Jerry Goldberg has finished one Jewish “campaign” in San Diego and now he’s off on another.

A former president of Congregation Beth Israel, Goldberg chaired the search committee that screened that Reform congregation’s new senior rabbi, Paul Citrin, who was officially installed last weekend.

Congregation Beth Israel has had considerable rabbinical turnover in the last decade, but Goldberg says Citrin, 58, has the qualities members of the congregation felt to be most important in a rabbi.  High among them is Citrin’s ability to get along well with people on a personal level, Goldberg said   Additionally, he said, the new rabbi is a “consensus builder,” who is respectful of Congregation Beth Israel’s long tradition of lay leadership.

Goldberg also serves as the chairman of the Jewish Community Relations Committee of the United Jewish Federation.  Recently, he and other Federation leaders decided to send an appeal by e-mail to Jewish community members to sign an internet petition now being circulated by the World Jewish Congress.

The petition asks that the United Nations adopt a stand-alone resolution condemning anti-Semitism. WJC Chairman Edgar Bronfman is seeking to present one million signatures on that petition this fall to dramatize global support for the measure.

Those seeking to sign the petition may do so visiting the website: http://www.wjc.org.il

                                                                                               —Donald H. Harrison