JUNE 2018 • Sivan / Tammuz 5778
ARTS issue + Bayside Summer Nights, the Old Globe La Jolla Playhouse, North Coast Rep, Cygnet, Malashock and more! Sivan • Tammuz 5778 | SDJewishJournal.com 1
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June 2018
Theater:
Sivan/Tammuz 5778
35
La Jolla Playhouse is getting a little nutty with “Squirrels.”
Dance:
33
Swing by the bay for the Symphony’s Bayside Summer Nights.
40
Malashock Dance's annual gala fundraises for their outreach and education program Math in Motion. 8 SDJewishJournal.com | June 2018
Music:
Theater:
42
Monty Python's "Spamalot" comes to Cygnet Theatre at the end of the month.
On the Cover: The Lipinsky Family San Diego Jewish Arts Festival is back for its 25th year with klezmer, new plays and a tribute to Leonard Cohen.
MONTHLY COLUMNS 12 The Starting Line 22 Personal Development and Judaism 24 Israeli Lifestyle 26 Examined Life 28 Religion 72 Advice
Around Town 18 Our Town 20 The Scene 68 What's Goin On 65 Synagogue Life In Every Issue 14 Mailbag 16 What’s up Online 74 Diversions 70 News
ALSO IN THIS ISSUE:
38 ARTS The Old Globe
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45
ARTS North Coast Rep's summer is filled will drama and comedy.
48 ARTS From spaghetti to spumoni, Taste of Little Italy should be delicious.
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56 ARTS Contributor Eva Beim reflects on her music and anti-Semitism.
60 BOOK REVIEW of
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Sivan • Tammuz 5778 | SDJewishJournal.com 11
FROM THEEDITOR’S EDITOR LETTER
Summer Nights THE STARTING LINE by Brie Stimson
editor@sdjewishjournal.com
What’s summer without fireworks?
12 SDJewishJournal.com | June 2018
ummer is one of the best times to take in the arts – and summer in San Diego – well that’s something. On any given night in our fair city, there’s certain to be more than a couple of good choices. Let’s start with the inimitable Bayside Summer Nights (pg. 33). I’ll admit I went for the first time last summer, although since I’ve lived in Coronado for seven years, I could often hear the enchanting music across the bay and see the fireworks. Needless to say, when I saw Tony Bennett last summer I was enthralled – and not just because of the legendary crooner. The venue is absolutely amazing. Just sitting by the bay on a warm summer evening listening to live music, well let’s just say it’s something you might be inclined to write a song about. I definitely plan to take in a few more concerts this year and I’d like to catch some fireworks because what’s summer without fireworks? Bayside Summer Nights isn’t the only outdoor show. The Old Globe (pg. 39) will be showing “The Tempest” during their Summer Shakespeare Festival in June and July at the outdoor Lowell Davies Festival Theatre. La Jolla Music Society’s SummerFest returns at La Jolla Cove to celebrate Cho-Liang Lin’s 18 years as musical director and his last festival as musical director. Del Mar’s Summer Twilight Concert Series runs on intermittent Tuesday nights, the Carlsbad Music Festival brings music to the beach at the end of August, Coronado has Sunday afternoon concerts in Speckels Park all summer long, Balboa Park’s Twilight in the Park Summer Concerts returns to the historic Speckels Organ Pavilion and Mission Hills Summer Concerts in the Park will be at Pioneer Park in the evenings. Summer Movies in the Park is a fun family evening out in parks from Old Town to Fallbrook. There are also more than a few fun theatrical choices indoors. (Sometimes it gets cold at night). Summer is a great time, I think, to see some really silly (yet astute) plays. I’m very excited about the Cygnet’s
version of “Spamalot” (pg. 42). Admittedly, I’ve always been a fan of quirky comedy, and it’s safe to say I will embarrass myself by laughing so hard I cry during the show. Ready? OK! “Bring it On The Musical” will be at San Diego Musical Theatre throughout June for those longing for some cheerleader angst. The Broadway tour of “School of Rock The Musical,” Andrew Lloyd Weber’s adaptation of the Jack Black film will be at the Civic Theatre the same month. North Coast Rep's "A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum," starring Omri Schein, will open in Solana Beach in July. I’m also highly intrigued by La Jolla Playhouse’s “Squirrels” (pg. 35). They had me at the warning that said, “This show contains squirrels engaging in R-rated behaviors.” I think it is a real warning to keep the kiddies away, but it also makes me laugh. If you’re feeling a bit peckish, the Tacos and Tequila Festival in East Village on June 11 should be caliente, Taste of Little Italy, (pg. 48) a pasta lover’s dream, will offer samples from local restaurants on June 13 and the San Diego International Beer Festival, represented by nearly 200 breweries, will be at the San Diego County Fair on June 1718. The fair (June 1-July 4) itself will have its own summer concert series (including Sugarland, Barenaked Ladies and Gabriel “Fluffy” Iglesias) as well as a lot of food. There’s a bevy of festivals throughout the summer. If you’re historically inclined, Old Town’s Stagecoach Days rides in at the end of the month, the San Diego Pride Parade, musical festival and block party takes over Hillcrest in mid-July and of course Comic-Con will be at the end of July. I know I’m leaving out a lot – but our city has a lot to do this summer. Hopefully you’re inspired by this list to check out some new shows or events or go to an old favorite, and I hope you venture out and find fun entertainment I neglected to write about. Happy summering! A
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let us know what’s on your mind.
Dear Editor, I was offended by your editorial "Decency" in the April issue. I do not disagree with the message you were trying to bring out. A few people say terrible things, and it is blown out of proportion that the masses (who you don't support) all think this way. You could have written your article without making reference to those who voted different than you. What offends me is that you assume all Jews are Democrats. Why do you feel you have a right to criticize what the majority voted in the last Presidential election (we are a democratic society, right)? Because you did not get what you want, that gives you the right to bash what the majority voted for? I may not agree with the methods of leadership President Trump brings, but I must go along with the process, give him a chance and support when I can. To me it is anti-American to not support your president. The shooting in the Florida high school was horrific, and the majority of people in the USA agree with that and are very saddened that our society is so dysfunctional. Yes, even Republicans feel that way! I read the Jewish Journal to feel part of the Jewish community. I do not think your readers want to hear your political views, especially when it had nothing to do with the Jewish community. J London
CORRECTIONS:
In “Klezmer, Leonard Cohen and Women of Valor: Get Ready for a Quarter-Century of JFest” [May, 2018] it was incorrectly stated that Todd Salovey is San Diego Rep’s artistic director. He is the associate artistic director. Also, gala chair Julia Ramirez-Stone was honored as a Woman of Valor before 2018. In “Moving Pieces: Silver Linings Transitions Helps Get Seniors Where They’re Going” [May, 2018] the website for new TV show “Senior Savers” was misspelled. The correct address is SeniorSavers.tv. In “What’s Goin On” [May, 2018] Eileen Sondak’s byline was omitted. All corrections have been changed on the website. SDJJ regrets these errors.
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Heart of the Family Marsha Berkson Jamie, Bryce and Tyler Carr Cohn Family Foundation Copart Emily & Daniel Einhorn Marcia Foster Hazan & Mark Cammell* Linda & Mel Katz
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Heart of Gold Barbara Bloom • Care1st/BlueShield • Elaine Chortek • City National Bank Amy Corton & Carl Eibl • Delphi Private Advisors • Marjorie & Sheldon Derezin Judy & Mike Feldman • Diane & Elliot Feuerstein • Alberta Feurzeig • Kira Finkenberg* Hanna & Mark Gleiberman • Alan Haubenstock, Brian Haubenstock & Lori Shearer Jewish Community Foundation of San Diego • Dori & Charles Kaufman • The San Diego Foundation Sandra & Arthur Levinson • Jennifer & Jay Levitt • Sheila & Jeffrey Lipinsky* Sylvia & Jaime Liwerant • Manheim • Meiselman Family* • Rowling & Associates* • Susan Shmalo Marcie Sinclair & Andy Ratner • Karin & Tony Toranto • UDW • Sharon & David Wax Sylvia Wechter • Emma & Leo Zuckerman
Honorary Chair Ernest Rady
Board Chair Marie G. Raftery; Gala Chairs Karin Toranto, Erin Combs Pearl, and Jamie Carr; CEO Michael Hopkins
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Gala Patrons Loretta H. Adams & William Snyder • Lee & Amnon Ben-Yehuda • Dena Bloom Gail & Mark Braverman • Rebecca & James Brewer • Barbara Bry & Neil Senturia • Deborah Bucksbaum* Capital Auto & Truck Auction, Inc. | Catherine & Gabriel Piorko • Pamela & Edward Carnot* Laurie & Matthew Coleman • Robin & Leo Eisenberg* • Claire & David Ellman April & Mathew Fink | Comfort Keepers • Laura Galinson & Jodi Diamond* • Meg & Allan Goldstein Michael Hopkins & James Lu • Hughes Marino CM • Hilary & Selwyn Isakow • Ann & Richard Jaffe Emily & Chris Jennewein | TimesOfSanDiego.com* • Susan & David Kabakoff* Margaret & Jerald z’l Katleman* • Lisa & Gregg Kornfeld • Jennifer & Mathew Kostrinsky Caryl Lees Witte • Jessica & Michael Lees • Pat Libby | Pat Libby Consulting Liber-Lincoln Wealth Management Group - Wells Fargo Advisors • Anna & Chris McGuiness Danielle & Brian Miller | Geppetto’s • Susan & James Morris • Ohr Ami, The Jewish Hospice Program | Lightbridge Hospice and Palliative Care • Erin Combs Pearl & Howard Pearl • Peddle Safdie Rabines Architects • San Diego Ice Arena • M.T. & James Schaeffer* Vera z’l & Thomas Sickinger • Lisa & Brad Slavin* • Nanci & Ronald Slayen • Jill & Mark Spitzer Jill Stone • Caryn & Alan Viterbi • Cathy & John Weil • Rachel & Adam Welland* Helene & Allan Ziman • Joellyn & Ron Zollman* Sivan • Tammuz 5778 | SDJewishJournal.com 15
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Jewish National Fund Opens Outdoor Playground in Sderot, Israel Ten years after JNF’s Sderot Indoor Recreation Center opened its doors and replaced the sound of bombs with the sound of laughter, Jewish National Fund returned for a special tour of the playground and to open a new outdoor playground. JNF President Dr. Sol Lizerbram, who was on the tour, proudly reported how well the music program is doing. "Today, the music program is packed with children," Lizerbram said. "Children here get a new instrument and regular lessons, and thankfully, we’ve replaced the frightening and traumatic sound of rockets with the lovely sound of music.” Read JNF’s full story online.
“Transparent” Coming to an End What Comes After the Iran Deal? Last month President Trump announced the U.S. would be pulling out of the Iran Nuclear Deal. France, Germany and Britain have remained committed to the deal, but Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu was pleased to see the U.S. leave. Trump said he’s ready to keep talking, so what’s next with Iran?
“Transparent,” the Amazon Studios television series about the Jewish transgender matriarch of a Los Angeles family, will end after its upcoming fifth season. Actor Jeffrey Tambor, who plays the lead role of Maura Pfefferman, was fired from the series in February, following an investigation into allegations that he sexually harassed two women associated with the production. In November, Trace Lysette, who plays a recurring character on the series, and Van Barnes, Tambor’s former assistant, accused him of sexual misconduct. Tambor has denied the allegations.
US Dedicates Embassy in Jerusalem The United States dedicated its newly established embassy in Jerusalem in a high-profile ceremony attended by prominent Trump administration officials last month. Both Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and President Reuven Rivlin pronounced the “Shehechyanu” prayer during the Monday afternoon ceremony, which is said when one is thankful for a new or unusual experience.
16 SDJewishJournal.com | June 2018
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President Dr. Ray Sachs (left) was honored at the Lights of Ohr Shalom gala.
our TOWN BY LINDA BENNETT & EMILY BARTELL, PHOTOGRAPHY COURTESY OF OHR SHALOM, LFJCC & BETH ISRAEL.
Honoree Helene Schlafman (C) with co-chairs Joanne Gimbel (L) and Tammy Vener at the Beth Israel Annual Fundraiser.
13th Annual Lights of Ohr Shalom Gala, Beth Israel’s Annual Fundraiser “Camp Eemah” and San Diego Jewish BookFest
On Sunday, April 29th, we attended the 13th Annual Lights of Ohr Shalom Gala, honoring President Dr. Ray Sachs for his outstanding commitment and service! Held at the Hilton Bayfront Hotel, Dr. Sachs was joined by his entire family in celebration. Others enjoying the festivities were Joy Heitzmann & Jack Cohen, Karen Rund, Rita Cohen, David Shtermberg, Jaime & Denisse Brener, Jane Zeer, Cindy Newman, Al Shelden, Ed & Elaine Schreiber, Rocky & Debbie Reid, Bill & Amy Morris, Ana & Jose Galicot, Alma & Jonathon Geiger, Mark & Elaine Smith, Eli & Susie Meltzer and Rabbi Scott & Jennifer Meltzer. Many enjoyed the 23rd Annual San Diego Jewish BookFest held mostly at the LFJCC, celebrating readers and writers, words and ideas, inside and outside the book. Two highlights of the event for us were Senator Barbara Boxer and Rabbi Michael Berenbaum. Some of those we saw in attendance were Earl & Sarah Scott Feldman, Roberta Berman, Norman & Barbara Parker Ratner, Rhoda Nevins, Cheryl Nissen, Bob Jacobson & Andy Frimmer, Shelly & Harvey Neiman, Sylvia Liewerant, Marty & Nancy Goldberg and Liba Sherman. Honoring Helene Schlafman for her 50 years of visionary leadership to the community and generations of children, Congregation Beth Israel held its Annual Gala on Saturday, May 12th, in her honor. Reflecting on her work, the evening’s theme, “Camp Eemah,” honored her work, having started Camp Beth Israel. In its time, Camp Beth Israel was an overnight summer camp, which engaged hundreds of Beth Israel youth. Kudos goes to Chairpersons, Joanne Gimbel and Tammy Vener, for their hard work in creating this wonderful tribute. About 400 people attended, including 13-month-old Hailey Klansnic with her parents Bill & Kristen, Justin Goodman, Claudia Cortadi & Marty Gross, Cynthia & Howard Fram, Leslie & Scott Lyon, Vivian Rich, Rabbi Jonathan & Susan Stein, Warren & Marilyn Dean, Marcia & Len Fram, Betty Fain, Cassi Birnbaum and Carol Levy. Congratulations to… Ed & Judy Applbaum's 50th wedding anniversary. Chuck & Amy Spielman's 50th wedding anniversary. Sam & Roann Krasner's 65th wedding anniversary.
Cookbook Author Joan Nathan dishes at San Diego Jewish BookFest Brunch.
18 SDJewishJournal.com | June 2018
Mazel Tov to…. Elana Levens-Craig on the birth of their grandson, Trevor Scott Snoddy.A
Sivan • Tammuz 5778 | SDJewishJournal.com 19
Barbara Riggs and Mark van Roode.
Maria Delgado and Tamara Lafarga.
Art Alive at the San Diego Museum of Art
Every spring, the San Diego Museum of Art is transformed into a world of flora for the museum’s biggest fundraiser Art Alive. Floral designers from all over the county – and as far away as Los Angeles and San Francisco -- create floral interpretations of masterpieces from the museum’s permanent collection, and the results are stunning. As part of this recent celebration, supporters enjoyed fine cuisine from several local restaurants, while they admired the artistry on display throughout the galleries. Music and dancing were also part of the package for donors attending the 37th annual “Bloom Bash.” Not surprisingly, many of the “Bloom Bash” attendees were decked out in colorful floral designs. This year’s Art Alive coincided with the kickoff of a dazzling new exhibition by contemporary artist Nancy Lorenz. Guests got a preview of her magnificent “Moon Gold” during the festive evening. Among the many donors and partners for Art Alive 2018 were Karen and Donald Cohn, Lee and Frank Goldberg, Barbara Katz, Jene and Paul Mosher, Emma and Leo Zuckerman, Toni Bloomberg, Janice and David Lowenberg and Rana Sampson. A
the BY EILEEN SONDAK PHOTOS BY RYAN SONDAK
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20 SDJewishJournal.com | June 2018
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Sivan • Tammuz 5778 | SDJewishJournal.com 21
PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT AND JUDAISM
The Last Lesson: LGHF
THIS WAY TO EDEN by Rachel Eden
rachel.s.eden@gmail.com
The anticipation was high and as my teacher, my pious, kind, brilliant, modest teacher wrote on the board her two rules for successful religious living, I nearly fell off my chair: Look Good & Have Fun.
