Jews Culture

The Jewish Music Festival opened a four-night run at the Knitting Factory on Tuesday with a rousing set of tunes from Hollywood Klezmer. Although the group's glitzy name may have suggested otherwise, the program had a solidly traditional quality. And that was just fine for the moderate-sized but highly enthusiastic crowd, who reacted in spirited fashion to numbers that embraced such pop-derived numbers as "And the Angels Sing" and "Bei Mir Bist Du Schoen."

His arms flecked with red marker, 4-year-old Brandon Kingsley balanced himself on the back of a Lilliputian-sized blue chair in the preschool room and looked disdainfully at his friend. "I like Yom Kippur better," Brandon said. "Rosh Hashana isn't fun." "Yes it is," said his friend, Cody Sprague, tugging on his black Godzilla shirt. "We get to eat!"

What happens to the children of intermarriage when they leave the faith? That question is dividing Jewish leaders as they consider their response to a new study. "Why should the Jewish community put its effort and money into strengthening the tenuous Judaism of people who call themselves Christians?" asks Rela Geffen Monson, a Pennsylvania sociologist. "If you want to kiss those kids goodby, that's your choice," answers Egon Mayer, a Brooklyn College sociologist.

It had been a while since Sanford Lieberman donned tefillin, wrapping a strap around his arm and placing a small box on his forehead. But, given the chance to undertake the prayer ritual Sunday at the Valley Jewish Festival, he did it with joy. After all, it was a mitzvah . A good deed. "This is not a part of my everyday life," said Lieberman, 43, of Van Nuys. "But I'm proud to be Jewish."

The last time she heard the shofar herald the start of the Jewish High Holy Days, Tal Goldenberg was, by her own account, just a little girl. She has grown up since then. Now, she said proudly, she's "15 1/2." An Israeli high school student from Tel Aviv, with green eyes and hair the color of dark honey brushed back from her face, she knows her mind. "I'm secular," she quickly explains.

Oh Christmas tree, oh Christmas tree, how quickly we see you disappear. Second-graders at a Manhattan Beach elementary school showed up Monday and found a fully decorated 7-foot artificial Christmas tree inside their classroom, courtesy of one of the students' mothers. A nice gift, the mother thought, to surprise the children. But many of the students in this Pennekamp Elementary School classroom, as well as the teacher, are Jewish.

In an unusual exploration of their heritage, Orange County Jews young and old are gathering this week to learn about topics as diverse as "How to Refute Missionaries" and "Male and Female Roles in the Bible." The reason for the sudden rush for knowledge: Jewish Education Week, proclaimed by the County Board of Supervisors at the urging of the nonprofit Bureau of Jewish Education.

Dancers clasped hands and threw each other across the stage Sunday as the crowd clapped to the vibrant rhythm from a wailing violin. Clad in colorful, traditional clothing from Israel, Russia and Greece, the lithe dancers from the Keshet Chaim "Rainbow of Life" ensemble engaged the crowd with the varied cultural history of the global Jewish community.

For several months, mail carrier Troy Westfield watched the once-blank wall on the Horner Street side of the Workmen's Circle building slowly come alive before him. First appeared the blob-like shapes and figures sketched in black. Then children, middle-aged folks and a few elderly women and men painted in the lines with vibrant blues, pinks and greens. Hazy silhouettes sharpened into famous Yiddish writers. Swaths of yellow crystallized into a giant menorah.

Laura Spitzer sat at a children's table while her 3-year-old daughter, Jessica, pretended to prepare Shabbat--a Jewish family dinner traditionally served on Fridays, consisting of fish and challah, or egg bread--for her. "I'm usually the one fixing the meals at home for our dinner," Spitzer said Tuesday. "This is great because it puts her in my role so she's learning the significance of the different parts of the dinner. Kids love this stuff."