Apart from the 175 member families she served at Anchorage\’s Congregation Beth Sholom, Rabbi Johanna Hershenson found little other Jewish life. As the only non-Orthodox rabbi in Alaska, she became a long-distance consultant to lay synagogue leaders in even more isolated areas, such as Homer and Fairbanks.
I still remember the first year we served shemurah matzah at our seder…. It was in the early 1960s and we were living on a ranch in Topanga Canyon.
If spoof dj Dr. Demento hosted a Purim show, he\’d have to spotlight the Jewish band Shlock Rock. Shlock \’n\’ roll includes clever parodies of pop hits like "I Don\’t Get No Humentashen (based on the Stones\’ "Satisfaction") and "Achashverosh" (think Falco\’s "Rock Me Amadeus").
If Golus is recalled, then the entire state of California will be transported to the Holy Land, and we won\’t have to worry about a budget crisis, Davis\’s lack of personality or unsavory Arnold Schwarzenegger interviews — which definitely makes recalling Golus something worth thinking about.
Dmitriy Salita doesn\’t fight on the Sabbath, which gives his competition a much-needed day of rest from this powerful junior welterweight.
Jews have had a presence in Pasadena since the late 1800s, yet many of the few thousand who lived there preferred to go unnoticed.
Chabad\’s annual "L\’Chaim — To Life!" telethon will look a little different this Sept. 14 since two new producers are helming the 23-year-old fundraiser.
Shmuel Marcus is a bit like the lucky son of an ambitious frontier storekeeper, who relies on family to staff a second storefront.
Since January, Marcus, 27, has operated Orange County\’s newest Chabad from a living room alcove of the second-floor Cypress apartment he shares with his 25-year-old wife, Bluma, and two young children.
Scion of an unusual family, Marcus has joined the equally unusual society of shluchim (emissaries). They are foot soldiers for a powerful ideology of outreach by the Chabad-Lubavitch branch of Orthodox Judaism. Trailblazers like Marcus must solicit their own financial support and, with their wives, make a lifetime commitment to remain in often-remote areas, ranging from Armenia to Zaire. In not-so-remote California, 20 new sites are planned this year alone in places such as Calabasas and Monterey. The Golden State already has the largest concentration of Chabad centers outside of Israel.
Chabad of California\’s 22nd annual \”L\’Chaim to Life Telethon,\” hosted by Dennis Prager, was humming along nicely with a long roster of talent that included classic actors James Caan and Elliott Gould, comic actor Dom DeLuise and Israeli singer David \”Dudu\” Fisher. Then 10:30 p.m. rolls around and the KCET soundstage — where the telethon is broadcast — went amok. Enter the Sand Man.
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