{Click on a link to jump to the corresponding story. Or, you may scroll leisurely through our report}
INTERNATIONAL Father of young Israeli killed by Gaza mortar urges peace ... by Donald H. Harrison in Rancho Santa Fe, California When Natan Galkowicz steps to the lectern of Congregation Beth El this Sunday during the greater San Diego Jewish community’s observance of Yom HaZikaron—the day set aside by Israel to remember its fallen soldiers and civilian victims of terror—he will tell about the death on July 14, 2005, of his second daughter, Dana. READ MORE
Strong ties to Sha'ar Hanegev propel Lapiduses' bike ride ... by Ulla Hadar in Beit She'an, Israel The drive for the Bike Israel 2009 started out early in the morning on Thursday heading towards the mountains ridge overlooking the Sea of Galilee (Kinneret), a hard 6 kilometer uphill ride from Tiberias to the Poriya junction.READ MORE In matters of religion, media should exercise tzimtzum ... by Rabbi Dow Marmur in Jerusalem Flemming Rose would probably have remained in relative obscurity in Denmark had the paper of which he’s the culture editor, Jyllands Posten, not commissioned and published in September 2005 a series of cartoons about the Prophet Muhammad that incensed much of the Muslim world and led to riots, other forms of violence and intimidation. As a result, he’s now a celebrity with an international reputation.READ MORE
Obama says evils that led to Holocaust still exist today ... White House Transcript READ MORE
Making nice to dictators around the world won't help U.S. ... by Shoshana Bryen in Washington D.C. One theory of government is that countries "vent" about American behavior, specifically about their history with us and now about President Bush's "crimes" and "arrogance." If they say or do something ugly, impolitic, dangerous or obnoxious to President Obama, it is cathartic, following which they will be America's, or at least the President's friends. READ MORE
ARTS Precocious granddaughter made Maui seder memorable ... by David Amos in Lahaina, Maui, Hawaii It was the natural thing to do. As usual, we celebrated the first night of Passover in our home with family and friends, but since our out-of-town daughter and her family opted to go to Hawaii during the children’s Spring Break, we flew the very next day and held the Second Seder in Maui.READ MORE Message was muddled in The Cradle Will Rock ... by Sara Appel-Lennon in San Diego In 1936 Marc Blitzstein, an American composer, author, and playwright wrote the play, The Cradle Will Rock. He worked diligently, completing the play in five weeks, to catapult him from a long bout of depression after discovering that his wife, Eva Goldbeck, critic and novelist had died at age thirty four due to self-inflicted starvation-anorexia and a battle with breast cancer. READ MORE
Title character of Peter Grimes worthy of our empathy ... by Carol Davis in San Diego More than anything, Jews know about being outsiders, different and condemned. They also know about being persecuted, being wrongly blamed for just about everything and disappearing without a trace. In Peter Grimes’ Borough in an English costal village, the villagers referred to Grimes as callous, brutal and coarse.READ MORE
ADVENTURES IN SAN DIEGO JEWISH HISTORY
February 6, 1953; Southwestern Jewish Press
JEWISH INTERNET FAVORITES We continue our examination of Jewish entertainers Linda Lavin "gets a pass" in "Alice" VIEW VIDEO
Louise Lasser breaks it off with Woody Allen VIEW VIDEO
Piper Laurie declares Paul Newman is "too hungry" in "The Hustler" VIEW VIDEO
Shari Lewis and "Lamb Chop" advise "Don't Wake Your Mom."VIEW VIDEO
Bonus: Kelsey Grammer as Frasier gives a bar mitzvah blessing in Klingon! VIEW VIDEO
STAFF BOX
Do you have a talent for writing? We are on the lookout for volunteers to join our family of contributors. If you are interested in affiliating with a growing Jewish publication with worldwide reach, please call editor Don Harrison at (619) 265-0808, or email him at editor@sandiegojewishworld.com
TODAY'S ADVERTISERS
HIS TWO 'FLOWERS'—Natan Galkowicz displays a photo of his daughter Dana killed in a mortar attack on Israel from Gaza, and
a metal rose sculpted from a Kasam rocket after it fell onto Israeli soil.
Father of young Israeli killed by Gaza mortar urges peace
RANCHO SANTA FE, California -- When Natan Galkowicz steps to the lectern of Congregation Beth El this Sunday during the greater San Diego Jewish community’s observance of Yom HaZikaron—the day set aside by Israel to remember its fallen soldiers and civilian victims of terror—he will tell about the death on July 14, 2005, of his second daughter, Dana. At age 22, she was killed by a mortar attack from Gaza as she was walking in the moshav of Netiv Ha'asara to the home of her fiancé, Amir Ragolski.
I had the chance on Thursday to meet Galkowicz at the Rancho Santa Fe home of Carine Chitayat, who co-chairs along with Iris Pearlman the “adopt-a-family” program of Congregation Beth Am, a program that focuses on families who were struck by terror. The Galkowiczes, the latest “adoptees,” are residents of the Brazilian-originated Kibbutz Bror Chail, one of 10 kibbutzim in Sha’ar Hanegev, the sister region of San Diego’s United Jewish Federation.
We talked about Dana’s death, but we also talked about her life. As a child, she had her own ways, her father remembered. She would come home from school and just sit down on a chair, for ten minutes doing nothing at all except contemplating. Galkowicz is an active man—a computer scientist, a musician, a cook—and seeing her sit so still for ten minutes used to drive him nearly to impatience.
But music moved Dana, as it did the other members of her family, including her mother, Perla, an Argentine who had met Natan when they were both students at the Technion in Haifa. Smiling, Galkowicz disclosed that their daughter wanted the perfectly slender ballet dancer’s body, but despaired of the weight that seemed to sink to her bottom.
Galkowicz went over to a door separating Chitayat’s dining room from the kitchen, grasped the top of it for balance, and then moved his legs in imitation of a ballet dancer’s exercise routine. “For three years, whenever I would be talking to her, she would be doing this!” he said.
RANCHO SANTA FE VISIT—Natan Galkowicz of Kibbutz Bror Chail joins Carine Chitayat and Iris Pearlman, co-chairs of Congregation Beth Am's 'Adopt A Family' program, in Chitayat's yard along with her dogs Tasha, a Great Dane, and LouLou, a coton de tulear. A dog lover himself, Galkowicz named his restaurant in Bror Chail "Mides" after his dog.
Dana had gone as a student to Poland for the “March of the Living” and the following year returned as a counselor/ guide, Galkowicz said proudly.
A man who loves to cook—and who, in fact, has a Brazilian restaurant named “Mides” after his dog—Galkowicz said he once offered to teach Dana to cook, but she declined saying, “why should I cook, daddy, when you will always be here?”
