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Sports

The Jewish Sports Fan

Unless otherwise indicated, source for these stories is today's edition of The San Diego Union-Tribune, to which we gratefully provide the links below. We do not apply halacha to determine if a player is Jewish; rather, if he or she has a Jewish parent or has converted to the faith, we count him or her as a member of our community.

A good offensive and defensive day for Kevin Youkilis

BASEBALL—Most Jewish baseball players rode the bench Monday, but we think it was coincidence rather than the approach of Tisha B'Av.  One player who did play, and very well for that matter, was Kevin Youkilis, who batted 2 for 4, during the Red Sox' 6-2 victory over the Cleveland Indians. Youkilis scored one run and knocked in his 48th RBI, while helping defensively to turn two double plays.  His batting average now is .312. 

 

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{Marc Kligman, who combines being a sports agent with his life as an observant Jew, invites you to listen. Click on the ad above for more information}
 

Arts & Entertainment

Rotary and San Diego Youth Symphony program fosters good will, good music By Eileen Wingard    SAN DIEGO—When my husband Hal and I met Rachel Libman, a 17-year- old cellist from  Kiryat Yam, Israel, we felt an immediate affinity for this lovely young girl.  Rachel was in San Diego, participating in the San Diego Youth Symphony and RotaryInternational MusiCamp Youth Exchange. She was staying with our daughter Myla’s family and was already a welcome member of the "mishpoche." She played cello duets with Myla’s husband Dr. Lou Rosen and served as a big sister to 8-year old Adira.   A slim

beauty with black wavy hair and sparkling dark eyes, Rachel not only was sweet,
warm and intelligent, but she was also an excellent  musician.
   
Our first encounter with Rachel was a Shabbat dinner at our daughter’s home. Myla, Rachel and I played chamber music before sundown. Because Rachel is shomer Shabbat, we scheduled our music making prior to the Shabbat meal.  As we rehearsed, Myla and Rachel discussed the music in rapid Hebrew. I haltingly chimed in now and then.
   
In between Myla’s delicious matzo ball soup and the salmon entrée (fish caught my grandson Eitan), we learned that Rachel’s mother was from Morocco and her father from Rumania.  Her older brother Yossi just finished his army service and   Rachel completed high school last month. She has not yet decided whether to go into the army or do national service for the next two years.  Although the talented girl loves playing cello, she may opt for law as her ultimate professional goal. 
   
The three week MusiCamp, sponsored by the San Diego Youth Symphony in  partnership with the Rotary International District 5340, is under the direction of Jeff Edmons, artistic director of the San Diego Youth Symphony. This is the third summer that members of the orchestra combine with fifteen young instrumentalists from around the world, brought to San Diego by the Rotary International.  Coordinator of logistics for the fifteen international musicians was Bill Sturgeon, past district governor of the Rotary International District 5340.

When Myla met this gentleman after her recent performance for the "Advocates
for Classical Music," she responded to his request to host a young Israeli musician.
   
Sturgeon recruited families such as Myla’s to house the internationalvisitors and transport them to rehearsals and social events. This year, students  also came from France, Germany, Holland, Italy, Mexico, Slovakia, Spain  and Turkey.
   
As Rachel’s adopted grandmother, I was privileged to attend, with Myla’s family, a recital in the beautiful Rancho Santa Fe home of Rebeca and Walter Hickel.  Seven of the foreign students were featured on the program.  They all played exceptionally well. I was particularly impressed by the high level of artistry of Katharina Groll, a nineteen-year-old bassoonist from Cologne,
Germany.
   
The following Sunday, I attended the orchestra concert held in the Theater of the California Center for the Arts, Escondido.  The audience was packed with parents, hosts and friends.  There was our Rachel, sitting in the cello section, outside, second stand.
   
During two weeks of intensive rehearsals, Artistic Director Jeff Edmons developed a professionally sounding ensemble. Mozart’s Overture to The Marriage of Figaro received a brisk, spirited reading, the Serenade for Winds by Strauss was nicely executed by the woodwinds, and Bela Batok’s Rumanian Folk Dances featured solo work by various principal players, including a lovely lyrical passage by Concertmaster Michael Viscardi. After intermission, the orchestra performed Beethoven’s Symphony #8 with remarkable flare and precision. Particularly impressive were the sudden dynamic contrasts, so typical of Beethoven.
   
