Editor’s Surgery to Force SDJW’s Temporary Shutdown Jan. 15

Other items in today’s column include:
*The nation’s capital
*Israel news
*Around San Diego

[Names in boldface type are those of known members of the Jewish community]

By Donald H. Harrison

SAN DIEGO — As I am scheduled to have brain surgery tomorrow morning (Friday, Jan. 15), this publication will go on temporary hiatus until such time as I am recovered sufficiently to resume my duties as editor and co-publisher of San Diego Jewish World.  Those of you who have indicated your interest in monitoring my condition may check my Facebook page, which my daughter Sandi Masori plans to update as news becomes available.

Friends have asked how I feel about the impending procedure which involves the removal of a meningioma from the top of my brain.  Of course, I am somewhat apprehensive, but I put my trust in my neurosurgeon (Dr. Samy Abdou of Kaiser Permanente) and the assurances of friends and acquaintances who have had similar procedures, little worse for the wear.

If all goes routinely, I will be in the operating theatre for about six hours,  then will be in recovery for a couple of hours, and will be monitored in the Intensive Care Unit until Saturday when I will be transferred to a regular hospital bed.  If I am well enough, I may be able to resume posting stories after the end of Shabbat Jan. 16 or on Sunday, Jan. 17.  If there are complications, I might not be able to resume my duties so quickly.

Meanwhile, as I write this, I have an online newspaper to put out today, so without further ado, here are some column items of local and Jewish interest:

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The nation’s capital

*Concerning the approaching inauguration of President-elect Joe Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris, Acting Attorney General Jeffrey Rosen issued this warning:  “I want to send a clear message to anyone contemplating violence, threats of violence or other criminal conduct.  We will have no tolerance whatsoever for any attempts to disrupt the peaceful transfer of power on Jan. 20 that our Constitution calls for.”

*Democrat Josh Gottheimer of New Jersey and Republican Brian Mast of Florida have jointly introduced a bill to impose sanctions on foreign persons, agencies, or governments that assist Hamas, the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, or their affiliates.  Mast commented: “Following my service in the Army, I chose to volunteer alongside the Israeli Defense Forces because our countries share the common ideals of freedom, democracy and mutual respect for all people.  Hamas preaches destruction to Israel and death to the values we hold dear  in the United States.”  He added that the U.S. “must  not tolerate anybody who provides support to these radical Islamic terrorists.  Gottheimer commented: “The terrorist group Hamas is well known for firing rockets and digging terror tunnels into Israel and using Gazans, including women and children, as human shields.  It is critical that the United States and our allies continue to isolate terrorist groups like Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad by cutting them off at the source.”

*The late Associate Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg completed a manuscript with UC Berkeley Law Prof Amanda L. Tyler, her former law clerk,  titled Justice Justice Thou Shalt Prevail: A Life’s Work Fighting for a More Perfect Union.  The book not only examines Ginsburg’s career as an attorney and judge, but also as a mother, wife, friend, cancer patient and “champion for a more perfect and just union,” according to a spokesman for the University of California Press, which will bring out the book on March 16.  Independently, meanwhile,  the National Museum of American Jewish History is featuring in its gift shop necklaces like those RBG used to wear, once called a “silver dissent collar necklace,” and the other a “gold dissent collar necklace.”

*Congressman Darrell Issa, who voted against certifying the electoral college results and also against the impeachment of President Donald Trump, is being criticized by Will Rodriguez-Kennedy, the chairman of the San Diego County Democratic Party. Rodriguez-Kennedy writes about Issa: “Having just bought his way into an East County district after voters pushed him out of a North Coastal seat several years ago, Republican Rep. Darrell Issa voted against certifying the presidential election results. Then he complained to the media about all those sounding the alarms: ‘They’re overplaying a lot of things, including the deaths of these people on Capitol Hill.”  Issa, according to Rodriguez-Kennedy, is not the only Republican who should do some soul searching.  “On Monday, California’s State Assembly formally called for Trump’s resignation or removal.  Our two local Republican members, Marie Waldron and Randy Voepel didn’t even bother to vote.  And it’s not just elected officials.  The new Chair of the San Diego County Republican Party, Paula Whitsell, has expressed her conviction that Trump won — amid her retweets of COVID deniers.”

*Law Prof. John Eastman, who helped President Trump file legal challenges to election results in various states, has resigned under pressure from his tenured position at Chapman University in neighboring Orange County.  Members of the private college’s faculty had petitioned for his dismissal.  The University’s President Daniele C. Strupa commented: ““After discussions over the course of the last week, Dr. John Eastman and Chapman University have reached an agreement pursuant to which he will retire from Chapman, effective immediately. Dr. Eastman’s departure closes this challenging chapter for Chapman and provides the most immediate and certain path forward for both the Chapman community and Dr. Eastman.”

*The Forward reports that Krisen Clarke, the civil rights attorney whom President-elect Joe Biden has nominated to serve as a deputy to Attorney General-designate Merrick Garland, served in 1994 as the president of Harvard’s Black Student Union.  At the time, she facilitated an on-campus speech by Tony Martin who accused Jews of having a long history of exploiting Black People.  Asked about that chapter of her life, Clarke responded having Martin speak was a mistake, and added that she is 100 percent opposed to antisemitism.

