San Diego County

Major Jewish groups to meet CV19 challenge together

Gary E. Jacobs, the San Diegan who serves as the national chairman of the JCC Association Board of Directors, declared Wednesday that “the Jewish community has historically overcome the greatest challenges only when we united and work together.  This is one of those moments when we in the JCC Community, along with the Federations, summer camps and so many others will collaborate to address this unprecedented crisis.” [Our Shtetl San Diego County column by Donald H. Harrison]

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Business & Finance, Donald H. Harrison, Music, Dance, and Visual Arts, San Diego County, The World We Share, Travel and Food, USA

Universities urge Pass/No Pass grades this semester

With in-person classes transferred to Internet learning at UC Berkeley, my grandson, Shor Masori, is back home in San Diego, monitoring his classes via computer.  Recently, he and his fellow undergraduates received a notice from Bob Jacobsen, Letters & Science Dean of Undergraduate Studies.  It began, “The chair of the Academic Senate has written to explain that for this semester only, the default grades that instructors will give are Pass and No Pass.” [Our Shtetl San Diego County column by Donald H. Harrison]

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Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Donald H. Harrison, Middle East, Music, Dance, and Visual Arts, San Diego County, Science, Medicine, & Education, Shor M. Masori, Theatre, Film & Broadcast, Travel and Food

The Jewish candidates: Sarah Davis in the 78th A.D.

Sarah Davis faces San Diego City Councilman Chris Ward, who is another LGBTQ Democrat, so such issues as gay rights, marriage equality, and others that in former years were hot topics will not be matters for much debate in the 78th Assembly District contest prior to the Nov. 3 runoff election.  However, Davis, a member of the Jewish community, says she and Ward have plenty of differences about such issues as placing greater emphasis on women’s health and fighting climate change. [Our Shetl San Diego County column by Donald H. Harrison]

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Donald H. Harrison, Lifestyles, Obituaries & memorials, San Diego County, Science, Medicine, & Education, USA

Assembly candidate advocated as a midwife

State Assembly candidate Sarah Davis, 39, is no stranger to the Legislature.  With baby Lucia in tow, she often made the rounds of legislative offices and committee rooms in the state Capitol arguing successfully for greater state recognition of midwives, so that they could be considered full-fledged health care professionals rather than semi-professionals requiring supervision by physicians.  The issue was important not only for the midwives but for the new mothers who preferred to be attended by them at home or in home-like clinics, rather than in hospitals.  Until the law was changed, without a physician present, Medi-Cal would not pay the cost for their treatment. [Our shtetl San Diego County column by Donald H. Harrison]

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

Waxie hires staff as demand for toilet paper, supplies swells

It’s not every day that Charles Wax, owner of Waxie Sanitary Supply, receives phone calls from mayors, county supervisors, or governors. But these are not everyday times. As the largest privately owned janitorial and sanitary supply company in America, Waxie Sanitary Supply stocks the bathrooms and janitorial supply cabinets of many schools, hospitals, government office buildings, prisons, and other institutions throughout the nine western states. To do so, it has 200 delivery vehicles stationed at 25 regional warehouses. Headquarters for the entire operation is in the Kearny Mesa neighborhood of San Diego. [Our Shtetl San Diego County column by Donald H. Harrison]

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Donald H. Harrison, Jewish Religion, Music, Dance, and Visual Arts, San Diego County

Jewish community establishes emergency Covid-19 fund

The Jewish Federation of San Diego County, the Jewish Community Foundation and the Leichtag Foundation have jointly created a new San Diego Jewish Community Covid-19 Emergency Fund “to support those who are most vulnerable and impacted primarily in San Diego’s Jewish community.” Co-chairing the effort are Emily Einhorn, Leo Spiegel, and Brian Tauber. [Our Shtetl San Diego County column by Donald H. Harrison]

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Donald H. Harrison, San Diego County, The World We Share, USA

Kibbutz with San Diego connections subject of new memoir

Located south of the Kinneret (Sea of Galilee) and about a kilometer west of Israel’s border with Jordan, Kfar Ruppin, a kibbutz with San Diego connections, is the subject of an enchanting memoir by Rachel Biale, a Berkeley, California, resident who grew up there. [Our Shtetl San Diego County column by Donald H. Harrison]

