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

                              Today's Postings

Donald H. Harrison in San Diego: "100+ Jewish homes lost in San Diego County fires; donations mounting"

Joe Naiman in Lakeside, California: "Youkilis, 2-5, three runs, two doubles in World Series debut"

Ira Sharkansky in Jerusalem: "Myths and the making of policy."

                                The week in Review
                           (click on dates to see back issues)

Wednesday, October 24

Shoshana Bryen in Washington, D.C.: "Turks, Kurds, and the PKK"

Garry Fabian in Melbourne, Australia: "Neo-Nazi concert too close for comfort... Jewish pilot off to Antarctica .... Bipartisan support for security funding... Carl Bernstein to tour Australia for JNF"

Donald H. Harrison in San Diego: "Seacrest Village seniors return after camping out at Beth Israel"

Lynne Thrope in San Diego: "Restaurant community pitches in for victims of wildfires"

Tuesday, October 23

Shoshana Bryen in Washington: "Gates sees U.S. consensus on Iraq"

Donald H. Harrison in San Diego: "Acts of kindness, large and small, characterize response to fires"

J. Zel Lurie in Delray Beach, Florida: "Watching the media and the media watchers"

Joe Naiman in Lakeside, California: "Youkilis sets two LCS records,
ties mark for most LCS hits"

Ira Sharkansky in Jerusalem: "Jewish American success stories"

Monday, October 22

Shoshana Bryen in Washington DC "Gates underscores threat of Iran and the jihadists in speech to JINSA"

Donald H. Harrison in San Diego: "Jewish community rallies to help victims, as wildfires sweep San Diego County"

Ira Sharkansky in Jerusalem: "Abbas' response to plot on Olmert's life raises questions about Palestinian intentions"

Sunday, October 21, 2007

"Cynthia Citron in Los Angeles: "Divorce, Jewish playwright style"

Donald H. Harrison in San Diego: "Partying at the Air & Space Museum for Seacrest Village Retirement Communities"

Joe Naiman in San Diego: "Horseracing debuts as Hall of Champions' featured sport"

Sheila Orysiek in San Diego: "Yiddish still alive, tickling"

Saturday, October 20

Shoshana Bryen in Washington DC: "Glad he spoke, but JINSA doesn't agree with all that Gates had to say"

Donald H. Harrison in San Diego: Comedian ponders relations between U.S. Jews, Christians"

Ira Sharkansky in Jerusalem: "He thinks he shall never see a peace conference as lovely as a tree"

Eileen Wingard in San Diego: "A golden baton winner looks back on TICO's endorphin-filled season"

Larry Zeiger in San Diego: "Book of David grows tiresome with its extended biblical metaphor."

Friday, October 19, 2007

Cynthia Citron in Los Angeles: "Braille Institute honors near blind reader, 101, now an author herself"

Garry Fabian in Melbourne, Australia: "How B'nai B'rith lit its menorah in Australia and New Zealand."

Donald H. Harrison in San Diego: "Evan Almighty mighty good way to spend quality time with grandson, 6"

Rabbi Baruch Lederman in San Diego: "A kiss at a bris"

Rabbi Leonard Rosenthal in San Diego: "'And you shall be a blessing...'"

Archive of Previous Issues

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The Jewish Citizen
by Donald H. Harrison

WATER FOR THE FIREMEN—Chabad Rabbi Yisroel Goldstein, a chaplain for the San Diego Sheriff's office, gives some water bottles to unidentified fire fighters during the recent siege of wildfires in San Diego County.

100+ Jewish homes lost in San Diego County fires; donations mounting

SAN DIEGO—More than 100 Jewish families in San Diego County have had their homes destroyed or severely damaged by the ongoing wildfires, according to Michael Rassler, chief executive officer of the United Jewish Federation.

Rassler said this was determined by cross-checking addresses of Jews who are active in synagogues or community organizations against the addresses listed by emergency officials of structures that have been burned by the fires that swept San Diego County.

The UJF executive cautioned in an interview, however, that the number does not include those Jewish families who are unaffiliated with the community, so the total number of Jewish families impacted may be higher.

Both affiliated and unaffiliated Jewish community members will be eligible for assistance from the community, which has established the Jewish Community Disaster Fund in care of the Jewish Community Foundation, 4950 Murphy Canyon Road, San Diego, CA 92123. Tax deductible contributions may be made by check or by credit card via the United Jewish Federation’s website at www.jewishinsandiego.org.

