Hiking through the Upper Las Virgenes Open Space Preserve

         At the west end of the San Fernando Valley running into Calabasas, there is a huge nature preserve that is covered in awesome, sprawling, hill rolling nature trails. Although the landscape is typical California chapparal, it is fascinating to see the differences through the seasons. In winter it is brown, dry and like a haunted martian landscape. In spring it comes alive with color and new growth.

        There are many Los Angeles hiking trails running through the huge area. Our usual spot to start out is at the end of Victory Blvd (take the 101 to Valley Circle north and then turn left at Victory). This "Victory Trailhead" has a parking lot (please pay the few dollars for parking to help support the protection of the park!) and you can head out in several directions and literally hike for days if you wanted to. Its gigantic! There are other trail heads at the southern end of the preserve, along Mureau Rd, Lost Hills Rd and Chesebro Rd., as well.    

                                                               

                                               Me thinks that the moment my legs begin to move, 

my thoughts begin to flow.  ~Henry David Thoreau

Victory Trailhead sights

Picnic delight

The path uphill

Flora and fauna

Turn in the trail 

Chaparral

Donna Feldman's Birthday Bash in LA

       Super fabulous and ultra chic, Donna Feldman had a birthday bash in Studio City, CA this past weekend and it was off the hook. Now a lady never reveals her true age so lets just say Donna can legally buy liquor and car insurance in any state in this great ol' USA. With her family and friends by her side, Donna was able to celebrate yet one more revolution around the sun looking as gorgeous as ever. We snapped some cool shots at the party and as is evident we were all dressed to impress and party hardy till it got tardy, mazel tov!

My parents (Amos and Esther) and myself right before we left for Donna's party.

Me, Donna and Brendan McGovern

Donna and best friend Jackie, lives of the party.

Great shot of the Feldman family, love, love, love.

Israel Marks 64 Years Of Independence

JERUSALEM (AP) — Israelis celebrated their country's 64th anniversary Wednesday with fireworks and military processions at a national ceremony in Jerusalem.
The festivities came immediately after Memorial Day for fallen soldiers and victims of militant attacks, an annual ritual of twinning grief with elation and pointing out the link between the two.
Preparations for Independence Day were marred last week when a lighting rig collapsed during a rehearsal, crushing a young soldier to death.

Speaking at the official ceremony, Parliament Speaker Reuven Rivlin cautioned against extremism of all stripes, naming ultra-Orthodox Jewish zealots, ideologues who burn mosques and activists who delegitimize the state as "those who threaten the future of Israeli society."

Government statistics showed that Israel's population grew by 137,500 since last year to 7,881,000. The Central Bureau of Statistics said 75 percent of the population is Jewish and 21 percent is Arab. The remaining 4 percent represents tiny minorities or immigrants who are not Jewish.

Traditional Independence Day celebrations include dancing in city streets and family cookouts in national parks. Some military bases open Thursday for visits, and Israeli cities host open-air concerts in honor of the holiday.

VIDEO: Find out what Chinese people think about Jews

     A well known American stereotype is that Jews love Chinese food, but what do the Chinese think of Jews? Rachel Guo, the creator of the web-based Chinese series "Real China, No Drama" asked the same question. The answers were presented in an episode fittingly called "Oy Vey: China on the Jews" and seem to stick to the stereotypical impressions of Jewish people in a country where bookstores are full of titles like "The Magic of Jewish Investment" and "The Kaballah of Smart Business Management"

Conservative Jews in Israel OK gay rabbis

JERUSALEM -- The Conservative Jewish seminary in Israel has voted to allow gays and lesbians to become rabbis, overcoming years of opposition by many of its own leaders.

The Schechter Rabbinical Seminary, affiliated with Israel's Conservative Jewish movement, announced it would begin accepting gay and lesbian rabbinical students this fall.

The seminary's dean said it is committed to both Jewish law and pluralism, a reference to various branches of Judaism.

The decision late Thursday ends a rift with the U.S. branch, which has allowed gay and lesbian rabbinical students since 2007. It ordained its first openly lesbian rabbi last year.

The Conservative movement interprets Jewish law more strictly than the liberal Reform movement, but its ordination of female rabbis and other practices are not accepted by more stringent Orthodox Jews.

Read more here: http://miamiherald.typepad.com/gaysouthflorida/2012/04/conservative-jews-in-israel-ok-gay-rabbis.html#storylink=cpy

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Donna Feldman, la nueva latina super modelo?

         A new cover and layout for my glamazon sister extraordinare, Donna Feldman, who is seen heating up the pages of spanish language luxury magazine, Enlosocial. She is giving us super sexy south of the border. Each of these photos is proof positive that Donna Feldman is expanding in her global dominance of every demographic. Maybe soon Donna will be posing in front of an Igloo on the cover of Eskimo Living Magazine. There is simply nothing her beauty can't do.

Mira mi hermana, la bella modelo y sus fotos maravillosas.

Israel remembers Holocaust with two minute silence

Israeli soldiers stand in formation during the opening ceremony of the annual Holocaust Memorial Day at the Yad Vashem Holocaust Memorial in Jerusalem.

Millions of Israelis on Thursday stood silently and all road traffic stopped as sirens wailed for two minutes to remember the six million Jews who were killed during the Nazi Holocaust. The annual ritual, which is observed at 10 am, is a central part of Holocaust Memorial Day which began at sundown on Wednesday. Official events began on Wednesday evening with a formal ceremony at Yad Vashem Holocaust museum, attended by top Israeli officials, and were to continue throughout the day at various locations throughout the country. During the day, a special session of parliament will be devoted to remembering the dead, and radio and television stations run blanket coverage of Holocaust-related issues, screening films, documentaries and debates, many including the testimony of survivors.

    This year, for the first time, a delegation of European Roma and Sinti are attending the ceremonies in Israel, among them representatives from Poland, the Czech Republic, Germany, the Netherlands and Slovakia. During World War II, Nazi Germany exterminated about half of the Roma and Sinti populations in occupied countries. In his speech at the ceremony on Wednesday night, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu urged the world to wake up to the new existential threat facing the Jewish people -- a nuclear Iran. “People who refuse to see the Iranian threat have learned nothing from the Shoah (Holocaust),” he said. "They are afraid to speak the truth, which is today, as it was then, that there are people who want to annihilate millions of Jews. “The truth is that an Iran in possession of nuclear arms is an existential threat to the State of Israel,” he said, demanding that Tehran be “stopped.” Israel and much of the West believes Iran is using its civilian nuclear program to build a weapon, a charge the Islamic Republic vehemently denies.