Adventures in San Diego Jewish History, October 1, 1954, Part 1


Compiled by San Diego Jewish World staff

Tickets Go On Sale For Mrs. F.D.R. Talk
Southwestern Jewish Press, October 1, 1954, Pages 1, 8

Invitations have been mailed this week inviting members of the Jewish community to participate as “Patrons” in presenting Mrs. Franklin D. Roosevelt on November 11th at 8 p.m.

Patrons, besides receiving two reserved seats for Mrs. Roosevelt’s lecture at the Russ Auditorium,  will have the opportunity of meeting her at a reception planned following her address. Patrons tickets will be $25.00.

Jack Rittoff, chairman of the committee making preparations for the appearance of Mrs. Roosevelt under sponsorship of the Jewish Community Center, this week announced the appointment of several committee chairmen.

Mrs. Sidney Rose, president of the Women’s League of the Center, will coordinate the work of the Arrangements and Reception Committee. Arrangements for the affair will be in the hands of a committee headed by Mrs. Victor Selton. Mrs. Milton Roberts, president of the San Diego Section of the National Council of Jewish Women, has accepted the chairmanship of the Reception Committee.

“Patron” invitations will be headed by Mrs. Rodin Horrow, active Jewish communal leader.  All other ticket sales will be directed by Dr. Milton Schwartz.

Mrs. Roosevelt’s subject for her Armistice Day appearance will be “Is America Facing World Leadership?” The “First Lady of the World” will speak on behalf of the Jewish Community Center. All proceeds will go to sustain the non-profit activities of the Center.

General admission is $12.25 with only patron seats being reserved. Tickets will be on sale beginning October 11 at the Palmer Box Office, 640 Broadway, BE-9-4700; the Jewish Community Center, 32217 El Cajon Blvd., AT-1-7744; and the Jewish Federation office, 333 Plaza St., BE 2-5172.  Phone orders will be accepted.

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Nasatir To Head 100th Observance
Southwestern Jewish Press, October 1, 1954, Page 1

Dr. A.P. Nasatir was appointed chairman for San Diego’s observance of the Tercentenary, according to an announcement by Louis Moorsteen, president of the United Jewish Fund.  Celebration of the 300 years of Jewish life in America will be planned by a committee to be appointed by Dr. Nasatir in the near future.

Dr. Nasatir, eminent historian and professor at San Diego State College, is well qualified for this new assignment. A noted historian, he is steeped in the learning and history of the Jewish people.

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San Diego Responds to Cash Emergency U.J.A. Appeal
Southwestern Jewish Press, October 1, 1954, Page 1

The United Jewish Appeal’s emergency call last week for the raising of $50,000,000 cash project is unquestionably one of the most important single campaign enterprises of the U.J.A. in recent years,” Louis Moorsteen, San Diego Fund president indicated.  “It would be tragic,” Mr. Moorsteen stressed, “if the wonderful impetus of the extraordinary loan campaign which has recently raised more than $60,000,000 in cash – toward which San Diego Jewry borrowed $75,000 – were not permitted to continue for the lack of continued flow of funds.

The San Diego Jewish community is doig its share in this project.  Harry Snyder, treasurer of the Fund, reported. AT the September Board of Directors meeting, the Fund agreed to forward by October 25th an additional $35,000 to the United Jewish Appeal.

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New Subscribers
Southwestern Jewish Press, October 1, 1954, Page 1

Harry Apelman
Joseph L. Tuchin
Dr. Marvin Stein
L. Lassman
Dr. Harry A. Malin
Harold Weinberger
Mrs. Norman Schulman
Carl Beitner

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‘Thank You, San Diego!’

Southwestern Jewish Press, October 1, 1954, Page 1

Says a sailor on a carrier now in the China Seas, to Abe Friedman, USO-JWB Director.  He will miss the High Holy Days in San Diego and we will miss him.