22 SDJewishJournal.com | June 2018
here I sat in Jerusalem, the holiest city in the world, on my last day of seminary, waiting for my favorite teacher to share her farewell message to us. What wisdom would she pass along for us to carry through adulthood and beyond? What words would I hold dear for the rest of my days? Perhaps she would discuss the importance of prayer or the pillar of kindness in Judaism. Maybe she would describe how mitzvot are the structures that bring us closer to everyone around us and ourselves. The anticipation was high and as my teacher, my pious, kind, brilliant, modest teacher wrote on the board her two rules for successful religious living, I nearly fell off my chair: Look Good & Have Fun (LGHF). This must be a joke. I was sure of it. The phrase “self-care” was not yet en vogue, but surely my teacher who prided herself on dissecting lofty intellectual and moral concepts was not summing up all of these principles to come to exactly that. Did my teacher look good? She looked presentable, but I wouldn’t say fashionable. She was not quick to try a fad diet. Certainly no one would call her a trend setter! As for her second directive to have fun? With 13 children and two jobs teaching in Jerusalem seminaries, I can’t imagine the kind of fun she could possibly have. The idea of her going out for drinks with friends or even frequenting a day spa seems incomprehensible. Now that I’m around the age my teacher was when she spoke those words, I think a lot about what they mean to me and my life today. I have a fraction of the number of children she has, and I’m nowhere near as pious, but I can relate to aspects of her lifestyle. In our busyness to accomplish, to live life ambitiously, to honor our commitments, looking good and having fun may not always emerge as an important goal or a goal at all. The problem is that an unbalanced life is generally not a happy or successful one. There must be some classic psychological source to support this. Perhaps somewhere between the needs of aesthetic and transcendence in Abraham Maslow’s hierarchy lies LGHF. Certainly the Jewish tradition acknowledges the importance of
LGHF by balancing the edict against gluttony with instructing that good food (such as fish and meat), good spirits (wine and otherwise), and new clothes are fundamental in honoring a happy holiday. Lately, I’ve been prioritizing my favorite class at the gym over folding laundry. I’ve begun volunteering to run errands at home and work just to savor some sweet alone time in the car. I even splurged on a pricey night out with my husband for no good reason at all. The results of these micro-decisions are startling. I feel happier, more nourished, and those good feelings, in turn, energize and nurture the relationships around me. I also have more focus when I’m working in the office or at home. Perhaps, most importantly, I feel more secure with myself. All of that actually drives me to get everything else done and to do it better. I see the reverse is true as well. I coach women who tell me they are dropping areas of religious observance because it no longer gives them joy or vitality. Just as often, women share that they have abandoned their fitness goals or dreams of marital harmony for the same reason. There is no accomplishment we can stay motivated to work toward without some element of pleasure – even if the pleasure is in the hard work. LGHF are the prerequisites to sustaining the investment of time and energy substantial goals demand. In hindsight, I realize now why my teacher saved these words for her last class. All of her Torah teachings were brimming with idealism, justice, and love and so they required work. They required heavy spiritual lifting. We must resist mediocrity and fuel up for full living. First, we have to remember that we represent a high standard of compassion, integrity, truth, dignity, and discipline so we should look the part. Then, we need to know that life is a marathon – not a sprint – so we must carve out a significant space for pleasure. As for me, as I toil over my own spiritual goals, I’ll be heading to my local florist to purchase a bouquet of peonies just so I can smile when I walk past my dining room, and I’ll continue to hold dear my teacher’s last lesson.A
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Sivan • Tammuz 5778 | SDJewishJournal.com 23
ILLUSTRATION COURTESY OF PEPÉ FAINBERG
ISRAELI LIFESTYLE
LIVING ON THE FRONT PAGE by Andrea Simantov
andreasimantov@gmail.com
Tradition
the plastic baskets. He likes laundry and my hero even separates lights and darks. But because he’d never watched a YouTube y husband and I are comfortably instruction video on how to fold a fitted old-fashioned. He shops and takes sheet, he didn’t. Having grown up in a poor out the garbage and I cook and South African home with a doting mothclean. Equally invested in our marriage, we er and requisite day-maid, neither had indon’t analyze. For us, it works. formed him that clothing does not magicalI went alone to visit my children and ly appear on shelves. I’d washed seven white grandchildren for a month and knew that shirts for him, all on hangers, in preparation my house would be dirty, dirty, dirty when for the Sabbathes I’d be gone. There hadn’t I returned. To say that my husband is not been time to iron them so I set up the board domestically inclined is generous, but I and plugged in the iron and he merrily aswouldn’t want him to be the butt of anti- sured me that he ‘could do that.’ When I quated jokes. Still, how can I not share that returned, I observed the same creased shirts this spousal-relic of the Baby Boomer gener- on the same hangers on the same doorknobs ation could not figure out the controls of a where I’d left them. He’d bought new shirts, no-frills dishwasher? Brown streaks covering wearing them fresh from the package. They the front of a once-white machine remind were smoother. me of NYC subway tunnels circa 1978 that Still, there were some impressive culinary connect the 34th street Local to the Grand moments. Weary of takeout meals for nuCentral shuttle. He confessed that the dish- tritional sustenance, he finally accessed his washer was a challenge and, after pressing inner Betty Crocker and cooked for himall of the buttons all of the time, he gave up. self. One evening we ate ‘together’ via a The mop and pail were exactly where I’d video chat. I was in my daughter’s Johanleft them thirty days earlier and any nov- nesburg kitchen and my husband magically ice recruit to a governmental CSI division appeared on screen, sitting at our Jerusalem could have easily identified the contents of table. Before him was a lovely blue cerammidnight repasts, which dotted the mot- ic plate. Steam rose from beautifully grilled ley-floor of my never-immaculate kitch- vegetables and skinless, boneless chicken en. Seven shriveled French fries hid beneath breasts. the microwave oven. “I made dinner,” he boasted. I was a litThe laundry room was apparently his tle stunned – and excited – thinking that bailiwick. Piles and piles of freshly laun- he might prove to be an adequate sous chef dered linen and gym clothing overflowed in time.
24 SDJewishJournal.com | June 2018
“But the oven is self-cleaning, Ronney. I took it apart before I left and washed all of the racks and shelves in the dishwasher before piling them on the floor of the oven. Did you put it back together?” “Uh, I thought it looked a little odd. But it worked.” Pressing my lips together, I understood. “Are you telling me that you cooked on top of the pile? In what pan?” He proudly responded, “I found a disposable pan, put the food in it, poured on some barbecue sauce and put it in.” “At what temperature?” “I turned the dial until it stopped. When the oven felt hot, I put the food in. When it looked done, I took it out.” Neither cave dwellings, Bedouin tents or Abe Lincoln’s mother had turbo-settings or meat thermometers; they managed without the Barefoot Contessa and Jamie Oliver. Seeing my husband beaming over a satellite-generated screen made me laugh. There is something very 1950’s about this story and younger readers might feel baffled by an undertone of sexism. Perhaps. But traditional roles are only roles and even actors change costumes. In my respectively assigned roles of daughter, wife, mother and business owner, I’ve learned that choosing one’s battles is always wise. And I will not try to reprogram a relatively well-functioning human being who can conduct a friendly conversation, maintains good hygiene and holds a job. A
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BEEMERANDBENZ.COM Sivan • Tammuz 5778 | SDJewishJournal.com 25
EXAMINED LIFE
OUR EMOTIONAL FOOTPRINT by Saul Levine, M.D., Professor Emeritus in Psychiatry at UCSD
slevine@ucsd.edu
Magical Machu Picchu and The Vexing 'Human Condition' recently visited remarkable Machu Picchu, the ancient and magically beautiful Andes mountain community constructed some 500 years ago for the leader of the then-thriving Incan Empire. Many exquisitely preserved walls of buildings still stand in this breath-taking setting atop the steep slopes of the Peruvian Andes. The entire site is ethereal, evoking feelings of awe and spirituality in the vast majority of visitors, including me. Machu Picchu is a UNESCO “World Heritage Site” which has over the last century become a destination shrine for millions of tourists and trekkers, poets and photographers, historians and architects, artists and searchers. Visitors are in wonderment, but there are inevitable questions: How did the Incans employ such advanced methods of farming at that time and altitude? How did they move huge boulders even a few feet, never mind considerable distances up dramatically steep gradients? How did they chisel and sculpt huge rocks to such per26 SDJewishJournal.com | June 2018
fection of smoothness and exactitude of measurement? How were food and building supplies brought in from far below the summit? The Incans were obviously knowledgeable about architecture, agriculture, astronomy, sculpture, engineering, aesthetics, commerce and defense. They demonstrated remarkable resourcefulness, creativity, social organization, planning and spirituality. Visitors to Machu Picchu - or many other archeological treasures elsewhere in our world (Masada, Pyramids, Angkor Wat, Easter Island, The Great Wall, Stonehenge, etc.) – are moved and in awe. But something else struck me: In its prime, Machu Picchu was only reachable by an arduous journey on foot up the long, steep and perilous Incan Trail from Cusco, the capital of the Incan Empire. Yet by all accounts, it was a thriving community, full of energetic, productive and creative people. Now it is eerily quiet. There are no signs of the once-lively commerce, art, worshipping, teaching, farming or loving which filled its buildings and streets. It sits starkly abandoned, devoid of all signs of life, except perhaps the hauntingly exquisite stone structures which serve as funereal monuments to its citizens. The Incans have completely disappeared. We know that serious illnesses like smallpox and influenza, introduced by European explorers and invaders, ravaged much of the Incan population. We also know from many historical accounts that foreign invaders, in this case from Spain, brutally exploited, subjugated, tortured and killed thousands of the Incan people in Peru and other parts of the empire which extended to other countries (Ecuador, Columbia, Bolivia, Chile, Argentina) in South America. This is not meant to be an indictment of the Spanish explorers of centuries ago, who were merely utilizing the exact same “playbook” used by Christian Crusaders, Ottoman soldiers, Genghis Khan’s Mongol armies, Attila’s Huns, and just about every
other invasive national or religious force. Their universal “game-plan” was crudely (and cruelly) simple: Invade, conquer, gather/steal resources and riches, rape and pillage, convert, enslave or kill the indigenous peoples. It is heartening and inspiring that even hundreds of years ago, our species could create advanced civilizations, move enormous weights, build strong and aesthetically pleasing buildings, develop mathematical theorems and applications, evolve the study of astronomy using only the naked eye, create art, play music, grow agricultural products, and write and teach philosophical treatises. It is decidedly not stirring or ennobling, however, to learn that some civilizations were wiped off the face of the earth at the hands of other more aggressive human beings. Our talented forebears were victimized by their fellow men who wanted to, felt entitled to, and perhaps “needed to,” exercise their intense aggressive urges and needs for power. When I use the words the “Human Condition” in this context, I refer to the sad paradox inherent in our species to be capable of simultaneously producing lofty inspirational creations and degradingly brutal behavior. We humans can manifest tender loving and compassion, and yet we readily demonstrate anger, aggression and violence. It seems that an inherent part of humanity, even amidst inspiring benevolence and generativity, is bestial and brutal For all our remarkable progress in science, the arts, technology, medicine and progressive ideas, we are still engaged in virulent hatreds, battles and wars. We may well be on the precipice of even greater conflagrations endangering our very existence. Two eternal but pressingly urgent questions come to mind: The first, from hundreds of years ago, by Rabbi Hillel, “If Not Now, When?” and the second, from the sixties, by Peter, Paul and Mary, “When Will We Ever Learn?” A
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Sivan • Tammuz 5778 | SDJewishJournal.com 27
RELIGION
FOMO and Judaism (Fear of Missing Out)
POST-POLITICAL by Rabbi Jacob Rupp
rabbirupp@gmail.com
You start with asking yourself if this matters to me. Then you ask if I am willing to do the work to change my life to get there.
28 SDJewishJournal.com | June 2018
vermore with the saturation of social media, it seems that EVERYONE is having a better time than you are, at any time of day, anywhere in the world. How does Judaism deal with the issue of FOMO? I posed this question to a group of high school students I was teaching: “Is it better to know or not to know there are better experiences outside of your own?” To put it more succinctly: when we focus on what we don’t have, we don’t enjoy what we do. But if we don’t focus on what we don’t have, perhaps we’ll never know what we can achieve. One of the teens immediately raised her hand and said quite confidently that Judaism 100 percent supports the idea that you shouldn’t look outside yourself. She quoted the 10th Commandment (don’t covet) and the Jewish laws of modesty as crystal clear proofs. In her mind, Judaism says “don’t look and don’t show.” I challenged her on that in a few different ways. First, it is our nature to look and to want to be seen, and as such it is doubtful that Judaism is so unilaterally prohibitive. In Judaism, there is a right way to do something and a wrong way, but the Torah works with human nature. I brought this up because the student herself professes not to follow what she feels Judaism says to do in this regard, which would only lead her to one of the two conclusions: either Judaism is wrong, or she is living improperly. Either way I am not happy with those implications. But on a deeper level, Jews and Judaism is trendsetting, and it is impossible to fathom how you can change the world if you accept the status quo. If you spend your time appreciating your life and the world as it is, would you ever opt to change it? The crucial question that must be considered is when should we have FOMO not whether or not it is appropriate or good? This is the filter by which we as Jews should look at our lives. Conversely or just because social media is so ever present, we oftentimes see something and want it long before we consider its implications or impact in our lives. A person should begin by developing self-awareness. In a way, this is easy. Look at yourself. Ask yourself what you want and what you need. Oftentimes if you are just
quiet and honest (of course that’s the hardest part), things are usually very clear. Only then is it constructive to have FOMO as it will push you to become who you were meant to become. A practical example: You want to be a (insert your dream life situation—pro athlete, business exec, fitness model, sage). And you can spend hours and hours watching these people who have it and feel FOMO. “If only!” you think. It can be even more fundamental: you look at friends with a good marriage, or a person in great shape, and sigh in jealous discontent with your tension-filled relationship or ever-present love handles and donut habit. You don’t start there. You start with asking yourself if this matters to me. Then you ask if I am willing to do the work to change my life to get there. The answer isn’t always yes. Many people would love to drive a Ferrari. Few are comfortable working to acquire the amount of capital to do so, or using the capital in that manner once they do. For those people, FOMO isn’t really FOMO at all. They aren’t missing out because they don’t really want it. But once you know who you are, and what you are willing to work for, FOMO is very healthy because it shows you it’s possible. There is a famous Jewish statement that says we are supposed to figure out when our deeds will be like those of our illustrious ancestors. That’s FOMO right there. When will your deeds be like the world’s greatest? Once you understand it’s possible, if only you desire it, you will begin to work to achieve. Judaism doesn’t simply profess that we should ignore the world and just try to be happy with our lot. What we should ignore is the output, what we should focus on is the input. What drives us? What potential do we see in our lives? Where is our passion? And when we consider successful people, what matters isn’t their outcome because we can never “have it all.” What we should be inspired by is their input. How did they cultivate their passion? Where and when and how did they experience this sense of wonder or love that they turned into something real? At the end of the day, that is where we experience G-d, when we take our longing and connect it to his world. But its not a passive process. It’s active. Like us. Like G-d. A
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Sivan • Tammuz 5778 | SDJewishJournal.com 29
Arts Issue
JFest
“Simcha” The 25th Annual Lipinsky Family San Diego Jewish Arts Festival | BY BRIE STIMSON |
JFest
Artistic Director Todd Salovey has been with the Lipinsky Family San Diego Jewish Arts Festival since the very beginning. “The first year was one day at the Lyceum Theatre,” he remembered. “We started at about noon on Sunday morning and we ended about eight o’clock, and we did everything in one day.” That was back in 1994. Twenty-five years later, the festival is nearly a month long and spans five different venues (The Lyceum, Encinitas Library, North Coast Rep, the Lawrence 30 SDJewishJournal.com | June 2018
Family JCC and Adat Yeshurun in La Jolla). “It’s been remarkable seeing how much the festival means and has meant to so many people,” he said. Salovey never intended to stay with the festival for long. “I think about the moment when Doug Jacobs came up to me in the lobby of the Lyceum and said ‘we’re starting a Jewish arts festival, would you like to be artistic director? And I thought like I’ll do it for a year or two, but it’s not really what I have my mind on, but after the first year when I saw the electricity – I mean, really, it was an experience of simcha. I saw what doing Jewish arts in a professional theater and bringing audiences from across numerous communities, the kind of pride and excitement and ownership that people felt when they saw it. That kind of joy became really intoxicating for me and I’m
aiming to do that every year.” Salovey’s learned a lot during his 25 years with the festival. “Sometimes I had to learn the hard way. They say you learn more from your failures than your successes, and in those first four or five years when I would do the occasional shows where the audience would get restless.” During their first klezmer summit, Salovey said he put on a band that was talented, but the audience felt was not klezmer, “and a third of the audience left. And I had to kind of learn ... what an audience expects, and if I’m going to push those boundaries, how to cultivate and invite the audience to go along with me as I push those boundaries. I‘ve really learned a lot about Jewish arts in the last 25 years.” In a first this year, a comedian, Elon Gold, will perform at the festival (June 14). “He’s become quite a well known co-
median, in part because he has a routine on why Jews don’t have Christmas trees, in which he shows what people using Talmudic logic would do if they tried to have the proper Christmas tree in their home and how it might look from a Jewish perspective,” he laughed. Gold has performed multiple times on the “Tonight Show,” he did a one-hour comedy special on Netflix and has been on shows like “Chappelle’s Show,” “Frasier” and “The Mentalist.” On opening night, they will premiere their Jewish Festival Gallery, which will display classic photos from the history of modern Jerusalem and another gallery with photos from Yale Strom’s trips across Eastern Europe, meeting with Jewish and Romanian musicians. On the second night, they will have the 17th annual klezmer summit with house
PHOTO COURTESY OF GUY WEBSTER
PHOTO COURTESY OF JASON MARCK
Musician Andy Statman will be at the Lawrence Family JCC.L
band Yale Strom and Hot Pstromi. “People just love the music and musicianship that he and his band bring,” Salovey noted. Other Klezmer artists playing include Alexander Gourevitch and Freilechs, singer Elizabeth Schwartz, contrabass virtuoso Bert Turetsky, jazz allstar Gilbert Castellanos and fiddler Myla Wingard Rosen. “So we’re really bringing together some of the highlights of all the years of the klezmer summit for that evening, and like always, we give the audience free kosher knishes at intermission,” Salovey added. He also noted a few new items this year. Singer Perla Batalla will do a musical piece about Leonard Cohen. “She was a backup singer on the road with Leonard Cohen for many years, and he was her mentor,” he added. Batalla will do a tribute evening at San Diego Rep
called House of Cohen. The ninth annual Women of Valor will honor six women in the San Diego community. This year’s honorees are Dr. Ellen Beck, Marsha Berkson, Sura Leider, Evelyn Rady, Ruth Sax and Jill Spitzer. A staged reading of “The Mudanza An Unapologetic Bilingual Play” will be performed by Teatro Punto y Coma on June 16 at the Lyceum, and the same night “In Every Generation,” a play “based on a family’s Pesach Passover Seders over 2,000 years,” will be performed at North Coast Rep. The play was written by JFest Assistant Director Ali Viterbi. Pianist Jacquelyne Silver will be at the Encinitas Library, mandolin and clarinet player Andy Statman will be at the Lawrence Family JCC and Salovey’s own play, “Losing the Nobel Prize,” which is based on
Singer Perla Batalla will do a tribute evening called House of Cohen.