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

Local Jewish candidates series: Joe Leventhal

San Diego City Council candidate Joe Leventhal served on the City of San Diego’s Ethics Commission for only a year before resigning to run for office, but he’s proud that he has left behind what he says colleagues on the commission refer informally to as the “Leventhal Amendment.” [Our Shtetl San Diego County column by Donald H. Harrison]

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Donald H. Harrison, International, Jewish Religion, San Diego County, USA

Acts of joy might help overcome the coronavirus

e are definitely in uncharted territory. Today (Tuesday, March 17), for the first time, I had to livestream a funeral because of coronavirus and social distancing that is being mandated by governmental agencies across the country. My team spent hours yesterday developing Chabad Virtual Academy; a place where anyone, anywhere, can log in and participate in a class on varied Jewish subjects, or watch them at a later time. In this regard we are not unique. Thousands of institutions are doing the same; allowing people unfettered access to everything from Torah classes to opera. [Rabbi Yeruchem Eilfort]

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Jewish Religion, San Diego County, Yeruchem Eilfort-Rabbi

Council candidate tells of being Cheney’s gatekeeper

Attorney Joe Leventhal, who is seeking election in the 5th San Diego City Council District, once served as a “gatekeeper” for U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney, deciding what memos should go to him, which should first be vetted by others, and reading his proposed speeches for accuracy.  It was a pretty heady job for a young lawyer, just 26 years old.  Previously having served on the staff of U.S. Rep. Tim Johnson (R-Illinois), he had observed then that “Washington at the highest levels of government is actually run by all of these folks under 40, even under 30 — the Administration, Capitol Hill, even at the Supreme Court. [Our Shtetl San Diego County column by Donald H. Harrison]

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Donald H. Harrison, Jewish Religion, Lifestyles, San Diego County, USA

Candidate Joe Leventhal: A Jew with a Catholic family

San Diego City Council candidate Joe Leventhal says, “I’m Jewish and my family is Catholic.” He explained in an interview that although he had two Jewish parents, when they divorced, they both married non-Jews; his mother Deena Leventhal to a Catholic; his father Larry Leventhal to a non-practicing Christian.  Even when his parents were together, they were so secular that they gave him as a boy the choice of whether he wanted to attend Hebrew school to study for a bar mitzvah.  “I ended up saying no, and I regret it, and that is part of why I wanted my kids to be raised with religion because I felt I missed something being raised without it,” he said. [Our Shtetl San Diego County column by Donald H. Harrison]

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

JAFI brings teen emissaries in SD County home

Three Israeli youth who have been serving in San Diego County as shlichim (emissaries) for the Jewish Agency for Israel (JAFI) left for Israel on Sunday — their one-year tours in the United States interrupted by the shutdown of many area Jewish institutions in reaction to the spreading coronavirus.  Opportunities to interact with Jews on an organized level having been greatly reduced in San Diego County, the three 18-year-olds will return to Israel where, after a mandatory 14-day quarantine for all returnees to Israel, they will be able to do volunteer work and have Pesach seders with their families. [Our shtetl San Diego County column by Donald H. Harrison]

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Donald H. Harrison, Jerry Klinger, Middle East, San Diego County, Science, Medicine, & Education, The World We Share, Travel and Food, USA

Congresswoman Davis tells federal response to coronavirus

Like you, I am deeply concerned about the impact of the coronavirus (COVID-19) on our health, our loved ones, our lifestyle and our economy. As we continue to face this outbreak, I will keep updating you on what Congress is doing to counter the coronavirus (COVID-19) and its effects. My office is dedicated to keeping our constituents informed about the virus and focused on helping San Diegans who need assistance. [Congresswoman Susan Davis]

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San Diego County, Science, Medicine, & Education, USA

S.D. County battens down for coronavirus siege

Our county battened down on Friday to wait out a coronavirus siege, with Jewish and general community institutions announcing closures as a precaution to prevent the virus from spreading.  In addition to the developments reported on Thursday, there were these additional developments to report on Friday. [Our Shtetl San Diego County column by Donald H. Harrison]

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