How long does one have to wait until after graduation before you can
make jokes about the Technique? And what are the
forbidden forms of Alexander humor? What are you not allowed to joke
about?
I need to learn these norms fast.
And to think that our father in Heaven, FM, was allowed to say that
the problem with Jesus was that he didn’t have a system.
In some ways, those were better days. Oy, to think what would happen
to a harmless wretch such as myself if I ever threw a book at a pupil.
Among the posh crowd who summer in the Hamptons, on Long Island, is one of Israel’s most prominent rabbis, Yoshiyahu Pinto. Pinto heads up Shuva Israel, an international network of charities, yeshivas and other religious institutions. In August 2008 and in April 2009 he stayed at rented accommodations at 29 Lily Pond Lane, for which his nonprofit organization paid $70,000 and $40,000, respectively. The second stay was just one week.
Why did a nonprofit dedicated to religious study pay to rent a home in the Hamptons for its head? That’s just one of many questions that Pinto’s critics in Israel and the United States are asking. Pinto’s lifestyle does not suit a rabbi, certainly not one who heads a charity, they say.
I’ve launched an all-out war on my well-being.
My first assault was a video last week (now taken off-line) about how I use whips and chains to prompt my pupils to pay proper attention to their primary control.
On Torah Talk last night, Luke says: “I was reading Bava Kamma the other day when I should’ve been davening (praying), and I learned about something called visual trespass. I can look out from my window and a few buildings over, I can look in the apartment window of this couple. There’s a man there and there’s a woman there. Sometimes I look up from my Torah studies and I look at them and then I remember what I studied in Bava Kamma, that there’s such a thing as visual trespass. You’re trespassing on someone’s privacy if you’re watching them in private.”
Rabbi Rabbs: “That’s right.”
Luke: “It makes me think I’m committing a sin.”
Rabbi: “It’s a form of stealing. Jews are supposed to be tznious (modest). Not just in showing, but you shouldn’t be searching for it.”
Luke: “So is it bad that I have a telescope set up in my room?”
Rabbi: “What do you think?”
Luke: “I think I should get myself to a 12-step meeting soon.”
“I haven’t been in about three months. I was going to go Sunday afternoon but I wanted to see the second half of the Denver-New England game.”
Rabbi: “What’s going on with your career?”
Luke: “I’m trying to learn responsibility and becoming part of a community of Alexander teachers. It’s supposed to be collegial. We’re not supposed to disparage each other publicly.”
Rabbi: “That must be a real test for you.”
Luke: “I want to make these wacky videos where I pull out my whips and chains and say this is how I teach Alexander Technique.”
Rabbi: “What is that about?”
Luke: “Some people in the Alexander community said it wasn’t funny so I took it down.”
Rabbi: “Good. Then I didn’t have to tell you. What were you thinking?”
Luke: “I thought it was funny.”
Rabbi: “Dude, you’re starting a business. You’re supposed to be professional and legitimate and it seems like you are doing everything you can to self-sabotage. I’m glad that other people told you that.
“It’s like day one on my own, the first thing I’m going to do…”
Luke: “Is to make an S-M video about the Alexander Technique.”
Rabbi: “Yeah, my first day as a professional business guy. This is my business. I just graduated. The first day, I’m going to put out a video that makes myself look like a total ass on the internet. This is going to be great. Come over to my place and I’ll give you whips and chains treatment.”
Luke: “That’s pretty much it.”
Rabbi: “Why can’t you just go straight?”
Luke: “I’m starting to think that that video wasn’t such a good idea. I got a little bit of flak for it.”
Rabbi: “I wasn’t even going to say anything. This guy’s on his own.”
Luke: “I’m trying to learn to be more professional but the wacky Luke just keeps coming out.”
“I don’t have any therapy for three weeks because of Christmas break so I really hope I don’t go off the rails.”
“Don’t repeat what the Lakewood Rav just wrote. Yeah, I did some wacky things in the past.”
“I’ve been sending out these email pitches about the Alexander Technique but I have had no response. I just have two students.”
The rabbi clears his throat. “I’ve been having throat problems.”
Luke: “Well, free your neck and think up.”
Rabbi: “Will that help my throat?”
Luke: “Yes.”
