JANUARY 2014 l TEVET•SHEVAT 5774
2014
EDUCATION ISSUE
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CONTENTS
January 2014 Tevet-Shevat 5774
42 62 34 38 4 www.SDJewishJournal.com l January 2014
COVER: Ready, set, learn! The Education issue highlights the best in Jewish learning
FEATURE: Beit Hatfutsot, the Museum of the Jewish People, hosts an exhibition honoring Israeli wedding dress designers
FEATURE: Feast, an exhibit at The New Children’s Museum, invites guests of all ages to play with their food
FEATURE: Seacrest Village’s “Sapphire Jubilee” will honor Sylvia and David Geffen; promising a night of glitz, glamour and good times
64 IN THIS ISSUE: 32 FEATURE:
FIDF annual Gala honors Lone Soldiers
50 EDUCATION:
Jewish day schools see new opportunities in nonJewish students
58 THEATER:
North Coast Rep presents a world premiere by Aaron Posner
Good Eats 64 Food
Around Town 12 Our Town 14 Event Recap 66 What’s Goin’ On 72 Calendar In Every Issue 8 Welcome 18 Parenting 20 Israeli Lifestyle 22 Dating 24 Guest Column 26 Spirituality 30 Israel 68 News 77 Desert Life Tevet•Shevat 5774 l www.SDJewishJournal.com 5
www.sdjewishjournal.com January 2014 • Tevet/Shevat 5774 PUBLISHER • Dr. Mark S. Moss CO-PUBLISHER • Mark Edelstein EDITOR-IN-CHIEF • Alanna Berman ART DIRECTOR • Laurie Miller ASSISTANT EDITOR • Natalie Jacobs ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT EDITOR • Eileen Sondak ADVERTISING DIRECTOR • Mark Edelstein CONTRIBUTING WRITERS Tori Avey, Betsy Baranov, Linda Bennett, Tinamarie Bernard, David Ebenbach, Judith Fein (senior travel correspondent), Michael Fox, Jennifer Garstang, Rabbi Philip Graubart, Miki Lamm, Pat Launer, Curt Leviant, David Ogul, Karen Pearlman, Pamela Price, Heidi Redlitz, Sharon Rosen Leib, Nikki Salvo, Andrea Simantov CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHERS/ARTISTS Vincent Andrunas, Leigh Castelli, Pepe Fainberg, Steve Greenberg, Pat Krause, Laurie Miller, Paul Ross (senior travel photographer), Daniel Sakow, Angela Sissa, Daisy Varley ADVERTISING REPRESENTATIVES Diane Benaroya (Senior Account Executive), Sam Epstein (Account Executive), Alan Moss (Palm Springs) SAN DIEGO JEWISH JOURNAL (858) 638-9818 • fax: (858) 638-9801 5665 Oberlin Drive, Suite 204 • San Diego, CA 92121 EDITORIAL: editor@sdjewishjournal.com ADVERTISING: sales@sdjewishjournal.com CIRCULATION & SUBSCRIPTIONS: publisher@sdjewishjournal.com ART DEPARTMENT: art@sdjewishjournal.com LISTINGS & CALENDAR: calendar@sdjewishjournal.com SDJJ is published monthly by San Diego Jewish Journal, LLC. Subscription rate is $24 for one year (12 issues). Send subscription requests to SDJJ, 5665 Oberlin Drive, Suite 204, San Diego, CA 92121. The San Diego Jewish Journal is a free and open forum for the expression of opinions. The opinions expressed herein are solely the opinion of the author and in no way reflect the opinions of the publishers, staff or advertisers. The San Diego Jewish Journal is not responsible for the accuracy of any and all information within advertisements. The San Diego Jewish Journal reserves the right to edit all submitted materials, including press releases, letters to the editor, articles and calendar listings for brevity and clarity. The Journal is not legally responsible for the accuracy of calendar or directory listings, nor is it responsible for possible postponements, cancellations or changes in venue. Manuscripts, letters, documents and photographs sent to the Journal become the physical property of the publication, which is not responsible for the return or loss of such material. All contents ©2014 by San Diego Jewish Journal. The San Diego Jewish Journal is a member of the American Jewish Press Association and the Jewish Telegraphic Agency.
#SDJewishJournal 6 www.SDJewishJournal.com l January 2014
SanDiegoJewishJournal
WELCOME by Alanna Berman Editor of the San Diego Jewish Journal editor@sdjewishjournal.com
Wintertime Woes
L
ike any true California girl, I am slightly allergic to the colder months. The minute the thermostat drops below 60 degrees, I run for cover – preferably of the down variety. I don’t know why the concept of “cold” seems so relative; I’ve heard that the warm weather makes our blood thinner and therefore makes it harder to keep warm, but who cares about the science behind it when I feel as if I am going to turn into a popsicle? I’ll take the sunshine over that any day. So when I traveled to the Midwest to see my family last month, I was in for a rude awakening. I flew directly into a winter storm, after nearly eight inches of snow had fallen on my family home in the nights before. The “freezing” temperatures back in San Diego suddenly felt like nothing – and wintertime in California is nothing. Yes, we have close to freezing nights, and it rains sometimes for days at a time, but we don’t know winter like the Midwest knows winter. The last time I was at my mother’s house during a snowstorm, I brought inappropriate boots for the snow (skinny heels, even when attached to a pair of warmish boots, are not good). I slipped on some ice leading up to the front door and cracked a rib. Oh – and – upon my return to San Diego, had one of the worst colds of my life. So this time, I was determined to outsmart the weather, wear the appropriate clothing, and stay warm and healthy. It was a relatively smooth trip, too. My brother graduated from college as expected, there was snow and there was ice and there was cold, but I was warm! (Thank you, down jacket borrowed from my sister!) The tough part, as always, was leaving. I’ve lived more than 2,000 miles away from my mother and younger siblings for more than 10 years, which makes it oh so nice to go for a visit. But each time I pack up to go back to San Diego, it gets a little harder. I so wish I could just “swing by
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I’ve lived more than 2,000 miles away from my mother and younger siblings for more than 10 years, which makes it oh so nice to go for a visit. But each time I pack up to go back to San Diego, it gets a little harder. mom’s after work” like my sister does, or go out on the weekends with my brother, but all these outings are squeezed tightly into a couple of days, twice a year – and it makes for a very fun, if exhausting, trip. It’s a tough thing to be so far from my family, but I have learned to adjust, and living in San Diego isn’t so bad. (Hello, beach weather 80 percent of the year!) Plus, living in a place where other people like to vacation makes it easy to host out-of-town guests when I’m feeling a little homesick. It’s a good thing that some of San Diego’s most touristy spots are also some of my personal favorites. I just can’t get enough of Balboa Park, Old Town or Coronado Island, and in the new year, I hope to visit all three more often. I’m a little behind in making my list of New Year’s resolutions, but I think that “visit my family more” is tied with “explore San Diego.” In between, there are the usual resolutions – kicked into high gear since I am getting married later this year – and although I’ve never been a “resolution” type of person, it can’t hurt to write down all the things I wish for in the coming year. At the very least, this time next year I’ll have a laugh at how overly ambitious I was, right? A
My resolution list includes: more traveling
less whining (I’ll try!) finally tackling the garden I’ve tried to grow so many times
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Tevet•Shevat 5774 l www.SDJewishJournal.com 11
our
TOWN An Afternoon in Style...
On Nov. 25, 2013, San Diego native Ari Seth Cohen, world renowned photographer of stylish senior women, presented his book “Advanced Style” in Coronado during a book signing at d Forsythe Designs. He spoke to a group of fans who traveled from as far away as Los Angeles and Mexico, including Richelle Zousner, Cindy Greenwalt, Lauren Greenwalt, Julie Berner, Marlene Recht, Susan Sincoff and proud parents Jack and Frances Cohen. Ari is a videographer, photographer and publisher. He now resides in New York City, where he writes a blog with more than 33,000 followers! He drew cute pictures and fun messages in each person’s book, while his brother, Mikey Adam Cohen, photographed the event.
BY LINDA BENNETT AND BETSY BARANOV BETSY1945@COX.NET l PHOTOS BY MIKEY ADAM COHEN
Birthdays...
Happy 81st birthday to Norman Troyan! Happy 57th anniversary to Gerald and Judy Handler! Happy 85th birthday to Rocky Reichbart! Happy 88th birthday to Evelyn Brent! Pepe Kahn celebrated her 70th birthday recently with a fun party at her Del Cerro home with a beautiful view of the city. The fabulous band, Will Donato and the Art of Sax of Palm Desert entertained with music and songs. It was very impressive!
Anniversaries...
Happy 55th anniversary to Karl and Sarah Ticho!
Events...
On Oct. 23, 2013, a truly inspiring movie was screened at the JCC entitled “50 Children: The Rescue Mission of Mr. and Mrs. Kraus.” In the audience were Sol and Lauren Lizerbram, Barbara Parker Ratner and Norman Parker, Maxine and Arthur Geller, Linda and Joe Satz, Yvonne Lazar, Elfie and Ed Schloss, Hannah Marks, Bruce Abrams, Lenny and Marcia Fram, Lou and Estelle Dunst, and Jillian and Phillip Berger. Also at the JCC on Nov. 21, the packed Garfield Theatre was full of guests excited to see the movie “Marvin Hamlisch: What He Did for Love”! Everyone got their Hamlisch fix with fantastic, melodic and moving music. Transfixed were Laurie Finkel, Linda and Gary Keslik, Arlene Mink, Rose Okmin, Joan and Irwin Jacobs, Jerri-Ann Jacobs, Gordon and Diane Kane, and many more. 12 www.SDJewishJournal.com l January 2014
Top: Dolores Forsythe and Ari Seth Cohen. Clockwise from middle: Fran Manzano, Mikey Adam Cohen and Frances Cohen; Debra Rapoport and Dolores Forsythe; and Fran Manzano.
the SCENE BY EILEEN SONDAK l NSONDAK@GMAIL.COM PHOTOS BY VINCENT ANDRUNAS
Salvation Army Women of Dedication Tea The Salvation Army’s Women’s Auxiliary held its Women of Dedication Presentation Tea recently at the lovely La Jolla home of Terry Cooper. The class of 2014 included 14 amazing women who personify dedication and community service. Among them were Jane Jaffe, Carol Katz, Cynthia Kronemyer and Gail Vetter Levin. The selection process to be included in this elite group of women is rigorous, and each year the organization manages to find the cream of the crop for the prestigious event. Kudos to the Presentation Tea committee for pulling off the successful event. Even the weather cooperated for the outdoor event. It was sunny and beautiful! The 2014 class will be honored during the Women of Dedication Luncheon, “Art of the Heart,” at the Sheraton Hotel and Marina on April 9. A major fundraiser for the organization, last year more than $200,000 was raised to support Salvation Army programs.
Top: Julie Jones and Sandra Schafer. Clockwise from right: Cynthia Kronemyer, Louarn Sorkin, and Jane Jaffe; Jan Reital, Terry Cooper and Kristi Pieper; Charlotte Rand, Julie Sarno, Vicki Eddy, Susan McClellan and Maryl Weightman; and Carol Katz, Nanci Geller and Sue Kalish.
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Tevet•Shevat 5774 l www.SDJewishJournal.com 15
be SEEN BY MIKI LAMM l MIKISDJJ@GMAIL.COM PHOTOS BY VINCENT ANDRUNAS
Just Duet: The Ninth Night of Hanukkah
On Dec. 5, 2013, the day after Hanukkah festivities were over, Jewish Federation’s Young Adult Division held “Just Duet: The Ninth Night of Hanukkah” at Shout House in the Gaslamp District. More than 125 guests celebrated with a festive evening of music, improvisation and laughter at the rock ‘n’ roll dueling piano bar. Between song numbers, attendees swapped holiday stories with friends and played a game of dreidel or two. “YAD has taken Hanukkah to a whole new level,” YAD Board President, Todd Kirschen, said at the event, with revelers celebrating the “ninth night of Hanukkah” in style. If you are new to San Diego or have not yet been involved with YAD, contact the NextGen team at yad@jewishfederationsandiego.org.
Top: Jesse Williams and Shana Dreyfuss. Clockwise from top right: Rayna Karoll and Zach Warburg; Russell Gallen, Jeff and Julie Rubtchinsky, and Brooke Detmner; Lior Nadar, Jasmin Cohen Tarich, Nicsan Stinka, and Shlomic and Ben Barth; and Martha and Zubi Hoffman.
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parenting
MUSINGS FROM MAMA by Sharon Rosen Leib srleib@roadrunner.com
The Party Line on Pot
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hat are thinking parents supposed to tell their teens about pot these days? How can we best warn our kids about the potentially dangerous effects of pot when a happy-golucky tolerance for its widespread use is growing and medicinal marijuana is readily accessible? It appears I’m not the only one pondering this conundrum. At a recent high school parent information night on teens and marijuana, ominously titled “The Truth About Weed,” the room was packed to standingroom-only capacity. The speakers included a program manager for the San Diego County Marijuana Prevention Initiative and a UC San Diego neuroscience professor. Their mission was to shake us out of our denial/ ambivalence/paralysis and give us the knowledge and conviction to tell our kids that pot is a potentially harmful psychoactive drug. The County’s prevention expert started off by informing us that marijuana’s potency has increased six-fold since 1978, when many of us parents were teenagers. Just a few puffs can affect brain function and reaction time. Driving while intoxicated can be fatal, whether the intoxicant is alcohol or pot. A recent survey found many teens believe pot doesn’t affect their driving. We’ve got to bust that myth. The UCSD neuroscientist scared us with new research finding a significant link between marijuana use during the teen years and the onset of schizophrenia. Those who start using marijuana heavily at a young age run the greatest risk. Marijuana abuse can cause schizophrenia or other psychotic disorders in people with a predisposition for developing them. One of the handouts described “a cliff of sanity” with some young people being closer to the edge (probably due to hereditary genetics). Users in their teens and early 20s run the risk of falling over the edge “into the chasm of 18 www.SDJewishJournal.com l January 2014
insanity.” Since my family’s genetic makeup has us teetering at cliff ’s edge to begin with, smoking a lot of pot doesn’t seem like a good mental health decision for my kids. So how to discuss the perils of pot without sounding preachy, over-protective or neurotically anxious? I like using personal cautionary tales to inform my kids’ choices. I tried pot twice. The first time, as a teenager, I pulled a Bill Clinton and fake inhaled. The second time, I was in my early 20s with a small group of college friends. One of the guys passed me a joint. I inhaled a few puffs, then consumed an entire bag of Lays potato chips and fell asleep on the floor. When I woke up 30 minutes later, still clutching the empty Lays bag, everyone laughed. I blushed. I’ve told my daughters this story at least 30 times. Factoring in the new pot math and multiplying everything by six, I would’ve eaten six bags of chips and slept for three hours – not exactly life-of-theparty stuff. I know kids experiment (including my own). Yet they need to be reminded that in addition to being illegal in California, pot has its hazards. It impairs judgment, coordination, decision-making, ability to focus, etc. So please tell your kids not to drive under the influence of or abuse marijuana. It’s a mindaltering substance and their pre-frontal cortexes are still developing. We need to protect our children’s precious, beautiful minds! A
DID YOU KNOW?
In an Oct. 14 KPBS debate, San Diego’s Mayoral candidates talked about their very different stances on the medical marijuana issue – with Kevin Faulconer against its use and David Alvarez for it.
