Other items in this column include
* Local Jewish history at Chula Vista’s main library
* And $27 more would have made a palindrome
* Political bytes
* Recommended reading
* Mazal tov! Mazal tov!
* In memoriam
SAN DIEGO – In 2017, newlyweds Jonathan Moed and Zoe (Jurkowski) Moed went on a year-long dream trip around the world, and now Jonathan is pursuing a “passion project” to help high-tech start up entrepreneurs in developing nations realize dreams of their own.
Under auspices of an organization called “Remote Year,” which handled travel arrangements, work spaces, and apartments in each country, they visited a variety of nations in Asia, Africa, Europe, and Latin America. Because they both had consulting contracts which could be performed via the Internet, they were able to live and work in each country. Jonathan did remote business consulting, while Zoe remotely consulted on marketing projects.
The countries where the Moeds stayed, occasionally making side trips to other countries, were, in order, Vietnam, Thailand, Malaysia, Morocco, South Africa, Portugal, Spain, Argentina, Chile, Peru, and Colombia.
During their trip, “I wanted to follow an area that was a passion of mine, which was entrepreneurship and start-ups in each of the countries that we were passing through,” Jonathan said. “In each country, I used co-working spaces and meet-ups and a few different channels to build my network and meet with local start-ups to learn more about what was happening on the ground. I started documenting all these meetings and the insights that came out of them.That led to my becoming a contributing writer for Forbes, covering global start-ups and global entrepreneurs.”
Moed said he realized that “there is an incredible amount of talent, technology and ideas in virtually any country around the world.” However, he said, these start-ups often didn’t have an effective way to showcase their products. So, after moving to San Diego where Zoe was raised, Moed created a website called “Startup Universal” with the idea of connecting entrepreneurs in developing nations with investors and companies elsewhere in the world with next-level technical skills and resources.
Moed is testing his recently launched website at to see whether it will gain a sufficient audience to turn it into a business. For now, as he puts it, “it is a passion project.” He and Zoe have full-time jobs here in San Diego. Jonathan works at Lift Ventures, which owns and manages a portfolio of websites, and Zoe does marketing work at the Goldilocks Agency. The couple also has become involved with San Diego’s Jewish community as members of Congregation Adat Yeshurun in La Jolla.
Currently Startup Universal detailed overviews of technological and entrepreneurial ecosystems in 23 countries, as well as technology news from over 100 countries syndicated from other tech sites, according to Moed.
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Local Jewish history at Chula Vista’s main library
I had the opportunity on Thursday night of speaking to the Chula Vista Heritage Museum about Jewish life in San Diego from 1850 to the present. I chose the following topics: Louis Rose, the first Jewish settler in San Diego; Moses Mannasse and the ‘San Diego Incident’; Jacob Weinberger, San Diego’s first resident federal judge; Jonas Salk’s quest for cross-pollination of artists and scientists at the Salk Institute, and, in direct relation to the museum’s current exhibit on Holocaust survivors at the Chula Vista Library, how a Torah rescued from the Holocaust shaped Congregation Beth Am in Carmel Valley.
The organizer of the exhibit, Sandra Scheller, is the daughter of the late Holocaust survivor Ruth Sax, for whom the exhibit is named. “The Chula Vista Heritage Museum features the Holocaust exhibit RUTH Remember Us The Holocaust inside the Chula Vista Library,” she explained. It views the Holocaust through the experiences of Holocaust survivors who settled in the South Bay region of San Diego County, five of whom still survive. “The exhibit is amplified by speakers, films and artists hoping to spread Holocaust awareness throughout the community,” Scheller adds.
The exhibit at the library at 365 F Street will be on display through the end of the calendar year. Scheller conducts personal tours of the exhibit for schools, groups, temple organizations and anyone wanting to learn about the Holocaust. “The exhibit is a perfect introduction to the Holocaust as survivors from the South Bay tell their story,” says Scheller, who can be reached at this email sscheller@cox.net. The exhibition’s website may be accessed here. www.chulavistaheritagemuseum.org. A video tour of the exhibition may be viewed at the top of this column.
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And $27 more would have made a palindrome
Chabad of Chula Vista met its goal of $36,000 in a 36-hour online fund-raising drive for youth programs. Rabbi Mendy Begun announced that $36,036 had been raised before time elapsed. If it had been $27 more, the total would have been brought to $36,063, a number that can be read exactly the same way both frontwards and backwards!
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Political bytes
*Bernie Sanders receives 34 percent of the California vote in a new statewide poll released by UC Berkeley’s Institute of Governmental Studies. His closest rival with 17 percent is Elizabeth Warren, followed by Michael Bloomberg at 12 percent, Pete Buttigieg at 11 percent, Joe Biden at 8 percent, Amy Klobuchar at 6 percent, and Tom Steyer at 2 percent. The remaining 10 percent is spread among candidate receiving 1 percent or less. The San Diego Union-Tribune has the story by David Lauter of the Los Angeles Times staff.
