CALIFORNIA PRIMARY VOTING—At neighborhood polling places like this one in San Diego, Californians and residents of other states throughout the country decided yesterday which presidential candidate they'd like to represent their party in the November general election.
At right, husband and wife poll workers, Tony & Marianne Cadiz and Arlene & Herb Braverman expedited the voting process and bantered good-naturedly with voters. Yesterday's primary and caucus election results, state by state, are listed in the table below, with Democratic winners in the center column and Republican winners in the right column.

THE JEWS DOWN UNDER

Former shule president guilty of deception

By Garry Fabian

SYDNEY—Former Newtown Synagogue president Peter Engel was convicted of obtaining money by deception and sentenced to a year of periodic detention by a Sydney magistrate late last year.

Engel, who ran the Newtown Synagogue from the mid-1990s until 2000, pleaded guilty of misusing community funds by the district court on December 14 and was ordered to serve his prison term in Parramatta jail and pay compensation to the synagogue.

The official information about the case came from the office of the director of the public prosecution, stating that Engel pleaded guilty and was sentenced to periodic detention.

Several congregants requested the synagogue’s financial records from Engel in 2000, but he refused. The congregants then ran for election at an annual general meeting and took over the synagogue.

Former board member Paul Lawrence, who played an integral part in bringing Engel to justice, told The AJN this week that he was happy to see the court convict the former president.

“I am just glad to see a conviction recorded because it means that all the effort we put in for three or four years was worth it,” Lawrence said.

Lawrence and the new board determined that Westpac should not have processed a number of cheques with only one signature, and the synagogue was able to recoup nearly $126,000 from the bank.

After Westpac reimbursed the synagogue, it sought money from Engel through the legal system, and was awarded a monetary payment as part of the judgment handed down by the court.

Lawrence expressed disappointment in the Sydney Beth Din for its support of Engel when the matter was first brought before it.

“We went to the beth din first, to do the right thing, but they were rude to us and said they didn’t believe that Engel did anything wrong.”

Rabbi David Rogut from the Sydney Beth Din challenged Lawrence’s version of events, saying that while he did not remember the specifics of the case, the beth din treats everyone with respect and is never rude.


Anti-Semitism expert calls for greater awareness

MELBOURNE—A leading American anti-Semitism expert, Dr Gregg Rickman, believes the global climate of anti-Semitism is at a “tipping point”.

A special envoy of US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, Dr Rickman told a conference in Melbourne on Monday: “We’re at a pivotal time here.

“It’s not a disastrous situation, but now is the time it can be acted on through education, through the police being sensitised to the issues of the communities and the victims themselves. Now is the time to act.”

He was in Australia to meet with police, communal groups, and State and Federal Government officials for an exchange of ideas about combating anti-Semitism.

Since 2002, when his role was created, Dr Rickman has travelled to more than 20 countries to study best-practice initiatives and processes capable of effectively reducing the number of anti-Semitic incidents.

According to Dr Rickman, aspects of Australia’s model are exemplary.

A former director of congressional affairs at the Republican Jewish Coalition, Dr Rickman said he was aware of the recent spate of vandalism in Jewish Melbourne and the attack on Orthodox Jew Menachem Vorchheimer by a gang of footballers in 2006, but he believed Australia was moving in the right direction.

Dr Rickman highlighted the cooperation between Jewish groups and the police in Australia, describing it as among “the best he had seen anywhere in the world”.

“The cooperation between the Jewish community and the police is spectacular, I don’t think I’ve seen it on a level like that.”

He was also full of praise for the previous government’s tax deduction scheme, designed to help ease the financial burden of security for Jewish groups, and called the Rudd Government’s promise of $20 million for school security “wonderful”.

But despite his high praise for Australian anti-Semitism initiatives, Dr Rickman was quick to point out that education was still paramount.

“Education is so critical because kids are blank slates. When they’re five and six and seven-years-old ... they are able to form opinions and if you can inform them of everyone’s need to be treated equally and fairly, it’s so important not only for Jews, but for Muslims, for anyone.”

The Melbourne Jewish Oscar connection
 
MELBOURNE—Cate Blanchett may have stolen all the headlines, but there’s another Aussie in with a shout on Oscar day.

Quiet achiever Eva Orner, a Melbourne-born producer who relocated to New York three years ago, has been nominated in the Best Feature Documentary category for Taxi to the Dark Side, alongside director Alex Gibney.

“It’s been a fun week,” admitted the 38-year-old from New York, who is still coming to terms with the accolade.

“The day of the nominations was just insanity. Our phones did not stop ringing all day. And when they did stop, mine started because everyone from Australia was calling to wish me congratulations.”

Orner heard the good news at the Sundance Film Festival, where her latest film, Gonzo: The Life and Work of Dr Hunter S Thompson, also directed by Gibney, was screening.

