By Donald H. Harrison
SAN DIEGO — Mazal tov to Alyssa Goldstein Sepinwall, who by a process of nominations by students, has been honored as the best professor in the California State University System. She was lauded for engaging students in discussions rather than simply lecturing to them from behind a lectern.
A history professor at Cal State San Marcos, Sepinwall has an impressive resume, Gary Robbins reported in a front-page story in The San Diego Union-Tribune.
Sepinwall did her undergraduate work at the University of Pennsylvania, an internship at the U.S. Supreme Court (where she found herself in a morning aerobics class with Justice Sandra Day O’Connor), a semester abroad at Oxford University, and her doctoral degree at Stanford University. In 1999, she joined the CSUSM faculty, where she specializes in French, Haitian, and Jewish history.
The Wang Family Excellence Award comes with a $20,000 prize, which Sepinwall said she will bank for the time when her teenage son Jacob decides to go to college.
Mindful of her colleagues, Sepinwall accepted her prize with an appeal to the Board of Trustees of the California State University System to improve faculty pay and act to eliminate sexual harassment on the 23 state university campuses.
Jewish Political Scene
INTERNATIONAL
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Wednesday, April 5, that a formal determination has yet to be made about Russia’s wrongful detention of Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich, “in my mind, there’s no doubt.” Once such a determination is made, the matter formally will be turned over to the Office of the Special Presidential Envoy for Hostage Affairs. On Friday, April 7, Gershkovich was formally charged with espionage in a Moscow court. In a rare joint move, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) and Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Kentucky) condemned Gershkovich’s arrest: “We demand the baseless, fabricated charges against Mr. Gershkovich be dropped and he be immediately released, and reiterate our condemnation of the Russian government’s continued attempts to intimidate, repress, and punish independent journalists and civil society voices.”
NATIONAL
U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal fractured a femur during a parade when someone tripped and fell over him. He predicted that he would be in and out of “routine surgery” in plenty of time before the Senate reconvenes April 17.
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Attorney Alan Dershowitz has opined that former President Donald Trump will be found guilty in Manhattan Criminal Court, but that verdict will be reversed on appeal. Dershowitz told Fox News: “There’s no way he can get a fair trial. I don’t care if Jesus, Muhammad, Abraham Lincoln, George Washington and Thurgood Marshall defended Trump in New York, he wouldn’t win this case. Hung jury? Maybe. Acquittal? Never.”
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Former U.S. Sen. Al Franken (D-Minnesota), tweeted this sarcastic comment after the Tennessee House voted to expel Justin Jones and Justin Pearson, but not Gloria Johnson. The three legislators disrupted proceedings to protest against their colleagues’ opposition to gun safety laws, even after three children and three adults were killed at the Covenant School: “So Tennessee House expels the two black men but not the white woman. Guess that finally puts a lie to sexism.”
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Jonathan Greenblatt, CEO of the Anti-Defamation League, said on MSNBC on Sunday, April 9, that there were nearly 3700 antisemitic incidents across the country in 2022, “the highest we have ever seen.” He blamed “people in positions of authority who have sort of weaponized antisemitism and made it their go-to tactic in their political campaigns and public statements.” He also said that “extremists feel emboldened in this moment and they feel like they’ve been unleashed and they can say the kind of things and do the kinds of things the likes of which we’ve never seen before.” He described social media as a “super-spreader of stereotypes, not just against Jews, of course, [but also] against Black people, LGBTQ people, etcetera, but Jews loom large. Just look at Twitter, look at Tik-Tok, look at Facebook and Instagram, and it is just a cesspool of antisemitism.”
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The ruling by federal court judge Matthew Kacsymaryk in Texas invalidating FDA approval of the abortion pill mifepristone has drawn an angry response from Congresswoman Sara Jacobs (D-San Diego): “As a 34-year-old woman, I can’t take this anymore – another massive, misogynistic attack on my health care by a man who doesn’t know a damn thing about my body. This unilateral decision has far-reaching, life-altering consequences: it could strip 40 million more people of their dignity and their right to access health care. It furthers Republicans’ ultimate dream of banning abortion across the country by mainly targeting people living in blue states. And it could overly burden already overwhelmed clinics, worsen the maternal mortality crisis, and endanger patients facing ectopic pregnancies, miscarriages, and other conditions. This has nothing to do with patient care – mifepristone is safer than Tylenol and has been approved by the FDA for two decades. But yet again, radical Republicans are intervening where they don’t belong in personal and private health care decisions. I’m urging the FDA to use its authority to keep abortion pills available to Americans who need them. I will keep fighting against this shameful decision and toward building a society where all reproductive health care options, including abortion, aren’t only legal, but affordable, accessible, and stigma-free.”
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-New York) described Kacsmaryk as “a right-wing MAGA judge” who has acted “in his zeal to impose his own views on the American people.” Meanwhile another federal judge, in Washington state, Thomas Rice, has ruled that the FDA must not restrict the use of mifepristone. Typically, when two lower courts rule in diametrically opposite ways, the controversy will go to the U.S. Supreme Court for resolution.
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U.S. Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Maryland) has disclosed that Rep. James Comer (R-Kentucky), the chairman of the House Oversight Committee, has “issued six subpoenas and sent 39 letters in the Biden family investigation alone. Notably, Mr. Comer has failed to issue a single document subpoena in any other Committee investigation this Congress. This significant use of resources duplicates efforts by Senate Republicans in the 116th Congress which, after three years, have failed to reveal any wrongdoing by President Biden.” Comer responded that Raskin was engaged in a “cheap attempt to thwart cooperation from other witnesses.”
