Travel and Food

If excitement had a color, the atmosphere of Del Mar Race Track would have been bright yellow Friday as the 82nd race season opened. The parking lot attendants greeted attendees with huge welcoming smiles and “Good luck!” despite having to stand in the steamy un-San Diego-like heat. Employees embraced and whooped hellos to each other in the stairwells and on the terraces. The vendors were downright chatty as they charged patrons the requisite $13.50 for a six-ounce pour of wine or draught of beer. Everyone’s delight at returning to in-person horseracing was palpable. [Eva Trieger]

By Dorothea Shefer-Vanson DOMEYROT, France — Whenever I’m in France, usually for a month or two in the summer, I do my best to read and listen to (and speak) French. I listen to the French classical music program on the radio, where there seems to be rather a lot of talking. This usually consists

After more than six months and no public action by Johns Hopkins University to address its teaching assistant’s overtly antisemitic posts, the Louis D. Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law (LDB) and StandWithUs demanded in a joint letter that the leadership of Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland, finally publicly affirm that any attempt by faculty or staff to harass, marginalize, or discriminate against Jewish students based on their Jewish identity will not be tolerated. [StandWithUs, Louis D. Brandeis Center]

Cantor Sheldon Foster Merel, z”l, husband of Marcie Merel, z”l, passed away Saturday morning, July 10. He leaves behind children Joshua (Pamela), Daniel and Judith, and grandchildren Jessica (Shaun Miller), Jesse and Emily, and great-granchildren Benjamin and Elon. [Congregation Beth Israel news release]