Other items in this column include
*Shekhters donate $350,000 in fight against COVID-19
*Jewish teen philanthropists donate to seven non-profits
*San Diego State student named to Hillel International Student Cabinet
*Mazal tov! Mazal Tov!
*Recommended reading
*In memoriam
SAN DIEGO — The Black Lives Matter announcement of a march in La Jolla at 1 p.m., Friday, June 12, reads, in part: “The protests cannot remain only in areas with likeminded people. La Jolla is a predominantly white and rich area desperate for awareness. They have the power to sway leaders and thus we must educate them. These minds cannot remain sheltered.”
At what Danika, the organizer, says will be a “peaceful protest, white carnations will be handed out.”
San Diego City Councilwoman Barbara Bry represents La Jolla on the City Council. She is also a candidate for mayor. After receiving a copy of the flyer, she said, her office made contact with Danika, who has just graduated from Helix High School.
“My office has also been in contact with the San Diego Police Department, and the presidents of the La Jolla Village Merchants Association, Town Council, Community Planning Association, Traffic & Transportation Board, Parks & Beaches, Inc., Shore Association and Bird Rock Community Council,” she wrote. “As your representative, it is my duty and honor to provide a safe space for all San Diegans.
“La Jolla community leaders and I intend to be present at the gathering on June 12,” she added. “I am very proud of the way the leaders, especially the Village Merchants Association, are welcoming the students and their peaceful march in La Jolla. We are truly a community that cares about our City an all San Diegans.”
Bry added: “What we know so far is that the student organizers are working with the Police to get the necessary permits to meet at or near the Cove. They intend to hand out flowers, water, etc., starting about noon, listen to a few speakers and then walk toward Windansea. The event will end at about 3:00 p.m….”
*
Shekhters donate $350,000 in fight against COVID-19
Gary & Jean Shekhter, immigrants respectively from the Ukraine and Belarus who built a small business into Helix Electric, with offices on both coasts and in Nevada and Hawaii, have donated $350,000 to the UC San Diego COVID-19 Emergency Response Fund to aid the SEARCH program — San Diego Epidemiology and Research for COVID-19 Health.
SEARCH is a collaborative research effort including UC San Diego, Scripps Research, Rady Children’s Hospital-San Diego, Sanford Consortium for Regenerative Medicine, Salk Institute for Biological Studies, and Biocom.
The research consortium sponsors comprehensive coronavirus screenings. “Based on my understanding about COVID-19, the most efficient way of opening the economy is to screen more people,” Shekhter said. “Screening gives us an understanding of what’s going on in the community, such as seeing a particular situation in an area ignite, then isolating and dealing with the contact area.”
Prof. Rob Knight, who introduced the Shekhters to the project, commented, “If we are to manage the pandemic effectively, as has already been done in other countries, we need fundamentally different approaches to screening and to understanding where the virus is in our community. The Shekhters’ gift will help us start to develop and deploy these approaches via the SEARCH project, and understand how SARS-CoV-2 biospecimen collection and assays can be scaled to the point where they can be used effectively for the tens of millions of tests required for epidemiology and infection control, including integrating studies of humans and the built environment. We appreciate the Shekhters’ vision in leading the way to make this possible.”
*
Jewish teen philanthropists donate to seven non-profits
The Jewish Teen Foundation (JTF), under the auspices of the Jewish Community Foundation, allocated a total of $21,855 to seven nonprofit organizations–four of them working to improve the lives of children with special needs, and three of them working to protect and preserve the environment
In the first category were the Friendship Circle, Miracle League, Shira Pransky Project, and Yachad. In the second category were the Jewish National Fund, San Diego Habitat Conservancy, and the San Diego River Park Foundation.
A spokesperson for the Jewish Community Foundation commented: ” Unlike previous years, the 2019-20 JTF Board was forced to confront the limitations and significant changes that COVID-19 created. Just as the teens were to begin their fundraising efforts and conduct site visits, JTF moved to an online platform for their meetings in accordance with California’s stay-at-home order. Fundraising efforts were hindered as the teens recognized the sensitive environment in which they found themselves fundraising, due to concerns of employment, furlough, and market fluctuations.”
