	San Diego Jewish World 'There's a Jewish story everywhere'

In today's issue...

Judy Lash Balint in Jerusalem: "Pain and gain during Sukkot"

Donald H. Harrison in San Diego: "Seven sukkot of eastern San Diego and a first grader's question for Moses"

Joe Naiman in Lakeside, California: "Diamondbacks skipper Melvin a member of the Jewish community"

Isaac Yetiv in La Jolla, California: "An S.O.S. for American democracy"

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An S.O.S. for American democracy

By Isaac Yetiv, Ph.D.

"When the Athenians wanted NOT to give to Society but Society to give them..., when they wished freedom FROM responsibility, then the Athenians ceased to be free."—Edward Gibbon, The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire

LA JOLLA, California—More than thirty years ago I became, by choice, a U.S. citizen. No , it was not for material pursuit; nor was I seeking refuge from persecution. As a student, living in Israel, of the American political system which I saw as the source of the success and prosperity of the United States, I marveled at the wisdom of the Founding Fathers who concocted a genial system of government that became the envy of the world and a magnet to millions of people from all continents.

Its most salient features are, of course, the "checks-and- balances to prevent concentration of power in a few hands, the separation of powers, the separation of church and state, the rule of law, the protection of minorities and the rights of individuals in a very open society.

Since its inception, the State of Israel has been heavily dependent on its main ally, sometimes its only ally, the United States, and the Israelis developed a keen friendship and admiration for the great superpower and genuine feelings for the welfare of its citizens. So it is a vital interest for Israel that America remain strong and respected in the world.

Lately, I would say since Vietnam and Watergate, breaches and fault lines have appeared in the shiny armor of the Republic and are now threatening democracy and the fabric of society. Today there is an ominous disconnect between the people and their elected officials; a majority of citizens do not trust their government and less than half bother to vote. President Kennedy's famous admonition, "Ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country!" has been turned on its head. There is a proliferation of groups and organizations that claim loudly their "entitlement" to money and services, and a corresponding number of government programs to satisfy them, created by docile elected officials whose main raison d’être is to be re-elected. The federal government has become the sugar daddy of the world (not only America) and its hated policeman, two very expensive propositions. No wonder how, once the largest creditor of the world, the U.S. has become its largest debtor. This year, our annual deficit is 700 billion dollars, and our national debt, which was about 3 trillions when I wrote the first draft of this article 15 years ago (!) has tripled since and it is, today, close to 9 trillions (that's 9,000,000,000,000) , or 30, 000 dollars per person ( a family of five owes 150,000 dollars). We continue recklessly to borrow and spend, to borrow and give away, which makes us economically and politically dependent on other nations, and endangers our security.

Vital issues have been neglected by the Congress and the White House and left to fester until they became almost intractable, again because of the fear of the elected officials to tackle them and antagonize and alienate this or that portion of the electorate : the 55,000-page tax code that was justifiably called "an abomination;" the "entitlements" of Social Security and Medicare which, when 78 millions of baby-boomers become eligible soon, will bankrupt the country (according to GAO Director David Walker); the Health system itself, so wasteful and inefficient with 48 million persons uninsured; and the immigration problem with millions of illegal aliens that we can neither swallow nor regurgitate.

These five big issues, all "third rail" and indispensable to the good functioning of our democracy, cannot be resolved the usual way. I suggest the President appoint five separate committees of non-partisan (not bi-partisan) experts who will tackle them in depth and come back with an optimal solution that will be debated, and a resolution obtained, with the extreme urgency.

