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San Diego Jewish Academy Annual Gala Honors Kornfeld Family

SAN DIEGO (Press Releases)—Sleek, serpentine couches and plush rugs transformed San Diego Jewish Academy’s 35,000 sq. ft. gymnasium into a spacious yet intimate jazz club for the Every Child Annual Dinner on January 31. SDJA parents Theresa Dupuis and Gary Kornfeld and Carol and Rick Kornfeld (shown from left to right) were honored for their contributions to San Diego Jewish Academy and community involvement.

Along with sumptuous cuisine and exciting auction and opportunity drawing prizes, the evening featured dancing to the acclaimed Anthology Motown Revue, whose music set the tone for a cool and fabulous evening.

"The Kornfelds are so deserving of this honor," said SDJA executive director Larry Acheatel in his congratulatory remarks. "And we are particularly excited that the dinner could be held in our fantastic new gym.  This is a great evening that salutes wonderful people and supports a cause that is central to our school’s core values.”

Dinner co-chairs Rebecca and Jonathon Collopy, Jean and Franklin Gaylis, and Laura and Simon Vainer created a high-energy evening of fun and celebration, along with their team of hard-working volunteers: Marsha Berkson, Nadin Benrey, Cynthia Bolker Yvette Lechtner, Cheryl Levitt, Shana Lew, Janice Nesses, Orly Perez and Shari Schenk.

The Annual Dinner benefits the Every Child Campaign, which sustains school-wide excellence and SDJA’s Financial Assistance program.  A “virtual” journal can be viewed at http://www.sdja.com/tribute_journal_popup.php.

FROM THE SIDELINES


Hamas puts the cat among the pigeons

By Rabbi Dow Marmur

JERUSALEM—You only have to read the very vaguely veiled references to each other by two of the contenders in next week’s election in Israel – Ehud Barak and Tzipi Livni – to find evidence for the active participation of Hamas in the campaign.
           
In order to prove to the world that it’s the victor in the Gaza war and, at the same time, (as the English saying goes), “put the cat among the pigeons,” Hamas, working through its subsidiaries, is increasing its daily barrage of rockets into Israel. As a result, Israel is forced to retaliate, at present with air attacks only but, if the situation persists, probably with a renewed invasion of Gaza with even more devastation than hitherto.
           
Like so many who’re better at mischief than victory, Hamas is scoring points because of its cunning. A big point just now is the row between Tzipi Livni, the leader of Kadima, and Ehud Barak, the leader of Labor - the one Foreign Minister, the other Defense Minister - in the present soon-to-be past Olmert government.
           
Livni, for all her complaints about being marginalized because she’s a woman, is trying to be at least as much of a “man” as the only woman Prime Minister Israel has ever had – Golda Meir – and accuses Barak of being too soft on Hamas. Barak, on the other hand, the great soldier, isn’t prepared to risk more Israeli troops – and more innocent Palestinian civilians – in another military action. He’s therefore holding back and telling the public that people who’ve never held a gun in their hands (Livni and, perhaps also, Olmert) should keep quiet.  
           
And, as I’ve suggested in the past, in this kind of row, Binyamin Netanyahu, the leader of the opposition Likud - likely to get more votes in the next Knesset than either Kadima, and definitely Labor – will be laughing all the way to the polling booths.
           
Can it really be that Hamas would prefer a Likud-led to a Labor-led government? Yes. Hamas is opposed to a two-state-solution. Likud, though it doesn’t say so explicitly, stands for much that would make a two-state solution even more impossible than it seems now. If Likud takes in some of its right-wing allies into the next government, the implicit will be made explicit. Yet another example of how much extreme foes have in common.
           
If that weren’t enough, the fate of Gilad Shalit, the captured Israeli soldier, is also a factor. Israel wants him back and is prepared to pay a lot by releasing criminal terrorists from Israeli jails. Hamas capitalizes on it incessantly while Gilad stays in the dungeon.
           
Of course, all this plays into the hands of Iran. Not to be outdone by Hamas, Hezbollah to the north of Israel is trying to get in on the act. Being more prudent than Hamas and probably reined in a little by the Lebanese government and marginally inhibited by the UN forces stationed on the border with Israel, it’s planning raids on Israeli and Jewish targets in some other place in the world.
           
