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May 26, 2010
Rabbis Gone Virtual: From Facebook to Live Streaming Rabbinic Conventions
By Rabbi Jason Miller
In Los Angeles, the Board of Rabbis decided it was time to teach all the local rabbis how to use Facebook. So, Rabbi Dan Moskovitz of Temple Judea led a workshop for the rabbis titled "The Well Connected Rabbi." He covered such topics as why Facebook is useful for rabbis and how to determine what is appropriate to post.
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April 19, 2010
All Angels Episcopal in Studio City, Adat Ari El in Valley Village among religious sites putting faith in green technology
By Troy Anderson
Rabbi Mark S. Diamond, the executive vice president of the [Board of Rabbis of Southern California of the]Jewish Federation of Greater Los Angeles, said dozens of synagogues are now using a solar-powered Ner Tamid and doing more recycling and taking other "green initiatives."
"God has given us this precious world, and ours is the awesome responsibility to be God's partner in taking care of his creation," Diamond said. "I believe people need to hear this message in their synagogues and churches and carry that message back to their homes, offices and schools throughout the community."
March 31, 2010
Passover 5770
By Rabbi Mark S. Diamond
"How different this night is from all other nights!" The familiar singsong of Mah Nishtanah reverberates in Jewish homes throughout the world on Passover eve. What Seder would be complete without the beloved Four Questions chanted by the young and the young-at-heart? These questions are the literary device that introduces the maggid, the embellished Exodus narrative that is the essence of the Pesah celebration. Put another way, the Passover Seder is the quintessential Jewish storytelling experience.
"How different this night is from all other nights!" Let me share a true story that I will tell at my own Seder this year: Eleven Muslim leaders visited Los Angeles last week under the auspices of the U.S. Department of State and the International Visitors Council of Los Angeles. The visitors were prominent imams, academics and journalists from diverse Arab countries—Algeria,Egypt, Mauritania, Oman, Kuwait, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Morocco, and Iraq.
None of them had ever visited the United States, and few spoke English. The focus of their three-week, multi-city American tour was interfaith dialogue. They were here to learn about religious life in the United States, meet with religious leaders engaged in interfaith work, and explore the impact of religion on American political life. The Board of Rabbis has hosted similar groups in the past, and we were pleased to honor this request from the International Visitors Council.
Feb. 2, 2010
Three Rabbis Win Hartman Fellowship
By Danielle Berrin
The Jewish Federation of Greater Los Angeles has awarded three L.A. rabbis the chance to participate in a prestigious three-year fellowship with the Shalom Hartman Institute in Israel. Rabbis Denise Eger (Congregation Kol Ami), Stewart Vogel (Temple Aliyah) and Ken Chasen (Leo Baeck Temple) have been selected to participate in the Hartman's Rabbinic Leadership Initiative beginning this summer. The Hartman Institute -- widely regarded as one of the most distinguished liberal-minded academic centers in Israel -- has developed a continuing education program for rabbis, which includes on-site study and online distance learning. Past awardees of the fellowship include Rabbis Ed Feinstein (Valley Beth Shalom), Laura Geller (Temple Emanuel of Beverly Hills), Eli Herscher (Stephen S. Wise Temple), Michelle Missaghieh (Temple Israel of Hollywood) and Mark Diamond (Board of Rabbis).
Jan. 16, 2010
LA Jews rally for Haiti relief
By Tom Tugend
Throughout the Los Angeles area, large community-wide organizations, small synagogues and Jewish schools put other projects on hold to rally to the aid of the stricken island.
The community's central address for the effort is The Jewish Federation of Greater Los Angeles, which is accepting contributions by mail or online.
The Federation will absorb all administrative costs and distribute the funds through the Jewish Coalition for Disaster Relief, American Joint Distribution Committee (JDF), American Jewish World Service, MAZON: A Jewish Response to Hunger, IsraAID, and other global partners.
(snip)
The Board of Rabbis of Southern California was mobilizing support through its network, cooperation with World Vision International, a Christian relief organization, and laying preliminary plans for a charity concert in February, executive vice president Rabbi Mark S. Diamond said.
Dec. 11, 2009
Hanukkah begins at sundown Friday
By Dana Bartholomew
At Temple Judea in Tarzana and West Hills, 100 preschoolers have been making menorahs to herald all the miracles of Hanukkah.
"Miracle No. 1 is ... life," said Rabbi Donald Goor, head rabbi of the reform synagogue and school. "Miracle No. 2 is the victory of religious freedom over oppression.
"The holiday is a reminder of hope — even in dark times, we can create light."
At the Encino home of Rabbi Mark Diamond, a silver menorah shines from the window, a tradition. Homemade menorahs, made long ago by his children, will once again flicker in the living room.
The candles will shine in the dark of winter to illuminate hope - and faith - during difficult times.
"When we light the menorah, we will talk about the people who are suffering — the Baha'is of Iran; Gilad Shalit, the captured Israeli soldier; people in our community," said Diamond, executive vice president for the Board of Rabbis of Southern California.
