Blog

Passover, or Pesach, isn’t just a story from the past—it’s the Jewish people’s “master story” of moving from slavery to freedom.

The Blue Zones teach us that longevity isn’t just about genetics—it’s about lifestyle. The Merage JCC is committed to creating an environment that fosters movement, connection, purpose, and well-being.

At 87 years young, the Balboa Fun Zone in Newport Beach is going strong. It began during the Depression, in 1936, when the owner of a failing boatyard leased his land on the peninsula to businessman Al Anderson, who quickly constructed a Ferris wheel and merry-go-round on the property, thus creating the destination we know today. One of many activities people enjoy is paddling around the bay in kayaks—a fun choice introduced in 1938 by OC Jewish pioneer Allan Fainbarg. According to Allan, ...

Mount Vernon is bringing its newly produced film, George Washington and the Pursuit of Religious Freedom to the Merage Jewish Community Center on March 22.

Harry (Hebrew name Tzvi) the oldest of Chaim and Yetta Stein’s five children, was born in Austria/Poland in 1897 and immigrated to New York with his family in the early 1900s. Living on the very Jewish Hester Street, Harry met his wife, Helen (née Pheffer) and the two moved to Cleveland, where Harry was a clerk in a pawn shop and their son, Alvin, was born. It appears that sadly Alvin passed young, because by the 1940 census the Steins are living in Fullerton with their 7 year old ...

As readers of this column know, most of the early Jewish pioneers of Orange County lived in Anaheim and Santa Ana. The Mendelsons were one of the few exceptions: they lived farther south in San Juan Capistrano and were the only Jewish family for miles around. Polish immigrants Max and his wife Clara settled in the tiny mission town in 1874 with their growing family; four of their seven children had been born in Mississippi and Missouri and the remaining three would be born in Capistrano. A year ...

Jews the world over are preparing for an oil crisis, but I don’t mean prices at the pump. Eastern European Jews, the majority in the U.S., have been celebrating by frying latkes (pancakes) ever since.

Our partnership with the matnas (JCC) of Kfar Yona was established in 2008 as a way for our community to develop personal connections to the Land of Israel and its people. 

Undisputed comic legend, Lenny Bruce—born Leonard Alfred Schneider—was one of the greatest stand-up artists of the 20^th century. His unwavering commitment to free speech led to numerous obscenity charges and arrests as he fought for freedom of speech all the way to the Supreme Court. 

It might seem a bit odd, but the person who single-handedly introduced modern Latin American art as a legitimate field of study was not, herself, Hispanic. She was Jewish, and her name was Shifra Meyerowitz Goldman. Born in New York in 1926 to Russian immigrants Abraham and Sylvia (née Perla Kadish), she spoke only Yiddish until the age of 6. Her father was a waiter and her mother a seamstress, but they loved the arts and spent any free time they had immersing Shifra and her younger ...