The attack on the synagogue in Caracas was probably not done by Hezbollah – had it been involved it would have been much more deadly – but, judging by the media coverage of that incident, it shows how much havoc can be spread by this kind of attack. No wonder then that we’re all on the watch-out for something similar but much more lethal somewhere in the world, probably Europe.
           
Though I still hesitate about for whom to vote, I can’t wait for the election to be over so that issues can be dealt with on their merits, not on their electoral value.  
 
Marmur is rabbi emeritus at Holy Blossom Temple in Toronto. He divides his time between that city and Jerusalem, and may be reached in either place via marmurd@sandiegojewishworld.com 

SOILLE SAN DIEGO HEBREW DAY SCHOOL

Preschool Enrichment Classes at Soille Hebrew Day

SAN DIEGO (Press Release)—Hebrew Day’s enrichment classes have started out beautifully. The “tappers” with Morah Shlomit and “dancers” with Morah Racheli enjoy expressing themselves through music and movement. The school’s talented Ms. Dawson teaches the “Karate Kids” how to use their physical “power” in a safe and controlled way. Mr. Dawson uses one of his many talents teaching the “Little Builders” how to use tools safely and the ‘job’ each tool has to help us build and make things. Due to high demand there are two cooking classes where the children get to practice using their culinary skills. The best part is they get to eat their creations. All the children are happily participating in their classes.

For 46 years, Soille San Diego Hebrew Day has championed Jewish day school education: instilling Jewish values and inspiring students to aim for excellence in a value-based, family environment.  The school serves children from infants through eighth grade, and offers generous financial aid grants to families to make a Jewish day school education affordable to all.  For more information on the school, visit the web site at http://www.hebrewday.org/ or contact Audrey Jacobs, Director of School Advancement at 858-279-3300 ext. 106 or ajacobs@hebrewday.org

New website: Old Jews telling jokes

By Dan Bloom

TAIPEI, TAIWAN -- "Storytelling is a Jewish tradition," says Sam Hoffman, one of the people behind a funny new website titled "Old Jews Telling Jokes." Every Tuesday and Thursday a new video appears featuring an old joke, often of the "blue" variety -- told by an everyday, normal Jewish person over the age of 60. Viewers around the world can tune in, according to Manhattan resident Hoffman, 42, but if you are offended by "dirty jokes," this may not be for you.

When I asked him what the purpose of the comedy website was, Hoffman replied:"Jokes are like stories, but shorter and funnier. Old jokes tend to have a stigma, but they only last if they're good. Some of the best ones provide a window to the culture of a bygone era. They can reveal the concerns of a generation or even the generation before. Anxieties of coming to a new country, of prospering, of assimilating, of having families, of fearing and worrying about, well, everything. Humor was and is the ultimateanti-depressant."

Hoffman told me how the website grew, noting: "My father gathered twenty of his friends to share their favorite jokes. We set three rules for the video production: the joke-tellers were to be Jewish, at least sixty years of age and they were to tell their favorite joke -– the one that always 'kills'."

Among those telling jokes on the website now are Larry Donsky, with "McCoy", Louis Goldstein, with "Golf" and Diane Hoffman, with "Broccoli". The jokes are not necessarily Jewish jokes, they are just
good, old jokes that these storytellers like to tell. It's a hilarious website, and one can envision new sites coming online sooner with names like "Old WASPS Telling Jokes," "Old African-Americans Telling
Jokes" and "Old Hispanics Telling Jokes," among other ethnic groups around the world.

The website is a production of Jetpack Media, located in Los Angeles and New York, and formed by GreeneStreet Films in 2008, with the idea of bringing the talent and sensibilities of the independent film community to the world of online content, company president Eric Spiegelman said.

Hoffman grew up in New Jersey and now lives in Manhattan, he told this reporter in a recent email. "I was an English major at the Universityof Pennsylvania and graduated 1988," he added. "I produce independent
movies now."

When asked why he thinks the new website is attracting lots of eyeballs, he told me: "I think that in times like these, with the economy in such difficult straits, and people struggling to make ends meet, it's nice to havea website that will just put a smile on your face in a minute or so.And you know, it's a bit ironic that the Internet, the most up-to-date form of communication on Earth, allows us to do just what we've alwaysdone -- have older people tell us stories."

