San Diego Jewish Journal January 2016

JANUARY 2016 l TEVET • SHEVAT 5776

2ND ANNUAL WOMEN’S ISSUE

+ education innovation

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Tevet • Shevat 5776 | SDJewishJournal.com 3

WIDOWS, DIVORCEES, AND FAMILIES LOSE MILLIONS BECAUSE THEY DON’T PLAN AHEAD. Unfortunately, it is happening in every city in America. Women are being left with nothing whether it’s due to divorce or an unexpected death and as a result, families have to suffer.

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Even if you believe that it won’t happen to you, planning for all of life’s “what if’s” is what will shield you from failure should it ever happen.

NO ONE PLANS TO FAIL, THEY FAIL TO PLAN.

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GET YOUR KID INTO COLLEGE! Prep4CollegeNow works with high school

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Tevet • Shevat 5776 | SDJewishJournal.com 5

CONTENTS January 2016

Tevet/Shevat 5776

28

ON THE COVER: The 613 mitzvot may be thousands of years old, but they have modern implications. As one artist offers stunning interpretations of each, a local rabbi unpacks the meaning.

34

EDUCATION: Educators from Chabad Hebrew Academy, Soille Hebrew Day School and the JCC’s Nierman Preschool weigh in on the kindergarten readiness debate. Hint for parents: Trust your gut.

44

EDUCATION: A deep dive on the boycott, divest and sanction movement at California universities – meet the students who are fighting back...in the courtroom.

48

WOMEN: Dr. Anne Wallace, a surgeon and breast cancer expert at UC San Diego Moores Cancer Center, answers your questions about breast cancer, from early detection to genetics, treatment and prevention.

6 SDJewishJournal.com l January 2016

ALSO IN THIS ISSUE: 31 ISRAEL:

Is it possible to discuss Israel without getting political?

A new city-wide education initiative will give it a shot.

36 EDUCATION:

SDJA introduces STEM learning to lower school.

38 EDUCATION:

Kavod Elementary receives charter renewal, looks for new space to continue expanding.

39 EDUCATION:

Tarbuton’s Jennie Starr makes the case for more Jewish learning.

41 EDUCATION:

If your child is looking for an athletic scholarship, read this.

42 EDUCATION:

Federation revamps its education initiatives with help from a $3 million grant.

52 WOMEN:

Hadassah will soon introduce new programming for younger women, specifically working mothers.

54 WOMEN:

Meet Toni Robin.

56 WOMEN:

59 FEATURE:

62

This month, the San Diego Symphony gets underway with its first city-wide festival to explore, honor and challenge a single instrument – the piano.

62 FOOD:

Greek salad quinoa bowls.

Monthly Columns 10 The Starting Line 20 Parenting 22 Israeli Lifestyle 24 Aging 26 Spirituality 76 Advice Around Town 16 Our Town 18 The Scene 70 Events In Every Issue 12 Mailbag 14 What’s Up Online 64 What’s Goin’ On 66 Shabbat Sheet 67 Diversions 68 News

JWA imagines new kinds of power couples – female trailblazers past and present.

Tevet • Shevat 5776 | SDJewishJournal.com 7

www.sdjewishjournal.com January 2016 • Tevet/Shevat 5776

PUBLISHERS • Mark Edelstein and Dr. Mark Moss

Jeffrey R Liber, CFP® Managing Director-­‐ Investments

CA Insurance ic #0C28496 Jeffrey R Jeffrey Liber, CRFP® LLiber, CFP® jeffrey.liber@wfadvisors.com

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alissa.waddell@wfadvisors.com Alissa Waddell Alissa WDaddell Managing irector-­‐ Investments

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AVP -­‐ Registered Client Associate AVP -­‐ Registered Client Associate jeffrey.liber@wfadvisors.com

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EDITOR-IN-CHIEF • Natalie Jacobs CREATIVE DIRECTOR • Derek Berghaus ASSISTANT EDITOR • Tina B. Eshel ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT EDITOR • Eileen Sondak ADVERTISING & OFFICE MANAGER • Ronnie Weisberg

CONTRIBUTING WRITERS Avey, Betsy Baranov, Linda Bennett, Abby Walker, David Ebenbach, Judith Fein (Senior Travel Correspondent), Michael Fox, Jennifer Garstang, Amanda Kelly, Brie Stimson, Pat Launer, Curt Leviant, Sharon Rosen Leib, Andrea Simantov, Jon Schwartz, Dave Good, Marnie McCauley

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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 ©2015 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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#SDJewishJournal

SanDiegoJewishJournal

February 27, 2016 Hyatt Regency La Jolla

Join us for an evening of glitz, glamour and giving in the tradition of Grand Hollywood.

2016 Gala Co-Chairs Esther Fischer and Linda Platt Master of Ceremonies Dan Cohen Morning Anchor at KFMB-TV, CBS San Diego For tickets and sponsorship information, call 760.516.2003. Advance ticket pricing available before January 13, 2016 at seacrestvillage.org.

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Proceeds from this event benefit the residents of Seacrest Village Retirement Communities

THE STARTING LINE by Natalie Jacobs

EDITOR’S LETTER editor@sdjewishjournal.com

Question and Answer

I

was interviewing Toni Robin for her Q&A feature in this issue (pg. 54) when she, being the story-pitcher that she is, said “you should interview yourself for your column this month!”

I had to admit it was not a bad idea. I tried really hard to think of something, anything else to write here, but I kept coming back to this. So here goes, five questions with Natalie Jacobs, interview conducted by Natalie Jacobs.

Q: How long have you been editor-in chief of the San Diego Jewish Journal?

A: About a year and a half. I was assistant editor for about a year and a half before that.

Q: You look so young! How did you get to be the editor of such a prestigious magazine?

Who do you know?

A: I might be older than I look. But also, the big secret is – Craigslist! I had recently moved back to San Diego with the goal of becoming a writer.

This was 2013. The year before, I was living and working in New York City at a global public relations firm when all of a sudden I got bit by this “creativity” bug (not the same as those bed bugs you may have heard get free reign over that fabulously filthy city). This was a special kind of bug that hatched in my brain and really wouldn’t leave me alone. At a coffee shop in San Diego, trolling the Internet for some sort of income from some sort of “creative” work, I saw an ad for an assistant editor, preferably with some knowledge of or interest in Judaism. So I wrote a cover letter that had a bit of personal history and excellent grammar, and everything happened from there.

Q: What is a regular day like for you?

A: I’ve read a lot about the things that writers attribute to their success and one thing they all say is that a regular routine is incredibly important.

That, and taking walks. So I try to maintain a pretty standard schedule to avoid getting distracted by the wrong things. I wake up at 6:30 every weekday morning, shower, make coffee, eat breakfast, answer emails and drive to work. Even the traffic is predictable. I spend the first hour in the office reading through emails – I get about 100 a day and pretty much all of them need to be looked at. So once I have a sense of what’s urgent, I work down my list. Our production schedule is also very regimented. I spend about a week determining stories, the next week writing.

The week after that, I edit my and my writer’s submissions and the final week in the process is spent working with Derek, our creative director, to get the visuals just right. Then we go to press and start all over. The structure really works for me. It’s predictable but still different enough every day to keep me interested and challenged.

Now to get the walking routine down...

Q: What’s one story you’d really like to tell?

A: I was at a discussion forum put on by JNF last month, about the drought and how Israeli technologies could be used to solve some of our water woes here in California. All of the panelists and a fair bit of the audience noted that the media should be doing a better job of telling the story of how we got here and the options for moving beyond this crisis – including the political complications that inhibit a county’s ability to

FYI

La Jolla-based and Tel Aviv trained artist Smadar Samson has a new piece of public art to unveil in Liberty Station. Entitled “ICE,” the luminous sculpture is on view until Jan. 17. Samson will be at the Jan. 8 Friday Night Liberty event. The sculpture is located in front of the Dick Laub NTC Command Center.

10 SDJewishJournal.com l January 2016

achieve water independence, and the public’s misunderstanding of the true cost and value of water as a limited and not-at-all free resource. I’d like to figure out more ways to tell that story.

There was a great quote in a recent radio piece about a company that sells water to people whose wells are empty. A client of the company was interviewed and he explained that having to pay for his water has made him think differently about everyday things, like flushing the toilet.

“That’s $0.50 literally down the drain,” he said.

Those are the kinds of quotes I live for! It’s one that still pops up in my head almost once a day. Stories are such powerful tools to invoke change, even in the smallest, most seemingly inconsequential ways.

Q: You mentioned you read a lot about writers.

Who are some you admire?

A: Yes, writers, also visual artists and musicians.

I’m fascinated by creative people. Professionally, Terry Gross is a big idol for me. Her interviews are like magic tricks. The things she’s able to coax out of a subject, pure mastery. She approaches everyone with such genuine intrigue and compassion that I imagine it’s very difficult not to be really open with her. I learn from her interviews all the time. A

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A smart, sexy new comedy from the supremely clever David Ives (All in the Timing, Time Flies). In 18th-century Paris, poets are the rock stars of the day, and young people like Damis have gone métromanie—crazy for poetry. The Metromaniacs is a true find: one of the nation’s most exciting new plays, in its original production, directed by the legendary Michael Kahn.

(619) 23-GLOBE (234-5623) www.TheOldGlobe.org Top: The cast of The Metromaniacs. Above, from left: Michael Goldstrom; Anthony Roach and Amelia Pedlow; Adam LeFevre and Peter Kybart. Photos by Scott Suchman, courtesy of Shakespeare Theatre Company.

we’re listening let us know what’s on your mind WHERE WERE THE VOICES?

CORRECTIONS In “Where Serendipity Meets Chutzpah,” (Dec., 2015), Taal Safdie’s husband and business partner was incorrectly noted as Michael Rabines.

His name is Ricardo Rabines. The SDJJ regrets this error. The correction has been made to the online version of the story.

Also in the December issue, in “Steve Martin’s ‘Meteor Shower’ Brings Two Edelsteins Back Together” it was incorrectly noted that “Bright Star” was staged at The Old Globe last summer. That show appeared on the stage in September, 2014. Also, Gordon Edelstein did not specifically succeed Barry Edelstein at the Classic Stage Company, although both did at one point hold the artistic director position there. The SDJJ regrets these errors, and they have been corrected in the online version.

Dear Editor: My dad has been gone since 1996 but I’m reminded frequently of the number indelibly branded on his powerful right arm: B2299. It’s when I hear a survivor’s story [when I] wonder how I would have done in the same circumstances. Or, worse, when I hear someone saying that it actually never happened...

It’s a reminder that something terribly wrong happened in a terrible place called Auschwitz as well as many other places where the Nazis employed systematic killing machines aganist six million Jews as well as the millions of others who survived the horrors.

It’s a reminder that my dad was tasked with a terrible job in a terrible place; so terrible that the Nazis apparently vowed to never allow any from that unit to survive...for the world would never be the same if they knew what they witnessed!!

My mom, who I’m blessed to still have with me, was a child in hiding in Poland at the hands of righteous gentiles. Her story is no less horrifying except for the fact that it was experienced and seen from the eyes of a scared little child.

Living without food, in constant fear was the way she and my grandma remained in a hole under a cow barn in terrible conditions for what was way too long for any of us to imagine.

I guess this is all coming up for me now as I hear the news about a

sales@sdjewishjournal.com www.sdjewishjournal.com

presidential candidate who wants to keep a group of people out of the country for what he believes is the safety and security of the land’s inhabitants. And with his statement come the many voices of outrage from all races and religions.

Where were those voices of outrage 70 years ago when my family and all the other Jewish brothers and sisters were being marched to their deaths? Were they less deserving to live their lives the way Hashem wanted? Where were the voices??

Ron James San Diego

TOUTING TJ Dear Editor: Thanks for that fantastic report on the Latino Jewish Coalition’s trip to Tijuana [“Tijuana Tuesday,” Dec. 2015]. I had been scheduled to go when they originally planned it, but when they rescheduled it, it was for a teaching day. I was excited to see that Linda is planning another one – I hope I can go next time!

Keep the great articles coming!

Alyssa Sepinwall San Marcos

@SDJEWISHJOURNAL

It’s MORE than just a magazine.

It’s a LIfEstyLE CaLL Ronnie Weisberg 858.638.9818

Send us your comments: editor@sdjewishjournal.com, 5665 Oberlin Dr., Ste 204, San Diego, CA 92121 12 SDJewishJournal.com l January 2016

New Year’s

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Tevet • Shevat 5776 | SDJewishJournal.com 13

what’s up on sdjewishjournal.com

NEW HOLOCAUST SURVIVOR BENEFITS: Big news came out of the Israeli Knesset in early December – Holocaust survivor benefits were approved for Jews from Morocco and Algeria who suffered from anti-Semitism from 1940-1942 and for Iraqi Jews who were targeted in “Fahrud” pogroms in Baghdad in 1941.

Until now, only European Jews and those from Libya and Tunisia were eligible. Details are up on our site.

