More than a month after Israeli Prime...

More than a month after Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin was assassinated, the Jewish religious community in Los Angeles is remembering him with two memorial services Sunday--one within the Orthodox community and the other arising from the Reform and Conservative wings of Judaism.

* More than 1,200 friends of Los Angeles’ oldest Jewish day school are expected to attend a banquet Sunday to celebrate Harkham Hillel Hebrew Academy’s 47th year and to mourn the loss of Rabin.

Rabin’s assassination Nov. 4 “was a deplorable act and one that no one could condone,” said Rabbi Menachem Gottesman, who has been dean of the Orthodox school in Beverly Hills for 34 years. Faculty and parents have likewise deplored the fatal shooting.

The unqualified condemnation comes from within an academy that is part of the religious Zionist movement in Israel with which admitted assassin Yigal Amir, 25, was associated.

“However,” added Gottesman, “because the assassin claims to be religious is no basis to accuse all religious people or parties of a share in a conspiracy.”

Most of the school’s approximately 850 students, from preschool through eighth grade, recite the U.S. Pledge of Allegiance and sing the Israeli national anthem each morning. The school has hosted visits of top Israeli political figures and chief rabbis from Israel.

“We are still behind the state of Israel,” the rabbi said. “But there are also some people like myself who say Israel’s policies are not 100% the way we’d like to see them.”

The academy at Olympic Boulevard and Doheny Drive is one of the largest Orthodox schools in the Los Angeles area. The banquet will take place at the Century Plaza Hotel.

* At 2 p.m. Sunday, supporters of the Middle East peace process are expected to fill Temple Beth Am, 1039 S. La Cienega Blvd., for a community rally. The event is sponsored by the Consulate of Israel and Americans for Peace Now, with added backing of 10 other Jewish groups, including the umbrella organizations for Reform and Conservative synagogues.

Prime Minister Shimon Peres and Mrs. Leah Rabin are expected to speak to the gathering by satellite from a rally at Madison Square Garden in New York City.

Labor Party Knesset member Yael Dayan, daughter of the late Moshe Dayan, will be on the program at Temple Beth Am. The Conservative synagogue’s senior rabbi, Joel Rembaum, will begin the program with a brief memorial observance of the close of the 30-day period of mourning. Information: (310) 858-3002.

CHRISTMAS MUSIC

* Film director Delbert Mann (“Marty”) and actress Christopher Norris (“Santa Barbara,” “Trapper John, M.D.”) will narrate the Christmas story from Scripture in between segments of the 18th annual holiday concert Tuesday night at Beverly Hills Presbyterian Church, 505 N. Rodeo Drive. The program, which includes the Christmas portions of Handel’s “Messiah,” will be $20 apiece at the door or two for $35 in advance, $10 for senior citizens and students. Information: (310) 271-5194.

* La Plaza United Methodist Church on Olvera Street in downtown Los Angeles will present its Christmas concert today and Sunday at 4:30 p.m. The shows will be repeated next Saturday and Dec. 17, also at 4:30 p.m., but on those last two dates concert-goers may join traditional posadas after the programs. Donation: $15. Information: (213) 628-5773.

* The 150-voice choir of Pasadena’s Lake Avenue Congregational Church will present its annual Christmas concert at 4 p.m. and 7 p.m. Sunday in the church’s 4,000-seat worship center, 393 N. Lake Ave. The choir, directed by Daniel Bird, will be joined by a full orchestra. The featured work will be “Gloria” by Linda Wells. Donation: $5.

* A fully staged, orchestral version of the Christmas opera “Amahl and the Night Visitors” by Gian Carlo Menotti will be performed at Northridge United Methodist Church, 9650 Reseda Blvd., at 8 p.m. Friday and 7:30 p.m. Dec. 17. Suggested ticket donations are $12 for adults, $8 for students and $6 for children. Information: (818) 886-1555.

* Johann Sebastian Bach’s “Magnificat in D” will be performed Sunday at 9 a.m. and 11 a.m. by the Westwood Presbyterian Church choir and orchestra at the church, 10822 Wilshire Blvd. Information: (310) 474-4535.

* The Christmas portions of Handel’s “Messiah” will be performed at 7 p.m. Sunday by the choir and chamber orchestra of Salem Lutheran Church, 1211 N. Brand Blvd, Glendale. An offering will be taken to benefit Glendale’s cold weather shelter for the homeless. Information: (818) 243-3193.