Tevet•Shevat 5774 l www.SDJewishJournal.com 19
israeli lifestyle
LIVING ON THE FRONT PAGE by Andrea Simantov
andreasimantov@gmail.com
No, We Can’t
T
hey said it would happen sooner or later but it is a crummy thing to expect so I just didn’t allow myself to go there. But, when a group of teenage boys from the Arab village next door threw a large rock at a passing car – down at the end of my street – and dented the skull of two year-old Avigail Ben Zion, a frenzied hew and cry erupted from this ordinarily quiet neighborhood where bake sales and folk-dancing evenings are the carte du jour. Our community Facebook page was immediately peppered with calls for volunteer sentries and greater police visibility. Jerusalem mayor Nir Barkat was excoriated in the media as having little time or interest in Jerusalem’s perimeter neighborhoods and the sabbath table buzzed with uncertainty as folks considered a possible drop in the price of real estate. Suddenly the funny observations of being a Jewish minority in a supposedly Jewish neighborhood weren’t all that humorous. I’d never before blinked while buying groceries or waiting for a flu shot, even though I was frequently the only MOT in sight; because never before did the other faces in the waiting room or on the check-out line look so suspicious. When my husband came home one night, he commented that more and more men in shul were wearing their licensed guns; he was thinking of taking his out of the safe and
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making it ready, just as a precaution (say, what!?). It should be mentioned that Secretary of State John Kerry does not live in my neighborhood and that is why I will ignore him when he affectedly warns me, my husband, children and neighbors that we must further kowtow in order to avoid a third Intifada. It behooves me to question whether or not Arabs are grossly offended by this warning! And are we again being told to be good-gooder-goodest Jews and stop agitating our enemies when we say, “Enough.” Enough prisoner releases. Enough land-for-nothing. Enough free education and taxdeferment and medical services while we cower within bullet-proof buses and upgrade our gas masks. Fear is exhausting and there are too many things to accomplish during the day, week, month and life I live for me to waste time being frightened. Groups of rowdy boys have been reported on the local promenade, frightening women and couples and engaging in petty crime and the traffic bypasses the scene of the aforementioned rock-throwing incident; lest someone else’s loved-one become the next victim. That being said, how can I explain that I continue to defiantly walk the dog at all hours of the evening, refusing to hide behind a closed door in a neighborhood that I call mine? Or that I adamantly refuse to take an inconvenient detour to avoid the possibility of nationalistic hoodlums bullying me into behaving as though this neighborhood, city and country is not mine? Perhaps “Yes, We Can” has become the feel-good expression of the decade. Not so humbly, however, I’d like to employ some literary license and alter the oh-so-pat mantra to one that is more befitting of a people besieged: “No, We Can’t .” A
FYI:
Read what the Israel Consul General has to say about the state of Israel affairs on page 30.
Tevet•Shevat 5774 l www.SDJewishJournal.com 21
dating
PLAYING WITH MATCHES by Jennifer Garstrang jenscy@gmail.com
T
he secular New Year has arrived, and with it come New Year’s Resolutions. That’s right! ‘Tis the time of year to pull out our pens and paper (or computer, tablet, smart-phone, etc.), and jot down a list of all the things we want to do better, then promptly forget about it until next year. Interestingly, our own Jewish New Year also contains an element of mental list-making, with one key difference. Rather than making a list of what we want to do better, we are making a list of the “sins” we commit to throwing away. This contrast got me thinking about another kind of list that we often make: the list of everything we want and don’t want in a romantic partner. And so, as we reflect this month on all of our personal goals, it’s also a good time to reflect on that other list. Which items on that list should we keep, and which should we throw away? When it comes to dating, it can certainly be helpful to have an idea of what you want. That’s why we make these lists in the first place. When a new relationship begins to get serious, it is important for both parties to be on the same page about the big areas like religion, kids, and longterm life goals. That said, if you get too detailed, and hold too tightly to the exact list of attributes for the perfect partner, you can run into a number of problems. For one thing, fantasies seldom actually work in real life. When our ideals come face to face with real-world complications, they often turn out to be not so ideal. For instance, as an artist, I was very attracted to photographers. I wanted someone
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who saw the world through an artistic lens (Get it? Photographer? Lens?) But after dating a couple photographers, I came to realize that I wasn’t just dating the man; I was dating his camera. A camera which came with us on hikes, romantic boat rides, and sometimes even dinner dates. Now, I’m sure there are many people out there for whom this would not be a problem, but it drove me absolutely up the wall. Another problem with clinging too closely to your list is that you run the risk of missing out on a great relationship with someone who doesn’t quite fit the list. For instance, I never thought I’d date someone who loved video and computer games. Fortunately, I was able to set that prejudice aside. I’m now dating a sweet, intelligent, and fun man, with whom I am extremely compatible. He also happens to be a highly-ranked competitive player of “Starcraft” (which only rarely makes an appearance on our hikes, boat rides, and dinners). So, how can you determine which items should be kept on your list, and which should be thrown into the water? Well, here’s a start: ask yourself why you have a certain item on your list. For example, when you put down that you want someone who shares a particular hobby, is the hobby itself what is important, or is it more about compatibility and sharing great conversations? By looking at the reasons behind the details, you can get at the broad strokes that are truly important to you. A
DID YOU KNOW?
In an article for the Wall Street Journal, author Jonah Lehrer says that bad habits are best broken one at a time.
FROM “BLAME IT ON THE BRAIN”PUBLISHED DEC. 26, 2009.
Resolving our Romantic Resolutions
Tevet•Shevat 5774 l www.SDJewishJournal.com 23
guest column
GOD TALK
by Rabbi Philip Graubart rabbi@cbe.org
You and I
R
ecently, an Israeli icon passed away – the singer Arik Einstein. Several eulogies referred to him as Israel’s Frank Sinatra, but really he was Frank Sinatra, Elvis Presley, and Bruce Springsteen rolled into one – a sweet, sensitive singer, but also the godfather and then spiritual leader of Israeli rock ‘n roll, and as Israeli as falafel and hummus. For American Jews, his most famous song was probably Ani V’atah (You and I), a song many of us memorized at Jewish camps. I’ll confess that as a know-it-all, hyper-ironic, too-cool 13 year-old, I mocked the idealistic lyrics: “You and I will change the world.” But reflecting on the song now as a very uncool, middle-aged rabbi, I see something very Israeli and inspiring in the song, not only in the aspiration to “change the world” but in the self-confidence, the idea that the world can be changed, that problems can be solved, that individuals can make a difference. Ari Shavit, in his brilliant recent book “My Promised Land,” suggests that it was this selfconfident, restless “can do” spirit that led to Zionism’s immense successes in the years of defending Israel against assault while at the same time creating a vital, viable nation-state. Even today, he characterizes Israel as a place that “has to offer the intensity of life on the edge. The adrenaline rush of living dangerously, living lustfully, living to the extreme ... [with] people that have come from death and were surrounded by death but who nevertheless put up a spectacular spectacle of life.” Shavit points out that these restless energies are no longer engaged in nation building; hence the paralysis in the peace process, and the succession of dysfunctional governments. But they’ve migrated to other sectors, generating “Start Up Nation;” a nimble and ingenious military; and a dizzying, but still profound creative arts culture. Arik Einstein’s simple lyrics urging action, change, innovation, and problem-solving still energize the country, just in places outside of government.
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Here in America, we are still reeling from the Pew Survey, not sure what all the numbers mean, fairly certain that it’s not good news, but unsure about what, if anything, to do. The survey is a challenge, or, we might say, a problem. But, as Arik Einstein and Ari Shavit remind us, for Jews, problems are things that can be solved, opportunities for creative thinking, innovation and new pathways. Right before the Joseph story, the Torah tells us Vayeshev Ya’akov – “Jacob settled down.” Rashi offers my all-time favorite comment: “Jacob wanted to settle down in serenity, so the problem (Hebrew: rogez) of Joseph jumped at him. God says, ‘The righteous want to settle down in serenity. The serenity of the next world isn’t enough for them, they want serenity in this world, also?’” The Hebrew word I render here as “problem” is rogez. But it’s not an easy word to translate. We could call it a “perturbation,” or a “challenge,” a “task.” For Rashi, Jews don’t retire. There’s always another challenge, a problem to be solved. But this is anything but burdensome. After all, there’s no real life without challenges, no meaning without new causes. You want serenity – the grave offers it in spades. The Pew numbers are our rogez, our challenge. Many of the post-Pew articles I’ve read cast blame in all sorts of directions, but the one sin I feel comfortable laying on all of us – myself included – is complacency. We thought we had it made; we’d created the perfect Diaspora. We sought serenity, and convinced ourselves we’d achieved it. But that’s over, and the rogez is here; it’s jumping on us. Perhaps, like Arik Einstein, I’m being naively optimistic, but I’m confident we’re up to the challenge. It will take reinventions, hard work, innovations, creativity, which of course means risk and failure. But the spirit that built Israel is a Jewish spirit. The challenge now is to open our hearts to that spirit, plow forward, and change the world. You and I. A
DID YOU KNOW? The New York Times reported that 10,000 people poured into Rabin Square in Tel Aviv for Arik Einstein’s wake.
Tevet•Shevat 5774 l www.SDJewishJournal.com 25
spirituality
THE ARTIST’S TORAH by David Ebenbach ebenbach@netzero.com
Who is Wise?
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ho is wise? asks our ancient text, Pirkei Avot. The answer: The one who learns from every person. Learning from everyone, and not just from obvious authorities and teachers, takes humility. On this front, we’ve got Moses for a model. As the Torah emphasizes later on (Numbers 12:3), Moses was the most humble person on earth, but we’ve already seen good evidence of that; consider all his self-doubt when God selected him as a leader to stand up against Pharaoh (Exodus, chapters 3 and 4). In this month’s portions we begin to see just how wise that humility makes him. Just to make sure the point gets driven home, though, these pages also give us a contrast: First, Pharaoh, who refuses to learn from anyone or anything. That includes his courtiers, who, completely sick of plagues after the eighth one, urge him to let the Israelites go before the locusts show up next (10:7). He ultimately rejects their advice and also fails to learn from his own mistakes; the plagues come every time he turns Moses away, but still he won’t bend. Even the trauma of losing his own son to the final plague has little effect, as Pharaoh lets the Israelites go but then pursues them (futilely) with an army to destroy them. Granted, in many of these instances, Pharaoh’s stiff-heartedness is said to be caused by God, but that only happens after a number of instances when, according to the text, he hardens his own heart. What I think that teaches us is that stubbornness and arrogance are initially something we choose (unwisely), but eventually become habits whose control is out of our hands. Luckily, Moses doesn’t fall prey to those habits. He spends most of his life learning, mainly from God, who teaches him how to be a leader and how to live a holy life, lessons he then passes on to the Israelites. But he doesn’t only learn from 26 www.SDJewishJournal.com l January 2014
“When the Israelites are trapped against the Sea of Reeds with the Egyptian army in pursuit, the people cry out to Moses, who then turns to God for help; and God rebuffs him, reminding him to just listen to the people and take action on their behalf.” God. When Moses’ father-in-law Yitro visits, Yitro sees how difficult a time it is, trying to act as judge and teacher for all the Israelites, so he teaches his son-in-law to delegate authority. As a result of the lesson, Moses sets up a system where he only resolves major disputes and leaves the rest to capable subordinates. More importantly, Moses learns from the people in his care. When the Israelites are trapped against the Sea of Reeds with the Egyptian army in pursuit, the people cry out to Moses, who then turns to God for help; and God rebuffs him, reminding him to just listen to the people and take action on their behalf. A famous commentary on this section of the Torah says that the sea is only split once one lone man, Nachshon, wades in. Moses doesn’t pause to say, “Who does this guy think he is?” and turn away to consult some higher authority. Instead he and the others learn from Nachshon’s example, follow him in, and the sea parts. Who is wise? For the answer, look to Pharaoh, who learns from no one and ends up at the bottom of the sea; and Moses, who learns from everyone and ends up safely, even triumphantly, on the other side. A
This
month’s Torah portions
Jan. 4: Bo (Exodus 10:1-13:16) Jan. 10: Beshalach (Exodus 13:17-17:16) Jan. 17: Yitro (Exodus 18:1-20:23) Jan. 24: Mishpatim (Exodus 21:1-24:18)
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I
FROM POLITICAL THREATS TO ECONOMIC POSSIBILITIES
israel
By Natalie Jacobs
Israel Consul General David Siegel talks about all things Israel
can do more, so that our sense of urgency may not be the same as America’s sense of urgency and that’s natural. The art of diplomacy is to really sit down and figure out what we need to do to reach our shared goal, which is to stop Iran from becoming a nuclear power. Israel’s stance on this issue is very clear: Iran should be fully dismantled from its military nuclear capability. We’ll be engaging the U.S. very extensively in this in the coming weeks. We have a big delegation coming [to the U.S.], of experts on national security issues that will be engaging our counterparts in the decision. Our intention is to stop the erosion of the sanctions on the one hand, which is happening as we speak, and on the other hand to make sure that we can reach an agreement about where this needs to lead.
PHOTO BY MICHAEL KOVAC
Consul General Siegel speaks at a community event with Israeli Presdient Shimon Peres in March, 2012.
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avid Siegel became Consul General of Israel in Los Angeles in August, 2011. Since then, he has been leading efforts to strengthen American community relationships with Israel culturally, economically and politically. He was in town for the Union for Reform Judaism’s Biennial last month, so we sat down with him to get an update on the Iran nuclear threat and the Consulate’s efforts to create strong connections to Israel both inside the Jewish community and beyond it. (The following interview has been edited for length.) San Diego Jewish Journal: What is the main thing that we should know about the Iran nuclear
30 www.SDJewishJournal.com l January 2014
program and the status of relations between Israel and the United States right now? Consul General David Siegel: We are deeply concerned about the Iran nuclear threat. Iran is a country unlike other countries that calls for Israel’s destruction. The U.S. recognizes that concern, recognizes that it’s an existential threat to the State of Israel. The state of U.S./Israel relations – you hear a lot about it these days, but the relationship is very strong. The cooperation is stronger than it’s ever been before on military issues, security issues, intelligence issues. It doesn’t mean that we don’t have disagreements, which all allies have. Israel’s capabilities are different than the U.S., the U.S.
SDJJ: How did U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry’s recent trip to Israel help to assuage any concerns about where the U.S. stands in regards to Iran? CGS: We’ve expressed our concerns publicly and now we’ll be sitting down and rolling up our sleeves and seeing what can be done to address our concerns. Again, Iran is an existential threat to Israel. We cannot tolerate that kind of threat and we’re on the record saying that our preference is to resolve this diplomatically, politically, economically. But there should be no mistaking our determination to protect Israel. We have a Jewish state in order to protect it, and Iran is a major threat to that. Again, we want to find ways to resolve this diplomatically, but it needs to be a very robust formula that rolls this back and dismantles it. SDJJ: How do you do that? CGS: Well, the record, I think, is very clear: Iran responds to pressure. When the pressure was significant, economically, they came to the negotiating table. What we’re concerned about is that any concessions in terms of the sanctions will lead to a snowball effect where global expectations are that you can start doing business again in Iran and Iran will be less under pressure
I
PHOTO COURTESY ISRAEL CONSULATE GENERAL IN LOS ANGELES
israel
Consul General Siegel at AIDS Walk Los Angeless, 2013. and therefore with less of an incentive to end this program. SDJJ: Switching gears, what does the Consulate do to promote a strong relationship between Israel and California? CGS: Well, the Consulate covers seven states in the Southwest. We spend a lot of efforts in Southern California. We work with all our constituencies which are the Jewish community, but also Latino American communities, African American communities; the LDS Church [Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints] which is very significant in Utah and Southern California; the political establishment. I’ve already been fortunate enough to accompany two governors to Israel, from Nevada and from Utah. So that means engaging the business communities in both states; the academic communities, the political establishment, sharing
Israel with them, explaining why it’s in their interest to partner with Israel. Israel today is widely recognized as second to California in terms of being a global innovation hub, so that Israel and Southern California have obvious synergies. There’s always more that can be done. We encourage as much business exchanges as we can. We also believe very strongly that the future of this country and the future of the U.S./Israel relationship also depends on our ability to solidify understanding and support in the Jewish community but also work beyond our community, in other communities. We also believe that there’s huge commonalities here between Latinos who share the same values that we do – family, faith, education, ethnicity – that’s very close to what we care about so that there’s much to do in order to build these bridges with all these communities.