MIKVAH MAN: Timing is everything in life. While working on this month’s Women’s Issue, JTA came out with a fascinating tale about a Boston-area Hasidic couple who partake mutually in the mikvah ritual. There wasn’t space to explore the story in print, so the piece is up on our website. Times they are a’changin’.

ILANIT SHALEV:

You met sculptural glass artist Ilanit Shalev in our December issue and now on the website is a closer look at the new direction she’s taking in her work.

WASTE NOT, WANT NOT: The week before the Carlsbad Desalination plant went live, adding 50 million gallons of water to San Diego County’s “water portfolio,” the Jewish National Fund hosted a Water Summit with events across San Diego. The kick-off featured Mark Lambert, CEO of the American arm of the Israeli company running the Carlsbad plant, and Seth Siegel, activist and best-selling author of “Let There Be Water.” On our website is a recap of their conversation.

14 SDJewishJournal.com l January 2016

Facebook “f ” Logo

CMYK / .eps

Facebook “f ” Logo

CMYK / .eps

Hear about all our web exclusives first: Like us on Facebook.com/ sandiegojewishjournal and follow us on Twitter @sdjewishjournal

Tevet • Shevat 5776 | SDJewishJournal.com 15

our TOWN

BY LINDA BENNETT AND BETSEY BARANOV, PHOTOS BY EMILIO AZEVEDO AND AARON TRUAX PHOTOGRAPHY

LEFT TO RIGHT: Denise and Barry Nussbaum • Dan and Jaime Feder (Photos by Emilio Azevedo).

Festival of Lights On Dec. 6, StandWithUs hosted its annual celebration, Festival of Lights at the Hilton Torrey Pines. Nina and Dan Brodsky were honored for their strong support of Israel though advocacy, philanthropy, and as volunteers in Israel. Comedian Elon Gold was a terrific emcee, with Roz Rothstein, CEO and one of the original organizers of this 14-year old organization welcoming the crowd of more than 500 supporters.

Bret Stephens, deputy editor of the Wall Street Journal served as keynote speaker with Micha Danzig and Sara Schoonmaker also speaking during the formal program. Among the crowd we saw Karen and Robert Zeiger, Jackie and Bertie Woolf, Elaine Chortek, Randi and Charles Wax, and Wendy and Chaim Avraham.

16 SDJewishJournal.com l January 2016

Latke Vodka

NextGen helped more than 230 young adults party like it’s 1990 at their annual Hanukkah party hosted at the new Central Public Library in downtown. Attendees embraced the opportunity to don flannel and overalls as they noshed on gourmet jelly donuts, tried olive oil samples, and danced to old school favorites late into the night.

More than 35 percent of this year’s guests were new to the event. Up next, NextGen will celebrate Tu B’Shevat with a community Shabbat Jan. 22 and offer another round of Torah on Tap Jan. 28.

Birthdays...

Happy 90th birthday to Gussie Zaks!

Happy 89th birthday to Lil Weiner and happy 94th birthday to her husband Irv (and congratulations on their 65th wedding anniversary!)

CLOCKWISE FROM MIDDLE: Jenna Slater, Margot Schein • Kevin Tarson, Sarah Hoffman, Janese Cassel, Rayna Kroll, Chelsea Winer and Chris Flores • April and Paul Segal. (photos by Aaron Truax Photography).

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Achieve Greater Personal Wellness in the New Year Are you facing obstacles to reaching your full potential in 2016?

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Tevet • Shevat 5776 | SDJewishJournal.com 17

the SCENE

BY EILEEN SONDAK,

PHOTOS BY DOUG GATES AND COURTESY ADOPT A FAMILY FOUNDATION

Gingerbread City It was a gingerbread world at the Fairmont Grand Del Mar recently, when the Epilepsy Foundation of San Diego County held its 22nd annual Gingerbread City fundraising event. This year, gingerbread villages were not only stunning to look at, they were illuminated. Among the edible edifices on display were miniature versions of the Hotel Del Coronado, Disneyland’s Cinderella’s Castle, and a scene from “How The Grinch Stole Christmas.”

The party started early with a patrons’ reception and continued with exotic food tastings and music from a live band. Many of the talented artists behind the magnificent gingerbread structures were on hand to accept well-deserved accolades from the crowd. In addition to offerings from host chef William Bradley, guests enjoyed delicacies prepared by several other celebrity chefs.

18 SDJewishJournal.com l January 2016

The life and legacy of philanthropist Sally Thornton – founding chair of Gingerbread City – was remembered with a fitting tribute.

Proceeds from the event will support free programs and services offered to more than 50,000 people with epilepsy in San Diego County.

Adopt a Family Boutique

Adopt a Family Foundation hosted its annual Holiday Boutique at the Morgan Run Club and Resort on Dec. 3. Featuring local vendors with food, jewelry and handmade goods for sale, all proceeds benefitted the adopted families in Israel.

TOP L-R: Salvatore Giametta and Ron Roberts • Byron Wear, Bridget Cantu Wear, Debra Emerson, Salah Hassanein, Zandra Rhodes (Photos by Doug Gates); BOTTOM L-R: Iris Pearlman and Carine Chitayat • Tanya Abel and Vivienne Kosniver (photos courtesy Adopt a Family Foundation).

Join the Shalom Hartman Institute of North America and a Cross-Institutional Collaboration of the San Diego Jewish Community for

Jewish Values and the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict A San Diego Communal iEngage Project Register for the public lectures and find out more about a 12 session iEngage Study Program at a congregation or organization near you at: shalomhartman.org/sandiego

Community-Wide Public Lectures at Congregation Beth El Jacobs Family Community Hall Rabbi Lauren Berkun

Rabbi Dr. Donniel Hartman

Talking about Israel: Foundations for a Values Discourse Wednesday | 7:00 PM January 6, 2016

Communal Concluding Conversation Monday | 7:00 PM May 23, 2016

This program has been generously funded by: Elaine Chortek • Laura Galinson and Jodi Diamond • David and Claire Ellman • Elena Romanowsky Ray and Rhona Fink • Selwyn and Hilary Isakow • Richard and Ann Jaffe • Julian and Jenny Josephson • Steve and Denise Shoemaker • Stan and Mal Smiedt • Alan and Caryn Viterbi

The Behavioral Health Committee of Jewish Family Service Invites You to an Educational Event in Support of Mental Health Awareness

Substance Abuse Disorder in My Family

What is Happening?

What Can I Do? FEATURED SPEAKERS

THURSDAY, JANUARY 21, 2016

Moderator: Marti Emerald, San Diego City Councilmember, District 9

Congregation Beth Israel • 9001 Towne Centre Drive • San Diego, CA 92122 5:30-6:30 PM Resource Fair & Light Appetizers 6:45-8:30 PM Panel of Professionals Families impacted by substance abuse disorder can benefit greatly from compassionate support as well as an understanding of the true nature of the disease of addiction. However, much of what society and policy makers still believe today is shrouded in stigma and myth.

Does an addict have to “hit bottom” to be ready for treatment? Is substance abuse a sign of family dysfunction? Join us for an enlightening and empowering discussion that will separate the mythology from the realities, and show how science, family involvement and compassionate support combine to direct us to treatment strategies that really work.

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Tevet • Shevat 5776 | SDJewishJournal.com 19

MUSINGS FROM MAMA

by Sharon Rosen Leib

PARENTING srleib@me.com

Preventative Empathy

W

e are raising a generation of children accustomed to mass shootings, campus homicides and suicidal classmates. Back in our halcyon youth, we knew nothing of the kind. When we participated in Cold War-era duck-and-cover drills, we couldn’t conceive of a neutron bomb actually vaporizing us – too abstract. Our kids, however, face intimate, concrete threats that they are well aware of. Their drills consist of school lockdowns where they sit silently in darkened classrooms preparing for the worst – a psychotic classmate bursting through the door spraying bullets from an assault weapon.

So what can parents do? And please don’t say arm our children, take them to a firing range and teach them to be active shooters. Rather, we can and should arm our children with empathy. We can destigmatize mental illness by educating our kids early and often about the signs of depression and psychosis: insomnia, social withdrawal, erratic behavior, mania, suicidal ideation, etc.

By imparting this knowledge, we’re equipping our kids with the ability to understand what might be ailing their troubled classmates. This understanding leads to compassion. With compassion comes the ability to identify those at risk, and instead of shunning or socially isolating them, to reach out and try to connect.

As Youngest Daughter’s high school principal wrote in a recent newsletter, “The single best way to ensure every student is safe is to have a community of students, staff, and parents who are willing to ‘say something, if they see something’ ... In many cases, the tragedies that have stricken schools across the country potentially could have been avoided.”

We must teach our kids that if they see someone struggling, whether due to sleepless nights, an eating disorder, or alcohol abuse, they should say something to a parent, teacher or administrator. This is not narcing someone out!

20 SDJewishJournal.com l January 2016

Telling an adult could help save a classmate’s life.

Consider this sad example. In Nov. 2015, 18-year-old UC Merced freshman Faisal Mohammad, a computer science and engineering major, stabbed four people on campus after his classmates kicked him out of a study group.

UC Merced police shot and killed Faisal. This incident raises disturbing questions. Why did the students kick him out of their group? Was it because, as one of his roommates told the LA Times, he was anti-social and didn’t talk much?

Could the group have been more compassionate?

Were Faisal’s fellow students too consumed with achieving success in a highly competitive major to tolerate someone different from them? If the students recognized his anti-social behavior, why didn’t they say something to a dorm supervisor, professor or administrator? I realize these freshmen, on campus less than three months, might not have known better. Ergo, college administrators need to raise empathy awareness during new student orientation and pay more attention to vulnerable freshmen adjusting to the rigors of campus life.

A week after their son’s rampage, the Mohammad family released a heart-wrenching statement: “Faisal was a kind and respectful young man. He was always quiet and humble and excelled in school and academics. His teachers and friends always spoke well of him.”

What went so wrong with this 18-year-old young man? We’ll never know. Perhaps he just wasn’t ready to leave home.

What our kids should know is that a simple, warm hello to someone sitting alone in the campus dining hall could lead to a conversation, connection and tragedy prevention. Let’s encourage our kids to reach out and help make 2016 a more compassionate, connected and less violent year.A

FYI

Following Sharon Rosen Leib’s column last month, the first in this two-part series on mental illness on high school and college campuses, Leib received word from her oldest daughter’s college, Pitzer, that its council of presidents announced they will hire a new therapist "immediately,” according to email correspondence.

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Tevet • Shevat 5776 | SDJewishJournal.com 21 12/9/2015 3:36:24 PM

LIVING ON THE FRONT PAGE by Andrea Simantov

ISRAELI LIFESTYLE andreasimantov@gmail.com

What’s in a Word?

O

nce upon a time we screamed a word and no one listened. The word was “terror” and the more it was bandied about, the less it stunned those it was meant to awaken from a communal stupor. Indeed, many grew numb with boredom while others became mildly/ greatly annoyed by our pushy, Israeli insistence that someone, anyone, take notice of our plight.

In those lazy early days of this recurrent period of siege, the West split hairs by trying to determine whether the culprit was called Islam, radical Islam, ISIS, Hamas, all-Arabs, some-Arabs, not-bad-people-only-those-who-behave-badly type people. While we might have liked to weigh in on some of the discussions, time flits away when stemming blood flow from open wounds and calling for emergency medical help while performing CPR. In our Israeli world of “normal,” elementary-school children are routinely taught to tie a tourniquet and leave the knife in place.

In frustration, I try to explain to dear ones that driving to Bet El for Shabbos is dicey, only to be asked, “Why, did something happen?” Or, hearing such reaction from those who saw videos

22 SDJewishJournal.com l January 2016

of the wedding celebration of Sarah Techiya Litman and Ariel Beigle as, “That doesn’t look like a wedding. It looks like a job fair.” With two-parts arrogance and one cup of naiveté, I think to myself, “Are we truly the same nation?

Did we really stand shoulder-to-shoulder at the foot of Mount Sinai and receive the same Torah?”

This sense of isolation felt akin to despair when a former high-school classmate wrote on my Facebook page the by-now anemic bracha, “Stay safe, Andrea.” Unfairly, I wanted to lash out to this kind sentiment with: “What does that mean?”

Was my neighbor Richard shot and stabbed on the neighborhood bus because he forgot the “remain vigilant” warning? If I don’t remember every utterance of “stay safe,” “be careful” and “watch yourself,” in case of the worst, G-d-forbid, will I be accused of complicity in my own demise?

When I responded to my “stay safe” classmate that I felt frightened for America because, unlike Israel, I suspect that the government underestimates the magnitude of this external threat, she answered me snappily, “Don’t worry about us. After 9/11, this government knows exactly what to do.”

Really? Care to share?

This morning, my heart breaks for America, the beloved place of my birth, my friendships, my precious family. I ache for those in America who toss a glance at blood-drenched Israel and, like the recalcitrant son of Passover fame, ask, “What does this have to do with me?”

Because whether by happenstance, human design or divine intervention, the generous and loving warnings that were once lobbed across the Atlantic toward the land of our forefathers must today boomerang into your own orbit as you awaken to an unprecedented scourge of terror upon your doorsteps. Christmas parties.