Lori Mathios, UJf director of media relations, said that contributions in excess of $210,000 had been received between the time of the fund’s establishment on Monday by this morning.

Additionally, Jewish Family Service has established a Fire Support Hotline at (800) 295-4254, and an email link at firesupport@jfssd.org. The agency said it will provide free case management services including assessments, counseling, referrals and advocacy with disaster related benefits.

"Limited financial assistance is available," according to a JFS statement. "Emergency food bags are available for seniors and other isolated clients in need of short-term provisions. Food bags are available for pick-up or delivery to individuals in isolated and/or emergency situations. Other services will be added as San Diego County moves from crisis response to long-term recovery."

"Jewish Family Service is in need of volunteers to help respond to calls, accept and sort food donations, as well as administrative assistance. Licensed mental health professionals are also needed to assist with initial intakes for those whose homes have been damaged or destroyed by the wildfires."

Jill Borg Spitzer, executive director of Jewish Family Service, said the organized Jewish community will actively seek and contact Jewish families who have suffered losses from the fires.

“We will call every Jewish family to tell them that we are here to help you,” Spitzer told San Diego Jewish World.

With the experience of the devastating Cedar fire four years ago and other wildfires of the past, JFS has learned “how long term the pain and anguish is and that there is no short term fix,” said Spitzer.

“You can put a house together and rebuild, but the psychological impact of this goes on for a very long time and we have people on staff to help people deal with that,” she said. “The other things that we learned are the kind of specific needs that people have; it’s not one answer to fit everyone. Someone may say we need money to replace Judaica items in our house; another family may say we need money because we have a horse and we need to buy supplies for the horse. And if they can’t get the money for these supplies any place else, we will help them out. Everybody’s needs are based on what is going on in their lives.”

Concerning Judaica, Spitzer said past fires have shown that to many Jewish families replacing items like Shabbat candles, hannukiahs, seder plates and other religious items “is really important…so we want to be able to give money to help people replace Judaica. We want them to have financial assistance for other things that FEMA (Federal Emergency Management Agency) won’t pay for.”

Rassler said that since announcing the creation of a fund for the fire victims, United Jewish Federation has received donations not only from other San Diegans but from donors in such states as Alabama, Tennesse, Maryland and Texas.

Furthermore, he said, “I received a call in the midst of a missile barrage in Sha’ar Hanegev from the mayor, Alon Schuster, who was concerned about what we are going through.”

Sha’ar Hanegev (Gate of the Negev) is a collection of kibbutzim, a moshav and a student village in the vicinity of Sderot, along the border between Israel and Gaza. United Jewish Federation of San Diego and the Sha’ar Hanegev Regional council are partners in development and exchange projects.

Rassler said that United Jewish Communities, an umbrella organization serving Federations throughout North America, has been monitoring the responses of the Jewish communities affected by wildfires throughout Southern California and has been sharing the information with other federations.

“This has been as smooth an operation in a disaster as I have been involved in maybe 20 years,” Rassler said in reference to the overall civic effort for orderly evacuations of endangered areas, and the caring for displaced persons.

“I spent maybe 10 years in Miami and South Florida and I have been through a couple of hurricanes—Hurricane Andrew and Hurricane George—and let me tell you that the work that is being done here, the calm that has prevailed, the incredible sense of camaraderie, the sharing and the caring, has been outstanding, both at a professional level but also on an individual level.

Today was a day of mop-up operations for synagogues located in areas closest to the burns. Among these were Chabad of Poway and Temple Adat Shalom, where workers returned only this morning.

Chabad Rabbi Yisroel Goldstein said five families in his congregation lost homes—a situation he described as potentially far more devastating for the children than for the parents.

He counseled that children will take their cue from adults; if the adults can remain upbeat and positive—by commenting on how much help the community is rendering, how they plan to build again; how the important thing is that the family is together—the children will be able to keep matters in perspective.

Goldstein said that one of his congregants, Raymond Polikoff, recently suffered the loss of a daughter, Jenny, who died at San Diego State University after an evening out. Polikoff has devoted himself to the synagogue and to good works, Goldstein said, and should provide perspective for the fire victims. As bad as loss of property is, he said, it does not compare to the loss of a daughter.

