Other items in this column include
* Jacobs family gift helps develop machines that can sniff out viruses
*Labor trouble at Samuel Gompers Preparatory Academy
*Political bytes
*Coming our way
*Recommended reading
SAN DIEGO — The campaign for 152 delegate spots to the World Zionist Congress meeting in Jerusalem next October is heating up with Americans for Peace & Tolerance accusing a rival Hatikvah slate of trying “to take over the Congress and get hold of its $1 billion budget which will be used for various and sundry community causes — including, if they get their way, anti-Israel activity.” Americans for Peace and Tolerance leader Charles Jacobs is part of the slate of the ZOA (Zionist Organization of America) Coalition.
The Hatikvah slate includes such groups as Americans for Peace Now, J Street, New Israel Fund, and Truah, which Jacobs describes as “a radical rabbinic organization on whose board sits the infamous progressive Newtown rabbi Toba Spitzer.” It also includes the National Council of Jewish Women.
“These organizations–particularly J Street–seek to challenge Israeli democracy by imposing their political opinions upon Israel from afar,” Jacobs contends. “For instance, one of the ‘Hatikvah’ slate’s main policy planks is blocking the allocation of any of the Congress’s budget to Israeli religious settlements in Judea and Samaria.”
In response, Hatikvah spokesman Hadar Susskind said, “It’s unfortunate that a member organization of the ZOA slate would send out something like this. I guess when, as polling shows, your own message is deeply unpopular, the best you can do is to resort to calling other people names. HATIKVAH is a proud progressive Zionist slate and we stand for a strong Israel that can live in peace and live up to our shared values. As for their absurd ‘anti-Israel’ claim, the members of our slate have spent countless years serving in the IDF, living and working in Israel, and working in the American Jewish community. APT is well known for looking for the ‘anti-Israel boogey man’ in every closet. I suggest they look somewhere else, because in my closet they will find my old Givati beret.”
The ZOA Coalition and Hatikvah are two of 15 slates that are competing for delegates at the 38th World Zionist Congress.
At least five other slates include San Diego County residents, among them: Vote Reform with Assistant Rabbi Jeremy Gimbel of Congregation Beth Israel; Mercaz USA with San Diego Community Chaplain Ralph Dalin; Vision: Empowering the Next Generation with Aaron Raimi; Herut Zionists with Micha “Mitch” Danzig; and Kol Yisrael with Yael Steinberg and Jonathan Bell.
The election is being conducted by the American Zionist Movement through March 11. Registration and voting may be accessed via this website.
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Jacobs family gift helps develop machines that can sniff out viruses
Biotia, a health tech startup founded by Dr. Niamh O’Hara at the Joan & Irwin Jacobs Technion Cornell Institute in New York, is utilizing “next-generation DNA sequencing and AI software to help hospitals treat and control infectious diseases,” according to a news release from the American Technion Society. “It currently has a product on the market to test bed rails, door knobs, and other surfaces for virulent, anti-biotic-resistant germs.” Next on the company’s agenda will be “testing hospital patients themselves for germs.” Irwin Jacobs, the co-founder of Qualcomm, was a student at Cornell University. According to Technion, he and Joan announced in 2013 a $133 million grant to the Technion-Cornell Innovation Institute, after which the institute was renamed in the Jacobs’ family honor.
Labor trouble at Samuel Gompers Preparatory Academy
*Oh, old Samuel Gompers (1850-1924), founder of the American Federation of Labor, must be turning over in his grave. There has been controversy at the charter school named “Gompers Preparatory Academy” in the labor leader’s honor, with one group of parents pressing to decertify the union that is representing teachers there. The battle over whether a labor union disserves the interest of the many students who come from low-income homes has become increasingly heated.
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Political bytes
*City Councilwoman Barbara Bry, a candidate for mayor, is upset that the City of San Diego is paying more than a half million dollars per month to rent a building that is so potentially dangerous with asbestos that city employees can’t move in. She has called for an internal city audit to determine how this could have happened. The building in question is the former SDG&E headquarters at 101 Ash Street. Comments Bry: “We need to know how much this mess is going to cost to clean up.” Taking a swipe at two opponents for mayor, she added: “Todd Gloria made the motion to purchase and Scott Sherman seconded it, putting this massive liability onto the taxpayers. Now THEY want to run the City???”
