Two San Diego County incidents illustrative of pervasive antisemitism
By Donald H. Harrison in San Diego
STATE & LOCAL
Lisa Berman Hernandez, president of Tifereth Israel Synagogue, shed some light on what led up to her congregation’s American-Israeli Rabbi Hanan Leberman being disinvited to deliver the benediction at an “All Peoples” breakfast on Monday honoring the legacy of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Another scheduled participant, “who is openly anti-Zionist, was unwilling to share space with Rabbi Leberman,” Hernandez said.
Sources identified her as Paola Capó-García, the City of San Diego’s poet laureate.
“That decision was opposite to what transpired with Rabbi Leberman [who] is a very strong voice in our community for unity, inclusion and acceptance – open to engaging with people from a wide range of perspectives,” Hernandez said.
The congregational president added in a statement: ‘We believe deeply that progress is made not by silencing voices, but by engaging them. If we are to honor the legacy of Dr. King and the principles of justice we claim to uphold, we must commit ourselves to finding common ground with those who hold differing views. Only then can we build community rather than tear it down. We stand with our Rabbi, we stand for inclusion, and we stand for dialogue rooted in mutual respect.”
Heidi Gantwerk, President and CEO of the Jewish Federation of San Diego, and Adam Maslia, director of The Finest Community Coalition, also posted about the incident. “At the time of his invitation, Rabbi Leberman made sure [Alliance San Diego] organizers were aware of his views and history, and none of that changed between his invitation and when that invitation was revoked.
“Alliance suggested they were concerned about ‘potential disruption’ due to his views. This is deeply concerning to us. If any Jews who believe Israel has a right to self-determination are excluded from the public square for fear of ‘disruption,’ the consequence will be the silencing of Jewish voices on a vast range of topics, which is unacceptable.”
*
Administrators for the San Dieguito Union High School District investigated a complaint brought by Nicole Bernstein and Tamar Caspi of the citizen’s group Peer K12. Administrators Evelin Medina and Tracy Olander concluded that campus authorities had indeed failed to investigate promptly a swastika incident on the last day of the 2024-25 academic year in which eight San Dieguito Academy students used their bodies on the school’s athletic field to form a human swastika that could be seen by a Jewish student pilot as he flew over the campus. However, in a highly redacted investigatory report, the administrators opined that charges could not be substantiated that the students’ action constituted a hate crime. An appeal was filed by PeerK12 to the California Department of Education, which on Jan. 5 determined that “the school failed to adequately respond to peer-to-peer discrimination based on religion once it became aware of it.” Columnist Marsha Sutton, writing for the Del Mar Times, reported that parents Lucia and Larry Gordon of the student pilot are “considering options for next steps.”
INTERNATIONAL
Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu accepted U.S. President Donald Trump’s invitation to join the Board of Peace that will supervise the establishment of a new government in Gaza. Netanyahu’s decision came despite his criticism of Trump possibly including on the Board leaders from Turkiye, Qatar, and Pakistan. Trump is scheduled to announce the Board’s membership on Thursday but published reports, which could not be independently verified, identify some countries whose leaders already have accepted Trump’s invitation. They are Argentina, Belarus, Hungary, Paraguay, and the United Arab Emirates. Rejecting the invitation are France, Ireland, Norway, and Sweden. Still undecided at press time were Canada, Italy, and Russia.
*
Mark Dreyfus, Australia’s former attorney general who is currently a member of his country’s House of Representatives, recited in Parliament the mourner’s Kaddish for the 15 slain victims of the Bondi Beach massacre, most of them Jews, and lauded Ahmed al-Ahmed who disarmed one of the two attackers. On Tuesday, Jan. 20, Australia’s Prime Minister Anthony Albanese wrote on social media, “The terrorists at Bondi Beach had hatred in their hearts and guns in their hands. Today we passed new laws that deal with both. Combatting antisemitism and cracking down on guns.” The Jewish Telegraphic Agency reported that in a Melbourne neighborhood five Jewish teenage boys were stalked by a car “whose occupants chanted ‘Heil Hitler’ and performed Nazi salutes at them.” Albanese was quoted by The Australian as stating, “At a time when Australians are joining with the Jewish community in sorrow and solidarity, it is beyond disgusting to see these cowards shouting Nazi slogans at young people.”
*
Daniel Sokatch is on a sabbatical as CEO of the New Israel Fund, so Mickey Gitzin is filling in as Acting CEO. Idit Klein has stepped into the role of Vice President for Public Engagement.
*
Mexico’s President Claudia Sheinbaum said Wednesday her country made a “sovereign decision” to turn over to the United States 37 leaders and members of Mexican drug cartels. She said the decision was convenient for Mexico.
*
U.S. President Trump commented at the Davos, Switzerland, World Economic Forum that Volodymyr Zelenskyy, Ukraine’s President, and Vladimir Putin, Russia’s President, “can come together and get a deal done, and if they don’t, they’re stupid… And I know they’re not stupid. But if they don’t get this done, they are stupid. So, I don’t want to insult anyone, but you got to get this deal done. Too many people are dying. It’s not worth it.”
*
NATIONAL
Peter Jordan and his wife Barbara Palmer have established an $18 million endowment for Brandeis University’s chemistry department, enabling an annual expenditure of $1 million to support two new professors and three graduate research fellowships. Jordan taught chemistry at Brandeis University for nearly a half century until his retirement in 2011. Outside investments produced Jordan’s fortune. Arthur Levine, Brandeis University’s president, told ejewishphilanthropy “What this gift did is create a renaissance. It’ll bring more faculty to the department. Brandeis can use these new chairs to recruit the world’s ablest and most promising chemists. We can also use it to attract the best chemistry students in the world.”
*
In time for International Holocaust Remembrance Day on Tuesday, Jan. 27, an interactive hologram of Holocaust survivor Sonia Warshawski is being introduced to New York schools. Created by the Blue Card, an organization that delivers assistance to her fellow survivors, the hologram answers questions posed by students, as shown in the accompanying video.
*
Eliot Meadow, the new international president of the United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism, says lifelong participation in the Conservative movement, convinced him, “That our strength lies not in uniformity, but in unity. That our communities thrive not because we are all the same, but because we are unique, and yet we share the same purpose.”
*
Donald H. Harrison is publisher and editor of San Diego Jewish World