San Diego Jewish Journal November 2014

NOVEMBER 2014 l HESHVAN•KISLEV 5775

Fall in Love with Books A complete guide to the largest Jewish book event of the year

Plus: Big updates from local summer camps

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CONTENTS

November 2014 Heshvan/Kislev 5775

30

COVER STORY: The Jewish Book Fair celebrates 20 years with more books and programs to surprise, intrigue and enlighten.

41

CAMPS: San Diego’s only Jewish sleep-away camp looks back on 10 great summers.

51

THEATER: The La Jolla Playhouse premieres a new, more adult version of “The Hunchback of Notre Dame” this month.

57 4 SDJewishJournal.com l November 2014

TRAVEL: Amidst rising anti-Semitism in Europe, Jewish enclaves can still be found in Spain and France.

Income Generation in Retirement Our conversation on retirement income can help you move from “Can I retire?” to “How can I make the most of my retirement?”

62 IN THIS ISSUE: 43 CAMPS:

Good Eats 62 Food

44 CAMPS:

Around Town 10 Mailbag 12 Our Town 14 Event Recap 64 What’s Goin’ On 72 Calendar

Keva and kavannah at Camp Hess Kramer in Malibu For Jews of color, summer camp can be a challenge

46 CAMPS:

Camp Jaycee kicks off new music program, in the summer and year-round

48 SCIENCE:

Two scientists walk into a bar...

55 BUSINESS:

Kolker Realty Group and tips for working with your spouse

56 SYNAGOGUE:

Sepharadic Kehillah is a new mix of old traditions

61 FEATURE:

JCF’s Marjory Kaplan leaves a legacy of giving

In Every Issue 8 The Starting Line 18 Parenting 20 Israeli Lifestyle 22 Dating 24 Aging 26 Spirituality 28 Israel 67 News 71 Diversions 77 Desert Life

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Heshvan • Kislev 5775 l SDJewishJournal.com 5

WHEN YOU NEED A RABBI Congregation B'nai Tikvah, Carlsbad

CALL RABBI BEN LEINOW

Ben Leinow Rabbi, PhD

“A RABBI WHO CARES”

www.sdjewishjournal.com November 2014 • Heshvan/Kislev 5775

Counseling & Ceremonies for:

PUBLISHER • Dr. Mark S. Moss CO-PUBLISHER • Mark Edelstein

Weddings (for all couples) Baby's Naming and Funerals

EDITOR-IN-CHIEF • Natalie Jacobs CREATIVE DIRECTOR • Peter Talhamé

CELL: 619.992.2367 760.727.5333 email: rabbiben@email.com

ASSISTANT EDITOR • Tinamarie Bernard ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT EDITOR • Eileen Sondak ADVERTISING DIRECTOR • Mark Edelstein

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CONTRIBUTING WRITERS Tori Avey, Betsy Baranov, Linda Bennett, Abby Walker, Leah Singer, David Ebenbach, Judith Fein (Senior Travel Correspondent), Michael Fox, Jennifer Garstang, Amanda Kelly, Brie Stimson, Miki Lamm, Pat Launer, Curt Leviant, David Ogul, Pamela Price, Sharon Rosen Leib, Nikki Salvo, Andrea Simantov, Jon Schwartz CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHERS/ARTISTS Vincent Andrunas, Ediz Benaroya, Leigh Castelli, Leetal Elmaleh, Pepe Fainberg, Steve Greenberg, Pat Krause, Paul Ross (Senior Travel Photographer), Angela Sissa, Daisy Varley, Nicholas Patton, Sheri Liebovich ADVERTISING REPRESENTATIVES Ronnie Weisberg (Account Executive), Alan Moss (Palm Springs) SAN DIEGO JEWISH JOURNAL (858) 638-9818 • fax: (858) 638-9801 5665 Oberlin Drive, Suite 204 • San Diego, CA 92121 EDITORIAL: editor@sdjewishjournal.com ADVERTISING: sales@sdjewishjournal.com CIRCULATION & SUBSCRIPTIONS: publisher@sdjewishjournal.com ART DEPARTMENT: art@sdjewishjournal.com LISTINGS & CALENDAR: calendar@sdjewishjournal.com

Award Winning, Nationally Published Residential & Commercial Design

SDJJ is published monthly by San Diego Jewish Journal, LLC. Subscription rate is $24 for one year (12 issues). Send subscription requests to SDJJ, 5665 Oberlin Drive, Suite 204, San Diego, CA 92121. The San Diego Jewish Journal is a free and open forum for the expression of opinions. The opinions expressed herein are solely the opinion of the author and in no way reflect the opinions of the publishers, staff or advertisers. The San Diego Jewish Journal is not responsible for the accuracy of any and all information within advertisements. The San Diego Jewish Journal reserves the right to edit all submitted materials, including press releases, letters to the editor, articles and calendar listings for brevity and clarity. The Journal is not legally responsible for the accuracy of calendar or directory listings, nor is it responsible for possible postponements, cancellations or changes in venue. Manuscripts, letters, documents and photographs sent to the Journal become the physical property of the publication, which is not responsible for the return or loss of such material. All contents ©2014 by San Diego Jewish Journal. The San Diego Jewish Journal is a member of the American Jewish Press Association and the Jewish Telegraphic Agency.

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THE STARTING LINE

by Natalie Jacobs Editor of the San Diego Jewish Journal editor@sdjewishjournal.com

For the Love of Books

T

he other day, a friend of mine said she couldn’t remember the last time she read a book. My face went blank and I must have let out an unintentionally audible sigh because she quickly added that she’s working to remedy the situation. Not to worry, she had just spent the following evening on a book-buying spree aided

by Amazon’s reviews and recommended titles, determined to end her no-reading streak with a bang.

It was particularly difficult for me to hear her say those words – “I can’t remember the last book I read” – on that particular day because I had just finished Lena Dunham’s “Not that Kind of Girl.” I read it in 12 hours, spread, impatiently, across four days and I was still a little bit high on Dunham’s rhetoric when I was listening with as little judgment as possible to my friend. What would Lena Dunham say?

I had stepped away from “1177 B.C.: The year civilization collapsed” to read Dunham’s book of essays. I needed the break. I’m only on page 37 of that small book about the huge collapse of multiple civilizations in the Bronze Age but it has taken me three weeks to get there. The book reads more like archeological field notes than anything else, and the names of the ancient cultures are hard to pronounce which adds to the time it takes to get through a chapter. I recently granted myself permission to leave behind any book the moment I realize I just can’t get into it, but I’m determined to finish this one. And I will...eventually.

That’s the glory of books – they’re always there when you need them. As a kid, I was obsessed with historical fiction. It started with Laura Ingalls Wilder and then moved onto the industrial revolution (specifically books about the young women who worked in factories in the American North East),

8 SDJewishJournal.com l November 2014

and petered out after a years-long binge on books about slavery, the Civil War, and the Civil Rights era of the 1960s.

As an adult, I’ve tried to force myself to venture into the non-fiction realm so as to learn something I may have missed in college or to dig deeper into something I heard about on NPR. But as my dad once said, sometimes non-fiction can feel too much like work and the best part about reading is that it takes you away from everything. The really good books introduce us to places and people that we’re a little bit sad to leave when our time with them ends. But it’s a welcome sadness, one that I pine for in fact, when I start a new book. There’s a strange pleasure to be found in working so hard to understand a world that has such a finite existence.

I’ve spent the last few years on the classics that I was never introduced to in high school. But now that I have a pretty good understanding of where literature started, I’m making it a new goal to spend more time with living authors.

Whatever they’re about and whomever wrote them, books and the ability to read are such a treat, ones that can be easily forgone for the visceral pleasure of reality television or the self-indulgent mirrors of social media. Would anything change if we all read one book a month? Or even six in a year?

How long has it been since you finished a book?

If it’s something that’s on your mind to get back into, this year’s Jewish Book Fair is the place to scout titles. There are some well-known authors on the roster, along with some books that have sparked recent controversies and others that are just waiting to be discovered. You can read about a few in our Book Fair section starting on page 30. Or ask a trusted bibliophile for a list of her top five favorites and start there. A

Looking for books?

If after the Book Fair you’re still looking for book recommendations, check the Publisher’s Weekly website publishersweekly.com - for info on new releases.

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We’re Listening!

>> mailbag

Let us know what you’re thinking.

OUTSTANDING

Send us your comments: editor@sdjewishjournal.com 5665 Oberlin Dr., Ste 204 San Diego, CA 92121

CORRECTIONS In “Planning for the Worst Case Scenario,” Oct. 2014, it was incorrectly noted that Dana Kaplan and Krav Maga founder Imi Lichtenfeld studied together in San Diego. The two met in Israel when the latter was 83 years old. The SDJJ regrets this error.

Dear Editor: I read your outstanding article written by Natalie Jacobs about San Diego’s own Talya Herring and her work at Aleh Negev [Working Near Gaza, Sept. 2014].

I would like to add that Jewish National Fund (JNF) supports this remarkable village as part of its Blueprint Negev initiative to transform southern Israel into a strong and prosperous region for the benefit of all of its residents.

We at JNF are so proud to be part of the Aleh Negev family and admire the work that Talya Herrring does for its residents.

Lauren Lizerbram JNF San Diego Board President

IN RESPONSE TO “OUT OF PLACE” Dear Editor: The letter from Rabbi Alexis Pearce [Oct. 2014] suggests that she has absorbed her “Jewish” values from the anti-Israel left rather than from either Torah or history. Does she not know who started the wars that resulted in Israel’s present defensive borders? Or how many Jews were expelled from Arab lands without compensation on pain of death while Israel was striving to live in peace and justice with its own Arab population? Or that Israel has had to resort to defensive measures – holding to the most humane military rules of engagement of any nation on earth at any time in history – in the face of the proclaimed desire of its supposed victims to kill all Jews and wipe Israel off the map?

Rabbi Pearce says – and I agree – that “justice for [only] some isn’t justice.” But her application of that principle shows her to be guilty of an egregious double standard.

Gideon Rappaport San Diego Dear Editor: I spent more than a decade as the director of training for an antiterrorism unit of a cabinet-level U.S. government department. I

10 SDJewishJournal.com l November 2014

learned a few things during that time. Rabbi Alexis Pearce’s attack on Israel, and on those of us who support Israel, is an appalling example of undisciplined emotion and complete historical, social, political and cultural ignorance of the Middle East and of the nations that comprise the region.

Rabbi Pearce rejects Israel because, among other things, there is no “separation of church and state.” Using that measure she should also reject every Arab state in existence and the goals of every Arab/Muslim entity that attacks Israel and the United States. Rabbi Pearce also wants to take down the Israeli security barricade. Surely her memory is not so deficient that she cannot recall the multitude of suicide bombings that killed hundreds of Israelis before the fence went up.

David G. Epstein, Ph.D. San Diego Dear Editor: As for Rabbi Pearce and her views, they have been said before and by a Jewish woman, too. About a century ago, Rosa Luxemburg wrote, “I have no room in my heart for Jewish suffering. Why do you pester me with Jewish troubles? I feel closer to the wretched victims of the rubber plantations of Putumayo or the Negroes in Africa...I have no separate corner in my heart for the ghetto.”

Harold Reisman Carlsbad Dear Editor: I am proud to be a Jew, and if [Rabbi Pearce] has a “miserable sense of having no place in the Jewish world,” then perhaps the fault lies with her, as opposed to the Jewish world.

Which occupation [is she] referring to that was illegal, unjust and horrendouly violent? Is it the land of Israel, that throughout history had been conquered and destroyed dozens of times?

[She] didn’t mention feeling miserable when thousands of Hamas rockets were fired from

Gaza into the Jewish world in Israel, or the kidnapping and murdering of three beautiful innocent souls.

Pauline Sonboleh San Diego Dear Editor: I told [Rabbi Pearce] years ago she was better suited preaching in a mosque than leading a Jewish congregation, and now she reveals her stripes haven’t changed. Her letter is nothing more than the ramblings of a self-loathing Jew. The title of “rabbi” would seem to provide a degree of credibility.

In the case of Ms. Pearce, her continual dissemination of the vicious Palestinian narrative only brings shame.

Peter W. Singer San Diego Dear Editor: Back in Israel, I considered myself a secular, left-learning Israeli Jew. Maturity, perspective and history, as it unfolded during the past 30 years, have caused a shift, a realization in my stance.

[Rabbi Pearce’s] issue is an inner conflict between humanitarian/ political views on one hand and loyalties to the Jewish people/Israel on the other. I can relate. However, unlike [her], I have no problem reconciling these conflicts.

I feel for the misery of the Palestinian people, I think they should have a place they can call their own. However, I don’t feel it is solely the responsibilty of the State of Israel to grant or provide them such a place. To remind you, their own brethren ignored their plights for decades, specifically Egypt, Jordan and Lebanon.

I feel it’s irresponsible and extremely damaging to voice nonsupportive opinions on public platforms in the Diaspora when Israel needs our full support. If you feel you must voice those opinions, by all means, move to Israel and get involved.

Elisha Blatt San Diego

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TOWN

BY LINDA BENNETT & BETSY BARANOV l BETSY1945@COX.NET PHOTOS BY SHERI LIEBOVICH

Dedication at Hillel

On Oct. 12, the Melvin Garb Hillel Center on Lindo Paseo Ave. at San Diego State University was dedicated. This beautiful new home for Hillel will serve as a popular meeting place for students for many years to come. Among those speaking to the standingroom-only crowd were Michael Rabkin, Elliot Hirschman, president of SDSU, Emily Jennewein, board president of Hillel San Diego, Jackie Tolley, director of Hillel at SDSU, and Herbert J. Solomon, Inaugural Luminary Award Recipient. Amy Stern was the dedication chair for the lovely event. Among those seen were Jerry Klusky, Mim Lincoff, Stephen Cohen, Rabbi Martin and Anita Lawson, Joan and Jeremy Berg, Arthur and Sandra Levinson, Robert and Allison Price, Howard Bolotin, Linda and Shearn Platt, Steven and Esther Solomon, Mark Berger, Jackie and Bertie Woolf, Karen and Jeff Silberman, Michael Breslauer and Stephanie Levine, Geoffrey Berg, Susan and Robert Lapidus, Allen Nevin, Pauline Foster, Elie Bernhardt, Nina Saban, Susan Shmalo, Yoni Breziner, and Michael Stern.

Birthdays...

Happy 80th birthday to Sonie Glazer!

Happy 80th to Phyllis Gold!

Mazel Tov...

Mazel Tovs on the marriages of Ross Moskowitz to Dena Van Lierop, and Aaron Borovoy to Peter Ambrose!

Ilan Schraer, son of Linda Masliah and Bob Schraer, married Stephanie Brachmann! Schraer is the grandson of Paul and Lottie Schraer.

Native San Diegan Ben Caspi married Annie Millstone!

Happy parents are Leslie and Shlomo Caspi.

The “new kid on the block” is Grant Benjamin High.

He was born on Sept. 11 to Jeff and Elena High.

Grandparents are Jay and Rimma Rosenberg, and Ronald High and Suzanne Moss-High. Happy great grandmother is Marjorie Moss!

Top: Marty Block, Susan Davis, and Sydney Pertnoy. Clockwise from middle right: Larry Katz, Susan Lapidus and Robert Lapidus • Herb Tobin, David Michan, Rashel Michan, Emily Jennewein • Jackie Tolley and Jon David.

12 SDJewishJournal.com l November 2014

Heshvan • Kislev 5775 l SDJewishJournal.com 13

be SEEN

BY NATALIE JACOBS AND MIKI LAMM l MIKISDJJ@GMAIL. COM l PHOTOS BY NICHOLAS PATTON

Chai Break Fast and JDC Entwine

For those who live far from home, it’s hard to get together with family during the High Holidays. To create community and togetherness during the dually somber and celebrating holiday of Yom Kippur, Congregation Beth El’s young adult group, Chai, hosted a break-fast event on Oct. 4 at Puesto tacos in La Jolla, in partnership with Beth Israel. It was a relaxed and welcoming environment where nearly 70 people, most in their 20s and 30s, came after services to eat delicious food (finally) and enjoy each other’s company. This was Chai’s first break-fast event but with its success, they’re hoping to make it an annual event. The group hosts twice-monthly shabbat dinners, which you can attend this month on Nov. 8 and Nov. 28. Find details on upcoming events at cbe.org.

Also for the young-adult crowd was the JCD Entwine event, “The Fabric of Jewish Poland.” Attendees learned that “being Jewish in Poland is chic” while they watched a documentary about the fashion industry in this historically anti-Semitic country. The event was created to showcase JDC’s work in Poland. Learn more at jdc.org/where-we-work/europe/poland.html.

Top: Debbie, Nathan and Benji Vinick. Clockwise from middle: Lila Swedarsky • Josh Kagan, Ashley Kagan and Dor Ashur • Katie Binstock and Spencer Stolis • Rayna Karroll, Yoni L., Margaux, and Sammy Ben.

14 SDJewishJournal.com l November 2014

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Hope is an Easy Gift to Wrap By making a bequest or other planned gift to The Scripps Research Institute, you are giving hope to future generations by advancing medical research.

Treatments and cures for Cancer, Alzheimer’s disease, Diabetes, Heart disease, and Parkinson’s disease are just a few of the areas that may benefit from your legacy through a planned gift.

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Heshvan • Kislev 5775 l SDJewishJournal.com 15

the SCENE

BY EILEEN SONDAK l NSONDAK@GMAIL.COM PHOTOS COURTESY PRADA

Rady’s and Las Patronas

Rady’s Children’s Hospital got a big boost from Prada recently, and fashion lovers were given a good reason to go shopping. The haute couture designer store invited supporters of the Hospital to come in for a special shopping spree in early October. All of the proceeds from sales during the event went directly to Rady’s. It was a win-win situation for Prada customers and for Children’s Hospital.

If you haven’t visited this new store in Fashion Valley, it’s as elegant and tasteful as the Prada pieces available for sale. Those include shoes, bags, and an array of fashions for discriminating buyers. Supporters were greeted with champagne and hors d’oeuvres before spending time in the chic store checking out the fall and winter selections.

The Scene also visited the Las Patronas “Jewel Ball” recently, where rain unfortunately canceled the “Mombo” plans but didn’t stop the fundraising.

All the prepared food was donated to the homeless and flower arrangements went to nursing homes. Susie Piegza, chair of the event, quickly put all of the silent auction items online and the group went on to raise more than $880,000.

Top: Diana Koplec and Nicole Mickles. Clockwise from middle: Cheryl Steinholt, Kristi Pieper, Roxi Link, Lisa Schroeder, Rowena Treitler • Nika and Ramain Samimi • Maria Assaraf, Shakha Gillin, Dana Alkasmi and Vishakha Gigler.

16 SDJewishJournal.com l November 2014

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WE’RE WITH YOU Heshvan • Kislev 5775 l SDJewishJournal.com 17

parenting

MUSINGS FROM MAMA

by Sharon Rosen Leib srleib@roadrunner.com

Public Displays of Judaism

M

y three daughters and I often wear our iridescent blue opal hamsa and Star of David necklaces. Why not? They go with just about everything! Oldest Daughter brought these pretty charms back as souvenir gifts from her high school’s Israel trip. I wear mine with pride and receive frequent compliments on it from people of all religious backgrounds.

When we arrived in Paris this summer, we discussed whether we should continue wearing our hamsas and stars around our necks. In light of heightened anti-Semitism, was it prudent to wear jewelry, however subtle, publicly identifying us as Jews? Undaunted, we decided to leave them on.

Yet, when we had the privilege of meeting the urbane Stéphane Beder, president of the Federation of French-Speaking Liberal Jews and vice chairman of the European Union for Progressive Judaism, Oldest Daughter posed the question of whether or not to wear her Jewish star when traveling around Europe. He didn’t think public displays of Judaism were a good idea, especially in France.

His first reason was personal – relating to the weight of his family’s experiences in World War II Vichy France.

“I was brought up that you don’t tell the world you are Jewish. Like many Jews of his generation, my father had issues because religion brought a lot of misery to his life.”

Beder explained that his father, who attended an elite Parisian high school, refused to wear the government-mandated Star of David in public.

Nonetheless, one of his father’s schoolmates informed French police that he was a Jew and should be arrested. The police hauled him into the local prefecture. The elder Beder brother, a delivery boy, smuggled him out in the back of a delivery truck. The brothers fled Paris, joined the resistance and survived the war.

