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SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 20
MON., SEPT. 29-THURS., OCT. 9 Congregation Beth Israel High Holiday Services
GUEST COLUMN
JAFI is revitalizing the Zionist Dream
By Zeev Bielski
 JERUSALEM—Vazha and Irina Mamisashvili and their sons Nikoloz, 8, and David, 5, will celebrate this Rosh Hashanah in their new home at Kibbutz Masada in the Jordan Valley.Just eight weeks ago they were living in Georgia when the fighting broke out. They decided it was time to move to Israel.
“We wanted to do what is best for our children,” Irina said. Today she is working at the kibbutz guest house and is in ulpan with her husband learning Hebrew; their children are starting school.
As we begin a New Year we can be proud that we, the Jewish people, are united together through hard times as when it’s good; that Israel is there for the Jewish people wherever they are, and the Jewish people are there for Israel.
If we have learned one thing from these recent years it is that when Israel has gone through difficulties, it is how deeply and how viscerally the fate of the State of Israel is intertwined with Jewish people all over the world.
When the bodies of the two missing soldiers -- abducted by Hizbullah in an attack that sparked the Second Lebanon War -- were finally brought home, the sense of closure, disappointment and acceptance of their fate was felt not only throughout Israel, but was shared among Jews in communities everywhere.
And when Jews are in crisis -- wherever in the world they are -- Israel and the Jewish People are there at their side.
When the fighting broke out in Georgia, the State of Israel and the Jewish people were at hand for the Jews in danger. Hostilities in the Georgian province of South Ossetia broke out on a Thursday night, and by Saturday the Jewish Agency evacuated the 200 Jews of Gori to the safety of Tbilisi, the capital. Three days later, on Tuesday night, some of those same Jews who were evacuated from the war zone arrived at Ben Gurion airport as new immigrants, beginning a new life in the State of Israel. They were among the 200 Jews from Georgia who the Jewish Agency will have brought to Israel since the start of the crisis.
But for this connection to last for generations to come we must recognize that our underlying challenge is to keep the flame of Zionism burning in the hearts of Jews around the world, the vast majority of whom live in peace and relative prosperity. It is in these places that we need to establish and strengthen an inalienable link between the next generation of Jews and Israel, so that, like their grandparents and parents, they will love Israel and view it also as their home.
Our growing involvement in Zionist education among Jews abroad is in keeping with the important recent declaration by Prime Minister Olmert that the government of Israel would take a more active role in forging the Zionist identity and connection to the state of Israel among Jews in communities abroad; the Jewish Agency, in Olmert’s view, would serve as a platform for this strengthened connection and relationship between Israelis with Jews abroad.
For the Jewish Agency this means becoming more involved in North America by providing greater and more meaningful Israel content through education and opportunities in Israel.
It means bringing over 120 Israeli teachers to teach Hebrew in day schools; having (a record) 1,500 Israeli youth come for the summer to serves as counselors in Jewish camps; and bringing dozens of young Israeli shlichim to serve in communities and on college campus all across North America.
It continues after high school, by getting young adults to go to Israel for a semester or a year of studying, volunteering or working. It continues with offering Jewish youth, before during or after college opportunities to study and live in Israel – from two week volunteer programs to semester and year-long study or work programs in the framework of MASA, a joint project of the Government of Israel and the Jewish Agency to give Jewish youth abroad a significant life-experience in Israel.
On the community level, it comes in the form of nearly 50 partnerships between Jewish communities in North America and towns and local councils in Israel or by communities which want Israel integrated into their synagogues, schools, community centers through the Makom program. It also comes through the financial support we give to the birthright program.
It is these efforts, aimed mostly at people during their formative years, which lead some North American Jews to culminate their Zionist connection with Aliyah. For this very important group we want to make sure they get the highest level of service and help possible to make their ultimate Zionist dream a reality. That is why we recently announced our new partnership with Nefesh B’Nefesh so that, together, we can achieve the best possible results in helping olim from North America.
When the Jewish Agency was awarded the Israel Prize, our country’s most prestigious honor to organizations and individuals, on Israel’s 60th Independence Day in May, we were cited as the “organization which helped realize the vision of the return to Zion.”
In sixty years that vision has not been eclipsed; it has not dulled. With our partners in the Federations in North America and in Jewish communities all over the world, we will work to see the next sixty years as bright and vital fulfillment of the Zionist ideal as the last sixty.
With that mission in hand, with the unity of the Jewish People with a strong Israel at its heart as our goal – we cannot but succeed. If we diligently work toward a united, mutually responsible and viscerally connected Am Yisrael, it most certainly will be a wonderful New Year.
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CATERING BY CHARLES RUBIN
Now, Catering for the High Holidays!
L'Shanah Tovah Tikatevu
TEMPLE SOLEL High Holy Day Greetings
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WAR AND LORE Campaign 2008 Commentary
Why I won't vote for Barack Obama
By Isaac Yetiv, Ph.D.
 SAN DIEGO—When the old Hillel was asked what was the most important
tenet of Jewish Law, he famously answered (in Aramaic): "Don't do to others what you hate to be done to you" "and the rest is commentary ( in fact Hillel used the word parperaot ' i.e. trivialities). Today, the single most important concern in America is how to prevent its enemies, the terrorists and their sponsors, from acquiring and exploding a nuclear device in one or more American cities and killing hundreds of thousands of civilians.
In Israel, it is the existence of the state and the life of its six million Jews which are in peril. All the rest is really "trivialities." Our Hebrew Sages have always distinguished between iqar (essential) and tafell (trivial).
Therefore, when I come to form my opinion on whom to vote for, my first criterion is which candidate is better equipped and possesses the character, the judgment, the fortitude, and the
nerve to prepare for the worst and responds decisively if— I am tempted to say "when"— something bad happens.
My long and elaborate research has produced a compilation of facts that all converge to my conclusion that Barack Obama , whose intellectual qualities and ambitious idealism are
undeniable in fair weather, is not the person to lead America in these tempestuous times when the enemies of America and Israel, motivated by a fanatic ideology and not by just nationalist demands that could be negotiated, will not hesitate to make good on their "promises" to "wipe Israel off the map" and to "destroy the Great Satan, the U.S.A."