Besides being spiritual leader of his Poway congregation, Goldstein also serves as a chaplain with the sheriff’s department. He was out on the fire lines encouraging firefighters, and other law enforcement personnel, as they fought fires in his neighborhood.

At one point, he said, he watched helplessly as the home of one of his congregants, Daniel Okonsky, burned to the ground. “I was feeling so helpless, seeing a dear friend’s house just burning, an incredible inferno, with nothing to do to stop it,” Goldstein said. Past midnight, Goldstein and Okansky sat together on the rubble of the house “having a heart to heart talk” into the wee hours of the morning. “He is going to rebuild,” said Goldstein.

Goldstein said that thanks to an anonymous donor, who is a member of a nearby Lutheran Church, Chabad of Poway will host a community Shabbat dinner following a service of comfort and thanksgiving on Friday night. Members of his congregation, Temple Adat Shalom and Ner Tamid Synagogue all are invited.

At Adat Shalom, although there was no structural damage, the smell of smoke permeated the building, according to Lorri Baker, the Temple secretary.

“It’s as bad inside as it is outside,” she said.

Eleven families who are members of Temple Adat Shalom are known to have lost their homes, Baker said. The temple has established its own fund for their relief. Checks marked “fire victims” may be sent to Rabbi Tamar Malino’s Discretionary Fund at Temple Adat Shalom at 15905 Pomerado Road, Poway, CA 92064.

She said that gift cards redeemable at various stores also would help the victims to rebuild their lives.

At Temple Solel in Cardiff by the Sea, an area that also had been evacuated, administrators returned to find that the only damage was ash sprinkled all over the property and one tree blown over. There was no structural damage to the synagogue, and, at first report, no congregant had suffered loss of a home, according to administrator Robin Rubin.

Rubin had been in Cincinnati, Ohio, during much of the week to attend a meeting of the National Association of Temple Administrators with her friend from Adat Shalom, Jane Sable Friedman.

She said watching television coverage of the fires, she was proud to be a San Diegan because the way this county was organized and how people cared for each other was clearly projected in the news coverage.

At Seacrest Village in Encinitas, residents who had camped for two days at Congregation Beth Israel returned to their own rooms yesterday. They were joined at the Encinitas campus by residents from Seacrest’s Rancho Bernardo facility, who had been evacuated to Heritage Pointe and environs in Orange County. At first it was thought that the Rancho Bernardo residents might have to sleep on cots in the Encinitas’ retirement home’s synagogue, but after a count of available beds in the various divisions of the facility, all the Rancho Bernardo guests were assigned to regular beds.

Although they were lodged in separate buildings, the guests from Rancho Bernardo hung out together during the day, participating in such activities as a bingo game, and a shopping trip.

Tomorrow, the two groups of residents plan to sign giant banners to thank their hosts at Congregation Beth Israel and at Heritage Point, Seacrest Village executive director Pam Ferris said.

The banner for Beth Israel is intended to thank both the congregants and neighborhood volunteers who did everything they could to make the seniors’ stay in temporary quarters comfortable, Ferris said.

Ferris said both Seacrest Village facilities were being given top-to-bottom cleanings to purge them of any ash and soot that may have been blown into the facility by the fires.

She said it has not been decided when the residents of the Rancho Bernardo facility will return. Although their rooms will be ready, Ferris said she wants to assure herself that nearby Pomerado Hospital is fully back in service.

In other developments:

●Soille San Diego Hebrew Day School, 3630 Afton Road in the Kearny Mesa area of San Diego, and Beth Jacob Congregation, 4855 College Avenue in the College area, established themselves as drop off points for relief supplies (diapers, non-perishable foods, hygiene products) to be transported to evacuation centers.

● Chabad at San Diego State University has enlisted college students to work as volunteers at Qualcomm Stadium, a major evacuation point.

● Volunteers at Congregation Beth Israel (9001 Towne Center Drive) in the eastern area of La Jolla, helped house, feed, serve and entertain seniors from Seacrest Village of Encinitas during two days that they used the temple as an evacuation center. Seacrest Village has since been permitted to reestablish regular operations at its Encinitas facility.

● Jewish Family and Children’s Services in San Francisco has issued an appeal to Northern Californians to send contributions for the relief of fire victims in San Diego County. It is working in conjunction with Jewish Family Service in San Diego.

