The Festival of Lights just plunged Australia, and its beleaguered Jewish community, into darkness Down Under. One thousand Aussies gathered on Bondi Beach for the lighting of the menorah on the first night of Hanukkah. An Israeli intelligence officer told Fox News that his Australian counterparts were on notice about the probability of a Hanukkah […]
Continue Reading
By Cari Uslan This year, as Hanukkah approaches, I keep returning to the image of a small flame holding its ground in a very dark room. A single, determined light that doesn’t pretend the darkness isn’t real, but refuses to be swallowed by it. The past year has left many in our community feeling unmoored. […]
Continue Reading
Visiting Rabbi Liora Alban and Rabbi Daniel Freedman in their Mid City home, it’s possible to believe they’re newlyweds, even though they’ve been married for four years and it’s been 11 and a half years since they met. “What’s special about being married to a rabbi,” Rabbi Freedman said, “is that we aren’t able to […]
Continue Reading
Rashi’s 11th-century commentary to the Torah is so central that it has almost merged with the text in our consciousness. Rabbi Shlomo Luria declared in the 16th century that Rashi’s work is the best “translation” of the text, and people should study it weekly alongside the parsha. And “Chumash-Rashi” (with the hyphen barely pronounced) was […]
Continue Reading
Not raped, but seduced, a sister became a cause that unloosed a battle of shame. No person escaped revenge, which is bad, though Dinah not raped: her lover a lad who loved her alas, not wisely or well, a lover, a lass, leading many to hell. Revenge may seem sweet when it acts as […]
Continue Reading
Let’s talk about hindsight, about expectations and actuality, about adaptation, about adjustments. Let’s talk about three theaters of war: Gaza, Lebanon, Iran. And let’s admit that an uncomfortable situation is still very much the reality in all three theaters. Two months after the Gaza war ended, the Israeli public is well aware that total victory […]
Continue Reading
Each concert, a story. Each song, a memory. The Hollywood Bowl always brings it all together. By Lisa Niver Summer at the Hollywood Bowl is ritual and refuge: dinner-in-a-box, friends beside you, the canyon air cooling, and the first note lifting like a collective breath. This season — and the recent years that led up […]
Continue Reading
Does Paul Simon have a soft spot for killers? The iconic singer-songwriter this week signed a petition demanding freedom for the Palestinian Arab terrorist Marwan Barghouti, a convicted multiple-murderer. Barghouti is currently in an Israeli prison for his role in five murders. In 2001, he sent terrorists to ambush motorists on the outskirts of Jerusalem; […]
Continue Reading
In 1944, in her final act of defiance, Hannah Senesh refused to be blindfolded. She wanted the men who executed her to look her in the eyes. Before that, she could have likely saved her life had she asked for a pardon or been apologetic, yet she brazenly criticized the Hungarian judges presiding over her […]
Continue Reading
Frank Gehry, the Los Angeles-based architect whose buildings became iconic landmarks, died on Dec. 5 at his home in Santa Monica. He was 96. Over a career spanning more than 60 years, Gehry designed concert halls, museums, academic buildings and public spaces that shifted how people talked about architecture, Los Angeles and sometimes city planning […]
Continue Reading
