Other items in this column include:
*Jewish community coronavirus news
*Our Jewish mamas
*Jewish American Heritage Month
*Political bytes
*Mazel tov! Mazel tov!
*In memoriam
SAN DIEGO — In the trailer above for the documentary Einstein: Still a Revolutionary, the children seen and heard chanting “Einstein! Einstein! Rah! Rah!” are San Diegans. Possibly some of them may be centenarians still alive today. The full documentary briefly shows Einstein being greeted in San Diego by Mayor Harry C. Clark on December 31, 1930 as he disembarked here from the Belgenland.
That portion of the film by Julia Newman was intended to show Einstein’s celebrity status around the world after he authored the famous “Theory of Relativity” and won the Nobel Prize. Considered by many to be the smartest man alive, Einstein was asked his views on almost every topic ranging from daily living to international politics and, of course, to theoretical physics.
In fact, Einstein had many opinions, some of which may surprise you. As early as World War I, he opposed militarism, leaving Germany to live elsewhere in Italy and Switzerland. “I’m a militant pacifist; I’m willing to fight for peace,” we hear him say as voiced by actor Daniel Alexander. From the time he was a child he experienced anti-Semitism, as exemplified on the day a teacher displayed a nail in class, and said “This is the nail Jews used to crucify the Lord.” Yet, Einstein did not embrace Zionism; he opposed it as another form of nationalism, which he believed stirred unhealthy emotions in people. After his return to Germany following World War I, he needed to look no farther than the rising Nazi tide to see nationalism at its worth.
While Einstein was not a regular worshiper at a synagogue, many rabbis would have gladly paraphrased him in their sermons. “Only morality in our actions give beauty and dignity to our lives” is one of his quotations that comes to mind. The chemist Fritz Haber, who like Einstein was Jewish, was a particular disappointment, although they remained friends. Having discovered a way to synthesize elements into ammonia, Haber’s discoveries were used by the Kaiser’s government to manufacture poison gas during World War I.
During the time of Germany’s liberal Weimar Republic, right-wing groups offered rewards for Einstein’s assassination. He often removed himself from the tension by visiting other countries both in Asia and the Western Hemisphere. His 1930 visit to San Diego came at the end of a cruise that began in New York and transited the Panama Canal. From San Diego, he continued to the Los Angeles area, where he had a fellowship invitation at the California Institute of Technology.
Einstein spoke out on a variety of social issues. About abortion, he said up to a certain stage it should be acceptable; about homosexuality, he said it should b exempt from punishment. After Adolf Hitler became Germany’s chancellor, Einstein renounced his German citizenship, eventually becoming an honored researcher at Princeton University. There he spoke out against racism. When the great singer Marian Anderson was denied a room at a nearby hotel because she was African American, he invited her to stay at his home with his family. Similarly, he hosted the singer/ actor Paul Robeson. Racism, he declared, was a white person’s disease.
The scientist used his celebrity to try to win visas for Jewish immigrants, whose lives were threatened by the Nazis. He also wrote a famous letter to Franklin D. Roosevelt warning him that the Nazi Germans were trying to develop a super-bomb, and urging the United States not to fall behind. The Manhattan Project which developed the first atomic bomb resulted.
Following the war, David Ben-Gurion, Israe;’s founding prime minister, called on Einstein at Princeton, trying to persuade him to become Israel’s president. Einstein refused saying that if he became president, he would have to say things the Israeli people would not want to hear. He advocated the development of joint institutions with Israel’s Arab citizens. When Menachem Begin wanted to visit the United States, Einstein was among those who without success sought to have his entry denied. He considered Begin and out and out terrorist. Einstein was an opponent of McCarthyism, undaunted by the Wisconsin Republican senator’s attempt to brand him as a communist.
This fascinating documentary is scheduled to be released on DVD on May 26. Here is a link to details.
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Jewish community coronavirus news
*Executives of Camp Mountain Chai have announced that the Jewish community-sponsored summer camp has cancelled its summer season. Informing the community of the decision were Board President David Bark, Executive Director Buddy Voit, and Camp Director Dan Baer. They wrote: “The health and safety of everyone in our camp community is always our highest priority. This includes our professional and summer staff, the returning campers who love their summers spent at CMC, the new campers who were looking forward to their first overnight camp experience, their families at home, and others who are connected to us. Simply, we had to ask: ‘Can we keep you safe?’ We just don’t know, and that’s not good enough. Our questions are many, and solutions are not expected in time for us to operate at our standard of safety this summer. We are heartbroken, of course, but this pandemic compels all of us to deal with forces beyond our control. We are thinking of each one of you in light of this disappointing news and we are here for you. We are all strongly and deeply devoted to the Camp Mountain Chai community — not just during the summer but throughout the year and especially at this challenging time.”
