Other items in today’s column include
*Jewish community coronavirus news
*San Diego County Judaica
*Recommended reading
*In memoriam
SAN DIEGO — Those with Internet connections could watch the Havdalah ceremonies with San Diego connections move west on Saturday from Israel to New Jersey en route to San Diego.
In Israel, Cantor Hanan Leberman, who serves for specified holidays as a cantor at Tifeeth Israel Synagogue in San Diego, provided songs and traditional chants in the ceremony marking the end of the Sabbath and the beginning of the regular week. As is customary, he drank wine, smelled spices, and watched the flames of the havdalah candle flicker shadows from his fingers to the palm of his hand.
Hours later, in Vorhees, New Jersey, Cantor Alisa Pomerantz-Boro of that township’s Congregation Beth El, was accompanied by her daughter Rebecca as she marked the end of the Sabbath. The cantor previously had served for 13 years at Tifereth Israel Synagogue, later moving to New Jersey with her husband Steven Boro. Born into a family of cantors, Pomerantz-Boro was among the first dozen women to be admitted to the Cantors Assembly of Judaism’s Conservative movement.
The Havdalah ceremonies were conducted via Internet because of the social distancing guidelines for a world under siege by the coronavirus. Following Havdalah, Cantor Pomerantz-Boro led the kaddish, and as traditional mentioned the names of those who are being mourned. Among them were the cantor’s own cousin, Deborah Kantor, who had just recently succumbed to the virus.
At last as nighttime neared in San Diego, Internet Havdalah services were switched on all over San Diego. We managed to catch Rabbi David Kornberg of Congregation Beth Am participating in the ceremony.
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Jewish community coronavirus news
*Our columnist Laurie Baron found an easy way to make masks. He uses a kippah. I don’t know about you, but I have a bunch of them in my drawer. They seem to breed there. Now instead of on top of our heads, we can use them over our mouths and noses!
*Another of our writers, Mimi Pollack, has been spending Shabbats at home, like the rest of us She reports that her dog Sammy also has been getting into the Shabbat spirit. She reports that the kippah Sammy is wearing came from the bar mitzvah of her nephew Aaron 17 years ago.
* Rabbi Rafi Andrusier of Chabad of Poway said he has heard from people who have suggested delaying seders this year until after the coronavirus pandemic has run its course. He thinks that is a bad idea. “When you celebrate your Seder all alone, missing your family and wishing to be together, that will arouse the divine yearning to be back with His children,” Andrusier instructs. “When you say ‘Next Year in Jerusalem,” that prayer will reach higher than any other prayer could. Specifically you , sitting on our own, have the power to pierce the heavens with your words from a broken heart. G-d will have not choice but to answer you.”
San Diego County Judaica
In today’s installment, Rabbi Scott Meltzer and Jennifer Meltzer of Ohr Shalom Synagogue show us a very special mezuzah in their home. It contains the shards from the glass that the rabbi stomped on and broke at the end of their wedding ceremony. Scott Blumen, who enjoys “kitschy stuff” says he found the Carnegie Deli hotdog cart and vendor with a music box that plays “If I Were a Rich Man” in a Judaica shop in South Florida, where they painted his name on the umbrella. “It reminded me of my youth in Brooklyn here there were many delis and hotdog vendors, both of which had their own ‘attitudes’ and delicious food. I remember how much I liked the onions and red sauce, even though that always gave me heart burn.” And, Ken Stone, contributing editor of Times of San Diego, holds up “my Torah book given to me on June 9, 1970 upon my confirmation at Temple Beth Sholom in Santa Ana [and] my 1957-edition copy of A Guide for Reform Jews from the same religious education era.”
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Recommended Reading
*L’Chaim San Diego Magazine’s cover story in the April 2020 edition is about 18 San Diego County teens who are making a difference. Photos and brief sketches of each introduce Fletcher Block, Joey Colarusso, Shaina Eagle, Karina Evans-Schreiber, Ethan Hirschberg, Carly Klinger, Tamar Ladd, Ilan Leisorek, Shayna Meltzer, Beatriz de Oliveira, Zachary Patterson, Rebecca Pearl, Tzipporah Moehringer, Talia Schauder, Maya Silberstein, Sadie Smith, Liza Turquie, and Jason Wexler.
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In memoriam
The granddaughter of the late Senator Robert F. Kennedy, Maeve Kennedy Townsend McKean, who is presumed dead along with her 8-year-old son, Gideon, following a canoeing accident Friday in the Chesapeake Bay, Maryland, had San Diego connections, Mat Kostrinsky noted today on Facebook. He wrote that Maeve worked in the San Diego office of U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-California, where she “was valuable during the 2003 wildfire crisis and took the lead for the Senator on getting the government to end its use of an anti-malaria drug which had serious side effects.” “She wanted to do good,” recalled Kostrinsky. “I remember talking to Maeve about her hair, maybe she colored it purple and the Senator was coming to visit. Also, she always walked through the office never with her shoes on. She loved life.” Maeve’s husband David McKean “joined our team as an intern. I can still picture them all at our cabinets and television. My heart breaks for him, his kids, and both their families. I can’t imagine anyone’s pain.” James Patterson was Sen. Feinstein’s District Director; Kostrinsky was the Field Representative; and Joe Angeles and McKean were Assistant Field Representatives. National news media, recalling the assassinations of President John F. Kennedy and Senator Robert Kennedy, as well as the death of President Kennedy’s son John Jr. in an airplane crash, described Maeve Kennedy Townsend McKean’s death as another Kennedy family tragedy. Commented Kostrinsky: “She was just Maeve and a great person.”
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Donald H. Harrison is editor of San Diego Jewish World. He may be contacted via donald.harrison@sdjewishworld.com.Obituaries in San Diego Jewish World are sponsored by Inland Industries Group LP in memory of long-time San Diego Jewish community leader Marie (Mrs. Gabriel) Berg.