Let me say at the outset that I am politically independent, fiercely independent. I never voted for a party, always for the person regardless of his party affiliation, and most of the time I had to choose the lesser of two evils. I recoil from unfounded smear rumors, but I bow to the facts, however
unsavory or taboo they may appear. Anyone aspiring to the highest political office in the land should be transparent and open to scrutiny, warts and all. I will present Obama's "personal equation," his friends and radical associates, his advisers, his endorsers, and his own pronouncements.
His personal equation:For a long time after Obama appeared on the national scene, it was tacitly understood , for reasons of political correctness, that his religion was taboo, his middle-name Hussein unutterable, his Kenyan Muslim father unmentionable Why? Romney's Mormon faith was mentioned many times as well as JFK's Catholic faith or Lieberman's Jewish faith. If a voter decides not to vote for a candidate because of his religion, it may be not nice but it is perfectly legitimate. The fact is that Barack Obama was born of a Muslim Kenyan father. Islam is patrilineal (as opposed to Judaism which is matrilineal). It means that, for Islam, Barack Obama is a Muslim because his father is a Muslim. And if he later embraced Christianity, in the eyes of Islam he has committed apostasy, a crime punishable by death. (In my opinion, the Islamic fundamentalist establishment
turned a blind eye, and the leaders didn't issue a fatwa in the case of Obama because they believe it serves their higher interests to help him become president of the United States.) In America, of course, Obama, like any citizen, has the right to choose his religion, and he chose to be a Christian.
His radical blame-America-first associates: Amazing is Obama's predilection for "friends" and associates most of whom are America haters and Israel haters. And today, they are legion. Here are the most outrageous:
- Rev Jeremiah Wright, whom Obama called his "spiritual mentor," for 20 years, a very controversial black pastor who repeated the curse "God damn America" in his open sermons, and called Israel "a dirty word" that "invented the ethnic bomb.
-The unrepentant terrorists William Ayers and his wife Bernadine Dohrn who bombed the Pentagon long ago but recently declared that they only regret not having done more, are still, admittedly, his "friends "
-Tony Rezko, a Syrian-born businessman, with whom Obama had a land deal that should be investigated, was convicted in June of fraud and corruption charges,
-Frank Marshall Davis, an anti-American communist, is Obama's first and admittedly most influential mentor
-Michael Pfleger, a white vociferous pastor, who mimics the histrionics of his friend Jeremiah Wright in his anti-America diatribes
-George Soros, America hater, who vilifies Israel and helps those who want it destroyed.
-Louis Farrakhan, indirectly, via the good offices of Pastor Wright, who called Judaism a "gutter religion," and who is a proponent of separatism.
All these, and many others of the same ilk, have shaped Obama's worldview, and it defies common
sense to believe that in all these years he didn't, and now he doesn't, share their social and political outlooks and their extreme leftist ideologies.
His advisers: The same weltanschauung (worldview) is displayed in the choice of his advisers: Economic advisers who promote a class warfare, which has never worked in America because the poor, rather than envying the rich, want to become rich themselves, and many have achieved
the "American Dream" thanks to the open system in "the land of unlimited opportunities " As for the foreign policy advisers, most of them are notoriously anti-Israel. Here is a limited list:
-Robert Malley, who was the only actor in the Camp David negotiations (Clinton-Barak- Arafat) who has not blamed Arafat for the failure but blamed Israel and the U.S. because"they haven't given enough to Arafat." He was relieved of his advising duties to Obama after he was caught "meeting with Hamas. "
-Jimmy Carter whose antagonism to Israel needs no more proof after the publication of his book accusing Israel of "apartheid."
-Zbigniew Brzezinski, a former member of Carter's cabinet, well-known for his anti-Israel views, and an admirer of Professors Walt and Mearsheimer's anti-Israel book, The Israel Lobby.
-M.Cirincione, who believes that Israel should relinquish its nuclear arsenal, even in the absence of peace with the Arab world.
-Susan Rice, from the Carter administration, who advised Obama to appoint as negotiators in the Middle-East both Brzezinski (see above) and James Baker (see below, not officially an adviser )
-James Baker, a Republican, who is well-known for his "F... the Jews" and who showed contempt for Israel's Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir with whom he had very tempestuous relations.
-General Merrill McPeak who once said that what prevents peace in the Middle-East is "N. Y. City and Miami," what others call "the Jewish lobby."
-Anthony Lake, who served in the Carter administration and advised Clinton. He was the promoter of the policy that treats terrorism as a law-enforcement problem, which cost us the first
bombing of the World Trade Center in 1993, the embassies in Africa, the USS Cole, and eventually 9/11.
-Samantha Powers (now fired) who advocate "ending all U.S. military aid to Israel and investing billions in "the state of Palestine, even if it alienates domestic constituencies of tremendous political and financial import," again a reference to "the Jewish lobby."
-Rashid Khalidi, a long time good buddy of Obama socially and politically. He advocates the end of Israel and its replacement with one state, Palestine. Obama funnelled $75,000 in grants to
the Arab American Action Network where Khalidi's wife, Mona, is an important fundraiser.
-Daniel Kurtzer, an orthodox Jew who was U.S. ambassador to Israel, a pro-Palestinian who pushed for "a contiguous Palestinian state" (i. e. a big land connection between the West Bank and
Gaza that would cut Israel in two,) with Jerusalem as its capital, the Arab position in its totality.
--Recently added:
-David Bonior, a Democrat Congressman openly anti-Israel and pro-Arab as evidenced in his public pronouncements and his votes; and Chuck Hagel, a Republican U.S. Senator whose views are very unsympathetic to the Bush administration and, as a corollary, to the state of Israel. All of the above, and others, when they come to "advise," or, even worse, if they are appointed to cabinet
positions, what can we expect they will do? They will advocate the use of unbearable pressure on Israel to make more unreciprocated concessions that will endanger its already precarious security.
His endorsers: To date, among the many endorsers of Obama, are found the most unsavory individuals, political movements, and heads of state: First among them is the terrorist organization Hamas, that rules over Gaza and is still shunned by America, Israel, and even the Europeans. Not to be left behind, two ministers in Mahmoud Abbas cabinet that still rules over the West Bank until the next bloody confrontation with Hamas, have endorsed Obama with their declared belief that he will "give them a state in six months."
Add to them other notorious America haters, Hugo Chavez, Fidel Castro, Manuel Ortega who expects, and prays, for a "revolution" in the U.S.A., Kim Jong Il, Michael Moore, "Hanoi" Jane Fonda, and of course Moveon org, Daily Kos and Media Matters, other extremely radical leftist groups. Most recently, Black rapper Ludacris, after insulting Hillary Clinton and John McCain, endorsed Obama and demanded that the White House be painted black.
