The Circuit

Special Prayers

Approximately 80 people attended a memorial service July 13 at Beth Jacob Congregation to remember the two Israeli Bnei Akiva counselors murdered in Hebron, in the Gaza Strip, by Fatah terrorists on June 24. Avihai Levy, 17, and Aviad Mansour, 16, were walking in the southern Hebron Hills area of Beit Hagai when they were shot to death.

“Open your own wallets and look at your kids and grandchildren,” said Roz Rothstein, national director of the Israel advocacy and education group, StandWithUs, which co-sponsored the memorial with Beth Jacob Congregation and Bnei Akiva of Los Angeles.

Rothstein, joined at the bimah by StandWithUs National President Esther Renzer, noted that “as a child, I belonged to Bnei Akiva, too. As a teen, I was a madricha, a counselor, and then I became a local chapter leader. Good Zionist youth movements like Bnei Akiva teach responsibility for Israel and give real meaning to the phrase, ‘If I forget Thee, O Jerusalem.’ I credit Bnei Akiva for making this connection in my own life. A little bit of each of us has been lost when these two teens were murdered.”

A large, color photo of each young man framed the Orthodox synagogue’s bimah. Seated in the audience was Yaron Gamburg, the new deputy consul general at the Consulate General of Israel. Eulogizing the slain teenagers were Beth Jacob Rabbi Steven Weil and Bnei Akiva’s West Coast representative Dani Yemini.

“Violence is not our way, violence will not help, not in London, not in Netanya, not in New York,” said Yemini, who was followed by short speeches by teenagers Amanda Lazar and Ben Greenfield, then music and prayers by Cantor Avshalom Katz.

Eat for a Cause

If you feed them they will come … and if you add charitable endeavor to the list they will come in droves. This was the case Saturday night when the Concern Foundation held its annual tasting fundraising event on Paramount studios backlot. Hordes of happy people wandered about selecting from the delicious array of foods, pastries and beverages. The event for the Concern Foundation, which benefits cancer research — and the donations — keep growing every year.

Appointment Time

The North Hollywood – Valley Community Clinic (VCC), a longtime local provider of free and low-cost health care, has named Paula Wilson its new top executive, succeeding veteran CEO Ann Britt.

Wilson, VCC’s current vice president of planning and development, has served in various fundraising capacities for the clinic since 1992. Earlier this year, she served as CEO pro-tem during Britt’s California Wellness Foundation-awarded five-month sabbatical.

Wilson will spearhead the growth of youth and pediatric services at VCC and oversee its new standing as a community clinic designated to receive federal dollars.

A resident of the San Fernando Valley for more than two decades and a wife and the mother of a school-age son, she is a member of the Community Clinic Association of Los Angeles County and the California Primary Care Association, as well as local chambers of commerce.