The father’s face revealed how ironic that remark was. Yes, he would be 'here,' but she wouldn’t be, and there was no way anyone would have predicted it.
Dana and Amir had been living together at the home of his parents, who are successful flower growers in southern Israel. From their home in Netiv Ha'asara, not far from Yad Mordechai, they used to watch Kasam missiles fly over their heads toward places like Sderot, the city where she was studying for a career in communications at Sapir College.
Kasam missiles couldn’t hit targets so close to the Gaza border as the Ragolski home—they needed more distance. So at their home, Dana and the Ragolskis felt very safe. It was the opposite story at Sapir College, which was regularly targeted by the Kasam Missiles – and where, on that very day, a missile had landed in a campus swimming pool.
Besides being a ballet teacher, Perla also works as a graphic designer at the college—and the news of the rocket landing in the pool prompted Galkowicz to visit his wife and daughter on the campus. He remembered that at lunch Dana had been fretting over travel arrangements that she was trying to make to go to London.
The Galcowiczes took their oldest daughter, Sharon, with them on a trip that evening to Tel Aviv, and the two girls continued to talk by cellphone about the travel snafu as Natan drove. Once Dana was pulling her car into Netiv Ha'asara, she said something to the effect of ‘Okay, I’m home,” before hanging up. It was her last known words.
At 6:10 p.m., the Galkowiczes received a phone call from Amir. “Please come,” he urged, without explaining why. They turned their car around. At 6:20 p.m., Amir called again, his voice strained. He asked them to meet him at their kibbutz, “but don’t come quickly.” Next, on the car radio, there was news that in a mortar attack—not a Kasam attack, but a mortar which has the range of only 300 yards— a woman had been killed.
The radio didn’t announce the woman’s name, “but I made the connection,” Galkowicz said.
With his wife and daughter both crying hard in the car, Natan drove back to his kibbutz quite slowly—dreading what he would
find at the kibbutz. On arrival, he found Israeli police officers awaiting him—and he knew that they would give him official notification of his daughter’s death.
Word had already spread through the kibbutz and beyond, and when he got to his home, it was filled with people. The police asked him if he would please officially identify Dana’s body, and he responded that he would, but he wanted to do so alone.
He flashed back on the fact that when he and Perla were being married in Israel, his mother—a Holocaust
survivor—was dying suddenly back in Brazil. He never had a chance to say goodbye to his mother; he would not allow that to happen again, with his daughter.
He saw Dana all stretched out, half of her head blown away by the mortar.
“I held her hand, and kissed the other side of her face,” he recalled softly.
Only in the fact that doctors believed she had been killed instantly and without pain was there a small sense of relief, Galkowicz said.
In the days of shiva, he said, there were two contrasting visits to his home made by Israeli leaders. One was by Ehud Barak; the other by Shimon Peres. When Peres went into the house, he ordered the television cameras to stay outside, so he could speak privately with the family, Galkowicz said. Barak, on the other hand, made certain the cameras were first inside, and only afterwards came inside himself.
The father expressed the opinion that Barak was there simply for the publicity, and that he came not to listen but to talk and talk—for the cameras.
Peres, who had not yet been selected to be Israel’s President, was quite different. He asked Galkowicz if there was anything that he could do for him. “Talk to my son,” the father said. Oryan is the youngest of the Galkowicz’s three children.
Peres went to where Oryan was, and talked with the boy privately for 20 minutes—just the two of them, Galkowicz said. He added that whatever Peres said, it was of great help to Oryan, who today is in the Israel Defense Forces.
Amir was unable emotionally to return to the house where he and Dana had lived, instead staying at the Galkowicz home for a month. Afterwards, he moved to Europe, and then traveled to Asia, and eventually came back to work in the family flower business. It was not until a few weeks ago that he felt able to set foot in the home that he and Dana once had shared, and near where she had been killed.
Contingents of Palestinians from Gaza used to come to Bror Chail and other kibbutzim in Sha’ar Hanegev to supplement the work that the kibbutzniks did. Galkowicz said that he counted many of these Palestinians as among his friends. Sometimes, in those days when he would be called up for Army Reserve duty, he would be assigned to work at the border entry point and would joke with Palestinians he recognized as they went to and from work in Israel.
Those days will someday return, he predicted. There may be other wars first, but eventually “there will be peace,” he said.
In the meantime, he is carrying the message of peace—and the toll that warfare takes on the lives of ordinary Israelis and Palestinians—wherever there are audiences to hear him. He went back to Brazil, a country whose ambassador once wielded the gavel in the debate leading to the vote that partitioned Palestine into two states—one Jewish, one Arab. That gavel today is in a museum at Kibbutz Bror Chail.
But like many Latin American countries, Brazil today is a nation that often takes the side of the Palestinians.against Israel. He was welcomed in Brazil not only by the media, but by top ranking individuals, including President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. He told them that all countries—not only the United States and the European Union, but also countries like Brazil and India—must use their influence in global forums to work for peace.
Galkowicz showed me a souvenir that he brought from Israel—one that is quite moving to see. It is a rose sculpted from the metal of a Kasam rocket—a reminder of Isaiah’s prophecy (2:4) that “they shall beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks; nation will not lift sword against nation and they will no longer study warfare.”
Please click the ad above
Please click the ad above
UPHILL—Rick Kornfeld together with Mardell and Jeff Davis on their tandem bike, climbing the road from Tiberias towards the
Poriyah Junction. Below: Susan Lapidus at the natural springs of the Gan Hashlosha Park {Photos by Ulla Hadar}.
Strong ties to Sha'ar Hanegev propel Lapiduses' bike ride
Editor's Note: This is the fourth in a series of stories by our bureau chief (and chief bike rider) Ulla Hadar on the BikeIsrael 2009 project created by United Jewish Federation to raise money for the protection of Sha'ar Hanegev students against rocket attack. To contribute to this cause, please click on this link to a webpage of the United Jewish Federation of San Diego County.
BEIT SHE’AN, Israel—The drive for the Bike Israel 2009 started out early in the morning on Thursday heading towards the mountains ridge overlooking the Sea of Galilee (Kinneret), a hard 6 kilometer uphill ride from Tiberias to the Poriya junction.
The weather was pleasant with fresh winds coming in now and again before riding down back towards the Sea of Galilee and kibbutz Degania.
A stop was made at the Alumot Junction which has a magnificent lookout where one can see most of the lake. From there on the group continued to the Jordan River Valley with a stop for lunch at a picnic grounds close to the the Jordanian border. The winds had changed after lunch and the drive towards the city of Bet She'an was challenging but everyone finished it gracefully.
