Beverly Hills, What a Thrill
Is it tone-deaf to write a love letter to Beverly Hills at this time of unrest? Maybe. But that’s exactly why I was moved to do it.
Image by nextvoyage from Pixabay
“Beh-vehr-lee Heelz,” my uncle, who had already arrived in the United States, responded.
“I know what ‘Heelz’ means,” my father said, “but what’s ‘Beh-vehr-lee’?”
“I’ll be honest: I don’t even know. But it’s really beautiful here.”
“It sounds like
baghali (lima beans),” my father chuckled. “If you say it’s a safe, clean place, and the schools are excellent, I’ll take your word for it, though we’ll take anywhere as long as we’re in America.”
Play it Again, Sam
This month, there was talk in the local Jewish community after Sam Yebri stepped down as president of 30 Years After, the nation’s only civic action organization that promotes the participation and leadership of Iranian-American Jews in American civic, political and Jewish life.
I’ve known Yebri for 14 years, and the story of how he and a few dozen young Iranian-American Jews (including myself) co-founded 30 Years After is a testament to the redemptive blessings of America itself.
In January 2006, I was a 23-year-old recent college graduate serving as the director of academic affairs at the Consulate General of Israel in Los Angeles. During a visit to USC Hillel, in which I accompanied then-Consul General Ehud Danoch, I met a young Iranian Jewish man in his final year of law school. That wasn’t exactly news. If you’re familiar with Persian Jews, the bigger shock would have been if he