Rebecca Spence
By Rebecca Spence
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Fast Forward How Jewish Woman Became Snoop Dogg’s ‘Pot Doc’
(JTA) – Stepping into the lobby of the West Hollywood medical marijuana dispensary where Dina Browner serves up buds to movie stars, it’s hard to miss the name Snoop Lion splashed across a hydroponic grow box painted red, green and gold. The Rastafarian rapper formerly known as Snoop Dogg didn’t have anyone to operate the…
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Culture Pot Seder Aims To Put Legalization on the Passover Table
(JTA) — This seder included a legal disclaimer. “The cannabis products at this Seder are available to OMMP cardholders only,” the sign at the check-in table read, referring to the state of Oregon’s medical marijuana program. “All others consume at your own risk.” The fine print explained the facts: While Oregon voters legalized recreational marijuana…
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Fast Forward Advocacy Group Aims To Put Marijuana Legalization on Jewish Agenda
(JTA) — “You know, it’s a funny thing, every one of the bastards that are out for legalizing marijuana is Jewish. What the Christ is the matter with the Jews, Bob, what is the matter with them?” That was President Richard Nixon speaking to his top aide, H.R. “Bob” Haldeman, during a recorded White House…
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News Hopes Dashed as Obama Avoids Calling Mass Killings of Armenians ‘Genocide’
This year, on Armenian Remembrance Day — when the mass killing of more than 1 million Armenians by the Ottoman Empire is commemorated — Armenian-American activists had high hopes that a president who ran on a message of change would indeed change the pattern of previous administrations. That is, they hoped President Obama would use…
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News Wagner’s ‘Ring’ Strikes a Jarring but Muted Chord in L.A.
When the Los Angeles Opera launches its most ambitious project to date — a 10-week citywide festival celebrating Richard Wagner’s “The Ring,” which will culminate in a massive production of the epic opera — not everyone will be celebrating. Although Wagner’s music is regularly performed in America without much ado, the influential Los Angeles-based Simon…
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News Leading Combatant in Gay Marriage Fight To Head Southern California Rabbis
When Denise Eger assumes the leadership of this region’s local rabbinic association, she’ll be making history — twice over. On May 11, Eger will become not only the first woman to lead the Board of Rabbis of Southern California — one of the nation’s largest rabbinic boards — but also the board’s first openly gay…
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News Government Grant Helps California Synagogues Find Eternal Sunshine of the Holy Kind
In 1897, two New York policemen disrupted a public ceremony marking the Blessing of the Sun and dragged a rabbi down to court for failing to have a permit. More than a century later, on the opposite coast, government officials are not only giving a similar ceremony their blessing — they are also putting money…
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News Hollywood’s Spring Fling With Blooming Israeli Actresses
In Hollywood, Israeli actresses are stealing the show. No fewer than three Israeli starlets will be appearing in major American studio releases over the next month, while others are scooping up roles on television shows and in theater productions. Ayelet Zurer plays the female lead in the forthcoming “Da Vinci Code” sequel, “Angels & Demons,”…
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Fast Forward Cory Booker has long embraced Jewish tradition. Now he has married a Jewish woman.
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