His character and judgment: It is generally true that a candidate cannot be responsible,
and faulted, for the quality of his endorsers although an accumulation of the same kind of endorsers inevitably reflects on the candidate. But the appointment of advisers and the cultivation
of friends are all of his own doing and he is certainly responsible for the choice. As we saw above, the list of Obama's advisers is frightening ; and his slow and hesitant disconnection from "bad
friends" does not attest to sound judgment. Obama's constant "changes" of positions and beliefs, not the result of changes of circumstances, are motivated by sheer expediency; even anodyne
gestures such as wearing and unwearing and rewearing the flag lapel pin cannot but leave the nagging impression of a lack of a set of core values. Obama's strategy of "change" is very clear:
in the primaries, when he courted the extreme Left, he embraced their extreme positions, far to the left of his opponent, Hillary Clinton. Once he clinched the nomination, he moved to the
"center," and cynically adopted Hillary's positions. No wonder the Clintons are fuming. Obama is an intelligent man who leaves nothing to chance; as in a chess game, he plans his moves carefully; he is aware of his vulnerabilities and prepares ready-made answers and "excuses" for his inconsistencies with casuistic rhetoric. The list of planned "changes" is very abundant, and Obama continues to amaze us with new gyrations that happen within an astonishingly short lapse of time.
Here are a few of them:
Domestic policy: Obama was for campaign public financing, then rejected his own idea. He was against FISA (surveillance, eavesdropping), pledged to filibuster the bill, then voted for it, astonishing his closest fellow Democrats. He was against gun rights, then he supported a court decision for them. He is against the corporations but voted for the farm bill (300 billion) when it
was expedient to do so. (McCain voted against.) He was adamantly against drilling offshore to the point that Nancy Pelosi shut off the debate and the House lights and sent the Congress on vacation.
Now he is "maybe, if, and but" for a "partial drilling" (because the polls show 71 % of the electorate are for drilling.) He was against selling oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, which is "reserved" for real emergency, then for it. He was first for "renegotiating NAFTA," now no more. And the pictures, showing him no-hand-on-heart during the playing of the national anthem, may have been forgotten if it were not for his incredible "explanation:" He said: "I don't want to be perceived as taking sides (!!) Many people in the world see the U S flag as asymbol of oppression." Really! From the candidate for President of the U.S.? How much rope can we give him?
On foreign policy: He was against the motion that declared Iranian Al-Quds brigades as terrorist organizations, then he operated a change. He was first for an immediate withdrawal of American troops from Iraq, then "refined" his position without admitting that the surge has worked. He declared that he "would" meet Ahmadinejad and other unsavory characters without preconditions,
then he added the preconditions. He said first that Iran was a "tiny" nation that poses no threat to the U.S., but a short time later, Iran became "a grave risk." And ,worse than all in my opinion, he declared at a big meeting of AIPAC that "Jerusalem is the capital of Israel and should remain undivided" But the next day, he said he had "misspoken" with "a poor choice of words" (although he had prefaced his declaration with "Let me make it very clear," and the same declaration of
"undivided" was proffered months before)
His other pronouncements: Obama believes, and he said so, that "the Palestinians are
the most oppressed people in the world " By whom he didn't say. But it is so clear to the listeners that Israel is the culprit. He didn't need to inquire about who started these wars and how
their wounds were self-inflicted, and how they rejected all zserious attempts by Israel and the U.S. to give them a state. Obama also said that the "terrorist groups have legitimate rights," regardless of the facts that their declared intent is the destruction of Israel He pledged that, if elected, he will
convene an international conference of Muslim leaders to "listen to their concerns." What are these concerns if not to get rid of the "pestilence" and "cancer" Jewish state in their midst?
Even Ralph Nader,not known for his sympathies to Israel, declared that Obama was, and continues to be, a pro-Palestinian despite his nice talk about Israel's security, done for political purposes. And Ali Abunima, an Arab activist, reported that Obama, before he became a candidate, had participated in rallies and fundraising for Palestinians and against "Israeli occupation " Even now, while repeating that "we must fight terrorism (without specifying "Islamist terrorism"), Obama still sees the terrorists as common criminals and insists that "the best way to deal with terrorists is to prosecute them "within the restraints of the Constitution."
Obama seems to embrace the philosophy of Jean-Jacques Rousseau who believed with disarming naivete that "man is born good and society depraves him," as opposed to the more realistic view, that of most of the Founding Fathers, Hobbes' view, that, as we see today in Darfur, Rwanda, Zimbabwe and now in Russia-Georgia, and as we saw in Germany, the Soviet Union, Cambodia, and China before, "man is wolf to man" (homo homini lupus est, in the words of Hobbes.) James Madison, a Hobbesian, said, while writing the Constitution, that "if men were angels, we wouldn't need the police," (or even the Constitution, I might add.) In front of tens of thousands of Germans in Berlin, Obama waxed messianic when he talked about "universal brotherhood of man, walls tumbling between races, tribes, Christian, Muslims, Jews " A utopian paradise! Not of this world. Elsewhere, he called for "swift, sweeping changes" which may have inspired Ortega who is
salivating for a "revolution in America" The adulation of the media emboldened him, maybe unconsciously, to a certain arrogant narcissism. when he proclaimed "we are who[m] we are
waiting for!"and "we will remake the world once again," and "I am the symbol of the possibility of a return to old traditions." This delusional pseudo-idealism is very frightening and incommensurate with real hic et nunc (here and now) problems that plague the nation and the world. Obama appears as if he were running for president of the universe when, as an example, he pledged 845 billion dollars we don't have"to eradicate poverty in the world." I think I have said enough about Obama.
Please note that I didn't fault him for "lack of experience" because I don't believe that "experience" is a sine qua non (without this nothing) prerequisite for the presidency. But, character, judgment,
moral strength, decisiveness , leadership qualities are. And Obama lacks them, regrettably. Intelligence and gift-of-gab are no substitute. I don't see him standing up to Putin, Ahmadinejad, or even Hugo Chavez, if need be. There is evil in the world that cannot be appeased by diplomacy even if it is "tough" diplomacy.
I see him, however, sending to the Middle-East special envoys like Carter or Brzezinski or Baker and other assorted generals to try to convince Israel that, in its own interest, it must make more unrequited concessions that even its most soft leaders consider suicidal. And that is not a prospect we should cherish. I thought that Biden, reputedly pro-Israel, would temper the ardor of a neophyte president on Middle-East matters. But I was disappointedly wrong.
