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Big Sunday Founder Levinson Named State’s Nonprofit Leader of Year

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July 2, 2009

David Levinson, who founded Big Sunday as Mitzvah Day at Temple Israel of Hollywood in Los Angeles and grew it into a nonprofit organization that attracted 50,000 volunteers of all ages for a weekend of giving in May, has been named by Governor Schwarzenegger and Maria Shriver as the inaugural Nonprofit Leader of the Year as part of the 2009 National Conference on Volunteering and Service. Levinson’s philosophy that everybody can give grew from a 200-person day of volunteering at 19 sites in 1999, the first year, to include participation from synagogues, churches, mosques, schools, neighborhood groups and individuals of all stripes to work together to build and renovate homes, rehab apartments, wash dogs, spruce up schoolyards, entertain the elderly and much more. More than 500 sites benefited on the weekend of May 2-3, 2009, from Solvang to San Diego. _The state of California received more than 100 nominations for the 2009 award, according to California’s Secretary of Service and Volunteering, Karen Baker.

— Susan Freudenheim, Managing Editor

HUC’s School of Jewish Communal ServiceRemains Open
Despite plans that could have led to the closure of Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion’s School of Jewish Communal Service in Los Angeles, the board of governors decided Tuesday to keep admissions open for the 2010-2011 school year.

“It was felt by a majority of the board that a full vision and plan of budget reductions for the school had not yet been attained and it would be unwise to single out a particular program for an admission suspension prior to a full plan being adopted,” university President David Ellenson told The Journal.

He added that several governors told the board that the 40-year-old School of Jewish Communal Service, a gem of the L.A. campus, would be “budget neutral in the years ahead.”

The board for the four-campus university had been considering a major reorganization to close a $3 million budget shortfall. Instead it directed the administration to investigate “structural savings for the institution over the next three years,” Ellenson said, which he said will likely include consolidating programs and faculty, and integrate them across the three state-side campuses in Cincinnati, Los Angeles and New York.

“Through consolidation and integration, this direction enables the College-Institute to create a single institution and a single faculty, embrace new technology and realize our vision as ‘One College,’” Ellenson said. Such reorganization should give the university a balanced budget by 2014, he added.

— Brad A. Greenberg, Senior Writer

Wiesenthal CenterHolds Solidarity Conference
On Tuesday, June 23, the Simon Wiesenthal Center hosted a press conference, “Americans Unite in Solidarity with People of Iran,” at the Los Angeles Museum of Tolerance.

Iranian American activists and leaders from the Baha’i, Christian and Jewish communities called for the United Nations to take action regarding reports of a fraudulent election and human rights violations in Iran.

Wiesenthal Center founder and dean Rabbi Marvin Hier said that while non-governmental organizations can’t request a session of the U.N. Security Council, member countries should do so now.

“Why are the lights out at the United Nations?” Hier asked. “Where is the EU? Where is the United States and Canada? Where is the Muslim and Arab World to demand a meeting of the Security Council to discuss the issue of Iran?”

Political activist Roxanna Ganji echoed the call for UN action and added that regime change was necessary with the support of the world community.

“We are from all different ideologies here [but] … We are here as Iranians requesting the world to hear us as one nation, seeking change for democracy and secularism,” Ganji said.

Political analyst Mohammad Amini said that while the U.N. should condemn election fraud and resulting violence, only Iranians should be involved in regime change.

“It is our job to change the regime in Iran, and we will do it,” Amini added.

Other speakers at the event included moderator and Wiesenthal Center associate dean Rabbi Abraham Cooper, the Evangelical Covenant Church’s Rev. Walter Contreras, Iranians for a Secular Republic secretary general Roozbeh Farahani, U.C. Irvine Prof. Hamid Arabzadeh, Baha’is of Los Angeles’ Randolph Dobbs and the Committee for Religious Minority Rights in Iran director Faryar Nikbakht.

The Wiesenthal Center also distributed an independent analysis highlighting irregularities in the 2009 Iranian elections, which is available through its Web site www.wiesenthal.com. The paper is published by Chatham House and the University of St. Andrews’ Institute of Iranian Studies.

— Sara Shereen Bakhshian, Contributing Writer

Teens Wanted for Free Tripto Washington to Foster Tolerance
The Anti-Defamation League is looking for 100 high school juniors from across the country to participate in its Grosfeld Family National Youth Leadership Mission in Washington, D.C., in November. The four-day trip — offered at no cost to participants — brings together a diverse group of high school students to learn about fostering understanding and fighting prejudice.

The centerpiece of the trip will be a guided tour of the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum.

Participants will be selected based on diversity, leadership potential and ability to discuss issues of tolerance. Students who attend the Nov. 15-18 mission will be required to participate in six meetings of ADL’s Dream Dialogue during the school year, which brings together teens to learn about diversity.

Application deadline is July 15. For further information or to request an application, contact Jenny Betz at ADL, 310-446-4233, or email jbetz@adl.org.

— Julie Gruenbaum Fax, Senior Writer

L.A.’s Iranian Americans Continue Protests in Westwood
A sea of nearly 10,000 Los Angeles-area Iranian Americans of various faiths, including local Iranian Jews, demonstrated and marched in Westwood Village on June 28 in support of Iranians in Iran who have been demonstrating for democracy since the June 12 election. For the third consecutive weekend, Los Angeles’ Iranian Americans filled both sides of Wilshire Boulevard near the Federal Building, waving Iranian and American flags, holding up signs and chanting anti-Iranian government slogans. The majority of the demonstrators opposed all aspects of Iran’s current Islamic regime, and not just the re-election of President Ahmadinejad. While local Iranian Jewish leaders have chosen not to comment on the violence in Iran for fear of retaliation by the Iranian government on that country’s nearly 20,000 Jews, many of those marching were Iranian Jews.

“For those of us who remember Iran and identify with this culture, we care about the young people of Iran who are fighting for the simple freedom we take for granted in the U.S.,” said George Haroonian, an Iranian Jewish activist and former president of the L.A.-based Council of Iranian American Jewish Organizations (CIAJO). Local Iranian Jewish bookkeeper Amir Naim donated funds to print about 1,500 color copies of 14 different posters for the Westwood demonstrations.

— Karmel Melamed, Contributing Writer

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