Letter from Jerusalem
By Ira Sharkansky

Myths and the making of policy

JERUSALEM—Two things have happened in recent days, quite different in their substance, that have led me to think once again about the quandary of the intellectual.

One has to do with the assassination of Yitzhak Rabin, and the other with the critical view of the Bible.

The first begins with what had been my displeasure at the annual celebration of Rabin. Since his assassination, the media turned him into a hero, father figure, and all else that was good, without blemish. He did have blemishes, no worse perhaps, but not much less than other figures who aspire to national leadership here or elsewhere.

Now I wonder about my displeasure.

The findings are that more than 45 percent of religious Jews in Israel, and more than 25 percent of the general population do not believe that Yigal Amir killed him. There are conspiracy theories that explain away the film of the killing and Amir's recorded admission, with bravado, that he did it.

For those familiar with John Kennedy's assassination, all this may seem familiar.

The other issue comes from a meeting with a liberal American rabbi, as familiar as I with the critical literature about stories in the Hebrew Bible. The rabbi acknowledges the lack of hard evidence about the Exodus and other heroic events, but is concerned that teaching them to the people would threaten their affinity to Judaism. The conversation reminded me about findings that numerous Catholic theologians view stories of the virgin birth and the resurrection not as historical fact, but as metaphors meant to portray the grandeurs of Christ and his teachings. Like my rabbinical friend, the theologians are reluctant to teach the idea of metaphors to the faithful, or even to priests.

Common to both of these incidents are the intellectual's dilemmas. How broadly should we teach reality against myth? How insistent should we be that the mass of the population hear, or accept what we know?

Myth is useful. If a significant proportion of the Israeli public believes the fairy stories about Yigal Amir, then democracy and rationality may be in danger. Perhaps we can strengthen democracy by propagating exaggerations about the character of Yitzhak Rabin as we emphasize the evil of assassination. If we believe that affinity to Jewish (and/or Catholic) communities and morals are important to social well being, perhaps we should not complain if clerics continue to teach mythic accounts about the distant past.

As all you intellectuals know, dilemmas do not have simple answers.

Truth can be dangerous.

Sharkansky is a professor emeritus of political science of Hebrew University

Jewish Sports

Youkilis 2-5, three runs, two doubles in World Series debut

By Joe Naiman

LAKESIDE, California—Kevin Youkilis provided a welcome respite for us living with the San Diego fires when he made his World Series debut and had two hits in five at-bats along with a walk. Both of his hits were doubles, and he scored three runs while driving in one.

The bottom of the first inning began when Dustin Pedroia
became the second player in World Series history to lead
off the first game with a home run. After Pedroia joined
Don Buford of the 1969 Orioles in that distinction,
Youkilis stepped to the plate and pounded a double to
right center field. After David Ortiz was retired,
Manny Ramirez singled Youkilis, the only Jewish player in the World Series, across the plate for the game's second run.

The Red Sox scored three runs in the first inning, and
Youkilis returned to the plate with two outs in the bottom
of the second inning. He drew a walk and scored on
Ortiz's ensuing double to provide the Red Sox with a 4-1
lead.

The batting rotation reached Youkilis once again in the
bottom of the fourth inning. This time he hit a foul
ball which was grabbed by Rockies second baseman
Kazuo Matsui.

Youkilis came to the plate twice in the Red Sox's seven-run
fifth inning, both times with two outs. He doubled to
score Jacoby Ellsbury from second and give the Red Sox
a 7-1 lead, and Youkilis then scored his third run of the
game when Ortiz doubled.

The Red Sox had three doubles in the fifth inning, which
tied a World Series record. Boston also had eight doubles
in the game, including the two by Youkilis, to tie another
World Series record, and the Red Sox also tied the
October Classic record by producing nine extra-base hits
in a single game.

By the time Youkilis came to the plate for the second time in the fifth inning, the Red Sox had a 13-1 lead and the bases

were loaded. Youkilis was the first batter to face
Rockies pitcher Matt Herges, who coaxed a fly ball from
Youkilis which was caught by right fielder Brad Hawpe for
the inning's third out.

Youkilis' final time to the plate was in the eighth inning.
Once again he faced a fresh pitcher, as LaTroy Hawkins
had entered the game for the bottom of the eighth.
Youkilis led off the frame by striking out.

The Red Sox's 13 runs also set a record for the most
tallies in the first game of a World Series, and the 12-run
margin also eclipsed the previous record.