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By Rachael Levine, Young Leadership Division Director – City

Federation’s Young Leadership Divisions (city/valley) teamed up with JConnectLA and ATID to host PurimPalooza 2010 this past Saturday. We shut down the entire Rodeo Collection in Beverly Hills for a “party of Olympic proportions.” DJ Miles and the Israeli band Ram 2 kicked off the festivities, and soon, partygoers sporting crazy costumes were swarming about, laughing, talking and dancing.

As you can guess from the photos above, it was really difficult to select winners for the costume contest. But a lot was at stake! The big prize was a free weekend getaway at The Peninsula Hotel. Though he didn’t take home the Oscar for costume design, my favorite entrant was Groucho Marx; the guy went all out!

Meanwhile, in other areas of the Collection, guests got into the Purim spirit by listening to the Megillah Ester (story of Purim) and making hygiene bags for the homeless.

The Moshav Band and Power 106’s DJ Felli Fel capped off the night, fueling the party into the wee hours of the morning.

This was my first event as the YLD Director and I couldn’t have asked for a bigger success! Jonathan Boyer, Valley YLD Director, and I are committed to strengthening our community of young Jews and PurimPalooza shows we’re heading in the right direction.

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Photos by Michelle Paster, Partial Reality

On Sunday, as part The Jewish Federation’s Fed Up with Hunger Purim events, volunteers delivered food, toiletries, and other care essentials to people in need all over Los Angeles in the Purim mitzvah of matanot l’evyonim (giving gifts to the poor).

A group of volunteers from Federation’s Young Entertainment Division (some of whom helped organize the Ghostbusters JFS/SOVA benefit screening at Hollywood Forever during Sukkot) and their friends joined me to cook a meal for 60 residents of Proyecto Pastoral’s Guadalupe Homeless Project, the only men’s shelter in East Los Angeles. Get their recipes here »

Even before the cooking started, the volunteers spent the earlier part of the afternoon buying all of the ingredients for our menu. Sara Reich, who did the yeoman’s job of coordinating all of the volunteers and the food procurement, bought 35+ pounds of chicken. Jeannine Hamaoui cleared out the produce departments of Vons and Albertsons to get the 30 bunches of Swiss Chard that we needed. Rachel Fleischer brought enough chicken stock to fill a large kiddie pool.

With the groceries, the group converged around 3:00 p.m. at the basement kitchen at the Dolores Mission in East L.A. where the meal was to be cooked and served. They immediately got to work. One team filled and organized the larder and another team started on kitchen grunt work, otherwise known as prep. They chopped carrots, celery, cabbage, squeezed limes, picked cilantro, seeded jalapenos, rehydrated guajillo chilis, browned chicken, caramelized onions, fire-roasted red peppers, soaked rice, cleaned and stemmed a forest of chard, and above all else, they diced onions. Lots of them. Tearfully.

Over the course of the afternoon, all of their prep work slowly came together to form the different components of our menu. By the time the residents of the Guadalupe Homeless Project arrived at 7:00 pm, the carrots, celery, cabbage, and chili paste had turned into Vegetable “Pozole” Soup. The chicken, caramelized onions, and roasted red peppers had become Arroz Con Pollo. The limes, jalapenos, and cilantro became the Salsa Verde garnish. The raw chard was wilted and then combined with some beef stock and white bean to become the Braised Swiss Chard.

After serving the meals, a number of our volunteers sat down with the residents of the shelter and ate with them. This is one of the important differences between cooking a meal at GHP and doing the same at other homeless shelters. The service doesn’t end at cooking and serving the meal. It also includes sitting and eating with the men, which provides them with some social interaction, an important piece of feeling cared for.

As I watched the volunteers eating with the GHP residents, it occurred to me why matanot l’evyonim is the lesser known Purim mitzvah brother of mishloach manot (giving gifts to friends). It’s because they’re both the same. When you give gifts to people who are poor or needy and you take a moment to interact with them to get to know them and try to see them, you actually transcend the act of giving a gift to someone less fortunate than you. In the process of matanot l’evyonim, you achieve mishloach manot; by getting to know someone in the process of giving them charity, you’ll end up having given a gift to a friend.

