SAN DIEGO (SDJW) — In a special Memorial Day section which many readers will keep as special souvenirs, the U-T quoted Rabbi Irving Elson, deputy chaplain of the Marine Corps as well as force chaplain of the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force at Camp Pendleton, on the time he, as a non-combatant, had his life saved by a Navy enlisted religious assistant who covered him with his body and traded fire with the enemy. Explaining the concept of tikkun olam to reporter Bill Heard, Elson said: “People in the military, that’s what we do: fix parts of the world that are broken.”
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In another section of the U-T, freelance writer Laurel Corona, described her emergence from the paralyzing grief following the death of her husband Jim. She said she decided to go to the ocean with two female rabbis for mikveh symbolizing new life. “We swam out past the breakers, pulled off our swimsuits and recited the blessings as we went completely underwater the required three times. Then we put our suits back on and swam back to shore –and champagne.” Friends waiting for them said a man who had been scuba diving had witnessed Corona taking off her clothes. A few months later, when Corona went on her first date since the mourning period ended, her friends asked “Was it with the scuba diver?”
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In local news, retired cancer surgeon Ira Levine was profiled by U-T columnist Fred Dickey. He said there have been times when patients felt rejuvenated by the surgery and other times when patients have refused the surgery, including a woman whose will to live had been diminished by family members who shockingly had told her she deserved to have cancer. The next time the doctor heard of her was when he read her obituary.
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Monica Bauer Federman, a member of the San Diego Human Relations Commission, wrote a letter to the U-T editor voicing support for the U.S. forces that have been deployed on a mission to rescue the Nigerian girls kidnaped by Boko Haram terrorists. “The reasons this kidnaping has occurred showcase that against which the Human Relations Commission fights: human trafficking and denial of access to education and a better life to half the population because of gender.”
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A U-T story by Lyndsay Winkley about the graduation ceremonies at Cal State San Marcos that had been delayed by wildfires quotes Meryl Goldberg, chair of the visual and performing arts department, as saying “Our students are phenomenally resilient. I think this was just a wonderful show of what they can do, what they will do.” Off-campus, Goldberg performs with the Klezmer Conservatory Band.
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Preceding compiled by San Diego Jewish World staff