Beder’s mother, orphaned after her German Jewish mother died in childbirth while fleeing to France, spent her early years in a Parisian Jewish orphanage. When the Vichy government began 18 SDJewishJournal.com l November 2014

rounding up the Jews, the orphanage’s non-Jewish cleaning woman took Beder’s five-year-old mother and seven other girls to a remote French village, and raised them as Catholics for the war’s duration. Our daughters listened closely to Beder’s family history and understood his discomfort with public displays of Judaism.

His second reason for avoiding it as much as possible was political.

“Religion in France is a private matter,” Beder said. He explained the post-revolutionary philosophy that religion doesn’t belong in the public square. During the December holidays, the French government forbids the public display of crèches, menorahs or other religious symbols. In 2004, the French government passed a controversial law banning conspicuous religious symbols from public schools. The law applies to the Muslim hijab (head scarf for girls), Jewish yarmulke, Sikh turban and large crosses. Small religious pendants (hamsas, stars, crosses) are not banned.

Undeterred by Beder’s valid personal and political concerns, we continued to wear our small religious symbols. And I was glad of this when a charming, 20-something French waiter at an outdoor café commented on my necklace.

“That is a beautiful hamsa. Are you Jewish?”

“Yes,” I replied.

“So am I,” he said, beaming at 19-year-old Middle Daughter and me. “I’m Sephardi, my parents came here from Morocco.”

My necklace served as a catalyst – inspiring him to reach out and make a connection that sparked friendly conversation.

In this season of giving thanks, I feel grateful to live in an open democracy where we can publicly display our Judaism without question. I believe the French Revolutionaries, whose motto “Liberté, Egalité, Fraternité” inspired so many, would’ve hoped for the same level of tolerance in their country. The line between banning religious attire and racial intolerance seems like a thin one. I’m glad we don’t have to worry about crossing it here. A

Did you know?

The year 5774 saw 24,800 Jews immigrate to Israel, a 28 percent rise from the previous year. France had the most people making aliyah last year, with nearly 6,000 emigrants.

israeli lifestyle

LIVING ON THE FRONT PAGE

by Andrea Simantov

andreasimantov@gmail.com

Tick, Tick, Tock

O

nly after one spends some serious time in Israel can he truly understand that there is a fundamental difference between Israeli-born Jews and Jews born in the diaspora. And although I’ve been living here for almost 20 years, I am still a galut-Jew, always worrying about what the goyim think.

Not so with Israelis in Israel. Only recently have quite a few of my co-nationalists awakened to a tentative and confused understanding that some people hate Jews. One reason it may have taken so long for so many to wake up is that being Jewish in Israel is boring. Jews aren’t outre or remotely interesting in-and-of-themselves in this neck of the Middle-Eastern woods. We encompass the all-inclusive gamut of elegant, 20 SDJewishJournal.com l November 2014

trailer-trash, blue-collar, blue-blooded, Torahobservers, avowed-atheists, educated geniuses and certified morons. Israelis don’t lower their voices, attempting to appear less Jewish. No one pays full-price in fear of being labeled a cheap/ money-grubber. We shout, are nasal, haggle over prices and are refreshingly/annoyingly “Jewish.”

For card-carrying members of the tribe, selfreflection is a non-sport.

Therein lies the rub; they don’t know how to discuss it or what to make of it. Israelis feel more comfortable leaving the hand-wringing and stare-downs to Bibi. Our Bibi – “Bibi-shelanu!!!: MIT-educated, smooth-talking, nuance-savvy and cool-cool-cool under fire.

My husband and I have respective children and

grandchildren both in Israel and overseas. While not so evident in our children – all of whom were born in the Diaspora – the differences between the Israeli grandchildren and their foreign cousins is staggering. Israeli tadpoles are brash, loud, and completely oblivious that on the world-map, Israel is the size of a rye-seed. Israeli children believe that we occupy the equivalent square-mileage of North America and half the FSU. Why should one say “please” or “thank you” when he is Master of an Israel-centric universe?

The British and South African grandchildren enjoy a different Jewish reality. Outside of the confines of their well-appointed ghettos, they wait in line, speak quietly and endeavor not to appear too Jewish. The males tuck the strings of their tzitit into slacks and hide the identifying yarmulke deep inside a pocket, opting for either a bare-head or baseball cap.

New-age graffiti in Jewish Hendon now includes sloppily daubed swastikas on doors and overhangs; anonymous letters to British synagogues and Jewish day-schools threaten damage to property and persons, often including the opinion, “Hitler Was Right.” Holocaust related language or images deliver more bangfor-the-Jew-hating buck in Europe; it’s been suggested that the “new” anti-Semitism is, merely, unfinished business.

While some South African Jews are too delusional to notice that life may be changing in that Garden-of-Eden-called-Johannesburg, an Israeli ex-pat sent me a photograph of the bumper-sticker on the car next to him in the lot.

It said: “Honk If You Hate Israel!” His favorite department store had ecstatically announced they would no longer sell products from “occupied Palestine” (Say what?) and a student with whom he’d become friendly mechanically informed him that she could no longer be friends with a “brainwashed baby killer.”

But now the snooze-button is broken on the alarm-clock and it is time to wake up. With a film of crusty sleep-dust still clouding their vision, Israelis are slowly stirring from their uneasy slumber, awakening to a world that may be turning against them. A

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dating

PLAYING WITH MATCHES

by Jennifer Garstang jenscy@gmail.com

Meeting the Mishpucha

O

f all the nerve-wracking milestones in a new relationship – the first date, the first fight, the first “I love you” – none quite matches the terror of the first time meeting the parents. Here are five tips to make that first meeting the best it can be.

1. Don’t try to make a good impression: What?!

Remember, the real goal is to begin getting to know these important people in your partner’s life. True, in order to achieve that goal, you should put your best self forward. But if you only think about how you’re coming across, then you won’t be thinking about connecting with them. It’s completely okay to feel self-conscious, but spending the whole time worrying about the impression you’re making will not only get in the way of genuine connection, it will also almost certainly make your first impression less positive. Allow yourself to be nervous, and be sure to actively bring yourself back to the moment.

2. Share yourself, and let them share with you: Your partner’s parents want to get to know the person their child has chosen! Don’t be shy when talking about yourself. At the same time, try to listen as much or more than you speak. I’m not saying count every word, just make sure that you actively listen to what they say, rather than frantically planning out what to say next as they talk.

3. Follow the same rules of courtesy with the parents as you would on a first date: This is, in many ways, like a first date. As such, you can apply all of the basic rules of courtesy to this situation.

For instance: remember to say “bevakasha” and 22 SDJewishJournal.com l November 2014

“todah” (or “please” and “thank you” for you nonHebrew-speakers), avoid ordering excessively expensive items if they treat you to a meal, stay away from hot-button issues like politics unless it is appropriate and welcome, and don’t start texting in the middle of the conversation. Oh, and never complain if the matzo balls sink.

3. Treat your significant other with the same courtesy as you would on your first date: You have spent the last however many days/weeks/ months establishing a relationship with your partner. Your partner’s parents, however, haven’t witnessed any of that development. Keep that in mind when you meet them. While you shouldn’t be afraid to share who you are as a couple, it’s a good idea to limit your inside jokes, tone down any teasing, and keep the P.D.A. (Public Displays of Affection) to a dull roar.

5. Remember, parents are people too: Odds are, you have already heard a lot of information and misinformation about your partner’s parents.

Not only do you have all the clichés from pop culture rattling around in your brain – from “Jewish Mothers” to “Monsters-in-Law” – but your significant-other has probably also shared a lot of childhood stories.

So, in order to get past your pre-conceived notions, keep in mind that the people you’re meeting are just that: people. They are complex, have hopes and fears, and a whole history shaping them...and I’d be willing to bet they’re pretty nervous about meeting you, too! A

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5/15/14 1:49 PM

aging

OLDER, WISER, BETTER

by Jon Schwartz

jonaschwartz@hotmail.com

A Day of Firsts

F

or the first time in my life, I bought a magazine while waiting in the checkout line at the grocery store. The October edition of The Atlantic had on its cover a photo of a man who looked to be his 80s. The photo accompanying the cover story, “The New Science of Old Age,” showed a man executing a skateboard trick that would be impressive at any age. I remember lying to my friends in middle school that I could do a similar maneuver, when in actuality I could barely ride down my parent’s small driveway. But this guy, apparently 80, can do it with ease.

The picture of this man and what I then assumed about the story left me transfixed. Before I knew it, I looked up and the person in front of me had swiped her credit card and the cashier was already halfway done bagging my groceries. Impulsively, I grabbed the magazine, compelled to read about this elderly prodigy.

As I write it, the word “prodigy” itself jumps out as one reserved for youngsters who perform at an astonishingly high level. Child prodigies have excelled in scholastics, athletics and myriad other areas that many adults have long stopped hoping they could tackle. However, in today’s rapidly aging world, I think it is imperative to recognize those seniors among us who are prodigious in their own ways. The accumulated years of life, talents and wisdom undoubtedly have the ability to improve the world in the most meaningful of ways.

There has been remarkable progress in improved life expectancy throughout the past 150-plus years.

In 1840, average life expectancy was 45 years old.

Since then, with the advent of improved sanitation, antibiotics and medical technology, average life expectancy has risen about three months with each passing year. Today, newborns are expected to live to be 79 and if this rate continues, we can 24 SDJewishJournal.com l November 2014

assume that by the end of this century, average life expectancy will easily be 100 years.

Longer life has obvious appeal, however, age is the greatest risk factor in chronic illness. Often, living longer means living with multiple chronic diseases at the same time, for years. These diseases currently have few good curative options and are very expensive to ourselves and our medical system.

With that in mind, The Atlantic article stressed the important factors behind the science of adding to our health span, not just our life span. Greg Easterbrook, author of the article, writes: “Drugs that lengthen health span are becoming to medical researchers what vaccines and antibiotics were to previous generations in the lab.” Major players such as Google, reputable universities, big pharma and even a company based in La Jolla (Human Longevity Inc.) are working toward therapies that would increase health span, along with the amount of years we live.

Adding years to health span will inevitably give rise and opportunity for the world to reap unprecedented gains by senior prodigies. It is true that elders have lower desire for materialism, show more empathy and are less likely to support violence and war. In the book “Better Angels of Our Nature,” Steven Pinker argues that total casualties of combat have been on the decline as global populations have aged. In 1950, one in 5,000 people worldwide died from combat. In 2010, that number improved to one in 300,000. At the same time, global military spending per capita has declined one-third in the past 25 years. These figures suggest that older people are less enthusiastic about war than the young. In light of a difficult summer in the Middle East, it is quite possible that the best solution for peace is for the whole region to just grow up. A

New now!

Join us in welcoming our new columnist, Jon Schwartz. Here you’ll find his thoughts and meditations on aging and how to get the most out of the life we’ve got.

Welcome, Jon!

Heshvan • Kislev 5775 l SDJewishJournal.com 25

spirituality

THE ARTIST’S TORAH

by David Ebenbach ebenbach@netzero.com

Adding Rest

T

he Book of B’reishit, Genesis, is a book of lives. In this most expansive of the books of the Torah, we are presented with generation after generation, story after story, of forebears. This month, we are in particular introduced to Abraham and Sarah, the first Jews of the Bible. Through several parashas, we follow their journey, and it’s a very busy one: there are travels from place to place, family strife, angelic visitors, wars, destroyed cities, children being born, pacts with powerful regional leaders, circumcisions, and more.

The interesting thing, for me, is when the very rich story of our original foremother and forefather really gets started. We meet Abraham (who was then called Abram) at the end of Parashat Noach, when he is born (Gen. 11:27), but we don’t learn anything about his childhood, or most of his adulthood, aside from him marrying Sarah (then Sarai, 11:29). His life, as far as the Torah is concerned, only begins to merit focused attention in Genesis 12:1, when God calls out to him. This is the moment when God tells him Lekh l’kha, which can be translated many ways, but most simply as “Go,” starting Abram on a sacred journey to start a new people. At this point, Abram is 75, and Sarai is in her 60s; they’ve done a lot of living by our standards. By the Torah’s standards, however, their lives are just beginning.

This is a common practice in the Torah.

Although we do get to see some childhood moments (notably the generations of Isaac, Jacob, and Jacob’s sons), often we hear about babies coming into the world and then nothing else until we’ve got full-grown adults.

But it’s not really about the moment of 26 SDJewishJournal.com l November 2014

crossing into adulthood – after all, Abram and Sarai are well past that moment when they enter the spotlight. Instead, the Torah starts counting people at a different turning point: when they find sacred purpose. Aside from his birth, we don’t hear about Noah until he achieves righteousness, a righteousness that makes him God’s choice to build an ark to save his family and the world’s animals from the coming flood (Gen. 6:9). We get to know Rebecca when she meets Eliezer (Gen. 24:15), who helps her find her place as one of our foremothers. Moses’ story takes off when, as an adult, he sees an Egyptian beating a slave and his moral outrage pushes him to intervene (Ex. 2:11), setting into motion all the crucial events of his adult life.

What the Torah seems to be telling us is that we have, if we’re lucky, two beginnings. The first – birth – happens without our involvement, but the second happens when we actively embrace a purposeful life. Sometimes, as in the case of Abram and Noah, the call to that life will seem to come from beyond us; one might feel an imperative originating from the needs of the world around oneself. Sometimes, as in the case of Rebecca (and Isaac, actually), the call will be interpersonal; one might feel deeply drawn to another person who will be part of one’s fulfillment. Or, like Moses, purpose might well up when one has already begun decisive action and now has to follow through.

The question for us, then, is this: Would the Torah be silent about the lives we’ve been living thus far? Or have we begun – or are we going to now begin – the life whose story is worth telling?

A

 This

month’s Torah portions Nov. 1: Lecha Lecha (Genesis 12:1-17:27) Nov 8: Vayera (Genesis 18:1-22:24) Nov. 15: Chayei Sarah (Genesis 23:1-25:18) Nov. 22: Toldot (Genesis 25:19-28:9) Nov. 29: Vayetze (Genesis 28:10-32:2)

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I

israel

DOING BETTER WITH WORSE Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaks about the country’s biggest issues

By Shlomo Cesana, Gonen Ginat, and Amos Regey, jns.org

A

s the Hebrew calendar turned to the year 5775, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu shared his perspective and strategy, and analyzed the changing realities in the Middle East, with the newspaper Israel Hayom. Here is a bit of what was discussed.

Israel Hayom: Is Israel doing better or worse than it was on the eve of Rosh Hashanah last year?

Benjamin Netanyahu: We are doing better while facing a harsher reality. The reality around us is that radical Islam is marching forward on all fronts. This reality poses a challenge for us, as well as for the rest of the world. One of my duties as prime minister is making sure the world understands that our war against these Islamic organizations and states, as well as against the Islamic Republic of Iran, is their war as well.

IH: Why didn’t Israel vanquish Hamas?

BN: The answer to that question is very complex and it entails a variety of considerations.

One of those considerations is a spatial consideration, which cannot be ignored. We have Hamas in the south, al-Qaida and the Nusra Front in the Golan Heights, Hezbollah in Lebanon, and Islamic State in the east; and above all we have Iran, which has abandoned neither its support of some of these terrorist groups, nor its plans to acquire nuclear weapons.

IH: How influential was the IDF in preventing a wider ground operation in Gaza?

BN: Nothing was prevented. We used combined judgment – mine, the defense minister’s, and the chief of staff ’s, and eventually that of the cabinet members. I won’t comment on cabinet meetings, but I can say that within the cabinet there was, most of the time and when it came time to decide, unanimity about the nature of operations.

The thing that guided me, and proved right, was that at the end of the day, the [aerial] campaign would trump [Hamas’s] attrition, because our firepower is greater than theirs.

IH: With the negotiations resuming in Cairo, both Israel and Hamas have their demands.

What is your “red line”?

BN: The goal is to make it clear that we are focused solely on two issues: ensuring our security interests, as well as the ability to send humanitarian aid and supplies that would assist in rebuilding the ruins, in favor of Gaza’s 28 SDJewishJournal.com l November 2014

Bibi speaking about sanctions against Iran in Berlin, Germany, in Jan. 2010. population. Naturally, we have demands of our own, and we have the necessary tenacity to reject any demands the other side might make that we find unacceptable. We have been doing so successfully.

IH: What should Israel do next about the broader threat of radical Islam?

BN: Fight it every way possible, and simultaneously explain the ideological aspect. We don’t necessarily have to say that [Iran and Islamic State] are operating from the same command center, but rather that they have a common ideology: Who will be the next caliph? Who will rule a world dominated by radical Islam?

Such a world has no room for Jews, seculars, homosexuals or minorities, and we know where they believe women belong. This is a serious threat because they are sending their tentacles all over the world – the United States, Europe, Australia, Russia, China, and Africa – and this is a global threat.

IH: Have disagreements between the U.S. and Israel turned from just disagreements into a real crack in the relationship?

BN: No. I think the relationship between Israel and the United States is based on solid foundations, and at the end of the day, large parts of the American public feel a deep affiliation

with Israel. The difference is like night and day compared to the situation in Western Europe.

That stems from historical, political, cultural and many other reasons.

IH: What is your plan regarding Israel’s standing in the Middle East?

BN: We’re talking about cementing and advancing Israel’s power. The changes leading Arab nations have undergone have led them to view Israel not as their traditional enemy, but as a partner against three radical Islamist threats.

Can this realization translate into a more open relationship that further promotes a responsible, sober and safe diplomatic process? Only time will tell. It’s worth exploring.

IH: Are you saying that a new alliance has been formed between Saudi Arabia, Egypt, and Israel?

BN: That’s taking things a bit far. But a word to the wise: you saw exactly how various [Arab] nations reacted [favorably] when we mounted a forceful response against Hamas and Islamic Jihad. A A longer version of this interview was originally published by Israel Hayom, whose English-language content is exclusively distributed by JNS.org.

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Heshvan • Kislev 5775 l SDJewishJournal.com 29

THE MOST JEWISH AUTHORS YOU’LL FIND UNDER TWO ROOFS The Jewish Book Fair celebrates 20 years

BY Natalie Jacobs Back in May, the online retailer Amazon named San Diego the most well-read of all major U.S. cities, as determined by book, magazine and newspaper sales made through the e-commerce behemoth. So as we head into the 20th anniversary year of the JCC’s Jewish Book Fair, we in San Diego have a reputation to uphold.

The Book Fair has come to be known for its presentation of a truly vast selection of authors and book topics that surprise, intrigue and enlighten the community each year in early November. This year will continue the tradition with a few new things thrown in to keep the eight-day-long festival innovative and interesting for everyone.

“We don’t want it to grow stale for ourselves or for the community,” says Marcia Tatz Wollner, director of literary arts and educational resources for the Lawrence Family Jewish Community Center. This will be her fourth Book Fair.

With an action-packed schedule and two full-fledged bookstores (one at the JCC and one at Temple Solel in Cardiff), this year promises to be fresh as ever.

In the following pages, you’ll read reviews of six books – from memoir to biography to fiction – including one on headliner Ari Shavit and his book “My Promised Land,” about the difficult but important journey to understanding and supporting Israel. You will also find a complete schedule of events taking place at the Book Fair, which runs from Nov. 8-16.

New for 2014, San Diego authors will be spotlighted in a series of five book signings located at the two bookstores throughout the festival. Details on those events are inside these pages as well.

Finally, no 20th anniversary year would be complete without a big celebration. On Saturday Nov. 15, Wollner has organized a special, top-secret ceremony to honor all the past chairs of the Book Fair – of which there are only seven, all women, including this year’s chair, Phyllis Epstein. In conjunction with Eddie Shapiro’s discussion of his book “Nothing Like a Dame: Conversations with the Great Women of Musical Theater,” the J*Company ambassador troupe will honor the seven women who have made the Book Fair the success that it is, since 1994. But the rest is a surprise.

After you get a sampling of the literary loot in our Book Fair section, get more details on the ones that sound most interesting to you by visiting sdcjc.org/sdjbf. Each event has its own price tag, and tickets can be reserved online. Now, to keep our reputation alive, get reading (but remember to buy your books at the Book Fair, instead of on the Internet)!

book fair

PROMISE TO READ THIS BOOK “My Promised Land” is a must-read for Jews of all ages If you care about Israel, Ari Shavit’s book “My Promised Land: The Triumph and Tragedy of Israel” is a must read. Shavit’s expansive view of the land and its people is the most nuanced, humanistic and balanced portrait of Israeli politics and society written since Amos Elon’s seminal 1971 work “The Israelis: Founders and Sons.” The fact that 42 years elapsed before any writer dared to capture Israel with Elon’s penetrating style speaks volumes about Shavit’s courage.