As we were wrapping up, one of the residents came up to us and excitedly told us that he didn’t know what kind of soup we had made but it was the best soup he ever had. It was so good, he actually came back a few minutes later to tell us once again. I told him that it was a “pozole” and his eyes lit up.

“Pozole?! No!” he said. “To me, it was a vegetable soup but it was the best kind of vegetable soup ever. It was so good. I never tasted anything like it before. When are you guys coming back? I want to be sure I’m here.”

As a former chef, I’ve kicked around in some fine restaurants and cooked some very fine food and I have never received a compliment like that. Who knew that of all things I’ve ever cooked, it would be a humble vegetable soup that would elicit the most heartfelt compliment.

The resident was so excited that he told his story to all of the Young Entertainment Division volunteers who smiled and pointed at me telling him that I was the “chef.” This was nice but the compliment really belongs to the volunteers. Any chef worth his salt knows that he is only as good as his brigade. As my brigade on Sunday, the group of volunteers put their hearts and souls into procuring, preparing, and cooking the meal for the residents of GHP. I saw it as they worked through the afternoon. Most importantly, the GHP resident could taste the love in the soup.

Check out the recipes that volunteers prepared.

Young Entertainment volunteers joined Fed staffer David Lee on Purim to cook a meal for 60 residents of Proyecto Pastoral’s Guadalupe Homeless Project, the only men’s shelter in East Los Angeles. The recipes they prepared are below. Read about the experience »

The Best Vegetable Soup Ever
(Formerly known as “Vegetarian Pozole Soup”)

Olive Oil
1 medium or small onion
1 carrots
1 stalk celery
2 green peppers
2 dried guadjillo peppers
1 chipotle pepper
2 cloves garlic, peeled
2 teaspoon dried oregano
4 quarts vegetable broth or water and broth cubes
1 29oz can hominy, drained
salt to taste
1 can of chopped tomatoes
1 12oz can black beans, drained and rinsed
1 small cabbage or 1/2 regular cabbage
Herb sash (bay leaf, thyme, oregano)

Prep

Rinse guadjillo peppers, remove stems and seeds, and soak in hot water, when soft blend peppers with soaking water, chipotle pepper, garlic and dried oregano to make chili paste. Add more soaking water, if too thick. End product should be a paste.

Chop onions, carrots, celery, green peppers and cabbage into large chunks.

Mince garlic.

Tie rosemary, oregano, and bay leaf with kitchen twine or make a sash with cheese cloth.

Method

In a medium pot, sauté onions on medium heat for about two minutes. Once onions have sweated down, add carrots, celery, green peppers and sauté for three minutes. Add cabbage and continue to sweat for two to three minutes. Add chili mixture, herb tie/sash, and remaining 1 teaspoon of oregano. Cook for a minute to develop the chili paste. Add broth and tomatoes. Bring to a boil and simmer until cabbage is soft. Add black beans and hominy. Season with salt and pepper. Simmer until ready to serve (be sure to remove the herb tie/sash).

Arroz Con Pollo

1 chicken (three to four pounds) cut up into 8 pieces
3 limes
Spanish olive oil
2 onions
3 red peppers
4 cloves of garlic,
1 quart of tomato sauce
1 teaspoon of ground cumin, plus extra to season chicken Dried bay leaves
1/2 dry white wine (omitted from the GHP recipe)
1/4 cup of sherry vinegar
1.5 cups of long grain rice
4 cups of chicken stock
5 saffron threads
1 bag of frozen sweet peas

Prep List

Roast Red Peppers, peel and dice.

Dice onions.

Mince garlic.

Juice limes into bowl for chicken.

Method

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

In a mixing bowl, combine chicken with lime juice. Season liberally with salt, pepper and cumin. In a large dutch oven or high sided pan, heat the olive oil. Brown the chicken over medium high heat – about 3-5 minutes on each side. Remove the chicken from the pan, and set aside.

Add the onions, roasted red peppers, and garlic to the pan. Cook until the onion starts to caramelize. Add the tomato sauce, cumin, and bay leaf; cook for another 5 minutes.

