The Brief

As the Jewish High Holidays come to a close, Silverlake Independent Jewish Community Center is putting together an event to mark the occasion with a decidedly different approach: an immersive art installation.

The “UnLoose” exhibit marks the occasion of Kol Nidre, the declaration that traditionally starts services for Yom Kippur. Rabbi Kerry Chaplin told LAist that though the event might be a bit unfamiliar to people used to more conventional synagogue settings, the event is deeply rooted in Jewish theology — though people of any faith are welcome at the installation.

“On this evening of Kol Nidre, we invite this experience of union between this world and worlds we don't understand — some people would call that heaven or the next world or where God is,” Chaplin said. “It can open us up, sometimes, to mistakes we've made.”

What to expect

Unless you’ve been to a previous version of this event at Silverlake Independent JCC, Chaplin said attendees likely haven’t experienced anything quite like this before.

“ I would say someone who has some experience with Kol Nidre is going to say, ‘Oh, I have never been to something like this before. This is not the synagogue experience of my childhood,’” Chaplin said. “And someone who hasn't been there before is going to be just falling into the common human threads of the whole experience.”

Musical performance, including a score written for the event, is a central part of the "UnLoose" exhibition.

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Courtesy SIJCC/David Yamamoto

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Attendees will get a Google form where they can submit fears, doubts, or anything they’d like to leave behind in the new year anonymously. You can also submit them at the door.

These contributions will be woven into the experience, which includes projections and a score performed by live musicians. The goal in the end is to transform the negative feelings into another feeling while still hearing them out.

“Some of us who've spent time with our fear, we've witnessed that happen,” Chaplin said. “It can transform into compassion. It can transform into love. It can transform into courage. So I'm excited to see what it will transform into in this collective ritual.”

The event is for anyone (of any faith) over 10, so don’t expect everything to be too heavy – you might hear some anxieties about the current school year mixed in with declarations of existential dread.

“The preschoolers are also invited to participate, so they are going to say things that are really different than what somebody in their 20s, 30s, 40s, 90s is going to say,” Chaplin said.

And attendees are welcome to share as much, or as little, as they’d like.

“ It's up to you whether you wanna go all in and show up with something you've been carrying for a while, or you wanna go and just observe,” Chaplin said.

How to attend

Tickets are available at Silverlake Independent JCC’s website. They’re free for members of the Silverlake Independent JCC and cost $10 for non-members.

The installation begins at 6:19 p.m. and continues through 8 p.m. at the location on Bates Avenue in Silver Lake. A pre-fast meal will also be offered at 5 p.m. Childcare for children under 10 will be available starting at 6 p.m.

The Silverlake Independent JCC will also hold an event to mark Yom Kippur the next day with a Tot service, plus yoga and sound baths available. Details for that event are here.

Thousands of students from schools across Los Angeles walked out Wednesday in peaceful protest of the Trump administration’s immigration policies.

The Los Angeles Unified School District estimated 4,400 students from about two dozen schools participated.

“ I think it's really empowering that we aren't being discouraged to [protest], but it's also really discouraging to have to live through this,” said Roybal Learning Center senior Melisa. 

“The reason I came out is 'cause we're so young and I feel like people always think that like young people don't have a voice and in reality we have one of the strongest voices,” said Jazlyn Garcia, a senior at  Alliance Gertz-Ressler High School. “I want people to go out and vote for midterms, pre-register to vote.”

Leonna, a senior at Downtown Magnets High School and daughter of immigrants from Cambodia, said she was thinking of her neighbors.  “We need to protect the people that make sure that the economy is running and make sure that our lives are the way that they are every day.”

Students said the Trump administration's immigration raids threaten their families, communities and education.

LAUSD estimated that several thousand students walked out.

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Sabrina Sanchez

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LAist

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Students said they were concerned for family and neighbors.

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Sabrina Sanchez

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LAist

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Alexis, a senior at Brío College Prep, said administrators locked down his campus after agents detained a nearby fruit vendor. “He was a part of our community,” Alexis said. “He would always be out there selling fruits to us after school.”

San Fernando Valley students at more than 40 schools plan to walk out Friday.

“Los Angeles Unified supports the rights of our students to advocate for causes important to them,” a district spokesperson wrote in a statement to LAist. “However, we are concerned for student safety at off-campus demonstrations as schools are the safest place for students.”

The district encouraged students to exercise their rights in on-campus discussions and demonstrations.

The University of Southern California board of trustees has appointed interim president Beong-Soo Kim to be its 13th full president.

