Day of Jewish Unity 2013 - VC Star

Israel Weiss stood at a small table smiling and greeting everyone who walked by.

“It’s a beautiful day, and it’s perfect for celebrating,” Weiss said. “That’s my job today — to spread the word of goodness and happiness. Every religion, every person can do a good deed, and one good deed is one day closer to happiness.”

Weiss attended the celebration of Lag b’Omer on the athletic fields of Thousand Oaks High School. The Jewish holiday celebrates a break in the Omer, a seven-week period of partial mourning when some festivities are banned. It’s also celebrated as the day that Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai, a second-century rabbi, is thought to have revealed the study of the Kabbalah to the world.

“The rabbi’s love for all people, for every human being, is where the festival gets it origins,” Weiss said.

The festival featured music, food, dancing and booths filled with arts, crafts, games and area businesses.

Bob Gray, of El Segundo, manned a booth at which he signed copies of a book called “Get Chai on Life” using the Hebrew letter “chai,” a symbol of life. The book consists of spiral-bound black pages.

“It’s your story. You get to write it and illustrate it,” Gray said, adding that all Jews are commanded to “take five” and pray and reflect on their lives.

“The most important thing to me is all of the different Jewish denominations represented today,” said Nomi Greenwald, of Thousand Oaks, who brought her daughter, Zahava, 6, and son, Ephraim, 18 months. Zahava attends Conejo Jewish Day School and was rehearsing with the school choir before performing on the stage.

“There are more Orthodox and more moderate Jewish people here, and it’s a beautiful thing to have us all together just sharing the day,” Greenwald said.

Chava Tombosky, the master of ceremonies, said the women in the lay community of local Jewish organizations including Chabad put the event together.

“Conejo Valley is so spread out, so is Ventura County, and to bring all of us here together like this is amazing,” she said.

“The impetus behind this whole day was all of the various Chabad centers in the county coming together to emphasize Jewish unity,” said Rabbi Dov Muchnik of Chabad of Oxnard. “Jews of all persuasions from throughout the community are here celebrating, and it’s not about affiliation. It’s about what unites us. Our motto is: one people, one family, one dream — and the dream is a world of godliness and peace and blessings.”

As the Jewish rock band Moshav warmed up onstage, the students from Conejo Jewish Day School’s choir sang along with them in Hebrew.

“Our school is very open and very tolerant,” said Debora Parks, general studies principal at the school. “We have a wide range of levels of religiosity from conservative to liberal, and so it fits in with the day.”

“Imagine if all of the countries who brought money in and bought weapons with them used that money instead for education, for healing,” Weiss said. “That’s what we want to reflect. That’s the vision.”