L.A. Scholar Wins Book of the Year, USC Hillel Cuts Back on Shabbat Dinners

L.A. Scholar Wins Book of the Year
Los Angeles Bible scholar Tamara Cohn Eskenazi will receive top honors at the National Jewish Book Awards being presented March 5 in Manhattan for her work editing “The Torah: A Women’s Commentary,” published by Union of Reform Judaism Press and Women of Reform Judaism.

Eskenazi, a professor at the Reform movement’s Exposition Park campus of Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion (HUC-JIR), and Rabbi Andrea L. Weiss, an instructor of Bible at HUC-JIR in New York, co-edited the volume, which won the Everett Family Foundation Jewish Book of the Year Award.

The volume includes textual commentary and essays that incorporate women’s perspectives and elucidate where and how the feminine character or perspective are included — or not included — in the biblical narrative. Scholars also offer contemporary reflections and creative responses, such as poems or original midrash, to fill the texts with modern meaning.

Also among the award-winners is Rabbi Harold Schulweis of Valley Beth Shalom in Encino for his latest work, “Conscience: The Duty to Obey and the Duty to Disobey” (Jewish Lights Publishing), which won in the category of Contemporary Jewish Life and Practice.

In this treatise, Schulweis, founder of Jewish World Watch, posits that Jewish ethics and history require violating or changing laws that break with moral conscience. He argues against the popular understanding of Judaism as a religion of unquestioning obedience and of God as being unapproachable, in favor of a philosophy of ethical assertiveness.

The 58th annual National Jewish Book Awards, sponsored by the Jewish Book Council, will recognize achievement in 16 categories. Among the other winners this year are Father Patrick Desbois, a priest who won in the Holocaust category for his account of his attempts to uncover the burial grounds of Ukrainian Jews; and California resident Lisa Alcalay Klug, who was a finalist for her book, “Cool Jew: The Ultimate Guide for Every Member of the Tribe” (Andrews McMeel Publishing). For more information, visit jewishbookcouncil.org.

— Julie Gruenbaum Fax, Senior Writer

USC Hillel Cuts Back on Shabbat Dinners
USC Hillel is canceling some of its Shabbat dinners, scaling back a weekly barbecue event and looking at other ways to reduce expenses in response to the growing recession.

“We don’t see it getting better economically in the near future. We’re being conscientious and economically responsible,” said Shira Moldoff, assistant director of development and outreach for USC Hillel.

Moldoff said the USC chapter has cancelled its catered Shabbat dinners on three-day weekends, because they draw few students. And a Wednesday barbecue social that cost USC Hillel $700 each week has been reduced to once per month, she said.

Regular Friday night meals, which draw roughly 50 students each week at a cost of about $650, have not yet been affected. But the chapter’s leadership is hoping to cut that expense in half by handing responsibility for some Shabbat meal preparation over to the students, Moldoff said.

One of the options under consideration includes having students and student leadership prepare meals in USC Hillel’s fleishig kitchen, just as UCLA Hillel does each week at its facility to reduce expenses. The USC chapter student board is planning to prepare and serve a Shabbat meal on March 6 as a trial run.

Another approach being considered is a Shabbat-in-a-box program, which would provide a boxed meal with challah and wine to students, who would be encouraged to organize and host satellite Shabbat dinners.

USC Hillel leaders say the fiscal cuts are pre-emptive in advance of the coming budget year, which begins July 1, and could help offset any potential shortfalls for this year.

Lee Rosenblum, USC Hillel’s acting director, said the problems confronting his chapter are not unique. “Every Hillel in the country is facing the same basic economic issues,” he said.

Rosenblum said he has not had to lay off anyone from his staff, adding that the topic had yet to be raised by USC Hillel’s leadership.

“We’re going to do everything we can to forestall that,” he said.

— Adam Wills, Senior Editor

Teleconference Explores Breast Cancer Blogging
Women who have survived or are currently being treated for breast cancer are invited to join a national teleconference about ways to record their personal breast cancer experience Tuesday, March 3, 8-9:30 p.m. (EST).

“Take It From Me: My Experience in My Own Words,” is hosted by Sharsheret, a New York-based advocacy and support organization for Jewish women with breast cancer. After panelists present their topics, callers will be able to participate in the Q-and-A portion.

Panels include: Living Stories: Writing or Recording Your Life Stories with Linda Blachman, author and founder of Mothers’ Living Stories Project; Journaling Through Breast Cancer: A Means of Self-Awareness and Self-Expression, with University of Pennsylvania creative writing teacher Janet Ruth Falon; and Why Do I Blog? Education, Convenience, and Tired of Repetition, with Dancing with Cancer blogger Jill Cohen.

For more information or directions on how to dial in, call (866) 474-2774 or e-mail events@sharsheret.org.

— Julie Gruenbaum Fax, Senior Writer

Shalhevet Student Raises Funds for Ghana Orphanage With Picnic in Park
A local L.A. teen and student at Shalhevet School launched Chari-Tea Picnic in the Park, an event that raised $3,000 for the CharSam House Children’s Home, an orphanage in Ghana, West Africa.

Tenth-grader Stephanie Salem teamed up with cousin Nili Salem and in under a month planned the fundraiser held on Sunday, Feb. 8. at Stoner Park.

Sammy Oduro, a native Ghanaian, and wife, Charlotte Oduro, founded the orphanage and were on hand to speak about why they chose to give up their careers in law and education to build and run an orphanage.

Eighteen kosher restaurants participated in the event by donating food and gift certificates. West African drumming and dancing, a professional magician named Fantastic Fig and a raffle that awarded participants with djembe drums all the way from Africa were also part of the three-hour event.

Two pieces of art from the personal collection of Roen Salem, chair of the fine arts department at Shalhevet School, were auctioned off as well.   

Nili said a 12-year-old who organized a similar picnic in Cape Town, South Africa, for another charitable cause, as well as a friend who had a musical bonfire and raised $700 in one night for hurricane relief in Haiti, inspired the fundraising effort.

— Lilly Fowler, Contributing Writer