Other problems are more amenable to reform the usual way but it is obvious that the reformers will not emerge from the ranks of the incumbent officials who are the beneficiaries of the status quo. Only the people, the grassroots, can bring about any change. They should organize as groups of concerned citizens and force the candidates to pledge to work for these reforms under the penalty of not getting elected. The massive grassroots national movement for reform =, which I propose to call "S.O.S. America" to reflect the seriousness of the situation, will not deal with controversial issues such as abortion or the war in Iraq but with the "rules of the game," the basic principles that can rally a strong majority of the population, excluding, of course, the minority who benefit from the present system. It is beyond the scope of this article to list all of the suggested reforms; let us present another set of FIVE:

●Limit the campaign time, spending and financing
Starting the campaign for President two years in advance, as we are witnessing this year, increases the cynicism among the people who are fed up with the politicians. Other good democracies can do it in 90 days, sometimes less. It should be limited by law to a maximum of four months , two months for the primaries to be held the same day all over the country , and two months for the presidential elections . It is wasteful and corruptive to spend hundreds of millions of dollars, this time one whole billion if we believe the experts. The McCain-Feingold rules only tinkered on the edges; we need a robust reform to reduce and hopefully eliminate the deleterious effect of money on the socio-political health of the electoral process.

●Balance the budget, by law, and start the prospect of repaying the national debt: The government should not spend more than it takes in. Fiscal discipline is an imperative in these difficult times. If it is absolutely necessary to spend more, progressive taxes should be increased to cover the difference. The trade deficit with China only is , this year, 230 billions. We borrow money from China , which is presently holding 242 billions of U.S.Treasury bonds, to buy merchandise of all kinds, some of it pure junk we can do without. With the surplus of dollars, China is buying strategic assets all over the world and increasing its military budget, which is scary in itself . We must reduce our fiscal dependency on this rising superpower with the same urgency we need to rid ourselves of our dependency on energy from the turbulent Middle-East.

Abolish by law all earmarks and " pork,” like the bridge- to- nowhere. The last transport bill contained 6,371 projects totaling 24 billion dollars. This is absolutely scandalous. The Congressmen should not be judged by their constituencies by "the bacon they bring home" paid for by someone else, but by their proactive legislation for the benefit of the whole country, which, until now, has been almost nil. One has the impression that the Congress is only busy conducting hearings and investigations.

●Make it illegal for any civil servant or elected representative to open a lobbying business prior to at least five years from the day he leaves the government. It is shameful to see former high
officials lobbying their former subordinates on behalf of a paying client who expects special treatment for his money. Civil servants and elected representatives should be prohibited from receiving any gifts of any kind because, as written in the Bible," bribes blind the eyes of the wise."

● Repatriate all military personnel stationed abroad and doing nothing, and close obsolete bases. Why do we need to have today , six decades after WWII, 70,000 soldiers still left in Germany (it was recently reported that the German government objected to their departure because they help their economy!) , or 37,000 in South Korea who serve no purpose except becoming hostage in case of a military confrontation, and tens of other places in the world that perpetuate our reputation as "imperialists" when , in reality, it is costing us billions of dollars for no benefit at all.

" S.O.S.America" volunteers should come from all walks of society, be independent politically and economically, and have no ax to grind of any kind, just the ardent wish to see reforms enacted in the system that will make it more fair, more open, more equitable, and more efficient, with the hopeful desire to restore America to its past grandeur.

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Jerusalem Diaries
Judy Lash Balint

Pain and gain during Sukkot

JERUSALEM—IIf you can't stand crowds and don't like walking, don't even think about coming to Jerusalem during Sukkot.

The city is packed, and all the streets leading to and from the Old City are closed to private vehicles, so the only way to get around is to pile onto the city buses along with the rest of world Jewry, or, hike through the crowds to get anywhere.

Tonight, with a lot of luck and a fair bit of knowledge of some of the back ways in and around the City of David, I managed to get in and out of a mass free concert in Jerusalem's most historic valley relatively easily.

Shlomo Gronich

In honor of the Sukkot festival, well-known Israeli composer and singer, Shlomo Gronich is the main act at the event that takes place in the newly restored performance area of the City of David. Thousands descend on the area just below the southern wall of the Old City, winding their way down dozens of steps past remnants of a Canaanite wall and in the direction of Hezekiah's tunnel and the Second Temple period Shiloah Pool.