*In an interview with Voice of San Diego, Assemblyman Todd Gloria, a candidate for mayor, said having an Assembly campaign committee that collects funds that can be donated to the local Democratic party—which subsequently could use the to pay for campaign materials supporting Democratic candidates such as himself – is perfectly legal. However, he told the news organization, he has not utilized such funds yet, and has no immediate plans to do so. His opponent Barbara Bry says raising corporate money is against city election rules, and doing so via an Assembly campaign committee that then donates to the county Democratic committee (which has endorsed him) violates those rules, certainly in spirit, if not in actual law.
*City Attorney Mara Elliott’s campaign took a swipe at opponent Cory Briggs, taunting him for raising only $29,000 from fewer than 100 supporters. “Most candidates for class president have more actual supporters than Briggs does for City Attorney,” commented Elliott’s campaign spokesman Dan Rottenstreich. “But it’s not surprising that San Diegans would reject Briggs- no one wants the fox to watch the hen house. Briggs in the number one obstructionist, suing to stop critical priorities like adding libraries, expanding water recycling and providing homeless services, all just to make money for himself.”
*San Diego City Council President Georgette Gomez has a major fundraiser scheduled at 5:30 p.m, Thursday, Feb. 13, at the Arden Way home of Kevin Tilden & Philip Diamond. Co-hosts are former state Senator Christine Kehoe, and philanthropists Linda and Mel Katz. Special guests are state Senate President pro tem Toni Atkins, and Assemblyman Todd Gloria, the latter of whom is a candidate for mayor of San Diego. The tab for the party is $100, except for young professionals at $35. Or, if anyone wants, they could donate $5,600 and be listed as a Max Host. In another campaign development, Gomez won the endorsement of the California Nurses Association.
*Escondido City Councilwoman Olga Diaz, running in the 3rd county supervisorial district, says of her opponents, incumbent Supervisor Kristin Gaspar and fellow Democrat Terra Lawson-Remer, “I have more local governing experience than both of them combined.”
*The Run Women Run organization has been publicizing precinct walks and fundraisers for its endorsed local candidates, who include Nora Vargas and Olga Diaz in in the 1st and 3rd County Supervisorial Districts respectively; Elizabeth Lavertu in the 71st Assembly District; Barbara Bry for mayor of San Diego; Toni Duran, Marni Von Wilpert and Wendy Wheatcroft, in the 3rd, 5th and 7th San Diego City Council Districts, and Roberta Winston for Superior Court Judge.
* Michelle Ialeggio, a candidate for Superior Court Judge, Office No. 36, has been a deputy district attorney for 15 years. She has a fundraiser planned from 5 to 7 p.m., Wednesday, Jan. 29, at the Athens Market Taverna, 109 W. F Street. She lists 17 judges who have endorsed her, including Judge David Rubin.
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Coming our way
*A panel for students (and their parents) on how to counter anti-Semitism on college campuses will be conducted at 6:30 p.m., Tuesday, Jan. 28, at the Lawrence Family JCC, 4126 Executive Drive, La Jolla. The free event features panelists Tinka Malka, associate director of Hillel’s Israel Action Program; Yosef Condiotti, director of StandWithUs San Diego; Prof. Shlomo Dubnov, UCSD Chapter Chair, Scholars for Peace in the Middle East, and Jessica Barazani, program manager for Act-IL. Required registration via this website.
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Recommended reading
*Jill Petzinger of Yahoo Finance reports that to counteract anti-Semitism, Germany plans a year-long campaign celebrating and explaining Jewish life and contributions to the country.
*History News Network of George Washington University writes of the time in 1938 when Catholic gangs beat up Jewish children and one brave Catholic editor, Frances Sweeney, spoke up against anti-Semitism.
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Donald H. Harrison is editor of San Diego Jewish World. He may be contacted via donald.harrison@sdjewishworld.com