USO-JWB
San Diego, Calif.
Dear Mr. Friedman:

May I wish you all, and the Jewish Community of San Diego, a very happy New Year and may you all be inscribed in the Book of Lifew for the coming year.

May I also thank you, your fine organization and community, in making my stay in your city a memorable one.

Your USO branch of the JWB deserves the utmost praise for the fine work it is doing in offering a home away from home for hundreds of servicemen in the San Diego area regardless of race or creed.

May I give special praise to the people who devote so much of their time to the USO activities, by donation so precious a thing as their own time.

God bless you all, and as the Navy would have it – Well done!

Sincerely yours,

Joel Gopoen

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Interesting Facts Told By Community Study Group

Southwestern Jewish Press, October 1, 1954, Page 1

Tabulation of the results of the interviews of 281 San Diego Jewish families indicated an overwhelming approval and need for a Jewish Community Center, according to a preliminary report by Victor Schulman and Milton Fredman, co-chairmen of the Jewish population Study Committee.  90 percent of the families interviewees stated they would support a Center while 84 percent would use it if located at 54th and University.

The arrival this week of MR. Myron B. Blanchard of the National Jewish Welfare Board spurred plans to begin the second phase of San Diego’s Jewish Community Study.  Committees to study the various needs of the Jewish community and to interpret facts brought out by the populations survey are now in the process of being appointed.

Some of the facts uncovered about the Jewish community are that there re slightly more than three people in the average Jewish family; 52 percent are female and 48 percewnt male; seven and three-tenths percent of the Jewish population is over 60 years of age. The largest number, 36 percent, are found in the under 2w0 and over 41 age groups.

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Jewish Community Center Chooses Architect for Bldg
Southwestern Jewish Press, October 1, 1954, Page 1

George Lykos, prominent San Diego architect and member of A.I.A. and is associate, Sidney Goldhammer, were selected as the architects for the new Jewish Community Center building, according to an announcement by Edward Breitbard, president.

The building is to be erected o a 2 ½ acre site located on 54th St. just north of University Ave.  The structure, to be designed by Lykos, will when completed, contain sorely needed facilities for the use of the Jewish community. Among facilities planned are a swimming pool, gym, health club, library, arts and crafts rooms, auditorium, game room, snack bar, meeting rooms of all sizes and many others.  In announcing plans for the building, William Schwartz and Henry Rose, chairman of the Building Committee, stated that the physical plant would be a Jewish community building containing the offices of all of the Jewish agencies including the Federation and the United Jewish Fund.

Lykos and Goldhammer were selected by the board of the Jewish Community Center on recommendation of an architectural committee from a field of six noted architects who were interviewed by the committee. Mr. Lykos has established himself as one of San Diego’s outstanding architects thorough his work on the recently completed San Diego Juvenile Hall, the Louisa May Alcott School, twelve major theatres, built in Mexico, and has recently been appointed architect for the Oceanside Civic Auditorium

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Yom Kippur Services
Southwestern Jewish Press, October 1, 1954, Page 1

Beth Jacob
Wed. Oct 6, Kol Nidre … 5:00 p.m.
Thurs, Oct 7 ………………..7:30 a.m.
Yizkor (Memorial Services,
Thursday, Oct. 7 ………..10:30 a.m.

Beth Israel
Wed, Oct 6, Kol Nidre … 7:00 and 9:00 p.m.
Thurs, Oct. 7 …10 a.m. –Sundown

Tifereth Israel
Wed., Oct. 6, Kol Nidre … ….. 7:00 p.m
Thurs, Oct. 7 ……………………… 8:00 a.m.
Yizkor (Memorial) Services…10:30 a.m.

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To See or not To See

Southwestern Jewish Press, October 1, 1954, Page 2

By Berenice Sooule

‘Stalag 17’ – Dramatists Donald Bevan and Edmund Trzcinski, having been inmates of the actual “Stalag 17 somewhere in Germany” have with a sure knowledge depicted the stark existence of American airmen POWs in barracks of a prisoners’ camp during World War II. As is well known by now, this play currently showing at the Globe, is as much comedy as melodrama. Seven of the eight leading New York critics voted it a “hit” when it opened on Broadway early in 1951 and it still carries a terrific punch.

