Items in today’s column:
*‘Remembrance and Hope’ at Jewish Family Service depicts Holocaust Survivors’ lives
*Judy Gumbiner turns 75 with a big Tifereth Israel Synagogue celebration
‘Remembrance and Hope’ at Jewish Family Service depicts Holocaust Survivors’ lives
SAN DIEGO – That’s not a shin, nor is it a menorah, on a corridor wall of the Jewish Family Service Community Service Building on Balboa Avenue. It’s a six-paneled art piece, “Remembrance and Hope,” by Butterfly Project Co-Founder Cheryl Rattner Price that retells the stories before, during, and after the Holocaust about Survivors who resettled in San Diego with the help of Jewish Family Service.
“A majority of the photos and artifacts used in the piece were donated by local Survivors and their families, many of whom arrived in San Diego as refugees after the war,” noted Sol Kempinski, JFS Director of Philanthropy.
“In every way, this work is a celebration of their lives, their resilience, and their indelible contributions to the growth and strength of our community,” Kempinski added. “It is also a reflection of the vital role that JFS has played and continues to play in meeting the needs of San Diego’s Survivors.”
The frame of the art work was fashioned by Kevin Barrett from wood edged with steel, and then covered with epoxy so that sharp objects affixed to various panels would not harm passersby, according to Rattner Price.
The first two panels, reading from left to right, tell stories of Jewish life before the Holocaust. “What I wanted to be sure to depict was the variety of Jewish life,” said Rattner Price. “There were tailors, farmers, and aristocratic Jewish families living in very high societies of different nations. The challenge was how do we tell the story using ordinary objects like thimbles, baby shoes, and a tallit bag. Luckily for us, some of the survivors, miraculously, had photographs of themselves before the war.”
Among objects that Rattner Price found on eBay were a 1935 violin from Germany –“maybe it was played by a Jew who was forced to give it up” – and “a pocket watch from the 1930s. It has a crack, but it is the real deal.”
The third panel, shaped somewhat like a map of the State of Israel, contains various symbols of the Holocaust, including railroad tracks that twist and spin into a strand of DNA – affirmation, according to Rattner Price, that even though much of European Jewry was destroyed, Jews as a people continued to live, build and create.
The fourth and fifth panel tell of the Survivors experiences moving from Europe to San Diego, and the role JFS played in helping them adjust to their new lives and build their families and businesses.
Commented Kempinski of JFS: “This piece leaves a legacy of our unrelenting belief in the inherent dignity of every person and our ongoing commitment to caring for and remembering the stories of our Survivors. The hope is that future generations of staff, volunteers, clients, and donors will be able to reflect on and be inspired by Remembrance & Hope as they continue the work uplifting the vulnerable in our community.”
The sixth panel includes painted ceramic butterflies painted by Survivors and by members of the JFS staff, volunteers and donors, as part of The Butterfly Project’s mission to exhibit 1.5 million ceramic butterflies around the world in memory of the 1.5 million children whose lives were lost in the Holocaust.
If you look carefully at the bottom of this final piece, you will see hundreds of pieces of crystal agate that Rattner Price made to look like a chrysalis bursting open. They are intermingled with shards of iridescent glass donated by artist Allison Weisman of San Diego indicating sparks of light – an artistic reference to the Kabbalistic story of how the world was created.
Across the corridor from “Remembrance and Hope” is a video station created by Jason Alderman in which each of the hundreds of individual parts of the art work is described, along with further background. Additionally, visitors may call up videos, and listen on a head set, to interviews with Rattner Price and with various Survivors.
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Judy Gumbiner turns 75 with a big Tifereth Israel Synagogue celebration
More than 100 friends, relatives, and fellow congregants gathered at Tifereth Israel Synagogue Tuesday night, Sept. 3, to celebrate the 75th birthday of Judy Gumbiner, whose name for many years has been synonymous with leadership at San Diego State University.
The party, co-hosted by Gumbiner’s son Scott and daughter Hilary Mattes along with other family members and friends, featured a slide show of high points of Judy’s life, including her marriage to her late husband, Steve, and later in life companionship with Larry Vigdor; karaoke songs played by Scott and sung enthusiastically by some of the children at the gathering; and a Mandarin version of the “Happy Birthday” song led by Ping Gumbiner, the honoree’s daughter-in-law
Retired since 2004 as SDSU’s Director of Career Services, Judy is today an energetic volunteer, both for SDSU and the Conservative synagogue. She is active in San Diego State’s “Bridges, which “is basically a club for women to reach out to the community” that was started by Susan Weber, wife of former SDSU President Steve Weber. At Tifereth Israel Synagogue, she served for three years as president of its Sisterhood.
Born in Brooklyn and raised in Garden Grove, California, Judy came to San Diego in 1962 to attend San Diego State, where she became president of her dormitory, president of her sorority Alpha Epsilon Phi, and served as member of the AS Council. Additionally, she was honored successively as the sophomore, junior, and senior “Woman of the Year” before her graduation in 1966.
She took a job in Los Angeles for one year, then was invited by SDSU to apply for a position in the career services department, from which she rose over two decades to the top position. Altogether she was employed by SDSU for 37 years before her retirement.
Asked what advice she might have for students seeking a career, she responded:
“I would advise people to start thinking about their career as early as possible and to get professional assistance in terms of learning what is a good match for them. What you want to do is analyze your skills, interests, and values and put together a profile. Based on those things, there are specific career paths that fulfill those skills and values that you have and that leads to a successful program.”
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Harrison is editor of San Diego Jewish World. He may be contacted via donald.harrison@sdjewishworld.com