By Donald H. Harrison
SAN DIEGO COUNTY (Sunday, April 30)
Becky Cherlin Baird says her children’s musical Hereville, based on the books of Barry Deutsch, has been accepted for two staged readings at the Lipinsky Family San Diego J Fest. Performances are scheduled June 11 at the Old Globe Theatre in Balboa Park, and July 9 at the Dea Hurston New Village Arts Theatre in Carlsbad.
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Natalie Shapiro, executive director of the Buena Vista Audubon Society, announced the receipt of two grants totaling $541,478 will “allow us to restore one of the last pieces of undeveloped habitat by the Buena Vista Lagoon. By creating new wetlands and associated habitats, this project provides carbon sequestration, mitigation of runoff pollutants, and a buffer to local communities against sea-level rise and storm surges.” Donors to the society, with headquarters on the lagoon shared by Carlsbad and Oceanside, were the San Diego Foundation’s Oceanside Greenhouse Gas Emission Reduction Fund on behalf of Preserve Calavera and the Dorrance Family Foundation.
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Barry Soper, who has contributed to many political campaigns, now has political figures donating money to build a new, less destructible outdoor menorah at Chabad of San Diego State University, which is led by Rabbi Chalom Boudjnah. Among contributors are the current and previous two San Diego County Assessors/ Clerks/ Recorders respectively Jordan Marks, Ernie Dronenburg, and Greg Smith. The menorah, which symbolizes the Jewish hope to bring light into the world, has been vandalized on several occasions over the years. Overseeing construction of a new one is Joshua Soper, son of Barry Soper.
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Business writer Lori Weisberg reports in The San Diego Union-Tribune that the Port of San Diego will have fewer homeported cruise ships in the upcoming season. Norwegian Cruise Line has pulled out of San Diego, except for one visit call, and Disney Cruise Line and Princess Cruises have reduced the number of homeported calls, in which passengers begin their cruise and bunkers and provisions are taken onto the ship. The Port of San Diego has estimated that every homeported cruise call adds $2 million to the local economy. Meanwhile, Holland-America Line continues to be a mainstay of homeported vessels in San Diego.
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San Diego Humane Society CEO Dr. Gary Weitzman has urged animal-lovers to join the “Walk for Animals” at Liberty Station next Saturday morning, May 6, beginning with registration at 7 a.m. at 2455 Cushing Road. Registration fee is $10.
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Jerry Yellin, a U.S. fighter pilot who flew the last combat mission of World War II and who, post-World War II, reconciled with the Japanese after his son married the daughter of a kamikaze pilot, is the subject of the documentary, Jerry’s Last Mission, to be shown at 5 p.m., Tuesday, May 16, during the GI Film Festival at the Museum of Photographic Arts in Balboa Park. Another entry is Adam Alon’s Leave an intimate Israeli short film about a wife who is terrified that she will lose her soldier husband. It will be shown with other Late Night Narrative Shorts at 9:50 p.m., Friday, May 19.
NATIONAL
Author Judy Blume, interviewed by Anderson Cooper on CNN, said book-banning is worse today than when she faced it years before. “It’s worse because it is coming from the [state] government. I happen to live in Key West, which we pretend isn’t in [Florida] where we have that governor [Ron DeSantis] but in fact, it is, and we do. We have elected legislators who are trying to not just ban books, but control what kids can learn, what they can ask, what they can think. I mean, it’s that bad.”
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Massachusetts Institute of Technology professor and political activist Noam Chomsky’s name was included on disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein’s private calendars. When Chomsky was asked by The Wall Street Journal what he had talked about with Epstein, who died in a jail cell after being convicted on charges of sex trafficking, Chomsky wrote back: “First response is that it is none of your business. Or anyone’s. Second is that I knew him and we met occasionally.” He later relented, saying that their discussions centered on politics and academics. Epstein was a large donor to MIT.
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Adam Frisch, who narrowly lost a congressional race to Lauren Boebert of Colorado in 2022 and is running again, characterizes Boebert as “everything that’s wrong with Congress. She’s an election denier that encouraged the attack on the Capitol. She wants to make all abortions illegal—even in cases of rape or incest. She’s part of the angertainment circus in Washington that’s tearing our country and our democracy apart.” Frish is a Democrat; Boebert is a Republican
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Rabbi Harold Kushner, who wrote When Bad Things Happen to Good People and other best-selling books, died on Friday at age 88. He served as the longtime rabbi at Temple Israel in Natick, Massachusetts.
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Comedian Roy Wood Jr., at the White House Correspondents Association dinner, said there are three people you don’t want to see in the courtroom on the other side: Dominion, Cardi B, or Gwyneth Paltrow. “You gonna lose!”
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Colorado Gov. Jared Polis has signed four gun-safety bills that have drawn opposition from the National Rifle Association. One increases from 18 to 21 the minimum age for purchasing any gun. A second requires a three-day waiting period between purchase of a gun and taking possession of it. A third strengthens the “red flag” law keeping guns from people who have made threats or have given other evidence of being a threat to themselves or others. The fourth enables gun manufacturers to be sued under certain circumstances.
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ABC News Reporter Martha Raddatz drew this response when she asked Sen. Chris Coons (D-Delaware), the co-chair of President Joe Biden’s reelection campaign whether the President’s being an octogenarian is a political liability. “You saw the State of the Union address—nearly an hour and a half. He was faster on his feet than most members of Congress. I think Joe Biden is agile, is capable. His record of leadership both at home and abroad, makes him eminently qualified. And we should be focusing some on the wisdom and experience he brings to the job, in addition to the accomplishments he’s had these first two years.”
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U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders (Ind-Vermont) told CNN’s Dana Bash that many Republicans “don’t even believe in democracy. They maintain the myth that Trump won the last election. They are trying to keep people from voting. They are trying to deny women the right to control their own bodies.”
INTERNATIONAL
U.S. President Joe Biden met with the family of Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich prior to the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner on Saturday night, telling them that their son, now imprisoned in Russia for alleged spying, has shown “absolute courage.” He said the U.S. works “every day to secure his release.”
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U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas on Sunday’s Meet the Press program that there is a misconception that Mexico is not cooperating with the United States in the fight against fentanyl. “They are an ally. And we have a very close partnership with them,” he said. “I can speak to what happens on the ground operationally. And we work very closely with our Mexican partners.” He said that many precursor chemicals for fentanyl “originates in China and we’ve got to stop that flow.”
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Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will receive an invitation to visit the United States one way or the other. House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-California) said in Israel on Sunday that if U.S. President Joe Biden doesn’t invite Netanyahu to the White House, he will invite him to Congress.
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Donald H. Harrison is editor emeritus of San Diego Jewish World. He may be contacted via donald.harrison@sdjewishworld.com