Science, Medicine, & Education

Campaign heats up for WZC delegate spots

The campaign for 152 delegate spots to the World Zionist Congress meeting in Jerusalem next October is heating up with Americans for Peace & Tolerance  accusing a rival Hatikvah slate of trying “to take over the Congress and get hold of its $1 billion budget which will be used for various and sundry community causes — including, if they get their way, anti-Israel activity.” Americans for Peace and Tolerance leader Charles Jacobs is part of the slate of the ZOA (Zionist Organization of America) Coalition. [Donald H. Harrison]

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

A student’s successful campaign against anti-Semites

At a lunch-and-learn session Tuesday, Jan. 21, at the offices of the Jewish Federation of San Diego County, Elise Alloul, the campus strategy coordinator for StandWithUs, told how she as a student at York University in Toronto overcame anti-Semitism and got herself elected in 2016 to a two-year term on the university’s Board of Governors, a body similar to the Board of Regents for the University of California. [Donald H. Harrison]

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Donald H. Harrison, International, Middle East, San Diego County, Science, Medicine, & Education, USA

Life and times of Barbara Bry

She has a BA from Penn and an MBA from Harvard University.  She’s been a journalist.  She has started up two successful tech businesses.  She has led such organizations as the Jewish Women’s Foundation and Run Women Run.  She has been married twice, has two adult daughters, and, at 70, is a proud grandmother.  For the last three years, she has been a San Diego City Councilwoman. [Donald H. Harrison]

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Donald H. Harrison, Jewish History, Middle East, San Diego County, Science, Medicine, & Education, Sports & Competitions

SDJA students raise $7,168 for charities

Given poker chips, each student placed one in a cannister bearing the name of the charity of his or her choice.  After the chips were counted, and pro rata shares were computed for each charity, checks signed by the Head of School Chaim Heller were presented to their representatives on Friday, Jan. 17. [Donald H. Harrison]

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

Chula Vista opens Holocaust exhibit

An eerie moment during the opening of an exhibit on Holocaust survivors who settled in the South Bay occurred when organizer Sandy Scheller, giving a speech at the podium, took a phone call, which she pretended was from her late mother, Ruth Sax, whose first name serves as an acronym for the exhibit’s title: “Project Ruth: Remember Us The Holocaust.” [Donald H. Harrison]

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Donald H. Harrison, International, Jewish History, Michael Leo Samuel-Rabbi, San Diego County, Science, Medicine, & Education

SDSU wins plaudits for blocking anti-Semitic speaker

StandWithUs, a national organization combating anti-Semitism on American college campuses, has congratulated San Diego State University for blocking a speaking invitation to Ava Muhammad, who is a spokeswoman for Nation of Islam Minister Louis Farrakhan. [Donald H. Harrison]

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Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Donald H. Harrison, International, Jewish History, Middle East, Music, Dance, and Visual Arts, San Diego County, Science, Medicine, & Education, Theatre, Film & Broadcast, USA

Strong opinions surface over Soleimani assassination

Prior to Iran’s retaliation on two Iraqi bases where American troops are stationed, congressional candidate Sara Jacobs denounced the killing of Iranian General Qasem Soleimani by American forces.  She wrote: “This ill-conceived operation was the culmination of a reckless strategy toward Iran that started with the Trump Administration pulling out of the Iran deal. Of all the hyperbole and questions being thrown around, the only one that needs to be asked is this: is the United States safer for having done this? The answer is clearly no.” [Donald H. Harrison]

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Donald H. Harrison, Middle East, Music, Dance, and Visual Arts, San Diego County, Science, Medicine, & Education, Theatre, Film & Broadcast, USA

On those reactions critical of Trump’s Executive Order

Title VI of the 1964 Civil Rights Act protects people from discrimination based on race, color or national origin in programs or activities that receive federal financial assistance – but it left a loophole by not mentioning religion. As such, Jews and supporters of Israel were not protected. On December 11, U.S. President Donald Trump signed an Executive Order which includes Jews under existing Title VI protections against increasingly rampant campus aggression. [Steve Kramer]

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Middle East, Science, Medicine, & Education, Steve Kramer, USA

Proposed Tlaib speech in Poway protested

The Freedom of Conscience Defense Fund successfully sued to prohibit the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) from teaching about Islam in the San Diego Unified School District as part of an anti-bullying program.  Now the organization is  protesting a proposed CAIR-sponsored speech in the Poway Unified School District by U.S. Rep. Rashida Tlaib, D-Michigan, a Palestinian-American who is considered one of Israel’s most vocal critics in the Congress. [Donald H. Harrison]

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Donald H. Harrison, International, Middle East, Science, Medicine, & Education, USA

San Diego State honors Judge Victor Bianchini

Judge Victor Bianchini, an active member of the Jewish community, has been saluted in the video at the top of the page by his alma mater San Diego State University for his career as a Marine Corps, lawyer, California Superior Court Judge, part-time U.S. Magistrate, private mediator, and now a world-class fencing champion in the over 70-years-old division.  [Donald H. Harrison]

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

Jews and chocolate: 500 years of sweetness

Sephardic Jews who were expelled in the late 15th century  from Portugal and Spain learned about cocoa and the production of chocolate from the indigenous peoples of Central and South America and the Caribbean. Keeping up contacts with non-Jewish acquaintances who had remained on Europe’s Iberian Peninsula, they helped to popularize chocolate and develop it as a product in international trade. [Donald H. Harrison]

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Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Donald H. Harrison, International, Jewish History, Middle East, San Diego County, Science, Medicine, & Education, Travel and Food, USA