“Our JTF participants showed compassion and dedication to their missions in order to allocate funds to these organizations that were not anticipating their financial circumstance when they initially submitted a grant request,” said Sarah Vigon, Teen Coordinator for the Jewish Teen Foundation. “While the teens were not able to end their year as they had wanted, they truly came to recognize the vital work JTF does in attending to real financial needs.”
Teens in the program, as shown in the accompanying montage, were, from left to right and top to bottom, Rebecca Datnow*, Ana Gerson, Nathaniel Schwartz, Leah Tauber*, Netanel Dimenstein, Kayla Venger, Harrison Wechsler*, Hannah Chowaiki, Nethaniel Levi*, Lila Chitayat, Brian Slonim*, Noa Weltsch*, Gregory Eiseman, Erin Kaplan*, Sean Wainstein*, Hannah Stein, Jason Goldschmidt*, Natalie Chowaiki, Eyal Green, Tal Dimenstein*, Elie Kemp*, Remi Morris, Noah Kaplan, Sophie Guenniche, Evan Wolmer* and Hannah Rappoport. Those with asterisks after their names were returning students to the program.
*
San Diego State student named to Hillel International Student Cabinet
Brianah Caplan, a junior at San Diego State University, has been named to the 18-member Hillel International Student Cabinet in which she will serve with students from around the United States, Canada, Brazil and Ukraine.
An announcement from Hillel International said, “A diverse cohort, the members selected represent the spectrum of Jewish backgrounds, genders and sexual orientations, hail from colleges and universities of varying sizes and are engaged in various areas of study. The members were selected through a highly competitive process, with five returning and 13 new members.” Hillel operates on 550 college campuses in 17 countries.
Hillel International offered the following profile of Caplan:
“Brianah is a sociology major at San Diego State University, where she has been extremely involved in Hillel as an engagement intern, Shabbat coordinator, and Jewish learning vice president. She also helped start the SDSU chapter of Challah for Hunger, and served as a representative to their national Campus Hunger Project Cohort. She most recently spent a semester studying abroad at Hebrew University of Jerusalem as a fellow in the Nachshon Project.
Outside of school, Brianah works as the music and tefillah coordinator at Congregation Beth El in La Jolla, and songleads at various synagogues throughout San Diego. She spends her summers at Camp Ramah in California. She gained most of her Jewish leadership skills during high school in BBYO in native Scottsdale, Arizona, where she held multiple chapter and regional positions, coordinated conventions, and helped created the ‘BBYO Sings’: Songleader Training for teens all over the world. Brianah also composes her own Jewish music, which is used in synagogues and communities across the US. After graduation, she hopes to attend the Ziegler School of Rabbinic Studies at American Jewish University.”
*
Mazal tov! Mazal Tov!
Yaron Malka became a bar mitzvah on Thursday in the backyard of his home. To his left is his father Doron Malka and at right is Moti Moryosef. Relatives in Israel and Pennsylvania observed the ceremony via Zoom.
*
Recommended reading
*Writing in The Forward, the Rev. Anthony Johnson gives his view of how the Jewish community can help his Black community in the wake of the killing of George Floyd. We thank Sandi Masori for referring this article to us.
*
In memoriam
*Arthur Levinson, 93, a past board president of the Jewish Federation of San Diego County, died Thursday, June 4, Am israel Mortuary announced. He is survived by his wife, Sandra Levin; son Michael Levinson, grandchildren Rabbi David Singer, Dr. Shanna Singer, Eliana Levinson, Carter Levinson, Sarah Harrison and Steven Bolotin, and two great-grandchildren. A Zoom shiva will be conducted at 6 p.m., Sunday, June 7. (Meeting ID 834 4744 5354; Password 72616.) The family suggests contributions to the Majory Kaplan Endowment Fund of the Jewish Community Foundation.
*Menachem Shoval, father of Miriam Shoval and Daniel Johnson, and grandfather of Emmet and Lior, will be memorialized with services in Hebrew and English, respectively at 9:30 a.m. and 8 p.m., Sunday, June 7, it was announced by Tifereth Israel Synagogue.
*
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.