There, a steady stream of vehicles arrived, disgorging clusters of teenagers at Orange County\’s Jewish Community Center. Instead of movies, sleepovers and football games, the typical high school student\’s Friday night pursuits, about 60 teens gathered to participate in the center\’s \”Teen Shabbat\” program, now in its second year.
One of the most exciting experiments in Jewish transformation is taking place right here in Los Angeles.
\”Survivor\” as inspiration for Jewish programming? It seems strange that the divisive show where deceit, backstabbing and empty promises are de rigueur would serve as the inspiration for a Shabbaton that stresses the importance of religious and cultural continuity. Yet Sephardic Tradition and Recreation (STAR) has seized on this pop culture phenomenon and infused it with a positive spin.
While writing \”Good Harbor,\” about the midlife friendship between two Jewish women, Anita Diamant says she suffered a bout of \”second-novelitis.\”\n\nHer 1997 debut novel, \”The Red Tent\” — a sexy spin on the biblical story of Dinah — had been a runaway best seller that\’s still on the New York Times list. Julia Roberts told Oprah magazine that \”Tent\” was one of her favorite books. The book has sold more than 1.5 million copies in the United States alone, and publishers have bought the rights in 18 countries.
Craig Taubman remembers a time not too long ago when he and other popular Jewish musicians were branded as destroyers of Jewish culture.
In October 1999, I went through the personal tragedy of a divorce. I felt personally lost, very much alone. A lady in my congregational community, Lilly Kahn-Rose, approached me one Shabbat soon after, offering to help me in some way. I responded: \”Please invite me and my children for some Shabbat meals, and please help me get some Shabbat meal invitations from others in the community. I can buy cold cuts, side dishes, and challah, can recite kiddush and lead z\’mirot melodies, but it is going to be so lonely and feel so minimalist in our apartment. Please help me get me some Shabbat invitations.\”
B\’nai Tikvah Congregation: 9 a.m. Shabbat service. 5820 Manchester Ave., Westchester. For more information, call (310) 645-6262.
Her eyes, I think, will stay with me forever. Imploring, beseeching, full of so much sadness.
Temple Sinai: 9:30 a.m. Shabbat services. 10400 Wilshire Blvd., Los Angeles. For more information, call (310) 474-1518.
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