When asked about future plans for the website and its "stars," present and future, Hoffman said: "If things work out, I'd really like to go on tour and shoot some people telling jokes in various regions of thecountry: a South Florida group, Chicago, Los Angeles -- maybe evenoverseas. It would be really interesting to see how the jokes and the people change from place to place."

"In the end, I am excited just to be able to preserve these stories and these people as a testament to a particular culture," he added.

Reactions from viewers has been very positive, according to Hoffman and Speigelman.

One comment on the video site's blog noted: "This could be my newfavorite website. I'm a 59 year old who is a decent story teller. I'mnot Jewish, but I'm thinking of converting on my 60th birthday and
asking Mr Hoffman for camera time."

Said another fan: "This is a brilliant website --funny, heart-warming, and well, just perfect. I am so glad that your father brought these people together. What a wonderful 'mitzvah', and your insights into jokes areright on."

The webiste is safe for work and home, but be warned, says veteran Dallas Morning News religion reporter, Jeffrey Weiss: "This bunch of 'alta kakers' (Yiddish for, basically, "old farts") works blue. Meaning
there is some 'adult' language ....not to mention humour that was already old when Myron Cohen was still doing Ed Sullivan."

Enough said. Enjoy!

Bloom is a freelance writer based in Taiwan. He may be contacted at danbloom@gmail.com

By Cantor Sheldon F. Merel

SAN DIEGO —I first heard Ernest Bloch’s Sacred Service at the University of California in Berkeley in the 60’s. As the blend of symphony orchestra, the voices of cantor and a full choir filled the hall, the biblical text from the Second Book of Chronicles (5:12) came alive in my mind:

“the Levites who were singers, their sons and brethren , arrayed in fine linens, with cymbals, psalteries and harps, stood on the altar, and with them a hundred and twenty priestS sounding with trumpets."

For years, I carried the magnificent sight and sounds of that exciting concert in my memory, hoping one day to sing its glorious music myself. My dream came true when San Diego State University invited me to be soloist in Bloch’s Sacred Service with their orchestra and choir. I performed it once again in 1988, with conductor, David Amos, his JCC Symphony Orchestra, and choirs from St Paul’s Episcopal Church and our temple choir. It was presented as an integral part of the Friday evening worship service at Congregation Beth Israel, and on the following Sunday morning at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, as a concert with commentary.

In 1933, San Francisco’s Temple Emanuel commissioned the world renowned composer, Ernest Bloch to write an entire Shabbat service utilizing the full musical forces of orchestra, choir and cantor. His “Sacred Service” is virtually unmatched in Jewish musical repertoire, and is recognized as the grandest and most profound setting of the Sabbath service.

After Bloch accepted the commission, he devoted himself fully to exploring every nuance and balance of phrasing of the Hebrew text in order to match spiritual and musical meanings. The result was an unusually well-integrated score, combining text, dramatic music and ritual meanings for maximum effect. In the process of examining his Jewish roots more deeply, he spoke of his musical and Jewish philosophy, “I desire to write a musical version of the synagogue liturgy on a monumental scale, proportionate to the depth of the spiritual and textual immersion in the 'sacred emotion' of the Jewish experience. It is the Hebrew spirit that interests me, the vigor of the patriarchs, the burning love of justice, the sorrow and grandeur of the Book of Job; and the sensuality of the Song of Songs. All this is in us, all this is in me, and is the better part of me.”

Avodat Ha-kodesh was one of the first of such works of this magnitude to be written, and continues to be performed in synagogues and concert halls around the world. BAR’CHU, (an ancient formula for calling people to prayer.) the Cantor calls the congregation to worship, “Praise the Lord who is to be blessed," and the congregation responds, “ Praise be the Lord, to whom all Praise is due.”

SH’MA (Deuteronomy 6:4-8) Hear (listen) oh Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is One. Blessed be His Name, whose glorious kingdom is forever and ever”

V’AH-HAV-TA: And you shall love the Lord, your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your might. And these words, which I command you this day, shall be upon your heart: and you shall teach them diligently unto your children, and shall talk of them when you sit I your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise up. And you shall bind them for a sign upon your hand, and they shall be for frontlets between your eyes. And you shall write them on the doorposts of your house, and upon your gates.

