Journal index

Family and community events stir
thoughts of preserving our local history

By Donald H. Harrison

From both the personal and communal standpoints, the month of March was a time for thinking intensely about history, genealogies, and leaving our records behind. For me, a pair of family events bracketed two communal events. On Sunday, March 11, my second grandson, Sky Masori, was born at Kaiser Permanente Hospital and on Sunday, March 18, he had his brit milah at the Soille San Diego Hebrew Day School, in front of the locker that his brother, Shor, uses as a kindergartner there. Rabbi Moishe Leider of Chabad of University City served as the mohel, while the officiant was the Soille headmaster, Rabbi Simcha Weiser. Sky was held on a pillow during the brit milah by his uncle David, whose birthday is March 27. Although there are nearly 32 years separating them in age, David’s and Sky’s two birthdays will be so linked as the March birthdays of our family.

I participated in two communal events between the birthdays of Sky and David. On March 21, Soille San Diego Hebrew Day School celebrated “Generations Day” in which grandparents were invited to visit the school. Not only did grandparents and school children build Jewish memories together, but the school also celebrated the arrival there of a traveling exhibit about San Diego’s community of Holocaust survivors. Called “Dafka,” a Hebrew word meaning “despite everything,” the multimedia exhibit tells what happened to these families after the Shoah—how they started over and came to thrive and grow in San Diego. The families represented in the exhibit bear such surnames as Alconi-Israel, Bialar/ Ostroff, Gmach; Libovits/ Krasner; Marx; Pakier/ Mann; Recht/Goldman; Schenk; Schindler, and Zaks.

Among the progeny of these families is former Congresswoman Lynn Schenk (D-San Diego), who recalled at the school assembly how, as a student at Beth Jacob School for Girls in the East Bronx, she and almost all her classmates were the children of Holocaust survivors. “What came out of that great sadness was hope for the future,” she said. That hope is realized as “children here learn in a much brighter, more nurturing environment.”

A few days later, at Old Town San Diego State Historical Park, the 200^th birthday of San Diego’s first Jewish settler, Louis Rose, was celebrated. The klezmer musician Yale Strom, artist in residence at San Diego State University, had carefully selected music for the occasion, choosing tunes from Germany, where Rose was born in 1807; from New Orleans, where he immigrated in 1840, and San Diego, where he lived and made a major impact between 1850 and 1888.

The principal audience consisted of fourth graders from Soille San Diego Hebrew Day School, the San Diego Jewish Academy, Audubon Elementary School, Pacific Beach Elementary School and Zamarano Elementary School. Thanks to Karla Shiminski, principal of City Schools’ Old Town program, and San Diego State University Prof. Joellyn Zollman, the children received a fascinating activities booklet that recounted Rose’s various identities as a business entrepreneur, civic leader and builder of the Jewish community, and asked the students to think about what their own identities are or might become.

The March 23 celebration was further enlivened by a proclamation from the San Diego County Board of Supervisors declaring the day to be “Louis Rose Day” throughout San Diego. Rose had served on the very first county Board of Supervisors. USD Prof. Iris Engstrand, editor of the Journal of San Diego History,

Louis Rose impersonator Harry Goldenberg

brought by a poster of the cover of the Journal’s upcoming edition featuring a picture of the Robinson-Rose House in Old Town—the building that served as a backdrop for the celebration. Harry Goldenberg masterfully impersonated Louis Rose. And, the interpretive staff of the Plaza del Pasado, put on for the students a skit recounting the “San Diego incident” in which a contemporary of Rose’s—Moses Mannasse—stood up for religious freedom in 1859 by refusing to testify before a county Grand Jury until after sundown came and Yom Kippur was over. The grand jury had sent a posse to the Franklin Hotel where High Holiday services were being held to compel him to testify.

A point of historical trivia: Although the celebration was held on March 23, Rose’s bicentennial birthday actually fell one day later on Saturday, March 24. The celebration was held a day earlier for two reasons. First, it would have been inappropriate for the ceremony to conflict with Shabbat. Second, by having it on a Friday, it could reach and teach schoolchildren from throughout the city.

