By Donald H. Harrison
NATIONAL/ INTERNATIONAL – U.S. District Court Judge Amy Berman Jackson told Roger Stone, his defense attorneys, and prosecutors not to make any statements that might prejudice a jury in the case in which he is accused of lying to Congress in its probe of possible Russian connections to President Trump’s successful 2016 campaign. The Associated Press reported the judge also ordered the principals not to make any statements to the media while entering of leaving the courthouse so as “to maintain the dignity and seriousness of the courthouse and these proceedings.” … Members of The Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations toured parts of Africa prior to arrival in Israel for a five-day confab with Israeli political leaders. Arthur Stark, president of the Conference of Presidents, said delegates left Africa “with a very strong sense of rebuilding ties between Israel and Africa and between the U.S. and Africa.” Conference Vice Chairman/ CEO Malcolm Hoenlein added, “What they need, Israel has on offer.” He also said that Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni “gave us a lecture on why the Jews have an historic right to be in Israel, even citing Biblical references.” … Kingsborough Community College Professor Michael Goldstein writes in the New York Daily News that the photo of his father Leon Goldstein, who was for 29 years the president of the college, was defaced by anti-Semites who wrote on it, “Fuck Trump Goldstein, Kill the Zionist Entity.” Michael says he too has been harrassed because by the school’s Progressive Faculty Caucus because “I’m Jewish, politically conservative and I believe in Zionism, the civil rights movement of the Jewish people.” With the help of the Lawfare Project, he has filed complaints with the federal Economic Employment Opportunities Commission and the New York State Division of Human Rights.
ISRAEL MATTERS – After the Jerusalem Post published a story about Benjamin Netanyahu in which it appeared that he had suggested Nazis and Poles worked together in the Holocaust, the Prime Minister’s office quickly demanded and received a correction saying he had referred to individual Poles, not the Polish nation. Nevertheless, according to the Reuters news service, Poland’s Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki cancelled his planned visit to Jerusalem later this week, announcing that Foreign Minister Jacek Czaputowicz would go in is stead … Whether this was a coincidence or a result of the flap, Netanyahu announced on Sunday he was turning over the portfolio of foreign minister to Yisrael Katz, who will hold it through the April 9 parliamentary elections. Katz will continue to serve as intelligence minister. Netanyahu, in addition to his service as prime minister, also retains the portfolio of defense minister.
THE U.S. – MEXICO BORDER – Imperial Beach Mayor Serge Dedera is part of a local coalition of elected officials who are hoping the federal Environmental Protection Agency to test ocean waters in the vicinity of the Tijuana River outfall for the effects of pollution. “It’s great regional effort,” Dedera was quoted in the San Diego Union-Tribune as saying.” But there’s been a sewer pipe broken in Mexico for two months spilling five to six million gallons a day. I go between being angry, optimistic and wanting to cry. But you have to keep moving forward.” … Times of San Diego columnist Raoul Lowery Conteras on Sunday sharply criticized White House Senior Advisor Stephen Miller, describing him as the “man behind Trump’s virulent views about immigrants of any sort, but of Mexicans and Latin Americans in particular.” The columnist went on to say that Miller’s “own immigrant grandparents, Jews from eastern Europe, would not be allowed to immigrate to the United States if Miller’s immigration scheme ever becomes law.”
SAN DIEGO COUNTY – The City of San Diego doesn’t have enough money to repair or replace its aging infrastructure. One proposed solution is to increase the fees property owners pay for water quality and flood-control projects, according to the Union-Tribune. San Diegan single-family home owners now pay 95 cents per month, described by City Councilwoman Dr. Jennifer Campbell as “really, really tiny amounts of fees.” In comparison, homeowners in Los Angeles pay $1.92, Monterey $5.44, Santa Monica $10, and Sacramento $11.31.
BUSINESS – Artist Avi Luvaton, aware that cases used by Sephardim to hold and protect the Torah can be heavy to carry, has designed several fashioned from carbon fibers, the same lightweight material used in airplane construction. Luvaton wants Jews to be able to dance more easily with their Torahs on Simchat Torah, according to his public relations representative Dvora Shimron.
SIMCHAS – Michael Bay, the producer and director of such films as Armageddon, Pearl Harbor, and the Transformer series, is 55 today. .. Jason Gordon-Levitt, who played Edward Snowden in Oliver Stone’s 2016 film Snowden, is 38 today.
OBITUARIES/ MEMORIALS – The late Ruth Goldshmiedova Sax, a Holocaust survivor who used her experience as a prisoner in three Nazi concentration camps, to speak out against hate groups, will be honored posthumously at the Annual San Diego County Women’s Hall of Fame Induction ceremony at 2:30 p.m., Sunday, March 3 at the Joe and Vi Jacobs Center, 404 Euclid Avenue. She will be represented by her daughter Sandy Scheller, who wrote her mother’s biography, Try to Remember – Never Forget, and who will premiere a movie with the same title about her mother’s life at 6 p.m., Sunday, April 28, at Tifereth Israel Synagogue, 6660 Cowles Mountain Boulevard. The public is invited to both events.
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Harrison is editor of San Diego Jewish World. He may be contacted via donald.harrison@sdjewishworld.com