SDJJ: What are some long-term goals of the Consulate in terms of those relationships? CGS: First and foremost, it’s the Jewish community. We believe very much in Jewish peoplehood. We believe very much in the future of the Jewish people and that the answer to the future of the Jewish people depends on our relationship with overseas communities, mainly the U.S. Second is to reach out to other communities that are becoming a significant part of this country’s future. There are already 55 million Latino Americans that are becoming significant politically and economically. And as I said, our natural commonality is so obvious but there’s not enough being done to share that message in both our communities and we need to do more to be more relevant for them and to be sure that they are also focused on our concerns as they build themselves in this country. A Tevet•Shevat 5774 l www.SDJewishJournal.com 31
FEATURE STORY
NEVER ALONE
FIDF Celebrates Lone Soldiers at Annual Gala By Alanna Berman
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he San Diego chapter of the Friends of the Israel Defense Forces will host a Gala event this month honoring the organization’s work, including programming for lone soldiers. Israel’s Lone Soldiers are those whose family’s live abroad, and serve the State of Israel far from the comforts of home. Many of these soldiers chose to serve in combat positions, giving of themselves to keep Israel safe. In Israel and all over the 32 www.SDJewishJournal.com l January 2014
PHOTOS COURTESY FIDF-SAN DIEGO
Top: FIDF Lone Soldier Noah Rosen and his grandfather, Dr. Stan Revich, in Israel. Bottom: Noah suprises his mother, Carol Jensen, at FIDF’s Gala in October, 2013.
world, the FIDF ensures these soldiers’ safety and comfort while they ensure the stability of the Jewish homeland. Thanks to generous support to FIDF, lone soldiers serving in the IDF receive care packages, access to quality recreational facilities and support in arranging travel to see their families on a break from army service. Many volunteers make the work of the FIDF possible each year, and Carol Jensen
FEATURE STORY
is one such volunteer with the San Diego chapter of FIDF. Her son, Noah Rosen, is a lone soldier. “Noah went on Birthright after finishing at the University of Oregon, and when he came home from the trip, he told us that he was going to join the IDF,” Jensen says. “We were in shock; it wasn’t something that had even crossed our minds, and when we asked him why, he said, with such empowerment and conviction, that ‘every young Jewish man who can serve, should serve,’ and there’s no reason why he shouldn’t and that Israel was his home too, and it was his job to defend Israel. “After getting over the initial shock, I realized it was my job to ask how I could help.” Jensen, who only learned about FIDF when she left her son in Israel to begin army training, turned to the local chapter to see what she could do to help. She has been a volunteer at FIDF San Diego for almost a year. “It’s not easy to be a mother with a child in the IDF, but I am not alone, and thankfully, I have gotten to speak with other mothers in Israel and in the U.S. about their experiences, and the FIDF is only a short phone call away,” she says. “There is an extraordinary support system for all lone soldiers in Israel, run by a social worker, who communicates with the lone soldiers in any way that they can, but here, in San Diego, I have found great support in the FIDF and the people working in the office in San Diego, including some really great advice.” Jensen assisted the FIDF in organizing their most recent event, “Puttin’ on the Ritz,” a roaring ‘20s themed party to benefit IDF soldiers, held in October. She made phone calls to donors, vendors and FIDF staff to ensure that the evening was a success, and that the valuable work the organization does to assist soldiers like Noah would go on. “It’s been an amazing experience for me to be involved with a community of families that give so much and understanding the importance of that is overwhelming in a lot of ways. There are a lot of amazing things that [FIDF does] for lone soldiers, and in my volunteer work with the San Diego chapter, I am really happy to do whatever I can to support the amazing organization.” During the event, she was surprised and shocked to see that FIDF had flown Noah home for a few days to surprise her. “It was a very emotional moment to see him there,” she recalls. “At that point, we had had a really long break and it had been six months since I had seen him in Israel last. What amazed me, with all the involvement that I have in the organization, is that no one breathed a word of Noah’s arrival!” This month, the San Diego chapter hopes to surprise a few more families when they celebrate downtown for their 4th annual Gala event. The lone soldier program will of course be one of the many highlights of the evening, with member of the IDF and supporters of FIDF in attendance together. Alana Gaffen, a lone soldier currently serving in the IDF, hopes to return for the Gala if she can. Gaffen, who is a member of the Karakal Unit, a
combat unit where men and women serve side by side, says she remembers learning of the FIDF on her enlistment day. “Even from the first moment that I drafted; on the first day that I went to get my paperwork, before I even got my uniform, there was an FIDF booth there,” she says. “It was the first night of Hanukkah, and there were people at the FIDF table handing out sufganiyot while we were picking up our paperwork. Since then, I have seen the FIDF people at every event that we have for lone soldiers in Israel, and they are always supporting us.” Gaffen, whose family moved back to San Diego in April 2013, after living in a suburb of Kansas City, Mo., for more than 10 years, was in town last month for the first time since enlisting in December 2012. “Since I have been back in San Diego, I have been learning more about the FIDF, especially since my parents have begun to get involved in the San Diego chapter,” Gaffen says. She plans to attend college after her army service, hopefully with the help of another FIDF program, Impact!, which subsidizes the cost of a university education for IDF soldiers upon their release from duty. Jensen says her son, Noah, hopes to do the same thing after his army service ends this year. And after supporting her son’s service in the IDF by volunteering with the local chapter of the FIDF, she says the changes in her son and in her family are extremely positive. “Noah is very strong, and I have begun to recognize strength in him that I didn’t know was there, and in a lot of ways, it has rubbed off on his brothers, and it certainly has rubbed off on me,” she says. “We are going back to Israel in a few weeks, and my second-youngest will travel with me, but because of Noah, he is going on a Birthright trip now too. And although this is my fourth trip to Israel, being in touch with my Jewish heritage has certainly made me more committed to my practice of Judaism. Seeing Israel with different eyes, and through Noah’s eyes has had a huge impact on us – we have always been spiritual people – but our connection to Israel is a thousand times stronger than it ever has been before.” A The FIDF-San Diego Chapter’s 4th annual Gala will be held at the Hilton San Diego Bayfront, 1 Park Blvd. Keynote speaker is Admiral (Ret.) Amihai “Ami” Ayalon, former head of the Shin Bet and former Commander-inChief of the Israeli Navy. IDF speakers include: lone soldiers, a former Impact! student and wounded warrior. To register online, visit fidf.org/ sandiego or contact the local FIDF office at (858) 926-3210 for more information.
Tevet•Shevat 5774 l www.SDJewishJournal.com 33
FEATURE STORY
A Feast for the Senses
PHOTOS COURTESY THE NEW CHILDREN’S MUSEUM
Artists in exhibit at New Children’s Museum offer a variety of ways to play with your food. BY NATALIE JACOBS
34 www.SDJewishJournal.com l January 2014
FEATURE STORY
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hen you think of a museum, food, live chickens and monkey bars aren’t the first, second or third things that come to mind, but the New Children’s Museum (NCM) in downtown San Diego isn’t interested in being conventional. Since re-opening at their current location on Island Avenue, NCM has housed one museum-wide exhibition approximately every two years. Recently, NCM unveiled its fourth exhibit “Feast: The Art of Playing with Your Food” with installations by 14 artists and collectives from San Diego and beyond. It’s about art, but it’s also about developing creativity, critical thinking, imaginative play and collaborative problem solving in children ages 2-12. “I heard a professor of video game design speak a couple of years ago,” Julianne Markow, NCM executive director, explains, “and he said ‘successful video games are pleasantly frustrating and compellingly engaging.’ So those were four watch-words that we used when we were thinking about any of the pieces [in the Feast exhibit].” Formerly of the Fine Arts Museum of San Francisco and the San Diego Museum of Art, Markow, a member of Congregation Beth Israel, came to NCM in December 2011 right before the museum committed to the Feast exhibit. “I thought it made total sense because [food] is something that everyone understands, on some level. It is something that all children; little children, middle-aged children, older children; all have food references, food experiences, food memories. And it’s just a fun topic, and a very broad topic, which, for us, was important because we wanted to be able to cover the subject not just in a one-dimensional way.” TWO LOVES Of the 14 individual and group artists with pieces commissioned for the exhibit, five have some connection to Judaism. Leah Rosenberg taught Hebrew school growing up in Canada. Her installation, “I Made This For You,” is an outdoor clay studio where children can create ceramic baked goods, based on her exploration of the differences and similarities between painting and baking. “I feel like, what’s more food art than hamantaschen? Or even challah,” Rosenberg says of her Jewish influences. “The fact that bread is a natural thing and we braid it – a braid is not found in nature, so by braiding it we are showing that we are creative people as human beings ... And hamantaschen, it’s supposed to look like this
guy’s hat and you’re going to eat it,” she says with a laugh. “The nature of storytelling in Judaism has always affected me, and of course the urge to feed people, to please them, I think comes from a bit of that upbringing.” Now based in San Francisco, Rosenberg continues her studio painting practice in addition to working in the day as a baker with the Bay Area’s famed Blue Bottle Coffee Co. The clay studio at NCM brings together her two loves in a way that invites children to create stories connected to their art. “I like the idea of kids using their imaginations,” she says. “You guide them in an open way to suggest that this piece of clay is a piece of cake. A lot of kids tend to make things to occupy them, but I think it’s interesting when you guide them in a way that [makes them think not only] are they making a piece of cake but who is it for, why are they making this thing?” While he’s “less religious than [he] used to be,” Jason Torchinsky is “happy to identify as a Jew” and his “Food Truckin’” installation also encourages a similar kind of visual storytelling. Made out of highly durable plastic, the pushcars let kids “drive” around a course, picking up items and stopping at imaginary destinations to sell their boxes of food. All the food trucks can be customized with laser-cut plastic parts shaped like lights or license plates and food can be picked up at a warehouse station near the car-port. “I want to see what the kids are doing,” Torchinksy says. “Are they going around trying to sell their food? There are chalkboard areas on the trucks that I wanted them to do their own branding or write the food and draw their pictures. So I want to see how they’re interacting.” Like Rosenberg, Torchinsky combined two personal interests for this exhibit. An automotive journalist for Jalopnik, a car website owned by the internet media company Gawker, he spends a lot of time thinking about cars in addition to creating interactive exhibits in and around Los Angeles. “The thinking was, kids love cars, they like to eat food out of them and I wanted to give them the opportunity to, on a scale that they could relate to, have their own little food truck.” ORANGE YOU GLAD? The first exhibit that will catch visitors’ eyes at the Museum is Nina Waisman’s “Orange We...” – an orange grove made with mountainclimbing rope, urethane-cast oranges and a set of monkey bars shaped like DNA. When visitors
“What’s more food art than hamantaschen? Or even challah ... The fact that bread is a natural thing and we braid it – a braid is not found in nature, so by braiding it we are showing that we are creative people as human beings.” walk through and climb on the grove, various sounds are triggered, encouraging movement that Waisman says inspires creativity on a neurological level. “There’s a lot of writing and thinking about ‘physical thinking’ and how important movement is in expanding thought capacity, making us creative, keeping our minds active, helping us remember things. So I wanted to play with physical thinking and then with this idea of how our bodies are connected through objects and through technologies.” Waisman studied dance with the New York City Ballet before making her way to painting and large interactive installations, so movement and sound have always been a deep curiosity of hers. “I’m so interested in the sounds of bodies moving, so I recorded the sounds of pickers in orange groves picking oranges, moving ladders, hauling 80-pound sacks of oranges and dumping them, of the machines, them using the machines. I recorded people packing, women who’ve been grating oranges for literally 40 years ... I also interviewed at least 30 people – people in the Tevet•Shevat 5774 l www.SDJewishJournal.com 35
FEATURE STORY
Nina Waisman’s “Orange We...” reimagines an orange grove fit for climbing on.
“I wanted to play with ‘physical thinking’ and then with this idea of how our bodies are connected through objects and through technologies.”
packing houses, people in the groves, people working, the people who own the groves, people who sell organic fertilizer.” All interviews and on-site research took place in Palma Valley, Calif., the northeastern corner of San Diego County and one of the most important orange-growing centers in the world. The piece also features songs adapted from a book about oranges by John McPhee and details about the wide-reaching historical connections of oranges to Conquistadors (who brought orange trees on their boats to prevent scurvy) and 15th Century Sri Lankan men (who rubbed their bodies with orange oil before diving for buried treasure, to ward off poisonous fish). Taking a slightly more esoteric turn, Samuel Borkson and Arturo Sandoval III, under their art collective label FriendsWithYou, created an inflatable jumping structure called “The Fruit of the Gods.” This made-up fruit deity contains a head of fruit characters on the outside. The inside is an abstract layer of colors made to look like the
36 SanDiegoJewishJournal.com l January 2014
inside of a fruit or seed. “Part of our work is really to take hold of the idea of archetypes and repurpose those concepts for more modern consumption,” Borkson says. “In this specific example, we’ve taken an offering and made it a thing that you can play inside of. It’s really about repurposing those symbols and archetypes that are beyond ideology and re-serving them up with new purpose. We were trying to make this whole interaction an exuberant, magical experience inside of these new symbols.” Though they identify their work as broadly “spiritual,” they note that Judaism always “pushes for the idea of questioning everything and really relating things and trying to find a good medium between all people,” an idea which plays out in this work and others of theirs. ABOVE AND BEYOND The exhibit also includes real chickens that are brought out for live workshops throughout the day, as well as a scented foot bridge, a garden,
and a kitchen-sink-inspired “Wobbleland” specifically for toddlers. While “Feast” is endlessly entertaining, each installation has an intention beyond the fun. “To help our adult visitors, we have put some prompts throughout the museum which are just statements about the value of being here,” says NCM’s Markow, “so that they know, when they are in the room [for example] with the mushroom blocks [Philip Ross’s Mol_d] and their children are building, that yes, it’s fun to build, but that they also know that there is research that has been done around the theory of loose parts, that giving children just stuff to play with and having them construct with that is really important, developmentally.” A “Feast” will be on display through 2014 with portions staying at the museum beyond that date. The New Children’s Museum is open every day except Tuesdays. For more information, visit thinkplaycreate.org.
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www.metroflooring.com Tevet•Shevat 5774 l www.SDJewishJournal.com 37
PHOTOS BY BOB ROSS
“Jubilee” emcee Dan Cohen.