UCSD Professor Brian Keating’s book by the same name, will be performed as a staged reading at Adat Yeshurun on June 26. Keating will lead a panel discussion on science and religion after the performance. “We are definitely trying to make it a little special,” Salovey said. “We recognize with the 25th year with our gala that we’re reaching out to new audiences ... who may not have experienced the festival as much as other people. I think that more than any year we have some real marquee performances.” Salovey said JFest differentiates itself from most other Jewish festivals in that its cornerstone is premiering and developing new work here that eventually moves on to other parts of the country and world. “I think that’s what I’m most proud of, he said, “that we’ve encouraged artists to do more Jewish work.
We encourage arts organizations to pay more attention to Jewish work and do more Jewish work, and we’ve just nurtured a lot of wonderful new work that has spoken to many people here and in many other venues.” “I also feel that it’s really important in the future that we continue to inspire the next generation and we pass the festival on with as much passion and excitement to the next generation and generations as we have for it. So I always have an eye to how can we develop new audiences, how do we engage new artists and how do we empower people to feel ownership with the festival.” A The festival runs through June 27. Go to sdrep.org for tickets and information.
Sivan • Tammuz 5778 | SDJewishJournal.com 31
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Senior Living in the Jewish tradition 32 SDJewishJournal.com | June 2018
caring
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Bayside Summer Nights
Arts Issue
Summer by the Bay with the San Diego Symphony | BY BRIE STIMSON |
B
ayside Summer Nights is back this year U.S. tour and we were able to secure a date with him. We know who with several new acts and, of course, all we want, it’s just about fitting in dates. But it’s a complex puzzle, as you can imagine, when you’re trying to lay out a season.” the old favorites. Film screenings with the symphony playing the score are a big
“Every season brings new artists and we’re really excited about this summer,” said Martha Gilmer, CEO of the San Diego Symphony. “A couple of things, we’re celebrating Leonard Bernstein at 100, so in August we’re doing the complete “Westside Story,” the film of his musical and with ... the orchestra playing the score.” Singing legend Patti LaBelle on July 28 and The Temptations and The Four Tops on Aug. 24-25 will be highlights of the concert series. “I think that one’s going to be great. I’m really excited about that myself,” Gilmer told me. Other famous names include Clint Black (July 4), Arturo Sandoval (July 12), Rick Springfield (July 13-14), Burt Bacharach (Aug. 3), Pablo Montero (Aug. 12) and Roger Daltrey and members of The Who (August 15). The Robert Daltrey concert and a showing of “Star Wars: A New Hope” (for which the symphony will play the score live) will have stadium seating for extra capacity. Gilmer is also excited about Broadway performer Megan Hilty, who will entertain on July 6-7. Hilty gained fame performing on Broadway in “Wicked,” “9 to 5” and was nominated for a Tony for “Noises Off.” “I think this is a Broadway town and I think these incredible performers with our orchestra is great,” Gilmer said. “I should also say that we’re doing ... a Gershwin Tribute, including excerpts from “An American in Paris” and “Porgy and Bess” and we have just announced our first soloist ... Norm Lewis who ... did “Porgy and Bess” in 2012 ... That, I think, is going to be a great concert.” Gilmer says booking the lineup is a collaborative process. “We look at making sure the mix is right because we know we have a large number of subscribers that have very eclectic tastes across many genres, but we also want to make sure we have the right balance throughout the season. And we have the things you can always expect. Our Tchaikovsky weekend closes the season and Star Spangled Pops open the season and, this year, we’re having Beethoven by the Bay, which is a program of all Beethoven, featuring a young pianist Albert Cano Smit and Beethoven 5. And those things you can kind of learn to expect, and the variety comes in between.” In some cases, they try to coordinate with artists that happen to be touring. “Roger Daltry is one of those,” she said. “He’s making a big
draw each summer. “We know people love the idea of film on that incredible LED screen with the orchestra playing that soundtrack, and so we’ll have “Harry Potter [and the Goblet of Fire]” and now we’ve just added “Star Wars” and “Westside Story.” For many attendees, the atmosphere of being at a concert on a summer evening is what makes it worth it. “When we hear from our audiences, the sight itself is just so compelling,” Gilmer said. “It’s beautiful, set on a summer evening on the shores of the bay on one side and with the skyline of San Diego on the other. It is a bit more informal so you can order a bottle of wine, you can bring your own food. We have food service tables in the champagne section and then there’s also food that you can purchase, and so you can come early and have a meal with your friends right there and then enjoy the concert.” Of course, every Friday and Saturday night they have fireworks. “You don’t always get that at a regular concert,” she quipped. Gilmer said every summer she’s amazed by the collaborative process that takes place between visiting artists and the San Diego Symphony. “What I’m always impressed with is the respect that these musicians have for our orchestra, for our musicians of the orchestra, and that’s returned,” she said. “So what we really aim to do in all of this is ensure that the level of training and artistry and professionalism and mastery in whatever genre of music is being performed is of that kind of level.” Gilmer said they also encourage people to come early to enjoy the free pre-concerts near the box office that often involve community groups. Other performances over the summer include, Godfathers of Latin Jazz: A Salute to Dizzie Gillespie and Chano Pozo (July 26), Marc Cohn and the Blind Boys of Alabama (July 27), “Bird” on the Bay: A Charlie Parker Tribute Feat. Charles McPherson (Aug. 9), Hooray for Hollywood (Aug 11), Robert Randolph and the Family Band (Aug 19) and Ladies Who Jam: Women in Jazz (Aug. 23). A Bayside Summer Nights runs from June 29 through Sept. 2 at the Embarcadero Marina Park South. Go to sandiegosymphony.org for tickets or information.
Sivan • Tammuz 5778 | SDJewishJournal.com 33
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La Jolla Playhouse
Arts Issue
Politics, Premieres and Progression at the La Jolla Playhouse This Summer | BY PAT LAUNER | Rendering for Squirrels.
I
t’s gonna be a sizzling summer at the La Jolla Playhouse: political relevance, two world premieres, one West Coast premiere and a new managing director. Artistic director Christopher Ashley is still basking in his 2017 Tony Award win for his stunning direction of the heart-rending musical, “Come From Away” (still playing on Broadway, and selling at 101 percent capacity). But he’s by no means standing still. He’s bidding a sad farewell to managing director Michael Rosenberg, who’s been his partner for nine of his 10 years at the Playhouse. And he’s offering a jubilant welcome to Debby Buchholz, a 15-year veteran at the theater, most recently as general manager. “Michael is fantastic,” says Ashley. “And he’s been an amazing partner. He truly is a theater visionary. And he has a terrific sense of humor. He’s a treasure to the American theater. The McCarter Theatre Center [in New Jersey] is lucky to have him. I’m sad about Michael leaving and completely delighted that Debby is step-
ping into that role.” (More on Debby next month; my July theater feature will focus on her exclusively). It’s a busy time all round, for Ashley and the Playhouse. In the past year, five productions that were launched in La Jolla went on to New York. In addition to “Come From Away,” there was John Leguizamo’s “Latin History for Morons,” which was nominated for a Tony Award for Best New Play. The wired, highly charged funnyman Leguizamo receives a Special Tony this year. Ayad Akhtar’s “Junk” was also nominated for Best Play, and “Summer: The Donna Summer Musical” snagged Tony nominations for two performers who played the Queen of Disco at different ages/stages: the knockout LaChanze (Best Lead Performance by an Actress in a Musical) and Ariana DeBose (Best Featured Performance by an Actress in a Musical). Only “Escape to Margaritaville,” a jukebox musical created around the songs of Jimmy Buffett, came away from the Tony noms empty-handed.
Overall, it’s a pretty heady time at the Playhouse heading into summer, and the work doesn’t shy away from the state of the nation. “Every play we’re doing this summer feels like a play to do right this minute,” Ashley says. “And they were created by a really adventurous set of writers.” The three summer offerings concern issues of immediate relevance: income inequality, immigration, race, gender, the political divide in America and the abuse of power. And there will be royalty. “queens” is the second show up this summer, and “Seize the King” is the third. Later this year, the Playhouse premieres a new musical about Princess Diana. “That was totally accidental,” Ashley says with a chuckle. “This is our fifth straight year of all new plays and musicals [nearly 90 premieres all told, so far]. What we have this year is both emerging and established American playwrights, writing about the world at this moment. None of it is dead-on
Sivan • Tammuz 5778 | SDJewishJournal.com 35
PHOTOS COURTESY LA JOLLA PLAYHOUSE
Set Rendering for Squirrels.
agit-prop [political or ideological propaganda]. All these new works represent sophisticated, nuanced artistry brought to this current moment in our history.” Burrowing beneath the surface First up is “Squirrels,” a quirky new play from the quirky, Tony Award-nominated Robert Askins, who wrote the hilariously irreverent “Hand to God,” wonderfully produced last year at the San Diego Repertory Theatre. In that piece, a hand puppet turns into a foulmouthed Satanic mischief-maker. In “Squirrels,” the 38-year-old Askins has moved from animalistic puppets to, well, animals, presumably representing the animal instincts in us all. Every character in the play is, yes, a squirrel. There are six principals in the cast, with three additional furry-tailed rodents, played by UC San Diego MFA acting students, as “Squirrel Ensemble.” “It’s savagely funny and very demented,” says Ashley. “Rob’s imagination is completely untethered.” The off-the-wall creation pits the rich, hoarding Gray Squirrels against the starving, outcast Fox Squirrels. Winter is coming; dis-
36 SDJewishJournal.com | June 2018
trust is mounting. And a wily outsider wreaks havoc. The promotional material describes “an epic animal kingdom soap opera teeming with rebel armies, conspiracy, love and family loyalties. No squirrel will go unharmed.” “It really is a story about squirrels,” says Ashley, “but there’s a parallel between the Gray and Red squirrels and the current socio-political issues. It’s also Shakespearean – with contemporary resonances to ‘King Lear,’ ‘Othello’ and ‘Richard III.’ And it’s a comedy. Then, of course, there’s the strangeness that only exists in Rob Askins’ mind. “But he’s a really disciplined writer and a fantastic collaborator. A great combination of a true professional and a total wildman.” Although Ashley and the Playhouse have been involved in several readings of the play, this is the first time it will be ‘on its feet,’ so there will continue to be revisions throughout the process. Mere days before rehearsals began, a new draft re-framed the piece from a threeact to a two-act play. Among the challenges of bringing this imaginary world to life are creating appropriate costumes, set
and movement. A stellar design team to the rescue. The costume designer is Paloma Young, an alumna of the UCSD MFA program and a Tony Award winner for “Peter and the Starcatcher” (an imaginative prequel to "Peter Pan"), which got its start as a Page to Stage production at the Playhouse, before moving on to Broadway and garnering nine Tony Award nominations, nabbing four statuettes in 2012. In 2014, Young won a Lucille Lortel Award for “Natasha Pierre and the Great Comet of 1812,” the Moscow-set musical adaptation of part of Tolstoy’s “War and Peace.” The designer, writer and director “looked at more videos of squirrels than you can imagine – how they play, how they fight, how they make love. Our version will be part squirrel, part human. The toes will be squirrelly, and we’re having fun puppeteering the tails.” Anjanette Maraya-Ramey will choreograph the physical movements of these humanimals, who will cavort in “a 24-foot high jungle gym of a tree,” as Ashley puts it, a set that springs from the inventive imagination of two-time Tony-winning scenic designer Be-
owulf Boritt. “The cast,” says Ashley, “is multi-talented, with great vocal skills and excellent physicality. They’re all actors with a lot of emotional intelligence; because there’s so much re-writing, they have to be able to approach the rehearsal process with boldness.” Women on the move… Moving on from the animal kingdom, the Playhouse will present the West Coast premiere of “queens,” by 33-year-old Martyna Majok, who recently won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama, for her play, “Cost of Living.” Her breakout drama, the searing/ funny immigrant story, “Ironbound,” received an excellent production at Moxie Theatre last year. “I couldn’t be more delighted for her Pulitzer win,” says Ashley. “She’s a great talent, as exciting as a writer gets, and she’s really exploding onto the theater scene now. She’s crackerjack with language, and a really smart crafter of stories. I think she’s the whole package: smart, verbal, inventive and theatrical.” Her play will be directed by Carey Perloff, longtime artistic director of the American Conservatory Theatre in San Francisco. She last directed at the Playhouse in 2014, a superb production of “The Orphan of Zhao.” Majok’s “queens” (reason for the lower case title unknown) is set in 2017, in a rundown tenement basement in the borough of Queens, New York. “With an all-female cast, it focuses on immigrant women who come through this building from different countries, trying to figure out their lives,” says Ashley. “The play explores the women’s relationships, and pays tribute to the amazing women who have given birth to events in the building – past and present. The writing style is really bold, and it beautifully personalizes the economics of class.”
quash any perceived threat. Over the course of the history play, he becomes increasingly paranoid and unhinged. Any resemblance to current leadMartyna Majok, author of the play "queens." ers is purely intentional. “You can’t do a play about poliWhen it premiered at Lincoln Center Theater in February, the New York Times tics and not think about this president,” said, “it strikes at the heart of the immi- Ashley allows. “He’s too ubiquitous. He’s an attention-magnet, a genius at getting grant experience.” One concern about that first production people talking about him. We’re talking was that it tried to cover too much territo- about him right now! But this play won’t ry. It spanned 16 years and introduced 11 feature any dead-on imitation. It’s about different refugee/immigrant women, each power and politics: the abuse of power and escaping something dreadful in her home the self-destruction of power. No names country, a diverse geographical array that will be named; the audience will make the included Ukraine, Belarus, Afghanistan, leap." “Jaime brought this play to me,” says Syria, Honduras and Poland, Majok’s own Ashley, referring to his associate artistic dibirthplace. “She’s been rewriting nonstop since rector since 2014, who will helm the new then,” says Ashley. “She’s a real perfection- piece. Jaime Castañeda, who has demonist, and very ambitious. She came out here strated his humor and humanity in “Tiger with ideas for a major overhaul. This will Style” and “At the Old Place” at the Playhouse, will direct the Power play. be her version 2.0.” “He was really excited about it. And I’ve From queens to the King been a big fan of Will Power. His work can The final summer offering (8/21-9/16) is be based on classics, but it has such a conthe world premiere of “Seize the King,” by temporary feel. ‘Seize the King’ is set in an Will Power, a highly regarded playwright, imagined theatrical universe inspired by performer, rapper, composer and lyricist, the current moment. I think Will’s poetknown for his innovative writing and exic imagination and his irresistible style are ploration of new theatrical forms. powerful, surprising and funny. He’s bold This will be his third visit to the Playand articulate. I always walk out of his house. He created a new work for children plays feeling like I understand the world in 2007, (“Honey Bo and the Goldmine”), better.” and his major play, “The Seven,” preSo, gear up for a summer in La Jolla – miered here in 2008. That was a modernwith squirrels and sovereigns and immiized musical version of the Greek tragedy, grants. A “Seven Against Thebes.” This time, power is tackling Shakespeare, with a five-person re-interpretation of “Richard III.” Shakespeare described the highly ambitious, mistrustful King Richard as "rudely stamp'd" and "unfinish'd." He has an insatiable desire for power, and once he has it, he wields it tyrannically, and will
The world premiere, “The Squirrels” runs June 6-July 8. The West Coast premiere of “queens” plays from July 3-29. “Seize the King,” another world premiere, runs August 21-Sept. 16. Information and tickets are available at 858-550-1010 or lajollaplayhouse.org.
Sivan • Tammuz 5778 | SDJewishJournal.com 37
Arts Issue
Malashock Old Globe
| BY JACQUELINE BULL |
38 SDJewishJournal.com | June 2018
“When we talk about making theater that matters, we’re talking about creating a bond between people – people that may not think theater is relevant to their life.
Sivan • Tammuz 5778 | SDJewishJournal.com 39
Arts Issue
Malashock Dance
Dance as Connection | BY JACQUELINE BULL |
T
his past May, Malashock Dance hosted their 2nd annual fundraising gala. The gala featured performances, a live auction and haute couture fashion designed after famous art pieces. The gala benefitted their outreach program, Math in Motion. “It is such a unique approach to what we call arts integration. [The teaching artists/professional dancers] go into the schools during school hours. And we work with students kindergarten through 8th grade at four schools. They integrate what the students are learning in their math class with composition and choreography. So they may be studying geometry in their math class and when they come to dance class that week, they are able to create choreography using geometric angles as their inspiration, for example,” Molly Glynn Puryear, executive director of Malashock Dance, said. The idea is that the students get to explore math concepts in a fun and active environment, and that it fosters the integration and application of what they learned. “We find this cultivates a sense of empowerment, ownership. It allows students who are more kinesthetic learners or are very creative individuals who may be struggling in their math class, it gives them an opportunity to learn math in a really different way – through a different lens,” Molly said. Molly started her career with Malashock as an outreach teacher and was trained by Nina Malashock herself. Molly then became really immersed in the company, (“I fell in love,”) and helped the founding of the school in Liberty Station. Her passion for the outreach programs and getting involved with education grew. “I was like ‘Gosh, I think we could do more. I think we could really expand this,’” she said. She then started meeting with school districts to assess what Malashock could bring to the schools. They were also really interested in the idea of arts integration. They started the pilot program for Math In Motion, later expanded and developed for more grade levels and now seven years later, it is a codified program. Throughout this time, she became the education director and eventually the executive director, (“It’s been quite a cool journey for me.”) “The sign of a good program to me is when you are developing it and you say to yourself ‘Oh I wish I would have had this.’ [laughs]. I immediately got that sense. And then when I was able to teach the program, to go in and observe, do our documentation, it just became so crystal clear to me that this is really what the arts do. In a broad stroke, the arts connects us in all different areas of life, and learning, and humanity, and each other – just this baseline of connectedness,” she said. 40 SDJewishJournal.com | June 2018
“So it was almost like these two points that were so far away on the spectrum, ‘gosh, math and dance, what do the two of those things have to do with each other?’ And the more we dug in and explored, the more people I brought around the table to talk about curriculum, the more I realized that this is so easy to tie together because we do use math when we count, when we do formations, when we compose and choreograph. We’re talking about variables, we’re talking about space – the exact same vocabulary and concepts. So it just became this huge illumination for me that ‘Wow dance is a connector.’ And it can connect to anything, but we happened to choose math, but it illuminated this greater purpose that the arts serve.” A
june 2
Sugarland
june 6
Capital Cities
june 15
Little Big Town
june 16
Larry the Cable Guy
june 27
The Fray
june 30 dinner package available
Gabriel “Fluffy” Iglesias
Visit the website for ticket information, dinner options & additional artist announcements. Acts are subject to change.
