Community Looks to Future Confidently
Southwestern Jewish Press, September 11, 1958, Page 6
As the New Year dawns, the San Diego Jewish community looks to the future with a sense of great confidence and hope. For this is our first year in the new Jewish COMMUNITY Building.
And because of the faith expressed by all those whose generosity made the building possible, our Jewish community can look ahead with greatly renewed confidence and strength.
All housed in a magnificent new building—all under one roof -—the Jewish Social Agencies of our community are now fully equipped to render every service to our total community. The United Jewish Fund, the Jewish Social Service Agency, the Jewish Community Center, and the Hebrew Home for the Aged all work together as partners in providing the Jewish citizens of San Diego County with all the services of the best organized Jewish communities to be found anywhere in the United States.
Thanks to the beautiful new Jewish Community Center building which we have built for our own generation and future generations, we take our place in the forefront of mature, responsible American Jewish communities.
Thanks to the vision of our leaders who made this splendid dream come true, we have provided that essential environment for our citizens and our children through which they will learn the profound beauty and value of their heritage, and through which they will learn to discharge their responsibilities as Jews in a democratic land.
The boards of directors, the staffs, and the members of the new United Jewish Federation and its constituent agencies Community Relations Council, Jewish Community Center, Jewish Social Service Agency, Jewish Welfare Board Armed Services Committee, North County Jewish Community Center, San Diego Hebrew Home for the Aged—extend cordial greetings and best wishes for – a joyous New Year to you.
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Judaism and Mind is Course Topic
Southwestern Jewish Press, September 11, 1958, Page 6
Dr. Simon Greenberg, president of the University of Judaism, will lead a special course on “Judaism and Mental Health” for the National Women’s League, which represents Conservative Sisterhoods throughout the Southland and will also sponsor three other classes each Thursday morning, beginning Oct. 16.
Rabbi Aaron Wise will give a history of the Jews in the United States; Louis Shub will analyze current Jewish news, and Mrs. Irwin A. Reiss will outline the dynamics of group leadership and public speaking.
For further information, call HO. 3-1161.
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Time to Re-evaluate Where we Stand
Southwestern Jewish Press, September 11, 1958, Page 7
By RABBI BARUCH STERN, Beth Jacob Synagogue
In every age and epoch, Rosh Hashanah calls upon us to pause for a while, and to attempt to evaluate the events which played a decisive role in our lives in the past, and also to prognosticate the events that the future may have in store for us.
On Rosh Hashanah, we shall ask ourselves individually; on which side did we stand? Did we believe in the omnipotence of science and thus indirectly contributed to the apotheosis of hero-worship and of brute force, or did we join those noble ranks who knew no other worship but God-worship, and thus aided the reign of wickedness to vanish like mist?
This Rosh Hashanah, the voice of the Shofar will remind us of the Mene Tekel which is inherent in a godless civilization; the old prayer of “Who shall live and who shall die, who shall perish by the sword and who by fire ?” is as valid in our civilization as it was in any primitive society.
We, the Jewish people, are proud of having upheld the eternal ethical law of our Torah even in face of adversity. We are proud of never having yielded to the forces of arrogance and wickedness, even at the highest price man can pay.
As I bring greetings and good wishes for a “shanah tovah u’mesukah” –— for “a good and sweet year” to the Jewish community of San Diego, I pray that these “awesome days” shall reawaken in our hearts the desire to raise not only our standards of living, but also our standards of Jewish living.
Thus we can contribute to the advancement of “‘Keren Yisroel”, of our faith and of our people, as well as of all forces that make for righteousness, truth and peace.
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GIs Again Invited
Southwestern Jewish Press, September 11, 1958, Page 7
Servicemen in the San Diego area during the High Holy Days are looking forward to an invitation to private homes, either for Rosh Hashanah or Yom Kippur. This has been a yearly tradition and the ways that the people of San Diego have helped servicemen make this city “a home away from home”.
The armed services committee of the Jewish Welfare Board, situated at the Jewish Community Center, has carried on this program for many years.
This year, because of the influx of many more servicemen on the West Coast, there is a greater need for volunteers to invite servicemen for home hospitability.
Anyone interested in opening their home for this occasion should contact Mrs. Betty Husted of the Armed Services Committee at either JU 3-3300 or AT 1-9284
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P. Kaufman Takes Bride
Southwestern Jewish Press, September 11, 1958, Page 8
Mr. and Mrs. Maxwell Kaufman announce the marriage of their son, Paul, to Robin E. van Loben Sels, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Peter J. van Loben Sels of El Monte.
Miss van Loben Sels completed her B.A. degree in English literature and creative writing from Pomona College at the close of the summer session. Kaufman, a graduate of San Diego High School and Reed College in Portland, Ore., completed work on his M.A. degree at Claremont Graduate School at the same time.
The wedding was held in El Monte in the garden of the bride’s parents for close friends and relatives. The young couple left immediately afterward for New York where Kaufman will study at Columbia University in preparation for a doctorate in political science.
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Free Braille Class to Bring Light to Blind
Southwestern Jewish Press, September 11, 1958, Page 9
San Diegans, possessing sight, can bring light into the lives of San Diego’s more than 1,000 blind, by joining the free classes in Braille, which begin Tuesday at 8 p.m. at the Blind Recreation Center, 1805 Upas St.
The course of instructions is without charge and is open to both men and women. The class will meet once weekly. Instructions in the Braille alphabet and its contractions will be given. Students will learn how to transcribe writing they can see, into the system of raised symbols which the blind can read with their ‘fingers.
