JUNE/JULY 2015
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8 June/July 2015
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Features 12 A Thousand Words Spectacular Seafood with a View TOP OF THE MARKET
Summer 16 Marilyn Monroe Declassified Fun at the JCC 18 Dating and Marriage at Jewish Camp 20 JCamp 180: Securing Funds for Jewish Camp
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22 There’s a Jewish Story Everywhere 34 J*Company’s Golden Ticket
Food 24 Kosher Chinese: Not Just for Christmas Kung Pao Chicken with Cashews and Greens
26 SD Jewish Men’s Choir’s New Album
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28 SDJA’s Beit Yeladim
Synagogue 30 Chabad UC: Mazel Tov in University City
32 FIDF: Supporting Lone Soldiers in Israel
Headlines 36 News to Know Now Columns
6 My Comic Relief 8 What Jew Mean 10 Of the Book 37 Mazel & Mishagoss
PUBLISHERS Diane Benaroya & Laurie Miller
L’CHAIM SAN DIEGO, LLC (858) 776-0550 San Diego, CA 92127
EDITOR-IN-CHIEF Alanna Maya
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CREATIVE DIRECTOR Laurie Miller
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COVER PHOTO BY Richard Alletag CONTRIBUTORS Yigal Adato, Daniel Bortz, Sofie Kinnefors, Stephanie Lewis, Rita Mailheau, Salomon Maya, Sharon Rapoport, Eva Trieger, Deborah Vietor
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5
RANDOM RANTS l BY SALOMON MAYA
my
comic relief I Worked with Dead People
I
was 19 years old and my pager buzzed on my night table. It was maroon in color and had two buttons, one to silence it, the other to view simple numeric messages. It was early on a Saturday as I struggled to wipe the sleep from my crusted eyes. I squinted as I made out the number on the tiny grey screen. I knew who it was. I knew what I had to do. 24 HOURS EARLIER My new boss sat in his small office on the campus of UCSD in La Jolla. I would be working in the department of Neurosciences for a week. I just had returned from a year in Israel and needed a job, so my uncle offered me one as a lab assistant cleaning glassware and preparing basic buffered solutions in his lab. I would also be sectioning mice brains on a machine called a vibratome (not your normal deli slicer as these sections would be as thin as a human hair, we’re talking about microns here people). That Friday I was called into his office and he asked me how everything
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L’CHAIM SAN DIEGO MAGAZINE • JUNE/JULY 2015
was going, to which I responded with a confident, “great.” He then looked at me and asked me a question I figured not many people had been asked, “How’s your stomach?” He then clarified by asking if I could take a little more hands on job. He opened the top drawer and gave me a pager and wrote down a number. He stated that if I saw this number, it meant there was an autopsy and I needed to be at the Hillcrest Hospital ASAP. 26 HOURS LATER I walked in and the immediate thing that hit me was the chemical smell. For people that have smelled formaldehyde, you’ll never forget it. I have the scent etched to the back of my cerebrum. I was in a long (about 15foot) narrow hallway. I walked as if I was in slow motion and I thought to myself I could turn around and just walk out; tell my uncle that I couldn’t handle it. But I kept walking. I turned the corner and I was in the autopsy suite. There were three people working, one was my uncle. Two autopsy tables were in
the middle of the room forming a T. The patient, a female, lay on one of them. The diener, the person responsible for moving, cleaning and dissecting of a corpse, had already started on the patient’s skull. I stood there staring at what was in front of me when someone suddenly said, “you’re late.” My uncle instructed me to suit up in the dressing room and come out to work. Mint green scrubs, plastic apron, forearm covers, blue booties to cover my shoes, two pairs of gloves, surgical mask and a face shield. I stepped out of the changing room and went back out to the autopsy suite. 6 YEARS LATER I had completed my final autopsy and walked out into the sun. The smell of everlasting formaldehyde still clinging to my clothes. I had turned in my keys, badge and said my goodbyes to the amazing staff that had helped me grow from a snotty 19year old kid to a 25-year old man. In my tenure there I assisted in over 100 autopsies, most of them HIV+ patients as that was the grant I was working for. I felt proud of my accomplishments as I did something many won’t ever even dare of doing. But my time in the darkness of the morgue was done, now I was walking proudly under a beautiful San Diego sun. I got into my car and the first song I heard as I pulled out of the UCSD staff parking lot was The Beatle’s “The End.” Irony couldn’t have picked a better song. SALOMON MAYA IS A LOCAL ACTOR AND PLAYWRIGHT. FOLLOW HIM ON TWITTER @SALOMAYA.
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SPIRITUAL l BY YIGAL ADATO
what
jew mean Life Balance 4. Take care of your health When I mention health, I mean both your physical and mental health. Balance isn’t just about work and fun but it’s about mind, body and spirit. You must keep your body healthy by exercising, your mind healthy by relaxing or meditation and your spirit healthy by believing that life is handing you things for a reason. We all have stress and situations that cause us unrest but know that this too shall pass and with a clear mind and a healthy body making choices and changes are much easier.
L
ife balance is a very important topic for people, and to be honest its scares me with a baby on the way. I want to make sure that as a father my family knows how important they are to me, that I am able to take care of my health, and that I have fun. Balancing between job and family, fun and work, and even social and spiritual can be a daunting task and the truth is you are the only person who will be able to create a life you want and a life with more balance. Here are five quick tips to help you achieve that more balance. 1. Leave work at work Whether you own your business or work a 9-5, remember not to bring work back to your home life. So many times, I see people coming from work and continuing to stress about what happened there for hours later. If it’s important, write a to-do list to conquer the next morning.
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L’CHAIM SAN DIEGO MAGAZINE • JUNE/JULY 2015
2. Take time off I am not telling you to be Shomer Shabbat, but rather to try putting your phone on silent mode while you are with your family or at your kids baseball game. How many times do we go to dinner with our loved ones and we sit there texting or making sure that we didn’t get a call as the phantom vibration tricks us once again? Be totally present and enjoy the moment. You only have a certain amount of these moments, so enjoy each one to the fullest. 3. Don’t over-book yourself Spreading yourself too thin will cause you to not have enough time for yourself and most importantly to not spend time with loved ones. We all want to help others and it’s a beautiful thing to give of your time, but it is better to do a couple of things well than many things poorly. Spreading yourself thin causes you to let others down and to impose even more stress on yourself.
5. Schedule fun As kids all we cared about was having fun and then we grew up to have responsibilities and forgot about fun. Having fun is crucial and is different for everyone. It can be time with friends, watching a movie, going hiking, or many other things but make sure to make some time to have fun. Schedule fun if you have a busy calendar so that you don’t miss the opportunity to laugh and smile. Life balance is a goal you must create for yourself just like the car or house you want to be able to buy. The only difference is that the material things give happiness in a moment and true life balance radiates happiness from within, for a longer period of time. Remember: True success isn’t what car you drive or what watch you wear but rather how many times you can laugh and smile. CONNECT WITH YIGAL ON TWITTER @YIGALADATO.
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TORAH l BY RABBI DANIEL BORTZ
of the
book
The Spirtuality of Surf
S
ummertime is finally here, full of beach days and good waves. I never learned how to surf well growing up, a subject of embarrassment for a Cape Town and California native such as myself. But I accused the water of being cold, and when you’re bad at surfing it isn’t very fun. Since so many of my friends are in love with surfing though, I knew there had to be something special about it. What is it about the ocean that pulls so many people to it like a magnet? One day, I decided to ask an especially “stoked” friend about the secret magic of wave riding. What I gained was a great insight into the ocean’s spiritual force, and I took some life lessons from surfing. As the great Hassidic master, The Baal Shem Tov, said: “Every single thing that a person sees or
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L’CHAIM SAN DIEGO MAGAZINE • JUNE/JULY 2015
hears, is an instruction to him in his service of G-d.” We can gain a deeper insight into life from examining the world around us. As a surfer sits on his or her board, drifting, waiting to catch a wave, there is only the present. Nothing else in the world exists now. None of the material distractions that usually hold sway on our lives matters at this time. There is only this endless, perfect, beautiful ocean. I liken this to a time of prayer and connection to G-d, as we try to form a bond with the Infinite Being. None of the usual daily distractions matter at that moment in time. It’s just you and Him. The ocean feels like it’s being pulled and moved by an inexplicable hidden force that can’t be seen, but can be felt. Like the events of our lives, where we think
we’re the only ones in control, deep down we sense there’s a higher plan, dictating the events and direction our lives are taking. As the wave raises you, you know this: either you’re heading for the ride of your life, or you’re wiping out, sometimes lightly and sometimes viciously. Each wave experience improves you. Life is full of “wipeouts” and “smooth waves.” Yet whether it’s revealed or hidden, we are taught that every “wave” that occurs to us is for the best, coming with good intention. At the end of the day, after you’ve given it your all in the water, and you attempted to surf and experience something greater than yourself, you leave the ocean a new person: relaxed, on a spiritual high, ready to live your day on a bit of a higher plane. After a spiritual experience that you’ve worked for, whether in learning a Torah insight, praying or performing a Mitzvah/ good deed, we too enter the rest of our day feeling elevated. A tenet of Jewish living is to see the Divine in all that we do. Wherever we find ourselves this summer, may we experience the beauty of the world around us and the experiences we are offered, all the while learning and elevating ourselves through them. Surf’s up! RABBI DANIEL BORTZ IS THE DIRECTOR OF JTEEN SAN DIEGO, JTEENSD.COM. FOR INFORMATION ON CLASSES, CONTACT HIM AT DANIELBORTZ@GMAIL.COM.
