California

Frida Kahlo Loved Jews So Much She Invented Jewish Ancestry

The Mexican artist Frida Kahlo (1907-1954) is the subject of several murals at Chicano Park. Modern genealogists say that she was the daughter of a mother of mixed indigenous and Spanish descent, Mathilde Calderon y Gonzalez, and a German Lutheran father, Guillermo Kahlo. However, Frida herself always insisted that her father, who was an important influence on both her life and her art, was actually Jewish. [Donald H. Harrison]

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Books, Poetry & Short Stories, California, Donald H. Harrison, International, Jewish History, Lifestyles, Music, Dance, and Visual Arts, San Diego County, Travel and Food, USA

Assassinated Gay Jewish Political Leader Harvey Milk Is Honored by the U.S. Navy

The “christening” ceremony featured a principal ceremonial address by Milk’s nephew, Stuart Milk, as well as remarks by Navy Secretary Carlos Del Toro; Vice Admiral Jeffrey Hughes, deputy chief of naval operations for warfighting development; and Rear Adm. Michael Wettlaufer, commander of the Military Sealift Command. Sponsors of the ship were U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein, who had served on the San Francisco Board of Supervisors with Milk, and Paula Neira, clinical program director of the Johns Hopkins Center for Transgender Health. Neira shattered a bottle of sparkling wine across the ship’s bow in a time-honored Navy tradition. [Donald H. Harrison]

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Books, Poetry & Short Stories, California, Donald H. Harrison, Jewish Celebrities, Jewish History, San Diego County, Travel and Food, USA

Graduation Day at the Radiation Treatment Center

Today, April 29, 2022, was a bellringing day for me at the Jacobs Medical Center at UCSD Health Sciences.  I completed a 33-day course of radiation in the hope of arresting a meningioma that was growing on top of my brain.  On July 1, I will have an MRI to learn how well the treatment worked. [Donald H. Harrison]

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California, Donald H. Harrison, San Diego County, Science, Medicine, & Education, USA

Uptick of Antisemitic Incidents in San Diego, While US Antisemitism Reaches All-Time High in 2021

SAN DIEGO (Press Release) — ADL’s annual Audit of Antisemitic Incidents issued today found that the Jewish community of San Diego County experienced 38 recorded incidents, including 14 incidents of vandalism of businesses, places of worship, and schools, 23 incidents of targeted online and in-person harassment, and 1 incident of assault. “These numbers are alarming

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California, USA

Social Worker Serves as a Lay Rabbi for Elderly Residents of Paradise Village

Lazard, a social worker employed by the County of San Diego to determine financial and residential eligibility for cradle-to-21-year-old residents with major disabilities, says he is happiest when he gets to sing, particularly Jewish prayer songs. Through his tutoring of Ruth Sax, he got to know other Jewish residents of Paradise Village, and before long he was asked to officiate at the monthly Shabbat service. He met with Paradise Village’s Chaplain, Harry Bennett, before accepting the volunteer gig. Services are held in the non-denominational chapel, which has a stained-glass window bearing a picture of a dove. [Donald H. Harrison]

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California, Donald H. Harrison, Jewish Religion, San Diego County, Travel and Food, USA

United States District Court Appoints Randy S. Grossman to Serve as US Attorney

SAN DIEGO (Press Release) — The U.S. District Court has appointed Randy S. Grossman to remain as the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of California. “It is a tremendous honor and privilege to serve as the U.S. Attorney,” Grossman said. “I am grateful to the district judges for appointing me to serve in this

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California, USA

Parents: Encourage Your Children to Participate in Student Government

By Elior Amar (JNS) On one Tuesday night in February, a small group of Jewish students at UC Santa Cruz, where I serve as a shaliach (Israeli emissary) for the Jewish Agency for Israel, logged into the weekly Zoom meeting of the Student Union Assembly to support the adoption of a working definition of antisemitism. The