A FAMILY AFFAIR
Seacrest Village celebrates 70 years BY NATALIE JACOBS
I
n 1945, a group of 16 female volunteers came together to form the Women’s Auxiliary (WAUX) for the San Diego Hebrew Home for the Aged. Since then, the Hebrew Home changed its operating name to Seacrest Village Retirement Communities but the Women’s Auxiliary remains dedicated to nurturing and enriching the quality of life for the Encinitas and Rancho Bernardo residents of these vibrant retirement communities. To do this, the group raises money by hosting an annual gala and other events throughout the year. This year’s gala, named “Sapphire Jubilee,” marks Seacrest Village’s 70th anniversary and the WAUX is
38 SanDiegoJewishJournal.com l January 2014
looking forward to another fantastic evening. “We have an amazing event planned,” Mary Epsten, WAUX Board President of 22 years, explains. “We are still having our [usual] dinner and dancing but afterward we’re going to have our Sapphire Lounge with comfy furniture and a casino again [like last year’s “Club Seacrest” theme]. It’s going to be a lot of glitter and glamour.” The honoree for the evening is an individual or a couple who embodies Seacrest Village’s mission and commitment to family. This year, they’ve chosen Sylvia and David Geffen. “For all of us involved,” Robin Israel, Vice
President, Arthur & Sophie Brody Philanthropy Chair at Seacrest Village, says of this year’s honorees, “it was very clear that Sylvia and David were the perfect couple to honor this year. They are not just tremendous supporters of our organization, but they’ve done so much for the entire Jewish community.” When her mom, Sigrid Fischer, one of the founders of the Gala and the 2002 honoree, suffered an illness prior to the 1985 Gala, Sylvia, a senior partner in the SGS Group of Wells Fargo Advisors, LLC, stepped in to complete the Gala chair duties. She’s been with Seacrest Village ever since. She started on the board of Hebrew Homes, lending her financial expertise to the policy decisions weighed by the board. In 2003, Sylvia was asked to join the board of the Seacrest Foundation where she first chaired the investment committee and has served as President, since 2009. “I would say we’ve been to almost all of [the Galas] for the last 36 years,” David, a wellrespected optometrist, says. While this year will no doubt stand out in their memories, the Geffens are quick to note that the evening is really about Seacrest Village. “We’re involved in a lot of the organizations in town [and] we participate in a wide range of community activities. We’re not doing this to get thanked. We do this so that there’s a future. We want a place for our kids, we want a place for our parents to be. That’s the whole reason that we do it – we just believe in a strong Jewish community.” Adding a new name to Seacrest Village’s roster of supporters, Dan Cohen, CBS Channel 8 Morning News anchor, has signed on to emcee the evening.
PHOTO COURTESY DAN COHEN
Partygoers gamble the night away at the 2013 “Club Seacrest” gala.
FEATURE STORY
Women’s Auxiliary Board President Mary Epsten attended the 2013 gala with her husband, John.
“I’m rather new to Seacrest Village. I actually have not worked with them before,” he says. “They asked me if I would be interested and I went out and visited the facility in Encinitas and I was tremendously impressed. It’s really amazing and I love the work that they do.” If history is any indication, Cohen may end up a Seacrest Village lifer like the rest of them. At least that’s what happened for Epsten, the Women’s Auxiliary Board President since 1991. She went to work, as a registered nurse, on a regular day in 1989 but one of her patients was anything but ordinary. “The patient I was assigned to was Sigrid Fischer, Sylvia’s mother,” Epsten remembers. “When I went to work that day, [I had no idea] that the patient I was assigned to would have such an impact on my life.” The two became fast friends and soon enough Epsten was a regular at Women’s Auxiliary Board meetings. “I felt an immediate connection with this group of women and more importantly, with the cause – to raise funds and carry on the tradition to take care of our elders.
“Over the years, I’ve had the privilege and honor of working on so many events that I’ve lost track but one thing I can always count on is the pride that I feel when I walk through the doors of Seacrest Village. I feel like I’ve played some small part in raising funds for the Seacrest Village community and in the life of the elderly residents.” Like many organizations that are sustained through gifts from community donors, Seacrest Village is trying to engage a younger audience with discount tickets to this year’s Gala. “We want this to be a multi-generational event,” Bob Haimsohn, Chair, Board of Trustees of Seacrest Village, explains, “because when you have an elderly person in your family it doesn’t only affect just that person. There’s the caregiver, the children, the grandchildren, and we just want to celebrate everyone whose lives have been changed [because of ] Seacrest Village.” “It shouldn’t just be about the elderly,” Epsten says. For their part, the Geffens have made sure that their three children grew up with an understanding of the importance of giving back
to their community. “My parents have been very involved in the community, we are involved in the community and now our children are involved. So it is a door-to-door kind of family,” Sylvia says. “I think that if you want a strong, vibrant Jewish community,” David concludes, “you need to support the agencies in town that are going to provide for our elderly as well as our young people. We need to support these organizations or they won’t be around. Somebody has to do this. And everyone, I think, owes it to future generations and past generations to support and to work hard to maintain the function of these programs. They’re vital to the community.” A The “Sapphire Jubilee” Gala is Saturday, Feb. 1 at the Hyatt Regency La Jolla. Sponsorships begin at $500 per person. Individual tickets are $360 per person and discount tickets are available for guests who are 35 years and under. For more information, visit seacrestvillage.org.
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Inset: DeLeT intern Lauren Mangel teaches students at SDJA.
A New Choice in Day School Leadership
SDJA partners with Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion BY ALANNA BERMAN
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he San Diego Jewish Academy is known for academic excellence, but this year, classrooms at the exclusive local institution got a boost from the Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion’s (HUCJIR) DeLeT program. Dedicated to fostering teaching excellence in Jewish day schools in North America, DeLeT (Day School Leadership through Teaching) is a program of the HUC-JIR Rhea Hirsch School of Education at the Jack H. Skirball Campus in Los Angeles. “DeLeT is a proven leadership program that has had great success in Los Angeles and the Bay Area,” SDJA Executive Director Chaim Heller, said. “Having seen the impact of DeLeT at my previous school [in San Francisco], we welcomed the opportunity to bring the vision and expertise of [the program] into our school.” A unique 13-month teacher education program, DeLeT aims to foster core knowledge, skills, and professional development needed for effective day school teaching by partnering student interns with day school teachers. Five teachers and two fellows at SDJA are involved
in the program this year. Interns like Lauren Mangel will earn their teaching credential after graduating from the program and will be able to teach in any educational setting. “The previous model of Jewish day schools was school and Hebrew school combined; but the Judaica and Hebrew classes were very separate [from the general education classes], so the goal of DeLeT is to integrate Judaism and Judaic education into the general curriculum,” she says. Teachers and fellows for this year are working with second- through fouth-grade students at the Academy to increase levels of Jewish education across the academic spectrum. DeLeT participants are tasked with bringing new ideas to the table and integrating Jewish learning into all subjects. For example, one recent math lesson was based on genealogy in the Torah, and another asked students to examine the weekly Parsha in a lesson on writing and storytelling. “Teachers who graduate from DeLeT are highly sought after,” Heller says, “as they understand the Jewish dimensions of Jewish day schools along with being well-prepared for
their teaching assignments ... there is a virtuous cycle of improved teaching and learning in the classroom.” By integrating opportunities for Jewish learning into the general curriculum, students at SDJA benefit from the DeLeT program by learning how to lead a fully Jewish life. The goal in bringing DeLeT to SDJA is to help move the academy in that direction. “As fellows, we are encouraged to always be learning and thinking, and, therefore, inspiring others to do the same; so this is just the next step in the integration process; to bring in new ideas and to always be on the forefront of education,” Mangel says. Heller echoes her view when he says that the greatest beneficiaries of the DeLeT program are the students themselves. “DeLeT is a difference-maker for the fellows and mentor teachers, but it is also a force for positive change in the life of a school,” he says. “I am thrilled that we are a DeLeT school.” A For more information, visit sdja.com. Tevet•Shevat 5774 l www.SDJewishJournal.com 43
PHOTO BY ROB TIRSBIER
Lower school students at LJCD celebrate "Spring Sing" in March, 2013.
Diversity Rules
La Jolla Country Day School Makes Everyone Feel at Home BY NATALIE JACOBS
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estled between UC San Diego Medical Center and the Lawrence Family Jewish Community Center sits La Jolla Country Day School (LJCDS), an independent private school with approximately 1,160 students this academic year. If you’ve driven down Genesee Drive and glanced south, you’ve probably seen their athletic field sprawling along the side of the road. Just on the other side of that, you’ll find classrooms bustling with students divided between lower and upper schools. With a “nocut” athletic policy and more arts classes than you can count on two hands, this small secular school aims to nurture well-rounded students. “We have a lot of things here that are unique,” Marna Weiss-Padowitz, lower school principle (grades preschool through 4th), says. She came to LJCDS seven years ago, after spending 22 years with the San Diego Jewish Academy. “They are both absolutely wonderful,” she says of the two schools, who’s leaders meet annually, along with heads of Soille Hebrew Day School, to share expertise. “It’s a very diverse community here,” Weiss-Padowitz continues. “We have
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people here from all over the world, with different traditions and cultures. We encourage parents to come in with their holiday traditions and cultures to share.” With Hanukkah falling so early this year, both the lower and upper schools did just that. “All the classes had Hanukkah parties. The lower school smelled like latkes because they all made [them]. They made menorahs and played dreidel [too]. Parents came in and volunteered to talk about the story of Hanukkah. The same thing happens for Las Posadas [a nine-day festival mainly celebrated in Mexico], Kwanza and Christmas,” Weiss-Padowitz says. In addition to being culturally diverse, the school is highly adaptable to individual student needs. Weiss-Padowitz tells the story of a student violinist who played in orchestras around the world. At one point during her schooling, she began taking courses at Julliard but wanted to continue her regular studies at LJCDS too. Weiss-Padowitz worked with the student to prepare an individualized course so she could remain enrolled.
“Whatever the needs are of the students,” she says, “the school is really flexible in trying to meet those.” Prior to graduating in June, Jonathan Levine, an Orthodox student who founded the Jewish Student Union on campus, was also highly involved in the lacrosse and soccer teams. As a strict Shabbat observer, Levine would have had to miss a lot of games and practices, had the school not taken exhaustive measures to reschedule Friday and Saturday appointments in order to accommodate his religious requirements. Since graduating, Levine is studying at Yeshiva in Israel. When he returns next year, he will attend University of Pennsylvania. “Our motto is that we are raising kids to be scholars, artists, and athletes of character. What that means to us is that we [give kids] exposure to all three areas and then they have the opportunities to explore them deeper as they wish,” Weiss-Padowitz concludes. A For more information on La Jolla Country Day School, visit ljcds.org.
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An Israeli Education for North American Jews
Dror Leadership High School builds on the camp of the same name's success in cultivating engaged Jewish teens BY NIKKI SALVO
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new Jewish study abroad program is being launched in Israel this month for North American students in grades 10 and 11. The Dror Leadership High School (DLHS), created by a group of experienced Jewish educators, is an opportunity for students to connect with their homeland by exploring Israel and studying Jewish values rooted in tikkun olam. “Jewish communities around the world are in need of young leaders who are strong in their Judaism, active in their communities and possess first-hand knowledge of Israel, both her beauty and her challenges,” Sivan Bamberger, director of the program, says. During the semester-long program, students will live on a kibbutz and attend classes in an English-speaking classroom within the Galilee city of Karmiel’s Hebrew-speaking, Israeli high 46 www.SDJewishJournal.com l January 2014
school, Adam Hevra Ve’Teva. Through formal classroom education and hands-on learning experiences like hikes, extensive trips and seminars, students are given the opportunity to experience Judaism, become leaders and excel academically. DLHS is a joint project of two Jewish educational movements, Dror Israel and Kvutzot Am; the founders are graduates from Habonim Dror, the second-largest Zionist movement in the U.S., with three branches in Southern California, including one in San Diego. Habonim Dror runs several Machanot (summer camps) and exchange programs across the United States, Canada and Israel, and year-round activities in many areas of the country (called Eizorim/Kenim) “based on the pillars of Progressive Labor Zionism, Judaism, socialism, social justice, and hagshama (actualization of values).” Habonim Dror and
DLHS operate witht a modern urban kibbutz mentality, centered on these principles, rather than focusing on agriculture and industry, as in the traditional cooperative setting. The creators of the DLHS are members of Kvutzot Am, a network of educators and graduates of Habonim Dror, who live in urban kibbutzim and have made Aliyah from around the world. With more than a dozen years’ experience running educational programming for Jewish youth from North America, they are dedicated to teaching teens about life in Israel and strengthening underprivileged communities. Bamberger says that the best way to truly experience Israeli society is “by contributing something to it and understanding the issues it faces,” which is why the program has a service-learning component and a seminar on coexistence in the Galilee. Students in the program will be able to learn Hebrew and interact with other Israeli teens, volunteer in the local community, and explore Israel’s most important sites. With academic excellence a top priority, DLHS’s courses at the Adam Hevra Ve’Teva school will include “smart” classrooms for multi-media education, sports fields, a music room, wood shop, computer labs and a student lounge. At the kibbutz, participants live dorm-style along with two to three other students, with a counselor accompanying the group of students at all times, during all trips, on kibbutz and during school hours. “I went on a kibbutz-based high school program about 15 years ago, and the spirit of kibbutz – community, camaraderie, a safe space for everyone – really trickled down to us, the American students,” Bamberger says. “It was a very influential experience that gave me selfconfidence, lifelong friendships, and the skills to be a Jewish leader. Unfortunately that program no longer exists, so we’re building a new one that’s updated to reflect the realities of Israel in 2013.” A The Fall 2014 semester runs Aug. 22-Dec. 22. Price, registration and scholarship information can be found at drorleadership.org.
About Habonim Dror: Habonim Dror North America, the Progressive Labor Zionist Youth Movement, was founded in 1935 and strives to “build a personal bond and connection between North American Jewish youth and the State of Israel,” and “to create Jewish leaders who will actualize the principles of social justice, equality, peace and coexistence in Israel and North America.”
Learning; Well-Rounded
Francis Parker offers numerous opportunities for growth – in and outside the classroom BY HEIDI REDLITZ
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Gratz Online College offers flexibility and functionality BY NATALIE JACOBS
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pened in 1895, Gratz College in Melrose Park, Penn., is the oldest pluralistic college for Jewish studies in North America. In addition to being the oldest, Gratz was also the first to accept women along with men. This tradition of “firsts” continues with their new online master’s program offered in Holocaust and Genocide Studies. Adding to an already diverse selection of courses, Gratz College is a premier destination for students looking to advance their education with a firm grounding in Jewish values. For undergraduates, programs are available in Jewish Studies and Jewish Education. Classes are available in a diverse range of topics, from Jewish history and Midrash, to Israel and Zionism and the American Jewish community. While the Jewish Education program is intended for students who wish to teach in Jewish schools, the broad Jewish Studies program is ideal for those who plan to work in synagogues, cultural or communal organizations. In addition to the newly added Holocaust and Genocide Studies master’s program, Gratz offers master’s degrees in Education, Jewish Christian Studies, Communal Service, Jewish Education, nonprofit management and Jewish Studies. Classes for both undergraduate and graduate degree programs are available on campus and online and many scholarships are available to meet the needs of a variety of students. Gratz is accredited by the Middle States Commission on Higher Education, recognized by the Ministry of Education and Culture of the State of Israel and is a partner of the Jewish Federation of Greater Philadelphia. A For more information, visit gratz.edu.
PHOTO COURTESY FRANCIS PARKER
A Premier Jewish Education
ounded in 1912 as an alternative to uninspired educational methods of the early 20th century, Francis Parker School encourages learningby-doing as a motive for student involvement. In the classroom, Parker bases its success on the individualized learning environment allowed by a low student-to-teacher ratio and outstanding faculty, Judy Conner, Director of Admissions, says. “Most of the feedback I get from parents after their student has started at Parker is in regard to how pleased they are with how much emphasis is placed on the needs of each child,” Conner says. “Our focus in the junior kindergarten to grade 12 integrated curriculum is on the individual student and making sure their needs are met.” An intimate learning environment in the classroom is complemented by impressive achievements after school hours. The first Saturday of December marked the second consecutive CIF State Championship win for girls volleyball, the school’s eighth state title. The robotics team placed first at the 2013 “Battle at the Border” competition, and the school’s literary publications have received multiple awards. Diversity in special interest offerings can best be emphasized by the presence of more than 50 clubs, from Judaica Club to crew to improv. Through yearly offerings of domestic interim and mid-year Global Learning trips for Middle- and Upper-School students, Parker also encourages students’ experiential learning beyond the classroom. “Our Global Learning Program is absolutely fabulous and one of our biggest draws,” Conner says. “We take our classrooms out to the world through meaningful, age-appropriate opportunities for experiential education, service learning, environmental awareness, and character education.” With an individualized classroom setting, extensive offerings of volunteer programs, extracurricular activities and opportunities to travel abroad, Francis Parker School provides students no shortage of modes of learning. A For more information, visit francisparker.org.
