Other items in this column include:
* In the courts
* Political bytes
* Coming our way
SAN DIEGO — The state’s proposed ethnic studies curriculum was temporarily shelved in part because of objections from the California Jewish Legislative Caucus, the Anti-Defamation League, and other Jewish groups that the panel that created the document all but ignored the Jewish experience in the United States, while utilizing the curriculum to spread a false Palestinian narrative about Israel that includes support for the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement (BDS).
In its Oct. 17 edition, the San Diego Reader recapitulated the controversy, quoting Kyle Wineberg, a member of the San Diego Unified School District’s ethnic studies advisory committee, who, in essence, said Jews have suffered in the U.S., but nothing like other ethnic groups. As he put it, in a story by Eric Bartl, “My grandfather fought [along] with the Anti-Defamation League to integrate country clubs in LA that excluded Jewish people and people of color, and I was the target of antisemitic insults in elementary school. Nevertheless, conflating the experience of white Jewish people in the U.S. with that of people of color minimizes the pernicious effects of systems of repression that continue to deny opportunities to marginalized communities.”
San Diego Jewish World quizzed San Diego School Superintendent Cindy Marten back in August about the ethnic studies controversy, leading the school district to issue an advisory that it had associated itself with an ADL statement calling the BDS campaign “rampant with misinformation and distortion.” At that time, the school district’s chief public information officer, Andrew Sharp, added that the tenets of the BDS campaign definitely will not be taught in San Diego schools.
*
In the courts
* Superior Court Judge David Rubin ordered District Attorney Summer Stephan to release the records of sexual misconduct cases occurring in the DA’s office. A suit brought by the First Amendment Coalition argued that mere summaries of the cases, as offered by Stephan, would set a precedent allowing government agencies to put their own interpretation on events.
* The City of La Mesa has followed in the footsteps of the cities of San Diego and Encinitas to bring suit against the pharmaceutical companies that manufacture and distribute opioids. Attorney Roman Silberfeld of Robins Kaplan LLP is handling the plaintiffs’ side of the case.
*
Jewish community professionals
* After six years as executive director, Shiri Haines has decided not to extend her contract next year at Temple Emanu-El. Rabbi Devorah Marcus and the congregation’s co-presidents, Eric Rosenzweig and Jeff Schindler, said a search committee will soon be formed to find a replacement.
*
Political bytes
* City Councilman Mark Kersey, who is completing his second term in the 5th Council District, has endorsed attorney Joe Leventhal to be his successor. Kersey is an independent and Leventhal a Republican. Kersey said, “I trust that Joe will serve the people of District 5 with integrity, and I look forward to seeing him build on our substantial progress on critical issues like homelessness, road repair, and fiscal reform as a member of the City Council.”
*The two Jewish members of the San Diego City Council – Barbara Bry and Dr. Jen Campbell – joined in an unanimous vote to put on the March ballot a measure that would transfer the responsibility of appointing a city auditor from the mayor to the council. The two councilwomen split on the question of putting on the March ballot a proposed hike in the transient occupancy tax to fund an expansion of the downtown Convention Center along with homeless programs and infrastructure improvements. Campbell voted with the 5-4 majority, while Bry, a candidate for mayor, said the measure should be delayed until the November 2020 election when more voters tend to go to the polls.
*City Council President Georgette Gomez and friends will conduct their first voter canvass at 9 a.m. Saturday, Oct. 26, in the 53rd Congressional District from which Congresswoman Susan Davis is retiring. The door-knocking expedition is scheduled to leave from the North Park Community Park, at the corner of Howard and Idaho Avenues.
*
Coming our way
* Forty artisans will sell crafts including jewelry, pottery, macramé, home décor and Judaica at the Women of Temple Emanu-El’s annual Artisan Festival from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m., Sunday, Nov. 3, at 6299 Capri Drive. A highlight will be a book signing by Holocaust Survivor Rose Schindler, author of Two Who Survived.
* Derek Katz, a UC Santa Barbara musicologist whose father is Jewish and whose mother is not, will be the commentator during a performance by the Hausmann Quartet at 4 p.m., Sunday, Nov. 10 in a program titled “Haydn Voyages: Music at the Maritime” aboard the historic steam ferryboat Berkeley moored at the San Diego Embarcadero. On the subject of who is Jewish and who is not, Katz noted in an email exchange with this publication that cellist Robert Hausmann (1852-1909), for whom the quartet is named, premiered the Kol Nidrei composed by Max Bruch, and himself played in the Joachim Quartet led by Hungarian Jewish violinist Joseph Joachim.
*
Harrison is editor of San Diego Jewish World. He may be contacted via donald.harrison@sdjewishworld.com