Rabbi: “Maybe people will see this show, see that you’re a little bit normal than you appear in your videos, and will be tempted to do it because Rabbi Rabbs gives his…”
Luke: “Hecsher.”
Rabbi: “I’ve let you work on my neck and we’ve put it on camera. If I let him, then you can too. Guys especially have nothing to fear.”
“You should give this guy a chance. You’re like a drug dealer. The first one’s free.”
Luke: “I’ll give a free consultation. Call me. Go to Alexander90210.com.”
Rabbi: “Anything else to say?”
Luke: “I hope I don’t keep self-sabotaging.”
Rabbi: “Folks, Levi is very legit. He’s on the up-and-up. He’s worked hard on this. How long were you in school?”
Luke: “Three years.”
Rabbi: “The guy is ready to go pro. If you want your necks…”
Luke: “Free your neck.”
Rabbi: “Have a good use”
Luke: “Of yourself. Move with poise and elegance.”
Rabbi: “And don’t compress. And think up and all this stuff, this is the guy to come to. I would go to this guy before anyone else for Alexander Technique. Just don’t look at his videos because he’ll do everything he can to sabotage himself.”
Jack* emails: “This is very common in new medical house staff, the only difference is that most of them don’t blog or make videos. It takes a long time, for some of us it never happens, to believe you actually ‘are’ what your degree says you are. At the beginning it is funny to be called “Dr” or be referred to as a someone who can help someone when just a few months ago one was just another student, hanging out with buddies on Thu night and cramming for exams. But one must avoid self-deprecating remarks and the like, because the faith in the practitioner is an important part of the healing process for the patient. The new practitioner learns to put a ‘professional face’ on prior to entering the patient’s room, until over time it becomes natural. The difference for you is that you have this internet persona which you will also have to undo if you wish to build a practice, since its not likely that many will agree to put their health in the hands of someone who jokes about sexual deviancy, etc, with regards to their practice. If I saw a line like “Guys especially have nothing to fear.” (Rabbi Hershel Rabbs Remer) on a site, I would call a different practioner, since why pay for a joker when one can have the real thing, like Lutz on your linked list who makes it sound natural that working with him will open new vistas in perception, etc. You will need to play the part, at least like an actor, in terms of patient interactions, until you’ve gained some field experience and the experience radiates naturally from the initial encounter.”
We discuss Judaism’s views on abortion. There are various opinions as to how Judaism views abortion. Some rabbis never permit it unless the mother’s life is at risk, while some permit it during the first 40 days of pregnancy even when there is no risk of death to the mother, but as long as there is risk that the child will cause emotional problems for her.
Luke: “Most of the Jewish girls that I’ve been with said that they’d just get rid of it because they didn’t want to be shackled to me. And every time they saw the kid, they’d remember me. And it was just way too emotionally traumatic for them.”
Alexander teacher John Coffin writes:
What would it mean for the Technique to be ‘spiritual work?’ Alexander was atheist, as was Dewey. The books were kept in print by the son of CA Watts, editor of the Rationlist Press Association.
Peter Scott (for example) was a far-right Roman Catholic and the current body of teachers and students is probably disproportionately slanted towards every imagineable thread of New Agery.
So I don’t think we can ascribe any religious content inherent in the work itself. At least not in any way that can’t be rationalized away.
BUT.
The Technique strikes at the very heart of our understanding of our selves and our ability to will and choose. As such, I think that every real student of the Technique will undergo what might be called a ‘spiritual’ change or challenge. I certainly did; though I find the word ‘spiritual’ far to vague and waffly to want to use it.
Many ‘iron clad atheists’ are followers of rather dumb philosophies which teach an exaggerated sense of ‘free-will.’ Grasping the full implications of faulty sensory appreciation might be devastasting for such a person.
Most New Agers seem to share a willingness to believe on the basis of anecdotes and subjective feelings, often accompanied by a snide dismissal of ‘mere’ reality or ‘materialist’ science. They too may not be able to accept the gifts of the Technique at the price of their worldview.
So I agree that this can be described as ‘spiritual work.’ This may be why so many are unwilling to approach the work in the first place–or expend so much effort in denying the Technique’s uniqueness and value and constantly degrade it to the level of ‘somatic practice,’ Physical Culture, or fad therapy.