Beit She'an's location has often been strategically significant, as it sits at the junction of the Jordan River Valley and the Jezreel Valley essentially controlling access from the interior to the coast, as well as from Jerusalem to the Galilee.
Its name is believed to derive from the early Canaanite, meaning House of Tranquility.
The afternoon was spent in the National Park of Gan Hashlosha, which is a park set around natural pools fed by Sachne hot springs. One can bathe and swim in the pools year round, because the temperature of the water is steady +28 Celsius (82 degrees Fahrenheit). The pools are connected by small waterfalls. The park also has a museum of Mediterranean archaeology and a reconstructed "wall-and-tower" settlement of 1930s vintage, where you can climb the watchtower and also swim.
At these beautiful surroundings I caught up with Susan and Robert Lapidus for a chat about their involvement in the BikeIsrael 2009. Susan Lapidus , the director of development for Jewish Famly Service, told me that both she and her husband felt it was a great cause to raise money for the High School in Sha'ar Hanegev.
Susan continued:" We have been very fortunate to have had many generous donors who have made our fundraising campaign very successful. This campaign is something you can actually feel and touch, because you know that in the end a High School is going to be built that will serve hundreds of students in Sha'ar Hanegev.
“Our personal connection to Sha'ar Hanegev started in 2000 with the bar/bat mitzvah mission and continued in 2003 where our Daughter Haley went on the JITLI (Jacobs International Teen Leadership Institute) program. The friends she made on this program in Sha'ar Hanegev later came to visit us in San Diego, and I had an opportunity to visit the parents of these youngster when joining the community mission in 2007."
Robert Lapidus, an attorney and a business person with a passion for bike riding, shared his thoughts: "It was an undertaking combined with my interest in cycling that got me connected to this project. Even more so my deep connection to Eretz Israel, and to the people here especially the ones living in Sha'ar Hanegev. This way I feel this way we build a strong relationship and partnership. The wholeSha'ar Hanegev partnership has been an invaluable asset to the San Diego community--a two way partnership.
“When I heard about this trip, it was an opportunity to see Israel from a perspective that I could not have imagined that I would experience. For many visits I have driven almost all over Israel, but to see it from the saddle of a bicycle is something completely different. You experience the land in such a different way, much more intimate. I am enjoying it this way I love to travel to places and to ride my bike with beautiful and challenging experiences.
I could not have imagined a better place to do it than here."
JERUSALEM--Flemming Rose would probably have remained in relative obscurity in Denmark had the paper of which he’s the culture editor, Jyllands Posten, not commissioned and published in September 2005 a series of cartoons about the Prophet Muhammad that incensed much of the Muslim world and led to riots, other forms of violence and intimidation. As a result, he’s now a celebrity with an international reputation.
Perhaps on the misguided principle that “my enemy’s enemy is my friend,” Rose is currently being celebrated in Israel. Earlier this Wednesday evening he was one of three panelists at a symposium at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem called, “Freedom of Expression – Victim of Religion?”
The warm introduction given by Ephraim Halevy, the head of the institute that sponsored the event, omitted to mention that this champion of free speech also wanted to publish the Iranian Holocaust cartoons until his editor put a stop to it and ordered him to take a few months “leave of absence.” Since Halevy is a former Israeli spy chief it’s inconceivable that he didn’t know about it, or didn’t read Rose’s entry in Wikipedia.
Rose began his presentation by quoting George Orwell’s dictum that freedom is to be able to say to people what they don’t want to hear. Rose definitely exercised that freedom also on this occasion, not because he was offensive but because, at least to this member of the audience, he was rather banal and long-winded.
But, of course, he was right to affirm that no group - in this case the Muslim minority in his country and elsewhere - should be able to curb the freedom of expression of others. But he didn’t seem to have heard of the Jewish concept of tzimtzum, (self) limitation, a principle to which God self is believed to adhere. In this case as in so many others, the commandment to imitate the divine seems very appropriate.
A second panelist, the Belgian-born Israeli cartoonist Michel Kichka, seems to be practicing it. For he did affirm the principle of self-limitation and showed many examples of his own political cartoons and those of others that illustrate how it’s possible, in his own words, to use ink instead of blood.
In fact, he and his professional colleagues from different countries have formed an organization, “Cartoonists for Peace” that shows how cartoons can be both provocative and tolerant at the same time. His illustrations were much more powerful, relevant, funny and no less biting than the Danish effort – yet not particularly offensive.
The third panelists, David Horovitz, the editor-in-chief of the Jerusalem Post, reminded the audience that it’s tempting for an editor to capitulate to extremism in the guise of tolerance and that this was totally unacceptable. Yet
Go to top of right column
he himself admitted that, as an act of tzimtzum, he wouldn’t have published the Muhammad cartoons in the way Flemming Rose did it, not in fear of repercussions but out of sensitivity.
We’ve every reason to champion free speech and free media as a manifestation of democracy and to be appalled at the way in which Islamist extremists and their fellow travelers exploited this in itself trivial publication. But, unlike many others, I also discern a bit of religion bashing that has become a popular sport in the guise of modernity and liberty. Though I’m obviously totally opposed to media restrictions of the kind that exists in totalitarian states, I still believe that a dose of tzimtzum can be a wholesome corrective.
Marmur is rabbi emeritus of the Holy Blossom Congregation in Toronto. He divides his time between Canada and Israel. He may be contacted at marmurd@sandiegojewishworld.com
REMEMBRANCE—President Barack Obama, flanked by Fred Zeidman, chairman of the United States Holocaust Memorial Council
and Nobel Laureate Elie Wiesel, right. attends the Holocaust Day of Remembrance at the U.S. Capitol Thursday, April 23, 2009. Official White House Photo/ Pete Souza)
READ IT FOR YOURSELF
Obama says evils that led to Holocaust still exist today
WASHINGTON, D.C.(Press Release) - U.S. President Barack Obama said today scapegoating and the willingness of bystanders not to intervene in behalf of persecuted fellow human beings were factors leading to the Holocaust. He said he hoped that the people and the nation of the United States will alwaysbe counted among the righteous.
Here is a transcript of the President's remarks at a Holocaust commemoration on Wednesday inside the U.S. Capitol:
THE PRESIDENT: Thank you. Please be seated. Thank you very much. To Sara Bloomfield, for the wonderful introduction and the outstanding work she's doing; to Fred Zeidman; Joel Geiderman; Mr. Wiesel -- thank you for your wisdom and your witness; Speaker Nancy Pelosi; Senator Dick Durbin; members of Congress; our good friend the Ambassador of Israel; members of the United States Holocaust Memorial Council; and most importantly, the survivors and rescuers and their families who are here today. It is a great honor for me to be here, and I'm grateful that I have the opportunity to address you briefly.
