MUSLIM HOLIDAY: As many as 2,000 Muslims...

MUSLIM HOLIDAY: As many as 2,000 Muslims are expected to gather on the Cal State Northridge campus Wednesday for early-morning prayers marking Eid Al-Adha, the feast of sacrifice commemorating the near-sacrifice by Abraham of his son.

The holiday coincides with the annual pilgrimage to Mecca, Saudi Arabia, where 2 million Muslims visit several of Islam’s holy sites.

Prayer on the Oviatt lawn of the university campus will begin at 7 a.m., followed by a 20-minute talk, said Ahmed El-Gabalawy, spokesman for the Islamic Center of Northridge.

PRAYER BREAKFAST: Armenian pastor Berdj Djambazian will be the featured speaker Thursday at the 20th annual Burbank Mayor’s Prayer Breakfast at Pickwick Banquet Center.

Djambazian, now pastor of Christian Outreach for Armenians Fellowship in Glendale, was senior pastor of the United Armenian Congregational Church in Cahuenga Pass from 1984 to 1993. He has visited Armenia nearly a dozen times on missionary trips in the last three years, a breakfast spokesman said.

The breakfast, with newly elected Burbank Mayor Dave Golonski in attendance, will start at 7 a.m. and end at 8:30 a.m. Tickets are $12. For more information, call Harry Woods at (818) 843-5273.

MAGAZINE UNAFFILIATED: Jewish Spectator, a quarterly journal published in Calabasas, will not be affiliated with the University of Judaism after all, according to Editor-Publisher Robert Bleiweiss.

Bleiweiss announced in the fall, 1994, issue that the linkage, all but formalized, was designed to assure continuity for the independent, sometimes feisty, magazine founded by the late Trude Weiss-Rosmarin.

But Bleiweiss wrote in the current spring issue that the university’s Board of Directors decided against the ties following a subcommittee recommendation. As a result, Rabbi Daniel Gordis, a university vice president who was to become the journal’s managing editor, instead continues as a contributing editor.

PRIESTLY MAGIC: Father James R. Blantz, a chaplain at Rancho San Antonio Boys Town of the West in Chatsworth, will speak on “the illusion of magic” and perform some tricks during a talk at 10 a.m. Monday at a meeting in Glendale of the East San Fernando Valley district of the Archdiocesan Council of Catholic Women.

Blantz, a member of the Holy Cross Fathers religious order, has performed at the Magic Castle in Hollywood as well as at schools and hospitals. Blantz will join Msgr. Eugene Frilot at 11:30 a.m. in celebrating Mass for the women’s meeting.

The event, which includes a luncheon, will be at Incarnation Catholic Church School Auditorium, 1001 N. Brand Blvd., Glendale. Reservations, which must be made by today, may be made by calling Frances Mullen at (818) 242-4714 or Jo Ann Olivier at (818) 790-7392.

SYNAGOGUE LOSSES? Rabbi James Kaufman of Temple Beth Hillel, a Reform synagogue in Valley Village, will address his temple’s forum Wednesday, speaking on “Are There More People Leaving Judaism Than Are Staying? Strategies for Retention.”

The forum in the synagogue at 12326 Riverside Drive begins with coffee and bagels at 10 a.m., followed by the talk at 10:30 a.m. A $2 donation is asked. For more information, call Ethel Cort Fenton at (818) 763-9148.

CANTORS GALORE: A dozen cantors and singers of Jewish sacred liturgy will perform along with choirs in a concert next Saturday night in North Hollywood in honor of the 80th birthdays of Rabbi Emeritus Bert A. Woythaler and Cantor Emeritus Uri Frenkel of Encino’s Temple Ner Maarav.

The concert, which will take place at Adat Ari El in North Hollywood, will feature Cantors Ira Bigeleisen of Adat Ari El, Meir Finkelstein and David Silverstein of Sinai Temple in Westwood Village, Maurice Glick of Temple Ner Maarav, Samuel Kelemar of Temple Am in Los Angeles and Nathan Lam of Stephen S. Wise Temple in Bel-Air.

For more information, call Temple Ner Maarav at (818) 345-7833.