ZEEK MAGAZINE October 24-26 Crossing Borders Weekend



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TIFERETH ISRAEL SYNAGOGUE

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Israel Advocacy Series at Tifereth Israel Synagogue
6660 Cowles Mountain Blvd; 619 697-6001

Sunday, November 2nd at 7:00 p.m: The Hard Issues: Occupation, The Settlers and Settlements, Apartheid, and Refugees. Whenever a discussion arises regarding the Israeli-Arab conflict, the hard issues are sure to surface, with everyone holding strong views on each one of them. This presentation will look at them from a legal perspective in an attempt to ascertain whether what one side or the other says about them has merit or not.

Sunday, December 7th at 7:00 p.m.: A Light Unto the Nations:  Israel's Contributions to Humanity
Beyond the media's morbid focus on Israel as a country at war symbolized everywhere by IDF soldiers, Israel is a treasure trove of creativity and innovation in all fields from which the whole world benefits, even if most people are not aware of it. This presentation will cover how much Israel has become a rich contributor to the welfare of the world at large on a scale completely out of proportion with its size.

This series is put together with the help of the TEAM (Training and Education About the Middle East), formerly known as Advocates for Israel. Please visit their website at www.sandiegoteam.org
Jean-Jacques Surbeck is a rarity among speakers. The Swiss-born attorney worked for 16 years for the famously discreet International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), the private Swiss agency, which many have dubbed the "Guardian of the Geneva Conventions." He was the ICRC's public relations point person for North America from 1984 to 1989, and subsequently served for several years as well with the American Red Cross. J.J. is currently one of the few former ICRC officials available on the speaker circuit to give lectures and seminars on the Geneva Conventions and their Additional Protocols, also called International Humanitarian Law.






LETTER FROM JERUSALEM


Beware politicians' promises—in any nation

By Ira Sharkansky


JERUSALEM—Political campaigns in the two countries that I know best remind me, once again, that leading politicians believe in fairies. Or think that their voters believe in them.

An explanation comes from Australia, where I worked for several months. The senior civil servant who arranged meetings for me with his fellow professionals hesitated when I asked to be introduced to some elected officials. "Why do you want to talk with politicians," he said. "They are good in the bars, but they don't know very much."

My view of current American and Israeli politics begins with the globalized financial meltdown. Virtually all countries with sophisticated economies are suffering, and committing vast sums to propping up their banks and other financial institutions. The crisis, and the remedies offered are complex, and not fully described. Governments may actually profit from some of their aid mechanisms, but it will take a while. In the short run, it is likely that whatever uncommitted resources are at the disposal of governments have been allocated to rescuing their national economies.

That has not stopped politicians from promising to spend more and/or to cut taxes as they say, "Vote for me. I will make your life better."

We should applaud Barack Obama for promising to expand the coverage of a health system so incomplete, fractured, and complex for the consumer. A recent New York Times article quotes a government study that shows, once again, that Americans pay more per capita for health, but get less health care than people in every other western democracy.

When Obama says that he will get the money for this and other reforms by cutting government waste, we have to wonder in what bar is he selling himself. "Cutting waste" is one of the oldest placebos that politicians employ, while the professionals who have to do the work know from long experience that it defies practice. When Obama says that he will search the budget line by line to find where he can cut, I recall lesson #1 in courses on public budgeting: a national government budget is too large and complex, with hundreds of pounds of budget books. No one can look at it all, or even a significant part of it, or understand what each billion dollars will buy.

Obama supporters can fill in the blanks with McCain examples. I will turn to the other country I know well.

Israel is not currently in an election campaign. Due to the offered resignation of the crime minister, however, Tzipi Livni has won the opportunity to lead the Kadima Party and put together a coalition of other parties.

So far she has been tight fisted in resisting demands for increased expenditures. But not entirely, and she is facing the prospect of completing her coalition with ultra-Orthodox parties hungry for money to support their religious academies, and family payments. Nominal breadwinners who vote for those parties spend most of their time studying in those academies. If she fails to satisfy the ultra-Orthodox parties, she faces the prospect of recruiting to her coalition a left-wing party hungry for spending on other social benefits.

