By Donald H. Harrison
SAN DIEGO COUNTY (Tuesday, May 2, 2023)
Chabad of East County, led by Rabbi Rafi Andrusier, is sponsoring a neighborhood mural to be drawn with chalk at 4 p.m., Monday, May 8, at the San Carlos Recreational Center, 6445 Lake Badin Avenue. San Diego. Theme of the mural will be kindness, in celebration of the Lag B’Omer holiday. There will also be booths and free treats.
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“Antisemitism Uncovered” is the topic that Rob Hicks, assistant regional director of the Anti-Defamation League, will cover when he speaks at a 10 a.m. meeting of the La Mesa-El Cajon branch of the American Association of University Women on Saturday, May 13, at the Foothills United Methodist Church, 4031 Avocado Blvd. in La Mesa.
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Investor Carl Icahn has been described by the leaders of San Diego-based Illumina, with whom he is engaged in a proxy battle, as having “launched a self-serving and deliberately misleading campaign against our company.” Icahn has nominated three individuals to serve on Illumina’s board. The company has urged its shareholders to vote for all nine of its nominees at its annual meeting on May 25.
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Susan Lapidus, director of the Murray Galinson San Diego-Israel Initiative, has announced next semester’s lineup of Israeli professors who will be teaching at two major universities in San Diego County. Coming to San Diego State University are historians Amos Nadan and Yoav Alon and poet Maya Tevet Dayan, all from Tel Aviv University; filmmaker Uri Bar-on from Reichman University; and literary scholar Dekel Shay Schory who divides her time between Hebrew University and Ben-Gurion University. Coming to UC San Diego are filmmaker Dan Geva from Beit Berl Academic College and anthropologist Dan Rabinowitz from Tel Aviv University.
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County Supervisor Terra Lawson-Remer joined her three colleagues on Tuesday to vote unanimously to hold a special election, rather than an appointment, to fill the 4th District seat of Supervisor Nathan Fletcher, who has announced he will resign following treatment for PTSD and alcoholism out of state. Veterans advocate Janessa Goldbeck, through her political consultant Dan Rottenstreich, immediately announced she will be a candidate in that election, saying, “I’m running for every San Diegan struggling with rising costs and rising homelessness. Make no mistake – I’ll fight for change, not more of the same.”
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CALIFORNIA
U.S. Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Burbank), who is a candidate to replace Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-California) when her term is up, has endorsed the Hollywood writers’ strike, saying the “fight for better pay and wage protections in the era of streaming content is vital to ensuring the livelihood of those who make the entertainment industry such a creative powerhouse.”
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Rabbi David Wolpe, senior rabbi at Temple Sinai in Los Angeles, has been named as the Anti-Defamation League’s inaugural Rabbinic Fellow. Announcing it at the ADL’s National Leadership Summit in Washington D.C., ADL CEO Jonathan Greenblatt commented, “As a former congregant of Sinai Temple, I have experienced the rabbi’s inspirational leadership firsthand. He is one of the nation’s leading rabbinic theologians and scholars, and we are deeply fortunate to be able to tap into his knowledge of Jewish values to inform our work combating antisemitism and hate in all forms.”
NATIONAL
U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Connecticut) has urged the Department of Justice to investigate U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas following reports that he has accepted lavish gifts from Harlan Crowe and also sold a home to Crowe yet did not report any of these transactions on financial disclosure forms. “There ought to be a proper investigation, and in my view, the Department of Justice has a really sacrosanct, critical responsibility here.”
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On behalf of Keshet, the organization promoting LGBTQ+ equality in Jewish life, Jon Cohen and Lanie Cohen are urging opposition to HR 5 and HR 734. The first bill would “allow the federal government to act as a national school board. If passed this bill would undermine local control of education and hurt the ability of both parents and teachers to support children,” they said. The second bill “would ban transgender and intersex youth from playing on school sports teams. If passed, this bill would take away the important social and health benefits, as well as the opportunities to build skills like teamwork, cooperation, and leadership, we know kids get from playing sports.”
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Sasha Roytman Dratwa, CEO of Combat Antisemitism Movement (CAM) congratulated Richmond, Virginia, Mayor Levar Stoney for getting 126 U.S. mayors so far to agree to publicly acknowledge Jewish American Heritage Month and celebrate the contributions of Jewish Americans. “Residents of every city across America—not just the places where large populations of Jewish Americans live—ought to know what Jewish Americans have contributed to history, society, commerce, and culture,” he said.
