By Donald H. Harrison
SAN DIEGO – If you have news about the public activities of members of the Jewish community, please feel free to advise me via donald.harrison@sdjewishworld.com. Please include your telephone number in case additional information is needed.
SAN DIEGO COUNTY
Jason Bercovitch, who serves as district director for U.S. Rep. Scott Peters (D-San Diego) was among Jewish community members attending a “friendship-building Eid between local Afghan-Americans and Jewish Americans as we work to establish better relations and understanding among marginalized communities.” He commented: “There will always be more which unites us than divides us yet way too much time is normally spent on disagreement. People to people relations is the key to reducing hate domestically and around the world.”
CALIFORNIA
David Bocarsly, executive director of the Jewish Public Affairs Committee of California, describes its 2023 legislative agenda as follows: “We’re championing impactful bills and budget items that tackle poverty and inequity, and expand access to food, housing, healthcare, and immigrant services. And we’re thinking creatively and holistically about how to work with other vulnerable communities to protect ourselves from discrimination and hate-motivated violence. To see a list of bills that JPAC supports, click here.
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Rachel Lerner, dean of the School for Jewish Education and Leadership at American Jewish University in Los Angeles, has announced the university will offer a doctorate in early childhood educational leadership “to prepare students to become leaders in their field, impacting the lives of young children for generations to come.”
NATIONAL
Matchmaker Aleeza Ben Shalom will host a new Netflix program, Jewish Matchmaking, which will be similar to Netflix’s popular Indian Matchmaking. In an interview with People magazine, she commented: “This show will resonate with viewers not only because of the endearing people and entertaining episodes, but because of the takeaways, insights, and advice I share that you can put in your pocket.” The series will be streamed May 3.
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Billionaire investor Leon Cooperman told Bloomberg that falling values for stocks “is kind of like textbook. We have a self-induced crisis by irresponsible fiscal and monetary policy [over] the last decade. I did not forecast the [Silicon Valley Bank] issue, but I did have a view that we were heading into a crisis of some kind and we’re seeing it.”
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Bed Bath & Beyond has filed for bankruptcy and will begin closing some stores this week. The company with 360 outlets and another 120 buybuy Baby stores today was founded in 1971 in New Jersey by Warren Eisenberg and Leonard Feinstein, but they were replaced following a hostile takeover which put former Target executive Mark Tritton in charge. He, too, was pushed out. Currently Harriet Edelman is the board chair and Sue Gove serves as the president and chief executive officer. The company has 14,000 employees.
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Abby Grossberg was fired by Fox News from her job as head of booking for Tucker Carlson after filing two lawsuits in New York federal court against Fox, one accusing Carlson of creating a hostile workplace with frequent sexist and antisemitic jokes. With news of Carlson “parting ways” with Fox on Monday as an on-air personality, Grossberg’s attorney Tanvir Rahman commented that Carlson’s departure is “in part, an admission of the systemic lying, bullying and conspiracy mongering claimed by our client.” The attorney also said she planned to take Carlson’s deposition soon. The Los Angeles Times reported that Fox News owner Rupert Murdoch personally made the decision to fire Carlson, motivated in part by Grossberg’s suit. Carlson grew up in La Jolla, the son of television personality and unsuccessful mayoral candidate Dick Carlson.
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Idit Klein, President & CEO of Keshet, a Jewish organization advocating for the LGBTQ+ community, has endorsed an appeal by parents of transgender youth urging Jewish community organizations “to do more to protect their kids.” Specifically, they want Jewish leaders “to take action and support trans youth and their families who are being vilified and attacked in the media and by elected legislators in dozens of states.”
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Former Congressional candidate Laura Loomer, a Conservative Republican who unsuccessfully challenged Rep. Lois Frankel (D-Florida) in 2020, has spoken out against a bill that Florida legislators have proposed to stifle hate acts aimed against people of different races, religion, sexual orientation, ethnic, or disability. These include leaving intimidating leaflets on someone’s property; harassing people about their religious garb; interrupting prayer services or funerals, and projecting images onto someone’s property without permission. Loomer, who has been described as an Islamophobe, called the bill “highly unconstitutional and would make constitutionally protected speech a felony. There is no such thing as hate speech, but under the guise of antisemitism, this bill will criminalize free speech and protest. As a Jewish woman and free speech absolutist, I 100 percent oppose this draconian bill.” The measure is also opposed by numerous far-right personalities.
