Other items in today’s column include:
*Opioid crisis
*Political bytes
*Coming our way
SAN DIEGO — I had the honor on Wednesday night to be the speaker at the Beth Israel Men’s Club. My topic was the historic contributions of two Jewish San Diegans who had been members of Congregation Beth Israel: Marcus Schiller and Jacob Weinberger. Both men were immigrants to this country from Europe, both had been active in the political life of San Diego, and both helped to form institutions that are prominent in our local Jewish community.
Schiller migrated as an adult in the 1850s to California from Prussia, which today is part of Poland. In San Diego, he formed a partnership with Joseph S. Mannasse, operating a general store, a lumber yard, and at one point owning great tracts of ranch land which encompassed all the territory of modern day Solana Beach, Encinitas, and parts of Carlsbad. Early on, Schiller became a member of the San Diego Guards, a group that marched and drilled in case San Diego should ever have to be defended against foreign invaders. He and Mannasse celebrated their partnership by hosting a Christmas party for the populace of the city (who were mostly Gentiles). He served as the Worshipful Master of Lodge Number 35 of the Free and Accepted Masons, and was elected for several terms on the San Diego Board of Trustees. In one memorable decision, he voted to set aside for public use the land that today is Balboa Park. A plaque honoring the action of Schiller and his City Trustee colleagues may be found at the archway entrance to Balboa Park at the Cabrillo Bridge.
Weinberger came as a boy to Denver, Colorado, from a town in the former Austro-Hungary Empire that is today part of Slovakia. After graduating law school in Denver, he moved to the mining town of Globe, Arizona, to work as an attorney. He was elected as a delegate in 1910 to the Arizona State Constitutional Convention and was assigned as chairman of its judiciary committee. Like 40 other members of the 52-delegate convention, Weinberger was a Democrat who believed in such progressive reforms as citizens’ rights to recall elected officials, have a referendum on an unpopular law, and by initiative create new laws. U.S. President William Howard Taft, who later would become Chief Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court, was opposed to the recall of judges, arguing that such political pressure might compromise their ability to make fair decisions, rather than politically-influenced ones. When Arizona Territory ignored his advice to remove judicial recall from its proposed state constitution, he vetoed the bill that would make Arizona a state. Succumbing to his pressure, Arizonans removed that provision from the constitution. After Taft signed the legislation making Arizona a state, its then sovereign legislature reenacted the recall of judges, and there was nothing Taft could do about it.
Weinberger and his wife, the former Blanche Solomon (whose family founded the town of Solomonville, Arizona) moved to San Diego in 1911, and before long Weinberger began 21 years service on the San Diego Unified School Board — service that was later recognized when Weinberger Elementary School was named for him. After being combined with Benchley Elementary School, it is now known as Benchley-Weinberger Elementary School. Weinberger also served as vice chairman of the State Democratic party, becoming known in that role to Governor Culbert Olson. When a vacancy developed in the San Diego City Attorney’s office, the city charter had no provision for how to fill it, so Olson stepped in and appointed Weinberger. Later Weinberger figured with his experience as a school board member and city attorney, he would try to become San Diego’s first Jewish mayor, but he was defeated by Percy Benbough. (San Diego did not get a Jewish mayor until Susan Golding was elected in 1992.) After the outbreak of World War II, Superior Court Judge Arthur Mundo resigned to fight in the war, and Gov. Olson appointed Weinberger to fill the vacancy. He was defeated, however, at the next election. Weinberger continued to be active in civic affairs, serving on the board of directors of the county’s Community Welfare Board, and on the United Service Organization.
Then U.S. District Court Judge Harry A. Hollzer died in office, and U.S. President Harry Truman tapped Weinberger in 1946 to replace him. At first, Weinberger was based in Los Angeles, riding the circuit to hear cases in San Diego. Eventually it was decided that there should be a resident judge in San Diego, and Weinberger was selected as San Diego’s first full-time federal judge. Besides presiding over immigration and trans-border criminal cases, Weinberger often served as the presiding judge at naturalizaton ceremonies in which foreign residents became new U.S. citizens. Pointing out that he too had been an immigrant, Weinberger would often say that through hard work, the way is open for new Americans to achieve any of their goals.
Both Schiller and Weinberger are credited with being founders of important Jewish institutions. In Schiller’s case, it was Congregation Beth Israel itself, which was founded in 1861 under the name of Adath Yeshurun, which roughly translated means gathering of the faithful. Meetings on Jewish holidays often were held at Schiller’s home, and it was there that local Jewry founded the Hebrew Benevolent Association. Not until 1889 did Jews of San Diego have a permanent place of worship, which was located at Second and Beech Streets. The congregation no longer was just a gathering, it had a place of its own — thus it renamed itself Beth Israel, which translates as House of Israel. To no one’s surprise, the congregation’s longtime leader, Marcus Schiller, was elected as it first president.
In 1934, Weinberger was alert to the dangers posed by the Nazis to European Jewry, and with friends and associates founded the United Jewish Fund of San Diego to raise money to help them. Over the years, the United Jewish Fund morphed into the Jewish Federation of San Diego County, which today, among other roles, works closely with Sha’ar Hanegev municipality in San Diego to keep the Jews there safe from missile attacks from neighboring Gaza.