Air quality must not have much to do with a long life if people in Loma Linda are living so long. The air there is horrible.
LOMA LINDA, Calif. — In this small city, home to a large Seventh-day Adventist community, the average lifespan goes well past 80, and it has one of the highest rates of longevity in the world according to some estimates.
When researchers descended on this affluent city east of Los Angeles several years ago to determine why, the theories piled up: Perhaps it was the vegetarian diet kept by many Adventists? Maybe it was their close communal ties? Or the frequent use of sprawling trails in the parks here?
But one thing seemed certain to researchers: residents were not living into the next century by eating fast food.
So last week, when the City Council approved Loma Linda’s first McDonald’s restaurant, many residents bemoaned the decision, worrying that the officials were jeopardizing the city’s reputation as a paragon of healthy lifestyles.
Wayne Dysinger, a physician and public health professor in the preventive medicine department at Loma Linda University’s School of Medicine, grew up in the city and remembers a time when there were no such restaurants. A generation ago, it was nearly impossible to even find meat within city limits. Now, he worries about his children.
“We know from research that if a school is near a fast-food restaurant, the kids there are more likely to be obese,” he said. “We will never eliminate unhealthy choices, and pretty much everyone has an unhealthy treat once in a while. I am going to drive by that intersection every day and it’s fairly likely that they will say ‘Oh Daddy, can we stop there’ more often. Why do we need to encourage that?”
The new McDonald’s restaurant would hardly be the first fast-food joint around — there are already a handful of places offering assembly-line burgers and fries within the eight square miles of the city. And the area has deep roots to the icon that so many residents detest: the site of the original McDonald’s restaurant is less than five miles away, in San Bernardino.
Still, in one sign of Loma Linda’s historical distaste for fast food, restaurants are required to go through a special approval process for drive-through windows. Once, when business proved slightly sluggish, a local chain crafted a special vegetarian menu dubbed “Loma Linda specials.”
I discuss the weekly Torah portion with Rabbi Rabbs Mondays at 5:00 pm PST on the Rabbi Rabbs cam and on YouTube. Facebook Fan Page.
This week we study Parashat Miketz (Genesis 41:1-44:17).
* What do you do when a paranoid pyromaniac haunts your shul, looking for handouts?
* Here’s a transcript of some highlights from the show.
* Rabbi Berel Wein writes: “The psalmist asks the question “from where shall my salvation arise?””
We don’t know from where salvation will arrive. We don’t know if it will arrive. We can maximize our chances by maintaining a strong network of ties to other people, developing our own emotional resilience, and developing mastery of as much of life as possible.
* Rabbi Wein writes: “Yosef is saved from a life of slavery and prison and transformed into a royal magistrate in an instant.”
If Yosef didn’t have himself together and own a serious set of skills, his good fortune would not have occurred and would not have lasted.
* Rabbi Wein writes: “…every person in the world is potentially God’s messenger.”
* I’ve been studying some Talmud (Bava Kamma or some such tractate) and learning about a sin called “visual trespass.” I think when I look out my window and into the apartment of the couple up the street, I fear I’m committing a big sin. I’m sure I would be better served by studying Torah instead of spying on my neighbors.
* Rabbi Wein writes: “One of the great characteristics of Yosefs personality, as we view it through the lens of the Torah narrative, is his adaptability to change circumstances while retaining his inner self-confidence and rock-hard faith.”
While conserving their past practices, Jews have always been quick to adapt to new technologies and economies.
* Rabbi Berel Wein writes: “In the rough and tumble of Jewish and Israeli politics, organizational life and competitive societal forces, the temptation for excluding others and even punishing them is very strong. But the lesson of Joseph should remain instructional to all of us today as well. A Jewish society that can cast away old hatreds and feuds and truly attempt to be conciliatory one to another will certainly be stronger and holier in purpose and action. In this respect, we should all profit from and attempt to emulate Joseph’s wisdom and course of behavior.”
Joseph goes from interpreting the dream for pharoah to giving advice. This from a guy fresh out of prison. It takes a lot of self-confidence. Jews do not generally lack for confidence.