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U.S. Rep. Jared Moskowitz (D-Florida) has urged President Biden to “approve Governor [Ron] DeSantis’s request for a Major Disaster Declaration to provide relief to those impacted by the once-in-a-lifetime floods in Broward County.” His message on Twitter came in advance of DeSantis making such a request.
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Actor Liev Schreiber, who portrayed Zus Bielski in Defiance, has another Holocaust part. He’s playing Otto Frank in A Small Light, a miniseries premiering on National Geographic network Monday, May 1. The series explores the life of Miep Gies, who assisted Otto and his daughter Anne Frank’s family to hide in the Secret Annex in Amsterdam. Gies is portrayed by British actress Bel Powley. After the series is shown on National Geographic it will stream on Hulu and Disney.
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Jenna Wolfe, a former correspondent for NBC’s Today show, has disclosed that in response to testing for the BRCA1 gene mutation, she underwent a hysterectomy and a mastectomy, both to ward off cancer. In an Instagram post, she wrote: “I have to keep reminding myself that this is the process … slow progress, painful at times, encouraging at others, sometimes ugly, sometimes messy, always worth it if it means I’ll be around for a long time. Lots of button-down shirts. Lots of comfy cargo pants. Lots of arm circles and stretching. On the bright side, glass half full.”
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U.S. Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Oregon) has asked Harlan Crow to voluntarily turn over documents concerning his gifts to Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas to the Senate Finance Committee, which Wyden chairs. “This unprecedented arrangement between a wealthy benefactor and a Supreme Court justice raises serious concerns related to federal tax and ethics laws,” Wyden wrote to the Texas billionaire. Earlier this year, it was disclosed that Thomas accepted numerous luxury vacations from Crow without reporting them on financial disclosure forms.
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Former U.S. Rep. Lee Zeldin (R-New York) has endorsed Donald Trump for President in 2024. He wrote on Twitter: “The GOP is filled with amazing talent to save our country from the failed policies of the Biden Admin. Our nominee in 2024 will be the 45th & 47th POTUS, Donald Trump. Our economy will be stronger, our streets will be safer, & our lives will be freer. He has my full support.” A potential Trump rival, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, had endorsed Zeldin in his unsuccessful bid last year to become New York’s governor. Trump also endorsed Zelin in that race.
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INTERNATIONAL
Linda Thomas-Greenfield, the U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, told the Security Council on Monday that Russia “has violated international law. That includes the wrongful detention of American citizens. Russia has imprisoned Paul Whelan and now detaining Evan Gershkovich to use as political bargaining chips, human pawns. Paul was simply in the wrong place at the wrong time. Evan is a journalist. He was just doing his job. Using people as pawns is a strategy of weakness. These are not the actions of a responsible country.”
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May Golan was slated to become Israel’s consul-general in New York City until protests were heard from the Anti-Defamation League that racist comments by Golan, a Likud minister without portfolio, “raise deep concerns about her fitness to serve as a diplomat in any locale, let alone in a city as diverse and vibrant as New York. The U.S. State Department’s Deputy Spokesman Vedant Patel objected to a statement of Golan’s that she does not eat in restaurants with African asylum seekers out of fear [without justification] of catching AIDS. “We would condemn such kind of rhetoric and believe that such kind of language is also particularly damaging when it’s amplified in leadership positions,” Patel said. Rabbi Rick Jacobs, President of the Union for Reform Judaism, commented, “We need a thoughtful , diplomatic, morally credible new consul general in New York. May Golan is none of those. Her brand of Zionism is antithetical to the majority of our community. She will harm not help Israel’s cause.” Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu apparently took notice of the messages. He signaled that he is now considering Israeli-American columnist Caroline B. Glick for the position, among others including David Hermelin, president of the International Centre for Public Diplomacy in Israel.
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The participation of MK Simcha Rothman, a strong advocate for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s plan to restructure Israel’s judiciary, brought protesters to a panel discussion Monday of the General Assembly meeting in Tel Aviv of the Jewish Federations of North America. Eventually a five-minute recess was called to restore order. Commented JFNA President Julie Platt: “We wanted very much to include anyone who wanted to be here, to learn and to be part of the conversation. It’s unfortunate it was disrupted so we couldn’t engage in the kind of learning we had hoped for. It was more than we expected.”
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Donald H. Harrison is editor emeritus of San Diego Jewish World. He may be contacted via donald.harrison@sdjewishworld.com