Other items in today’s column include:
* ADL honors San Diego County law enforcement with Sherwood Prize
* Political bytes
*Recommended reading
SAN DIEGO – Israel boycott advocates in San Diego County have been attempting, so far without success, to persuade local law enforcement executives to refuse to travel with the Anti-Defamation League for familiarization with Israeli police techniques.
Tammy Gillies, regional director of the Anti-Defamation League, said such a push was successful a few years ago in Raleigh-Durham, North Carolina, “where the City Council was asked to stop organized trips to Israel by law enforcement. They passed that and it was a shock to us. … There are organizations in San Diego working very hard and lobbying our law enforcement agencies not to send people to Israel.”
“I take a counter-terrorism trip to Israel every year with law enforcement executives and I am very proud of that trip,” Gillies told me during an interview. “They really learn things that help with the security and safety of our community here. But the other side [led by Jewish Voice for Peace] feels that we are militarizing our law enforcement, and that Gaza equals Ferguson, and all of that.”
“Ferguson” refers to the 2014 police shooting of 18-year-old Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, which sparked both riots and peaceful protests against excessive police force. Gaza is the Arab territory controlled by Hamas, around which Israel and Egypt have imposed a military blockade.
Gillies said that she has spoken to most police chiefs and sheriffs in the San Diego County region about the boycott efforts, “and I know the other side has been speaking to them. At the moment we are continuing to do those trips, but it is a concern for me with city councils, and I think we need to always stay on top of it, and educate, educate.”
One of the reasons that the boycotters have been thus far unsuccessful, she said, is because many local police chiefs have already participated in educational trips to Israel and “they have first-hand knowledge of ADL’s approach and what we do and what they learn, and they think it is extremely valuable to them. They do not see Israel as an ‘apartheid state,’ or as ‘militarizing,’ so I know they are standing in favor of these trips.”
Typically, 18 top-level and second-level law enforcement executives “go for nine days to Israel and we meet mostly with Israeli police because we are learning about policing in a country where terrorism has been around from day one, or before day one, and how they police in a state like that,” Gillies said. “So we go to the police academy and we see how they are trained, their software, and things like that. Last September we went to the Palestinian Police Academy, our first trip there, in Jericho. They welcomed us very warmly and it was an interesting day and an interesting comparison for our law enforcement executives to see.
“We also went to meet with the new chief of police of Bethlehem. He was not as friendly, but that is okay,” Gillies said. “We really want to give a balanced view of what it looks like to police in different areas. In Jerusalem, how is it to be a police officer in a place where any little tiny thing becomes an international incident? How do they deal with terrorist incidents? That is mostly the kind of things that we look at.”
She added that the trips have taken local police officers “to the border with Syria on the Golan, and we go down to our [Jewish Federation] sister city at Sha’ar Hanegev,” which lies adjacent to the Gaza border. “We talk to them and we want our law enforcement to understand what it is like to have 10 seconds to go into a shelter when that alert goes off. You can hear about it in the news, but until you are there, you can’t imagine it.”
Gillies said a Sha’ar Hanegev resident who works with the Jewish Federation of San Diego County told the law enforcement officials that she feels badly for the people in Gaza “because the terrorists come into their homes, into their living rooms, tell them they are setting up shop there, and they have no choice.”
“Regular people want to live in peace,” Gillies said. “What I think amazes law enforcement most about Israel is that every type of person from all over the world comes to visit and it is open to everyone. All of the mosques, and churches, and religious sites are just beautiful and peaceful and open to the world, and the Israeli police make sure that is the case.”
In tomorrow’s column, we’ll report on the Anti-Defamation League’s “No Place for Hate” program in the schools.
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ADL honors San Diego County law enforcement with Sherwood Prize
The Helene and Joseph Sherwood Prize, recognizing law enforcement officials who protect the community against hatred and bigotry, will honor first-responding officers to the shooting rampage April 27 at Chabad of Poway, including Poway Mayor Steve Vaus, as a representative of the City of Poway, according to Ariella Loewenstein, ADL’s deputy regional director in the Los Angeles Region. The selection committee includes law enforcement officials in Southern California, including San Diego County Sheriff Bill Gore. This is the first honor for San Diego County law enforcement since 2017 when El Cajon Police Officer Michael Louie was honored for his work as a translator and outreach officer to El Cajon’s large Arabic-speaking population.
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Political bytes
*Retiring Congresswoman Susan Davis was among the mourners Friday at a memorial service for the Rev. George Walker Smith, 91, who was this region’s first Black elected official. At the beginning of her political career, Davis served with Smith when both were members of the San Diego Unified School District Board. Subsequently, she went on to serve in the state Assembly and in Congress. At the memorial at Christ United Presbyterian Church, where Smith served as pastor, Davis presented a congressional plaque in his memory. Other levels of government were represented by state Senate President pro tempore Toni Atkins, Assemblywoman Shirley Weber, County Supervisor Nathan Fletcher, San Diego City Councilwoman Monica Montgomery, and San Diego Community Colleges Chancellor Constance Carroll.
*There was no change in standings from Friday through Saturday’s counting in six local races we’ve been watching closely, although there were fractional changes in the candidates’ vote percentages. The top two candidates in each race will advance to the Nov. 3 runoff election.
–In the 50th C.D., Democrat Ammar Campa-Najjar was still in first, but his share of the vote fell very slightly from 36.07 percent to 35.91 percent. Darrell Issa also fell slightly from 23.31 percent to 23.17 percent, while Carl DeMaio went up a half percentage point from 20.9 percent to 20.95 percent.
–In the 53rd Congressional District, frontrunner Sara Jacobs had a slight dip from 29.49 percent of the total to 29.35 percent. Georgette Gomez went up slightly from 19.64 percent to 19.95 percent. Chris Stoddard declined from 13.91 percent to 13.84 percent.
–In the 78th Assembly District, Chris Ward increased his share from 57.1 percent to 57.7 percent; Sarah Davis fell slightly from 25.92 percent to 25.82 percent, and Micah Perlin went up a small fraction from 16.37 percent to 16.41 percent.
–In the 3rd Supervisorial District, incumbent Kristin Gaspar fell slightly from 44.67 percent of the vote to 44.28 percent, while Terra Lawson-Remer went up slightly from 30.56 percent to 30.94 percent. Olga Diaz stayed the same at 24.78 percent of the vote.
–In the race for Mayor of San Diego, Todd Gloria increased from 41.27 percent to 41.49 percent, while Scott Sherman went down from 24.27 percent to 24.04 percent, and Babara Bry dropped from 23.45 percent to 23.4 percent. In raw numbers, that meant Bry had gained 318 votes on Sherman since the completion of counting on Friday, but still was 1,701 votes behind him for second place.
–In San Diego’s 5th City Council District race, Marni Von Wilpert dropped from 39.8 percent to 39.6 percent, while Joe Leventhal also dropped from 38.05 percent to 37.83 percent. Isaac Wang and Simon Moghadam won the balance of votes.
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Recommended reading
*Eva Trieger in this month’s L’Chaim San Diego Magazine tells of the people like David Ellenstein, Aaron Rumley, Marty Burnett and Jeff Needham who have become the team behind the North Coast Repertory Theatre’s success.
*Judith Fein, writing for the San Diego Jewish Journal, tells of Jewish connections in Japan, one relating to biblical Judaism, another to rabbinic Judaism, and still another to the immensity of the suffering wrought both by the Holocaust and the atomic bombing of Japan.
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Donald H. Harrison is editor of San Diego Jewish World. He may be contacted via donald.harrison@sdjewishworld.com