Adventures in San Diego Jewish History, April 19, 1957, Part 2

Press Notes
Southwestern Jewish Press, April 18, 1957, Page 3

By Julia Kaufman

Sound Off! 1-2-3-4

During and after the last war, because of my U.S.O. affiliations, I attended many Naval ceremonies in this area.  Last Saturday, I had a personal interest in the graduation exercises for “Boots” at the Naval Training Center. I had been invited to attend by an 18-year-old friend, who has been spending his off Sundays at my home.  Heretofore, I had relaxed and  enjoyed the lilting band music and rhythmic movement of the marching companies. On this day, out of a sea of white caps and blue uniforms, I strained to find the one familiar face.  Quite a task considering the fact that I did not know his company and there were over two thousand boys marching.  I didn’t spot my boy, but I did see faces that I would have otherwise missed. Instead of viewing digits in a row, I observed the different races represented and the varied physical characteristics of the individuals. Company Honormen included a boy from Mexico City, one from British Columbia and others from all over the United States. Integration as I saw it here would be a fine example for the rest of the country.

After the Review there were whale boat races with much excitement and cheering by the onlookers. In a Navy town we are prone to take the servicemen for granted.  You and your children would enjoy an occasional visit to the Naval Training Center on Graudation Day — every Saturday, at 10 a.m.  An invitation is not necessary.

I had witnessed the result of the preliminary nine weeks training.  What then  The following week, I bombarded Commander Elihu Rickel with all kinds of questions. For his patience and forbearance, I hereby recommend that he be given another service ribbon to add to the many now adorning his uniform.

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More than a military organization:  Commander Rickel has been a Chaplain in the Navy, both in reserve and active duty, for fourteen years.  He was formerly the religious leader of Congregation Beth El in Buffalo, N.Y.  During his years as a Chaplain he has seen combat service in four Marine campaigns — the last in Korea.  Among his service ribbons and citations is the Bronze Star, awarded to him for saving the lives of two Marines, wounded in a fox hole next to his at Iwo Jima. The duties of a Chaplain are varied.  He conducts services wherever he can–in shelters, fox holes, or medical bunker aid stations. He serves as liaison between the G.I. and his home, acts as a counselor and assumes responsibility for the general maintenance of morale.

In addition to his supervisory duties for the 11th Naval District in San Diego, Chaplain Rickel has responded, whenever called upon, to the needs of the civilian community.  He feels that the Navy today is far more than a military organization. It is a complex educational system with hundreds of schools specializing in various trades and professions. As we drove around the Training Center, he pointed out several of the 23 schools located on the base. Character education programs are also an important feature of the Navy’s attempt to influence both the thought and the behavior of its personnel in making a better adjustment in the Navy, as well as civilian life.

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Hounds ‘n Hares — The slim greyhounds started chasing the electric hare at Caliente, in Tijuana, last Friday.  As usual, the event was celebrated with a super cocktail party, banquet, gifts and flowers. The dog celebrate at the end of the season when they are permitted to catch up with their quarry and get a few frustrations of their “harey” chests.
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Mr. Leo Okin, Administrative Field Secretary for the Nat’l Jewish Welfare Board, visited our office last week.  He was interested in my column on Mexico because he had recently completed a comprehensive report on the Jewish community there. He said that 80% of all Jewish children attend Jewish schools. The Collegio De Israelit alone services1100 students from the four year odl level through college.

Mr. Okin complimented the San Diego Jewish Community for its leadership in J.W.B. programs. Twenty Centers on the West Coast are supporting the World Fellowship Program by sponsoring scholarships for forty teenagers to tour Mexico, two from each community.  Another scholarship program will send qualified Jewish college graduates to Graduate Schools of Social Work, in order that they may enter the Jewish field to meet the need for competent personnel.  (The scholarships are in the amount of $2,000.)

