By Donald H. Harrison
SAN DIEGO COUNTY
Holocaust Survivor Joseph Alexander, 100, will tell of his experiences at Chabad of Poway at 7 p.m., Thursday, April 27, exactly four years after a gunman murdered Lori Gilbert Kaye and wounded four other people. Reservations are required via chabadpoway.com. On May 4, Cheryl Rattner Price, executive director of The Butterfly Project, and Sandra Scheller, curator of the RUTH: Remember Us the Holocaust, will be among speakers at a 1:30 p.m. presentation on the Holocaust at Southwestern College in Chula Vista. Lee Ann Kim, former KGTV-10 reporter and founder of the Pacific Arts Movement, will emcee the event, which also will include a performance by singer Elizabeth Schwartz.
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Israeli-born Comedian Eric Angel (aka Dotan Malach) is bringing his Comedy for Peace show to San Diego featuring stand-up comedians who are Muslim, Christian, and Jewish. “The first goal of Comedy for Peace is to show that we can very easily collaborate, standing on one stage together, to have fun and to laugh at ourselves and on each other, without any politics involved.” The show will be presented at 7 p.m., Sunday, April 30, at the Lawrence Family JCC. Ruth Mastron, President of the House of Israel in Balboa Park, says it will be “a night you will never forget.”
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Pam Ferris, President and CEO of Seacrest Village Retirement Communities, will be the honoree for 35 years of leadership at the 80th Anniversary Ruby Jubilee Gala that the Seacrest Foundation’s Women’s Auxiliary will host on July 8. Event co-chairs are Merrill & Robert Haimsohn, Robin & Leo Eisenberg, and Erica & Steven Ratner.
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Randy Grossman, the U.S. Attorney in San Diego, met with reporters Friday after Roberto Salazar II was sentenced to 12 years in prison for smuggling drugs into the country while he was leading a double life as an active duty U.S. Marine at Marine Corps Air Station Miramar: “This case involved a Marine who was supposed to protect and defend our country but instead brought great harm to Americans by trafficking fentanyl and other dangerous drugs. He also betrayed his solemn oath by recruiting other Marines to do the same. Through this case, the defendant has been held to account for his crimes and we have dismantled another link in the supply chain for the deadly narcotics that are indiscriminately killing members of our community.”
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U.S. Rep. Sara Jacobs (D-San Diego) commented on Friday: “For over 20 years, mifepristone has been safe, effective, and on the market–and that remains true after today’s Supreme Court ruling [allowing the medication to stay on the market pending the appeals process.] But the fight doesn’t stop here as the merits of the case are considered in the Fifth Circuit. Extremist Republicans and far-right judges have their eyes set on a national abortion ban, and they won’t stop until they achieve that dystopian dream. As one of the few women of reproductive age in Congress, I will stay vigilant and keep fighting until abortion isn’t only legal, but affordable, accessible, stigma-free, and de-politicized for all.”
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Teachers Ray Mills and Alysa Segal will be honored as distinguished faculty at San Diego Hebrew Day School’s Diamond Jubilee Gala on Sunday, May 21, at the Julep Venue, 1735 Hancock Street.
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Journalist Karen Pearlman’s longtime canine companion “Chloe” has died after an illness, prompting nearly 1,000 Facebook notes of condolence from all over the world in a single day. Because of Pearlman’s penchant for photographing Chloe at many different San Diego County venues, the 14-year-old black cocker spaniel with an outgoing temperament served as an unofficial ambassador for San Diego.
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Author Joe Poremba will tell how his father, Nathan Poremba, stayed alive through the Holocaust even after as a nine-year-old he found his father murdered. The boy took on the identity of a dead Polish boy, Staszek Surdel, and was able to outwit the Nazis. The younger Poremba will discuss his father’s life while delivering the Lou Dunst Memorial Lecture at 5 p.m., Wednesday, April 26, in the Seuss Room of UC San Diego’s Geisel Library. The event is sponsored by the Holocaust Living History Workshop.
CALIFORNIA
Rabbi Jonathan Bernhard is the executive director of the Jewish Initiative for Animals (JIFA), which is currently engaged in a billboard campaign contrasting kosher “comfort foods” with the pain caused to animals who make up part of the human diet. One billboard, in the Pico-Robertson area, shows on one side a bowl of chicken soup with matzo balls, and the other side a picture of a chicken. It reads: “chicken soup? More like discomfort food.” The billboards direct passersby to isthiskosher.org.
