Items in today’s column
* Responding to Hate Crimes
* Remembering Binnie Brooks, z”l
Responding to Hate Crimes
SAN DIEGO — Writers Lyndsay Winkley and Lauryn Schroeder of the San Diego Union-Tribune compiled figures from various municipalities on 437 hate crimes committed in this county from 2014 to 2018. They found that most incidents were directed against the LGBTQ community (119), closely followed by the African-American community (113). Far less harassed during this period were Latinos (45 incidents) and Jews (32).
Some of the incidents against the Jewish community over the five-year period under study were acts of vandalism. In many cases, the perpetrators still are unknown.
The figures do not include the Passover 2019 attack on Chabad of Poway, in which congregant Lori Gilbert Kaye was murdered and Rabbi Yisroel Goldstein and two other congregants were wounded. Nor does it include the discovery late last month of two bullet holes in the exterior wall of a classroom at Temple Emanu-El.
Many people who hope to put an end to mass shootings favor stricter national laws that would ban assault weapons for non-military use, and require strict background checks before people are permitted to purchase weapons.
State Senate President pro tempore Toni Atkins of San Diego recently pointed out in a report to constituents that the person responsible for the murders of two children and one adult at the Gilroy Garlic Festival obtained his weapon from the neighboring state of Nevada. He thereby was able to elude the guns laws of California, which Atkins describedas follows in her report.
We’ve restricted who can legally sell firearms, and how they can sell them. We’ve required a waiting period between sale of a firearm and possession, barred anyone younger than 21 from purchasing a gun, and limited purchases to one gun per month. We’ve banned those who are prone to violence from buying firearms. We’ve restricted sales of ammunition in various ways. We’ve strengthened our laws on where and how guns can be carried. And we’ve banned certain high-powered weapons that have no place in the hands of anyone who is not in the military and fighting on a battlefield. Additional gun-control measures are currently under consideration in the Legislature.
In addition to national gun laws, I believe something else also is needed. We need to recognize that hateful speech can trigger mentally unstable people to try to take matters into their own hands. I believe that some of the mass killers were prompted to rectify through violence what they heard or thought they heard was wrong with this country.
If what I fear is true, then every time a candidate denounces people by their national origin, race, religion, gender, sexual orientation, or any other characteristic with which they are born, that candidate is endangering the peace of our society. Leviticus 19:14 instructs us: “You shall not curse the deaf, and you shall not place a stumbling block before the blind…” The idea behind this is that we don’t exacerbate the weaknesses of others. Hatred is such a weakness, and we ought not to fan hatreds.
We are fast approaching some important 2020 election campaigns in which the rhetoric is likely to become destructive unless candidates curb their tendencies to win at any cost. I’m especially worried about what kind of rhetoric we will hear in the U.S. presidential race, the 50th Congressional District in California, and the mayoral race of the City of San Diego.
I hope all the candidates in these and other races will refrain from the politics of personal destruction, will treat their opponents with respect, and will give voters the opportunity to make decisions based on issues, not on personalities. I believe that, as Jews, we should hesitate to vote for anyone who tries to promote his or her election by engaging in lashon hara (evil speech).
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Remembering Binnie Brooks, z”l
Most newcomers at Tifereth Israel Synagogue, if they knew Binnie Brooks at all, knew her as the quiet lady with a ready smile who typically sat on an aisle seat in the fourth row from the back of the sanctuary and participated quietly in the service. She died on August 29 at the age of 96, leaving as survivors her daughters Susan Brooks and Barbara Mendell.
Binnie Brooks was laid to rest on Friday in the Shalom Garden of Greenwood Cemetery, where her late husband, J. David Brooks, has been awaiting her since 1975. They were married in 1943. Conservative Rabbi Joshua Dorsch of Tifereth Israel officiated at the funeral service.
Rabbi Dorsch commented that Binnie’s father Joseph Gelman had been a gabbai of Tifereth Israel Synagogue, after the congregation had moved from 18th Street to 30th & Howard, changing from Orthodox to Conservative in the process. Today the congregation has had only four rabbis since the switchover in the 1940s: Rabbis Monroe Levens z”l, Aaron Gold z”l, Leonard Rosenthal, z”l, and Joshua Dorsch.
“Binnie always arrived at Shabbat services early in the morning, and when I arrived she would greet me with a big smile,” Dorsch recalled.
Binnie and her husband, J. David Brooks, had been leaders in the Jewish War Veterans, with David taking command of Post 185 the same year that Binnie headed the women’s auxiliary.
Activities of the Post and Auxiliary included raising money for amenities to ease the lives of patients at the Naval Hospital adjacent to Balboa Park, participating in various patriotic events around the county, and hosting important speakers.
A lover of theatre, Binnie Brooks once was named as “Volunteer of the Year” at the Old Globe Theatre.
(Binnie and David Brooks were contemporaries of Mrs. Gabriel (Marie) Berg, a Jewish community leader in whose memory Inland Industries Group helps sponsors obituaries and memorial notices that appear on San Diego Jewish World. )
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Harrison is editor of San Diego Jewish World. He may be contacted via donald.harrison@sdjewishworld.com