Other items in today’s column include:
*Shabbat San Diego
* Jewish history and Chanukah
* Movie premiere
* Political bytes
* Coming our way
By Donald H. Harrison
SAN DIEGO – Rabbi Leah Herz created a fun-filled Simchat Torah learning session called “The Great Torah Roll” for residents of the Seacrest Village Retirement Community in Encinitas when she had the entire Torah unrolled and held by staff, volunteers, and residents, some of whom were in wheelchairs.
“Rabbi Leah came out dressed as Dora the Torah Explorer and did such a great act!” commented Marsha Sutton, who volunteers at the Jewish Home on Tuesdays.
The rabbi, who previously occupied positions with Temple De Hirsh Sinai in Seattle Washington, Temple Israel in Canton, Ohio, and Menorah Manor, a skilled nursing facility in St. Petersburg, Florida, also conducted a game of Torah trivia asking such questions as “How many letters are in the Torah?” (Answer: Somewhat more than 304,000) and “How long is a Torah scroll?_ (Answer: Depending on the sofer who wrote it, between 120 and 150 feet long.)
The rabbinate is Herz’s second career. She worked as a stockbroker in Chicago until age 50, and then decided to study for ordination at the Hebrew Union College in Cincinnati, a Reform institution. She was ordained in 2005. Her program for Simchat Torah – for which she changes characters and costumes each year – was conferred the Yitzhak Rabin Program of the Year Award by the Jewish Federation of St,. Petersburg, and also was honored by the Association for Jewish Aging Services.
Herz, now affiliated with Seacrest Village, has been in San Diego since July 31.
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Shabbat San Diego
As part of the Nov. 14-17 celebration of Shabbat in 1,500 cities around the world, San Diego project manager Simone Abelsohn predicts that more than 17,000 people will attend events in our county, including six challah bakes, more than 1,000 community and home Shabbat dinners, prayer services, a day of learning at the Lawrence Family JCC, and a Havdalah service at the Observatory in North Park. One of the challah bakes will be a “pink challah bake to raise breast cancer awareness with genetic testing on site,” according to Abelsohn. More information is available via this website. https://shabbatsandiego.org
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Jewish history and Chanukah
The San Diego History Center is recommending as Chanukah gifts three items on Jewish history that now are on sale at its gift shop in Balboa Park. These are Celebrate, Commemorate: The History & Heritage of San Diego’s Jewish Community, a book by curator Joellyn Zollman that reprises the year-long exhibit the Center held on the history and heritage of San Diego’s Jewish community; To the Ends of the Earth: A Portrait of Jewish San Diego by filmmaker Isaac Artenstein, which was a companion video about San Diego’s Jewish history; and Belle Baranceanu: The Artist at Work, a book by Bram Dijkstra and David Swanson about a Romanian Jewish immigrant who was at the forefront of the modernist art movement in San Diego. The exhibit about Baranceanu was shown at the same time as the exhib on San Diego Jewry. In addition, the book shop has other Jewish offerings for Chanukah including my own two-volume work Schlepping and Schmoozing through San Diego County.
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Movie Premiere
Dennis Prager and Adam Carolla tour the country to learn whatever happened to free speech in No Safe Spaces, a documentary that will be premiered Friday, Nov. 1, at the Regal Parkway Plaza and IMAX, 405 Parkway Plaza, El Cajon, and repeated Friday, Nov. 8 at the AMC Mission Valley, 1640 Camino Del Rio. Among interviewees are Tim Allen, Van Jones, Alan Dershowitz, Dr. Cornel West, Jordan Peterson, Ben Shapiro and Dave Rubin.
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Political bytes
* City Councilwomen Barbara Bry and Jennifer Campbell took opposite positions on a measure designed to provide transitional housing for misdemeanor offenders as a way to prevent homelessness. Their dispute, in which Campbell was on the winning side in a 7-2 vote, came in the wake of a court decision that the project to convert a motel at 1788 Palm Avenue into transitional housing still needs review from the San Diego Coastal Commission, even though it is 90 percent completed. Bry opposed seeking a coastal permit, while Campbell favored it.
