L.A. Affairs: My mother wanted me to find a Jewish wife. But I got distracted along the way

My mother had always admonished me to date nice Jewish girls. Otherwise, I might fall in love with someone who wasn’t.

When I moved to Los Angeles, I’m sure she thought I had come to the perfect place. Living off Fairfax Avenue, I was in the ideal neighborhood to meet a Jewish woman and not far from where my newlywed parents lived 40 years earlier.

But this was not the same city, and it had different plans for me. I started my search in earnest, unbounded by faith, within a small radius that grew bigger along the way.

During Friday night jazz at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, I met Katrina, a statuesque blond who had recently emigrated from Russia. Over a Korean barbecue dinner on La Cienega Boulevard, she talked about her fiancé, explaining that an engagement for her meant somet