By Donald H. Harrison
SAN DIEGO COUNTY (Sunday, May 7, 2023)
Annie Benaroch, Amelia Glaser, Jan Landau, Fanny Krasner Lebovits, Sheila Lipinsky and Beth Sirull are the 14th annual cohort to be honored as Women of Valor in a play directed by Ali Viterbi and co-written by her, Sarah Price Keating, Rebecca Myers, Leah Salovey and Todd Salovey in performances at the Lawrence Family JCC on June 1 and at the Leichtag Commons June 11. The presentation is part of the upcoming 30th annual Lipinsky Family Sn Diego Jewish Arts Festival.
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Author Judy Blume got lots of loving in The San Diego Union-Tribune in the edition of Saturday, May 6. In connection with the release of the movie Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret based on her 1970 Young Adult novel. five readers, at the newspaper’s request, told of the impact Blume’s books had on them. All were positive. The contributors remembered the secrecy, even shame, which the onset of menstruation and the development of breasts caused tweens and teens, and how Blume’s books, which addressed those issues from the perspective of a fictional contemporary, helped them understand not only the physiological but the psychological impacts of their coming of age.
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Current and former San Diego County Rabbis Nadav Caine (formerly Cong. Ner Tamid), Mark Hurvitz (formerly Etz Chaim), Dana Magat (formerly Beth Israel), Jason Nevarez (Beth Israel), Yaffa-Shira Sultan (formerly Dor Hadash) and Nicole Nevarez, national director of Ta’amod Stand Up, are among 1,885 Americans so far who have signed an open letter from the Keshet organization in support of LGBTQ+ rights that calls upon Jewish leaders to embrace transgender Jews and to “use your voice and your platform to speak out for our kids and our community. Follow the lead of the Central Conference for Reform Rabbis, who issued a powerful resolution defending transgender people. Demand that your elected officials take action for trans rights and LGBTQ+ equality.”
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Rabbi Yossi Eilfort, director of Magen Am USA, is the son of Rabbi Yeruchem Eilfort of Chabad of La Costa. As head of the non-profit organization that helps Jewish congregations with their self-defense, he is quoted in the Daily Caller as saying: “I probably trained 300 first-time shooters in the last two years. So, there are a lot of first-timers coming out. What’s interesting about American Second Amendment culture is that I found the people who own guns for longer and grew up shooting tend to be less interested or concerned (about) training and those that are getting into it now are more open to it.” He was interviewed by Kate Anderson for an article reporting that in response to antisemitism more Jews are embracing the Second Amendment right to bear arms.
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Qualcomm cofounder Irwin Jacobs sat fascinated in the audience of the UC San Diego Jacobs Health Center on Friday, May 5, as presenters explained some of the benefits a $22 million donation he and his wife Joan Jacobs made that, among other uses, will help finance a program to harness artificial intelligence (AI) to analyze and make recommendations for patient care based on all the electronic data that is recorded in patients’ records and at their hospital beds. An article in The San Diego Union-Tribune quoted Jacobs as saying: “It was kind of decided, well, we’re getting all of this data, but none of it’s really connected. We need to get it into one place including not just the hospital system, but also from outside, and then have a few different types of people in there who can react very quickly to what they’re seeing.”
CALIFORNIA
David Bocarsly, executive director of the Jewish Public Affairs Council of California, released a videoed welcoming speech from U.S. Sen. Alex Padilla (D-California) ahead of the organization’s May 9-10 summit at the state capital. The senator said, “We still have so much work to do to combat hate, stamp out antisemitism, and speak up for our values in order to prevent future tragedies and we need everyone to help grow our resources and strengthen community building whether that is treating migrants with dignity and humanity, providing shelter to those experiencing homelessness, or making sure that no child goes hungry.”
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CNN Anchor Jake Tapper asked Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Illinois), chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, “At what point do tens of millions of voters currently lacking full representation in the Senate from California … matter more than the feelings of a colleague whose health has been in question for a long time?” Referring to U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-California) Durbin responded, “I hope she does what is best for her and her family and the state of California and makes a decision soon as to whether she is coming back.” He added: “I can think of a handful as I sit here, Democrats and Republican, who have been absent because of medical conditions for lengthy periods of time. I want to treat Dianne Feinstein fairly … but the bottom line is, the business of the committee and of the Senate is affected by her absence.”
NATIONAL
Attorney Bryan Freedman, representing Tucker Carlson who was fired from Fox News, told Axios: “The idea that anyone is going to silence Tucker and prevent him from speaking to his audience is beyond preposterous.” Although he is not on the air, Carlson still is being paid through 2025 under terms of his contract, which also specifies he cannot work for anyone else.
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U.S. Rep. Dan Goldman (D-New York) holds a “bagel caucus” in his Brooklyn district. He told MSNBC’s Jen Psaki that “there’s very little opportunity for people to socialize in a non-partisan way. And so, the bagels bring people together and the idea was to create a more relaxed atmosphere where Democrats, Republicans can get together, can get to know each other, which doesn’t really exist in Congress.” For the record a favorite snack for Goldman is a toasted whole wheat everything bagel with cream cheese, lox, and tomato. On the issue of combatting antisemitism, Goldman said that it is disheartening to him “is this focus by Republicans primarily on George Soros. And we had a field hearing here in Manhattan a couple weeks ago [that] chairman Jim Jordan [R-Ohio] put on. It was about [Manhattan District Attorney] Alvin Bragg and crime in this city. There was a man outside who was holding a sign that had ‘Soros,’ a Star of David and money signs and there was a Republican witness at that hearing who said that is 100 percent antisemitic. So, one of the things that we need to do stop the rise in antisemitism and call out antisemitism where it exists and have everybody across the whole spectrum is to say that it is unacceptable.”
