Diverse, Friends of the I.D.F. convincingly compensate for Stevie Wonder's bow-out

Friends of IDF event spurned by Stevie Wonder raises more than $14 million 

by Marcy Oster, JTA, Dec 9, 2012

The singer had come under intense social media pressure to pull out of the event. An online petition calling on him to cancel his performance had garnered more than 3,600 signatures.

The Friends of the Israel Defense Forces fundraiser that singer Stevie Wonder pulled out of raised more than $14 million.

More than 1,400 people attended the event in Los Angeles to aid Israeli soldiers. Entertainment mogul Haim Saban and his wife, Cheryl chaired the gala. Saban is a national board member of the Friends of the Israel Defense Forces.

Actor Jason Alexander emceed the event, which featured a performance by David Foster and Friends. Surprise musical performances were presented by "American Idol" winner Ruben Studdard and 10-time Grammy winner Chaka Khan.

Attendees appearing in JooTube'e unique, 20-clip event coverage include Israeli-American philanthropists Haim Saban & Adam and Gila Milstein; actors Jason Alexander, Dolph Lundgren, Noa Tishby, and Mike Burstyn; Miriam Peretz, mother of 2 sons who gave their lives for country; soul singer Chaka Khan and Christian singer Robert Stearns; U.S. Navy Chaplain Irving Ellson and Wounded Warrior U.S. Marine Gunnery Sgt. Edward Schrank; L.A. Jewish notables- Jewish Journal editor Rob Eshman, IDB Banker Yoav Peled, activists Gary Ratner and Allyson Rowen Taylor.

Playlist controls are Skip Forward (3rd bottom-left button) and Playlist Menu (icon 3rd from bottom right).

Wonder had come under intense social media pressure to pull out of the event. An online petition calling on him to cancel his performance had garnered more than 3,600 signatures.

The Grammy-winning singer's representatives cited a recommendation from the United Nations to withdraw his participation given his involvement with the UN. Wonder is a Messenger of Peace of the world body. He had performed at a 1998 gala honoring Israel's 50th anniversary.

Funds raised at the event will go toward Friends of the IDF’s well-being and educational programs for Israeli soldiers and the Negev Wellbeing and Educational Centers.

L.A. Jewish Film Festival enables audiences to learn the intentions behind films from the filmmakers and actors

Elliot Gould & Sara Rue

The L.A. Jewish Film Festival last night concluded its week of screenings throughout the city with Jewish themed, "Dorfman," starring Sara Rue and Elliot Gould.


Actors and filmmakers spoke following several screenings during the festival, including Dr. Iddo Netanyahu, the brother of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Entebbe rescue-hero, Yoni Netanyahu, who flew in from Israel for the premiere of "Cohen on the Bridge," following the shiva for his father Benzion, the patriarch of the Netanyahu family.


Dr. Netanyahu appeared in and contributed his brother's letters to "Follow Me: the Yoni Netanyahu Story."  He also assisted in the producing of the Entebbe-rescue, animated adventure, "Cohen on the Bridge," whose director, Andrew Wainrib, accompanies Dr. Netanyahu in this post-screening discussion, which Rob Eshman of the Jewish Journal moderates.



Jonathan Tobin describes the legacy of Benzion Netanyahu in Commentary Magazine, which is worth reading in its entirety: 

As with other veterans of the pre-state Zionist movement, Benzion Netanyahu deserves the gratitude of the Jewish people for his labors. As the representative of Jabotinsky’s movement in the United States during World War Two, the Polish native who had moved to Palestine during his youth is credited with helping to persuade the Republican Party to adopt in 1944 an unprecedented pro-Zionist platform plank that caused the Democrats to follow suit. But he deserves just as much, if not more credit for his work as a scholar of Jewish history. And it is here, as much as in his embrace of Jabotinsky’s vision of a secure, liberal and democratic Jewish state in all of historic Palestine that his influence is felt.

Pete Hammond, awards columnist and movie historian at Deadline Hollywood, moderated a panel of female co-stars at the West-Coast premiere of the biography of Bernie Schwartz: "Tony Curtis- Driven to Stardom." Panelists include Sally Kellerman, Mimi van Doren, Marian Collier ("Some Like it Hot" bassist), and Mr. Curtis' widow, Jill Curtis.



David Suissa, of the L.A. Jewish Journal, moderated a post-screening discussion with "The Price of Kings" series "Shimon Peres" and "Yasser Arafat" installments director Richard Symons; and Andrew Wainrib, producer of Israeli rescue at Entebbe animated drama, "Cohen on the Bridge."

Rabbi Shmuley debates Jews' prioritizing materialism above religious rules for values and conduct

Rabbi Elazar Muskin of the Young Israel of Century City (where the event was held) hosted and moderated a panel, "Is materialism corrupting the soul of America?" organized by Rabbi Shmuley Boteach on July 28, 2010.

Participating panelists were Rabbi Naomi Levy (founder and spiritual leader of the Nashuva community - and wife to Jewish Journal editor-in-chief Rob Eshman), Jewish Journal staff-writer ("Hollywood Jew") Danielle Berrin, and Los Angeles City Council President Eric Garcetti.  Rabbi Boteach expressed concern that, "Materialism is choking the soul of America."