* *

All these events made me realize that I need to consider the questions that future generations will have about us. I have a trunk full of unlabeled photographs, a computer full of unidentified digital images; and countless old papers and ephemera that might someday help historians understand the times in which I have lived since 1945. For these materials to serve any such purpose, however, I need to address myself to identifying them, and then to arranging for their donation to an appropriate collection.

True, my life in itself has not been so significant that all my effects are worth preserving in a museum or archive somewhere, but various parts of my life were shaped by larger societal forces that historians may wish to study. Judaism is the most obvious example: as an active member of the Jewish community, not only have I written numerous articles and columns on Jewish subjects but I also have picked up here and there various bits and pieces that belong to the historical record. Some examples might be a printed invitation to someone’s simcha, a program to a community event, or photographs of my fellow Jews at our gatherings.

Such effects do not belong in forgotten drawers, closets, trunks, attics, or garages; properly they should be sorted and donated to an archive. We are very fortunate to have at San Diego State University the archival collection assembled by the Jewish Historical Society of San Diego. Their trained archivist, Bonnie Harris, together with JHSSD leaders like Stan and Laurel Schwartz, can catalogue your materials and make them available for historians. That item that you’re wondering whether to keep or throw away might become an important document for a student’s master’s thesis or for a professor’s learned article or book.

Perhaps you have memorabilia that relates not to the Jewish community, but to the County of San Diego generally. Please consider making an appointment with the San Diego Historical Society to tell archivists Jane Kenealy, Carol Myers or Sean Stewart what you have, so that they, in turn, can assess whether they might want and need your material for their collections. The same is true of suburban historical societies in places like Chula Vista, Lakeside, La Mesa, Escondido and Oceanside. Those old photographs, restaurant menus, and what- have-you’s may be of incredible significance toward reconstructing the history of your city. If you moved to San Diego County from somewhere else, please consider contacting the historical societies in these places of your roots.

Your personal collections may also be useful in other kinds of archives. For example, various museums around San Diego maintain collections that you might augment. Perhaps your family has long been into boating; there’s the library of the Maritime Museum. Perhaps you trained as a Marine at MCRD, there is a wonderful collection there. Perhaps you are a fan of antique automobiles; your collections on the subject may be welcome at the San Diego Automotive Museum. Were you active in the sports life of San Diego? Bob Breitbard at the San Diego Sports Museum and Hall of Champions may have just the collection to receive your materials.

So, if spring cleaning is now on your agenda, don’t think of it only as a chore. You may be doing the field work of history!

LRS President Donald H. Harrison (left) introduces Yale Srom (right) and his band Hot
Pstromi during festivities celebrating 200th birthday of pioneer Jewish settler Louis Rose in front of the Robinson-Rose House at Old Town San Diego State Historic Park.

A performance with musical meat

By Eileen Wingard

Yale Strom and his band Hot Pstromi added an exciting musical dimension to the celebration of Louis Rose’s 200th birthday in the Old Town Plaza. The band opened with Lustig Zayn, a catchy klezmer tune from the 19th century that generated a rhythmic response from the entire audience. A young African-American woman, standing at the periphery of the sea of seated fourth graders,began swaying, then, with raised arms and a big smile, spontaneously choreographed a sequence of steps and spins to the infectious music.

The ensemble concluded with Mir Zaynen alle Brider. Everyone, young and old, participated in the oy, oy, oy chorus. In between, Strom and his ensemble gave a musical biography of Rose’s life. A tune from the Stoliner Chassidim had relevance because the founder’s son moved to Frankfurt, Germany, carrying on the Stoliner tradition not far from Rose’s birthplace. A German-Jewish wedding waltz, Mey’en Nigun, was probably familiar to Rose. Di Grine Kuzinerepresented Rose’s immigration to the United States. It was carefully translatedand beautifully sung by Yale’s mellow-voiced wife, Elizabeth Schwartz. Hearing her sing Yiddish is a special treat.

Also included for their historical connections were renditions of When the Saints Come Marching In, representing Rose’s time in New Orleans, and John Kanaka, a 19th century song of the Polynesian longshoremen who once worked in San Diego.

Hot Pstromi consists of Yale Strom, fiddle, Tripp Sprague, saxophone, George Svoboda, guitar, Jeff Pekarek, bass and Elizabeth Schwartz, vocals.