Community centers. Cinemas. Classrooms. Israelis are not immune but, sadly and to our collective detriment, we see evil lurking under every rock.

So the next time your local paper devotes an inch or two to the Israeli citizens who are cut down as they purchase a container of milk, bring food to a homeless shelter or sit down at their Sabbath tables, please don’t turn the page because it has nothing to do with you. Stop. Look. Recognize.

It’s called Terror. And we are you. A

Board of Trustees Chair, Ron L. Fowler stands left to USD’s new president, James T. Harris, III, DEd.

Welcome to the Newest Member of the Torero Family.

The University of San Diego was filled with excitement during a weeklong celebration of the inauguration of its fourth president, James T. Harris III, DEd. The festivities not only commemorated the official installation ceremony, but also showcased the many reasons why USD is so special.

The week officially initiated USD’s new leader and his family as true Toreros. The week celebrated what it means to be Changemakers.

The week marked an historic milestone at USD.

The University of San Diego. We are Changemakers.

www.sandiego.edu Tevet • Shevat 5776 | SDJewishJournal.com 23

OLDER, WISER, BETTER by Jon Schwartz

AGING jonaschwartz@hotmail.com

Love Through the Ages

I

proposed to my long-term girlfriend back in October, but even before that, I already noticed that most of my Facebook Newsfeed was covered in engagement announcements and wedding photos. Must be my age.

The pictures that go along with the posts convey young, attractive, healthy and happy people who are obviously eager to start an exciting life together. I can’t help but press the “Like” button each time I see one of my friends (or even a total stranger) post about an engagement, wedding, and now even more recently, a newborn baby. While experiencing this wonderful time from afar, and now feeling the joy and excitement for myself, I began to seek out advice for a long and happy marriage.

In my own life, I often see two different versions of marriage. At home, many in my network of friends are newly married, engaged or in serious relationships. Since being engaged, my fiancée and I have focused on planning the wedding, figuring out where we should live, and continuing to learn more about one another. It is in my work that I get exposure to marriages that have lasted 30, 40, 50 and even 60-plus years. In these long-lasting marriages, the couples have become accustomed to experiencing a variety of different emotions together, from celebrating triumphs and navigating tribulations, to struggles, changes, loss, disappointment, progress, transgressions, pure joy, anger, forgiveness, vulnerability, and a true sense of who one’s partner is. Upon understanding all of this, I came across the most insightful advice I have ever heard: San Diego was going through a rare cold spell in late November. Temperatures were probably in the mid-to-low 50s but the sun was bright. I was at work, walking down a hallway that allows 24 SDJewishJournal.com l January 2016

for onlookers to see into our courtyard through a window. Typically, on cooler days (by San Diego standards), most people (including myself ) avoid sitting outside except on this day, I saw a married couple, whom I have come to know, dressed in jackets, scarfs and hats to bear the cold weather.

They were clearly enjoying their alone time together. The couple, in their mid 80s, has been married for more than 60 years. The husband is wheelchair bound and has battled advanced dementia for a few years. His wife, a remarkable woman who must weigh half of what her husband does, was lovingly pushing him in his wheelchair to allow him fresh air. I purposefully did not go out and say “hi” to them on this day; I wanted them to enjoy their moment, just the two of them. I gazed out the window for maybe only half a minute, but in that time I hope to never forget what their love looked like.

Experiencing the difference between young marriage and old marriage, and seeing the wisdom of established relationships, has been incredibly inspiring. Throughout the past year, I have asked many married couples who seemed to be very much in love, as well as widows and widowers, their secret to a great marriage. To simply summarize the advice I obtained from these folks: be kind and work hard for one another each and every day. In private conversations with the woman from the courtyard, she recounts what a wonderful man her husband is; his character, compassion and kindness are qualities she proudly tells me about.

So perhaps the secret for those young marriages is to imagine that you are older, much, much older. Perhaps you are sick, or not even alive. What would you want your kids, friends and most importantly, your spouse to say about the love you had in your lifetime? A

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San Diego • Tel Aviv Tevet • Shevat 5776 | SDJewishJournal.com 25

THE ARTIST’S TORAH by David Ebenbach

SPIRITUALITY ebenbach@netzero.com

Help Wanted

I

n January we get an early look at the Passover story, the familiar story that will circle back to our Seder tables this spring. It’s good that we get it a little early in our Torah readings; this gives us the chance to study it without distractions (like family dynamics and the hunger that builds throughout the Seder). And one thing we can see when we study it is that the events of the Exodus story are basically unnecessary.

By unnecessary I mean that they could have been skipped altogether. If all G-d wanted was for the Israelites to be free from Egypt, there was no real need to go through a whole bunch of plagues just to secure Pharaoh’s permission.

This is G-d, who created the universe, invented light and darkness, flooded the Earth, destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah, and on and on. Surely G-d could have just airlifted the Israelites out with a metaphorical snap of the divine fingers. Instead, G-d lets it all play out on the ground, with humans squaring off against one another. G-d’s story happens through people.

Well, except of course, there are the miracles and wonders. Those aren’t at a human level, are they?

Actually, maybe they are. G-d could just make the plagues happen without any assistance, but instead designs it so they are triggered through human actions. To turn the Nile into blood, G-d instructs Aaron to strike the waters with an ordinary rod (Ex 7:19). Aaron and Moses are told to raise their rods to summon frogs (8:1), to turn dust into a louse infestation (8:12), and to bring hail (9:22), locusts (10:12), and darkness (10:21). To start the plague of boils, Moses and Aaron have to throw soot in the air (9:8). Despite the omnipotence of G-d, human actions are the trigger, again and again.

The point is that, although wonders are fueled by forces much larger than ourselves, often it’s up to us to bring them into the world, to

26 SDJewishJournal.com l January 2016

make them real. If G-d is the origin, we are the agents. Further, we do it through things that are not intellectual and abstract but concrete and physical. We do it through our bodies, as when Moses and Aaron raise their arms (think of dancers making us see the wonder of movement, of the human form); through objects like the rods of Moses and Aaron (think of sculptors finding life in stone or wood or metal); through dramatic visual displays like soot tossed into the air (think of painters making a spray of color).

Of course, these are not very pleasant things that Moses and Aaron are helping into the world.

Interestingly, though, the worst plagues aren’t in their hands; G-d handles the most violent ones without help. When it’s time for the cattle pestilence (which actually kills), there is no raising of rods. “And the Lord did that thing the next day,” the text reads (9:6). The same goes for the killing of the firstborn – “The Lord smote all the firstborn in the land of Egypt” (12:29). And what are Moses and Aaron doing while Egypt’s firstborn are being slain? They’re not assisting in the slaying; they’re marking the homes of the Israelites to keep people alive.

This isn’t to say that our creative power always makes nice things – Biblical locusts, for example, are no picnic – but the text appears to be handing us both power and a limit. The Torah seems to be suggesting that we’re supposed to be divine agents, but that we’re meant to concentrate our efforts not on bringing death but on creating life (even if it’s live frogs and lice we’re talking about). The ultimate creative force wants our help in making that happen.

And so, as we move into this new calendar year, let’s resolve to assist in the process of filling the world with wonders.

Let’s bring life – and only life. A

 This

month’s Torah portions Jan. 2: Shemot (Exodus 1:1-6:1) Jan. 9: Va’era (Exodus 6:2-9:35) Jan. 16: Bo (Exodus 10:1-13:16) Jan. 23: Beshalach (Exodus 13:17-17:16) Jan. 30: Yitro (Exodus 18:1-20:23)

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ON THE COVER

Modern Interpretations of a 3,000-Year-Old Tradition

BY NATALIE JACOBS

E

veryone reads Torah through his or her own lens. Judaism encourages this. Although many people land on the same interpretations about things like not eating treif and fasting during Passover, there are so many specificities found within Torah that artistic interpretation can be applied liberally without fear of contradiction.This is what makes “The 613”

by Archie Rand such a compelling book. The New York artist spent five years painting his interpretations of the 613 mitzvot, or commandments, as coined

by Maimonides some time in the 12th century. Initially, Rand’s images are striking because of their unabashed use of neon colors and heavy brush strokes but what causes the images to linger in the viewer’s mind is the explanations they offer to these thousands-of-years-old rules.

On the cover of this January issue of the San Diego Jewish Journal is Rand’s image for commandment number 602 – “Offer peace terms to residents of a city under siege and treat them according to the Torah if they accept surrender terms,” (Deuteronomy 20:10). To help me guess at the artist’s intentions, I enlisted the help of Rabbi Devorah Marcus, of the Reform synagogue Temple Emanu-El in Del Cerro. First, though, she establishes the biblical context for this commandment. We agree to take the perspective that Deuteronomy was written during Josiah’s time in order to understand from what context this directive comes. “[Josiah] was somebody who was really trying to clean up the neighborhood,” Rabbi Marcus says. “It would make sense that there were specific laws for how he expected his field officers to conduct themselves and lay down Israelite military policy in the book of Deuteronomy.”

She goes on to explain that all of Chapter 20 in Deuteronomy covers the ethics of conducting war, which, she says, is similar to the laws of kashrut that “call upon us to channel our violence in a holy direction.

“If you’re going to commit the violent act of killing an animal for nutrition and sustenance, you have to do that in a way where you’re containing your violence. In some ways,” she continues, “Chapter 20 of Deuteronomy is applying that same concept, but to war. It’s saying, if you’re going to go into a state of war, you have to go about it in a way where the violence of war is channeled appropriately, and where you contain the worst parts of yourself that might come out in this situation.”

For those looking to apply Jewish law to a modern problem like the Syrian refugee crisis, there are, of course, different ways to see this, too.

Rabbi Marcus says that those who are worried terrorists might be among those looking for refuge in the United States might look at a law like this 28 SDJewishJournal.com l January 2016

one and say that it doesn’t apply because “we’re talking about people who have professed an anti-Zionist perspective, people who have called for the destruction of the state of Israel. So they are not peaceful.”

On the other side of the issue, people could argue that undergoing the exhaustive process to be placed as a refugee in a foreign country is an inherent display of peace – the peace required for a person to be absorbed by a country, according to mitzvot 602 – “and Torah tells us that if these are people who are responding with peaceful intentions, we have an obligation to let them into our world,” Marcus concludes.

But this is one of the challenges, she admits.

“Whenever someone says Judaism says x, y or z, the challenge is that we have a 5,000-year-old culture, minimally, and a 3,000-year-old tradition. We can find proof texts to support whatever our perspectives are.”

She notes that the Reform community has come out publicly in favor of welcoming Syrian refugees.

“From a very wonderfully idealistic perspective,” she says, the persprective that, “of course, this is how we create peace in the world.”

Though today’s reality makes it impossible to read commandment 602 without wondering about the Jewish perspective on the Syrian refugee crisis, that’s not the most striking thing about Rand’s image. As you no doubt noticed, he has portrayed a woman folded into a box, with the pale blues and yellows and greens of sorrow swirling around and within her.

“Think about how many people suffer because of choices that are not their own,” Rabbi Marcus says as she ponders the image. “No one talks about the other costs of war that are born by the people who are left behind.”

As a result of things happening beyond her control, the woman winds up boxed in, closed off from the world she once knew.

Going back to describing the time of Deuteronomy’s writing, Rabbi Marcus says, “Once all the men have gone off and died and killed each other, then the women and children who are left behind, who’s there to be their protector? Who’s there to help them?” A Image Credit: From THE 613 by Archie Rand. Reprinted by arrangement with by Blue Rider Press, an imprint of Penguin Publishing Group, a division of Penguin Random House LLC. Copyright © 2015 by Archie Rand. Photography of artwork © Mary Faith O’Neill. The book can be purchased at penguinrandomhouse. com/books/317788/the-613-by-archie-rand/.

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ISRAEL

Can a Conversation About Israel be

A-Political?

One community-wide education program aims to bring Jewish values back into discussions about Israel

BY NATALIE JACOBS

T

hink back to the last conversation you had about Israel. Did it have to do with settlements? Terrorist attacks? Weapons? Was it about the Talmudic definition of justice? How rabbis talk about democracy?

Did you leave the conversation feeling proud to be Jewish, or something else?

“What I’ve seen and what other people have seen,” says Ray Fink, an endocrinologist and longtime member of Congregation Beth El, “is that there has been increasingly divisions in the community relating to the topic of Israel, as opposed to unity.”

He says this problem is not unique to San Diego, but since this is where he has lived and worked since 1984, it’s where he started to tackle what he sees as a big problem for the Jewish people.

“The language was becoming very divisive. People would have a strong view on whatever the political issue of the day was. What we were losing was really a more values- and ideas-based vision of Israel and what that could look like.”

The most recent example of the polarizing effects a politicized modern Israel has on the Diaspora was the Iran Nuclear Deal.

“We saw very vindictive language used and it’s not healthy,” Fink says.

“The Jewish community needs to be able to debate issues without demonizing other people. I think that was something that was very stark for us all.”