Joseph interpreting dreams sounds like modern psycho-therapy. Today we turn to shrinks to interpret our dreams.
AS: “According to the Tanchuma, Pharoah gave a changed version of the dream in order to confuse and test Joseph, but Joseph corrected him every time, until Pharoah was amazed and exclaimed, “Were you eavesdropping on my dreams?””
A good therapist detects the thru-line in your session even if you go off course and say contradictory things. A good shrink doesn’t accept your recapitulation of events as gospel truth. He asks questions and probes for truths not immediately in your ken.
That’s why I often feel like I understand myself better after psycho-therapy.
In a sermon at Stephen S. Wise one Sabbath morning in 1998, Dennis Prager shared this story: After his first divorce, he entered therapy. When he relayed a painful story from childhood, the psychiatrist said, “I suspect that didn’t happen the way you relayed it.”
And Dennis said he doubled up in pain.
One of the characteristics of a leader is that they don’t only try to tell you things you want to hear.
* Gen. 42:1. “Live and not die.” In ancient Hebrew thought, severe poverty is like death. Nothing in Judaism says poverty is good. That’s a Christian perspective.
* Jacob tells his sons in Gen. 42:1: “Why do make yourselves conspicuous?”
AS: “Jacob’s rhetorical question has been the theme of many leaders who exhorted their fellow Jews not to flaunt their wealth and success to envious and often anti-Semitic neighbors. Whatever food Jacob’s family had was honestly acquired, but even honest resources should be displayed judiciously.”
* Why didn’t Joseph get in touch with Jacob and let him know he was OK? Why did he name his first son for making him forget his childhood?
* Gen. 42:7. Why is Joseph so rough on his brothers? According to one Christian commentary, it is part of the Jewish penchant for vengeance (as opposed to Christian charity).
* Does Joseph need to do anything to make his dream-prophecies come true? Why not just leave that to God? Did Joseph’s ego need to have his brothers bow down to him?
AS: “Were it not for his obligation to carry out the dreams, Joseph would never have allowed his father to languish for so many years without knowing that his beloved Joseph was alive.”
I have many fervent dreams but I’ve never made anyone suffer so that I could accomplish them. Perhaps I am more righteous than Joseph?
* Joseph seems to have assimilated into Egyptian values. He practices divination (Gen. 44:5). He’s shaved his beard. He dresses like an Egyptian and follows their practice of not eating with non-Egyptians (religious Jews will only eat kosher food but they have no problem hosting non-Jews for meals).
* Why does Joseph practice divination? (Gen. 44:5)
* Gen. 42:9. Joseph accuses his brothers of being spies. I also wonder what you’ve got to hide when you accuse me of being a spy. What’s Joseph got to hide? How secure is he in his position? How common was it for Egypt to be ruled by a non-Egyptian? The goyim often don’t like this.
* Gen. 42:24. Joseph weeps. How much easier is it to weep for people than to do something to alleviate their suffering?
* Gen. 42:25. Does Joseph have money put in his brother’s sacks to provide them with the opportunity for atoning for selling him into slavery or to torture them?
* Gen. 42:28. This reminds me of the story of The Count of Monte Cristo. R S.R. Hirsch says: “Joseph wanted the brothers to realize how fully they were in his power and that he could as he pleased with them.”
* Gen. 43:34 Joseph has Benjamin served five times as much as any other brother. Creepy!
In the following case, disgruntled congregant Allan Lowy is suing the shul (Western Jewish Institute aka Shaarei Tefila).