As scholar-in-residence in the Jewish Studies Department of San Diego State University, Strom continues to enrich the community with outreach programs
such as this.

Weather: one thing in the Middle

East that is always changing

By Muriel Goldhammer

Kfar Saba, Israel—It's raining mud today. All over the world the spring equinox is a time of troubled weather—one day it's like summer, and the next like winter. Here in Israel we're caught in the crosswinds of Europe, Siberia, Arabia and Africa.

Almost always around Passover, the prevailing winds will blow a sandstorm from Egypt, and everyone will close their windows, opened just two days ago to welcome the spring air, in order not to have to vacuum and dust again after a fine dust settles everywhere. But this storm slipped across the borders silently. Two days ago the sky was blue, but yesterday it was a dark gray caused by sand from the Sahara that completely shut out the sun. The air was heavy and warm and
chilly, all at the same time. The weatherman promised us rain, which arrived last night.

My daughter Cindy predicted that it would rain mud. This morning, as I walked my puppy, I could see the Sahara dirt splashed on all the
automobiles parked on the street. Mud indeed.

I've been taking a class in Bible history from Rabbi Yosef Leibowitz, formerly of New York and Berkeley. Currently we are studying the prophet Isaiah. Typical of his teaching, we move from Isaiah to Mt. Sinai and the golden calf, and back to Egypt and return to Isaiah and the politics of the Middle East in which the kingdoms of Israel and Judah are caught in the crossfire between the big empires or wannabe empires of Persia, Assyria, Egypt, Greece and Rome. And later, the economic interests of a Europe hungry for the products of the Far East that came by caravan over the Silk Road, and later yet for the oil riches of the region.

Israel today is still at the crossroads. I started counting the nations that border us - our small sliver of land on the Eastern Mediterranean. To the North is Lebanon and Syria; to the East, Jordan; to the South Saudi Arabia and Egypt. And this is not counting the Western nations that have an interest in the region, and the Palestinian Arabs who want a state of their own.

Even the birds see our tiny country as a strategic asset - a resting place as they fly from Europe to Africa to escape the frost of the North and back again to Europe to enjoy a more moderate summer. We count many species as temporary and beloved visitors, though they are a hazard for airplanes and a nuisance to farmers competing with the birds for both grains and fish. Each year new strategies are developed to assure a warm welcome for the birds and protection for our fields and fishponds.

The rain will wash away the dust. The sun will come out tomorrow. And if the weatherman permits, we will have beautiful weather again for Passover, Hag Pesach Sameah!

Africa and Middle East both have

problems but oil focuses the attention

Ira Sharkansky wrote:

JERUSALEM—The Middle East is one of the two most unsettling regions. The other is Africa. But who among those who really count care about Africa? It is worth an occasional pathetic picture on the news and the report of another human disaster, but little more than a charitable campaign, a song, and a few platitudes about not doing enough. The Middle East is the heartland of Islam, oil and gas. All those get more than some clucking of our collective tongues. While some of us do what we can to shore up our defenses, others do what they can to placate the faithful.

The problems worth bothering with spill over national boundaries, or even the region, in ways that should worry lots of us.

Prominent are the Sunni- Shiia splits in Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Lebanon, and a few other places; the Kurdish issue that may begin in Iraq but hovers over Turkey and elsewhere; the ethnic and tribal conflicts in Afghanistan that provide the basis for Al Quaida and all that means; the Arab-Muslim rampages against Africans, Christians, and Pagans in Sudan; secular-Islamic conflicts where they are especially tense as in Algeria, Egypt, Jordan, Pakistan, Palestine, and Lebanon; and unabsorbed Palestinians in Lebanon, Jordan, Syria, and some other places.

Do not forget Israel. Its existence serves those who wish to distract restive hoards from local abominations.

There are also several million unabsorbed migrants in Western Europe, including those who are talking about the reconquest of Andalusia. Will they keep the tourist signs in the Juderia of Cordoba?

What about the moderate Arab states? One Jewish friend traveled to Saudi Arabia as part of a professional mission. She had a thrilling experience. When asked if she was candid about her background on the visa application, she responded:

No. They would not let us in unless we were not truthful on our applications. . . I had promised my family and the people with whom I was traveling that I would keep my Jewishness to myself...and though they all agreed that I could ask questions, they asked me please to not engage in dialogue.as that was not why we were there.