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L’CHAIM l BY SALOMON MAYA
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L’CHAIM SAN DIEGO MAGAZINE • JUNE/JULY 2015
L’CHAIM
A THOUSAND
WORDS
Top of the Market: Spectacular seafood with a view
L
ife is full of journeys, some small some not so small, whether it be a complex journey through life or a simple journey through a new dining experience. Regarding the latter, I recently had the honor of visiting a gem nestled right next to the Midway Museum at the Embarcadero. Since 1976, Top of the Market has been one of the best when it comes to fresh seafood. The likely partnership of a fisherman and a boat captain led to the audacious idea of bringing the freshest seafood possible to diner’s tables. Decades before the very popular (and I believe overused) phrase of farm-to-table even came to life, Top of the Market embodied an ocean-to-table philosophy that focused on quality. The Fish Market has now grown to six restaurants in San Diego, with two upscale versions of their concept, one located in San Mateo. FIRST IMPRESSIONS The first thing I can honestly say about Top of the Market in San Diego is that it offers one of the best views in the city, period. Rivaling the view from Il Fornaio in Coronado and C Level on Harbor Island, Top of the Market offers you more
than just downtown views, it offers the massive colossus that is the Midway and then nothing but blue ocean. Our maître d quickly received us with a charming and joyful smile as if he had been expecting us for quite some time. Though the restaurant was more than ¾ full, he proudly asked if were from L’CHAIM Magazine. Maybe it was the stack of magazines I carried that gave me away but it was still a nice gesture, and made me feel like I was going over to a friend’s house for dinner. Our group was seated in a stunning table right next to the window overlooking the bay and aircraft carrier. The one thing that upscale dining will always hit you with its first impression is their attention to detail. The table was set up exquisitely with every utensil, plate and cloth napkin formed with military (or should I say Navy) like precision. We were quickly introduced to our server, Shawna (who has served eight years with Top of The Market) who confidently welcomed us to the tasting. And so we sat, with the sun slowly setting to the west, anxiously awaiting the journey to come. Chef Ivan Flowers walked out to our
table and presented himself. Confident and proud, he gave us a quick rundown on how the night would progress, starting with an amuse bouche and then followed by three courses with a cocktail/wine pairing for each. To end the night we would have a dessert of choice. AMUSE-BOUCHE Lobster bisque with porcini infusion topped with an Island Creek Oyster with Meyer lemon and a Vietnamese chili droplet. Cocktail Pairing: Mai Tai and Sangria Blanco Disclaimer: It’s obvious that the tasting would not be “kosher” in a literal sense. The Chef joked with us that growing up in New York in a secular Jewish home made it easier for him to experience the wonders of every ingredient, regardless of it being kosher or not. The bisque was velvety and smooth. The buttery aftertaste was not overshadowed by the hit of wondrous lobster and second it stayed in my mouth. The unique plating of having the bisque in a shot glass allowed me to take tiny sips of the bisque, much like a tequila tasting, which allowed me to WWW.LCHAIMMAGAZINE.COM
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Check it out
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taste every ingredient included. On top, a succulent oyster was a perfect way to start this journey. FIRST COURSE Togarashi seared yellowfin, Hiramasa crudo and Kurabuto confit pork belly brulee. Sweet soy wasabi and limoncello vinaigrette arabesque. Black garlic tempura. Wine Pairing: Top of the Market Riesling Chef Flowers presented us with a first course filled with large morels of food; two if by sea and … well, you get the rest. True to their name, the freshness of their fish could only be appreciated in raw form. And we were lucky to have two varieties in the first course. For people who don’t feel like fish, the beef was the star of the dish. The tenderness of this dish literally (and yes please, let’s just start a drinking game for overused food phrases) melted in my mouth. And to end the course with an extremely playful item in the bruleed pork belly was masterful. Texturally out of the box with its crunchy top and smooth bottom, it was he perfect start to this meal. I am an outspoken fan of red wine and not the biggest fan of white, but the house Riesling was also to die for: dry and light, it made a perfect pair for the dish. Tip: One of our diners was pregnant and couldn’t indulge in the paired libations, so the bartenders paired her dishes with AMAZING (and yes I did write that in caps because I literally yelled it) mocktails. Our server Shawna also informed us those mocktails are available with alcohol, should you wish to create your own drink. 14
L’CHAIM SAN DIEGO MAGAZINE • JUNE/JULY 2015
SECOND COURSE Crispy Skin Striped Bass. Asparagus Fritti, Black Truffle Caviar, Lobster Rose Sauce. Wine Pairing: Domaine Barat “Premier Cru” Chablis, Vaillons France As we started our second course, Chef Flowers did something that won my admiration even more. Chef Flowers pulled Ulises, the server’s assistant over to our table and introduced him to us. Chef Flowers stated that he works just as hard as anyone for this tasting and it would be a disservice not to allow him to have his moment in the sun. Ulises bashfully smiled (probably looking for an escape plan as he more than likely did not like the spot light) and cleaned the breadcrumbs off the table and went about his job. We dug into our second course with ferocity, cutting down on a crispy skin partnered with just-as-al dente tempura fried asparagus. The dollop of salty caviar on top of the bass was a perfect pairing making the course heaven on a plate. THIRD COURSE Pan Roasted Deep Water Alaskan Halibut. Baby Heirloom Carrots, Confit Tomatoes and Marinated Arugula. Smokey Coriander Piquillo Pepper Sauce. Wine Pairing: Trione Russian River Pinot Noir Our bellies had started to get full, but we continued, beckoning our inner cow and creating more space in my stomach. I could not resist my personal favorite fish, halibut. This one was cooked to perfection; flakey, white and sublime. On top was a peppery
mix of arugula, which made a perfect match with the delicate fish and vegetables it sat on. The baby heirloom carrots were a sweet addition to the lightness of the fish, and brought the whole plate together nicely. Plus, they look so cute! Tip: Make sure you bring your quarters if you’re not valet parking. Parking meters are enforced until 8 p.m. Just forget the meters and enjoy yourself, splurge on the very reasonable $10 valet. DESSERT Diner’s choice. We allowed our server Shawna to choose our two desserts. She smiled, explaining that the restaurant had its own executive pastry chef known for their deserts, and returned with tiramisu and vanilla bean crème brulee. I’ll be honest, I was a tad thrown askew, as these were not the unique desserts I was hoping for, but they were really the best way to end this culinary journey. Fresh vanilla bean and a perfect crust on the brulee made this the best brulee I have ever tasted anywhere. Again, the attention to detail on the kitchen’s part was obvious at first bite. The tiramisu also did not disappoint; as the faint taste of liquor dissipated and made way for the delicate sweetness of mascarpone and ladyfingers in the perfectly layered dessert. I’d come back just for either of these items; they were that good. Editor’s Note: The Fish Market and Top of the Market suffered a major fire at their San Diego location on May 27. Though the restaurant is closed now for repairs and renovations, we thought the food and service during our visit was so excellent that it deserved the planned mention in this month’s issue. As soon as the doors reopen, we will definitely be back to enjoy a meal and support the wonderful people at Top of the Market. From the restaurant: “Gratefully, all employees, managers and guests were safely evacuated. We thank the community for all their support and we will be reopening soon. Thanks again, The Fish Market Restaurants”
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SUMMER FUN
MARILYN MONROE
ADVANCED SCREENING OF AN IMPORTANT NEW DOCUMENTARY COMES TO THE LFJCC
T
he San Diego Jewish Film Festival’s director, Craig Prater, announced that the film festival has secured Paul Davids’ new feature documentary, “Marilyn Monroe Unclassified” for an exclusive first public screening on July 12 at 6 p.m. The event will be presented to fans and followers of the film festival as an advance preview screening of the director’s cut, and it will be followed by an in-depth discussion with the director that involves audience participation in reviewing and evaluating the film. “We are extremely pleased to work with Paul on his new, unique film about the extraordinary icon, Marilyn Monroe,” Prater says. “I have worked with Paul on several of his other films—one received a Golden Globe nomination for Best TV Movie and another won the Saturn Award for Best DVD of the Year. His work with documentaries is the best. This film is spellbinding, fresh and remarkably insightful. If you think you know Marilyn now, you’ll think again, because declassified FBI and CIA documents highlighted in this film provided momentum to the director for new insights about her life and mysterious death in 1962 at the age of 36. I’m expecting 16
L’CHAIM SAN DIEGO MAGAZINE • JUNE/JULY 2015
our audience to be very pleased and honored to participate in this first public screening.” In the film, Marilyn Monroe is revealed to be “the lady who knew too much,” and her threats to expose not only her secret romantic relationships with the Kennedys but also highly classified information put her in a situation reminiscent of today’s Edward Snowden. From the mid-1950s, her marriage to esteemed Jewish playwright Arthur Miller (“Death of a Salesman”) put her under a microscope due to his leftwing leanings in the days of the House UnAmerican Activities Committee. She was bugged, wiretapped and followed, and she came to the unfortunate attention of the CIA’s Head of Counter-Intelligence. Davids has worked with others to glean as much as possible from formerly top secret documents that were eventually released under the Freedom of Information Act. These show how the death of Marilyn was like a perfect storm, the opening act of the catastrophic chaos of the 1960s, which included a cascade of assassinations. The film shows that authorities at every level worked overtime to conceal the facts of Marilyn’s death for reasons they defined as “national security.” The players of the
drama of that era include John and Robert Kennedy, the enigmatic James Angleton at the CIA, the CIA’s private Mafia hit squad led by Chicago syndicate boss Sam Giancana, Teamster boss Jimmy Hoffa, and wiretappers Fred Otash and Bernard Spindel (who died in prison for illegal wiretapping). Davids, who says he’s read 30 books on Marilyn Monroe and seen almost all of her films and previous films produced about her, explains that unraveling the jigsaw puzzle of her life was one of the biggest challenges in his career. It’s a career that began at Marvel Productions with 79 of the original “Transformers” animated episodes—a career that included coauthoring six “Star Wars” sequel books for Lucasfilm and then writing, producing and directing about ten independent films, most of which have been seen on international TV courtesy of NBCUniversal. Tickets are available by contacting the film festival box office at (858) 362-1348. Additional information about the film festival can be viewed online at SDJFF.org.