Add the chicken back into the pan, the white wine, sherry vinegar, and cook for 5 to 8 minutes. Add the stock, bring to a boil, and add the rice and saffron.

Bring the mixture to a boil, cover, and cook in the oven for 45-60 minutes.

Remove the rice from the oven and add the peas, fluffing the rice and mixing in the peas at the same time. Drizzle with Salsa Verde.

Salsa Verde

1 Jalapeno pepper, seeded
1/2 bunch of cilantro
1/4 cup unsalted, unroasted almonds
2 limes, juice
1/2 cup olive oil
1/4 cup chicken stock

Blend all ingredients together. The end product should be of a saucey consistency. If it is too thick, thin with chicken stock. If too thin, thicken with olive oil. Season with salt and pepper.

Braised Swiss Chard and White Bean

2 cloves of garlic
2 bunches of Swiss chard
1 can of white beans
1/2 cup of beef broth (can substitute vegetable broth, if desired)

Prep

Clean the Swiss chard leaves and chop, keeping the stalks.

Open white beans and drain liquid.

Method

Pour the olive oil into a large frying pan and heat. Saute garlic for 3-4 minutes. Toss in Swiss chard leaves and stir. Once the chard leaves are wilted, add white beans and broth. Simmer on low for 5 minutes. Season with salt and pepper.

photo: Los Angeles Times

Dear Friends,

In response to the magnitude 8.8 earthquake in Chile this weekend, which has killed more than 700 people and damaged 500,000 homes, The Jewish Federation of Greater Los Angeles has created an emergency fund to provide humanitarian aid to those in need of immediate assistance.

We are accepting donations online, by phone at (323) 761-8413, or by mail:

The Jewish Federation – Chilean Earthquake Relief Fund
6505 Wilshire Boulevard, Ste. 1000
Los Angeles, California 90048

100% of contributions will go directly to support non-sectarian needs on the ground; The Jewish Federation will absorb all administrative costs. Funds will be distributed via the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee (JDC) in coordination with The Jewish Coalition for Disaster Relief.

We are receiving up-to-the-minute reports from JDC’s Latin America team on the ground; they are conducting a full and rapid assessment of the situation by working closely with Chile’s Jewish community to determine critical next steps based on immediate needs of the hardest-hit areas. Chile’s diverse Jewish community has an estimated population of 12,000-16,000. The community supports a JCC, two Jewish day schools, and synagogues. Purim festivities were cancelled as a result of the disaster, but no loss of Jewish life or injuries has been reported.

Our prayers and thoughts go out to the people of Chile. I know that the Jewish community of Los Angeles will respond to their needs just as you did to help those in Haiti. With nearly $500,000 donated to our Federation’s Haitian earthquake relief fund to date, Federation-supported efforts have transitioned from emergency response to recovery. Projects underway are addressing the need for food and water, medical care, rebuilding, and strengthening support of on-the-ground responders as they work to meet the needs of those that have fled from Port-au-Prince to the countryside.

In times of crisis, I am heartened that the Jewish community of Los Angeles rallies together to centralize its support in order to have the most effective and impactful response. I hope you’ll join us by making a donation.

Sincerely,

Jay Sanderson
President

The roars of over 400 Lions of Judah were silenced to a hush in a ballroom at the Beverly Hills Hotel on February 10th as producer Marc Platt took the dais and shared some most gripping, dramatic tales. No, these were not scenes from his latest scripted project; they were scenes from his life — as a committed Jewish man in Hollywood.

Platt, producer of the Broadway sensation, Wicked, and a string of Hollywood films, such as Legally Blonde, Rachel Getting Married, and the recent academy award nominated Nine, made it clear at the Ruby/Lion of Judah luncheon that doing the “right thing” in Hollywood or anywhere is a choice. Further, Platt emphasized that, “too often, we are concerned with being better off, when we should be concerned simply with being better.” He applauded the women in the room for looking in the mirror and saying, “I gave the most that I could” for our community.

At the event, Platt was followed by his wife, Julie, who as the Federation’s Sylvia Weisz Women’s Campaign Chair, said “Individually, we can only do so much. But with the strength of community, we can do so much more.” Rochelle Cohen received the Ruby Award, a prestigious honor bestowed annually at this gathering, for her work and leadership in the Women’s Campaign.

