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Life & Times Transcript

5/15/07

Val Zavala>> Tonight on Life and Times --

When it comes to marriage between people of two different faiths, does love really conquer all?

Rabbi Zvi Block>> Where are the kids going to go? I know what they're going to do. They're going to go one week to Hanukkah with the Jewish parent, one week to Christmas with the non-Jewish parent. Totally confused.

Val Zavala>> And then, he's not your typical developer. He passed up the big bucks to give a boost to artists, kids and a Ventura neighborhood.

It's all straight ahead on tonight's Life and Times.

Announcer>> Life and Times is made possible through the generous support of the L.K. Whittier Foundation dedicated to improving the quality of life by supporting innovative endeavors in the fields of medicine, health, science and education.

And by a generous grant from Jim and Anne Rothenberg.

Val Zavala>> It's a decision almost every person of faith has to make. Do they marry inside or outside their religion? For those who marry outside, they say it's more inclusive, but others say it dilutes their religious practice. Saul Gonzalez takes a look at what interfaith marriage means for Christians and Jews.

[Film Clip]

Saul Gonzalez>> With the lighting of candles and reciting of prayers, Gary and Christine Goldhammer are starting their Passover Seder meal with their daughter, Alexandra, and invited family and friends.

[Film Clip]

Saul Gonzalez>> Although they are both participating in this Jewish tradition, the Goldhammers don't share the same faith. Gary is Jewish, but Christine is Lutheran. Theirs is one of the growing number of Jewish-Christian interfaith marriages in the United States.

Christine Goldhammer>> I honestly don't think it has to be one way or the other. I think you can make it work if you have both religions.

Saul Gonzalez>> Like many other interfaith couples, the Goldhammers make their marriage work by putting their religious differences aside, such as a belief in the divinity of Jesus. Instead, they look for common ground.

Christine Goldhammer>> I think that's kind of the nature of an interfaith marriage. You have these conflicts already and you have to be able to communicate through them.

Gary Goldhammer>> Well, you start at the beginning, you know. There's no God but God and that where it all starts and begins and ends. So you have that connection. Everything else really is not that important.

Saul Gonzalez>> The growth of interfaith marriages in the United States has been especially significant to the Jewish community. According to a national survey conducted by United Jewish Communities, the number of American Jews marrying someone of a different religion has grown from about thirteen percent before 1970 to nearly fifty percent today.

Rabbi Steven Carr Reuben>> "We believe, we teach, that the words that matter in that Torah scroll are universal and the people that matter in our lives and in the world are universal."

Saul Gonzalez>> Rabbi Steven Carr Reuben, who has written a book on interfaith marriage, views the increasing number of Jews in relationships with someone of a different religion as a positive development both for Jews and the wider society.

Rabbi Steven Carr Reuben>> It's the natural outgrowth of having a society that is open and free and accepting where there aren't the same barriers that shut down communities and make people live in ghettos and make people live only with their own religion, of their own race or their own culture or their own kind, whatever that might be. Every interfaith relationship is like a pebble in the pond. There are ripples that go out that touch many more people than just that couple and their kids.

Saul Gonzalez>> For many American Jews, though, interfaith marriages shouldn't be a cause for joined celebration. In fact, they worry that the relationships could have a profound and damaging effect on the health and future of Judaism.

Rabbi Zvi Block>> To us, it's a nail in the coffin.

Saul Gonzalez>> Zvi Block is an orthodox Rabbi who criticizes fellow Jews who see interfaith marriage as a path to assimilation.

Rabbi Zvi Block>> I have no such interest. I'm not anxious to be accepted. I have no interest in integrating or assimilating or becoming a part or becoming as if that's some sort of arrival or some sort of rite of passage. I don't need any of that. The very fact that we live under a threat of assimilation means that we could easily melt away and our traditions and our history and all that we value fall apart and become, God forbid, extinct.