UNITED JEWISH FEDERATION OF SAN DIEGOFebruary 24 options

 

SAN DIEGO—It is difficult to explain the existence of anti-Semitism in Poland after the Holocaust. The brutal Nazi occupation, with the assistance of many Polish citizens, slaughtered 90 percent of the 3.5 million Jewish Poles.  Only a tiny and emaciated remnant remained.  Of those that survived, few wanted to return to their former homes.  They knew full well that their families had been murdered and that nothing of their past lives remained.  There were no pieces to pick-up.  No way to start over.  Most wanted to and did move on.  Some managed, through the Jewish underground, to get to Palestine.  Others waited in refugee camps set up after the war and tried to immigrate to the United States, Great Britain, and/or to any place that would take them in. A few returned to Poland.

Those very few who returned often did not find a positive welcoming committee, as demonstrated in the epic film Shoah, when a man returned home after the Holocaust and was greeted by the town’s people after a Sunday church service with words to the effect, “What, you are still alive?  How come you made it and what do you want from us?” They gave the impression they didn’t want him around, for he reminded them of their own actions or inaction during the Nazi occupation.

The brave and/or foolhardy few who returned were met with violence, terror and bloodshed.  Why?  The book Fear by the historian Jan T. Gross tackled this question.  Poland was a very anti-Semitic country prior to World War Two.  Was the anti-Semitism after the war of the same type?  Not according to Professor Gross.

You cannot explain the postwar anti-Semitism by pointing to the historical roots of Polish anti-Semitism.  The Polish form of anti-Semitism was not exterminatory.  The murder of ninety percent of Polish Jewry and the destruction of their businesses satisfied, in a manner of speaking, the historical demands of the Polish people.  Thus, the perceived threat of Jewish social ascendancy over ethnic Poles was permanently removed.

Nobody ever saw a Christian child murdered “for blood” by Jews, even though in parts of 1946 Poland it was alleged they had. Crowds gathered, chased Jews, beat Jews in the streets, rifled through trains looking for anyone they thought was Jewish and then harmed them and threw them off trains, shot them in the streets, and set fire to buildings where Jews lived, all because they had heard a rumor that a Christian child had been killed for his blood.  Hundreds of years earlier, in 1247, Pope Innocent the IV issued a papal bull declaring that accusations of ritual murder against the Jews were fraudulent. The Catholic Church had over the years reiterated, time and again, that Jews did not kill Christian children for religious reasons. (Having said that, many ethnic Poles still believed Jews killed Christian children for religious purposes.)

If the traditional roots of anti-Semitism in postwar Poland did not rest within the religious realm or the economic realm, then where did it?  Professor Gross reasoned that the virulent forms of anti-Semitism were acquired by actual experiences during the war years.  He cautioned, “…We must guard against the easy insight that Nazi policies simply rubbed off onto the Poles, who grew to emulate the occupiers and became ‘demoralized’.”

Jan Karski, a courageous Polish envoy to the government in exile during the Second World War called for vigorous combating of anti-Semitism in 1940.  He reported to the government that anti-Jewish measures of the Nazis resonated well with large segments of Polish society. His appeal for vigilance against Polish anti-Semitism went unheeded and, unfortunately, fell mainly upon deaf ears. Many Poles, during and after the war, were morally bankrupt.

Some of the Polish intellectuals after the Kielce Pogrom in 1946 struggled with the morality issue. One intellectual wrote, “Today it is not a question of saving the Jews from misery and death, it is a problem of saving the Poles from moral misery and spiritual death.” And what did the Catholic Church have to say at this point about the pogroms?

Cardinal August Hlond, the head of the episcopate of Poland, was approached twice by the Jewish community to issue a pastoral letter or a statement condemning anti-Semitism.  He was urged to denounce the accusations of ritual murder as false in Kielce and elsewhere in Poland.  Asked one week after the Kielce pogrom, by nine foreign journalists, why he hadn’t said or written anything about the pogrom, the Cardinal answered: “I investigated the facts and did not discover sufficient grounds to publish such a letter.  Now the situation has changed, but I must first consult my bishops.”

