LOS ANGELES — On Tuesday, Rabbi Tsafi Lev of West Hills fasted on the Hebrew calendar day that commemorates the breach of Jerusalem’s walls before the destruction of the Second Temple. Although Lev doesn’t normally abstain from food and drink on this minor Jewish fast day, he wanted to do so this year in the name of nonviolence as intense fighting continued in Israel, Gaza and beyond. With the 17th of the Hebrew month Tammuz coinciding with the Islamic fasting month of Ramadan, Lev joined an international movement started by a Rabbis Without Borders colleague in Israel in which Jews and Muslims dedicated their own religious fasts Tuesday to collective reflection and prayers for peace. In that spirit, Lev asked his Muslim-American friend Najeeb Nabi, who has been fasting for Ramadan during daylight hours and manages Ameci Pizza and Pasta in West Hills, if they could break their fasts together Tuesday night at Ameci over veggie pizza, and he agreed. “When we identify a person as a problem — as someone who hates or dislikes me — we need to remind ourselves that it’s not universally true," said Lev, an American-Israeli who teaches at New Community Jewish High School in West Hills and ...      Read more