July 25 2011 Monday hillygram

CLICK 2C RELAXED PARKING PESACH/SHAVOUS 2011

CLICK 2 C ACTIVE SHIVAH

PLEASE HELP WITH THE SHIVA MINYANIM

Act of Kindness

At the urging of

Rabbi Meyer May,

Dr. Irving Lebovics

and

Stanley Treitel,

please take a moment to write as requested below.

This has significant implications for our community

CLICK FOR CLEAR PDF

Once In Ten Years

A Chance for a Stronger Orthodox Jewish Voice in Government

The Problem . . .

Once every ten years, new district lines are drawn for our representatives in Sacramento and Washington. For decades, Orthodox Jewish voting power has been diluted because our two largest neighborhoods - Hancock Park/Beverly-LaBrea/Fairfax and Pico-Robertson/Beverlywood/Beverly Hills - have been placed in separate Assembly Districts.

The Opportunity . . .

A new Commission has been created to draw fair district lines without backroom deals. We finally have an opportunity to unite our community into a single Assembly District - and to increase our influence with our representatives in Sacramento. The would mean more respect and assistance for our unique community.

In the first few draft maps, our two largest neighborhoods were placed in separate districts. After receiving testimony and documentation by Agudath Israel, and letters from organizations such as the Orthodox Union, the Simon Wiesenthal Center and Hatzalah, the Commission adjusted the lines to unify parts of our community.

But the current draft map chops Pico-Robertson/Beverlywood in half, with Beverlywood and South-of-Pico placed in a District with Culver City, Baldwin Hills and the Crenshaw area. We want to unite our community in a single district, BUT WE NEED YOUR HELP!

Send an Email . . .

Send an email to the Commission at

votersfirstact@crc.ca.gov.

The Commission resumes work soon,

so please act quickly! Please send emails by July 26, 2011.

What to say . . .

1. Tell them where you live - Pico-Robertson, Beverlywood, Hancock Park, Beverly-Fairfax, Beverly Hills, Century City, Westwood, Santa Monica, the Valley. Emails from Beverlywood and South-of-Pico are especially important. (We are blessed to have significant communities in the Valley and the far Westside. Geography prevents placing all in a single district. But even those areas will benefit if our two large City neighborhoods are in a single district.)

2. Tell them: The Fairfax/Hancock Park neighborhood and Pico-Robertson/Beverlywood neighborhood constitute a single, integrated community-of-interest (COI) with many shared institutions. The only way that the Orthodox community will have a voice in the Assembly is if Fairfax/Hancock Park and Pico-Robertson/Beverlywood are all in the "LAMWS" district.

3. Tell them your personal connections between these communities. Do you live in one neighborhood and send your children to school in the other? Shop in the other? Use a hospital in the other? Community activities? Tomchei Shabbos? Hatzolah? Classes? Be specific. We need to show that the neighborhoods interact and form a single community!

4. Tell them: Uniting our community in a single district will not weaken the representation of any other minority group or community of interest.

5. Thank them for putting some of Pico-Robertson into the "LAMWS" district, but ask that they not divide Pico-Robertson/Beverlywood in half. All of Pico-Robertson/Beverlywood should be in the "LAMWS" district, along with Beverly-Fairfax, Hancock Park and Beverly Hills

6. Be respectful and appreciative. The 14 Commissioners must divide the whole state, and none of them live in our neighborhoods. They do not know us, so we need to educate them.

Supported by concerned Orthodox Jewish organizations in the Los Angeles Area.

July 27,2011
25 Tammuz 5771

- LET YOUR VOICE BE HEARD -

on behalf of American citizens born in Jerusalem

who are denied the right to have their country of birth - ISRAEL -

listed as their place of birth on their U.S. passports.

The case of Menachem Zivotofsky v. Secretary of State Clinton (No. 10-699) will be heard by the U.S. Supreme Court in November 2011 and decided by the end of June 2012.. At issue is the right of a Jerusalem-born American citizen to self identify as born in "Israel" on his or her U.S. passport.

For more information about the case, and to express your support please visit www.borninjerusalem.org , a website set up by The National Council of Young Israel and the International Israel Allies Caucus Foundation.

at www.borninjerusalem.org YOU CAN:

1.Learn more about the case of Menachem Zivotofsky v. Secretary of State.

2.Send a letter to your U.S. Senators and Congressional Representatives urging them to sign an amicus brief that will be filed on August 5, 2011 in support of Zivotofsky on behalf of Members of Congress.

3.Add your voice to the case. If you are an American citizen born in Jerusalem who wishes to have your place of birth recorded on your U.S. passport as "Israel," please go to www.borninjerusalem.org and join the ad-hoc Association of Proud American Citizens Born in Jerusalem, Israel. The Anti-Defamation League, together with the law firm of Mintz, Levin, Cohn, Ferris, Glovsky and Popeo, P.C., is preparing an amicus brief to be filed in the Zivotofsky case on behalf of the ADL and the Association.

Did you know that the general rule for American citizens born abroad is that their U.S. passports list their country of birth as their place of birth? The only mandatory exception is for American citizens born in Jerusalem. The U.S. Department of State refuses to list "Israel" as the place of birth for American citizens born in Jerusalem because it claims that doing so would interfere with the President's authority to "recognize foreign sovereigns." Instead the State Department lists "Jerusalem" as the place of birth.

The State Department permits citizens born in Jerusalem or elsewhere in Israel before 1948 to list their place of birth as "Palestine." Citizens born in the territories after 1948 have "West Bank" or "Gaza Strip" as their place of birth even though no American President has ever recognized such sovereigns. In addition, the State Department permits American citizens born in a city that is within the recognized boundaries of Israel such as Tel Aviv or Haifa to substitute the city of their birth if the person "object[s] to showing Israel . . . as their birthplace in the passport." In other words, those who wish to remove "Israel" from their U.S. passports may go against the general rule and list their city of birth instead of their country of birth. But those born in Jerusalem who prefer that their passports follow the general rule (and list their country of birth as the place of birth) may not list "Israel" on their passports.

In 2002, Congress passed a law to rectify this inequity. The law required the State Department to list the place of birth on U.S. passports as "Israel" for those American citizens born in Jerusalem who request it. When the law was enacted, President George W. Bush issued a "signing statement" declaring that the law impermissibly interfered with his constitutional authority to conduct foreign affairs so that he would not follow it.

Menachem B. Zivotofsky is an American citizen born in Jerusalem shortly after the law was passed. His parents requested that the place of birth on his U.S. passport be listed as "Israel." The State Department refused, and instead listed "Jerusalem." Nathan Lewin and Alyza D. Lewin of Lewin & Lewin, LLP, agreed to represent the Zivotofskys and have litigated the case pro bono for eight years. Their case has now made its way to the U.S. Supreme Court, which will hear arguments in November 2011.

Visit www.borninjerusalem.org to learn more and to let your voice be heard

PARENTING WORKSHOP

Featuring world famous author, educator, lecturer

RABBI NOACH ORLOWEK

on the topic of

Effective Ways To Better Understanding Your Teenager

Tuesday, July 26 @ 9:15AM SHARP!

1026 S. Robertson Blvd

Los Angeles, CA 90035

An expert on childrearing, Rabbi Orlowek is the author of "My Child, My Disciple", and Raising Roses Among the Thorns - Bringing up Spiritually Healthy Children in Today's Society. An acclaimed educator and counselor, he is presently Mashgiach in Yeshivas Torah Ohr in Jerusalem.