CALIFORNIA | LOCAL
January 29, 2011 | By Nomi Morris, Special to the Los Angeles Times
On a recent weekday evening in Santa Monica, seven Muslim and five Jewish women gathered around a dining room table laden with homemade foods prepared in accordance with the dietary laws of both faiths. One by one, the women lighted candles, each saying a few words to mark the eighth anniversary of the West Los Angeles Cousins Club, a grassroots discussion group that explores spirituality and mutual understanding. "Before we started the Cousins Club, I never even knew a Muslim person," said Shayna Lester, who hosted the anniversary meeting.
WORLD
September 4, 2010 | By Vita Bekker, Los Angeles Times
Gilad Kariv has been indefatigable in his battle against the dominance of Israel's Orthodox community. The 36-year-old rabbi, and lawyer by training, had fought court battles seeking state recognition and funding for the more liberal Jewish movements for four years before being tapped last year to head the Israel Movement for Progressive Judaism, which represents the less strict Reform stream in Israel. The position thrusts Kariv into the sometimes heated relationship between the liberal Reform movement, which ordains women and openly gay individuals as rabbis and permits Jews to drive to synagogue on the Sabbath, and the Orthodox movement, which prohibits such actions and follows a strict interpretation of Jewish law. He recently spoke with the Los Angeles Times: Why does the Reform movement remain fairly insignificant in Israelis' religious life?
CALIFORNIA | LOCAL
April 5, 2010 | By Nomi Morris
Christian pop music played quietly in the background as instructor Bryan Brock led a recent yoga class at the nondenominational Church at Rocky Peak in Chatsworth. Incorporating prayer and readings from the Bible, Brock urged his class of about 20 students to find strength in their connection to their creator through yoga's deep, controlled breathing. "The goal of Christian yoga is to open ourselves up to God," he said. "It allows us to blur the line between the physical and the spiritual."
CALIFORNIA | LOCAL
March 22, 2010 | By Teresa Watanabe
Why is this day unlike any other day? As Jews worldwide prepare to celebrate next week their liberation from slavery, a group of Los Angeles Jews went to Boyle Heights on Sunday to ask that variation of their traditional Passover Seder question. The answer, however, did not recount Jewish oppression in Egypt as is customary. Activists from major Jewish organizations instead focused on what they see as a modern injustice afflicting their fellow Angelenos, marking the day with a new push to bring quality grocery markets and healthful food to underserved neighborhoods such as East Los Angeles.
CALIFORNIA | LOCAL
November 30, 2009 | By Nicole Santa Cruz
Barbara Mendes believes her life has been a series of miracles. Certain events have led her to embrace Judaism and paint vividly colored biblical narratives based on Genesis, Exodus and now Leviticus, the third book of the Torah. "Vayikra Mural," her newest work, is a 6-by-16-foot mural depicting the book's 859 verses in tiny, intricately detailed pictures. Mendes, an Orthodox Jew, said she names her murals in Hebrew to emphasize the language's use in the Bible. The latest mural, on display in her Pico-Robertson gallery, took her more than three years to complete, with the illustrations of each verse numbered so viewers can find it in the Bible.
WORLD
October 31, 2009 | 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.