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SUMMER FUN l BY MAAYAN JAFFE l jns.org
SUMMER NIGHTS
DATING AND MARRIAGE AS BYPRODUCTS OF JEWISH CAMP E ighteen-year-old Bernie Kozlovksy spent from sundown to sunrise on a boat with 16-year-old Sonia Rosenbaum in the summer of 1972. “We talked until dawn,” Kozlovksy recalls about that summer at the Orthodox Jewish NCSY overnight camp in northeastern Maryland. Kozlovksy worked in the camp kitchen. Rosenbaum was a camper. From that summer forward, neither dated another individual. Forty-three years later— including 39 years of marriage, six children, and seven grandchildren—Kozlovksy attributes his successful relationship to the spark that formed during his summertime experience. Not much has changed. Today, the (camp) fire is still burning at Jewish summer camp. Dating and marriage are byproducts of summers spent banging on the table during birkat hamazon (grace after meals), engaging in loud and intense games of color war, and celebrating Jewish culture with Hebrew plays and folk-music campfire sing-alongs. No one is pushed to date at Jewish summer camp, explains Lauren Ben-Shoshan, who met her Israeli husband, Alon, as a counselor at URJ (Union for Reform Judaism) Camp Harlam in Kunkletown, Penn., in 2004. The couple now lives in Israel. “Camp is a positive place for Jewish learning, physical activity, and connecting with the outdoors. No one wants campers to feel bad because they didn’t find their spouse when they were 15, 19, or 22. But there is a covert understanding that [marriage is] a nice byproduct of Jewish summer camp, when it happens,” says BenShoshan, who is also a Jewish educator. It occurs more often than many realize.
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L’CHAIM SAN DIEGO MAGAZINE • JUNE/JULY 2015
According to “Camp Works,” a report released in 2012 by the Foundation for Jewish Camp, Jewish adults who attend Jewish overnight camp are on average 10 percent more likely to marry within the Jewish faith than their peers. The 2000-01 National Jewish Population Study found that number to be higher, with 78 percent of individuals who attended Jewish summer camp in-married, as opposed to 62 percent of their non-camper peers. What’s the secret sauce? Is it that romantic Shabbat at sunset by the lake or in the secluded woods? That’s part of it, but it is more likely a result of the “intensity” of the camp experience, Ben-Shoshan believes. “You’re living with everyone. The days last forever, but camp feels like it only lasts a minute. So even if camp is only two months, these are two very intense months,” she says. “You see the campers and counselors in stressful situations, how they interact with peers and with the kids, the meals, how they interact with co-workers. It is all these things that happen in life, that could take several months in the ‘real world,’ you see within a week at camp.” Jewish summer camp focuses heavily on community-building, notes Aaron Bogage, who attended the BBYO International Leadership Training Conference for several summers and now works at the overnight BBYO Chapter Leadership Training Conference. He says there are always “quite a few couples per session,” explaining that these relationships form because everyone is “extremely open” with each other and open to meeting new people. “Everyone is genuinely excited to get to know the rest of the teens.…There is a sense of community that comes from camp,” Bogage says.
One can start to pinpoint new couples, according to Bogage, by looking at who sits where during meals and what campers do during free time. Bogage has not met his significant other through camp, but his good friend met a girl last summer from another state. They are still together despite the physical distance between them. Jen Silber, executive director of Habonim Dror Camp Moshava in Street, Md., says there is a focus at camp on building healthy peer relationships. “We want [campers] to learn about communication, how to express their needs in relationships, feel confident being themselves and develop trust,” she says. Silber, who met her own husband as a camper and then staffer at Moshava, argues that friendships and romantic relationships that people form at summer camp tend to be “deeper” and more authentic than those forged at school or in other environments. Campers and counselors feel accepted for who they are, she says. Likewise, people who attend Jewish summer camps tend to share similar values. Through the camping experience, they come to learn how they hope to celebrate Shabbat or even raise their children. “My husband and I come at life from a similar place of what is important and what we want for our children in terms of Jewish identity and connection to Israel,” says Silber. “And it’s fun. Camp is really fun and that playfulness, that energy or ruach (spirit) is still there in our relationship today.” That’s exactly how it has gone for Mollie Gansky, who met her boyfriend, Corey Bass, at Camp Ramah in Pennsylvania’s Pocono Mountains. She spent seven summers as a camper and five as a counselor. She knew
SUMMER FUN
PHOTO COURTESY MOLLIE GANSKY
her boyfriend since she was young, but they only started dating as staffers. Now 23, she says she and Bass are on the same page about the role of Judaism in their lives, which makes the relationship stronger. But Gansky also describes the pressure at camp to “hook up” or at minimum, have your first kiss. She had hers in 2006. “I had a boyfriend at camp for two years as a camper,” Gansky recalls. “Within my age group, there were at least seven or eight relationships each year. Those were the serious relationships, but there were just hookups, too.” As a counselor, Gansky says she observed that campers engaged in relationships starting as early as fourth or fifth grade, with campers “coupling off” for dates to the annual fireworks displays or other events. In seventh or eighth grade, the pressure grows, and by ninth or 10th grade, she says, “campers have a lot of pressure to find
someone, to be with someone at camp.” Camp Ramah walls are adorned with plaques with kissy faces on which people etch their name and the date of their first kiss. More than 3,000 couples have their plaques featured on “shidduch walls” at Ramah camps around the country (Wisconsin, the Berkshires, and California). At Ramah in the Poconos, a gazebo called Gazebo Zugot (Hebrew for “matches”) celebrates couples that met at camp. Ramahmarriages.org, a page on the Reshet Ramah website, is dedicated to couples who met at summer camp. This summer, Reshet Ramah is launching “RamahDate,” a new partnership with the Jewish online dating giant JDate. RamahDate members will subscribe to JDate through a co-branded portal and receive an identifying Ramah “badge” on their online profile. Then, they can choose to either “meet” only other Ramah
members or search more broadly within JDate’s 750,000 members worldwide. Aaron Bogage says the online portal makes sense for keeping those camper connections going. “Campers create relationships and bonds they will have for years,” he says. “Jewish camps can help kids marry Jewish when they grow up.” “It’s possible to find happiness in so many Jewish situations,” adds Lauren BenShoshan. “Camp happens to be a very good one.” MAAYAN JAFFE IS FORMER EDITOR-INCHIEF OF THE BALTIMORE JEWISH TIMES AND A KANSAS-BASED FREELANCE WRITER. REACH HER AT JAFFEMAAYAN@ GMAIL.COM OR FOLLOW HER ON TWITTER, @MAAYANJAFFE.
Mollie Gansky and Corey Bass met at Camp Ramah in Pennsylvania’s Pocono Mountains. WWW.LCHAIMMAGAZINE.COM
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SUMMER FUN l BY SEAN SAVAGE l jns.org
THE JCAMP180 INITIATIVE Helping Jewish camps secure the funds behind the fun
F
or those who attended the Jewish camps of the previous generation, summertime likely invokes memories of smelly old bunks and rickety dining halls. But now, in what has been described as a new golden age for Jewish summer camps, those camps have received a massive facelift. What has allowed for this transformation? One of the players behind the scenes of the process has been JCamp180, a philanthropic organization dedicated to helping Jewish camps meet modern challenges. “Jewish camping is a life-altering experience and JCamp180 is dedicated to transforming Jewish summer camps into to a firm financial and business situation,” Mark Gold, director of JCamp180 says. Founded in 2004 by the Harold Grinspoon Foundation as the Grinspoon Institute for Jewish Philanthropy, and later renamed JCamp180, the initiative matches funds that are raised by the camps themselves
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L’CHAIM SAN DIEGO MAGAZINE • JUNE/JULY 2015
and also provides camps with consulting services from mentors, who focus on areas including fundraising, governance, strategic planning, and technology. Gold says that philanthropist Harold Grinspoon’s inspiration to support Jewish camps came from a visit several years ago to a Jewish camp near his home in western Massachusetts. During the visit, Gold explained how Grinspoon was disgusted by the camp, even going as far as saying that he would “never send my kids to this dump.” “Harold told the camp director that if he could raise $50,000, he would match that amount. However, when the camp director came back to him and said he raised just $15,000, it quickly became apparent that these camps were going need to be run like professional organizations with a strategic plan, fundraising, and capacity building,” Gold says. According to JCamp180, over the past nine years, the organization has contributed
more than $13 million in matching grant funds and $11 million in consulting services, helping to boost Jewish camp attendance from 43,000 in 2004 to 70,000 campers nationwide today. “Harold Grinspoon is a visionary,” says Stefan Teodosic, executive director at the Beber Camp in Wisconsin and the Perlman Camp in northeast Pennsylvania. “His commitment to the field of Jewish camping, both at a personal level and at large, are staggering. When Jewish camping wasn’t the cool thing to fund, Harold was putting the big dollars in when others were just thinking about it. … JCamp180 has been a driving force behind the professionalization of the field,” Teodosic says. Teodosic, who has worked with JCamp180 for several years, described its work as “transformational” for his camps, allowing them to use the matching grant programs for infrastructure improvements like bunks, pools, and health centers.
PHOTO COURTESY HERZL CAMP
SUMMER FUN
A campfire at Webster, Wisconsin-based Herzl Camp, a JCamp180-supported summer camp.