Hlond consulted his bishops, but as a result he did not publish any pastoral letter on the Kielce pogrom, anti-Semitism, or ritual murder.  “With one notable and very important exception, no Catholic hierarch issued a statement decisively and unequivocally addressing these matters after Kielce.  Only the bishop, Teodor Kubina, spoke forcefully and unambiguously against the lie of ritual murder and anti-Semitism. “He was promptly reprimanded by fellow bishops for having done so.”

What had the Pope and the church hierarchy done to save Jewish lives, during and immediately after the war? What, if anything, had the Pope done to put pressure on religious Catholics to save innocent Jewish lives? Now, so soon after the murder of so many Jews during the war, the Catholic Church did nothing.  The church during the Nazi occupation of Europe had struck a silent bargain with the Nazis.  It was, more or less like, “if you don’t bother us, we won’t bother you.”  The Nazis were out of power now, so why didn’t the church find its moral voice? The new government was under the control of the Communists and the church still did not act against the pogrom?  Why?  Did they believe that all Jews were communists? The Poles in the streets hated communists/Jews and if the church intervened on behalf of the Jews it might be tarred with the brush of being soft on communism and, possibly pro-Jewish.  These two things the church wished to avoid.  The church adopted an attitude of not very benign neglect with respect to the “Jewish Problem.”

The communist government initially took action on the Kielce Pogrom.  They urged workers to be calm and not participate in any of the prejudicial actions against the Jews.  They should show working class solidarity with the Jewish workers.  The communist leadership quickly saw that the ethnic Polish work force feared the Jews, feared, from their view, the communist/Jewish anti Polish leadership.  The Polish communist leaders quickly adapted their policies to be more in tune with the average working class Pole.  They too adopted an attitude of not very benign neglect with respect to the “Jewish Problem.”

If it wasn’t the old fashioned form of anti-Semitism that was behind the pogroms after the war, what was?  Gross stated, “We must seek the reasons for the novel virulent quality of postwar anti-Semitism in Poland not in collective hallucinations nor in prewar attitudes, but in actual experiences acquired during the war years.”

Jan Karski, the Polish underground’s envoy recorded, as I noted earlier in this review, that early during the occupation a genuine agreement (Karski’s emphasis) between the occupier and a large segment of the Poles.  He pointed to their common interest in dispossessing the Jews.  If the Polish government in-exile, and if the church did not lead and speak out against the anti-Semitic atrocities it would lead to disastrous consequences.  The Polish leadership did not heed his warning.

Gross writes, “I see no other explanation of the virulent postwar anti-Semitism in Poland but that it was embedded in society’s opportunistic wartime behavior.  Jews were perceived as a threat to the material status quo, security, and peaceful conscience of their Christian fellow citizens after the war because they had plundered and because what remained of Jewish property, as well as Jews’ social roles had been assumed by Polish neighbors in tacit and often directly opportunistic complicity with Nazi-instigated institutional mass murder. Consequently, when attacking Jews in order to get rid of them once and for all, people were not acting out their vampire fantasies or Judeo-Communist fantasies, nor were they acting on beliefs and attitudes inculcated by Nazis.  They were defending their real interests, quite often premised on murky deals or outright criminal behavior.”

“The postwar hatred of the Jews in Poland was too lethal, too widespread, too untamed to be grounded in anything but concrete, palpable fear.”  The ordinary Poles’ widespread collusion and callousness with the Nazi criminals in their massive extermination of the Jewish people left the postwar Poles morally bankrupt.  And when Jews returned to their old villages, towns or cities, their mere presence forced many of the ethnic Poles to relive their crimes.  To them Jews were a threat!  They might have to account to themselves for what they had gained (stolen) from the slaughtered Jewish people.

Historian Jan Gross has written a gripping and masterful book about a shameful time in recent Polish history, a time Poles wish to forget, but can’t, a time when the Polish Church and State abandoned the few surviving Jews who were trying to put their shattered lives back together. 

Strom is professor emeritus of education at San Diego State University. He may be contacted at stromd@sandiegojewishworld.com






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L.A. BEAT

Maybe they should hunt for a better play!