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Our Jewish mamas
Our call for stories and photos about our Jewish mothers has been bearing fruit. Recall that
*Mimi Pollack, an ESL instructor and a contributor to San Diego Jewish World, sends us a photo of her late mother Leah Lee (Broner) Pollack, who grew up in Pittsburgh, eventually went in the 1930s to the New York Ballet to dance for ten years under the direction of George Balanchine, and later emigrated with her husband and children to Mexico City, where Mimi grew up An American citizen who now lives in La Mesa, Mimi said anti-Semitism was so prevalent during the time her mother was performing that rather than identify herself as Jewish, her mother called herself “international.” While paying tribute to her on Mother’s Day, Mimi states that their relationship was always “complicated.”
*Roz (Bornheim) Allina messaged that her mother, Rose Bornheim, z”l, “was a slender sort of skinny woman who could make a potato sack look like it came from Neiman Marcus.” She also was “a staunch believer in lighting Shabbos candles every Friday night. She did that no matter what condition her condition was in. She could be on death’s door and the candles would be lit, period.” When she was dying of cancer at Grossmont Hospital, Roz and other members of the family “brought the candle sticks and candles from her house. i lit the candles after obtaining matches from a nurse … We said the blessing over the candles. I saw my mother’s eyes flicker when the candles displayed their flames. I also noticed a tear rolling down my mother’s face. I knew she hard and saw us carry out the tradition (she always said her hearing was keen) What a joyous way to bring in Shabbos. What a bittersweet memory. To this day, every time I light my own candles, I remember this special time.”
*Rabbi Arthur Zuckerman, former spiritual leader of Congregation Beth Am and now a resident of Mesquite, Nevada, messaged: “My mother Sylvia Zuckerman of Blessed Memory had a tremendous impact on my life. It was because of my mother I finished high school instead of running off to a kibbutz in Israel. Ultimately she was proud that I did go to kibbutz and joined the IDF. My mother was an extrovert and the friendliest person I ever met. When my parents made Aliyah after I graduated from yeshiva high school, mother went to work for El Al at Ben Gurion airport. After work my mother would walk around the airport and if someone was stranded Sylvia Zuckerman would invite them to our house. My father of Blessed Memory never knew who my mother was schlepping to the house. That was my mom. The mitzvah of Hachnasat Orchim (welcoming a guest) my mother had perfected. May the memory of Sasa bat Toba and Yechiel Mechel always be a blessing.”
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Jewish -American Heritage Month
EMET (Endowment for Middle East Truth) continues its series of profiles for Jewish-American Heritage Month (the month of May) with brief biographies of Milton Friedman and Emma Lazarus.
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Political bytes
*San Diego City Council President Georgette Gomez has announced a pair of endorsements in the 53rd Congressional District race for the seat from which Susan Davis is retiring. They were from the Sierra Club and Anthony Rendon, speaker of the California Assembly. She opposes Sara Jacobs in the contest for the open seat.
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Mazal tov! Mazal tov!
Deborah Szekely has been staying home during the coronavirus pandemic, but that didn’t mean that her friends couldn’t parade by her Mission Hills home to congratulate her on her 98th birthday, reports columnist Diane Bell in The San Diego Union-Tribune.
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In memoriam
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Lee Jay Loventhal III, 77, died Wednesday, May 6. Graveside funeral services will be officiated by Rabbi Devorah Marcus of Temple Emanu-El tomorrow, May 8, at El Camino Memorial Park, 5600 Carroll Canyon Road.
*Warren W. Odenheimer, 95, died Wednesday, May 6. Graveside funeeral services will be conducted by Rabbi Leah Herz of Seacrest Village Retirement Community at El Camino Memorial Park, 5600 Carroll Canyon Road.
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Donald H. Harrison is editor of San Diego Jewish World. He may be contacted via donald.harrison@sdjewishworld.com Free obituaries in memory of members of the San Diego County Jewish community are sponsored on San Diego Jewish World by Inland Industries Group LP in memory of long-time San Diego Jewish community leader Marie (Mrs. Gabriel) Berg.