Sivan • Tammuz 5778 | SDJewishJournal.com 41
Arts Issue
Spamalot at the Cygnet
Big Show in a Little Theater “Spamalot” Rides in (Horseless, of Course) to the Cygnet | BY BRIE STIMSON |
K
Director and star Sean Murray (King Arthur) told me he first got to know the musical when he was offered the part of King Arthur at the Moonlight in Vista several years ago, “and had absolutely the time of my life,” he said. “I didn’t want it to end because it was just a blast.” He started thinking about how they could produce the show at the Cygnet – a much smaller space than Moonlight. In Moonlight’s show, the production team had arranged to get the original sets and costumes from the Broadway one. “The goal of that production was to remount the Broadway show as close as possible, ... but because the theater is so different in terms of size and number of people we can hire, we have to be able to reduce the show and make it fit into a small space as a chamber show and still capture the essence of the show – if not find a new hook into it.” He reduced the chorus to eight members 42 SDJewishJournal.com | June 2018
PHOTO COURTESY MOONLIGHT STAGE PRODUCTIONS
iller rabbits, the Knights Who Say “Ni,” the French Taunter and Tim the Enchanter will all be on hand this month when Monty Python’s “Spamalot” opens at the Cygnet Theatre on June 27. Lovingly taken from “Monty Python and the Holy Grail,” the musical is as much a trip down comedy memory lane as it is funny.
Sean Murray as King Arthur at Moonlight Amphitheatre in 2014.
and downsized some of the sets. “In the original, there were all these giant castles flying in and out, special effects and things.” Instead, he explained, they’ll have miniature castles that technicians will bring onstage and then try to sneak off without being seen. And he wants to bring a bit of the low budget feel of “Monty Python’s Flying Circus” (their original sketch TV show) to the production. “I started thinking the look of this show could be scaled and changed to feel more like the way the ‘Flying Circus’ looked on television ... Part of the joke can
be putting on a big show in a little theater.” They also plan to use more video projections and Terry Gilliam-style animations as a way of forwarding the story. “You make it almost part of the premise that this show is too big for us,” he laughed. “It’s very much ‘Flying Circus,' acknowledging and then making fun of the limitations.” Murray thinks the jokes will work well in the intimate space, allowing the actors to make better eye contact and engage with the audience – and fair warning – an audience member will get pulled up onstage. “It’s very
The Rest of the Season
"Spamalot's Broadway cast starring L to R: David Hyde Pierce, Hank Azaria, Christopher Sieber, Steve Rosen and Tim Curry.
hands on,” he laughs. King Arthur will make a congratulatory speech to the lucky audience member who will then get sung to and is finally rewarded with a Polaroid taken with the knights. Murray doesn’t plan to make any changes to the script. “Eric Idle did a great job of creating this whole new thing out of ‘Monty Python and the Holy Grail.’ All of the juicy, good parts from the movie are in the play, but the play has its own set of brand new stuff to enjoy.” People just connect with the characters, he says, and when they did a staged reading of “Spamalot” last summer the audience became very engaged. “Some of the lines are so famous sometimes they say them along with you. The Knights Who Say “Ni,” (‘We want a shrubbery!’) Tim the Enchanter and the Killer Rabbit (‘the most foul, cruel and bad-tempered rodent you ever set eyes on’) and the French Taunter guards (‘your mother was a hamster and your father smelt of elderberries’), and those characters that are in the film are in the play,” he says. “There’s something about Python’s silliness that is just – there’s a lot of intelligence behind it. On the surface it’s a lot of very silly things ... but underneath it there’s a lot of – well really deep underneath it don’t get me wrong –
there’s political commentary, there’s social commentary going on, but again it’s buried pretty deep down underneath it.” The main message of “Spamalot,” according to Murray, is finding your own grail. “Whatever the grail is to you, that thing that you aspire to. The message – if there is a message – is that it’s up to you to go out and find your grail, whatever that is to you.” The rest of the cast includes David Humphrey (Sir Galahad/Black Knight/ King of Swamp Castle), Evan White (Sir Lancelot/2nd Sentry), Anthony Methvin (Sir Bedevere/Mrs. Galahad/Concorde/ Knight of Ni), Bryan Banville (Historian/ Prince Herbert/Not Dead Fred/French Taunter), Donny Gersonde (Male Ensemble/Tim the Enchanter), James Saba (Sir Robin/1st Sentry/Brother Maynard/2nd Guard), Jonathan Sangster (Patsy/Mayor of Finland), Christine Hewitt (Lady of the Lake) and Drew Bradford, Trevor Cruse, Siri Hafso, Lauren Long, Janissa Saracino, Emmanuel Young and Jenny Henkel in the ensemble. A “Spamalot” runs at the Cygnet from June 27 through August 5. Tickets and information can be found at cygnettheatre.com.
After Python’s run, the Cygnet’s 201819 season continues with an eclectic mix of drama, comedy and musical. “Every Brilliant Thing,” a one-man play about a boy who helps his suicidal mother by writing lists of all the good things to appreciate in life, will open in August. “There’s a lot of comedy in it,” Murray promises. During the play, audience members will be invited onstage to improvise with actor Jonny Donahue and he plans to hand out affirmations to the audience, which may be read during the show. “He eventually does accomplish writing one million brilliant things.” “HIR,” opening in October, “is sort of a kitchen sink family play turned on its head by Taylor Mac who is a gender fluid solo performance artist,” Murray explains. “This is his first play that he wrote without himself being a character in it.” Murray calls it a black comedy. “On the surface it’s your basic kitchen sink family drama slash comedy, but the layers of what it’s dealing with are so deep that it just keeps unpeeling as it goes along.” In November and December they will reprise their annual holiday tradition “A Christmas Carol,” followed by “Marie and Rosetta,” a musical about electric guitarist Rosetta Tharpe, who influenced Elvis Presley. Tony Kushner’s “Angels in America” will play in two parts throughout March and April. “It’s a big, sprawling, amazing, political comedy drama – it’s hard to describe that play in any category,” Murray says. “Anything you can say about ‘Angels’ is probably true.” Finally, the season will finish in the summer of 2019 with Kate Hamill’s “Pride and Prejudice.” “She’s making a name for herself with a number of these adaptations of Jane Austen. She’s sort of taking the stuffing out of it and shaking it off ... and making it into a really fun, rollicking sort of ... comedia circus,” while still staying true to the spirit of the novels. The theater is also trying out a new ticket pricing structure this season. Early on, tickets for any seat on any night will be the same price (starting at $25), and the price will go up as the show gets closer.
Sivan • Tammuz 5778 | SDJewishJournal.com 43
44 SDJewishJournal.com | June 2018
Comedy at the NorthKosher Coast Dining Rep
AFOOD rts Issue
A Comedy-Drama Sandwich at North Coast Repertory Theatre avid Ellenstein is making a sandwich: “two pieces of lite bread with meat in the middle.” That’s how the artistic director of North Coast Repertory Theatre describes his spring-summer triad. In theater terms, his ‘sandwich’ translates into two frothy comedies bookending a deep, intense drama. He subscribes to the “Mary Poppins” musical credo: ‘A spoonful of sugar helps the medicine go down.’ “That really captures my philosophy,” says Ellenstein, who’s celebrating his 16th year at North Coast. “I want to do all kinds of work at this theater: from farces to heavy tragedy, classics to experimental work. And I think our audiences will come along for the ride.” Indeed they do. This year, 73 percent of the theater’s 2,300 subscribers renewed their subscriptions in an early bird offer – before the season was even announced. The farces and comedies are an easy sell, and they always extend beyond their scheduled four weeks. The April-May show was “How the Other Half Loves,” a smart, cleverly structured comedy written by the funny/acerbic English wit, Alan Ayckbourn, impeccably guest-directed by Geoffrey Sherman. “The pre-sales were so strong,” says David, “we added the extra week before we even opened.”
The Other Funny Thing… David expects an even greater response to his midsummer musical, “A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum” (July
PHOTOS BY AARON RUMLEY
| BY PAT LAUNER |
L-R: David McBean, Omri Schein, Kevin Hafso Koppman & Noelle Marion in “A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum.”
11-August 12, possibly extending to August 19). The 1962 musical boasts a book by Bert Shevelove and Larry Gelbart, with Stephen Sondheim contributing both music and lyrics for the first time in his professional career (he wrote lyrics only for “West Side Story” in 1957 and “Gypsy” in 1959). “A Funny Thing,” a wacky musical comedy, was inspired by the farces of the ancient Roman playwright Plautus (251-183 B.C.E.). It’s the funny/bawdy story of the slave Pseudolus, whose master lives next door to a house of courtesans. The primary
plotline (among several) is the outlandish attempts of Pseudolus to win his freedom. The shenanigans bear many of the marks of classic farce: puns, door-slamming, mistaken identity and satirical comments on social class. The title derives from a joke opener often used by vaudeville comedians: “A funny thing happened on the way to the theater…” The original Broadway production, which ran for nearly 1,000 performances, garnered six Tony Awards, including Best Musical. It starred the zany Zero Mostel, who also starred in the 1966 film. Sivan • Tammuz 5778 | SDJewishJournal.com 45
“I’ve always loved the show,” says Ellenstein. “It’s a crackup. It’s a Borscht Belt musical with that over-the-top sense of humor.” Ellenstein had been thinking about the show for five or six years, but he worried about producing it in the theater’s current space, with its small, narrow stage and cramped dressing room. “I’ve been waiting for us to build a new theater. But I’m tired of waiting.” Plans for a new playhouse, that would take the company from a 200-seat theater to a state-of-the-art facility with 350 seats, plus an additional, flexible, 100-seat black box space, have fallen through repeatedly. “I decided to just accept the challenge. The show hasn’t been done around here in a while. I still think it’s really funny, and with the right people, it’ll just be a full-out goodtime summer show.” Ellenstein has reduced the original cast size from 22 to 13. Ten of the actors will be Equity (union) members, a huge expense for the theater. There will also be four band members. “I’m breaking the bank on this one,” says Ellenstein, whose annual budget for the theater is $2.7 million. “It’s the most expensive show we’ve ever done.” The lead role requires a large personality and a huge talent. David has cast Omri Schein, a very funny actor/singer, most recently seen on the North Coast stage as another hilarious servant, Passepartout, in “Around the World in 80 Days.” “He’s a very funny guy,” says Ellenstein. “He can sing it, he can create the rapport 46 SDJewishJournal.com | June 2018
with the audience. I think he’s ready to be pushed to be the best he’s ever been. And what a role to do that in!” The rest of the cast features some of San Diego’s most comical and talented performers, including David McBean, Jason Maddy, Kevin Hafso-Koppman, Melinda Gilb, Noelle Marion and Luke Harvey Jacobs. “The audience will have a blast,” David promises, “and we’ll have a blast putting it on. As for the logistics of the small space and this huge piece… we’ll figure it out [with help from resident designer Marty Burnett]. We always do. We can’t fit all those bodies into our small dressing room, so we’ll be using the theater school space two doors down.” It won’t necessarily be an all-toga affair, either. “The show is framed as a contemporary troupe putting on this play,” Ellenstein explains. “It’s their attempt at being Roman. That gives us – including ace costume designer Elisa Benzoni – leeway to have fun. We can also stick in anachronistic humor. In the original production, there were many running gags that had dual meanings.”
Now, for something completely different…
But before he embarks on that funfest, he’ll be directing the regional premiere of a highly acclaimed but somewhat risky drama, “The Father.” “It’s an important play,” says Ellenstein, “that nobody’s done. Everyone’s scared of it.” Written in French by Florian Zeller, with
a translation by acclaimed British translator Christopher Hampton, the play received a 2014 Molière Award for France’s Best Play. It was also highly praised in London (2015) and on Broadway (2016), where it was nominated for a Tony Award for Best Play. The content of the piece may be disturbing for some audience members. It’s a highly personal study of a proud old man’s mental deterioration. The Broadway production earned Frank Langella a Best Actor Tony Award. For the North Coast production, Ellenstein tapped James Sutorius, a veteran actor who has performed successfully on Broadway and at the most prestigious regional theater companies in the country, including The Old Globe and the La Jolla Playhouse. He has also made numerous TV and film appearances. In 2007, he won two San Diego Theatre Critics Circle Awards, for his memorable performance as George in “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf ” and his multiple supporting roles in John Strand’s “Lincolnesque,” both at the Globe, where he also performed in “The Price” in 2009. In 2012, he gave an aptly slick performance in the La Jolla Play-
"The Father"'s James Sutorius, Richard Baird & Robyn Cohen.
house production of David Mamet’s “Glengarry Glen Ross.” Sutorius will play 80-year old-Andre, who lives with his daughter, Anne (to be played by L.A.-based stage and screen actor Robyn Cohen). Other characters are portrayed by local favorites Richard Baird, Shana Wride, Jacque Wilke and Matt Thompson. “It’s an 85 minute puzzle,” says Ellenstein. “Only halfway through do you realize that you’re seeing the world from Andre’s perspective.” As The Guardian put it, “there are strong echoes of ‘King Lear,’ both in the impending madness and the father-daughter relationship. It is an astonishingly unguarded play about the cruelties of love and the limits of patience, and the way child-parent relationships become inverted as old age creeps up and mugs us.” In the New York Times, Ben Brantley called the play “cold-eyed, harrowing,” praising the “ingenious premise [of ] presenting the world through the perspective of
a mind in an advancing state of dementia, making reality ... relative and unfixed. ‘The Father’ offers one of the most disorienting experiences in town.” “I think the play shines a light on something many people have experience with, directly or indirectly,” says David. “An aging person you care about, losing his or her grip. I get the impression that Andre was a raconteur in his youth, a lady’s man with real joie de vivre. He doesn’t understand how all that has changed. He still thinks young girls are attracted to him, turning on his charm for the caregiver. He keeps thinking other people are stealing from him or tricking him. He thinks they’re all crazy, not him. “Because the protagonist doesn’t have a full grasp on reality,” Ellenstein continues, “the plot doesn’t have a linear progression. Andre conflates time and place, but you don’t have to work to figure it out. It washes over you, and then you realize what’s going on. “I’m very selective about doing plays like this,” Ellenstein asserts, “but I feel that it’s important to do them. That’s why I did ‘Wit’ (a play about a female professor dying of cancer). It was a great production, an artistic and critical success, but people didn’t come. “Many said they go to theater to escape. I can understand that. But a literary success is a piece of theater art, and I think it’s important that North Coast Rep does that kind of theater, too: hard-hitting, and sometimes hard to take. “I’m as close as could be to the subject
matter. I’m living it every day,” Ellenstein adds, referring to his 92-year-old mother, who’s living with his family (wife Denise and sons age 14 and 16). She’s in the same kind of mental decline as the character in the play. “The perspective in the play,” David continues, “seeing the world through the elderly person’s eyes, is interesting for people who live it and for those who don’t. It rings so true. “I’m secure enough in this piece of work, and honest enough to say, ‘If the subject matter is too hard for you, don’t come.’ But if you do, you’ll get new insights about this situation, your family, even yourself. Hopefully, it will provide a better understanding of what people undergoing this type of decline are going through. And that, hopefully, will lead to dealing with them in a kinder, more humane way. It’s enlightening. It’s a piece of art. And that’s what art is for, to make us more aware of who we are.” After his ‘sandwich’ this summer, Ellenstein is cooking up North Coast Rep’s 37th season, which will include three comedies, one dark mystery, two dramas and a world premiere musical. Another season of sampling the whole smorgasbord of theater. A “The Father” continues through June 24 at North Coast Repertory Theatre in Solana Beach. “A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum” runs from July 11-August 19 (and possibly beyond). Tickets and information: 858-481-1055; northcoastrep.org.
