KCET (the local PBS affiliate) has been working on a city-wide project. It is called Departures and it focuses on the people and places that make the neighborhoods of Los Angeles. For the last six weeks they have been working on Venice. Today they came to the Pacific Jewish Center Shul on the Beach to learn about us and to be included in their upcoming Venice piece.
It was a true honor and privilege to be a part of this worthwhile project. The production should be finished in February and I look forward to seeing that.
The camera crew shot some footage of our morning services and did two interviews. First, they interview Gary Dalin. Gary has been part of PJC since 1979 and provided great insight into the rich history of Pacific Jewish Center and the greater Venice Jewish community. He was eloquent and impressive in his interview and represented us very well. Great job Gary!
I was interviewed next. I hope I did okay. I myself have interviewed so many Jewish College student on camera and made those interviews into documentaries, so I know how hard it can be. (For two of my videos click here for JAM 2006 and click here for Chase Edler.) Among many topics, we talked about the juxtaposition of the historic quality of the Shul on the Beach to the future of outreach including this blog and my relative youth as a Rabbi. We also talked about the role the Shul plays in the boardwalk community, surrounded by the wild atmosphere of the boardwalk. It wasn’t too long, maybe a 35 minute interview in total, but we covered a lot of topics. Of course, there were some delinquents that felt the need to disturb us, that is just life on Venice Boardwalk…
I hope the final product reflects well on our special community and those who see it are inspired at least to check us out some time. I ended the interview with an open invitation to anyone who would like to see what we are all about and I extend that invitation to all of you reading this right now.
I also, want to thank Justin, Dan and Matt for including us in this project. I wish you much success in this endeavor and anything you do in the future.
Here are a couple pictures that Leslie Friedman took with her BlackBerry during the interview.
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