In The News

October 11, 2011

In US, joy at Shalit's impending release mixed with unease at the price

by Jonah Lowenfeld and Ryan Torok

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"This is joyous news to start the New Year," said Rabbi Mark Diamond, executive vice president of the Board of Rabbis of Southern California.

Speaking via cell phone, Diamond was on his way to deliver a large poster-sized photo of the Israeli soldier to Peachy and Mark Levy, who had recently funded another Shalit-related advocacy campaign. Thanks to their donation of an undisclosed sum, the Levys, members of Leo Baeck Temple, enabled The Jewish Federation of Greater Los Angeles, of which the Board of Rabbis is a part, to circulate flyers and posters of Shalit to 87 institutions around Los Angeles, including schools, synagogues and churches.

"I now see that poster all over the community," Diamond said

FULL STORY

October 5, 2011
Rabbi Greenberg closes High Holy Days seminar
By Ryan Torok

During the conclusion of the annual High Holy Days Seminar, sponsored by the Board of Rabbis of Southern California, Rabbi Irving "Yitz" Greenberg discussed "Covenant as a Method of Perfecting the World."

Greenberg, a Modern Orthodox rabbi with cross-denominational appeal who is also founding president of CLAL - The National Jewish Center for Learning and Leadership, outlined 12 steps for keeping the covenant, including finding someone to love, committing to that person and devoting yourself to your community.

"Only one thing is stronger than love - it's committed love," Greenberg said.

Held at Stephen S. Wise Temple on Aug. 16, Greenberg addressed a group of approximately 165, including rabbis and rabbinical students, during his keynote address.

Greenberg compared the religious and secular worlds' competing views of how to achieve a perfect world. Some religions argue that it's God's will if the world will be perfect or not; secular movements place all the responsibility in the hands of humans, and Judaism emphasizes humans' work with God in improving the world, Greenberg said.

The all-day Board of Rabbis seminar featured study sessions led by Rabbis Sharon Brous, Noah Farkas, Zoe Klein and Shmuly Yanklowitz. The Rev. Cecil Murray, former head of L.A.'s First African Methodist Episcopal Church, lectured. And Hollywood screenwriters worked with local rabbis on writing their High Holy Days sermons.

"We bring rabbis across the denominational spectrum," said Rabbi Mark Diamond, the Board of Rabbis' executive vice president, explaining that the annual seminar is the organization's largest program.

After Greenberg's lecture, Hollywood screenwriter Alex Litvak ("The Three Musketeers") politely but eagerly approached the rabbi to ask for his autograph.

Greenberg, of course, obliged.

Holy Days Sermons Get A Little Help From Hollywood
by NPR Staff

August 27, 2011

For rabbis, the Jewish High Holidays are a ratings period. Synagogues are packed with people - many of whom attend only a few times a year - expecting to be impressed and even entertained by the sermons. This year, some rabbis are getting help from Hollywood.

"In Jewish tradition there's a teaching that says, 'Who is wise? One who learns from all people,' " says Rabbi Mark Diamond. "We wanted to bring together a cohort of our finest young and veteran rabbis with a cohort of writers who could really work with our rabbis."

So Diamond, fellow rabbi Jon Hanish and the rest of the Board of Rabbis of Southern California organized a workshop for top Hollywood writers to get together with rabbis. As Diamond and Hanish tell Weekend Edition Saturday host Scott Simon, the group included writers from the television programs Mad Men, Friday Night Lights, The Simpsons and Desperate Housewives.

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Rabbis Go Hollywood for High Holy Days Sermon Tips. Same Rules Apply to 'Mad Men' Episodes and Rosh Hashanah Talks

by Rex Weiner

August 22, 2011

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"Rabbis want to be on the cutting edge," said [Rabbi Jon] Hanish, who organized the Professional Writers Workshop for the August 16 seminar. Having dabbled in the movie business, Hanish attended the University of Southern California's film school, sold a few screenplays and ran a postproduction facility before deciding to deliver sermons instead of pitching scripts. "My screenwriting classes taught me more about writing sermons than rabbinical school," he said.

It was Hanish who had solicited jokes from [Janet] Leahy, and by drawing on his industry ties pulled together a slew of star writers for the workshop. The impressive roster included Leahy and colleague Lisa Albert, both writers for The AMC series "Mad Men"; Emmy- and Golden Globe-winning television writer/producer David M. Israel of Nickelodeon's new series "How To Rock," and Jason Katims (NBC'S "Parenthood" and "Friday Night Lights," Fox's "Boston Public").