Biden has always downplayed the dangers of Syria-Iran connection and Syria's sponsorship of the terrorist Islamic jihadists. He was one of four senators to vote against sanctions against Iran. He, like Obama, voted against the motion that declared the Iranian Revolutionary Guard to be a terrorist organization. And most recently, the Israeli press reported that Biden, after his appointment as candidate for V.P., has admonished high Israeli officials to " get used to the fact that Iran will have the atomic bomb." His staff denied it, but the Israeli officials stand by their report. A haughty and irascible Biden will, in my opinion, lean even more ominously on Israel. McCain, au contraire (to the contrary), declared unequivocally that "he would not allow a second holocaust in Israel."
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Roozendaal sworn in as NSW Treasurer
By Garry Fabian
  SYDNEY - Jewish politician and former NSW Roads Minister Eric Roozendaal (right) has been appointed Treasurer by NSW Premier Nathan Rees.
On Monday morning Roozendaal and 22 other members of Rees' cabinet were sworn in at a ceremony at Parliament House.
The reshuffle comes after a tumultuous few days for the Labor Party that saw former Premier Morris Iemma resign on Friday under the cloud of a caucus revolt that threatened to dump him.
Roozendaal, 46, has replaced the fiery Michael Costa who was also axed on the same day as Iemma's ousting.
"I appreciate the faith invested in me to be the NSW Treasurer," Roozendaal said just hours after his swearing in.
"My priority will be to protect the state's AAA credit rating. The state is going to have to tighten its belt. There are certainly going to be challenges ahead."
Younger Australians have less favoured view of Israel
MELBOURNE - Younger Australians have a significantly less favourable opinion of Israel's role in world affairs than their older counterparts, a study has found.
The Roy Morgan International Research survey commissioned by AsiaLink -- a non-academic centre linked to the University of Melbourne -- included a wide range of questions on how Australians and Asians saw other countries and whether they viewed these nations as international "troublemakers".
The survey found that about 16 per cent of Australian respondents under 35 years viewed Israel as "a country of concern,” while only about eight per cent of respondents aged 35 and older held that view.
Similarly, around 30 per cent of under-35s identified the United States as a global threat, while a considerably smaller proportion -- less than 20 per cent -- of those aged 35 and above, shared that opinion.
The survey also asked Australian respondents to select one or more groups of people who, they believed, were responsible for world terrorism.
Seventeen per cent chose "Jews" and 28 per cent ticked "the Israelis".
Meanwhile, 32 per cent selected "the Arabs" and 47 per cent chose "Moslems.”
Asked which conflicts they saw as "the most serious problem facing the world in the next 10 years", seven per cent of Australians chose "Jews versus Moslems,” 12 per cent selected "Palestine versus Israel" and 24 per cent ticked "Christianity versus Islam.”
Australia/Israel & Jewish Affairs Council executive director Dr Colin Rubenstein said he was not acutely concerned over the percentage of under-35s expressing wariness about Israel.
"Although obviously we'd like to see it lower, if not zero, there's also no need to be alarmist about it."
Dr Rubenstein said the poll demonstrated that more young Australians were concerned about Indonesia, China, Iran and North Korea than Israel.
And more, he said, had higher levels of angst about Pakistan, Russia and Saudi Arabia than they did about Israel.
Dr Mark Baker, director of Monash University's Australian Centre for Jewish Civilisation, said the centrality of the Arab-Israeli schism to young people's notions of global conflict explained the findings.
"The vocabulary of the clash of civilisations has become internalised by young Australians, yet the majority see America as part of the problem, not just Arabs and Islam. The Arab-Israel conflict figures at the centre of this clash and, therefore, records highly as a trouble spot for terrorism."
Australian Jewish News wins national award
BRISBANE - THE Australian Jewish News (AJN) published in both Melbourne & Sydney, has won Newspaper of the Year in the technical excellence category at the prestigious Pacific Area Newspaper Association (PANPA) awards for 2008.
Competing against newspapers throughout the Pacific Asia region, the award was presented on Wednesday night at a gala dinner on the Gold Coast.
While The AJN has always performed well at the PANPA awards, this is the highest accolade ever won.
AJN National Operations Manager Rod Kenning said: "This award confirms the extremely high standard of the newspaper.
“To compete against much larger publishers and to come out on top is a thrill for me and the AJN staff."
Victorian newspapers swept the awards, with The Herald Sun and The Geelong Advertiser winning the top awards in their categories.
Rabbis agree on prenuptial agreements
MELBOURNE - Victoria's rabbis are considering a veto against marrying couples who do not sign a prenuptial agreement.
While traditional prenuptial agreements provide for a division of assets or financial support in the case of divorce, the agreement proposed by the Rabbinical Council of Victoria (RCV) and the Melbourne Beth Din will ensure that husbands, in particular, are compelled to give their wives a geTt (Jewish divorce) should the marriage fail.
In the Jewish year 5766-5767, 39 Melbourne couples approached the beth din for a gett. This year, the number has risen to 52, which is a worrying statistic for the rabbinic community.
Sydney’s Rabbi Jeremy Lawrence added it was “upsetting” that the Sydney Beth Din deals with an average of one gett each week.
While most Victorian Jewish marriages end without excessive trauma, there are still a number of agunot -– women whose husbands refuse them a gett and who, therefore, cannot remarry.
T
he situation is similar in NSW, where Rabbi Lawrence said they are considering two options -– prenuptials or a post-marriage settlement that encourages the husband to come to the beth din to deal with messy Jewish divorces.
Rabbi Meir Shlomo Kluwgant, president of the RCV, said in an effort to overcome the problem, he had enlisted retired Family Court judge Justice Joseph Kaye and family lawyer Andrew Strum to discuss the feasibility of a program and to help draft a document, which will need to be tested from a civil and religious perspective.
“Halachically and legally, there is room for this,” Rabbi Kluwgant said.
“Not many things anger me, but it angers me when a partner uses a gett to hurt their spouse.”
The rabbi said he understands that young couples about to embark on a married life will hesitate to sign a prenuptial agreement.
Rabbi Lawrence shared the concern about prenuptials arrangements, but said he still supported the idea.
“A lot of couples are reluctant to contemplate the concept that they will fall out of love,” he said.