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The drumbeat of calls continues for ailing U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-California) to resign and thereby clear the way for California Gov. Gavin Newsom to appoint her replacement. The latest to urge Feinstein to quit is U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-New York). “Her refusal to either retire or show up is causing great harm to the judiciary—precisely where repro rights are getting stripped,” Ocasio-Cortez said. “That failure means now in this precious window Dems can only pass GOP-approved nominees.”
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A Statue of Liberty menorah is one of the gifts that the Weitzman National Museum of American Jewish History in Philadelphia is advertising in honor of May being Jewish American Heritage Month in the United States. Another is a kiddush cup with the inscription “Proclaim Liberty Throughout All the Land” that appears on the Liberty Bill in Philadelphia and is a quotation from Leviticus. Misha Galperin is the museum’s president and chief executive officer.
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U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland has responded to allegations from an unnamed FBI whistle blower that he is interfering with an investigation into the President’s son, Hunter Biden, by the U.S. Attorney in Delaware, David Weiss. He said, “I refer you to the U.S. Attorney for the District of Delaware who is in charge of this case and capable of making any decisions that he feels are appropriate.”
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The late Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg travelled with Justice Sonia Sotomayor to Florence, Italy, “on the dime of New York University,” commented U.S. Sen. Lindsay Graham (R-South Carolina) at a hearing of the Senate Judiciary Committee, into Supreme Court ethics. He said Democrats on the committee did not complain about the trips taken by those two liberal justices. The Senate committee hearing, he said, “is not about making the court better. This is about destroying a conservative court. It will not work.”
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U.S. District Court Judge Lewis Kaplan has been informed by attorney Joe Tacopina that former President Donald Trump will not testify in the civil trial in which E. Jean Carroll accuses him of rape and defamation. A friend of Carroll’s, Lisa Birnbach, testified that Carroll telephoned her after the alleged incident in a dressing room at Bergdorf Goodman and told her of the rape. When she urged Carroll to go to the police, she refused, Birnbach testified. Another witness in the case, Jessica Leeds, testified that in the late 1970’s Trump grabbed her breasts when they were seatmates on an airplane. She said she changed her seat.
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U.S. Reps. Jamie Raskin and David Trone, both Maryland Democrats, prominently figure in speculation concerning who will run to succeed U.S. Sen. Ben Cardin (D-Maryland) following his announcement that he will not seek reelection in 2024.
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U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders (Ind-Vermont) in an HBO Max interview, suggested that the U.S. should confiscate any money American individuals make over $999 million. “You may disagree with me, fine, I think people can make it on $999 million. I think they can survive just fine,” Sanders said.
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U.S. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-New York) has set into motion an expedited process by which the Senate can consider suspending the nation’s mandatory debt ceiling for two years. An aide of his commented, “This process will ensure that once a clean debt ceiling is passed, the House bill is available for a bipartisan agreement on spending and revenue as part of the regular budget process.”
In a bipartisan move in which he was joined by Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Kentucky) and 30 other senators, Schumer joined in introducing a resolution honoring Israel on the 75th anniversary of its founding as a modern state. “75 years ago, the US immediately recognized Israel at its establishment, marking the beginning of a deep relationship based on our shred values including democracy and the rule of law that has transcended time and politics. I look forward to further strengthening the US-Israel relationship in the years to come and continuing the progress of normalization of relations between Israel and her neighbors.”
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Former Republican U.S. Rep. and New York gubernatorial candidate Lee Zeldin says he is considering opposing U.S. Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-New York) for reelection. “We’ll see how the race shapes up,” he told Politico.
INTERNATIONAL
Retired Canadian Supreme Court Justice Rosalie Abella is the subject of a film by Barry Avrich titled Without Precedent: The Supreme Life of Rosalie Abella. She was the first Jewish woman to serve on that court. U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor attended the recent premiere of the film in Toronto, Canada.
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U.S. Ambassador to Japan, Rahm Emanuel, participated in the Tokyo Rainbow Parade, signaling support for legislation to legalize same-sex marriage and ban discrimination against LGBTQ+ people. In an interview on Fox News, Japanese journalist Masako Ganaha denounced Emanuel’s participation as “overt interference” in Japan’s internal affairs.
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Filmmaker Pierre Rehov has released a documentary, Lies and Tears, which he says demonstrates that Israeli soldiers were not to blame in the death of Al Jazeera journalist Shireen Abu Akleh last year.
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Donald H. Harrison is editor emeritus of San Diego Jewish World. He may be contacted via donald.harrison@sdjewishworld.com