Jewish children today have a growing number of options each summer, with for-profit summer camps specializing in a wide range of areas such as sports, science and technology, and summer school. Alternatively, some families simply want to spend more time with their children during the summer in a non-camp setting. Nonprofit Jewish camps, therefore, face stiff competition. “If you look at the camps we have worked with the longest, most of those have fully renewed their camps. They realize they have to compete with the for-profit camps and others,” Gold says. He joked, “It is no longer acceptable to say we have 1940s World War II surplus cabins. That’s not going to attract kids.” Teodosic says the Jewish camping world was unorganized before Grinspoon’s foundation became involved. “It was a fractured experience, with various different movements running their own camps,” he says. “If you had a strong system around you, you got the kind of support you needed to be a successful camp. But there were a lot of independent camps that didn’t really have their act together in the way that they do now with the help of JCamp180.” Michelle Koplan, executive director
of B’nai B’rith Camp in western Oregon, says that JCamp180 and the Grinspoon foundation have helped grow “our tiny summer camp into a formidable agency.” JCamp180 worked with B’nai B’rith Camp to improve fundraising, strategic planning, and professional development for staffers. Koplan said a JCamp180 mentor helped implement two strategic plans that have helped “transform” the camp. “Our first strategic plan helped us purchase the camp from the Portland Jewish Community Center, and now our second strategic plan is helping us to become a year-round agency and not just a summer camp,” says Koplan. As the Jewish community becomes more diverse, with rates of intermarriage and unaffiliated Jews increasing, summer camp can also play a role in helping some Jews maintain religious values and practices. “B’nai B’rith Camp is serving more unaffiliated and interfaith families than anywhere in the country,” Koplan said. “Our work is important because it helps the kids continue to have Jewish values and practices in their home, continue to give tzedakah (charity) and to contribute to our community.” “JCamp180’s ability to continue to support us in our growth to serve these communities is really important to us,” she adds. Indeed, studies have shown that Jewish summer camp plays an important role in shaping a child’s Jewish identity throughout life. A 2011 Foundation for Jewish Camp study titled “Camp Works: The LongTerm Impact of Jewish Overnight Camp” headed by Dr. Steven M. Cohen, a sociology professor of American Jewry at Hebrew Union College, concluded that Jewish overnight camp leads to “an increased inclination to practice Jewish behaviors in their lives” and “an increased inclination to value and seek out the experience of Jewish community.” “What we find is that for young Jewish millennials, they think more highly of their Jewish camps than even their university. There is a strong recognition and bonding with the camp experience. Most kids go to camp longer than they go to college,” Gold
says. Moving forward, according to Gold, one of the biggest issues Jewish summer camps face is affordability, something JCamp180 is seeking to address. “Camp is expensive and we know it. We provide incentive grants for first-time campers. But even so, for many families [paying for camp] is a real challenge,” Gold says. Families can expect to pay anywhere from $4,000 to $8,000 per summer (eight weeks) for overnight camp. One of JCamp180’s programs is called PJ Goes to Camp, an extension of the Grinspoon foundation’s highly successful PJ Library literacy initiative. That program provides funding to first time campers through the Foundation for Jewish Camp’s One Happy Camper program. PJ Goes to Camp provides incentive grants of $700 or $1,000 for firsttime campers. Additionally, JCamp180 focuses on boosting camps’ endowments to provide their own scholarship programs. “One of things we have been working on is how to help these camps develop sufficient endowments to subsidize campers going forward,” Gold says. “Our biggest concern is that camps will end up pricing some people out of the system. So we want to work very hard to make sure that doesn’t happen.” B’nai B’rith Camp’s Kolplan said JCamp180 “has given us a really strong foundation to create an infrastructure that allows us to be better for kids.” “When you have more fundraising dollars then your programming excellence rises, and most importantly, we are able to give children more scholarship dollars, so it becomes more affordable for them and grows our camp attendance,” she says. Teodosic of Beber Camp and Perlman Camp feels that in the future, many will look back at this current era of investment in Jewish camps as a replicable and successful model. “In a couple of decades, Jewish camping will be looked at as a real lever of success in the Jewish world that will help drive the continuity of the Jewish life, and not just a place to send your kid for a few weeks to have fun,” he said. WWW.LCHAIMMAGAZINE.COM
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hotel celebrates Editor’s Note: The following is an excerpt from a recently published book by San Diego author Don Harrison, entitled “Schlepping Through the American West: There is a Jewish Story Everywhere.” Harrison’s book is available for purchase online at Amazon.com.
R
IVERSIDE, California –Around the beginning of the 20th century, Frank Miller started collecting bells for what would become the historic Mission 22
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Inn here in this city along the Santa Ana River. Eventually, he accumulated 800 bells of various sizes as well as innumerable Christian crosses. People began to believe that his hotel, financed by a loan from Henry Huntington, actually had itself been one of the California missions. It never was, but that didn’t stop Miller, a natural born promoter, from encouraging the belief. He even would dress up in a Padre’s robe and meet trains that came by his hotel.
PRESIDENTS, EINSTEIN AND NEWMAN Funny thing: Miller wasn’t a Catholic. Close to the hotel stands his own Congregational Church, featuring a tower by Arthur Benton, who also designed the signature California Tower in San Diego’s Balboa Park. Miller just loved the romance of the Missions, sparked in part by his reading of Helen Hunt Jackson’s famous novel, Ramona. Some ten U.S. Presidents have visited the Mission Inn to date, although most of them
“CREATIVE COMMONS PAUL NEWMAN” BY X-RAY DELTA ONE, USED UNDER CC BY / DESATURATED FROM ORIGINAL
FEATURE STORY l BY DON HARRISON
FEATURE STORY
did not do so during their term of office. Richard Nixon married future first lady Pat Ryan by the fire place in a room off the old hotel’s lobby. Ronald Reagan and the former Nancy Davis spent the first night of their married life in one of the hotel’s suites. Teddy Roosevelt visited the hotel shortly after becoming the President in the wake of the assassination of William McKinley. That was about the time the hotel had newly installed its electric light system. When the lights suddenly went out, Roosevelt’s protection detail pushed him to the floor of his room and pointed their guns and rifles at the door. Miller suddenly came in to see if his famous guest was okay, and nearly could have been shot to death. When Roosevelt’s successor, William Howard Taft visited the hotel, Miller had heard that because of Taft’s girth—over 300 pounds—the President had on more than one occasion become stuck in the White House bath tub. So, Miller had an extra wide chair built for him, which Taft tried out but demanded that no photographs be taken of him sitting in it. Today visitors to the Mission Inn are able to sit in Taft’s chair, which is located in the lobby near portraits of him and other U.S. Presidents who had been hotel guests. Telling these and other historic stories, guide Nancy Kim of the Mission Inn Foundation probably makes her daughter and son proud. Both are history professors, she at Cal State Northridge and he at Crafton Hills College. Kim’s stories about some of the hotel’s Jewish guests also helped this publication validate its premise that “there’s a Jewish story everywhere” as grandson Shor and I made stops along the northbound Interstate 15 as part of a western North American road trip. Four of the best known Jewish guests who at one time or another stayed at the Mission Inn were actress Sarah Bernhardt, publisher Joseph Pulitzer, actor Paul Newman, and physicist Albert Einstein. Bernhardt performed at the opera house across the street from the Mission Inn – one of the civic, religious, and cultural buildings in Riverside that Miller either helped to
finance or had constructed. And when famous stars such as Bernhardt played at the opera house, Miller made certain they stayed at the Mission Inn. Pulitzer, the newspaperman who gave his name to journalism’s most famous prize, slipped in and out of the hotel without anything remarkable happening, but the museum sells a book about him in its famous guests’ collection. Albert Einstein, according to Kim, took breakfast one morning in a hotel garden in the days before the hotel had any formal restaurants. “He had a muffin and some fruit and he was just sitting there enjoying his meal, and one of the parrots in the Court of the Birds , landed on his table and started eating his breakfast muffin, and Einstein was not very happy about that.” There ought to be a punchline to this story, but there wasn’t. Even such a genius as Einstein can react to situations in relatively ordinary ways. Miller’s bird collection was worthy of mention. One macaw, with blue and yellow feathers, was given the name Napoleon, as its plumage resembled the French dictator’s uniform. Another macaw, because of its coat of many colors, was named after the biblical Joseph. Actor Paul Newman, according to Kim, favored a certain suite atop the hotel, coming back year after year to enjoy the action at a nearby raceway. One year the staff told him, with profuse apologies and some embarrassment, that he could not have his favorite suite because the plumbing wasn’t working properly. No problem, said the star, he would also rent the suite next door for his bathroom needs. According to Kim, “word got out, and when Mr. Newman was ready to shower in the next room, he wore his towel wrapped around him.“ Word got out, and the hotel staff, particularly the women, just happened to be gathered in the hallway as he padded from room to room. Miller’s daughter and son-in-law ran the hotel after his death, but without the same kind of loving attention. His grandchildren were not interested in being hoteliers, and
the Mission Inn went through a series of sales. According to Kim, it fell on hard times, serving for a while as a dormitory for the University of California at Riverside and as an apartment house for the elderly. Among the hoteliers who purchased it was the Jewish philanthropist Ben Swig, who was a majority shareholder in the majestic Fairmount Hotel of San Francisco. But, according to Kim, Swig did not lavish on the Mission Inn the kind of attention that he gave to the Fairmount, perhaps because he lived in San Francisco and not in Riverside. He sold at auction many of the items that Miller had collected, and installed what Kim considered to be garish furniture in the lobby before eventually selling the property, and later buying it back, then selling it again. Kim said while preservationists take a dim view of Swig having sold off parts of the Miller collection – some of which subsequently has found its way back to the historic hotel – Swig deserves credit for coming along at a time when the City of Riverside had seriously considered tearing down the old hotel, and dedicating the downtown block it occupies to other uses. If it hadn’t been for Swig, this colorful landmark—built in a quadrangle around a city block in at least four different architectural styles–might have disappeared along with many of its stories. Today the hotel is owned by Duane Roberts, whose family used to operate a meat packing business. One day, according to Kim, Roberts noticed that many of his Mexican workers brought burritos to work, and he thought other people might enjoy lunchtime burritos as well. So he devised a way of freezing them and having them delivered for microwaving at convenience stores, thus making his fortune.
