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COMMUNITY NEWS
6-12 Shevat, 5772 Jan. 30-Feb. 5, 2012 -- THE JEWISH OBSERVER, LOS ANGELES -- 457th Web Ed.
COMMUNITY
ABRAHAM SION VISITS LA TO DISCUSS ISRAEL CHALLENGES
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Sion has served as deputy state attorney for Israel, and was instrumental in changing the election laws governing the voting in of the prime minister in Israel. He was also a Lieutenant Colonel in the Israeli Defense Forces (I.D.F.), with 17 years of that service as a judge in Gaza. Professor Sion currently has a weekly program on the popular Reshet Bet channel on Israel Radio.
He has headed parliamentary delegations with sitting ministers to Europe and participated in debates concerning the Arab-Israeli conflict. He is frequently a guest on radio and television talk shows, was a member of the executive committee of the Israeli Bar, and also served as president of the board of directors of Israel Tourist Industries. He is chairman of the Center for Law and Mass Media at Ariel University and currently is head of a Tel Aviv law firm actively involved in both research and advocacy of Law and Mass Media as it relates to Israel.
Sion will speak on the hazards that confront Israel at this time focusing on the unseen hazards which are the more dangerous. He will also address the Oslo Agreements and their outcome, the two-state solution and the question of the feasibility of peace between Israel and the Arabs. Time permitting Iran will also be addressed.
HOLOCAUST REMEMBRANCE COMMEMORATING ITALIAN JEWISH VICTIMS HELD IN LA
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Milken Community High School (one of the largest Jewish day schools in the country), the acclaimed Los Angeles Museum of the Holocaust, and USC Hillel, USC’s center for Jewish life also joined.
“We wanted to personalize the victims and survivors, to remember that each victim was an individual whose hopes and dreams were extinguished by the Nazis,” Consul General of the Republic of Italy in Los Angeles Hon. Giuseppe Perrone said, “together we commemorated, educated and shared the moment of remembrance for the individual victims by reading each name aloud all over Los Angeles.”
In July 2000, the Republic of Italy proclaimed Jan. 27, the anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau, a Day of Remembrance to commemorate Italian Jews who were victims of the Holocaust, and all those who had risked their own lives to try and save others. In 2005, the United Nations General Assembly designated the same day as International Holocaust Remembrance Day.
“The UN Resolution designates more than just a day of remembrance,” AJC Assistant Director of International Relations Gosia Weiss said, “it also rejects denial of the Holocaust, and condemns discrimination and violence based on religion or ethnicity. We are grateful to Italy, represented in Los Angeles by the Consulate General, for taking the initiative to gather the community in Los Angeles and publicly commemorate the victims of Nazi persecution.”
AJC has close relationships with the members of the consular corps in Los Angeles, including the Italian Consulate. For the past three years the Italian Consulate, the Italian Cultural Institute and AJC have partnered on Holocaust commemoration programs.
At the Los Angeles Museum of the Holocaust a large group gathered to read the names from the 8,000 list: visitors of the Museum, AJC Board members, students, and passers-by. “The Los Angeles Museum of the Holocaust is devoted to commemorating those who perished and those who survived the Holocaust. We hope that this public reading helped educate Jews and non-Jews alike about the fate of the Italian Jewish community 70 years ago, and, by this example, of the fate of Jewish communities throughout Europe,” Executive Director of the Los Angeles Museum of the Holocaust Mark Rothman said.
Sassan Masserat, an Italian Jew living in Los Angeles, who serves as AJC’s Liaison to the Italian Consulate, was one of the readers at the Museum. "The institutionalization of the 'Giornata della Memoria' by the Italian Government has particular meaning -- by mandating the commemoration of the Shoah at an international level, it provides the governmental support that is much needed to ensure that similar tragedies remain a memory. While I never personally experienced anti-Semitism while living in Italy, I find this commemoration even more meaningful because of the personal involvement of important figures such as our Consul General Giuseppe Perrone and other local leaders," Masserat said.
Milken Community High School was asked to participate in the project because its student body reflects the diverse Jewish population of Los Angeles and is located between the two largest Jewish population centers in Southern California. “Our mission is to create future leaders who will go on to fight indifference and ignorance and intolerance in the world. Milken students represent the future and we are honored to be able to partner with the Consul General of Italy and the AJC for this moving tribute to the Italian Jewish Community,” Upper School Principal of Milken Community High School Dr. Roger Fuller said.
Older students also had a chance to take part in the reading at USC Hillel. “As the Center of Jewish Life at USC, USC Hillel is proud to partner with the Italian Consulate and American Jewish Committee in commemoration of Italian victims of Nazi brutality. Having student participation in this effort is essential as we enrich and build this next generation of compassionate, responsible, and ethical community leaders,” USC Hillel’s Executive Director Michael Jeser said.
