California\’s insurance commissioner has promised to use the power of his office to help thousands of the state\’s residents collect on unpaid insurance policies stemming from the Holocaust era.
In every other Mickey Rooney-Judy Garland movie, there came apoint when one or the other would pipe up with, \”Hey, kids, let\’s puton a show,\” followed by a glitzy Hollywood production number.
The largest Israeli mission ever launched by the Jewish FederationCouncil of Greater Los Angeles, and the biggest North Americancontingent this year, returned home last week, with organizers in astate bordering on euphoria and participants exhausted but mostlypleased with their experience.
The urgent telephone call came on Monday, Oct. 20, for Rabbi JohnRosove of Temple Israel of Hollywood. A crisis was brewing in Israel,said Rabbi Ammiel Hirsch, head of the Association of Reform Zionistsof America.
Mitzvot, acts of loving kindness or just plain charity:Whatever you call them, Jews are commanded to do more than simplypray for good things — they have to do good themselves in order tohelp repair what is wrong in the world.
Adolescence seems to have heightened Debra\’s fixation on herbiological origins. She asks probing questions about her birthparents. She wants to know whether her birth mother was Jewish, andwhether there are brothers and sisters somewhere. Such questions arepainful to the Rubins, who\’d rather not spell out all they know aboutthe sad, sordid circumstances of Debra\’s birth.
It is our Jewish concern for human welfare that takes the rabbis where the needs exist. It is the United Jewish Fund\’s concern for justice and human need that directs Federation support to the chaplaincy program.
A key element in Labor Party leader Ehud Barak\’s strategy tobecome prime minister is to win support from Orthodox andultra-Orthodox (haredi) voters, who backed Binyamin Netanyahuoverwhelmingly in the last election. Now Barak is faced with adilemma: The price of wooing Orthodox votes is apparently his supportfor the Conversion Law, which is fast approaching decision time inthe Knesset.
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