San Diego County

$200m offered in match for Rady Children’s Hospital

In the past, philanthropists Ernest and Evelyn Rady donated $60 million and $120 million to Children’s Hospital, which renamed itself as Rady Children’s Hospital.  Now, the married philanthropists have offered to outdo themselves.  They promised to match $200 million in donations from other people in an effort to create a $400 million Rady Reimagine Fund to chart and implement the pediatric hospital’s growth. [Donald H. Harrison]

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Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Business & Finance, Donald H. Harrison, International, Middle East, San Diego County, Science, Medicine, & Education, Theatre, Film & Broadcast, Travel and Food

‘Hold These Truths’: A story we need to hear

Hold These Truths is a story we need to hear. Director Jessica Kubzansky describes it as “a love story between a man and his Constitution.” The true shonda is that Gordon Hirabayashi resisted injustice precisely because he believed in the noble ideals enshrined in our Constitution far more than the leaders who swore to uphold and defend them. [Eric George Tauber]

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Eric George Tauber, San Diego County, Theatre, Film & Broadcast

The emotion of Bloch’s ‘Schelomo’

Cellist Alisa Wallerstein’s dramatic, passionate playing was well-suited to the demands of Ernest Bloch’s grandiloquent Hebraic Rhapsody for cello and orchestra, Schelomo. In his musical attempt to present a portrait of the Biblical monarch, Bloch strives to reflect “the Jewish soul, the complex, glowing, agitated soul, that I feel vibrating throughout the Bible.” [story by Eileen Wingard]

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Eileen Wingard, Music, Dance, and Visual Arts, San Diego County

Cutting tuition, SDJA expands enrollment

For the second year in a row, San Diego Jewish Academy has been expanding its student base by cutting the cost of tuition.  In what is described as its “Open Door” policy, the school offers half-priced tuition – between $10,000 and $15,000 per year—for kindergarten and ninth grade students.  That rate follows the students through the following grades. [Donald H. Harrison]

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

Israel rabbi, student visit Seacrest Village residents

I first met 18-year-old Michal Sharon in the Seacrest Village dining room as she was hopping from table to table cheerfully introducing herself. She was fresh out of high school in Israel and chose to delay her required service in the IDF (Israel Defense Forces) to spend one year in San Diego as an emissary in a new-to-San Diego program. [Cantor Sheldon Foster Merel]

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Cantor Sheldon Foster Merel, z"l, Middle East, San Diego County

‘Stay in Mexico’ policy shifts charitable focus

After the Trump Administration’s “Remain in Mexico” policy was introduced in the summer, many asylum seekers were forced to stay in Mexico. While they wait for their court date, the need for shelters and other assistance in Tijuana has dramatically increased. Enter two grassroots organizations that were started in 2018 and early 2019 to support migrants in the Tijuana area. In 2018, Birdie Gutierrez, the daughter of migrant farm workers, founded Bridge of Love Across the Border and began to collect much needed items which were sent to migrant shelters in Tijuana. [Mimi Pollack]

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International, Mimi Pollack, San Diego County

Federation chips in $100,000 for JCC Maccabi Games

Board members of the Jewish Federation of San Diego County have voted unanimously to contribute $100,000 to help the Lawrence Family JCC to host the August 2-7, 2020 JCC Maccabi Games which are expected to bring to San Diego 2,000 athletes from all over the world. [Donald H. Harrison]

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Donald H. Harrison, Judaism, Music, Dance, and Visual Arts, Obituaries & memorials, San Diego County, Sports & Competitions

Walmart’s pharmaceutical mitzvah

A mildly demented and slightly disheveled gray-haired man comes to the window and says “I need to fill this prescription.” His mentally ill girlfriend blurts out he just had a heart attack and needs his blood pressure medicine filled. I overhear the technician at the window explaining to them that he does not have any type of health insurance to cover the cost of the medication.  He asks the cost and is told it $48 for a one-month supply of his potentially life-preserving drug (and this is at a community healthcare facility for the poor and indigent). [Ben Dishman, PharmD]

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

A freshened grinch at the Old Globe

Just as September’s high holidays are  marked by boxes of matzo ball soup on Von’s endcaps, so the annual Christmas season is heralded by  the Old Globe’s production of How the Grinch Stole Christmas. The show opened last night to a full house and an enthusiastic fan base welcomed all the Whos from Whoville, Max the loyal dog, and the once-curmudgeonly Grinch who did teshuva. [Eva Trieger]

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Eva Trieger, San Diego County, Theatre, Film & Broadcast

Chabad of Poway’s Rabbi Yisroel Goldstein retires

Never able to shake off the painful memory of having his fingers shot off by an intruder at Chabad of Poway nor of seeing congregant Lori Gilbert-Kaye murdered and two other congregants wounded, Rabbi Yisroel Goldstein has decided to retire. [Donald H. Harrison]

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Donald H. Harrison, Jewish History, Jewish Religion, Middle East, San Diego County, Theatre, Film & Broadcast

Event marries Shabbat, Breast Cancer Awareness

Becky Krinsky, who organized the Pink Challah Bakes, both in Bonita and across the border at the Centro Social Israelita of Tijuana, said there were several reasons for merging Shabbat San Diego with breast cancer awareness. Noting that women traditionally make the challah that Jewish families eat on Shabbat, she commented that “breast cancer affects mainly women.  We all have either one person who died from cancer or we know someone who is struggling with cancer, so I think it is a beautiful idea to unite us in praying for everybody and getting both things at the same time.” [Donald H. Harrison]

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

‘Superstar’ rocks on Broadway

The scenic design by Tom Scutt is a construction site with bare girders  –possibly for downtown condos that few of us can actually afford. And just as many churches have foregone traditional pipe organs and choirs, the traditional orchestra hidden in the pit has been traded in for a rock band incorporated into the set. [Eric George Tauber]

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Eric George Tauber, San Diego County, Theatre, Film & Broadcast