Rebecca Spence
By Rebecca Spence
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News Transgender Jews Now Out of Closet, Seeking Communal Recognition
Los Angeles — When Elliot Kukla, a Reform rabbi, came out as transgender six months before his ordination in 2006, he never imagined how openly the Jewish community would be addressing transgender issues just three years later. This month, he is poised to address a West Coast regional conference of Reform rabbis on the subject,…
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News Charities Change Course After Madoff
Los Angeles — In the wake of the ever-widening Madoff scandal, prominent Jewish fundraising experts are calling for a return to the days when Jewish charities engaged the entire community — not just an elite group of mega-donors. “The glass is both half empty and half full,” said David Mersky, a Boston-based fundraising consultant who…
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News No Schmaltz, Plenty of Soul
Los Angeles — In celebration of Hanukkah, two groups under the Jewish music label JDub Records, The Sway Machinery and DeLeon, rocked a sparse but enthused crowd at the Troubadour in West Hollywood on December 20. The Sway Machinery, a five-piece band that includes members of such indie rock stalwarts as the Yeah Yeah Yeahs…
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News Failed Plot To Kill Hitler Leads to Feature Film — and a Rabbi in Boston
Los Angeles — “Valkyrie,” the new film starring Tom Cruise as real-life German army officer Claus von Stauffenberg, culminates with a phalanx of German soldiers storming the Berlin military headquarters where Stauffenberg and his co-conspirators holed up after they believed they had killed Hitler. In a dramatic climax, Stauffenberg and his fellow officers who plotted…
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News Harvey Milk, in Life and on Film, Typified the Proud Jew as Outsider
San Francisco — In an early scene in “Milk” — the new biopic starring Sean Penn as slain gay activist and San Francisco city supervisor Harvey Milk — Milk, a proud new shop owner in the city’s Castro district, seeks to join his neighborhood business association. He initially gives assurances to a skeptical association leader,…
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News The Latest Bar Mitzvah Fad? Going Green, But at a Price
Los Angeles — For Samantha Krieger’s bat mitzvah, guests were asked to reply by e-mail instead of paper cards, the food was served on bamboo plates and candles decorated the wooden tables in place of flower centerpieces. Krieger’s bat mitzvah reception — celebrated in a California state park in lieu of a hotel ballroom —…
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News Mormon AJCongress Official Draws Ire on Prop 8
Los Angeles — As opponents of California’s new gay marriage ban take aim at the Mormon Church for spearheading the campaign to pass it, a Jewish communal professional who is also a Mormon Church lay leader finds himself at the center of a growing storm in Jewish circles on the West Coast. Mark Paredes, the…
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News New Congress Has Record Number of Jews
When the new Congress debuts in January 2009, a record 45 Jews will take the oath of office: 32 in the House of Representatives and — regardless of the outcome in the still-contested Minnesota election — 13 Jews in the Senate. Among the three newcomers to the House are a young, gay, multimillionaire entrepreneur; a…
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