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Friday, December 18th is Homecoming.  We hope all of our alumni will join us.  Click Chanukah for the details.

December 18th, 11:30am - 2:30pm

Watch 8th grade band Ribbons of Fire perform January 9, 2010 at It's a Grind Coffee House in Laguna Hills.TVT's 8th Graders Jacob Steinberg, Nathan Price, Eitan Jaffe, and Roy Elzur are Ribbons of Fire

If you browse the Tarbut V'Torah Library, you may pick up a book and notice a bookplate explaining that this book came from the library of Alfred Avila. Readers may not know about the man who donated over 100 very fine Jewish books, ranging widely from halacha and Jewish practice, to kosher cookery.  

 
 

 

Alfred was the son of Catholic Mexican Americans, Jose and Guadalupe. He was born in Los Angeles and grew up in an area just below Boyle Heights, heavily populated by Jewish Russian immigrants. These neighborhood friendships made a lasting impression and planted a desire deep within him, to become a practicing Jew. He realized his choice with the assistance of Rabbi Robert J. Bergman, a prominent Orange County rabbi.
 
He attended El Monte Union and Rosemead High Schools, and sacrificed a football scholarship to Pasadena City College to join the U.S. Navy and serve in Korea. The remainder of his 23 year career was spent on naval vessels in the Far East, where he met and married Sachiko, in Tokyo. After his release from the Navy, he worked for the U.S. Post Office. During that time he also published 2 books of folktales and obtained an A.A. and A.S. from local community colleges.
 
After Alfred passed away in 2001, Tarbut V'Torah was contacted by his daughter, Kat Avila. She explained that Alfred had converted to Judaism later in life, even though everyone in the immediate family was Catholic. His passion was to collect Jewish books, using much of his limited means to buy the most highly reviewed and authoritative works. He called these books his "treasure".  Now, the Avila family was looking for a good home, as they knew the importance of his Jewish library to him. They wanted to entrust the entire collection to Tarbut, and as the boxes were opened and the books were unpacked, clippings from newspaper reviews, personal notes and tickets to hear the authors speak, slipped out from between the pages. This was no ordinary collector. These books had been read, studied and loved!
 
We never had the privilege of meeting Mr. Avila but we have come to know him through his legacy of books.

ADOPT-A-FAMILY IMPORTANT UPDATE...
Of the ONE HUNDRED families requesting assistance from Jewish Family Services this year, TVT has committed to adopting TEN.  Of these ten families ALL of them are single mothers with two or more children with the exception of one young mother whose husband recently died of complications from diabetes.  She has only one child, a two year old little boy who is now fatherless.
 
One mother is living in someone's garage with her four children and has been asked to leave.
 
Our goal every year is to make life a little easier for the families that we adopt. Although $500 does not sound like much, I feel it is sufficient enough to make a difference in the lives of the struggling families that we adopt. In order to provide these ten single mothers with $500 we MUST raise our goal of $5,000.  
 
As it stands we are nowhere near our goal.  
 
Let's GIVE and MAKE A DIFFERENCE.
 
Cash, checks (to PTSO) and gift cards are being collected in your child's homeroom and at the front office.
 
Thank you,
 
Gali Glantz and the Adopt-a-Family team.
 
Idea:  In order to encourage your children to get involved it has been suggested by a 2nd grade mom that we match our children's donations at ten dollars for every one dollar that they give.