[Film Clip]

Saul Gonzalez>> Such fears often stem from demographics. Numbering between five to six and a half million people, American Jews account for only about two percent of the United States population. It's feared that interfaith marriages could shrink the number of Jews because such relationships increase the chance of children being raised in either the non-Jewish faith of a spouse or in a home that's largely secular.

Rabbi Zvi Block>> Where are the kids going to go? I know what they're going to do. They're going to go one week to Hanukkah with the Jewish parent, one week to Christmas with the non-Jewish parent. Totally confused.

Saul Gonzalez>> You don't think that's sustainable?

Rabbi Zvi Block>> Oh, it's destructive.

Saul Gonzalez>> Destructive?

Rabbi Zvi Block>> Destructive to the new generation, absolutely.

Saul Gonzalez>> Because?

Rabbi Zvi Block>> Because the kids are confused. There's conflicts there.

Saul Gonzalez>> Then there's the issue of whether the children of interfaith couples will be accepted by the wider Jewish community because of the traditional belief that a child is Jewish only if he or she is born of a Jewish mother.

Alexandra>> "Against their will, they made bricks and built cities to the Pharaoh, the king of Egypt."

Saul Gonzalez>> Although the Goldhammers are raising their daughter as a Jew, Gary encounters some ambivalent feelings from within his own family because Christine remains Christian.

Gary Goldhammer>> My sister, I think, still has trouble accepting that we're raising our daughter Jewish and, in some ways, in her mind that she is not really Jewish and that we actually don't have a Jewish marriage because, you know, Christine is Christian.

Saul Gonzalez>> Even before they have children, many interfaith couples, says Rabbi Reuben, feel like outcasts from both faiths.

Rabbi Steven Carr Reuben>> A lot of the weddings that I do, by the time they get to me to ask me if I would officiate at their wedding, they've already been to other clergy, rabbis or non-rabbis, and felt rejected, felt turned down. It happens all the time.

[Film Clip]

Saul Gonzalez>> Judaism has traditionally shunned the proselytizing and evangelism, but faced with the reality of interfaith marriages, many synagogues and Jewish institutions are trying to make it easier for non-Jewish partners to learn about Judaism and perhaps convert.

Rabbi Neal Weinberg>> "So the Jewish year is made up of twelve months, but three hundred fifty four days, so it's eleven days shorter than the solar year."

Saul Gonzalez>> Conservative Rabbi Neal Weinberg is the Director of the Introduction to Judaism program at Los Angeles's University of Judaism.

Rabbi Neal Weinberg>> "And so they opened up the Ark, they took the Torah out, they did special prayers and now it's in a new month hoping to have a good and prosperous month."

Saul Gonzalez>> During his six-month class, students learn about Jewish history, faith and traditions.

[Film Clip]

Saul Gonzalez> Those non-Jewish students who take this class are invited by Rabbi Weinberg to think about converting. He says such efforts are indispensable to the future of American Judaism.

Rabbi Neal Weinberg>> This is the wrong time in our history to not allow people the opportunity to become Jewish who want to become Jewish. We should be trying to welcome more people into the Jewish fold who are ready to live a Jewish religious life, so this program helps prepare them to make that decision whether they want to embrace Judaism or not. "We ask God that we merit the opportunity to raise many good Jewish children and that our people become as numerous as the fish in the ocean."

Saul Gonzalez>> Marlon Franklin, born and raised Catholic, is taking the Rabbi's class and plans to convert before he marries his girlfriend, Elysa Charlestein.

Marlon Franklin>> Finding this religion, you know, Judaism, I mean, I saw all the things that I was looking for.

Elysa Charlestein>> Now that we're going to have a Jewish home, everything is going to be unified. It's not going to be, you know, Judaism, Christianity, how to raise the children, what to do, how to bring this equality. It's more that the both of us will now be Jewish. We're going to have a Jewish home and that we're a part of the Jewish nation and people.

