Other items in today’s column include:
*Jewish community coronavirus news
*Jewish business news
*Citizens group files suit against homeless parking lot at Leichtag Commons
*Hillel helping students readjust to interruption of on-campus studies
*Political bytes
SAN DIEGO – Located south of the Kinneret (Sea of Galilee) and about a kilometer west of Israel’s border with Jordan, Kfar Ruppin, a kibbutz with San Diego connections, is the subject of an enchanting memoir by Rachel Biale, a Berkeley, California, resident who grew up there.
Today, Kfar Ruppin is well known for its fish ponds which produce many tons of tilapia for Israel’s domestic market. They were initially constructed with a $1 million grant from restaurateur Mel Garb (for whom the Hillel Center is named at San Diego State University) , his sister Genesse Levin, and Harrison Levin, who had owned two MacDonald’s franchises in San Diego County. These local philanthropists have since passed on, but their contributions to the kibbutzniks of Kfar Ruppin and the half billion or so birds that fly over semi annually on treks between Europe and South Africa are still very much appreciated. The fish ponds provide income for the kibbutz, as well as occasional free meals for some of the migrating birds making the journey of thousands of miles.
All this was still in the future during the time of Rachel Biale’s girlhood, courtship, and marriage about which she writes in short, well-crafted essays in Growing Up Below Sea Level, a memoir that make you feel as you have been living with her on the kibbutz. Biale’s clear, concise writing will give readers an appreciation for what it was like to grow up with other children in a common children’s house, separate from their parents. We learn how it felt to explore the kibbutz at night during times of peace, and to take shelter in bunkers during times of war.
The daughter of idealistic Holocaust survivors, Biale writes about the experiences of her parents as a prologue to her book, and these essays are both important and enlightening. But what is novel, at least for this reader, are some 26 stories, each of only four or five pages or so, outlining life on the kibbutz. Biale has a delicious sense of irony, and she knows how to employ a surprise ending.
One of the earliest stories tells how, at a very early age, she found a beautiful buckle from someone’s shoe, stuck it in her pocket, and subsequently realized that it belonged to a cabin mate who was upset that it had somehow come off her shoe. For some reason, Biale decided to go looking for it all over again, eventually “finding it” and presenting it to the little girl who owned it. Unfortunately, the girl saw through the charade, but came to the wrong conclusion. She thought Biale had stolen it, but had tried to cover up her deed with the exaggerated search.
Another story told about the death of her grandfather, who often had treated her to a sugar cube which she would suck contentedly. When he died, ia small box of sugar cubes was found, remaining to be apportioned among herself and her siblings. While the others gobbled them up, Biale decided to eat just one a year on the anniversary of his death. Growing up on a secular kibbutz, she hadn’t realized that this act of remembrance was akin to lighting a yahrzeit candle.
She tells stories about learning to be compassionate. One boy in the cabin (yes, boys and girls were housed together) was an occasional bed wetter. Cabin mates quickly changed his sheets so he wouldn’t be shamed. A woman, who always wore slippers on the daintiest of feet, seemed to the envious Biale to be like Cinderella—the only one who could wear the glass slipper. Later, however, she learned that the woman covered her feet because she had lost her toes to frostbite during a Holocaust death march.
We read as well as Biale questions the meaning of death, and happens to walk in on a young couple engaging in sexual foreplay. We learn what a bat mitzvah entails on a secular kibbutz – twelve tasks, including an exploratory visit to a nearby religious kibbutz.
And on the story telling goes, vividly covering each important period of Biale’s life.
I really enjoyed it – and if they could read, I bet the fish and birds of modern day Kfar Ruppin would have liked it too.
For those of you who may wish to order this charming memoir, the particulars are: Growing Up Below Sea Level: A Kibbutz Childhood by Rachel Biale, Consortium Books, © 2020, ISBN 9781942-134633; 256 pages with 43 photographs, $19.95, available via Amazon.
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Jewish community coronavirus news
*California Gov. Gavin Newsom on Thursday evening issued a “stay-at-home” order for all Californians, except for those engaged in essential tasks. Earlier, the County of San Diego had restricted gatherings to no more than 10 people as of today — exactly a minyan!
*Staying at home and interested in learning more about your Jewish immigrant ancestors? The National Archives has available on line passenger lists and naturalization records, among many millions of documents
*A national consortium of clergy and Jewish organizations has called upon President Donald Trump and Congress “to work together to increase and expand access to federal nutrition assistance for food insecure Americans in the wake of the cornavirus crisis.”
