Rikud is the largest and longest-running Israeli folk dance camp in the United States, and it takes place every year on Memorial Day weekend at Camp Hess Kramer in Malibu. More than 300 dancers from around the world pack into the beachside summer-camp facility for three days of non-stop dancing.
Situated a quick jaywalk across Pacific Coast Highway from Surfrider Beach and the Malibu Pier, Malibu Beach Grill is a kosher oasis in a town renowned for breathtaking seaside vistas, A-list celebrity sightings and new-age crunchiness.
Joyce Brooks Bogartz\’s look isn\’t quite what you\’d expect from the owner of a kosher restaurant. Adorned with brown-and-cream dreadlocks, the nearly 50-year-old proprietor of Malibu Beach Grill would at first glance seem to fit in better with customers sporting board shorts than black hats. But this post-punk Gidget is the kind of \’Bu Jew who is as comfortable around Chabadniks as she is with surfers.
During the last few weeks of his life, when the brain cancer that had stalked him for eight years was about to claim victory, Daniel Jacoby spent hours on his laptop.
Construction crews broke ground at the site of the Malibu Jewish Center and Synagogue (MJCS) last week — two and a half years after the congregation held a gala groundbreaking celebration for the new $10 million building.
\”Building in Malibu is legendary — it\’s very difficult to get through the regulatory process. Thank God, we\’ve made it through all of that,\” said George Greenberg, congregation president.
The recently mounted mezuzah on the front door of a soon-to-be opened restaurant in Malibu is symbolic for many reasons.
It marks the first kosher eatery to open in the seaside community. It also symbolizes Chabad of Malibu\’s first foray into mainstream life in a city of surfers and celebrities.
Chabad has been cultivating its surf town persona since 2001, purchasing several buildings and a house across the street from the Malibu Pier. A sign posted in front of the property portrays the silhouette of a Chabadnik riding a surfboard.
Nestled deep within a Malibu canyon off the Pacific Coast Highway, the Shalom Institute, a Jewish summer camp and nature center, has planted an extensive organic garden on its grounds this year and plans to incorporate the age-old tradition of farming into its summer programs.
They are not scholarships but \”camperships\” in Jewish summer camp parlance. Of the 1,000 campers expected soon at Malibu\’s Camp JCA Shalom, which is supported by JCCGLA, about 200 parents applied for camperships.
\”It\’s amazing, in the past few years, the income level of people who are requesting camperships,\” said Bill Kaplan, executive director of the Shalom Institute, which runs Camp JCA Shalom. Its campership aid this year will run about $130,000, $75,000 of which is general camp aid from The Federation. That is an increase from the $50,000 The Federation made available 2002, the boost due to the increase in cash-strapped families.
When Rabbi Judith HaLevy of the Malibu Jewish Center and Synagogue exchanged rings with Edward Toppel of Chicago last Sunday, hope, like the late afternoon winter sun, burned brightly. If remarriage, as the saying goes, is the triumph of optimism over experience, how much more so when the rabbi herself carries white calla lilies?
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