Photo courtesy of Bet Tzedek. Legal aid agency Bet Tzedek’s New Leadership Council held its 22nd annual Justice Ball on July 14 at Poppy in West Hollywood. The Justice Ball raises funds to support the work of Bet Tzedek, which provides free legal services for those in need.
A sign reading “Bet Tzedek Justice for All” was displayed on the wall of the packed nightclub as more than 700 young professionals danced the night away to the sounds of the electrofunk DJ duo Chromeo.
Attendees included Bet Tzedek President and CEO Jessie Kornberg, Vice President of External Affairs Allison Lee and Development Operations Coordinator Zoe Engel; 30 Years After President Sam Yebri; and JQ International Assistant Director Arya Marvazy.
Kim Chemerinsky and David Mark are co-chairs of the New Leadership Council, a volunteer group consisting of young professionals dedicated to supporting the work of Bet Tzedek.
The law firms of Alston & Bird and Seyfarth Shaw and Skadden, as well as Beach Point Capital Management, served as the evening’s top sponsors.
Based in Los Angeles, Bet Tzedek was founded in 1974 as an all-volunteer agency fighting for Holocaust victims. Today, the organization provides free legal services for low-income individuals and families in Los Angeles.
The Los Angeles premiere of the film “Damascus Cover,” a political thriller, was held July 12 at the Museum of Tolerance.
The program featured Jewish Journal Publisher and Editor-in-Chief David Suissa moderating a discussion with Daniel Zelik Berk, the film’s writer and director, and Howard Kaplan, author of the 1977 novel on which the film is based.
The event was organized by the Jewish Journal, the Museum of Tolerance and the Los Angeles Jewish Film Festival, whose director, Hilary Helstein, was in attendance.
Set in late 1989, at the time of the fall of the Berlin Wall, “Damascus Cover” follows a Mossad operative attempting to smuggle a Jewish chemical weapons scientist out of Syria. Jonathan Rhys Meyers stars in the film as Mossad operative Ari Ben-Zion. The film’s co-stars are the late John Hurt, who gave his final screen performance as Ben-Zion’s boss at the Israeli intelligence agency, and actress Olivia Thirlby, who plays an American photographer.
The film opened in theaters on July 20.
Members of Temple Beth Am, IKAR, B’nai David-Judea and Temple Emanuel of Beverly Hills gathered on July 22 for prayer, learning and song in commemoration of Tisha b’Av, the Jewish holiday marking the destruction of the holy Temples in Jerusalem and other tragedies in Jewish history.
“We are creating a space first as a community and then inviting God into that place,” Rabbanit Alissa Thomas-Newborn of B’nai David-Judea said in her welcoming remarks. “The partnership between the Jewish people and God is what will bring that comfort.”
Thomas-Newborn introduced keynote speaker Gabrielle Birkner, co-founder and executive editor of Modern Loss, an online community and content platform geared to young adults living with loss.
After Birkner’s father and stepmother were murdered in a home invasion, she found that “grief found a way to make itself known,” she said.
“Jerusalem is a fitting metaphor for how to explain grief,” Birkner said in her speech. “When the worst has happened, we build communities of caring.”
The event included breakout sessions that focused on different aspects of grief, comfort and consolation. Matt Shapiro, interim associate rabbi at Temple Beth Am, spoke on “The Spirituality of Giving and Receiving Comfort.” Temple Beth Am Senior Rabbi Adam Kligfeld explored “The Deep Meaning of the Root ‘Nachem.’ ” And Sarah Bassin, associate rabbi of Temple Emanuel of Beverly Hills, engaged her group in a discussion of grief stages, Jewish texts and personal stories in “Seven Weeks of Comfort: When Prophets Stop Chastising.”
In addition to the four participating synagogues, the Our House Grief Support Center was a sponsor of the event.
— Esther D. Kustanowitz, Contributing Writer
The Movable Minyan celebrated its 30th anniversary on July 15 at the Institute for Jewish Education, where the group meets for services.
Thirty people turned out to commemorate the occasion, including five who were present at the volunteer-led congregation’s inaugural Shabbat, on Dec. 19, 1987, in the living room of Edmon and Brenda Rodman.
“Over the years, we have laughed, prayed, celebrated and mourned together as a community, and we have become close friends,” Edmon told the Journal.
The event was titled “A Night of Lameds.”
Living up to its name, Movable Minyan, over the course of three decades, has met at 49 locations. It has held nearly 700 Shabbat meetings, given out 3,300 aliyot, raised more than $300,00 and davened for 28 high holy days. The anniversary celebration marked these accomplishments and more.
The self-described “small cooperative synagogue” convenes on the first and third Shabbat morning of every month for a participatory, musical service and Shabbat dairy potluck lunch and on the fourth Friday of each month.
Chabad on Campus International received the Richard J.H. Gottheil Award from the Zeta Beta Tau (ZBT) fraternity on July 14 at the Westin Bonaventure Hotel in Los Angeles.
The Gottheil Award is presented to individuals and groups that have advanced human understanding among all people. The award is named for the late American scholar, Zionist and founder of ZBT, the world’s first Jewish college fraternity.
Chabad on Campus was named the winner of the award based on its work that gives Jewish students a place of belonging. Chabad on Campus engages college students in Jewish life and serves the needs of the campus community on a social, educational and spiritual level.
Chabad on Campus International Executive Vice President Rabbi Yossy Gordon, who accepted the award from Supreme Council of ZBT President Norman Waas, credited the work of the organization’s 264 campus centers.
“Chabad’s approach to living is about intellectual awareness,” Gordon said. “To make a decision based on an understanding, a clarity, and to be able to know the difference between good and evil, right and wrong, and inspire others to make a decision based on thinking rather than emotionally reacting.”
Attendees included Rabbi Dovid Tiechtel from the Chabad at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Rabbi Mendy Fellig of the Chabad at the University of Miami in Florida and ZBT Executive Director Laurence Bolotin.
More news and opinions than at a Shabbat dinner, right in your inbox.