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“Sandarella” –So you don’t believe in fairy tales!  Drop into our office any day and we’ll introduce you to our own “Sandraella.” Each day she sits over a hot typewriter, feeding it endless sheets of paper.  Her pretty hands are black with carbon. Her mean boss thinks up all kinds of tortures such as proofreading, retyping illegible scrawls, and toughest of all — writing up society notes.  All this “Sandraella” suffers in silence. She knows that her big moment will come at night when she utters the magic word, “Ti-ger!” and is thereupon transformed into a beautiful glamour girl. All this you can see for yourself if you follow her to the Old Globe Theatre each night. Alas!  Poor ‘”Sandraella”  Instead of leaving a glass slipper, she exits by leaving a piece of cheese — her man-bait in the “Tender Trap.” Even a fairy prince wouldn’t marry a girl with a mouth big enough to fit over that hunk of cheese.  (If you are fortunate enough to get tickets, don’t miss this laugh-packed play.)

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Follow the News at the Burly-1ues! — Our local Burlesque House is featuring “Marsha, The Gaza STrip.”  
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My first night of Pesach was spent at the Hebrew Home for the Aged. I wondered how many memories were being recalled by the guests around the table. Were they thinking of happier days surrounded by their children, when the head of the house read the services?

I did a little recalling on my own. My Seders have, to say the least, been varied. In addition to those spent with family and friends, were the seders with our 70 boys at Surprise Lake Winter Camp for Underprivileged Children at Cold Springs, N.Y. … Seders attended by 400-500 servicemen during World War II — preceded by weeks of preparation by the good men and women in the communty…. Seders in Displaced Persons Camps in Europe –with prayers of thanks for survival, and tears over the deaths of loved ones, lost through blind hatred.

Q.  Why is this night different from all others?
A.  It is a time for remembering.

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The Ten Commandments
Southwestern Jewish Press, April 18, 1957, Page 3

By Philip L. Seman
University of Judaism

Samuel Goldman–The University of Chicago Press, 1956–225 Pages –$3.75

This book, the most universal influence from earliest times to our own day is Goldman’s last work and the first of his posthumous works. The reviewer, a lifelong friend of Rabbi Goldman, had the privilege of spending many days with him and looking over and discussing with him the tens of thousands of cards, notes and excerpts from every available source, ancient, medieval and modern Jewish and Christian which was the source material for his voluminous work.

The Ten Commandments is part of the general commentary which Rabbi Goldman planned on the Bible, as a whole, and it constitutes the closing section of his third volume, the last he lived to prepare.

The book is edited by his friend and well known author Maurice Samuels who wrote a fine introduction to the book.  In the introduction, Samuels says of Goldman, “A scholar and a specialist, he did not consider the Bible as primarily the domain of scholars and specialists.  He saw it as the Book of the People.”

In his fine forward, Samuels refers to Heine when he says “How little does Sinai appear when Moses stands upon it.” “This mountain,” Heine says, “is but the pedestal upon which there stands the feet of the man whose head towers into heaven where he speaks to God.”

As we read Exodus before we reach chapter XX verse 1:14, wherein we find the Ten Commandments, it is to be expected that nothing could be more simple than what is recorded. We read in chapter XX that Israel had left, or been led out of Egypt, to meet their God and after six weeks of marching, thirsty, starving and murmuring, they stood before the “Unapproachable, sacred mountain, the thick darkness of whose summit flashed with lightning and roared with thunder, and whose deep breast and massive bowels heaved and quaked at the echo of a stranger fantastic trumpet-blast that outroared the thunder’s peal.”

After Goldman discusses the original form, authorship and date of composition of the Decalogue, he says that in the form in which it has come down to us, it is probably the most widely known document in the occidental world and the one with which it is at least at ease.  He says also that anyone familiar with the ent of man’s imagination has remarked that he is a rarely good man who can hear the Ten Commandments read in public without experiencing some embarrassment.

In the twenty-five page bibliography, the editor, Maurice Samuels says that the bibliography is presented as it was left by Rabbi Goldman — largely, but not entirely complete, with full reference data. It indicates a breadth of Rabbi Goldman’s research as a means of guiding the reader to the wealth of literature dealing with his theme.