Myla and her family could not attend the orchestra concert because they needed to travel to the Brandeis-Bardin campus of the American Jewish University that morning. Myla’s husband, Lou, is serving for two weeks as camp doctor. However, in their stead, three loyal family friends attended, Terry  Miller, armed with flowers for Rachel, Michal Shafir and Dr. Karla Grosmann.
   
Backstage to say farewell to Rachel, we watched as she interacted with her new friends, one from Turkey, the other from Germany. We shared Bill Sturgeon’s  hope that: "The participants return with a broader view of the world and a deeper understanding of themselves.  With the added dimension of music, the exchange experience becomes an even more powerful force in the promotion of world understanding, friendship and peace."    

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Golani Brigade...
(Continued from above)

Why go to Golani? Because of the people, because of the atmosphere-mostly because of the people," concludes the new draftee, Marom Aruas. "Look at their happiness before enlistment, these people have not even spent an hour together, and are already singing and dancing together. You won't see that anywhere else, there is nothing like the Golani Brigade."

The Golani Brigade is made up of a number of units, with each having its own operational character and vocation. In each one of the units the unit pride is great, and they all see belonging to their unit as an honor. The brigade was established on the 2nd of February, 1948, as the first brigade of the IDF, and was known as The First Brigade. The brigade had four battalions which were responsible for different action arenas, and their names began according to the order of the Hebrew alphabet. "Alon" "Barak" "Gidon", and "Dror". The battalion number was given to each battalion by the number of the brigade, and its place in the battalions (11, 12, 13, 14-respectively). Throughout the years, many changes have taken place in the structure of the IDF, and as a result of these changes, the brigade changed as well. After these changes came to a conclusion, in 1956   -the days before the Sinai Campaign- the Givati Brigade (the 5th Brigade) became a reservist brigade, and its first battalion (the 51st-"The Breachers") was transferred to the Golani Brigade. Since then, the structure of the brigade has remained the same.

The combat soldiers of the brigade undergo training which takes place over 10 months, where they learn the basics for functioning on a battlefield. Their training has many aspects, and when the soldier completes it, he joins the rest of the combat soldiers in a battalion of seasoned soldiers. There, professionalism, tradition, and war spirit are the guiding light for everyday operations. The soldiers of the brigade excel and are known for their war spirit, and their dedication to their mission in every possible condition.

Service in the brigade is characterized by a great amount of effort to maintain the upkeep of combat readiness. This can be seen through the periods of operations which are interspersed with training periods, every few months. The deployment of the battalions is not set, and one of their defining characteristics is their ability to acclimatize quickly to different types of living conditions, and various operations, in all action arenas and training areas.

In the past two years, the battalions of the brigade have been an essential force in the combat in the Territories associated with the Second Intifada. They took part in the "Defensive Shield" and "Determined Path" operations, as well as general security operations. In that period, the battalions fought in all of the Western Sector ( Hebron, Ramallah, Nablus, Tulkarm, Jenin, and in various villages) with impressive operational achievements. Additionally, the brigade played an essential part in the Second Lebanon War. Today, the battalions are in the action areas of the Gaza Strip, Judea and Samaria, and at the border in the north of the country, and continue their operational actions.  

Tisha B'Av March... 
(Continued from above)

Tisha B'Av is the one day of the year when Jewish prayers are broadcast over a public address system, in contrast to the daily call to prayer blasted out five times a day over amplification systems from mosques in eastern Jerusalem. It's actually a little disorienting to hear the Hebrew of Eichah amplified over the main city square.

As the marchers move off following a huge banner proclaiming a slogan of allegiance to Jerusalem, organizer Nadia Matar reminds the crowd that this is not a demonstration or a rally, nor is it a social event. In fact, no reminder is necessary, as the restrained mass of Jews soberly sets out to encircle the gates of the Holy City.

Scattered amongst the marchers are a significant number of non-observant Israelis. Women wearing pants walk side by side with others whose hair is carefully covered with a scarf or hat.