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Hollywood writers help rabbis punch up their sermons

by Ryan Torok

August 23, 2011

(snip)

Prominent leaders of all denominations - including Rabbi Laura Geller of Temple Emanuel, a Beverly Hills Reform congregation; Rabbi Adam Kligfeld of Temple Beth Am, a West Los Angeles Conservative synagogue; and Rabbi Kalman Topp of Beth Jacob Congregation, a Modern Orthodox shul in Beverly Hills - participated in the workshop, which began with a panel discussion before the attendees took part in small break-out groups, with two to three rabbis for every writer.

FULL ARTICLE

April 12, 2011 

Passover in Prison

This matzah is kept under lock and key. So are the people who will eat it.

by Jonah Lowenfeld

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Taking care of the spirits and souls of Southern California's jailed Jews is a demanding job throughout the year. Passover's additional requirements take the religious observance to another level of complexity.

"I think it's the most intensive Jewish holy day inside the prison system, just because it is so logistically complicated," said Rabbi Lon Moskowitz, who has served as the Jewish chaplain at the California Men's Colony in San Luis Obispo for the past 15 years.

From finding officers to supervise the pre-Passover cleaning of the prison's two separate Jewish chapels where the communal seders will be held, to training the "supervisor volunteers" to lead them, the effort has kept Moskowitz very busy. "It takes six weeks of eight-hour-day preparation," Moskowitz said.

Even with all that work in advance, the California state budget situation could still throw a wrench into the works.

"The whole prison system is on what they call a 'rolling lockdown,' which means that at any given time, one of the yards that the men live on is locked down," Moskowitz explained. "Some of the men will actually not be free to walk the 200 to 300 yards from their cell over to the chapel area to participate in a halachic community seder."

Jewish law -- halachah -- specifies the date (April 18) and time (after sundown) when a Passover seder is to take place. But in correctional facilities, despite the protections for religious practice provided by the First Amendment, the California administrative code and an 11-year-old federal law that specifically protects prisoners' religious rights, other laws, rules and regulations can present obstacles to observance.

Rabbi Yossi Carron, senior rabbi in the L.A. County jails for the past eight years, has become adept at balancing these competing requirements.

Carron calls the people he serves "the forgotten Jews," and he quickly makes clear that not all Jewish prisoners are behind bars for white-collar crimes. "There are rapists and murderers and drug addicts -- mostly drug addicts -- and armed robbers," Carron said, "just like the rest of the world. But nobody wants to acknowledge it."

Dividing his weeks between L.A. County's cash-strapped jails and one state prison in Corcoran, Carron has learned to stretch his limited time and his limited funds as far as possible -- far beyond what would be expected of most rabbis.

There's no Protestant chaplain, no Catholic chaplain, no imam" at the state prison in Corcoran, Carron explained, so whenever he leads Jewish services, he's also nominally supervising the other inmate-led religious services. "Otherwise they couldn't have services at all," Carron said.

"Rabbi Carron has taken that chaplaincy to an entirely new level of commitment, of involvement, of caring about the inmates and the staff," said Rabbi Mark S. Diamond, executive vice president of the Board of Rabbis of Southern California.

Inmates who meet with Carron know his rules. They are not to lie to him, and they must not show up intoxicated at any meeting. But aside from those two strict guidelines, Carron is probably one of the more flexible people in the county jail.

Take Carron's seder, which he leads using a photocopied haggadah of his own devising. "It's always about recovery, and how Judaism and recovery fit together, and how we're expected to be holy," Carron said.

Carron will lead this year's seder on April 22, the fourth day of Passover, but he's not sure how many people will be able to come, nor could he say for certain what they'll be eating.

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FULL ARTICLE

Telling the remarkable stories of Sephardic Jews

February 26, 2011

By Nomi Morris

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Serotta told these and other stories from his book Survival in Sarajevo at a Feb. 22 event at the Jewish Federation of Greater Los Angeles. The talk focused on the Jews of the Bosnian capital, 80% of whom were Sephardic.

Serotta's account of a small community that lived in harmony with other religious and ethnic groups for 450 years is a prime example of the tolerance and pluralism characteristic of Sephardic Jewry, said Rabbi Daniel Bouskila, director of special projects for the L.A.-based Sephardic Education Center.

(snip)

On Tuesday, when Serotta asked how many in attendance were Sephardic, half of the 150 participants raised their hands, a pleasant surprise for Mark S. Diamond, executive vice president of the federation's Board of Rabbis of Southern California, which organized the event.

"It's a powerful narrative that we need to tell and retell," Diamond said of the Sephardic experience. "There is a proud legacy of openness and pluralism that is deeply needed in the Jewish world and the world at large."

Park LaBrea News/Beverly Press

Report Shows Rise in Hate Crimes Against Jews

12/30/2010

By Rafael Guerrero

According to the L.A. County Human Relations Commission, anti-Semitic hate crimes historically make up the largest number of reported hate crimes every year and the trend continued in 2009.