Your reviewer, as indicated in the fore part of this review, had the pleasure of seeing the treasure in the resource material largely on cards, which Goldman had carefully gathered an indexed which he planned to use in connection with what he hoped and planned for his thirteen volumes in his series “The Book of Books” that Harper Brothers, publishers agreed to publish.  Unfortunately for the world of scholarship, only two volumes were published by Harpers. The present posthumous volume is published by the Chicago University Press. We are greatly indebted to Maurice Samuels who edited the volume and wrote the introductions.

Your reviewer is grateful for the close relationship for a great many years that he had with Rabbi Goldman. It was a friendship the memory of which he deeply cherishes.

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Editorial: Cancer –Our No. 2 Killer
Southwestern Jewish Press, April 18, 1957, Page 3

The San Diego County Branch, American Cancer Society, is seeking to raise $142,515 during April for education, research and patient care.

On the night of Thursday, April 25, between 7 to 9 p.m., more than 5,500 Crusaders will call upon residents to contribute to this year’s Cancer goal. This is the first time in the 10-year history of the San Diego branch that such a canvass has been conducted.

During 1955, the most recent year for which complete official statistics are available, cancer killed 18,572 Californians. It is the second leading cause of death.

Sixty thousand Californians will be treated for cancer this year.  The lives of one-third of these patients will be saved. It is estimated that as many as one-half could be saved if every case of cancer were detected and treated in time.

The American Cancer Society is the only cancer fighting organization which devotes any portion of its funds to the support of cancer control projects in the communities where contributions are received. Forty percent of all money raised remains in San Diego County.

Cancer can be licked!  Support the cancer crusade by contributing to the drive now.

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As the Psychologist Sees You
Southwestern Jewish Press, April 18, 1957, Page 3

By Daniel H. Harris, Ph.D., Guest Columnist

Who’s Abnormal?

This is a sure-fire topic for a psychologist to talk about.  Next to the universal query, “What’s the difference between a psychologist and a psychiatrist>” the demand to know if this or that or he or she isn’t abnormal is the most likely hazard a stray psychologist can expect around the next turn of any conventional road, day or night.

It should be very simple. By definition, abnormality means different from the normal. Just decide what is normal, and there is no problem then in deciding whether any given this or that or he or she is abnormal or not…

What did you says? … You want to know what is normal? … Well, different people have different ideas about that.

From one point of view, the usual or most frequent is normal, and anything or anybody who is sufficiently uncommon or rare is abnormal.  Thus, statistically speaking, giants and dwarfs and geniuses and idiots, tornadoes and quintuplets and millionaires and paupers are all abnormal.  The term as thus used need not have any stigma attached to it, as any poor man can tell you.

Then there is the “adjustment” approach to the question. This is the idea that people who get along reasonably well with themselves and with other people–who take care of themselves, meet their responsibilities and keep out of trouble — these are normal people, while those who clearly fail to meet these standards are abnormal.  This idea seems to have merit, and underlies most of our current thinking and doing in the areas of mental health and psychotherapy.  It has its flaws an inconsistencies however.  What are we to say about someone who gets along well with his family but is a pariah on the job?  Is he normal or abnormal?  Or, are his family or his co-workers abnormal?  Many people now revered as pioneers or leaders were very poorly adjusted to those around them — even derided, thrown in jail, excommunicated or put to death. Were they abnormal? And what about a fellow like Col. Nasser, who apparently is quite pleased with himself and gets along just fine with everybody around him.  Is he normal?

There are still other ideas about what constitutes normality and abnormality; but my space and your patience are probably running out.  It does seem clear, tho, that there is no sure-fire answer to the sure-fire question. As Alice might have said it to the March Hare, a lot depends on your point of view.

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Temple Men’s Club
Southwestern Jewish Press, April 18, 1957, Page 3

Next meeting of the Temple Beth Israel Men’s Club will be April 30 at 8 p.m., in Temple Center. Mr. Mort Rosenbaum, chief engineer, General Dynamics, Astronomics Division, will discuss “Rockets–Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow.”

Refreshments will be served after the meeting.

(Suspect Honesty)
Southwestern Jewish Press, April 18, 1957, Page 3

The only man who brags about his honesty is the one who suspects he is suspected.
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Women Lead in Drive to Save Lives
Southwestern Jewish Press, April 19, 1957, Page 4

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(Party at Carters)
Southwestern Jewish Press, April 19, 1957, Page 4

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With the Guardians
Southwestern Jewish Press, April 19, 1957, Page 4

By Morrie Pomeranz

Hi-Lites of the April 11th dinner meeting: Satisfactory turnout considering that there were several conflicting affairs — the door prize, two bottles of liquid refreshment (jointly donated by Dave Sapp and Sol Price) — won by the last arrival–Max Rabinowitz–who had dinner at home–Harry Snyder and Al DeSure, as co-chairmen, announced that the Cadillac drawing will be held on June 9th at the Mission Valley Country Club — this is destined to become an annual event–if the first event  can adequately serve as a criterion, this one will be a sellout before publication of this article — as outlined to the members, there will be an excellent dinner, entertainment plus dancing for the purchasers of tickets — tickets will be $100.00 each with only 100 tickets printed — but the prime significance is that the Hebrew Home for the Aged is the sole recipient of all proceeds — the 1956 drawing netted the Home $5000 in cash — tickets (and few remain) can now be obtained by contacting either Al DeSure, Its Penter, Harry Snyder or Sammy Addleson.
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Sam Sklar startled a trio of listeners at the Mission Valley bar last Thursday when he observed, “I just talked to a guy this afternoon who shed 135 pounds of ugly fat and boy does he feel good!”  His audience, all diet conscious, was obviously impressed with Sam Porter, inquiring: “How’d he do it?” Said Sklar: “Ah, it was real easy–he divorced his wife.”

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Claim to fame can be attained via divers approaches — for some it may be recognition as an outstanding golfer — for another the ability to play a good hand of pinochle — but to Lou Steinman must be given credit of having employed a shipping clerk in St. Louis — a shipping clerk whose meteoric rise during the past several months has been witnessed by millions of TV viewers — Teddy Nadler at one time did work for Lou…

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Its Penter was telling Henry Price about a friend of his who made a killing on the stock market –“Yup,” mused Its, “he shot his stock broker.”

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The story is true–names must be omitted for a very simple reason — our principal character is a man of genuine philanthropy and any mention of his name would serve no useful purpose — for many years this patriarch has given a dollar bill to an incurable who dropped in weekly for his “handout” just as if he were on the payroll — this goes on for years and years — no questions were ever asked for none were necessary — time cemented the relationship between giver and taker to something much finer and richer than the basic giving and taking — and suddenly our little destitute individual disappears for about three weeks — discreet inquiries are made — but to no avail –but return he does from his confinement in the County Hospital — a little paler — and as our Guardian hands him a dollar bill, he shakes his head, “Uh Uh — you owe me for three weeks!”

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Rummage sale Chr. Appointed by J.W.V.
Southwestern Jewish Press, April 19, 1957, Page 4

AT the regular meeting of the Jewish War Veterans Auxiliary 185, President Sophie Silberman announced that the chairman of the Rummage Sale for this year would be Mrs. Dorothy Strauss, who will be assisted not only by a committee of Auxiliary members, but also by her “better half,” Bert.  Laura Simon offered storage room for the rummage which is located at 4054-45th St.  Anyone having rummage may take it to the above address, at any time, or should transportation not be available, please call chairman Dorothy Strauss at AT 4-5274.

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Yo-Ma-Co
Southwestern Jewish Press, April 19, 1957, Page 4

Because of some unfinished business, a special meeting is scheduled Wednesday night, April 24, at 9 p.m.  Vic Silverstein, presiding officer, urges all members to attend, as important matters are to be discussed.

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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, located just above the masthead on the right hand side of the screen.