A respected and well-established Israeli print and television journalist, Shavit uses feature-like interviews and investigative pieces to transform an enormously complex reality into accessible personal stories. He introduces us to a kaleidoscopic spectrum of Israeli history and society including his pioneering British great-grandfather, a Zionist; an engineer who worked on Israel’s top-secret nuclear reactor; and a Tel Aviv nightclub owner who put Israel on the global party map.

Throughout the book, which melds memoir with narrative non-fiction, Shavit grapples with Israel’s treatment of the Palestinians. Introducing himself as a former “peacenik” throughout college, Shavit addresses the origins of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and the tragic consequences of the continued animosity between the two peoples. He personalizes this inflammatory subject matter with bracing honesty and empathy. You may disagree with him but you can’t deny his despair – it’s felt deeply through each page.

In life as in this book, Shavit refuses to take the easy way out. At book’s end, he ruminates about how he could have emigrated to England or the United States. Nonetheless, he stayed and continues to stay to revel in Israel’s triumphs and bear first-hand witness to its tragedies. We’re lucky that he continues to send these dispatches from the frontlines.

– Sharon Rosen Leib 32 SDJewishJournal.com l November 2014

MYSTICISM MEETS REALISM Gina Nahai’s latest beautifully chronicles love, loyalty and tragedy Gina Nahai has written a mythical saga of Iranian Jewish life in America in “The Luminous Heart of Jonah S.” Even before its official October 7 publication, the accolades for “Luminous” were many for the awardwinning author and professor of creative writing at the University of Southern California.

The Booklist praises Nahai, declaring that the author “writes with acute emotional and near anthropological perception, laser-wit and deep compassion … with touches of magical realism, extraordinary characters, and a spiraling, multigenerational plot involving fraud, a murder mystery, epic suffering, heroic generosity, [and] women’s struggle for freedom … [her] tragic, often beautiful immigrant family saga illuminates timeless questions of prejudice, trauma, inheritance, loyalty, and love.”

Nahai’s first novel was published in 1992 and several, including her fourth book, “Caspian Rain,” have earned her recognition in Europe, the U.S. and beyond. She has been a guest on PBS and CNBC for her expertise in contemporary politics of the Middle East, and her books have been translated into 18 languages.

Her latest “energetically inventive epic” (Kirkus Reviews) starts with a murder and a missing body in that quintessentially California land of the über-rich, Beverly Hills, the home of many wandering (and some wealthy) Jews from Iran. It’s an engrossing story with a fine balance between realism and inventiveness – the kind of fertile ground for creative storytelling that transcends disbelief. If you are the curious kind, you will be propelled to put this good book down (for only a minute!) and search online to see if there’s even a shred of likelihood for some of the happenings and ailments that haunt the Soleyman family. But we won’t give those surprises away here.

Through flashbacks to Iran’s turbulent past, we’re introduced to various

book fair

family members, their triumphs and tragedies, allegiances and intrigues, strange oddities and reckless disregard for consequence. For all their fortune, there are some things the Soleymans cannot buy in this multi-generational saga that opens with the death and disappearance of a man only known as Raphael’s son. Strange ailments, broken hearts and mysterious characters are masterfully developed in language you’ll want to read aloud to yourself.

Nahai has crafted a story that will move you with it’s exploration of the bonds that tie a family together or tear it asunder. You can get a freshly minted copy of “The Luminous Heart of Jonah S.” at the Book Fair and enjoy lunch and a talk with author Gina Nahai on Sunday, Nov. 16 at noon at the JCC, sponsored by The Spice Way and Diamond Boutique.

– Tinamarie Bernard

having an affair with Leon, the husband from across the way, a 50-ish psychologist who can’t remember why he married his wife.

The book has no heroes, no one to root for. The reader does not really empathize with Nina and Leon; they are simply bored. Nina, a young, harried mother of a toddler and a baby, is described in such a way that the reader can’t help but imagine her hair in constant disarray and her clothes never without a food stain. She laments that she quit her job to stay at home, but at the same time, she openly admits she hated being a lawyer. Leon, in the cliché of the dysfunctional psychologist, gives others advice for an exorbitant hourly rate while he cheats on his faithful wife and cannot connect to his only daughter. Their spouses are not terribly likeable either. Jeremy skips work and lies to his boss, while Claudia, Leon’s wife, is a condescending, self-absorbed former professor, who constantly yells to get her way.

The supporting characters in the book are equally unlikeable. Arthur, a micro-managing curmudgeon who constantly complains about his neighbors, but who is really hiding a broken heart, never really seems genuine. Wendy, Nina’s perfectionist mom-friend, predictably turns out to have just as many insecurities about motherhood as her friends. Emma, Leon and Claudia’s 28-year-old daughter is probably the most likeable character – leaving a doomed relationship to start again in a job she loves.

With all of that negativite energy, the book is a sometimes-interesting study in discontentedness, on the futility of humanity’s struggle to be happy. With confused and unlikable characters coming and going, Mirvis’ story rambles to its end and struggles to find its purpose, leaving the reader feeling unsatisfied and a bit discouraged.

Tova Mirvis will tell her side of the story on Monday, Nov. 10 at noon at Temple Solel.

– Brie Stimson

READ LOCAL

WHAT YOU SEE IS WHAT YOU GET...

And the grass isn’t always greener Tova Mirvis’ nuanced “Visible City” is a voyeuristic view inside the banal lives that make up a neighborhood on New York City’s upper West Side.

The book follows two couples, one older and one younger, neighbors whose apartments overlook each other.

In a nod to Alfred Hitchcock’s “Rear Window,” the story opens with Nina, the book’s main character, casually looking into the apartment across the way. She is mesmerized and possibly a bit jealous of the older couple into whose living room she can see. The two hold hands and dance together and sit contentedly next to each other reading, seeming utterly happy in their relationship.

As the book progresses, Nina meets the couple, and their lives inevitably entangle. Everyone’s lives intersect in the book. No person or moment in the story is wasted. Everyone and every sentence has a purpose. Once Nina meets her neighbors, she soon realizes her fantasy of their relationship was simply that, and through a series of circumstances Nina soon finds herself

This year, the JCC Book Fair will welcome local authors to a series of five book signings throughout the Fair. Here’s who you’ll find and where: Sunday, Nov. 9 at 11 a.m. @ Temple Solel Allison Bially, Irvin Cooper and Ruth Ellison Monday, Nov. 10 at 1 p.m. @ Temple Solel Y. Dylan Yates and Susan Levin Thursday, Nov. 13 at 1 p.m. @ JCC Natasha Josefowitz, Harold Taxel, Tamar Caspi, and Thomas and Levy William Propp Friday, Nov. 14 at 11 a.m. @ JCC Jennifer Coburn, Carold Polakoff and Susan Chan, Orly Lobel, and Thomas Levy Saturday, Nov. 16 at 11 a.m. @ JCC Lou Dunst, Teresa Fischlowitz, and Ben Kamin Their books will be available for sale in both bookstores for the entire Book Fair.

Heshvan • Kislev 5775 l SDJewishJournal.com 33

book fair

more than, or at least as much as the sexperts she turns to often to prove her point, or the stories of sexcapades from women at various ages and sexual persuasions she interviews. Entire pages of “Sex After” are devoted to these other contributors, and while it provides for titillating pillow talk, it’s Krasnow’s sensibilities regarding female sexuality that make this topic accessible to even the shy reader. More of her own input would have been a welcome addition to her book.

Iris Krasnow will fearlessly address the audience in her discussion about “Sex After…” on Sunday, Nov. 9 at 4 p.m. Get tickets early, this popular writer and speaker is sure to pack the house with this sexy topic.

– Tinamarie Bernard

IRIS KRASNOW TALKS SEX...

In her book and at Temple Solel Fans of best-selling author Iris Krasnow’s 2011 publication, “The Secret Lives of Wives,” are in for a rollicking read in her latest eye-opening exploration, “Sex After…Women Share How Intimacy Changes as Life Changes.” In her latest, Krasnow tackles the age-old curiosity about what happens to sexuality during a woman’s lifetime. She explores the often taboo subject through a keen lens that somehow manages to be bold and modern without sacrificing substance or sensitivity.

No doubt, the title alone will rile some readers. From hook-up culture to marriage, childbirth, divorce, illness, death and menopause, Krasnow smartly draws on her own observations and supplements those with insights from experts and real women having some of the best sex of their lives…or not.

Nothing about modern sexuality is too touchy for Krasnow, including the “new” area of female sexuality others have coined “female sexual fluidity.”

This is the notion that a woman’s sexuality is changeable, dependent on factors that are at once mysterious and measurable. While a man’s sexual preferences may be considered hardwired, a woman’s objects of desire and arousal levels may change in her lifetime, exemplified when women leave heterosexual marriages for same-sex relationships later in life. Krasnow dedicates time to this budding area of psycho-sexual study, even if she doesn’t explicity call it such, in sections of “Sex After.”

Through interviews with older women who have “sprung from the closet,” younger women having casual sex (“I’m using him for sex, period,” says Stephanie about her “F-Buddy … I have never left my fragile heart on his pillow.”), and older adults navigating intimacy during the season of aging sex parts, Viagra and adult pleasure toys, Krasnow scratches the surface of the ways in which sex can evolve and change throughout a lifetime.

Despite the racy topic, “Sex After” sometimes lumbers along. The author is an expert in her own right, and we found ourselves wanting to read her 34 SDJewishJournal.com l November 2014

AN INSIDE LOOK:

“The Good Spy” offers rarely seen glimpses into the CIA Kai Bird’s depiction of Robert Ames, a seasoned CIA spy, is a concise look at espionage in the Arab world during the mid- to late-20th century.

Affectionate and straightforward, unbiased and respectful, Bird depicts Ames’ world with the knowledge and detachment of any good biographer.

Ames, a clandestine officer killed in the 1983 bombing of the American Embassy in Beirut, was a spy who defied the James Bond stereotype. He disliked recruiting agents (a spy’s main job on the front lines of human intelligence), instead opting to befriend his sources. For example, department heads in Washington asked Ames repeatedly to recruit one of his friends who was a PLO operative close to Yasser Arafat, and when Ames refused, citing the fact that the source was ideological and would be insulted by an offer of money, the Agency went over his head with a recruitment attempt using a different clandestine officer. The operation failed miserably and devastated Ames’ relationship with the man and the sources’ access to Yasser Arafat for years to come.

Ames stood out as an operations officer because of his keen mind, his genuine interest in the Middle East, his self-taught mastery of Arabic –

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Heshvan • Kislev 5775 l SDJewishJournal.com 35

book fair one of the most difficult languages for an English speaker – and his understanding and empathy for the Arab people.

Privately, Ames was a loving husband and a devoted father of six. He was a true family man who loved to be at home, despite the demands of his job. He began his CIA career in 1960. After a two-year training program, which included the CIA’s infamous yet not officially existing “Farm,” he was stationed in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia.

His career spanned nearly three decades, 28 years in all, and involved both collection and analysis of key intelligence information. He started as a case officer in the CIA’s Directorate of Operations (the spies) and later worked for the Agency’s National Intelligence Council, which brought together intelligence from both spies in the field and analysts at Langley. Near the end of his life, Ames was President Reagan’s go-to man for information and policy on the Middle East.

Bird’s book follows Ames’ career through the biggest news-making events of the last half-century, from the Six Day War in 1967 to the Jordanian Civil War to the Iranian Hostage Crisis. Densely packed with history and politics of the region, the book nevertheless reads quickly. Although the history is familiar, Bird keeps the suspense high on each page.

The author writes deftly, with the feel of an insider, relying heavily on firsthand accounts from painstakingly noted interviews. He seamlessly mixes history with politics with personal stories of a brave life cut short.

More than anything, Ames’ legacy underscores the importance of HUMINT (human intelligence) in an age obsessed with technology.

While satellites and technological intelligence-gathering are certainly edgy and exciting, people often forget that humans are the most intelligent source of information we have; what people on the ground tell us remains indispensible to the work of spying. After reading this book, it is clear that we need more brave people like Robert Ames among us.

Hear Kai Bird discuss this fascinating character at Temple Solel on Sunday, Nov. 9. The lunch talk begins at noon.

– Brie Stimson

THE CIRCUITOUS ROUTE A unique childhood sets up a remarkable life 36 SDJewishJournal.com l November 2014

“I always felt that I’m somewhat atypical,” Teresa Fischlowitz says. The retired teacher and mother-of-two speaks seven languages and attended 17 schools as a kid. Born above a movie theater in Czechoslovakia in 1937, Fischlowitz (neé Racz) had a nomadic childhood necessitated by the war.

Her father was a wealthy German businessman who owned banks and is credited with starting the movie business before war ravaged the country.

During the early months of Hitler’s regime, the rest of the Racz family saw the threat and began fleeing Germany, but Teresa’s father didn’t think he would need to.

“He said ‘no problem,’” Fischlowitz remembers, “‘I’m a hard working man, I’m productive for Germany and they wouldn’t hurt me.’”

But by early 1940, the family was on their way to Budapest, which was, at the time, a safe buffer zone between the east and the west. That didn’t last long, and in 1944 the Racz family was again on the move.

Given the family’s wealth, Teresa’s father was able to join a group of Budapest Jews who were in secret discussions with Nazi leaders in Hungary, the Zionist underground, and the Red Cross. After failed negotiations, dubbed “Jews for Jeeps,” in which Germany requested Jeeps from the United States in exchange for the wealthy Hungarian Jews, the group was sent on a train to Bergen-Belsen in northern Germany.

There the men were separated from the women and children, a barbed wire fence firmly between them. During their brief time at the camp (about six months), Teresa remembers her mother doing little things to make her and her sister, 10 years Teresa’s senior, as comfortable as possible.

When the Germans retreated from the Western front in December of 1944, the negotiators for the group of wealthy Hungarian Jews had reached an agreement and they were released from Bergen-Belsen and sent to Switzerland. From there, Teresa’s journey through languages really took off, when she was sent to a French orphanage in Switzerland. French would be her third language in her seven short years.

When the war ended in 1945, the family was repatriated to Prague.

“After the war, every single day [my father] he sat in an embassy or a consulate trying to get us out of Europe.”

Prague was about to be taken over by the Russians. America had reached its quota and Venezuela was the only country that would take Teresa and her family. So they moved to South America where Teresa mastered Spanish and English.

Eventually, the family was able to come to the United States, though in a piecemeal fashion, with the older sister able to arrive first, followed by Teresa and then her parents years later.

“I don’t think I ever thought about a home,” Teresa says of her childhood.

“I had no religion at that point. But the only people who mattered to me were my parents.”

They were lucky to stay together, and Teresa knows that this is one of the things that makes her story unique.

Teresa Fischlowitz goes into these details and many more in her short book “From Barbed Wire to Picket Fence: A Child Holocaust Survivor’s Dreams and Adaptability.” She will be signing copies at the JCC on Sunday, Nov. 16 at 11 a.m. Copies will be available for purchase throughout the Book Fair in the bookstore at both JCC and Temple Solel locations.

– Natalie Jacobs

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Heshvan • Kislev 5775 l SDJewishJournal.com 37

book fair

book fair

NOV. 8: 7:30 p.m. @ Temple

7:30 p.m. @ Temple Solel, Stephen Solel, Carol Leifer “How to Succeed Smith “Testimony: the Legacy of in Business Without Really Crying: Schindler’s List and the USC Shoah Foundation” Lessons from a Life in Comedy”

2 p.m. @ Temple Solel, Liel Leibovitz “A Broken Hallelujah: Rock and Roll, Redemption, and the Life of Leonard Cohen”

NOV. 9: 10 a.m. @ Temple

4 p.m. @ Temple Solel, Boris Fishman “A Replacement Life”

Solel, Mitchell Kowitz “Kosher Cuisine for a New Generation” with Laura Silver “Knish: In Search of Jewish Soul Food”

7:30 p.m. @ Temple Solel, Ari Shavit “My Promised Land: the Triumph and Tragedy of Israel”

NOV. 11: NOV. 10: 10 a.m. @ Temple

Solel, James Grimes “Violins of Noon @ Temple Solel, Kai Bird “The Good Spy: The Life and Death Hope: Violins of the Holocaust – Instruments of Hope and Liberation of Robert Ames” in Mankind’s Darkest Hour” 2 p.m. @ Temple Solel, Tim Kelly “The Legend of Red Klotz: How Basketball’s Loss Leader Won Over the World 14,000 Times”

NOV. 12: 10 a.m.

4 p.m. @ Temple Solel, Iris Krasnow “Sex After...: Women Share How Intimacy Changes as Life Changes” 5:30 p.m. @ Temple Solel, Bernd Wollschlaeger “A German Life: Against All Odds, Change is Possible” 38 SDJewishJournal.com l November 2014

Noon @ Seacrest Village, Judith Fein “The Spoon from Minkowitz: A Bittersweet Roots Journey to Ancestral Lands”

Noon @ Temple Solel, Tova Mirvis “Visible City”

@ The Ranch, Daron Joffe “Citizen Farmers: The Biodynamic Way to Grow Healthy Food, Build Thriving Communities, and Give Back to the Earth”

schedule NOV. 13: 10 a.m. @ JCC,

Gabrielle Selz “Unstill Life: a Daughter’s Memoir of Art and Love in the Age of Abstraction” Noon @ JCC, Ayelet Waldman “Love and Treasure”

book fair

2 p.m. @ JCC, Mark 10 a.m. @ JCC, Pam Jenoff “The Greenblatt “Valor: Winter Guest” with Alyson Richman Unsung Heroes from “The Garden of Letters” Iraq, Afghanistan, and the Home Front”

NOV. 15: 7:30 p.m. @ JCC,

Eddie Shapiro “Nothing Like a Dame: Conversations with the Great Women of Musical Theater” Noon @ JCC, Gina Nahai “The Luminous Heart of Jonah S.”

2 p.m. @ JCC, Jackie Gmach “From Bombolini to Bagel: a Story of Two Worlds”

2 p.m. @ JCC, Rebecca Alexander “Not Fade Away: a Memoir of Senses Lost and Found”

4 p.m. @ JCC, Jonathan Eig “The Birth of the Pill: How Four Crusaders Reinvented Sex and Launched a Revolution”

4 p.m. @ JCC, Allen Salkin “From Scratch: Inside the Food Network” 7:30 p.m. @ JCC, Rabbi Edward Feinstein “The Chutzpah Imperative: Empowering Today’s Jews for a Life That Matters”

7:30 p.m. @ JCC, Rabbi David Wolpe “David: The Divided Heart”

NOV. 14: 10 a.m. @ JCC,

Micole Mones “Night in Shanghai” Noon @ JCC, Randy Susan Meyers “Accidents of Marriage”

9 p.m. @ JCC, Matthew Klickstein “SLIMED: An Oral History of Find details on these books and Nickelodeon’s Golden Age” purchase tickets at sdcjc.org/sdjbf

NOV. 16:

9 a.m. @ JCC, Leslie Adatto “Roof Explorer’s Guide: 101 New York City Rooftops”

Heshvan • Kislev 5775 l SDJewishJournal.com 39

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CAMPS

PLURALISTIC, KOSHER AND TONS OF FUN Camp Mountain Chai consistently delivers for San Diego’s young campers NATALIE HOLTZ

PHOTOS COURTESY CAMP MOUNTAIN CHAI

Campers enjoy an afternoon of canoeing on Jenks Lake in Angelus Oaks, Calif.

E

very summer since 2006, hundreds of campers have gathered with friends to celebrate Judaism, learn valuable life skills and have a ton of fun at Camp Mountain Chai, a pluralistic kosher Jewish sleep-away camp tucked away in the beautiful San Bernardino National Forest. The summer of 2015 will mark the completion of Camp Mountain Chai’s 10th year of camp and the organization will commemorate this momentous anniversary with a gala in the spring. With activities ranging from white water rafting and canoeing to skits and dance, Camp Mountain Chai offers kids a classic summer camp experience with something extra: a cultural identity.

In looking forward to the camp’s first major milestone, it’s evident how much has been accomplished in 10 years. The camp, with 125 children attending in its first year alone, now employs a staff of 75 and handles an average of 500 kids each summer, many of whom are attending their first-ever Jewish summer camp.

While most of the children hail from San Diego County, Camp Mountain Chai also welcomes

campers from other parts of Southern California, as well as places like Phoenix, Tucson, Ariz., and Las Vegas.

When Camp Mountain Chai first started out, there wasn’t a single other Jewish sleepaway summer camp based in San Diego County.

