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Historic Torahs on loan around Southern California reunited in Fullerton for anniversary

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Historic Torahs on loan around Southern California reunited in Fullerton for anniversary


  • A Torah, written on deer skin and believed to be from the 1850s, is part of a collection that survived the Holocaust in former Czechoslovakia. It was display at Temple Beth Tikvah in Fullerton on Sunday, April 14, 2024 with 19 others that are on loan to Southern California synagogues. (Photo by Mindy Schauer, Orange County Register/SCNG)

  • People gather at Temple Beth Tikvah in Fullerton on Sunday,...

    People gather at Temple Beth Tikvah in Fullerton on Sunday, April 14, 2024 where19 historic Czech Torah’s, or scrolls, were on display. The scrolls are part of a collection loaned out to Southern California synagogues by the Memorial Scrolls Trust in England. (Photo by Mindy Schauer, Orange County Register/SCNG)

  • Rabbi Stan Levy of B’nai Horin in Los Angeles, right,...

    Rabbi Stan Levy of B’nai Horin in Los Angeles, right, shows off artwork that adorns his Temple’s Holocaust-era Torah from former Czechoslovakia on Sunday, April 14, 2024. The piece, also known as a breast plate, was created by an artist who used damaged words removed from the Torah, or Hebrew bible, when it was repaired. (Photo by Mindy Schauer, Orange County Register/SCNG)

  • Holocaust survivor and artist, Eva Nathanson, shows off a “yad,”...

    Holocaust survivor and artist, Eva Nathanson, shows off a “yad,” or Torah pointer that she created with a stone from Isreal. She used three different metals to symbolize the barbed wire of concentration camps and the idea “that we are all different, yet the same,” she said during a gathering at Temple Beth Tikvah in Fullerton on Sunday, April 14, 2024. (Photo by Mindy Schauer, Orange County Register/SCNG)

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  • Rabbi Stan Levy of B’nai Horin in Los Angeles holds...

    Rabbi Stan Levy of B’nai Horin in Los Angeles holds artwork that adorns his temple’s Torah. The historic scroll comes from former Czechoslovakia and was part of a display of other Southern California scrolls from that region. The event was hosted by Temple Beth Tikvah in Fullerton on Sunday, April 14, 2024. (Photo by Mindy Schauer, Orange County Register/SCNG)

  • Czech Torahs from 19 Southern California Temples are displayed during...

    Czech Torahs from 19 Southern California Temples are displayed during a service at Temple Beth Tikvah on Sunday, April 14, 2024. The synagogue is celebrathing its 60th anniversary. (Photo by Mindy Schauer, Orange County Register/SCNG)

  • Laila Alamilla of Downey watches as 19 Czech Torahs, or...

    Laila Alamilla of Downey watches as 19 Czech Torahs, or scrolls are paraded at Temple Beth Tikvah in Fullerton on Sunday, April 14, 2024. After surviving the Holocaust and a communist regime, the scrolls are now loaned out by the Memorial Scrolls Trust in England. Barry Bloch from Temple Beth Ohr in La Mirada, is in front. (Photo by Mindy Schauer, Orange County Register/SCNG)

  • Rabbi Stan Levy of B’nai Horin in Los Angeles, carries...

    Rabbi Stan Levy of B’nai Horin in Los Angeles, carries a
    Torah that survived the Holocaust during a cermony at Temple Beth Tikvah in Fullerton on at Sunday, April 14, 2024. (Photo by Mindy Schauer, Orange County Register/SCNG)

  • Adam Filowitz, a son of Holocaust survivors, carries Temple Beth...

    Adam Filowitz, a son of Holocaust survivors, carries Temple Beth Tikvah’s Czech scroll during a ceremony at the synagogue in Fullerton on Sunday, April 14, 2024. (Photo by Mindy Schauer, Orange County Register/SCNG)

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Torah scrolls, once belonging to Jewish temples throughout Czechoslovakia, were reunited at Temple Beth Tikvah in Fullerton as the synagogue celebrated its 60th anniversary.

On loan to 19 Southern California temples, the scrolls were displayed after a ceremony that offered congregants from each synagogue messages about hope, history, and heartache.

The one-day event also commemorated the 60th anniversary of the Memorial Scrolls Trust, which serves as the guardian to more than 1,500 Czech Torahs that survived the Nazi occupation of the region and later the shuttering of synagogues under regimes that stifled the Jewish faith.

“What a wonderful celebration to share,” Jeffrey Ohrenstein, a London resident and chairman of the Trust, said at Sunday’s event showcasing the collection.