She is also relying on help from the Pensioners' Party, and its leaders say they want more money for old folks.

Even I may get something out of this political cycle.

A rabbi prominent in one of the ultra-Orthodox parties says that his folks will have a problem joining a government led by a woman.

It is not all about money.

She has already agreed to a Labor Party demand that university tuition remain at its present level or even decline. This when the universities are threatening to close themselves due to insufficient funds. Currently Israeli university students pay the equivalent of US $3,600 per year. Institutions the equivalent of Harvard or Yale are not on offer, but half of Israel's universities rank in lists of the best 150 in the world, and all of them in a list of the best 500. There are scholarships and work opportunities for low-income students, so no matter how you cut it, higher education is a good deal. But someone must pay for it. Whimpering student organizations compare tuition to those of a few wealthier countries in Western Europe. Israel's share of the financial crisis (measured by a 45 percent decline in a major stock exchange index since mid-June) does not interest them.

Politics abhors a vacuum. Americans will elect a president, and an Israeli will form a government.

An Israeli government minister once told us what is likely to happen again. "I promised, but I did not promise to keep my promise."

Sharkansky is professor emeritus of political science at Hebrew University of Jerusalem
He may be contacted ta msira@mscc.huji.ac.il

CONGREGATION BETH ISRAEL




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TEMPLE SOLELNovember 8 Synaplex featuring Rabbi Daniel Gordis

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UNITED JEWISH FEDERATION OF SAN DIEGO January 29 Men's Event



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THE VIEW FROM JINSA

That 'big elephant' in the Middle East

By Shoshana Bryen

WASHINGTON, D.C. — If there were elephants in the Levant, they would be in Gaza - or maybe they are in Gaza, but no one will talk about the implications of having them there. Certainly they wouldn't be the only thing with implications no one will discuss.

As earlier noted, the American general in charge of training Palestinian security forces declared that Gaza was not in his mandate, and his troops will - at best - only secure the West Bank.

Among the Israelis, several commanders and senior civilians talked about the growing Hamas military capability and said the IDF would - someday - have to "deal" with it. No one thought the "lull" was anything more than an opportunity for Hamas to improve its position. "Massive smuggling," mining and organizing human shields for defense, as well as improved missiles and commandos for offense were noted. Hamas fighters have been training in Iran and taking lessons from Hezbollah on the transformation from terrorist to guerrilla army command structure.

Hamas is putting increasingly large number of Israelis under an increasingly intolerable threat. 

Asked by a member of the JINSA delegation in Israel why the IDF didn't take offensive action before Hamas executed a mega-terrorist attack, the deputy commander of the Gaza region said he had no mandate to do so - it would take a government decision. Later, a senior IDF official said Israel "didn't want to be responsible for 1.5 million Palestinians and no one would relieve Israel of that burden of occupation" if they returned to daily control of Gaza. 

Consequently, we saw a new, large, empty facility that was supposed to serve as a transit point for Palestinians to work in Israel, and we were briefed on the myriad international aid organizations with which Israel works to bring services into Gaza because Hamas has co-opted and corrupted the economy. An enormous amount of Israeli money and human ingenuity are spent bringing food to Gaza (including use of a grain conveyor belt that sends food into Gaza from Israel because Hamas won't accept the food directly). These are things Israeli can do, so they do them.

Excising Hamas from Gaza or creating effective security control of the Gaza Strip that might make international aid less important (or superfluous) is something the IDF cannot do because there is no mandate to do it. 

The government, meanwhile, is looking for a "negotiated solution" to the Palestinian-Israeli problem, talking with Abu Mazen/Fatah on the West Bank only, studiously ignoring the implications of the elephant known as Hamas.

Bryen is special projects director for the Jewish Institute for National Security Affairs (JINSA). Her column is sponsored by Waxie Sanitary Supply in memory of Morris Wax, a longtime JINSA supporter and national board member.






