In response to the three clerics who made the front page of The New York Times, in just one week several hundred clergy, mostly from the United States, signed on to a letter of support for WorldPride in Jerusalem, saying, among other things, that \”Jerusalem, a living, holy city, a pilgrimage site for people of many faiths and many beliefs, increases in holiness when all are welcome within her walls.\”
With the 60th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz, we recall once more the destruction wrought by Nazism, the chaos, desolation, the machinery of death. We peer unflinchingly at the ovens and gas chambers, the cattle cars and the concentration camps, we stare at the heart of darkness and swear, \”Never Again.\”
Last October, a man called with a complaint. Before I could ask what was the matter, he launched into a tirade about a biased and\n\ninaccurate article. He said he couldn\’t believe a serious newspaper would print such lies. He was so angry, he was this close to canceling his subscription.\n\nI wasn\’t sure which article he was referring to, so I gently asked him to be more specific. He went on to describe a piece I had absolutely no memory of.\n\n\”Are you sure you read this in The Jewish Journal?\”\n\n\”The Journal?\” he said. \”No! This was in The Los Angeles Times.\”\n\n\”The Times?\” I said. \”So why are you calling me?\”\n\n\”Because they won\’t pick up the phone!\”
At the Jewish Children\’s Bookfest at Mount Sinai on Nov. 14, children were given a journal and asked the following question:
\”What does being Jewish in America mean to me?\”
As early as March of this year, humanitarian organizations were issuing warnings of ethnic cleansing in Darfur, Sudan.
In choreographer Roni Kosmal-Wernik\’s piece about the aftermath of a suicide bombing, a dancer prowls the stage as if searching for a lost loved one. Her movements become heavy, brooding, as if she is burdened by an invisible weight.\n\nInspired by a family friend\’s death in a 2001 attack, Kosmal-Wernik\’s work will help kick off a June 20 event at Temple Emanuel to support other victims of terror. Performers such as pianist Sha-Rone Kushnir will appear to benefit ATZUM, a Jerusalem-based charity that provides necessities for families not covered by Israel\’s overburdened welfare system.\n\n\”Artists for ATZUM,\” is the latest Los Angeles response to Israel-based violence.
The index-card box is one of the most important items in your home and is referred to each time an affair is coming up — as well as when you need a gift for that person\’s party.
The Conservative movement may continue to attract those for whom Orthodoxy remains \”too restrictive\” and Reform \”too acculturated,\” but a more likely outcome will be \”the demise of the Conservative movement,\” Rabbi Paul Menitoff wrote.
Limmud, which means learning in Hebrew, is a name that for many in the Jewish and non-Jewish educational world has become synonymous with an inclusive, bottom-up approach to education.
This week, while fires raged, strikes festered and three or four wars smoldered, most of the urgent phone calls I received were about Chaim Seidler-Feller.
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