From LASuperiorCourt.org:
Case Number: BC475366
ALLAN LOWY ET AL VS WESTERN JEWISH INSTITUTE ET AL
Filing Date: 12/16/2011
Case Type: Prtnrship & Corp Governance Case (General Jurisdiction)
Status: Pending
Future Hearings
None
Documents Filed | Proceeding Information
Parties
Click on any of the below link(s) to see names that begin with the letter indicated:
B – U W – W
BERGER NOTA – Defendant/Respondent
BRETTLER EVA – Plaintiff/Petitioner
BURSTON ALTER – Defendant/Respondent
CONGREGATION SHAAREI TEFILA – Defendant/Respondent’s DBA
DEER JONATHAN M. ESQ. – Attorney for Plaintiff/Petitioner
DOES 1 TO 50 – Defendant/Respondent
FEIGELSTOCK SHOLOM – Defendant/Respondent
FEINBLUM WALTER – Plaintiff/Petitioner
FISH EMIL – Plaintiff/Petitioner
FRIEDMAN CHAIM – Defendant/Respondent
GOLDMAN DAVE – Defendant/Respondent
GOLDSTEIN ALAN – Defendant/Respondent
GOLDSTEIN BARUCH – Defendant/Respondent
KIN AARON – Defendant/Respondent
LEVIN DANIEL – Defendant/Respondent
LOWY ALLAN – Plaintiff/Petitioner
MORRIS DAVID – Defendant/Respondent
SCHAMES JOSEPH – Defendant/Respondent
SCHONDORF HERMAN – Defendant/Respondent
UNGAR SUSAN – Plaintiff/Petitioner
UNGAR VICTOR – Plaintiff/Petitioner
Click on any of the below link(s) to see names that begin with the letter indicated:
TOP B – U W – W
WESTERN JEWISH INSTITUTE – Defendant/Respondent
WILHELM BEREL – Defendant/Respondent
You’ll run into Gary Stephen Weksler at many a Fairfax-La Brea shul.
He’s distinctive. He’s about 50 years old and he’s missing a hand because he blew it off.
He has three felony convictions for setting off explosions and other crimes.
He goes around different shuls looking for handouts and looking to enjoy a kiddish. You’ll find him at many a fabrengen. He seems not at all abashed by his felony convictions. He’s convinced he’s a victim of law enforcement harassment and he’s happy to share his opinion on these matters.
The Los Angeles Times reports June 29, 1989:
Gary Stephen Weksler, focus of a police investigation into two explosions that tore through a Koreatown apartment building Tuesday, has a fixation with pyrotechnics and weapons, a relative and court records indicated Wednesday.
Moreover, the life of the 38-year-old suspect was apparently complicated by severe personality problems and a persecution complex and fueled by memories of recurrent run-ins with the law and a broken home.
Picture Emerges
From court records and an interview with Weksler’s uncle, Sid Weksler, a Los Angeles food processing executive, emerges a picture of a loner who could never hold a job for long and who never found his niche in society.
“He’s a juvenile delinquent,” Sid Weksler said of his nephew. “He’s a big, lumbering kid (he stands over six feet tall and weighs more than 200 pounds), who wouldn’t hurt a fly. He just looks like he would.”
Gary Weksler’s big fireworks cache, which he stored in his one-room, first-floor apartment on Menlo Avenue, is believed by police to be responsible for at least one of the explosions that injured 10 police officers. One of the officers, Dan Johnson of the Los Angeles Police Department’s bomb squad, was still hospitalized Wednesday night, in good condition at the Hospital of the Good Samaritan.
Weksler suffered a hand injury, possibly from an earlier fireworks accident, and was being held in the jail ward at County-USC Medical Center on suspicion of possession of a destructive device, a felony. Arraignment was scheduled for today.
Officials of the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms and the Police Department said the precise cause of the two blasts, which occurred about 10 minutes apart and which triggered a blaze that gutted the Victorian-style apartment house and rocked the neighborhood, was still under investigation.
Weksler, according to his criminal court records, was born in Los Angeles, the only child of parents who divorced when he was 4 years old. His father, Hal Weksler, is a partner with his brother, Sid, in an egg processing plant.
Lived With Father
After the divorce, Weksler grew up with his father, stepmother and two stepbrothers in West Los Angeles in an upper-middle-class environment, his uncle said. But he never got along with the family or society, Sid Weksler said in a telephone interview.
“He’s withdrawn,” he said. “He feels he can’t get a break.”
As a youth of average intelligence–but exhibiting personality problems–young Weksler showed the need for private schooling, according to court records. At that time, records indicate, he was undergoing psychiatric and psychological counseling.
It was also during that period, according to his uncle, that Weksler became fascinated with fireworks and guns.
“All his life, since I can remember, he liked fireworks,” Sid Weksler said. “Most kids do. But he stayed with it. This kid knows more about guns, gun powder and pyrotechnics than most.”
Then, reflecting on Tuesday’s bizarre events, he added, “It’s a sad thing.”