The Italian Jewish community, one of the oldest in Europe, numbered about 50,000 in 1933. Despite its alliance with Germany, the Fascist regime in Italy responded equivocally to German demands first to concentrate and then to deport Jews residing in Italian occupation zones in Yugoslavia, Greece, and France to killing centers in the German-occupied Poland. Italian military authorities generally refused to participate in mass murder of Jews or to permit deportations from Italy or Italian-occupied territory. Between 1941 and 1943, thousands of Jews escaped from German-occupied territory to the Italian-occupied zones. After Fascist Italy’s fall in 1943 the Germans deported over 8,000 Jews from Italy, Italian-occupied France, and the islands of Rhodes and Kos, most of them to Auschwitz-Birkenau. More than 40,000 Jews survived the Holocaust in Italy.
COMMUNITY
SCHWAB SELECTED AS CEO OF JEWISH BIG BROTHERS, BIG SISTERS LOS ANGELES
l-r: Randy Schwab, Bob Aronoff, Brian Appel, Leslie Kavanaugh & Glenn Kraemer,
Barry Vigon, Lou Desser
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“My goal at JBBBS is to run the agency using business systems and practices, but we must recognize that positive outcomes aren’t just about revenue, but about how many children we can help, and what impact we can have upon their lives,” Schwab said.
With an inclusive management style, he has already established his active fiscal management policy, and shown a deft outreach to board members, foundations and businesses in the community.
“Furthermore, we as an agency, must look to partner with other organizations to utilize combined resources in order to serve children more efficiently. We must also expand our national alliance relationship with Big Brother Big Sisters of America to build additional corporate partnerships, and secure federal, state and local grants where available,” Schwab said.
Having extensive expertise in operations management, organizational development, strategic planning, program management and fundraising, Schwab is a natural fit for an agency as large as JBBBSLA and Camp Max Straus. With an annual operating budget of $4.3M, CFO Norm Lewis can testify to the formidable responsibility that rests on Schwab’s shoulders. “Between Camp Max Straus, JBBBSLA, and all of the agency’s assets and endowments, a lot is at stake.”
As part of his fiscal management, the new CEO sees two areas that will affect the outcomes he desires. “The agency is utilizing new technologies to evaluate more accurately outcomes in its match support program, reach out to its base of supporters, and enable its work force to provide greater long-term efficiency without long-term personnel costs. We also look forward to marketing our camp facility to provide organizations, corporations, and schools a venue for retreats, outdoor education, and special events.”
He views complete brand integration, social media, and a revised web presence as a means to allow JBBBSLA to maintain and grow the identity of the agency in order to further its programs and expand its ability to identify at-risk youth.
To fully understand the implications of the financial support required by an agency like JBBBSLA is to know the population it serves. Approximately 3000 children participate annually in a variety of programs, which includes one-to-one community-based matching/mentoring, Camp Max Straus, Witherbee Wilderness High Sierra backpacking, college scholarships, counselor-in-training program, weekend sports and arts mentoring, and school-based mentoring
While children come from various socio-economic backgrounds, over 90% of the children that attend Camp Max Straus live below the poverty level. Of those, 56% are Hispanic, and 21% are African American. A long term objective at JBBBSLA is to work toward improving the lives of children through our mentoring and camp programs. The agency hopes to make a significant impact on a child’s future by developing their sense of self- esteem, matching him or her with positive role models, and insuring they have long term social and financial support to achieve their educational and life goals. “What could matter more,” says Schwab, “than enriching the lives of children.”
Mr. Schwab hopes to bring to JBBBSLA the same kind of change he brought during his 4 years as the Executive Director at Temple Isaiah, where membership rose from 750 to 1100 families, and school attendance rose from 665 to 950 during his tenure. He had entered a situation where the temple had significant debt and a lack of internal controls, but 4 years later was on a sound financial footing. This change was realized by enacting an annual campaign, changing the membership process, and working collaboratively with the board of trustees and volunteer chairs of numerous committees to insure that Temple Isaiah was striving for excellence in all departments. Mr. Schwab’s entrepreneurial spirit and business background provided the perfect backdrop. Prior to joining Temple Isaiah, he was the President of a retail, design and manufacturing business that he built from the ground up, establishing 1400 accounts and approximate revenue of $3M annually.
JBBBSLA, with offices at the Jewish Federation building, has 24 full time staff members, also has an additional office in Sherman Oaks, and operates Camp Max Straus a 112 acre camp facility in the Verdugo Hills above Glendale. JBBBSLA has a tremendously active Board, with over 60 dedicated members, some of whom were mentees or campers as children. Many are currently Big Brothers or have been in the past.
Randy Schwab is fully rooted in the Los Angeles community. Born in Santa Monica, he has lived here his whole life. He has two children, Jonathan and Andrew.
Celebrating 96 years, JBBBSLA specializes in mentoring children through a variety of transformative, innovative and highly regarded programs and services, regardless of thy’s ability to pay.
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Please join us as Eli E. Hertz, one of the community's most learned experts on the Arab-Israeli conflict, examines the instruments that laid down the Jewish legal right to settle anywhere in Judea and Samaria, western Palestine, a 10,000 square mile area between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea, an entitlement unaltered in international law and valid to this day.