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PHOTO BY URIEL HEILMAN
Left: Seth Pope is a fifthgrader at the Lippman School in Akron, Ohio, which began admitting non-Jewish students in response to declining enrollment.
New Hope for Struggling Jewish Day Schools: Non-Jews Schools across the U.S. are experimenting with new enrollees BY URIEL HEILMAN AKRON, Ohio (JTA) – During a High Holidays discussion about repentance in Sarah Greenblatt’s Jewish values class, not all the students are listening. One girl stares out the window at the azure sky. Another sits in the back doodling. But a boy in the front row wearing a creased black skullcap sits transfixed, notebook open, pencil poised. Why is reflection and repentance so important around Rosh Hashanah? Greenblatt asks. The boy’s hand shoots up. “The Torah, and also the Bible, tells us how to live right, how to get right and how to stay right,” he says. This might be a typical scene in any Jewish day school except for one thing: The boy isn’t Jewish. Fifth-grader Seth Pope is one of 58 non-Jewish students at the Lippman School, Akron’s only 50 www.SDJewishJournal.com l January 2014
Jewish day school. Four years ago, the school – then known as the Jerome Lippman Jewish Community Day School – was teetering. Enrollment had tumbled to 63 students, 33 of them Jews, and it was unclear whether the school could survive in this Rust Belt city 40 miles south of Cleveland. Like a number of day schools in Jewish communities with dwindling populations, Lippman for years had been accepting a few nonJewish students, but without any modifications to the Jewish-focused curriculum. With the 46-year-old school at a crisis point, however, board members decided some fundamental changes were necessary. They changed the school’s name, began marketing to non-Jews, and created a dual-track curriculum that offered a choice between Judaic studies and
global studies. The school quickly saw positive returns. Enrollment climbed, and not just among nonJews. This year, the school has 101 students; 43 are Jewish. “The fear was Jewish families would not want to participate,” Sam Chestnut, head of the school, says. “In fact, we’ve seen the opposite.” Lippman is one of more than a dozen Jewish day schools in North America that accept students from non-Jewish families. In many cases, their presence is relatively small (about five or 10 percent), but at some schools non-Jews comprise 50 percent or more of students. For struggling schools, the issue is often survival. Non-Jewish students can be a lifeline, bringing in much-needed cash and helping schools with shrinking enrollment achieve
critical mass. In other cases, schools accept nonJews as a matter of principle. “The move toward more schools opening up in this way has been driven by the pragmatics of declining Jewish demographics in certain cities,” says Marc Kramer, executive director of Ravsak, a networking organization for 130 Jewish community day schools. Kramer says there has been a recent uptick in the number of nondenominational Jewish day schools that accept non-Jews. In a recent survey of 50 Ravsak schools, 18 reported accepting nonJewish students. At Arizona’s Tucson Hebrew Academy, head of school Arthur Yavelberg says the 20 non-Jews among the school’s 164 students have boosted his school’s viability. “Between the money they bring in and accessing scholarship services, you’re talking about $200,000-plus per year,” Yavelberg says. “A lot of families are concerned about social interactions as their kids get into adolescence, so the sheer numbers [of non-Jewish students] can make the school more attractive to Jewish families because they know there’s a larger social circle available.” In New Orleans, the local Jewish day school’s decision four years ago to market to non-Jews had the opposite result: The number of Jewish
students plunged to 15 from about 50. Only 29 students overall remain. “There are going to be some hard decisions that the board is going to have to make,” Deb Marsh, director of admissions at the school, which a year ago changed its name from the New Orleans Jewish Day School to Community Day School, says. “Is the Jewish day school a viable long-term school?” The success of opening a school to nonJewish enrollment often hinges on proportion. A small percentage of non-Jewish students can help stabilize a struggling school. But if a certain threshold is passed, the non-Jewish presence can alter a school’s culture. “At what point does a notable presence of gentile children dissuade Jewish families from sending their kids there?” Kramer asks. “Some families enroll their children in Jewish day schools because they want their environment to be defined by Jewish classrooms, Jewish values, Jewish conversations on the playground. What happens when the conversation about what you did this weekend includes ‘did you go to church?’” Tehiyah Day School in El Cerrito, Calif., just north of Berkeley, has had non-Jewish students since its founding in 1979. Head of School Bathea James says the diversity of the 250-strong
PHOTO BY URIEL HEILMAN
Sam Chestnut, head of the Lippman School in Akron, Ohio, says Jewish enrollment grew after the school began admitting non-Jewish students.
student body – about five percent of whom are not Jewish – reflects the school’s values. “I don’t believe you should take non-Jewish students purely for financial reasons,” James says. “If you believe it enhances the community of your school somehow, then I think you should do it. If we can expose the beauty of Judaism to more people in the community, why wouldn’t we?” At Tehiyah, all students study the same curriculum. About 30 percent of the day is spent on Judaic subjects, Hebrew or prayer. NonJewish families are among those chairing an upcoming Sukkot dinner. At Lippman in Akron, 65 percent of students are in the Jewish track, including more than two dozen non-Jews, and some Jews have chosen the global studies track. Even those in the global program study some Hebrew, thanks to nonJewish parents who requested it. Yarmulkes at Lippman are optional, except in Jewish studies classes. But a few non-Jewish boys don them even outside of Jewish class. “They wear it because it feels like a positive expression here,” Chestnut says. When it comes to prayer, which is mandatory in the Jewish track, balancing Lippman’s inclusive philosophy with Jewish law can be a bit tricky. If a non-Jewish student wants to be called to the Torah, for example, he might be partnered with a Jewish classmate. In most cases, non-Jews find their way to the Jewish schools through word of mouth, they're drawn to them because their friends go there, the school’s academics are strong or area public schools are weak. Some see the Jewish environment as a way to give their kids a strong ethical background. Lippman is the rare Jewish school that actively markets to non-Jews through billboard, radio and newspaper advertising. And while Chestnut concedes open enrollment is not right for every school, in Akron’s diminutive Jewish community, it was not a difficult call. “The first question is: Is it better to have no school at all or a school that offers a Jewish curriculum during the day and yet has nonJews?” he says. “For our school it was an easy one.” A
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Rabbi Simcha Weiser is very involved in students' education at Soille.
Soille Hebrew Day School The answer to reversing the decline of American Jewry EDITED BY ALANNA BERMAN
Few who know him are surprised to hear Rabbi Simcha Weiser express his pain over the October 2013 Pew Survey study findings on American Jewish life. “I am deeply troubled by the study’s prediction that other than the Orthodox, we are a shrinking community with little hope of continuity,” he says. As an Orthodox Rabbi, Weiser has a unique and refreshing approach to Jewish education en masse: teach all our Jewish children Torah, and the more, the better.
“None of the movements within Judaism ever preached ignorance,” Weiser says, “but our children are overwhelmingly ignorant about Judaism. When asked the most basic question ‘why be Jewish?’, very few American children have an answer which inspires them. Our job – parents, Rabbis and educators alike – is to teach our children all the aspects of Judaism so that as they grow, they have the knowledge and experience to find their own personal and meaningful answer to the question. This is the key to the continuity of Judaism.”
The Soille Hebrew Day School uses a Torah curriculum that is calibrated – being simultaneously non-judgmental and highly values based. This approach to Jewish education is inspiring, informative and transformative, rather than dryly conveying a set of traditions. Charlene Seidle, a former student at Soille and today the Vice President and Executive Director of the Leichtag Foundation and Senior Vice President of the Jewish Community Foundation of San Diego, remembers fondly “a school where many flavors and backgrounds of Judaism came
WHAT PARENTS ARE SAYING: “My husband and I decided to give our children the same Jewish education as Orthodox parents give theirs. Not because we choose to be Orthodox, but because we see how successful [they] are in raising proud, strongly identified Jews. By giving that same educational gift to our children we are confident that they will have a sense of ownership in their Judaism. We want them to go out into the world knowing why they are Jews and how to observe to any level, so that they can create 54 www.SDJewishJournal.com l January 2014
their own Jewish identities, lives and families. Thankfully, at Hebrew Day School we are able to provide this to our children while also ensuring that they receive an excellent, uncompromised secular education at the same time.” – Lori Carnot, whose daughters are in kindergarten and second grades at Soille.
together and where difference in observance was embraced, nurtured and explored – not vilified.” “There is no doubt that those years [at Soille Hebrew Day School] wielded a powerful influence on me and who I would become,” Seidle says. “We learned in the classroom about our history, rituals and commandments – these were invaluable tools that have enabled me to make educated choices about how I identify Jewishly to this day.” Jonathan Sacks, Chief Rabbi in the United Kingdom, recently spoke at the General Assembly of North American Federations, pointing to England as an example of Torah education that is reversing the decline of Anglo Jewry. The percentage of Jewish children attending Jewish day schools in England has more than doubled since 1990, and in conjunction, Jewish demographics are increasing for the first time, not counting any immigration. In response to Sacks’ message, Weiser does not see challenges, and instead speaks with the enthusiasm of a leader with big plans for the future. “I have seen San Diego Jewry change so much over my 32 years at Soille, but the education that we have provided here for 51 years has stood as a constant; engaging Jewish children and graduating strongly identified, well educated Jewish adults for three generations. I am eager to stretch our reach even further to work together with new generations of parents to accelerate this process.” His optimistic viewpoint is illustrated in the history of the Jewish people. “Every new place the Jewish people have gone, the very first thing we have done is build a Jewish school,” he says. “Jewish education has sustained our people for 3,500 years. Let’s get back to what we know works in order to ensure that every Jewish family will see a bright future ahead of them.” A To learn more, visit hebrewday.org.
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PHOTOS COURTESY SDFAS
Left: SDFAS's volleyball team. Inset: Head of School Kathryn Samson.Right: Students enjoy time in the SDFAS library.
The Best of Both Worlds
SD French American School is a major draw for families looking for a well-rounded education BY HEIDI REDLITZ
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ounded as a small daycare to serve the city’s francophone population, San Diego French-American School (SDFAS) has grown to incorporate an international community of multilingual students. “A lot of times people associate French school with very Catholic, very Christian (models), but that is not necessarily the case here,” Kathryn Sampson, assistant head of school at SDFAS, says. “We have families and faculty from all sorts of backgrounds, races and religions; and as an international school, we recognize just how rich our experience is made by such diversity.” The student body is made up of 35 different nationalities and about 20 different languages. The school has no religious affiliation. (Sampson, a former French teacher at preeminent HarvardWestlake in Los Angeles, is Jewish.) SDFAS is also the only French-American 56 www.SDJewishJournal.com l January 2014
school in San Diego to include pre-elementary to eighth grade classes that are fully accredited in both the U.S. and France. “[French accreditation] means that there is a certain way of teaching that the kids are getting that is very different from the American system,” Sampson says. “This is so nice because we can actually pick and choose what is great about both systems and put them together.” Since French-speaking faculty hold a French teaching credential and the equivalent of a master’s degree in Education, their training compliments the teaching styles of American teachers. The French education system, for example, excels in executive function: planning, organizing, and encouraging autonomy and critical thinking at an early age. “Combine that with the more creative,
“In the middle school, particularly, we have electives so students can decide if they want more French or less French; if they want more science or more humanities.”
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project-based learning, and the fun side of what American teachers have to [offer], and it really brings an amazingly rounded education to their children,” Sampson says. Equally significant is the school’s focus on differentiated teaching methods to accommodate students of different language levels and academic interests, preparing students for success later in their academic life. In kindergarten, for example, children are divided into three small groups to focus on pre-reading and reading skills that challenge their level. “In the middle school, particularly, we have electives so students can decide if they want more French or less French; if they want more science or more humanities,” Sampson says. Depending on their age group, students can also enroll in atypical courses to cater to their specialized interests, from skateboarding and robotics classes to math, literature and advanced Spanish clubs. The school also offers camps during school breaks and after-school programs such as sports, theater, arts, and cooking. Elementary students who are not fluent in French will spend some of their classroom hours in French as a Second Language. Because the upper grades are taught in combined French and English, Sampson recommends that students unfamiliar with French begin enrollment in pre-elementary or early elementary school. “In addition to offering an excellent individualized education,” Sampson says, “SDFAS creates global citizens who, thanks to their multicultural and multilingual education and everyday community, are prepared to adapt to, empathize with, and succeed in most any environment in which they will participate.” A To learn more, visit sdfrenchschool.org.
Tevet•Shevat 5774 l www.SDJewishJournal.com 57
A Jewish Adaptor, a New Adaptation North Coast Repertory Theatre presents the San Diego premiere of Aaron Posner’s “Who Am I This Time?” BY PAT LAUNER
58 www.SDJewishJournal.com l January 2014
THEATER
PHOTO BY AARON RUMLEY
Jim Leaming and Cindy Marty star as Tom and Kate Newton in "Who am I This Time?" at North Coast Rep this month.
L
iterature shaped his life – as a Jew and as a playwright. Aaron Posner grew up in Eugene, Ore., where there wasn’t a large Jewish community. He had his bar mitzvah at the only local temple, but as a third generation American (his greatgrandparents were from Russia/Ukraine) in a not-so-Jewish environment, his upbringing was “culturally Jewish” but fairly secular. Then he saw the film of “Fiddler on the Roof.” “I was only about 7,” Posner, who currently lives in Maryland, says. “But that was my first really strong and formative experience of identifying in a meaningful way as Jewish.” He saw the movie several more times and then, a few years later, he made a brief appearance in the stage show, though he says he “doesn’t really” sing. His “strongest Jewish connections,” Posner says, “have always come through literature. From the stories of Chelm to the works of Chaim
Potok, from Bernard Malamud to Philip Roth, to all of Isaac Bashevis Singer. My life as a Jew is in literature.” And his dramatic adaptations are, too. But more on that later. It was Jewishness that brought Posner’s parents together. They were 16, and both were active in BBYO, the B’nai Brith Youth Organization, the largest and oldest Jewish youth organization in the world (90 years and counting). His father, who hailed from Seattle, was President of the West Coast Boys (part of Aleph Zadik Aleph), and his mother, a Canadian who grew up in Vancouver, was national president of the West Coast Girls. “They were set up on a date at a convention, and they’ve been married for more than 50 years.” Posner, now in his 40s, got a later (but more theatrical) matrimonial start. Five years ago, he married actress Erin Weaver, whom he met during a production of “Into the Woods” at
the Arden Theatre in Philadelphia, which he co-founded and served as artistic director. They have a precocious, “amazing” 2 year-old named Maisie.