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U.S. Sen Bernie Sanders (Ind-Vermont) is pushing “The Social Security Expansion Act” which, if passed, would add $200 a month to every recipient’s Social Security paycheck. Among cosponsors are Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Massachusetts); Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-Illinois) and Rep. Val Hoyle (D-Oregon).
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Philanthropist and Democratic party contributor George Soros is being blamed by Republicans in another court controversy. First, former President Donald Trump called Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg Jr., who indicted him, a “Soros-backed animal.” More recently Gov. Greg Abbott of Texas indicated that upon receiving a recommendation from the state Board of Pardons and Paroles, he plans to pardon U.S. Army Sgt Daniel Perry, who was convicted Friday, April 7, of murdering protester Garrett Foster at a 2020 Black Lives Matter demonstration. Perry’s defense attorney argued that Perry shot Foster only after Foster pointed an AK-47 at him. The prosecution said Foster raised his weapon only after his car was surrounded by hostile counter-protesters. Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick commented about Austin’s District Attorney Jose Garza: “This DA, like a lot of the George Soros-supported DA’s across the country in our big, blue cities, seemed to let criminals go free and go after the innocent.”
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Author Marianne Williamson is not the only Democrat who has announced plans to challenge President Joe Biden for the 2024 Democratic presidential nomination. Robert F. Kennedy Jr., son of the late U.S. Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy and nephew of the late President John F. Kenney, has thrown his hat in the ring. An environmental attorney, he is widely known for his strenuous opposition to vaccines.
SAN DIEGO COUNTY
County Supervisor Terra Lawson-Remer and her three colleagues on the Board of Supervisors voted unanimously on Wednesday, April 5, to purchase a Live Well on Wheels van to bring help to unhoused people at their encampments. The San Diego Union-Tribune reported the van “will feature workstations, refrigerators for medication and vaccine storage, wheelchair lifts, American with Disabilities Act-compliant bathrooms and pop-up tents.”
Once his Democratic political ally, Lawson-Remer this week said she would welcome disgraced Supervisor Nathan Fletcher’s immediate resignation from the Board in the wake of a sex scandal, rather than waiting until May 15 when he returns from his out-of-state treatment for PTSD and alcoholism. Supervisor Jim Desmond earlier had called for Fletcher’s prompt resignation. Sean Elo-Rivera, a Democrat who serves as president of the San Diego City Council, also has called for Fletcher to quit his position as soon as his treatment permits. U.S. Rep. Sara Jacobs (D-San Diego) was far more adamant. She not only called for Fletcher’s immediate resignation but also rescinded “any support I’ve shown for him and his previous campaigns.”
In Memoriam
Ben Ferencz, who was the last of the still living prosecutors at the Nuremberg trials, died on Friday, April 7, at age 103. While in the U.S. Army he was chief prosecutor of the Nazi leaders of the Einsatzgruppen—the mobile killing unit sent into occupied areas to murder Jews.
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Col. Clark Kholos, USAF Retired, who served as commander of the Southern California Chapter of the Military Order of the World Wars, has died, Rabbi Mendy Begun of Chabad of Chula Vista announced on Sunday, April 9. The funeral will be held at the Eden Memorial Park in Los Angeles. Kholos was among honorees of the Jewish War Veterans chapter in San Diego along with Navy Admiral Hyman Rickover, Air Force Lt. Col. Allen Miliefsky, and Army Maj. Abraham J. Baum. The citation when he was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross honored his “extraordinary achievement while participating in aerial flight as an AC-130 Gunship Navigator over Southeast Asia on 14 March 1973. On that date, while on a night fire support mission over a heavily besieged friendly ground position, his actions enabled the friendly forces to successfully halt and repel repeated attacks by a superior sized hostile force. In the face of the constant threat of accurate anti-aircraft artillery fire, he continued to press the attack until the hostile forces were dispersed and was responsible for inflicting heavy casualties upon the hostile forces. The professional competence, aerial skill, and devotion to duty displayed by [then] Major Kholos reflect great credit upon himself and the United States Air Force.”
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In a newsletter to constituents, San Diego City Councilman Raul Campillo noted that he had nominated and recognized Holocaust survivor Rose Schindler as a “Woman of Distinction” shortly before she died February 17. “Rose was a pillar of the community, mother, grandmother, and Auschwitz survivor, and co-authored the book Two Who Survived: Keeping Hope Alive While Surviving the Holocaust with her [late] husband Max. … She had a great impact to her community, and those she came into contact with on a daily basis. Thank you, Mayor Todd Gloria and the entire City Council for highlighting such amazing women throughout our region.” Beneath a photo of her, Campillo quoted Schindler as saying “If you have a problem, never give up hope, ok. Everything is going to be fine.”
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Seymour Stein, founder of Sire Records which signed such music artists as Madonna, Ice-T, Depeche Mode, the Ramones, Talking Heads, and the Pretenders, died on Sunday, April 2 at age 80. He was inducted into the Rock n’ Roll Hall of Fame in 2005. His memoir, Siren Song, was published in 2018.
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Margo Stern Strom, founder of the non-profit Facing History and Ourselves organization, has died at age 81 of pancreatic cancer and dementia. As a schoolteacher in Brookline, Massachusetts, she realized that she knew little about the Holocaust and that her eighth-grade students knew even less. With William Parsons, a fellow teacher, she founded the organization that developed a curriculum that included not only the Holocaust but also other genocides including those in Armenia, Cambodia, and Rwanda. Additionally, the curriculum covered the U.S. atomic bombing of two Japanese cities, the My Lai Massacre during the Vietnam War, slavery and Jim Crow laws, among other topics.
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Donald H. Harrison is editor emeritus of San Diego Jewish World. He may be contacted via donald.harrison@sdjewishworld.com