Saul Gonzalez>> However, the Goldhammers say that matters of love often can't and shouldn't be guided by religious identity.

Gary Goldhammer>> You know, we live in the world and, for good or for bad, we have to continue to live in the world. We're going to love who we love and we're going to be with who we want to be with and that's just the way it has to be.

[Film Clip]

Saul Gonzalez>> For Life and Times, I'm Saul Gonzalez.

Val Zavala>> So what do you think of interfaith marriage? You can post your opinion. Just go to kcet.org and click on the Life and Times Blog.

Announcer>> Kcet.org is the place to look for the very latest on Life and Times. You'll find previews of upcoming stories, plus transcripts and audio of past episodes and links to some of our most interesting features. Just go to kcet.org, scroll down the page and click on "Life and Times".

Val Zavala>> When it comes to cosmetic surgery, Hollywood stars get the star treatment. But what about the hundreds of Iraq war veterans who come home in need of cosmetic surgery and the government doesn't always pay for it? Where can they turn? Sheryl Kahn has our story.

[Film Clip]

Sheryl Kahn>> Three year old Sebastian McQuigg likes to play with his dad and his trains. But there was a time not too long ago when his father wasn't able to do this because Sebastian's dad, Staff Sergeant Paul McQuigg, was seriously injured in Iraq when a roadside bomb went off.

Paul McQuigg>> Someone was watching and said the bomb blew up on my side of the vehicle.

Sheryl Kahn>> Paul regained consciousness several days later in a military hospital in Germany. When he saw his face in the mirror, he was shocked.

Paul McQuigg>> My whole head was the size of a beach ball. I was so swollen. I had no hair.

Sheryl Kahn>> More than a dozen surgeries later, Paul was still left with scars on his head and abdomen.

Paul McQuigg>> I had an open wound. You can see the scar here right in the middle.

Sheryl Kahn>> As well as on the side of his face, inside his mouth and on his tongue. He's unable to eat and has to be fed through a tube in his stomach.

Jacqueline McQuigg>> Shrapnel went through one side of his jaw to the other side of his jaw.

Sheryl Kahn>> Paul's mother, a registered nurse, moved from the Midwest to San Diego to help care for him and for Sebastian, whose own mother is no longer in the picture.

Jacqueline McQuigg>> "Did daddy get an owie on his face?"

Sebastian>> "Yep."

Jacqueline McQuigg>> "And on his tongue?"

Sebastian>> "Um-hum."

Jacqueline McQuigg>> "Does daddy have a hard time eating?"

Sebastian>> "Yeah."

Sheryl Kahn>> Jacqueline McQuigg says that it hurts to see her thirty year old son in such pain. Not all his injuries are visible. Paul has severe headaches and memory problems, but the worst part, Jacqueline says, is the way some people have treated her son since he came back from Iraq.

Jacqueline McQuigg>> He's very intelligent, but because he has the speech impediment, he's not always treated appropriately when he approaches people in public or when he's tried to talk on the phone because he wants to be very independent and take care of his own. Several people hang up on him on the phone because of his speech.

Sheryl Kahn>> Paul says that treatment sometimes makes him angry, but he's learned to live with it. Like other veterans who've returned home with similar wounds, Paul would like to get back to normal, to the way he used to live and look.

The military says there's not much more they can do for him and that's where this woman, Rancho Mirage resident Maggie Lockridge, comes in. Maggie is a Vietnam-era Air Force veteran and retired nurse who once had a thriving consulting business providing luxury aftercare for wealthy cosmetic surgery patients.

Maggie Lockridge>> We had the movie stars, we had the news commentators, we had you name it, we had it. People in politics and Duchesses and Princesses.

Sheryl Kahn>> Lockridge says she was watching a television special about ABC anchorman, Bob Woodruff, who'd been critically injured in Iraq, when she had an epiphany. She says she realized wounded veterans needed much more help than they were getting from the Veterans Administration.