These generous donors contributed nearly $4 million to the Women’s Campaign. To learn more about the Ruby and Lion of Judah giving levels of $10,000 and $5,000, and the Women’s Campaign, please contact Amy Popkin at APopkin@JewishLA.org or John Magoulas at JMagoulas@JewishLA.org.

Want to see more? View all of the Ruby/Lion Luncheon photos.

We want to know how much you know, or don’t know about us, you know? Test your Federation IQ and you may even learn a thing or two in the process.

Take the quiz now »

Rachael Levine Plugs Purimpalooza from JFedLA on Vimeo.

Meet JFedLA’s new Young Leadership Director and check out the hottest Purim event in LA, Purimpalooza. YLD, JConnectLA, and ATID are throwing it together so you know it’s gonna be good!

Details
Saturday 2/27
@ A Cow Jumped Over The Moon, Beverly Hills
9p-2am
$22 online, $28 at the door
Get tix now!

The Birmingham Jewish Federation just launched a program that will give members in their 20’s and 30’s an opportunity to do hands-on volunteer work in support of the causes they care about most. It’s called “Fed Up.”

The initiative evolved from a successful Fed Up With Hunger event where 75 young people went to learn about hunger and chipped in a total of $1,700 for Birmingham’s Catalyst Community Garden Coalition and Table to Table, a hunger relief agency in Israel.

“The name ‘Fed Up With Hunger’ was developed by The Jewish Federation of Greater Los Angeles,” said Lauren Klinner, BJF Fundraising & Management Coordinator, in a recent email communication. “And we thank them for letting us use it.”

But the Birmingham Federation is taking the concept in a different direction, and we’re excited to see the results of their efforts. Lauren and fellow group leader Caren Seligman, are broadening the scope of the project beyond hunger and narrowing the member base to young Jews. More importantly, they’re handing over a lot of the power to their group members.

“Caren and I stressed that ‘Fed Up’ was going to be about them; their ideas and the things they wanted to do,” Lauren said. “We hope to make Tikkun Olam an important part of their lives. We want to help people in need, make our city a better place to live, help Israel, learn leadership skills, commit to things greater than ourselves, and most importantly, make a difference!”

Birmingham, we wish you the best of luck! Keep us posted on your progress.

As 2009 drew to a close, the Board of Directors of The Jewish Federation unanimously approved a resolution to make a supplemental allocation of $700,000 to Birthright Israel. By making this commitment prior to the end of the year, we were able to make the most of a generous 2-for-1 match by the Sheldon Adelson Foundation, bringing an incremental $2.1 million commitment to Birthright Israel, on top of the Federation’s prior allocation last year. The funds go directly toward reducing the Los Angeles participant waiting list, which is the highest in the country.

In December 2009, through the generosity of Albert and Janey Sweet and with money from the Federation, 40 Southern Californian and 9 Israeli young people experienced the gift of Taglit-Birthright Israel “The LA Tech Way”—10 days of exploring Israel through a high-tech, biomedical and start-up lens. Check out our exclusive video, shot on the trip.

[for the "directors cut" - a 9 minute version, please head over here.]

Highlights of the trip included the classic sites of the Old Cities of Jerusalem and Tzfat, the metropolis of Tel Aviv, the ancient fortress of Masada and nature reserves and the Dead Sea in the Negev. But this Taglit-Birthright Israel bus experienced a unique perspective of Israel by visiting the Technion University in Haifa, Tefen Industrial Park and ISCAR Headquarters in the Northern Galilee, a robotic dairy farm in the Golan Heights and a unique social-enterprise and high-tech incubator venture capital firm in Jerusalem.

Taglit-Birthright Israel is an international organization dedicated to bringing young people—ages 18 to 26—on a free, first-time peer-experience educational trip to Israel. The Jewish Federation provides significant support to this long-term effort to strengthen Jewish community and solidarity with Israel. For more information, contact Teddy Seidman at (323) 761-8287 or TSeidman@JewishLA.org.