There are wheelchair "marchers" and a number of octogenarian walkers, some supported by younger relatives, who manage to reach the end of the hour-long route.

As we pass New Gate, the main entry to the Christian Quarter, we see that all traffic on Route #1 (the main north/south gateway through the city) has been redirected as we take over the streets and pour down the road toward Damascus Gate. Spotlights and snipers are dotted on the rooftops and although most of the Arab stores are shuttered tight, soldiers keep a tight watch over several dozen Arabs who watch us march by as we pass Saleh el Din Street, the main commercial avenue of eastern Jerusalem. Border police hold back a few dozen Arabs coming out of Herod’s Gate as we stream past.

Walking down the hill toward Damascus Gate we turn to look back at those behind us. People as far back as we can see.

The march is a hands-on outdoor classroom for many parents. All along the way, fathers are explaining the significant sites to sons and daughters. "Saba (grandpa) fought here," one tall, bearded man tells his 10 year old son as we round the corner towards Lions Gate, where Israeli paratroopers entered to liberate the Temple Mount in the 1967 Six Day War.

"Look over there," says a young mother to her wide-eyed daughter. "You can see the stairs where the Jews used to go up to the Temple," she says as we walk up the hill in front of the southern wall.

In front of us we see the Mount of Olives crowned with its Arab and Christian institutions. There's a refreshing feeling of freedom as thousands walk freely down the road that overlooks the oldest Jewish cemetery in the world.

Many marchers wander over to the wall to gaze at the Kidron Valley below with Absalom’s Tomb and the monument to the prophet Zechariah. Across the valley we can see the Maale Hazeitim development that acts as a buffer between Abu Dis and the Temple Mount.

Rounding the corner, we look up at the imposing Southern Wall of the Temple with the steps and Huldah’s Gate, before making the ascent towards Dung Gate and the entrance to the Western Wall. Glancing backwards again, the sight of the crowds of people still behind us is awesome. Quiet and dignified, the march has gone off without incident.

Getting out of the area proves challenging, as the Egged bus company lays on dozens of buses to get people in and out of the Old City, causing their own traffic jams.

Close to midnight the road leading to Zion and Dung gates is still blocked by a line of the green Egged buses packed to overflowing with the faithful who will spend the night sitting or lying on the ground at the site of the catastrophe that gave us Tisha B'Av.

At 1 a.m. I see the young woman in sackcloth stretching out on a concrete ledge inside the tunnel that links the Kotel plaza to the Moslem Quarter. She's no longer alone.

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News Sleuths...
(Continued from above)

MR. MCCORMACK: Well, all of this -- you know, all of this, all of these engagements, all of these trips, all of these meetings, all of these discussions with these leaders are to talk about concrete ways in which they can act to move the process forward. Ultimately, this will come down to Palestinians, Israelis and Arab leaders making tough decisions about how to bring about a more peaceful Middle East. We're going to be right there with them. We're going to be pushing. We're going to be prodding, cajoling, encouraging and doing what we can to move that process forward and all of these meetings are part of that process.

Yeah.

QUESTION: Sean, is the Secretary of State having a trilateral with Abbas-Olmert to herself or is she going to meet, you know, separately with them?

MR. MCCORMACK: Let me check with her. I'll talk to her, see what her plans are. That is something certainly in terms of trilateral meetings from time to time I expect that she is going to do. She did one several months ago. I can't remember exactly when. Don't have the date here. During that period of time, President Abbas and Prime Minister Olmert have met. We wanted some of those meetings to take place, so I'll talk to her and see if whether or not now is the right time for one of those trilateral meetings.

QUESTION: What would the purpose be of a trilateral?

MR. MCCORMACK: Well, that's why I have to talk to her about it, Sue, to see if she thinks that now is the right time to bring them together. I can't tell you that it will be.

QUESTION: And what overall is the purpose of -- is this just -- just to see where you are in terms of pushing the process forward? Are you going to be going with anything specific?