SOILLE SAN DIEGO HEBREW DAY SCHOOL



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Hebrew Day School

JEWISH FAMILY SERVICE


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“At the Hop” Health Fair & Flu Shot Event

SAN DIEGO (Press Release)—The College Avenue Senior Center will host this event Friday, November 14th from 9:30 to 11:30 am; The flu shots will be given from 9:30–11:30 am The flu shots will be provided by Sharp/Grossmont Senior Resource Center.  Suggested donation is $2.00 Flu shots are recommended for those 65 and over, or for those with chronic illness. If you are allergic to eggs or if you are ill, you should not get the vaccine. In addition to the flu shots, there will be a Health Fair event with community and health related agencies that will offer free information to the public.

At this time, the College Avenue Senior Center  will be celebrating our 10th Anniversary. A Kosher lunch will be served at 12:00 noon. The suggested donation for seniors is $3.00; for all others lunch is $5.00.Special music & entertainment begins at 12:30 pm  presented by, “Two Guys Will Move You”

The Center is located at 4855 College Avenue in San Diego, (inside the Beth Jacob Synagogue near San Diego State University) For more Information: (619) 583-3300
                                                   


GUEST COLUMN

Angel Girl kid's book —too good to be true?

By Dan Bloom

MIAMI, FLORIDA — It’s just a 24-page children’s book written by popular kids author Laurie Friedman, but the story behind the book’s genesis is causing a stir among grown-ups nationwide. You probably have read the Associated Press news wire story by ace AP reporter Matt Sedensky that hit the newspapers recently and exploded on the blogosphere with touching blog posts and commentaries from coast to coast.

Boy meets girl in wartime Germany, girl throws apples across a guarded security fence to boy, boy and girl move to different countries after the war, never see each other again …. until they go on blind date in New York in 1958 and “realize” they knew each other “back then”. He proposes on the spot, she accepts, they marry, raise a family, move to Florida, go on Oprah Winfrey show, get two book contracts and a movie deal. Life can’t be more wonderful than this, right?

But now, in the wake of the AP story’s huge reader response and with some critical reviews of the children’s book on amazon.com’s website, some questions have arisen over the “truth” of “Angel Girl” — the children’s book about Herman and Roma Rosenblat that Laurie Friedman published this year. It is important to note here that the Rosenblat did not write the book, a third party wrote it, and she based her text on independent research she did and on long conversations she had with the elderly couple face to face. Herman’s now 80, Roma a few years younger. Wonderful people, sweet smiles, salt of the Earth.

In fact, the book’s cover notes that the book is “based on a true story”. The key word here is “based”. The book does not say it is a true story, only that it is based on a true story. So the children’s book works nicely and is a touching, wonderful read. Friedman has a gift for words, and she tells the story in a way that both children and adults can understand. But what some observers want to know is this: did the “events the Rosenblats describe to Friedman and the AP reporter and Oprah really take place as they say they did? Michael Berenbaum, a Holocaust historian in Los Angeles, told the AP reporter that he had read the children’s book and “I see no reason to question it”. But even AP story seems to question the backstory: “It all seems too remarkable to be believed,” the AP reporter wrote. “[But] Rosenblat insists it is all true.”

Let’s cut to the chase now. One amateur book reviewer on Amazon’s book website writes: “The publicity relating to this book and the proposed movie has raised several questions about inconsistencies between the story and the known facts of the Holocaust. Recognizing that the Rosenblats were children, he was 12, she was 9, they said, living during unbelievably horrific times, it is possible that their understanding at the time and their interpretation in later life do not accurately reflect what truly happened.”
One reviewer who liked the children’s book by Ms Friedman wrote on the Amazon site: “This is a touching story with a miraculous ending. The idea that this is a true story really seems remarkable. I have read other comments that question whether it is a true story or not. I’ll be very disappointed if I ever learn that it is not.” And that is the crux of the matter here. If the backstory that the Rosenblats have been telling the media for years — they first went on the Oprah Show in 1996 — turns out to be sort of made-up due to faulty memories or other circumstances beyond anyone’s control, the authenticity of their story will be called into doubt. And if a movie is ever made about the Rosenblat’s lives based on the children’s book or Herman’s own autobiography, which is due to be published in 2009 by a major book company in New York (with 350 pages inside it), then the entire project might be at risk and some enterprising investigative reporter for a major newspaper like the New York Times might undo the magic that the Rosenblats so far have created.

