Travel and Food

New Zealand’s Jewish community is celebrating a new website, jewishlives.nz, in which Jewish Kiwis’ past, present, and plans for the future will be shared with each other and the rest of the world. New Zealand’s Jewish population is estimated at 7,500, out of a total New Zealand population of 4.2 million, according to the independent TotallyJewishTravel website. [Donald H. Harrison]

Two famous Israeli Poets, Natan Alterman and Zelda, will be featured at 7 p.m.  Tuesday, May 4, in a salute to  Jewish Poets of the Past. The evening presented by Jewish Poets—Jewish Voices, under the auspices of the Lawrence Family JCC’s Astor Judaica Library and the San Diego Center for Jewish Culture, will feature on Zoom two dozen readers and vocalists. [Eileen Wingard]

One hundred and four new immigrants (Olim) from North America, including three generations of a family from San Diego,  landed at Ben Gurion Airport on a specially chartered Aliyah flight by Nefesh B’Nefesh, facilitated in cooperation with Israel’s Ministry of Aliyah and Integration, The Jewish Agency for Israel, Keren Kayemeth LeIsrael (KKL), and Jewish National Fund-USA. [Nefesh B’Nefesh Press Release]

April 25 should have been a Jewish holiday. That date needs to be celebrated as San Remo Day. For on that date, in 1920, the leaders of the free world gathered in this Italian resort town to declare the establishment of a national home in Palestine. [Barry Shaw]

I created a simple flip book to get folks started on shul (synagogue) security.  The flip book will also help churches, mosques and temples to do the same. [Stephen D. Bryen]

In response to the evolving needs of unaccompanied children seeking asylum in the United States, U.S. Department of Health and Human services (HHS) on Thursday night, April 8, transferred 300 teenage girls from the emergency intake site at the San Diego Convention Center to another site at Fort Bliss in Texas. The transfer creates space in San Diego for an equal number of “tender-age” children (ages 5 to 12) and older siblings who have been in the custody of U.S. Customs and Border Protection. The new arrivals will be in San Diego on Friday.  [News release from Mayor Todd Gloria of San Diego]

Israeli President Reuven Rivlin has begun consultations with party leaders two weeks after Israel’s deadlocked elections. He met representatives of Likud on Monday, the first of a series of meetings planned with the 13 groups represented in parliament in the course of the day. Each group is to recommend a candidate to form the government