Other items in today’s column include:
*Cushman Foundation announces grant recipients
*At the synagogues
*Political bytes
*Holocaust survivors
*Mazal tov! Mazal tov!
SAN DIEGO — A decades-old video involving San Diego County Republican chairman Tony Krvaric and images of Adolf Hitler and Nazi symbols has been brought to light by KPBS reporters Amita Sharma and JW August.
It prompted San Diego City Council candidate Marni von Wilpert to call upon her opponent Joe Leventhal — who is Jewish — to return a $1,200 contribution he received from Krvaric “and demand new leadership in the Republican party that doesn’t casually traffic in hate.”
“There’s no place in our community — or in any respectable American political party — for joking about genocide, anti-Semitism and Nazism,” said von Wilpert, who is a Democrat and a deputy city attorney.
Leventhal, who is a Republican and an attorney in private practice, responded, “As someone of Jewish heritage, I forcefully condemn anti-Semitism of all forms, including the recent video reported by KPBS and anyone involved in making the video. Any attempt to insinuate otherwise by my opponent is misleading and offensive.”
Asked by San Diego Jewish World if he would return Krvaric’s contribution, Leventhal offered no immediate response.
To put his comment about being of “Jewish heritage” in context: While both of Leventhal’s parents are Jewish, after their divorce, they each married Christians. Leventhal’s wife is a Catholic, with whom he agreed to raise their children Catholic, given his lack of formal Jewish religious affiliation. In a previous interview, Leventhal described himself as a “Jew with a Catholic family.”
The KPBS story, aired on Friday, Aug 21, said the video was made when the 49-year-old Krvaric was a young man and leader of a group called Fairlight, which developed a method for “cracking” video games — that is, inserting foreign material into the games.
The video in question, shown above, shows a bobbing image of Adolf Hitler along with those of young Americans in the Fairlight group, making faces, wearing outlandish disguises, and giving Nazi salutes.
Krvaric declined to comment on the video to the KPBS reporters. However, on his Twitter account he wrote: “To go back 30 years to when I was a teenage computer nerd to smear me is low, running a shopped around story, rejected by more reputable outlets, about a computer animation programmed by someone else on a computer that’s been defunct for three decades. KPBS ought to be ashamed.”
In a subsequent tweet, he wrote: “For the record, any Nazi imagery is disgusting. I didn’t create the computer animation, didn’t choose the graphics, and I obviously don’t support anything like that. Which would be obvious had KPBS bothered to talk to anyone that knows me or looked up my statements over the years.”
KPBS quoted civil rights lawyer Jim McElroy as describing the video as “pretty serious … There’s a dancing Hitler. there’s a swastika on someone’s neck. There’s a Sieg Heil salute. We’re talking about genocide. We’re talking about the deaths of millions of people. That’s not something to joke about.”
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Cushman Foundation announces grant recipients
Utilizing the services of the Jewish Community Foundation of San Diego, the Cushman Foundation has announced a total of $1.55 million in grants to 11 San Diego County non-profit organizations.
The recipients are: Casa de Amparo, Crisis House, East County Transitional Living Center, Elder Help of San Diego, Home Start Incorporated, It’s All About the Kids Foundation, Legal Aid Society of San Diego, Mama’s Kitchen, Seacrest Foundation, the Angels Foster Family Agency, and the Honor Foundation.
Of these, the Seacrest Foundation supports the Jewish senior residence facilities at Seacrest Village Retirement Communities, while the other non-profits serve the general community. The 11 recipients were selected from 135 organizations submitting applications.
“The Cushman Foundation’s Making a Difference for San Diego Grant Program was established in partnership with the Jewish Community Foundation as they share the goals of respectful and responsive grantmaking, quality technical assistance, and support to strengthen the capacity and sustainability of nonprofit organizations. This granting relationship is designed to maintain the Cushman Foundation’s commitment to San Diego County while grounding the program in a foundation with local expertise and extensive grantmaking history,” according to Alex Jacobs, marketing and communications officer for the Jewish Community Foundation.
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At the synagogues
*Young Israel of San Diego will salute its retired rabbi and rebbitzin, Chaim and Temi Hollander, at a “virtual gala” at 7 p.m., Sunday, September 13, in “special tribute for 21 years of devoted service to the community.” Sign ups and donations may be accomplished via this website. The Orthodox congregation, now led by Rabbi Eddie Rosenberg, traces its history back 31 years.
