A veteran physician diagnosed with leukemia is hoping to find a compatible bone marrow match within the Jewish community to help him beat back the life-threatening disease. Be The Match, the National Marrow Donor Registry, is holding a donor screening on Thursday at USC’s Rand Schrader Health and Research Center.
Ambassador Yehuda Avner, who served as a diplomat, speechwriter and prime ministerial adviser in Israeli governments from the 1950s to the 1990s, will speaking this weekend at Beth Jacob Congregation in Beverly Hills. Avner wrote “The Prime Ministers: An Intimate Narrative of Israeli Leadership” (The Toby Press, LLC, 2010), a 700-page opus based on notes he took while serving as adviser or secretary to five prime ministers. The book, a finalist for the National Jewish Book Awards in 2010, is now being made into two motion pictures.
Honoring Hatzolah, Anjelica Huston, Sheba
In the four decades of his accomplished career, global electronica DJ Cheb i Sabbah — a Berber Jew from Algeria now living in California — has specialized in crossing barriers among nationalities and working with artists of all religions and ethnicities. His latest album, \”Devotion,\” released Jan. 29, features spiritual music from Pakistan and neighboring countries performed by musicians from Southeast Asia. As tensions and violence continue to mount in Pakistan, this album provides a mystical soundtrack for transcendence, reminding listeners that human spirit is one thread connecting us all. On the occasion of his Los Angeles album release party on Feb. 2 at Temple Bar in Santa Monica, The Jewish Journal caught up with this boundary-defying musician.
In a groundbreaking collegial but hard-hitting conference sponsored by the UCLA Center for Jewish Studies, a slate of top scholars, public officials, diplomats and Polish Jewish community leaders met to discuss the controversial and complicated relationship of Poles and Jews.
In the space of an hour — plus an extra 10 to 15 minutes thrown in for good measure — David Solomon outlines the 4,000 years of Jewish history, from 2000 B.C.E. to the present. Each white paper wall represents 1,000 years, and as Solomon moves from Abraham to the 12 tribes, Moses, the prophets, the First and Second Temples, the Babylonian exile and the \”PR stunt\” of Chanukah, he works the room, swiveling the audience in its seats as he races from one side of the room to another.
Calendar of events, January 26 to February 1: Kids, film, lecture, theater, maccabi games, singles, tu b\’shevat, volunteer, concert, comedy, adventure, drama, photography, book signing, music, youth art show, mardi gras.
After months of contentious back and forth over the scheduling of the statewide high school debate tournament on the first night of Passover, Jewish leaders and tournament organizers have reached a half-hearted detente that will not change the date but will ensure such a scheduling snafu will not happen again.
Awash in diamonds, dresses and lapels, wealthy and fashionable philanthropists worked their weight in gold: in just one night, $1 million was raised for the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), which inspired 850 guests with the creed, \”Be the change you want to see in the world.\”
The buzzword in business circles is synergy. That\’s what JDub Records was looking for when it began to think about its third annual Chanukah event.
And when Daniel Brenner, vice president for education at the Birthright Israel Foundation, told JDub heads Aaron Bisman and Jacob Harris that he was interested in doing a project with the nonprofit music label, the buzz of synergy filled the air.
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