The L.A. County Human Relations Commission released its annual report on hate crimes last week and found there were 530 hate crimes committed in 2009, down from 730 in 2008, but crimes against religious groups jumped from 120 in 2008 to 131 in 2009, with 88 percent of those crimes targeting the Jewish community.

The numbers for 2009 were released late this year because the Human Relations Commission merged with the Department of Community and Senior Services.

"We lost quite a few staff," said Marshall Wong, of the Human Relations Commission.

The commission had to contract out much of the work to collect the data. While the commission received much of the data by the end of March, they did not collect all of the data until the end of the year.

The report attributed much of the increase in religious hate crimes to vandalism. There was a 40 percent increase in vandalism, while only 14 crimes involved violence. But that was little consolation to leaders of the Jewish community, who remain concerned.

"It's an alarming trend," said Rabbi Denise Eger, of Congregation Kol Ami in West Hollywood and president of the Board of Rabbis of Southern California. "We should all be concerned about the fear of difference in our society."

Eger said her congregation has faced hatred in the past. She recalled seeing protestors at the Gay Pride Parade in West Hollywood displaying both anti-gay and anti-Jewish slogans. There have also been phone and mail threats at Congregation Kol Ami but Eger was thankful the threats were not carried out.

"We are very disturbed by this trend," said Rabbi Mark S. Diamond, vice president of the Board of Rabbis.

Diamond recalls experiencing hatred early in his life. He worked in a factory for an entire summer when he was 17 and experienced anti-Semitism firsthand. He worked alongside another boy his age and one day the boy asked Diamond what he "was."

"I told him I was American," Diamond said. "But I knew what he was getting at."

When Diamond told the boy he was Jewish, he was hit with an onslaught of of anti-Jewish slurs.

"His mouth dropped," Diamond said. "And then it all came out at once. Needless to say our friendship ended after that day."

Eger and Diamond both said that educating the public on other cultures and religions is the key to solving the hate-crime problem.

"We need citizens and government to get involved and develop organizations and programs that will encourage people to get along," Eger said.

Diamond and the Board of Rabbis have gotten involved with the International Visitors Council of Los Angeles (IVCLA), a non-profit organization aimed at increasing understanding between L.A. residents and the rest of the world. The IVCLA has made the Board of Rabbis a frequent stop for people from other countries to interact with leaders of the Jewish community. Diamond recalled a recent meeting with a group of religious scholars and journalists from Egypt and the Middle East.

"One of them turned to me and said he had read a book on the Internet that said Jews were deceitful," Diamond said.

When Diamond heard the name of the book, he understood where the misconceptions came from.

"He was quoting 'The Protocols of the Elders of Zion,'" Diamond said. "It is one of the most anti-Semitic books ever written."

Diamond explained to the visitor that the book was all hateful rhetoric. The visitor thanked Diamond for clarifying the motivations of the book, and explained it was a book widely distributed in the Arab world.

"We change hearts and minds one person at a time," Diamond said. "Education, ultimately, is the answer against hatred."

When Every Day is One of Atonement

September 18, 2010

By Mitchell Landsberg

Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, the two holidays that kick off the Jewish New Year, are solemn occasions for soul-searching and repentance. Known as the Days of Awe, and ending this year with the close of Yom Kippur at sundown Saturday, they are an opportunity for Jews to ask God to forgive their sins.

It is a plea that has special poignancy for Jews in jail or prison - "the forgotten Jews," as Rabbi Yossi Carron calls them.

Carron is the head Jewish chaplain for the Los Angeles County Jail system and is assigned and subsidized by the Southern California Board of Rabbis. A former bandleader who became a rabbi relatively late in life, he has empathy for these Jews who have stumbled on life's path. "My guys," he calls them - people like Titcher, who met the rabbi through a Jewish cellmate and discovered a mentor. Over time, Carron would reintroduce him to his long-abandoned faith and help him see beyond a constricting world of drug addiction and pain.

Leaders, Crowds Rally to support Israel in Los Angeles

June 6, 2010

By Ryan Torok

Among the congregational rabbis who spoke were Rabbi David Wolpe of Sinai Temple; Rabbi Denise Eger of Congregation Kol Ami, who is also president of the Board of Rabbis of Southern California; and Rabbi Sharon Brous of IKAR. Wolpe took a somewhat lighter approach: "We are here because of love," he told the crowd in a brief address, while Eger focused on why Israel's blockade of Gaza is necessary: Hamas. "The city of Gaza is oppressed by a violent regime," she said.

Brous acknowledged that the deaths of the activists aboard the Mavi Marmara were tragic and unfortunate, but raised the hope that the events should be used as means to bridge the divide between Israelis and Palestinians, to "transform tragedy into possibility" and "create a Palestinian country by [Israel's] side."

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