By Cynthia Citron

PASADENA, California--Maybe it’s me, but I just didn’t get the point of “Hunter Gatherers,” Peter Sinn Nachtrieb’s ridiculous farce about two totally mismatched couples’ annual get-togethether to celebrate their joint wedding anniversary. The women, who have known each other since childhood, have absolutely nothing in common. Sara Hennessy, as Pam, is a Little Mary Sunshine, placid and calm, while Vonessa Martin, as Wendy, is high-pitched melodrama at its worst.

Pam’s husband Richard (Doug Newell) is a hulking bully who refers to himself in the third person. Wendy’s husband Tom (the usually outstanding Steven Schub, who did such a remarkable job as the Zionist Hillel Kook/Peter Bergson in "The Accomplices"), is an emotionally repressed doctor and the most unlikely person to be Richard’s “best buddy.”

The play begins with Richard’s coercing Pam into helping him slaughter a live (and bleating) lamb in their living room so that the meal he is cooking for the group will have supreme authenticity. Where can you possibly go from there?

Wendy arrives alone to make endless disparaging remarks about Tom, who is outside parking the car. When he finally arrives, he is set upon by Richard, who tumbles him to the floor in their annual “wrestling” ritual. Since Tom is slight in build and timid in temperament, the outcome is inevitable, but Richard seems to think it’s all in good fun. Especially the homosexual rape that the loser has to endure. And enjoy?

Further, all four of them know that Richard and Wendy are having a torrid affair (sometimes onstage, sometimes in the kitchen, where they are ostensibly preparing the hors d’ouevres). And Wendy is trying to persuade him to run away with her. Which makes sense, since they obviously deserve each other.

But insanity (and inanity) prevails, and three of the four wind up dead. Is there anything more you need to know about this misbegotten play?

Oh yes, it’s a production of the Furious Theatre Company and it’s directed by Damaso Rodriguez. The rather ordinary set design is by Kurt Boetcher, the lighting is by Christie Wright and the sound design is by the ubiquitous Cricket Myers.

Hunter Gatherers was first produced in San Francisco in 2006. As playwright Peter Sinn Nachtrieb explains, “I wanted to get every primal urge into a single dinner party. The play is about humans as animals and the thin veneer that is beween the two.”Well, he got that right, even if it doesn’t make for a very delightful evening of theatre!

Hunter Gatherers will continue at the Carrie Hamilton Theatre (upstairs at the Pasadena Playhouse), 139 S. Molino Avenue, in Pasadena, Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays at 8 p.m. and Sundays at 7:30 through February 21st.

L.A. Bureau chief Citron may be contacted at citronc@sandiegojewishworld.com





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Carol Bruce (1919-2007) sings "Boy With the Wistful Eyes" and "Getting Sentimental Over You"

Dany Brillant sings "Tu vuò fa l' americano" (You Want To Be An American)

Ian Broudie sings "Song for No One"

CAROL ANN GOLDSTEIN

Adventures in San Diego Jewish History

Editor's Note: To create a permanent and accessible archive, we are reprinting news articles that appeared in back issues of various San Diego Jewish newspapers. You may access an index of the headlines of those articles by clicking here. You may also use the Google search program on our home page or on the headline index page to search for keywords or names.


Community Currents
Southwestern Jewish Press, August 2, 1952, page 2

By Albert Hutler, Director, United Jewish Fund

On the political scene the activities of several members of our community belies the fact that there is a strong, solid Jewish vote in san Diego or in America.  It is interesting to note that Harry Farb is president of the Men’s Democratic Club and a leader in Democratic circles in the city, while Elliott Cushman, newspaper publisher, is Chairman of the Eisenhower forces in San Diego for the Citizens for Eisenhower, appointed by Senator Nixon.

I’ve talked with a good number of people at the “E Street Grill” and find that there is pretty much of an even split between those who favor the Eisenhower-Nixon ticket and those who feel that Stevenson and Sparkman are the answer.

Incidentally, the Jewish Community Relations Council of San Diego takes no part in national, state or local politics.  It is only concerned with the defense of American ideals, fair play, justice and our traditional sense of decency.  In the past weeks many of us have been plagued by the activities of professional bigots using the national party conventions as opportunities for anti-Semitic propaganda.