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California, Middle East, Opinion, Science, Medicine, & Education, USA

Beverly Hills Residents Wake Up to Antisemitic Fliers on First Day of Passover

(JNS) Antisemitic fliers blaming Russia’s nearly two-month-long war in Ukraine on Jews were left in front of homes in Beverly Hills, Calif., on the first day of Passover. “Every single aspect of the Ukraine-Russia war is Jewish,” said the flier, which included photos of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and Russian President Vladimir Putin. It also

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California, USA

Jewish Brothers Al Lapin Jr. and Jerry Lapin Founded IHOP Chain

The International House of Pancakes at the Bay Plaza Shopping Center in National City was built in conformance with the shopping center’s architectural guidelines, rather than in IHOP’s usual configuration. However, it still has a trademark blue roof, and its menu is fairly typical of some 1,500 other establishments in the family restaurant chain created by two Jewish brothers. Al Lapin Jr. and Jerry Lapin started IHOP in 1958 in the tony San Fernando Valley neighborhood of Toluca Lake. [Donald H. Harrison]

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Business & Finance, California, Donald H. Harrison, San Diego County, Travel and Food, USA

Orange County #6MillionSteps Event to Spotlight Rising US Antisemitism, Remember the Holocaust

IRVINE, California (Press Release) — Orange County Israeli-American and Jewish communities will mobilize this month to spotlight rising U.S. antisemitism and to remember the Holocaust as part of a nationwide campaign called #6MillionSteps. Orange County residents can join a #6MillionSteps walk-run starting at 5:30 p.m. on April 28 at North Lake in Irvine. For details,

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California, Holocaust, USA

Founded by an Antisemite, Ford Motor Co’s Leaders Became Pro-Zionists

We’re interested in the turnaround of the Ford family, starting with automotive pioneer Henry Ford, who was a vicious antisemite, and continuing with his grandson Henry Ford II, known as “Hank the Deuce,” who became a large supporter of Jewish and Zionist causes, and onto Bill Ford, Ford Motor Co’s current executive chairman. who traveled in 2019 to Tel Aviv to inaugurate a new Ford Research Center there. [Donald H. Harrison]

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Business & Finance, California, Donald H. Harrison, Jewish History, Middle East, San Diego County, Technology, Travel and Food, USA

San Diego Sommelier Andrew Breskin Builds Variety and Depth at Kosher Wine’s High End

By Elizabeth Kratz The Jewish Link In large and mid-sized American Jewish communities, 2022 means one can get a kosher version of virtually anything. While this is certainly sufficient for many consumers, a growing community of aficionados of gourmet food and beverage, particularly wine, sometimes laments the lack of opportunities to help kosher wine drinkers

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California, San Diego County, Travel and Food, USA

New Proposal Would Force CA School Districts to Adopt ‘Liberated’ Ethnic Studies Curriculum if Students Want Admission to UC Schools

SANTA CRUZ, California (Press Release) — For the first time in over 20 years, and only the second time in nearly a century, the University of California (UC) system is considering adding a new admission requirement that will force all California high schools to teach the controversial and antisemitic “Liberated” ethnic studies curriculum, exposes a

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California, Science, Medicine, & Education

Liberal Jewish Newspaper Publisher Made His Mark in a Conservative Town

Lowell Blankfort, a liberal Jewish Democrat, became co-publisher and editor of the staid, very conservative Star-News in 1961, and immediately began to shake up the old order. In his very first editorial, he announced that the community newspaper no longer would run columns by U.S. Rep. James Utt. Blankfort explained that Utt’s “so-called ‘column’ from Washington, or weekly political diatribe, is being dropped, pronto. Mr. Utt is the Republican Congressman from Santa Ana who, due to some deft GOP gerrymandering 10 years ago, also has been foisted on National City and Bonita.” [Donald H. Harrison]

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Business & Finance, California, Donald H. Harrison, San Diego County, Travel and Food, USA