(In advance I apologise for the awful editing on this blog, writing on your phone can be a little tricky. I also didn't take many photos, so most are the Jewish murals on the streets of West Hollywood)
I hate LA, at least that's what I've always said.
I hate LA, at least that's what I've always said.
The idea of a sprawling mass of a city where you need a car to get around has always put me off. The few times I've been before I've done the touristy Hollywood things and didn't enjoy them much beyond the initial novelty.
I wasn't originally planning to visit LA on this trip beyond using it as a transit point, but open ended travel plans led me there on two occasions and I'm happy to say I'm slowly coming around to the idea that LA might not be the worst.
I should clarify that both reasons I ended up there were due to Pesach (for those who don't know, Pesach is a Jewish festival celebrated during the spring each year. It celebrates the liberation of the Jewish people from slavery in Egypt. Pesach involves something called a Seder where Jews, often families, friends and communities gather together to tell the story of Pesach, celebrate freedom and obviously eat.
My first trip to LA was with family. My lovely cousins who live in goleta, just north of Santa Barbara, invited me to attend Seder with them at their friend’s in Manhattan beach. This really meant a lot to me as for me Seder has always been a time to be with family, and I feel privileged that I can go many places in the world and have family to be with.
The Seder was lovely and despite not really knowing anyone there I felt like I fitted right in, the traditions all being familiar and loved the added political commentary about modern day plagues’ and the need to fight for liberation everywhere, albeit except for Palestine… Who apparently don't seem to deserve the same recognition. I recently learnt the term PEP (progressive except for Palestine) and this phrase certainly seemed to apply to the discourse of the Seder I attended.
Then at the end of the week I returned to LA for a few days because I'd been invited to a ‘lesbian immersive performance Seder’, (thanks for hooking me up with the invite Mikey). It seemed like a pretty cool event so I switched up my plans opting to spend a few days in LA. I grumbled about having to get lyfts everywhere for a few days but decided to make the most of it by brunching with old friends, doing some bouldering and yoga, and exploring West Hollywood (gay town).
On Friday night I decided pretty spur of the moment that I wanted to go to synagogue for Shabbat evening services. I googled the nearest reform synagogue to where I was staying which turned out to be in Beverly Hills, I saw that were doing a special end of Passover ‘songs of freedom service’. Despite my Jewish geography I didn't know anyone at the shul but thought I'd be able to turn up nonetheless. So that evening I put on a crumpled shirt from my back pack (who knew the thing i crave most on the road is an iron), and walked *insert LA gasp* to the temple in Beverly Hills.
One of the key teachings of Passover is about welcoming the stranger into your home, for we were strangers in the land of Egypt. With the fairly insular nature of the Jewish community I've always found this phrase slightly lacking in action, but I can say without a doubt that the temple Emmanuel of Beverly hills truly lived out these values. I arrived pre Friday night services and awkwardly sat down, within 5 minutes I was chatting to the guy next to me, Steve, a public school teacher in south LA, he told me all about the community. Hed travelled himself and we talked all about my trip and his previous trips to Europe. He's a lit teacher so the UK was his favourite place and he seemed to know far more than me about the historical homes of various writers across england. I also met the family behind me, one of whom had gone to camp harlam (the summer camp I went to on the East coast) what a small Jewish world.
The service itself was beautiful with a mix of traditional Friday night fare and liberation themed songs to celebrate the end of Passover. I recognised almost all the tunes and there is something indescribably heartwarming about hearing songs from home on the other side of the world.
After the service there was a dinner which everyone I'd met insisted I come to. By this point Steve and his wife Shauna had taken me under their wing and introduced me to, well everyone. I was immediately offered a place to stay by a number of people, future meals and a ride home! While we were eating the senior rabbi came round the tables to get people to sign a petition for a ballot initiative for November on prison reform, as far as I could see most people were signing. It was so refreshing to see local politics as a normal talking point, and Jewish value.
Steve and his family gave me a ride home with a detour around his favourite sights in West Hollywood and a brief history of the area. I could not have asked for a better evening.
There is something really beautiful about the efforts people and a community will take to welcome in a stranger, and it's certainly one of my favourite things about Judaism worldwide.
Saturday night brought my other favourite part of Judaism, radical queer Jews!!! I turned up to said queer Seder, and walked straight up to a costume making station where we had to dress our parts in the play + glitter, drag and feathers!
People started arriving and although there were few like me who didn't really know anyone, most people were friends of the hosts, forming a somewhat patchwork communtiy of wandering Jews, radicals and queers!
Pre the main event we made charoset, built bricks to put them in, made 10 plagues finger puppets and fed grapes/compliments to the princesses of Egypt!
Then came the Seder, we were hosted by Bevin (God) and Dara (eliyahu the prophet)
Who had written a full hilarious play version of the exidous full of old jewish jokes (the character of great aunt ida poviding much of this), queer humour and radical political jokes (yes that is a thing), all under the banner of resilience.
We emulated the rabbis and sat up late into the night discussing Palestinian liberation.
We heard stories of survivors whose struggles for liberation from borders, patriarchy, heteronormativity and the gender binary brought everyone to tears.
We said blessings of thanks for a space where we can live as our true selves and prayed that this will soon be a reality for all, as well as thanking those that have fought in the queer struggle.
Our nirtzah (last part of the Seder whch includes many songs) was replaced with Jewish themed karaoke, we rocked out to drake, Neil young, bette middler, drake, billy joel and by the end some queen had got in there, though no one is quite sure how.
All this while nomming on chicken noodle soup, Cuban brisket and matzah smores!
I really hope to be able to recreate Seders like this in the future as it felt like a truly liberatory experience.
Formal events aside the night was also made great by the people I met, Bevin, the host is a performer and creator of queer fat femmes! Dara used to work in union organising so many of her friends and former colleagues were there. I really enjoyed hearing about the various unions active in LA and wider California, it seems like a really interesting place to be politically active. I ended up on a table with Leon, who runs a queer friendly suit company, as well as being a co founder of out-fest a celebration of online queer contributions. I also met Krystal who works in STEM (science technology engineering and maths) co-creating innovative curriculums with students, teachers, educators and universities, you can imagine we totally geeked out together of education. I met Melanie who has moved to LA from NY to co-parent with 3 other people. I also met April who I wrongly assumed was Jewish when she knew all the Passover traditions, turns out shed just been married to a Jew. She and her friend dana there run a sex toy company, apparently you get to travel a lot through the job and we shared discussions over the best places to eat across the world.
So despite the awful traffic and a tendency to feel somewhat lost, LA has begun to grow on me, as with everywhere it seems to be the people that make a place, and there are certainly enough interesting people to maybe make LA worth a bit more of my time!
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