Events In The West: From October 4-8 the Scottsdale International Film Festival will include five Jewish-themed films from Canada, France, Poland and Sweden… On October 5 Yossi Klein Halevi, reporter, author and fellow of the Shalom Hartman Institute, will be the scholar-in-residence at Beth Jacob Beverly Hills… Young Israel of Century City’s new Shabbos afternoon series, Issues and Answers, begins on October 5 with Rabbi David Fine. His topic: “We Are Not In Kansas Anymore: Training Israeli Rabbis.” On October 12 Rabbi Dr. Moshe Goldfedder’s topic will be: “Negotiating Religion”… On October 5, Rabbi Shlomo Einhorn, at Yavneh, begins his Shabbos afternoon 10-week history course on Orthodox Los Angeles.
Yeshiva & School News: It’s been a difficult year for the Torah Day School in Seattle, WA. As reported in Washington’s JTNews, the day school was informed by the Seattle public school system that the building the school system was temporarily allowing the day school to use would be taken back by the school system. Then one of the day school teachers was convicted on a charge of child molestation. L.A.’s Aleinu Family Resource Center, which educates, counsels and sets policies regarding abuse and other issues, was called to Seattle and held a two-day seminar with parents, children and staff. And at the conclusion of the school year, the head of school resigned. Torah Day School then had less than three months to find a new location and new head of school. Rabbi Moshe Abady, formerly of L.A., was selected to be the new head of school. He arrived in Seattle just three days before school started. Classes are currently being held in the Seattle Kollel and Bikur Cholim Machzikay Hadath (BCMH) until the school receives the necessary permits for a semi-permanent school facility in the Beacon Hill neighborhood.
Kosher Shopping: Many chain stores now offer kosher sections. Kosher-eating consumers need to make sure that the items they purchase in the section billed as kosher meet their standards of kashrut. Shoppers frequently put items in their baskets and then decide they don’t want them. Then, instead of putting the items back where they initially found them, they discard them wherever they are at the time they decide they don’t want them. There have been incidents whereby products without kosher supervision have been put next to products at the ‘end’ of or “just outside” the boundary of the kosher section and people have picked them up believing they were kosher because of where they found them. Recently, Schwartz Bros. baking company from Seattle had their products placed in L.A. markets in or near the kosher section. L.A. shoppers, especially when seeing the name Schwartz, are likely to instinctively conclude that the product is from L.A.’s popular Schwartz Bakery. Consumers should also be aware that while the Seattle product indeed carries the certification of the Seattle Vaad for most of its products, the Seattle bakery also makes dairy rolls, Brioche, which do not have the Seattle Vaad certification and are placed by the market on the same display table as all the other certified products from the Seattle-based Schwartz Bros.
SCOTTSDALE, ARIZONA
Mazel Tov – Bas Mitzvah: Leah Shoshan, daughter of Rabbi Ariel and Ayala Shoshan.
LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA
Mazel Tov – Births: Jacob and Gilda Nahamia, a daughter (Grandparents Joseph and Shahla Nahamia; Joseph and Mojgan Boodaie… Jordan and Adena Frenkel, a son… Joshua and Emunah Plotke, a daughter… Daniel and Chani Heyman of Yerushalayim, a son (Grandparents Dr. Ben Tzion and Sylvia Heyman; Great-grandmothers Ruth Heyman; Naomi Mauer)… Daniel and Keren Katz, a daughter… Stephen and Tali Kest of Southbury, CT, a son (Grandparents Alan and Aliza Abelson)… Alain and Michelle Bonavida, a daughter… Josh and Rachel Tomaszewski, a son (Grandparents Joseph and Guerta Tomaszewski)… Donny and Sharona Kramer, a daughter… Jason and Lisa Gruenbaum, a son (Grandparents Sam Gruenbaum; Diana Gruenbaum).
Mazel Tov – Bar Mitzvah: Yitzi Kessler, son of Hessel and Miriam Kessler.
Mazel Tov – Bas Mitzvah: Alana Bess, daughter of Joel and Dena Bess.
Mazel Tov – Engagements: Michelle Ishakis, daughter of Allen and Judy Ishakis, to Roy Moshe, son of Yosef and Rivka Moshe of Kew Gardens Hills, NY… Lauren Gruenbaum, daughter of Sam Gruenbaum and Diana Gruenbaum, to Ben Sapir.
Tzeischem L’Shalom: Rabbi Moshe and Leora Abady – Seattle, WA.