Sivan • Tammuz 5778 | SDJewishJournal.com 47
Arts Issue
Taste of Little Italy
Delizioso
Taste of Little Italy 2018
O
n June 13, Taste of Little Italy returns for its 10th year. This one-night event takes over the neighborhood of Little Italy with live music in the streets and most importantly nearly 40 participating restaurants. With the ticket purchase, guests are given a Taste Passport, which show all the restaurants and their menus to map out the evening. “I think one of the unique features of our culinary experiences is that you have businesses that have been here since the 50’s, and established themselves, and are still running as the original families that started the neighborhood. And then you have this culinary explosion that happened probably in the last, I would say five to 10 years, ... seeing that explosion come in with Top Chef Richard Blais and Brian Malarkey coming in with some really interesting concepts,” said Chris Gomez, Little Italy Association’s District Manager. This blend of old world and new world continues to evolve in the present day. Chris mentions a new wave of first generation Italian Americans like Bencotto and Monello, and then you also have Civico 1845 with unique vegan Italian fair. Chris explains, “You get this full diverse flavor. You are not only getting your traditional Italian that you would get at a family serving or family dinner, but you are getting an elevated dining experience that I think that really showcases what San Diego is and how come now not only is San Diego known as a craft brew location, but also known as a foodie town.” Added for this year is Nolita Hall, a European-inspired brew house with food service that is new to Little Italy. And Nonna Italian Comfort Food (formerly Cafe Zucchero and Trattoria Fantastica) will be participating in the taste for the first time. All the restaurants are on a north or south route with the menus on the passport. This helps guests pace and plan their evening. And for those with an extraordinary appetite, “To those people that are adventurous enough to go after that many carbs, [laughs], I celebrate them and so those people can purchase a north and south route.” In addition to the dinner choices, there are also appetizers, beverages (wine, beer and coffee) and desserts. Chris adds that there will be valet at the event and that tickets sell out fast. A Taste of Little Italy will be on June 13 from 5 to 9 p.m. Search Taste of Little Italy at LittleItalysd.com for more information and to buy tickets, which are $40. 48 SDJewishJournal.com | June 2018
PHOTO COURTESY OF THE LITTLE ITALY ASSOCIATION
| BY JACQUELINE BULL |
Sivan • Tammuz 5778 | SDJewishJournal.com 49
Arts Issue
Hollamama
Lucky Charms | BY JACQUELINE BULL |
B
est friends and sisters-in-law Lihi Shabati and Pauline Salman are the founders of Hollamama, an accessories brand for women, mothers and children. Hollamama is less than a year old, but, prior to this, Lihi ran a baby gift brand in Israel before selling it a couple years ago and moving back to North America. All of the jewelry has an element of spiritual meaning by way of an amulet, token, lucky charm or even as a totem to represent oneself, and the symbol of the hamsa hand is featured in almost all the pieces in some way. “We’ve taken the concept of the hamsa hand that is known not only in the Jewish faith and other faiths and cultures as well for being a symbol of good luck, protection, good energy, fighting off the evil eye – just being a positive symbol,” Lihi said. She sees Hollamama as a more sophisticated and subtle take on using the figure of the hamsa hand, not just it blown up and printed on t-shirts and sweatshirts. “It’s about something that is a little more subtle and something that you know in your 50 SDJewishJournal.com | June 2018
heart, you know it’s there and it is not that obvious. The hamsa hand is incorporated in almost all of our pieces in sophisticated ways that matches the figures and the collections.” One of the collections is the Mama Collection which features four different mother figures (Jia, Yuka, Luna, and Milena) that have different traits and characteristics. The description of Milena explains: “She represents warmth, soft heartedness and a close connection to Mother Earth. Her outer appearance symbolizes motherhood, fertility and the development of feminine strength. As a mother, she is soft, pleasant and provides a sense of security to her children.” “[These are] more of the traits that you can relate to as a mother. And find the one that represents you, that you can wear everyday, that can remind you in the hustle of being a mom these days, sometimes you forget what it is all about. And you forget what you are doing and that you are bringing up little people, and all the things that you want to pass on to them, and the kind of mother that you want to be. Sometimes you get lost
in it all,” she said. More broadly, there is also an animal collection. Each gold plated animal is meant to symbolize different traits and imbue the wearer with good luck, the protection of the hamsa hand and the traits and virtues of one of the nine animals. The sheep represents “purity, warmth and gentleness,” the owl represents “wisdom, intuition and healing” and the lion represents “nobility, resolution and power.” “The animal collection brings together the virtues of the different animals together with the power of the hamsa hand. You can read through and find the animal that you connect to most. And find your own personal lucky charm,” she said. Lihi and Pauline are both mothers and Lihi explains that they feed off of each other and the support of other women and mothers. She said, “It’s part of our name Hollamama, you know ‘Hello Momma, we see you, we get you, we’re here for you.’ It takes a village. That’s kind of what we’re about.” A
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KEEP THE LEGACY ALIVE
AFTER THE EXHIBITION CLOSES Buy your copies of the commemorative exhibition book and documentary film today! Celebrate San Diego: The History and Heritage of San Diego’s Jewish Community may be going away, but the stories live on!
Sarah Matteson is a Content and Interpretive Specialist at the San Diego History Center. She has led dozens of tours of the exhibition and helped to train docents to do the same. She is a San Diego native. The photo of the Klu Klux Klan meeting hall surprised me. If you do not look carefully, the photo appears innocuous—children step into the street near parked cars and adults mill about in front of a building. It’s jarring to zoom in and see the building’s “Klu Klux Klan Hall” sign. Seeing this type of Sarah Matteson is a Content and Interpretive Specialist at the San Diego History Center. She has led organization “normalized” in the middle of a picturesque suburban street in San Diego connects the THE NAIMAN AND KLAZKIN FAMILIES, dozens of tours of the exhibition and helped to train docents to do the same. She is a San Diego native. emotional with the objective knowledge. It bridged this gap for me, and I believe it does so for visitors OCEAN BEACH, 1918 The photo of the Klu Klux Klan meeting hall surprised me. If you do not look carefully, the photo as well. Istep have responses toand this photo disappointed head-shaking to Jewish Historical Society appears innocuous—children intowitnessed the street near parked cars adults millthat aboutranged in front from of of San Diego, Courtesy a building. It’s jarringpure to zoom in and see thereminding building’s “Klu Klan sign. Seeing type to of spark insight and empathy. astonishment, meKlux that anHall” image has the this power
KU KLUX KLAN HALL, 1926
San Diego History Center
KU KLUX KLAN HALL, 1926
San Diego History Center
To the Ends of the Earth: A Portrait Jewish San Diego is based on over 50 interviews conducted by local filmmaker, Isaacto build Artenstein and pontoon bridges. The children had all kinds of fun being with the soldiers and helping the coo The children certainly enjoyed being with them. One afternoon the whole bunch of us including the K Curator’s comment: This imag family, we went to watch them build thethe bridges and they made good time at it. The Klazkin family con provides first-person narratives about recognizable, local landscape, of Mrs. K., Jennie, age 11, Harry, age 9, Lena, age 7, and Clara, age 3. weather!), and demonstrates t San Diego Jewish experience! Curator’s comment: This image of two Jewish families swimming at Ocean Beach in 1918 show Considered together with Edith
of Michael Naiman organization “normalized” in the middle of a picturesque suburban street in San Diego connects the Curator’s comment: The this Ku gap KluxforKlan HallI believe pictured here served as the headquarters of the San Diego emotional with the objective knowledge. It bridged me, and it does so for visitors as well. I have witnessed photo that Scholars ranged from disappointed Klan,responses located to in this North Park. estimate thathead-shaking there were to more than 1000 Klan members in pure astonishment, reminding meinthat image has power to spark and empathy. San Diego thean1920s. Thethe San Diego Klaninsight espoused a nativist, racist agenda that targeted Mexicans,
theKlan Chinese, Catholics, Communists, and Jews. Curator’s comment: Blacks, The Ku Klux Hall pictured here served as the headquarters of the San Diego Klan, located in North Park. Scholars estimate that there were more than 1000 Klan members in San Diego in the 1920s. The San Diego Klan espoused a nativist, racist agenda that targeted Mexicans, Blacks, the Chinese, Catholics, Communists, and Jews.
$39.99 (plus tax) PAGE #
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THIRTEEN
© 2018, San Diego History Center All rights reserved. PUBLISHED BY
COPY EDITOR
Samantha Alberts DESIGNED BY
Jennifer Cadam ISBN-13: 978-0-918740-09-0
CONGREGATION BETH EL TASHLICH CEREMONY AT LA JOLLA SHORES, 1979
San Diego History Center Back cover: SCHILLER AND MURTHA BASEBALL TEAM, 1887
San Diego History Center
SAN DIEGO HISTORY CENTER
Front cover:
CELEBRATE, COMMEMORATE: SAN DIEGO’S JEWISH COMMUNITY
EDITOR
Joellyn Zollman, Ph.D., Exhibition Curator
recognizable, local landscape, reminds us of one of the attractions of living here (beaches! go from her life and times San weather!), and demonstrates the fact that Jews enjoyed local amusements as part of theincomm life inthis early D Considered together with Edith Naiman’s diary, which recounts day,20th as wellcentury as otherSan highlig from her life and times in San Diego, we can gain a more complete picture of Jewish-American life in early 20th century San Diego.
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From Edith Naiman’s diary: Thu went to Ocean Beach to spend o went bathing in the ocean every Jewish Historical Society evening, also went dancing at th of San Diego, Courtesy took cold and we had to cut it sh From Edith Naiman’s diary: Thursday. June 27, 1918: We, Mrs. Naiman and the children, and the Kla of Michael Naiman Mabel, age 10 1/2, Evelyn, age 9 went to Ocean Beach to spend our vacation. We rented a cottage at 5161 Muir Ave. near Wonderland at Wonderland there came from went bathing in the ocean everyday and on the merry-go-round at Wonderland with the children. In to build pontoon evening, also went dancing at the Pavilion. We intended to stay for the summer butbridges. Marshall,The age ch 10 took cold and we had to cut it short and come home on July 16, 1918. Our party consisted of Marsha The children certainly enjoyed be Mabel, age 10 1/2, Evelyn, age 9 1/2, and Nathan age 6. And family, while wewe were at the theb went tobeach watchacross them at Wonderland there came from Camp Kearny Company A, B, and C of the 115th Engineers. They we of Mrs. K., Jennie, age 11, Harry, THE NAIMAN AND KLAZKIN FAMILIES, OCEAN BEACH, 1918
CELEBRATE, COMMEMORATE: THE HISTORY AND HERITAGE OF SAN DIEGO’S JEWISH COMMUNITY SAN DIEGO HISTORY CENTER
An elegant, 92-page commemorative exhibition book featuring a timeline of San Diego Jewish history and other information not included in the exhibition! Written by exhibition curator and Jewish scholar, Joellyn Zollman, Ph.D. $30.00 (tax included)
Call (619) 232-6203 x 113 o order or stop in the History Center store in the heart of Balboa Park! sandiegohistory.org
Sivan • Tammuz 5778 | SDJewishJournal.com 51
TH
Arts Issue
Santa Fe Opera
Jews and the ATOMIC BOMB | BY JUDITH FEIN |
A
few months ago, with considerable apprehension, I visited Hiroshima in Japan. Maybe you have heard of the peace park with its mound of ashes of 70,000 unidentified bodies and a paltry 814 who were identified. And perhaps you know about the stone coffin that contains a registry of 300,000 names of victims of “Little Boy,” the atomic bomb that exploded on August 6, 1945. Above the coffin is the stone shape of an ancient Japanese house; it is meant to shield the
52 SDJewishJournal.com | June 2018
A plaster statue of Dr. J. Robert Oppenheimer at the Bradbury Science Museum in Los Alamos.
poor victims’ souls from the rain. And in the nearby museum are the clothes of a few of the 7,000 young children who were murdered by an indifferent explosion. As I rode the bullet train from Hiroshima to Tokyo, I sank into sullen silence as I contemplated the atomic genii that was grown in Los Alamos, New Mexico, about 40 minutes from where I live. And I knew it was important that this summer, the Santa Fe Opera is presenting "Dr. Atomic," the story of J. Robert Oppenheimer, who was put in charge of developing the weapon of mass destruction exactly 75 years ago. The once remote and secret mesa-top town of Los Alamos is visible
from the opera, and I cannot imagine any place on earth where a production of the opera would be more resonant or timely. The music, by John Adams, and the libretto, by Peter Sellars, will soar out into the star-laden New Mexico night sky, and waft towards the very place where the Manhattan Project changed the history of the world. The opera focuses on the nuclear scientists and the anxiety-fueled last hours before the detonation of the bomb at the “Trinity” test site in Alamogordo, New Mexico on July 15, 1945, a few weeks before it was dropped on Hiroshima. Oppenheimer (“Oppie”), down to a gaunt 98 pounds, is on the verge of nervous collapse. The bomb
was originally developed to defeat Nazi Germany, but that evil empire has expired, and now the target is Japan. Other scientists express grave concern about the morality of the bomb, and want to write to President Truman to urge him not to use it, but Oppie insists they shouldn’t get involved in political pronouncements. His focus is atomic, not ethical. And the libretto, which is based on a vast amount of original source material from declassified secret documents to technical manuals of nuclear physics, includes terrifying talk of a possible chain reaction that could destroy the entire earth’s atmosphere. I became obsessed with finding out how Oppenheimer, who emanated from a rich,
In the Hiroshima, Japan, museum, a model of the Little Boy atom bomb shows the size relative to human beings.
ethical Jewish background, could unleash incalculable destruction. My search led me to Rabbi Jack Shlachter, a New Mexico rabbi and plasma physicist who also happens to be Division leader of the Theoretical Division of Los Alamos National Lab, which was first created in 1943 by Oppie. He has been giving talks about Jews and the Manhattan project, and I was stunned to learn that not just Oppie, but 25 percent of the brilliant scientists in the Theoretical Division and all of the leaders were Jewish. Their average age was late 20’s. The seniors were in their 30’s. Oppie was born in New York, and, like most of the other physicists, came from a non-observant Ashkenazi household. At the age of l8, he was sent to New Mexico to recuperate from colitis, and he claimed that physics and the desert were his two big loves. It was said of Oppie that he was an inspirational leader, but he had “sitzfleisch,” a Yiddish word meaning he couldn’t sit still. He studied the Hindu religion, and after seeing the bomb detonate in Alamogordo, he spoke the words from the Bhagavad Gita: “Now I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds.” Hans Bethe, leader of the Theoretical Division and purportedly a jovial fellow with a great guffaw, was born in Germany, and lost his job because
his mother was Jewish. When Hitler rose to power, Bethe’s mother may have converted and Bethe didn’t identify with being Jewish. Because of his German birth, he had no access to his own published work at Los Alamos because he didn’t yet have clearance. He won a Nobel Prize in 1967. Victor Weisskopf came from a middle-class, highly cultured Viennese environment. He said his favorite occupations were Mozart and quantum mechanics. He was excluded from high positions under the Nazis and left Europe in 1938. He was one of the few theoretical physicists to witness the explosion at the “Trinity” site; it was thought that theoreticians didn’t need to be present. He went on to head CERN, the highly respected European Center for Nuclear Research. John von Neumann was a child prodigy who came from a wealthy Jewish family in Budapest. At six years old he exchanged jokes in Classical Greek and at eight he had mastered calculus. He had broad interests, was a terrible driver because he read while behind the wheel, and rode down the Grand Canyon on a mule while dressed in a three-piece pinstripe suit. On a bet, he drank l6 Martinis in a row. Sir Rudolf Peierls came from Berlin and worked for the British
The ashes of the uncoverable bodies from the atom bombing lie under this memorial mound The ashes of the uncoverable bodies from the atom bombing lie under this memorial mound in Hiroshima, Japan.
government before arriving in Los Alamos. Robert Serber was born in Philadelphia to parents with a Leftist Jewish orientation. His wife was the only woman to head a technical division as a librarian. And Nobel laureate Fred Reines became interested in science when, as a kid, he was bored in Hebrew school. Richard Feynman’s mother said of her Queens-born prodigy son, that he couldn’t decide whether to be a comedian or a scientist so he combined them both. He cultivated a low class, rough and tumble personality. When he was at Los Alamos, his wife was sick with TB in Albuquerque. He faked her presence—by putting her nightgown and powder and slippers in his bedroom– so that he wouldn’t have to accept a roommate. George Placzek, from Brno, had a rabbi grandfather who corresponded with Darwin and had a relationship with Gregor Mendel, the founder of modern genetics. He famously brought 1,000 condoms to his Soviet colleagues, along with chocolate and soaps. He delivered the edibles and soap and forgot the condoms in a taxi. Rabbi Shlachter spoke to Murray Peshkin before he died in September 2017; he had been a soldier with a scientific background at Los Alamos. He said he never heard a Jewish joke or any Yiddish spoken. All
of the physicists around him in the Theoretical division were assimilated Jews. Additional genius level Jews worked in experimental physics and other divisions. Many of them went on to win Nobel Prizes, make important discoveries and rise to the top of their fields. But only one that Rabbi Shlachter spoke about, Sir Joseph Rotblat, expressed grave reservations about the bomb. He left the Manhattan project, became a physics professor, and worked on medical and biological uses of nuclear power. In 1995 he won a Nobel Peace Prize “for efforts to diminish the part played by nuclear arms in international affairs and, in the longer run, to eliminate such arms." I was so baffled by the participation of Jews in the development in the world’s most terrifying weapon that I had a long talk with the rabbi. He said that, “their Jewishness was coupled with the moral obligation to protect your family, your relatives from being slaughtered. In 1943, when Oppie assembled the lab, they were afraid the Nazis were working on the bomb and would get there first. Edward Teller, the father of the hydrogen bomb, said that Jews do not have the teaching to turn the other cheek.” The rabbi went on to speak of his own father, who fought
Sivan • Tammuz 5778 | SDJewishJournal.com 53
PHOTOS BY PAUL ROSS
What’s left of a school boy’s uniform after the atomic bomb hit Hiroshima.
54 SDJewishJournal.com | June 2018
Other scientists express grave concern about the morality of the bomb, and want to write to President Truman to urge him not to use it, but Oppie insists they shouldn’t get involved in political pronouncements. His focus is atomic, not ethical. in World War II in Europe. “After D-Day, he was sent home on leave and then headed to Japan when the bomb was dropped. I think the bomb saved his life. He and so many more soldiers would have been killed; it would have been a deadly, protracted experience to bring the war to a close. When my father came to New Mexico once, we went to the Atomic Museum in Albuquerque. They had a mock up of the bomb and my father pointed to it and said, ‘that changed my life.’” When I protested that there was evidence that Truman’s military advisers told him not to drop the bomb because the Japanese were almost on their knees and the war would be over in a matter of weeks, the rabbi sighed. He didn’t necessarily agree with that version, and he said that, “Nuclear weapons are not supposed to be the way to solve a problem. They are intended to be a deterrent. They were the way to end the war without additional loss of servicemen’s lives.” After a beat, the good-natured rabbi went on to talk about the Talmudic story of two people in the desert. One had enough water to sustain him and the other didn’t. If they shared the water, both of them would die. The Talmud says that, “the one who has the water has the water. Judaism does not say that under no circumstances whatsoever can you hurt someone.” I told the rabbi that so many Manhattan project scientists arrived as teens or in their early 20’s. When I was their age, I left the country because of the Vietnam War. I went to Paris and became part of the anti-war movement. Why didn’t they protest? Where was their sense of humanity, of morality?
