LOCAL SYNAGOGUES COMMEMORATE YOM HASHOAH, HOLOCAUST REMEMBRANCE DAY Cont'd from Home Page Seven memorial candles were lit, each accompanied by a special reading, songs by the cantors and congregational singing. The seven candles represented one each for the six million victims. The community also viewed the film Watermarks, a story of Lampl and her teammates on the legendary Jewish Hakoah Swimteam. "Watermarks" is a documentary film produced to trace the history of the Hakoah (Hebrew "the strength") swim and other sport teams, focusing on the story of seven members of the swim team who were reunited around their old pool. Although blind today, Lampl has studied to become a psychotherapist and leads groups for the visually impaired. Lampl swims everyday for fun, but in 1938 she was swimming for her life in the ongoing battle with an ever expanding and threatening Nazi regime. Founded in 1909 in response to the notorious Aryan Paragraph, which forbade Austrian sports clubs from accepting Jewish athletes, Hakoah's best-known triumphs came from its women swimmers, who dominated national competitions in Austria. Its founders were eager to popularize sport among a community renowned for such great minds as Freud, Mahler and Zweig but traditionally alien to physical recreation. Hakoah rapidly grew into one of Europe's biggest athletic clubs. After the Anschluss, the political unification of Nazi Germany and Austria in 1938, the Nazis shut down the club, but the swimmers, which included Lampl, managed to flee the country with the help of an escape operation organized by Hakoah’s functionaries before the war begin. Watermarks and Lampl’s appearance were sponsored by Adat Shalom and its Women’s League and Men’s Club. BERNARD MILKEN JCC SHOWCASES THE ETHIOPIAN-ISRAELI EXPERIENCE Cont'd from Home Page The exhibit displays a collection of photographs and artifacts of Ethiopian-Israelis who have made aliyah to Israel. The title of the exhibit refers to the tremendous leap from the ancient way of life the rescued Ethiopians left behind to the one they encountered in Israel after a brief four-and-a-half hour flight. Apian-Israeli Exhibit features photographs and artifacts of those brought home to Israel.  The unique artifacts and striking photographs in the exhibit that depict images from the Ethiopian-Israelis’ daily lives come from the personal collections of contributors who have traveled to Ethiopia and Israel and worked first-hand with Ethiopian-Israeli families, including Nathan Hochman, Middie and Richard Giesberg, Mady and Arthur Jablon, and Peachy and Mark Levy. The opening reception will take place on May 8 at 7 p.m. in the Finegood Art Gallery of the JCC. Gallery hours: Monday -Thursday 10 am-9 pm Gallery phone: 818-464-3218 Friday 10 am-5 pm and Sunday 11 am-5 pm Closed Saturdays. Operation Promise was launched in 2006, when the government of Israel asked the Jewish communities of North America to help rescue the Jews of Ethiopia out of squalor so they could take their rightful place in the Jewish homeland. Since then, hundreds of families have left Ethiopia to make a new life in modern Israel. 400 Years in 4½ Hours: The Ethiopian-Israeli Experience was created to better understand the enormity of the transformation made by the Jewish families who have now become Ethiopian-Israelis. The Jewish Federation Valley Alliance’s Finegood Art Gallery is one of Southern California’s largest not-for-profit galleries, and showcases primarily, though not exclusively, Jewish art and artists.  The gallery is located on level two of the Bernard Milken Jewish Community Campus. B’NAI HAYIM TO CELEBRATE ITS 50TH ANNIVERSARY Cont'd from Home Page Today, The Little Temple That Could is chug0.ging along and, as part of its half a century legacy, marking its place in local history as a neighborhood beacon. A conservative temple, B'nai Hayim members number less than 200. The synagogue aims to be a community of Jewish identity, service and spiritual connection. "People are still hungry for that experience and connection. And our mission is to do what we do better," Rabbi Tsafreer Lev said. On June 1, the members and community will celebrate the temple's 50th anniversary, and is one of the few conservative synagogues yet left in Los Angeles. A host of congregants and friends are expected to be on hand to observe the temple's many accomplishments, revel in its rich history, discuss its many community mitvot and pledge to make the next 50 years a time of growth. It's been 50 years since a dozen couples gathered on July 10, 1958 at the Glen Aire Country Club to discuss the launch of a new conservative congregation in Sherman Oaks. Irving and Rita Oschin attended those early meetings and helped launch what was originally known as Sherman Oaks Conservative Temple. A few years later the synagogue changed its name Temple Beth Hayim in honor of Hayim Oschin, father of Sam, Irving, Ruth, and Al, all members. Later it became known as Temple B'nai Hayim (meaning the Children of Life). Today, Temple B'nai Hayim is physically larger than when it first occupied its Van Nuys Boulevard location in September 1964. The building was first constructed in 1926 as an auditorium for plays and films and later became a church before being sold and turned into a synagogue. The cozy sanctuary, which can comfortably sit 200 people, was originally part of the grounds of the Temple when it was decided B'nai Hayim needed a formal place to pray and sing. "We're a family-oriented congregation," President of the Temple Stuart Barth said, "It's a place where everybody knows everybody else; there's a small, intimate feeling to it. The beauty is that it has all of the activities that most big congregations have, including children's education and various adult activities … We all know that Conservatism has been having problems with its identity the past several years. But we seem to be finding our roots and flourishing. We can always use more members but we are thriving as a community." Cantor Mark Gomberg, a fixture at Temple B'nai Hayim for over 30 years, said he has experienced the ups and downs of trying to connect with families and to stay relevant for them in an ever changing world. From its founding members to its current congregation, Temple B'nai Hayim has always been about family and bringing a sense of spiritual comfort to an area of Los Angeles where people like to grow roots and stay.