Kim was named as the interim leader in February 2025 and began the role this summer. He most recently served as USC’s senior vice president and general counsel, and as a lecturer at the law school. Prior to joining USC, he worked at Kaiser Permanente and was a federal prosecutor for the Central District of California.

Kim succeeds Carol Folt, who was brought on to stabilize the university following a series of scandals under the administration before hers. She formally stepped down from her role in July, following criticism of her ability to handle student protests and concerns over fiscal stewardship.

Soon after his term began, Kim oversaw the university’s effort to manage a $200 million deficit, which also led to hundreds of layoffs.

“We did have to make some difficult decisions last year with respect to our budget and layoffs,” Kim told LAist. “And I'm really pleased that as a result of those difficult decisions, we're now in a much stronger financial position and really for a number of months have been really focusing on the opportunities that we see on the horizon.”

In a call with LAist, and joined by USC board chair Suzanne Nora Johnson, Kim touched on bright spots and some of his priorities. He also touched on the relationship between USC and the Trump administration before a sudden ending to the call.

This interview has been lightly edited for clarity.

LAist: You've talked about addressing the mass layoffs and budget challenges. What do you see as the way forward?

Beong-Soo Kim: Our research expenditures have actually been going up over the last year, over the last couple of years. We're focusing on: How do we provide the best possible educational value to our students? We're focusing on how to maintain and strengthen our academic culture of excellence, open dialogue and engagement with different viewpoints.

And we're also really kind of leaning into artificial intelligence and asking questions as a community about how we incorporate AI responsibly into our education, into our operations, into our research. And there are obviously a lot of important ethical questions that we're working on, and it's really an quite an exciting time to be in the position that I'm in.

What are you excited for?

Well, a couple things that we're really looking forward to are, as part of the anniversary of the United States, we're going to be hosting a National Archives exhibition [of] founding documents in late April. We're also looking forward to helping host the L.A. Olympics in 2028. We have our 150th anniversary coming up in 2030 as a university.

So there's a lot that's on the horizon. We also have the Lucas Museum opening up across the street later this year and, of course, George Lucas is one of our most beloved Trojan alumni. So there's so much vitality, so much energy on the campus right now.

USC has, for the most part, avoided the sort of conflicts that the University of California system and elite private institutions across the country have had with the Trump administration. What can you share about how you plan to manage USC’s relationship with the federal government?

Well, we really make an effort to engage with all levels of government, as well as foundations, the private sector, community groups. That kind of engagement is really more important nowadays. Universities can't just go off on their own. It's important for us to partner and find opportunities to work with others. And that's what we've been doing.

And that's part of the reason why I think that our research has continued to go strongly. And I give a lot of the credit to our faculty and researchers who can continue submitting grant applications and continue to do research in areas that are critically important to the benefit of our community, our nation, and our world. And I think that we -—

Suzanne Nora Johnson: —Actually I'm so sorry, but we have to complete the board meeting, and we've got to run. Thank you so much for your time. I really appreciate it. We'll be in touch. Bye. Thanks. Bye.

Huntington Beach will ask the U.S. Supreme Court to review a decision striking down the city’s controversial voter ID law.

What’s the backstory?

Huntington Beach voters approved a measure in 2024 allowing the city to require people to show ID when casting a ballot. That contradicts state law — voters in California are asked to provide ID when they register to vote but generally not at polling places.

The ensuing court battle

The state and a Huntington Beach resident promptly sued the city over the voter ID law and won an appeals court ruling striking down the law. The California Supreme Court declined to review the decision earlier this month. The state also passed a law prohibiting cities from implementing their own voter ID laws.

Then, the City Council voted unanimously this week to ask the U.S. Supreme Court to weigh in.

Does the city have a shot?

The Supreme Court gets 7,000 to 8,000 requests to review cases each year. The Court grants about 80 of these requests, so the city’s chances of getting the court’s attention are statistically slim.

There’s also a question of whether or not the city’s voter ID case meets the Court’s criteria for review — SCOTUS addresses questions of federal law. Mayor Casey McKeon said it does, in a news release, noting a 2008 Supreme Court decision that upheld a state’s voter ID law — in Indiana. But Huntington Beach is a city, and the question in its voter ID case is whether or not a city can implement its own requirements for voting, even if it clashes with state law.

Go deeper

• Huntington Beach's controversial voter ID law is illegal
• Huntington Beach clashes with California over voter ID requirement in court
• HB Mayor defends Voter ID measure as Gov. Newsom seeks to ban it
• Listen 26:32

  The Trump Administration wants your confidential voter data. What’s behind their battle with CA and other states?