The plot concerns the attempts of the men to discover the identity of the spy in their midst and their efforts to hold him incommunicado while two make their escape. This all leads up to a most spectacular climactic ending.

Designer Bob Corrigan has created a barracks interior which sets the mood the moment the curtains part and Craig Noel has instilled his actors with the required dramatic intensity.

Particularly outstanding and convincing in the all-male cast were Mike Monahan as the youngest and most naïve of the prisoners,  Lee Burton as the most maligned, and Cleto Fracchiolla as the Brooklyn-born Harry Shapiro.

Others who deserve special mention are Bob Finch, Jack Winans and Murray Schwartz in smaller roles.

International Film Series—For the first time in San Diego the University Extension of the University of California is offering a series of film classics. They will be shown at the Rio Theatre on Tuesday evenings at 7 and 9 p.m.

Scheduled are ‘Odd Man Out” on Oct 12; “The Baker’s Wife,” Oct. 26; “Open City,” Nov. 9 and “Ox Bow Inciden t,” Nov. 23.

Single admission tickets are 50 cents, series tickets are $1.50.  For further information you may call BE-9-9221.

Philharmonic Series—The S.D. Philharmonic Society will open its Winter Series of Concerts Sunday, Oct. 17 at the Russ with Werner Janssen conducting for the second season.

A second concert has been scheduled for Nov. 21 and special concerts for young people in the schools will be played on Saturday mornings prior to each Sunday concert.

Art Exhibit
– The San Diego Men’s Art Institute Inc. is sponsoring their first All San Diego County Art Exhibition Oct. 2 through Oct. 31 at the institute’s new gallery in the House of Charm in Balboa Park.

Paintings in all media and sculpture will be shown free to the public on Wednesday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday afternoons.

Open Forum—“Where not all think alike but all alike think” has been the goal of the San Diego Open Forum for many years and they have never shirked the responsibility in bringing to our community the great thinkers of our time.

The opening speaker, Will Durant, on Oct. 31, will have as his topic “The Conflict of Civilizations.” The well-known anthropo9logist and author, Margaret Mead, will speak later in the season.

Of great interest should be the pro-con discussion, “’The Israel-Arab Conflict,” presenting Dr. Guy Davis, Professor of Religion at Chapman College, recently returned from Israel and the Arab states, and Dr. John Boles, Professor of International Economics at Loyola University, formerly serving the U.S. Department as governmental representative in Saudi Arabia.

Season membership passes for the eight forums sell for the ridiculously low price of $5.00 and entitle the bearer to a preferred seat in the First Unitarian Church Auditorium after 7:15 on lecture nights, and before the doors are opened to the general public. Doors are opened to the public, admission free, at 7:45 p.m.

San Diegans know when they’ve got a good thing so take a tip from us – to be assured of a seat for this interesting and informative series – send your check to the S.D. Open Forum, 1541 6th Ave.

Top Hat, Et Al—Our once-a-year exposure to opera will take place Nov. 2 at the Fox Theatre. On that evening the San Francisco Opera Company will perform Pucini’s “Tosca.”

Dorothy Kirsten, soprano, and Brian Sullivan, tenor, head a cast of famous operatic personalities including Robert Weede, Salvatore Baccaloni, Desire Ligeti, Alessio De Paolis, George Cehanovsky, and Carl Palangi.  Ernesto Barbini is conducting.

TV Movies—KFMB-TV, Channel 8, is attempting to put a stop to all the gags about TV being synonymous with old movies. They’ve purchased 30 major studio “A” productions for the staion’s Saturday night movies at 10:30 p.m.

