By Donald H. Harrison
SAN DIEGO — As Shabbat nears, here are glimpses of how members of the Jewish community ae making news in the realms of politics, sports, and entertainment.
INTERNATIONAL
Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich may be eligible for a prisoner exchange with the United States, but not before he stands trial in Russia, according to Russia’s Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov.
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Film producer Roman Polanski’s wife, French actress and singer Emmanuelle Seigner, interviewed Samantha Geimer, who was raped by Polanski in 1977 when she was 13 years old. According to a story in Variety by Zack Scharf, Geimer told Seigner, in seeming contradiction to her testimony that sex with Polanski was non-consensual, that “what happened with Polanski was never a big problem for me. I didn’t even know it was illegal, that someone could be arrested for it. I was fine. I’m still fine. The fact that we’ve made this [a big deal] weighs on me terribly. To have to constantly repeat that it wasn’t a big deal, it’s a terrible burden.” Polanski was sentenced to prison for unlawful sexual intercourse with a minor and served 42 days in prison. In 1978, while on probation, he fled to Europe. U.S. efforts to extradite him, even as late as 2009, were unsuccessful.
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When singer and bassist Gene Simmons suddenly sat down during a Kiss concert in Manaus, Brazil, fans became concerned about the 73-year-old performer’s health. On Thursday, he clarified on Twitter that he had “experienced weakness because of dehydration. We stopped for about five minutes, I drank some water, and then all was well. Nothing serious.” The rock group performed on Friday in Bogota, Colombia.
NATIONAL
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U.S. Sen. Ben Cardin (D-Maryland) reported raising only $15,000 in the first quarter of 2023, a paltry amount for a senator up for reelection in 2024. Although he has $995,000 in carryover funds from previous years, the desultory fundraising efforts this year has prompted speculation that Cardin might be considering retirement, NBC News reported.
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Film producer Bruce Cohen and singer Lady Gaga have been appointed by U.S. President Joe Biden as cochairs of the 22-member President’s Committee on the Arts and the Humanities. Jon Batiste, former San Diego Community College District Chancellor Constance Carroll, George Clooney, Jennifer Garner, Nora Halpern, former U.S. Rep. Steve Israel (D-New York), Marta Kaufmann, Ricky Kirshner, Troy Kotsur, Shonda Rhimes, and Kerry Washington are also committee members.
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Former U.S. Sen. Norm Coleman (R-Minnesota) and Matt Brooks, respectively chairman and CEO of the Republican Jewish Coalition, said Friday that House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-New York) “owes the Jewish community an explanation as to why he lied and attempted to cover up” his defense as a college student 30 years ago of his uncle Leonard Jeffries and Nation of Islam Minister Louis Farrakhan, both of whom were condemned at the time for antisemitic remarks. “The added hypocrisy here is particularly jarring,” the two Republicans said in a press release. “Jeffries recently falsely accused Republicans of not wanting to teach children about the Holocaust but he’s been exposed as defending antisemites who have said Hitler was a ‘great man’ and called Judaism a ‘dirty religion.’ Unfortunately, this is yet another disturbing data point of the Democratic Party embracing and promoting antisemites from Leonard Jeffries and Louis Farrakhan to Ilhan Omar.”
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Former U.S. Sen. Al Franken (D-Minnesota) told MSNBC host Alex Wagner that whereas there once were one-issue voters who opposed abortion, the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade has created even more single-issue voters on the other side, those who favor abortion.
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U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland was joined at a Washington D.C. news conference by Randy Grossman, the U.S. Attorney in San Diego, to announce that four sons of the imprisoned Sinaloa Cartel drug lord “El Chapo” have been indicted for following in their father’s footsteps. Ovidio Guzman Lopez was arrested Jan. 5 by Mexican authorities and awaits extradition proceedings to the United States. Three of his brothers are at large. They are Ivan Guzman Salazar, Alfredo Guzman Salazar, and Joaquin Guzman Lopez. El Chapo’s sons are known collectively as the Chapitos.
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Louisville, Kentucky Mayor Craig Greenberg has urged Kentucky state legislators to allow his city to enact stronger gun laws in the wake of the Old National Bank shooting that left five executives and employees as well as the gunman dead. “This is about life and death,” the mayor said. “This is about preventing tragedies.”