DON HARRISON IS EDITOR OF SAN DIEGO JEWISH WORLD AT SDJEWISHWORLD.COM. HE MAY BE CONTACTED VIA DONALD.HARRISON@SDJEWISHWORLD.COM.
WWW.LCHAIMMAGAZINE.COM
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BADASS KOSHER l BY MICHAEL GARDINER
K osher Chinese: Not Just for Christmas KUNG PAO CHICKEN l CASHEWS l GREENS
I
t was the day myth became recognized as reality: June 29, 2010. Senator Lindsay Graham asked Supreme Court nominee Elena Kagan during her Confirmation hearings where she had been on Christmas day. Kagan responded: “Like all Jews, I was probably at a Chinese restaurant.” New York Senator Chuck Schumer volunteered: 24
“If I might, no other restaurants are open!” While Schumer’s comment may have seemed more helpful than it actually was Kagan’s confirmed what Jews and Chinese– certainly Chinese restaurant owners–had long known. And yet it is not all just a quirk of the calendar, there is more to it than that. There
L’CHAIM SAN DIEGO MAGAZINE • JUNE/JULY 2015
is geography, a shared minority status, and there is a shared history of life on the business end of exclusion. Much, if not all, of it is down to the Lower East Side of Manhattan at the turn of the 19th to 20th Century where Jews and Chinese were the two largest non-Christian immigrant groups. During the first decade of the 20th
BADASS KOSHER Century Jewish population in New York grew from 400,000 to a million. By 1910 they were nearly a quarter of the city’s population. Those numbers, however, did not translate to a lack of bigotry. In Chinese restaurants, though, the staff did not discriminate between a Jewish face and an Italian one. Chinese restaurants were thus something of an oasis. Then there is the food itself. Where most European cuisines (and Mexican) tended to feature dishes with both meat and dairy, the latter is a nearly non-existent ingredient in Chinese cuisine. While Chinese menus generally include no shortage of shellfish and pork such obvious treif could be avoided by a bit of careful ordering without anyone batting an eyelash. It is not as if many of these restaurants were truly kosher but one could fool oneself easily enough. And a strip of shredded pork looks similar enough to one of chicken (or is it beef), right? The case for turn of the century (or, for that matter, current) Chinese restaurants being Kosher may be weak, but the case for Kosher Chinese meals at home is not. There is a strong tradition of Chinese vegetarian dishes that work well in any meal. And there is no shortage of meat dishes based on beef, chicken and even lamb. Perhaps the greatest challenge in cooking Kosher Chinese meals lies in the prepared products that often go into Chinese dishes. It’s an easily solvable problem. Certified Kosher versions of many staple prepared products for the Chinese kitchen can be found online for soy sauce, Hoisin sauce, Oyster sauce (which is not a sauce made of oysters but for them), sesame, peanut and chili oils, and many more. Indeed, quite a few are available at local Asian markets such as 99 Ranch and Thuong Phat in the Convoy District. A little imagination, creativity and the sort of ingredient substitution that is so much a part of Chinese cooking takes care of the rest. One of my favorite Chinese dishes– whether at the best Sichuan places or the sorts of Chinese-American joints I remember fondly from my childhood–is Kung Pao Chicken. The later, if spicy at all, derived its heat solely from chili peppers or prepared chili-garlic sauce. It featured chicken, peanuts and diced sweet peppers and felt exotic in the extreme. While that dish may be “authentic” only as a ChineseAmerican dish it is a great one nonetheless.
But my version below is more closely related to true Sichuan food, relying as it does on the notion of ma la. “Ma la” translates as “numbing and spicy,” and is the combination of fiery, earthy chili peppers and tingly, flowery Sichuan peppercorns. The latter–which are actually not peppercorns at all but, rather, the husks around the seeds–provides a numbing effect that opens up the diner’s palate, readying it for the heat of the chilis. I also chose to substitute cashews for peanuts and serve the dish on a bed of greens.
K ung Pao Chicken | Cashews | Greens Serves 4
INGREDIENTS For the Marinade: 2 teaspoons soy sauce 2 teaspoons dry sherry 1 teaspoon corn starch ½ teaspoon sesame oil For the Kung Pao Chicken: 1 pound chicken breast, cut into bite sized pieces 3 tablespoons oil 10 dried red chilies 1-2 tablespoons Sichuan peppercorns (to taste), toasted and ground 2 tablespoons garlic, minced 2 tablespoons ginger, minced 4 green onions, sliced and separated into greens and whites (greens reserved for garnish, below) ¼ cup roasted cashews (peanuts are a good substitute, but second best) 1 teaspoon sesame oil For the Sauce: 1 tablespoon light soy sauce 1 teaspoon dark soy sauce 2 teaspoons balsamic vinegar 2 teaspoons Worcestershire sauce 2 tablespoons chicken stock 1 teaspoon sugar 1 teaspoon cornstarch
2 garlic cloves 1 tablespoon grapeseed oil For the Garnish: Green sections of 4 green onions (above) chopped
DIRECTIONS 1. Marinate the Chicken. Mix the soy sauce, sherry, corn starch, and sesame oil, add the chicken and marinate it in the refrigerator for at least half an hour. 2. Prepare the Sauce Mixture. Mix the soy sauces, Chinkiang, broth, sugar and cornstarch and set aside. 3. Cook the Chicken. Heat one tablespoon of the oil in a pan over medium-high heat, add the chicken. Sprinkle the chicken with half the toasted Sichuan peppercorns, saute until just about cooked and set aside. 4. Cook the Aromatics. Heat the remaining oil in a pan over medium-high heat, add the chilies and remaining peppercorns and saute until fragrant, about a minute. Add half of the garlic and half of the ginger and saute until fragrant, about a minute. Add the green parts of the green onions. 5. Cook the greens. Meanwhile, wilt the greens. Add the oil to another wok or pan, add the garlic, stir in the greens to wilt a dash of soy sauce. 6. Finish the chicken. Add the sauce mixture, bring to a boil, add the chicken, green onions and peanuts, remove from heat and stir in the sesame oil. 7. Assemble the dish. Transfer the mustard greens to a serving plate. Place the kung pao chicken over the mustard greens. Garnish with the green onions.
For the Greens: 3 stalks mustard greens (spinach is a good substitute) WWW.LCHAIMMAGAZINE.COM
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FEATURE STORY l BY RUTH WEBER
SD JEWISH MEN’S CHOIR
TEAMS UP WITH GRAMMY AWARDWINNING PRODUCER
T
he upcoming album “Kochi,” by the San Diego Jewish Men’s Choir will take the listener on a musical journey celebrating the long history of the Jews in India. In the spirit of Tikkun Olam, a portion of the album’s proceeds will also help thousands of children living in the Mumbai slums. This is made possible through SDJMC’s new partnership with The Gabriel Project Mumbai, an American Jewish Joint Distribution Project providing nutrition, literacy, and basic hygiene care to these children. The “Kochi” CD will feature historic Jewish music using traditional Indian instruments to create a beautiful cultural mix. The album is being co-produced by 2014 Grammy Award-winning producer/ composer Ricky Kej from Bangalore, India. Kej has created more than 3,000 television jingles, five movie soundtracks, and the
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L’CHAIM SAN DIEGO MAGAZINE • JUNE/JULY 2015
theme song to the 2011 Cricket World Cup opening ceremony to his credit. However, his greatest achievement so far may be his recent New Age Grammy-winning album, “Winds of Samsara,” recorded with South African flautist Wouter Kellerman, which held the number one position on the Billboard charts for several months. Kej and SDJMC’s Ruth Weber discovered each other’s music during the preliminary round of the Grammys, where SDJMC’s first CD, “Heritage” was a contender. Kej was interested to learn that at one time there were more than 5,000 Jews living in the little Indian fishing village of Kochi (or Cochin as we call it in the U.S.) In fact, Roman records reported large numbers of Jewish communities along both coasts of India 2000 years ago. Jewish groups immigrated to India following centuries of persecution in other countries. The rulers of
India welcomed the Jews and allowed them to build synagogues there and worship as they pleased. To this day, the Jews still live peacefully in India. The “Kochi” album will have its official release this July and the public is invited to come out and celebrate with the choir at their release event. Those interested in purchasing “Kochi” before its official release or in attending the release party can reserve a spot by visiting the choir’s website at SDJMC.org. To learn more about The Gabriel Project Mumbai, visit GabrielProjectMumbai.org. SDJMC CD release party/concert in on Sunday August 9th at 5p.m. At Bombay Exotic Cuisine of India, 3960 5th Ave, San Diego, CA, 92103 (619) 297-7777 or info@bombayrestaurant.com.
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Prolonged exposure may lead to an increase in Curiosity and Critical Thinking. CONTACT THE SCHOOL TO SET UP A TOUR
Renaissance Village Academy is a private, non-religious full-time school serving gifted, profoundly gifted, and highly motivated children in grades K-8. Each student learns at his/her own level, based on ability, not age. SUBJECTS INCLUDE: English, Math, Science, Social Studies, Music, Drama & Karate.
