Category: Science and Health

One feature of Jewish life that I have grown to love is the idea of repetition. It also happens to be foundational to our faith. From weekly Shabbat rituals, readings and prayers to the very cyclical nature of the Jewish calendar, the book Deuteronomy essentially “retells the same stories we have already read in earlier […]

Few are the individuals who are successful in life, make their fortunes and are described first and foremost not in terms of their business acumen or trendsetting but in terms of their humility and kindness to others. This is the legacy of Jack Rimokh, who passed away April 6  at the age of 87. “Despite […]

You may have heard of the recent resurrection of the dire wolf. This scientific miracle came about through extracted DNA from the blood of the gray wolf and rewritten into the genetic code to match the sequence from dire wolf fossils. simultaneously in the American zeitgeist.  In California, we need another resurrection of an endangered […]

The University of California’s proposed ethnic studies admissions requirement—known as the Area H proposal—has sparked widespread concern, and rightly so. At the center of the controversy is a faculty-driven effort to use the requirement as a backdoor for introducing into every California high school an ethnic studies curriculum likely to incite virulent antisemitism. This effort […]

Borrowing a nifty lyric from the Beastie Boys (those white-hot, hip-hop Jewish sensations): “(You Gotta) Fight for Your Right (To Hate Jews!).” Yes, the original rap song focused on an altogether different “Right”: the one to “Party!”—once an eager rallying cry at college. But those were different collegiate days—before social justice and self-importance transformed mirthful […]

After nine months on the job at Wilshire Boulevard Temple, Rabbi Leah Fein still can’t believe she’s back in Los Angeles.  “I feel lucky Wilshire was looking when I was looking,” she said. But how could Wilshire resist hiring a member of its own family – even if she had been on the East Coast […]

On March 27, the Los Angeles premiere of the new documentary “For the Living” was held at the Museum of Tolerance, in partnership with the L.A. Jewish Film Festival, Museum of Tolerance, Holocaust Museum LA and the Goldrich Family Foundation.   The film screened to an audience of 300 guests, followed by a Q&A with the […]

Elisheva Rishon, the woman who was denied service at a Staples store in Los Angeles’ Mid-Wilshire area, said in an interview with The Journal that she believes the Staples employees ambushed her. Rishon, a Black Jewish Orthodox woman, had posted videos from her encounter at the Staples store on April 7 to her Instagram account […]

In April 1948, on the last Passover before Israel declared her independence just a few weeks later, Rabbi Uziel extended an olive branch to the Muslim world: “I reach out to our Arab neighbors in peace, for our sole desire is to live together with you in this Holy Land that is sacred to all […]

Reuven Rubin’s 1950 painting “First Seder in Jerusalem” at first glance seems like a simple but moving representation of a diverse group of Jews at a Passover table. There are secular-looking kibbutzniks, a Hasidic rabbi, two IDF-uniform wearing soldiers, immigrants from Africa, and a young Haredi boy with sidelocks. But at second glance, one notices […]