The Literature Connection Posner came from “a big family of readers.” His father was a professor at the University of Oregon. His mother was an independent producer of videos and documentaries, and at one time, host of “Good Morning, Oregon.” “I was exposed to a huge range of literature,” Posner says. “It was reading and storytelling that got me into theater.” From about age 8, he was taken to the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, and Shakespeare remains a favorite; he’s directed many of the plays. All of his stage writings have been literary adaptations: from Mark Twain (a musical version of “A Murder, A Mystery and a Marriage”), to Ken Kesey (“Sometimes a Great Notion”), to Tevet•Shevat 5774 l www.SDJewishJournal.com 59
THEATER
David Foster Wallace (“Brief Interviews with Hideous Men”), to Anton Chekhov (“Stupid F***king Bird,” adapted from “The Seagull” and “Life Sucks, or The Present Ridiculous,” adapted from “Uncle Vanya”). San Diegans have seen – and loved – two of his most Jewish adaptations: Chaim Potok’s “The Chosen” and “My Name is Asher Lev,” which had successful runs at the North Coast Repertory Theatre in 2004 and 2009, respectively. “The Chosen” earned him a Barrymore Award at the Arden Theatre, and it won the 2013 Outer Critics Circle Award in New York. Here at home, I gave David Ellenstein a Patté Award for Theatre Excellence for his direction of the piece. This month will mark the San Diego premiere of a play inspired by Posner’s “first favorite author,” Kurt Vonnegut, widely acclaimed as one of the premiere American novelists of the 20th century. The title, “Who Am I This Time? (And Other Conundrums of Love),” comes from one of three early Vonnegut short stories Posner conflated. The Vonnegut story by that name first appeared in the Saturday Evening Post in 1961. The other two were published in the Ladies Home Journal: “The Long Walk to Forever” in 1960 and “Go Back to Your Precious Wife and Son” in 1962. All three were part of Vonnegut’s story collection “Welcome to the Monkey House” (published in 1968). “I love Vonnegut’s work,” he says. “It’s all about the sweet and sour nature of the world. Early on, he was hopeful and ironic. Definitely reaching for something positive. By the end of his life, he’d lost the humor and became angry, depressed and cynical.” But “at the moment when he began writing,” Posner asserts, “he had as clear an eye as I could possibly imagine. He saw the world in a way that helped me see the world, through my own perspective.”
A Sweet Story of Love Posner started working with these stories 25 years ago, just after he graduated from Northwestern University, but he’s refined the piece over time. The subject of his play, as we’re told at the outset 60 www.SDJewishJournal.com l January 2014
by the affable, folksy stage manager/narrator and sometimes character, is “Love. Pure and complicated.” “As a night in the theater, it’s easy to love,” said The Oregonian, after the Artists Repertory Theatre production opened in 2012. According to Portlandstagereviews.com, it’s “a delightful, lyrical piece of love and simpler times – with more than a few belly laughs of a more homespun Vonnegut quality. Audiences will find themselves enchanted.” “The adaptation is very true to the original stories,” Posner says, “involving the audience in a shared act of storytelling.” The action takes place in the small mythical town of North Crawford, Conn., 1962, on the cusp of the cataclysmic changes that would overtake our country, including war, assassinations and the Beatles. What you might call a simpler time in optimistic, pre-ironic America. The North Crawford Mask and Wig Club, “the finest community theater in central Connecticut,” is where we first meet our guide, Tom, who tells us that the company is putting on a show for us. “We’re on a theater stage here, so anything we do is automatically suspect – fishy, even.” Still, Tom insists, “the stories you’re going to hear are true, whether any of them happened or not.” This is the conceit Posner conceived “to make the evening mount up to more than the sum of its pieces. The stories spoke to each other in interesting ways.” Last month, the play was mounted at the Oregon Contemporary Theatre and now, at Indiana Repertory Theatre, as well as North Coast Rep (Jan. 8-Feb. 2) “Knowing the kind of work [North Coast Rep artistic director] David Ellenstein does, and how wonderfully he’s handled my other work, I sent him the script,” Posner says. Ellenstein won’t be directing this time (Andrew Barnicle is guest director), but he chose the script because it was “charming, funny and sincere. And it was very well received in Oregon – by critics and audiences alike.”
“The line between heartfelt and sentimental is always tricky,” Posner admits. “This is a bit of a valentine. What I love, in literature and theater, is things that tell the truth about how somebody is looking at the world. When it’s very truthful, from the heart, people can see that. Here, even in a very positive, optimistic look at simpler times, there are still struggles.” In “A Long Walk to Forever,” a soldier goes AWOL to ward off the marriage of his lifelong (undeclared) love. In “Go Back to Your Precious Wife and Son,” a husband/father leaves behind his dazzling but demanding new wife, a Hollywood diva, to return to his family. And in “Who Am I This Time?”, a nebbishy store clerk finds his heart, passion and soulmate onstage, completely transforming himself into whatever character is called for (hence, the title). The piece underscores the illusionary line between life, love and theater. These flawed, very human characters take what you might call a long walk to humanity, redemption and love. Posner remains busy, collaborating with his wife on a children’s piece set to open at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. And he’s co-directing “The Tempest” with Raymond Joseph Teller, of Penn and Teller fame, with music by Tom Waits and movement by Pilobolus Dance (opening April 1 at the Smith Center in Las Vegas and then at the American Repertory Theatre in Boston). But he retains warm feelings for “Who Am I This Time?” “I love this piece. I’m very proud of it, and I hope it has a long, rich life. I love to watch people laugh, and reach over for the hand of their partner during the show. It puts a positive energy in the world in a way I find very lovely. It makes us feel more connected in the good struggle together.” A “Who Am I This Time? (And Other Conundrums of Love)” runs at North Coast Repertory Theatre in Solana Beach, Jan. 8-Feb. 2. Information and tickets are at (858) 481-1055, or online at northcoastrep.org.
Tevet•Shevat 5774 l www.SDJewishJournal.com 61
PHOTOS COURTESY ISRAEL21C
Budding Israeli fashion designers create heritage gowns in a new exhibit which opens in Israel and travels the world. BY ABILGAIL KLEIN LEICHMAN/ISRAEL21C
Here Comes the
Wedding Dress
62 www.SDJewishJournal.com l January 2014
T
he inspiration for Mor Kfir’s wedding gown design – lace interwoven with embroidered, braided threads and silk chiffon fabric – was the tragic bride possessed by a devilish dybbuk in the classic 1928 Yiddish play starring Hanna Rovina at Habima National Theatre of Israel. For Yael Geisler, inspiration took the form of her Izmir-born grandmother’s dowry chest brimming with hand-embroidered tablecloths, napkins and linens. She tailored a gown of silk satin and delicate gold lace, adorned with handembroidered oriental motifs. These two dresses are part of an exhibition, “Here Comes the Bride: Wedding Gowns Embroidering the Story of the Jewish People,” at Beit Hatfutsot, The Museum of the Jewish People, through the end of February, 2014. From Tel Aviv, it will go on the international road, stopping first in Austria. “Here Comes the Bride” results from a unique collaboration between Beit Hatfutsot and Ronen Levin’s third-year wedding-gown design students at Shenkar College of Engineering and Design. Each of the 14 students received a sketchbook and access to the museum’s entire collection of synagogue models, Judaica, marriage contracts, musical instruments, embroidery, dowry chests and family photos, says Irit Admoni Perlman, director of the museum’s Israel Friends organization and the innovator of the collaboration. “Initially, we thought the synagogues would best connect them with the Jewish lifecycle traditions,” Perlman says. But many of these talented students delved deeper, as chronicled in their sketchbooks, which are part of the exhibition. “Most of them started with one idea and ended with something else,” Perlman continues. “At the end of the day, they all did something related to their roots.” The exhibition of 13 bridal dresses, one henna ceremonial gown and one groom’s outfit reflect styles and traditions of Jewish communities in Yemen, Iraq, Turkey, Salonika, Spain, Poland, Germany, Morocco and Algiers. It first debuted at the 2012 Tel Aviv Fashion Week and at an event of the Nadav Foundation, a Beit Hatfutsot supporter and co-sponsor of the exhibition. “There is nothing like this in the world,” Perlman says. TRADITION WITH A MODERN TWIST In her sketchbook, Adi Baskhi explains that her crepe-and-organza creation copies the delicate woodcuts and thin silver cords on the oud and qanun, two traditional Middle Eastern stringed instruments that formed the soundtrack of her childhood in an Iraqi Jewish home. Delicate crochet embroidery incorporated into
Left: Chen Ariel Nachman’s “Tree of Life” design. Right: Chiffon wedding gown by Levi Shenhav, inspired by a Spanish synagogue. Hadar Brin’s voile gown evinces the meticulous scribal arts practiced by her great-grandfather in Poland, who hid a mezuzah at the start of World War II that was retrieved by her family 60 years later. A replica of a wall of the El Transito Synagogue in Toledo, Spain, inspired Levi Shenhav. “The synagogue’s design integrates elements from Islamic decorative art and from Christian painting styles, blended into traditional Jewish art and calligraphy. Together, these elements create stunning visual themes,” he writes. His white chiffon gown incorporates beaten copper leaves and flowers adorned with leather strips and light pearls, reminiscent of the synagogue’s structure. Chen Ariel Nachman’s ancestors are from Thessaloníki, Greece, where Jewish women once adorned their heads with amulets embroidered with baroque pearls in the shape of the Tree of Life symbolizing the Torah and the cycle of life. “I tailored the gown from wrinkled chiffon embroidered with baroque pearls, lace and beads, sequin leather and ropes coiled with embroidery threads, reminiscent of the fringes adjoined to Jewish prayer shawls, wishing to create an organic and natural look,” he writes. Twelfth-century German wedding rings in the shape of a house inspired Eyal Ron Meistal to incorporate the rings into the wedding gown he created.
“The gown borrows from the formal structure of the ring … tailored of wild silk embroidered with thread and beads with ornamentation borrowed from the ring. The silk organza strengthened with Plexiglas rods symbolizes the wedding canopy rods that adorn the bride’s veil.” Shani Dahan and Shani Zimmerman together created a Moroccan-style bridal gown, henna dress and groom’s ensemble inspired by the Dahan family’s heirloom baby outfit used at circumcision ceremonies, as well as the traditional jalabiya robe used in the henna ceremony. Perlman notes that the student designers used tradition as a springboard to design garments “with a modern twist.” For example, Chen Meron fashioned a simple but revealing bridal gown inspired by the leather straps of the tefillin (phylacteries) worn by Jewish men as a symbol of connecting to God and preserving Jewish identity through the trauma of the Holocaust that the Meron family survived. Meron’s gown contrasts the masculine elements of tethering, binding and clasping the leather to the arms, with the feminine, flowing bridal gown tailored of heavy crepe fabric accented by pale leather straps embroidered with golden beads. A This story was reprinted with permission from ISRAEL21c, israel21c.org.
Tevet•Shevat 5774 l www.SDJewishJournal.com 63
in the kitchen WITH
TORI AVEY
MUSHROOM BARLEY SOUP
I Tori Avey is an awardwinning food writer, recipe developer and creator of two cooking websites: The Shiksa in the Kitchen theshiksa.com and The History Kitchen thehistorykitchen.com She writes about food history for Parade.com and PBS Food. Follow Tori on Facebook by searching “Tori Avey" and on Twitter @theshiksa.
was on a college road trip when I had my first taste of mushroom barley soup. My friends and I stopped at a roadside deli. I wish I could remember the name of the place, but what I do remember is that piping hot bowl of savory soup. It was perfection on a cold afternoon, and what’s not to love? Barley and mushrooms have a rich history; both ingredients are firmly rooted in a centuries-old Jewish cooking tradition. Early on, barley served as a form of currency in Egypt. It is a valuable and robust grain that is both heat and drought tolerant, resistant to most insects and able to grow in poor soil conditions. It ripens about a month faster than other grains, which was helpful during ancient times when food supplies became scarce. Barley is mentioned several times in the Torah; it is also listed as one of the Seven Species. In ancient Israel, land value was determined by the measurement of the barley fields rather than the wheat fields. Long ago, ancient nomads discovered how to make porridge from boiled wild barley. It is hypothesized that when some of this porridge accidentally slipped into the flames below, a very early form of bread resulted. In Biblical times, when bread was mentioned, people were often referring to bread made from barley. Mushrooms, as we know, are not a vegetable but rather a fungus. The name is given to more than 38,000 varieties of fungus that possess the same threadlike roots and cap. In 1650, the French were the first to experiment with mushrooms in the kitchen. They did not reach popularity in American cuisine until the late 19th century; prior to that they were reserved mostly for making condiments. Today the most common variety of culinary mushroom is the button, which makes up about 40 percent of the mushrooms grown around the world. In ancient Israel, mushrooms were gathered after heavy rainfalls. The Talmud mentions that they were even eaten as a Passover dessert by Babylonian rabbis. Mushrooms continue to grow abundantly throughout Israel, and they remain an important ingredient in Jewish cooking. You can find mushroom barley soup on most Jewish deli menus. The dish has roots in the Ashkenazi Jewish communities of Eastern Europe. Barley was plentiful and easy to grow in the cold Eastern European climate, making it a common addition to hearty winter dishes
64 www.SDJewishJournal.com l January 2014
like soup and cholent. Mushrooms were also popular in these cold-weather countries. They were collected and dried, which intensifies the flavor, then stored for later use. Mushrooms were often added to stews, pasta, pastry fillings and soups; they were also stuffed and pickled. In my friend Etti Hadar’s family food memoir, her Polish uncle Dov Levin talks about how his mother used to string up rows of mushrooms with a thread and needle in the attic. They would hang the mushrooms near the chimney; the heat of the stove would dry them out faster that way. Ever since that college road trip, I’ve worked on developing my own soup recipe to achieve what I consider the perfect balance of mushroom barley flavor. I’ve stuck to simple, natural ingredients. Inspired by Uncle Dov’s memoir, I added dried mushrooms with their soaking liquid to the broth, along with fresh mushrooms seared golden brown. The combination adds complex flavor to an otherwise simple soup. A long, slow simmer reduces the broth, making the soup thick and rich. It can be made vegetarian by using mushroom stock. Feel free to toss a few short ribs into the soup pot for a more meaty flavor. This filling, warming soup makes a hearty lunch or dinner on a chilly winter day. Despite being “comfort food,” it is surprisingly healthy. Barley is rich in dietary fiber and contains beta glucan, a complex sugar that can help to lower cholesterol.
MUSHROOM BARLEY SOUP Ingredients 3 quarts (12 cups) chicken or mushroom stock 1 ¼ cups pearl barley 2 bay leaves 6 dried shitake mushrooms ¼ cup extra virgin olive oil, divided 1 large onion, chopped 1 cup chopped celery, including leaves 1 cup peeled and chopped carrots 2 cloves crushed garlic 1 lb. white mushrooms, scrubbed and sliced salt and pepper Serves 6-8 Kosher Key: Pareve or Meat
PHOTOS BY TORI AVEY
You will also need: Large stock pot, timer, small saucepan, skillet, paper coffee filter or clean mesh coffee filter. Pour chicken or mushroom stock into a large stockpot and bring to a boil. Stir in the barley, add the bay leaves, then reduce heat and simmer uncovered. Set your timer for 2 hours, 15 minutes starting now. While the soup simmers, place dried mushrooms in a separate small saucepan. Add 3 cups of water to the saucepan and bring to a boil over high heat. As soon as the water boils, remove saucepan from heat and let the mushrooms soak for 20 minutes. Swish the mushrooms around to dislodge any residue. Drain the mushroom water by straining it through a coffee filter (use a mesh strainer or colander to hold the filter). Reserve the mushroom water. Chop the soaked, softened mushrooms into small pieces and reserve. Heat 2 tbsp. olive oil in a large skillet over medium high heat. Add the onion to the skillet and sautée until softened. Add the celery and carrots and sauté for 5 more minutes until everything is browning and starting to caramelize. Add the chopped, soaked mushroom pieces and crushed garlic, sautée for 2 more minutes. Your kitchen should smell really good right about now! Scrape up any brown bits from the bottom of the skillet. Pour
the strained mushroom broth into the skillet, bring to a boil, stir. Cook for 2 more minutes until mixture is hot and bubbly. Add the contents of the skillet to the simmering stockpot with the broth and barley. Without rinsing the skillet, heat 1 tbsp. of olive oil over medium high heat, tilting to coat the bottom of the pan. Spread half of the sliced white mushrooms in a single layer at the bottom of the skillet. Sprinkle them with salt and pepper and turn heat to high. Let the mushrooms sear without stirring. After 2 minutes, stir the mushrooms continuously for another 1-2 minutes until they are seared golden brown and shrink to about half their size. Pour the seared mushrooms into the soup pot. Heat the last 1 tbsp. olive oil in the skillet and repeat the process for the remaining mushrooms. Add the rest of the seared mushrooms to the soup pot, stir to blend all ingredients. Reduce heat to a low simmer. Let the soup cook uncovered until your timer goes off (2 hours, 15 minutes total cooking time), or until the barley is completely tender and the soup is nicely thickened. Add water during the simmer if the soup becomes overly thick. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Serve hot. A
IKWTA
Tevet•Shevat 5774 l www.SDJewishJournal.com 65
D
WHAT’S
GOIN’ ON?
