Other items in today’s column include:
*StandWithUs seeking high school interns
*Political bytes
*Recommended reading
*In memoriam
SAN DIEGO – The Jewish service corps known as “Avodah” – Hebrew for “work” – has announced that San Diego will be the fifth city in the nation where its fellows will spend a year volunteering to combat poverty, help the homeless, and work with immigrants and asylum seekers, among other projects.
Cheryl Cook, the organization’s CEO, said ten young adults between the ages of 21 and 26 will live together in San Diego, work on designated projects, and also study under a Jewish teacher about the ways Judaism describes our social responsibilities to each other. Each year, another cohort of young adults will come to San Diego to do service projects, she said.
While the young adults are volunteers, their housing, meals, transportation, and other basic needs will be defrayed with funds that the New York City-based organization has raised from private donors and foundations.
Cook, 50, told San Diego Jewish World that Avodah started in New York City 21 years ago, has been in Washington DC for 16 years, Chicago for 14 years, and in New Orleans, in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, for 11 years. “We are coming to San Diego with the idea, we will be there for the long term,” she said.
Although Cook has been familiar with San Diego since her childhood when her late grandparents, Jeanette and Oscar Cook, used to winter in Coronado, she said she became aware of the city’s social programs more recently when she traveled with HIAS (formerly the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society) to learn about the work that its partner, Jewish Family Service of San Diego, was doing.
She said she was very impressed with the work that JFS, under CEO Michael Hopkins, did to accommodate asylum-seekers by creating and administering the Rapid Response Network. And, she said, she also has been impressed with JFS’s work with the homeless, including its program to provide safe parking lots with food and other accommodations for people now living in their cars.
She said while some of the ten volunteers will work after they arrive in August in the JFS program for immigrants, others may work with other social service agencies in the general community on a variety of projects.
“We train young Jews to make our country better, both as Jews and Americans,” she said. “We want to be of service. We will bring Jewish young adults to San Diego, placing them in different non-profits, and doing this in partnerships around the city.”
Across the country, there are a total of 85 Avodah fellowships available in the five cities. More information about Avodah, including applications for fellowships, may be accessed via this website. https://avodah.net/
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StandWithUs seeking high school interns
StandWithUs is offering year-long internships for high school juniors and seniors who are passionate about Israel and would like to tell its story on their campuses and later when they are in college.
Miri Kornfeld, StandWithUs’s executive director of high school affairs, says those students who are chosen will be flown to Los Angeles for a training conference, will be mentopred throughout the year, and will be provided with education and leadership tools.
“They are starting pro-Israel clubs in schools, but most importantly they become part of a national network of teens all committed to Israel activism,” Kornfeld said.
Nominations are being accepted through Feb. 28 at 11:59 p.m., Nomination of students, who later will receive an application, may be done via this website.
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Political bytes
*Sara Jacobs, a candidate in the 53rd Congressional District, has been endorsed by five Democratic members of Congress : Abby Finkenauer of Iowa, Lois Frankel of Florida, Andy Kim of New Jersey, and Californians Katie Porter and Eric Swalwell.
*State Sen. Brian Jones (R-Santee) is coauthoring a bill to repeal AB-5, a bill passed last year by the state Legislature that requires people now classified as independent contractors to become regular employees of companies for which they work over a threshold amount of hours. Said Jones, a candidate in the 50th Congressional District, “Hardworking Californians should have the basic right to decide if they want to be an independent contractor or in a traditional employer-employee arrangement. If the employer and the worker jointly agree to flexible work hours or unconventional work settings, the government should keep its nose out of it.” The legislation by Assemblywoman Lorena Gonzalez-Fletcher of San Diego was heavily backed by organized labor.
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Recommended reading
*Times of Israel printed the text of President Trump’s press conference announcing his Mideast Peace Plan. A video of his speech at the White House may be found at the top of this column.
*World Israel News reports that Israel’s attorney general has formally issued an indictment against Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu.
*The Anti-Defamation League announces a “Backspace Hate” campaign against on-line abuses and swatting.
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In Memoriam
Judy W. (Evens) Lyon, 85, died Jan. 28. Her graveside funeral will be held at 10:30 a.m., Thursday, Jan. 330 at the Mount Shalom Jewish Lawn of El Camino Memorial Park, according to Am Israel Mortuary. Co-officiants of the service will be Rabbi Alexis Berk and Cantor William Tiep of Temple Solel.
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Donald H. Harrison is editor of San Diego Jewish World. He may be contacted via donald.harrison@sdjewishworld.com