He added that the idea of encouraging husbands to go to the beth din as part of the divorce settlement would also help prevent agunot.
“It is the catch-all,” he said. “If a prenuptial hasn’t been signed or if a rabbi hasn’t gone along with it, then this can be a solution.”
Jewish Business Tribunal comes closer to reality
MELBOURNE- A Tribunal dealing with commercial disputes in the Victorian Jewish community is a step closer to reality.
The tribunal would help keep business disputes between members of the Orthodox community out of the mainstream courts, Rabbinical Council of Victoria (RCV) president Rabbi Meir Shlomo Kluwgant said last week.
A steering committee, which has been looking at establishing a commercial tribunal within the Melbourne Beth Din (MBD), has presented a final draft of its recommendations.
The proposal for the commercial court, believed to be a first in the Australian Jewish community, has had in-principle endorsement from the RCV and the Council of Orthodox Synagogues of Victoria.
Rabbi Kluwgant said the steering committee had met five times over the past six months and had heard from Rabbi Chaim Kohn, an American expert on dayanut (religious judgement).
The final document has also been reviewed by Professor Michael Broyde of the Rabbinical Council of America and the Beth Din of America.
Rabbi Kluwgant said the proposal comes with a draft arbitration deed and with a clause that businesses can add to a contract, which would make any arbitration or conflict subject to the MBD.
“The final product is a good document and the processes are workable and achievable and it’s important to get it up and running,” he said.
One of the proposals in the draft is for a lay counsel to assist rabbis.
The recommendations will now be opened to community debate and the committee is seeking ideas from rabbis and legal professionals on issues, including resolving differences between halachah and Australian law in areas such as taking evidence from women.
Debate is also being sought on the zablo system under which parties to a religious judgment can select the dayanim (judges).
National community survey launched
MELBOURNE - The biggest survey to be conducted in the Australian Jewish community kicked off this week, with registrations now open for the web-based study.
After three years of hard work, 15,000 letters were posted asking people to register for the survey. All Jewish Australians are encouraged to participate, even if they do not receive a registration letter, and it is hoped that more than 5000 people will respond.
The survey has a dual purpose: to assist with community planning and to serve as an academic study of Australia’s 100,000-strong Jewish community.
It has been funded by a number of the community’s leading philanthropists, as well as the Australian Research Council, and is strongly supported by the Jewish Communal Appeal (JCA) in New South Wales, Victoria’s Jewish Care and Monash University.
Professor Andrew Markus, from Monash University’s Australian Centre for Jewish Civilisation, analogised the purpose of the community-wide survey.
“It is like you’ve got an object and you want to look at it from all different perspectives and angles and maybe the more that you look at it, the better you understand it,” he said.
Despite these types of studies being conducted regularly in Jewish communities across the United States, United Kingdom and South Africa, it is the first time such a survey has been conducted in Australia.
“It may be that compared to other countries, our tertiary presence has been seriously lacking in Australia,” Prof Markus speculated. “What we are doing at Monash now is starting to develop a capacity to do ongoing social research, there was no organisation like that before.”
The last time a community survey was conducted in Melbourne was in 1991. And in Sydney, the JCA surveys regularly, but in this case, it is more an attitudinal study.
“At the moment, when we consider future planning needs, we analyse demographics. For example, how many people of a certain age will need a particular service,” Jillian Segal, JCA planning committee chairperson, said.
“But that is just raw data of how many people in a certain demographic are in a certain category whereas, we believe this [survey] will give us attitudinal information.”
Segal said she hoped respondents would use the survey to express their particular needs and opinions about the community services they required.
In Melbourne on Monday, volunteers at the Jewish Museum of Australia were recruited as survey ambassadors and briefed by long-time community contributor Miriam Munz on the importance of achieving a large sample size.
They were also told to encourage as many Australian Jews as possible, over the age of 18, to complete the survey.
Munz said the completed survey would present a legacy to future generations and a snapshot of Jewish Australia in 2008. She added that it would reflect the community’s attitudes towards Jewish education, involvement with Israel and the current strengths and future challenges.
Segal said the survey was an opportunity for people to have their say and asked Jewish Australians to “help us gain a better understanding of our community”.
The Tax Man at the Shabbat Table
CANBERRA - It could cost more to add a challah or two to the Shabbat and yom tov dinner table in the near future if the tax people have their way.
With a measure of crust, the Australian Taxation Office (ATO) has withdrawn a private tax exemption from several Jewish bakeries from paying 10% Goods & Services Tax (GST) on challah.
The bakeries are considering a legal challenge to protect the GST free arrangements for the Friday night loaf, sold through their own stores as well as supermarkets.
The ATO considers that bread backed with eggs in the batter - the traditional challah recipe - attracts GST because it is a form of cake, and when the tax commenced in 2000, bakeries changed the recipe to secure a private ruling from the ATO that made challah GST free.
But one of the large supermaket chains, that sells challahs, protested to the ATO because it is not covered by the ruling and has to pay GST on the challahs.
The bakeries were contacted by the ATO recently and advised that the product was taxable as it visually resembles brioche which is taxable.
A spokesperson for one of the bakeries said "You find challah in the bread section of the supermarket, so why would you think it’s bread?" He added "previously the ATO relied on ingredients, rather than appearance, and the change of definition was unwarranted.”
Adelaide congregation marks 160th anniversary
ADELAIDE- Adelaide Hebrew Congregation (AHC) one of the oldest synagogues in Australia, is celebrating its 160th anniversary this month with a lighting of 160 candles.
AHC president Dr Leon Zimmet said the synagogue was inviting congregants and their families to buy candles in multiples of "chai - 18" in a fundraising drive to celebrate the milestone.
For each candle purchased, a nominated name will be listed on a commemorative board and displayed on the day.
A number of special guests have been invited to the shule' birthday celebration. Organisation of Rabbis of Australasia president Rabbi Dovid Freilich will address the gathering. South Australia's Multicultural Affairs Minister Michael Atkinson will also participate in the festivities.
Calling all Genealogists
CANBERRA - The first Australian Jewish genealogy conference will be held in Canberra at the end of October.
Dr Martha Levison Lev-Zion, a leading Israeli genealogist will be the keynote speaker at the conference which will focus on Jewish genealogy in the 21st century.
Experienced Jewish genealogist and speakers from the National Archives and other institutions will lead special interest group sessions. The program will also include guided tours of the National Archives, National Library and National War Memorial, followed by a reception at the Israeli embassy.