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FEATURE STORY l BY DEBORAH VIETOR
TEACHING THE LITTLEST JEWS
W
ould you like your child to experience pure joy and magic in a positive, inviting place where real learning and a connection to Judaism takes place? How about a sustainable garden, athletic programs, art, Hebrew, the study of Israel, Torah and more? Placed on 56 acres and conveniently located off the 56 freeway in Carmel Valley, the San Diego Jewish Academy offers enrichment and learning for children as young as 6 weeks old through high school. Beit Yeladim means “Children’s House” and it is also the Infant and Toddler Care Program at SDJA. The program began in January 2005, and is a fully licensed infant care center where there is an emphasis on social, emotional, intellectual and physical development for young children. The program serves children aged 6 to 30 weeks old and demonstrates a peaceful, loving environment where cognitive learning is associated with music, laughter and play to create a home away from home. 28
L’CHAIM SAN DIEGO MAGAZINE • JUNE/JULY 2015
Kosher food is served at all grade levels at SDJA, in an environment which supports Kashrut. Dietary restrictions and food allergies are addressed for each child as well. Fully credentialed teachers work with infants in teams and there is always someone to hold, feed, change or play with each child. Songs, nursery rhymes, exercise and strolling around campus create a special environment. At Beit Yeladim, children create art, build with blocks and start learning pre-math and pre-reading in the preschool program. There is a play yard where menschkeleit values of tolerance and respect are supported. The preschool is a microcosm; representative of the whole campus. A low student-toteacher ratio of 3 to 1 ensures that each child is supported along their learning path. Bimonthly, a “Person of the Month” is honored with a specially-decorated chair, cards, posters, art projects and small gifts made by the children at the school. Whether honoring
the cafeteria lady, maintenance man or a staff member, the children look forward to creating a special day for someone. Yael Edelstein is the Director of the Early Childhood Center for SDJA and she will tell you that the school offers a balance between a play-based program and an academic infusion into the curriculum. She explains the process of learning for the young children as “tactile, manipulative and developmental with fine motor skills and gross motor skills integrating for emotional and cognitive development.” SDJA preschool educator Beth Polak was named Teacher of the Year by the San Diego Association for the Education of Young Children for 2015. The AEYC is a professional membership organization committed to promoting optimal life experiences for all children from birth to 8 years. While cognitive learning and readiness are integrated with music and play, there is not a strict regimen of learning, as this is a relaxed
PHOTOS COURTESY SAN DIEGO JEWISH ACADEMY
SAN DIEGO JEWISH ACADEMY’S BEIT YELADIM
PHOTOS COURTESY SDJA
FEATURE STORY
atmosphere where children learn naturally. SDJA offers the gift of life-long learning, service to God through Torah and examples of deeds of loving kindness. Many types of children learn and grow at SDJA, including those with special needs. Depending on the child’s needs, parent meetings are available and parent participation is encouraged. All children are encouraged to participate in helping one another, furthering the concept of Tikun Olam. As babies grow into toddlers, they have the opportunity for an introduction to a more structured day with stimulating activities, group interaction and a chance to explore. There is an open plan classroom format, enabling children to initiate their own activities and take responsibility for them. Daily schedules emphasize smooth transitions between active and quiet play, individual and group activities, mealtimes and sleeping. An integral part of the Judaic studies curriculum at SDJA is the study of the Tanakh, the foundation of Jewish civilization and the source of ethical and ritual Mitzvot.
Jewish holidays are observed and celebrated while being honored through many teaching methods and practices. “We are the preeminent early childhood center in the area, providing a quality program and offering a safe, loving, caring and nurturing community,” Harry Katcher, Director of Communications and Marketing at SDJA says. Katcher believes the teaching staff model behavior illustrating compassion, kindness and fairness to the children on a daily basis. In 2016, SDJA will celebrate its 36th year; a double chai! “SDJA is San Diego’s largest Jewish day school, offering infants to high school seniors a unique learning environment and culminates some of the nation’s highest achieving students. By developing students both scholastically and ethically, our graduates are prepared for the most challenging course of all–life,” Katcher says. At SDJA, teachers and staff understand that each child is unique and deserves individual attention and care. SDJA incorporates best practices from different theories and
philosophies which are child centered, teacher directed, project based and theme based in an emergent curriculum involving collaboration. SDJA is a place where creativity, learning, Judaism and humanity unite to form a complete person. The physical, academic and spiritual process implemented is intended to join children together in an effort to celebrate a better world. To learn more about SDJA and available programs, visit SDJA.com or call (858) 7043700. San Diego Jewish Academy is located at: 11860 Carmel Creek Road, San Diego, CA. 92130. DEBORAH VIETOR IS A FREELANCE WRITER AND POET, RECENTLY PUBLISHED IN THE SAN DIEGO POETRY ANNUAL. FORMERLY THE ART DIRECTOR FOR THE LA JOLLA ART AND WINE FESTIVAL, SHE LIVES IN CARLSBAD WITH HER HUSBAND JON VIETOR, WHO IS AN ABSTRACT MODERN ARTIST.
SDJA’S PRESCHOOL PROGRAM
• Offers five-, three- and two-day weeks for preschoolers • A strong school-to-home connection with families • Six specialties included in the curriculum: music, art, physical education, library, science and gardening
• Seamless transition into Kindergarten and Golda Meir Lower School • Over 30 years of experience in high quality Jewish education • Success in the pluralistic SDJA philosophy WWW.LCHAIMMAGAZINE.COM
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FEATURE STORY l BY DEBORAH VIETOR
AN ERUV FOR CHABAD MAZEL TOV IN UNIVERSITY CITY
Editor’s Note: Chabad of University City recently erected an Eruv in their neighborhood, a boom for many of the areas Jews. Here, we discuss what an Eruv is, and how the new construction will affect the Jewish community nearby. Information regarding the Eruv project was shared with L’Chaim Magazine and appeared in the Chabad UC Newsletter. An Eruv is described as an urban area enclosed by a wire boundary symbolically extending the private domain of Jewish households into public areas. This permits activities within the Eruv which are normally forbidden in public and on the Sabbath. The literal meaning is “blending” or “intermingling,” allowing Jews to carry in public on Shabbat. (Under Jewish law on the Sabbath, it is forbidden to carry anything from a “private” domain into a “public” one or vice versa.) Private and public do not refer to ownership, rather to the nature of the area. For the purposes of these laws, an enclosed area is considered a private domain, whereas an open area is considered public. Whether in ancient or modern times, people want to carry items such as their babies, items supporting their babies or 30
L’CHAIM SAN DIEGO MAGAZINE • JUNE/JULY 2015
prayer books. Whether on the Sabbath or other days throughout the year, an Eruv allows for the carrying of these items and allows individuals with wheelchairs and canes to leave their homes. Many years ago, some communities, neighborhoods and cities were walled. Since the entire area was considered “private,” carrying was allowed. Today, the walling of a city would be totally impractical and local laws would likely prohibit building walls through portions of cities, crossing over or through streets and walkways. A modern answer to this challenge is a technical enclosure surrounding private and public domains, creating a large private domain in which carrying is permitted on the Sabbath. Coloquially this is known as an Eruv. The neighborhood around the Chabad Center in university City is surrounded by steep slopes and creates a 99% natural boundary. Existing fences are currently being utilized and “doorways” are being constructed in the four areas where the natural boundary is interrupted by roads. Poles have been placed on each side of the street and a thin cable connecting the poles has been constructed overhead. The
combination of the “doorways,” steep slopes and some fences completes the technical enclosure. Upon submission, this project was reviewed and fully approved by the City of San Diego and also approved by the University Community Planning Group. Designed to be unobtrusive, the original design did not include the reflective tape attached to the cables. The safety of local birds was raised by the UCPG and a revision to the plans was recommended. Two other Eruvin, (plural for Eruv) exist in San Diego, one is in La Jolla at Adat Yeshurun and the other is at Beth Jacob Synagogue, near the SDSU campus. On a spiritual level, the Eruv unifies the Jewish community and makes it stronger. Young people, families and seniors can walk together to and from the synagogue, creating friendships and bonds. The Chabad Center of UC is excited about the Eruv project as this has been planned for 14 years. Without an Eruv, some Jewish families or individuals may not have been able to attend services in the past and so the Eruv is a welcome change. The synagogue includes Jewish individuals and families of all levels of religious observance and does not require membership to attend services. For more information regarding services and programs for families through Chabad UC, please contact Associate Rabbi Yudell Reiz at (858) 4555-1670 or visit ChabadUC.org. Chabad UC is located at 3813 Governor Drive., San Diego, Ca., 92122. DEBORAH VIETOR IS A FREELANCE WRITER AND POET, RECENTLY PUBLISHED IN THE SAN DIEGO POETRY ANNUAL. FORMERLY THE ART DIRECTOR FOR THE LA JOLLA ART AND WINE FESTIVAL, SHE LIVES IN CARLSBAD WITH HER HUSBAND JON VIETOR, WHO IS AN ABSTRACT MODERN ARTIST.
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FEATURE STORY l BY JEFFREY F. BARKEN l jns.org
DESPITE TRAUMA OF WAR
IDF service a personally fulfilling path for lone soldiers
P
iercing war stories depicting Israel’s 50-day conflict with Hamas last summer continue to surface. Some soldier accounts reveal battlefield heroism, others the tragic loss of life. Then there are stories of those who, unlike the Israeliborn soldiers who are subject to compulsory conscription, volunteered to risk their lives in Gaza. The stories of “lone soldiers”—the term used for soldiers whose parents do not live in Israel—offer a unique perspective on the Jewish state during a time of crisis and on the culture of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF). These accounts also explain why, despite the trauma of war, joining the IDF remains an attractive opportunity that many young people born outside of Israel choose to pursue. The reality of war “hits you immediately through gunfire or a friend covered in blood,” Sgt. Sahar Elbaz, a lone soldier originally from California’s Orange County, says. “It was quite a surprise to me to see how ruthless they (Hamas terrorists) were. They would do anything to capture or kill an Israeli soldier,” Elbaz says, describing the vicious guerrilla tactics and the fierce fighting he encountered when his unit first entered Gaza last summer. During one firefight, Hamas fighters hid in a mosque and ambushed Elbaz’s unit, throwing grenades. In the heat of battle, Elbaz became stranded. Then his weapon malfunctioned. “Five terrorists were sprinting toward me,” he recalls. “I forget the malfunction, I knew how to fix it. The whole engagement lasted only 30 seconds.” Thanks to the expert training he received in the IDF, Elbaz was able to act fast and fend off his attackers. Later, he was awarded the IDF Chief of General Staff’s Medal of Honor for bravery. Last month, he was also honored at the New York City gala of Friends of the Israel Defense Forces (FIDF), a non-profit organization supporting programs that enhance Israeli soldiers’ wellbeing. Fighting in Gaza took a toll on Elbaz, but he is confident that the war was both necessary and well-executed by his superior officers. “I felt safe walking behind them,” he says. “We didn’t knock down buildings and we were very careful, offering protection to civilians.” Elbaz views his experience in Gaza as affirmation that it is worth acting on “a call to the land.” He says that being in Israel “is a true feeling of being home,” and notes how recent terrorist attacks on Jews across the Western world have left him feeling uneasy. The IDF, he says, provides lone soldiers excellent opportunities for professional and personal development. “The morals and values they instill in you are top-notch,” Elbaz says, recounting his transition from civilian to soldier. Enlisting in November 2012, he entered Garin Tzabar, a volunteer program designed to help lone soldiers settle in Israel. “You spend the first three months living on a kibbutz,” says Elbaz. “These are the best months of your life and the people you’re with become your best friends and family.”