We gather today to mourn the loss of so many lives, and celebrate those who saved them; honor those who survived, and contemplate the obligations of the living.
It is the grimmest of ironies that one of the most savage, barbaric acts of evil in history began in one of the most modernized societies of its time, where so many markers of human progress became tools of human depravity: science that can heal used to kill; education that can enlighten used to rationalize away basic moral impulses; the bureaucracy that sustains modern life used as the machinery of mass death -- a ruthless, chillingly efficient system where many were responsible for the killing, but few got actual blood on their hands.
While the uniqueness of the Holocaust in scope and in method is truly astounding, the Holocaust was driven by many of the same forces that have fueled atrocities throughout history: the scapegoating that leads to hatred and blinds us to our common humanity; the justifications that replace conscience and allow cruelty to spread; the willingness of those who are neither perpetrators nor victims to accept the assigned role of bystander, believing the lie that good people are ever powerless or alone, the fiction that we do not have a choice.
But while we are here today to bear witness to the human capacity to destroy, we are also here to pay tribute to the human impulse to save. In the moral accounting of the Holocaust, as we reckon with numbers like 6 million, as we recall the horror of numbers etched into arms, we also factor in numbers like these: 7,200 -- the number of Danish Jews ferried to safety, many of whom later returned home to find the neighbors who rescued them had also faithfully tended their homes and businesses and belongings while they were gone.
We remember the number five -- the five righteous men and women who join us today from Poland. We are awed by your acts of courage and conscience. And your presence today compels each of us to ask ourselves whether we would have done what you did. We can only hope that the answer is yes.
We also remember the number 5,000 -- the number of Jews rescued by the villagers of Le Chambon, France -- one life saved for each of its 5,000 residents. Not a single Jew who came there was turned away, or turned in. But it was not until decades later that the villagers spoke of what they had done -- and even then, only reluctantly. The author of a book on the rescue found that those he interviewed were baffled by his interest. "How could you call us 'good'?" they said. "We were doing what had to be done."
That is the question of the righteous -- those who would do extraordinary good at extraordinary risk not for affirmation or acclaim or to advance their own interests, but because it is what must be done. They remind us that no one is born a savior or a murderer -- these are choices we each have the power to make. They teach us that no one can make us into bystanders without our consent, and that we are never truly alone -- that if we have the courage to heed that "still, small voice" within us, we can form a minyan for righteousness that can span a village, even a nation.
Their legacy is our inheritance. And the question is, how do we honor and preserve it? How do we ensure that "never again" isn't an empty slogan, or merely an aspiration, but also a call to action?
I believe we start by doing what we are doing today -- by bearing witness, by fighting the silence that is evil's greatest co-conspirator.
In the face of horrors that defy comprehension, the impulse to silence is understandable. My own great uncle returned from his service in World War II in a state of shock, saying little, alone with painful memories that would not leave his head. He went up into the attic, according to the stories that I've heard, and wouldn't come down for six months. He was one of the liberators -- someone who at a very tender age had seen the unimaginable. And so some of the liberators who are here today honor us with their presence -- all of whom we honor for their extraordinary service. My great uncle was part of the 89th Infantry Division -- the first Americans to reach a Nazi concentration camp. And they liberated Ohrdruf, part of Buchenwald, where tens of thousands had perished.
The story goes that when the Americans marched in, they discovered the starving survivors and the piles of dead bodies. And General Eisenhower made a decision. He ordered Germans from the nearby town to tour the camp, so they could see what had been done in their name. And he ordered American troops to tour the camp, so they could see the evil they were fighting
launch capability because it is essential to the longevity of the regime. Abu Mazen and Hamas believe the creation of Israel was a mistake that needs to be corrected either by political intervention or by war. Assad's Syria is attached to
against. Then he invited congressmen and journalists to bear witness. And he ordered that photographs and films be made.
Some of us have seen those same images, whether in the Holocaust Museum or when I visited Yad Vashem, and they never leave you. Eisenhower said that he wanted "to be in a position to give firsthand evidence of these things, if ever, in the future, there develops a tendency to charge these allegations merely to propaganda."
Eisenhower understood the danger of silence. He understood that if no one knew what had happened, that would be yet another atrocity -- and it would be the perpetrators' ultimate triumph.
What Eisenhower did to record these crimes for history is what we are doing here today. That's what Elie Wiesel and the survivors we honor here do by fighting to make their memories part of our collective memory. That's what the Holocaust Museum does every day on our National Mall, the place where we display for the world our triumphs and failures and the lessons we've learned from our history. It's the very opposite of silence.
But we must also remember that bearing witness is not the end of our obligation -- it's just the beginning. We know that evil has yet to run its course on Earth. We've seen it in this century in the mass graves and the ashes of villages burned to the ground, and children used as soldiers and rape used as a weapon of war. To this day, there are those who insist the Holocaust never happened; who perpetrate every form of intolerance -- racism and anti-Semitism, homophobia, xenophobia, sexism, and more -- hatred that degrades its victim and diminishes us all.
Today, and every day, we have an opportunity, as well as an obligation, to confront these scourges -- to fight the impulse to turn the channel when we see images that disturb us, or wrap ourselves in the false comfort that others' sufferings are not our own. Instead we have the opportunity to make a habit of empathy; to recognize ourselves in each other; to commit ourselves to resisting injustice and intolerance and indifference in whatever forms they may take -- whether confronting those who tell lies about history, or doing everything we can to prevent and end atrocities like those that took place in Rwanda, those taking place in Darfur. That is my commitment as President. I hope that is yours, as well.
It will not be easy. At times, fulfilling these obligations require self-reflection. But in the final analysis, I believe history gives us cause for hope rather than despair -- the hope of a chosen people who have overcome oppression since the days of Exodus; of the nation of Israel rising from the destruction of the Holocaust; of the strong and enduring bonds between our nations.
It is the hope, too, of those who not only survived, but chose to live, teaching us the meaning of courage and resilience and dignity. I'm thinking today of a study conducted after the war that found that Holocaust survivors living in America actually had a higher birthrate than American Jews. What a stunning act of faith -- to bring a child in a world that has shown you so much cruelty; to believe that no matter what you have endured, or how much you have lost, in the end, you have a duty to life.
We find cause for hope as well in Protestant and Catholic children attending school together in Northern Ireland; in Hutus and Tutsis living side by side, forgiving neighbors who have done the unforgivable; in a movement to save Darfur that has thousands of high school and college chapters in 25 countries, and brought 70,000 people to the Washington Mall -- people of every age and faith and background and race united in common cause with suffering brothers and sisters halfway around the world.