The idea for the camp grew from a conversation between one of the original founders, Ed Samiljan, and a Jewish mom during a meeting at the United Jewish Federation of San Diego. At the time, Samiljan was running a program called “Pathways to Judaism,” which was designed to offer support and educational opportunities to interfaith couples. The program, however, was only reaching 10-15 families at the time and it was expensive to sustain.

“A young woman in the Jewish community mentioned she was having trouble getting her kids into a Jewish camp because they were all filled up,” Samiljan says. “I kind of had this epiphany that a summer camp would be an interesting way of serving a large number of Jewish kids at one time.”

With a few years of hard work and the help of

the two other original founders, Todd Kobernick and the late Dr. Jack Bark, Samiljan’s idea was turned into a reality.

“We feel that we introduce children to Jewish programming in a very pleasant atmosphere that they’re not normally accustomed to,” Samiljan says. “Instead of compulsory Jewish Hebrew school or regular normal school, here in an atmosphere of fun and games, the children pick up a little bit of Jewish stuff along the way. We send them home with more than they came with.”

With a growing number of campers and a solid footing during the summer sessions, Camp Mountain Chai has diversified its off-season programs, servicing not just children, but the San Diego Jewish community at large. From its women’s retreat in October, to its single-parent weekends, to its intergenerational retreat called Grandma, Grandpa and Me!, Camp Director, Steve Gerard says Camp Mountain Chai aims to create Jewish community in every sense of the word.

“We want to provide a space for Judaism to Heshvan • Kislev 5775 l SDJewishJournal.com 41

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flourish and grow for kids and families,” Gerard says. “Each program is different based on its focus, but overall, it’s about getting Jews together in an environment which allows them to be successful and to experience things that aren’t available in everyday life.”

Part of the beauty of Camp Mountain Chai lies in how its summer camp programming continues to evolve throughout the years. For instance, the camp has added a leadership training program for its 14- and 15-year old campers called Atid (“future” in Hebrew) which features four-day trips during their sessions to places like Zion National Park, Yosemite and the Grand Canyon centered around leadership training and team building.

CMC also offers a program for campers entering 11th grade called SIT (Staff in Training) in which the veteran campers can become counselors, learning valuable real world skills like how to supervise other people and deal with conflict.

Running a camp like Mountain Chai is expensive, and it can be expensive to attend. But in the almost 10 years the camp has been open, Camp Mountain Chai has worked hard to raise scholarship money to ensure no child is ever turned away due to financial need.

“We’ve given out over a million dollars in scholarship in the past nine years,” Gerard says. “We do everything we can to make sure that we can provide a Jewish camp experience for every child who is interested and wants to come.”

Camp Mountain Chai is hosting its second annual fundraiser, “Night of Comedy for Camp” on Nov. 9 at The Comedy Store in La Jolla to raise money for its scholarship fund. For more information, call (858) 4991330 or visit campmountainchai.com. To find out about incentive grants for first-time Jewish campers, visit onehappycamper.org. A

42 SDJewishJournal.com l November 2014

June 15–August 7, 2015 • 9 Months–Grade 12 Since 1945 we’ve been providing kids of all ages with…

OPEN TO EVERYONE • Bus Transportation • Swim Lessons — A Limited number of scholarships are available —

(858) 362-1132 • www.campjaycee.com Gary & Jerri-Ann Jacobs Youth Endowment Fund • Harry & Jeanette Weinberg Endowment Fund Sheila & Hughes Potiker Family Foundation • The Larry Pidgeon JCC Youth Basketball Endowment Ratner Teen Engagement, Camp and Preschool Scholarship Fund in Memory of Sandy Ratner Sigrid and Jack Fischer Scholarship Fund • Albert A. and Leanore Hutler Camp Scholarship Endowment Fund Community Campership Council, Inc. • JCamp 180: A program of the Harold Grinspoon Foundation

Students Give the Gift of Sight to Israeli Blind Students are urged to help sponsor a puppy, either as a class Tzedakah Project, or as a Mitzvah Project for their Bar or Bat Mitzvah, to assist blind Israeli veterans and civilians in regaining their lives.

CAMP HESS KRAMER: Keva and kavannah abound

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PHOTO FROM CAMP HESS KRAMER'S FACEBOOK PAGE

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ant to know about a beloved camp with a venerable history that’s been around for more than 60 years? Check out their modern Facebook page and read what their campers have to say. That’s exactly what we did for Camp Hess Kramer, one of two Wilshire Boulevard Temple Camps located in Malibu, Calif.

“What do you miss most about summers at CHK?” they wonder on their Facebook wall. The answers are quick, forthcoming, and abundant

by Facebook page standards for a very niche group. Campers extol the joys of friendships formed, time spent in tents listening to the frogs and the creek, favorite counselors, hikes, sleeping under the stars and more.

The top answer: “Everything!” That’s quite glowing praise to match the many happy smiles of campers engaged in a plethora of outdoor activities, connecting to one another in an authentically Jewish way, through activities like baking challah or hiking to the top of Inspiration Point, upon which stands an oversized menorah.

One look at the location and one glance at the amenities and it’s easy to understand how, for more than six decades, Camp Hess Kramer has provided a meaningful and joyous environment for campers and staff alike. Nestled in the coastal hills of Malibu, with walking access to the beach and local hiking trails, words like “ruach” pepper the descriptions of the sprawling camp on their website, reinforced by blog articles from those who’ve participated in the camp experience there. Rav Ima, a part-time rabbi and full-time mother, writes: “This is camp. This is the foundation for so many years to come. These are the moments that will last a lifetime.”

You read that and you immediately want to partake of the keva, the prayers and kavannah, the meaning within those prayers, that she describes in the “memory moment” she shares on her blog.

Wilshire Boulevard Temple Camps provide children a better understanding of their Jewish background while giving them a summer they will never forget, says the website. To learn more about Camp Hess Kramer including activities offered, their trip to Israel for high school sophomores and financial aid options, visit wbtcamps.org. A

OPEN 7 DAYS A WEEK AT 7AM

Heshvan • Kislev 5775 l SDJewishJournal.com 43

CAMPS

WHERE JEWS OF COLOR “FEEL NORMAL” Summer camp in Marin County fills an oft overlooked void

Savannah Henry (LEFT), a counselor at Camp Be'chol Lashon, with camper Jeremy Johnson.

O

n a cool Sunday evening, Jewish campers with nervous smiles took to the stage one by one to perform poems they had composed on the theme of identity.

One girl riffed on being taunted for having “fuzzy eyebrows” and “bushy hair.” Another rhymed about being told “You don’t look Jewish” too many times to count.

If this doesn’t sound like your typical summer camp fare, it’s because Camp Be’chol Lashon has a markedly different mandate than most Jewish camps.

Nestled in the misty hills of Marin County, the northern California camp is the country’s only Jewish sleepaway camp geared to Jews of color.

“Part of the goal is to make these kids feel normal in a Jewish context,” says Diane Tobin, the founder and executive director of the camp’s parent organization, the San Francisco-based nonprofit Be’chol Lashon, which promotes racial, ethnic and cultural diversity in Jewish life.

Tobin, 61, and her late husband, the eminent Jewish demographer Gary Tobin, founded the nonprofit in 2000, three years after adopting an African-American son. Now entering its sixth season, the organization’s camp integrates traditional Jewish practice with educational activities that speak to the diversity of Jewish life around the globe.

Each morning, after the more typical fare of

44 SDJewishJournal.com l November 2014

Wiffle ball and field sports, campers gather clues about the country they will “travel” to that day before going through “Customs” and having their makeshift passports stamped. Throughout the day, between kayaking and swimming in the pond, campers make food and crafts inspired by the particular country they are “visiting.”

During a JTA visit to the camp, campers spent an afternoon writing poems in an art room decorated with cultural items they had made, including woven baskets from Mexico and feathered raffia masks from Colombia. Aaron Levy Samuels, a New York-based black-Jewish performance poet, had flown in for the day to facilitate the poetry workshop.

Samuels, 25, whose first poetry collection, “Yarmulkes and Fitted Caps,” was published last fall by Write Bloody Publishing, says that growing up in Rhode Island, he and his brother were the only two black kids at their local synagogue. The son of an African-American, Samuels said he identified with the struggles that Be’chol Lashon campers were going through and wished he could have attended such a camp.

Maia Campbell, 14, of San Francisco, who has attended Be’chol Lashon since its founding, echoes that sentiment.

“It’s been really cool because my synagogue is basically all white people,” Campbell, whose mother is African-American, says. “So I saw that

there are other people like me.”

The camp is not just for Jews of color, as evinced by one white camper’s poem about her identity as a “nerdy Jewish girl.” It’s also very much a family affair. Tobin’s son, Jonah, is a junior counselor and her daughter, Sarah Spencer, serves as the camp’s co-director.

“The kids all come with very different stories about who they are and where they’ve come to be,” says Spencer, 38, a marriage and family therapist who is also the mother of two biracial children. “Here they get to practice explaining who they are to one another and we help them to feel good about whatever that is.”

Savannah Henry, a 21-year-old counselor whose father is African-American, says that before her rabbi at Congregation Shir Hadash in Los Gatos, Calif., told her about Be’chol Lashon, she had spent a miserable summer at a more mainstream Jewish camp.

“I was the only Jew of color,” she says of her experience at a Reform Jewish summer camp in Santa Rosa, Calif. “I just didn’t connect that well.”

When she discovered Be’chol Lashon four years ago, Henry’s outlook changed completely.

“If I had been a camper here, I would have fit in perfectly,” she says. “It’s definitely made me more of a proud Jew.” A

PHOTO BY REBECCA SPENCE

REBECCA SPENCE, JTA

Heshvan • Kislev 5775 l SDJewishJournal.com 45

Campers from this year's strings camp practice playing the violin by ear.

COME ONE, COME ALL

Camp Jaycee's new music camps are open to musicians of all skill levels Local kids participate in the inaugural "Little BY NATALIE JACOBS Menches" event on Sept. 7 at the JCC.

S

ummer camp is so many things to so many people. To parents, it’s a chance to fill in where school leaves off so that work and household chores can get done without the constant need to entertain the kids. To kids, it’s a time to learn and play and interact with other kids in a friendly and welcoming environment without the threat of homework or detention. To counselors, summer camp is a chance to relive all the memories that were made in childhood and be a positive influence on the next generation.

Camp is also a time where everyone is free to try new things.

Keeping that give-it-a-go spirit alive, the JCC’s summer day camp program, Camp Jaycee, is always introducing new options into their camp program. This past summer saw three new programs enter the mix: Legos, computer coding, and music. Unlike other camp programs unleashed in previous years, the Camp Jaycee music program was the launching point for the year-round JCC School of Music, now officially opened at the La Jolla hub for Jewish life.

“We’ve been talking about music camps for years,” says Sandy Siperstein Rafner, Camp 46 SDJewishJournal.com l November 2014

Jaycee director.

The JCC has offered individual music classes for years too, but this vision for music camp was different. Rafner, her camp co-chairs Meryl Flam and Gayle Blatt, and the dedicated lay leader Jerry Ann Jacobs, envisioned the music camp as a way to introduce kids to the wonders of music, even if they had never picked up an instrument before joining the camp.

While the team was meeting about how to make this dream a reality, a young woman walked into the JCC one day and asked who she could talk to about the violin.

Amy Darnell had recently moved to San Diego from South Carolina. Growing up in a family of musicians, she performed in her first gig in a string quartet with her sisters, when she was in the first grade. When she got to San Diego, Darnell was looking to teach violin lessons, so she was directed to the JCC by a former neighbor and after she inquired at the front desk that day, Darnell was put in touch with Rafner. From there, the music camp began to solidify.

“The timing was just right,” Rafner says.

What’s unique about the music camp is that

it’s fully integrated into the rest of the Camp Jaycee programming. Kids are getting a lot of music practice, but they’re also spending time in the pool, playing sports, studying Judaica, making art, going on field trips.

“So many programs out there are just a few hours [of music] here and there for specialty type camps,” Rafner says.

“Or they’re only music and nothing else,” Darnell adds.

The JCC music camp is also open to kids of all experience levels, which is good for learning life skills outside of music. “[The kids] were very kind to one another,” Jerry Ann Jacobs says. “Even though there were some very beginners, nobody made fun of anybody else. They really worked as a team and they helped each other.”

Darnell is working to make sure that the education is well rounded. She has developed a program that incorporates both ear training and note-reading. This way, no matter which direction the students go with their music, they’ll be able to adapt to the setting and still play.

“Each year,” she explains, “we’re just going to

PHOTOS COURTESY CAMP JAYCEE

CAMPS

CAMPS

Camp Jaycee also offers guitar lessons for students, even if they've never picked up a guitar. keep morphing the two [ear training and notereading] together so if the kids are in a setting where they don’t have any music, they have the ability to use the ears and pick out the music.

And likewise if they’re in an orchestra they aren’t limited by just hearing it, they’re able to sit down and read the music and play right away with the orchestra.”

There are five music camps offered at Jaycee – music journey for kids up to kindergarten; concert band for horns, bass and percussion for grades 4-10; strings camp led by Darnell for grades 4-9; and two “stomp” camps for instruments like xylophone, bucket drums, piano and flute. Each camp ends in a performance. Since these are new offerings, the groups are small for now. This past summer, there were six kids in the strings camp, and 17 in the music journey program.

“We didn’t lose one child in the camp,” Jacobs says. “They all stayed every single day. Even when they were sick they wanted to come.”

To supplement the actual playing of music, the kids went on field trips to learn about different aspects of music. Jacobs arranged for a trip to the San Diego Symphony where the group saw an open rehearsal for “Fantasia.” They also visited a luthier, someone who makes or repairs string instruments, to learn how the violin is made.

A trip to the Museum of Making Music in Oceanside was in the program too.

“They’re really getting the full gamut of everything,” Darnell says. “They had to perform a solo at the end of the two weeks, memorized,

they play in ensembles with each other, together.

“The beauty of ensembles,” she continues, “whether it be small ensembles or a big orchestra, is that these kids are learning at a very early age how to work with each other and how to accept correction and be able to immediately see how it comes together through a lot of patience and kindness with one another.”

In addition to the solo, the strings camp participants performed at a JCC Shabbat service where they played by ear for an audience.

“A few were maybe apprehensive to step over into the unkown of playing by ear,” Darnell says of the students who had more familiarity with note-reading. “The first rehearsal they were just trying to feel the situation out but by the end of two weeks they were very comfortable.”

She expects many will be back next year.

As the strings camp is just one part of the JCC’s new focus on music, the School of Music has high hopes of more youth orchestra performances at things like J*Company productions and other community programs.

For Camp Jaycee, its new programming continues to fuel growth for the camp. Last summer saw their highest attendance numbers, with about 700 campers at each four week session, a total of approximately 2,100 kids for the 12 weeks it was open.

When thinking about the success of this past year, camp co-chair Gayle Blatt says, “We’re looking forward to 2015 being our best summer yet, if that’s even possible!”

“It’s just going to grow,” says Meryl Flam.

“We’re looking forward to the expansion of the program more instruments, and just more programming throughout Camp Jaycee for the years to come.”

Look for the brochures in January and remember early sign up begins in March. To learn more about the JCC School of Music and their year-round offerings, visit jccschoolofmusic. com. A

Heshvan • Kislev 5775 l SDJewishJournal.com 47

SCIENCE

WHEN TWO SCIENTISTS WALK INTO A BAR, THERE’S NOTHING YOU CAN’T TALK ABOUT Reuben H. Fleet takes science out on the town

BY NATALIE JACOBS

PHOTOS BY NATALIE JACOBS AND ANDREA DECKER

(L-R:) Sunya D. Wade and Trey Ideker came out to Stone Brewing Company's restaurant in Liberty Station specifically to speak with marine biologists Jill Harris and Emily Kelly.

I

t’s 6:45 p.m. on the first day of Rosh Hashanah. The expansive indoor dining area at Stone Brewing Company’s World Bistro and Gardens in Liberty Station is sparsely occupied but the outdoor patio bustles with a trendy after-work crowd. I pass several tables noshing away on all manner of delicious-looking food, but I’m b-lining for a dark corner next to the service entrance. I came here with a question to ask a scientist, there’s no time for charred brussel sprouts or a stinky cheese plate (actual name of the menu item). I want to know what CO2 does to oceans and marine life and the marine biologists are only here until 8 p.m.

The sign “We are scientists. Ask us anything!” makes them easy to spot. Two young women stand in front of a folding table, wearing big pins marked with the same exclamation. Jill Harris and Emily Kelly are two of 50 scientists spread out at 25 different bars throughout San Diego on 48 SDJewishJournal.com l November 2014

this night in late September, as part of the Reuben H. Fleet Science Center’s “Two Scientists Walk Into a Bar” program. Their scientific specialty: marine biodiversity and conservation. There’s an engineer and a geochemist at Polite Provisions in Normal Heights, a cancer diagnostics specialist at Quality Social downtown, geneticists at The Regal Beagle in Little Italy, the list goes on.

I’m here in Point Loma because I asked specifically about a Jewish scientist on the list of participants. The organizers at the Fleet pointed me toward Harris, a Ph.D. candidate studying conservation of coral reefs, the ways in which they become degraded and ways that humans can act to protect and restore them, at the Scripps Institute of Oceanography. Specifically, Harris studies how seaweeds and coral interact on reefs.

Her colleague at Scripps and co-scientist-in-barresidence for the evening, Emily Kelly, studies the other side of ocean floor ecology – the many

fish and urchins that eat seaweed on coral reefs.

Together, they make enthusiastic representatives for team science. When I arrive, each young woman is occupied with her own inquisitive bar patron who is each equally surprised to see the scientists here, soliciting questions about topics often shushed when in mixed company with beer.

Harris is free before Kelly, whose conversation appears to have drifted into politics.

“What’s been happening a lot,” Harris says, “is people come up to us and want to tell us what they know, which is great!” The guy talking to Kelly started with a comment about entropy and has since morphed into a discussion of color theory as a basis for personality tests.

“We love science,” Harris continues, explaining why she thinks the Fleet’s program is such a cool idea, “but we also hang out at bars, we drink beer. And we just got a physics lesson.”

She laughs, referencing the entropy guy.

SCIENCE

“Yeah!” Kelly adds, her dutiful conversation partner has returned to his party. “That’s also why we’re so excited – we’re so narrow on our dissertations, but we are still curious about a lot of things. Science is about asking and answering questions.”

At that point, I managed to squeeze in my question about CO2’s effect on the ocean.

“That’s what we call ‘the other CO2 problem,’” Harris says with a big smile. It’s as big, if not bigger, than the much-discussed greenhouse gas problem that’s piercing holes through the ozone layer, she says.

“The CO2 in the air reacts to the water, making it more acidic” Harris continues. “This makes it harder for marine life to grow, thus threatening the food chain.”

She admits that this is an oversimplification,

but it’s a start. She goes on to talk about some specific “cooking experiments” that are underway to test the vast, and largely as-yet undefined, effects of CO2 on marine life. One such study is focused on examining the decline of a fish species’ ability to detect predators.

A young man and woman approach from the opposite side of the patio, beer in hand, so I ease up on my questions while Harris welcomes the newcomers.

“You’re the scientists!” the two say almost in unison.

Trey Ideker and Sunya D. Wade came to Stone Brewing Company tonight specifically to talk with these two scientists. They repeat how excited they are to speak with Harris and Kelly, and then they let the questions roll. They’re interested in coral reefs and Harris has opportunity to get into

some "What's nitty-grittybeen aspects of her dissertation. most surprising, is “I look at the line of scrimmage between coral about how manywinning of [the scientists] and seaweed – who’s at any point in time,” she says. are so excited to go and do “Line of scrimmage, nice!” Ideker says, this andthehow much fun they have appreciating metaphor.

“Thanks! You think itwhen works?”they Harris doasks. it."

“It’s a concept I’m currently testing out.”

Ideker unpacks it with a few clarification questions, but ultimately he determines that yes, the line of scrimmage metaphor makes total sense for the space on which coral and seaweed battle for space to grow and food to eat. Wade, who was the only female defensive end in her childhood football league, says that from her experience with lines of scrimmage, the metaphor holds up just fine. Harris is relieved.

“What’s been most surprising,” says Steve Snyder, the Fleet’s executive director, “is about how many of [the scientists] are so excited to go and do this and how much fun they have when they do it.” We spoke on the phone about the “Two Scientists” program a few days after the event at Stone. “There’s usually this notion of the scientist locked away in a lab, isolated and socially awkward, and that’s really not the case.”