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Political bytes
*U.S. POST OFFICE — The House of Representatives, in a rare Saturday session, voted in the majority to provide $25 billion in emergency funding to the Postal Service and to prohibit the Postal Service “from implementing policies that would impede prompt or reliable service of mail delivery,” and also requiring “mail ballots be handled as first class mail.” U.S. Rep. Susan Davis (D-San Diego) commented: “This is a time of crisis in our country. Families have lost loved ones and livelihoods are threatened. Despite the uncertainties we currently face, the one thing we could always count on is the tremendous efficiency of the Postal Service. As someone who should be protecting the Postal Service, the President is actively undermining it in order to help him win reelection. This has jeopardized the timely delivery of paychecks, prescription drugs, and other vital mail. It’s clear Congress needs to step in and protect the Postal Service, a cornerstone of our democracy.” Davis also said: “In June, President Trump appointed Louis DeJoy, a major Republican donor with no prior postal experience, as Postmaster General. Soon after his appointment, DeJoy ordered blue mailboxes to be locked shut, had sorting machines removed from postal facilities, denied overtime for postal workers, and required post offices to close during lunch.” The House measure now goes to the U.S. Senate for consideration.
*SAN DIEGO MAYOR — San Diego mayoral candidate Barbara Bry lays a large portion of the blame on rival candidate Todd Gloria for the purchase of the office building at 101 Ash Street that the city government has not been able to use because of asbestos and structural problems. On the other hand, she wrote to Gloria, “I was one of the first people at City hall to smell this rat. One of the first people to call for a stop to any more spending on your white elephant. One of the first people to go back and review the lease/purchase contact you promoted.” … Hitting another issue, Bry has called on Gloria and fellow members of the state Legislature to repeal AB 5 (authored by Assemblywoman Lorena Gonzalez) , which requires companies like Lyft and Uber to classify their drivers as employees rather than as independent contractors. She said if Uber and Lyft pull out of California because of the law, vital services ranging from food services to transportation to medical appointments will be adversely affected. “AB 5 has already had devastating impacts on many sectors of our economy, from small and minority-owned businesses to musicians and other artists,” said Bry. “But for thousands of San Diegans who rely on Lyft and Uber for vital assistance as they struggle to survive the COVID pandemic, they can’t afford more inaction by the legislature,” she said.
*53RD CONGRESSIONAL DISTRICT — Sara Jacobs, a candidate for Congress in the 53rd District, has been endorsed by Congressman Dr. Ami Bera, MD. (D-California). He commented: “It’s so critical to send leaders who will be ready on Day One to help us accomplish the critical work we have before us: solving a health crisis, rebuilding a fair economy, and reestablishing trust in our nation’s values both at home and abroad. There’s no better candidate for that job than Sara Jacobs. I’m thrilled to be supporting her campaign and look forward to working with Sara in Congress.” Meanwhile, her opponent, San Diego City Council President Georgette Gomez, an LGBTQ Latina, has issued a statement saying her election to Congress would be an important step forward for minority communities because “We can’t be what we can’t see. if we’re not at the table making sure we are shaping policies that are impacting our communities, then the conversations are not being had. This country has left our Brown and Black communities behind.”
*3RD SUPERVISORIAL DISTRICT — Terra Lawson-Remer, seeking to unseat incumbent County Supervisor Kristin Gaspar, says Gaspar poses as a moderate but is aligned with President Trump on a number of controversial issues including “Gutting the Affordable Care Act, a move that would leave 400,000 San Diegans without health care in the midst of a global pandemic; Accelerating the reopening of our economy in May in lock step with Trump, while denigrating our Public Health Officer; [and] Stoking fears of voter fraud and making it more difficult for San Diegans to cast their ballot.”
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Holocaust Survivors
*Sandra Scheller, curator of the Project RUTH Holocaust exhibit at the Chula Vista Central Library (now gone virtual because of the COVID-19 pandemic) reports that Sprouts Farmers Market in Chula Vista has presented certificates to five Holocaust survivors to assist them in their purchase of groceries. Scheller, daughter of the late Holocaust Survivors Kurt and Ruth Sax, comments, ” It is my hope that they stock the freezers with the best ice creams and desserts.”
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Mazal tov! Mazal tov!
*Erica Ollmann Sapphire, who recently conducted a 40-minute online primer for the Jewish Community Foundation of San Diego on COVID-19, has been awarded a $6.5 million grant to continue her antibody research, it was reported by Times of San Diego.
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Donald H. Harrison is editor of San Diego Jewish World. He may be contacted via donald.harrison@sdjewishworld.com
I wish that San Diego City Council candidate Marni von Wilpert would be more concerned and proactive about ending the rioting, looting, and terrorizing that supporters of her political party are doing NOW, all over the country, than plucking out a 30 year old video made by ignorant teens (which included Krvaric), to smear San Diego County Republican chairman Tony Krvaric, and take away funding for her opponent Joe Leventhal.