The field for transcribing is almost unlimited, according to officials of the Blind Recreation Center. “Graduates” of this new class will go on to transcribe magazines, newspapers and other desired material for those who lack sight to read.
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Statue Shalom Drive Launched
Southwestern Jewish Press, September 11, 1958, Page 9
A campaign has been launched by the American Christian Palestine Committee to raise funds to erect a “Statue of Liberty” in Israel, to called Statue Shalom. This was announced by Dr. William Lindsay Young, chairman of the southland chapter of the organization.
Belle Gerald of Los Angeles conceived the idea and is founder of the project. The famed San Francisco sculptor, Beniamino Bufano, is executing designs for the project which will be cast in stainless steel.
Statue Shalom, which means peace, will be placed on Mount Carmel in the seaport city of Haifa, Israel. The necessary funds for construction are to be raised by an appeal for one dollar contributions from the American public.
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Wins Contest in Heritage
Southwestern Jewish Press, September 11, 1958, Page 9
The first HERITAGE-JEWISH PRESS award for the letter most stirring of thought” was won by Rabbi Eugene Gottesman of Montebello—in a letter to the editor from Israel describing his feelings on freedom, the day before the Fourth of July. Here are portions of the, letter, which caused the greatest number of comments from among our readers:
“Today being one day before July 4, the day of days for all Americans, I feel a bit lonely for our beloved United States.
Here as I observe a people praying for ‘just 10 or 15 years’ of undisturbed opportunity to build a democracy ‘like Americans have’—the thought occurs how utterly foolish it is for some who take their American citizenship for granted.
Herb, it is good to walk a distance from the mountain to see its splendor.
Freedom, the right to worship, work, raise children in personal honor, to own property and to vote … all without unfair restriction: this is America to the world.
Tomorrow I shall be home, lighting a firecracker in spirit for the light of freedom that is my America.
Keep fighting for it, Herb.
“God bless you.”
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Synagogue Role: Tuning Man’s soul
Southwestern Jewish Press, September 11, 1958, Page 10
By Rabbi Morton J. Cohn, Temple Beth Israel
This is our Holy Day season. What message should we bear in our hearts during Rosh Hashanah and the days to follow? How can we Jews recapture the awareness of God’s presence in man’s life, as we face another New Year? How can we find certainty in a world of confusion, serenity in a world of tension, faith and confidence in a world of turmoil! Perhaps man’s most desperate need today, before the onslaughts of world conflict and world paganism, is his need for psychological maturity and emotional security. The Synagogue, our oldest home, can satisfy this need. It can put the soul of man in tune with he Infinite—if man will but make the effort. I wish I were a mighty hammer that I might beat this message into the very bone and marrow of American Judaism today.
Oh, how sorely we need it in our lukewarm religious life! As we enter the New Year with prayer and blessing, I pray that God may bless you with His richest gifts of the spirit. May yours be a Shonah Tovah, a good year. May it be a year in which you will open your eyes and your hearts, and see the Synagogue in all its wondrous, shining glory. May it be a year in which we walk together, like Abraham and Isaac, into the unknown tomorrow with serene confidence and unquenchable faith that the Guardian of Israel will sustain us as we labor in partnership with Him to fashion a society patterned after the imperishable ideals of the Jew.
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Klutznick Sees Better Climate for Faith
Southwestern Jewish Press, September 11, 1958, Page 10
By Philip M. Klutznick
Once again, the Holy Days of retrospection are with us. As each of us searches inwardly, the spiritual episode of the past year, the entire Jewish folk renews its idealism and is inspired once more by the value that form a Jewish existence.
To live Jewishly, that is the credo. To find modern expression in Hillel’s ageless words: “Behold, how good and pleasant it is for brothers to dwell together in unity. ‘ ‘
It is being done. Look about you. The Jewish community of America prospers in the indigenous growth of its own culture and in the promise of what is yet to come.
It is, perhaps, traditional in these Days of Awe to record the sins of omission by which so many of us fail our heritage of Judaism. Assuredly, the sins are with us, testaments of human frailty.
But hear me for an optimist: American Jewry, I say, is groping with its challenges, not evading them. We are learning to live together in Jewish brotherhood. Look down and the glass is half-empty; look up and it is half full.
The growth of a distinctive, flourishing American Jewry is assured because America itself will grow in pursuit of its democratic ideal. The American tradition, as seen in history, is to encourage the nonconformist. Judaism, a minority faith, is encouraged by its own nonconformist nature.
No ‘ghetto imprisonment” crisis atmosphere is needed to give American Jewry its unifying force. Our sustenance is freedom. An American-centered Jewish community will have achieved its ultimate in security when the climate of public opinion gives every Jew the free and democratic right not to be one.
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Meet Eddie at Gala Fete
Southwestern Jewish Press, September 11, 1958, Page 10
Here’s your chance to meet Mr. B’nai B’rith of San Diego, Eddie Breitbard, who was just elected vice-president of District 4 which includes all Western States and a portion of Canada.
Eddie will be guest of honor at a 10th anniversary celebration of Samuel I. Fox Lodge to take place Oct. 5 at the Jewish Community Center.
The position to which he was elected brings him in line for the presidency of the District within two years.
For the occasion, Gilda Sherwood will be featured in a presentation of charming songs with guitar.
Miss Sherwood is a Hollywood favorite—and presents her songs in Yiddish, Israeli and American themes.
The Lodge announced that everyone is invited without charge.
A dinner will be presented prior to the entertainment program. For reservations to the dinner, telephone Irving Cohen at BE. 3-5653 or Dave Schloss at 5-2825.
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Transcribed in 2017 by Sam Chessler and Nick Laqua.