The idea came about when Snyder and his team were thinking of ways to get the Science Center out to people, especially adults. Knowing that San Diego is crawling with scientists, Snyder thought they’d be good to recruit in the effort.

“We were looking for a way to go and talk to people about science, adults in particular, in a place where they’re relaxed, where they feel comfortable.”

Beer and a heat lamp will do that.

The Fleet rolled out the program in March of this year, and it’s been running quarterly ever since. Scientists and bars rotate, and Snyder says new scientists and facilities express interest all the time.

“As long as there’s scientists who want to go to bars, bars that want to have scientists, and people with questions, we’ll keep doing it.” A Check rhfleet.org/events/two-scientists-walk-bar for details on the next “Two Scientists Walk Into a Bar” event, and come prepared with questions.

Heshvan • Kislev 5775 l SDJewishJournal.com 49

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The happy couple plan to be married this summer, 2015, in San 50 SDJewishJournal.com l November 2014

THEATER

Medieval Mystery with Modern Relevance The La Jolla Playhouse’s musical version of “The Hunchback of Notre Dame” premieres

PHOTOS COURTESY LA JOLLA PLAYHOUSE

BY PAT LAUNER

I

t’s a long way from Paris to La Jolla – 183 years, to be exact.

“The Hunchback of Notre Dame” was written by Victor Hugo in 1831. Since then, the romantic Gothic novel has been adapted for film (ten times and counting), opera, ballet, radio and tv.

There was, of course, the 1996 Disney animated musical version, which was turned into a stage musical – in German (“Der Glöckner von Notre Dame,” 1999), and became one of Berlin’s longest-running musicals. An English translation

of that production was mounted in 2013 at The King’s Academy Theatre in West Palm Beach, Fla. And now, with a new librettist, look and choreography, a darker feel and additional songs, “The Hunchback” lands at the La Jolla Playhouse for its official U.S. premiere.

And you thought the title character’s legendary journey scrambling down the side of Notre Dame Cathedral was harrowing!

One person who isn’t daunted by the checkered history of “The Hunchback” is Scott Schwartz, a highly acclaimed theater artist (Outer Critics

Circle and Lucille Lortel Awards and Drama Desk Award nominations), who helms the Playhouse production.

Schwartz has his own dramatic pedigree; he’s the son of composer Stephen Schwartz, one of the luminaries of American musical theater, creator of “Godspell,” “Pippin,” “Wicked” – and the lyrics for the new musical version of “Hunchback.”

Schwartz family history Scott Schwartz grew up in a small town in Heshvan • Kislev 5775 l SDJewishJournal.com 51

THEATER

The "Hunchback" creative team, (L-R:) Alan Menken, Scott Schwartz, Stephen Schwartz and Peter Parnell.

southwest Connecticut, where his parents still maintain a home. It was a rural area when he was young, dotted with horse farms – but “not even a movie theater.” There was, however, a synagogue, though the family was secular, and did not belong to the congregation.

Schwartz’s father has Eastern European Jewish roots. His mother is Polish Catholic. Interestingly, his wife, actress Julia Motyka, is Polish, too, but “technically Jewish,” since her mother was Jewish (her father is Catholic).

“We were raised sort of non-committally,” Schwartz says of his religious upbringing. “We celebrated both Jewish and Christian holidays.

The Golden Rule was our guiding principle: ‘Do unto others as you would have others do unto you.’ And that works well for both religions.”

He was sorry not to have had a bar mitzvah (“I wanted the presents and the party,” he confesses, with his ready and appealing smile), but his parents felt it would be hypocritical, since they hadn’t been participating members.

For as long as he can remember, music and theater were “a wonderful part” of his life. He started out acting in school and community theater productions. It was a high school drama teacher, Ruth Liebowitz, a former Joffrey ballet 52 SDJewishJournal.com l November 2014

dancer (and much later, the officiant at his wedding), who gave him his start as a director.

“She was very creative, open to improvisation, and she let me direct a show. I said, ‘I think this is what I like.’” That hunch never wavered.

Schwartz may have majored in psychology at Harvard (there was no theater major at the prestigious university then, and there still isn’t), but he directed student productions throughout his college years.

Golda, Tovah and Scott His greatest Jewish experience – in theater and in life – was directing the celebrated “Golda’s Balcony,” the play by William Gibson that charts the life of Golda Meir, from Russian immigrant to American schoolteacher to the fourth Prime Minister of Israel. The show, which starred Tovah Feldshuh, premiered Off Broadway in 2003, and was such an enormous success that it moved almost immediately to the Great White Way, becoming the longest-running one-woman show in Broadway history.

“Tovah was amazing,” Schwartz marvels. “And Gibson was still alive then. He was one of the great writers for the theater of the 20th century.

“Working on that show gave me the

opportunity to learn about Israel and its creation in ways I never would have otherwise. I had a cultural affinity for the work. It was such a thrill for me, a seminal experience in my life that made me feel more Jewish.”

Schwartz also directed the London, Los Angeles and San Francisco productions of the play with Feldshuh, as well as a national tour starring Valerie Harper.

Young and boyish at 40, Schwartz’s looks belie his extensive directing experience, which includes the hit Off Broadway musicals “Bat Boy” and “tick, tick… Boom!” (he also directed the London production of “tick, tick…”, starring Neil Patrick Harris); as well as Shakespeare plays (“Othello” and “Much Ado About Nothing”); American classics (“Arsenic and Old Lace,” starring Betty Buckley and Tovah Feldshuh; “The Foreigner,” starring Matthew Broderick; and his own adaptation of Willa Cather’s “My Antonia”).

He has directed at major regional theaters throughout the country, including the Old Globe, where he marshaled two Neil Simon plays in 2010 (“Brighton Beach Memoirs” and “Broadway Bound”); and the La Jolla Playhouse, where in 1999, he co-directed (with John Caird) the musical version of Charlotte Brontë’s “Jane

THEATER

The principals in the La Jolla Playhouse U.S. premiere of “The Hunchback of Notre Dame” take some time off from rehearsals to pose for the camera. (L-R:) Michael Arden, Patrick Page, Ciara Renee, Andrew Samonsky and Erik Liberman.

Eyre,” which moved to Broadway the following year.

Schwartz has founded and run two commercial producing companies in New York, and has been an associate artist at the Alley Theatre in Houston. This year, he takes on a new role, as artistic director of the Bay Street Theatre in Sag Harbor, Long Island (he and his wife will split their time between Manhattan and Sag Harbor, where his family spent summers for many years).

Throughout his prodigious career, he says he has intentionally not focused on his father’s work (“it’s important to me to be my own artist and my own man of theater”), though he helmed the U.S. and U.K. tours of “Godspell” and directed the world premiere of his father’s opera, “Séance on a Wet Afternoon,” at New York City Opera.

“But working on an opera is different. There, a composer delivers a finished work.”

For “The Hunchback of Notre Dame,” he and his dad interact regularly, as part of a collaborative creative team, which is how musical theater is made.

“We like working together very much,” Schwartz says. “We’re quite close as father and son. But we keep very clear professional boundaries. There are clearly delineated roles,

but we’re all having so much fun. I work just as closely with Peter [Parnell, the librettist, writer of “The Cider House Rules,” “On a Clear Day You Can See Forever” and tv’s “The West Wing”] and Alan [Menken, the multi-award-winning composer of “Beauty and the Beast,” “Newsies,” “Aladdin” and “Little Shop of Horrors”], and the producers from Disney.”

The new show is produced in association with New Jersey’s Paper Mill Playhouse, by special arrangement with Disney Theatrical Productions.

Schwartz especially relishes the challenge of bringing new work to life.

“I love collaborating with the writers and designers, and the discovery process of rehearsals.”

Which brings us back to “The Hunchback.”

And a little bit about that story is in order.

The original “Hunchback”… and the new one In 15th century Paris, Quasimodo is the misshapen but gentle-souled bell ringer of Notre Dame Cathedral. He was nearly killed as a baby by Claude Frollo, the Minister of Justice, but Frollo was forced by the Archdeacon of Notre Dame to raise Quasimodo as his own. Now a young man, Quasimodo is hidden from the world by Frollo, stuck in the belltower of the cathedral. But he

"I believe it's a very complex human story, a love quadrangle you might say. The relationships are complicated and nuanced and they change throughout the course of the story. Nobody is fully a hero. Nobody is all villain." emerges for the Festival of Fools, where he meets the beautiful dancing Gypsy, Esmeralda, and falls in love with her, as do the scheming Frollo and the handsome Phoebus, Captain of the Guards.

Havoc ensues and loyalties shift as they fight against Frollo’s attempts to destroy the Court of Miracles, the home of the Gypsies. Quasimodo desperately defends both Esmeralda and Notre Dame.

“When I came on board this project four years ago,” Schwartz says of the current musical incarnation, “everyone wanted to build on the success of the German production, but bring a new approach.”

Heshvan • Kislev 5775 l SDJewishJournal.com 53

THEATER That new approach involves “three big changes.”

“First, we put the score front and center. The score was developed over 20 years. We’re using most of the songs from the Disney movie [the score was nominated for an Academy Award], but re-shuffled and reshaped. There are two or three brand new songs. We have an excellent acting-singing ensemble of 12, and we also have a 32-member standing choir, and I’m so excited about that.”

He’s referring to the magnificent, angel-voiced San Diego choral ensemble, Sacra/Profana.

“There’s a lot of original liturgical music. They’ll be chanting, and singing in Latin. It’s not a through-composed musical by any means, but it does have a kind of musical sweep that’s almost nonstop.”

The second big change is in production values.

“We wanted to approach the piece in a simpler way from a physical standpoint, but more complex emotionally. If they couldn’t do it in 1482, we’re not doing it either! There will be lighting and sound, of course, but there’s no technological wizardry, no computerized scenery and nary a projection in sight.

“We’re using the techniques and liturgy of a medieval mystery play, bringing it to a very human scale. All the theater magic is created by the cast. The set evokes the feeling of the cathedral and the belltower simultaneously.

Elements get reconfigured and repurposed. We do have big bells that actually swing and ring.

Hopefully, if we do our jobs right, it all has a sort of grand feeling, like the awe-inspiring majesty of an old cathedral.

“I believe it’s a very complex human story, a love quadrangle, you might say. The relationships are complicated and nuanced – and they change throughout the course of the story. Nobody is fully a hero. Nobody is all villain. Both horrible and heroic things happen.

“We’re almost approaching the characters as if we were doing a play. Then we back it up with a huge operatic score. It’s much more geared to adults than the movie, as Hugo wrote it originally.”

The novel was very dark and disturbing.

Though the animated film was much lighter and more child-friendly, Disney has not placed any constraints on the current musical team.

“If anything, they’ve encouraged us to go more adult, in the spirit of the novel. In the film, there are comedic sidekicks, the three singing gargoyles.

In the novel, Quasimodo talks to them, but they don’t respond; it’s kind of his way of finding community. We’ve gotten rid of those characters.

Here, he communicates with the church itself, which is a major presence in every version of the story.”

The third big change is “honoring the spirit of the novel and embracing it for grownups. And that also means things don’t get tied up in a 54 SDJewishJournal.com l November 2014

Scott Schwartz

happy bow.

“Could kids come? Sure. There’s certainly no ‘language’ or nudity. But there are strong sexual situations. The love quadrangle is all about sexual attraction and how that influences each character’s actions. I think kids under 11 or 12 might find it a bit scary.”

Schwartz is ecstatic with his cast. Michael Arden, who plays Quasimodo, has “the voice of an angel.” As Frollo, Patrick Page (notable villains in “The Lion King” and “Spiderman,” and the magnanimous “Cyrano de Bergerac” at the Old Globe), is “a great classical actor – and singer.”

And, including Ciara Renée as Esmeralda and Andrew Samonsky as Phoebus, Schwartz says “the four of them are superlative actors, with great voices.”

Among the many themes in the novel, Schwartz considers the overarching premise to be, as the song, “The Bells of Notre Dame,” puts it, “who is the monster and who is the man?”

“To me,” he says, “the show and the novel are about the way in which we all relate to The Other. What do we do with things or people that are uncomfortable, or scary, or don’t really fit neatly into our image of how they should be? The story considers the parts of ourselves that we hide from the world: our vulnerability, our sexuality.

How we deal with people who are ‘different’ is extremely relevant in our world today.”

This “Hunchback” has it all: memorable music, unforgettable characters and a timeless love story with very modern overtones. A “The Hunchback of Notre Dame” runs at the La Jolla Playhouse through Dec. 14. Performances are Friday and Saturday at 8 p.m., Saturday and Sunday at 2 p.m.Tickets ($80-137) are available at (858) 550-1010; lajollaplayhouse.org

WORKING TOGETHER For Kolker Real Estate Group, teamwork starts at home

By Tinamarie Bernard

B business

Jacquelyne Silver

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hink husbands and wives shouldn’t work together? If so, it’s time to reconsider the benefits of working with your spouse the Kolker Real Estate Group way. A husband and wife team, Matt and Michelle Kolker are San Diego natives who know the region well; just one reason this duo is able to provide excellent service to their clients. The Kolkers have advice for those who are both looking for a realtor and those contemplating building a thriving family business of their own.

It’s starts with praise. Both are quick to highlight the other’s strengths and abilities.

“Michelle brings a legal background, combined with great passion and an amazing skill set,” Matt says.

The two emphasize the importance of assembling a solid support team, building everyone up, keeping each other accountable for their goals, brainstorming new ideas, and helping each other.

Team building is another essential.

“There are so many benefits that Matt and I have seen working together,” Michelle says. “We have a vision for the Kolker Real Estate Group that involves being active in our community,

serving our customers to the best of our abilities, and having fun while working. We have formed an incredible team – Natalie Nguyen is our buyer’s agent, Stephanie Badillo is our executive assistant, and Walker Clark is our amazing business coach.”

Michelle adds that as a husband-wife duo, it helps that they are able to build upon each other’s strengths in ways other partnerships may not be able to do so.

“Matt and I have two different minds, and it has been fun to put them together to brainstorm ideas related to transactions, growing our business, and connecting people. Matt is very calming and knowledgeable about real estate, and it is fun to learn from him. This has given me a new level of respect for my spouse.

“I am able to view our family from a different perspective as I am now a part of his real estate world, and this helps when he needs a few minutes to be on a call or draft an offer late at night – I understand how important getting right back to the client is, and I am able to take over with our family with more compassion in these instances.”

Next comes loving the work and creating

something together that allows them to raise their kids in an environment where “they believe anything is possible,” Matt, who appreciates the entrepreneurial spirit of the San Diego community, says.

“Ultimately, we can provide a better service for our clients,” by giving back to the community.

“One of the aspects of our business that we take the most pride in is our ability to give back together. We have a Jewish cause donation program, whereby we will donate $500 to any Jewish cause with any closed transactions that result from our advertising in the Jewish Journal.

To be able to support our community as a result of our hard work feels amazing and empowering.”

A ______________________

KOLKER REAL ESTATE GROUP 14677 Via Bettona San Diego, CA 92127 Matt Kolker: (858) 229-6173 Michelle Kolker: (858) 838-0208 kolkerrealestategroup.com

Heshvan • Kislev 5775 l SDJewishJournal.com 55

PHOTO BY ALON DAVID

Matt and Michelle Kolker are working together to expand their business.

SYNAGOGUE

A COMMUNITY GROWS IN UNIVERSITY CITY Sepharadic Kehillah blends rituals with spirituality for everyone

Rabbinit Devorah Halevy (LEFT) gathers with community members in Sepharadic Kehillah's Moroccan-themed tent at this year's San Diego Celebrates Israel festival.

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e all know that there are different kinds of Jews out there. The most common groups we refer to are the Ashkenazi and the Sephardic sects, which mostly denote the specific regions from which ancestors hail. As with anything, where we come from says a lot about who we are and what we believe.

While the rituals are virtually the same for both Ashkenazi and Sephardic ceremonies, the music and the tone of the services is much different.

And, according to the Sepharadic Kehillah (SK) congregation of San Diego, there’s also something more ambiguous that separates these two strains of Judaism.

“We’re different in our world philosophy,” says SK’s Rabbi Yonatan Halevy, affectionately called Rabbi Yoni. “We’re different in what we expect from our congregation. We think our community is more of a wholesome experience rather than just a prayer group.”

But that’s how they started. About five years ago, a small group of University City-area Jews came together to explore the Sephardic tradition in a way they weren’t seeing offered from other groups around town. When he was on a visit back from Jerusalem in 2012, Halvey, a San Diego native, was introduced to the group and asked to stay on as their rabbi. Once they had 56 SDJewishJournal.com l November 2014

found a leader, the small group opened its doors to the larger community. And the people flocked in.

On a slow week, SK gets 40-50 people at a Shabbat service, but the average is more like 8090. For Yom Kippur this year, every chair in the building was spoken for with about 200 people in attendance.

“It depends on how much food we serve,” the rabbi says with a chuckle.

Educated at Soille Hebrew Day and later at a boarding school in Baltimore and yeshiva in Israel, Halvey brings a deep understanding of Jewish education to the growing congregation.

While they don’t have a formal Hebrew school yet, they do offer adult education classes every day, a bar/bat mitzvah club for kids, and tons of activities for the congregants to participate in together. They also host bilingual services intended for Israelis or native Hebrew speakers.

“As much as we’re a Sephardic community,” Halvey says, “that only reflects our flavor, our style, the tunes that we sing. But in truth, we are an open community for anybody from all walks of life.”

Rabbi Yoni mentions that a lot of people who study Kabbalah are also finding a home at Sepharadic Kehillah because of their emphasis on

spirituality and finding inner, personal peace.

“Kabbalah is part and parcel of Sephardic Jewish tradition,” he explains. “From our prayer book to our practices to the tunes that we have to the philosophies that we embark, our whole lives are steeped in Kabbalistic tradition. I think that what people may be looking for somewhere else in the Kabbalistic level, you’ll actually find in Sephardim and it’s definitely a huge part of our lives.”

The Rabbi runs the congregation with his wife, Devorah, who is studying at Yeshiva University’s School of Social Work.

“We really believe not just in synagogue,” she adds, “but that we have something we can really offer to the world. If you go into Barnes & Noble, you can see the self-help section keeps growing.

People are really searching for something that will make life more meaningful and we firmly believe that we have something we can offer not just to San Diego, not just to the Jewish community but on a global level, something that will be able to bring peace not just in the daily life but in the universal life. Our goal is to spread through authentic sources, modern-day solutions to help people.”

Find more information about Sepharadic Kehillah at sksandiego.org. A

PHOTOS COURTESY SEPHARDIC KEHILLAH TORAH

BY NATALIE JACOBS

TRAVEL Last year's retreat group connects, physicially and spiritually, in a pristine natural setting.

CONNECTING WITH EUROPEAN JEWRY An enriching addition to a lovely trip to Europe

BY SHARON ROSEN LIEB

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hat kismet! While planning our first family trip to Western Europe, an article about Jewish travel in Reform Judaism magazine caught my eye.

Rabbi Gary Bretton-Granatoor of the World Union for Progressive Judaism invited travelers to contact him about making connections with Jewish communities abroad.

I checked the WUPJ website and discovered our major European destinations, Barcelona and Paris, had progressive congregations we could visit for Shabbat services. However, due to security concerns, not just anyone can show

up at the door of a European congregation and expect to be admitted. Most foreign synagogues require some form of introduction.

So I emailed Rabbi Bretton-Granatoor who put me in touch with Jewish community leaders in our selected destinations.

Like many Europeans, these Jewish contacts were on vacation in August. I despaired we’d miss out on meeting them. (August is not the optimal time to visit France and Spain if you want a peak at the life of the locals.) But I persisted via email and pinned down brief visits at month’s end. My nudging paid off big

time because making these connections added an irreplaceable, Jewishly human dimension to our vacation. Not only did we meet fascinating, hamische landsmen, we learned about how progressive Jews are creating new institutions despite near extinction after the Inquisition/ Expulsion and Holocaust.

After 600 years, a Jewish presence returns to Barcelona Nobody knows more about Barcelona’s ancient Jewish past and progressive present than Dominique Tomasov Blinder, the founder Heshvan • Kislev 5775 l SDJewishJournal.com 57

TRAVEL PREVIOUS: The view from Montjuïc sees construction on Antoni Gaudí's iconic La Sagrada Familia.

LEFT: A kosher bakery in Paris' Le Marais, or Jewish quarter, proudly displays a Chanukiah in its window.