SCHWARZENEGGER ATTENDS YOM HASHOAH OBSERVANCE AT THE SIMON WIESENTHAL CENTER Photo Credit: Duncan McIntosh, Office of Governor Schwarzenegger Cont'd from Home Page Rabbi Hier: I am honored to introduce the Governor, not because he has the high office of being the governor of the great state of California -- that would be one great reason to introduce him. Another great reason is he has been a loyal friend, personal supporter, of the Simon Wiesenthal Center for 25 years. I told the Governor upstairs when he was speaking to the board of trustees, when this building was being constructed in skeleton form, the Governor went up himself with a hardhat to inspect the dome to make sure that it was all according to specifications. And he has opened his home, his heart. He and Maria have been great champions of the Museum of Tolerance from its very inception. So it's my honor to introduce a great friend who happens to be the great governor of the state of California, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger. Gov. Schwarzenegger: Well, thank you very much, Rabbi Hier, for the very enthusiastic and great introduction. And I want to say also thank you very much, Governor Gray Davis, for being here today and also for Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, for being here today. And why it is so great to have both of you here -- and of course I want to thank all the other dignitaries and elected officials that are here -- but why I want to point out both of you is because it's known of how much work that you have done for the Simon Wiesenthal Center and we appreciate it very much, for being such good friends. So let's give them a big hand for the great work that they have done. Now, as the Rabbi has said, that I am here today not only because of being the governor of the great state of California, but also because I'm a friend of the Simon Wiesenthal Center. And it is an honor to be back at the Museum of Tolerance, especially on Yom Hashoah and to help dedicate this incredible new exhibit commemorating the life and the work of Simon Wiesenthal. No one is born a hater and no one is born a murderer; this is behavior that is taught and learned. So the best way to guard against it is to instead teach tolerance and understanding and love and inclusion. And the Simon Wiesenthal Center and this museum does exactly that for hundreds of thousands of school children and adults every year and I have seen personally the long lines outside this museum when I drive by here. And so want to just say congratulations -- congratulations to Rabbi Hier, Rabbi May and Board Chairman Larry Mizel for the amazing work that you do. Thank you, thank you, thank you. Let's give them a big hand. Now, I met Rabbi Hier more than 25 years ago when he called me and he asked if I would help raise money for the Simon Wiesenthal Center and for the Museum, which was at that point just a vision. And he asked me if I also would help bring some Hollywood personalities in -- directors, producers, actors and so on -- to embrace the idea of the Simon Wiesenthal Museum. And of course I was busy at that time with my movie career, but the only answer I could think of was yes. First of all, as you know, the Rabbi, Rabbi Hier, is very persuasive. But also, I believed that as a celebrity we have the responsibility of using that power of influence -- that power of influence for something good. And so this is why it has been a great, great pleasure for me to be involved with the Wiesenthal Center every since. Now, you all know that I grew up in Austria, a country that I love dearly, but also a country where bigotry and hatred once led to atrocity and murder. As a matter of fact, my mother told me many stories about the Holocaust -- how she saw the bodies of people shot to death along the roadside when she went to work one morning and also another time when she saw bodies hanging from the tree of the state park, just because they were different from the majority of Austrians. So coming from a place like that and hearing those horrific stories from my mother, I vowed a long time ago to do everything that I could to promote tolerance and understanding. I remember a few years back Rabbi Hier asked me even to go to Austria to speak out against that twisted but popular video game that was called KZ Manager. And it was all about, the goal here was to kill as many Jews in the shortest period of time possible. That's what the game was all about. Now, for some people that wasn't for the kids; it was a game but I found it very offensive and I could not get to Austria quickly enough and to lobby some of my old friends at the Ministry of Education to punish students caught playing that game. And then Austria passed laws and the game disappeared. So of course I took tremendous satisfaction from being able to help stamp out this hateful game. Now, Simon Wiesenthal often said that hatred did not stop with the death of Hitler or Stalin. As a matter of fact, sadly, we know that from the world today. It lives on in places like Darfur and Rwanda and in the Middle East and even in corners of America. And I've always believed that if we are silent in the face of oppression and injustice we are somehow complicit in it. That is why I felt privileged to help organizations like the Simon Wiesenthal Center -- to go and to raise money, to contribute money and to help to build more museums like this and to attend the groundbreaking ceremonies and the openings, not only in America but also in Israel -- because we all have a responsibility to educate future generations about how we can overcome evil in this world. Over the years I also got to know and became friends with Simon Wiesenthal. I still always treasure the party that we had for him in 1988 when we blew out the candles on a cake, his 80th birthday cake, which was wonderful. I remember making the joke to him -- you remember, Rabbi, when I said to him, I said, "Simon, you're getting to an age now where we need so many candles we need to have a fire truck pull up." He laughed and he said, "What do you mean?" He was very funny. I also met with Simon in his home and in his Jewish Documentation Office in Vienna, that is being recreated and has been recreated now here, with all its original documents and books and artifacts and this interactive exhibit that we are dedicating here today. We had such wonderful conversations. I remember we talked about his childhood and growing up. We talked about his work and his passion and about his commitment to justice and dignity for all human beings. When museum visitors see this office here and they hear Simon's voice talking about the importance of never forgetting, I know they will be as inspired, as I was inspired. So again, thank you very much, Rabbi Hier, for bringing another great piece of history and education to our great state, to the state of California and to the world. And Rabbi, you know where to find me when you need me. Thank you. AJU TO SHOWCASE THE NATURAL WORLD/DIVERSE PERSPECTIVE Cont'd from Home Page A free public reception, "Meet the Artists," will take place on June 1, from 3:00 pm – 5:00 pm at American Jewish University, 15600 Mulholland Drive, Los Angeles, 90077. For more information on both these events, telephone 310-476-9777, ext.201.