(Column 9, January 12, 2011)
By Donald H. Harrison
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Jewish Organizations
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The Center for Jewish Culture is sponsoring a poets’ night at the Samuel & Rebecca Astor Judaica Library at the Lawrence Family JCC. at 7:30 p.m., Jan 18. Heading for the microphone are local poets Ron Horvitz, and husband and wife Howard Rubenstein and Judith Rubenstein. An open microphone will follow. … Same time, same place on Thursday, January 20, Lorraine Lotzof Abramson will tell of her life as a young female athlete in South Africa and her growing dicomfort with the apartheid system under which she had many privileges. Her lecture is based on her book, My Race.
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Shoshana Cohen, a fellow at Shalom Hartman’s Institute’s Nashim Beit Midrash for Gender and Judaism will deliver two lectures during a Jan. 21-22 Shabbaton at Tifereth Israel Synagogue. The first at 6:15 p.m., she will tell how the Babylonian Talmud revolutionized Jewish environmental ethics. At morning Shabbat services the following day, Cohen will discuss “Fire and Water as Images of Torah–The Power of Law That is Revealed.”
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Judy Gumbiner will be honored with the Tifereth Israel Sisterhood’s “President’s Award at a luncheon following Shabbat services on Saturday, January 29, at the Conservative congregation.
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Seacrest Village Retirement Communities is planning a black tie-optional event Saturday evening, Feb. 5, at the Del Mar Fairgrounds, which will be transformed into a “magical winter wonderland” in honor of the Women’s Auxiliary of Seacrest Village’s 33rd annual gala. Following an outdoor reception with jazz entertainment by “Mr. Freeze and the Freezettes,” the reception will move to a main ballroom for a live auction, dinner and an ice exhibition show. Bidding will be on such items as a three-day retreat at the Golden Door Spa, one-week stay at Rancho La Puerta, a diner for 10 donated by Jeffrey Strauss of Pamplemousse Grille as well as a variety of entertainment packages. Barry Schneider, executive chef of Premier Food Servicews, will be preparing entrees of filet mignon and grilled king salmon along with a variety of deserts.
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Husband and wife team Rabbi Yosef Gavriel Bechhofer and Dr. Shani M. Bechhofer will be co-scholars in residence at Beth Jacob Congregation Friday and Saturay, Jan. 21-22. On the second day of the Shabbaton, Rabbi Bechhofer will invite males to join him in a class discussing “Men’s roles in Judaism,” while Dr. Bechhofer leads the females in a discussion of Women’s Roles. The two groups will then come together for a panel discussion and perhaps a showdown.
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NCSY San Diego (formerly known as National Conference of Synagogue Youth) is asking for donations of seeds of various kinds for replanting in the Carmel Forest, which was devastated by Israel’s worst fire. In a video, Batel and Benji Darey, Natania Feifel, Efraim Liebman, Sariv Mizan and Sean Simhon say that NCSY graduates who are now studying in yeshivot in Israel will personally do the planting in order to restore the beauty of that portion of Israel. You can send your seeds–of for that matter, helpful monetary contributions–to Seeds, PO Box 151235, San Diego, CA 92175
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Jews in the general community …
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Leon Natker, general director of the Lyric at the Birch, announces that his production of The Gondoliers will update the Gilbert and Sullivan play from 1888 to post-World War II. In the play, the gondoliers learn that though they were raised as brothers, one of them was adopted and is the hereditary king of a neaby kingdom. There are two problems: First, no one is sure which brother is which, and second, both brothers already have taken wives. Natker will conduct the music for the light-hearted theatre piece, to be presented Feb. 4, 6,, 10, 12 and 13.
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Gary Jacobs, who owns the Lake Elsinore Storm Class-A Baseball Franchise has approved numerous promotions during the upcoming season. In April, for example, there will be two fireworks Fridays, a century night (in which 100 promotions will occur during a single game); Fat Tuesday (when fans can buy ‘all you can eat’ meals at the concession stands); science night (when local science programs are advanced); and Thirsty Thursday (when beverages are $1).
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Harrison is editor of San Diego Jewish World. Items for this column may be submitted via sdheritage@cox.net