As a Los Angeles Unified School District teacher of world issues for seniors in Los Angeles, I began yesterday\’s class by playing a taped interview of Michael Moore talking about his movie, \”Fahrenheit 9/11.\” I had suggested that the class go see the film, so we could discuss it.
Students at UCLA participate in a live teleconference with its sister class at Tel Aviv University in Israel.
For the past two and a half years, I have been the facilitator of a Yiddish reading class at Santa Monica Emeritus College. We are currently completing the reading in the Sholom Aleichem\’s classic, "Motl, Peyse dem Khazn\’s" ("Motl, Peyse the Cantor\’s Son").
Last month, as we began our daily daf yomi class (the daily study of a page of Talmud) we all looked over to the chair where Tibor Reis usually sat, to my immediate right. On the rare occasion when Tibor did not attend, we assumed he was just too tired. After all, traveling by bus each day to downtown Los Angeles takes a toll on an elderly person. But that day it was different. We all felt that, perhaps, Tibor was the fifth unidentified victim of the horrible June 6 airplane crash at a Fairfax apartment building. Unfortunately, the Los Angeles Times identified Tibor as the sole resident of the apartment building to die as a result of the crash.
Rules of etiquette suggest that one must whisper in a library. But for the Jewish Community Library of Greater Los Angeles, that rule is just the beginning.\n\nThe library recently held its culminating ceremony for a group of youngsters enrolled in its Children\’s Etiquette and Social Grace class. This is the first time that the institution has sponsored such a class.\n\nThe idea developed after the library director Abigail Yasgur and children\’s director Sylvia Lowe, children\’s librarian, enrolled their respective youngsters in an etiquette class.\n\n\”Libraries are not just about the books,\” Lowe said. \”They\’re becoming meeting places for people in the community.\”
Each year in January, female friends, co-workers and family members of Nicola Shocket can count on receiving a phone call or e-mail.
I entered the tea-scented room, took a yoga mat and joined a circle of 20-somethings seated on the hardwood floor.
David Lehrer may be overstating his case only slightly when he says that most Westsiders are unaware of what goes on \”6 inches below the 10 freeway and 6 inches east of the Golden State.\”
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