MR. MCCORMACK: Yeah, well, anytime the Secretary travels and has meetings, she goes in there with a specific purpose. I can assure you every single meeting that she has, she thinks about what she wants to achieve in those meetings and how that fits into a larger goal. Now it's not always readily apparent in terms of generating news headlines, but when you go back and draw the history of this, you can see how putting in place little building blocks or little steps adds up to some larger goal. So she's going to be going there, certainly, with specifics that she wants to engage with both the Israelis and the Palestinians on, as well as in all the other meetings. And to the extent she is ready to talk about those after the meetings and about what she thinks we have achieved, we'll all learn when we're on the road.

QUESTION: But she's not going there to talk about, sort of, final status issues or anything like that?

MR. MCCORMACK: Hey, she's going to go there to talk about how to move forward the political track. President Bush talked about this in his speech and I think he outlined very clearly where we are and how we want to push the process forward. He outlined that vision in conjunction with Secretary Rice. They talked a lot about that speech. It's a shared vision between the President and the Secretary in terms of moving this political process forward and we'll see, when she's on the road, how much she wants to talk to you guys about what specifically she has talked about with her counterparts.

QUESTION: So is she also going to be looking at specifics for the conference at the -- in the fall of the meeting or where it's going to be?

MR. MCCORMACK: That's where all of this is, in part, leading. I think she can talk about it in general terms. I don't know if she has any more specifics at this point that she will be talking to them about, but that's, in part, where this is headed. The meeting is a mechanism through which we can all try to move forward a political track.

>>

QUESTION: And just on the meeting in the fall and her trip with Gates, are there GCC countries that you would like to see participate in the conference?

MR. MCCORMACK: We've talked about the fact that we'd like to have very widespread participation in this meeting. And the President outlined the criteria that we think are reasonable for states to abide by if they want to attend this meeting. We're going to talk to them. We have a whole different -- you know, one of the common misconceptions about interactions between Israel and Arab states is that there is a -- there's actually a wide spectrum of interactions between Israel and Arab states. It goes all the way from full, normalized, in-public diplomatic relations -- you know, Egypt and Jordan are two examples, two examples of that.

You have other countries that talk about their interactions with the Israelis, but they don't really do so in a very high profile way. And then there are states that have no interactions whatsoever with the Israeli Government. So we'll see over the coming months. We want to try to encourage as many states as possible to buy in to this political mechanism. It's going to be critically important for not only Israelis but also for Palestinians that they have the support of states in the region, Arab states, as they move forward and try to make some very difficult political decisions for both populations.

QUESTION: So is she going with embossed invitations or anything like that?

MR. MCCORMACK: (Laughter.) We haven't printed up the invitations yet.

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Copper Age lecture series...
(Continued from above)

August 12— Sarah Whitcher Kansa, Ph. D.,What's Cooking? - Eating and Drinking in the Copper Age, 3-4 p.m. in the Gill Auditorium, with Gallery tour led by Dr. Kansa following at 4:30 p.m.

Dr.  Kansa is a zooarchaeologist who has studied animal bones recovered from the Chalcolithic site in Shiqmim. Her research explores archaeological sites in the Levant and Turkey in periods spanning the relationship between developments in social complexity and animal exploitation. For this program, she will discuss the role of animals in diet, economy, and religion 6000 years ago.

Kansa will also present a "hands on" session with real archaeological bones to show how zooarchaeologists find bones and how bones can tell the age, sex, health, and how the animal was used (Was this animal used for milking or pulling heavy loads?) during the  Natufian through the Nabatean periods with dates ranging from 10,000 BCE - 300 CE. 

Kansa was a member of the 1993 excavation team led by Prof. Thomas Levy (UCSD) at the Chalcolithic site of Shiqmim in modern-day Israel, and analyzed the faunal remains recovered during that season as part of her graduate research. Her current research at a large 7000-year-old village site in southern Turkey explores ritual and economic uses of animals at the end of the Neolithic Period.

September 23— Steve Rosen, Ph.D., The Rise of Desert Cult: The Sacred Precinct at Ramat Saharonim, Central Negev, 3-4 :30 p.m. with gallery tour following.

The earliest archaeological evidence for elaborate shrines reflecting public ritual and cult in the southern Levantine deserts 7000 years ago coincides with the adoption of herd animals as the people of the late Neolithic through the Early Bronze Age moved from hunting-gathering to pastoral nomadic lifestyles. Survey and excavation at the desert shrine complex at Ramat Saharonim, in the Central Negev, revealed four courtyard shrines and thirty burial cairns. The shrines are aligned with the setting sun of the summer solstice, tying them circumstantially to death symbolism, suggesting a mortuary cult.