Gary Weksler dropped out of the 10th grade and embarked on an erratic employment history, which included working at his father’s plant, operating a taffy machine at Farmers Market and attempting to create a cottage industry selling collages made from gun parts and bullets.
Besides fireworks, his other passion was skeet shooting, Sid Weksler said.
Several years ago, his uncle recalled, Gary Weksler was almost killed while target shooting when a friend inadvertently wounded him near the heart with a .45-caliber slug.
According to court records, as a 17-year-old estranged from his family, Weksler began using marijuana. It was not long before confrontations with the law began.
Police Record
Weksler’s police record shows a string of arrests, including suspicion of marijuana possession, begging in a public place, assault with a deadly weapon, attempted extortion, reckless driving and battery on a police officer.
In 1977, Weksler was convicted in Los Angeles County Superior Court for the sale of marijuana and in Beverly Hills Municipal Court for battery on a police officer. He received periods of probation for both offenses.
At the time of his arrest in 1977, police investigators noted that Weksler possessed a .38-caliber revolver, a 12-gauge shotgun and large quantities of ammunition.
A psychiatrist wrote to a judge in 1977 that Weksler’s “interest in weapons and their availability to him renders him somewhat unpredictable if he is placed under emotional stress.”
Said Sid Weksler: “He just doesn’t think like you and me. He’s in a slightly different world.”
JULY 8, 1989 LOS ANGELES TIMES:
The man blamed in a Koreatown fireworks explosion that injured 10 policemen last week says he was poking at a skyrocket with a knife, “curious to see what they make it with,” when he caused an earlier blast that tore off much of his right hand.
“I’m into fireworks,” Gary Weksler said Friday at a Westside motel where he has been staying since his release from Los Angeles County Jail. Weksler was released on his own recognizance Thursday pending a court appearance on charges of possession of a dangerous device.
Weksler, 38, conceded that he had been storing illegal fireworks at his Koreatown apartment. “It wasn’t an overabundance,” he said, just “a little more than an average person would have . . . enough to put on a small show.”
He said he collected the fireworks because he enjoyed putting on private pyrotechnics displays for his friends, usually at local beaches. “It’s a hobby of mine,” he said. “I’ve been doing it for 20 years.”
Weksler refused to say where he was before dawn June 27 when an M-80 skyrocket exploded in his hand, ripping off two fingers, mangling two others and pocking his face and chest with burns from flaming explosive.
Later that day, officers went to his apartment after hospital personnel who were suspicious of his injuries contacted authorities.
According to police, bomb squad experts had discovered a “major fireworks cache” in his home before a blast tore through the apartment, causing minor to moderate injuries to 10 officers in and around the building.
Objects to Reports
Weksler objected to newspaper accounts that mentioned his personality problems and psychiatric counseling as a youth. “I am not some crazy bomber that makes bombs,” he said, stressing that his fireworks, which are illegal in Los Angeles, were the sort that are commercially available in other areas.
Weksler said that despite his injuries and the injuries suffered by the police officers, he would like to continue to “fool around with fireworks.”
NOV. 28, 1993 LOS ANGELES TIMES:
Gary Stephen Weksler has long been a man with a dangerous obsession.
Four years ago, it cost him most of his right hand, hurt 10 police officers and destroyed his apartment building.
On Saturday, it injured both of his hands and eyes, left his Los Angeles rooming house a shambles and chased 240 of his neighbors out of their homes for nearly eight hours.
“I sure wish he’d get a different hobby,” Los Angeles Police Detective Bob Nelson said. “He’s running out of fingers.”
For 25 years, Weksler’s passion has been fireworks–spectacular Roman candles, earsplitting M-80 firecrackers and homemade noisemakers that he uses to put on illicit shows for friends at Los Angeles-area parks and beaches.
Authorities said the 43-year-old self-described pyrotechnics expert was stirring chemicals for a new batch of firecrackers when the mixture exploded at 12:50 a.m. Saturday, blowing out the walls of his second-floor room on South Bronson Avenue.
Weksler was rushed to Cedars-Sinai Medical Center as police called a tactical alert and sent his Country Club Park-area neighbors to an evacuation center set up at Los Angeles High School.
