11/10/2023 0 Comments No need to remind me crosswordLos Angeles and Pico-Robertson have my heart.Īfter all, where else will everyone agree that the kosher Ralphs shouldn’t have closed? But, as quickly as the thought came, I dismissed it. While I’d been there before, this time I could see an alternate version of myself who had abandoned canyon roads for subway grates and swapped the beach for Broadway. But as antisemitism continues to rise, and at a time when my name feels like it can make me a target, there’s comfort and solidarity to being part of this neighborhood.Įarlier this year, I went to New York City for work. There is diversity here too, in the people, in the ways we observe Judaism, in opinion about what is happening in the Middle East. But I wouldn’t give up that tight-knit community aspect of my part of L.A for anything. Does it often feel like everyone knows my parents, my uncles and aunts, my entire life story? A little bit. is the second-largest city in the U.S., to me, it is also a small town. Growing up in a neighborhood with a majority Jewish population in such a diverse city has given me an incredible confidence in my culture. I have never felt uncomfortable wearing this Hebrew charm because of that feeling of the shtetl. I saw a post online recently that read “pretty girls have that one necklace that they never take off.” I immediately looked down at the pendant I’ve worn every day since my high school graduation. I told her she wasn’t exactly wrong, that the people I meet inevitably know someone I went to school with, if not a family member. This all reminds me of when a friend bemoaned dating in her small town and then quickly told me that she supposed it wasn’t all that different from dating in my neighborhood. At Starbucks, I see my fifth-grade teacher from my Jewish day school. At the bakery, someone recognizes me from temple. I can easily slip into Hebrew with the shopkeepers, and I can walk to the synagogue that I attend most Saturdays. When I was describing my neighborhood, I mentioned that it felt like the shtetl - a village in the old country. Studio heads hold the dreams of millions in their hands. I had the unexpected chance to show a young Ukrainian woman some Hollywood sites she had only known from movies. Opinion Opinion: A serendipitous encounter that could only happen in Hollywood I’m 23 and have lived in Los Angeles my whole life, and yet sometimes when I walk around Pico-Robertson I’m still a little awestruck by the signs in three languages (Hebrew, Arabic and English), the synagogues and traditional yeshiva and Jewish day schools dotting the streets, and foods such as bourekas, sabich and other kosher delicacies that I can get at stores here, but rarely see in other parts of the city. It does sometimes feel like I arrived here via DeLorean. My neighborhood still has a sense of identity that many others have lost. And, when I envision my future, I see myself returning often to this area where I grew up. While I love traveling, and sometimes dream of getting a cute apartment in another part of the city, I’ve never really wanted to live outside of Los Angeles. I don’t really feel like a minority when I’m here.” “It kind of feels like you traveled back in time. I was asked recently in a meeting to describe where I live in Los Angeles.
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