Items in this column include:
*Sha’ar Hanegev Mayor Libstein has 3-day whirlwind tour of San Diego
*Ban on ‘Harry Potter’ series demonstrates need for Banned Book Week
*How the full-time staff of Camp Mountain Chai is described
*Mazel tov! Mazel tov!
By Donald H. Harrison
Sha’ar Hanegev Mayor Libstein has 3-day whirlwind tour of San Diego
Larry Acheatel and Miri Ketayi, who serve respectively as chair and director of the Israel and Overseas Committee for the Jewish Federation of San Diego, recently conducted Ofir Libstein, the new mayor of Sha’ar Hanegev, Israel, on a three-day visit to San Diego County. Sha’ar Hanegev, lying alongside the Israel-Gaza border, is the Federation’s partnership region in Israel.
Accompanied by Ifrat Porat, Sha’ar Hanegev’s director of international relations and partnerships, Libstein met with members of San Diego Mayor Kevin Faulconer’s staff to discuss deepening engagement between the city and the Israeli region. According to Acheatel, “the upcoming Maccabi games to be hosted by the San Diego JCC will also provide opportunities for partnership initiatives.”
Libstein also met with the Women’s Philanthropy Board of the Federation, donors, Federation staff, heads of local Jewish agencies and with community rabbis, according to Acheatel’s report published in the Jewish Federation’s electronic newsletter.
“One common thread that was spoken in all of these meetings was the need to deepen and widen already strong people to people connections,” commented Acheatel. “This will be accomplished through organized trips to Israel, encouraging individuals and families who go to Israel to visit Sha’ar Hanegev, youth exchanges, professional exchanges, bringing shinshim (youth ambassadors from Israel) to live in San Diego for a year as they work with our synagogue, day school, and camp youth.”
*
Ban on ‘Harry Potter’ series demonstrates need for Banned Book Week
Noting that today (Sunday, Sept 22) marks the beginning of Banned Books Week, Marsha Sutton of the Del Mar Times wrote: “A short article in USA Today on Sept. 3 snapped my head back. I thought it a joke, until I verified the story.”
The gist of it was a Catholic school in Tennessee has banned from its library the Harry Potter series in the apparent belief that students reading the curses and spells in J.K. Rowling’s fantasy world might “cause a reader to conjure evil spirits.”
Sutton notes that Banned Books Week is intended to “defend and support everyone’s right to read what they choose.”
*
How the full-time staff of Camp Mountain Chai is described
Of all the descriptions of full-time staff members at Camp Mountain Chai on the camp’s website, the most intriguing is the one for Assistant Camp Director Rachael Shyloski, who is described as “helplessly compassionate, terminally funny, and devastatingly kind.” Sounds like just the person to make the summer for campers lots of fun. http://www.campmountainchai.com/about-us/meet-our-directors/
Camp Mountain Chai is offering four sessions this summer: June 16-28; June 30-July 12; July 14-26; and July 28-August 9. As an incentive for registration before October 31st executive director Buddy Voit offers “guaranteed best prices of the year”; “exclusive CMC sunglasses and carrying pouch” and “priority enrollment for our busiest sessions.”
Other full-time staff members include camp director Dan Baer, for whom “Jewish community has been part of his life since growing up at JCC preschool and continuing through his active involvement with Hillel in college”; program director Beth Caplan, who considers herself a lifelong “happy camper”; and camp registrar David Edwards, an avid surfer and former manager of an organic fruit farm, who will add to the full-time mix “a great sense of humor and more kindness and caring to the already loving family at Camp Mountain Chai.”
*
Mazel tov! Mazel tov!
Arthur Lupsha, son of the late Gail Feurzeig Umeham, hosted an 83rd birthday party for Gail’s widower, Okoronkwo Umeham, at the homeLupsha shares with his wife Kellie and children in Ladera Ranch. It was noted that in Jewish tradition, the 83rd birthday is often considered appropriate for a second bar mitzvah because it is 13 years past the biblical (Psalm 90:10) allotment of three score and ten years. Thirteen is the age when Jewish boys are recognized as men. So, it was declared on September 21 that Okoronkwo was indeed a “double man.” A member of the Igbo tribe of Nigeria, Okoronkwo takes pride in the fact that Igbos often have been called “the Jews of Africa.”
*
Harrison is editor of San Diego Jewish World. He may be contacted via donald.harrison@sdjewishworld.com