When RushPRnews contacted the publishing company that released Angel Girl in 2008, a quick and polite reply was forthcoming by email:

“Thank you for your e-mails regarding our book. That picture book you write about is based on the true story that Herman and Roma Rosenblat told Laurie Friedman. Ms. Friedman spent months researching the story and discussing the details with the Rosenblats. Herman and Roma are two senior adults recalling a memory that occurred during very dark and difficult times in their pasts. That picture book is based on Ms. Friedman’s interpretation of that story and due to the nature of a picture book there are obviously details left out and the text has been aimed at a younger reading level.”

The email added: “Just as it says on the cover of the book, it ‘is “based on a true story.” The quotes from the book are not necessarily the exact lines that Herman spoke to Roma. I believe that after much research done by both Laurie Friedman and the publisher of the book that they did their best and have no reason to doubt that the story Herman and Roma told the author is true.”

Attempts to reach Laurie Friedman and Michael Berenbaum for this story were not successful, although the children’s book company did reply, as noted above.

The AP story can have the last word here: “It all seems too remarkable to be believed. Rosenblat insists it is all true.”

Reprinted with the permission of Dan Bloom




SAN DIEGO JEWISH ACADEMY

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LAWRENCE FAMILY JCC, JACOBS FAMILY CAMPUS


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Internationally best-selling novelist Jonathan Safran Foer, author of Everything Is Illuminated. to present most recent novel on November 10

LA JOLLA, California (Press Release)– Bestselling novelist and short story writer Jonathan Safran Foer will present his most recent novel, Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, at the 14th Annual San Diego Jewish Book Fair, sponsored by U.S. Trust, Bank of America Private Wealth Management and presented by the San Diego Center for Jewish Culture at the Lawrence Family Jewish Community Center, JACOBS FAMILY CAMPUS.  Foer’s presentation is scheduled for November 10 at 7:30 p.m., with a book signing to follow. As he did so remarkably in Everything is Illuminated, Jonathan Safran Foer takes a dark subject and works in offbeat humor and wordplay as a deceptive cover for a serious tale.  Oskar Schell is an extraordinary nine-year-old on an urgent, secret search through New York City to find the lock that fits the key belonging to his father who died on 9/11.  Meanwhile, Oskar dreams up inventions to protect his loved ones.  We also get the story of Oskar’s mute grandfather who survived the bombing of Dresden in World War II.  When the stories come together, the climax is powerfully heartbreaking.Jonathan Safran Foer’s first novel, the international bestseller Everything is Illuminated, was published when he was only 25.  Hailed as the “debut of the decade,” and translated into 35 languages, it was named Book of the Year by the Los Angeles Times and has won numerous awards, including the Guardian First Book Prize, the National Jewish Book Award, and the New York Public Library Young Lion’s Prize.  More than 1,500 people voted online for Everything is Illuminated in the first People’s Choice Award, sponsored by JBooks.com.  It was named the decade’s best work of Jewish fiction.  A movie based on the book and directed by Liev Schreiber was released by Warner Independent in September 2005, starring Elijah Wood as Jonathan Safran Foer.Foer’s second novel, Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, went straight onto national and international bestseller lists, and has been translated into several languages.  It received the “Literature for Life Award,” the Victoria and Albert Museum Award, and the Prix des libraries du Quebec, and was shortlisted for the International IMPAC prize.  Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close has also been optioned for film by Scott Rudin Productions in conjunction with Warner Brothers and Paramount Pictures. Named one of Rolling Stone’s “People of the Year” and Esquire’s “Best and Brightest,” Foer has had stories published in The New Yorker, The Paris Review and Conjunctions.  He is the editor of a bestselling anthology of writing inspired by the bird boxes of Joseph Cornell, A Convergence of Birds.  His libretto Seven Attempted Escapes from Silence was performed by the Berlin State Opera House in September 2005.  He lives in Brooklyn and is currently at work on two forthcoming books.

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SARA-N-DIPITY PLACE


Editor's note: This poem is a sequel to the article, "How to Embrace Life In the Midst of Loss," that ran in San Diego Jewish World on October 3.