Among San Diego County organizations and clergy signing the letter sponsored by Mazon: A Jewish Response to Hunger and the National Council of Jewish Women were Coastal Roots Farm and the Leichtag Foundation, both in Encinitas; and Jewish Family Service, Jewish Federation of San Diego County, and Rabbi Devorah Marcus of Temple Emanu-El, all of San Diego.
The letter called for nationwide steps to make it easier “to feed children during COVID-19 related school closures.”
Furthermore, the consortium noted that while the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) has recommended that households stockpile two weeks of food, “families living in poverty, as well as those hardworking families living paycheck-to-paycheck, are unlikely to be able to buy that much food.
“The federal government must take the initiative to adopt measures that prioritize the needs of low-income Americans to prevent further hunger and hardship,” the clergy and Jewish organizations said. “Additionally, older adults who are at an elevated risk of contracting the disease will no longer be able to participate in congregate meal programs, and must instead have access to home-delivered meals and other sources of nutrition.”
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Jewish business news
*The Mintz Levin law firm will host an online event dealing with coronavirus and the workplace “guidance regarding employment and benefits issues facing employers now,” at 9 a.m., Friday.
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Citizens group files suit against homeless parking lot at Leichtag Commons
*The San Diego Union-Tribune reported today that the North County Citizens Coalition has filed a suit in Superior Court against the City of Encinitas, saying that the city violated state laws covering public meetings, due process and anti-discrimination when it approved the Jewish Family Service-run homeless parking lot accommodating the cars of 25 homeless families at Leichtag Commons. Filed by attorney Karen R. Frostrom, the suit also said approval was improperly given without first obtaining permission from the state Coastal Commission and a favorable determination under the Environmental Quality Act, the U-T reported. Jessica Kort,director for communications and strategy for the Leichtag Foundation, said: “We are proud that our Jewish values guide us to care for those most in need.” Michael Stern, senior director of marketing for Jewish Family Service, commented similarly, “Jewish Family Service remains committed to providing vulnerable families and individuals in North County with a safe place to park and sleep, along with vital resources and tools, and a welcoming environment to help them stabilize their lives and transition back into housing.”
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Hillel helping students readjust to interruption of on-campus studies
Edden Dembsky, campus director at Hillel at San Diego State University, said most students whom she has contacted thus far by phone have had a smooth transition from school back to home after the university closed down in response to the coronavirus pandemic. She said Hillel directors at UC San Diego, Cal State San Marcos, and the University of San Diego have heard similar reactions. with students on their call lists.
There have been cases of people who were temporarily inconvenienced when San Diego State University announced that dormitory rooms had to be vacated within 24 hours. Dembsky told of one student whose parents lived out of state, who could not simply pack her up and drive her home. So Hillel arranged for the young woman’s belongings to be stored and for her to be lodged pending the family’s arrangement.
With approximately 500 Jewish students on her call list, and another 500 non-Jewish students who participate in Hillel activities, Dembsky said she still is going through her list, calling sudents one by one. She reported that students have been glad to hear that Hillel International is offering some online lectures via Hillel@Home.
Sarah Hurwitz, a former speechwriter for President Barack Obama, was featured today; Comedy Central executive Tara Schuster will speak on Tuesday, March 24; Rabbi Jonathan Sacks of Great Britain on Thursday, March 26, and NBA All star Amar’e Stoudemire will be speaking on April 1.
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Political bytes
*The Jewish Insider reports U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont is calling for a relaxation of economic sanctions against Iran as that country struggles with the coronavirus. Meanwhile, the newsletter also reports, representatives at the highest levels of the Sanders campaign are meeting with counterparts in the campaign of former Vice President Joe Biden to negotiate Sanders’ graceful exit from the Democratic presidential race.
*Alexander H. Joffe, editor of the monthly BDS Monitor published by Scholars for Peace in the Middle East, will hold an online forum about the impact on college campuses of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement at 9 a.m. PDT , March 24. Register via this website.
*Barbara Bry now leads her City Council colleague Scott Sherman by 522 votes in the counting for the second-place spot in the mayor’s race, which Assemblyman Todd Gloria leads. After Thursday’s counting, with 22,000 ballots in the county still to be tabulated, the totals are Gloria 144,435; Bry 79,311; Sherman 78,789.
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Donald H. Harrison is editor of San Diego Jewish World. He may be contacted via donald.harrison@sdjewishworld.com
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