Other items in today’s column include:
*Jewish American Heritage Month
*Jewish Travel
*Recommended reading
*Mazel tov! Mazel tov!
*In memoriam
SAN DIEGO — So, imagine you are shopping, and into the store comes someone who is wearing a Ku Klux Klan hood, or a face mask with a swastika on it, as happened respectively at a Vons and a Food4Less outlet in Santee recently. What should you do?
I asked Tammy Gillies, regional director of the Anti-Defamation League, what she would suggest. Her answers divided the suggested responses by categories.
–If you are a customer, she said, don’t confront the person directly; it might lead to violence. Instead, she said, go to the manager of the store and tell him or her that the hood, or mask, or whatever other symbol intended to provoke outrage is being displayed, has made you very uncomfortable about continuing to shop in the store.
–If you are the manager, you have the right to ask a person displaying hate symbols to either put them away or to leave the store. If the person refuses to comply, you have the power to call in law enforcement, Gillies said.
–If you are a member of law enforcement, you should take the situation seriously, as did the San Diego County Sheriff’s Department when it was called to Food4Less where a man who has self-identified to news media as Dustin Hart of Alpine wore a mask featuring the Nazi swastika. Sheriff’s officers told Hart to remove the mask or leave the store, and he complied by doing the former.
–If you are a public official, said Gillies, use your “bully pulpit” to denounce acts of hate, so that people will know that such acts are neither condoned nor acceptable. She complimented both Santee Mayor John Minto and San Diego County Supervisor Dianne Jacob for immediately denouncing the display of hate symbols in the two cited instances.
–If you are a member of the news media, she said, report the incident because it is better to shine light on acts of hate than to permit hate to grow in the dark. She said after the klan hood and swastika incidents were reported, commentary on social media went overwhelmingly against the perpetrators.
Gillies said that whereas Hart’s social-media presence indicates that he espouses hard-core white supremacist beliefs, other demonstrations using Nazi symbols to protest California’s “stay-at-home” restrictions are different in intent, but are nevertheless dangerous.
At various protests around the state, California Gov. Gavin Newsom has been depicted with a Hitler-style mustache in an effort to equate the restrictions he placed on public gatherings during the coronavirus pandemic with Nazi-style abrogation of the public’s right to assemble peacefully.
The problem with that, according to Gillies, is that by comparing Newsom to Hitler, and public health regulations to the oppressive laws of the Nazi era, it has the effect of minimizing the Holocaust in which six million Jews among other people were ruthlessly murdered because Hitler and his followers considered them to be inferior to “Aryans.”
“Nothing compares with the Holocaust,” Gillies said flatly.
Meanwhile, after questioning the man who wore the Ku Klux Klan hood, the Sheriff’s Department announced that he would not be cited, as his act — however hateful it might be — was protected free speech. The sheriff’s office said the man told them he had worn it to protest being told what he could and could not do and did not mean it as a racial attack.
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Jewish American Heritage Month
*Uriah Levy, the first Jew to reach the rank of Commodore in the U.S. Navy and the man who purchased and restored the home of Thomas Jefferson at Monticello, Virginia, is today’s honoree of EMET (Endowment for Middle East Truth.).
*As seen in the video above, Larry King leads off a new series called Dispatches From Quarantine featuring the thoughts of well-known entertainers and journalists. The digital video series was created by Tiffany Woolf, executive director with Silver Screen Studios. King, who started life as Lawrence Harvey Zeiger, said when he first performed as an announcer on radio in Miami, he was told to pick a new name. He saw an ad in the Miami Herald for King’s Wholesale Liquors and his name and career were born on May 1, 1957. He said his father would have been surprised by the success his “little son Leibele” had interviewing world figures and other celebrities.
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San Diego County Judaica
With this photo of David Berman posing by an image of a Jewish wedding procession that he and his wife Sharlene Berman purchased in Dubrovnik, Croatia, we resume our online exhibition of San Diego County Judaica. The art print is signed “Obicon.” If you have a piece of Judaica — be it a painting, print, sculpture, ceremonial object, or something whimsical or utilitarian, please take a photo of yourself with it and send it for publication to editor@sdjewishworld.com
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Jewish Travel
Tour guide Charlotte Thalmay, founder and CEO of the Jewish Copenhagen tourism company, is offering an hour-long tour of her hometown, starting with a visit to the Great Synagogue of Copenhagen. The webcast on Facebook will begin at 8 a.m., Pacific time, and will last an hour. It is free to watch, but viewers will be asked at the end of the program to make a donation.
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Recommended reading
*Sara Jacobs, a candidate in the 53rd Congressional District, says in an Op-Ed piece for Voice of San Diego that child care is sadly and dangerously lacking for health care workers and other front-line workers during the coronavirus pandemic.
*Three Gulf Arab States have reached out to Israel for help during the pandemic, Times of Israel reports.
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Mazal tov! mazal tov!
*Dr. David Sacks,brother of Hillel of the University of San Diego director Glenda Sacks Jaffe, has won the International Federation of Clinical Chemistry and Laboratory Medicine 2020 IFCC Distinguished Award for Laboratory Medicine and Patient Care. David, who works at the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Maryland, was cited as “one of the key individuals who has made a global impact and lasting clinical contributions in the field of diabetes, specifically in the area of hemoglobin A1c (HbA1c) standardization and glucose assays.”
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In memoriam
Edward Partovich, 98, died Saturday, May 9. His graveside funeral service at Home of Peace Cemetery is scheduled to be conducted on Wednesday, May 13, by Rabbi Joshua Dorsch of Tifereth Israel Synagogue. An unidentified member of his family posted the following obituary notice on the Am Israel Mortuary website: “Born February 7, 1922 in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada, to David and Helan Partovich. This was the second marriage for both. Helan had two children from her first marriage, Tony and Maxi. David had three children, Lilly, Clara and Lourie and together they had five children, Rosie, Nate, Celia, Harry and Me. There was a lot of love in that family. Edward, also known as Ed, came to the United States before his second birthday. He learned the Heating and Air condition business from his brother Louie. Edward was a Sergeant in The US Air Cor, stationed in China-Burma-India from 1943-1946. In 1949 he married Marilyn and together they purchased their first home for $12,500.00 They moved to San Diego in 1959 with their three children, Joel, Tina and Aric. In 1962 they had their fourth child Roby. Edward managed a tire store before opening Funky Junk in 1970. His daughter Tina passed away September 19, 2003 of Breast Cancer His wife Marylin passed away on December 9, 2003. A few weeks later Joel had a stroke and passed away March 21, 2005. After Joel’s death Edward joined the Mattino YMCA where for the past fifteen years he has enjoyed making new friends and volunteering to raise money to help children of less fortunate families attend summer camps and programs. As a top fundraiser, Edward received the nickname “Mr. Ed” which he truly loved. Prior to his passing, Edward told his children he had lived a long happy life and it was time to go. At 8 a.m on May 9, 2020 on his own terms he said good by,e
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Donald H. Harrison is editor of San Diego Jewish World. He may be contacted via donald.harrison@sdjewishworld.com Free obituaries in memory of members of the San Diego County Jewish community are sponsored on San Diego Jewish World by Inland Industries Group LP in memory of long-time San Diego Jewish community leader Marie (Mrs. Gabriel) Berg.
Your mentioning Uriah Levy reminded me that the relatively new (twelve or so years ago) beautiful Jewish Chapel and classroom building at the Naval Academy is named for Levy. The building has a San Diego connection in the its construction was made possible by a major donation by the Ottenstein family of San Diego.