*The New York Jewish Week offers an analysis by Yossi Klein Halevi titled: “The Jewish Nightmare of Bernie vs. Trump.”
* Chula Vista Mayor Mary Casillas Salas, who is a state co-chair for the presidential campaign of Michael Bloomberg, said that Californians thinking of voting for Democrats who are scoring single digits in the polls need to realize that when it comes to the assignment of delegates to the Democratic National Convention, candidates who receive less than 15 percent of the vote will not get any delegates, but instead their votes will be apportioned among candidates who go over the 15 percent mark. This applies both at the statewide level and at the congressional district level. She urged voters who do not want to support frontrunner Bernie Sanders to cast their votes for Bloomberg.
*Bernie Sanders made news when he announced he would boycott AIPAC Policy Conference in Washington D.C. next month. Other Democratic presidential candidates who since have said they will not attend are Elizabeth Warren, Amy Klobuchar, and Pete Buttigieg, although unlike Sanders who said AIPAC provided a forum for bigots, they gave no specific reason for declining the invitation. Michael Bloomberg is the only Democratic presidential candidate so far who has accepted the invitation. Sanders comment provoked outrage in the Jewish community, with 347 rabbis signing a letter in protest of his characterization.
*Democrats for Environmental Action has endorsed Terra Lawson-Remer in the 3rd county supervisorial district, saying she will protect beaches and coast, safeguard air and water from pollution, end sprawl development, and combat climate change. The Democratic group pointed to a rating from the Sierra Club, which does not make endorsements, that Lawson-Remer is an acceptable alternative to the incumbent Kristin Gaspar.
*Looking beyond this year’s election of candidates, Congressman Scott Peters (D-San Diego) and City Councilman Mark Kersey, an independent, are proposing a ballot measure that would transform the City of San Diego’s primary system into one along the lines of what is now being done in New York City, San Francisco and Oakland. Under the proposed system, people would pick four candidates in the primary, numbering their preferences 1 to 4. The three candidates who receive the most #1-choice votes would stay in the next round, but the fourth placing candidate would be eliminated. The #2 votes of that candidate’s supporters would be reassigned to the remaining three candidates. Then the third placing candidate’s votes would be similarly reassigned to the top two finishers, resulting in a victory for one or the other. San Diego Union-Tribune reporter David Garrick tells the story.
*With the housing shortage now considered a critical issue, City Councilmembers Jen Campbell and Chris Cate want their colleagues to approve a ballot measure that would rescind the 30-foot height limit in the Midway, Pacific Highway, and Sports Arena areas, reports The Voice of San Diego.
*The firing of San Diego Unified School Superintendent Cindy Marten is being sought in a lawsuit against the school district and former physics teacher Martin Teachworth by four former students at La Jolla High School who contend that Teachworth groped them and the school district did nothing about it. Attorney Mark Boskovich says the lawsuit is not just about money; it also is intended to force the school district to protect current and future students, according to The Voice of San Diego.
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Recommended reading
*The Times of Israel tells of an exhibition in New York City of sculptures by James Sondow that focuses on Biblical stories and other episodes in Jewish history.
*The World Jewish Congress congratulates Pope Francis on the forthcoming opening of the Vatican’s World War II archives.
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Mazal tov! Mazal tov!
*San Diegan Bonnie Rabinovitch-Mantel, of Primus Family Law Group, LLP, has been selected to the 2020 list as a member of the Nation’s Top One Percent by the National Association of Distinguished Counsel. “NADC is an organization dedicated to promoting the highest standards of legal excellence. Its mission is to objectively recognize the attorneys who elevate the standards of the Bar and provide a benchmark for other lawyers to emulate,” according to a news release.
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In memoriam
*Tifereth Israel Synagogue this week will mark the first yahrzeit of its former spiritual leader, Rabbi Leonard Rosenthal. His successor, Rabbi Joshua Dorsch, commented, “A year later, we still feel the pain and the grief of his passing. There is a gaping hole in the hearts and minds of all those who knew and loved him that can never be filled. Yet, as we conclude the first year of mourning, the tears we shed at his loss can more often be transitioned into smiles for the memories we share, and gratitude for the impact he had on our lives.”
*Sheldon Strassberg, father of Marci and Marc Gross, grandfather of Haley and Joey Gross, died recently. The funeral and shiva were held in Phoenix, Arizona, it was announced by Tifereth Israel Synagogue in San Diego.
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Donald H. Harrison is editor of San Diego Jewish World. He may be contacted via donald.harrison@sdjewishworld.com