Photo essay by Donald H. Harrison
SAN DIEGO–As at any event celebrating Israel, there were precautions such as bags being checked by security personnel and uniformed San Diego Police officers walking the festival grounds, but for all that, the mood at Israel’s 66th birthday celebration on Sunday, May 18, was considerably upbeat.
The wildfires that had plagued San Diegans in the previous week, with more more than 100,000 county residents being sent notices to evacuate their homes, either had been extinguished or contained, and the weather was balmy. San Diego Police Chief Shelley Zimmerman, for whom emcee Greg Rackley of Maximum Impact playfully struck up “Hail to the Chief” — a tune usually reserved for the introduction of the President of the United States– noted that in the face of the fires, San Diegans had pulled together and helped one another, and suggested the several days of danger proved to be among the county’s finest periods. Now, clearly, it was time to celebrate both Israel and the sense of unity that had prevailed in San Diego during the crisis.
And celebrate San Diego residents did. There were speeches, songs, dances, food, information, vendors and activities, including a camel ride, with so many attractions competing for festival-goers attention, it would have been impossible to see it all — at least in any depth.
Uri Resnick, Israel’s deputy consul general based in Los Angeles, told the crowd that “Israel is a wonder; just about in every domain of activity you can think of, Israel is excelling–whether it is in developing glasses that enable blind people to see, or exo-skeletons that enables people to walk, or building the infrastructure that enables telecommunications, or computers, agriculture, the irrigation technologies that enable the world to grow its food. In just about every single thing and every domain of activity, including culture too–whether it’s Hollywood productions or modern dance, literature, poetry–just about everything is included.”
Looking at all these accomplishments, one would think that Israel is surrounded by friendly countries and is without security concerns, said Resnick. One might not realize that Israel has an international delegitimization campaign aimed against it. However, “Israel is one of the most challenged places on the planet and the question is ‘how do we explain this extraordinary record of achievement, given these challenges?’ I think that ultimately it comes down to the sense of community and shared destiny felt by communities such as yourselves and the State of Israel, and it doesn’t matter if you live in San Diego, or Los Angeles, or New York, or Jerusalem or Addis Ababa. If you have this sense of identity, this sense of connection to Israel, this sort of breathlessness when you hear the words and melody of HaTikvah, then you not only understand the secret behind Israel’s success but you are actually living it.
“I think it comes down to three basic words with which we all identify: Am Israel Chai. (The people of Israel live!)” said Resnick, who previously has served in diplomatic capacities in Europe and Africa as well as the Ministry of Foreign Affairs home office in Jerusalem.
Among the achievements that Israelis came to showcase at the Festival were their songs, performed by “The Fountain Heads,” a group that came from Jerusalem, and its garlic, brought for sampling and for the first Israeli garlic eating contest locally by the farmers of Kibbutz Dorot in the Sha’ar Hanegev Municipality, which is a sister region for the Jewish Federation of San Diego.
Contestants had only a minute to eat as many cubes of garlic that they could shove into their mouths, which proved no problem for Norris Ortiz, who consumed 40 of them while other contestants took time to wash down the cubes with some bottled water. “The cubes were frozen and minced into a ball, which made it easier to eat,” commented my wife Nancy Harrison, who was one of the contestants. “I think I perhaps ate eight, but the winner did 40– five times as many!” Before the competitions, contestants had to sign a waiver, and they were presented Pepto-Bismol tablets afterwards.
San Diegans were proud to show off some of their cultural achievements as well, with songs and dances performed by the Tarbuton Singing and Dancing Ensemble, as well as the Kavod Elementary Youth Choir, made up of students (including my grandson Sky Masori) who receive Hebrew language enrichment in addition to their regular studies conducted in English.
The students come from many religious and ethnic backgrounds, with the emphasis being on Hebrew language and culture. Because it is a public school, its course content is strictly secular.
Sephardic Jewish culture also was showcased at the Festival with flamenco dancing and songs in Ladino and Hebrew presented by Los Mezelikes Flamenco Dance Troupe. A bit later in the program, Yoni Carr led Israeli dancing, and, under the auspices of Chabad International, there was a celebration of Lag B’Omer, the one day of celebration between the close of Pesach and the onset of Shavuot, a time of merriment and first haircuts for three-year-old boys.
{Los Mezelikes Flamenco Dance Troupe, left; Kavod Elementary School Choir}
Besides Chief Zimmerman and Deputy Consul General Resnick, there were other public officials on hand for the festivities. Congressman Scott Peters presented awards to Festival volunteers and staff, including the director of Federation’s Israel and Overseas Center, Debby Kornberg. He also made a presentation to organizers of the Friendship Walk, including Chabad Rabbi Yisroel Goldstein of Poway. The Friendship Walk was staged an hour before the Festival opened to aid children and adults with special needs.
State Senator Marty Block, head of the “Jewish Caucus” in the California State Legislature, officially touched off a “San Diego Celebrates Israel Parade,” a celebration that marked 66 years since 1948 when David Ben-Gurion, the country’s first Prime Minister declared the independence of the State of Israel.
The many booths at the Festival reflected the diversity of San Diego’s Jewish community. There were booths representing synagogues and temples of the various Jewish denominations, including Congregation Beth Am’s where sofer Alberto Attia was hard at work lettering a Torah, which festival attendees could help to write by sponsoring a letter for $18, the numeric equivalent of the Hebrew word “chai” meaning life.
There were also representatives of community agencies such as Jewish Family Service, the Lawrence Family JCC, Seacrest Village Retirement Communities, Hillel of San Diego, and the Jewish Community Foundation, and a plethora of Jewish organizations and programs including the Adopt A Family Foundation, which comes to the aid of terror victims in Israel and especially in Sderot and Sha’ar Hanegev; the Anti Defamation League, the American Israel Public Affairs Committee; Birthright-Taglit; various Jewish summer camps; the Gmach Jewish Gift Closet; Hadassah; House of Israel; JStreet; Ken Jewish Community, National Council of Jewish Women; various Jewish Day Schools; Israel Scouts; and the Zionist Organization of America.
There were also private merchants and restaurateurs including 3D Cheeze Photo Booth, Adamoff Designs, A Growing Passion TV Show, Ahuva Alany Unique Copper Art, Alon David Photography, Ariella Nachshon Jewelry; Aviv 613 Vodka; Ayelet Tours, Bereket Designs Empowerment Jewelry, Bullseye Kettlecorn, Cohen Chiropractic Group; Cream & Honey Cafe Aroma Ice Coffee…. Maddalena Winery… and the list went on through the alphabet.
At the Chesed Home booth, Judaica donated by the proprietors of the now defunct Dor v’ Dor gift shop, Sol and Paula Sonboleh, was sold at half price, which Paula quipped would otherwise have to sit in the family’s garage because the couple is now retired. Chesed Home provides a safe and Jewish group living arrangement for adults with mental illnesses.
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Harrison is editor of San Diego Jewish World. He may be contacted via donald.harrison@sdjewishworld.com