Find out and get engaged as Hertz discusses your rights to the Jewish homeland, and prepares you to challenge Arab myths surrounding Jewish rights to historical Palestine. Eli’s lecture will offer new insights into the challenges presently facing the Jewish people.
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l-r: Randy Schwab, Bob Aronoff, Brian Appel, Leslie Kavanaugh & Glenn Kraemer,
Barry Vigon, Lou Desser
Cont'd from Home Page
“My goal at JBBBS is to run the agency using business systems and practices, but we must recognize that positive outcomes aren’t just about revenue, but about how many children we can help, and what impact we can have upon their lives,” Schwab said.
With an inclusive management style, he has already established his active fiscal management policy, and shown a deft outreach to board members, foundations and businesses in the community.
“Furthermore, we as an agency, must look to partner with other organizations to utilize combined resources in order to serve children more efficiently. We must also expand our national alliance relationship with Big Brother Big Sisters of America to build additional corporate partnerships, and secure federal, state and local grants where available,” Schwab said.
Having extensive expertise in operations management, organizational development, strategic planning, program management and fundraising, Schwab is a natural fit for an agency as large as JBBBSLA and Camp Max Straus. With an annual operating budget of $4.3M, CFO Norm Lewis can testify to the formidable responsibility that rests on Schwab’s shoulders. “Between Camp Max Straus, JBBBSLA, and all of the agency’s assets and endowments, a lot is at stake.”
As part of his fiscal management, the new CEO sees two areas that will affect the outcomes he desires. “The agency is utilizing new technologies to evaluate more accurately outcomes in its match support program, reach out to its base of supporters, and enable its work force to provide greater long-term efficiency without long-term personnel costs. We also look forward to marketing our camp facility to provide organizations, corporations, and schools a venue for retreats, outdoor education, and special events.”
He views complete brand integration, social media, and a revised web presence as a means to allow JBBBSLA to maintain and grow the identity of the agency in order to further its programs and expand its ability to identify at-risk youth.
To fully understand the implications of the financial support required by an agency like JBBBSLA is to know the population it serves. Approximately 3000 children participate annually in a variety of programs, which includes one-to-one community-based matching/mentoring, Camp Max Straus, Witherbee Wilderness High Sierra backpacking, college scholarships, counselor-in-training program, weekend sports and arts mentoring, and school-based mentoring
While children come from various socio-economic backgrounds, over 90% of the children that attend Camp Max Straus live below the poverty level. Of those, 56% are Hispanic, and 21% are African American. A long term objective at JBBBSLA is to work toward improving the lives of children through our mentoring and camp programs. The agency hopes to make a significant impact on a child’s future by developing their sense of self- esteem, matching him or her with positive role models, and insuring they have long term social and financial support to achieve their educational and life goals. “What could matter more,” says Schwab, “than enriching the lives of children.”
Mr. Schwab hopes to bring to JBBBSLA the same kind of change he brought during his 4 years as the Executive Director at Temple Isaiah, where membership rose from 750 to 1100 families, and school attendance rose from 665 to 950 during his tenure. He had entered a situation where the temple had significant debt and a lack of internal controls, but 4 years later was on a sound financial footing. This change was realized by enacting an annual campaign, changing the membership process, and working collaboratively with the board of trustees and volunteer chairs of numerous committees to insure that Temple Isaiah was striving for excellence in all departments. Mr. Schwab’s entrepreneurial spirit and business background provided the perfect backdrop. Prior to joining Temple Isaiah, he was the President of a retail, design and manufacturing business that he built from the ground up, establishing 1400 accounts and approximate revenue of $3M annually.
JBBBSLA, with offices at the Jewish Federation building, has 24 full time staff members, also has an additional office in Sherman Oaks, and operates Camp Max Straus a 112 acre camp facility in the Verdugo Hills above Glendale. JBBBSLA has a tremendously active Board, with over 60 dedicated members, some of whom were mentees or campers as children. Many are currently Big Brothers or have been in the past.
Randy Schwab is fully rooted in the Los Angeles community. Born in Santa Monica, he has lived here his whole life. He has two children, Jonathan and Andrew.
Celebrating 96 years, JBBBSLA specializes in mentoring children through a variety of transformative, innovative and highly regarded programs and services, regardless of thy’s ability to pay.
HERTZ TO DISCUSS “OCCUPATION: THE BIG LIE”
Cont'd from Home Page
Please join us as Eli E. Hertz, one of the community's most learned experts on the Arab-Israeli conflict, examines the instruments that laid down the Jewish legal right to settle anywhere in Judea and Samaria, western Palestine, a 10,000 square mile area between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea, an entitlement unaltered in international law and valid to this day.
Find out and get engaged as Hertz discusses your rights to the Jewish homeland, and prepares you to challenge Arab myths surrounding Jewish rights to historical Palestine. Eli’s lecture will offer new insights into the challenges presently facing the Jewish people.
___________________