Maggie Lockridge>> It's the shrapnel scars and the burns that need new grafting and just the disfiguration from the artillery wounds that they have that aren't always permanently addressed.

Sheryl Kahn>> So Lockridge started a nonprofit to raise money to provide cosmetic surgery for injured Iraq veterans. She called it Iraq Star, a play on the phrase "rock star", because she wanted to treat the veterans like celebrities, using her connections to get them the kind of help usually reserved for Hollywood's "A" list.

Dr. Norman Leaf>> "Paul, I'm going to ask you to tell me a little bit about your history."

Sheryl Kahn>> Beverly Hills cosmetic surgeon, Dr. Norman Leaf, treats so many celebrity patients that his office has secret entrances so stars can slip in past the paparazzi. Dr. Leaf says he's not in favor of the war in Iraq, but does support the troops who've served there and wants to do what he can to help.

Dr. Norman Leaf>> They come back and, you know, they need to get jobs. They want to date.

Sheryl Kahn>> But even with the help of doctors like him who volunteer their time, Iraq Star needs lots of donations to help Paul and other wounded veterans. Still, this is a great first step for Iraq Star and for Paul. Paul realizes that he's getting movie star treatment here in Beverly Hills, but he says that's not what's important. What really matters is just knowing there are so many people who care.

Paul McQuigg>> It's humbling. It's that humbling.

Sheryl Kahn>> Sheryl Kahn in Beverly Hills.

Announcer>> To send a comment or a question to our program, you can reach us by mail at this address:

Life and Times
4401 Sunset Blvd.
Los Angeles, California 90027

You can also call our viewer comment line (323) 953-5555) or contact us the fast way by e-mail at kcet.org.

Val Zavala>> There are those big Asian stars like Ken Watanabe and, of course, Sandra Oh. But overall, roles for Asian American actors are limited. We met a producer who's determined to change that. As this is Asian Pacific American Heritage Month, we thought we'd look at how Teddy Zee works the Hollywood system.

Teddy Zee>> I'm Teddy Zee and I'm a movie producer. There are very few Asians in the movie business, period. I feel like it's my responsibility to open the doors for others to come through and I don't think that Asian-Americans will truly be a part of this society, integrated in the way they should be, unless they have the same access to pursuing dreams and passions. The stories don't have to be about being Asian. The stories have to be about universal themes. "Saving Face" is a beautiful, wonderful, romantic comedy.

[Film Clip]

Teddy Zee>> It helps other Americans look upon Asian-Americans and say, "Wow, they're no different than the rest of us", and that is really, really important for greater tolerance and greater empathy and greater unity in the country.

>> "Saving Face" would not have been made without him. He is Asian-American and he understands our problems, our desires and our need to tell our stories. Also, he is extremely smart business-wise. This doesn't have to be a mission, that this can be great entertainment.

>> I really credit him with the person who believed in me here and, as a result, I have this film. I remember -- in fact, I won this writing contest at the Cape Foundation. It has a new writer of the year award and I won it in 2001.

It was actually an award started by Teddy because he felt very strongly that Asian-American stories weren't being told and a lot of it is that we weren't writing them or, if we were writing them, they were not getting read. So he created this award as a way of getting the scripts out there and of motivating writers like myself to write something and of giving us some recognition.

>> "Teddy, you made this happen for me and, you know, I couldn't have done this without you, so thank you so much."

Teddy Zee>> I'm out to entertain people and, through entertainment, while they're not even conscious of it, we have an enormous opportunity to change peoples' minds and let them see Asian-Americans in a whole different way.

Val Zavala>> Developers don't often win popularity contests, but Josh Addison is different. He could have torn a building down and built condos, but instead, he looked around the neighborhood and decided to make a very different kind of investment. I went to Ventura to see it for myself.

Downtown Ventura is going through a renaissance. Stylish, upscale stores and restaurants are steadily replacing the old mom and pop thrift stores. Buildings are going condo and, although development like this can be good, it can also leave some residents behind.