Gabor Benfalvi poses in front of the tombstone inscribed with the rare maiden name of his mother.

of Urban Cultours Project. An Argentinianborn architect, she passionately advocates for preserving Barcelona’s Jewish heritage and making Jewish historical sights accessible to the public.

Dominique has 15 years of experience guiding walking tours of the Call, the Spanish name for Barcelona’s 1,000-year-old Jewish Quarter. She also serves as a lay leader of ATID (Hebrew for “future”), Spain’s first non-Orthodox synagogue.

Before we arrived, she emailed me a reading assignment – an English translation of Queen Isabella and King Ferdinand’s 1492 decree of 58 SDJewishJournal.com l November 2014

expulsion mandating the Jews to convert to Christianity or leave Spain. Talk about a powerful primary source document! The King and Queen gave the Jews three months to pack up and leave forever or “incur punishment by death and confiscation of all their belongings.” I read parts of the detailed edict aloud to our three daughters (aged 20, 19 and 15) to revive their hazy high school memories of the Spanish Expulsion’s merciless severity.

We met Dominique in the early morning quiet of the Plaça del Rei in Barcelona’s Gothic

Quarter. She pointed at the façade of the Lieutenant’s Palace and challenged us to count how many stones bore Hebrew lettering. My daughters, blessed with 20-20 vision, pointed out several. She explained these stones came from the medieval Jewish cemetery on Barcelona’s Montjuïc (Mount Jew). After expelling the Jews, the King authorized the use of the cemetery’s rectangular funerary markers as building material. More than 500 years later, they remain an embedded and chilling reminder of the Expulsion.

Dominique guided us out of the expansive plaza into the Call’s cramped, twisting streets.

We wended our way through this medieval maze to the Sinagoga Major de Barcelona, the remains of which were discovered beneath an electronics warehouse in the 1990s. We stepped through an archway into a modest subterranean space dating back to the 1200s. A small Judaica store stands near the entrance, separated from the sanctuary by a velvet curtain. A museum guide explained how Barcelona’s Jewish community was first marginalized by the church as an evil, heretical influence; then accused of causing the Black Plague by poisoning the city wells; and finally extinguished by a murderous pogrom in the late 1300s. The synagogue’s foundation is one of few tangible remnants of Barcelona’s once flourishing Jewish civilization.

Later that afternoon, Dominique brought us to see her congregation ATID’s brand new location, a 15-minute Metro ride away from its 800-year-old predecessor. Currently, Barcelona is home to 15,000 of Spain’s 45,000-strong Jewish population – most of whom emigrated from Morocco, Europe and South America. ATID’s active and expanding congregation of more than 250 members needed room to grow. Their new house of worship, infused with natural light, has a spacious sanctuary, large meeting room and a well-stocked library. ATID welcomes visitors from all traditions and backgrounds. So when in Barcelona, go visit and celebrate the resurgence of a vital, progressive Jewish community. After centuries of absence, a great Jewish community is happening there.

Exploring Jewish Paris Why visit France? Persistent media reports of virulent anti-Semitism and the Jewish population’s exodus to Israel gave us pause.

Yet France, with 500,000 Jews, is home to Europe’s largest and the world’s third-largest Jewish community (after Israel and the United States). Plus, after reading “Suite Française” by Irène Némirovsky and “Sarah’s Key” by Tatiana De Rosnay, two compelling novels about Vichy France’s horrific treatment of Parisian Jews, I wanted to see for myself how contemporary Paris reckons with its shameful, collaborative past.

I sensed the media was over-sensationalizing the widespread extent of violent French anti-

TRAVEL Walking through the narrow streets of Le Marais, threats of anti-Semitism seem very far away.

Semitism. Fortunately, I was correct on that count. We never felt threatened in the heart of Paris. (July’s riots occurred in Sarcelles, a Northern Parisian suburb NOT on our itinerary.)

We walked past one anemic demonstration of a hundred or so pro-Palestinian protestors waving placards and chanting in the Trocadero Gardens.

Not to deny or minimize the existence of French anti-Semitism, but I’ve witnessed scarier protests at UC San Diego and UC Berkeley.

Happily, Jewish life continues to thrive in Paris.

Le Marais, Paris’s historic Jewish quarter, pulses with the kinetic energy of hipsters shopping in vintage boutiques, Orthodox Jews teaching men to lay tefillin, art lovers flocking to the Picasso museum and gays mingling in bars and cafés.

We enjoyed getting lost in the Marais’ warren of cobblestone streets and discovering new treats around every corner. On Rue de Rosier, the main drag, we tasted the best falafel, crepes and baked goods we’d ever had. The gendarmes patrolling the Marais streets wearing padded riot gear made us feel paradoxically protected (the government takes anti-Semitic violence very seriously) and worried (just how serious is the current threat level?).

We steeled ourselves for a visit to the Mémorial de la Shoah. This museum and memorial opened in 2005, 10 years after France officially

acknowledged (shockingly late) the Vichy government’s role in rounding up French Jews for deportation. The Wall of Names, a series of narrow travertine monoliths bearing the names of the 76,000 French Jews deported to Nazi concentration camps by French police, stands in the entry courtyard. Only 2,500 of the deported Jews survived.

Our youngest daughter pointed out several Leibs and Rosens amongst the names of the dead.

She pulled me aside, clearly sobered by the long list of familiar names, and whispered, “Do you think they were relatives?”

“Maybe distant . . .” I said. Inside the museum, I cried at the hauntingly lit, black-and-white photo display of the 11,000 murdered French Jewish children. Many of the girls so resembled our own.

We stopped next at the Musée d’Art et d’Histoire du Judaïsme located on one of the Marais’ most upscale blocks. Opened in 1998, this stately museum houses an eclectic array of Judaica including Parisian Jewish headstones dating back to the Middle Ages and a roomful of Marc Chagall’s early paintings. Our favorite exhibit was a series of soulful photographic portraits of contemporary French Jews mounted alongside their answers to the question: what does being Jewish mean to you?

Thanks to the Union for Reform Judaism, we had the opportunity to meet several French and expatriate Jews for ourselves when we attended Shabbat services at Kehilat Gesher, a progressive synagogue led by Rabbi Tom Cohen. A native of Portland, Ore., Rabbi Cohen conducts services in French, Hebrew and English to serve his growing, multilingual congregation of 150 families. Energetic and warm, he led the services with rousing, familiar melodies and made us feel welcome.

When the service concluded, several members approached us to kibitz and thank us for coming.

“We need more Jews to come visit!” said Kehilat Gesher board member, Frances Gendlin.

“Please tell people not to abandon us out of fear.”

If you have the opportunity, heed her call and go visit. The progressive Jews of Barcelona and Paris want you to see they are alive, well and building dynamic, inclusive communities. We, their North American Jewish family, can help them make up for centuries of lost time and millions of lost lives by reaching out and helping them along the way. A

Heshvan • Kislev 5775 l SDJewishJournal.com 59

ADVERTORIAL

HEBREW DAY HONORS A GREAT TEACHER: MRS. REBECCA CALLAWAY Submitted by Soille Hebrew Day School

Rebecca Callaway

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n Sunday, Nov. 16 at 10 a.m. Soille Hebrew Day School will hold a memorial tribute to a beloved teacher, Mrs. Rebecca Callaway, and will dedicate a collection of Social Studies materials to honor her memory. Mrs. Callaway taught Middle School Social Studies at Hebrew Day School from 1992 – 2010 and was loved and remembered by graduates of the school. She passed away in August, 2013 after a courageous battle with lung cancer.

Mrs. Callaway brought contagious enthusiasm to every class she taught, and had a magical ability to make history and geography important and fascinating for her students. For example, classes often focused on child labor laws and the welfare of children within the society being studied. “What would it have been like for me to live there, then?” her students wondered.

Social studies classes taught by Mrs. Callaway 60 SDJewishJournal.com l November 2014

challenged the student to analyze, evaluate, and connect personally to the material, a rare teaching feat.

“I fell in love with history and social studies from her classes,” wrote Jeremy Kahan (HDS Class of 2010 and today freshman at UC Santa Cruz. “She taught me great lessons about morals, talking respectfully, and the proper way to treat others which influence me today.”

“Whenever I am asked to name a teacher who inspired me to pursue a career in education, Mrs. Callaway is the one I name,” wrote Deena (Gordon, HDS Class of 1998) Kobre, today Assistant Principal of the Stella K. Abraham High School for Girls in Hewlett, New York. “She created a way for us to connect to events, places, and people who existed centuries ago. We wore togas in class, recreated the original Olympics, and thereby came to understand what others’ lives were really like. Her lessons were infused with passion and clarity, and I strive to pass on the same enthusiasm to my own students today.”

“Mrs. Callaway watered the seeds of curiosity in my head,” says Nathan Mizrachi (HDS Class of 2003) who today writes the ‘Life is a Camino’ blog from Europe. “I thank Mrs. Callaway for daring me to picture a world beyond the horizon and pointing me in that direction.”

Rebecca Callaway loved her students, and her feelings were reciprocated. “It was a privilege to be in her class. I still cherish my Chinese calligraphy written 12 years ago,” wrote Rivki Lederman (HDS Class of 2002). Mrs. Callaway’s lessons were creatively designed and connected every student to her vision of social justice, showing how society can be made better through caring leaders and effective legislation.

Elaine Lepow, past Principal at Hebrew Day School who hired Mrs. Callaway in 1992 vividly remembers an honors course final. “Students were challenged to create a character from a particular society, place, and time period who was

a ‘regular person’ – not a rich person or a noble, and not someone famous.” The exam consisted of created a doll to represent the person, to draw on historical facts to support writing the story of this person’s life. “Many of these students still have the doll they created those many years ago, and certainly remember the important lessons they absorbed.”

Soille Hebrew Day School graduates distinguish themselves by their communal leadership and their interest in making the world a better place.

Thanks to the inspired teaching of Mrs. Callaway, they have the understanding to draw upon the best examples of achievement ever attained.

“We all share the sadness of Becky Callaway’s passing on,” commented Rabbi Simcha Weiser, Headmaster, “but feel a sense of comfort in knowing that her students will draw upon her passion, intelligence, and commitment to others as they carry forward her ideals.”

The program on November 16 will be held in the school’s Library. In attendance will be Rex Callaway, her devoted husband, and her son Brian, as well as teacher colleagues, former students, and all who want to join in giving honor to a life so well lived. To attend, or to learn more about the program, please contact Joyce Arovas at 858-279-3300 or via e mail to jarovas@hebrewday.org. A

FEATURE

LEAVING A LEGACY

With two decades of leadership, JCF President and CEO Marjory Kaplan makes a big mark on the San Diego community

By SDJJ Staff

Marjory Kaplan

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his fall, the Jewish Community Foundation celebrates two important milestones: first, reaching $1 billion in grants since its inception in 1967 and secondly, the 20-year leadership of Marjory Kaplan, President and CEO and holder of the Miriam and Jerome Katzin Presidential Chair.

This $1 billion is comprised of more than 60,000 grants from Foundation funds to thousands of nonprofits in San Diego, the U.S. and Israel. Established by individuals and families, Foundation funds now total more than 800.

This milestone comes as Kaplan prepares to retire as President and CEO in January, 2015.

Kaplan has brought innovative programs to our community, developing intergenerational philanthropy, strengthening nonprofits and mentoring future leaders – all the while creating an extraordinary culture of giving in San Diego.

Behind this billion-dollar landmark number is a breadth of philanthropy resources for all ages including workshops, research assistance, visits to organizations, meetings with financial advisors and legacy planning consultations.

Supporting the infrastructure of Jewish organizations in San Diego has remained at the forefront of Kaplan’s vision. Under her leadership, the Foundation developed the innovative Endowment Leadership Institute to build endowments for Jewish organizations.

Along with the Book of Life and other planned giving resources, the Foundation is focused on helping our Jewish organizations ensure their futures. More than 1,000 individuals in our community have committed to leaving bequests to their favorite Jewish nonprofit, school or synagogue.

The Endowment Leadership Institute is being replicated in Jewish communities across

the country with San Diego well-known as the founder of the program.

The Foundation pioneered programs in youth philanthropy that also became national models.

This year, 27 teens are participating in the yearround Jewish Teen Foundation supported by a national grant along with the endowment funds for youth philanthropy held at the Foundation.

Throughout Kaplan’s tenure, the Foundation has been governed by outstanding boards made up of community leaders dedicated to strong oversight of the growing asset base – now exceeding $300 million. When Kaplan entered her position in 1994, assets were slightly more than $14 million.

Shearn Platt was then head of the board followed

by Larry Sherman, Pauline Foster, Jack Schuster, Andrew Viterbi, Edgar Berner, Sheila Potiker, Murray Galinson, Emily Einhorn, Jeff Silberman and the current Chair, Jane Scher.

The Foundation was the first-ever recipient of the University of San Diego Excellence in Governance Kaleidoscope Award.

A dedicated mentor, Kaplan has developed an excellent staff and volunteer network to support a smooth leadership transition. Charlene Seidle, the Foundation’s incoming President and CEO, began her work with the Foundation as an intern in 1997. With Kaplan’s guidance and commitment to professional development, Seidle assumed positions of increasing responsibility to ultimately become a Senior Vice President at the Foundation. Most recently, Seidle served as Executive Vice President at the Leichtag Foundation while also maintaining a senior consulting role with the Foundation.

When Kaplan passes the torch in January, Seidle, the staff and the board will continue the commitment of trust, innovation and service to the community.

For more information on the Jewish Community Foundation, visit jcfsandiego.org. A

Heshvan • Kislev 5775 l SDJewishJournal.com 61

in the kitchen WITH

TORI AVEY

HOOT OWL COOKIES

I Tori Avey is an awardwinning 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.

love old cookbooks. There’s something about the well-worn pages, with their little splashes and handwritten notations, that connects me to generations of home cooks before me. When I’m in the kitchen, waiting for my bread to rise or for the water to boil, I often find myself thumbing through an antique recipe book from my library. Once in a while, I come across a gem of an idea, something that is unique enough to make me excited. It’s the way I felt when I saw page 83 of “100 Grand National Recipes,” a recipe booklet published in 1957 in conjunction with the Pillsbury’s Best 8th Grand National competition. It didn’t have a very promising cover photo, but you never know what you might find inside. As I flipped through the mustysmelling pages, a picture jumped out at me: adorable owl-faced cookies with nuts for beaks and chocolate chips for eyes. The recipe was submitted by a young woman named Natalie R. Riggin from Olympia, Wash., who won $5,000 and the 2nd Grand Prize of the competition for her cookies. She said: “I am going to use the prize money I won with my cookies to complete the education of my sister and myself. I make these cookies mostly on Halloween – but my family says they’re good to eat any time.”

Sadly, often these vintage recipes don’t work quite as well as I’d like them to. In this case, I found the dough in the original recipe too crumbly to shape – it didn’t have enough moisture. I added an extra egg, which helped, but the flavor of the cookies wasn’t quite right.

The dough was a bit too salty and not as tasty as I would have liked. I also didn’t love the look of using cashews for beaks, which appeared orange in the vintage photo but baked a pale cream color in my test attempts.

My assistant Ashley and I started hunting for similar recipes that we might use to achieve the look of the Hoot Owl Cookie. We tried a few different recipes, but none of them were great – some of them spread too much, some were difficult to roll, most didn’t keep their shape.

Then Ashley came across a recipe for Checkerboard

62 SDJewishJournal.com l November 2014

Cookies from “Cookies: Creative Cookie Baking”

by Sunset Books (now out of print). We whipped up a batch using this recipe for the dough, but used the technique of the vintage recipe to make owl faces. I also replaced the cashews with raw whole almonds, which looked more beak-like to me.

The result was utterly adorable and really tasty, too.

They look tricky but they really aren’t that hard to make. Proceed without fear and whip up a batch for Halloween, Thanksgiving, or just because it’s autumn and why not? Thanks to Natalie Riggin, wherever she might be, for this very cute seasonal cookie idea!

HOOT OWL COOKIES

Adapted from “Cookies: Creative Cookie Baking” and Pillsbury “100 Grand National Recipes” Ingredients 3 cups all purpose flour 1 ¼ cups granulated sugar 2 ½ sticks unsalted butter, at room temperature 2 egg yolks, at room temperature ¼ cup whole milk, at room temperature 1 ½ ounces unsweetened baking chocolate 1 tbsp baking powder 1 ½ tsp vanilla extract ½ tsp salt Large chocolate chips Whole almonds You will also need: Standing mixer, mixing bowls, small saucepan, rolling pin, aluminum foil, sheet tray(s), silicone baking sheet or parchment In a small saucepan, melt the baking chocolate on low heat. Once melted, remove from heat and set aside. In a large mixing bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder and salt. Set aside. In a small bowl, stir the milk and vanilla together. Set aside.

PHOTOS BY TORI AVEY

In a standing mixer fit with the paddle attachment, cream together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Add the egg yolks and mix until just combined, about 30 seconds. Add 1/3 of the flour mixture and mix on low speed until just combined. Then add ½ of the milk mixture and mix on low speed until just combined. Continue adding the remaining flour and milk mixtures, alternating between each and ending with the flour mixture. Mix until everything is incorporated and a soft dough forms.

Remove 2/3 of the dough (about 1 lb. 6 oz.) from the mixing bowl and set aside. Add the melted chocolate to the remaining 1/3 of dough and mix on low speed until fully incorporated and no streaks of chocolate remain. Set aside.

On a lightly floured surface, roll ½ of the light colored dough into a 10 x 4.5 inch strip. Set aside. Roll ½ of the chocolate dough into a 10 inch log.

Place the chocolate dough on top of the light colored dough. Mold the light colored dough around the chocolate dough. Repeat steps with remaining halves of light colored and chocolate dough to create two rolled logs with chocolate inside. If the ends are not evenly covered with the light colored dough, you can use a serrated knife to even them out. Wrap the dough logs with aluminum foil. Chill for at least 2 hours.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Cut dough into slices about 1/8 inch thick.

Place two slices side by side. Gently press the dough in the center together so that the two cookies become one. Pinch a corner of each slice to form ears. These cookies will spread so try to exaggerate the ears a bit so that you

can still see them after the cookies have baked. You can smooth any rough edges by gently tapping with your fingertips.

Place a chocolate chip in the center of each slice for eyes and a whole almond between the slices for a beak. Bake for 8-12 minutes. Remove from baking sheets immediately and allow to cool.

Store cookies in a sealed tupperware in single layers separated by wax paper. Do not stack them directly on top of each other (I know I did in the picture above, but then I regretted it!). Stacking them can cause the chocolate chip eyes to stick to the other cookies, which will mess up the look of the eyes.

Note: Rolled dough logs can be frozen for up to one month; wrap dough logs in plastic, then tightly in aluminum foil, before freezing. Let the dough fully defrost overnight in the refrigerator before slicing and shaping the cookies. A

IKWTA Heshvan • Kislev 5775 l SDJewishJournal.com 63

D

WHAT’S

GOIN’

ON?

Giving Thanks for Entertainment

PHOTO BY JOAN MARCUS

by eileen sondak • nsondak@gmail.com

The "Wicked" witch is back at the Civic Theatre Nov. 12-Dec. 7.

DN

ovember is the month of Thanksgiving and entertainment buffs have a lot to be thankful for. The San Diego Symphony plays on all month. “Wicked” returns to the Civic Theatre for an extended run, compliments of Broadway-San Diego. The “Grinch” makes its annual appearance on the Old Globe Stage.

Moxie will unveil the West Coast premiere of “Enron” – a play that chronicles the infamous financial firm – and there are exciting productions on the boards clear across the county, including 64 SDJewishJournal.com l November 2014

the return of City Ballet and California Ballet.

Broadway-San Diego is bringing back the “cultural phenomenon” known as “Wicked,” a musical with more than 50 major awards to its credit. The show will take up residency at the Civic Theatre on Nov. 12, where it will reside through Dec. 7. The musical is set in Kansas – long before Dorothy arrives in the Land of Oz. The story revolves around two sisters. One grows up to be the “good” witch, and the other becomes the “bad” witch. The fascinating tale is

clever and entertaining, and will be a delight for the whole family.

The Old Globe has an early holiday present for the youngsters. Dr. Seuss’ whimsical “How The Grinch Stole Christmas!” will move onto the Globe’s Main Stage on Nov. 15, and continue to amuse the small-fry set (and their parents) through Dec. 27. This will be the 17th year for the musical version of this beloved fairy tale by San Diego’s own Dr. Seuss (a.k.a. Theodor Geisel).