Those numbers can be our future -- our fellow citizens of the world showing us how to make the journey from oppression to survival, from witness to resistance, and ultimately to reconciliation. That is what we mean when we say "never again."
So today, during this season when we celebrate liberation, resurrection, and the possibility of redemption, may each of us renew our resolve to do what must be done. And may we strive each day, both individually and as a nation, to be among the righteous.
Thank you, God bless you, and God bless the United States of America. (Applause.)
DOD airs footage of Ike at liberated concentration camp
THE VIEW FROM JINSA
Making nice to dictators around the world won't help U.S.
By Shoshana Bryen WASHINGTON, D.C. —One theory of government is that countries "vent" about American behavior, specifically about their history with us and now about President Bush's "crimes" and "arrogance." If they say or do something ugly, impolitic, dangerous or obnoxious to President Obama, it is cathartic, following which they will be America's, or at least the President's friends. At which point the world will become a safer and better place for all.
North Korea's missile launch and the ouster of UN inspectors; Iran's conviction of an Iranian-American woman on espionage charges and Iranian President Ahmadinejad's speech at Natanz, ("You Are Weak, Your Hands Are Empty, And You Can't Force Us to Do Anything, Nearly 7,000 Centrifuges Are Spinning Today"); Hugo Chavez's gift of the Spanish-language book, "Open Veins of Latin America: Five Centuries of the Pillage of a Continent"; Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega's screed at this past weekend's Summit of the Americas; even Angela Merkel and Nicolas Sarkozy's rejection of Obama's main requests (stimulus spending, more troops for Afghanistan and taking prisoners from Gitmo) - all of these were just a way to put the past behind them.
Rep. Gregory Meeks (D-NY) who attended the Ortega speech said, "Obama rose above it." Indeed, the President has been uniform in his travels, discussing America's mistakes, shortcomings, difficulties and failures while listening to his hosts discuss America's mistakes, shortcomings, difficulties and failures. The President appears to believe that listening to his critics and shaking their hands, our policies and their policies will change and better relations will ensue.
We appreciate President Obama's emphasis on soft diplomacy, but we wish he'd had a good word for America's Peace Corps and the tens of thousands of Americans who have given their time and effort over the years to help our neighbors in South America and elsewhere, while he was lauding the Cuban dictator's doctors.
There is another theory of government. Countries mean what they say and have interests to pursue regardless of who is president of the United States. To many countries, the fact that we have presidential elections is a sign of our weakness because each agenda can last only four or eight years, while they operate on a longer time line - the mullahs have had more than 30 years of uninterrupted rule and pursuit of nuclear weapons.
Iran exports the Islamic Revolution and pursues nuclear capability/weaponry because Ahmadinejad, but more importantly the mullahs, believe in the spread of radical Shiite Islam. North Korea is pursuing nuclear weaponry and
Iran for religious, financial and political reasons. Chavez, Ortega and Bolivia's Evo Morales pick fights with the United States and subvert democratic norms at home because they are anti-American, anti-democratic and want to stay in power.
We are unhappy to see our President shake hands with people who treat the United States with contempt and, worse, treat their own people with contempt. But our concern is that we will operate on the first theory of government while they operate on the second.
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, longtime JINSAsupporter and national board member
LA HAINA, Maui, Hawaii—It was the natural thing to do. As usual, we celebrated the first night of Passover in our home with family and friends, but since our out-of-town daughter and her family opted to go to Hawaii during the children’s Spring Break, we flew the very next day and held the Second Seder in Maui.
Our daughter’s attempts to arrange a Seder for the first night in a synagogue or JCC in Maui were far from successful. Calls and e mails remained unanswered. Therefore, the Second Night was of primary importance. Our two grandchildren, Zander, 8, and Piper, 4, always look with great anticipation to the Pesach ceremonies and customs and they were not to be disappointed.
Time spent vacationing in the Hawaiian Islands never ceases to please. The warm breezes, the relaxed atmosphere, and the very friendly locals who know how to treat visitors make for a wonderfully agreeable ambiance. Yes, if you are sensitive to linguistics you are “voweled to death”, and if you are a musician, you may be “portamentoed to death” (look it up in a music dictionary!) with the native music. Nevertheless, our Maui vacation was memorable and a wonderful time to bond.
For classical music, there is the Honolulu Symphony, and we were told that in Maui there is an active community orchestra, but I did not make any contacts. Where I did receive a healthy dose of classical music was on FM radio, through Hawaii Public Radio. Every island has a different frequency, but the broadcasts originate from a single source, supposedly from Honolulu.
I was very pleased with the musical selections I heard. The programming was a nice blend of traditional music we all know and love, music which explored the fringes of the repertory while keeping its accessibility, and a healthy serving of new and obscure music which was instructive and refreshing to hear.
Back to the Seder. We did it as a model Seder, first by having the meal at the hotel restaurant, and afterwards gathering in our room. My wife very wisely brought from home all the necessary objects: Seder plates, a shank bone, Matzah, a boiled egg, charoset, parsley, hagaddas, salt water, wine, lettuce, kipot, and lots more. Everything.
Don’t ask me how we managed to bring all this through airline security, but it worked.
In the last decade, I have been the chosen one to act as the leader of the Seder. But, surprisingly and delightfully, our four-year-old granddaughter, not known for her shyness, announced to all of us that she would tell all of us the story of Pesach, demanded total silence and attention, and literally, “took over”. She did, however, allow the adults to raise their hands and ask questions! No lack of assertiveness there.
Needless to say, we were all charmed and thrilled with this. Yes, the studies she received at the JCC pre-school and home conversations were in full display. We heard a full account of the birth of Moses, his time in Pharaoh’s court, his banishment to the desert, the Burning Bush, the Plagues, the actual Exodus, and the Parting at the Red Sea.
She finally allowed me to make sure that all the prayers and readings were properly covered, but emphatically intervened to chant the Four Questions, the Plagues, and later, the traditional songs Dayernu, Chad Gadya, and Go Down Moses.
An unrelated, but casual contact with Judaica, was the television re-run we saw of that delightfully ridiculous episode of Frazier, where at his son’s Bar-Mitzvah, he decided to say a few words in Hebrew, a language he did not speak. He asked for help from a Jewish friend at his place of work, an ardent Star Trek fan, who maliciously taught him his speech in Klingon! Very funny. Following is a clip:
Amos is the conductor of the Tifereth Israel Community Orchestra (TICO) and has guest conducted orchestras all over the world. Email: amosd@sandiegojewishworld.com
Frazier Klingon bar mitzvah speech
Please click the ad above
Please click the ad above
SAN DIEGO- In 1936 Marc Blitzstein, an American composer, author, and playwright wrote the play, The Cradle Will Rock. He worked diligently, completing the play in five weeks, to catapult him from a long bout of depression after discovering that his wife, Eva Goldbeck, critic and novelist had died at age thirty four due to self-inflicted starvation-anorexia and a battle with breast cancer.
