California

Firing and a Resignation Request at Local Chabads

Chabad of San Diego’s regional director Rabbi Yonah Fradkin has announced that he has fired Rabbi Yehuda Hadjadj as the rabbi at Chabad of UC San Diego and has asked for the resignation of Rabbi Mendel Goldstein of Chabad of Poway.  Neither Rabbi Hadjadj nor Rabbi Goldstein could be reached for immediate comment. [Donald H. Harrison]

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California, Donald H. Harrison, Jewish Religion, San Diego County, USA

UCSD Announces Holocaust Living History Workshop Schedule

How did the exploitation of men, women, and children in countless camps across Europe and North Africa fit into National Socialist ideology? What was the role of fascism in this ideology? And how did the victorious allies punish the Nazis for imprisoning and enslaving hundreds of thousands of people? All too often these questions are sidelined by the understandable focus on mass murder. Despite major advances in Holocaust historiography over the last several decades, however, scholars still grapple with these issues. [UCSD Holocaust Living History Workshop news release]

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California, Holocaust, International, Jewish Religion, San Diego County

Jewish Motorcycle Philanthropists Support The Butterfly Project

Last month I had the delightful opportunity to interview two bikers who were planning to participate in the Ride2Remember, a motorcycle ride created to pay tribute to Holocaust survivors and memorialize those who perished. This year, the Jewish Motorcyclist Alliance dedicated its contribution to The Butterfly Project (TBP), cofounded by San Diegans Cheryl Rattner Price and Jan Landau. {Eva Trieger}

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California, Eva Trieger, Holocaust, Jewish History, San Diego County, Travel and Food, USA

Gov. Newsom Signs Gabriel Bill to Fight Internet Hate

Governor Gavin Newsom on Tuesday signed Assembly Bill (AB) 587 into law. Authored by Assemblymember Jesse Gabriel, this bill requires social media companies to publicly disclose their policies for online hate and extremism so they can be held accountable for their enforcement. The bill had previously passed the State Senate and Assembly with bipartisan support. [JPAC press release]

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California, USA

Muzzling Free Speech at Berkeley Law School

By Richard L. Cravatts (JNS) The suppression of any speech that does not conform to hegemonic ideologies is not an uncommon occurrence at today’s universities. What is now labeled “cancel culture” is dedicated to the purging of thoughts and ideas that conflict with liberal notions or the radical ravings of social justice warriors. This unfortunate

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California, Israel, Opinion, Richard L. Cravatts, Science, Medicine, & Education

Playwright Myla Lichtman-Fields Scoring in Los Angeles & London

The prolific San Diego County playwright, Myla Lichtman-Fields, will be traveling to Los Angeles next month, and then to London, England in November to see performances of two of her 16 published plays that have gone global through lulu.com. [Eileen Wingard]

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California, Eileen Wingard, International, San Diego County, Theatre, Film & Broadcast

Curator Vows Holocaust Exhibit Will Find a Permanent Home

Project RUTH – “Remember Us: The Holocaust” – which was on exhibit for two years at the Chula Vista Public Library is in the process of closing, but even though it soon will be gone, creator and curator Sandy Scheller vowed Sunday, August 21, that its content won’t be forgotten. [Donald H. Harrison]

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California, Donald H. Harrison, Holocaust, Jewish History, San Diego County

Federal Probe Opened Into Alleged Antisemitism at University of Southern California

WASHINGTON, D.C. (Press Release) — The U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights (OCR) announced it has opened an investigation into a complaint alleging the University of Southern California (USC) allowed a hostile environment of antisemitism to proliferate on its campus, resulting in the resignation in August 2020 of its Jewish student government vice

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California, Middle East, Science, Medicine, & Education, USA

Kolender Was City’s First Jewish Police Chief, County’s First Jewish Sheriff

A member of the Jewish community, known for his self-deprecating sense of humor, Kolender grew up at the Reform Congregation Beth Israel. However, when it was time for his bar mitzvah, he honored his grandfather’s wishes and had it at Beth Jacob Congregation, which is Orthodox. “The rabbi there was Baruch Stern, and it was the first bar mitzvah for him after the war,” Kolender told me back in 1996 when I profiled him for the now defunct San Diego Jewish Press-Heritage. Rabbi Stern’s children “had been killed in front of him by the Nazis, and he started crying and I started crying, and I’m not sure if we ever did get through the whole thing. It was something I never will forget.” [Donald H. Harrison]

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California, Donald H. Harrison, Jewish History, San Diego County, Travel and Food, USA

How a Sightseeing Company Got its Start in San Diego

This chapter is a chance for me to step again from third-person history into first-person history because I was highly involved in the start-up in 1989 of Old Town Trolley Tours of San Diego. It came about because through The Harrison Enterprises, the public relations agency which I owned, I served as the executive director of the San Diego Cruise Industry Consortium. The consortium was created in 1983 under the aegis of Acting Mayor Bill Cleator to attract cruise ships to the Port of San Diego. Previously, I had served as communications director for Cleator during the period he served as a city councilman and acting mayor. [Donald H. Harrison]

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Business & Finance, California, Donald H. Harrison, San Diego County, Travel and Food, USA