What was missing, for Fink and others, was a discussion of the “underlying principles that the state of Israel brings to Israel and to the Jewish people” and how those Jewish values can be used as a jumping-off point for more productive discourse about Israel.

Ray Fink

“We have lost a lot of youth to the broader issues with regards to Israel because we don’t go into the deeper values of the Israel and Zionist entity and the ideas behind the state of Israel,” Fink says.

“Diversity of opinion is essential to Jewish thought and thousands of years of tradition,” says Michael Rabkin, executive director of Hillel San Diego.

But first, the politics have to be set aside, both men say. Fink and Rabkin also share a connection to the Shalom Hartman Institute, a Jerusalem-based research and education center that offers courses and curriculum related to “Judaism in modernity, religious pluralism, Israel democracy, Israel and world Jewry, and the relationship with other faith communities,” according to its website.

Fink has spent the past seven summers taking various courses at the Institute. He has since encouraged others from San Diego to study at the Jerusalem campus, including his rabbi, Philip Graubart, and San Diego Jewish Academy’s head of school Chaim Heller. Michael Rabkin was one of Tevet • Shevat 5776 | SDJewishJournal.com 31

“Diversity of opinion is essential to Jewish thought and thousands of years of tradition,” says Michael Rabkin, executive director of Hillel San Diego.

Michael Rabkin (second from the right) poses with students at a Hillel Birthright reunion gathering earlier this year.

16 Hillel professionals from across the country to participate in a year-long fellowship with the Hartman Institute, in Jerusalem and remotely, last year.

Fink and Rabbi Graubart have hosted various Hartman courses at Congregation Beth El for a number of years, but starting this year, Fink will launch a community-wide effort where one course will be taught through 10 different organizations. The course is called Jewish Values and the IsraeliPalestinian Conflict. Each organization is developing it’s own schedule, but they’ll all work from the Hartman’s 12-unit curriculum and most are targeting a January-May timeline to complete the course.

“What I found [through teaching Hartman courses at Beth El] is that people were very much inspired by this kind of learning,” Fink says. “They liked the ideas and values of this kind of education, the nuances of the complexities of the relationship between Israel and the Diaspora, and just the quality of the material. So I decided it wasn’t sufficient for us to just teach it locally at Beth El. I particularly wanted to have multiple institutions and also younger people involved.”

He worked independently to raise $50,000 and get all 10 organizations signed on. Fink is careful to explain that Hartman Institute programs are a-political on purpose.

“It’s come in there, open mind, think, study Jewish texts, Jewish ideas.

Whatever positions you have, what are the Jewish principles that underline the position? Whether it has to do with peace, whether it has to do with morality of war, a two-state solution, Women of the Wall. Doesn’t matter what your issue is, just understand a little bit from the Jewish perspective of the ideas that underline your views.”

“It’s a different way to create a tone of more civil discourse,” Rabkin says of Hartman’s curriculum. “It doesn’t mean it’s less robust. Nothing can be more robust. It appreciates the centrality of the intellectual integrity of a discussion that we’re having. And it really points to what the Jewish values are – personal values and Jewish values – that really shape the attitudes and political positions people are taking.”

Perhaps no group right now is more trapped in a politicized conversation about Israel than college students in the United States.

“We have lost a lot of youth to the broader issues with regards to Israel because we don’t go into the deeper values of the Israel and Zionist entity and the ideas behind the state of Israel,” Fink says. “If [young people] are forced to choose between a Jewish and a democratic state, growing up in America, they’ll always go for the democratic part and they don’t understand the nuances of the Jewish-plus-democratic part.”

The Hillel program marks a departure from traditional on-campus programming, one that Rabkin admits is an experiment. When most students think of Hillel, they think of free food and a friendly place to study between classes. But this Hartman course will ask students to add onto an alreadypacked schedule, in addition to presenting a new dialogue about Israel.

32 SDJewishJournal.com l January 2016

“The challenge is in making sure that when Israel is presented on campus, it’s not just presented as a source of conflict, or presented with a context of conflict because that tends to turn off the students from engaging in the subject at all. So what we’re trying to figure out is, how do we as a Jewish organization put forward the Jewish engagement first and foremost, before we put forward the Israel engagement?”

He says that in San Diego, he and his staff have found students to be “hungry for more” than the traditional expectations of Hillel on campus. So he was willing to try out the Hartman program.

“This is an attempt to create something that is based on a very rich educational curriculum. We can deliver something new and interesting and see if they bite. It’s experimental, we haven’t created this kind of a forum before, but we’ll see how it goes.”

To the extent that the discussion of Israel crosses over into the realm of politics, the conversation really can’t be avoided, especially on college campuses.

“It is such a visible piece to the dynamics of what’s happening on campus,” Rabkin says. “Whether we introduce it or not – and we do introduce Israel into the campus in a very positive way – it’s there. It’s a big part of the conversation that happens on college campuses.”

Perhaps the most a-political thing about the Hartman Institute is that it doesn’t purport to have the answers, Fink says.

“The Hartman is not an institute that is going to provide with solutions.

It is not there to say this is the solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. [Or] this is the solution for having a recognition of pluralism within Israel. That’s not what it’s about. It’s [intended] to put the ideas there on the table, make people understand what they are, and to think about things in a different way.” A The San Diego iEngage Jewish Values and the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict community-wide course offering will kick off on Wednesday, Jan. 6 at 7 p.m. when the Hartman Institute’s Rabbi Lauren Berkun comes to Congregation Beth El to host “Talking About Israel: Foundations for a Values Discourse.”

The 10 organizations that will host the course are: • Congregation Beth El • Congregation Beth El Chai Young Adults • Congregation Beth Israel • Congregation Dor Hadash• Hillel San Diego • Jewish Federation of San Diego • Jewish Federation’s NextGen • Ohr Shalom Synagogue • San Diego Jewish Academy • Temple Solel Each organization will post its own schedule. Contact the organization directly for more information. The kick-off event is free and open to the community.

Learn more about Shalom Hartman Institute at hartman.org.il.

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EDUCATION

How to Know if Your Child is Kingergarten-ready Chabad Hebrew Academy, Soille Hebrew Day and Nierman Preschool weigh in on what your toddler should know

BY TINA B. ESHEL

W

hen my son was turning five, in late September about eight years ago, we had to make a decision – send him to kindergarten or hold him back and give him a year of “transitional-K.” It was an agonizing decision to make. On one hand, he was clearly “smart” enough to continue on in his academics. On the other hand, he was struggling with some skills such as focus and appropriateness of social interactions.

After thinking about it for months, we decided to hold him back. Today, I continue to question the choice. It didn’t help when an educator of 30plus years said to me that she’s seen many kids struggle by being too old their senior year of high school. Maybe he would have been better served if we kept him with his age peers? Did I trade high school senioritis for kindergarten readiness?

Kindergarten readiness is not synonymous with educational potential, explains Wendy Leberman, director of admissions and marketing at Chabad Hebrew Academy. Before going into administration, Leberman was a kindergarten teacher.

“A five-year old may have superior intelligence but not be mature enough to thrive in the everyday demands of a full-day kindergarten program.

Intelligence is but a small part of kindergarten readiness,” she says.

“It’s remarkable how two seemingly harmless words, ‘kindergarten readiness,’ can cause so much debate and confusion,” she continues. “There are educators who support opinions as varied as keeping children out of kindergarten until they are six, to researchers who claim social development is the best predictor of school readiness. As research abounds and convictions conflict, the recommendations remain the same: know your child, and the program you are considering, well.”

Leberman points out that learning styles, personalities and abilities too are diverse; the same can be said for kindergarten programs. Some schools focus on academics, others pay attention to developing the whole child, and despite all the opinions, the most important thing is “finding the program best suited to your child and his/her needs,” she says.

34 SDJewishJournal.com l January 2016

WHAT TO LOOK FOR IN YOUR CHILD When assessing a child’s kindergarten application, Beth Licha, director of admissions at Soille Hebrew Day, recommends parents look at a variety of behavioral and academic factors. The conversation about kindergarten readiness really ramped up when the state of California changed its kindergarten cut-off date from Dec. 1 to Sept. 1, Licha explains.

“Now children born in the fall or early winter can’t start kindergarten at age 4 anymore.” Instead, these “cusp kids” have the option of going into transitional-K, Licha, a mother of two, grades 1 and 4, says.

But regardless of the district rules, “the most important thing is the child’s social and emotional skills,” Licha says.

Key factors are their ability to successfully separate from their parents, to share and cooperate with their peers, and emotionally handle a variety of situations.

Also critical: fine motor skills. Licha explains that a child’s ability to read early is actually less a predictor of kindergarten success than ability to hold a pencil or use scissors.

“Fine motor skills are academic skills in kindergarten,” she says. “For example, a child has to have the ability to grasp a pencil with a pinch grip, not in their fist.”

She says occupational therapy can help in this regard.

KINDERGARTEN AIN’T WHAT IT USED TO BE To understand the evolution of kindergarten, I spoke with Alma Hadash Geiger, Preschool Director for Nierman Preschool at the JCC, together with teachers Sylvia Roth and Arlene Shein, all of whom have been in child development for decades. On the phone, they completed each other’s sentences, and when I asked them to pause so I could find out who was saying what, they laughed and told me not to worry – go ahead and attribute quotes to any and all of them.

They said that one of the biggest changes is the higher expectations in the age of technology. Today’s children are expected to know more when

they enter school while at the same time, some of their social sensory motor development is compromised by too much time with modern technology.

“At the moment, when we see all the iPad and iPhones, children don’t play as much outside, and because of this, it is effecting their small motor skills and deductive reasoning,” Roth explains. “They are just pointing to the phone. So what we are seeing is that they aren’t able to play as much outside. They area getting a lot of information, but they’re not experiencing their sensory motor skills [as much].” “[There is] so much more focus on attainment of knowledge as opposed to the whole child,” Geiger says.

All agreed that the solution isn’t to remove technology, but to delay and minimize early exposure.

“There’s plenty of time for children to [use technology], but it’s a problem [of ] excess. Let them play and experience the world,” the three educators say, essentially in unison.

Don’t forget that social interactions and communication skills are still extremely important skills to foster.

“Kids need time for exploration and discovery. These are essential for healthy development, but with too much exposure to technology, children are at a real risk. Rather, they should be playing with toys, not phones!”

EARLY VS. LATE BLOOMERS What about children who seem advanced for their age? Shein says that sometimes a child as young as four may be ready for kindergarten, but it’s a case-by-case basis.

“At this point, I say you have to evaluate each child on her own merit.

Girls particularly are more ready to go forward,” to which Geiger adds, any child can go to kindergarten, “so we always tell their parents, there’s a difference between attending and flourishing.”

As for drawbacks to holding a child back, the Nierman educators didn’t echo my concerns, and in fact suggested a new way to frame my own thinking.

“It’s not holding them back, it’s giving a child an extra year,” Roth says.

If there are any drawbacks down the line, she thinks it depends on how a particular family handles it.

“Mostly, you hear of children having more confidence and better selfesteem versus those who weren’t given an extra year.”

“What we’ve seen,” Licha says of Hebrew Day “and what educators around the world have seen, is a lot of plateauing around second grade.”

She agrees that there are exceptions and that sometimes a gifted child will continue to be at least a year ahead of his or her peers.

“Then the question is, where is she appropriate? These children are usually more than one year ahead of their intellectual abilities. That’s a much more difficult question, and not many parents have to deal with that.”

All of the experts agree, as much as we’d like a uniform answer to the question of kindergarten readiness, it all depends on the child, the program, and those labored decisions of parents. A

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EDUCATION

STEM is for everyone

SDJA introduces science, technology, engineering and math curriculum to Lower School SUBMITTED BY HARRY KATCHER

S

an Diego Jewish Academy is no stranger to science and technology education. SDJA students have won an untold number of science competition awards locally, regionally, state-wide, and nationally throughout the years. An integral part of SDJA’s curriculum includes a K-12 STEM program which includes a science component introduced in the preschool.

San Diego Jewish Academy’s Golda Meir Lower School has become the first elementary school in San Diego to adopt the Project Lead The Way (PLTW) science curricula to grow that STEM commitment.

Project Lead The Way is a nonprofit that partners with schools, organizations in the private sector and institutions of higher education to increase the number – and quality – of engineers, technologists, and biomedical professionals graduating from U.S. schools.

PLTW offers engineering, computer science, and biomedical science sequences of course work for high school students and a challenging, 10-week long, “activity oriented” engineering-technology program for middle school students.

When PLTW recently introduced an elementary (grades K-5) program called Launch, SDJA jumped on the opportunity to offer courses that utilize project- and problem-based learning to teach students how to apply their learning to real-life situations.

“This approach is very appealing to the kids who are tactile learners, who are extra creative, or who love building,” says Irene Lerner, SDJA’s lower school science teacher and PLTW Coordinator. “It helps make science even more exciting, and offers a satisfying and engaging experience for the students who have interests in technology, engineering, or math.”

These courses provide opportunities for students to: • Understand the scientific process, engineering problem-solving, and the application of technology; • Understand how technological systems work with other systems; • Use mathematics knowledge and skills in solving problems; • Communicate effectively through reading, writing, listening and speaking; and • Work effectively with others.