The Globe’s world premiere of “Bright Star”

PHOTO BY AARON RUMLEY

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Actors embody C.S. Lewis and Sigmund Freud at the North Coast Rep. through Nov. 9. of a Dickens favorite – “A Christmas Carol.” The original score is by Billy Thompson, and director Sean Murray did the adaptation and wrote the lyrics. Tom Stephenson stars as Scrooge.

City Ballet is back for its 22nd season. It begins with “Ballet and Beyond” Nov. 13-16 at the Spreckels Theatre. The eclectic program will feature works by Wistrich, Malashock, and Isaacs.

California Ballet will launch its 47th season Nov. 1-2 with the Civic Theatre debut of its fulllength “Giselle” – the quintessential ballet of the Romantic Era. The Balboa Theatre will be featuring two performances of “An Evening with Ira Glass” on Nov. 22.

The San Diego Opera is offering a free lecture on Nov. 10 in the Copper Room of the Civic Concourse. The provocative title is “Sex and Power in Don Giovanni.” The company is presenting “A Taste of Opera” event on Nov. 12 at Solaré Restaurant. Opera-buffs can learn more about Mozart’s bad boy “Don Giovanni” while they dine.

Kids will perform in two delightful musicals this month. San Diego Junior Theatre is bringing “The Addams Family” – a musical featuring the lovable Addams clan – to the Casa del Prado through Nov. 9.

J*Company continues its production of “Peter Pan” through Nov. 9 at the JCC. The beloved story of a little boy who just won’t grow up is based on the Disney film and includes classic Disney songs.

Welk Theatre’s revival of the classic musical,

“Oklahoma,” plays through Nov. 16. This Rodgers and Hammerstein masterpiece – with its magnificent music and spirited dance numbers – is a great choice for the whole family. You can enjoy a buffet dinner before each performance.

The Welk will put on a new celebration of the holiday season Nov. 21-Dec. 28. “Winter Wonderettes” – set in the 1960s – was created

by Roger Bean.

The Reuben H. Fleet Science Center is hosting the West Coast premiere of “Genome: Unlocking Life’s Code,” a new exhibition highlighting developments in genomic research. This fascinating show will stay put through Jan. 4, 2015. The Center’s IMAX film, “Human Body,” offers a large-format look at the human biological process. “Hidden Universe,” takes audiences on an adventure deep in space. “Journey to the South Pacific,” narrated by Cate Blanchett, provides an exotic tour of the locale that is home to more than 2,000 species.

The Natural History Museum recently unveiled the West Coast premiere of “The Discovery of King Tut.” This exciting exhibition features more than 1,000 replicas of treasures from the tomb of Tutankhamun – the “Boy King.” The show is slated to remain at the museum through April 25, 2015 – a fitting addition to the Centennial Celebration at Balboa Park. “Maya: Hidden Worlds Revealed,” an exhibition showcasing the Mayan civilization – will be ensconced until Jan. 3, 2016. The Nat also offers “Fossil Mysteries,” “Water: A California Story,” and “Skulls.” A

D

continues to light up the theatrical landscape – at least until Nov. 2. “The Royale,” a show about boxing in the segregated world of 1905 is set to end its run at the White Theatre on Nov. 2 as well.

The San Diego Symphony’s Film Series features “The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari” on Nov. 2. Also slated for Nov. 2 is a Family Festival event – “Stories, Myths, and Legends.” Pre-concert activities include a musical petting zoo. Then, Vince Gill and the Time Jumpers are headed to Symphony Hall for a special concert of country, jazz, and pop music on Nov. 9.

“Lortie Plays Saint-Saëns” is set for Nov. 1416. Jahja Ling will conduct this concert which features four works, including “Saint-Saëns Piano Concerto No. 5 (Egyptian).” Pianist Louis Lortie will do the honors on the keyboard. “Ling Conducts Mahler” is on tap for Nov. 21-23, with cellist Alban Gerhardt performing. The International Passport Series will present “New Orleans Jazz Orchestra with Irvin Mayfield” on Nov. 23, to give jazz aficionados a taste of this truly American art form.

The La Jolla Playhouse is featuring the highly-anticipated musical, “The Hunchback of Notre Dame” at the Mandell Weiss Theatre, through Dec. 14. With songs by Alan Menken and Stephen Schwartz, book by Peter Parnell, and direction by Scott Schwartz, this sounds like a must-see show for locals. Also coming this way, courtesy of the Playhouse, is The Second City’s “Nut-Cracking Holiday Review.” That side-splitting comedy (with original songs and sketches) will be at the Playhouse from Nov. 28 through Dec. 21.

North Coast Repertory Theatre will intrigue audiences with the San Diego premiere of an Off Broadway hit, “Freud’s Last Session.” The play finds Sigmund Freud at the end of his life entertaining the writer and former atheist C.S. Lewis. The result is a lively debate touching on love, politics, religion, and life itself. The show is scheduled to close Nov. 9.

San Diego Repertory Theatre will deliver some laughs with “Honky,” a hilarious new black comedy that reveals secrets about steamy crossracial love affairs and other irreverent topics. This satirical work had a successful Off Broadway run last season. You can sample its off-beat humor Nov. 8 through Dec. 7.

The Lamb’s has extended “Les Miserables” again, this time through Nov. 2, and it might even get another extension, since they canceled “Dinner with Marlene” to accommodate the fantastic megahit.

On Nov. 28, Cygnet will continue its holiday tradition with a completely re-imagined version

Heshvan • Kislev 5775 l SDJewishJournal.com 65

S sports

FANTASY TUNE UP Players that add horsepower for your team's playoff race

By Peter Talhamé

Branden Oliver plowing through tackles against Jacksonville, Sept. 28, 2014

Whether you are at the top of your league's standings or rounding out the bottom, the fantasy playoffs are still most likely attainable if you make the right moves to strengthen your team. While your starters are probably not going to change much, flex spots and bye-week fillers can make or break your team, plus an injury at any position can send your squad into a tailspin if you don't have solid substitutes. Dead weight players who may have had value in the preseason can drag your team down if you let them linger on your roster. Here are a few players who can increase your chances of victory. Read this, grab some players, win a championship: Branden Oliver - RB, San Diego - If your league is filled with out-oftowners this fantasy predator might be available on waivers but more likely, you will need to aquire him through a trade. Even with Mathews set to return, Oliver will still have value.

Josh Gordon - WR, Cleveland - When it comes to bone-headed moves off of the field, Gordon is a winner, but when it comes to fantasy points down the stretch, he's going to be an all-star. Last year he led the league in recieving yard in 14 games. If he is available, he needs to be on your team.

Jerick Mckinnon - RB, Minnesota - Matt Asiata had some good games, but the freakishly athletic Mckinnon is by far the better back and it has been evident with his touches increasing dramatically. He is still fairly available in many leagues, so go get him!

Doug Baldwin - WR, Seattle - With Percy Harvin jettisoned to NY, Baldwin is the main target in Seattle. The expected increase in targets will be nice, and those more than occasional QB scrambles of Wilson's should offer Baldwin a few more broken-coverage big-play-opportunities.

Tre Mason - RB, St. Louis - Jeff Fischer needed a spark and he found it in Mason. His pass protection leaves a bit to be desired but as he moves the chains more, he will find himself in on more snaps.

Odel Beckham Jr. - WR, NYG - His potential is not to be underestimated and with Victor Cruz sidelined with a season-ending injury, someone has to catch the balls for the Giants.

San Diego Center for Jewish Culture

CJC Presents…

Lazer Lloyd and the Chicago Blues Kings Thursday, November 20, 2014 • 7:30 P.M. at David & Dorothea Garfield eatre

A rock, folk, and blues guitarist, singer, and songwriter who lives in Israel, Lloyd is to blues guitar what Matisyahu is to hip hop music – the best! Joined by two of Chicago’s most sought after and renowned Jazz and Blues artists, don’t miss this trio’s only San Diego performance!

THROWING A SIMCHA? WE CATER ANY EVENT! • BAR/BAT MITZVAH PARTIES • WEDDINGS • GRADUATION PARTIES • CORPORATE EVENTS • 30-5,000 PEOPLE • KOSHER PLATTERS • BARUCHA LUNCHEONS

ALWAYS COOKED FRESH ON-SITE! • Rotisserie Free Range Chicken • Kosher Slow-Cooked Brisket • Whole Rotisserie Lamb • Grilled Salmon & Mahi Mahi • Choice cut Roast Beef • Rotisserie Marinated Turkey • Shabbat Luncheons

TICKETS ON SALE NOW! (858) 362-1348 n www.sdcjc.org

858-578-8891

7313 Carroll Road • 92121 www.rotisserieaffair.com 66 SDJewishJournal.com l November 2014

N news

FIDF Appoints New Execs.

Kahled Abu Toameh

The Friends of the Israel Defense Forces (FIDF) recently announced the appointment of two new senior executives. Maj. Gen. (Ret.) Meir Klifi-Amir is the National Executive Director and Mr. Alan E. Scholnik is the new Chief Executive Officer for the nonprofit group based in New York.

Together, the two will oversee the organization as it grows its fundraising infrastructure.

Established in 1981, the FIDF raises approximately $85 million annually to support the wellbeing of Israel’s soldiers.

Maj. Gen. (Ret.) Meir Klifi-Amir

Save the Date: StandWithUs Fundraiser

Comm. Colleges Approved to Offer Four-Year Degrees

Gov. Jerry Brown has signed a measure initiated by Sen. Marty Block of San Diego to allow community colleges to offer fouryear degrees; it was the third time Block had proposed similar legislation. Block’s proposal is a pilot program that will allow 15 campuses from 15 different districts to offer one bachelor’s degree each, starting Jan. 1, 2015. The schools are yet to be determined.

Bachelor’s degrees offered at the chosen campuses will not be duplicative of degrees offered by UC or the CSU campuses.

Supporters and friends of StandWithUs San Diego are invited to attend the advocacy organization’s third annual fundraiser with special keynote speaker, Kahled Abu Toameh. Toameh, a distinguished senior fellow at the Gatestone Institute, is a veteran award-winning journalist most recently honored with the 2014 Daniel Pearl Award for Courage and Integrity in Journalism.

Toameh, an Arab Muslim, studied at Hebrew University, before reporting for the PLO newspaper, Al Faqr. Leaving to pursue “journalistic freedom,” he has reported on Palestinian affairs for nearly three decades with appearances in The Wall Street Journal, US News & World Report, The Sunday Times of London, The Jerusalem Post, NBC news and others.

The StandWithUS fundraiser is scheduled for Sunday, Dec. 7 at the Hilton La Jolla Torrey Pines. Tickets are $150 per person. An international organization with 16 offices in the US, Canada, Israel and UK, StandWithUs emphasizes knowledge of the facts as the means to peace. Their mission is to combat extremism and anti-Semitism and share Israel’s achievements on college campuses. Buy your tickets at standwithus.com.

Attend a Free Lecture on Egypt's Golden Age

The San Diego Center for Jewish Culture will continue its Mandelbaum Family Lecture Series in Carlsbad and Coronado with filmmaker and author James D. Long. His lecture, titled “The Riddle of Exodus,” will take place at the Carlsbad Dove Library on Nov. 17 at 7 p.m. and also in the Winn Room of the Coronado Library on Nov. 19 at 10:30 a.m. The lecture will explore archaeological records of Egpyt with ancient Jewish sources to find parallels between them related to the Exodus. His conclusions will offer a new view of this pivotal event in the history of the Jewish people.

For more information on this or future lectures in the series, contact CJC at (858) 362-1327 or at sdcjc.org.

Heshvan • Kislev 5775 l SDJewishJournal.com 67

N news

San Diego Student Wins Media Award

HonestReporting, the world’s largest media watchdog organization dedicated to ensuring that Israel is represented fairly and accurately in the media, recently announced that Elijah Granet, 19, from San Diego, is the winner of the third Blankfeld Award for Media Critique. Granet, a regular contributor to the Times of Israel blog section, attends Columbia University and the Jewish Theological Seminary in New York City where he is studying political science and Talmud.

As part of his award, Granet will write at least four essays for publication on HonestReporting.

UC Provost Addresses Concerns of Jewish Students

Tikkun Olam Awards Now Accepting Applications

The Helen Diller Family Foundation is now accepting nominations for the 2015 Diller Teen Tikkun Olam Awards. The program recognizes up to 15 Jewish teens annually by awarding $36,000 each for exceptional leadership and impact in volunteer projects that make the world a better place. Up to five teens from California and 10 from other communities across the United States will be acknowledged for their philanthropic efforts.

Bay Area philanthropist Helen Diller created the Diller Teen Tikkun Olam Awards in 2007 as a way to recognize the next generation of socially committed leaders whose dedication to volunteerism exemplifies the spirit of tikkun olam, a central Jewish precept meaning to repair the world. The Diller Teen Tikkun Olam Awards have since granted nearly $2 million to 55 Jewish teens from across the nation.

Qualified teens must be a U.S. resident, aged 13-19 and self-identify as Jewish. Teens may self-nominate or be nominated by any community member who knows the value of their project (except for family members).

To nominate, complete the online form at dillerteenawards.org.

Twelve Jewish advocacy groups are applauding the University of California Provost, Aimee Dorr, and administrators for their statement addressing the concerns of Jewish students.

Dorr, on behalf of UC President Janet Napolitano, affirmed that university policy prohibits academic student employees from using their instructional positions to promote the boycott of Israel. The advocacy groups reached out to the university after the council that represents UC graduate student instructors, tutors and readers issued a statement of intent to vote to support the antiIsrael BDS movement.

Art Dedication at Temple Isaiah in Palm Springs Temple Isaiah, an iconic synagogue in Palm Springs, Calif., reflecting the mid-century modern architectural style, recently dedicated three sculptures by Simi Dabah, a well-known Joshua Tree, Calif., artist.

Rabbi Sally Olins presided over the ceremony accompanied by Cantorial Soloist Alan Scott. The largest of the Simi Dabah sculptures, “Diamonds,” is installed on the south façade of the Temple.

Another, “Star of David” can be seen at the entrance to the Louis and Florence Kitsis Jewish Community Center. “Chanukiah” can be viewed in the Blindman Garden off the Warsaw Ballroom on the lower level. Temple Isaiah is located at 322 West Alejo Rd. in Palm Springs.

PHOTO: At the dedication of his three sculptures at Temple Isaiah in Palm Springs are (L-R) Jewel and Simi Dabah, with Rabbi Sally Olins. Photo by Pat Krause.

68 SDJewishJournal.com l November 2014

N news

Class Action Suit Filed

Elder abuse law firm Garcia, Artigliere & Medby filed a class action lawsuit against Shlomo Rechnitz, owner of Brius Management and Brius LLC, in October. Rechnitz owns and operates 57 skilled nursing facilities throughout California, including five in San Diego. The suit alleges fraud, unfair business practices, and violation of resident rights by the intentional misrepresentation of the quality of care provided. Local facilities include B-Spring Valley LLC, Clairemont Healthcare and Wellness, Point Loma Rehabilitation Center, Granite Hills Healthcare in El Cajon, and B-San Diego LLC.

Carlsbad Woman Wins Business Award

Israeli Company Opens Shop in Encinitas

The Israeli company The Spice Way will open a location in Encinitas this November. San Diego residents may be familiar with the company from their annual attendance at the San Diego Celebrates Israel festival.

With more than 200 spices, infusions, herbs and blends to choose from, “everyone [can] acquire a healthy lifestyle using natural products while adding a wide variety of flavors to any meal,” explains The Ranch website, jewishnorthcounty.com.

Those who have traveled to Israel know there is nothing like a trip to a shuk for fresh herbs, spices and infusions. The aromas and colors are vibrant, the health benefits well noted, and the possible food creations abundant.

Now instead of traveling to Israel, San Diego residents can experience that right in our own backyard.

The Encinitas store is owned and operated by Debbie Kornberg.

Originating in Israel, The Spice Way is an international brand with more than 15 stores worldwide.

Gayle Mestel, a Jewish business owner in Carlsbad, was recently accepted as a member of the San Diego Chapter of the Women Presidents’ Organization. The WPO is the premier membership organization for women presidents, CEOs and managing directors of privately held, multi-million dollar companies. Mestel is the President and CEO of CCS/PR, Inc. the largest woman-owned business in Carlsbad and 28th largest countywide. The national marketing communications firm has been doing business from North County offices since 1966, primarily serving Fortune 100 clients.

Diversionary Theatre Selects New Executive Director

The Diversionary Theatre, San Diego’s preeminent company dedicated to quality and inspiring theater for the LGBT communities since 1986, has announced the selection of Matt Morrow as Executive Artistic Director. Morrow, who was selected from a pool of 60 candidates, will take the helm mid-November, bringing to the job extensive experience in directing and financial development.

Marrow is relocating from New York where he has held various theater positions including Associate Artistic Director, Development and New Works Director.

Heshvan • Kislev 5775 l SDJewishJournal.com 69

Lifetime Income for Retirement.

And an even greater outcome for Israel, science and education.

Learn why Ruth chose her plan. See a video profile: afhu.org/cga3

Sample AFHU Hebrew University Gift Annuity Single-Life Rates

Age 67 70 75 80 85 90

Rate 6.2% 6.5% 7.1% 8.0% 9.5% 11.3%

Rates are calculated based on a single life.

Cash contributions produce annuity payments that are substantially tax-free.

CALL OR EMAIL NOW. The returns are generous. The cause is priceless.

For information on AFHU Hebrew University Gift Annuities, please call AFHU Orange County, San Diego & The Desert Office Director, Caron S. Berkley at (949) 407-6547 or email: cberkley@afhu.org

P.O. Box 364 Placentia, CA 92871 (949) 407-6547 • afhu.org/CGA3

The Hebrew University of Jerusalem Research engine for the world. Engine of growth for a nation.

seacrest village

retirement communities

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70 SDJewishJournal.com l November 2014

S e n i o r L i v i n g i n t h e J e w i s h Tr a d i t i o n

DIVERSIONS

By Natalie Jacobs “Rosewater” “The Daily Show” host Jon Stewart took time off from his nightly duties at Comedy Central last summer to write and direct a film about something that keeps happening in the Middle East. “Rosewater,” Stewart’s directorial debut, is an adaptation of Maziar Bahari’s memoir “Then They Came For Me: A Family’s Story of Love, Captivity and Survival.” It follows Tehran-born journalist Bahari, played by Gael Garcia Bernal, as he returns to Iran on assignment for the BBC in 2009. Bahari is sent to interview Mir-Hossein Moussavi, the challenger to Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. When Bahari films and dispatches footage of the street riots that unfold after Ahmadinejad declares early victory, he is arrested by Revolutionary Guard police. Bahari is then tortured and interrogated for 118 days, on the assumption that he is a spy. Stewart’s film mostly takes place in the prison where Bahari is tortured. Surprisingly, reviewers note that the film has some humorous parts.

It will be released to theaters on Nov. 7.

“Tel Aviv Noir” Edited by Etgar Keret and Assaf Gavron, this anthology asks Israeli writers to take a deep look at the city they love.

“The Real Shlomo” Rabbi Chaim Dalfin takes an exhaustive look into the intriguing life of Rabbi Shlomo Carlebach.

“L’Chaim L.A.” This is a web series about what happens when two girls – one Jewish and one not – move into an Orthodox neighborhood next door to three available Jewish bachelors. The Jewish girl finds a connection to her roots, and the non-Jewish girl finds that fitting in is harder than she thought. There are currently five episodes, each at no more than seven minutes.

Follow the series on the YouTube channel L’Chaim L.A.

“The Red Tent” Adapted from the 1997 book of the same name, Lifetime Television will premiere “The Red Tent” in a two-part mini-series on Dec. 7 and 8. The story introduces us to Dinah, the daughter of Leah and Jacob, who is only briefly explored in the Hebrew Bible. The show follows the family’s disintegration and ultimate reuniting in Egypt. It boasts an allstar cast incluing Minnie Driver, Morena Baccarin, Rebecca Ferguson, Iain Glen, and Will Tudor.

“And Give Up Showbiz” Or, how anti-Semitism fueled a successful legal career for Fred Levin.

Heshvan • Kislev 5775 l SDJewishJournal.com 71

TAKE NOTE NOV. 1-30

by tinamarie bernard

BEST BETS

Mark your calendar.

I

t’s November which means the season of fall, festivals and feasting is upon us. Make room on your calendar around your holiday plans for these great events happening this month.

Start your Hanukkah gift shopping early at the Temple EmanuEl Artisan Festival on Saturday, Nov. 2 from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. More than 50 vendors will be on site selling jewelry, pottery, Judaica, gifts and more with proceeds going to fund the synagogue’s new college scholarship fund. More information can be found at teesd.org.

