Some film historians claim that the Jews invented Hollywood, and so it\’s only fitting that so much of Los Angeles\’ Jewish life has been captured on film.
With any luck, Daniel will be spending Rosh Hashanah on the outside. It\’s likely he\’ll soon be making the transition from jail to the recovery program at Beit T\’Shuva, a nonprofit that works with at-risk youth.
\”I wanted to be a coach because I like sports,\” said Gaskin of her involvement with the Prime Time Games program.
The Pacific Palisades resident initially took on the responsibly to fulfill an outreach requirement for her bat mitzvah last spring. The experience has satisfied more than a ceremonial obligation.
\”I feel good because I\’m helping other people,\” Gaskin said.
Gayle Gale started Kids for Peace after she returned to Los Angeles from a series of trips to Israel as a visiting artist at Ben-Gurion University, Beersheba in 1994 and 1995. With assistance from the local Israeli consulate and a grant obtained with help from the Center for Jewish Culture and Creativity from the Jewish Community Foundation, she set out to teach youth about Israel through artistic means. In the years since, Gale has found herself doing much more.
Years of Kassam rocket fire at Sderot have shattered the sense of normalcy in this desert town. The fire has become so intense in recent weeks — often three or four rockets a day — that daily life here has come to a virtual standstill.
Etz Jacob prides itself on accepting children who would not otherwise get a Jewish education. Rabbi Rubin Huttler of Congregation Etz Jacob founded the school in 1989 as a haven for new immigrants flooding into Los Angeles from Russia and Iran.
Families are feeling the squeeze of the upward crawl of day school tuition over the last several years, which has brought the average tuition for elementary and middle school to about $12,600 and for high school to as much as $20,000. Those numbers are about 30 percent above what a year of schooling cost four years ago and nearly double 10 years ago.
\”There has been a significant rise in the past four years in anti-Semitism generally and on school campuses,\” said Dr. Kevin O\’Grady, associate director of the Anti-Defamation League\’s (ADL) Orange County/Long Beach Region. O\’Grady\’s office recorded 43 cases of harassment and vandalism last year, nearly 50 percent more than in 2003; one-third of these involved public schools.
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