PLTW’s curriculum was developed in collaboration and is continually reviewed by PLTW staff, teachers, university educators, industry experts, and 36 SDJewishJournal.com | January 2016

Students in Irene Lerner’s kindergarten class get an introduction to STEM.

“The kids are extremely excited about this curriculum. They come into the room with their eyes shining, telling me how they made their own designs at home, or thought about how they could improve their design to make it more functional.” school administrators. Its project-based approach fosters collaboration and builds critical thinking skills.

From the beginning, PLTW’s Launch program was developed to work with the current state and national standards. It aligns to Common Core state standards for math and English Language Arts, next generation science standards, and other national and state standards.

“The kids are extremely excited about this curriculum. Every lesson has a hands-on element,” Lerner says. “They come into the room with their eyes shining, telling me how they made their own designs at home, or thought about how they could improve their design to make it more functional.”

Launch includes 24 modules aligned to grade-level standards. The 10hour modules are presented in pairs that combine to create a thematic unit.

Teachers and schools have the flexibility to introduce the modules that they want, when they want, and at the grade level they want.

Modules range from “Exploring Design and Pushes and Pulls” for kindergartners to “Science of Flight and Forces and Interaction” for third graders and “Robotics and Automation and Challenge” designed for fifth graders.

Lerner’s class recently read the story “Three Little Pigs” and when the story was over, the scientific inquiry began.

“Our students are learning about design process and material science,” Lerner says. “They are exploring structure and function and this is where the story of the ‘Three Little Pigs’ comes into play.”

For their lesson, the students had to help the three little pigs build a house out of whatever material they had available, according to the text: sticks, straws or bricks. The function of the house was to protect the pigs from the big, bad wolf. After reading the story, the students brainstormed how to best design and hold their structures together.

They sketched their designs, built the houses, and Mrs. Lerner, a.k.a. the big, bad wolf, used a blow drier to test the homes’ functionality. The results of the tests were then carefully analyzed, and if the house could not withstand the wolf’s blow, the students made changes to their design. All in all, the lesson is not a bad start in STEM…for Mrs. Lerner’s kindergartners! A PHOTO COURTESY SAN DIEGO JEWISH ACADEMY

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EDUCATION PHOTO COURTESY KAVOD ELEMENTARY

Kavod Elementary Receives Charter Renewal Kavod’s current first grade class

With year-on-year growth, the Hebrew language immersion school seeks funding and an independent location

BY NATALIE JACOBS

U

nderway with its third year of operation, Kavod Elementary Charter School and Hebrew language immersion program is celebrating its first charter renewal.

“Most schools are given a five year charter,” explains Kavod Director Alexa Greenland, “but San Diego Unified did three years with Kavod and asked us to submit a renewal within our first year of operation.”

At the time, the school started with grades K-2 and has been able to see that second grade class through to fourth grade, while adding larger kindergarten classes each year. The renewed charter approves the school for up to fifth grade.

“We would like to go to eighth,” Greenland says. “But we need funding.

We’re looking into having a philanthropic sponsor for each grade.”

Facilities for charter schools also pose a challenge. Kavod has been site-

sharing with Cubberley Elementary in Serra Mesa since it opened, but they’re actively reviewing sites in the area that will provide further growth opportunities and more autonomy in scheduling.

With 118 current students, Kavod has more than doubled since its first school year in 2013. The majority of students come for the Hebrew immersion, but, Greenland explains, it’s a “four-tier package” made up not only of the Hebrew component but also global awareness (using Israel education as a starting point), social responsibility and academic rigor.

On a tour, students in each class are seen employing various levels of the group-work model, where the teacher sits at one desk and groups rotate from station to station, working on different assignments.

Each year, Kavod opens kindergarten enrollment. At the time of this writing, there were 50 applications for 28 openings. The lottery window closes in February. Learn more about Kavod at kavodelementary.org. A

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EDUCATION

Jewish Education

NEEDS NEW INNOVATION A toolkit for new Jewish elementary and middle school learning

BY JENNIE STARR

I

wanted my kids to love their Jewish educational experiences. When I couldn’t find what we needed – something Jewish, with a heavy focus on Israel and Hebrew literacy – I built a program for them.

Ten years later, I know, from being on the receiving end of calls from parents, that I am not alone in wanting something out of the box, different, and tailored to my kids’ needs and interests. I encourage Jewish parents and young adults not to lament what they can’t find but to build what they need and make our community stronger for it. Though not easy, the K-8 Jewish education innovator with inspiration, a thick skin and a heavy dose of courage and patience can make a difference. I hope this toolkit might inspire locals to be Jewish education innovators and create exciting new Jewish experiences for our next generation.

THE NATIONAL AND LOCAL ENROLLMENT PICTURE JDATA at Brandeis University provides the only comprehensive census of Jewish day schools, overnight camps, day camps, part-time schools, and early childhood centers in North America. The title of JDATA’s Nov., 2015, report provides a rather grim but not unexpected picture of K-8 Jewish education in America: “Part Time Schools: A Mighty System Slowly Wanes.” Enrollment in part-time Jewish supplementary schools (K-8) is declining 2-4 percent annually. In the past two years, enrollment in the West increased by only 1 percent. On average, across 886 reporting schools, enrollment was 130 (in 2011-2012), about one-third (37 percent) of the schools enrolled 50 or fewer students, 5 percent of the schools enrolled single digits.

San Diego’s statistics are in line with the national numbers, and the impact is potentially far worse because our Jewish population is significantly less engaged than many other parts of the United States. It is estimated that a mere eight percent of San Diego’s Jewish children are enrolled in weekly or recurring Jewish education. Some may argue the numbers are higher – up to 10-15 percent – but that won’t convince me we should rest on our laurels.

We need to do better. With healthy respect to local Jewish educators who do good work in San Diego, we need to build more affordable and engaging solutions for the majority since most parents aren’t enrolling their children in Day School or congregational school programs.

Students from a Tarbuton public school program last year.

While I’m very proud of the work that my organization, Tarbuton, does every day offering vibrant Jewish and Israel education, I know there is plenty of room to fill the void with a variety of new and dynamic programs.

It seems likely that our next generation won’t educate their children unless we change the game.

A revolution in quality, artful, out-of-the-box K-8 Jewish education is overdue. Support for K-8 Jewish education in San Diego has dwindled, evidenced by the closure of our Agency for Jewish Education and Hebrew high school, the end of a grant called TIP (Tuition Incentive Plan which subsidized Congregational School fees), and the closure of the Jewish Federation’s Innovation Center. Change requires interest at two levels: the creative people who want to build inspired programming and the philanthropic individuals or foundations willing to fund it. I hope this article sparks a dialogue that inspires both and provides tools for Jewish innovators to get started.

K-8 JEWISH EDUCATION INNOVATOR TOOLKIT 1. Prototype and build a passionate team: Engage your community and educators in the process. Hire passionate, warm and inviting people to teach, and train them to be good teachers. Pay your team, but cultivate personnel who are also willing to donate their time. You will need both. Create teacher and administrator hiring profiles. Your staff must be as committed as the founders and Board to create and sustain your Jewish innovation. Try new programs and if you fail, try again.

Tevet • Shevat 5776 | SDJewishJournal.com 39

Change requires interest at two levels: the creative people who want to build inspired programming and the philanthropic individuals or foundations willing to fund it.

Tu b’Shevat hike with Tarbuton at the Leichtag Ranch, 2015.

2. Get inspired: Want something different but you don’t know what?

Maybe Jewish learning through the outdoors and farming, performing arts, meditation or yoga, family learning, or something else will appeal?

Seek inspiration from innovative Jewish education models selected for the Slingshot Guide, which has highlighted San Diego’s own Moishe House and Tarbuton, or from national networks, such as the Jewish Education Project’s Hebrew Charter Jewish Enrichment Network and Nitzan. In theory, with the right leadership, interest and funding any of these programs could be replicated in San Diego.

3. Get educated: There are truly endless opportunities for young adults in their 20s and 30s to learn, get inspired, network and gain support. If you can take a break from your career, take advantage of fellowships that will inspire you. Some are paid or have stipends while others have subsidized fees. Check out options through ROI and the Schusterman Foundation.

4. Find community support: It isn’t easy, and building for the community can come with personal sacrifice. Stay motivated when you hear “no” from customers, friends, potential donors and partners. Build a strong Board and cultivate partners who care about the community as a whole. They will guide you, provide moral support and find synergies for programmatic collaboration. Don’t be surprised by naysayers, opportunists, and blockers.

Our work at Tarbuton has received accolades from NYC to Los Angeles and from Israel too, but it took time to find generous open minded ears and friends in San Diego.

5. Be patient and plan for succession: Four years ago, I asked an empty nester couple for help and learned that they built a weekly program for their own children nearly 25 years ago. While the couple lived further north, the program met at Doyle a public school in University City, but it no longer exists. Determined not to see our programs end with my tenure, I waited well beyond comfort and happiness, until Lital Gottlieb, a Carlsbad resident, and an ideal successor, asked me enthusiastically if she could carry our work forward for the community and her children. I committed to remain engaged providing guidance and working with our Board on new strategies and fundraising. Funding remains an issue, but we are tackling the issues of continuity together as we plan for our next 10 years.

6. Fundraise, fundraise fundraise: You can seek and apply for mini grants, and larger educational foundation grants for new initiatives or testing, but you’ll need local donors to sustain the programs. Education programs rarely make money. They need subsidies so they are affordable for young families, and to cover overhead for rent and safe places to meet, insurance and staff 40 SDJewishJournal.com | January 2016

training. Ultimately you will need to rely on local funding from those who care that you are a part of building Jewish identity in the community and educating our next generation.

FOOTNOTE FOR SAN DIEGO JEWISH COMMUNITY LEADERS This toolkit works if local Jewish community leaders welcome innovators with grace, respect, kindness and support. We have many partners and collaborators at Tarbuton, along with lots of who have helped and encouraged us along the way. We in turn nurtured the opening of the Kavod, Hebrew Language Charter School and incubated an Israeli youth group. We continue to collaborate with both to bring families together for joint holiday celebrations and outings. It is to our advantage to nurture Jewish innovation and inspire involvement of new people, fresh ideas and growth.

Times have changed. We and our kids have long deserved better options, but it is in our hands to make it happen. My hope is that millennial parents will step up to the challenge to craft their own versions of K-8 Jewish education that reflect their passion for Jewish life. I hope together we can inspire a revolution in experiential Jewish supplementary education choices and encourage a renaissance of funding to help make them successful. We will all be better for it. A Jennie Starr is CEO and Founder of Tarbuton, Israeli Cultural Experiences.

Tarbuton is supported by the Leichtag Foundation and the Israeli-American Council. Founded in 2006, the community programs focus on modern Hebrew and Israeli culture to educate the next generation and build Israel connection for both Israelis and Americans of all ages.

PHOTOS COURTESY TARBUTON

EDUCATION

Each student’s path is different.

Is an Athletic Scholarship in Your Teen’s Future?

Many teens dream of playing sports at their favorite college, while their parents dream of the scholarship potential. Realistically, only a small percentage of high school athletes will make the college team, but there are a few ways to sway the odds in your kid’s favor.

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• Ask the high school coach to evaluate your athlete’s skills based on the requirements for both Division 1 and Division II schools. Each looks for different things.

• Grades! A minimum GPA requirement of 2.3 is required for NCAA sanctioned sports. SAT and ACT minimum score requirements vary depending on the athlete’s GPA. Specific recommendations can be found at ncaa.org.

• 10 core courses are required per NCAA eligibility requirements.

Check with your high school to make certain your athlete has taken or will complete all required courses by graduation.

• Every student athlete needs to register with the NCAA Eligibility Center, preferably by the beginning of junior year. Once registered, an official transcript must be sent directly from the student’s high school and SAT/ ACT scores must also be sent from testing centers.

• Create an athletic resume with stats, link to a YouTube video, a brief recommendation statement from the athlete’s high school coach, and contact info.

• Athletes can contact coaches before coaches can contact athletes.

Know the NCAA rules like the back of your hand.

• Create a spreadsheet with contact information for each coach/college on your list. Send an introductory email letter with the athletic resume as an attachment. Track correspondence between yourself and the coach. Follow-up is key!

• Invite the coach to see your athlete in action if there are showcase events available.

• Visit a college and arrange an unofficial meeting with the coach in advance and hand deliver the resume.

More tips at prep4collegenow.com or call Andi Frimmer at (760) 877-7200.

Tevet • Shevat 5776 | SDJewishJournal.com 41

EDUCATION

TeenWork Jewish education in San Diego just got a $3 million boost

BY TINA B. ESHEL Teens from the 2014 JServe volunteer day.

I

n September, 2015, the Jewish Federation announced it was the recipient of a $3 million matching grant from the national Jim Joseph Foundation, a California-based private foundation which works to support Jewish education across the country.

The grant will be distributed across five years and San Diego’s Federation is required to raise an equal amount from local funders, says Heather Wolfson, senior director of community partnership at Federation.

