Yuri Foreman, an aspiring rabbi who is the first Israeli to win a world boxing title, will stage boxing workshops and hold a question-and-answer session this weekend in Long Beach.
The World Boxing Assn. junior middleweight champion will conduct the Q and A at 10:30 p.m. Friday at the Jewlicious Music, Arts and Culture Festival, where he will hold a boxing workshop Saturday at 7:45 p.m. He will conduct another workshop at 10 a.m. Sunday.
“He’s a genuine hero among young people,” said Rabbi Yonah Bookstein, the festival’s founder and director. “Today, with a very assimilated Jewish community, it’s exciting to have people like Yuri who have an impact on the world. Yet they’re firmly rooted in a positive Jewish identity.”
The festival runs Friday through Sunday at the Alpert Jewish Community Center at 3801 E. Willow St. in Long Beach.
— Kevin Baxter