In 1964, the scrolls, each containing five handwritten books of the Hebrew bible, were donated to the Westminster Synagogue in London where the Trust was formed.

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“Since then we have been distributing (them) to communities, organizations and synagogues around the world,” Ohrenstein said. “We’ve allocated some 1,400 scrolls to 1,300 communities and 1,000 of those are in North America.”

The Fullerton temple has three such scrolls, but only one of them is “kosher,” or in perfect condition to be used in an official manner, Temple Beth Tikvah Assistant Rabbi Miriam Van Raalte said.

Most of the Czech Torahs are from the 18th and 19th centuries, she said, “But there are some that are much older.”

“The use of these scrolls, either for reading in public or for using symbolically for show, evokes memories of Jewish history, the struggle for survival, and the continuity of the Jewish people,” said Van Raalte. “We let the congregation know that this is a scroll that faced extinction.”

During the Nazi occupation of Czechoslovakia, the scrolls and other Jewish artifacts were taken to the Jewish Museum in Prague, which had been established in 1906 and became a warehouse of treasures collected by the Germans. The vast inventory “was catalogued by Jews who were deported to concentration camps once the work was finished,” according to the Trust. “Unfortunately very few of them survived.”

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Ohrenstein told the story of an art dealer who was looking to buy a gift for his wife nearly two decades after World War II. The dealer was brought to a destroyed synagogue outside of Prague. There he was shown a damp warehouse “full of Torah” scrolls.

Philanthropist Ralph Yablon bought the scrolls after learning of their existence from the art dealer. He then donated them to the Westminster Synagogue in London.

The synagogue’s rabbi addressed dozens of congregants at Temple Beth Tikvah via recorded video on Sunday.

Following the ceremony, the gathered Torahs were displayed on long bridge tables. People looked closely at the Hebrew lettering and gently ran their fingers over the worn wooden dowels holding the scrolls. The wooden pieces are call the atzei chayim, meaning “tree of life.”

Pedro and Laura Alamilla of Downey visited with their three children.

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As they observed the Torahs, they were overcome with emotion, Pedro Alamilla saying, “We’re at a loss for words.”



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All lanes reopen on 5 Freeway in Oceanside after officer-involved shooting forces closure

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All lanes reopen on 5 Freeway in Oceanside after officer-involved shooting forces closure


OCEANSIDE, Calif. (KABC) — Hours after an officer-involved shooting prompted the full closure of the 5 Freeway in Oceanside, all lanes were reopened Saturday afternoon as the investigation continues.

“The 5 is closed in both directions between Oceanside and the Orange County border while police investigate a shooting,” Caltrans said in a social media post at 9:39 a.m., adding that drivers should use the 15 Freeway as an alternative route.

The Buena Park Police Department said its officers attempted to pull over a car for vehicle code violations just before 1 p.m. in the area of La Palma Avenue and San Marino Drive, but the car failed to stop and a pursuit ensued.

“At 1:05 a.m. we asked CHP to take over the pursuit. They did but requested our K-9 unit stay in the pursuit,” Buena Park police said in a statement.

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Police said that at 2:10 a.m., the suspect vehicle was brought to a stop and then an officer-involved shooting occurred. It was not immediately known what led to the shooting.

A SigAlert was issued shortly after 2:30 a.m. between Harbor Drive in Oceanside and Christianitos Road in San Clemente, according to the California Highway Patrol.

As several lanes were reopened hours later, the Highway Patrol urged motorists to continue to use caution and watch for personnel in the area.

The investigation is ongoing.


Copyright © 2025 KABC Television, LLC. All rights reserved.

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Chris Bell scores 21, sparks California to 91-67 victory over Sacramento State

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Chris Bell scores 21, sparks California to 91-67 victory over Sacramento State


BERKELEY, Calif. — – Chris Bell scored 17 of his 21 points in the first half and California cruised to a 91-67 victory over Sacramento State on Friday night in a campus game of the Empire Classic.

Bell and Justin Pippen combined for 29 points to help California take a 47-33 lead into the break. Bell sank 6 of 8 shots with three 3-pointers in the first 20 minutes.

John Camden’s 3-pointer capped an 11-2 run to begin the second half and the Golden Bears (5-1) were never threatened. Cal took its biggest lead at 81-47 on a 3-pointer by Camden with nine minutes left to play.

Pippen finished with 16 points and five assists. Dai Dai Ames also scored 16 and Camden totaled 14 points, five rebounds and five assists.

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Brandon Gardner hit 4 of 5 from 3-point range and scored 19 to lead the Hornets (3-4). Mark Lavrenov had 14 points and Prophet Johnson notched his fifth double-double of the young season with 12 points and 11 rebounds.