Rosen, professor of archaeology at Ben-Gurion University, will discuss the interplay and interdependence of subsistence, symbol, and social structure. Rosen received his Ph.D. in anthropology from the University of Chicago and worked for eight years as a field archaeologist for the Archaeological Survey of Israel—Negev Emergency Survey, where he developed his taste for desert archaeology. Other research interests include Levantine prehistory and stone tool analysis. He is currently serving as the editor of the Journal of the Israel Prehistoric Society.

November 4 — Arlene Rosen, Ph.D., Living in the Desert as a Chalcolithic Farmer, 4-4:30 p.m. in the Gill Auditorium followed by a gallery tour with Dr. Rosen.

There is a popular notion that early village farmers living on the margins of the Negev Desert were at the mercy of a fickle environment which dealt out droughts versus abundant rainfall in seemingly random yearly intervals. We now know that Chalcolithic farmers had very sophisticated strategies for living securely in a marginal farming environment, and were able to make a good and secure living in that locality. This lecture explores some of the evidence for the climatic changes that impacted Chalcolithic farmers, the ancient farming strategies they used to adapt to them, and how this might be relevant to modern farmers within a context of impending global warming.

Rosen obtained a PhD in anthropology from the University of Chicago in 1985. She is currently a Reader in Environmental Archaeology at the Institute of Archaeology, University College London. She has participated in archaeological fieldwork in Central America, Europe, Africa, the Levant, Central Asia, and East Asia. Her primary research interests include human relationships with their environments, the impact of climate change on human societies, and the development of agricultural systems in the proto-historic Near East, Central Asia, and Neolithic to Bronze Age China. Rosen’s publications include Civilizing Climate: Social Responses to Climate Change in the Ancient Near East (2007), Altamira Press, and Cities of Clay: The Geoarchaeology of Tells (1986) Univ. of Chicago Press.

November 11 — Osnat Misch-Brandl, Religious Rituals in the Chalcolithic Period, 3-4:30 p.m. in the Gill Auditorium, followed by a gallery tour.

Osnat Misch-Brandl received her BA in Archaeology and History and her MA in Biblical and Classic Archaeology from The Hebrew University of Jerusalem. She has participated in excavations with The Hebrew University of Jerusalem in Cyprus and Israel. She currently is the Curator of Chalcolithic and Canaanite Periods for The Israel Museum, Jerusalem.

As a curator she has worked on many exhibits, including The Oldest Gold in the World (1994), Thundering on High: Images of the Canaanite Storm God (2000), and A 6000-Year-Old Nobleman: Finds from the Cave of the Warrior (2003). For the exhibition  Journey to the Copper Age: Archaeology in the Holy Land at the San Diego Museum of Man, Osnat has collaborated with curator Thomas Levy and accompanied the ancient artifacts on loan from The Israel Museum, Jerusalem.

December 2 — Thomas Levy, Ph. D., Andreas Hauptmann, Ph. D., Mohammad Najjar, Ph.D., Copper Ore Transformed: How people 6000 years ago made metal

Presentation including demonstration of copper smelting begins at 5 p.m. Entrance includes a tour of the Journey to the Copper Age exhibition.

In 1997, Dr. Tom Levy lead a group of international scientists on a ten-day donkey caravan to reconstruct the ancient methods of mining, transportation, and smelting used by the people of the Chalcolithic 6,000 years ago. Join Dr. Levy and original team members Dr. Andreas Hauptmann from the German Mining Museum, and Dr. Mohammad Najjar of the Department of Antiquities of Jordan, as they crush copper ore, and heat it using ancient methods of smelting. This presentation includes a tour of the exhibit.

January 27— Thomas Levy, Ph. D., The Emergence of the Earliest Temples in the Holy Land,3-4:30 p.m., with Dr. Levy leading a gallery tour immediately afterwards.

During the final week of the Journey to the Copper Age, Dr. Levy will tell about his continuing research. 

The preceding story was provided by the Museum of Man

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