Category: Science and Health

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 […]

Where are the old Yiddish-accented men when you need someone to cry, “volf”? That’s what these calamitous times demand, even if no one will listen. Jews living in Europe, Canada and Australia, and most assuredly South Africa, must have given serious consideration to leaving their homes and emigrating to Israel, for good. Antisemitism in the […]

It’s rare for Passover to start on a Saturday night. But it does present an opportunity to reflect on two epic events of the Jewish calendar. The first is the Passover Seder itself, arguably one of the most popular holidays of our tradition. How can one go wrong with the celebration of freedom, with the […]

On a quiet evening in April 2008, just days before the critical Pennsylvania primary, three junior staff members on then-Senator Barack Obama’s presidential campaign were feeling homesick. It was the first night of Passover, and Arun Chaudhary, Eric Lesser and Herbie Ziskend were missing their own family Seders that evening. Determined to celebrate, the three […]