Skirball Institute

It is heartening to hear the news about the Skirball Institute on American Values of the American Jewish Committee, with its distinguished steering committee of interdenominational community leaders. Its work is badly needed at a time when there continues to be chaos and confusion about the rights and wrongs of our way of life. At least there will be communication, so vital in a democratic society. It should enable much needed dialogue between divergent points of view which might result not so much in agreement as empathy and understanding.

Thank you for reminding us that our Los Angeles is "A City With No One in Charge" (editorial, Oct. 17). Unfortunately you put the spotlight on only a portion of the problem. Even if the special investigating panel headed by William Webster and Hubert Williams should present us with an ideal solution to the flaws in the relationship between "a mayor without adequate power" and "the awesome City Hall bureaucracy" Greater Los Angeles will still be a city with no one in charge. As long as police and fire protection, together with many other government functions, remain pawns of the geographic and administrative gerrymandering of our contiguous metropolitan area, lawlessness and violence will have the advantage.

Five San Fernando Valley high school students were awarded prizes in the Skirball Institute's essay contest on "The Importance of Values in American Society." High school students throughout the Los Angeles Unified School District and the Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles participated in separate competitions. Thirteen students from each were awarded prizes, which included one grand prize, $1,000; one first place, $250; one second place, $100, and 10 third place, $25. Valley winners included Granada Hills High students Elizabeth J. Sparks, second place, and Robert Alexander Lipsett, Alexandra Schrift and Brian Evan Sieroty, third place.

Although his name may sound like Vatican, Msgr. Royale Vadakin's new position is not in Rome and it has nothing to do with the Roman Catholic Church. Vadakin was recently selected as board chairman of the Skirball Institute on American Values, a Jewish organization devoted to stimulating thought on ethics and morals.

I was quoted out of context by your reporter in "3 Perspectives on the Holocaust," Metro, June 12. My remark about our civilization "suffering from an edifice complex" related to the proliferation of Holocaust museums and memorials in Los Angeles and the United States, as well as to the duplication of facilities in both the Jewish and the general community. It did not specifically refer to the Skirball Cultural Center. In fact, I specifically emphasized the uniqueness of the Skirball Center as a witness to the living experience of America's Jewish community.

Huntington Park High School junior Joel G. Aldape has won one of two grand prizes in the Skirball Essay Contest on the importance of values in American society, officials announced this week. The contest was sponsored by the American Jewish Committee's Skirball Institute on American Values. About 240 high school students from throughout the Los Angeles Unified School District and the Catholic Archdiocese participated in the contest. Aldape, 17, won $1,000 with his essay, which was titled "National Cement."

The reporter of your story (Dec. 24), "Syrian Village Speaks Tongue Used by Jesus," could have heard the sounds of the Aramaic language right here in Los Angeles. I vividly remember a conversation conducted partly in Aramaic in my own home between a Maronite priest and an Orthodox rabbi. The occasion was a meeting of the Los Angeles Rabbi-Priest Dialogue, which was initiated by Cardinal Timothy Manning 16 years ago and which continues to this day. The two clergymen compared the use of the Aramaic language in the Talmud, the major repository of the Jewish tradition, and in the liturgy of the Maronite Church, a major Mideastern division of Roman Catholicism.

Your editorial is right on target. Judge Hand's decreeing secular humanism a religion--which you rightly call "foolishness"--reminds me of one of my favorite Lincoln anecdotes: When a petitioner tested the President's patience with an unusually illogical argument, Lincoln asked him: "If you would call a cow's tail a leg, how many legs would the cow have?" "Five," was the immediate answer. "Wrong!" said Lincoln. "Regardless of what you call a cow's tail, it's not a leg." Regardless of what Judge Hand calls "secular humanism," it is not a religion.

Seven San Gabriel Valley students are among winners in the Skirball Essay Contest on "the importance of values in American society." The contest is sponsored by the Skirball Institute on American Values of the American Jewish Committee. The contest was open to students from the Los Angeles Unified School District and the Roman Catholic Archdiocese. The grand prize winner for the Archdiocese was Robert M. Bautista of Bishop Amat High School in La Puente, who received $1,000.

Your editorial "What the World Needs Now" for New Year's Day--still breathing the spirit of the bicentennial year of our Constitution--spans the rainbow spectrum of American values. You echo the constitutional mandate "to promote the general welfare and secure the rights of liberty." You appeal to the work ethic coupled with imagination and the spirit of enterprise--a combination so useful to a growing United States in the past, so essential to us in the present, if we want to have a future.