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Israel news and connections

*Robin Owens in Jerusalem reports that there are an estimated 320,000 survivors of the Holocaust living round the world today, and that Omer Yankelevich, Irsael’s Minister of Diaspora Affairs, has offered to arrange for COVID vaccinations for each and every one of them, no matter where they live or what their eligibility is on the lists of their countries of residence.  The vaccination program would be carried out by the Shalom Corps, a joint enterprise of the ministry and the Jewih Agency for Israel.  Owens informs us that:

In the coming days, Shalom Corps will consider several different work-plans to finance and manage this project, including how to engage Jewish philanthropic networks. Solutions for other expected hurdles, such as obtaining permits from foreign governments and the purchase of vaccines by the Ministry, are also being examined. Vaccines for this initiative will be acquired separately by the Ministry and in addition to Israel’s current supply and will in no way impact Israel’s current vaccination effort, its leaders say.

 

The task force already is working as quickly as possible to bring this operation into the field. Given their advanced age, Holocaust survivors are a particularly high-risk group and in certain countries, are not set to receive the vaccine in the near future. This project will also ensure that all Holocaust survivors in Israel are vaccinated and provided proper guidance and support, notwithstanding that they already should be by their government’s current program.

 

The initial plan is to establish inoculation centers in designated countries. When and where needed, medical personnel and trained volunteers will travel directly to the residence of recipients to perform the vaccination. The Diaspora Affairs Ministry is in talks with both Pfizer and Moderna and even other international pharmaceutical companies with proven vaccines, to secure doses for the survivors, beyond whatever they may already be in line to receive. As well, talks are beginning with the various countries were the survivors live, their respective government health care agencies, and with their different HMO’s and private health insurers. But at the end of the day, organizers assure there is no cost to any survivor of the Shoah.

*Nitsana Darshan-Leitner, president of Shurat HaDin-Israel Law Center, writes that the International Criminal Court (ICC) disingenuously has announced it cannot investigate China for alleged human rights violations against the Muslim Uighur minorities because China is not a signatory to the Statute that created the court.  “At the same time that the ICC has discharged China from criminal liability, it perniciously continues to pursue two other non-state members of the Court, the United States and Israel for alleged criminal conduct,” Darshan-Leitner writes.  Although neither country, like China, is a signatory to the Rome Statute and each country has a robust and independent military court system, The Hague has been engaged in aggressive and unlawful investigations to try and find a legal basis to commence a prosecution. The ICC is investigating the US military over alleged “war crimes” in Afghanistan. Concerning Israel, the ICC is investigating the IDF over its 2014 Protective Edge Operation against Hamas rocket fire from Gaza.”

*Researchers at the Technion in cooperation with scientists from Germany and Spain have found that a substance secreted onto the skin of an Australian toadlet with the scientific name of Uperoleia mjobergii may be the basis for a new class of anti-bacterial drugs.  For the scientists among our readers, Technion reports: ” The findings suggest that the antibacterial peptide secreted on the toadlet’s skin self-assembles into a ‘dormant’ configuration in the form of highly stable amyloid fibrils, which scientists describe as a cross-β conformation. These fibrils serve as a reservoir of potential attacker molecules that can be activated when bacteria are present. Once the peptide encounters the bacterial membrane, it changes its molecular configuration to a less compact cross-α form and transforms into a deadly weapon. ‘This is a sophisticated protective mechanism of the toadlet, induced by the attacking bacteria themselves,’ says structural biologist Prof. Meytal Landau, the lead author of this study. ‘This is a unique example of an evolutionary design of switchable supramolecular structures to control activity.'”

*The Jewish Agency for Israel has appointed Dan Elbaum to head the organization’s efforts in North America and to also serve as CEO of the Jewish Agency International Development (JAID).  He formerly served as chief advocacy officer of the American Jewish committee.  He is based in the Chicago area.

*StandWithUs sponsors an online international conference Saturday evening, January 30, and Sunday January 31, which will bring together students from throughout the world to serve as panelists and to hear from such speakers as Natan Sharansky, Yosef Haddad, Gil Troy and Hussein Aboubakr, and hear a performance by pianist Mona Golabek.  A discussion on the Abraham Accords will feature Hassan-Nahoum, the deputy mayor of Jerusalem, Majid al-Sarrah, a political adviser from the United Arab Emirates and Amjad Taha, a journalist from Bahrain. Anna Maya, a junior from Bonita Vista High School, will speak on the panel that reviews how to combat antisemitism in high schools. Registration and more information via this website.

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Around San Diego County

*Janese Casel, San Diego manager for NALA, a grassroots Israeli organization, reports NALA is hosting a virtual forum on the humanitarian crisis in Ethiopia at 9 a.m. local time on Tuesday, Jan. 26.  More information via this website.

*Sportscaster Ted Leitner, who broadcasts the games for San Diego State Aztecs and the San Diego Padres, has been awarded a tie by the National Sports Media Association for California Sportscaster of the Year.  He shares the honor with NBC’s Duane Kuiper of the San Francisco Bay Area.

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Donald H. Harrison is editor of San Diego Jewish World.  He may be contacted via donald.harrison@sdjewishworld.com