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U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-California), recuperating from shingles, has told Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-New York) that she expects to return to the Senate soon. Sen. Amy Kolbuchar (D-Minnesota) told CNN”s Dana Bash that should put to rest the question whether Feinstein, 89, should resign. Her vote is needed by Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee to approve some judicial nominees who are opposed by Republican senators.
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Jeff Shell has resigned as the chief executive of NBCUniversal following disclosure of an inappropriate relationship with a woman in his company, it was announced by NBCUniversal’s parent company, Comcast Corp.
NATIONAL
Billionaire Michael Bloomberg says he will leave his business, Bloomberg LP, to his charity, Bloomberg Philanthropies. There is speculation this may be the largest donation to a charity in history.
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A new documentary, Judy Blume Forever, tracing the career of children’s author Judy Blume, includes examples of children who wrote to her seeking advice after reading her books, which on occasion were banned by different libraries and schools for their frank exploration of such sexual topics as masturbation and breast size. The documentary is streaming on Prime Video. In the 1980s, Blume was often the target of book-banners, with conservatives like Pat Buchanan highly critical of her writing. Today, she says in the documentary, it feels like the 1980s all over again, with calls from politicians for banning books from libraries and school curricula. Blume lives in Key West, Florida, the state where Ron DeSantis is the governor. Meanwhile, an adaptation of Blume’s Young Adult novel Are You There God? Ut’s Me, Margaret will begin a theatre run on Friday. Actresses include Abby Ryder Fortson, Rachel McAdams and Kathy Bates.
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Boris Epshteyn, an attorney who has served as a spokesman for former President Donald Trump both in and out of office, is scheduled to be interviewed Thursday as part of special counsel Jack Smith’s investigation into Trump’s role in the Jan 6. 2021 invasion of the Capitol Building and Trump’s unauthorized retention of classified documents after he left the White House. Epshteyn sat at Trump’s lawyers’ table during his recent arraignment a New York State court on charges of falsifying business documents to hide “hush money” payments to adult film actress Stormy Daniels.
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Democratic challenger Adam Frisch has raised more money than U.S. Rep. Loren Boebert (R-Colorado) in the first quarter of 2023’s Federal Election Commission reporting period. He raised $1.7 million in contributions compared to Boebert’s $667,000. Frisch said the average of 48,000 donations was less than $36. Boebert’s average donation was $608. In the 2022 election, Boebert bested Frisch by the slim margin of 546 votes. Frisch has been contrasting his pro-choice stance with Boebert’s anti-abortion position. He said his father was an OB-Gyn and “having a father who provided women with access to health care — especially at a time when so many were being denied the right — really shaped how I think about the issue.” Boebert, he said, “wants you to think that women having the freedom to make their own medical decisions is some extreme idea. It’s not.”
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Jonathan Greenblatt, CEO of the Anti-Defamation League, says of the trial of alleged Tree of Life shooter Robert Bowers that is scheduled to begin today (Monday, April 21): “The country is going to have to undergo this unprecedented trial of the country’s worst mass killer of Jews. It’s going to be really hard, so I think our community is really going to have to buckle down and brace ourselves.” Bowers is accused of killing 11 people in the Oct. 27, 2018 attack. Federal prosecutors have said they will seek the death penalty for Bowers.
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Zionist Organization of America President Morton Klein is the subject of a $1.2 million suit in New York filed by John Rosen, the former ZOA executive vice president, who claims he suffered retaliation after being a whistleblower in 2022. The lawsuit contends Klein created a toxic work environment and has a volatile temper, often manifested in racist and misogynistic comments.
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Actor Walter Koenig, who played ensign Pavel Chekov in the original 1960s television Star Trek series, has a voice part in the finale of Star Trek: Picard. His voice will be heard in the role of Anton Chekov, Pavel’s son, who has become the president of the United Federation of Planets. He warns starships to avoid the Earth because of overwhelming Borg presence.
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Comedian Richard Lewis, recently diagnosed with Parkinson’s Disease, has announced he is retiring from stand-up comedy but plans to continue as an actor and comedy writer.