* Parts of J.S. Bach’s “Christmas Oratorio” will be played along with familiar carols at 3 p.m. Sunday by choir and chamber orchestra at St. Matthew’s Episcopal Church, 1031 Bienveneda Ave., Pacific Palisades. Information: (310) 454-1358.

* “A Survival Guide for the Holidays,” a musical farce, will be performed at 8 p.m. today at Holliston Avenue United Methodist Church, 1305 E. Colorado Blvd., Pasadena, with tickets at $10 and less. Traditional Christmas songs, plus piano selections by Bryan Pezzone, head of the keyboard department at CalArts, will be presented at 7 p.m. Sunday at the church.

* An Advent service of lessons and carols will be presented by the choir of St. James Episcopal Church, 3903 Wilshire Blvd., Los Angeles, at 4:30 p.m. Sunday, followed at 5:30 p.m. by a concert of Christmas music played by organist Edward Murray of Immanuel Presbyterian Church, another Wilshire Boulevard church.

RUSSIAN HANUKKAH

* More than 60 adults from the former Soviet Union will sing Hanukkah songs, spin dreidels and light candles Sunday at North Hollywood’s Temple Beth Hillel, 12326 Riverside Drive. The workshop, starting at 11 a.m., and a noontime celebration are part of the 4-year-old Russian emigre program at the Reform temple, whose assistance program was recently honored at the Union of American Hebrew Congregations national convention in Atlanta. Hanukkah begins at sundown Dec. 17. Information: (818) 763-948.

DATES

* A reenactment of the story of a vision of Mary, Our Lady of Guadalupe, to the 16th-century peasant Juan Diego will be presented on the Loyola Marymount University campus at 9 a.m. Sunday on a bluff overlooking Los Angeles’ Westside. After that, a procession will lead to Sacred Heart Chapel, where a Mass with mariachi music will begin at 10 a.m., followed by a reception with food associated with the Catholic feast day of Our Lady of Guadalupe.

* Los Angeles schoolteacher Ellen Jaffe McClain will sign copies of her book, “Embracing the Stranger: Intermarriage and the Future of the American Jewish Community” (BasicBooks), from 3 to 5 p.m. Sunday at Congregation Beth Chayim Chadashim, 6000 W. Pico Blvd., Los Angeles. McClain has served as the synagogue’s vice president and as lay rabbi on occasions. Her husband, Spencer Gill, joined the temple in 1992 and has since converted to Judaism.

* The Celtic Choir and Chamber Orchestra of St. John’s Presbyterian Church will perform Handel’s “I Will Magnify Thee” and Durante’s “Magnificat” in a free concert at 4 p.m. Sunday at the church, 11000 National Blvd., Los Angeles. Information: (310) 477-2513.

* A one-woman show, “Teshuvah, Return,” written and performed by Vicki Juditz, will be presented at 7 p.m. Sunday at Temple Judea, 5429 Lindley Ave., Tarzana. Tickets are $15 at the door. Information: (818) 987-2616.

* The winter solstice banquet of Atheists United will be held next Saturday night at Hollywood Holiday Inn, 1755 N. Highland Ave., with Steven Morris as speaker. Information: (818) 785-1743.

* “Pounding G-d’s Beat: How an Observant Journalist Covers the Jewish World,” will be discussed by Rabbi Hillel Goldberg, executive editor of the Denver-published Intermountain Jewish News, at 10:30 a.m. Sunday at Community Beit Midrash, 9760 W. Pico Blvd., Los Angeles. The free lecture is part of the weekend sessions with Goldberg sponsored by Beit Midrash and Yeshiva of Los Angeles.

FINALLY

* Instructions for “Episcopal Aerobics” have been showing up in parish newsletters of that denomination--recently in Newport Beach and Anaheim:

Stand

Sit

Stand

Sit

Stand

Sit still

Stand

Kneel

Stand and Hug

Sit, Stand

Stand or Kneel

Stand, Sit or Kneel

Stand or Sit or Kneel

Stand

Say Amen

(For non-Episcopalians, those are the customary actions of worshipers using the Book of Common Payer during an Episcopal liturgy, said the Rev. Adam McCoy of St. Michael’s Episcopal Church in Anaheim.)