Community

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“We’ve had a relationship with the LAPD senior leadership for many years,” said Rabbi Alan Kalinsky, director of the OU West Coast Region. “And it is vitally important that we keep that alive as we show the Police Department that we care about them and the work they do.”

Deborah Raskin, principal at Or HaChaim Academy, an Orthodox elementary school for girls and boys with a middle school for boys in North Hollywood, is one of four recipients of the Milken Jewish Educator Awards.

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A horrific case of cyber-bullying apparently led to the suicide of a Lakeland, Florida girl named Rebecca Sedwick. A month ago Rebecca jumped to her death from an abandoned building. She was 12 years old. The child had been tormented by online postings. One told her “to drink bleach and die.”

A body can be locked up. The soul can still soar. Life-changing moments can happen in the most unexpected circumstances.

Slated to run in some 150 locations around the world, A Reason to Celebrate is a meaningful, personal and spiritual journey through special days on the Jewish calendar. Through exploring the deeper, mystical significance of these days, they become lenses through which we gain insight into our relationships and our identities as Jewish women, and catalysts that empower us to implement positive change in our lives.

“What I find most exciting about the Hahn Family Ultra Weekend is the diversity among the teens,” said Todd Cohn, Southern NCSY’s executive director. “The teens from all different schools and backgrounds will come together for one inspirational, empowerment weekend.”

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On Sunday, Oct. 6 Etta Israel’s 4th group home, the Aaron Bloom Home in North Hollywood, officially opened.

With more than 150 alumni establishing themselves in an array of professional and communal careers and 15 new graduates this fall, Yeshiva University’s Presidential Fellowship in University and Community Leadership is celebrating its 10th anniversary. Yitzy Frankel of Los Angeles has been selected for this year’s cohort.

During Chol HaMoed Sukkot, The Orthodox Jewish Chaplaincy Board (OJCB) conducted holiday programs for Jewish inmates at Los Angeles County Men’s Central Jail and Twin Tower Correctional Facility.

The holidays are over. The busy swirl of frenzied activity has passed. The Jewish world has caught its collective breath, the kids have gone back to school, adults have returned to work. and we’re all getting on with the usual rhythm of their lives.

Skylake Synagogue, located at 1850 NE 183rd Street in North Miami Beach, has introduced a unique enterprise – The Closet – to South Florida. The project is housed in a small building, next to the shul, and has been renovated to look like a boutique shop.

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The Rohr Jewish Learning Institute (JLI) will present Life in the Balance: Jewish Perspectives on Everyday Medical Dilemmas, the institute’s new six-session Fall 2013 course that will begin during the week of Tuesday, October 29.

South Florida’s Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport has good news for hungry travelers. Kosher food is now available to passengers at JetBlue’s Terminal 3, Concourse F. Chef Allen’s 2 Go Kosher refrigerated kiosk opened on September 30. It is a welcomed accommodation to the many kosher consumers who stream through the busy airport.

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As a result of more than 15 inches of rainfall over a matter of days in Boulder, Colorado and surrounding areas last month – killing seven people, causing damage to more than 15,000 others, and destroying nearly 2,000 homes – synagogues and its scheduled services took a major blow.

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This past summer, Yeshiva University’s Center for the Jewish Future Certificate Program in Experiential Jewish Education graduated its second group of students and inaugurated a third. The program is one of the few to focus on the unique role experiential Jewish education plays in the transmission of Jewish values and traditions. It arms practitioners with research, methodology and skills in order to increase their effectiveness on the job.

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Modern life can keep us isolated from reality. Our homes are well lit, temperature controlled, sound proofed and sealed off from our environment. We never sweat or shiver. We sleep soundly through the greatest of storms. We neither feel nor hear the wind or rain.

South Florida’s Mitzvah Chapter of Hadassah recently held a meet and greet at The Mexico Bravo restaurant, located at 16850 Collins Avenue, Sunny Isles.

Southern NCSY announced the appointment of Josh Geller, of Hollywood, Florida, as the new South Florida NCSY director of institutional advancement. Geller, an NCSY alumnus, will serve as an integral member of Southern NCSY development department. His focus will be to reach out to the thousands of alumni who participated in Southern NCSY as far back as the 1950s and reconnect them with the organization and its mission.

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