Jewish

When Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat took office 18 months ago, he was heralded as a secular, progressive high-tech entrepreneur who would apply his business savvy to modernizing the ancient city, particularly after five years under an ultra-Orthodox leader. Barkat hired the same consultants as Disney for advice about crowd management and stood up to ultra-Orthodox demonstrators who demanded that he close city parking lots on the Sabbath. Already a multimillionaire, the 50-year-old mayor refused his government salary and spoke often about finding "win-win" compromises and burnishing Jerusalem's "brand."

Geza Vermes was a graduate student in Belgium in the late 1940s when he was captivated by news sweeping the globe about a remarkable discovery in the desert east of Jerusalem. He quickly switched gears, penning his doctoral thesis on the Dead Sea Scrolls, the ancient manuscript fragments that would become a focus of his life's work. FOR THE RECORD: The headline on an earlier version of this article said Vermes had died at the age of 89. He was 88. Also in the earlier version, the first name of Mark Goodacre, an associate professor of religion at Duke University, was incorrectly reported as Martin.

Help me understand this: Rabbi Bentzion Kravitz, director of the "anti-missionary" (whatever that means) group Jews for Judaism, has been sending "alerts" to Jewish congregations warning that the producers of the play "Mendel & Moses," in which Jesus isn't mentioned, "are doing something deceptive" (like what?) because they are Jews who believe Jesus is the Messiah (Theater Notes, Aug. 3). Would he be as upset if he found out they were atheists? Others appear to be concerned that a character in the play is a literal devil.

On occasion, my wife and I have taken out-of-town visitors on Sunday outings to the First African Methodist Episcopal Church in Los Angeles to expose the uninitiated to the joy of a live gospel choir. I sometimes wonder how I stand with that power greater than myself while intruding on a house of worship solely to observe a spectacle. But we're always received so warmly that I quickly lose myself in the music and forget where I am. In that state, I've paid little notice to hats and shoes and dresses.

Although Erla Feinberg's final act might have disappointed most of her grandchildren, it carried out her late husband's dying wish in a way that held up in court. In a unanimous decision, the Illinois Supreme Court this week ruled that Max Feinberg and his wife could legally disinherit any grandchildren who married outside the Jewish faith as long as the method of doing so did not encourage divorce. "Although those plans might be offensive to individual family members or to outside observers, Max and Erla were free to distribute their bounty as they saw fit and to favor grandchildren of whose life choices they approved," Justice Rita Garman wrote.

I am part of the staff at Gan Israel Pre-School of Chabad of the Valley and belong to the local Jewish community. I noticed in Bob Pool's article of Dec. 19 that he made no mention of the St. Paul United Methodist Church just two doors down from our school. Why are only Saturday worshipers a bother who disturb the neighbors, and Sunday worshipers are not? The church also has a nursery school on its premises and has been there for many years. Why doesn't its nursery school disturb the neighbors?

Concerning your article ["Honoring Hebrew Hoopsters," by Gary Goldstein, Nov. 9], which makes note that the first great basketball players were of the Jewish faith, let me upgrade your information on this subject. I and five others of the Jewish faith, who played basketball for the YMHA in Montreal, played on the Canadian Olympic basketball team in London in 1948. We had lost the Canadian Championship in 1948 to the British Columbia team, but beat them in Toronto in a four-team round-robin, which determined that YMHA team was the lead half of the London team.

Bob Dylan's decision to put out a Christmas album this year caught a lot of people by surprise. It wasn't just that the preeminent songwriter of the rock era had chosen to record secular seasonal staples such as "Winter Wonderland" and "Here Comes Santa Claus" for his "Christmas in the Heart" collection. Equally intriguing was that the musician born Robert Zimmerman and raised in a Jewish household also included exceptionally sincere versions of such quintessentially Christian carols as "Hark!

As a member of the lay leadership in the Long Beach/West Orange County Jewish community, I found Joel Kotkin's treatise concerning "Paradise Reconsidered" (Opinion, July 26) and the Los Angeles Jewish community very informative. Kotkin forgot to mention three very important items, however. One is the fact that the majority of people in the Jewish community were as incensed as the Afro-American community when they witnessed the TV news film of the beating of Rodney King. Second, the Jewish community was equally shocked and disturbed by the verdicts received by the police officers involved.

The picture you published of the Jewish children before their execution broke my heart ("Testament to the Holocaust's Lessons," April 10). The little girl in front crying, did she know her fate? If they had lived, perhaps one would have discovered a cure for some terrible disease; or perhaps one would have been a world-renowned poet. We will never know. And the little girl turned sideways. Who does she remind me of? Oh, I know, she reminds me of me. We Jews will never forget, but will the rest of you remember?

Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater has long bedecked its ensemble in suits (the jazz crowd in "For Bird - With Love") and took a recent turn with androgynous menswear (Camille A. Brown's "The Evolution of a Secured Feminine"). Yet in previous incarnations, these fitted jackets and rakish hats have been of a jazzy, romantic stripe, spurring angled moves and scurrying feet. One imagines a crafty urban vernacular born from fast pedestrians, tight corridors and dizzying heights. Those speedy, showy creatures of past Ailey seasons bore no resemblance to the crumpled, besuited unisex ensemble that came to life Wednesday night at the Music Center premiere of "Minus 16" (1999)

The Museum of the History of Polish Jews opens Friday in Warsaw, partly funded by the Polish government. It's located in the area that was once the Warsaw ghetto during World War II, in what was Nazi-occupied Europe. The museum aims not just to provide education about the history of Polish Jews, but to dispel any lingering anti-Semitism seven decades after the Holocaust. It also celebrates the rich traditions and culture of Jews from Warsaw, the capital of Poland, once one of the largest Jewish communities in Europe.

The game of baseball seemed grandly American in the 1930s. Players had cherubic names - Birdie and Schoolboy, sounding like characters from a Broadway musical. Beneath the good times, though, breathed an awful hatred. In his new book, "Hank Greenberg: The Hero of Heroes," John Rosengren describes how the New York Yankees used to call up minor leaguers just to harass the Jewish baseball star from the bench. In the South, things were worse. "No one would ever let you forget it. You'd hear it from the stands all the time," Greenberg says of his early playing days, citing a torrent of anti-Semitic invective.

Twenty years ago, veteran caver Chris Nicola received an offer from a Ukrainian friend to explore the well-known gypsum giant caves in the western part of the European country. Nicola quickly accepted the invitation. "My family on my mother's side had Cossack roots and they were known to come from the Ukraine," the New Yorker said over the phone this week. "I thought in the back of my mind I could do some family research. " But his main reason was to visit the 77-mile long Priest's Grotto cave, which is part of an extensive gypsum cave system.

Eric Garcetti and Wendy Greuel struck a mostly positive tone in the first debate of their runoff campaign for mayor of Los Angeles on Thursday, with Garcetti citing his work on redevelopment and budget balancing as former president of the City Council and Greuel pointing to a diverse resume that includes work in a family business, at the DreamWorks studio and as city controller. Both Greuel and Garcetti rejected the pundits and political analysts who have said there is little to differentiate them.

A painting by Pablo Picasso is at the center of a recent lawsuit filed by descendants of a prominent German Jewish banker who claim the artwork was lost during the Nazi regime. The plaintiffs are suing the German state of Bavaria for refusing to return the painting. The descendants of Paul von Mendelssohn-Bartholdy claim that "Madame Soler," a painting created by Picasso around 1903, belongs to them. They maintain that Mendelssohn-Bartholdy was compelled to sell the painting during the Nazi regime as a result of the financial hardship he endured as a Jew.  Mendelssohn-Bartholdy was a relative of composer Felix Mendelssohn.

Thank you for your article on how Jews are portrayed in movies. It is a thoughtful piece. However, Lewis Beale describes Paul Newman as "half Jewish." Judaism is a religion, not an ethnic group or race. No one can be "half Jewish". My father was Catholic. Does this make me "half Catholic"? Nancy Hoover Apple Valley -- On the one hand, Lewis Beale states that the more or less complete assimilation of certain male Jewish film and TV characters is sometimes felt to be "particularly empowering because their religion is essentially irrelevant."

Jewish leaders expressed concern Thursday about a proclamation by the city councils of Newport Beach and Costa Mesa of Christian Leadership Week scheduled to begin next Thursday, which is Passover. Coordinators of the event said it is only a coincidence that Christian Leadership Week starts on a Jewish holy day this year. They said they see no harm in cities recognizing a special week dedicated to Christian leaders. "There is no city funding, and this was just a resolution recognizing the week," said Costa Mesa Councilwoman Mayor Mary Hornbuckle.

For five decades, Doheny Glatt Kosher meat market has been one of California's preeminent suppliers of food that meets the requirements of Jewish law, offering staples such as brisket and chicken as well as bison, prime steak and grass-fed beef. But on Friday, the esteemed butcher was at the center of an angry debate that had spread across L.A.'s Jewish community. The owner of Doheny faces accusations of selling meat that was not properly certified under kosher rules. Longtime customers doing their shopping before Shabbat were forced to decide how much they trusted their butcher.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has just formed a new government in Israel. But nothing of substance will change. Peace negotiations will not resume; settlement activity will expand; war with Iran will still be threatened; and Israel will move even closer to becoming an international pariah. When President Obama speaks to the Israeli public, he will no doubt treat his counterpart cordially, but that won't mute the shocking honesty of what he has already said: An Israeli government led by Netanyahu cannot be a partner for productive peace talks.