Blitzstein and Goldbeck had been, like-minded soul-mates, even sharing the same leftist political opinions and attending a Communist Party meeting, for which Blitzstein was later blacklisted. They had been together eight years but had only been married for three of those years.
Bertolt Brecht, who wrote about “socially conscious theatre," inspired Blitzstein to write the “Proletarian Opera" The Cradle Will Rock. At a meeting with Brecht, Blitzstein played his song about a prostitute, Nickel under the foot. Brecht recommended that Blitzstein write a play about the prostitution of society i.e. the press, courts, the church. As a result Blitzstein wrote the play several months later and dedicated it to Brecht.
”Ironically, it is not even for his own music that Blitzstein is most remembered, but for translating Kurt Weill's and Bertolt Brecht's Threepenny Opera. Blitzstein and Weill were also like-minded. They even celebrated the same birthday, March 2nd. Weill was five years his senior.Sadly Marc Blitzstein was robbed and badly beaten by three drunken sailors in Martinique which caused his death in 1964.
Admittedly this was a difficult play to present. The sets were good, as was the singing and the acting, especially since many of the actors performed double or triple roles.
As an audience member, I found the message to be ambiguous. I walked away from the play, feeling frustrated that there was no clear message and the characters were not developed at Stone Soup Theatre. It would have been helpful for a narrator to relay the following quote, whichh may be found on the website devoted to blitzstein, www.marcblitzstein.com
In Blitzstein’s own words “The characters in The Cradle Will Rock are two dimensional types, rather than individuals. In a sense they are cartoon characters larger than life, sometimes even larger than theatre life. The Cradle is thus a kind of modern morality play.”
Furthermore, when the play was originally performed in 1937, the actors said their lines while sitting in the audience since they were barred from setting foot on stage due to the sensitivity of the political subject mater. If the actors recited their lines this way, it would have added an intriguing surprise element.
The singing was challenging because the speaking dialogue was sung.” Yet in his day, Blitzstein figured among the most widely recognized composers, especially for the theater, where he gave back in music the speech patterns of our entire range of social classes from Greek immigrant waiters to society matrons. No one surpassed his genius for setting American words to American music.”
I particularly admired Musical Director, Billy Thompson for being able to play the piano and introduce the scenes, while
being focused yet relaxed. Bryan Curtiss White (Reverend Salvation/Gus) had a good singing voice. Thomas Doyle (Junior Mister/Yasha) was versatile in all of his roles as were most of the actors.
There was a Q&A session after the performance. I would have preferred the cast to offer their impressions of the play, instead of relying on the audience to lead with questions. It was a case of the audience not knowing which questions to ask about the play.
I asked a question about who Mister Mr. represented. The response was he could represent anyone in any town, corporate America, etc. In my research, I discovered that “Blitzstein's "play in music," as Brecht called it, glorifies the industrial unionism of the CIO in Steeltown, U.S.A., a mill community controlled by the Big Business villain Mr. Mister. Though painted in bold black-and-white strokes appropriate to the pages of The Daily Worker, The Cradle Will Rock represented less an organizing appeal to workers and more a warning to the middle class that the historical moment now forced the choice between democracy and fascism.”
SAN DIEGO—More than anything, Jews know about being outsiders, different and condemned. They also know about being persecuted, being wrongly blamed for just about everything and disappearing without a trace. In Peter Grimes’ Borough in an English costal village, the villagers referred to Grimes as callous, brutal and coarse. He didn’t fit the mold. He was subjected to the small town mentality of hypocrisy, gossip and scandal. He was an outcast; an outsider and they made no bones about it.
British composer Benjamin Britten’s seldom produced ‘modern opera’; Peter Grimes is currently being staged by the San Diego Opera at the Civic Center through this Sunday, April 26th. I want to say get tickets now before it leaves, if you do not already have them. You won’t be disappointed. Britten’s orchestrations are simply breathtaking under the baton of Stuart Bedford and the San Diego Symphony Orchestra. Along with John Copley’s directing, Tenor Anthony Dean Griffey’s Grimes as the lonely and troubled fisherman (foreground above) , and Soprano Jennifer Casey as Ellen a schoolmistress, his only ally, a solid supporting cast and a well tuned and intense opera chorus, Peter Grimes soars.
The piece is set (Carl Toms gloomy structures give insight to the hard life of the village) in a remote village where mending nets and filleting fish is the norm. The opera opens in the midst of a trial. Peter Grimes is on trial for the accidental death of his young apprentice. Swallow (John Del Carlo) questions him and accepts the fact that an accident happened. After being cleared of all charges and warned not to take on another apprentice unless he can live with someone else, the townsfolk go about their business.
Most in the community are still leery of Grimes and his every move is monitored and whispered about. Grimes, who is clearly an outsider and does have his detractors who continually taunt and haunt him, is encouraged by the fact that he and Ellen are planning to open a store and marry.
Unfortunately between storms at sea and the storms raging in this tiny fishing outlet, nothing good can nor does come to Peter.
While the story is clearly a tragic one, one that can touch so many who have been either the target of group or peer pressure or have family who have perished because of being or thinking or praying differently, Britten’s libretto is not the strongest or even most riveting or compelling part of the whole. It is sung in English with English super titles above the pit. It’s the absolute beauty of the score that rises to the pinnacle during the many set changes between acts that will make this trip to the Civic Center worth while and change attitudes about ‘new works’ if there ever was any doubt.
His composition is like its own symphony of the sea and sent chills through me. You could feel the rising and the falling of the tides, the calm and fierceness of the sea, the excitement
and energy of the wind. It was nothing less then stunning.
As mentioned earlier, individual and ensemble performers added to the overall effectiveness of the music regardless of the words they were singing. Griffey, who towers over most of
the cast, dressed like the rest of the fishermen (Tanya Moisewitsch) is disheveled and bewildered most of the time.
He has no problem reaching all the right chords with enough emotional leverage to pull you to him along with his angst as well as his brutality. He is a flawed person who some believe must simply go away.
Soprano Jennifer Casey Cabot’s vocal purity at all registers has us convinced that Grimes is in fact, worthy of saving as opposed to the rest of the townsfolk. She is kindly, soft and truly caring not just for Grimes but also for the new boy apprentice. Bass Baritone John Del Carlo played the perfect
Mayor Swallow and American Baritone Rod Gilfry’s Captain Balstrode was a persuasive go between from Grimes to the townsfolk. Vocally, both singers were articulate and robust.