He was reported in serious condition late Saturday. Hospital officials told police he lost an eye and fingers on both hands from the blast.
Weksler’s first serious brush with disaster came June 27, 1989. Police were called after Weksler drove himself to Queen of Angeles-Hollywood Presbyterian Medical Center for treatment of an explosion-mangled right hand.
Officers investigating the incident were at Weksler’s apartment about three hours later when two more blasts erupted. The first explosion hurt 10 of them, including four from the bomb squad.
A larger second explosion 10 minutes later sent fireballs spewing into the air and blew out windows in neighboring buildings. It triggered a fire that gutted much of the Koreatown building.
Saturday’s explosion split open the second floor of the 82-year-old Bronson Avenue house where Weksler had apparently lived since 1989. Part of the downstairs ceiling collapsed.
Nelson, who investigated the 1989 incident and is also on the current case, said city building inspectors will determine Monday whether the $300,000, gray-tile house can be repaired.
Nine other tenants lived with Weksler in the rooming house. On Saturday, they were trying to contact their landlord, who they said is vacationing in Hawaii.
They described Weksler–who apparently works as a custodian–as a loner who came and went through a back door without talking to others.
“It’s lucky the explosion didn’t happen earlier when we were having Thanksgiving dinner,” said Reyna Soto, 29, who has lived in the building for two years. “The ceiling in the living room and dining room came down.”
Others said Saturday that exploding firecrackers were a familiar sound near the rooming house.
“I hear fireworks all the time. Once it set my car alarm off,” said Lula Watson, 76, who has lived in an apartment house next door for 16 years.
“If somebody whose hobby is fireworks wants to blow himself up, let him. But don’t do it where you’re going to hurt somebody else or destroy property.”
Saturday’s explosion sent glass, asbestos siding and window screens flying into Bronson Avenue. Neighbors awakened by the blast said they saw a large puff of smoke pour out of the rooming house but no fire.
“I thought it was an electrical explosion,” said Mario Diaz, 19, who lives across the street. “We were worried there might be another one.”
Police said Weksler will probably be charged with possession of an explosive. They said he recently completed parole after being convicted of possession of a dangerous device stemming from the 1989 explosion.
Injuries sustained by police in that incident included cuts, burns, concussions and hearing loss. Bomb squad member Bob Gollhofer was forced to retire because of his injuries, a police spokesman said.
Although Weksler’s neighbors also characterized him as an eccentric loner after the 1989 explosions, he bristled at that description.
In an interview with The Times a week after that incident, Weksler depicted himself as an average guy who was “into fireworks.” He said the first explosion had occurred when he poked at a skyrocket with a knife because he was “curious to see what they make it with.”
“I’m not some crazy bomber that makes bombs,” he said. “It’s a hobby of mine. I’ve been doing it for 20 years.”
His fireworks cache, he added, “wasn’t an overabundance,” just “enough to put on a small show . . . a little more than an average person would have.”
Despite his injuries, Weksler said at the time that he planned to continue to “fool around with fireworks.”
And he did.
“He just won’t stop,” Nelson said Saturday. “This guy continues to do this type of activity in areas that are heavily populated.
“I sure hope this is the last time.”
SANTA MONICA (KTLA) — A transient accused of detonating a bomb outside a Jewish center in Santa Monica pled not guilty Monday, according to court officials.
Ron Hirsch, 60, is charged with one felony count of explosion with intent to murder, use of a destructive device and explosive to injury/destroy and possession of a destructive device. He faces up to 70 years in prison if convicted.
Hirsch, a transient also known as J. Fisher and Israel Fisher, was indicted by a federal grand jury earlier this month.
Hirsch has been in federal custody since he was caught in Cleveland after fleeing the state on a Greyhound bus.
Hirsch is accused of carrying out an explosion that sent a steel pipe encased in concrete into the side of the Chabad House, local headquarters of the ultra-Orthodox Lubavitch sect, in Santa Monica.
The makeshift 300-pound missile appeared to have been launched from a plastic trash can containing hardened cement found nearby.
Also found were several rolls of plumbing and duct tape, metal rods and three empty bags of demolition chemicals.
Hirsch was captured in Cleveland Heights, Ohio near another Jewish center.
