SAN DIEGO (SDJW) — Researchers from San Diego, Jerusalem, and New York have been awarded the 2024 Brain Prize by the Lundbeck Foundation for their advancement of the study of neuroscience. Haim Sompolinsky of Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Terrence Serjnowski of the Salk Institute for Biological Studies in San Diego, and Larry Abbott of Columbia University in New York will divide the $1.412,066 prize that will be presented in Copenhagen on May 30 by King Frederik of Denmark.
Richard Morris, chairman of the selection committee, said the three prize winners have “proposed conceptual frameworks for understanding some of the brain’s most fundamental processes, such as learning, memory, perception, and how the brain generates maps of the external world. They have also provided crucial new insights into what may go awry in several devastating disorders of the nervous system, such as epilepsy, Alzheimer’s disease and schizophrenia. In addition, their scientific achievements have paved the way for the development of brain-inspired artificial intelligence, one of the emerging and transformational technologies of our time.”
Sompolinsky, who divides his time between Harvard University in Boston and the Hebrew University, is the son of Danish-born David Sompolinsky, who helped to smuggle fellow Jews from Denmark to neutral Sweden, thus avoiding a planned Nazi roundup of Danish Jews in 1943.
JEWISH PROFESSIONALS
The San Diego regional office of the American Jewish Committee has announced that Danielle York, a first generation Persian Jew from Los Angeles, has been serving as a coordinator in the local AJC office. She will graduate in May from San Diego State University, where she is studying Communications, is an Emerson Fellow with StandWithUs, and is education director for Students Supporting Israel. After graduation, she plans to work in the world of Jewish and Israel nonprofit organizations. San Diego native Sophia Muroff will become the fulltime coordinator at the AJC office. She teaches third grade at Beth El’s Viterbi Torah School, and has been a camper, counselor and leadership team member at Camp Mountain Chai. She is a graduate of the University of Maryland, where she participated in the Jewish Student Union Cabinet Board and MEOR Maimonides Leadership Fellowship.
GOVERNMENT AND POLITICS
Rep. Sara Jacobs (D-San Diego) has joined Republican Rep. Don Bacon of Nebraska in a bid to extend federal funding via the American Rescue Plan for students experiencing homelessness. She said nearly 18,500 San Diego County students experienced homelessness last year. “These funds have helped address chronic absence, mental health issues, and other needs by having the flexibility to provide short-term housing like hotel stays, transportation, school supplies, and other wrap-around services,” she said. At Thursday night’s State of the Union address by President Joe Biden, Jacobs hosted Erika Malone, the Director of Creative Youth Development and Community Engagement at the Monarch School – the only K-12 school in the nation that exclusively serves students experiencing homelessness.
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Former San Diego Mayor Kevin Faulconer has been endorsed in the 3rd County Supervisorial District race against incumbent Terra Lawson-Remer by the San Diego Police Officers Association (SDPOA) Its president, Jared Wilson, explained: “Kevin Faulconer has been a stalwart supporter of our men and women in blue. That’s why we’re supporting him to be our next County Supervisor. When other cities around the state looked to defund the police, Kevin stood up to these radical groups and instead gave us the tools necessary to help us be successful in protecting every day San Diegans. That’s the kind of leader we all need at the county level – that’s why we’re strongly backing him to be our next Supervisor.”
In neighboring Orange County, Joanna Weiss, who placed third in the race to succeed Congresswoman Katie Porter, congratulated her fellow Democrat who made the runoff — Dave Min –and promised her support in what promises to be a tough campaign against Scott Baugh, a Republican. Porter (D-Irvine) placed third in the race for the U.S. Senate behind Adam Schiff and Steve Garvey.
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HUMOR
Rabbi Rafi Andrusier of Chabad of El Cajon passes this story along: Two five year-olds, one Jewish, the other Catholic, are playing in a sandpit. Sean says to David, “Our priest knows more about things than your rabbi!” To which David replies, “Of course he does, you tell him everything.”
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SDJW staff