Our own Indian born soprano who made her SD Opera debut in Streetcar Named Desire, Priti Gandhi (niece) and American soprano Priya Palekar (niece) added a welcome comic relief along with American mezzo-soprano Judith Christian (Auntie) who also added so much needed color. All three were in perfect pitch the night I caught the performance.
I would be remiss if I failed to sing praises to both the beautiful balance between the opera chorus under the leadership of Chorus Master Timothy Todd Simmons and the orchestra itself who worked as one voice and that voice was sound, pitch and spot on perfect. The whole experience is not to be missed.
Peter Grimes continues through Sunday, April 26th at the Civic Center downtown San Diego.
See you at the theatre.
PS — It’s ironic that one night after the opening of Peter Grimes, another event of historic importance was being played out in Skokie, Illinois: the opening of a new Illinois Holocaust Museum and Education Center, with former U.S. President Bill Clinton and Nobel Laureate Elie Wiesel featured speakers.
Ironic for many reasons, not the least of which is that Skokie in the 70’s was said to be the home of 7,000 to 8,000 survivors of the Holocaust, which was nearly half of its population.
Because of this, a group of neo- Nazis sought and was granted a permit (first amendment rights) to march through Skokie causing uproar and legal battles that dragged on for years taking it to the US Supreme Court. Although the survivors did not win the case, it made national news and the neo-Nazi group decided to march on Chicago instead.
This bold move of requesting a permit to march in the face of these survivors by the neo-Nazis prompted a movie and a decision by then President Jimmy Carter to build a national Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, DC. Education is the key.
This new one in Skokie, I’m told is world class and it came about by the proposed march through Skokie and the survivors who said, “Never again will we pull our shades down and hide!”
God's wrath flared because he was going and an angel of Hashem stood on the road to impede him. He was riding on his she-donkey and his two young men were with him.
SHARE YOUR PHOTO SHOWING A BIBLICAL REFERENCE IN POP CULTURE —Please send your jpg photo for posting to editor@sandiegojewishheritage.com. If possible, please send it at 72dpi resolution and 400 pixels wide. Please include the name of the photographer, the date and place the photo was taken, and any other relevant caption information.
The San Diego Union-Tribune had a piece on Thursday by John Wilkins telling about a ruckus caused when Goodwill advertised a swastika candlestick for sale on the internet. The item was withdrawn after protests were made, and subequent examination indicated the candlestick had been made in China. So, was it a Nazi swastika, or a symbol used by Buddhists and other eastern faiths, as well as by Native Americans? Here is a link to the story. ...The winter/ spring edition of The Journal of San Diego History has Irwin Jacobs on the cover and tells how he, Andrew Viterbi and other founded Linkabit prior to their starting up Qualcomm. Another Journal article remembers the Beatles visit to San Diego during the height of Beatle mania.
Final resting places of the stars
Larry Gorfine of San Diego suggests that people who have been enjoying our video salute to Jewish entertainers may also be interested in paying their respects at the stars' burial sites—many of which are in Los Angeles.
He sent along two links to websites that will direct you to the graves or tombs of the entertainers.
One website covers burials at Mount Sinai Memorial Park, which is adjacent to Forest Lawn, in the Hollywood Hills. Here is a link.
The other covers numerous other cemeteries in the greater Los Angeles area. Here is that link.
Adventures in San Diego Jewish History With thanks to Gail Umeham for the transcription
Halevi Chorus To Appear Here Feb. 28 Southwestern Jewish Press, February 6, 1953, page 1
The Jewish Community Center will present the Halevi Chorus from Los Angeles, on Sat., Feb. 28, at the Temple Beth Israel at 8 p.m. The chorus, under the direction of Ben Pollack, has been heard at many major musical affairs. Consisting of 100 male and female voices this unique chorus has been acclaimed in many cities in the Southland.
They have just returned from a tour of Israel where they won top honors for their outstanding vocal achievements of traditional and contemporary Jewish folk music.
The Jewish Center is proud to present this group for its first recital in San Diego. Tickets for the recital are priced at $1.25 each, with a special offer to students at 75 cents and can be obtained at the Jewish Community Center office, 3227 El Cajon Blvd., T.1-7744, or at the fund office, 333 Plaza.
Seating capacity of the Temple is limited and all are urged to obtain their tickets early. Some of the sponsoring organizations are Beth Israel Sisterhood, Beth Jacob Sisterhood, Hadassah, council of Jewish women, City of Hope Aux., Lasker Lodge B.B., and Birdie Stodel B.B.
Center Membership Day Southwestern Jewish Press February 6, 1953, page 1
Sunday, Feb. 22nd, more than 100 workers will gather at the Jewish Community Center, 3227 El Cajon Blvd., for a breakfast rally. Led by Mack Esterson, assisted by Edward Breitbard, Lou Mogy, Seymour Rabin, Jerry Freedman, Rod Horrow and Morris Kraus, teams will leave the center in a citywide drive to obtain Jewish Community Center memberships.
Membership rates range from $1.00 for teen-agers to $5.00 for family memberships. Those who are not contacted are asked to call the center office (T. 1-7744) and a representative will be sent out.
Editorial Page Southwestern Jewish Press February 6, 1953, page 2
The Job in 1953—The recent National Conference of the United Jewish Appeal, which brought together more than 1,200 leaders representing the overwhelming body of American Jews, marked the end of 14 years of unprecedented lifesaving activity and set the stage for the UJA’s 15th successive nationwide campaign in behalf of great and urgent programs in Israel and 20 other countries on four continents.
Organized on the eve of World War II, the UJA has helped to rescue Jews wherever it was possible to perform this miracle, and in 14 years helped to save and aid a total of 2,240,000 men, women and children. It’s record of achievement includes as well the marshalling and channeling of great assistance to help bring about the greatest miracle of this or any other epoch in modern Jewish times—the establishment of the State of Israel.
But history is not merely a record of events and not merely a chronicle of accomplishment. It is sometimes a study in irony. The mid-December Conference of the UA met at a time when dark clouds were again massing over the heads of Jews in middle and eastern (cq) Europe, and in Moslem lands. These ominous signs turned the thoughts of the 1,200 UA conferees all the way back to the very events of 1939 when the United Jewish Appeal was established as an instrument for the rescue of Jews facing extreme dangers in Germany, Poland, Czechoslovakia, Roumania and other East European countries. Then it was Hitlerism. Today it is Communist totalitarianism.
At this moment of danger to so many Jewish lives, nothing is as important as strengthening the State of Israel to take them in, to welcome them, to offer them new hope and a new future.