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Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas announced creation of a taskforce on artificial intelligence (AI), to determine how AI can be used in screening international cargo, detecting fentanyl shipments, rescue victims on online sexual exploitation, and assess the security of critical infrastructure. Mayorkas also announced a 90-day “sprint” to assess and “drive down risk” from China in six areas: defense of critical infrastructure, disrupting the fentanyl supply chain, preventing harassment of Chinese dissidents who reside in the U.S.; protecting against “malign economic influence”; advancing safety, security in the Arctic and Indo-Pacific; and sharing information on threats from the PRC across all levels of government and with the private sector.
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U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders (Ind-Vermont) is chairman of the Senate Health Committee. He says he will have the CEOs of Eli Lilly and Company, Novo Nordisk and Sanofi testify on why the medication costs so much. Although all three companies have said they plan to reduce insulin prices, Sanders commented, that it’s important to make certain that the price reductions result “in every American getting the insulin they need at an affordable price.”
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U.S. Rep. Elissa Slotkin (D-Michigan) running for the U.S. Senate seat from which Debbie Stabenow (D-Michigan) is considered both good news and bad news for Democrats. Good news because Slotkin is considered to have a good chance of winning the Senate seat and protecting Democrats’ majority in the Upper House, but bad news because it leaves her House seat vulnerable in an election year that Democrats hoped to win back control from Republicans of the House of Representatives.
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Actor Kevin Sussman, best known for playing Stuart, the comic book store owner on televisions The Big Bang Theory, has married Adie Hall, he announced on Instagram.
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First baseman Rowdy Tellez of the Milwaukee Brewers added to his record Saturday of banging homeruns against the Boston Red Sox. Hitting his seventh homerun in a 5-4 win over the Red Sox brought his lifetime record against them to 14 homeruns and 29 RBI’s. His lifetime batting average against them is .336. How come? “I don’t know,” Tellez told MLB reporter Adam McAlvy. “They’re just the unfortunate team I guess. Somebody’s always got to have one team to do better against than the others, and I guess the Sox are mine. I get asked that question a lot and I don’t have an answer for it.”
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The sixth-floor home of the late television personality Barbara Walters, on Manhattan’s Upper East Side, is for sale for $19.75 million. It has five bedrooms and five bathrooms and looks out over Central Park.
INTERNATIONAL
Newspaper columnist Mika Walden Almog, the granddaughter of Israel’s late Prime Minister and President Shimon Peres, has made a video to explain what the mass protests in Israel are about, and appealing to members of Congress and American Jewish organizations to join in the protests against consolidation of all three branches of government — executive, legislative, and judicial — under the office of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
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Conductor Daniel Barenboim, who retired earlier this year as music director of the Berlin State Opera, has been designated as a “citizen of honor” by the City of Berlin. Past recipients of this honor included Konrad Adenauer and Marlene Dietrich.
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U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, on a visit to the sub-Saharan African nation of Niger, has urged that country to reestablish diplomatic relations with Israel in what would be an expansion of the Abraham Accords.
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Yale University’s Jewish Law Student Association withdrew its sponsorship of a speech by former Knesset member Michal Cotler-Wunsh on antisemitism Friday, April 21. No reason was given but the group had been told an Israeli speaker might be too controversial. Yale Law School deputy dean Yair Listokin thereafter substituted himself as sponsor.
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Democratic Congressmembers Kathy Manning of North Carolina and Brad Schneider of Illinois joined with Republicans Michael McCaul of Texas and Ann Wagner of Missouri in introducing a resolution honoring the U.S.-Israel partnership on the occasion of Israel’s 75th anniversary. “For 75 years, the United States and Israel have built an extraordinary and enduring alliance based on our shared interests and fundamental values,” Manning said. “Israel is our most important, most reliable and only democratic ally in the region.”
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Daniel Meyer is the founder and board chairman of Shake Shack, a fast-growing fast food outlet with 262 locations in the United States and 141 locations internationally. Now the company is planning to open an outlet in Tel Aviv in 2024, and 14 others in Israel over the next decade. It has not yet been announced whether they will be kosher.
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Donald H. Harrison is editor emeritus of San Diego Jewish World. He may be contacted via donald.harrison@sdjewishworld.com