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Federal Judge Alvin Hellerstein will consider an appeal from former President Donald Trump to remove from state court to federal court the criminal case against him brought by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg Jr. Trump’s attorneys have contended the charges brought against him involve “important federal questions.” If Hellerstein, 89, agrees, the case would be assigned on a random basis to another federal judge based in Manhattan.
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Outfielder Kevin Pillar came off the Atlanta Braves bench on Saturday and hit his 100th career homerun, lifting his team to a 5-4 victory over the Baltimore Orioles. He told a reporter for the Major League Baseball website: “I know a hundred is insignificant to a lot of people. You think about the greats and how many home runs they have hit. But for a kid who was drafted in the 32nd round who never thought he would be in the big leagues 10 years later, a hundred – you know I’ve never been a big home run guy – maybe speaks to some consistency.”
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U.S. Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Maryland) told MSNBC anchor Jen Psaki that “More than 90 percent of the people support a universal background check before violent criminals can get guns. And yet we are completely stymied by the GOP and the NRA stranglehold over the political process, and that’s the struggle that we are in today.”
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Section 4 of the 14th Amendment, which some politicians have suggested could provide President Joe Biden with a way to prolong government spending even without congressional action to raise the debt ceiling, reads: “The validity of the public debt of the United States, authorized by law, including debts incurred for payment of pensions and bounties for services in suppressing insurrection or rebellion, shall not be questioned. But neither the United States nor any State shall assume or pay any debt or obligation incurred in aid of insurrection or rebellion against the United States, or any claim for the loss or emancipation of any slave; but all such debts, obligations and claims shall be held illegal and void.” Asked about this possibility on ABC’s This Week on Sunday, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen had no sympathy for the idea. She said: “There is no way to protect our financial system in our economy, other than Congress doing its job and raising the debt ceiling and enabling us to pay our bills, and we should not get to the point where we need to consider whether the President can go on issuing debt. This would be a constitutional crisis.”
INTERNATIONAL
In the race to succeed Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-California) that features a three-way race among Reps. Adam Schiff, Barbara Lee, and Katie Porter, Lee has decided to throw her weight behind a bill by Rep. Betty McCollum (D-Minnesota) to restrict aid to Israel. It is called the Defending Palestinian Children and Families Living Under Israeli Military Occupation Act. In a statement McCollum wrote, “Not $1 of U.S. aid should be used to commit human rights violations, demolish families’ homes, or permanently annex Palestinian land. The United States provides billions in assistance for Israel’s government each year—and these dollars should go toward Israel’s security, not towards actions that violate international law and cause harm. Peace can only be achieved when everyone’s human rights are respected, and Congress has a responsibility to not ignore the well-documented mistreatment of Palestinian children and families living under Israel military occupation.” McCollum said that J Street, Jewish Voice for Peace Action, the Center for Jewish Nonviolence, and the Reconstructionist Rabbinical Association are among groups endorsing her bill.
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Israeli comedian Guy Hochman was deported from the U.S. after Immigration authorities were alerted to his Tweet that said: “Blessings for my pregnant wife that is coming to stay with me here, five months until an American citizen will be born to us.”
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Gal Luft, an Israeli whom U.S. authorities have sought to extradite from Cyprus on charges of weapon trafficking, has disappeared since March 28th when he was released on bail from a Cyprus jail. He has alleged that the U.S. Justice Department has trumped up the charges in an effort to protect President Joe Biden and his son Hunter Biden from information he has uncovered that the family has a mole in the FBI who keeps them apprised of the status of the investigation into Hunter’s business and tax dealings.
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Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, visiting the Mexican border at El Paso, Texas on Friday, May 5, said smugglers are lying to migrants that the border will be “open” after Title 42 lapses on Thursday. “The border is not open, it has not been open, and it will not be open subsequent to May 11,” he said. While some restrictions will be eased, many regulations regarding who can apply for asylum, and how, will still have to be followed.
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Outgoing CDC Director Rochelle Walensky has been criticized in a Tweet by U.S. Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-Colorado). She wrote: “Glad to see Rochelle Walensky leave the Biden administration, even though she’ll just be replaced with someone just as bad or worse. Rochelle was a major player in the lockdowns, jab mandates and the economic destruction of America. She should spend the rest of her career in shame.” Boebert, who won reelection by just 546 votes, may have her own career to worry about. Her opponent in that race, Adam Frisch, is running again and so far has raised more money than Boebert as the 2024 election approaches.
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Meta ‘s Mark Zuckerberg was not included among high tech executives invited to last Thursday’s White House conference on Artificial Intelligence (AI), Business Insider reported. An official said that the meeting “focused on companies currently leading in the space, especially on the consumer facing product side.”
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Donald H. Harrison is editor emeritus of San Diego Jewish World. He may be contacted via donald.harrison@sdjewishworld.com