Other items in today’s column include:
* Doing Mitzvot
* Political bytes
* Coming our way
SAN DIEGO — Dr. Sol Lizerbram, the Rancho Santa Fe resident who serves as national president of the Jewish National Fund, offers some statistics to back up the claim that sending a teenager to JNF’s Alexander Muss High School program in Israel can contribute in the long run to Jewish continuity.
A survey of a representative sample of the school’s 30,000 alumni revealed that 88 percent have married Jewish spouses; 65 percent participate in a Jewish/Zionist organization, 63 percent are members of a synagogue, and 80 percent donate to Jewish charities, writes Lizerbram in JNF’s B’Yachad Magazine.
Attending the Alexander Muss High School “will also help students’ chances of admission into the college of their choice,” according to Lizerbram. “Studies show that the experience of traveling and studying abroad counts significantly to college recruiters.”
He added that for college students, “we have myriad programming, such as our Campus Fellows, and Alternative Break trips to Israel, along with ongoing immersion in JNF’s College Summit at National Conference and yearlong activities to keep students engaged, supported, and involved while on campus through our Positively Israel programming.”
*
Doing Mitzvot
* Since last Saturday, former San Diego Police Chief Shelley Zimmerman has been participating n a 625-mile Palo Alto-San Diego bike ride to raise money for adaptive sports equipment for athletes with physical disabilities. Today the bike riders plan to cover the distance between Santa Barbara and Santa Monica.
* Citing recent synagogue shootings in Halle, Germany; Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania; and here in San Diego County at Chabad of Poway, among other hate-filled attacks, Facebook chief operating officer Sheryl Sandberg announced a $2.5 million gift to the Anti-Defamation League to combat hate and bias in the U.S. and Europe. She called the gift a birthday tribute to her parents, Joel & Adele Sandberg.
Political bytes
* Congresswoman Susan Davis voted in the majority, 354-60, in the House of Representatives on Wednesday to rebuke President Trump for his decision to pull troops out of northeast Syria in advance of Turkey’s invasion. The House resolution also called upon Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan to cease the campaign against the Syrian Kurds, and called on the Trump administration to provide humanitarian support for Kurds displaced by the invasion.
* In a joint OpEd in the San Diego Union-Tribune with City Councilman Scott Sherman, Councilwoman Barbara Bry, who is running for mayor, made these comments about the current negotiations between the City of San Diego and San Diego State University over the latter’s proposed purchase of the stadium site: “SDSU’s obligations for traffic and flood mitigation should be no different than what the city currently requires of every other developer building larger projects. Commitments made by SDSU during the campaign must be mandated in the certified EIR and the final sales agreement. We agree that the final agreement must prioritize river park development and a public transit-oriented plan that minimizes traffic impacts in Mission Valley. The river park has the potential to offer all residents a variety of recreational and ecological opportunities and must be honored in the agreement.”
* In the 1st Supervisorial District, from which Greg Cox is retiring, the San Diego Deputy Attorneys Association and San Diegans against crime have endorsed Port Commissioner Rafael Castellanos.
* The San Diego Union-Tribune has reported the death Oct. 13 of former San Marcos Mayor Lee Thibadeau.
* No stranger to controversy, Congressman Duncan Hunter, facing a fraud trial for alleged misappropriation of campaign funds, says that the concerns over vaping are puffery, and that he personally vapes. It’s important to purchase vaping juice from reputable dealers so you know what is in it, he told the San Diego Union-Tribune.
* Ammar Campa Najjar, the Democratic candidate who opposed Congressman Hunter in 2018 and is doing it again this election cycle, reports that he has raised more than $1.3 million of which $850,000 cash is on hand. Of that total, $580,000 was raised in the most recent quarter, The Times of San Diego reported.
Coming our way
* UC San Diego’s Holocaust Living History Workshop hosts a 5 – 7 p.m. panel Oct. 24 on “Racism in German and American Cinema of the Twenties: From Ancient Law to the Jazz Singer” in the Atkinson Hall Auditorium. Charles Musser, a professor of American Studies, Film & Media Studies and Theatre Studies at Yale University, will be joined by USC Professor Paul Lerner, UC San Diego’s Deborah Hertz, and Frank Mecklenburg, Director of Research and Chief Archivist at the Leo Baeck Institute – New York | Berlin in the panel presentation co-sponsored by the Leo Baeck Institute — New York/ Berlin and the Holocaust Living History Workshop. Also to be discussed is the 1938Projekt, which provides digital records of German and Austrian Jews who lived through the Holocaust. Reservations for the free event may be obtained via this website.
* Have you ever tried the South African barbecue favorite called boerewors? They’re on the menu at a special noontime barbecue Sunday, Oct. 27, sponsored by the South African Jewish American Community, the PJ Library, and Shalom Baby at the Mandell Weiss Eastgate Park behind the Lawrence Family JCC. Twenty-five dollars buys the boerewors, or chicken, or vegan entrée, with trits and tomato sauce, two salads, baked potato, dessert, and assorted sodas and water. The glatt kosher barbecue will be accompanied by an art exhibition, silent auction, and such entertainment for children as Daisy Slimes, a jumpee, and painting. …
*Dr. Peter Salk will discuss the life and work of his father, Dr. Jonas Salk, discoverer of the polio vaccine, at an open meeting of the Tifereth Israel Men’s Club at 7 p.m., Sunday, Oct. 27, at the synagogue at 6660 Cowles Mountain Boulevard. He will be introduced by his cousin, TIS member Stuart Karasik. A dessert reception will follow a Q&A. Admission of $10 covers the cost of security and the refreshments.
* Sports radio host Lee “Hacksaw” Hamilton will address the Beth Israel Men’s Club at a 10 a.m brunch, November 17, at the temple at 9001 Towne Centre Drive. He hosts a pre- and post-San Diego Padres game show on AM Radio 1090, and previously served as a radio voice for the San Diego Chargers. The brunch costs $10 and RSVPs may be made via this website.
* Pulitzer Prize-winning author Alice Walker, who wrote The Color Purple, has been accused by such organizations as the Anti-Defamation League of propagating anti-Jewish sentiments. She will be a featured speaker at the Writers Symposium by the Sea hosed by Point Loma Nazarene University Feb 25-27. Co-sponsors are Warwick’s Bookstore of La Jolla and La Playa Books.
*
Harrison is editor of San Diego Jewish World. He may be contacted via donald.harrison@sdjewishworld.com