March 2004

Is Mel Gibson's film anti-Semitic?

Jesus will appear on the Christian holy day of Ash Wednesday — thanks to Mel Gibson.

The Hollywood star directed and financed the $25 million epic “The Passion of the Christ,” which is emerging from a nearly year-long media storm and is due to hit 2,000 screens nationwide Feb. 25.

That Gibson’s “The Passion” will premier is certain. The big question is how a reportedly gory film about the last 12 hours in Jesus’s life, in Aramaic and Latin with subtitles, will play at the local multiplex. More

Kids “live” Jewish at summer camp

By Rabbi Ed Feinstein
(Reprinted with permission from the Los Angeles Jewish Journal)

This summer, thousands of youngsters will depart the comforts of home and family to share the experience of Jewish summer camps. A month or so from now, those same kids will tumble off buses, sleepy and soiled and transformed. They will take home crafts, new friends and a profound sense of having touched the core of Jewish life. They will bear vivid memories of Friday night sunsets, Havdalah beneath the stars, new Hebrew songs and a sense of belonging. They will learn little about Judaism. They will have lived Judaism personally and intensely. More

Cupertino woman speaks out about her aunt injured in Jan. 29 Jerusalem bus explosion

Esther Ederi, right, stands with her family in Jerusalem in happier times.

When the No. 19 bus made its way down Gaza Street in central Jerusalem on January 29, there was one passenger who knew this would be his last ride. The rest of the passengers were Jerusalemites going about their daily lives.

The day before, Rachel Friedman, a Cupertino resident, had just returned from Israel where she visited her son, Omer, an Israeli army soldier. While there, she also visited other family members, including her uncle and her aunt, Esther Ederi. More

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