* Margaret Hunter, estranged wife of embattled Congressman Duncan Hunter in the 50th CD, has asked Superior Court Judge Thomas J. Whelan to delay from Jan. 22 to April 6 the date on which she will be sentenced following her guilty plea to one count of conspiracy with her husband to misappropriate campaign funds. The delay would enable her to testify against her husband under terms of a plea deal. Meanwhile, attorney Devin Burstein is representing Duncan Hunter in an appeal to the 9th U.S. Circuit Court that is scheduled to be heard Dec. 12th.
* City Council President Georgette Gomez, candidate in the 53rd CD from which Susan Davis is retiring, is holding a “friend-raiser” from 5:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. at Art on Third, 269 3rd Avenue in Chula Vista featuring eight Latina women currently holding public office. They are Assemblywoman Lorena Gonzales; Chula Vista Mayor Mary Salas; National City Mayor Alejandra Sotelo-Solis, National City Councilwoman Mona Rios; Imperial Beach ouncilwoman Paloma Aguirre; Dr. Maria Nieto Senour, president of the San Diego Community College District board; and Nora Vargas and Leticia Cazares, respectively vice president and trustee of the Southwestern community College District Board.
* Aaron Brennan, a candidate for the 1st City Council District seat that Barbara Bry is giving up to run for mayor of San Diego, has announced he will refuse any contributions from developers. “We need to restore voters’ trust in local government and send a strong message that our neighborhoods’ quality of life is not for sale to the biggest campaign donor,” Brennan said. “Developers shouldn’t be allowed to buy access and influence at City Hall, and the voices of ordinary San Diegans who care about their neighborhoods should be heard louder than any special interest.”
* State Sen. Brian Jones (R-Santee), a candidate in the 50th Congressional District now represented by GOP Congressman Duncan Hunter is hosting a legislative open house at 6 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 14, at the Sonrise Church, 8805 North Magnolia Avenue, Santee. The event is being coordinated through his district government office.
*The SOS Initiative on the March ballot to require a countywide vote on housing projects in unincorporated areas has drawn opposition from the San Diego Regional Chamber of Commerce and the San Diego Taxpayers Association. ““We constantly hear from business leaders that one of our biggest workforce challenges is the availability of housing at prices that make sense for working families. Adding more barriers in San Diego County during a housing crisis that already puts scores of homes and apartments out of reach for most employees is a bad idea,” said former San Diego Mayor Jerry Sanders, President and CEO of the San Diego Regional Chamber of Commerce.
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Coming our way
* Israeli Rena Kedem, described as an environmental peace maker who promotes joint projects among Israelis, Palestinians and Jordanians, will be among four women honored from 6 to 8 p.m., Tuesday, Nov. 5, by the Joan B. Kroc Institute for Peace and Justice at the University of San Diego as a 2019 Woman Peacemaker. The other honorees are Ruth Buffalo, a Native American community organization who was elected to the North Dakota House of Representatives; Pakistani Mossarat Qadeem, co-founder of an organization countering violent extremism; and South Sudanese Lillian Riziq, who is a founder of the women’s empowerment network in her country. Registration is available via this website. A clip featuring Rena Kedem may be viewed at the top of this page.
* Conceptual artists Larry & Debbie Kline may have transferred their studio to Los Angeles, but they still are very much in tune with the San Diego art scene. Along with Thomas Albright of the Salk Institute for Biological Studies they will participate in an exhibition to be titled “Trifecta: Artist, Scientists, patron” from Sept. 27, 2020 to Jan. 17, 2021 at the La Jolla Historical Society, 780 Prospect Street . Chi Essary is curating the exhibition.
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Harrison is editor of San Diego Jewish World. He may be contacted via donald.harrison@sdjewishworld.com