The following weekend, Nov. 9 from 9-11 a.m. is the 14th annual Gaslamp Quarter Fall Back Children’s Historic Street Faire.

Children and those young at heart can, “climb aboard an oldfashioned hay ride, pan for gold, check out a Wild West show, saddle up for pony rides and enjoy two stages of live music.” This familyfriendly celebration is free and open to the public in the heart of the Gaslamp Quarter. Loads of fun with lots of freebies will be on hand.

Free root beer floats, anyone? Visit gaslampquarter.org/fall-back-2014 for more details.

Later that night, Nov. 9, moms and dads can leave the kids with a sitter and catch some laughs at the Camp Mountain Chai Night of Comedy event. Held at the famous Comedy Store in La Jolla, your $36 ticket buys you giggles and good will (the proceeds benefit the Camp Mountain Chai scholarship fund). Contact zim@ campmountainchai.com to get your e-ticket to funny town.

The next event is just for the young and hip among us. Join Jewish Family Service for the Brushes + Forks Cocktail Fundraiser on Nov. 13 from 7-10 p.m. Tickets are $65 (or $75 if you wait to buy at the door) for a night of live music, wine, craft beers, gourmet food stations and more at the San Diego Hall of Champions in Balboa Park. Contact ashleyh@jfssd.org to register and join the next generation of Jewish community leaders dedicated to supporting the vital programs of JFS San Diego.

Finally, you’ve tasted the rest now it’s time to try the best. When it comes to food, wine, and entertainment, the San Diego Bay’s Grand Tasting Event is considered by many as the granddaddy of gourmet good times. Happening Nov. 16-23, expect your tastebuds to sizzle and your toes to tango as you partake in delicious food, wine and live entertainment from an array of celebrity chefs, local culinary experts, wine and brew masters extraordinairre, sommeliers, authors and more. Jet set your way to a decadent ticket at sandiegowineclassic. com. A

72 SDJewishJournal.com l November 2014

ARTISAN FESTIVAL Nov. 2 9 a.m.-3 p.m.

Temple Emanu-El

GASLAMP STREET FAIRE Nov. 9 9-11 a.m.

Gaslamp Quater

NIGHT OF COMEDY Nov. 9 5-8 p.m.

The Comedy Store

BRUSHES + FORKS FUNDRAISER Nov. 13 7-10 p.m.

San Diego Hall of Champions, Balboa Park

SAN DIEGO JEWISH

SENIOR EVENTS NOV. 1-30

Lawrence Family JCC 4126 Executive Drive, La Jolla Contact Melanie Rubin to R.S.V.P. (858) 362-1141 Docent Tour of Gotthelf Art Gallery’s Exhibit CONTEMPLATION Tuesday, Nov. 4, 1:30 p.m.

Free. R.S.V.P. by Nov. 3.

Google: It’s More Than a Search Engine Tuesday, Nov. 11, 1:30 a.m.

This is a technology class for seniors taught by Barbra Drizin of Start from Scratch Social Media Educators. Price: $10; JCC member $8 R.S.V.P. by Nov. 4.

Planning Ahead: Jewish Perspectives on End-of-Life Issues Monday, Nov. 17, 9:30 a.m.

Free. Refreshments will be served. R.S.V.P. by Nov. 10.

Oceanside Senior Center 455 Country Club Lane, Oceanside Call Josephine at (760) 295-2564 North County Jewish Seniors Club Third Thursday of each month, 12:30 p.m.

Join us to hear speakers and/or entertainment at our monthly meetings.

Light refreshments served. Visitors welcome.

Joslyn Senior Center 210 Park Ave./Broadway, Escondido Call (760) 436-4005 Jewish War Veterans meetings Second Sunday of each month, 11 a.m.

Preceded by a bagel/lox breakfast at 10:45 a.m. San Diego North County Post 385.

JFS University City Older Adult Center 9001 Towne Centre Drive, La Jolla Call Aviva Saad for details or to R.S.V.P. (858) 550-5998 Sixth International Tour of Moriah College Band Tuesday Nov. 18, noon This year will feature two different groups, the Tour Band and the Symphony Orchestra. The Moriah College group is comprised of 65 middle school and high school students from a Jewish Day School in Sydney Australia. Lunch and concert: $20. Concert only: $10.

Thanksgiving Celebration Wednesday Nov. 26, 10 a.m.

Spend the day at UCOAC, learn about the history of Thanksgiving, exercise, eat a festive meal and enjoy the music of Musicstation. Call to reserve lunch.

On the Go excursions A program of Jewish Family Service, On the Go provides transportation to events throughout the county for homebound seniors. For information on any of these excursions, please call (858) 637-7320.

Love & Treasure by Ayelet Waldman, JCC, La Jolla, Jewish Book Fair Thursday Nov. 13, bus leaves at10:30 a.m.

Lunch is included. Pay by Nov. 5, cost is $33.

Irvine Spectrum Center, Irvine, CA Tuesday, Dec. 2, bus leaves at 9 a.m.

Pay by Nov. 26, cost is $40.

JEWISH WAR VETERANS RECOGNITION DAY Monday, Nov. 10, 11:30 a.m. to 2 p.m.

JFS No. County Inland Center, 15905 Pomerado Road, Poway Veterans and their spouses will enjoy a free lunch, noted speaker and other celebratory activities.

The Queen Mary, Long Beach, CA Tuesday Dec. 2, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Pay by Nov. 26, cost is $79.

JFS No. County Inland Center 15905 Pomerado Road, Poway Call (858) 674-1123 for details.

Jewish War Veterans Recognition Day with Jewish Family Services, No. County Inland Center Monday, Nov. 10, 11:30 a.m.

Veteran’s and their spouses will enjoy a free lunch, noted speaker and other celebratory activities.

Mindfulness and Meditation with Yana Monday, Nov. 19, 11 a.m.

Focus on gratitude and connect to your spiritual side.

Songs and Stories with Mark Shatz Wednesday, Nov. 26 11 a.m.

Sing along to a combination of jazz, country, classical, and more JFS Coastal Club at Temple Solel 3575 Manchester Ave., Cardiff by the Sea Call (858) 674-1123 for details. R.S.V.P. for lunch by Monday at 12:30 p.m.

Maximize Brain Health Tuesday, Nov. 11, 10 a.m.

Cost is $7 for lunch, R.S.V.P. required.

Thanksgiving Concert with MusicStation Tuesday, Nov. 25, 10 a.m.

Cost is $7 for lunch, R.S.V.P. required.

JFS College Avenue Center 4855 College Ave., San Diego Call (858) 637-3270 for details or to R.S.V.P. Happiness with Lindsay Wagner Thursday, Nov. 6, 12:45 p.m.

Look into being positive, synthesizing happiness, and creating formulas for the right amount of choice to generate happiness.

Free Photography Workshop with Kevin Linde, MOPA Friday, Nov. 14, 9:30 a.m.

This series encourages seniors to engage with art and their community through art-based dialogue and more.

Fall Art Show Thursday, Nov. 20, 10:30 a.m.

Thanksgiving Celebration Wednesday, Nov. 26, noon Suggested donation for seniors is $4, $7 for all other guests. No reservations required.

Heshvan • Kislev 5775 l SDJewishJournal.com 73

THE MARKETPLACE

Cantor Deborah Davis

CRAFTS

N

Custom Wedding Ceremonies

Paula’s Quilted Treasures Use your old t-shirt collection, fabric your friends decorate, clothing from a loved one, or a brand new fabulous fabric! Great as a gift or for yourself! Let me help you design a quilt with memories to treasure!

Let me help you create a wedding, commitment ceremony or baby-naming that will reflect the beauty and spirituality of your special day. As a Humanist cantor I welcome Jewish and interfaith couples and will honor the customs of both families. I also perform all life-cycle ceremonies.

(760) 732-3944 Find us on Facebook

For further information please contact www.deborahjdavis.com Deborah Davis • (619) 275-1539

Paula Gillick Owner/Designer

FOOD CHIROPRACTIC

Delicatessen & Bakery

“Voted #1 Deli in the Coachella Valley”

Mitzvah events.qxd

12/1/04

2:10 PM

The “Official” Breakfast Spot In Palm Springs

Page 1

Early Bird Dinners $11.95 4 p.m. to 6 p.m.

EVENTS

• New York Style Deli • Patio Dining • Custom Cakes to Go

Lydia B. Krasner, Event Consultant Complete Design, Production & Decor So You Can Enjoy Your Special Day

619/548-3485 www.mitzvahevent.com

Lydia Krasner

• Bakery• Pastries • Catering • Wedding Cakes

760-325-1199

760-568-1350

401 Tahquitz Canyon Palm Springs, CA 92262

73-161 Country Club #D Palm Desert, CA 92260

www.shermansdeli.com

SCAN FOR RICK’S VIP RESERVATIONS

Serving Cuban-American Food Est. 1976

GREAT FOOD AT REASONABLE PRICES TO SATISFY EVERYONE’S TASTE. Open Daily: 3pm - 10pm (760) 325-2127 1596 N. Palm Canyon Drive • Palm Springs, CA 92262 74 SDJewishJournal.com l November 2014

THE MARKETPLACE JEWISH COMMUNITY

FINANCE

L’DOR V’DOR

From Generation to Generation A Trip to Israel for Adults 55+

UPCOMING TRIPS • October 29 - November 10, 2014 Sold Out • April 23 - May 4, 2015 Applications opened June 20 • December 2015 Trip planned for educators

Call us today!

(818) 943 1407

ldorvdorisrael.com

Haven’t you always wanted to go to Israel? It’s in your DNA!

HOME IMPROVEMENT

PROFFESIONAL MOVERS

Fabrics for Fashion and Home

Visit our Giant Store & Warehouse 907 Plaza Blvd. • National City

619- 477- 3749

9 locations in SD County Family Owned and Operated since 1953

FOLLOW US SENIORS RCFE# 374601329

The Gateway/Gateway Gardens

/SanDiegoJewishJournal

@SDJewishJournal

12751 Gateway Park Road/ 12750 Gateway Park Road Poway, CA 92064 (858)451-9933 x 102 / Fax (858)521-0513 www.rhf.org A Retirement Housing Foundation Community Heshvan • Kislev 5775 l SDJewishJournal.com 75

JUDAISM HAS A NEW ADDRESS IN NORTH COUNTY!

North County Jewish Center Chabad at La Costa

Come and meet your family at North County Jewish Center / Chabad at La Costa. All are welcome – regardless of background or level of observance.

Visit our website for more information and to see all we can offer you!

Chabad at La Costa under the direction of Rabbi and Rebbetzin Eilfort has been proudly serving the Jewish people of Carlsbad and Encinitas since 1989.

CHABAD at LA COSTA

1980 La Costa Avenue • Carlsbad, CA 92009 760-943-8891• Info@ChabadatLaCosta.com • www.ChabadatLaCosta.com

SAN DIEGO JEWISH COMMUNITY OBITUARIES Arrangements by Am Israel Mortuary

ALL SERVICES ALREADY HELD

Survivors: sister, Jackie Lassman.

Louise Winecki - San Diego 09/14/1939 - 5/28/2014 Survivors: Daughters, Norine Busser and Malissa Winicki; Grandson, Evan Patocka.

Irma Shaw - Encinitas 8/3/1920- 8/5/2014 Survivors: sons Peter and Steven Shaw; and two grandchildren and one great-grandchild.

Litzie Friedman - San Diego 8/13/1919 - 7/31/2014 Survivors: Nephew, Friedman.

Hannan Binder - San Diego 4/24/1926 - 8/5/2014 Survivors: wife, Rita Binder; daughter, Staci Ellis; son, Rick Binder; and three grandchildren.

Litzie Friedman - San Diego 8/13/1919 - 7/31/2014 Survivors: nephew, Frederick Friedman.

Joseph Fleisher - Fallbrook 1/8/1915 - 8/1/2014 Survivors: daughters, Harriet and Karen Fleisher.

Cecilia Grossman- Cathedral City 6/19/1921- 8/4/2014

Shulim Tsimring- San Diego 6/1/1924 - 8/8/2014 Survivors: wife, Miroslava Tsimring; Sons, Michael and Lev Tsimring; and two grandchildren Sidney Glugover - San Diego 1/23/1925 - 8/8/2014 Survivors: wife, Dorothy Glugover; and daughter, Susan Bookbinder.

76 SDJewishJournal.com l November 2014

Diana Jacoby - Norwood , N.J. 1/16/1924- 8/12/2014 Survivors: son, James Jacoby.

Joan Kaye - San Diego 11/18/1927 -8/13/2014 Survivors: daughter, Liza Kaye; and son, Sam Kaye.

Bruce Kosikoz San Diego 5/15/1941- 8/13/2014 Survivors: daughter, Wendy Weiner; and son, Warren Kosikov.

Shirley Herman - San Diego 4/5/1931 - 8/14/2014 Survivors: husband, Irwin Herman, daughter, Barbara Herman; and Son, Glen Herman.

Seymour Teitelbaum Scottsdale, Ariz.

2/14/1925 - 8/15/2014 Survivor: Son, Philip Teitelbaum.

Sonia Wiser - San Diego 4/27/1924 - 8/15/2014

Survivors: daughter, Ofelia Rudick; son, Samuel Wiser; and six grandchildren.

Arkady Krimerman - San Diego 1/17/1950 - 8/15/2014 Survivors: son, Stan Krimerman; and daughter, Diana Thomas.

Paul Wolf - San Diego 12/16/1932 - 8/19/2014 Survivors: wife, Janice Wolf; daughters, Anita Griffith and Miriam Wolf; and four grandchildren.

Simon Cohen - Chula Vista 5/23/1955 - 8/21/2014 Survivors: daughter, Mery Cohen; and sons, Jacob and David Cohen.

Maryray Attias - San Diego 12/2/1955 - 8/23/2014 Survivors: sister, Vivan Schneider; and brothers, Maurice and Messod Attias.

desert life

PALM SPRINGS

by Pamela Price

pamprice57@gmail.com

JNF Screens “The Price of Kings”

PHOTOS BY DONNA RAIDER

Documentary chronicles the life of Shimon Peres

ABOVE: At the Tolerance Education Center in Rancho Mirage, guests gather for the screening of the documentary "Shimon Perez, The Price of Kings."

INSET L-R: Orgen Garrett, Evelyn Binsky and Sheri Borax

T

he Jewish National Fund screened “Shimon Peres: The Price of Kings,” a documentary on the life of Shimon Peres, at the Museum of Tolerance in Rancho Mirage on Oct. 6. Playing to a packed house, this documentary, released in 2012, delved into the life and times of Israel’s former President who served in the Knesset for 66 years. Peres’ controversial political career was explored through exclusive interviews and archival footage in the documentary, one in a series of groundbreaking films on “the price of power,” all directed by Joanna Natasegara and Richard Symons. Another in this series focused on Yasser Arafat.

Historical and enlightening, the screening was introduced by Allan Nyman, honoree for the 8th Annual Love of Israel Dinner to be held on Dec. 15 at the Omni Rancho Las Palmas Resort and Spa in Rancho Mirage. Mr. Nyman shared a memory about a time when he meet former President Shimon Peres during a trip to Israel.

He also discussed the evolution of Peres’ political stance, evolving from that of a hawk to one of a

dove.

The Peres Center for Peace, located in Jaffa, Israel, an independent, non-government and non-political organization founded in 1966, has the express purpose “to further Peres’ vision of those in the Middle East to promote working together through socioeconomic cooperation and development and people-to-people interaction,” according to their mission statement. This includes supporting activities that advocate for humanitarian response, youth cooperation and business and economic cooperation. Grace Robbins, one of the attendees at the screening said: “After watching ‘The Price of Kings,’ it is obvious that the next step in the life of Shimon Peres would be to carry on with his peacekeeping efforts and establishing an organization destined to make this happen. ” The Tolerance Education Center (TEC) hosts films and performances throughout the year on a variety of themes that promote tolerance with the Jewish community and beyond. Melisse Banwer, TEC’s Managing Director, said a new exhibit

entitled “Entry Denied: The Voyage of the St. Louis” opens on Nov. 20 followed by a screening of the film “Body and Soul” on Dec. 9.

This screeing will be followed by a questionand-answer session with film maker Gloria Greenfield.

For further information, call the Jewish National Fund at (760) 864-6208. To get in touch with the Tolerance Education Center, call (760) 328-8252. A

Heshvan • Kislev 5775 l SDJewishJournal.com 77

L’DOR V’DOR

From Generation to Generation A Trip to Israel for Adults 55+

L’DOR V’DOR- From Generation to Generation began with an audacious idea- offer a life-changing, 12- day trip to Israel for Jewish adults 55 years and older. Founded in 2013 by a dedicated Jewish philanthropist - Stacy Wasserman, L’DOR V’DOR seeks to rejuvenate the Jewish community’s faith, encourage the observance of age-old traditions, and help participants develop a robust, positive affiliation with Israel.

Since its inception, L’DOR V’DOR’s vision has aimed to make an educational trip to Israel an integral part of the life of every babyboomer, in an effort to generate a profound transformation in contemporary Jewish culture. We embrace the opportunity to assist “emerging retirees” to reconnect to their Jewish roots and to help redefine themselves at a critical juncture of their lives.

Specifically, trip participants explore key landmarks of historical, national and religious significance that reflect Jewish history and the roots of the Jewish people, including visits to the Israeli Knesset, Temple Mount, and Western Wall. Furthermore, participants are granted the opportunity to discover the breathtaking nature of Israel’s archeological and natural beauty with visits to Masada, the Dead Sea, and Mt. Scopus. Lastly, the L’DOR V’DOR Israel trip allows participants to explore core values that have been part of Jewish life for generations, including Shabbat and Israeli art, culture, science and technology.

As the Jewish New Year has moved into our collective purview, we ask that you make a gift of $100, $500, $1,000 or $5,000. Since our organization relies on the generosity of individuals like you, we write to ask you to consider this donation to our cause. We firmly believe that such a donation can make all the difference and will ensure the continuation of expeditions to Israel for our babyboomer population. L’DOR V’DOR is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization; therefore all contributions are tax deductible.

On behalf of L’DOR V’DOR, its beneficiaries, volunteers, and members, I wish to express our sincere appreciation in advance for your donation.

Stacy Wasserman P.O. Box 1112 Thousand Oaks, CA 91358 (818)943 1407 e mail ldorvdorisrael@gmail.com www.ldorvdorisrael.com

78 SDJewishJournal.com l November 2014

CELEBRATING ONE BILLION

INSPIRING GIVING • BUILDING FUTURES • CHANGING LIVES

60,000+ GRANTS

$1BILLION TO NONPROFITS

Arts & Culture

Education

5,000+ NONPROFITS Human Services

FaithBased

75% TO SAN DIEGO REGION

Health

W AY S W E S U P P O R T Y O U R P H I L A N T H R O P Y Endowment Funds • Donor Advised Funds • Philanthropy Education•Legacy Plans

Jane Scher Chair of the Board

Marjory Kaplan President and CEO Miriam and Jerome Katzin Presidential Chair

www.jcfsandiego.org

Heshvan • Kislev 5775 l SDJewishJournal.com 79

SD OPERA

MURDER FOR TWO A NEW MUSICAL COMEDY

CELEBRATE OUR NEW BEGINNING

2014-15 INTERNATIONAL SEASON LA BOHÈME

January/February 2015

DON GIOVANNI February 2015

NIXON IN CHINA March 2015

Special Events The Songs of Kate Smith STEPHANIE BLYTHE & CRAIG TERRY December 2014

50TH ANNIVERSARY CELEBRATION CONCERT April 2015

EL PASADO NUNCA SE TERMINA (The Past is Never Finished) April 2015

Single Tickets start at just $45 sdopera.com (619) 533-7000

Murder for Two

Book and Music by Joe Kinosian Book and Lyrics by Kellen Blair Directed by Scott Schwartz

Multi-millionaire Arthur Whitney has been murdered at his own birthday party, and his killer could be any one of the guests. But this is no ordinary murder mystery. The entire world of this hilarious musical is brought to life by two incredible performers: one plays the detective, the other plays all 10 suspects, and both play the piano! Murder for Two is an irrepressibly wacky tour-de-force musical that NY1 dubbed “a must-see 90-minute jolt of caffeinated creativity!”

January 24 - March 1, 2015

Tickets also available at

(619) 23-GLOBE (234-5623)

80 SDJewishJournal.com l November 2014

www.TheOldGlobe.org