Jewish Farewell for Governor-General
CANBERRA - Major General Michael Jeffery, the outgoing governor-general, left Government House to the sound of a choir with two Jewish voices last week.
Pam Rothman and Matilda Zelig, both Canberra residents, were part of the Sing Australia choir, which performed for the governor-general.
Both Rothman and Zelig have sung in community choirs for many years and both were thrilled to be performing for the governor-general.
Major General Jeffery was replaced last week by Australia's first female head of state Quentin Bryce.
Following her induction, Israeli ambassador Yuval Rotem and Sydney's Rabbi Jeremy Lawrence attended a reception in Bryce's honour.
Appeal for Assault Victim
BRISBANE - The State Zionist Council of Queensland is raising money for the family of Tal Naor, an Israeli born resident of Brisbane, who was allegedly bashed at a Queensland service station.
Wilson Daniel Lee faced the Brisbane Magistrate Court in August charged with one count of grievous bodily harm. He will reappear in court in October.
Noar's parents flew from Israel to be with him in hospital, where he is expected to stay for many months.
To help his parents, who are under extreme financial hardship, the SZCQ is calling for donations on their behalf.
A Guiding Light in Beijing
BEIJING—Maccabi Athletics coach Zac Ashkanasy is in Beijing for the Paralympic Games as a guide for blind middle distance runner Ian Speed.
Ashkanasy runs next to Speed and guides him around the track using his voice and touch.
Speed narrowly missed the final of the 800m, coming fourth in his heat, but Ashkanasy said the experience was one to savour.
“There were more than 50,000 people watching in the morning on day one,” Ashkanasy said.
“I couldn’t believe it. As we ran the race, there was this roar that followed us all the way around. I have never experienced anything like it.”
Ashkanasy has won medals at the last three Maccabiah Games and was a silver medalist at the National Championships in the 1500m in 2000/01.
Something in lighter vein
Two Jewish parents were very concerned how their young son would turn out when he grew up. So they decided to run a test.
The put a stack of $100 bills on the table, a Tanach and a bottle of whiskey. The father said to the mother, lets go in the other room and when Moishe comes in let see what he will choose. If he picks up the money, he will be businessman, if picks up the Tanach, he will become a rabbi, but if he picks up the bottle he will most likely turn out to be an "no good alcoholic bum.
The boy came in, and his parents were watching what he would do through the keyhole. First he picked up the money and put it in one pocket; next he picked up the Tanach and put in his other pocket and finally the bottle of whiskey and put it in his coat pocket and left the room.
The father turned to the mother with a worried look on his face and said "Oy Veh - he is going to be a politcian".
JEWISH-AMERICAN CHAMBER OF COMMERCE
XLNC-1 RADIO
UNITED JEWISH FEDERATION OF SAN DIEGO
THE JEWISH CITIZEN
Students, celebrities decorate ceramic butterflies for SDJA's Holocaust project
By Donald H. Harrison
 SAN DIEGO—Elissa Willes, 12, of Encinitas, can say without stretching the truth too much that Senators Hillary Clinton and John Kerry, as well as folksinger Peter Yarrow, all were co-workers on her bat mitzvah project.
In partial fulfillment of community service requirements for her upcoming bat mitzvah (Nov. 22) at Temple Solel of Cardiff-by-the-Sea, Elissa and her mother, Leslee Willes, and Kasia Epstin, all of Encinitas, traveled south to the campus of San Diego Jewish Academy to help fashion and decorate ceramic butterflies for placement on the walls of the school.
The project was inspired by the movie and book Paper Clips, which detailed how students in rural Tennessee were able to collect more than 6 million paper clips in an effort to both comprehend the number of Jews killed in the Holocaust and to represent each of them. Under the guidance of SDJA’s artist-in-residence, Cheryl Rattner-Price, the school which includes kindergarten to 12th grade classes has been attempting to collect 1.5 million butterflies—to symbolize the Jewish children who were among those slain by the Nazis.
 
Rattner-Price demonstrated to Elissa how to use butterfly-shaped cookie cutters on soft clay that had been rolled out in long sheets. She also showed her how to stamp onto the newly-formed butterflies various patterns, such as the word “Remember” or the symbol of a heart.
As Elissa, a 7th grader at Oak Crest Middle School in Encinitas, acclimated herself to the task, Rattner-Price explained making butterflies helps to rescue certain words and images from the vocabulary of death and restore them to the vocabulary of life. From the work room where the soft clay is molded into butterfly forms, the future ceramics are “transported” to the kiln, or ovens. But rather than being places of death and cremation, these ovens are places of creation.
As Rattner-Price explains the concept, each decorated butterfly that is created—and eventually mounted on the walls of this institution of learning—provides a physical representation for those murdered children. The project, she says, is both beautiful and, at times, psychologically intense.
Whenever visitors come to San Diego Jewish Academy, they are asked to decorate a butterfly—and to date, some 6,750 butterflies have been affixed to the interior and exterior walls on the multiple- building campus. Another 4,000 are in boxes waiting to be glued to the walls. The total to date represents less than one percent of the desired 1.5 million.
Among those on hand are butterflies decorated by celebrities such as Clinton, Kerry and Yarrow (of the folksinging group Peter, Paul and Mary). Shari Schenk, a former SDJA board president, was able to secure all three of those ceramic butterflies through the good offices of her sister-in-law, former Democratic Congresswoman Lynn Schenk of San Diego.
Besides the stories of the children, each ceramic butterfly represents the story of its creator. Elissa, for example, remembers that she first started learning about the Holocaust as a 5th grader when Holocaust survivor Edith Palkowitz spoke at her school. “I didn’t have any Jewish classmates at that time,” she recalled. “Everybody felt kind of sad, but I think I felt it more than everybody.” What she likes about making butterflies, she said, “it’s a project that helps everybody remember instead of just forgetting or leaving it all behind.”
Her mother, Leslee, commented that when she thinks about the Holocaust, she initially thinks about the “horrifying experience of it all, but working on this project, it is freeing me of some of that. .. There can be beauty and strength that comes out of a horrifying experience like that… When you get to meet Holocaust survivors and see their strength that helped them survive the Holocaust and the strength that they carry today, we get to take it and learn something from that.”
She added that she felt this was a wonderful bat mitzvah project for her daughter.