“I don’t think these moral and ethical considerations were part of the conversation at Los Alamos. There was no Jewish debate of the subject. They were under extreme pressure, on a crash scientific endeavor. They didn’t stop to think about it. In an ideal world, there would be no nuclear weapons, but we’re not living in that world. There are bad actors out there and I understand the need for nuclear deterrent. Since 1945, there hasn’t been a world war, and much of what Los Alamos does is nonproliferation and counter proliferation. You know, I’m not an exceptionally astute humanist. I can imagine getting swept up in the war, and not having the luxury of debating like this. I don’t think I would have been any different in their shoes.” "Dr. Atomic" deals with the anxieties, pressures and tensions Oppie and those close to him were experiencing. The portrayal of the scientists is not black and white. If you want to get as close as you can to the locus of the Manhattan project, see the opera, and visit related sites in Los Alamos, come to Santa Fe. Twice a year, they even open the “Trinity” site, where locals demonstrate to draw attention to illnesses they suffered from the detonation. In your mind, project yourself back into the past and imagine for all of us a better future. A For Further Info: Go to YouTube and search Jews and the Manhattan Project by Rabbi Shlachter. Santa Fe Opera: Santafeopera.org Judith Fein, formerly of San Diego, is an award-winning travel journalist and speaker. Her website is www.GlobalAdventure.us.
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A member of:
AFOOD rts Issue
PHOTO COURTESY OF EVA BEIM
KosherMusic Dining
One Voice
Can Make A Difference | BY EVA BEIM |
H
ow many times has something upsetting come across the media or someone said something that upset you, and perchance for a moment you thought, “I’d really like to respond to that,” or perhaps, “I should write a letter to the editor,” or maybe you even considered talking to them about their opposing opinion. But you, as many of us have said to ourselves, say,“oh what’s the point?” How often have you thought, “I don’t think I could make a difference, why bother attempting to change their mind?” Particularly if the statement(s) came from someone who seemed staunchly attached to their opinion. Well that sentiment is exactly what crossed my mind when I saw a response on my Facebook page. It was my business FB page for my Jewish world music album, “Of Light.” I was gaining a following from India and then Pakistan, actually much to my surprise. Although there are a couple of pieces of music on the album that have an Indian vibe, they’re chanting in nature. Some use
my last piece for their quiet meditation and yoga – also known as Shevasenah – but I was still somewhat stunned to see I had a growing number of followers from that part of the world. And for this music. While not all the songs are Jewish, the majority are either based on Judaism or are in Hebrew. Needless to say, of all the lovely and positive responses I received, there was one that was quite nasty and anti-Semitic. And I’ll never forget it. It struck me because I happened to read it first thing in the morning, which is not what I typically ascribe to. I don’t like looking at emails first thing in the morning, and this was a great example why; stressful messages are no way to begin the day. But this morning was different. And it hit me in my gut and hurt to see those hateful words about my people; especially considering I come from a place of love and desire to create bridges, not hatred or divisiveness. I’ve always been this way. Call me an idealist; yes, that’s what I am. But as time has evolved and as happens
to most of us, I've become a realist as well. I’m a big girl, I’ve certainly been confronted with anti-Semitism in the past, perhaps never so blatantly, because the anonymous Internet allows for bolder and more in your face remarks. (See my article on anti-Semitism in the April issue). Add to that, as I began this article, I’ve often thought of responding to haters and just didn’t. For some odd reason, that morning was different. I chose to take a leap and write back to this angry young man in Pakistan. I merely said to him, “it’s sad for me to read the words you wrote. I’m just curious, have you met any Jews?” His retort was, “Of course not! I would never associate with you (blank blanks).” I subsequently wrote back again saying, that too was sad and “perhaps if you had an opportunity to know some of us, or learn a bit more about our people, you might think differently of us.” A few days went by and I heard nothing. I wasn’t surprised, naturally, and I’d almost forgotten about the whole thing until a few days later when I saw his name on my FaceSivan • Tammuz 5778 | SDJewishJournal.com 57
book page again. I hesitatingly opened it, and what I read is something I will never forget for as long as I live. “I’m sorry,” he wrote. “Sorry to have upset you and accuse your people of such horrible things.” To paraphrase as his English was rather poor, he continued, “I have never met or talked with a Jew before. I’ve been doing some reading and thinking about what you said. It made me change my mind. You seem like very good people. I am very sorry to offend you.” I teared up. I was stunned. And quietly happy I had decided to endeavor to reach out. It then occurred to me that my own lyrics in the song on my CD, “Don’t Walk Behind,” where I sing, “even one small voice can make a difference,” is something that, while I firmly believe in, I don’t often do enough. When I take this example and set it against the backdrop of the near constant barrage of negative reporting against Israel in the majority of the Western media, I am reminded that though it’s a daunting task attempting to plant a seed or optimistically change a point of view, it’s often worth the attempt. Having just returned from that small
but very special country in early May, it was once again confirmed to me what I’ve always known, how misinformed so much of the world is about Israel. There are many Arabs thriving there, as many of you know, working there, many in high positions in the government, in the military; they are doctors and lawyers and business people, teachers and aids. They’re going to the same malls and restaurants as Jews, working with and alongside them. My own cousins have worked together with Arabs for years and have forged friendships. It’s an injustice what’s reported in much of the Western media. Many are happy there. It’s wonderful to observe. It’s refreshing. It’s not perfect, but what is? So of course I believe in building bridges and have done so in the past, not always so easily; yet nothing was ever as brief and simple and blatant and life-changing as that transforming few-days exchange with a stranger in Pakistan who hated Jews and no longer does. And I strongly believe now more than ever, it is incumbent upon all of those who seek to be good ambassadors for our people, for our values, for Israel and for Judaism everywhere, to take that little leap of
faith. Certainly listen to your gut instincts, go about it wisely; however, I can only encourage that “one small voice can make a difference.” Note: By the way, regarding the US Embassy in Jerusalem, it’s just another excuse for the merciless Hamas using their own innocent people as shields to get play on the news. They got exactly what they wanted and they’ve made Israel look like the bad guys once again. Why don’t any of the reporters ask if Israel just lets mobs come across the border, what do they think will happen? They don’t want to hear the answer that they want to kill Jews, that they still haven’t even recognized the Jewish state deserves to exist, and they want to annihilate all of its people. A Eva Beim’s music is available at CDBaby.com, Amazon, Itunes, Spotify. Eva is scheduling a summer concert on August 9th. Check her website evabeim.com for info. Reference this article on the website to receive a 20 percent discount on tickets. Her concerts are an amalgam of Pop, Indie-world music, and crowd-pleasing favorites. She looks forward to hearing from you at evabeim.com.
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APRIL 21 – SEPTEMBER 3, 2018
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Book Review: Rabbi Riemer
Finding G-d in Unexpected Places Reviewing Rabbi Jack Riemer's Book | REVIEWED BY RABBI LENORE BOHM |
I
n the opening section of Rabbi Jack Riemer’s new book, in a piece entitled “Goodbye Dubai,” the author wonders how he could move to Dubai for a larger-thanlife existence and abandon his very worthy congregation, leaving them “Torah-less?” Those of us around the country and overseas who read “Finding G-d in Unexpected Places” are not part of a single congregation, but I can assure you that we are “Torah-more” for spending time with this precious volume. Rabbi Jack Riemer, appreciated for his wisdom, humor, depth and breadth of knowledge about Judaism, is not known for his counting skills (except between Pesach and Shavuot), but he figures he has given more than 4,500 sermons over the course of an over 50-year career as a rabbi. Shabbat sermons, divrey Torah, holiday and holy day words of inspiration – all this not counting the hundreds of divrey kodesh he has spoken at weddings, funerals, b’nai 60 SDJewishJournal.com | June 2018
mitzvah and so on. How then, to choose the 39 utterances writ large to fill the pages of his first book of sermons? A mindful and calendar-driven Jew, Riemer selected most of the homilies for his book based on the holiday cycle. But he approaches each chag (holiday) as an opportunity to encourage us to think about the quality of our lives, the value of our relationships, and the depths of our commitments. He is not pontificating on the holiday, not its laws, customs or nuances; he uses each as a jumping off point to pose questions of meaning: What should you do when your time is almost up? Can we grow old and still stay young? How should we live in a world we cannot control? How can we weep and rejoice at the same time? Riemer’s humility comes into full focus by posing these questions without ever really answering them. Rather, he describes why they are important, and what we may want to consider when we ask them of ourselves. He respects his audience enough to recognize that for each of us, the answers may be different. Never superficial but always goodhumored, Riemer refers to current events,
celebrities and lingo along with citing Torah, Talmud and Mussar. He consistently succinctly translates his Hebraisms and his Yiddishims, avoiding condescension towards those for whom these phrases are not familiar. His forays into the weekly Torah portion always make me return to the parsha asking: Does it really say that? How come I never noticed that before? For example, in “Reflections on a Birthday,” Riemer points out that when the Israelites saw Moses smash the tablets, ‘vayitablu,’ “the people mourned.” He writes, “To the best of my knowledge, this
is the only time in the Torah where the word “aveyl,” which means “to mourn,” is used for an object.” That shows a good eye, indeed. So much to consider anew in this well-known verse once it is brought to our attention that among those standing at Sinai, the loss of that first set of tablets evoked grief equal to that which is felt at the loss of a person. One of my favorite vignettes in the book is found in a sermon called “The Enormous Influence of the Latke on the Modern World.” He begins with a Hasidic story about the Krinker Rebbe, and ends with jokingly taking credit for Donald Trump’s rise to the Presidency! Here is the explanation in his own words, “It is clear that Donald Trump only won the presidency because he listened to me, and made “Let’s Make America Grate Again” his slogan. But the best part of this sermon is that it is included in the chapter on Purim and ends with the wish for a “freilichen Purim.” It makes perfect sense on the holiday of no(n)-sense to give a talk on latkes when it’s the season of hamantaschen! And so, Riemer educates, and attracts our attention and delights us – and only
at the end of one of Never superficial but always goodthese sermons do we think to ask: how did humored, Riemer refers to current he get us here? Under his gentle tutelage, events, celebrities and lingo along with we came along citing Torah, Talmud and Mussar. He willingly, eagerly. So wonderful to learn at consistently succinctly translates his the feet of a master! What ultimately Hebraisms and his Yiddishims, avoiding stands out in this condescension towards those for whom beautiful collection? Riemer’s deep love these phrases are not familiar. of Torah and his profound desire for it spiritual sensitivity. Toda Raba, Jack and to matter to Jews. In “What Makes Israel So Yashay Koach. Special?” he writes: “If you say trivial things Rabbi Lenore Bohm is the Director of Jewish about the Torah, it does not mean that the Torah is a trivial book; it only means that Education at the Lawrence Family Jewish you are a trivial reader. If you only speak Community Center of San Diego. She was about the minor details in the Torah, and ordained by Hebrew Union College in 1982 if you have nothing to say about the vision and has served in congregations and a variety in the Torah, it only means that your mind of nonprofit organizations in San Diego for lacks imagination, and that your spirit is almost 36 years. A pedestrian.” Perhaps it is this idea that “Finding G-d in Unexpected Places: Wisdom continues to motivate him to dig deep into for Everyone from the Jewish Tradition,” our tradition and in his own soul to provide published by Front Edge Publishers, Cantor, us, his readers and listeners, with ever fresh Michigan, 2013, 373 pages, $19.95. perspectives to inform and increase our
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Feature: Landing a Job
Networking Tips For Landing a Job
In 5 Minutes Or Less | BY DANIELLE RADIN |
N
owadays if you want to land a job, you must be a ninja. Not just any ninja, a full-on networking ninja. You are competing with a bigger population than we’ve ever seen on this earth! The good news is, in this technology-driven world, it’s easier than ever to find the job you truly want and go for it! Whether you’re an introvert, extrovert, or an ambivert, these techniques will help you find the right people and say the right things to bag your dream career. Do you have five minutes to change your life? Okay, let’s go...
security, try tweeting this: “What is the best advice you have to protect your online bank accounts? #cybersecurity.” The hashtag categorizes it so that any accounts having to do with cyber security, or anyone looking up this topic, will be more likely to see it. Once someone answers your question, reach out to them with another tweet asking for an email address. This is an instant connection that could potentially introduce you to the right people. This works on Instagram in the same way, just make sure to add a picture!
1. Use Hashtags to #FindPeople Twitter and Instagram aren’t just places to waste time. You can actually use hashtags to find people on these platforms that can help you. Start by posting questions about your industry, or insightful comments about a career you want to get into. Then add an appropriate hashtag to the end of it. For example, if you want a job in cyber
2. Endorse People on LinkedIn In my book, “Become a Networking Ninja,” I talk a lot about using LinkedIn in unique ways to find people who can help and hire you. Do you have LinkedIn connections that you have not talked to in a while? Perhaps you would like to get back on their radars. Or, do you want to get noticed by one of your connections that you haven’t been
62 SDJewishJournal.com | June 2018
introduced to? The answer is simple: Endorse that person for a skill on LinkedIn. It takes about three seconds, but it can help exponentially in keeping up your contacts. Just go to the bottom of the LinkedIn profile and click the little plus (+) next to skills listed. It puts no pressure on the person to respond, while putting you in his or her mind. This is also a great method to use when you’ve followed up after an interview one too many times and still haven’t gotten a reply. Make sure to stick with endorsing only one or two top skills at first, and then do more as you continue to build a professional relationship. 3. Guess It ‘Til You Get It Sometimes you want to find someone’s email, but it is not listed on the company website. Sure, it’s probably something along the lines of firstname.lastname@companyname.com, but that wastes time trying
to guess the correct combination – and networking ninjas never waste time! That’s what Clearbit Connect is good for. It’s a Google Chrome extension for Gmail users that lets you look up anyone’s email address from the comfort of your own inbox. The company claims to have 30 million business contacts in a database. Clearbit Connect also gives you more information on anyone emailing you so that you have some context on whether or not the person can help you in your career. It’s a double-win! 4. Use Fiverr to Build Up Your Skills or Business Fiverr is a website that lets anyone post their services, from email marketing, to voiceovers, to video creation for companies, for as low as $5. If you’re trying to get into a new field, this is a great way to build a client-base or portfolio while earning some side income! There are tons of people and businesses on Fiverr looking to hire people for gigs, making it a great way to market yourself and your skills. For instance, if you want to start your own content writing business, do jobs on Fiverr to find clients. Small jobs can lead to
long-term work if they like your style. Get back to potential customers quickly and always be polite. You just might find you get a lucrative business out of it. 5. Put a Facebook Ad Out There Businesses have been using Facebook ads to showcase their services and reach new audiences for a long time, but advertising yourself? Nonsense right? Wrong! People have actually used the advertising platform to link back to their resumes, landing pages or online “About Me” sections on their personal websites. And it works! Some people have gotten multiple offers using this technique: like Sam Soloman, who nabbed five interviews for public relations and start up jobs using this method. If you have an extra $20 to spare (like from those Fiverr jobs you just did), why not bet it on yourself? 6. Cut Yourself Some Slack I’m talking Slack the group-messaging program. Many companies use Slack for internal communications, but it is so much more than that. Slack can be used to network and find connections. There are hundreds of thousands of us-
ers on Slack! Simply sign up and join some Slack groups. What’s a Slack group? Picture it like a giant chatroom filled with networking potential at your fingertips. You can find themed groups from marketing to journalism to health. These Slack groups have loads of people in them that you can start a conversation with and ask questions, instantly allowing you to network with people in your field. Okay, so now you’re a networking ninja. With great power comes great career connections. Go get the job! A Danielle Radin was born in Long Beach and grew up in a conservative Jewish family in Hermosa Beach. Her Bat Mitzvah theme was dance. In high school, she was an active member of B’nai B’rith Youth Organization (BBYO) and spent a year in the after-school program, Hebrew High, learning the language. While working towards her master’s degree at Stanford University, she went on birthright to Israel with her sister. She is a reporter for NBC 7 and published a book last year called “Become A Networking Ninja (How to Network Out-of-the-Box and Into Employment).”
Sivan • Tammuz 5778 | SDJewishJournal.com 63
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Feature: Israeli LPGA Golfer
Israeli LGPA Golfer Tees Off at Rancho Mirage, CA | BY PAMELA PRICE |
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ompeting at the ANA Inspiration, the first major Ladies Professional Golf Tournament (LGPA) event this year at Mission Hills Country Club in Rancho Mirage, CA was Israeli golfer, Laetitia Beck. The sole Israeli professional golfer on the Final Round, Laetitia teed off at 9:01 a.m. on April 1 before Sarah Jane Smith of the Sunshine Coast, Australia. Following her was Madelene Sagstrom from Enkoping, Sweden. Amidst this international gathering of golfers, Laetitia was the sole athlete with the Star of David emblem on her golf bag. After having received her LPGA Tour card in December 2014 at 22 years old, she stood out as the first Israeli (man or woman) to qualify as a fullfledged member of any major golf tour. At 26 years old, Laetitia is a role model and pioneer in Israeli golf. She competed in the Maccabiah Games (aka the “Jewish Olympics”) when she was 13, 17 and 21 years old. Winning gold medals in the individual competition at 17 and in both individual and team competitions at 21, prepared her for the next round of success in her chosen sport. Competing in the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro was a first for Laetitia and Israel! There were questions about equipment and her wardrobe because this was the first time in Israel’s history a golfer had been sent to compete in the Olympics. Laetitia rose to the occasion, designing her golf bag, shoes 64 SDJewishJournal.com | June 2018
and uniform. This was also a famous first for Israel as her golf bag, representing her country and her religion, was of utmost importance to her, but not unexpected. Right down to her golf shoes sporting the Israeli flag, she is Israel’s stylish golf ambassador. Laetitia, born in Antwerp, Belgium, moved to Israel when she was six years old with her family, settling in Caesarea, on the Mediterranean Coast. It is located between Tel Aviv and Caesarea, the site of Israel’s only 18-hole golf course. After winning the Israeli Ladies Championship at 12 years old, she
emerged as the youngest person ever to win the country’s championship. From that moment forward, golf was her passion. At 12 years old she placed first at the Israeli Ladies Championship. The following year she won the Israel Open Golf Championship. It took seven months and she made a hole-in-one on the first day of the Doral Open in Florida. She went on to attend a private high school in Bradenton, Florida, at 14 years old, and specialized in sports prior to graduating from Duke University in North Carolina on a golf scholarship. She was called “Israel’s Tiger Woods” in an interview by Ynetnew.com at 19 years old right before Rio’s 2016 Summer Olympic Games. While in Rancho Mirage at the ANA Inspiration LGPA Tour, she attended a Sederat at the residence of the family where she was staying and the second Seder at the Chabad synagogue, also in Rancho Mirage. She continues to observe Jewish holidays wherever her golf tournaments may take her. Her fans will always know where she is, thanks to the devotion to the Israeli flag, the only one thus far in the professional golf world and one you see proudly displayed from her golf bag to Final Round Lineups and newspapers and websites. A
SYNAGOGUE LIFE
EVENTS Havdalah & S’mores with Beth Israel June 2, 4:30 p.m., Beth Israel, 9001 Towne Centre Dr., San Diego, CA, 92122 Stop by for crafts, kid playtime, dinner, song-session and Havdalah. There will be s’mores under the stars to cap off the evening. Visit cbisd.org for more information. Wine & Wisdom Series with Temple Adat Shalom June 9, 6:30 p.m., Temple Adat Shalom, 15905 Pomerado Rd., Poway, CA 92064 Discover some Israeli Wine with a sampling and discussion of the wines and some Jewish topics. Visit adatshalom.com for more information. Comedy Shmomedy with Temple Beth Shalom June 9, 7:30 p.m., Temple Beth Shalom, 208 Madrona St, Chula Vista, CA 91910 Temple Beth Shalom is hosting a comedy night with headliner Chris Turner and featuring Abby November, Scott Blumen and Matt Wohlfarth. Advance tickets are $12, at the door is $15. Visit bethshalomtemple.com for more information. Kosher BLT, The Men’s Club with Chabad of Chula Vista June 10, 9 a.m., Eastlake Beach Club, 2050 Lakeshore Drive, Chula Vista, CA 91913 Join the Men’s Club of Chabad of Chula Vista for a short morning service and bagels, lox and Tefillin. Visit jewishchulavista.com/remember for more info.