Just a few minutes north of downtown on Ventura Avenue is a modest neighborhood where most of Ventura's Latino residents live. No trendy shops or pricey restaurants here. By the looks of it, redevelopment has bypassed this community -- or has it?

Meet Josh Addison, perhaps Ventura's most civic-minded developer. Yes, that's him, the one who looks like he just came back from the beach. For more than half a century, his family has owned this building. It was once a thriving mattress factory.

Josh Addison>> We've owned it since 1952 when it was a mattress factory and, two years ago, we began converting it into an Arts Factory.

Val Zavala>> "So this room actually used to be a store?" Josh Addison has turned this old mattress factory into artists' studios and a community center. He could have made a lot more money tearing it down to build condos or leasing it to a retailer.

Elena Brokaw>> He could turn it into one of those t-shirt warehouses where you can get three t-shirts for ten bucks. He could turn it into a Ninety-Nine Cent store. He could raze the building and make condos here. That's been happening a lot in Ventura.

Val Zavala>> Elena Brokaw is Ventura's Community Services Director.

Elena Brokaw>> He came and talked to us early on and said, "What do you think the market is for places where artists can work? What if I turned the whole workspace in the mattress factory into artists' studios?" We said, "Please, we need you to do that." Then the rest is history.

Val Zavala>> So how many artists do you have working in the building?

Josh Addison>> Right now, we have twenty-eight artists working in the building and we have five more studios under development that will be completed in a couple of months.

Val Zavala>> And who's in here?

Josh Addison>> Linda Peterson is in here.

Val Zavala>> Hi, Linda.

Linda Peterson>> Hi, how are you?

Val Zavala>> Good.

Linda Peterson>> This is Rambo. This is my assistant (laughter).

Val Zavala>> So you work with Polaroids? Photography?

Linda Peterson>> I work with Polaroids, so a lot of this is hand-done. I do it with tools.

Val Zavala>> What do you think of this whole building?

Linda Peterson>> Oh, my gosh. Close your ears now (laughter). This man walks on water for me. I think he did something so phenomenal for the community. It is indescribable. I'm at a loss for words because I think it's really done a lot. It's done a lot for us artists. I mean, this is just a dream come true for me and, I think for the community, it's spectacular. It is just spectacular.

Val Zavala>> Where did you work before you moved here?

Linda Peterson>> Out of my house.

Val Zavala>> You hear that a lot.

Linda Peterson>> Oh, just things everywhere. And to come here and be able to spread out and have a nice place, and the interaction with the other artists is phenomenal. You know, the give and take between us is just fantastic.

Val Zavala>> Now this is Larissa?

Josh Addison>> Hi, Larissa.

Larissa>> Hi, Josh. How are you?

Josh Addison>> I'm fine. What are you working on?

Larissa>> I'm working on my Marina Park entryway sign project.

Josh Addison>> All right, that's right.

Larissa>> I'm starting it today.

Val Zavala>> Is this stained glass?

Larissa>> This is all stained glass.

Val Zavala>> It is stained glass.

Josh Addison>> So these are all the panels?

Larissa>> These are all the panels.

Josh Addison>> And this is going down to the entrance to Marina Park, right? Down in the Pierpont neighborhood?

Val Zavala>> Oh, how great.

Josh Addison>> Yeah. It's the signage for a community park down there. It's going to be such a great --

Val Zavala>> -- so you do it in sections and then they move it over and place it?

Larissa>> I'm going to move it over.

Val Zavala>> You're going to move it over. How long is it going to take you to do all these?

Larissa>> It has to be done by June 30.

Val Zavala>> Oh, my gosh. That's pretty soon.

Josh Addison>> And you're using big pieces on this one. All your other work is these micro tiny pieces. Larissa's work process is so demanding. She just is so focused and so many hours. It's really amazing.