It would be tragic and foolhardy if American Jews in 1953 were to relax their support of the UJA—both for Israel’s sake and the sake of the hundreds of thousands who look to it with longing.
The Jewish Center —This month the Jewish Community Center is asking every Jewish family to join its rolls. Their goal is at least 1000 members. The fee is modest and the small investment is bound to bring big returns.
Many will ask why they should join the Jewish Community Center, especially if they are members of a Synagogue. Well, in our opinion there is no reason why they shouldn’t. Both institutions are effective forces for good in any community. The Jewish Center strives to develop a strong Jewish consciousness which certainly will strengthen the Synagogues.
Some people fear the coming 0f the Center movement to San Diego. We are sure their fears are groundless. San Diego is growing up and no one can stop it. Most communities our size have had Centers long ago and nothing but good has come from their establishment. The leaders of this movement are all good Synagogue members who will support and protect Judaism wherever it is. They support all community efforts in the best Jewish tradition. No one should hamper their efforts to add to the great cultural heritage of our faith.
This is an opportunity to do something for our children of all ages. Don’t wait to be asked to join. Call the Center now and tell them you are with them in their efforts. We do so much for others—let’s do a little for ourselves. The work of our hands will be pleasing in the sight of God!
Community Currents Southwestern Jewish Press, February 6, 1953, page 2
By Albert Hutler, Director United Jewish Fund
April 1st will again find San Diego Jewry rising to its full height in the most dramatic event of each year as the 1953 United Jewish Fund Campaign opens for the 20th year. San Diego Jewry mobilizes toward its 30 days of service to aid Jews throughout the world—in Israel—in United States—in Europe—and right here in San Diego.
Though emphasis is shifting, primary responsibility is still overseas and Israel.
Our local agencies have now grown almost to their full height, and in order to keep them progressing, it means that their minimum needs must be met. The Fund Campaign provides the money to keep the Jewish Social Service Agency going; to assist the San Diego Hebrew Home for the Aged; and to make possible a Jewish Community Center operation; and to develop a good, sincere and effective Community Relations program.
What is going on behind the Iron Curtain no one really seems to know. But all indications point to another Genocide which may very well be as bad (cq) or worse than that which occurred in Nazi Germany under Hitler. I am sure that in 1953 efforts will have to be made to save the lives of countless thousands of Jews who will find themselves in the same atmosphere and under the same conditions as they were in 1938.
These people, and the countless thousands whom we seek to serve, who are today in European countries, in Israel, in hospitals in the United States, and who are in need in San Diego, must not suffer because of our likes and dislikes; our personalities; or our emotions. All of us no matter what our positions in the community may be, ought to be big enough to realize that this is a much greater cause than any one individual. 1953 should tell the story of whether or not our community and its leadership has really come of age and matured. Again at this time, before the opening of a campaign for funds which may very well mean the saving of thousands of lives, I appeal for all members of the Jewish Community to be big enough men and women, to forget their own personal involvements and to give up 30 days of their time, and a little of their money so that others might live. Our slogan of “Yours is the Helping Hand” is not just another slogan. It has meaning and means what it says. Yours is really the only helping hand that hundreds of thousands of people have to grasp.
“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.
RANCHO SANTA FE, California -- When Natan Galkowicz steps to the lectern of Congregation Beth El this Sunday during the greater San Diego Jewish community’s observance of Yom HaZikaron—the day set aside by Israel to remember its fallen soldiers and civilian victims of terror—he will tell about the death on July 14, 2005, of his second daughter, Dana. At age 22, she was killed by a mortar attack from Gaza as she was walking in the moshav of Netiv Ha'asara to the home of her fiancé, Amir Ragolski. 
BEIT SHE’AN, Israel—The drive for the Bike Israel 2009 started out early in the morning on Thursday heading towards the mountains ridge overlooking the Sea of Galilee (Kinneret), a hard 6 kilometer uphill ride from Tiberias to the Poriya junction.
At these beautiful surroundings I caught up with Susan and Robert Lapidus for a chat about their involvement in the BikeIsrael 2009. Susan Lapidus , the director of development for Jewish Famly Service, told me that both she and her husband felt it was a great cause to raise money for the High School in Sha'ar Hanegev.
JERUSALEM--Flemming Rose would probably have remained in relative obscurity in Denmark had the paper of which he’s the culture editor, Jyllands Posten, not commissioned and published in September 2005 a series of cartoons about the Prophet Muhammad that incensed much of the Muslim world and led to riots, other forms of violence and intimidation. As a result, he’s now a celebrity with an international reputation.
WASHINGTON, D.C. —One theory of government is that countries "vent" about American behavior, specifically about their history with us and now about President Bush's "crimes" and "arrogance." If they say or do something ugly, impolitic, dangerous or obnoxious to President Obama, it is cathartic, following which they will be America's, or at least the President's friends. At which point the world will become a safer and better place for all. 
LA HAINA, Maui, Hawaii—It was the natural thing to do. As usual, we celebrated the first night of Passover in our home with family and friends, but since our out-of-town daughter and her family opted to go to Hawaii during the children’s Spring Break, we flew the very next day and held the Second Seder in Maui.
SAN DIEGO- In 1936 Marc Blitzstein, an American composer, author, and playwright wrote the play, The Cradle Will Rock. He worked diligently, completing the play in five weeks, to catapult him from a long bout of depression after discovering that his wife, Eva Goldbeck, critic and novelist had died at age thirty four due to self-inflicted starvation-anorexia and a battle with breast cancer. 
SAN DIEGO—More than anything, Jews know about being outsiders, different and condemned. They also know about being persecuted, being wrongly blamed for just about everything and disappearing without a trace. In Peter Grimes’ Borough in an English costal village, the villagers referred to Grimes as callous, brutal and coarse. He didn’t fit the mold. He was subjected to the small town mentality of hypocrisy, gossip and scandal. He was an outcast; an outsider and they made no bones about it. 
British composer Benjamin Britten’s seldom produced ‘modern opera’; Peter Grimes is currently being staged by the San Diego Opera at the Civic Center through this Sunday, April 26th. I want to say get tickets now before it leaves, if you do not already have them. You won’t be disappointed. Britten’s orchestrations are simply breathtaking under the baton of Stuart Bedford and the San Diego Symphony Orchestra. Along with John Copley’s directing, Tenor Anthony Dean Griffey’s Grimes as the lonely and troubled fisherman (foreground above) , and Soprano Jennifer Casey as Ellen a schoolmistress, his only ally, a solid supporting cast and a well tuned and intense opera chorus, Peter Grimes soars. 
Halevi Chorus To Appear Here Feb. 28