Story by Donald H. Harrison; Photos by Shor M. Masori
SAN DIEGO – Like a Jewish wedding, at which celebration is mixed with sad remembrance of the destruction of the Temple (as symbolized by the breaking of a glass under the groom’s foot), so too was this year’s annual luncheon on Wednesday, August 7, celebrating cooperation between the Jerusalem Zoo and the San Diego Zoo tinged with sadness.
Robert Price—whose Price Philanthropies invests in public projects in the City Heights neighborhood of San Diego as well as in the Aaron Price Fellows Foundation providing intensive leadership training for youth – memorialized Shai Doron, president of the Jerusalem Foundation, who died of a heart attack on Tuesday, July 30, while on a fundraising trip to London.
Price, whose philanthropy has underwritten programs and exhibits at the Jerusalem Zoo, said Doron was en route to London when they last spoke by telephone. Doron asked him if he thought that Vice President Kamala Harris had a chance of being elected as U.S. President following President Joe Biden’s withdrawal as the Democratic candidate on July 21. Price said he answered in the affirmative.
Doron served as founding director of the Jerusalem Zoo for more than a quarter century before becoming president of the Jerusalem Foundation six years ago. Price said he and his wife Allison considered Doron a member of their family, who had “a way of making it happen.” As an example, Price said Doron told him that food bills for the animals are much less than at other zoos. Doron explained to him: “We donated the animals to the religious community, and they have an obligation to take care of them.”
Price also said that because the colors of Tel Aviv’s teams are blue and gold, Doron had an aversion to California teams in football and basketball whose uniforms were of the same color. Jerusalem teams have red uniforms.
Doron last attended the annual Jerusalem-San Diego Zoos’ luncheon on August 1, 2018, the year he was elevated to the presidency of the Jerusalem Foundation. He said then that with the help of San Diego donors, the Jerusalem Zoo, which also is known as the Biblical Zoo, had become a top tourist attraction in Israel drawing more visitors even than the mountain top fortress of Masada in the Judean desert.
Price attributed the popularity of the Zoo to the fact that in war-torn Israel, it is “neutral ground … most religious people could go there, Arabs could go there, secular, they all could go there.”
Judge Victor Bianchini emceed the event, which like 13 previous annual luncheons, served to introduce six Jerusalem Zoo-affiliated teenagers from Israel and six peer group members from the United States who go behind the scenes at the Zoo and Safari Park, and also visit other San Diego-area tourist attractions. Visitors from Jerusalem typically are both Arabs and Jews, and luncheon guests reflected that mix. Among them was Carol Elaly, the granddaughter of the late longtime Arab mayor of Bethlehem, Elias Freij, and members of her family.
San Diego Mayor Todd Gloria welcomed the delegation, saying that this week San Diego revels in its role as an international city. He noted that today (Thursday) at noon, the ambassador to the U.S. from the People’s Republic of China, along with California Gov. Gain Newsom, and he will participate in the opening of the panda exhibit. It has been a generation since San Diego has had the privilege of hosting an exhibit of the lovable animals.
Gloria also told his audience that he was a member of a delegation that toured Israel last year, describing that occasion as a “great privilege.” He said, to applause, that he will always stand with Israel.
Congressional certificates were issued to each of the students participating in the program lauding their contributions to international understanding. The certificates were issued by the office of U.S. Rep. Sara Jacobs (D-San Diego), but as she had a scheduling conflict, they were handed out by her predecessor former Rep. Susan Davis (D-San Diego). Davis and Bianchini happily posed with the students and their counselors – all wearing green shirts commemorating the San Diego-Jerusalem Zoo relationship.
Sigalit Herz, who succeeded Doron as Jerusalem Zoo director, spoke to the luncheon by Internet hookup. She said she had worried about sending the delegation to San Diego this year, as Israel has been at war, but said Doron insisted that the teenagers go. The San Diego Zoo, he told her, “has so much to show.”
Herz told of three programs that the zoo conducts for students: 1) teaching about animal conservation and animal care; 2) teaching biology with the help of animal subjects, and 3) providing therapy for children who need it, be they Jewish or Arab.
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Donald H. Harrison is publisher and editor of San Diego Jewish World.