Politics, race relations and intermarriage are among...
Politics, race relations and intermarriage are among the smorgasbord of subjects that Jewish educators will ponder at the 17th annual conference of the Coalition for the Advancement of Jewish Education at USC on Sunday through Thursday.
Here is a sampling of the 500 workshops, classes and colloquia available:
* The Rev. Cecil B. Murray of the First African Methodist Episcopal Church of Los Angeles will discuss his plans for improving relations between the African-American and Jewish communities. “Blacks and Jews must be a prototype for the multi-ethnicity of America, and certainly of Los Angeles,” Murray said this week in anticipation of the conference. “Our coming together is for the preservation of values and of lives.
“We are uniquely equipped to do it,” he added, “because in modern memory we have had our Diaspora and our genocidal deprivations and laws that said: ‘No dogs, niggers or Jews.’ Our differences concern the pain growing out of the late ‘60s, when . . . Jews felt that blacks were waving off the historic alliance. But we are spiritual siblings.”
Murray speaks to the conferees 11 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. Wednesday.
* Two political thinkers will debate the wisdom and effectiveness of U.S. Jews’ publicly airing dissatisfaction with Israeli government policies. Shimon Erem, president of the Washington-based American Forum for Jewish-Christian Relations and head of the Center for Strategic Studies West in Los Angeles, said this week: “I don’t think that anyone has the right to speak on behalf of the Jewish community because there is no Jewish organization or forum (in the United States) that was elected by the Jewish community at large giving them that authority, including the Jewish Federation.” Supporters and detractors of the Israeli government, he said, do not have enough information to give informed opinions, and “can mislead the community at large and political authorities, whether the White House or Congress.”
But Jerome M. Segal, president of the Washington-based Jewish Peace Lobby and a research scholar at the University of Maryland, disagrees. Segal said: “American Jews, both as Americans and as Jews, have a responsibility to weigh in with respect to American policy on the Mideast. And not as defense attorneys, as it were, for any and every action by an Israeli government.”
Erem and Segal debate at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday.
* A pair of educators will explain a new Jewish population study and examine its implications for Jewish religious schools. The study, conducted by the Council of Jewish Federations, shows that more than half of people born Jewish who are under 40 and married in the last five years took non-Jewish spouses.
Rabbi Hanan Alexander, vice president-designate of academic affairs of the University of Judaism, said: “Our schools have to be aware of this. Not only can we not assume that we are dealing with a traditional family (in the United States), but not even a traditional Jewish family.”
Alexander and Naftaly Glassman, a professor of education at UC Santa Barbara, present their proposals from 9 a.m. to noon Thursday.
In a less serious manner, the conference will offer music, art and drama workshops. Other sessions will take up curriculum, classroom and institutional management, educational trends and study of Scripture.
The conference is sponsored by the coalition and co-sponsored by the Bureau of Jewish Education of Greater Los Angeles. A limited number of registration slots are available. For information, call (213) 740-5066 after 8 a.m. Sunday.
DATES
When the Dodgers play the San Francisco Giants on Monday evening, it will be the 16th annual Lutheran Family Night at Dodger Stadium. One dollar of each ticket sold through the Aid Assn. for Lutherans will go to a local Habitat for Humanity affiliate to make affordable housing available to low-income families in Pasadena.
Five thousand seats have been reserved for the event, which is being promoted through association branches and Lutheran churches.
Tickets are $8. For information, phone Don Majer at (818) 591-7505.
The Society for Humanistic Judaism will hold its August meeting at 7:45 p.m. Friday at the United Methodist Church Annex in West Los Angeles. Hershl Hartman, a member of the executive board of the International Federation of Secular Humanistic Jews and director of the Sholem Community Organization, will discuss why the Jewish New Year is celebrated in the seventh, rather than the first, month of the Jewish calendar. Admission is free. The address is 10497 Wilshire Blvd., West Los Angeles. (213) 891-4303.
CELEBRATIONS
The Torah Learning Center of B’nai David-Judea will host a free holiday preparation celebration, “Destination Yontif Family Fair,” 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Sunday, Aug. 23. There will be live music and holiday-related activities. The address is 8906 W. Pico Blvd., Los Angeles. (310) 276-9269.
HONORS
Father Charles Kurgan, chaplain at the Catholic Newman Community Center at California State University, Long Beach, has joined the staff of the Adult Children Centers in Long Beach. The centers provide specialized counseling for Catholic families and private school students, in addition to services for adults who came from alcoholic and dysfunctional families.
Kurgan, a member of the California Assn. of Marriage, Family and Child Therapists, is a former high school teacher and assistant principal. For information call (213) 490-0060.
Bettye and Ralph Irwin, members of Westminster Presbyterian Church, have been elected to three-year terms on the Family Nurture Commission of National Presbyterian Mariners, a 12,000-member organization that emphasizes marriage and family enrichment, spiritual growth and fellowship. Elected at the Mariners’ 54th annual conference in Kansas, the Irwins, retired high school teachers, will develop family ministry programs, evaluate resources and plan national retreats and mission projects.
Jerry Rogoway of Granada Hills has been reelected president of the board of trustees for Kehillat Ma’Arav Synagogue in Santa Monica. He has served on the boards of the University of Judaism and the Santa Monica Senior Peer Counseling Center and is a director of the Ellis Island Restoration Committee.
Please address notices to: Southern California File, c/o Religion Editor, Los Angeles Times, Times Mirror Square, Los Angeles, Calif.,90053. Items should be brief and arrive at least three weeks before the event.