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L’CHAIM SAN DIEGO MAGAZINE • JUNE/JULY 2015
PHOTO BY SHAHAR AZRAN
FEATURE STORY
(L-R): Friends of the Israel Defense Forces (FIDF) National Director and CEO Maj. Gen. (Res.) Meir Klifi-Amir, lone soldier Sgt. Sahar Elbaz, and FIDF San Diego Chapter Executive Director Nir BenZvi. Elbaz says of his IDF experience, “The morals and values they instill in you are top-notch.”
When basic training began, Elbaz says he was ready to embrace physical and emotional challenges. He says the cause of defending Israel against clear and pressing threats was inspirational for him. Rona Hadari, a lone soldier from Germany with a German-born mother and Israeli-born father, visited Israel every summer as a child and always identified with the country. Even though enlisting in the IDF wasn’t mandatory for her, Hadari essentially views it as such. “If you call yourself Israeli, part of it is to join the army,” she says When Hadari witnessed rocket attacks against Israel while living in a moshav (village) three miles from the Gaza border, the choice became clear. “They can do pretty good damage with one rocket, but the danger is also emotional,” she says, referencing the traumatic existence shared by the residents of southern Israel, where unprovoked Palestinian rocket attacks are frequent. “Why should we keep living with that threat?” Hadari asks. Both Hadari and Elbaz had a family connection to Israel that prompted their initial curiosity and, later, their commitment to the IDF cause. This was not the case, however, for Max Steinberg, a lone soldier from Los Angeles who was killed during last summer’s war in Gaza. “Max connected [to Israel] from a cultural perspective,” his father, Stuart Steinberg, says At the age of 22, Max visited Israel for the first time along with his brother Jake, and sister, Paige. “When [Max] went to the
[military] cemetery, Mount Herzl, I think that really… impacted him,” Max’s mother, Evelyn, recalls regarding her son’s admiration for Israeli history and the country’s defenders. That was the first time Max openly expressed his desire to return to Israel and join the IDF. Although Max’s decision made them nervous, Stuart and Evelyn were happy to see their son passionately engaged. “Max had a strong-willed dynamic personality,” says his father, remembering the inspired 22-yearold who came back from California and only three months later set out again to enlist in the IDF. “At the time, there was no active war,” Stuart says. “We were certainly concerned, but far more optimistic about the opportunities for growth.” Indeed, Max’s calls home from Israel were demonstrative of his enthusiasm for the work and his lifestyle as a lone soldier. “Evelyn spoke to him two to three times per day, and we had a lot of info,” Stuart says. It seems that nothing was censored during the war last summer. Stuart and Evelyn were aware that Max’s Golani Brigade battalion was on the move toward Gaza. They knew the details. Max had been sick. There was an accident prior to Israel’s ground operation in Gaza in which he suffered slight injuries. But Max wanted to go to Gaza anyway. “Anger would be the wrong emotion to describe what we felt. We were in shock,” Stuart says, recounting how Israeli agents showed up at his home at 7:30 a.m. to inform him of 24-year-old Max’s death in battle. Since then, he says, “Our lives have been
turned upside down. You get immersed in everything.” Stuart and Evelyn made their first trips to Israel under the tragic circumstances. They attended Max’s funeral and later his unveiling. The crowd of more than 30,000 Israelis who joined in mourning Max offered a glimpse into the compassion Israelis have for lone soldiers and the culture of which Max was so enamored. Similarly, the funeral for Nissim Sean Carmeli—a 21-year-old lone soldier from South Padre Island, Texas, who died in the same round of fighting as Max— was attended by 20,000 people. American Associates, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev (AABGU) approached the Steinbergs about establishment of the eventual Max Steinberg Memorial Scholarship Endowment Fund, a program that will commemorate Max’s service by providing full scholarships to BGU for IDF combat reservists in perpetuity, with first preference going to lone soldiers. “Their reach-out was timely and their sincerity on point,” Stuart says of AABGU. The Steinbergs, he says, have always valued education highly, and this was an opportunity to honor their son’s legacy by collaborating with a prominent institution in the country Max loved. A young person’s decision to leave a comfortable “bubble,” as Elbaz describes the American lifestyle, may seem difficult to understand. What’s clear from the accounts of lone soldiers and of their parents, however, is that joining the IDF can be a fulfilling experience that strengthens character and leads to unique career paths. “You do your service, and afterward they take care of you,” Elbaz says. The decorated sergeant continues to serve in the IDF and is increasingly on the public stage, talking about his experience. Hadari, likewise, is now an officer in the IDF’s aerial defense school. Max Steinberg won’t have such an opportunity. Yet Stuart and Evelyn are both reflective as well as energized while they embrace opportunities to honor their son’s legacy. For them, there is some comfort in knowing that before Max died, he had truly found his calling—and that as parents, they were able to encourage his interests. “I [had] put a personal letter [in his suitcase] in which I expressed how proud I was about his journey,” Stuart says, recalling his son’s initial departure for the IDF. After Max’s death, he says, “The biggest gift I received was when I went through his things and found the letter.” WWW.LCHAIMMAGAZINE.COM
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FEATURE STORY l BY EVA TRIEGER
S
itting in J*Company Director, Joey Landwehr’s office is a bit like entering Willy Wonka’s factory. Not only does Landwehr exude that same magical energy, but within the charged atmosphere of this JCC hallway office, anything seems possible. In an interview last month, Landwehr provided me with the history of an upcoming summer series that promises to be a blockbuster. For nearly 22 years, the Artistic Director has wanted to offer something “edgier, meatier and important” to the youth theater during the summer season. A New York trip was planned but didn’t come together as hoped. A passport program seemed provocative and enticing, but still wasn’t quite the ticket. Then, RAW was born. RAW is a Reading Activated Workshop, dreamed up by Landwehr and Jamie Gillchrist, wherein they could keep students involved in theater year-round, explore new or unheard of shows and teach new skills for discovering text in a deeper, more complex way. This program would help to inform the main stage shows and aid in programming for the upcoming season. RAW is billed as “bigger, bolder and faster.” The format is dizzying and sounds positively intoxicating. Read: near beer or Shirley Temple, as we’re still talking about those aged 10 to 18. A table read will precede each of three distinct shows that will allow students to work on character research and text analysis. A dramaturg will be on hand to illustrate connections between the text, actors and audience. Rehearsals will take place Sunday through Wednesday and then
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L’CHAIM SAN DIEGO MAGAZINE • JUNE/JULY 2015
the curtain goes up on Thursday night with a reading! The three sessions run June 14-18, July 5-9 and July 26-30 and the lineup is equally enticing. “Rent” will be read on June 18, and the second show is a mystery, unknown to all until it is presented on July 9. It is so hush-hush that those who auditioned have been sworn to secrecy. The sessions will close with “Phantom of the Opera” on July 30. This unique program is audition-only, and a very selective process culls between 15-20 students for this invaluable experience. As if this weren’t enough, professional musicians Steve Withers and Tim McKnight will support readings, and student stage managers will strut their stuff behind the scenes. Additionally, the main stage productions for the upcoming season have been chosen with great care and much anticipation. “Mary Poppins” will alight the Garfield stage, bumbershoot in hand, October 16. “Seussical Jr.” opens January 15, and Landwehr is excited to bring “Annie 2” to life. The season will close with a beautiful play of imagination and melancholy, “Once on this Island,” based on the novel by Rosa Guy, and set to the music of Stephen Flaherty with lyrics by Lynn Ahrens. Random Acts of Culture, a program inspired by the Artistic Director’s desire to make theater accessible to everyone, is flourishing. Since its inception this incredible concept has brought so many underserved San Diegans to J*Company for the opportunity to experience live theater, many
for the first time in their lives. It not only benefits the children from Friendship Circle, Mama’s Kitchen, Caesar Chavez elementary school, Boys and Girls Clubs, Rady Children’s Hospital, and Being Alive San Diego, but it also enriches and impacts the actors, who meet their delighted audiences post show. Currently, through the generosity of a few amazing donors, J*Company has been able to invite these grateful audiences one night per the run of each show. It is Landwehr’s intent to expand this to two performances for each main stage production. In the future, he would even love to “take his show on the road” and bring it to audiences who cannot travel to the JCC. Landwehr’s commitment is obvious, and he is positively energized by his eternally packed schedule at J*Company. He was recently nominated for the Inaugural Excellence in Theater, a Carnegie Mellon program that, in conjunction with the Tony awards, recognizes “those teachers who use the power of the arts to transform lives.” La Jolla is most fortunate to have this dynamic visionary at the helm of our youth theater, imparting his wisdom and love of acting and humanity to the students in J*Company and to the community as a whole, modeling menschlekiet, one show at a time. Come check out the offerings, and who knows? Just like Veruca Salt, Augustus Gloop, or Charlie himself, you may find yourself holding a golden ticket! Learn more about J*Company at or call (858) 362-1348.