The panelists debated topics which Rabbi Shmuley addresses in his book, "Renewal - A Guide to the Values-Filled Life." 

Excerpt: "But Jews believe in world redemption, the capacity for the individuals to make heaven here on earth for, the betterment of the community. Action. What you do is more important than what you believe. Good deeds always supersede good dogma." 

Please note: Wireless microphone complications, and not editorial decisions, influenced the timing of edits of staticky moments from this video.  (With credit to Jonah Lowenfeld in Jewish Journal of L.A. 28 July 2010).

Martin Sherman: The impracticality of a state of Palestine, but an alternate proposal- video

Martin Sherman explains specifically why a sovereign state of Palestine would be an impractical solution for insuring ongoing security for Israelis. He proposes an alternative solution. These are points which he made in the Sinai Temple debate with Peace Now's David Fine. The Jewish Journal retained exclusive video rights to the event, but their video is inaudible. Listen, watch, and judge Prof. Sherman's points for yourself. In 3 videos.

Palestinians have proven "state" would jeopardize Israel's security - Prof. Martin Sherman (3:43 sec.)



Reasons why push for Palestinian statehood will endanger Israel & the West (2:05 sec.)



A pragmatic argument for a paradigm shift from political to humanitarian solution for Gaza and West Bank Arabs and residents of Israel.(44 min)

Watch Israeli analyst, Yossi Klein Halevi, and David Suissa debate whether Obama is good for Zionism - with better audio - on Joo-Tube

The American-born, centrist Israeli thinker and writer, Yossi Klein Halevi, (who is published in The New Republic) returned to the U.S. to explain to Americans how Pres. Obama's behavior and policies towards Israel are intentionally undermining the friendship between the countries. Worse, he describes how detrimental, he feels, the Obama Administration's contemptuous treatment of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu bullies all Zionists. This transmits a signal to the world that "it's now open-season" against the Jewish State.

An obvious example of that, Mr. Halevi says, is Britain's expelling the head of the Mossad desk in the Israeli Embassy in London. The message to the jihadists, he believes, is to encourage Iran (through its proxies Hizbollah or Hamas) to open a limited front of attacks against Israel, with the expectation that Obama will step-in and prevent Israel from comprehensively eliminating the threat, while publicly diminishing Israel's public image by portraying him as having to restrain their aggression.



In our video of Mr. Halevi's speech in Los Angeles from April 22nd, Halevi explains many of his views on the relationship and the situation, including how Obama's ambition to force creating a Palestinian State with a hostile Palestinian population would be an existential threat to Israel. If Obama doesn't stop Iran from going nuclear, there will be no possibility of peace in the Middle East, as Jihad forces (Hamas) in the mid-east will be united around Iran against Israel.

"Obama will be judged by Israel by how he handles the nuclear issue with Iran. And from what we've seen so far, with one deadline after another, we in Israel frankly have zero confidence in the backbone of this Administration." "We are seeing potentially a tragedy of historic proportions."

Mr. Halevi deconstructs what he sees as Washington's misguided priorities of achieving stability in the Middle-East. Halevi spoke at Nessah Israel Synagogue in L.A. at an 22 April event organized by 30 Years After (and co-sponsored by the Jewish Journal, and OLAM Magazine). Here is Part II of the event - the interactive question and answer period.



Olam's editor, David Suissa, postulates on Obama's motives with Halevi during the question and answer session in this video - characterized in Mr. Suissa's Op/Ed in the Jewish Journal of L.A.:

"For about an hour, Halevi had us riveted with his anatomy of a deteriorating relationship. At the end, the big question lingered: Why would Obama act this way toward a great ally? If it’s not anti-Semitism or tough love, is there a larger narrative that speaks to the soul of the man — a narrative that might explain why he bows to America’s foes and mistreats America’s friends?
 
Here’s one possibility: Maybe Obama sees his calling as bigger than America, and he wants to be President of Humanity.

"His speeches and remarks are filled with references to himself in a ratio that surpasses anything yet seen in the history of the American presidency,” writes professor James Ceaser in a recent piece in The Weekly Standard titled “The Roots of Obama Worship.”

“He awakened at some point in the campaign to the realization that he was no longer running merely for president of the United States. He was being selected to the much grander ‘office’ of leader of a new world community.”

Most seriously, Ceaser worries that “the conflicting demands of the Religion of Humanity and the presidency of the United States have become most apparent in the administration’s approach to dealing with the threat of Islamic terrorism.

Supporters of the Religion of Humanity [therefore] believe they have good reasons to deny or minimize the danger of terrorism in order to save the world from the even greater danger of the triumph of the retrograde forces. This is the dogmatic basis of political correctness and Obama and his team have gone to considerable lengths by their policies and by their use of language to hide reality. But reality has a way of asserting itself, and it is becoming clearer by the day that being the leader of Humanity is incompatible with being the president of the United States.”

It’s hard to say how much truth there is in Ceaser’s analysis, but it does add to the debate of understanding Obama’s behavior toward Israel. At least it gives us something more noble than the hysterical “Obama’s an anti-Semite” accusations that I see in my inbox every day.

And let’s face it, there is something noble about having a heart for all of humanity.  The problem for Israel, of course, is that most of humanity already hates Israel, and if you’re Obama and you want to woo all of humanity, well, I can see how tiny Israel would be a major irritant."