I spent most of this past week at the United Jewish Communities (UJC) General Assembly (GA), the annual gathering which, this year, brought nearly 4,000 Jewish communal representatives (and journalists) from North America, Israel and elsewhere overseas.
Genndy Tartakovsky will be among the hot names attending next week\’s Eighth Annual World Animation Celebration. Co-sponsored by Animation Magazine and Variety, the Hollywood festival will kick-start a week of symposiums addressing cartoon industry issues.
The story goes that a young man gets an entry-level job with the Democratic National Committee in the nation\’s capital and for his first assignment is told by his boss to buy Christmas decorations for the upcoming office party.\”I\’m not sure whether I\’m the right person,\” protests the young man. \”You see, I\’m Jewish.\”
Eighty-eight years after Henrietta Szold founded Hadassah in 1912, the 306,000-member Zionist and social service organization will gather in Los Angeles for its first national convention of the 21st century. From July 16-19, more than 2,500 leaders and guests will mingle at the Century Plaza Hotel, where speakers will range from actor Richard Dreyfuss to political commentators Mary Matalin and James Carville. Hadassah is the largest women\’s and Jewish group in the U.S., but president Bonnie Lipton admits membership is down from its high of more than 350,000 in the 1980s. More than half of current membership is over 61, so the group is working to reinvent itself and draw younger women. Besides its historic focus on health care in Israel, for example, the organization is now championing women\’s health in the U.S, among other issues.
When Rabbi Eric Yoffie and other Reform movement leaders walked through the doors of Walt Disney World\’s Dolphin Hotel about a week before Christmas last year, they were greeted by a garishly lit, outsized Christmas Tree and the sound of caroling.
It\’s tenor time in the Borscht Belt next week. The cantors are coming to the Catskills, close to 400 of them, from Conservative synagogues across the country. With spouses and sundry fans in tow, they\’ll be descending on Kutsher\’s Country Club, one of the last of the region\’s great Jewish watering holes, for three days of music and prayer. It\’s the annual convention of the Cantors\’ Assembly.
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