The word quarantine comes from quarantena, or “forty days,” in the Venetian language. It was first used during the Black Death epidemic in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries to designate a period that ships were required to be isolated before passengers and crew could go ashore. As a rabbi and a student of religious history,…
The Jews of Los Angeles are not under siege– though some media outlets would have you believe otherwise. Local synagogues, day schools, and Jewish-owned businesses are facing thousands of dollars worth of repairs after vandalism that occurred during the protests over the killing George Floyd. But, officials from the Jewish Federation of Los Angeles and…
As protests over racial injustice stretched into another day under the shadow of the enduring coronavirus pandemic, Mayor Eric Garcetti of Los Angeles encouraged the city’s Jewish community to increase efforts to address the underlying causes of a fracturing American society. “Be brave. Step up. Step out. Do something. Listen. Learn. Hope. Love. Our current…
Apart from areas of downtown, no other part of Los Angeles has suffered so grievously in the aftermath of George Floyd’s death in Minneapolis as the Fifth City Council District. “We have a lot of white people in my district and we have a lot of businesses, some of them high-value targets; there was good…
The Beverly-Fairfax district, a center of Jewish life in Los Angeles, was hit hard during the protests that rocked the city May 30 and May 31. Many Jewish stores in the area were vandalized and looted, among them, Ariel Glatt Kosher Market, Mensch Bakery and Syd’s Pharmacy and Kosher market. Some synagogues in the area…
It was weird, frankly, waking up on Sunday to a still, beautiful morning. The downtown L.A. streets that were inflamed by protests and riot police the night before were clamped shut by waves of uniformed National Guards. Cops and clean up crews made their way through the debris at Beverly Blvd. and Fairfax Ave., where…
Boots on the ground the last few hours, and the scene is more devastating and horrific than you can imagine from the photos. Today I walked for miles offering help, cleaning and bandaging cuts, handing out gloves, masks, water. Offering support to the first responders, firefighters still out there fighting flames with no sleep and…
George Floyd was murdered under the knees of a police officer, along with three accomplices. In many faith traditions, knees are used to bend in reverence to holiness. Reverend Ted Tollefson inspired my sisters and me to write this piece from the Jewish perspective as we head into the festival of Shavuot. Aleinu. It is…
חוה אַלבערשטיין האָט לעצטנס אַרויסגעלאָזט איר אויטאָביאָגראַפֿיע, וווּ זי באַשרײַבט די ראָלע פֿון ייִדיש אין איר רעפּערטואַר און אין איר לעבן
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