Tensions are now high and the whispering campaign has started in San Diego as well as in other communities, concerning in the main one nominee.

For the last week or so, we have had numerous inquiries about the validity of these rumors based on whether or not the man is an anti-Semite.

A careful inquiry discloses that there is no reason, in the light of the information available, to justify suspicions of that nature regarding the major nominees of the two principal parties. If the Community Relations Council should learn to the contrary, it will alert the community. Until then, it is only fair that all such rumors be repudiated in the interest of common decency.

Private Investment in Israel—There is a small group of people who are very interested in Israel and in assisting the State by investing privately in industry in Israel.  Here in San Diego they have formed a syndicate to purchase a small part of Ampal’s deal in oil in Israel.  Ampal has the right to purchase $2,000,000 worth of stock in the Israel oil project and this is the first participation of the local citizens in such private investment.  Individuals who are taking part in the syndicate are those who are normally active in community affairs.  They are pretty well up on the questions of economics in Israel and all of them feel that participation in private investment in the new State is the best way to cure the critical financial situation in the state.  The syndicate hopes that this will not end their participation in private investment.

*
Mac Kaufman, publisher of this paper, has just been appointed as head of the Admissions Committee of the San Diego Hebrew Home for the aged by Saul Chenkin, President. This committee has the responsibility of checking and discussion and making the recommendations on applications for admission to the old folks’ home. One of its first jobs is to streamline the admissions practices so that everyone in the community will understand how a person is admitted to the Home.  This is very important since the Home is a Jewish community enterprise run for and on behalf of and by the members of the community.  It seems to me that everyone is entitled to know its admission policy.  I know that Mac will do an excellent job on this committee as he does in most everything that he touches.

*
Henrietta Rubenstein, Director of the Jewish Social Services agency, and her excellent Case Aid Committee are beginning to make plans for a novel survey in San Diego.  They are interested in finding out what has happened in the 70 or more émigré families who have come to San Diego under the Displaced Persons act in the last 5 years.  Incidentally, many of the children of these families are now participating in our day camp project. I look at all of them with a great deal of amazement because I can remember what scrawny, thin, pale, anemic-looking children they were when they got off that train at the depot for their first look at San Diego.  Now you have never seen a finer set of children and a healthier looking group than those youngsters who have been in San Diego anywhere from 4 years to 6 months. 

The survey will tell some amazing stories of adjustments.


Pioneer Jews of Utah
{Review of The Pioneer Jews of Utah. (New York, 1952) by Leon Laizer Watters}
Southwestern Jewish Press, August 8, 1952, page 2

By Dr. Phillip L. Seman, University of Judaism

The Jews of Utah lived among the Mormons, and this environment had considerable influence in conditioning their lives and viewpoints, and because of the origin of the Church of Latter Day Saints (Mormons), which Dr. Wallace (sic, Watters,) says ties that sect according to their doctrines closely to the ancient Israelites, he gives a brief explanation of the history and beliefs of the Mormon people.

Most of the Jews in Utah were engaged in mercantile pursuits; the author sketched the development of business there and has depicted some of the color and flavor fo the turbulent times in which the pioneers lived over a hundred years ago.

The author wrote the story largely because his father was among the early settlers, and because he himself was born there. For over fifty years he collected information bearing on the subject.  Walters’ book informs the reader that the early Jews made the trip to Utah alone or at best with one or two companions.

Among the Jews who took the overland route were: Solomon N. Carvelho with Fremont’s exploration party in 1853.  In the appendices of the book for some 75 pages the author gives biographical information secured from descendents of the pioneers and much from the personal recollection of the writer who as a youth in Utah knew all of them intimately.  These include Solomon Nuneo Carvalho, one of a family of rabbis, teachers, writers, merchants of Spanish Portuguese descent, who was born in Charleston, South Carolina in 1815.  He was a portrait painter, among his best-known portraits are those of Thomas Hunter, the founder of Hunter’s College in New York City; the Reverend Isaac Lesser of Philadelphia.  He was also the author of a treatise on the Mosaic cosmogony under the title “The Two Creations.” Besides being an artist he was also historian of the Fremont expedition in which by sheer ability he rose to a position second only to the leader himself.