The entrance to the City of David is down a steep slope outside the Dung Gate, the closest entryway to the Western Wall. I manage to hop onto one of the shuttle-buses running between the Karta Parking garage just outside Jaffa Gate and Dung Gate.The round-trip ticket cost 6 shekel ($1.50)and the bus deposits me 5 minutes walk away from the entrance to the City of David Visitor Center.

I join the throngs descending the stairs and find a spot on a ledge overlooking the stage. Streams of people of all ages follow; many families with small kids and grandmothers in tow; young couples shlepping strollers as well as a significant number of older people who carefully make their way down the steps.

On the eastern slope of the valley (the City of David is part of the Kidron Valley) the twinkling Ramadan lights of the Arab houses in Silwan shine through the night sky. Silwan of today is built on top of the remnants of the buildings of the first wave of Yemenite Jews who arrived in Israel in the 1860s. Those Jews fled during the Arab riots of the late 1920s-1930s and the Arab squatters took over.

As Gronich starts singing, Ramadan firecrackers go off, and an evidently urgent Arab night-time construction project gets underway.

When most people are already situated, I see Davidele, one of the men responsible for the revitalization of the City of David, walk down to the stage accompanied by his wife and a bodyguard. There's a wide smile on the face of this diminutive man with the shock of black hair wearing a white knitted kipa. Fifteen years ago, before the development of the area into one of Israel's most important archaeological and cultural sites, it would have been hard to imagine thousands of people venturing at night into this once dangerous and judenrein neighborhood.

I leave before the end of the concert, figuring it will be hard enough to hike back up all those stairs and then walk up the hill to the bus stop just west of the Dung Gate to catch the bus without the accompaniment of thousands of others. I stop at the rooftop overlook that looks out over the oldest Jewish cemetery in the world. The eerily beautiful Mount of Olives cemetery is bathed in moonlight and electrical illuminations.

It's my lucky evening, as I manage to squeeze myself on through the back door of the bus, where a friendly blue-shirted Egged inspector is obligingly taking tickets. I hop off back at the parking garage and walk the rest of the way home—running into old friends from London whom I haven't seen in almost 30 years.

I'll put up with the crowds and the walking to be part of a Sukkot experience that generations of Jews could only dream about.

____________________

The Jewish Citizen
by Donald H. Harrison

Seven sukkot of eastern San Diego and
a first grader's question for Moses

SUKKOT—Top photo: inside the sukkah of Tifereth Israel Synagogue (Conservative); below; the sukkah of Beth Jacob Congregation (Orthodox)

SAN DIEGO—I'd like to think that my six-year-old grandson, Shor, comes on field trips with me because he is a budding journalist, anxious to experience my world. But I'm realistic enough to know that sometimes the real attraction is the treat, or snack, that typically comes with the field trip.

We went yesterday, for example, to Old Town San Diego State Historic Park, and besides seeing Mexican dances, watching a bullwhip demonstration, feeling a real fossil at one of the shops, petting a desert tortoise, touring the Visitors Center at the Robinson Rose House, and being granted a certificate for 160 pretend acres of land for homesteading purposes, Shor also got to snack on a churro.

Today, we decided to tour various Jewish places in the eastern portion of San Diego to look at their sukkot. But I think the payoff for Shor was the yogurt place where we stopped after the touring was done.

Top: San Diego State University students stand inside a sukkah at the Chabad House by the campus. Bottom: A small sukkah at Hillel House near SDSU

As any grandfather will intuitively understand, for me, the best reward of all was just sharing the boy's company.

After inspecting the various sukkot, Shor reeled off for me the names of the seven ushpizin (holy guests) who are said to visit our temporary dwellings: Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, Moses, Aaron and King David.

Which of them would he most enjoy sitting and eating with? I inquired while he ate mint flavored yogurt. "Moshe," he responded without hesitation. Being an attentive first grader of Soille San Diego Hebrew Day School, he refers to the people in the Bible by their Hebrew names. Similarly he devoutly calls God "Hashem (the name)."

