Community

Famous Jewish Law Cases

On February 12th, 2012 Professor of Law at Loyola Laurie Levenson and Rabbi Ed Feinstein at Valley Beth Shalom gave a magnificent presentation to the community entitled  “Famous Jewish Law Cases,” including Captain Alfred Dreyfus, Jonathan Pollard, and Ethel and Julius Rosenberg.  As always, they were brilliant, and humorous, engaging the audience and taking questions. 

It was the best fundraiser we’ve ever had! It was well attended and very well received.  We send our thanks to two outstanding people who have extremely busy lives and gave their precious time to help the H.O.P.E. Unit Foundation.

Prof. Laurie Levenson	Rabbi Ed Feinstein
Laurie Levenson and Ed Feinstein

SEQUEL: Life Begins Again

Sonny Fox and June August met in Group 1 in the H.O.P.E. Foundation bereavement group in 2006. In addition to the value they received from participating in H.O.P.E., they shared the belief that healing includes restoring laughter and vibrancy to our lives. The journey continues by extending support to others who experience loss.
 
Over the past few years they collaborated on SEQUEL: Life Begins Again, a musical that deals with creating and maintaining our lives after a severe loss.  It can be the loss of a spouse, significant other, child, parent, job, divorce, or any life changing loss.  Through songs and music SEQUEL deals with the reality of what has occurred and how the characters in the play cope with the situation.  We see that their lives can and do - begin again.

There were two wonderful performances on 9/18/11 at Valley Beth Shalom, and 9/25/11 at the Colony Theater. The following pictures were from the event:

Anita Penstein, and Hank Harmon	Linda and Kurt Winter, with Anita Dash
Playwright June August and her family	Robert Brittany, actor, singer
Susan Benkin, Musical Director	Playwrights June August, Sonny Fox, with Dr. Jo Christner

On June 26, 2011, H.O.P.E. Unit Foundation had a very wonderful and entertaining community event with Laurie Levenson, Professor at Loyola Law School, and Ed Feinstein, Senior Rabbi at Valley Beth Shalom, entitled “Have You Heard the Joke About the Rabbi and the Lawyer?” About 120 people attended.  Many in the audience expressed interest in having H.O.P.E. hold this event again in the future.  Below are some photos from the event.

Rabbi Ed Feinstein and Prof. Laurie Levenson

Marilyn Stolzman, Executive Director, Fern Lippert, Board Member & George Lippert, CFO

Musical Fundraiser; Show Tunes: Broadway to Opera, Sunday, April 3, 2011

A fabulous musical event was held at Wilshire Boulevard Temple.  Residents from the Jewish Home attended.  The program was outstanding.  Rick Jarrett was the emcee and sang Broadway tunes, Jeanette Meyer from the a capella group GRACE sang a medley from Carole King and played piano, Susannah Murray performed with Christine Gengaro and Christian Stendel accompanied on the piano.  Susannah and Christine performed selections from Broadway theater.  The audience loved the show, and we all enjoyed coffee and cake afterwards. 

Many thanks to Board Member Jack Brown for printing flyers and program, and volunteers Tessa Warschaw, Joan Peltin, mentor and past alumni member and Hank Grover for helping out behind the scenes. 

Rick Jarrett, Board Members George and Fern Lippert

Jeanette Meyer, member of a capella group, GRACE

Jeanette and Tessa Warschaw

Susannah Murray, soprano

Christine Gengaro and Susannah

Guests

Guests

Hank Grover, Marilyn Stolzman, Joan Peltin, and Tessa

Marilyn, with Board Members Jack Brown, George & Fern Lippert

On January 27, 2010 the H.O.P.E. Unit Foundation sponsored an Art Healing workshop for the community held at the Calabasas Library, led by H.O.P.E. Staff Member and Art Therapist Kiene Landry.  Here are some photos from the event.

H.O.P.E. Unit Foundation Social Get-Together on May 23, 2010 in Bel-Air

Here are some photos from the event. Board Member, Gerry Moscowitz gave many hours cooking and preparing refreshments and gathering items for the raffle.  Board Member Bill Frankenstein performed magic tricks and donated wine.  Lynn Linken gave items for the auction.  Volunteers Tess Warschaw  and Sylvia Goldstein helped at the door, and Joan Peltin also helped out wherever we needed her. Thanks to all for making the event so successful!

Jeanette Meyer was a member of the H.O.P.E. Unit Foundation Bereavement Group and attended for two years. She still stays in touch with the wonderful friends she met in her group.   She gave us permission to post this on the website.  For several years, Jeanette and her wonderful singing group called GRACE: four women singing á capella, have volunteered at our Musical Events.  Last year Jeanette sang solo for H.O.P.E.

Their first CD, “At Last” is available now! Some of the tunes include “Monday, Monday”, “At Last”, “I Feel the Earth Move,” “Grazin' In the Grass” and “Higher and Higher.”

Their music is available on their website.
www.gracesings.com

Jeanette Meyer had a CD release party and performed at the M Bar on Vine St., Hollywood on August 7th, 2010.
 
Here are some photos from that event.

Here is the info to order:

Send your check - made out to GRACE: four women singing á cappella - to
P.O. Box 2743
Toluca Lake, CA 91610-0743

$ 17.50 each ($15.+$2.50 S&H) or
$ 27.50 for two! ($25+$2.50 S&H)