Epstin grew up a Christian in Warsaw, Poland, and remembers hearing her parents’ stories about the war, and how, as children, they had to take shelters during times of air raids and bombardments. When she herself was a school girl, she said, she visited some of the concentration camps in Poland, “As a child I wrote a lot of poetry about it, because it touched me and completely shaped my entire life, knowing that my grandparents and parents were part of this terrible experience for everybody.”
Eventually, she became a Jew-by-choice, immigrating to the United States seven years ago, and she and her husband have two children who are now students at San Diego Jewish Academy. A son is in the fourth grade and a daughter is in the second grade.
“It is important for our children to do this project because usually in the media and in everyday life we don’t talk about what happened, and what happens generally in wars,” Epstin said. “This kind of project should be everywhere; in every other school there should be this kind of education to remember the horrors of war, and to teach the children not to have wars, not to fight, and to be at peace with the world and to strive for peace,” she said.
Rattner-Price said that when she was a child in Hebrew school she was frightened by the movies that showed what had happened in the concentration camps, and for a long time was unable emotionally to deal with the Holocaust. “I was like this,” she said, protectively covering her face with crossed arms.
 
But when the project to create a memorial to the children eventuated, she said she told herself that she could do it—it was an art project after all—and as a result of that involvement, she met Holocaust survivors, and was struck “by the beauty of their transformation” after the war, and the fact that “the butterfly transforms too, so for me it is a constant balance between making something to honor them and their lost brothers and sisters… and also taking this some place bigger. I feel as if we are collecting these souls. I am always thinking about this, and I am always horrified and transformed.”
The project is gaining interest around the world. Rattner-Price proudly showed me butterflies from Mexico, Florida, and Australia waiting to take their places on the walls. Visiting delegations from Sha’ar Hanegev, San Diego’s sister region in Israel, have added butterflies to the collection. So have members of San Diego's New Life Club of Holocaust Survivors.
Starting next month, Rattner-Price said, the Museum of Tolerance in Los Angeles will distribute “starter kits” for making butterflies to teachers from many of the schools that make that museum a field trip.
People around the world interested in contributing butterflies to SDJA's "Zikaron v'Tikvah" (Remembrance and Hope) project may contact Price-Rattner at cherylprice@mac.com, or at rbesquin@sdja.com.
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SAN DIEGO COMMUNITY COLLEGES
LAWRENCE FAMILY JCC, JACOBS FAMILY CAMPUS
JEWISH FAMILY SERVICE
BALLOON UTOPIA
AMERICA'S VACATION CENTER
(619) 265-0808
nancy.harrison@americasvacationcenter.com
ADVENTURES IN SAN DIEGO JEWISH HISTORY
Who’s New?
(Maybe They Came From Your Home Town)
Southwestern Jewish Press, January 27, 1950, page 4
We welcome Roert and Elizabeh Spiegel and their two daughters, Susann, 2 ½ years, and Babette, 9 ½ years.
The Spiegels, formerly of Akron, Ohio, and Detroit, Michigan, are now residing in San Diego at 6056 Arosa Avenue. Mr. Spiegel is engaged in business in this city as a manufacturer of Rattan furniture. Mrs. Spiegel is daughter of Supree court Judge Henry M. Butzel, of Michigan.
Morgenthau To Make ‘Report to Nation’ On Coast to Coast Telephone Hookup, Jan. 31st
Southwestern Jewish Press, January 27, 1950, page 4
Henry Morgenthau Jr., General Chairman of the United Jewish Appeal, who is now in Israel, will give a “Report to the Nation” on Tuesday, Jan. 31, when he will speak simultaneously to 100 communities over a nationwide telephone hook-up.
Mr. Morgenthau is scheduled to return to the United States on January 30, the day before the broadcast. He reached Israel on January 16, flying from New York at the invitation of Premier David Ben-Gurion for a discussion of Israel’s financial and economic problems, and role of the 1950 UJA in meeting the needs of hundreds of thousands of newcomers to that country.
The San Diego Jewish Community is invited to hear the broadcast at Studio ‘B’, K.F.M.B., Tuesday, January 31 at 10:30 a.m.
Jewish Community Center
Southwestern Jewish Press, January 27, 1959m, page 5
By Lou Mogy
The Jewish Community Center of San Diego is now a definite and concrete organization. At a recent meeting the following were elected officers: Eli Levenson, President; Morris douglas, 1st Vice Pres.; Harry Mallen, 2nd Vice Pres.; Rodin Horrow, Secretary; Nathan Schiller, Treasurer. On the Board of Directors are thirty five of the most prominent men and women here in San Diego. This organization is here to stay. Irvin J. Wohl is the Director of the Community Center.
At the present time there is a Soccer team and Basketball team. There is a Summer Day Camp. Square Dances are held on the second and fourth Saturday evenings of each month. Youth Council Canteen Dances are held once a month. Ballroom dancing classes are held the second and fourth Sundays of each month.
Plans are being made for the annual all city Jewish picnic and the Summer Softball League. As you can see much has been accomplished in a short time. The Jewish Community Center is interested in a program which will take care of everyone regardless of age. Let us all get behind this Jewish Community Center program.
Pioneer Women (Negba) Club
Southwestern Jewish Press, January 27, 1950, page 6
On Thursday, February 2nd at the Beth Jacob Center at 8:00 p.m. an Arbor Day Celebration will be held by the Pioneer Women (Negba) Club. A splendid program has been arranged with a picture, “Labor in Israel,” to be shown. Anna Shelley, Chairman, invites everyone in the community to attend.
A Clarion Call is sounded to all members to attend their regular meetings the first Thursday of each month at 12:00 noon. A nonprofit luncheon is served.
The Chaveras who did not attend our last regular meeting missed a delicious luncheon, ask those who attended: an interesting meeting which opened with songs by our chorus; community singing and lastly—the highlight of the afternoon—a report of the San Francisco convention given by our President, Lee Gordon.
A portion of the report that struck us forcibly was a quotation from the talk by Blanche Mogel, our National Vice President who has just returned from Israel. She spoke of the efficiency of the Moatzat Hapoalot, child rescue division of our corps, of the good work of the doctors and nurses, and of the homes where, after five weeks of care, little children begin to live again.
She said, “Be proud of the name ‘Pioneer Women’. Be proud that you are one of them.”
Attend regular meetings and don’t forget to come and help plant a tree in Israel, that Israel may flourish. February 2nd, Beth Jacob Center, 8:00 p.m.