Top: A sukkah on the parking lot outside the Torah school at Temple Emanu-El in Del Cerro. Bottom: Shor inside a portable sukkah built on a parking lot at Navajo and Golfcrest, in front of Young Israel of San Diego.

""Shor, can you imagine Moses sitting right there next to you, and leaning over and saying, "excuse me, could you please pass the salt?"

"Grandpa," he responded. "It's would be Moshe's spirit visiting us. He wouldn't eat anything.

What would you ask Moshe? I asked

Shor toyed with his yogurt for a while, before responding: "What year he received the Ten Commandments."

"Why that question?" I wondered.

"People are curious about different things," he informed me. "That's what I'm curious about," he said with a matter of factness that settled the issue—at least for him.

A table top sukkah constructed by Shor.

That was as far as my probing got me with Shor, but his question was contagious. I found myself wondering about the year Moses received the Ten Commandments. I know we generally estimate that it was approximately 1500 BCE, but what year did Moses think it was? Did he count by some secular system, such as we do when we say the year is 2007? Let's see, 1500 BCE was 3,507 years ago, and this is the Hebrew Calendar Year 5,768 so did Hashem tell Moses, "by the way the year on your calendar is now 2,261"?

I smiled at Shor. This is indeed a question to ponder, I thought as I spooned my own peanut-butter flavored yogurt.

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Jewish sports

Diamondbacks skipper Melvin a member of the Jewish community

By Joe Naiman

LAKESIDE, California—Bob Melvin, who has a Jewish mother, has had a few Friars to contend with since taking over as the manager of the Arizona Diamondbacks. Although the San Diego Padres won the National League's Western Division during Melvin's first two years as the Diamondbacks' manager, this year Melvin has guided Arizona to its first division championship since 2002.

Bob MelvinB

For Melvin, who was a player and bench coach before
making his managerial debut in 2003, the division championship is his fourth. He was a catcher on the 1987 San Francisco Giants which captured the National League division title before falling to the St. Louis Cardinals in the playoffs. That was Melvin's

only post-season appearance as a player.

Melvin spent all or part of ten seasons in the major
leagues before his playing career came to an end in 1994.
He began his coaching career as a bench coach for the Milwaukee Brewers in 1999 and for the Detroit Tigers in 2000. In2001, after Bob Brenly was hired as the Diamondbacks'
manager, Melvin accepted the position as the Diamondbacks'
bench coach. He obtained a World Series ring after
Arizona won the 2001 Fall Classic and was also in uniform
when the Diamondbacks won the Western Division in 2002
before losing to St. Louis in the divisional playoffs.

When the Tampa Bay Devil Rays offered Seattle Mariners
manager Lou Piniella a position closer to his Florida home,
Piniella vacated the Mariners skipper position. Melvin
was hired to replace Piniella and guided Seattle to a
93-69 record in 2003, which was worth a second-place
finish in the American League's Western Division.

The Mariners and the Diamondbacks both fell upon
hard times in 2004 - or perhaps the two teams didn't
truly falter but rather were in the rebuilding phase of a
long-term program. Seattle finished with 63 wins and
99 losses, which made 2004 Melvin's final season with the
Mariners. Arizona had the worst National League record
since the start of divisional play in 1969; the
Diamondbacks' 51-111 record edged out the 52-110 marks
the Padres and Montreal Expos each had in 1969. Bob Brenly was dismissed as the Diamondbacks' manager in mid-season, and Al Pedrique took over through the end of the playing year.

Melvin's first season managing the Diamondbacks
produced a 77-85 record, which placed them second in the
Western Division. The team finished five games behind
the Padres in 2005. Last year Melvin and his team
completed the season with a 76-86 record, putting them
in fourth place among the division's five teams at the
end of the season and 12 games in back of the Padres.

During the 2007 season the Diamondbacks were never
more than 4 1/2 games out of first place, and at one
point Arizona had a five-game lead in the division
standings. The Diamondbacks also had winning streaks
of eight games and seven games.