*Interested in having your event featured? Contact assistant@sdjewishjournal.com. Submissions are due by 15th of the month for the next issue.
TRIBE Shabbot Savory Oneg & Game Night with Beth Israel June 15, 6 p.m., Beth Israel, 9001 Towne Centre Dr., San Diego, CA, 92122 Bring your favorite savory snacks and games. Mahjong will be provided. Enjoy a game night following the service. Visit cbisd.org for more information. Family Fun Dinner and a Movie with Tifereth Israel June 24, 5 p.m., Tifereth Israel, 6660 Cowles Mountain Blvd., San Diego, CA Bring your blankets or lawn chairs and come out for a film and dinner. They will be showing “Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory,” tickets are $25/household. Visit tiferethisrael.com to RSVP or for more information.
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in the kitchen WITH TORI AVEY IKWTA
Quinoa Tabbouleh Salad
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few years back I hosted a mezze lunch for some vegetarian friends of ours. They are big fans of Middle Eastern cuisine, so I went all out. What a spread: hummus, baba ghanoush, tahini, falafel, the works! One of my guests was vegan, and I wanted to find a way to incorporate plantbased protein into the mix. A twist on a classic Middle Eastern salad proved the perfect opportunity to bring in a flavorful and nutrient-dense recipe into the mix!
tein content of quinoa makes it a particularly good choice for vegans and vegetarians. It’s also easier to make than traditional tabbouleh; bulgur must be soaked for a few hours to overnight, whereas quinoa can be cooked in a matter of minutes. Toasting the tabbouleh brings out a nice nutty flavor that complements the salad. Using quinoa also makes this salad kosher for Passover, which makes it an excellent pick for the holiday recipe files!
Tabbouleh salad, a dish with roots in Lebanese cooking, is popular throughout the Middle East. It’s a green vegan side salad made from chopped fresh parsley, fresh mint, tomato, scallions, lemon juice and olive oil. Traditionally bulgur wheat grains are incorporated. To make the salad gluten free and higher in protein, I replaced the bulgur in my tabbouleh with toasted cooked quinoa. Substituting quinoa for bulgur was a natural fit, leaving the salad perfectly balanced with a wonderful texture.
Regionally, there are differences in the way tabbouleh is prepared. In some parts of Turkey, the bulgur is soaked and softened in tomato juice in lieu of water. In Lebanon, they prefer a greener salad with less wheat. In Greece, the opposite is often preferred, with more bulgur and less greens. My recipe has far more green than quinoa, making it more Lebanese-style in the green/white balance.
Quinoa is naturally gluten free, which means anyone with a gluten intolerance or Celiac disease can freely enjoy this salad (unlike traditional bulgur wheat tabbouleh). The pro-
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No matter how it’s made, one thing is certain– tabbouleh is one of the most beloved mezze salads in the Middle East. This version is light, lemony and refreshing. If dairy is your thing, try adding some grilled halloumi or a dollop of soft labaneh cheese on top for extra flavor. Enjoy!
INGREDIENTS: 3/4 cup uncooked quinoa 2 bunches fresh flat-leaf parsley, stemmed and minced (about 1 1/2 cups minced) 2 bunches fresh mint, stemmed and minced (about 1 cup minced) 3 fresh tomatoes 1/4 cup finely chopped scallions or onions 1/4 cup freshly squeezed lemon juice, or more to taste 1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil 3/4 tsp salt, or more to taste You will also need: fine mesh strainer, stainless steel skillet or pan, small saucepan, salad bowl Total Time: 35 min Servings: 6 Kosher Key: Parve, Kosher for Passover INSTRUCTIONS: Rinse uncooked quinoa in cold water using a fine mesh strainer until the water runs clear. Drain. Spread quinoa in the bottom of a stainless steel skillet in an even layer. Turn heat to medium and let the quinoa heat up, stirring occasionally, until the moisture is gone. Continue to cook the quinoa over medium heat, stirring frequently, for roughly 10 minutes until it begins to turn toasty and fragrant. The quinoa is ready when the seeds start to pop and turn golden brown. Remove from heat. Pour quinoa into saucepan along with 1 1/2 cups of water. Bring to a boil, then reduce to a simmer and cover the pan. Cook quinoa for 10-12 minutes until tender, but not mushy. Stir and let cool to room temperature. Seed the tomatoes by quartering them, then use your fingers or a paring knife to remove the seeds. Dice the tomatoes into small pieces. Whisk together the lemon juice, olive oil and salt. Place minced fresh parsley and mint in a medium salad bowl. Add the finely chopped tomatoes to the green herbs along with the chopped scallions, cooked quinoa and olive oil lemon juice dressing. Stir gently to combine. Season with additional salt or lemon juice to taste, if desired. Serve at room temperature, or chill in the refrigerator. Some people like to add garlic to their tabbouleh. If you want a garlicky flavor, add a well-minced raw clove to the salad. Enjoy!
Tori Avey is an award-winning food writer, recipe developer and the creator of the popular cooking website toriavey.com. She writes about food history for PBS Food and Parade.com. Follow Tori on Facebook by searching for “Tori Avey” and on Twitter: @toriavey.
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WHAT’S goin’ on? | BY EILEEN SONDAK |
La Jolla Playhouse
The La Jolla Playhouse will launch its summer season with “The Squirrels,” a contemporary comedy by the writer of the hit show “Hand to God.” The Playhouse describes this world premiere as “a twisted new comedy.” The play is also outlandishly funny – and it reveals the animal instincts that drive us all. “The Squirrels” will remain on the Mandell Weiss Forum stage from June 5 to July 1, under the astute direction of Tony Award-winner Christopher Ashley.
San Diego Symphony
The San Diego Symphony is gearing up for its Bayside Summer Nights concerts which begin June 29 through July 1 with Star Spangled Pops. These spectacular outdoor performances will continue until Sept. 2 and include appearances by Rick Springfield, Burt Bacharach and Patti LaBelle among others.
The Old Globe
The Old Globe will kick off its summer season under the stars with Shakespeare’s “The Tempest,” an enchanting fantasy that takes audiences to a desert island where the Duke of Milan lives in exile. This beloved work weaves a tale of magic and romance that is sure to delight fans of the Bard’s and is likely to make new friends as well. “The Tempest” will take over the Festival Stage June 17 through July 22. The Globe’s White Theater is offering the West Coast premiere of “Native Gardens” until June 24. The plot focuses on a young power couple and their culture clash over a backyard garden in a historic neighborhood. Meanwhile, the Globe’s Main Stage is showing off “A Thousand Splendid Suns,” an opulent theatrical adaptation of a best-selling novel about three generations of Afghan women and their remarkable resilience. The emotionally-charged play is set in the war-torn world of Kabul in the 1990s, when battle upends a family and a beautiful girl seeks shelter in the home of an older neighbor. “A Thousand Splendid Suns” will continue on the Main Stage through June 17.
Broadway-San Diego
Broadway-San Diego has a busy month starting on June 12 with “School of Rock.” This comic rock musical (with songs by Andrew Lloyd Webber) deals with a renegade teacher who starts a student rock band. You’ll have until June 17 to see this show at the Civic Theater. The latest revival of “The King & I” is set for the Civic June 26 through July 1. The Rodgers and Hammerstein classic musical tells the story of a proper British schoolteacher and her relationship with the King of Siam. 68 SDJewishJournal.com | June 2018
Rob Colletti and Phoenix Schuman in Broadway’s “School of Rock” tour.
San Diego Rep
Nathan Gunn will perform “Flying Solo,” a new piece written and directed by Hershey Felder, on the San Diego Rep’s Lyceum Stage until June 10. In true Felder style, this solo work features the real story of one of America’s greatest baritones singing selections from classic American musicals, along with contemporary songs and a taste of opera.
Coronado Playhouse
Coronado Playhouse continues its production of “Next to Normal,” an intimate musical that shines a light on flawed and complicated people. The show will be ensconced at the troupe’s Coronado home through June 17, taking audiences into the minds and hearts of this challenged family with humor and unflinching authenticity. “The Songs of Burt Bacharach” will be performed at the Playhouse June 22 – 24. The concert will pay homage to this icon of American pop music with a program of Bacharach’s greatest hits.
Cygnet
Cygnet Theatre’s world premiere of “The Wind and the Breeze” continues at the Old Town Theatre until June 10. This new show explores the expectations of friendship and the consequences of standing firm on a shifting ground. Cygnet will take on “Spamalot” beginning on June 27. The irreverent parody of the Camelot story – complete with King Arthur and his Knights on a quest for the Holy Grail – is a musical that makes merry with all things medieval. It will tickle local funny bones until Aug. 5.
North Coast Rep
North Coast Repertory Theatre is showing off “The Father,” a play that has amassed a treasure trove of awards in Paris, London and New York. David Ellenstein directed this West Coast premiere, which tells the story of an 80-year-old man living with his daughter and son-in-law. He was a tap dancer in his heyday, but he’s losing his grip. You can fall under “The Father”’s spell at the troupe’s Solana Beach home through June 24.
Lamb’s Players Theatre
The Lamb’s Players will present the musical, “Once” June 1 through July 22. The musical (based on a hit Irish movie about love and longing) snared eight Tony Awards, so it should be a popular choice with mature local audiences.
SDSU
Explosive Exhibit,” a hands-on, family-friendly experience that combines popular scientific facts with innovative displays. Also on view is “Taping Shape 2.0,” which uses hundreds of rolls of packing tape to create a world of translucent spaces and tunnels. The museum has several other permanent exhibitions, including “Don’t Try This at Home,” “Tinkering Studio” (which has evolved into “Studio X”), “Block Busters,” and “Origins in Space.”
The Westwind Brass Ensemble will perform a free concert at SDSU’s School of Music on June 30.
Moxie
Moxie Theatre’s “The Madres,” a national new play network rolling world premiere, will continue through June 10.
San Diego Museum of Art
The Museum of Art is ready to open a new exhibition on June 9. “Epic Tales from Ancient India: Paintings from the San Diego Museum of Art” explains classics of literature through the art that illustrates them. This exhibition (which includes 90 artworks) will remain on view through Sept. 3. The art museum is also featuring “Nancy Lorenz: Moon Gold,” a solo exhibition of the work of this New York-based artist. This exhibition consists of 85 pieces, including sculptures, paintings and others that reflect the artist’s East meets West oeuvre. The museum has opened its vaults for “Visible Vaults,” a collection of 300 pieces, including works by Andy Warhol, Rodin, Toulouse-Lautrec and other great artists. This exciting exhibition will be on view through Nov. 12.
Timken Museum
The Timken Museum is turning its galleries into a playground for emerging artist Aharma Mehta June 4 – 28. Visitors will be able to observe the artist creating a 3-D artwork based on “The Portrait of a Woman in a Green Dress.” Mehta’s creation will remain at the Timken through Sept. 16.
Birch Aquarium
Birch Aquarium is featuring “Hall of Fishes,” which also serves as a working laboratory. Birch has an installation on light by scientist Michael Latz, and another exhibition that helps you understand Scripps’ expeditions to discover and protect the planet. “Expedition at Sea” immerses you in the experience of life and work aboard the Sally Ride research vessel. It includes a 33-foot long projected triptych and hands-on learning opportunities. The newest exhibition at the Birch is “Research in Action: 100 Island Challenge,” an exhibit that explores the way reefs are adapting to our rapidly changing planet. Opening on June 29 is “Oddities: Hidden Heroes of the Scripps Collection,” a comic book-inspired exhibit that highlights amazing adaptations of ocean species.
Reuben Fleet Science Center
The Reuben Fleet Science Center will be showing three films: “Dream Big: Engineering our World,” a first-of-its-kind film that will transform the way we think about engineering; “Islands of the Lemurs,” an up-close-and-personal look at some fascinating creatures; and “Aircraft Carriers: Guardians of the Seas.” The Fleet is offering “Dream, Design, Build,” an exhibition that explores the Fleet’s collection of interactive engineering activities (and will remain on permanent display), and “Myth Busters: The
Unshelved at the NAT.
San Diego Natural History Museum
The Natural History Museum is featuring “Extraordinary Ideas from Ordinary people: A History of Citizen Science.” Among the items on view in this exhibition are rare books, art and historical documents. Also on display is “Coast to Cactus in California,” (a permanent exhibition). The newest exhibit is “Unshelved: Cool Stuff from Storage” – a display of specimens from around the world. It will be ensconced at the NAT for the next two years. Check out the Nat’s films: “Ocean Oasis” and the 3-D films “Incredible Predators” and “Galapagos.” The Nat also offers “Fossil Mysteries,” “Water: A California Story,” and “Skulls.”
Mingei
Mingei International Museum is celebrating the 70th anniversary of the founding of Israel by teaming up with the House of Israel in Balboa Park to showcase a retrospective exhibition of the nation’s diverse and lively craft and design. More than 80 artists will be highlighted in this show, set to be ensconced until Sept. 3. The exhibition includes rugs and blankets. Mingei continues to show off “Voluminous Art – Treasures from San Diego’s University Libraries.” This collaboration will feature masterworks of book art and will remain at the museum through Sept. 3. Mingei’s exhibition of student craft will be on view until Aug. 19, and on June 9, the museum will add “William L. Hawkins: An Imaginative Geography” to its list of exhibitions. This show will stay on through Aug. 26.
San Diego History Center
The San Diego History Center is featuring “Gaps in the Record: Vanguard Print Culture in San Diego,” an exhibition that explores the convergence of literary and visual art practices. That show is slated to stay put through Aug. 5. The History Museum’s permanent exhibition, “Placed Promises,” chronicles the history of the San Diego region – and the America’s Cup Exhibition highlights the sailing race held in San Diego three times since 1988.
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the news Walkabout Australia Opens at the San Diego Zoo Safari Park The San Diego Zoo Safari Park is offering guests an immersive experience into the habitats of Australia. There is a grassland, rainforest, wetlands and desert habitat. Guests are able to get close to kangaroos, rednecked wallabies and brush turkeys. There will also be cassowaries, wombats, kookaburras, echidnas and sugar gliders. Guests can also reserve a “Roos & Mates” tour where a guide will offer information and allow them into the keeper-only areas to get close with the different species in the exhibit.
Afikim Foundation and Olami Commemorate Israel’s Fallen Soldiers at Site of Original UN Resolution On Yom Hazikaron, the Afikim Foundation and Olami held a commemoration at the Queens Museum in New York to honor Israel’s fallen through film, candle lighting, and a panorama of individual soldiers. The Queens Museum is of particular significance, as it was the site of the original UN Resolution to recognize Israel as the Jewish State in 1947. The commemoration of these fallen soldiers included the world film premiere of the short film “Every Day a Memory” to remember the 23,632 service men and women who died defending and protecting the State of Israel. Rabbi Moshe Hiller of Torah Day said, “You have helped us impart such an important lesson in building these young students into great people who will sincerely feel a deep connection with their Jewish brethren in the holy land, despite never having been there or knowing any of the fallen soldiers. I have no doubt that this is the reaction of the many day schools and high schools that have participated in this program.” The Afikim Foundation implements Jewish educational initiatives worldwide. Olami is a global community of organizations committed to inspiring young adults to achieve their Jewish greatness through Jewish learning and practice.
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JCF CFO Named CFO of the Year by San Diego Business Journal Jeremy Pearl, executive vice president and chief financial officer at the Jewish Community Foundation of San Diego (JCF), is being recognized as 2018 CFO of the Year by the San Diego Business Journal. Each year, the San Diego Business Journal recognizes top financial executives in the San Diego area for their contributions to company growth, leadership and community involvement. Now in its 13th year, the CFO of the Year Awards acknowledged 65 finalists across the categories of public company, privately held company, nonprofit organization, business nonprofit, and government, education and community. Jeremy was named CFO of the Year in the government, education and community award category at the 2018 Awards, which were held Thursday, March 15 at the Westin San Diego Gaslamp Quarter. Jeremy has been at the Foundation for more than 12 years, guiding growth in assets under management from $203 million to almost $400 million. Last year he also served as interim Chief Executive Officer and facilitated a seamless transition when Beth Sirull was brought on board in March 2017.