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SAN DIEGO JEWISH WORLD: THE WEEK IN REVIEW
NATIONAL
A conversation with Andrew Viterbi, National Medal of Science laureate by Donald H. Harrison in La Jolla, California
LETTERS
Parents urge "No on 8 Vote" to protect same-gender marriages in California from Carl & Marilyn Hansen in San Diego
ARTS
Temple of Dreams, a poem by Sara Appel-Lennon inspired by last Sunday's dedication of Temple Emanu-El
Rescue of Yemenite Jews recounted in "The Prophecy of Elijah" by
Cantor Sheldon Merel in San Diego
Vagina Monologues playwright looks up to stomachs in The Good Body, now at Rep by Carol Davis in San Diego
ADVENTURES IN SAN DIEGO JEWISH HISTORY
—January 27, 1950: Have You Had Your Chest X-Rayed
—January 27, 1950: Letters to the Editor
—January 27, 1950: Temple Beth Israel Sisterhood
—January 27, 1950: J.C.R.A.
SAN DIEGO
Temple Emanu-El dedicates new sanctuary; congregants return to Del Cerro home by Sheila Orysiek in San Diego
Jewish moments with 2 retired journalists by Donald H. Harrison in San Diego
ARTS
Envisioning U.S.-Iran nuclear nightmare, book review by Donald H. Harrison in San Diego
ADVENTURES IN SAN DIEGO JEWISH HISTORY
—January 27, 1950: UJF Drive Date Set
—January 27, 1950: Where Does the Money Go {Editorial}
—January 27, 1950: United Jewish Fund
—January 27, 1950: Overseas News and Views by Maxwell Kaufman
NEWS FROM OUR ADVERTISERS
Tifereth Israel Synagogue: Rabbi Rosenthal to lead trip to Israel for Tel Aviv's 100th birthday!
CAMPAIGN 2008
Jewish auxiliary groups of Democrats and Republicans in battle to define Sarah Palin—spin doctoring by the Democratic National Jewish Caucus and the Republican Jewish Coalition.
JUDAISM
—Solel offers variety of Jewish choices by Donald H. Harrison in Cardiff-by-the-Sea, California
—Torah demands accurate weights, measures by Rabbi Leonard Rosenthal in San Diego
—When the kind lady was locked out by Rabbi Baruch Lederman in San Diego
LIFESTYLES
My Money, Your Money, or Ours by Natasha Josefowitz in La Jolla,California
SPORTS
A bissel sports trivia with Bruce Lowitt in Oldsmar, Florida
ADVENTURES IN SAN DIEGO JEWISH HISTORY
—January 13, 1950: Temple Beth Israel Sisterhood
—January 13, 1950: Temple Beth Israel
—January 13, 1950: Tifereth Israel News
—January 13, 1950: Congregation Beth Jacob
NEWS FROM OUR ADVERTISERS
Students pay Labor Day tribute to San Diego Jewish Academy’s silent heroes
CAMPAIGN 2008
The choice between Obama and McCain could be this generation's most important by Howard Wayne
Jewish access to Palin in government by Gary Rotto in San Diego
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
Add Haym Salomon to list of important Jews from Sheila Orysiek in San Diego
Seven years after 9/11, what's Bush's legacy? from Dr. Norman Mann in San Diego
ADVENTURES IN SAN DIEGO JEWISH HISTORY
—January 13, 1950: “What’s Cookin’” At Troop 99?
—January 13, 1950: Council of Jewish Women
—January 13, 1950: Inside AZA by Leonard Naiman
—January 13, 1950: Jewish Youth Council
—January 13, 1950: Tifereth Israel Young People’s League
ARTS
Night Sky audience experiences aphasia by Carol Davis in San Diego
LIFESTYLES
16-year courtship finally reaches chuppah by Norene Schiff-Shenhav in Fallbrook, California
NEWS FROM OUR ADVERTISERS
—Adoption Alliance of Jewish Family Service: Upcoming Events
—Bronfman Youth Fellowship Awarded to San Diego Jewish Academy’s Jack de Tar
—Tifereth Israel Synagogue schedules Selichot showing of Iraq documentary
Remembering 9/11/2001
Does government need 'back door' authority to break encryption codes? by Martin Charles Golumbic in Haifa, Israel.
'Ordinary' citizens demonstrated grace in an extraordinary disaster by Sheila Orysiek in San Diego
National
Who were 3 most important U.S. Jews? by David Benkof in New York
Campaign 2008—Letters to the Editor
—Matthew Brooks column draws rebuke from Carol Davis in San Diego
— Obama didn't protest Wright for 20 years; how would he act towards bombastic leaders of anti-U.S. nations? from Donald A. Moskowitz in Londonderry, New Hampshire
Adventures in San Diego Jewish History
—January 13, 1950: San Diego Jr. Pioneer Women
—January 13, 1950: Labor Zionists
—January 13, 1950: Junior Charity League
Arts
Thursdays with the Songs of Hal Wingard.
—#243, Mary Had a Little Lamb
—#244, The Itsy Bitsy Spider
—#246, The Little Star
News from Our Advertisers
—Mental Illness: Coping Strategies, Current Treatments, & Paths to Wellness from Jewish Family Service
—San Diego Jewish Academy focuses on academics, athletics and arts
International
Don't trivialize the Shoah by making light of it, or using it for partisan ends by Dvir Abramovich in Melbourne, Australia
The Jews Down Under, a roundup of Australian Jewish news by Garry Fabian in Melbourne:
—World No Safer after 9/11—Juval Aviv
—Tough opening game for peace team
—Submission highlight campus bias
—Community Security Group first public appeal
—A remarkable musical milestone
—Jewish Community welcomes new Premier
—Outrage over Arab leader's remarks
—A grave situation in Brest, Belarus
—Something in lighter vein - The Jewish Car
National
Campaign 2008: Democrats' attacks on Palin lack merit by Matthew Brooks in Washington D.C.
Adventures in San Diego Jewish History
—January 13, 1950: Senior Pioneer (Negba) Club
—January 13, 1950:Yo-Ma-Co News
—January 13, 1950:Guardians
—January 13, 1950: J.C.R.A.
Arts
It’s a Hit! It’s the Housewives! by Cynthia Citron in Sherman Oaks, California
Sports
Will Spitz legend survive Phelps? Book review by Donald H. Harrison in San Diego
News from Our Advertisers
Musical Selichot at Congregation Beth Am
San Diego Jewish Academy Unveils New Gymnasium & Sports Complex
Link to previous editions
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