I was quoted out of context by your reporter in "3 Perspectives on the Holocaust," Metro, June 12. My remark about our civilization "suffering from an edifice complex" related to the proliferation of Holocaust museums and memorials in Los Angeles and the United States, as well as to the duplication of facilities in both the Jewish and the general community. It did not specifically refer to the Skirball Cultural Center. In fact, I specifically emphasized the uniqueness of the Skirball Center as a witness to the living experience of America's Jewish community.

Five San Fernando Valley high school students were awarded prizes in the Skirball Institute's essay contest on "The Importance of Values in American Society." High school students throughout the Los Angeles Unified School District and the Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles participated in separate competitions. Thirteen students from each were awarded prizes, which included one grand prize, $1,000; one first place, $250; one second place, $100, and 10 third place, $25. Valley winners included Granada Hills High students Elizabeth J. Sparks, second place, and Robert Alexander Lipsett, Alexandra Schrift and Brian Evan Sieroty, third place.

Seven San Gabriel Valley students are among winners in the Skirball Essay Contest on "the importance of values in American society." The contest is sponsored by the Skirball Institute on American Values of the American Jewish Committee. The contest was open to students from the Los Angeles Unified School District and the Roman Catholic Archdiocese. The grand prize winner for the Archdiocese was Robert M. Bautista of Bishop Amat High School in La Puente, who received $1,000.

Huntington Park High School junior Joel G. Aldape has won one of two grand prizes in the Skirball Essay Contest on the importance of values in American society, officials announced this week. The contest was sponsored by the American Jewish Committee's Skirball Institute on American Values. About 240 high school students from throughout the Los Angeles Unified School District and the Catholic Archdiocese participated in the contest. Aldape, 17, won $1,000 with his essay, which was titled "National Cement."

Your editorial "What the World Needs Now" for New Year's Day--still breathing the spirit of the bicentennial year of our Constitution--spans the rainbow spectrum of American values. You echo the constitutional mandate "to promote the general welfare and secure the rights of liberty." You appeal to the work ethic coupled with imagination and the spirit of enterprise--a combination so useful to a growing United States in the past, so essential to us in the present, if we want to have a future.

Your editorial is right on target. Judge Hand's decreeing secular humanism a religion--which you rightly call "foolishness"--reminds me of one of my favorite Lincoln anecdotes: When a petitioner tested the President's patience with an unusually illogical argument, Lincoln asked him: "If you would call a cow's tail a leg, how many legs would the cow have?" "Five," was the immediate answer. "Wrong!" said Lincoln. "Regardless of what you call a cow's tail, it's not a leg." Regardless of what Judge Hand calls "secular humanism," it is not a religion.

Although his name may sound like Vatican, Msgr. Royale Vadakin's new position is not in Rome and it has nothing to do with the Roman Catholic Church. Vadakin was recently selected as board chairman of the Skirball Institute on American Values, a Jewish organization devoted to stimulating thought on ethics and morals.

Thank you for reminding us that our Los Angeles is "A City With No One in Charge" (editorial, Oct. 17). Unfortunately you put the spotlight on only a portion of the problem. Even if the special investigating panel headed by William Webster and Hubert Williams should present us with an ideal solution to the flaws in the relationship between "a mayor without adequate power" and "the awesome City Hall bureaucracy" Greater Los Angeles will still be a city with no one in charge. As long as police and fire protection, together with many other government functions, remain pawns of the geographic and administrative gerrymandering of our contiguous metropolitan area, lawlessness and violence will have the advantage.

The reporter of your story (Dec. 24), "Syrian Village Speaks Tongue Used by Jesus," could have heard the sounds of the Aramaic language right here in Los Angeles. I vividly remember a conversation conducted partly in Aramaic in my own home between a Maronite priest and an Orthodox rabbi. The occasion was a meeting of the Los Angeles Rabbi-Priest Dialogue, which was initiated by Cardinal Timothy Manning 16 years ago and which continues to this day. The two clergymen compared the use of the Aramaic language in the Talmud, the major repository of the Jewish tradition, and in the liturgy of the Maronite Church, a major Mideastern division of Roman Catholicism.

It is heartening to hear the news about the Skirball Institute on American Values of the American Jewish Committee, with its distinguished steering committee of interdenominational community leaders. Its work is badly needed at a time when there continues to be chaos and confusion about the rights and wrongs of our way of life. At least there will be communication, so vital in a democratic society. It should enable much needed dialogue between divergent points of view which might result not so much in agreement as empathy and understanding.