I\’ve spoken to many groups all over Los Angeles during extremely volatile times. I\’ve never seen such rudeness, narrow mindedness and just plain boorishness.
The attacks on Israel by Hezbollah and Hamas represent nothing less than the latest step in radical Islam\’s quest for world domination, said Rabbi Marvin Hier, dean and founder of the Simon Wiesenthal Center. Standing up to the threat, whether on the frontlines of Israel or the streets of Los Angeles, is a needed challenge to the forces of darkness.
Similar citywide musical battles have met with much success in the Jewish communities of Vancouver and Miami, among others. Such an event, though, seems tailor-made for Los Angeles, the entertainment capital of the world.
Founded in 1997, the Justice Ball has grown into one of the nation\’s most successful nonprofit fundraisers/parties targeting young professionals, Jews and non-Jews alike. Over the past nine years, more than 16,000 attorneys, financiers and others have attended the soirees, and scores of them have gone on to become Bet Tzedek contributors and volunteers.
More than 80 studio executives, producers, directors, lawyers, agents, distributors and rabbis all enjoyed a Shabbat dinner together in the south of France. For some, Shabbat was a new experience. For others, a weekly ritual. Still for others, it was simply another networking event.
\”He\’s the James Brown of the Jewish community, the hardest-working man in L.A. Jewry,\” Los Angeles City Councilman Jack Weiss said. \”I see him everywhere.\”
Although in some ways, Fishel is everywhere but nowhere. A bearded, slender man with a direct gaze, the shy Fishel seems to prefer keeping his own counsel. He sometimes materializes at events in his well-tailored suits and then slips away after talking to but a handful of folks.
Here it is: 5,000 years after Moses wandered the Sinai, his people have finally found a home in Reseda, no less, at the Jewish Home for the Aging, the largest continuing residential care facility for the elderly in the Western United States. Yet while these Jews are no longer wandering, they are today wondering when the big simchah begins.
How do you sum up 100 years of history? That\’s the task of historian Florie Brizel, who was hired by Sinai two years ago to write the history of the shul. She just completed \”Sinai Temple: A Centennial History,\” a narrative that runs more than 200 pages.
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