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Rabbis Tackle Issues of Conversion for Children at Groundbreaking Workshop
The holiday of Shavuot, which starts today at sundown, commemorates the giving of the Torah at Mt. Sinai. The holiday also celebrates Conversion to Judaism, with the reading in synagogues of the biblical Book of Ruth. Considered the first Convert to Judaism, Ruth was... Read More »
Honoring our Chairman
On May 9th, we honored our Chairman of the Board, Richard V. Sandler, with the Bruce I. Hochman Maimonides Torch of Justice Award during our Federation’s 64th Annual Legal Division Dinner at the Beverly Hilton Hotel. More than 700 attorneys, judges and community leaders came out to recognize Richard’s outstanding service to our Federation and to the Jewish people. This year’s Legal Dinner, which was followed by... Read More »
Get Ready for Take-off: PresenTenseLA Launch Night May 22nd
As a kid, who didn’t want to rocket into space like an astronaut? Most kids grow up never making it to take-off. Others launch their big ideas instead, and on Wednesday, May 22nd, our community’s visionaries will do just that at our first-ever PresenTenseLA Launch Night—and you’re invited! Read More »
Rabbi Jonathan J. Bernhard Assumes Leadership of Board of Rabbis
The executive committee of the Board of Rabbis of Southern California passed its proverbial presidential gavel April 23 to Rabbi Jonathan Jaffe Bernhard, senior rabbi of Adat Ari El, who will lead the membership organization of more than 330 rabbis. Bernhard succeeded Rabbi Judith HaLevy, who concluded two years’ service as Board of Rabbis president. Read More »
Diller Teen Fellows North American Seminar 2013
When I initially told my friends that I would be taking part in a Jewish teen leadership program known as Diller Teen Fellows, they immediately asked: “What’s Diller?” Read More »
Los Angeles Rabbis study the origins of Zionism with scholar Eliyahu Stern
Board of Rabbis members marked Yom HaZikaron, Israel’s memorial day for fallen soldiers, April 15 with a lively discussion on the Eastern European origins of Zionism. Dr. Eliyahu Stern, a Fellow with the Shalom Hartman Institute in Jerusalem, introduced the Los Angeles rabbis to... Read More »
A Celebration Like Never Before
Last Saturday, nearly 1,000 young Jewish professionals came together to celebrate Israel’s 65th Independence Day at the UNITE “Blue and White Party”—and it was all the rage! Our Israeli pride could not be contained and thanks to the power of social media, our collective spirit reached thousands more. Read More »
We Celebrate Israel Every Day: Just Watch
Today is Israel Independence Day, celebrating the 65th anniversary of the Jewish state. At our Passover seders just a few weeks ago, we re-told the story of our people’s Exodus from Egypt and return to the land of Israel. Please take a short moment to watch this story of a young man in Israel who is building on our ancestor’s vision for our Jewish homeland thanks to your support Read More »
Holocaust Remembrance Day: Remembering those lost and those who survived
"Today, we remember the 11 million lives taken during the Holocaust — a catastrophe that thoroughly transformed our world. As we take time to honor lives lost, we look towards people like Viktor Frankl, who gave this talk “Why to believe in others.” Read More »
Federation Volunteers Celebrate Freedom with Service
The theme of freedom was brought to life on Sunday, March 31 by Federation volunteers at the second Community Service Day of 2013! Just several days after Passover, with themes of freedom still on people’s minds and hearts, over 120 volunteers participated in four programs across the city as a part of this special day of service. Read More »
Two New Takes on Our Passover Tradition
The past is often the best way to help us reach a better future, and sometimes it’s the future that helps us appreciate our past. Undoubtedly, the old brings us into the new, yet the new often brings us back to the everlasting old. Old was added to the New Synagogue in Prague’s historical Jewish Quarter when new synagogues were being built, renaming it the Old New Synagogue Read More »
Federation Hosts Reception for Elected Officials
The Jewish Federation hosted a special Jewish Community Welcome Reception for Elected Officials on February 28th, convening the local Jewish community to greet our new and veteran elected officials at the local and State levels. Co-sponsored by 15 Jewish organizations, a total of over 36 organizations represented by lay leaders and staff were in attendance, Read More »
Civic Leadership and More at the 2013 NLP Retreat
What can you teach a group of intelligent, ambitious and accomplished young professionals about leadership in a single weekend? You can teach them how to ask the right questions. You can demonstrate how many Jewish organizations exist in this town. You can give them an overview of the complex city in which we live. Read More »
Discovering Your Pain Point
I had just given my practice “pitch”—a 3 minute rationale for my PresenTenseLA venture—and our guest speaker, Adlai Wertman, Director of the Society and Business Lab at USC, clearly was not impressed. “Your venture sounds cool. But you spoke about a very broad problem—I’m not clear at all what the ‘pain point’ is, nor why you are the one best suited to address it.” Read More »
Why YALA?
It’s so amazing how much can change in a year. We recently held our 2nd annual YALA Open House and it was a big success, but only a year ago I sat in the audience looking around the room wondering, “What is YALA all about?” I had no idea that I would meet people who I now consider my closest friends, or that I would be asked to join the YALA (Young Adults of Los Angeles) board in a role that is based on new member outreach. Read More »
Pursuing Justice in Haiti
"Tzedek, Tzedek, Tirdof – Justice, justice, shall you pursue” (Deut. 16:20) If you’re wondering why tzedek, or justice, is used twice in this biblical verse, I believe that it is because we are commanded to not only pursue justice for ourselves, but justice for others. And, it is for this reason that I traveled to Haiti last month with the American Joint Distribution Committee (JDC), a partner of our Federation. Read More »
Cultivating Innovation in L.A.’s Jewish Community
In the last month I have had the great privilege to be part of the inaugural cohort of PresenTenseLA. As a part of this fellowship of entrepreneurs and intrapreneurs, I have met some of L.A.’s Jewish community’s most creative and exciting innovators. Through a variety of workshops, seminars, brainstorming sessions and networking opportunities our cohort is able to help one another from within the PresenTense infrastructure. Read More »
His Way - Misha Jakobas, Vilnius, Lithuania
I met Misha for the first time in the fall of 2011 in Tel Aviv. Misha is the head of Shalom Aleichem School in Vilnius. The school was recruited through the JDC to be part of the LA Jewish Federation’s new triangle exchange program called TALAVI (Tel Aviv – Los Angeles – Vilnius). At first sight Misha looked like a regular middle aged man, gray hair, tall, impressive, very polite with European manners. Read More »
What Makes a Space Sacred?
Does a holy site contain some innate spiritual power? Must we build a synagogue or cathedral at that site to feel close to God? Do Jewish and Protestant houses of worship have anything in common? On February 20, more than 60 clergy and scholars met in Pasadena to study these questions with one of the world’s most fascinating “spiritual tourists,” architect Jeff Greene. Read More »
All it takes is an Invitation
As the Rabbi-in-Residence for Chaverim and coordinator of Shlemut Network, Rabbi Deborah Goldmann had the opportunity to sit down with participants and ask them “What does inclusion mean to you?” Read More »
