Comments (0)Sandy Koufax to Appear at Benefit
February 1, 2010New York
JTA Wire Service
Sandy Koufax will spend a rare night in the spotlight when he sits down with Joe Torre to help raise money for Torre’s foundation.
Koufax, the elusive Hall of Fame pitcher for the Dodgers, will appear Feb. 27 before a crowd of 7,000 at the Nokia Theatre in Los Angeles to benefit the Safe at Home Foundation, which aims to end the cycle of domestic abuse.
Koufax, who retired at the age of 30 because of injuries, said he agreed to speak with Torre to benefit those in need, the Los Angeles Times reported.
The former stalwart southpaw has kept such a low profile that although he gave his approval for the 2002 book “Sandy Koufax: A Lefty’s Legacy,” he would not be interviewed by author Jane Leavy.
A Jewish sports icon, he once famously skipped his turn to pitch in the World Series because it was Yom Kippur.
Torre, the Dodgers’ manager and an All-Star player in the 1960s and ‘70s, said he was shocked that Koufax agreed.
“I didn’t think he would,” Torre told the Los Angeles Times. “This really is a friend indeed. He said he would do it for me, and I’m touched.”
Indiana U. Opens Anti-Semitism Institute
Indiana University inaugurated an Institute for the Study of Contemporary Anti-Semitism.
Sources at the Bloomington university said the center that opened in mid-January is the second in the United States devoted to scholarly research on anti-Semitism, joining the Yale Institute for the Interdisciplinary Study of Anti-Semitism in New Haven, Conn.
Three major research institutes abroad studying the topic are the Stephen Roth Institute in Tel Aviv; the Vidal Sassoon International Center in Jerusalem; and the Center for the Study of Anti-Semitism at the Technical University in Berlin.
The Indiana institute was founded and is directed by Alvin Rosenfeld, the university’s Irving M. Glazer Chair in Jewish Studies. Initial funding will come from the endowment supporting that chair.
In the spring of 2011, the institute is set to sponsor a major international conference on the intellectual and ideological sources of contemporary anti-Semitism.
Rosenfeld told local reporters that there is “a compelling need for more organized research and teaching on contemporary anti-Semitism, including its similarities to and differences from anti-Semitism throughout history.”
Postville Kosher Meatpacking Plant Hiring Workers
The kosher meatpacking plant in Postville, Iowa, is planning to hire 150 workers as it expands its poultry line and restarts beef production.
The announcement by the owner of Agri Star Meat and Poultry, formerly known as Agriprocessors, came last Friday.
Agriprocessors was in bankruptcy last fall when it was purchased by Agri Star Meat.
Agriprocessors had more than 1,000 employees and was the country’s largest producer of kosher meat before a massive immigration raid in May 2008 led to its demise. The new plant currently employs 400 people, according to the Des Moines Register.
The new workers will be paid about $8.50 an hour to start, rising to $9.50 to $12.50 an hour after a probationary period, a company spokesman told the Register. In late December, the plant laid off a number of higher-paid workers.
Beef production should start in a few weeks, according to a company news release.
This story reprinted courtesy of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency.