Butterfly Project striving to memorialize each of 1.5 million children lost in the Holocaust
Cheryl Rattner-Price, co-founder and executive director of the Butterfly Project, said 212,238 butterflies have been painted and exhibited around the world in an effort to represent the 1.5 million children who were murdered in the Holocaust.
The non-profit organization hopes to have one ceramic butterfly for each of the juvenile victims of the Holocaust on display around the world.
In a newsletter, Rattner-Price said, “In the last year, we have reached 59 public schools, 6 universities, 31 Jewish organizations, 5 museums, and 15 interfaith organizations.”
She reported that an “exhibit and training are slated to begin in the Spring of 2019 at Chula Vista Civic Center Library. Programming will include trainings, school field trips, public programming with our film NOT The Last Butterfly and the creation of public community butterfly installations, a lasting legacy resulting as the culmination of all of this learning.” — From The Butterfly Project
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Susan Davis among 108 members of Congress urging action on climate change
Congresswoman Susan Davis (CA-53) joined 107 House colleagues in calling on President Trump to take action to address the warnings laid out in a federal report on climate change. Known as the Fourth National Climate Assessment (NCA), the report details serious and devastating consequences unless more is done to reduce pollution and carbon emissions. Despite the level of evidence provided in the report, Trump has dismissed the findings.
“We ask that you heed the dire warning of the Fourth National Climate Assessment and work with us to protect the health of our planet,” the Members wrote. “It is the most comprehensive science-based evaluation of the consequences of climate change, the risks of inaction, and potential adaptation strategies for the United States to date. The NCA adds to the overwhelming research indicating that the consequences of inaction on climate change will be serious and swift.”
The full letter can be read here. — From Congresswoman Susan Davis
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Gail Reiss to head North American fundraising for Jewish Agency for Israel
The Jewish Agency for Israel on Tuesday announced Gail Reiss as the new President and CEO of Jewish Agency International Development (JAID), which was created in 2010 to serve as the organization’s fundraising arm in North America.
Reiss joins The Jewish Agency from American Friends of Tel Aviv University, where she served as President and CEO, having previously served as Vice President of the UJA-Federation of New York’s Philanthropic Leadership Group. Reiss has also held several prior senior positions with the UJC-JFNA which have included multiple partnerships with The Jewish Agency, including the planning of the National Campaign Chair and Directors’ mission, and all major gift missions.
Reiss will commence her position on January 22, 2019 and will be based out of the organization’s New York office. — From the Jewish Agency for Israel
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San Diego-trained swimmers set world records in China
Six swimmers who train at the Lawrence Family JCC in San Diego have won 21 medals in the FINA World Swimming Championships which concluded earlier this week in Hangzhou, China. Team Elite is led by San Diego-based coach David Marsh and funded by the Stand by Me Foundation.
These medal achievements were topped by four world record breaking races by Michael Chadwick, Katie Meili, Kathleen Baker and Kendyl Stewart across the 4×100 Men’s Freestyle Relay with a new top time of 3:03:03, the 4×50 Men’s Freestyle Relay at 1:21:80, the 4×50 Women’s Medley Relay at 1:42:38, and the 4×50 Mixed Medley Relay at 1:36:40.
Michael Chadwick won four gold medals across four races; 4x50m and 4x100m Men’s Freestyle Relay, the Mixed 4×50 Medley Relay and the 4×50 Mixed Freestyle Relay, Chadwick also won a silver medal in the Men’s 4×50 Medley Relay.
Kathleen Baker took home four medals, two gold in the Women’s 4x50m and 4x100m Medley Relay, as well as one silver in the Women’s 200m Backstroke and a bronze in the Women’s 200m Individual Medley.
Lia Neal earned four medals, bringing home three gold in the Women’s 4x100m Medley Relay, the Women’s 4x50m and 4x100m Freestyle Relay, and a silver medal in the Women’s 4x200m Freestyle Relay.
Kendyl Stewart also earned four medals, three of which were gold in the Women’s 4x50m and 4x100m Medley Relay and the Mixed 4x50m Medley Relay, alongside a silver medal in the Women’s 100m Butterfly.
Katie Meili earned three golds in the 4x50m and 4x100m Women’s Medley Relay and the Mixed 40x50m Medley Relay, as well as a silver medal in the Women’s 100m Breaststroke.
Team Elite swimmers are a premiere high-performance swim training group, now based in San Diego, who since 2016 have placed more athletes on the US Olympic team than any other program. If Team Elite were a country, they would have placed 3rd in the medal standing in Rio. Despite their great success on the podium, Team Elite and swimming in the USA is still an under-funded and under-supported sport.
The Stand by Me Foundation actively supports American elite swimmers by providing financial assistance. Team Elite is the first swim squad to see financial backing in order to pay for swimming pool access, coaching fees, housing and medical care. The Stand by Me Foundation has been incorporated earlier this month by David Marsh, alongside Marc Huberty who has fostered European swim talent for decades, and recognized Olympic sports commentator Ambrose “Rowdy” Gaines, who won gold in the 100-meter swim at the 1984 Los Angeles Summer Olympic Games. Stand by Me aims to grow the sport of swimming, promote water safety and train American athletes who often receive little to no financial support.
The United States is one of the few countries with a government that does not provide funding for its Olympic level swimmers. The average income of most Olympic hopefuls is less than $20,000 per year, however the majority of elite athletes incur expenses of $25,000 to $40,000 annually for coaching, equipment and travel. Therefore, support from organizations such as the Stand by Me Foundation is essential to ensuring the success of American swimmers and achieving great results at the 2020 Summer Olympic games in Tokyo.
‘I’m very excited about the creation of the Stand by Me Foundation because it will provide much needed support for the swimmers who work extremely hard and are role models for so many young children across America”, said David Marsh, Head coach of Team Elite. — From Stand by Me Foundation
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Six Israeli professors will teach 15 classes in San Diego
The Murray Galinson San Diego-Israel Initiative has announced that six Israeli professors will be teaching courses at universities in San Diego during the next academic year starting in September. In total, they will teach 15 different classes.
The professors and their fields of study are:
Erez Ben-Yosef (Tel Aviv University) is a professor in the department of archaeology and the graduate program in archaeology and archaeomaterials at Tel Aviv University. He is best known for leading 21st century digs at the ancient copper mines in Israel’s Timna Valley where he made new discoveries concerning the mystery of King Solomon’s Mines. An article on his findings was recently published in National Geographic.
UCSD Classes:
Past, Present and Future Perspectives on Natural Resources in Israel
Environmental Hazards in Israel
Archaeology’s Role in Building National Narrative: Israel as a Case Study
Yehuda Goodman (Hebrew University) is a professor in the department of Sociology and Anthropology at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. His fields of interest are psychological anthropology, medical anthropology, and anthropology of religion. His research focus is on the ways identities are formed, manufactured and negotiated in the contexts of social and political contestations. Most recently, he has studied Jewish conversion issues among Russian and Ethiopian immigrants in Israel.
UCSD Classes (Gloria and Rodney Stone Visiting Professorship)
Special Topics in Sociocultural Anthropology: State, Nation-building, and Healthcare in Israel
The Anthropology of Mental Health in Israel and the Diaspora
Graduate Seminar
Luba Levin-Banchick (Bar-Ilan University) is a political scientist and historian, studying the evolution of conflict and peace in contemporary international relations of the Middle East. Her expertise is in the field of global and regional security, international crisis escalation and recurrence, domestic and transnational terrorism, cooperation and violence between rivalries, and nonstate actors. In 2017, she won the Teaching with Impact Best Syllabus prize from the Israel Institute for the course she developed on “Terrorism and Counterterrorism: Israel.”
SDSU Classes:
Arab-Israeli Relations, Past and Present
Politics and Conflict in the Middle East
Gilad Shtienberg (University of Haifa) studies long-term climate change in Israel and neighboring lands as a model for more general issues of global environmental change. He specializes in the understanding theoretical and practical aspects of the landscape changes that occur in the dynamic environments of the coast zone. His recent projects focus on human settlement during the Biblical periods along Israel’s northern Mediterranean coast.
UCSD Classes:
Special Topics in Anthropological Archaeology
Sea Level Change: The Israel Case in World Perspective
Coastal Geomorphology and Environmental Change
Marik Shtern, Post-Doctoral Fellow (Ben Gurion University) is a researcher at the Jerusalem Institute for Israel Studies, where his field of research is the geography of Jewish-Arab relations in Jerusalem. He specializes in the sphere of community empowerment and strategic consulting for third sector organizations (civil society) in the fields of social and political change in Jerusalem.
UCSD Classes (Joseph Glickman, z”l, Visiting Professorship)
Special Topics: Communities and Conflict in Jerusalem
Urban Sociology: Learning from Israeli Cities
Ronit Weiss-Berkowitz (Tel Aviv University) teaches screenwriting at the Steve Tisch School of Film and Television at Tel Aviv University and is one of the founders of the Screenwriting Program at the Sam Spiegel Film and Television School in Jerusalem. She has been a writer on several television series, directed documentaries and also served as a script editor on two series. She is well known in Israel for the drama “A Touch Away” and the documentary,” A Place Under the Sun.” She was Editor-in-Chief at Keter Publishing House, one of the largest publishers in Israel, and has edited books by celebrated writers, including Amoz Oz, Shemi Zarhin, and Nava Semel.
SDSU Class:
Techniques of Screenwriting — From Murray Galinson San Diego-Israel Initiative
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Hadassah applauds Senate resolution to recognize Israeli sovereignty over the Golan
Hadassah, the Women’s Zionist Organization of America, Inc. (HWZOA), has applauded a resolution introduced by Senators Ted Cruz and Tom Cotton’s calling for the United States to officially recognize Israeli sovereignty over the Golan Heights. HWZOA will always advocate for Israel’s safety and security, and so it is without question that we stand with the duly democratically elected government of the State of Israel in declaring that the Golan Heights will always be part of Israel.
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Mormon leader tours American Jewish Committee headquarters
Elder Quentin L. Cook, an apostle of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, visited the American Jewish Committee (AJC) headquarters Tuesday to meet with senior leadership of the global Jewish advocacy organization.
Elder Cook is a member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, the Church of Jesus Christ’s second-highest governing body, the highest being the First Presidency. His visit was the second by top Church leaders to AJC headquarters. In 2014, two apostles, Elders L. Tom Perry and D. Todd Christofferson came to AJC, a historic visit that further deepened and expanded the relationship between AJC and the Church.
“AJC’s relationship with The Church of Latter-day Saints is about shared values, mutual dedication to our peoples’ continuity, and commitment to the U.S. as a country of immigrants where the rights of all, particularly minorities, must be protected,” said AJC President John Shapiro at the start of the luncheon conversation.
“Latter-day Saints and Jews have a natural connection,” said Cook, referring to similarities between the two faiths, particularly in their focus on education. Cook noted that the Church’s support for the Jewish return to their holy land predates Israel’s founding by more than a century. “On a personal level there have always been relationships,” said Cook, adding that AJC has had a role in advancing the more formal leader to leader dialogue.
The relationship with the Church, a fast-growing faith group, is a priority for AJC in its pioneering interreligious work. High-level national AJC delegations visited Latter-day Saints Church headquarters in August 2012 and November 2013. Elder Cook led AJC leadership in a tour of the Church’s Philadelphia Temple before its dedication in August 2016. Earlier this year, AJC representatives constituted the sole national Jewish organizational delegation attending the funeral of longtime Church president Thomas Monson.
AJC also has initiated Jewish dialogue with Latter-day Saints in cities across the United States and several AJC regional delegations have met with key Church figures in Salt Lake City.
“The strength of the relationship has been our ability to identify shared interests and elevate them,” said Shapiro. “When there have been crises in the relationship, such as the posthumous baptism controversy, the Church and the Jewish people, with AJC leadership, have engaged to solve our differences, to strengthen our relationship.”
Rabbi Noam Marans, AJC’s Director of Interreligious and Intergroup Relations, who also spoke at the lunch meeting, has been central to AJC’s positively evolving ties with the Church. In addition to Shapiro, AJC Board of Governors Chair Harriet Schleifer and Honorary President Stanley Bergman participated in the meeting. — From American Jewish Committee
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Preceding items culled from news releases. Please send yours to editor@sdjewishworld.com