San Diego County

Three Jewish women in competitive local races

Three Jewish women are in highly competitive races for spots in Congress, Mayor of San Diego, and the County Board of Supervisors. Respectively, they are are Sara Jacobs (53rd Congressional District); City Councilwoman Barbara Bry (Mayor of San Diego), and Terra Lawson-Remer (3rd District County Board of Supervisors. Here’s a look at the recent news being made by them and their opponents, respectively Georgette Gomez, Todd Gloria, and Kristin Gaspar. [Donald H. Harrison, “Our Shtetl San Diego County”]

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Cantor Sheldon Foster Merel, z"l, Dorian de Wind, Jewish Religion, San Diego County, Travel and Food, USA

Ruth Bader Ginsburg, z”l, U.S. Associate Supreme Court Justice

News of the death of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg on Friday was met in San Diego with expressions of grief and hope. The stalwart liberal on the U.S. Supreme Court since 1993 died at age 87, the court said, giving President Trump a chance to expand its conservative majority with a third appointment at a time of deep divisions in America with a presidential election looming. [Times of San Diego report]

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Ken Stone, San Diego County, USA

OpEd: Sean Elo-Rivera for City Council District 9

Sean and I talked about our work on the Community College Board as our work for “Tikkun Olam,” helping the world. I could see that this was a Jewish value that Sean was passionate about and that he was committed to Tikkun Olam in everything he was doing in his life. He also talked about his how his personal studies of Jewish history and values gave him a deep sense of commitment to the principles of honesty, integrity, and justice for all, especially those who are subject to the most intense forms of oppression. I could clearly see that Sean saw is public service work as a reflection of his Judaism. [Bernie Rhinerson]

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San Diego County, Science, Medicine, & Education

We must not let the Holocaust be ‘old news’

“Old news” is perhaps the most dismissive way an editor can reject a suggestion from a reporter, or an outside contributor, about an issue that the media outlet should tackle. San Diego Jewish World promises never to consider the Holocaust “old news,” whatever form that news may come, be it in recollections of still-surviving Holocaust victims; the efforts of second and third generation survivors to measure the Holocaust’s impact on their lives and those of their children; the novelists and playwrights who retell Holocaust stories; or the efforts of some in the academic world to minimize or distort the Holocaust. [Donald H. Harrison, ‘Our Shtetl San Diego County’]

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

San Diego Dems cancel anti-Semitism debate

The chairman of the San Diego County Democratic Party, Will Rodriguez-Kennedy, doesn’t want the debate over anti-Semitism in the party’s ranks to be held until after the Nov. 3 election, if ever. On Sept. 10, Rodriguez-Kennedy sent a message to the county party’s central committee explaining his reason for wanting a delay. [Donald H. Harrison, Our Shtetl San Diego County]

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Donald H. Harrison, Jewish Religion, Middle East, Obituaries & memorials, San Diego County, Science, Medicine, & Education, Theatre, Film & Broadcast, USA

OpEd: Tim Nader for Judge

Two years I wrote an opinion piece for San Diego Jewish World supporting my friend, Tim Nader, for San Diego Superior Court judge.  I pointed out his superb qualifications for the position.  The unstated subtext for the piece was that as a member of the San Diego Jewish Community, who had known Tim for more than 35 years, was vouching for the personal character of a Lebanese American lawyer. [Howard Wayne]

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San Diego County, Science, Medicine, & Education

Rabbi Goldstein’s brother also guilty of tax fraud

Mendel Goldstein, the owner of a videography business based in Brooklyn, New York, pleaded guilty in federal court On Monday to tax evasion charges relating to a long-running conspiracy with his brother, Rabbi Yisroel Goldstein. Until around 2018, Yisroel Goldstein was the director and head rabbi at Chabad of Poway, a tax-exempt organization that the brothers used to divert Mendel Goldstein’s income and conceal more than $700,000 in earnings from the IRS. 

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San Diego County, USA

Life as a small businessman in San Diego

When we started we had $350 in the bank. (There was very little freelance art in town in 1962.) We took any job that came along at just about any price that would generate some income. The first job was copying, in calligraphy style, a poem a sweet old woman composed in memory of her deceased sister. I delivered the poem to her home and walked a few blocks to her bank to cash the fifteen dollar check she gave me in payment. The check bounced and I walked back to her home and collected cash. I wondered at the time if this was an omen. Another of our earliest commissions was for a Mexican Restaurant. It was a black and white ink illustration of a Mexican sombrero lying on a serape. Again We were paid 15 dollars. The restaurant repeatedly used that illustration in their advertising for 20 years. [Ira Spector]

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Business & Finance, San Diego County

Some 70 years of love for tennis

The first time I ever saw or stepped on a tennis court was in 1949 when I was sixteen and got a job at Camp Watitoh near Tanglewood in the Berkshires as a maintenance worker. One of my first jobs was to brush and roll the tomato-colored clay tennis courts smooth early every morning. That was boring but tolerable in the cool early morning air. So now I was the tennis court maven, and was assigned to build two new courts in the lower unshaded unused part of the camp property. [Ira Spector]

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International, Lifestyles, San Diego County, Sports & Competitions, Travel and Food, USA

Becoming a Yenta

As spring turned to summer, more Jewish activities began to emerge. It was almost as if the collective Hebrew community was dipping its toe in the water of social gatherings. Outdoors and with everyone at least six feet apart, I attended shul for the first time in months. In the midst of the swaying and chanting that so often accompanied davening, I felt some sense of normalcy return. While there was no kiddush after services, some people lingered around to chit chat. [Teresa Konopka]

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Jewish Religion, Lifestyles, San Diego County, Teresa_Konopka

Seacrest Village may be answer for isolated Jewish seniors

Jewish seniors isolated during the coronavirus pandemic may be better off both physically and mentally by moving to the Independent Living section of Seacrest Village Retirement Communities, its president and CEO Pam Ferris says. [Donald H. Harrison, “Our Shtetl San Diego County column]

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Donald H. Harrison, Jewish Religion, Obituaries & memorials, San Diego County, USA