President of Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute Dies in Plane Crash Rabbi Aaron D. Panken, Ph.D., President of Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute (HUC-JIR) died tragically in a plane crash in Orange County on May 5, 2018, at the age of 53. He served as the 12th President in the institute’s 143-year history. Dr. Panken led the four-campus international institution of higher learning and seminary for Reform Judaism. HUC-JIR’s campuses in Cincinnati, Jerusalem, Los Angeles and New York provide the academic and professional training programs for the Reform Movement’s rabbis, cantors, educators and nonprofit management professionals
and offer graduate programs for scholars of all faiths. HUCJIR’s 4,000 active alumni serve the Reform Movement’s 1.5 million members and nearly 900 congregations, representing the largest Jewish denomination in North America, and the growing Progressive Movement in Israel and around the world. Rabbi Panken is survived by his wife, Lisa Messinger, his children Eli and Samantha, his parents Beverly and Peter and his sister, Rabbi Melinda Panken of Congregation Shaari Emeth in Manalapan, NJ. A service was held on May 8 in Scarsdale, New York.
MEETINGS AND EVENTS FOR JEWISH SENIORS
JFS CEO Michael Hopkins Joins the Network of Jewish Human Service Agencies’ First Board of Directors Michael Hopkins, CEO of Jewish Family Service of San Diego, has been named to the Network of Jewish Human Service Agencies’ board of directors. The announcement was made in Chicago during the organization’s inaugural conference, Unifying Our Human Service Voice, which was attended by more than 400 agency executives, professionals, project managers and other leaders. Hopkins joins the organization’s first board since its inception in May 2017, when the Association of Jewish Family and Children’s Agencies and the International Association of Jewish Vocational Services joined forces. Hopkins joins a distinguished list of leaders from both human service agencies and other sectors to help shepherd this new organization into the future. CEO of Jewish Family Service of Metropolitan Detroit, Perry Ohren, has been named chair. John Colburn, COO of Philadelphia’s JEVS Human Services, will serve as vice chair; David Marcu, CEO of Isreal Elwyn, treasurer; and
Jewish War Veterans of San Diego, Post-185 Contact Jerome Klein at (858) 521-8694 June 9, 10 a.m.
Judy Halper, CEO of Jewish Family and Children’s Services (JFCS) of Minneapolis, secretary. James Kahn, a senior partner at Philadelphia law firm Margolis Edelstein, and June Gutterman, CEO of Jewish Family Services of Columbus, Ohio, who were the co-chairs of both the steering committee that developed the Network and its interim board, will continue as ex-officio members. Hopkins was named Jewish Family Service of San Diego’s CEO in January 2012, continuing his more than 35 years of building and strengthening the Jewish community across the country. Building on the agency’s 100-year history, he has led the nonprofit through a wide-reaching, collaborative strategic planning process, and a capital campaign resulting in the development of an expanded, more client-centric campus.
Nominees for the 5th Annual Broadway-San Diego Awards for High School Musical Theatre
Veterans Association of North County, Post-385 Contact Marsha Schjolberg (760) 492-7443 Jewish War Veterans meetings June 9, 11 a.m. JFS College Avenue Center at Temple Emanu-El Contact Elissa Landsman (858) 637-3273 June 15, 12:30 p.m. The Script in Hand ensemble performs short comedic skits and plays for Father’s Day. North County Jewish Seniors Club at the Oceanside Senior Center Contact Josephine at (760) 295-2564 June 16, 12:30 p.m. Lawrence Family JCC Contact Melanie Rubin (858) 362-1141 June 20, 9:30 a.m. Meet bus at JCC to Mingei Museum for docent tour of “Israel, 70 Years of Craft & Design.” Price is $10-$13. On the Go Excursions Contact Jo Kessler (858) 637-7320 July 9, 1 p.m. See “A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum” by North Coast Rep in Solana Beach. Registration is July 9.
Broadway-San Diego Awards has a record number of represented high schools in their nominees. This is the 5th annual competition where the winning Best Actor and Best Actress recieve a $1,000 and get flown to New York to compete in The Jimmy Awards at Broadway’s Minskoff Theatre. The Best Actor Nominees: Keegan Bushouer, Steven Davis, Sky Frank, Nicholas Garcia, Dashiell Gregory, Chase Lowary, Spencer Lynn, Jonas McMullen, Rocco Polanco and Jackson Shaffer. The Best Actress Nominees: Felicity Bryant, Avery-Claire Nugent, Maddie Edwards, Genevieve Flores, Mikayla Kehler-Elliott, Kira Lukasik, Leanna Neely, Jenna Steinberg, Mary Rose Vadeboncoeur and Jenna Viana. The Best Musical Nominees are Cathedral Catholic High School, “42nd Street;” Mission Hills High School, “American Idiot;” Steele Canyon High School, “The Sound of Music.” The awards were on May 27 at the Balboa Theatre, but the the winners names were not available at press time.
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ADVICE
ASK MARNIE by Marnie Macauley
asksadie@aol.com
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halom, San Diegans: If there’s one question that throws my emails into payload weight it’s “Dear Marnie, I can’t talk – in public, to strangers, to co-workers. At parties I freeze!” Say the pollsters: “talking” – especially public speaking – is our number one fear, beating out death. (Having to speak at a funeral then, would require three hours on a Valium drip.) In today’s digital age, even using three letters and emoticons, a chat with the great “unknowns” has us quaking like Mt. St. Helen’s in heat. So, today we’re taking on opening our pisks without fear of putting our foot in it. TALKERS VS. NON-TALKERS Some of us are born talking. Me. As soon as they cut the cord, I kvetched: “That was some trip! And by the way ma, that nurse? I recognized the voice when you were watching ‘America’s Most Wanted.’” Unlike his sister, my bro’s first words were: “Bye. I’m going to college.” Mama Nature imbued us differently. Aside from biology, there’s the tiny world around us that can affect our ability to communicate when we’re still in Toddler Pushups. If parents criticize rather than praise, forbid us to express feelings rather than encourage, react with shame or anger rather than excitement about life’s journey, our esteem turns to shredded matzo. Even as adults, we’ve learned to choose “safety” by shutting up or shutting down as we fear others will see our inner screw-up. Finally the Net, or the metastatic Parent Company of the modern abbreviation, has retarded our ability to form a simple declarative sentence, eyeball to eyeball. If this feels like you, you’re joined by eight 72 SDJewishJournal.com | June 2018
THE SINGULAR ART OF COMMUNICATION out of 10 people or 20 million Americans who quake and worry “What will I say?” THE ART OF THE SHMOOZE (SMALL TALK) I often hear “I hate small talk,” “What’s the point?” or “I can’t do it anyway.” Mamalas, shmoozing or “small talk” is a vital networking tool. Studies have shown that the “competent” are usually watching as the less qualified “likeables” and shmoozers move up professionally and socially. The shmooze establishes: 1. A basis (“We’re both crazy about tsim mis!”’) 2. A rapport (“And we both went to Camp Dead Sea.”) 3. Empathy (“Fat makes you gassy, too?”) 4. Friendship (“I found this amazing product for gas. KishkeLac? Here, try one.”) 5. Networking (“Listen, this food here is terrible, how about going over to the delicatessen across the street?) CAUTION: TOP SHMOOZE LOSERS: TRY THESE AND YOU’LL WIND UP ALONE WITH 23 CATS … WHO WON’T LIKE YOU EITHER 1. Coming On Too Strong. When shmoozing, you want to break the ice but not with a pick. One of my clients couldn’t understand why women ran from him: His opening? “I don’t do bull. So, are you interested in a relationship or not?” Scary. 2. Getting Too Close Or Personal Too Soon. I had a female client, who after the first dirty martini wanted to know what her date was doing for Pesach. It was July. Other losing comments at a party:
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You give out your bio or a sales spiel after the “Hello.” • “Did you really send those nasty emails?” • “I should tell you, I dated the Cantor. He left me.” I call these “SS’s” or “Suffocation by Sharing.” You’re taking liberties without an invite. Instead of bringing you closer, it brings getting to know you to a close. 3. Being the “Bester.” If a neighbor talks about his new Honda, you bought a Harley. If your cousin went to Miami, you summered in Eilat. If a colleague has a headache, you probably have a brain tumor. If convos become contests with “winners” and losers, guess who you’ll be? 4. Interrupting. Jumping down throats is the fastest way to a) make rotten assumptions; b) invite frustration. All you get is the “exhausted” fumes when they run from you. 5. Overexplaining. I had an uncle who, when asked a simple question such as, “Where did you buy that camera?” lectured the questioner on the history of photography – starting with hieroglyphics. We sat him at the children’s table during the Jewish holidays. Stick with the headline and throw in only the most amusing anecdote. Ditto for the “self-correctors” as in: “On Monday, the first … oh wait, maybe it was Wednesday the third. So, I made my own gefilte fish from scratch … not exactly from scratch, anyway—” Only use these to induce plotzing. 6. Talking Out Of Your Hat or Lying about Yourself. A little exaggeration is fine, but there are limits. If you say you’re moving up at CBS, you’d better not be an elevator operator. Similarly, shooting off your mouth when you know nothing only works if you’re
a politician. The famous quote applies: “It’s better to keep your mouth shut and appear stupid than open it and remove all doubt.” 7. Hanging In Too Long. You’re still yammering and your listener has left the convo – or the room. 8. Umming and sweating. Nuff said. MY TOP STRATEGIES FOR BEING A TERRIFIC TALKER! 1. Keep It Simple, Without Clichés. “Cute” openings involving astrological signs or “You were sent from heaven” are fine – if you’re in middle school. If you’re smarter than a fourth grader, “Hello, I’m Rebecca” beats “If nothing lasts forever, will you be my nothing?” 2. Notice Notice Notice And Comment! Others adore talking to someone who has the good sense to notice what is true or what they want to believe about themselves! “I see you work out!” “That painting you drew … it speaks to my heart.” “You’re an expert at Torah.” “That Star of David you’re wearing. It’s vintage. So flattering!” 3. Find a Basis and Share a Little about You. “I started working out/painting too,” “I’m studying Torah with a Women’s group,” “I
have a vintage Hamsa I love.” 4. Listen/Reflect Back Or Mirror. This solves your “Umming” problem. Remember. Others are into themselves. All you need do is repeat and re-word. You’re at a synagogue service. You see a prospect with a golf emblem. He tells you he belongs to the Mount Zion Golf Club. “Ah, the Mount Zion Golf Club … nice.” Period. Then move onto – 7. Questions. Invite Them To Tell A Story. This is a little tricky. Avoid the word “WHY?” Why? Because it leads to “Because.” End of convo. Instead ask open-ended questions, for example: “Tell me more about it” or “How would you describe it?” 8. Smile, Watch Your Appearance And Body Language. If you look like you’d rather have a colonoscopy (with matching gown), you’re red-lighting others. Be fetching, inviting, warm, energetic and add charming and sincere. 9. Watch The Manischewitz! Even if you made a great impression the first three hours – too many little white cups will destroy it if you have to be lifted into an Uber. 10. Know When It’s Time to Sha or Leave. If eyes are darting, responses are getting shorter or more vague, your listener(s) say they need to go, they start walking off or the lights go
out … you’ve lost your op. Leave ’em wanting more of you. READY, SET, GO! Some of you may be thinking. “Yeah … so how do I do all this?” PREPARE! PREPARE! PREPARE! • Practice/Rehearse comments in front of friends/family/a mirror until your words feel natural. • Use relaxation methods such as deep breathing to control anxiety. • Visualize every step of the upcoming experience until you feel comfortable. FINALLY … BE YOU, THE AUTHENTIC, MARVELOUS YOU! Use your personality strengths, find your “inner quirk” and embrace it. I actually have made a list of fascinating (Well I think so) anecdotes and events in my life. If you’re over 20, you’ve done, thought, experienced more than you realize. WRITE THEM DOWN. Not only do they make great shmooze fodder, but they’ll remind you of your remarkability! This list is your personal bank of “Me, Fascinating Me.” Now all you have to do is believe it! “Good talking” to you all! A
Joseph Glickman, known as Chickie, 102 years old, and days away from his 103rd birthday, passed away at his home in La Jolla, California on May 21st. The youngest of nine children, he was raised in Minneapolis, Minnesota and moved to La Jolla with his wife 52 years ago. His wife, of 77 years, Beverly (Birdie) passed away on August 26, 2016. Professionally he was a CPA and a banker. He had a passion for life and adventure. He was a commercially rated pilot (even though he only flew for fun and set world records). He collected rare cars, sailed boats, traveled the world in his plane with his wife by his side, sculpted and painted and collected art. He was a voracious reader right up to his last days. He had a passion for Israel and he deeply loved his family as we did him. He is survived by his daughter, Elaine Galinson (Herbert Solomon) and his two sons, Edward and Robert. He had 9 grandchildren and 11 great-grandchildren, and devoted professional caregivers. For those who wish memorial gifts be made to the Beverly and Joseph Glickman UCSD Hillel student center construction fund. 8976 Cliffridge Av, La Jolla, CA, 92037, or the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee. 711 Third Av, New York NY 10017-4014.
Arrangements by Am Israel Mortuary – www.AmIsraelMortuary.com
Sivan • Tammuz 5778 | SDJewishJournal.com 73
Diversions
Like everything else, all good Jewish comedies must come to an end. | BY GABE FRIEDMAN, JTA NEWS |
“Broad City” is ending — here are the show’s most Jewish moments The stars and creators of “Broad City,” Ilana Glazer and Abbi Jacobson, said Thursday that the hilarious Comedy Central show’s next season will be its last. That fifth season will air in early 2019. “‘Broad City’ has been our baby and first love for almost 10 years, since we started as a web series. It’s been a phenomenal experience, and we’ve put ourselves into it completely. ‘Broad City’s always had a spontaneous pace and feeling, and ending after season five honors that spirit,” Glazer and Jacobson said, according to The Hollywood Reporter. That doesn’t mean the show’s Jewish comedy forces are going anywhere — in fact, Glazer and Jacobson are involved as producers in three other potential Comedy Central series. Those series are tentatively called “Mall Town USA” (written and created by Gabe Liedman, Jenny Slate’s former comedy partner), “Platinum Status” (written by Ilana’s brother Eliot Glazer, who also plays her brother on “Broad City”) and “Young Professionals” (written by David Litt, Barack Obama’s former Jewish speechwriter). Glazer and Jacobson started “Broad City” as a web series and debuted it on Comedy Central in 2014 to rave reviews. The show follows their wacky adventures as mid-20-somethings living in New York City and has spawned more than its fair share of funny Jewish moments.
“Birthmark” — a thinly veiled swipe at Birthright
The best friends embarked on a free trip to Israel, only to find a plane full of young Jews focused on the “reproductive future” of the Jewish community. Jewish pop star Adam Levine even made a cameo.
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Susie Essman as Ilana’s mom
The Jewish “Curb Your Enthusiasm” star plays a kooky mom from Long Island who brings out the Jew in Ilana.
Yom Kippur struggles
Fasting on the holiest day of the year is hard for them, since a certain hunger-inducing drug is a part of their daily lives.
The Jews of Florida
Ilana’s family heads down to the very Jewish state to clean out her grandmother Esther’s apartment. They encounter more racism than they expect among the Jews there — and Fran Drescher. (Glazer reveals in a clip after the episode that they filmed it at the same condo complex — Huntington Lakes in Delray Beach, if anybody is keeping score — she used to visit as a kid.)
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Benjamin Fischlowitz - San Diego
Roger Lamson - San Diego
Miriam Scherer - San Diego
Edward Samiljan - San Diego
Roza Kandinova - San Diego
Charisew Hollander - San Diego
Roger Zinn - Travis - TX
Leonard Goldberg - San Diego
Eugene Gordon - San Diego
Audrey Wagner - San Diego
Ronald Abramoff - San Diego
Leslie Ima - San Diego
Phyllis Tabak - San Diego
Arlene Weitzen - Poway
Lilia Alperin - Arapahoe, CO
Lyubiv Glozman -San Diego
Alexander Mazin - San Diego
Sidney Alpert - San Diego
Genevieve Simons - San Diego
Richard Rosenblatt - San Diego
Arlene Stein - San Diego
May their memory be a blessing. AM ISRAEL MORTUARY
On behalf of AM Israel Mortuary, We extend our condolences to the families of all those who have recently passed. The families of those listed above would like to inform the community of their passing. Members of the JFDA- Jewish funeral directors of America, KAVOD - (Independent/Family owned Jewish funeral directors) Consumer Affairs Funeral and Cemetery division
We Are San Diego’s ONLY All-Jewish Mortuary Serving the community for over 40 years.
(619) 583-8850
6316 El Cajon Blvd., San Diego For a list of currents services and additional info:
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Sivan • Tammuz 5778 | SDJewishJournal.com 75
Cantor Deborah Davis
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JEWISH COMMUNITY Welcoming babies and families to San Diego’s Jewish Community ARE YOU EXPECTING A BABY OR DO YOU KNOW SOMEONE WHO IS? Shalom Baby is an innovative program designed for San Diego families to celebrate the arrival of their Jewish newborns to affiliated, non-affiliated and inter-married families as a welcome to the San Diego Jewish Community.
To receive your Shalom BaBy BaSkeT and for informaTion conTacT: San Diego .............. Judy Nemzer • 858.362.1352 • shalombaby@lfjcc.org North County......... Vivien Dean • 858.357.7863 • shalombabyncounty@lfjcc.org www.lfjcc.org/shalombaby • www.facebook.com/shalombabypjlibrarysandiego
For information call Deborah Davis: 619-275-1539
To hear samples, visit our website: secondavenueklezmer.com
Lawrence Family Jewish Community Center, JACOBS FAMILY CAMPUS, Mandell Weiss Eastgate City Park, 4126 Executive Drive, La Jolla, CA 92037-1348
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76 SDJewishJournal.com | June 2018
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