Titles and stars such as “Arch of Triumph” with Ingrid Bergman and Charles Boyer; Ava Gardner in “One Touch of Venus”; Olivia de Havilland in “The Dark Mirror;” “The Magnificent Doll” with David Niven and Shelley Winters, and Shakespeare’s “Macbeth” as produced by Orson Welles has been promised.

More TV
—Channel 8 has scheduled too, a Television Forum Series on local and world affairs sponsored by the Adult Education Department of the City Schools.  Ignatius Taubeneck will be moderator.

The subject for the opening program Wed., Oct. 6, at 10:15 p.m. is “Would Economic Embargoes Help Us Fight World Communism?” “Do We Know Our Latin American Neighbors?” is the subject for Oct. 13.

Anyone interested in participating as a member of the studio audience is asked to call Mrs. Pandora Donavan, CY-8-4681.

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“Three For Tonight” Premieres October 30

Southwestern Jewish Press, October 1, 1954, Page 2

The perfect combination of living American jazz, a great voice, a tremendously engaging personality, and a solid show is the best guarantee of entertainment – and it has been singer Harry Belafonte’s good fortune to find such a combination in his latest appearance in the Paul Gregory-Charles Laughton Production, “Three for Tonight,” which premieres in San Diego at the Russ Auditorium for one night only on October 30.  San Diego well remembers the last premiere Paul Gregory brought to San Diego which was “The Caine Mutiny Court Martial.”

Co-starred with Harry Belafonte, Marge and Gower Champion, two of Hollywood’s and the country’s brightest dancing stars, are rapidly gaining the reputation of being the first among the innovators of new dance and new dance routines.  The third star of “Three of Tonight” is Walter Schumann of “Dragnet” fame.

Mail orders only are being accepted at the present time by the deLannoy and Howarth Box Office,  Room 230, U.S. Grant Hotel.  Public sale of tickets will not take place until further notice.  Mail orders will receive preferential treatment.

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Hit Italian Film Showing at Capri
Southwestern Jewish Press, October 1, 1954, Page 2

“Rome 11 O’Clock” makes its premier San Diego showing at the Capri Theatre located at Park and University.

A true life drama, “Rome 11 O’Clock” startles movie-goers with the utilization of an incident which occurred recently in Rome when a group of young girls answering an advertisement for a typist are injured by the collapse of an old building stairway.

Roles of the various young job hunters are portrayed by a half dozen of Italy’s most attractive and talented actresses, including Lea Padovani, Lucia Bose, Eva Vanicek, Cala del Poggio, Elena Varzi and Delia Scala.

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World Politics Course To Start Here

Southwestern Jewish Press, October 1, 1954, Page 2

The University of California in cooperation with the American Foundation for Political Education is offering an extension course at the S.D. Public Library on “World Politics.”

Groups are limited to 32 people and registration should be made soon. The cost is $12.00 for one and $18.00 for married couples. A set of readings come with course.  No college education is required and no outside speakers will take part. No one particular point of view is presented as this is purely sa discussion group where some will agree or disagree.

More information can be obtained by calling the Library, BE-9-9221.  The discussion course starts Wed., Oct. 6.

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CMA Opens Season With Leonard Warren
Southwestern Jewish Press, October 1, 1954, Page 2

San Diego Civic Music Association announces the first concert of the 1954-55 season by presenting Metropolitan Opera baritone, Leonard Warren, at the Russ Audit., Saturday evening, October 2, at *;30.  This world-famous artist will inaugurate the current Metropolitan season, stepping before the curtain on opening night to sign the Prologue from “Pagliacci.”

Leonard Warren is a frequent performer on such major radio and television programs as Voice of Firestone and Toast of the Town. The baritone is currently on a coast-to-coast concert tour under the  management of S. Hurok.

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“Adventures in San Diego Jewish History” is sponsored by Inland Industries Group LP in memory of long-time San Diego Jewish community leader Marie (Mrs. Gabriel) Berg. Our “Adventures in San Diego Jewish History” series will be a regular feature until we run out of history.  To find stories on specific individuals or organizations, type their names in our search box.