Other items in today’s column include:
*Israel seeking American students
*Political bytes
* Mazel tov! Mazel tov!
* In Memoriam
SAN DIEGO – Dr. Ben Dishman, PharmD, who is retired as a psychiatric pharmacist from the Veterans Administration Hospital, enjoys visiting Sea World on the average of once a month.
Besides seeing the animals, he likes to see love bloom among Orthodox Jewish couples who apparently consider Sea World to be a perfect meeting place for their arranged dates.
The young couples are easily identifiable because the men wear black hats and tzit tzit that dangle beneath their shirts, while the young women typically are dressed in modest long skirts and blouses that cover their arms.
Propriety demands that Orthodox couples on arranged dates meet in public places, and at Sea World there are plenty of venues to sit or to walk while the young men and young women are getting to know each other.
In New York City, one custom among dating Orthodox couples is to meet in the lobbies of big hotels.
I suppose at either type of venue, there is plenty for the couples to see.
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Israel seeking American students
Three students from San Diego County currently are studying at Tel Aviv University: Linda Feldman, Payton Carrol, and Ben Price. Israel is in the midst of a campaign to double from 12,000 to 24,000 the number of international students studying in Israel. “We have committed to making Israel a brain-gain country for excellent students and researchers from around the word – North and South America, Europe, and Asia,” commented Yaffa Zilbershats, who chairs Israel’s Council for Higher Education.
The Council recently authorized 26 new international degree programs in such areas as Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics, Innovation and Entrepreneurship, Jewish Studies, Middle Eastern Studies, Agriculture, Urban Studies, Environmental Studies and Design. More information is available on the Study in Israel website.
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Political bytes
* Mayoral candidate Barbara Bry described herself as “the leading voice for regulation of the multi-billion-dollar electric scooter industry, which has used our city as a beta-testing ground that puts the lives and safety of our residents in danger.” She said “the incidence of serious injuries continues, in large part because we aren’t able to enforce safety helmet requirements for scooter riders. Remember it was my opponent [Assemblyman Todd Gloria] who did the bidding for the scooter lobby, exempting them from helmet laws.”
* Deputy City Attorney Marni von Wilpert has won the endorsement of the San Diego County Democratic Party in her bid for the 5th District City Council seat now occupied by termed-out Councilman Mark Kersey. She also has the endorsement of the two Jewish members of the nine-member City Council: Barbara Bry and Dr. Jen Campbell, both Democrats.
* San Diego City Council President Georgette Gomez, seeking the 53rd Congressional District seat from which Susan Davis is retiring, says “my journey from the Barrio to City Council President is proof that the American dream is real and is still worth fighting for.” She said that when she was in junior high, “I remember helping my mom and dad with janitorial work at the office buildings that stand across from San Diego City Hall. I never would have imagined I’d be presiding as City Council President just across the street from the buildings I once cleaned as a young girl.”
*The group opposing the SOS initiative on the March 3 ballot held a news conference Oct 29 in front of the County Administration Building. Speakers stressed that the environmentalist-backed initiative “would require an expensive countywide vote just to add six homes to the General Plan. Yet SOS would not place any limits on building or expanding hotel resorts, casinos, country clubs, factories, office buildings, warehouses or distribution centers.”
* Olga Diaz, a candidate for the 3rd District County Supervisorial seat now occupied by Kristin Gaspar, took a poke at fellow challenger Terra Lawson-Remer, who has a Nov. 17 fundraiser scheduled with film star Jane Fonda. Said Diaz, the daughter of immigrants: “Celebrity, privilege and entitlement have not been any part of my lived experience and they have no place in this race.”
* Terra Lawson-Remer says President Donald Trump and supporters like Supervisor Kristin Gaspar bear a measure of responsibility for wildfires that periodically sweep California. “They are the result of the agenda championed by Trump and his cronies like Kristin Gaspar – an agenda that places special interests before communities and the environment. “ She added that Trump and Gaspar “deny climate change is real” and “put fossil fuel company profits over our collective well-being.”
* Democratic party and labor union activists have announced they’ll hold a Halloween demonstration outside the County Administration Building at 10 a.m. Thursday to call out Supervisor Kristin Gaspar’s “House of Horrors” including “her support for Donald Trump’s border wall, repeal of the Affordable Care Act, Trump tax cuts benefitting the wealthy as well as her opposition to Community Choice Energy, more funding for affordable housing and other local issues.” There will be Halloween-themed posters, a makeshift graveyard, and pumpkins, according to spokesman Dan Rottenstreich.
* County Supervisor Kristin Gaspar, a Republican, has warned her supporters: “Our opponents are racking up endorsements from labor councils and partisan Democrat groups and working to flip San Diego County. Losing our seat would be a detrimental loss for the county and would completely change the composition of the Board.”
* In the 50th Congressional District where incumbent Congressman Duncan Hunter is facing trial for fraud following a 60-count indictment alleging misappropriation of campaign funds, there were these recent developments: 1) His estranged wife Margaret Hunter, who already had pled guilty to one charge, has had her sentencing delayed until April 13, a month and 10 days after the March 3 primary in which Duncan Hunter is running for reelection. The congressman’s trial is expected to begin Jan. 22 and be completed within four weeks. Margaret Hunter is scheduled to testify against him. 2) Former District Attorney Paul Pfingst has joined Congressman Hunter’s defense team, but there may be a complication because a member of his large law firm, Higgs, Fletcher & Mack, has represented witnesses who appeared before the Grand Jury that indicted Hunter. Prosecutors say that is a conflict of interest, but Pfingst said those involved have signed waivers.
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State Sen. Jeff Stone (R-Murietta) whose Riverside County District abuts northern San Diego County, has resigned following his appointment as the Western Regional Director for the U.S. Department of Labor. “With his history of fighting for the little guy who desires worker freedom against big labor, this new opportunity is a great fit for Senator Stone,” commented Republican State Senate Leader Shannon Grove. “I am confident that he will continue to fight for hard-working Americans in his new capacity.”
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Mazal Tov! Mazal Tov!
*Our heartiest congratulations go to Times of San Diego, which was named “Best News Site” for the fourth year in a row by the San Diego Press Club. Key to that award was the energetic reporting and photography by Chris and Ken Stone, the married couple who provide much of that news site’s spot coverage. Ken Stone won 14 awards individually and in concert with other journalists, and Chris won nine awards for her photography. The newspaper’s editor and publisher, Chris Jennewein, also took a first-place award for his election coverage. Under a news sharing arrangement, some stories from Times of San Diego are republished on San Diego Jewish World. The Press Club’s award for outstanding contributions to journalism, named for the late television reporter Harold Keen, went to Roger Showley, who recently retired from the San Diego Union-Tribune.
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In Memoriam
* Funeral services were held at the Miramar National Cemetery today for Pat Latham, 70, who died on Friday, Oct. 25. Other details via the Am Israel Mortuary website. https://www.amisraelmortuary.com/memorials/pat-latham/4004500/index.php
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Donald H. Harrison is editor of San Diego Jewish World. He may be contacted via donald.harrison@sdjewishworld.com . Obituaries in this column are sponsored by Inland Industries Group LP in memory of long-time San Diego Jewish community leader Marie (Mrs. Gabriel) Berg.