“It’s a once-in-a-lifetime thing to be at Sundance with a film and to have another nominated for an Oscar. It was a pinch-me moment.”

Taxi to the Dark Side, which recently screened on SBS, centers on the case of an Afghan taxi driver beaten to death in 2002 while in US military custody. Orner was immediately attracted to the film’s political overtones.

“Taxi is such an indictment of the [US] Government and so critical. People don’t protest anymore, but maybe a movie can change their mind,” she said.

“When I first started making documentaries, part of the rationale behind it was the idea that maybe a film can make a difference, maybe it can change the way people think.”

A Mount Scopus College graduate, Orner’s credits include Untold Desires, which won an Australian Film Institute Award, and Josh Jarman, the debut feature film by Jewish director Pip Mushin.

  “It’s terrific news,” Mushin said “To be nominated for an Academy Award is every  film-makers dream. Eva has had the courage of her convictions by going to the US in the first place, and then impressing everyone with her talent and tenacity.”

But if Orner is to follow in the footsteps of Andrew Lesnie, a Jewish Sydney-born cinematographer who won an Oscar in 2002 for The Fellowship of the Ring -– Sydney film-maker Steve Pasvolsky also came close in 2003 with his Oscar-nominated short, Inja –- she will have to beat out a tough field including controversial film-maker Michael Moore, who is nominated for Sicko.

“We’re up against Mike Moore, who is a bit of a juggernaut with Miramax behind him,” she said, “but Alex has been nominated before [for Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room], so there’s definitely a feeling that he’s very deserving.”

But for the moment, Orner has other things on her mind – like shopping for a dress. “I’m trying to get some friends to hook me up with something fabulous and free,” she said.


ECAJ President contacts Rudd on 'Summit' date

SYDNEY—The Executive Council of Australian Jewry (ECAJ) has asked the Federal Government to change the dates or come up with alternative ways that Jewish community achievers might be able to contribute to Prime Minister Kevin Rudd's Australia 2020 summit.

The April 19-20 Canberra conference, which Rudd has called a "chance to have a national conversation,: will coincide with Shabbat and the first day of Passover.

ECAJ president Robert Goot said that the timing of the conference, in which 1,000 Australians will take part, will preclude almost any Australian Jewish spokespeople from participating.

The clash between the summit's dates and Jewish religious observance made national headlines this week.

"There would be very few Jews who would not consider the clash with Pesach [Passover] an obstacle to taking part in the conference," Goot said.

The ECAJ president has written to Rudd about the Shabbat-Pesach clash.

"I have no doubt that the clash of dates is inadvertent but it nevertheless presents a significant problem to the Jewish community. I request that if at all possible the dates be changed to enable persons of the Jewish faith to participate," he wrote.

He also asked that if the dates cannot be changed, would-be Jewish participants "be provided with a alternative means of having a meaningful input".

But Goot said that the ECAJ had no idea as yet about alternative ways that Jews could take a role in the summit.

He said that while the nomination process "will be quite complex", it is reasonable to expect a significant number of Jews will be nominated among the 1,000 participants, although he would not speculate openly on individuals.

Summit co-chair Professor Glyn Davis said early this week he was unaware the conference would clash with Passover, yet rejected claims that Jews would be unable to take part as a result.

Professor Davis, who is vice-chancellor of the University of Melbourne, said he would raise the issue with the Prime Minister's Office.

Fabian is the Australia bureau chief of San Diego Jewish World

Why genealogy is important for children

By Alan Rusonik

SAN DIEGO—OK.  I have to confess.  I am closet genealogist.  I try to hide it, but every now and then my obsession gets the better of me.  It usually reappears during a family simcha, or, unfortunately, at the passing of a loved one.

Jewish genealogy is as old as Judaism itself.  How many chapters of Torah refer to “these are the generations of (Eleh Toldot)….”  In Deuteronomy, Moses teaches us “Remember the days of old, consider the years of many generations!”

Rusonik is executive director of the Agency for Jewish Education of San Diego County. This article originally appeared in Tidings, an AJE newsletter for teachers

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PEOPLE OF THE BOOKS

Field Notes: A 17-Mile Drive kind of novel

By Donald H. Harrison

SAN DIEGO—If you are the kind of person who, when visiting the Monterey Peninsula, prefers to go by the 17-mile drive through the Pebble Beach area to Pacific Grove, then Field Notes by Sheila Clapkin is the kind of novel for you. It takes some twists and turns that other novelists might avoid, but in so doing it has the opportunity to offer some beautifully descriptive passages.