Wolfson spoke by phone, explaining that the money will be used to launch the community-based Center for Jewish Service Learning, a new initiative to get teens excited about Jewish communal service and education.

The grant will also be used to create a hub for local programming, called the Jewish Teens Service Institute and Corp (JTSIC), housed at the JCC. The idea is that volunteering is a way to keep teens connected to Judaism during those post-Bar and Bat Mitzvah years when structured opportunities within Jewish life traditionally wane for kids.

Daren Schwartz was recently hired to lead JTSIC at the JCC, working in close collaboration with Federation and Jim Joseph Foundation.

Schwartz admits the details are a bit confusing. “The two organizations struggled with questions about how to form this program, but that has nothing to do with the work that I’ll be doing,” he says with a chuckle, adding that the Jewish Federation and the JCC are sharing the lead in shaping the objections and vision of the JTSIC to “serve and amplify the entire Jewish community.”

Schwartz comes to this role from the Jewish Community Foundation, where, as a philanthropy officer, he worked with NextGen Philanthropy and also ran the Jewish Teen Foundation. He still consults with JCF and will continue to run their teen program through May. “Our goal [with the education programming] is to exemplify the Jewish values and traditions connected to tikkun olam, repairing the world, and gemilut chasidim, acts of love and kindness,” Schwartz says, just 10 days

Service learning is “adding intentionality to what is typically considered community service.”

This education initiative will help support existing programs in the community as well inspire new community projects, Wolfson says.

“It’s still very much in development,” she admits, but she can say that they’re aiming “to connect involved and uninvolved Jewish teens [through] episodic or ongoing programs. We want to seed innovation around Jewish service-learning through funding [to] existing organizations, and we want to support teens in creating their own programs. That will be done through micro grants.”

Finding ways to engage teens has been the task of the Teen Steering Committee of San Diego’s Federation since 2014. The group is currently co-chaired by Caryn Viterbi and Larry Katz.

“This initiative was designed to impact the entire community to move the needle on teens engaged in Jewish life,” Viterbi says. “It is the hope of the steering committee, and all those who helped design this initiative, that we will create many meaningful learning opportunities for teens to connect Jewishly.”

42 SDJewishJournal.com | January 2016

into his new job. “Our hope is to instill a sense of pride for Jewish teens that fosters future curiosity and participation within the Jewish community in areas they find meaningful.”

A key challenge is helping people understand what service learning is, Schwartz points out. By his definition, service learning is “adding intentionality to what is typically considered community service.

“So the example I like to give,” he continues, “is the difference between a beach cleanup versus a group of people meeting at the beach, talking about the environment, contributing factors to what added to the trash on the beach, what Jewish values have to say about being stewards of the land, then doing the beach clean up and then followed by a debriefing exercise.”

Learning constitutes the conversations that happen in and around the action of service. In his new role, Schwartz will design the programs that incorporate both. The program is so new that even the website is still in development, but the Jewish Journal will keep you informed as programming solidifies and grant recipients are determined. A PHOTO COURTESY JCC

Learning Without Boundaries Francis Parker School has been developing global citizens and inspiring students “to reach as far as the mind can see” since 1912. Parker offers a rigorous program of exploration, discovery and innovation for students in Junior Kindergarten through Grade 12.

JK-Grade 12 www.francisparker.org/admissions

Tevet • Shevat 5776 | SDJewishJournal.com 43

EDUCATION

LESSONS LEARNED Fighting BDS at UC Davis Part I of J. weekly’s multi-part series on the boycott, divest, sanction movement within the University of California system

BY DAN PINE, STAFF WRITER FOR J. THE JEWISH NEWS WEEKLY OF NORTHERN CALIFORNIA

B

edecked in red hijabs and blackand-white kaffiyehs, dozens of jubilant students packed the UC Davis lecture hall on Jan. 29, 2015, posing for pictures, waving Palestinian flags and chanting “Free Palestine.”

Victory was in the air.

Minutes before, the Davis student senate had passed a controversial Israel divestment measure demanding that the university divest its holdings from companies that “contribute to Israel’s occupation of Palestinian lands.”

Its passage was no anomaly. That day, Davis became the sixth University of California campus

targeted by Israel’s detractors on campus.”

Both sides have become more strategic in recent years, moving beyond competing protests in the quad to more sophisticated legal challenges.

And so, the victory at Davis was short-lived.

Not long after the vote, in a stealth maneuver that caught pro-divestment forces by surprise, senior Jonathan Mitchell filed suit with the UC Davis student court, which has jurisdiction over the senate. He asked the court to rescind the bill.

No one in the pro-Israel camp had ever used the tactic successfully before.

Mitchell, who is Jewish and belongs to the Jewish fraternity Alpha Epsilon Pi, shrewdly

overturn the resolution.

Then he went home to study for a midterm.

The next day, the court voted 5-0 (with one abstention) to strike down the resolution, agreeing it was too political and had nothing to do with student welfare. Israel divestment had been stopped at UC Davis, for the time being.

The Davis divestment fight typifies the intense battles between supporters of Israel and backers of BDS, or boycott, divestment and sanctions, against Israel. A key strategy of the global movement is pushing divestment at college campuses.

Why divestment? Proponents say that because

Pro-Israel activists working to defeat the BDS movement on college campuses say the threat is less about actual divestment, and more about influencing future vote.

to pass a divestment resolution in the past three years, adding momentum to a national movement on the rise.

In a report by the nonprofit, Washingtonbased Israel on Campus Coalition (ICC), actions designated as anti-Israel – from pro-Palestinian rallies to divestment resolutions to anti-Israel academic conferences – spiked 82 percent on West Coast campuses during the 2014 fall semester.

But Israel supporters have mounted a strong counterpush. The same ICC report showed twice as many pro-Israel actions at West Coast colleges last fall – from film screenings to lectures to rallies – as so-called “detractor” events during the same period.

A key finding in the report was that the West Coast “continues to be disproportionately 44 SDJewishJournal.com | January 2016

avoided challenging the merits of divestment.

Instead, he claimed the senate had acted outside its jurisdiction when it passed the resolution by an 8-2 vote (with two abstentions).

The electrical engineering major told the justices during a Feb. 18, 2015, hearing that he had not come to argue against divestment, but rather “to challenge the use of the senate for the endorsement of the adoption of the resolution,” adding that the court “must restrict your review to the very narrow issue before you: whether [divestment] was an appropriate issue for the senate to undertake. It was not.”

Arguing that the Davis student constitution requires senate legislation to pertain only to matters of student welfare, and not unrelated political issues, Mitchell asked the justices to

boycotts are a matter of individual choice, they usually fail to achieve critical mass. Sanctions are the purview of national governments and international bodies, far beyond the scope of activists. Divestment measures, with their attendant high profiles and emotional appeals, fall into the sweet spot of the doable.

Pro-Israel activists working to defeat the BDS movement on college campuses say the threat is less about actual divestment, and more about influencing future voters by making an anti-Israel point of view part of the mainstream political conversation.

“If you consider that the people in school today are the leaders and thinkers of tomorrow, the kind of atmosphere and discourse that goes on around certain issues may influence how they think in

the future,” said Geri Palast, managing director of the Israel Action Network, which keeps an eye on BDS activity across the country and supports the student activists fighting it.

Nationally, the pro-Israel and pro-BDS camps have invested enormous resources in devising winning strategies and more effective countersteps.

Max Samarov, a senior researcher with the Israel advocacy organization StandWithUs, helps students defeat divestment initiatives and push back against other BDS inroads on campus.

He said part of his job is to study the national BDS movement and try to stay a step ahead.

“The reason they [work for divestment] isn’t because they are about [criticizing] specific Israeli policies. … It is a steppingstone toward a comprehensive boycott. They are mainstreaming this idea of boycotting something from Israel in order to eventually take it further.”

How much further? Samarov, who graduated from UC Santa Barbara in 2011, maintains that the goal of the BDS movement is to mainstream the concept of ending Israel’s existence.

Despite the attention they get, studentsponsored divestment measures like the ones passed at Stanford University and UC campuses are entirely symbolic. Student senate resolutions are unenforceable, and university administrators have been quick to disavow them.

As soon as the UC Davis senate passed its divestment bill last January, the university’s chancellor, Linda Katehi, issued a statement noting that divestment “does not reflect the position of UC Davis or the UC system” and that divestment “will not be entertained.”

In a similar move, the Stanford board of trustees

issued an April 14, 2015, statement in the wake of a student senate–approved divestment measure, stating unequivocally it “will not be taking action on [divestment], nor will it consider this request further.”

No American university, in fact, has divested from corporations that BDS supporters claim are enabling Israeli abuses in Palestinian territories.

But that doesn’t mean the efforts have no effect.

Palast, whose agency was formed by the Jewish Federations of North America and the Jewish Council for Public Affairs to combat delegitimization of Israel, said BDS is “still a fairly marginal movement” in other parts of the country. But she concedes that in and around the Bay Area, “it feels like [BDS] doesn’t end.”

The movement has a strong history in the University of California system. Since 2012, student senates at Berkeley, UCLA, San Diego, Santa Cruz and Irvine have passed divestment measures. At UC Davis, proponents brought resolutions to the senate multiple times, including during the 2014 spring semester, when a divestment measure failed by a whisker on a 5-5 tie with two abstentions.

According to Mitchell, during the 2014-2015 academic year, divestment supporters seized on an opportunity, taking advantage of what he called student apathy to pack the school’s senate with BDS supporters.

“Voter turnout has decreased exponentially,” he said. “The number of people running for senators has decreased. Six people ran for six spots, and one presidential [candidate] for one spot. Clearly getting involved is less desirable.

Pro-BDS students seized the moment. It’s part of their strategy to get all the votes, because it gives

them power. Hopefully, in the fall more than one slate will run.”

Pro-divestment forces are well organized, and are frequently led by Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP), which has chapters on campuses across the country.

SJP employs a variety of strategies to push its pro-Palestinian, anti-Zionist message, from tabling on the quad and bringing in speakers, to more aggressive, high-visibility tactics such as Israel Apartheid Week, mock checkpoints and mock eviction notices slipped under dorm room doors.

SJP representatives declined to talk to J. for this story. One group that does help push divestment bills on campus is Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP), an Oakland-based nonprofit that has been harshly critical of Israeli policy over the years, and is considered blatantly anti-Israel by its detractors.

The group officially supports divestment and boycott of some Israeli products.

Gabi Kirk, 24, a former UC Santa Cruz student and until recently the JVP national campus liaison, organized college students to pass divestment measures and take part in other forms of protest. She promoted divestment as she traveled the country opening JVP campus chapters. The group supported the bill in the UC Davis senate.

“We support divestment initiatives if we’re asked,” Kirk said. “The snowball is massive. We’ll be asked to write letters of support explaining the Jewish values [behind divestment], and we will retweet on social media.”

Elly Oltersdorf is a 20-year-old Jewish sophomore from San Diego and is currently vice president of the Davis chapter of JVP, which she Tevet • Shevat 5776 | SDJewishJournal.com 45

Despite the attention they get, student-sponsored divestment measures like the ones passed at Stanford University and UC campuses are entirely symbolic.

Student senate resolutions are unenforceable, and university administrators have been quick to disavow them. helped found last winter quarter. She was inspired to join after last summer’s war between Israel and Hamas, which she said left her “appalled.”

She was one of the students who spoke up for divestment during the senate hearing in January.

Oltersdorf does not see JVP as the fringe group its critics say it is, and said she strives to remain open to all views.

“It’s really important on issues like this to talk to as many people as you possibly can,” she said. “Everyone I’ve worked with in divestment is incredibly willing to discuss everything, to be reasonable, to talk to people with other views.”

After months of building alliances with campus student groups, especially among clubs representing students of color, and after helping to elect senators sympathetic to the pro-Palestinian cause, according to Mitchell, SJP members brought the bill to the senate last January.

Student supporters of Israel knew in advance the divestment measure would pass. Written by members of the Davis chapter of SJP, the resolution called on the UC Board of Regents to divest from corporations that “aid in the Israeli occupation of Palestine,” naming Caterpillar, Veolia and Raytheon.

Just before the vote, when public comments were being taken, representatives from Aggies for Israel, a pro-Israel student group at Davis, spoke out against the resolution. Club president Julia Reifkind said to divestment supporters, “You have divided our campus and damaged lives.”

Immediately after the speeches and before the vote, dozens of Jewish and pro-Israel students walked out as pro-Palestinian audience members cheered, with some shouting “Allahu Ahkbar” (Arabic for “G-d is great”).

After the vote, student senator and divestment supporter Azka Fayyaz posted Facebook photos with the captions “Hamas & Sharia law have taken over UC Davis” and “Israel will fall, inshallah [with G-d’s help].” She later insisted the first caption was “satirical,” but disavowed neither the second nor statements she made during the Jan. 29, 2015, senate hearing, including “You 46 SDJewishJournal.com | January 2016

can’t have coexistence with Zionists.”

