Press

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Jun 28, 2024
LA Churches Want To Build Housing That Ends Homelessness. What’s Stopping Them?
Brooke Wirtschafter, Ikar’s director of community organizing, said adding a few stories of affordable housing on top of the project makes sense because the city of L.A. encourages this kind of development through an incentive program called Transit Oriented Communities.

“We're in a transit corridor,” Wirtschafter said. “We should be fully able to build the building that we want to build without having to ask for any special exemptions.”
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April 16th, 2024
Influential L.A. rabbi Sharon Brous wants to heal a ‘world on fire’
Brous then widened the moral lens, urging her followers to understand the breadth of the tragedy. She spoke of the “shattering” loss of Palestinian lives in Gaza.
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November 1st, 2023 — Forbes
The Reckoning With Campus Culture After Hamas Response
Society has been tolerant, even accepting, of many of the actions and priorities of the far left on college campuses.
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September 27th, 2023 — J Weekly
The Jewish News of California: OPINION: My synagogue is building affordable housing — and yours can, too
How should a Jewish community build a sacred home? What should be included in a physical space that will serve as a container for the community members’ shared life?
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September 24th, 2023 — The New York Times
Hollywood Writers Strike Agreement Gives Writers Guild Most of What It Wanted
Studios and the Writers Guild of America reached a deal on Sunday night, but with actors still on picket lines, much of Hollywood will remain shut.
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September 22nd, 2023 — JTA
AI, pluralism and Israel: What North American rabbis spoke about in their High Holiday sermons
Rabbi Debbie Bravo once called the High Holiday sermon “the World Series for rabbis.”
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September 15th, 2023 — Los Angeles Time
Hollywood strike and High Holy Days: L.A. Jews seek solace amid tough times
The end of summer has long been a season of spiritual accounting for Jews like Sarah Afkami.
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June 28th, 2023 — LAist
LA Churches Want To Build Housing That Ends Homelessness. What’s Stopping Them?
A large white cross fixed to the roof of Crossroads United Methodist Church rises above the church’s property along Wilmington Avenue in Compton.
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March 8th, 2023 — The New York Times
“American Jews, You Have to Choose Sides on Israel”
Ever since Israel’s founding in 1948, supporting the country’s security and its economic development and cementing its diplomatic ties to the U.S. have been the “religion” of many nonobservant American Jews — rather than studying Torah or keeping kosher.
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March 8th, 2023 — The New York Times
Israel’s Judicial Overhaul Plan Ignites Debate Among American Jews
Jewish American leaders are denouncing a proposal by the country’s right-wing government to weaken the power of the country’s judiciary, in ways that some call unusually forceful.
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January 16th, 2023 — Tablet Magazine
What Would the Torah Say About Rent Control? By Louis Sallerson
In the midst of a national housing crisis, California’s Jewish organizations are breaking ground.
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