Although it is called a novel, many parts of Field Notes are clearly autobiographical. Evidence of this can be found in a "Jewish memories" article that Clapkin, a retired teacher living in Tarzana, recently wrote for San Diego Jewish World in which she described an arbitrary decision made by the rabbi at her temple to delay the confirmation for which she already had studied. The same thing happens to Sunshine Joy Epstein, the fictional narrator of the novel. Nevertheless, we cannot assume that the book is a transcription of Clapkin's life, if for no other reason than Epstein dies in the end and Clapkin clearly is still with us.

Field Notes relates in retrospect the love affair between Sunshine and Fields, who grew up as neighbors in the Haight district of San Francisco with upper story bedroom windows facing each other. In a reversal of what their names suggest, Fields makes Sunshine bloom. Although he fathers a child with another woman, who is both prettier and smarter than she, and she ends up marrying someone else, her torch for Fields burns even after his death. The story, then, is a series of recollections about their times together. She also becomes enmeshed in the lives of his daughter and his grandchildren.

Sunshine is Jewish; Fields is Catholic—although we understand that Fields never has been made aware of this fact. Sunshine recalls that Fields' mother once asked her mother to look at some "secret things in an old richly carved wooden box.

"She said they were things my mother would understand... My mother, a small woman with bowed legs and a deep widow's peak, always ready with an open smile, went over to Mrs. Fields' home the next day and opened the box of secret things. With her head bent into the box, he was brought into this secret world that was not a secret to her.

"She was overwhelmed, but calmed her racing heart and caught her breath before she explained that the two brass candles must have been from an older member of his family. My mother explained about the lighting of the Friday night candles ushering in the beauty of the Sabbath. She explained about the plain but strong-looking menorah. Mrs. Fields had seen lit menorahs in the windows of some neighbors.

"The box also contained three prayer shawls, which my mother assumed belonged to members of Martin's (Fields' father) unknown family. There, covered in a soft doily, was another carved box housing several pieces of gold and diamond jewelry. One was a diamond-spattered Star of David on a chain that still sparkled after so many years hidden in the box, and the other a gold and diamond mezuzah worn, by the look of the chain it was linked to, around the neck of a man of distinction. More importantly, the bottom of the box housed a bundle of photos...."

After learning this information from her mother, Sunshine never felt it was her place to tell Fields. So it was that when her lover died in a violent accident, it was without ever learning about his paternal heritage.

In another section of the book, Sunshine tells of moving to the San Fernando Valley in 1969. "I felt it was my duty to our children to sign up for a temple and become immersed in Jewish life. I was politely told that I would have to be put on a waiting list. I was stunned into writing my first letter to God. I said, 'God, this is news to me that I would have to be on a waiting list to be Jewish. Please, get me a deal.'

Fields not knowing of his Jewish parentage because it was not Sunshine's place; Sunshine not getting into a Jewish temple because it was not her time—A fine juxtaposition!

Harrison is editor and publisher of San Diego Jewish World

ARTS IN REVIEW

Works by Young Playwrights impressive

By Carol Davis

SAN DIEGO—Plays by Young Writers, a festival of winning scripts from the 23rd annual California Playwrights Contest, is quite healthy and ready for the ’08 viewing.  Founded by Deborah Salzer, and now under the co chairmanship of Maria Glanz and managing director Cecelia Kouma, the project features plays submitted in two categories by youngsters under the age of nineteen. Entries by playwrights under fourteen have been announced and can be seen now at the Lyceum Theatre downtown through Feb. 9. Some will be full productions while others will be readings.

Of the four full productions to be seen, three of the winning writers are Jewish: William Alden, who is eighteen, from Santa Monica and a sophomore at Yale College; Niv Brook is seventeen and a freshman at Chapman College, and Justin Kuritzkes is seventeen and a senior at Harvard-Westlake School in Los Angeles. The fourth, and not to be overlooked, is James Monroe, a seventeen years old who resides in Escondido. He is senior at San Pasqual Academy, a residential school for foster teens. All four plays are different and worthy of a look-see.

Find You in the Forest is Alden’s entry about a woman in search of her mother who is suffering from Alzheimer’s disease. As the play opens, a young woman, Savannah (Jyl Haruye Kaneshiro), is riding a stationary bicycle through an imaginary forest looking for a way to get to her mother (Dana Hooley). In fact she is seeking some form of revelation, or acknowledgement from her.  Each time (and there are three or four ‘treks through the forest’, if you will) Savannah reaches her mother and approaches her a new scenario or glimpse of recognition trickles through. Somehow in these discoveries we learn a little more of their relationship and of a tragedy that befell the family. Drawing from his own family experiences, Alden’s grandmother also suffered from dementia.
The play, directed by George Yé, is packed with so much mixed imagery. We see snippets of the mother as an artist whose paintings were destroyed in a fire along with all the household belongings. There is mention of a husband who is no longer in the picture.  Finally, there is the  young a woman who is longing for recognition and love from a mother whose physical presence still seems to be vibrant and alive, but whose mind is lost somewhere in the forest of her imagination.