Things turned ugly two days later when, on the morning of Jan. 31, 2015, student residents at the Alpha Epsilon Pi fraternity house discovered two large red swastikas spray-painted on the back wall and porch.

While this vandalism grabbed headlines, UC Davis law student and former student senator Ryan Meyerhoff sat down to look for a new strategy – one that would not only overturn divestment at Davis, but possibly could serve as a model for campus activists elsewhere.

He later brought in Mitchell, who, as a senator the year before, had experience fighting divestment. Together they did a close read of the student constitution and senate bylaws, zeroing in on a clause that suggested legislation must pertain to “student welfare.” They needed precedent, and found it in a senate bill from 2000 that officially opposed Proposition 22, an early ban on same-sex marriage in California.

“What I had to do was think logically,” Mitchell explained. “[We] had to find an old case and see how it was similar to the current issue, and how precedent could be used in accordance with a logical argument. Meyerhoff found the case. Both [the old case and divestment] were political in nature. And both were controversial topics. Those were the silver bullets.”

A few weeks later, Mitchell found himself before the Davis student court, whose forerunners overturned the 2000 senate bill because it was deemed political and unrelated to student welfare.

Mitchell thought the same rationale should apply to divestment.

Mitchell said that when he appeared before the court in February, “We did not know we were going to win … [but] we showed up prepared.”

He said the other side lost because its argument appealed to emotions, while his side stuck with the law and the facts.

In its decision, the court concluded that the divestment resolution “was primarily a political document and did not address student welfare.”

And that was that. Divestment had come and

gone from UC Davis, at least for the present.

Getting the measure squashed was something new in the annals of campus BDS battles, and Samarov of StandWithUs was impressed.

“There have been other constitutional challenges to divestment,” he said, “but none that wiped divestment off the slate as a whole. It’s something we’re hoping can be applied to a lot of different schools. We need as many angles to deal with this as possible.”

When the UC Davis student court overturned the divestment bill, it came as a shock to Oltersdorf of JVP, especially because, as she sees it, the thinking behind the decision was “shaky.”

She believes student welfare is very much at stake when it comes to Israel divestment.

“It’s insane to say this doesn’t affect students,” she said of the court ruling. “I have seen firsthand how this affects [Palestinian] students. They’re not talking about history. They’re talking about their families. This affects pro-Israel students as well.

Neither side thinks this doesn’t affect students.”

Mitchell will be graduating soon, leaving the battle at Davis to others. And though he won this round, he is certain divestment supporters aren’t giving up the fight.

“BDS is a movement,” he said. “A movement is not a one-try thing. They will be back.” A This piece first appeared at jweekly.com in April, 2015, and was reprinted with permission. The series currently numbers four parts. Continue reading online: Part II: When Does Anti-Israel Become AntiSemitic – jweekly.com/article/full/74731/bds-oncampus-part-ii-when-does-anti-israel-becomeanti-semitic/ Part III: BDS in the Boardroom – jweekly. com/article/full/75384/bds-in-the-boardroomcampus-protests-are-loud-but-corporatepressure-is-mor/ Part IV: Faculty Caught Up in BDS dispute – jweekly.com/article/full/75892/boycott-israelfaculty-caught-up-in-bds-dispute/

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Tevet • Shevat 5776 | SDJewishJournal.com 47

WOMEN

Expert Opinion Director of UC San Diego Breast Health Center answers reader questions about breast cancer

BY NATALIE JACOBS

B

efore Thanksgiving, I sent out a very brief survey to female Jewish Journal readers. I was curious how local Jewish women are thinking about breast cancer as things like genetic testing become more common. I also wondered about personal family histories. None of the respondents currently have breast cancer, but their questions reflected a sense of concern about developing the disease and if they’re doing enough to stay on top of their own health.

So I took the questions to an expert. Dr. Anne Wallace is the director of the UC San Diego Breast Health Center. She is a surgeon who focuses on breast health, breast cancer and breast reconstruction. Her research focus includes developing better imaging technology to detect breast cancer and melanoma.

48 SDJewishJournal.com | January 2016

DR. WALLACE BIO

MAMMOGRAMS AND OTHER DETECTION TOOLS

Professor of Clinical Surgery Director of UC San Diego Breast Care Unit, since 1995 Chief of Plastic Surgery MEDICAL SPECIALTY: Plastic surgery; surgical oncology

San Diego Jewish Journal: How often should women get a mammogram?

CLINICAL EXPERTISE AREAS: Cancer reconstruction Soft tissue sarcoma

Dr. Anne Wallace: If she doesn’t have any additional risk, she’s just a normal woman that’s growing older – she doesn’t have a family member with breast cancer or a history of biopsy – then we’re really going with the new recommendation from the American Cancer Society which is to start at 45 and have one every year until 54. And then consider going every other year.

If she has anything that she’s uncomfortable about, then start a little bit earlier at 40 and go every year.

Women are going to have a little bit of a choice in this. There’s no doubt that mammograms pick up cancers earlier than 45, but the risk of having unnecessary biopsies starts to go up.

The bottom line is, it’s not an easy thing. They need to know their bodies, they need to know what worries them.

MEDICAL DEGREE: Creighton University, School of Medicine, Omaha, Neb.

Should women get ultrasounds in addition to mammograms?

DAW: No. In this country, we don’t use screening ultrasounds. They do it in Europe because they’re willing to see a solid mass that they don’t biopsy. In this country, solid means biopsy-able and it would cause too many biopsies.

So an ultrasound is a diagnostic maneuver once you have something. If a mammogram shows something, or if you have a pinpoint pain or a pinpoint mass, then you get an ultrasound.

CURRENT RESEARCH PROJECT TITLES: Stem Cell Tracking After Reconstructive Surgery Fluorescence Detection of Breast Cancer Sentinel Lymph Node Mapping via Fluorescence Detection

When is a breast cancer MRI necessary?

DAW: That is for very high risk women who carry the gene for breast cancer or if you have something very difficult to diagnose. Even if a woman gets a letter saying you have a dense breast pattern, that doesn’t mean she should go get an MRI, that just means she should be more vigilant if something bothers her. An MRI really, by the time you need an MRI, there should be something striking that you need it for – either BRCA positive, or you have lots of a-typical cells in your breast or something that your doctor is having trouble diagnosing.

Breast cancer is really not that hard to diagnose. That’s what people have to realize – this idea that we have to go looking for earlier and earlier

detection, this is what we are getting away from. The big misses that people have is when they have a finding and somebody doesn’t know what the heck they were doing – like the nipple was flat and nobody paid attention.

Or there was an asymmetry on their mammogram that somebody read as oh, it’s probably nothing. It’s not that hard to diagnose if you see a good team that knows what they’re doing.

Are there some technologies from Israel that are more accurate and less painful than mammograms?

DAW: I know that part of the world does do more screening ultrasounds.

It’s not that we don’t know how to do screening ultrasounds. They’re very good at it [in other parts of the world], and they’re very good at determining that mass they see is 99 percent benign, we’re not going to biopsy it and people are comfortable living with that. That’s a little bit different than we feel here. They don’t screen as much in any other part of the world as we do, because there is no survival benefit in this much screening.

Tevet • Shevat 5776 | SDJewishJournal.com 49

GENETICS Would you recommend people get BRCA 1 and BRCA 2 screenings?

Will insurance cover the test if the only risk factor is being of Ashkenazi Jewish descent?

DAW: I recommend that they know their history and they know everything in their family. Women who don’t have some of the familial [history] then just randomly testing them at this point is probably not worthwhile. It’s getting easier and easier to test people for genetic mutations and it’s not just BRCA. So I think women need to keep up on this and figure out how much they want to know. You can get an over-the-counter test that does a lot of stuff on DNA, but then you need somebody to help you go through those results and explain what they mean. There are other genes that cause breast cancer, there are a lot of other genes that cause other cancers.

So at this minute, the answer is: if you have a family history, then you should talk to your doctor and find a genetic counselor and find out which genes you should test for.

That may change two or three years from now. We may be doing whole genomic testing on everybody to find out what everybody has, in a couple years. It’s kind of scary because we’re all going to have things that are going to show up. But at this point, right this minute, even as the risk of breast cancer goes way up with BRCA, cancer isn’t so hard to find, and we can treat it.

DAW: If you’re Ashkenazi Jewish and you have that five percent risk, insurance probably won’t pay for it.

What is the likelihood that a Jewish woman will get breast cancer?

DAW: Five percent of Ashkenazi Jews could carry BRCA.

What percentage of breast cancer is genetic?

DAW: Not that much. It’s about five to 10 percent, of the genes that we know about. We’ve started to isolate other genes, so it may go up a little bit – because there’s more than BRCA. We’re going to find out that probably all cancer is caused by some mutation, so that number is going to go up.

But a historical number we say is five to 10 percent.

How likely is it that a woman will get breast cancer if her mother had it?

DAW: If it’s just your mother, and you don’t carry a gene, a normal woman has about a 12 to 13 percent risk of getting breast cancer. One in eight is about 12 and a half percent.

Using a mathematical model, say you’re 35 and you had your kids in your 20s and your mother was 60 when she got her breast cancer, that percent goes up very very little.

If you’ve had a lot of biopsies and your mother was 35 when she got her breast cancer, then it probably goes up to about 20 percent. So there’s a mathematical model that you can put in there.

If your mother had it really elderly, there’s almost no risk increase.

TREATMENT Is thermography a good alternative to mammography?

DAW: No, not at this point. The FDA has had warnings against it because we don’t have the correct technology. The idea is very interesting, looking at increased blood flow, but we don’t have the imaging agents yet to make it accurate – it has high false negatives and high false positives. It won’t hurt you to do it, but it’s not recommended at this point.

What are some natural approaches to treating breast cancer?

DAW: When you say natural, that kind of means...a lot of our drugs that we have are actually natural things. The biggest thing that’s advancing cancer is the biologics. In breast cancer, if your cancer is what’s called HER2-positive (on about 20 percent of cancer cells), adding [a specific agent] is getting unbelievable pathologic responses. It’s a hormonal antibody, so the take-home message is that the 50 SDJewishJournal.com | January 2016

medical side of breast cancer is getting such huge advances that we are seeing complete pathologic responses in tumors that we never would have been seeing before.

That’s where we need to be. We need to figure out what cancers are never probably really going to be bad. And which ones are going to be bad and need to have really certain biologic treatments to save lives. So what women should come away from this is – I’m a surgeon and I’m saying this and it could put me out of business – women need to get away from thinking always that cutting more is better.

What is changing a lot in breast cancer is the remarkable progress that our oncology colleagues are doing – amazing things with not new chemotherapy drugs but new biologic drugs that work on the specifics of [each] cancer. The other thing we’re doing is molecular profiling of the cancer. So if a woman comes in with advanced disease, at UCSD we will send her tumor for molecular profiling to see if there is any pattern in the genes that are being expressed in her tumor and then we look for drugs across the world that are being marketed for that abnormality in the tumor. It’s still in the infancy of being really effective, but that’s where we’re going – individualized care for the tumor.

CAUSES AND PREVENTION Does hormone replacement therapy put a woman at risk for developing breast cancer?

DAW: Yes. The data is really clear on that. When you take hormone replacement therapy at the normal time of your life – so when you’re going through menopause – and you stay on it longer than a few years, your risk gradually increases. So we don’t put women on it anymore and have them stay on it forever.

What about hormonal birth control?

DAW: Because birth control is usually given before natural menopause, we don’t really have any good data to say that’s harmful at all.

Is there actually a way to prevent breast cancer?

DAW: Yeah, definitely. We have two classes of drugs that prevent breast cancer – estrogen receptor modulators that show about 50 percent reduction in breast cancer, and in certain high-risk women with a-typical cells already it was up to an 80 percent reduction. The other class of drugs is called aromatase inhibitors, used for post-menopausal women and they prevent breast cancer as well. But it’s really harsh taking a drug, because it makes you feel more menopausal and there are symptoms and things. But for our very high-risk women, many of them are on those things.

There’s other very interesting things being looked at – some of the anti-diabetes drugs may reduce breast cancer risks and there’s studies going on with that. The bone sparing drugs like Fosamax may prevent breast cancer as well, and there’s some studies going on with that.

Then, of course, bilateral mastectomy will decrease your risk by 90 percent but that’s a drastic measure and there’s no survival advantage when you do it. That’s what some people don’t realize – there’s never been any data that says preventing breast cancer actually prevents death from breast cancer. You’re preventing something that would have been really treatable, so the death rate doesn’t actually change.

In Europe, nobody is going to even allow you to have a bilateral mastectomy. But if you’re a BRCA patient who is really at risk of getting breast cancer, and you’re having to get screened every six months and you’re constantly getting biopsies, that will drive you crazy so women will choose mastectomy so they can lessen the burden in their life. So they’re making the choice for that. Like Angelina Jolie made that choice because it made her life easier in the end, but it didn’t make her life longer because of it.

Can external factors really cause breast cancer?