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HEADLINES
NEWS
TO KNOW
NOW WHAT WE’RE TALKING ABOUT
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NORTH COUNTY SENIORS
The North County Jewish Seniors Club meets the third Thursday of each month, 12:30–2:30 p.m. at the Oceanside Senior Center, 455 Country Club Lane, Oceanside. June programs include: Program Speaker Jodi Bernstein, JD, CLPF, Retired Attorney, Seniors Advisor, Healthcare & Elder Advocate, Licensed Fiduciary on Thursday, June 18; Lunch on Thursday, June 25 at 1 p.m.; and Program Speaker Jodi Rudick, Program Coordinator, Jewish Family Services on Thursday, July 16. For membership information, call Josephine Stoff at (760) 295-2564.
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AMCHA CALLS FOR UC CAMPUSES TO RECOGNIZE ANTI-SEMITISM
In May, 57 California rabbis and 104 University of California (UC) faculty wrote to UC President Janet Napolitano and the UC Board of Regents urging them to adopt the U.S. State Department definition of anti-Semitism and take further steps to address the recent rash of antiSemitic incidents at UC campuses. The letters addressed recent antiSemitic incidents at UCLA, UC Davis and UC Santa Cruz. The letter went on to say “We are fully aware that the Israeli-Palestinian conflict has become a major point of contention on UC campuses. Indeed, it is a prime motivator of the anti-Jewish expression that has infected our campuses and led to the verbal and physical intimidation and harassment of many Jewish students, especially those who wish to assert their Jewish identity and/or support for the Jewish state of Israel.” Letter writers urged the president of the UC system to formally adopt the U.S. State Department›s definition of anti-Semitism, which acknowledges that anti-Israel rhetoric can cross the line into antiSemitism, and use the definition to accurately identify and publicly condemn future acts of anti-Jewish bigotry; develop and implement training programs for university staff about the nature and scope of campus anti-Semitism and how to appropriately address the problem; and educate the UC campus communities about the dangers of Jew hatred, how it is being spread, and where history has shown that it can lead.
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JTEEN SOCCER PROGRAM
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CAMP JAYCEE PARTICIPATES IN ISRAEL UP CLOSE DAY CAMP SEMINAR
Selected as one of 10 day camps to participate in a North American program to enhance meaningful Israel connections at JCC Day Camps, the LFJCC’s Camp Jaycee day camp director Sandy Siperstein Rafner recently spent a week in Israel as part of JCC Association’s Israel Up Close seminar, designed to enhance Israel programming in JCC day camps. The seminar included educational touring in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem, and participation in the four-day training led for all of the summer shlichim, the young, post-army Israelis getting ready to spend their summers working as counselors and specialists in JCC camps. “Creating personal connections between campers and staff and Israelis is at the heart of Israel education in our camps,” said Jodi Sperling, JCC Association’s Senior Consultant on Camping. “It all starts with the camp director. When a director has their own connection to Israel, it strengthens the quality and depth of what they can create for their camp community.” In its third year, Israel Up Close has brought 32 JCC day camp directors to Israel, deepening the impact of Israel engagement in JCC day camps across North America. For more information about Camp Jaycee, visit CampJaycee.com
JTEEN organized an afternoon of soccer for 120 children of need in San Ysidro. They learned soccer skills from top coaches, and each received their own new soccer ball at the end, as well as a free lunch. The event was made possible by the Kanarek family, led by Moises Kanarek in honor of his Bar Mitzvah. A big thank you to Moises Kanarek and his family, as well as Elliot Cohen and all of the great volunteers!
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L’CHAIM SAN DIEGO MAGAZINE • JUNE/JULY 2015
BY STEPHANIE LEWIS l HUMOR
mazel &
mishagoss The Happiest Place on Earth - Not For This Mom!
M
y six kids manipulated me into spending Mother’s Day with Mickey Mouse. Because they know the “D” word stresses me out, they gave me a book, “Guide to Seeing Disneyland in a Relaxed Manner” (with a big red bow on it) and then cried until I tried out their “special” gift. I haven’t gone in years but Walt would have a panic attack to see the mob scene on Main Street alone. “It’s a small world after all” has new meaning after I bump into everyone. According to my handy guidebook, I should immediately send my children on The Twilight Tower of Tower (with a sudden drop that ages a person faster than direct UV sunlight) while I wait in another line for some mountain ride. Disneyland likes the mountain theme. There’s Space, Splash, Thunder, and a snowcapped mountain, which has a Bigfoottype creature ferociously roaring as you zip merrily around your bobsled. But you don’t need to know any of this. Just learn a magic word called, “Fastpass.” ME: Hi there. Is this humongous line for Space, Splash or Thunder Mountain? LINE-STANDER: None of those. This line is for Fastpass. ME: Oh! What’s the height requirement to ride Fastpass? LINE-STANDER: Uh, Lady. You better consult your guidebook again. And that’s when it dawns on me! These
people are standing in a zig-zag line all around Fantasyland to acquire an official time-stamped card that entitles them to return to ride a popular, nauseating rollercoaster at a certain time. A line to organize you to stand in another line. It’s brilliant in a way I cannot fathom. You’re getting this, right? Essentially a Fastpass is a reservation for a precise hour to vomit. Walt would turn over in his grave to witness this state of affairs, but first he’ll need to obtain a particular type of “pass” to do so. After my kids find me and scream to stand in line for some crazy river-rapids rafting ride, I approach another man. ME: Excuse me, why do you need a FASTPASS for this? There’s no line. Why don’t you just float down that cold, polluted river right away? Enlighten me. LINE-STANDER: Our family doesn’t like to get wet first thing in the morning. ME: (sniffing, taking a step back) So, none of you have showered yet?? At 6 p.m, I finally get the hang of this Fastpass routine. I’ve put in a long day’s work, my shift is over and I’m ready to punch out. I began to whistle, “Hi-Ho, It’s Home From Work We Go” but my kids won’t hear of leaving because there’s one Fastpass remaining. It can’t be used until 8:45 p.m. Idea time! I sprinkle water from that
disgusting river across my face, fling my hand dramatically to my forehead and find someone dressed like Prince Charming. ME: Pardon me. My children have waited all day to use these Fastpasses that aren’t valid until later tonight. As you can see, I’ve taken sick and wonder if they can ride earlier? PRINCE CHARMING: Your skin does look White as Snow. I’ll make an exception for your “Little Dwarfs” just this once. Go lie down in that glass coffin around the corner. ME: (Dirty Look) Gee, thanks. You’re a Prince. Apparently Grumpy witnesses my charade and is unhappy. Really? Grumpy displeased?! GRUMPY: What kind of parent role models dishonesty? ME: An Evil StepMother! C’mon kids…let’s go before the clock strikes midnight. GRUMPY: Wrong Fairytale. KIDS: (whining) We’re hungry. Me: (cackling maniacally) Ok, hush up and eat your Poison Apples! STEPHANIE D. LEWIS IS A REGULAR CONTRIBUTOR TO THE HUFFINGTON POST. SHE WRITES A POPULAR HUMOR BLOG AT ONCEUPONYOURPRIME.COM. FOLLOW HER ON TWITTER @MISSMENOPAUSE. WWW.LCHAIMMAGAZINE.COM
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INNOVATIVE VETERINARY CENTERS OPEN IN SAN DIEGO Two innovative veterinary centers have opened under one roof in Sorrento Valley. Into the Sunset Pet Transition Center and Willow Center for Integrative Veterinary Care bring much needed resources to the pet community. Dr. Sarit Dhupa, and his wife Vivianne, opened Into the Sunset after the loss of their Labrador ,“Lily”, to Lymphoma. Both are seasoned pet professionals and were left exhausted by the emotional and physical roller coaster of Lily’s disease and death. When faced with the loss of a pet, whether from age, injury or chronic disease the feeling of anticipatory grief is often overwhelming. The grief process begins with the realization that the loss may be sooner rather than later. The pet parent is caught in the relentless cycle of anxiety and caregiving fatigue until natural death or humane euthanasia takes place. Into the Sunset is the first brick-and-mortar center dedicated to all aspects of end-of-life care for a pet and their family. Into the Sunset’s philosophy is to provide a safe haven for those pet parents facing the loss of their pet. Based on a human hospice model, Sunset strives to provide comfort care, rather than curative treatment, while attending to the emotional needs of the family. The spa like center was specifically designed to foster a calm and soothing environment. The design intentionally avoids the clinical feel of a traditional veterinary hospital. Into the Sunset starts each hospice case with a 2 hour preliminary consult. Family dynamics, goals, wishes, disease state and treatment options are discussed while an individualized treatment plan is created for each patient. Follow up appointments are made to monitor progress and make any necessary changes to the hospice plan. In addition to traditional western therapy, holistic modalities such as acupuncture, therapeutic laser, herbal medicine, homeopathy and healing arts are used to maximize quality-of-life. The Willow Center for Integrative Veterinary Care focuses on mobility and pain management. Many pet parents are at a loss when it comes to finding the right devices for pets struggling with mobility due to age, injury or chronic disease. Willow’s Handicapped Pet Specialist will assess the pet, their medical history and provide recommendations regarding the best devices to enhance mobility. Carts, slings, custom orthotics / prosthetics, and specialized bedding are just some of the devices available on site for fitting. Follow up consultations are available to ensure the device is meeting the needs of the pet and their family. Pain management is a critical facet of quality-of-life. Willow’s highly trained integrative veterinarians utilize a combination of therapies to both control and manage acute and chronic pain. Pharmacologic, acupuncture, laser, food and herbal therapies are offered as part of a comprehensive treatment plan. Innovative treatments such a stem cell therapy and intra articular joint injections are also utilized to manage pain.
For further information or to schedule a consultation please call 858-225-4441 or visit our websites: www.intothesunsetpet.com www.willowvetcenter.com 38
L’CHAIM SAN DIEGO MAGAZINE • JUNE/JULY 2015
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