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A group led by Josh Harris has agreed to purchase the NFL Washington Nationals from Dan Snyder for a price estimated by insiders to be approximately $6 billion. Harris owns the NBA’s Philadelphia 76ers and the NHL’s Jersey Devils. His investment group includes Mitchell Rales and retired NBA star Earvin “Magic” Johnson. The purchase requires approval from the NFL owners before it can take effect.
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Ron Klein and Halie Soifer, respectively the chairman and CEO of the Jewish Democratic Council of America, noted that 21-year-old Jack Douglas Teixeira who was arrested for leaking classified documents on social media also has made vitriolic antisemitic statements. “There is a clear connection between those who threaten our community and those who attack democracy,” the two Democrats said. They said Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has a record of emboldening extremists. DeSantis “has imposed extreme restrictions on teaching about sexual orientation and gender identity, banned books and educational materials, and imposed restrictions on diversity, equity, and inclusion education,” Klein and Soifer said. “In addition to his failure to consistently condemn white supremacist and antisemitic activity in Florida, DeSantis has backed racist and misogynistic policies that restrict women’s rights, civil rights, and LGBTQI+ rights. Just this week, he signed into law a highly restrictive six-week abortion ban.”
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Georgia State Rep. Esther Feuer Panitch, the only Jewish member of the Georgia House of Representatives, has introduced a resolution to designate April 29 at “End Jew Hared Day” in that state. Brooke Goldstein, cofounder of the End Jew Hatred movement, called on more states to “take a stand in combating rising Jew-hatred around the country.”
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U.S. Sen Bernie Sanders, Ind-Vermont, is quoted on MoneyWise as saying on Twitter that “the top 15 hedge fund managers on Wall Street make more money in a single year than every kindergarten teacher in America combined—over 120,000 teachers. … The situation has become so absurd.”
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Radar Online reports that process servers in the U.S. Virgin Islands say they have been blocked by bodyguards from serving a subpoena on billionaire philanthropist Les Wexner to testify in a lawsuit that accuses JPMorgan Bank of aiding the late Jeffrey Epstein to engage in trafficking children. According to a document filed by the U.S. government in a New York federal court, “The Government seeks documents concerning the transactions and relationships between Wexner and Epstein and communications with JPMorgan regarding Epstein.” In 2019, Wexner disavowed Epstein, in a statement through the Wexner Foundation that said, “I would not have continued to work with any individual capable of such egregious sickening behavior as has been reported about him. As you can imagine, this past week I have searched my soul…reflected…and regretted that my path ever crossed his.”
SAN DIEGO COUNTY
County Supervisor Terra Lawson-Remer, in an OpEd for The San Diego Union-Tribune, said the sexual harassment scandal surrounding Supervisor Nathan Fletcher must not deter her colleagues from tackling more important scandals such as gun violence, homelessness, ocean pollution, climate change, and lagging health care needs.
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Holocaust Survivors Fanny Krasner Lebovits, Adele Beim, Ilon Medvied, Manya & Mije Wallenfels, Anita Fuchs, Lou Pechi and Ben Midler are scheduled to light memorial candles Sunday at the San Diego Jewish community’s commemoration of Yom HaShoah at the Lawrence Family JCC. Midler also will participate in a panel discussion along with Jack Morgenstern Barbara Ostroff, Sonia Fox Ohlbaum, and Joe Fox about the lives Holocaust survivors led in San Diego.
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Rabbi Hillel Silverman, who in his twilight years led Congregation B’nai Shalom of Vista, has died at age 99 in Los Angeles. During the High Holy Days of 2012, Silverman utilized the Conservative movement’s mahzor compiled by his father, Morris Silverman, and was joined on the bima by his grandson Matthew Rutta, then a cantor and today a rabbi/educator at Hillels of North Texas. Hillel Silverman spent ten years of his rabbinate at Congregation Shearith Israel in Dallas, where one of his congregants was Jack Ruby, who fatally shot Lee Harvey Oswald as he was being paraded by police as the chief suspect in the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. Rabbi Silverman visited Ruby in jail on an almost weekly basis thereafter. Ruby told Silverman, “I did it for the American people.” The Warren Commission later concluded that Ruby acted alone and was not part of any conspiracy.
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Donald H. Harrison is editor emeritus of San Diego Jewish World. He may be contacted via donald.harrison@sdjewishworld.com