Val Zavala>> If there's one thing Josh supports more than artists, it's kids. He's got three girls of his own.

[Film Clip]

Val Zavala>> They and their friends have come to the Arts Factory today for art classes which are also open to the neighborhood kids for free.

Elena Brokaw>> My favorite thing is all of the kids' classes that they have here. The Avenue is a place where, you know, there are a lot of families who live here and the kids just walk on over with their parents or whatever and come in here for free classes after school. It's been an amazing asset for this community.

Josh Addison>> What are you doing, Linda?

Val Zavala>> Linda Carson is a ceramics artist who shares a space with her husband, a painter.

Josh Addison>> This table is approximately half, right? It looks like about as much space as you have.

Val Zavala>> "It's looking like one-quarter, three-quarters here. You're going to have to fight back (laughter)." It took a million dollars to renovate this twenty thousand square foot building, and how much is the rent? About half the market rate. "So it costs you personally two fifty a month?"

Linda Carson>> Yeah.

Val Zavala>> Wow.

Josh Addison>> And this is over five hundred square feet of space that we're standing in, so it's a little but under a dollar a square foot.

Val Zavala>> Under a dollar a square foot.

Josh Addison>> Which is well below the market. Bob Shepherd, this is Val.

Val Zavala>> "Hi, how are you?" For Bob Shepherd, finding a place big enough for his looms was a Godsend. "What makes this good?"

Bob Shepherd>> Look at that skylight. And there's affordable, good restaurants down the street, cheap Mexican food.

Val Zavala>> The Mexican food he's talking about is just a few blocks away. Juan Gonzalez is more than happy to see artists move into the neighborhood.

Juan Gonzalez>> The community has improved, I think. It's been a lot cleaner, a lot safer. I think we're moving in the right direction.

Val Zavala>> Do artists like Mexican food?

Juan Gonzalez>> Yes, they do (laughter). They like spicy food also.

Val Zavala>> It's taken Josh Addison two years to renovate the old mattress factory, but he's not finished yet.

Josh Addison>> I have a waiting list of over a dozen people who want space, so we're going to make a few more studios in here. We'll still have a waiting list in case there are any vacancies. What we're doing is taking this original structure and cleaning it up and restoring it and retrofitting it to current seismic standards, new foundation, and really getting it back on its feet. It's got good bones. It's got a lot of very nice old clear timber in it. Within about three or four months, it will be available to use.

Val Zavala>> Hello.

Josh Addison>> Hi, Susan.

Susan Cook>> Welcome.

Val Zavala>> Thank you. This is amazing. What gorgeous colors.

Susan Cook>> Thank you.

Val Zavala>> Susan Cook used to remodel homes before she took up painting.

Susan Cook>> I wanted to be part of what's happening in Ventura.

Val Zavala>> What is happening in Ventura?

Susan Cook>> Well, it's a renaissance for art basically. I think that Ventura looks at the artists as a valuable commodity.

Val Zavala>> The Bell Arts Factory is just one building with a new life, so why are city officials so excited? Because it brings Ventura one step closer to a larger vision of making the city an arts center, what they call a cultural destination.

Elena Brokaw>> This project, I think, is so crucial for the turning point of Ventura. This is the private sector stepping up. The public sector, or the city, has supported the arts pretty steadily for the last ten years plus. Josh's move to create affordable spaces for artists to live is a wonderful turning point for our community.

Val Zavala>> This is a perfect weekend to visit the Bell Arts Factory. It's part of an open house of more than forty artists' studios. For details, go to their website at focusonthemasters.com. I'm Val Zavala. For everyone at Life and Times, thanks for watching. We'll see you next time.

Announcer>> Life and Times was made possible through the generous support of the L.K. Whittier Foundation dedicated to improving the quality of life by supporting innovative endeavors in the fields of medicine, health, science and education.

And by a generous grant from Jim and Anne Rothenberg.

Sponsored in part by:


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