary of Kristallnacht, the Night of Broken Glass, BCC organized a reunion of the 28 Czech survivor scrolls now cared for by Jewish communities around Southern California.

Among the 400 people gathered to celebrate was 77-year-old Olga Grilli, born Gabanyiova, a native of Chotěboř.

We had learned that, at age 11 in 1939, Olga escaped to England on the last Kindertransport train organized by a young Englishman, Nicolas Winton, who rescued 669 Jewish children from Czechoslovakia.

Olga came to us because a member of BCC, Stephen Sass, found Olga’s story among the interviews at the Spielberg Shoah Visual History Foundation. We contacted her, and with her children and grandchildren, Olga traveled to Los Angeles to participate in our “Etz Chayim” Kristallnacht observance.

The procession into the sanctuary of 28 survivor Torah scrolls was led by Olga in her wheelchair, our Chotěboř Torah scroll held in her tender embrace.

Olga recalls, “When I saw the scroll in Los Angeles, when I held it in my arms, it was a continuity. I am happy it found such a wonderful home where there are people who will take care of it.”

“BCC is honored to keep alive this precious Torah scroll that has been entrusted to us,” says Edwards, “and in so doing to keep alive the memories of Olga and her community.”

Read more about the story of BCC’s scroll and its special friendship with survivor Olga Grill, from the same Czech town.

Sylvia Sukop is a writer/editor and 2016 Fellow of the NewGround Muslim-Jewish Partnership for Change. A longtime member of Beth Chayim Chadashim, she co-chaired the “Etz Chayim” Czech Torah scrolls reunion in 2005. You can read her essay on the early history of BCC in the anthology LAtitudes: An Angeleno’s Atlas (Heyday, 2015).

An LGBT congregation connects to a Czech Holocaust Torah Read More »

Russian fighter did barrel roll over U.S. reconnaissance plane

Leave a Comment / Worldwide /

A Russian jet fighter intercepted a U.S. Air Force reconnaissance plane on Friday in an “unsafe and unprofessional manner” over the Baltic Sea, the Pentagon said, and CNN reported the Russian pilot did a barrel roll over the U.S. plane.

The U.S. Air Force RC-135 plane was flying a routine route in international airspace when it was intercepted by the Russian SU-27 fighter, the Pentagon said, in the latest in a series of similar incidents between the U.S. and Russian militaries.

The Russian fighter came within about 100 feet (30 meters) of the American plane as it performed the dangerous, high-speed maneuver, CNN reported, citing two U.S. defense officials in the Baltic Sea region.

“This unsafe and unprofessional air intercept has the potential to cause serious harm and injury to all aircrews involved,” Pentagon spokesman Commander Bill Urban said in a statement.

“More importantly, the unsafe and unprofessional actions of a single pilot have the potential to unnecessarily escalate tensions between countries,” he said.

Earlier this month, Russian jets buzzed a U.S. guided missile destroyer, the USS Donald Cook, in the Baltic Sea. A photo released by the Pentagon appears to show the Russian jet passing at an extremely low altitude over the ship's bow.

“There have been repeated incidents over the last year where Russian military aircraft have come close enough to other air and sea traffic to raise serious safety concerns, and we are very concerned with any such behavior,” Urban said.

Russia accused the United States of intimidation by sailing the Cook close to Russia's border in the Baltics and warned that the Russian military would respond to any future incidents.

NATO plans its biggest build-up in Eastern Europe since the Cold War to counter what the alliance considers to be a more aggressive Russia.

The Baltic states, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, which joined NATO in 2004, have asked the alliance for a permanent presence of battalion-sized deployments of allied troops in each of their territories. A NATO battalion typically consists of 300 to 800 troops.

Moscow denies any intention to attack the Baltic states.

Russian fighter did barrel roll over U.S. reconnaissance plane Read More »

Protesters target Trump speech to California Republicans

Leave a Comment / Election 2016, United States /

Protests erupted on Friday outside the venue where U.S. presidential candidate Donald Trump was speaking to a group of California Republicans, a day after a demonstration against the former reality TV star turned ugly.

About 300 people gathered outside the convention in Burlingame, south of San Francisco. Protesters, who held signs and Mexican flags, at one point rushed security gates, and police officers had their batons out.

News cameras caught images of Trump, guarded by security officials, hopping a barrier and walking toward a back entrance of the hotel for his speech to the California Republican convention. Protesters were blocking traffic.

“That was not the easiest entrance I've ever made,” Trump told the gathering. “It felt like I was crossing the border actually.”

Trump has won a following among Republican voters in the United States, along with ardent critics, for his hardline stand on illegal immigration. He has accused Mexico of sending drug dealers and rapists across the U.S. border, and promised to end it by building a wall and making Mexico pay for it.

Chaotic scenes broke out on Thursday outside a Trump rally at the county fair grounds in Costa Mesa, California. Media reported that anti-Trump protesters smashed the window of a police patrol car and blocked traffic. Some 20 people were arrested.

The Republican front-runner was in the state ahead of its June 7 primary, when the most convention delegates of the Republican nominating cycle will be at stake.

Trump's rivals hope to block the real estate mogul from garnering the 1,237 delegates needed to secure the nomination. U.S. Senator Ted Cruz on Friday picked up the backing of Governor Mike Pence of Indiana, the next state to hold a nominating contest.