Both director and actors find just the right amount of pathos to make the short scenes believable. Dana Hooley, long time actor on the San Diego scene is perfect as the Mother. The settings are the home and the landscape of the Mother’s mind. (Directors notes).

Mister Wade Is Dead, Nev Brook’s entry, is the only light-hearted play in this field of four.To be more accurate, it is a farce about a young married couple, Wade and Jessie (Anthony Misiano and Kristie Kahlweiss) who are two months behind in their rent payment. Their landlord, Mrs. Hoyle (Fred Harlow) is about to evict them.

Their neighbor Christos (Michael Fredrick) who is a pain-in-the-behind friend and way over the top in his acting, mooches off them for television viewing and any leftover food they may be eating at the time. He is instrumental in helping create the chaos this couple find themselves in when Wade, a discombobulated artist who can’t sell his paintings and Jessie, his wife, confess to him they are going to be evicted.

Jessie comes up with a plot to declare Wade dead and collect their insurance money. When they enlist the help of their friend, things go from bad to worse when one conglomerate offers to buy all of Wade’s works because a ‘dead painter is worth more dead than alive,’ while another commissions him to do more work. Such is the cynical  world of art.

Liz Shipman directed with an eye for the off-the-wall fun look at a bad plan gone south but in this case less slapstick would have benefited the overall production. It’s all in the timing and with a little polishing this could hum. Writing farce is difficult enough, pulling it off calls for a more experienced cast. One standout, however, is Fred Harlow as the landlady dressed in drag. It almost makes up for some of the other lapses.

Justin Kuritzkes’ Hawaii involves two teenagers who find themselves in a serious predicament of falling for each other. The action takes place on a beachfront property on Hawaii where his mother and her father are about to be married. The relationship looks somewhat serious at the outset, but feelings of animosity and pettiness interrupt a would- be blooming romance when a barrage of attacks and counter attacks about each other’s respective parent erupts. And while some of the nastiness of the charges can be attributed to youth, there are enough to unmask some deep emotional scars.

Kuritzkes’ writing style, dialogue and command of the language are serious, droll and very mature for a young man of his age. It is engaging and he is able to strike at the core of this very sensitive subject in which so many young people find themselves today. Blended families are a thing of the present and need to be dealt with beyond just the parents.  Both Jess Jacobs and Trevor Bowles, who play Nichole and Rob, the two protagonists thrown together by circumstances, are more than convincing. Jacobs, however needs to slow down a bit to let some of the subtleties of her predicament sink in. Christian Lebano directs this pretty sophisticated and insightful play with an eye on Kuritzkes’ wit and directness.

Step by Step could be a shadow representation of James Monroe’s life. The story takes place in a room of a group home where three young people, Guy, Davina and Jacques (Jake Ewald, Carolyn Ryan and Jordan Waters) share their feelings, fears and wants. They are guided by their counselor Chris (Elzie Billops) who sets the guidelines and boundaries to help them verbalize their needs. As the story of Guy unfolds, those of Monroe’s parallel the similarities of Guy’s life.

He is feeling unhappy on this particular day because it is his birth mother’s birthday and he does not know where she is. He wants to leave the home and look for her but Chris intervenes and does his homework tracking down her whereabouts. Guy reveals that his brother died of an overdose and he pledged not to follow that path. In the meantime the hormones start to flow when Davina comes on to the scene. Both boys have an eye for Davina, but Guy is the one who takes advantage of the opportunity to express his feelings to her.

 Monroe’s writing is down to earth, truthful and emotionally charged. Director Esther Emery is skilled enough to bring some sound feelings from her young cast, but with a stronger and more articulate group this play can have far-reaching implications especially to young kids in foster and group homes. It is reported that Monroe ‘participated in three intensive residencies’ at school, taught by Playwrights Project, before gaining confidence to enter his work in the California Young Playwrights Project. We’re glad he did.

Taking the opportunity to use this particular outlet to air his emotions, Monroe has used the gift of writing he is so well endowed with to share his experiences with other youths as well as the community at large.

The Young Peoples Playwriting Project had 280 submissions presented to them this year. These four are the best new plays this year. Those presented by the 19 year old age group are given full productions while the 14 and younger are staged readings. The older playwrights spend time revising and reworking their original pieces. They are coached by writing professionals and later ‘by questions from the artists mounting the plays’. When all is said and done, the older playwrights enjoy an evening of having a live audience made up of friends, family and theatre aficionados appreciate their work.

Congratulations.

For more information go to playwrightsproject.org

See you at the theatre.

Davis is a San Diego-based theatre critic