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Opioid crisis
*The U.S. Attorney’s office announced that Dr. Roger A. Kasendorf, a La Jolla osteopathic physician accused of illegally prescribing opioids to his patients, has agreed to pay $125,000 to resolve the case. “Opioid addiction often begins wit doctors prescribing excessive amounts of pain killers,” U.S. Attorney Robert Brewer said. “While we continue to prosecute criminals who supply opioids on the dark web, we will also hold doctors accountable when they write illegitimate and unnecessary opioid prescriptions. This settlement demonstrates our commitment to combatting the opioid epidemic on all fronts.”
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Political bytes
* Mayoral candidate Barbara Bry, directly criticizing her opponent Todd Gloria on the issue of homelessness, says the problem’s root causes are not a lack of housing but rather drug addiction and mental illness which in turn cause a public safety problem. Resources should be focused on dealing with mental illness and drug addiction, she said. “It’s been 7 years since Todd Gloria promised to end homelessness downtown in 4 years.” Before becoming a member of the state Assembly, Gloria was a city councilman and for a time the acting mayor. Bry is a current member of the city council.
* In an OpEd piece for Times of San Diego, city attorney candidate Cory Briggs says incumbent City Attorney Mara Elliott permitted a General Electric subsidiary to install street lighting equipped with spy cameras throughout the city without ever warning the City Council that the cameras were part of the deal. He said she failed to red flag such portions of the contact with the city as “GE’s Intelligent Node, connected to [streetlight] fixtures, can see, hear and feel, providing a connected hub of data for endless applications.” According to Briggs, Elliott “failed to do her job on another big-ticket transaction” and that “there’s a good chance that years of data about you and your family have now been collecgted—and almost certainly sold off—by Wall Street.”
* Congressman Duncan Hunter was one of 60 members of the House of Representatives who voted against rebuking President Trump for withdrawing American troops from northeastern Syria, in effect giving a green light for Turkey’s invasion of that country. Meanwhile, his attorney Devin Burstein of the law firm of Warren & Burstein has demanded relevant portions of the secret grand jury transcript that led to the congressman’s indictment on fraud charges of misappropriation of campaign funds. If the transcript is not provided, Burstein said, he will file an appeal that could further delay Hunter’s scheduled trial in January. Burstein’s law partner is Jeremy Warren.
Coming our way
Now through January 19, the works of the late architectural photographer Julius Shulman are on display in an exhibit called “Modern San Diego” at the downtown San Diego Central Library Art Gallery, and in another exhibit called “Modern La Jolla” at the La Jolla Historical Society.
*Taking off on a popular restaurant franchise, Temple Beth Shalom has decided to serve pizza in its succah at 6:15 p.m. Erev Shabbat, Friday, Oct. 18. The name of the event, according to congregational president Arlene LaGary: “Pizza in the Hut” Shabbat services in the sanctuary will follow the dinner.
* Laurel Schwartz of the Jewish Historical Society of San Diego will lecture at 1 p.m., Monday, Oct. 28, in the Silver Terrace of Golden Hall at the downtown Civic Center on “San Diego Jews, World War I, and the Growth of Local Benevolence.” Her speech will discuss “the way national and local Jewish service organizations and congregations” rose to the challenges of World War I, including “raising funds, welcoming military personnel, and helping to provide for their welfare during and after the war.”
* Political consultant Larry Remer will be among San Diego History Center panelists at 6:30 p.m., Thursday, Nov. 7, who will discuss the impact the LGBTQ+ community has made on San Diego. Others include former state Senator Christine Kehoe, lesbian activist Susan Jester, and San Diego City Council President Georgette Gomez. The panel will be moderated by Carl Luna, USD professor of political science.
* David Yerushalmi, co-founder of the American Freedom Law Center, will speak on the topic, “Why anti-Israel and anti-Jew hatred are related and how Lawfare shapes the battlefield,” at 8 p.m., Thursday, Nov. 7, at the Chabad of University City, 3813 Governor Drive. His speech is sponsored by the San Diego chapter of the Zionist Organization of America.
*Shuki Ben-Naim, screenwriter for HBO’s Our Boys will explore how the series developed at 7 p.m., Monday, Nov. 25, at the Lawrence Family JCC. Sponsored by the Murray Galinson San Diego-Israel Initiative (MGSDII), the series follows events in Israel during the summer of 2014 when three Jewish teenagers were kidnaped and murdered by Hamas militants, and two days later the burned body of a Palestinian teenager was found in a forest on the outskirts of Jerusalem. According to the MGSDII, “Shuki will converse with Chaya Gilboa, a Jerusalemite civil society leader temporarily living in San Diego. Chaya experienced the 2014 events on the ground in Jerusalem and has connections to the victim families on both sides. The discussion will be moderated by Charlene Seidle who helped lead the development of the Jerusalem Unity Prize which is an annual award presented by the parents of the three Israeli boys in their memory.” Skuki currently is teaching screenwriting at San Diego State University.
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Donald H. Harrison is editor of San Diego Jewish World. He may be contacted via donald.harrison@sdjewishworld.com