This Purim, The Shul On The Beach opened its doors to the entire Venice / Santa Monica community to join in a Purim Celebration. An excellent turnout from our members, friends and neighbors set the stage for a truly memorable afternoon.
Mr. and Mrs. Beithalachmi prepared a wonderful Purim feast that was partially sponsored by Yossi [...]
Posts Tagged ‘fun’
Pacific Jewish Center Purim Celebration Recap February 28, 2010
Matisyahu, NBC and The Olympic Winter Games Make A Great Team
I first heard of Matisyahu while working as a Campus Rabbi at USC. The Jewish students on campus were really into his music (this was ~5 years ago) and some of my students invited me to join them at a Matisyahu concert.
He was performing at the Knitting Factory in Hollywood which was right near my [...]
200th Post: Something To Bring a Smile To Your Face
This is post #200 on finkorswim.com. Congratulations to me. As promised, I will do a best of the first 200 posts in the next few days. In the meantime, here is this…
It has been a short 10 and a half months since this blog opened it’s doors to the public. I have had a blast [...]
Crosses Honor Fallen Soldiers of All Faiths
We took the family to Santa Monica Pier on Sunday and our six year old son proved to be smarter than a Supreme Court Justice!
It is so beautiful to walk along the beach and observe all the excitement along the boardwalk and pier. As always, we had a great time in Santa Monica.
For the last [...]
Ozzie Is Growing Up, Are You?
Video Post
It has been a while since I posted a video of Ozzie. The last video showed him crawling to his toys. That was 4 months ago and boy how things have changed since then.
Even more has changed since I posted the first video of Ozzie playing a game.
Babies change every day. They learn new [...]
Today’s Sign The Apocalypse Is Upon Us
Yesterday morning I received a blogging gift.
Sometimes there is just not much to write and that’s every bloggers worst nightmare. I had a few things that were on my mind that I wished to share but none of those ideas fermented into anything worth posting.
I love blogging and I think it is important to supply [...]
Family Outing to Huntington Gardens
We took the family on a Sunday trip to Pasadena to see the famous Huntington Gardens.
Esteemed Pacific Jewish Center, Board Member, Alan Lipman first told me about this landmark a few months back. He described Huntington Gardens as a place of natural beauty, educational value and cultural significance. I had been looking forward to seeing [...]
Brett Favre, Treason and Teshuva
This week’s big sports news involved my favorite athlete to hate, Brett Favre.
I mentioned Favre a while back in a post about immaturity and athletes. Back then, I was contrasting the complimentary way in which Favre is recognized for his youthful exuberance and the way athletes who act immaturely and hold out for money or [...]
Why FinkOrSwim?
Finding the perfect blog URL is an adventure. The choices are endless and one’s mood can affect one’s opinion tremendously, leading to potential buyer’s remorse.
As I talked on the phone with my blog consultant, Judd Magilnick, we searched for the perfect concept. Our ideas ranged from the ultra bland, finkblog.com to the ultra creative ifinkican.com. [...]
A Happy 2009 Birthday
Yesterday was my birthday.
I am not huge “birthday guy”. I love my children’s birthday more than my own birthday and my mother loves my birthday more than I do.
A lot of people know my birthday. Co-workers, family and friends all know my birthday. This year I got a ton of birthday wishes.
But it was different.
Onymous Blogging
This post has been cross-posted to DovBear. – more discussion there.
Social Networking has been around for a long time. The term is nearly two centuries old and the concept perhaps 30 times that.
With the internet explosion around the new millennium social networking became all the rage on the world wide web. MySpace and others blazed [...]
Outreach on the Beach 6/14/09
Sunday was the launch of a new initiative at Pacific Jewish Center.
First, some matters of introduction.
We are blessed with an incredible location for our Shul.
Our Shul is on the Venice Beach Boardwalk. With thousands of tourists and locals walking along the boardwalk every week, it is a great spot to meet and greet Jewish people [...]
Take A Smile Break | Another Cute Baby Post
After yesterdays disturbing news and my sobering blog post about mid-eastern Jewry I thought something lighter would be appropriate for today.
Our son Ozzie, will be 7 months old in a couple of weeks.
There is nothing quite like the experience of observing a baby grow. They are completely helpless when they are born and they gain [...]
Men (Learning) at Work
This blog post is about men learning at work. By learning, I mean studying Torah.
I taught a class today at Teichman Enterprises.
It was a really great experience and I was inspired and I want to share my feelings with you.
If you are looking for the Australian musical artists known as Men at Work who sing [...]
Happy Birthday Tetris
June 6th. An auspicious date in history.
For most it a day known as D-Day. The day the Allies invaded Normandy.
I have the greatest respect and appreciation for the massive Ally effort to maintain freedom in our world. Thank you.
If you want to see more about that click here.
For others, it is also T-Day. What is [...]
Does Your Kiddush Have Kugel?
There’s a fellow in the Los Angeles Jewish community named Hilly Zeitlin.
Hilly sends out daily emails with all the important goings on in Los Angeles. He does this for free and it is a tremendous service to the community. (If you want to join his email list click here to subscribe.)
Hilly comes to Pacific Jewish [...]
I Could Not Help Myself
I just had to post this video.
While I was at school today, my 5 month old son, Ozzie, learned a new trick.
It is so incredible seeing our baby grow more and more each day. It seems like just a short while ago he was unable to interact with us and now he is playing games [...]
A Nation's Challenge and "Seabiscuits"
Today was closing day at Santa Anita Park. That means the season of horse racing has come to a close at Santa Anita Park and I was there.
Today, we took the boys to see the ponies run.
Previously, we lived in Baltimore MD, home of The Preakness at Pimlico Race Track. The Preakness is one leg [...]
Matza in the NY Times and In Our TImes
To be fair I have had my share of criticism of the New York Times. I don’t call them anti-Semitic though, that just reminds me of Uncle Leo in the Shower Head Seinfeld episode. Uncle Leo’s burger is medium instead of rare so he assumes the chef must be an anti-Semite… That doesn’t stop these [...]
Where The Wild Things Are
It is not my style to post a movie trailer on this blog. However, after watching the trailer for the upcoming movie of the famous Maurice Sendak book, Where the Wild Things Are, I was compelled to share my thoughts on the trailer.
First, my thoughts on the book. 1) Never send your child to bed [...]
The Wave
Yesterday we took the boys to Adventure City. We had a great time. The rides are perfect for a 5 year old like Rami and he was able to hop onto any ride he wanted with no wait. Some of the rides there are pretty intense and yet Rami was undeterred. I am blogging today [...]