Trump, who described himself this week as the party's presumptive nominee, would take a huge stride toward knocking his Republican rivals out of the presidential race if he wins the Indiana primary next week.

Protests have become common outside rallies for Trump. His campaign had to cancel a rally in Chicago last month after clashes between his supporters and protesters.

Cheryl McDonald, 71, of Discovery Bay, said she had to pass through protesters to get inside the hotel where his event was being held on Friday. “They were yelling. I think the only words they know in the dictionary are profanity,” said McDonald, who said she is a Trump supporter.

Cruz won backing from Indiana's governor on Friday ahead of the state's primary, where the Texan is fighting a rearguard battle to damage Trump's chances of winning the nomination.

“I'm not against anybody, but I will be voting for Ted Cruz in the upcoming Republican primary,” Pence said on an Indiana radio show.

Cruz, a U.S. Senator from Texas, is trailing the New York billionaire in the Midwestern state after losing to him by a wide margin in all five Northeastern states that held nominating contests on Tuesday.

The endorsement from Pence could boost Cruz's hopes of winning Indiana on Tuesday. A CBS poll out earlier this week found Trump with about 40 percent of support in Indiana, compared to 35 percent for Cruz. The poll had a margin of error of 6.6 points. Other polls have also shown Trump ahead.

Protesters target Trump speech to California Republicans Read More »

Shaping a greater Los Angeles through Passover traditions

Leave a Comment / Community /

I sat weary-eyed that early Tuesday morning in March, in the vast conference room of Gibson Dunn’s DTLA office, not yet fully grasping the magnitude of what we were planning. Jesse Gabriel, Federation Board member, and Rabbi Noah Farkas of Valley Beth Shalom led the 8 AM meeting, encouraging me and a few other Jewish Federation New Leaders Project alumni they had tapped to offer ideas for enhancing their fourth annual Civic Leadership Passover Seder. 

We ran through the ethnically diverse guest list, which included elected and appointed officials, and brainstormed thoughts on the Seder’s speaker series — each assigned to a distinct community leader who would share the Jewish history of the assigned portion and then relate to it through his/her personal communal role – highlighting the parallels between the themes of the Passover story and the challenges LA faces today.

I thought about the value of my identity – a 2nd generation Persian Iraqi Jewish American – and how it relates to the Los Angeles immigration narrative and issues concerning the greater Jewish community. Eager to add my communal element to the event, I suggested incorporating our Persian Jewish tradition of whipping one another with onion leeks during the Dayenu portion of the Seder.

Given that the liveliness of our Persian heritage has heavily influenced our Jewish traditions, we whip one another with leeks every time the word Dayenu, which means “enough,” is said, to remind ourselves of our ancestors’ pains during their enslavement in Egypt. It is a spirited tradition we relish in because it brings the family closer together.

The Federation fully endorsed the idea – beyond giving me a platform to speak, they purchased batches of large green onion stalks to accompany every Seder plate for the night. In the month leading up to the event, I began to fully grasp the tremendous implications this had for my community.

Persian Jews have had a long history of being alienated from political life, which trails back to the Jewish community not having a representative voice in the political system in Iran. We were a minority in Iran and are a minority within the American Jewish community. The Federation’s endorsement of our Passover tradition gave my community a larger platform for our voice and acknowledged our value in civic life, encouraging us to proudly share our views and traditions.

On April 12th our Civic Leadership Seder took form at the Breed Street Shul in Boyle Heights. It was a beautiful sharing of unique traditions, where each speaker related their stories to how we can build a greater Los Angeles together. The common thread of overcoming discrimination as minority groups, immigrants, and refugees trailed throughout the night. 

I witnessed first-hand an entire room of civic leaders, including Mayor Eric Garcetti, come closer together as they whole-heartedly took part in our spirited tradition and whipped one another with leeks while singing Dayenu. Later that evening, guests approached me with excitement to share that they will incorporate our lively tradition during their own Seders this year, and I felt proud that my community – a historical minority group – is becoming a larger part of the Los Angeles Jewish narrative and civic life.

And what did that night mean for the broader story of Los Angeles? By assembling our city’s representatives of various faiths, cultures, and traditions in an effort to understand the underpinnings of our distinct identities, our diverse communities connected and strengthened a foundation for lasting relationships that will push our city and communities forward.

Being a small part of the Civic Leadership Seder this year deepened my sense of appreciation for the value of our traditions – they help build structure for our society. And while history defines our past, reflection on the meanings of our traditions will shape who we are today and what we can become.

As this Passover season comes to a close, I hope we take more time to reflect and share our traditions and values with one another, both within and outside of our communities. These values are what support the backbone of Los Angeles. We are modern day Jews and Angelenos with immensely remarkable stories, and is our civic duty to find ways to reinforce our diverse traditions in building a thriving, all-inclusive, greater Los Angeles.

Jasmine Youssefzadeh is an alumni of the Federation’s New Leaders Project and Founder and CEO of Impact Rising, a cultural movement agency specializing in storytelling and engagement campaigns that unite business growth and social impact.

Shaping a greater Los Angeles through Passover traditions Read More »