The Golden Bears shot 50.8% overall and made 15 of 38 from beyond the arc (39.5%).

Sac State made only 18 of 67 shots (26.9%) overall, including 7 of 24 from distance. The Hornets made 24 of 30 free throws, while Cal sank 10 of 19.

—— Get poll alerts and updates on the AP Top 25 throughout the season. Sign up here and here (AP News mobile app). AP college basketball: https://apnews.com/hub/ap-top-25-college-basketball-poll and https://apnews.com/hub/college-basketballbr/]

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‘Toxic’: California ex-police chief tells of colleagues’ racist harassment campaign

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‘Toxic’: California ex-police chief tells of colleagues’ racist harassment campaign


The embattled former police chief of Vallejo, a San Francisco Bay Area city that has attracted national attention over police violence, has said that he endured a steady procession of racist remarks from colleagues and online harassment and threats that ultimately led him to resign.

By the time Chief Shawny Williams tendered his resignation in 2022, he said he had received a slew of threats – at his office, at his home, and in his email inbox. Most demanded he step down. But even after resigning, the threats still came by mail to his home and a second property he owned outside the state.

“They were hostile, toxic,” Williams testified in a deposition on Wednesday. “I had safety concerns.”

Williams made the statements as part of a federal civil rights lawsuit against the Vallejo police department brought by Deyana Jenkins, whom officers pulled from a car and tased during a traffic stop in 2019. The incident occurred months after six Vallejo police officers shot her uncle, Willie McCoy, a 20-year-old rapper, 55 times while he was asleep in his car. The killing attracted widespread attention and thrust a spotlight on the department’s use of force.

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The deposition, first reported by the Vallejo Sun, offers a window into what Williams describes as a pattern of hostile, threatening and retaliatory behavior that ended his brief attempt to impose accountability on a department known nationally for unchecked violence and resistance to reform.

Vallejo police officers have repeatedly drawn concern over their practices, perhaps most notoriously for the ritual of “badge bending”, in which officers reportedly fold back a tip on their badges after killing someone on duty.

Williams took over the department in 2019 with a mandate to reform it. His three-year stint coincided with a national reckoning over police violence, sparked by nationwide protests over the 2020 murder of George Floyd at the hands of Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin.

But Williams said he experienced harsh backlash for his efforts to impose accountability on the department’s use of force.

“He was our first Black police chief in a department that’s always been known as a racist police department,” Melissa Nold, the lawyer representing Jenkins in the federal case, told the Guardian. “To hear that he was run off because he was doing reform and discipline – that’s very concerning. It doesn’t seem like it should be possible that the people being reformed have that much power.”

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In his deposition, Williams said a colleague made several disturbing statements, including: “This Black Jesus can’t save us.”

He described “racial hostilities or comments” made to him by a former police captain. Williams also said the city attorney threatened him, but did not describe how.

The Vallejo police department did not immediately respond to a Guardian request for comment.

Williams also received several anonymous threats, through the post and online. Three weeks before resigning in October of 2022, he received a “Halloween card threat” that said “quit today” and emitted a deafening screech that “filled the hallway” and kept blaring until the battery ran out.

A secretary opened the letter. When Williams heard it he “actually thought it was some kind of domestic violence occurring outside the building because it was so loud”.

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Williams also said that he received anonymous threats, after an officer who shot an unarmed 22-year-old in 2020 later rejoined the police department.

Officer Jarrett Tonn shot and killed Sean Monterrosa after an alleged looting incident at a Walgreens during a George Floyd-inspired protest. Williams dismissed Tonn after the shooting.

But an arbitrator reinstated Tonn in 2023, after Williams left the force. Tonn was promoted to sergeant in September of this year, according to the Vallejo Sun. Afterwards, Williams said he received messages that said “some bad things were coming”.

Williams said he asked the department to investigate the threats and raised concerns to city manager Mike Malone. But the city failed to act, and Malone appeared uninterested in helping him, Williams testified.

“One of the things that I guess exacerbated my concerns was [Malone’s] statement that this is not going to stop – or ‘They’re not going to stop until I fire you or you quit,’” Williams said in the deposition. “And he said that over half a dozen times.”

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By “they”, Williams said the city manager was referring to the Vallejo Police Officers’ Association (VPAO), which serves as the bargaining unit for all ranks of police officer except the chief in its negotiations with the city. The VPOA did not immediately respond to a Guardian request for comment.

“My resignation was a result of a pattern of constructive termination hostility,” Williams testified. “There was racial animus, retaliatory things that were happening that just made it unbearable or impossible for me to perform my duties in a safe environment.”



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