A New Year of Entertainment
by eileen sondak • nsondak@gmail.com
I
t’s a brand new year – and that means the return of the San Diego Opera for its 49th season, the launching of the Old Globe’s 2014 season with a West Coast premiere, a special addition to Broadway/San Diego’s exciting season, a world premiere from the San Diego Repertory Theatre, a celebratory concert by Jean Isaacs’ San Diego Dance Theater, and more music making from the San Diego Symphony, including a “Return Celebration” with Itzhak Perlman. That’s just the tip of the iceberg in entertainment coming our way in January. The San Diego Opera will kick off its season at the Civic Theatre on Jan. 25 with one of the most powerful and heartwrenching operas in the repertory, “Pagliacci.” Frank Porretta will sing the role of the crazed clown who
murders his wife and her lover in a jealous rage. Adina Nitescu makes her local debut as Nedda, and Yves Abel will conduct the orchestra. The performances will run through Feb. 2. As usual, the Opera’s Dow Divas will throw an opening night gala at the Civic Theatre Complex. This year, the black-tie affair will honor Erna and Andrew Viterbi, sponsors of the 2014 season. The festivities will include a pre-performance reception, and a sit-down dinner following the performance. Chef Jeffrey Strauss of Pamplemousse Grille will preside over the feast. The eclectic season will continue with Donizetti’s “The Elixir of Love” on Feb. 15. This romantic comedy, with Tatiana Lisnic and Giuseppe Filianoti in their San Diego
San Diego Opera’s production of “Pagliacci” runs Jan. 25-Feb. 2.
The San Diego Opera will kick off its season at the Civic Theatre on Jan. 25 with one of the most powerful and heartwrenching operas in the repertory, “Pagliacci.”
66 www.SDJewishJournal.com l January 2014
PHOTO BY KEN HOWARD
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PHOTO BY KEN JACQUES
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Opera debuts, will delight audiences through Feb. 23. Verdi’s “A Masked Ball” (inspired by the real-life assassination of King Gustav III of Sweden) adds a touch of danger and political intrigue to the season, while delivering some of Verdi’s most thrilling music. Piotr Beczala sings the role of the doomed king, and Lesley Koenig directs the production. A “Verdi Requiem” will be performed for one night only on March 20, bringing together a powerhouse of musical talent on the Civic Theatre stage. “Don Quixote” – the season finale – arrives April 5 to take audiences into the world of the chivalrous knight-errant who pursues his impossible dream. Ferruccio Furlanetto sings the role of Don Quixote, Eduardo Chama will play his trusty sidekick Sancho Panza, and Anke Vondung will enact the knight’s beloved Dulcinea. Local favorite Karen Keltner will conduct the orchestra. You can see this magical work through April 13. Lamb’s Players brings back fan favorite “Fiddler on the Roof,” this time at the Lyceum Theatre. Executive Director Ian Campbell was The limited engagement runs Jan. 10-Feb. 2. bursting with enthusiasm as he described this stellar season. “We have some incredible debut singers, great operas, and wonderful conductors. Foreigner.” This hilarious romp about a stuffy Symphony’s successful return from Carnegie Some of these singers might not come again” Englishman stranded in a rural Georgia lodge Hall and a tour of China with violin virtuoso (because their careers have taken off like a will open on Jan. 24 and amuse audiences until Itzhak Perlman as guest artist. The special welcome home concert and gala, slated for Jan. rocket). “The ‘Requiem’ is going to sell out. You March 2. North Coast Repertory Theatre is unveiling 11, will feature a pre-concert dinner and VIP couldn’t get a better cast,” Campbell pointed out. “We build around the singers – and we have a San Diego premiere on Jan. 8. Aaron Posner’s intermission reception as well as the performance. spectacular voices. ‘Pagliacci’ is a popular piece “Who Am I This Time? (And Other Conundrums Perlman will play Beethoven’s Violin Concerto. with a very strong cast. It will blow you away, and of Love)” – a play adapted from short stories The concert also includes works by Respighi and ‘Elixir of Love’ is a comedy we haven’t done in a by sci-fi genius Kurt Vonnegut – will take over Hindemith. Maestro Jahja Ling will be on the while – with Karen Kamensek (the first American NCR’s Solana Beach home through Feb. 2. The podium. The concert will be repeated on Jan. 12. On Jan. 24, the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra woman to head a German opera company) in the play (which deals with three love stories set in a mythological small town in America) abounds will perform Tchaikovsky’s “Symphony No. pit. It’s a very exciting season.” 5,” and Brahms’ “Double Concerto for Violin The Old Globe is starting the new year off with humor and heart. Cygnet Theatre will take on “Maple and Vine,” and Violoncello.” The incomparable Pincus with “Bethany,” a dramatic contemporary a clever fantasy about a modern couple who shun Zukerman will conduct and perform the violin, play that puts the audience in the midst of the foreclosure crisis. The play revolves around a the big city for a gated compound reminiscent with Amanda Forsyth playing cello on this special single mother trying to navigate through a dismal of the bygone world of Ozzie and Harriet. The evening at Symphony Hall. The Museum of Contemporary Art has a economy. Despite its bleak theme, “Bethany” is comedy examines attitudes about gender, race, and sexuality, and questions what people will few interesting offerings. “Lost in the Memory a comedy. The show, penned by Laura Marks, will be performed in the intimate White Theatre sacrifice for happiness. This San Diego premiere Palace: Janet Cardiff and George Bures Miller” and is recommended for mature audiences, due will be ensconced at the Old Town Theatre Jan. will feature multi-media artworks through Jan. 12. “Scripps on Prospect: Evolution of Villa to strong language. “Bethany” will run from Jan. 16 through Feb. 16. Jean Isaacs’ San Diego Dance Theater will and Cottage” is a novel collaboration between 25-Feb. 23. The Lamb’s production of “Fiddler on the perform at Mandell Weiss Theatre Jan. 17-19 – the museum and the La Jolla Historical Society. dance concerts, in honor of “Dana Montlack: Sea of Cortez” is a photographic Roof ” was such a huge success, the company with three 70-minute th its namesake’s 70 birthday. Monica Bill Barnes exhibition due to remain on display through Jan. is giving it a new life in a new home. The will return to the fold as guest artist during this 12. masterpiece will move into the Lyceum Theatre The San Diego Museum of Art is featuring in Horton Plaza on Jan. 10 for a limited run celebratory weekend of dance. The San Diego Symphony’s International “Women, War and Industry” – an exhibition of through Feb. 2. If you didn’t take the family to the production during its Coronado stay (or Passport Series will feature “A Salute to Vienna,” works primarily from the permanent collection. even if you did), you can enjoy Tevye and his with the Strauss Symphony of America, on New That show, which includes posters, photographs, Year’s Day. This exciting afternoon will highlight and some works by contemporary artists, will be precarious world again at the Lyceum. on display through Feb. 18. A Meanwhile, the Lamb’s Coronado space will 75 musicians, singers, and dancers. Symphony Hall will celebrate the San Diego revive one of its most popular comedies: “The
Tevet•Shevat 5774 l www.SDJewishJournal.com 67
N news
Jerusalem Named Top Destination
New Hebrew Name Database
Jerusalem has been named one of the “Top 10 Destinations on the Rise in the World” as part of TripAdvisor’s annual Traveler’s Choice Awards. Jerusalem placed number four on the list after Havana, Cuba; Kathmandu, Nepal; and Cusco, Peru. Other categories include Best Hotels, Best Beaches and Favorite Restaurants, as voted on by TripAdvisor community members. For more interesting travel facts, visit tripadvisor.com.
Israel Leads World in Drone Production
Launching in the new year, Hebrew Name Registry will provide the Jewish world an online database to record Hebrew names and “Hebrew name stories.” The registry system guides users through a six-step process of saving names into the database. In addition to the names, the Registry also includes date and place of birth, parents' names, namesake details, space for memories about the significance of the name and up to four photos. Cost to register a name is $18. Find more information at hebrewnameregistry.com.
Speaking at an Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV) conference in December, Dan Bichman, a consultant for Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI) noted that the U.S., France and Germany use Israeli-made UAVs in Afghanistan spy missions. The conference was held in a Tel Aviv suburb with more than 1,500 drone buyers and sellers in attendance. “Israel is already leading in this area and UAVs will do more and more of what is done today by manned platforms,” Gabi Shachor, a retired air force general and CEO of Skysapience said. “There’s no risk, since there’s no pilot.” While many attendees refused to be interviewed, press coverage of the event notes that there was significant representation from Asia, especially China and Singapore.
UCSD to Host Steven Zipperstein for "Kishinev Pogram and Jewish History" this month
The UC San Diego Judaic Studies Program will present “How the 1903 Kishinev Pogrom Changed Jewish History,” a discussion led by Steven Zipperstein, Ph.D., this month. Zipperstein, who is the Daniel E. Koshland Professor in Jewish Culture and History at Stanford University, will discuss the riot which left 49 dead, and how it impacted U.S./Russia relations and left an imprint on a diverse range of institutions. Attend the discussion on Tuesday, Jan. 14 at 8 p.m. in the Price Center Forum Room, fourth floor at UCSD. For more information, visit judaicstudies.ucsd.edu.
68 www.SDJewishJournal.com l January 2014
N news
Solomon Joins Leichtag Board
Registration Opens for Birthright Internship
On Dec. 9, 2013, the Leichtag Foundation announced the appointment of Dr. Jeffrey R. Solomon, President of the Andrea and Charles Bronfman Philanthropies, to its board of directors. Dr. Solomon also sits on numerous nonprofit and foundation boards including the Jewish Funders Network and the New Israel Fund. “I am enthusiastic about joining the board of the Leichtag Foundation and helping to lead their efforts to catalyze change,” Solomon said in a press release. Visit leichtag.org for more.
Terror Victims Awarded Retribution in Litigation After more than 10 years of litigation in San Diego and Washington D.C., five victims of terror were recently awarded $9 million to be paid by the Iranian Ministry of Defense. The suit, which began in 2001, was brought on behalf of American families who had loved ones injured in the 1997 Hamas attack in Jerusalem. After winning $70 million in the D.C. court, the families placed a lien on funds being held by Cubic Defense Systems Inc., a San Diego-based defense contractor known to do business with the government of Iran. This recent win was in the case brought against Cubic Defense to release the funds that were tied up in arbitration with Iran and the Government of Algeria. While the victims won’t be paid until Iran exhausts its opportunities for appeal, the judge in this case ordered the money be transferred into their names immediately. To read the court decision, visit http://bit.ly/1cwLPZW.
Registration is now open for Taglit-Birthright’s Excel leadership program. The 10-week, summer internship pairs 36 young people with multinational companies in industries that include finance, venture capital, consulting, hightech and bio-tech. Sponsored by the Steinhardt Family Foundation and the Charles and Lynn Schusterman Family Foundation, this program was created to develop future Jewish leaders and empower them in a world of business, technology and social entrepreneurship. Created in 2001, the program has 92 alumni that remain involved in conferences and workshops with business professionals through Birthright. Register at birthrightisraelexcel.com until Feb. 2.
Israeli Physicians Launch Simultaneous Translation Tool Rambam Health Care Campus in Haifa, Israel, recently activated a simultaneous translation device to translate conversations with medical staff in real time. The tool connects patients to a trained medical interpreting staff working around the clock at the Ministry of Health. All conversations are recorded and saved as part of the patient’s medical records. Available 24 hours a day, except on Shabbat, the service is offered in Arabic, Russian and Amharic at no cost. “It is important that the communication between the patient and the medical practitioner will take place continuously and that the language be understood by both parties,” Kobi Shir Moskowitz, the project’s coordinator, said, “in order that the patient gets the best and right treatment.” Tevet•Shevat 5774 l www.SDJewishJournal.com 69
N news
Beth Jacob Scholar in Residence
Holocaust Survivor Lou Dunst at Ohr Shalom
As part of their annual Scholar in Residence program, Congregation Beth Jacob will present Lori Palatnik on Jan. 10 and 11. A Jewish outreach educator, public speaker and author, Palatnik will speak on Friday night about Kaballah. On Shabbat at noon, she will discuss how to achieve harmony between the observant and non-observant. Her last discussion, Saturday at 4 p.m., will be “Ten Secrets to a Great Jewish Marriage.” Visit bjsd.org or call (619) 2879890 to register.
Local Holocaust survivor Lou Dunst will launch his book “My Bargain with God: The Story of Holocaust Survivor Lou Dunst” at Ohr Shalom Synagogue on Thursday, Jan. 30 at 6:30 p.m. A panel of guests, including Dunst and the book’s author Ben Kamin, will speak and take questions about Dunst’s life. The event is free but registration is requested; do so at loudunst.com.
JTA – U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said in early December that progress is being made in the current Israeli-Palestinian peace talks after meeting separately with Benjamin Netanyahu and Mahmoud Abbas, Chairman of the Palestine Liberation Organization. At a morning news conference in Jerusalem on Dec. 5, following his meeting with Netanyahu, Kerry also pledged that the Obama administration would consult Israel on a final deal on Iran’s nuclear program. Also at the news conference, he reiterated that the U.S. was committed to Israel’s security. Netanyahu said Israel is ready to complete a peace deal with the Palestinians and asserted that Israel must be able to protect itself. He called on Palestinian leaders to stop “grandstanding and finger pointing.” “There are questions of sovereignty, questions of respect and dignity which are obviously significant to the Palenstinians, and for the Israelis, very serious questions of security and also of longer-term issues of how we end this conflict once and for all,” Kerry said that same day after meeting with Abbas in Ramallah.
Studies: Habonim Dror Increases Community Engagement
A new study released in December found that Zionist youth movements have produced life-long community involvement by participants. In “Building Progressive Zionist Activists: Exploring the Impact of Habonim Dror,” authors Steven M. Cohen and Steven Fink surveyed nearly 2,000 alumni of Habonim Dror camps and programs, ages 20-83. In a separate survey conducted by the Foundation for Jewish Camps, 93 percent of alumni said that they remain connected to their Habonim Dror friends. This study also found that 61 percent of alumni donate to Jewish organizations and 56 percent actively volunteer for a charitable organization (a majority of which are Jewish). To read Cohen and Fink’s full study, visit study.hdcamp.org. 70 www.SDJewishJournal.com l January 2014
PHOTO COURTESY LOU DUNST
PHOTO COURTESY LORI PALATNIK
Secretary of State Kerry Says Progress Being Made in Peace Talks
San Diego Mayoral Candidates Address Jewish Community at Hanukkah Breakfast
New program brings public policy to the forefront for San Diego BY NATALIE JACOBS
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Early Bird Dinners $11.95 4 p.m. to 6 p.m. On Tuesday, Dec. 3 the Jewish Federation of San Diego County and Jewish Family Service brought together nearly 40 community organization partners and more than 120 attendees to connect with the two San Diego Mayoral candidates. From the city’s finances and infrastructure, to its relationship with Israel, Council members David Alvarez and Kevin Faulconer discussed how they would address these issues, should they be elected in early February. For more information on the Mayoral breakfast and future programs, visit jewishinsandiego.blogspot.com.
