Pandemic life in the Orthodox neighborhoods of Los Angeles for the most part resembles that of observant Jewish enclaves across the country. The shuls and schools are closed indefinitely, with Torah study and social programming held on Zoom. Synagogues post lists tracking the sick for misheberach blessings on Google spreadsheets and share them through WhatsApp….
What do you do if you own Los Angeles’ premier independent cinema chain and the coronavirus pandemic shuts down all your theatres? You show movies, of course. That’s what Greg Laemmle, chief executive officer of his family-owned Laemmle Theatres, has taken to doing at the theatre’s web site. “My family has been in this business…
The gift she hoisted with a string onto the balcony of her two-bedroom condo was the closest to human contact Ursula Israelski had come in a month. It was a face mask sewn by Sandy Scheller, former wardrobe tech for Cirque du Soleil’s “Zumanity” in Las Vegas, and it came with the bonus of a…
(JTA) — The student government of the University of California, Irvine, has voted to repeal a 2012 resolution that called for the university to divest from companies that do business in Israel. A Jewish senator, Marshall Roe, had introduced the resolution to repeal in the Associated Students of UC Irvine. Roe is a veteran of…
Way back in February, when my beloved younger brother invited my family to celebrate Passover with his wife and two kids, I politely declined. I couldn’t fathom making the 300-mile drive from San Diego after my husband and I returned from visiting our 20-year-old study abroad daughter in Australia the night before. That was then…
The last time I spent Passover locked in a room I was 9 years old. My uncle refused to let me sit at the Seder table so long as I insisted on wearing a Mets cap instead of a yarmulke. To this day I’m not sure whether he exiled me because he was a stickler…
When you think of Beverly Hills, old stereotypes of mansions and Hollywood celebrities might come to mind. In reality, the city is indeed home to the glitz and glam, but it has other notable aspects too – it has one of the country’s largest Jewish populations by percentage, and it’s also an island of marijuana…
The weekend before Super Tuesday was Climate Change Shabbat at Congregation Emanu El, a Reform synagogue located just outside of San Bernardino in Redlands, Calif. The congregation’s Sisterhood created a special Shabbat service for the occasion, during which the women took turns at the lectern describing the sacrifices they were making for the sake of…
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