"How powerfully that message resounds to struggling families who are hungry, families whose children will not receive toys this holiday, families who are struggling to keep their homes, to pay their bills," he said.
"We see this all over Los Angeles."
The Ner Tamid: An Appreciation
By Rabbi Mark Diamond
Earlier this year, the Board of Rabbis partnered with the South Coast Air Quality Management District in a solar ner tamid campaign. Nearly a dozen area congregations shared a $10,000 grant to defray the costs of converting the ner tamid in their sanctuaries from electric to solar power. Several synagogues unveiled their solar eternal lights at ceremonies celebrating Birkat HaHammah, the "Blessing the Sun" ritual held once every 28 years on the Jewish calendar. It was a unique way to celebrate the power of the sun by harnessing its energy to light this ancient Jewish symbol.
Nov. 24, 2009
Jewish Federation presents blueprint to end hunger in Los Angeles
By Tony Castro
With Thanksgiving feasts approaching, a faith-based organization Monday called on government and non-government agencies to step up joint efforts to end hunger for the more than 1 million people it says go hungry each day in Los Angeles.
(snip)
Rabbi Denise Eger, president of the Board of Rabbis of Southern California, said that the hunger issue offers government and nongovernmental agencies an opportunity to create a model that can be used in other cities.
"We want all of our governmental agencies and leaders to declare a goal of making Los Angeles a hunger-free community," said Eger.
Nov. 17, 2009
A Call For Action, Plus Change
By Julie Gruenbaum Fax
Ending hunger in Los Angeles is a pretty ambitious goal. Yet The Jewish Federation of Greater Los Angeles is staking its identity on a new campaign, titled "Fed Up With Hunger," that launched in September during the High Holy Days.
(snip)
The Board of Rabbis hosted an interfaith hunger summit for 150 leaders from Muslim, Christian, Jewish and other faith communities, as well as students from Catholic and Jewish high schools, extending Fed Up With Hunger's reach well beyond the Jewish community.
Who are the Hungry and Who Is Feeding Them?
Federation has partnered with MAZON: A Jewish Response to Hunger; Jewish Family Service (JFS); The Board of Rabbis of Southern California; and several non-sectarian hunger-fighting organizations to develop its Blueprint to End Hunger, which is at the core of its Fed up With Hunger campaign
(snip)
"It's one of those rare campaigns that can and should unite us," said Rabbi Mark Diamond. "It's an absolute shanda [embarrassment] that in a community blessed with such enormous natural and human resources, that we have so many people who are hungry in Los Angeles…. We have to do more, and I see a real energy and spirit of Klal Yisrael [the united People of Israel] around this that I haven't seen in a long time in this community."
Nov. 6, 2009
Conference examines 'common ground' among faiths
By R.W. Dellinger
"Unless religions are honest with each other about their blind spots and imperfections, interreligious efforts will falter," stressed Rabbi David Wolpe at an interfaith conference on "Finding Common Ground: Reconciliation Among the Children of Abraham."
(snip)
The one-day conference featured speakers from the Christian, Muslim and Jewish communities. Major topics included "Interpreting Sacred Texts," "National Identity and Religious Pluralism" and "Dealing with the Outsider in Our Midst."
At the outsider session, Rabbi Mark Diamond stressed that interfaith work needed to reach deeper and wider, taking honest dialogue out to people in the pews in churches, mosques and synagogues.
"Friends, for me interfaith work is more than just holding hands and singing 'kumbaya,'" said the executive vice president of the Board of Rabbis of Southern California. "People of diverse faith need to sit together, break bread together, study together, create together in order to understand and respect what divides us and what unites us."
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Nov. 5, 2009
The Unity Trip
By Meredith Price Levitt
Israeli Consul General of Los Angeles Jacob Dayan personally invited the 18 L.A. rabbis from Orthodox, Reform and Conservative streams of Judaism to come to Israel for 58 hours last week, but the consulate's mission to transmit a message of solidarity with Israel had other results too. By the end of the short trip, many of the rabbis expressed a deeper understanding of the important social problems facing Israel today, as well as a renewed hope for peace and a rejuvenated passion for the thriving Zionist dream.
(snip)
Added [Rabbi Stewart L. Vogel]: "We came to give a message to Israel, and we are taking a different message home about the Zionist dream and the passion of the faculty.
"We are leaving with a renewed sense of optimism and hope, with a recommitment to Israel."
Oct. 31, 2009
L.A Rabbis in Israel Seek to Model Tolerance
By Richard Boudreaux
The Western Wall is a unifying spiritual magnet for Jews the world over. It is also a place of contention over a rule by its Orthodox custodians that forbids women from standing beside men while praying there.
So how to worship was a sensitive question for 17 leading Los Angeles rabbis, including two women, as they strolled toward the sacred site one evening this week. The itinerary called for "private prayer," but as they entered the plaza one of the men quietly asked Rabbis Laura Geller and Sharon Brous to join him and others.