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www.shermansdeli.com Tevet•Shevat 5774 l www.SDJewishJournal.com 71
TAKE NOTE JANUARY 1-31 by natalie jacobs
NOTEWORTHY
F
ood, poetry, art, and a trip to the mountains, oh my! January has some seriously awesome events planned to get you out of the house and into the community during this cold and wet month. First up, mark your calendars and start doing your research for this year’s San Diego Restaurant Week. Running Jan. 19-24, 180 restaurants will offer three-course, prix-fixe dinner menus for $25, $35, or $45 per person. There are also lunchtime options at most participating restaurants with two-course menus for $10, $15, or $20 per person. Restaurants from North County to the South Bay are participating, and the event draws more than 140,000 diners so it’s best to make reservations and make sure you have plenty of time to eat (the restaurants are always packed to the brim during this week so you may have to wait a little longer than usual to get your food, but it’s worth it!). For a list of restaurants, visit sandiegorestaurantweek.com or download the iPhone and Android mobile app for details on the go. Keep Jan. 21 reservation-free so you can go to Jewish Poets/Jewish Voices for the launch of their sixth season at the Lawrence Family JCC Astor Judaica Library. This monthly event usually features an open mic available to any San Diego poet, but this program is a bit different. The evening will consist of readings of Hayyim Nachman Bialik’s poetry with a discussion about the Israeli poet lead by Gabriella Auspitz Labson. The Havurat Zemer San Diego choir will provide the soundtrack for the evening. The event is free but reservations are requested for the 7 p.m. event. Contact Susan Hagler at (858) 362-1150 or susanh@lfjcc.com. After you’ve eaten your way through San Diego and topped things off with some poetry, head to 3RDSPACE on Jan. 25 at 6 p.m. for the second annual 1:1 Repurposed Art Show or P(ART)Y. To promote the organization’s mission to raise awareness about living sustainably, the group asked 30 artists to decorate recycled tote bags. Their work will be on display at the P(ART)Y and you’ll be free to browse their creations while joining conversations about culture, community and eco-responsibility. Started by Jonathan Zaidman, a member of the Ken Jewish Community and other Jewish organizations around town, the 1:1 Movement runs education and community programs to raise awareness about the issues of sustainability. Finally, JCC Teens is hosting a Big Bear Ski and Snowboarding Trip. The adventure actually takes off in February, but registration is filling up. This trip, happening over the President’s Day holiday from Feb. 14-17, is for ninth-12th grade skiers and snowboarders. The fee ($625 for JCC members/$700 for nonmembers) covers transportation, food, lift tickets and lodging. If participants don’t have their own gear, they’ll need to rent it before they leave for the trip. Register by Jan. 15 with Karen Flexer Friedenberg at karenf@lfjcc.com or (858) 362-1331. A 72 www.SDJewishJournal.com l January 2014
Mark your calendar.
RESTAURANT WEEK Sunday, Jan. 19 thru Friday, Jan. 24 140 particitpating restaurants throughout San Diego JEWISH POETS/ JEWISH VOICES Tuesday, Jan. 21 7 p.m. Lawrence Family JCC Astor Judaica Library
REPURPOSED ART SHOW Saturday, Jan. 25 6p.m. 3rd Space
BIG BEAR SKI AND SNOWBOARDING TRIP Feb. 14-17 Leaving from the Lawrence Family JCC
SAN DIEGO JEWISH
SENIOR EVENTS JANUARY 1-31
Lawrence Family JCC 4126 Executive Drive, La Jolla Contact Melanie Rubin for details or to R.S.V.P. (858) 362-1141. Armchair Astronomy: The Russian Meteor Wednesday, Jan. 8, 11 a.m. Cost is $5 for members, $8 for nonmembers. RSVP to Melanie by Jan. 2 Itzhak Perlman in Recital at Copley Symphony Hall Jan. 11 Bus leaves from the JCC. Tickets and seats on the bus are limited. Contact Melanie for details and to register. How Technology is Changing Our Lives Wednesday, Jan. 21, 1:30 p.m. Cost is $8 for members, $10 for nonmembers. RSVP to Melanie by Jan. 14. Chocolate and Tea Tasting Tuesday, Jan. 28, 1:30 p.m. Cost is $8 for members, $10 for nonmbemers. RSVP to Melanie by Jan. 20. Oceanside Senior Center 455 Country Club Lane, Oceanside Call Josephine at (760) 295-2564 North County Jewish Seniors Club Third Thursday of each month, 12:30 p.m. Join us to hear speakers and/ or entertainment at our monthly meetings. Light refreshments served. Visitors welcome. Joslyn Senior Center 210 Park Ave./Broadway, Escondido Call (760) 436-4005 Jewish War Veterans meetings Second Sunday of each month, 11 a.m. Preceded by a bagel/lox breakfast
at 10:45 a.m. San Diego North County Post 385. JFS University City Older Adult Center 9001 Towne Centre Drive, La Jolla Call Aviva Saad for details or to R.S.V.P. (858) 550-5998. This Month in History Wednesday, Jan. 8, 10 a.m. With chair exercise, dancing and entertainment by pianist Karen Giorgio. Lunch available at noon with reservation. Celebrate Tu B’Shvat Thursday, Jan. 16, 10 a.m. With chair exercise, dancing and entertainment by guitarist and pianist Greg Feldman. Lunch available at noon with reservation. Martin Luther King Program Tuesday, Jan. 21, 10 a.m. With chair exercise, dancing and music by Musicstation. Lunch available at noon with reservation. On the Go excursions A program of Jewish Family Service, On the Go provides transportation to events throughout the county for homebound seniors. For information on any of these excursions, please call (858) 6377320. Hornblower Whale Watching Cruise Friday, Jan. 17, bus leaves at 8:30 a.m. Cost is $75 due by Jan. 10. Sweethearts of Swing, California Center for the Arts, Escondido Wednesday, Feb. 5, bus leaves at 6 p.m. Cost is $29 due by Jan. 31. The Real Inglorious Bastards, Jewish Film Festival and dinner Tuesday, Feb. 11, bus leaves at 3:45 p.m. Cost is $32 due by Feb. 4.
CONGREGATION BETH EL: 8660 GILMAN DRIVE, LA JOLLA
Tuesday, Jan. 14, 11:30 a.m. Science and Succesful Aging Call (858) 452-1734 for details or to R.S.V.P. JFS No. County Inland Center 15905 Pomerado Road, Poway Call (858) 674-1123 for details or to R.S.V.P. Good Mood Foods with Janice Baker, registered dietician Monday, Jan. 6, 11 a.m. Start the new year knowing what foods can enhance your mood. Travel Photography Through the Ages with Kevin Linde Wednesday, Jan. 8, 11 a.m. Trends in Judaism: What’s New and What’s Making a Comeback with Rabbi Lenore Bohm Monday, Jan. 27, 11 a.m. JFS Coastal Club at Temple Solel 3575 Manchester Ave., Cardiff by the Sea Call Melinda Wynar at (858) 6741123 for details. R.S.V.P. for lunch by Monday at 12:30 p.m. Opera Greats: A Visual Journey with Eric Miner Tuesday, Jan. 7, 11 a.m. The Art of Antonio Gaudi and Niki de St. Phalle with Professor Arline
Paa Tuesday, Jan. 28, 11 a.m. JFC College Avenue Center 4855 College Ave., San Diego Call (858) 637-3270 for details or to R.S.V.P. Women’s Vision in Jewish Life with Rabbi Aliza Berk Thursday, Jan. 2, 12:45 p.m. Come explore a feminine perspective on prayer and family connections Violin and Piano Concert with Jonathan Sussman Friday, Jan. 3, 12:30 p.m. Listen to this 16-year-old local musician perform classical and jazz compositions. Balance and Vertigo with Physical Therapist Melody Stevens Monday, Jan. 6 at 12:45 p.m. Focus on improving balance and living with vertigo. A
WANT MORE CALENDAR? The full version of San Diego’s most complete Jewish events calendar is now online at sdjewishjournal.com.
Send submissions to calendar@sdjewishjournal.com. Tevet•Shevat 5774 l www.SDJewishJournal.com 73
THE MARKETPLACE
EVENTS
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Cantor Deborah Davis
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Let me help you create a wedding, commitment ceremony or baby-naming that will reflect the beauty and spirituality of your special day. As a Humanist cantor I welcome Jewish and interfaith couples and will honor the customs of both families. I also perform all life-cycle ceremonies. For further information please contact www.deborahjdavis.com Deborah Davis • (619) 275-1539
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MUSIC
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THE MARKETPLACE
SAN DIEGO JEWISH COMMUNITY OBITUARIES
SENIORS
Arrangements by Am Israel Mortuary
ALL SERVICES ALREADY HELD Gerald Eaton – San Marcos 8/26/1931-8/25/2013 Survivors: partner, Delores Hunt; and daughter, Courtney Hunt
6193 Lake Murray Blvd., Ste B La Mesa, CA 91942
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The Gateway/Gateway Gardens 12751 Gateway Park Road/ 12750 Gateway Park Road Poway, CA 92064 (858)451-9933 x 102 / Fax (858)521-0513 www.rhf.org A Retirement Housing Foundation Community
Isaac Davidi – San Diego 1/5/1934-8/27/2013 Survivors: wife, Janet Davidi; daughter, Debbie Davidi; son, Michael Davidi; and six grandchildren
Diane Benaroya t: 858.776.0550
dianeb@sdjewishjournal.com • www.sdjewishjournal.com
76 www.SDJewishJournal.com l January 2014
Shirley Bilker – La Jolla 3/10/1926-9/12/2013 Survivors: daughter, Barbara Blake Jairus Ghan – San Diego 8/3/1936-9/15/2013 Survivors: wife, Elizabeth Ghan; daughter, Melissa Ghan and son, Christopher Ghan
Cecilia Michan – La Jolla 5/31/1931-8/29/2013 Survivors: husband, David Michan; sons, Henry, Alberto and Carlos Michan; seven grandchildren; and six greatgrandchildren
William Feldman – San Diego 6/3/1919-9/18/2013 Survivors: daughter, Judith Schwartzman
Sylvia Perez – Carlsbad 8/24/1927-8/30/2013 Survivors: husband, Simon Perez; daughters, Suzy Fisch and Annie Perez; sons, Alain, Charlie and Manou Perez; five grandchildren and two greatgrandchildren
Miriam Weksler – El Cajon 1/10/1920-9/19/2013 Survivors: son, Abe Weksler
Camila Bemerguy – Chula Vista 12/19/1920-8/30/2013 Survivors: daughter, Nora Taratuta; son, Hugo Bemerguy; five grandchildren and six great-grandchildren Linda Rose – San Diego 9/28/1935-9/2/2013 Survivors: daughters, Andrea Grossman and Pamela Cory; son, Brad Witte; sister, Susan Kaplan and five grandchildren Susana Saul – Chula Vista 5/13/1940-9/3/2013 Survivors: sons, David and Moses Saul and one grandchild
It’s MORE than just a magazine. IT’S A LIFESTYLE
5/28/1940-9/6/2013 Survivors: daughter, Bradley Blum
Lee Levy – San Diego 8/14/1931-9/4/2013 Survivors: wife, Bonnie Levy; daughters, Lori and Lisa Levy; sons, Mike, Bill and Brett Levy and nine grandchildren Joan Dreiseszun – Scottsdale, Ariz.
Alan Roth – Carlsbad 6/10/1943-9/20/2013 Survivors: wife, Geraldine Roth
Jeanette Helfgott – Solana Beach 1/19/1927-9/21/2013 Survivors: son-in-law, Marty Schwartz Muriel Filman – La Jolla 2/10/1926-9/24/2013 Survivors: husband, Seymour Filman; sons, Robert and David Filman; seven grandchildren; and three great-grandchildren Max Balisha – San Diego 10/22/1949-9/24/2013 Survivors: father, Shlomo Balisha; wife, Hazel Reid and son, Eric Balisha Aleksandr Lepler – La Mesa 7/17/1930-9/27/2013 Survivors: son, Lee Lepler and two grandchildren Helene Zaguli – San Diego 11/30/1920-9/25/2013 Survivors: sons, Marvin and Ronald Zaguli and four grandchildren Arnold Packer – San Diego 3/23/1927-9/29/2013 Survivors: wife, Marilyn Packer
desert life
PALM SPRINGS by Pamela Price
pamprice57@gmail.com
A Command Performance for Mezzo-Soprano Laurie Rubin Blind vocalist to sing at Israel Guide Dog Center's annual event again
PHOTO BY JONATHAN BARKAT
Laurie Rubin will entertain guests at the Israel Guide Dog Center for the Blind’s annual luncheon, Feb. 19.
T
his year’s luncheon for the Israel Guide Dog Center for the Blind (IGDCB), themed “Orchids and Opera,” will be held Feb. 19 in the ballroom at the Agua Caliente Resort, Casino and Spa in Rancho Mirage. Once again, Laurie Rubin, a blind mezzo-soprano with the gift of music, will be the featured guest artist. Rubin will be accompanied by Jennifer Taira, who will perform a selection of opera classics along with her own composition, “The Girl I Am.” This is the fourth annual fundraising event for the IGDCB’s Matthew Varon Chapter, founded by Helen Varon, who is a resident of Rancho Mirage and Coronado, Calif. Rubin’s life is like a book, but the word “obstacle” was never in her vocabulary. She graduated from Yale University with a Master of Music and later wrote a book, “Do You Dream in Color?” All the while, her guide dog,
Mark, was by her side. “He was with me during my school years as my constant companion,” she says. For Israelis, the ability to have a companion like Mark is made possible thanks to the IGDCB’s training program. IGDCB dogs can respond to Hebrew commands after less than 30 days of instruction, enabling blind Israelis to reach a level of freedom that changes their lives dramatically. Independence, self-esteem and companionship are the result of this partnership between Israelis and their guide dogs. Executive Director Michael Leventhal, based in Warrington, Penn., says that among the 27,000 visually impaired people in Israel are soldiers as well as innocent civilians who have suffered injuries following acts of terrorism. “When a blind Israeli requests our assistance, we transport them to the center, house and feed them for three weeks during training and then provide an additional week of training at their homes,” he says of the extensive training program between master and guide dog. “There is follow-up care twice a year, and this is all possible through the generosity of donors.” This year’s luncheon hopes to gain crucial support for the Center, and will honor Lori Sarner. Sarner is known throughout the desert as the founder of Pegasus Therapeutic Riding in Palm Desert, a non-profit organization providing equine therapy to the disabled at no cost for more than 32 years. Both Pegasus and IGDCB share much in common although they are miles apart. A highlight of this year’s event is an auction, featuring a round trip ticket on El Al Airlines between Los Angeles and Tel Aviv, along with two nights at the new Ritz Carlton Hotel in Herzliya. For more information, call (760) 321-9233, or visit israelguide.org. A Tevet•Shevat 5774 l www.SDJewishJournal.com 77
78 www.SDJewishJournal.com l January 2014