I understand my friend. "Thou shall not bear false witness" cannot be an absolute when Jews want to travel in the Middle East. However, we should not overlook this and similar incidents. One of the best friends of the West insists on being be Judenrein, except for Henry Kissinger and a few important others. The last time I looked, there was a Jordanian law indicating a death penalty for anyone selling property to one of us.

The Middle East is not all bad. Spring is well along. There is a flowery hillside a few steps from my front door. From my balcony I see sheep and goats munching on grass that looks luscious after the winter rains.

May you all have a Passover that is appropriate to your tastes. For those with literate computers, I wish you

חג שמח

Frydler: Talents through the roof

Jerry Levens wrote:

We went to the Coronado Playhouse, Friday evening, February 9. My wife Rachel and I were invited by Eric Frydler to see a play adaptation of Bram Stoker’s novel Dracula written by John Mattera. This particular version was presented as a musical play with an original score composed by Frydler.

I have known Eric since we worked together in the publishing industry during the mid-late ‘90’s. His creative abilities were quite evident at that time and have now grown considerably and diversified into many areas. His first love is composing music for the theatre. However, if the need should arise, Frydler's background will allow him to step in as playwright, lyricist and even producer.

He also maintains a day job, as we say in the world of theatre, as Advanced Concepts Inventor for both Hasbro and Mattel Toy Corporations. He also creates product line concepts for several other companies. Given the above list of talents, I presently enjoy referring to Eric as the emerging Jewish Renaissance man of the Southern California art scene.

Frydler grew up in New York City-Queens. Both of his parents emigrated from Europe after WW II. His mother came from Warsaw, Poland and was rescued from the camps, literally at the last minute, by Eric’s father. This, however, is another story worth telling in its own right.

His interest in music started at a young age and he was invited to attend graduate classes in music at both Stony Brook and The Juilliard School while still in his early teens. Later, his reaching out for new and innovative forms of expression landed him in The Performing Gallery, an off-Broadway theater group where his experimental plays, especially in the Sci-Fi genre, preceded later trends in Hollywood. But, alas, the Broadway Angels were reticent to subsidize such avante-guard theatre projects and he had to turn to Madison Avenue.

After several successful years, writing for such advertising agencies as J. Walter Thompson, Frydler decided to move to Los Angles where he was hired by Mattel Toys. Again, Eric’s creativity flourished and led to development of some of Mattel’s biggest hits including: “He-Man”, “She-Ra” and “Popples”.

Since the primary purpose of this article is to introduce Eric Frydler to our readers, I would be remiss if I did not comment on his latest achievement: the original musical score for John Mattera’s delightfully humorous adaptation of Dracula. For me it was one of the highlights of the evening. From the very first parting of the curtains in scene one, to their final closing, his music set the appropriate mood. The sounds he created where crafted well; starting with a sense of tremulous apprehension and building to more forceful crescendos. At times they were menacing, at other times they opened our senses to better relate to the action on stage. As a composer, Frydler displays both an intuitive, as well as structural, understanding of the musical language necessary for effective dramatic theatre.

We were assured beforehand that we would experience much more laughter than fear, and so it was. Under Gary Byrd’s able direction, the two and one-half hour performance moved along smoothly. The first act I felt was somewhat slow in parts. Jeffrey James Lippold as Count Dracula, delivered the required evil demeanor. I thought he could have held back little on the volume and intensity of certain lines thus allowing him to build up to a more forceful and threatening display of violence as the play progressed.

The story of Dracula is fairly well known gothic fantasy meant to bring up our repressed fears and erotic feelings. The play’s author, John Mattera, is a member of The Dramatist Guild and Horror Writers of America. By combining this tail of horror, with a strong dose comic relief, delivered so very well by the multitalented Ivan Harrison as Charles and Charley Miller as the mentally deranged Renfield, Mattera brought the whole fantasy together in a much more enjoyable format. It was a good evening of fun and laughter, which we all need more of today.

Melanie Rubin photographed two more license plates for her Jewish culture on the road collection:

If you have stories or photos that you would like to share with other members of the Louis Rose Society, please send them in.