Then there are biographical sketches of Julius and Fanny Brooks, who arrived in Utah in 1854.  Brooks was one of sixteen children, and whose family traced its history back for a thousand years.

Nicholas Siegfried Ramsohoff who had extensive dealings with Brigham Young.

The Kahn brothers, who gave rise to the anomalous situation of a practicing Jew, becoming a trustee of the Congregationalist Church.

The Auerbach brothers, who were probably the most successful fo the Jewish merchants.

Charles Popper who in 1859 took passage on a sailing vessel around Cape Horn to San Francisco, and in 1864 went to Salt Lake City.  An interesting fact is that when Popper closed the shop on Rosh Hashonah and Yom Kippur, the Mormon butchers (for Popper had a butcher shop) out of respect for Popper, also closed their shops.

Isadore and Aaron Morris who came to Utah as soldiers in the U.S. Army as early as 1853.  Morris married a Mormon girl, Miss Goddard, who embraced Judaism.  Morris, a pious Orthodox Jew, won the gratitude of the Mormon people when he intervened in their behalf in 1856 at the time when forty-nine Mormon “Elders” were incarcerated in the Utah penitentiary, charged with violation of Federal law against polygamy. An outstanding biography is that of the Bamberger brothers.  This biography of the four Bambergers was dictated to Dr. Leon L. Watters by the second oldest brother, Simon, in 1924, just before his death.

Some facts are interesting in connection with the Bambergers. Simon was elected to the State Senate and in 1916 was elected Governor of the State of Utah on the Democratic ticket. He was a member of the Board of Education from  1898 to 1903.  He was the first non-Mormon, the first Democrat and the only Jew elected Governor of the State; at the time of his election the total Jewish population of the State was but a few thousand out of a total of 500,000 people. As Governor, he took a liberal and progressive attitude.  It is interesting to note that other Jewish governors were Arthur Seligman of New Mexico; Julius Meier of Oregon; Moses Alexander of Idaho; Henry Holmer of Illinois ; and Herbert Lehman of New York.  Simon Bamberger took an interest in all of the affairs of the Jews of Utah.  He was held in high esteem by the Mormons because of his efforts on their behalf when the attempt was made to disfranchise them and when the Mormon historian, Orson F. Whitney, published his four volume “History of Utah,” the only biography of a Jew contained in it was that of Simon.

Among the records of the Mormon Church are several interesting incidents of the contact of Jews with the Mormon hierarchy.  One of these concerns the teaching of Hebrew to the prophet Joseph Smith by Joshua Seixas, the patriot preacher of the Spanish and Portuguese Synagogue in New York City during the Revolutionary War and a trustee of Columbia College.



Busy, Busy, Busy
Southwestern Jewish Press, August 8, 1952, page 3

The Brooker-Gates household on Campus Avenue has been the scene of a full summer of activities. Mother Brooker has had a continuous flow of visiitors stemming from all sections of the country. She has also been elected vice-president of the Pioneer Women's Organization. Daughter Edith has undertaken the chairmanship of reorganization of the Pioneer Junior Group, is building a new home and has accepted an assignment to the Music Department of Roosevelt Junior High School for the fall. Not to be outdone by his womenfolk, Seymour Gates has accepted the vice-presidency of the Cottage of Irael for next year. Hasn't anyone an assignment for little Michael, the youngest member of tis energetic family?


Talented Family
Southwestern Jewish Press, August 8, 1952, page 3

Six year old Nina Janowsky, with her 2 parakeets, was pictured on the front page of the society section of the Sunday paper.  Nina is the talented daughter of talented parents—musician, Edward Janowsky and artist mother, Mae.  Big brother, David intends to be a scientist and is well on his way already.


“Adventures in Jewish History” is sponsored by Inland Industries Group LP in memory of long-time San Diego Jewish community leader Marie (Mrs. Gabriel) Berg. Our indexed "Adventures in San Diego Jewish History" series will be a daily feature until we run out of history.





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SAN DIEGO JEWISH WORLD: THE WEEK IN REVIEW


Monday, February 2, 2009 (Vol. 3, No. 28)