In his featured speech to the crowd assembled for the Yom HaShoah program at Sinai Temple, Ambassador Dennis Ross, the diplomatic point man for the Israeli-Palestinian peace process during previous administrations of George Bush and Bill Clinton, acknowledged his disappointment in the current violence and outlined what he views as the likely possibilities for the conflict.
We were together in a small room, about 10 of us. Four of us were from Sinai Temple in Los Angeles. I stood with Jimmy Delshad, our temple\’s past president; his wife, Lonnie, and Temple Treasurer Kam Hekmat, as well as two members of an L.A. fact-finding mission, David Rubin and Dr. Mark Barak. We were bending over the scroll of a Torah, along with five rabbis, all dressed in combat fatigues. Each rabbi was scrutinizing it with an erudite eye.
A month after Passover, the winds have not yet died down from the \”Wolpe Hurricane.\”
Rabbi David Wolpe of Sinai Temple in Westwood caused a stir when he asserted, in earshot of a Los Angeles Times reporter, that the Exodus story can still inspire us even if, as some archaeologists assert, the story of the liberation from Egypt is not true. Rabbi Wolpe\’s remarks ended up on the Times\’ front page during Passover and became grist for sermons and Torah study all over town.
Many of Rabbi David Wolpe\’s congregants at Sinai Temple in Westwood took strong exception to a series of sermons he had delivered before and during Passover that examined the question of faith despite doubt and questioned the historical veracity of the Exodus.
On a Wednesday night, about a dozen parents of children with developmental disabilities gather at Sinai Temple, a Conservative synagogue on the Westside. They meet to knock down barriers and dispel myths, to offer a shoulder to cry on and good advice on working the system of state and local agencies. Most of all, they provide support in a community where every child is expected to grow up to graduate from Harvard or, at least, UCLA.
Started in June as a once-a-month event, \”Friday Night Live\” has become a happening, of sorts. The most recent service easily drew 800 people.
After word leaked out that the family of Monica Lewinsky belonged to Sinai Temple in West Los Angeles, the full-court presswas applied by members of a media desperate for any details even remotely connected to the alleged White House sex scandal.\n\n
With a faculty of noted scholars, Sinai Temple has adapted an \”adult education\” program with an eclectic curriculum that is carefully designed to satisfy a wide range of interests, from serious courses in Jewish spirituality, and discussions of the Jew\’s role in Society to special classes in Jewish rituals, and interactive sessions for improving synagogue skills, Hebrew reading and lessons in cantillation. Two seminars are scheduled: from October through January and February through May.\n
Rabbi David J. Wolpe, along with his wife and 6-month-old daughter, arrived in Los Angeles from New York on June 30.
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