(snip)
Israel is constantly playing host to overseas Jewish groups to bolster its ties to the Diaspora and show how Judaism and politics are practiced here. The Los Angeles rabbis said their "unity mission" was an act of support for the Jewish state at a time of international criticism, but also a display of tolerance among streams of Judaism that often quarrel bitterly within Israel.
Oct. 29, 2009
L.A. rabbis unite to support Israel during trip
By Troy Anderson
Carrying the message that one of the world's largest Jewish cities supports and loves Israel, 18 prominent rabbis from Los Angeles recently participated in a "Rabbi Unity Mission" to the Jewish homeland.
(snip)
The delegation, some of which returned on Thursday, included leading Orthodox rabbis in the U.S., such as Simon Wiesenthal Center dean and founder Rabbi Marvin Hier, who was chosen by Newsweek magazine as the most influential rabbi in America for two consecutive years, and Congregation Koi Ami Rabbi Denise Eger, president of the Southern California Board of Rabbis.
Oct. 28, 2009
US rabbis mission supports foreign workers' children
By Yitzhak Benhorin
Last week, the Board of Rabbis of Southern California sent a letter on the issue to the Israeli government asking that it act in accordance with Jewish spirit and tradition in helping the stranger, especially when these children were born in Israel and have grown up here.
Upon landing in Israel, the delegation plans on going directly to the Rogozin School in Tel Aviv, to the Rabin memorial accompanied by his daughter Dalia, to the Yad Vashem Holocaust Museum, to the Hazon Yeshayahu shelter in Jerusalem, and to the Kotel.
Oct. 27, 2009
Multi-denominational LA rabbis find their unity -- in Israel
By Tali Minsberg and Rebecca Baskin
Eighteen rabbis from Los Angeles are in Israel to show that cross-denominational coexistence is not as impossible as it often seems.
(snip)
Rabbi Denise Eger, from the Reform Movement's Congregation Kol Ami in West Hollywood, is the president of the Los Angeles Board of Rabbis. As the first woman to head the organization in its 72-year history, she knows firsthand the extent to which different streams of Jews can manage to disagree.
"It's a huge challenge. We have different interpretations of Torah, the laws, the role of women... and yet there are overriding principles," Eger said. "We might not daven the same way, but at the end of the day, the Shema is the Shema."
Oct. 20, 2009
We Are All Baha'is
By Rabbi Mark S. Diamond
Are we our brother's and sister's keepers? Last week I joined a group of distinguished community leaders in a resounding affirmative response to this timeless question. We gathered together at the University of Southern California in Belief Behind Bars: A Call for Human Rights and Religious Freedom in Iran, co-sponsored by the USC Office of Religious Life, the Levan Institute for Humanities and Ethics, and the Los Angeles Baha'i Center. We were a large assemblage of faith leaders and celebrities, musicians and dancers, human rights activists and university officials, faculty and students.
Our honored guests in absentia were seven Baha'i leaders currently being held in a prison in Tehran, Iran. They are awaiting trial on trumped-up charges of "insulting religious sanctities," "propaganda against the Islamic Republic," "espionage for Israel" and "spreading corruption on earth." In Iran, the last two charges are punishable by death.
Oct. 20, 2009
Muslims, Buddhists, Christians and Jews Unite to End Hunger in Los Angeles
More than 150 Muslim, Christian, Jewish
and other faith leaders met last week under a sukkah to vow to work together to put an end to hunger in Los Angeles.
"All movements -- against slavery (and other injustices) -- all looked romantic and quixotic, but through sheer hard work, people like you and me transform what was impossible into what is possible," Shakeel Syed, the executive director of the Islamic Shura Council, told the crowd gathered at The Jewish Federation building in Los Angeles. "Now is the time to end hunger."
Oct. 16, 2009
Interfaith Hunger Summit stresses public policy changes
By R.W. Dellinger
The high school students were part of an October 6 Interfaith Hunger Summit hosted by the Board of Rabbis of Southern California as part of the Jewish Federation's Fed Up with Hunger initiative. The campaign seeks to involve faith leaders, civic leaders and community activists from diverse traditions in eradicating hunger and its causes in Los Angeles.
Oct. 14, 2009
Sharing Sukkot, Meals
By Rebecca Steinberger
The Jewish Federation's [Fed Up with Hunger] campaign continued throughout the week with the goal of starting within the Jewish community and expanding throughout Los Angeles. More than 200 people from different religious backgrounds gathered under the sukkah at the downtown Los Angeles Para Los Ninos Charter Elementary School on Oct. 8 to unite to eradicate hunger in Los Angeles.
Oct. 8, 2009
Youth Find Common Ground on Sukkot
By Amy Lyons
Three dozen students - some wearing yarmulkes, others dressed in plaid skirts of the Catholic school tradition - gathered inside a traditional Jewish sukkah on Wilshire Boulevard Tuesday morning to talk about hunger. The daylong seminar at the Jewish Federation of Greater Los Angeles headquarters was organized by the Board of Rabbis of Southern California as part of the Federation's "Fed Up with Hunger"
initiative.
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