DAW: We do know that women who keep their weight low and who exercise regularly have a decreased risk of breast cancer. So exercise four hours to seven hours a week, and keeping your weight about where it was in high school, and lowering your fat content, and limiting your alcohol – so no more than four alcoholic drinks per week decreases your risk. These are active things you can do. A

Dr. Anne Wallace PHOTO COURTESY UCSD

Tevet • Shevat 5776 | SDJewishJournal.com 51

WOMEN

Hadassah members Marina Novinskaya, Amanda Lynn and Glace Ziperovich.

Meeting the Expectations of Modern Women Local Hadassah chapter will soon celebrate the launch of a new charter for women in their 30s and 40s

BY TINA B. ESHEL

I

f you hear the name Hadassah and think of hospitals, fundraisers, and your socialite relatives, now might be a good time to update your point of reference.

The women’s organization, established in 1912, is still a major advocate of Zionism and a philanthropic entity for Israel, but its latest initiative aims to expand beyond its history by reaching into new areas of women’s lives.

“We know, it’s a plain and simple reality that young women don’t automatically join Hadassah or any Jewish organization,” says Hadassah San Diego Director Deena Feinman.

To address this, Hadassah spent 2015, at the national level, involved in a rebranding effort to position the organization better with younger Jewish women while maintaining its reputation as a place to build deep, meaningful friendships.

“Advocacy in this country is important to this generation, and that is something Hadassah does in a really strong way,” says Audrey Levine, Hadassah’s San Diego chapter president. From the rebranding effort, Hadassah has committed to expanding lobbying efforts in Sacramento and Washington, D.C., to advocate for the areas they have found particularly important to women: health, children and human trafficking.

Also part of this reinvigoration, in February, the San Diego chapter will be approved to charter 52 SDJewishJournal.com | January 2016

a new group specifically for women in their 30s and 40s.

The idea started when friends and members Jami Dajman and Ellen Mann got in touch with local Hadassah leadership. Dajman’s grandmother had recently passed and, inspired by her bubbe’s lifelong commitment to Hadassah, Dajman sought to figure out what, if anything, the organization might have to offer her.

“I grew up hearing about Hadassah because my mother and Mimi, my grandmother, were lifetime members and were active in their respective groups,” Dajman says. “Mimi gifted me a Hadassah lifetime membership at my Bat Mitzvah. While I read the magazine over the years and attended an event here or there as a young single in the D.C. area, it wasn’t until I moved to San Diego last year did I actively seek out Hadassah.”

Motherhood changed her perspective.

“As a busy working mom with three young children and new to California, I was looking to make friends with women of similar values in the same stage of life. I wasn’t looking for another playgroup, I was using Hadassah as a platform to make my own community, get involved, meet like-minded women and build friendships all the while supporting an incredible organization that was very special to the women in my family

growing up,” Dajman explains.

After a few months with the local chapter, she realized there was a cluster of women in their 30s and 40s who could benefit from more specific programming. With that realization, Dajman teamed with Mann and presented their ideas to Feinman, who helped the two friends meet the requirements of the national group.

“They are looking for community, camaraderie, friendship, the bond,” Feinman says of the goals established by the new charter.

“They told us, ‘we want something outside of our children. We want to take off our hats of mom, wife, daughter, working person, caregiver, and do something just for us. We want to just be away from all that stress!’” explains Feinman.

Feinman was initially surprised by the premise, that Hadassah could facilitate what Dajman and Mann were craving, but she soon saw where her group could build on its history to provide the kinds of opportunities these women were seeking.

“We are building this group, creating a group to help women to support women in the search to create their own community, and the community is around Hadassah, Jewish values, friendship, support in good times and in bad,” Feinman concludes.

Follow the group’s progress at hadassah.org. A PHOTO COURTESY HADASSAH

360°

LIVING THE PATIO HOME

A MODERN EXPRESSION

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Tevet • Shevat 5776 | SDJewishJournal.com 53

WOMEN

Q&A with Toni Robin

If you’re at all involved in the arts in San Diego, you probably know Toni Robin. She is an independent publicist who represents arts organizations on seasonal and year-round schedules. Given that, I work with her often to find Jewish angles on theater, museums, and live events around the county. This women’s issue offered a good chance to get to know her as a small business owner.

INTERVIEW CONDUCTED BY NATALIE JACOBS San Diego Jewish Journal: How long have you been doing PR in San Diego?

Toni Robin: I moved here in 1995/96, and I got a job right away doing the PR and communications for the Performing Arts League ... promoting not their shows specifically but San Diego as a theater town, putting us on the map as an arts and culture destination.

When did you go on your own?

TR: This is my eighth year of having my own business.

Could you ever go back to working for someone else?

TR: I have thought about going back to work for someone else. However, I love what I do and I love my clients, and I love the flexibility.

What are your favorite kinds of clients?

TR: I’m really inspired by creativity. Someone who comes to me and says I’m excited about doing this project and I really want to share it with an audience, that’s my sweet spot. ...

Someone who’s doing something exciting, something they’re really passionate about, or something I really care about.

What is one thing that you’ve always wanted to do professionally but haven’t yet had the chance?

TR: One thing I finally did do in my career – I always wanted a news helicopter shot on a positive story. A couple years ago, when I was at NTC, we saved the Hotel San Diego sign that was on top of the building. ... we raised some money and got a big truck and a big crane and took the sign up off the Hotel San Diego and brought it down on a truck and drove it to NTC. So I got a tv station helicopter shot as the sign was coming off and hanging in the air swinging.

It was a dream come true. ...

I’d like to have San Diego get some national exposure with the arts. Every once in a while, 54 SDJewishJournal.com | January 2016

we’ll get on with The Globe or La Jolla Playhouse winning a Tony Award. But it’s never been my client getting national. That would be a big goal for me.

Have you ever come up against any discrimination either for being Jewish or being a woman?

TR: When I lived in Cincinnatti, being Jewish, being a New Yorker, being a lesbian, I was like a unicorn. So it was challenging in that community. I was very quiet about who I was on all those levels. Not being a woman as much.

But when I got to San Diego, it feels to me like everyone’s either Jewish or from New York. ...

It’s never come up here in this town. I feel very welcome here. I feel like I’m home. So I’ve been really lucky.

Do you believe in work/life balance?

How do you achieve that?

TR: Oh gosh, well, I live at the beach and I work from home so I am the queen of work life balance. ... A lot of my events are in the nights or on the weekends, I feel completely free to take an afternoon and go for a swim or go for a run because I’m justified by going to an opening on Friday and a festival on Saturday. I have a non-traditional work day.

The other thing is, when I first opened my business, I didn’t know the first thing I was doing. ... So I went and met with woman-owned businesses, sole practitioners, and a lot of people who worked from home.

I just found these people in the community and said will you have lunch with me so I can pick your brain about how to do this? Among the many great bits of advice that

they’ve given me, one I kept hearing was you need to take time off, you need to take your weekends, you need to take vacation. Especially if you’re working from home, you need to close your office and shut your door and be done.

Do you have a time of day where you’re most productive?

TR: I’m super productive in the morning. I’m usually on my computer by 6:30 and I can bang out a whole lot of things and then go work out and come back. So from like 6:30 to 9:30, I get a lot done. I’m not a night person. If it gets dark, I have a hard time working.

Do you have a favorite distraction?

TR: I do sunset every day. I go down to the beach. Or if I’m coming back from a meeting and it’s close to sunset, I will turn off the road.

Wherever I am, I will make an exit and get off the road and spend that time. To me, a day’s not over unless I’ve seen the sunset.

Do you have any advice for women who are just starting out in their careers?

TR: I think communication is the key. Be a good writer – a strong writer is everything. I need a good strong email. ... Communication above all, for women especially. The whole lean in – how do you present yourself? You have confidence and you know what you’re doing or you’ll find out. If you’re not a strong writer start to be a strong writer, in any field.

Any time you send an email to anyone it should be well-written. ... The other thing that I learned when I met with these women business owners, try and do what you love. If you can find something that you really love, you’re going to be so much better at it. A

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For more information on the shows visit NorthCoastRep.org (858) 481-1055 • Solana Beach Group Sales: (858) 481-2155, ext. 202 Tevet • Shevat 5776 | SDJewishJournal.com 55

WOMEN

Power Couples The Jewish Women’s Archive looks at pairs of women from history to modern day in online exhibition

BY NATALIE JACOBS

I

n an effort to use digital technology to “explore in-depth the struggles and successes of American Jews,” the Jewish Women’s Archive (JWA), based in Boston, has various exhibitions in constant rotation on its website, jwa.org. Each online exhibition focuses on a different aspect of Jewish womanhood throughout time, offering essays, images, audio, and interactive timelines to tell the stories of such topics as women of valor, feminism and western pioneers.

New in the online collection is Power Couples, a smart showcase of contemporary Jewish women, paired up with an historic but equally trailblazing counterpart from a different era. The brief biographical essays

offer a side-by-side (but uncompetitive) comparison of each woman’s accomplishments. The list makes it clear that we’re all standing on the shoulders of giants, and with 32 women on the list, you’re bound to learn about someone you’ve never heard of.

Included here is an abbreviated list of the power couples. To view the full collection and delve deeper into these women and their pioneering efforts in the fields of arts, sciences, fashion, athletics, business and activism, visit jwa.org/powercouples. To be clear, though some of the “historic” women are still alive, they are not collaborating in any way with the modern women, JWA is the one making all the connections.

Radio

Susan Stamberg and Sarah Koenig Susan Stamberg was the first female anchor of a major news program – on National Public Radio – and Sarah Koenig was the first, of anyone, to achieve podcast superstardom with her show Serial. It’s like music to your ears.

Magazines Letty Cottin Pogrebin and Debbie Stoller Remember Ms. Magazine? It started when Letty Cottin Pogrebin met Betty Friedan and Gloria Steinem in a hotel room in 1972 to assemble packets for the National Women’s Political Caucus.

Two decades later, Debbie Stoller created BUST, a magazine about pop culture and the fun of being a woman.

Fashion

Lena (Lane) Bryant Malsin and Nicolette Mason When dressmaker Lena Bryant Malsin found herself widowed with two young children, in the early 20th century, she supported her family by serving a niche market: pregnant women and those too big to fit in the narrow range of sizes available at that time. “Plus size” may be more common nowadays, but fashionable options are still hard to find. Enter Nicolette Mason, a Jewish American of Iranian descent who has found success running a fashion blog called “Big Girl in a Skinny World.”

56 SDJewishJournal.com | January 2016

Writing Claudia Roden and Deb Perelman (cookbooks) It’s no secret that food is a hugely important aspect of Jewish life. Claudia Roden brought awareness to Middle Eastern, and Jewish, cooking in the 1970s, well before it was common to explore ethnic cuisines from America. Deb Perelman has continued pushing the fork across the road with her wildly popular blog and later cookbook “Smitten Kitchen,” which adds a similar level of storytelling as was common in Roden’s books.

Gilda Radner and Abbi Jacobson & Ilana Glazer (comedy) This one’s a trifecta of hilarity. It’s likely that comediennes and writers Abbi Jacobson and Ilana Glazer grew up watching Gilda Radner say things like “Jewess jeans” and embody the tactless reporter Roseanne Roseannadanna on Saturday Night Live. Now that the two have their own show (Broad City, on Comedy Central) a new generation of funny girls will be enlightened and inspired to embrace their weirdness and laugh out loud.

Adrienne Rich and Erika Meitner (poetry) Erika Meitner can trace her lineage back to Adrienne Rich. Not her genealogical lineage, but her poetic roots. “To me, Adrienne Rich is an inextricable part of the matriarchy of Jewish poets,” Meitner told JWA, “[those] who speak truth to power in verse, and engage in struggles for social justice and emotional honesy. They teach us, over and over, that our stories and words have worth, and that our work is never finished.”

Health

Dr. Ruth Westheimer and Jaclyn Friedman Both these women are still working today. Dr. Ruth Westheimer continues to serve as a sex therapist and active purveyor of sex education tidbits on Twitter while Jaclyn Friedman is starting her career with a slew of books and podcast episodes that explore women’s changing relationship to sex and sexuality.

Athletics

Bobbie Rosenfeld and Aly Raisman These women go for the gold. Bobbie Rosenfeld was good at almost every sport that women were allowed to compete in during the early 1900s, but her Olympic gold came in track. She offered a new role model for female athletes. Aly Raisman comes to Olympic competition almost 100 years later, but the attention on female athlete’s bodies remains a mainstay (Raisman made headlines in 2015 for her nude appearance in the ESPN Body issue).

Science

Gertrude Elion and Nina Fefferman There is always talk of women in the sciences. Where are they? The questions are good, but sometimes it’s better to stop wondering and start doing. Gertrude Elion fought all the uphill battles of women in the sciences on her way to becoming a Nobel Prize winner (even though she was never able to earn her doctorate) in 1988. Where Elion focused on finding treatments for cancer and AIDS, the young Nina Fefferman is working in the world of infectious diseases, and along the way might be making the field more interesting to broader audiences through engaging TED talks and a keen understanding of popular video games.

PHOTOS USED WITH PERMISSION FROM JEWISH WOMEN’S ARCHIVE

Tevet • Shevat 5776 | SDJewishJournal.com 57

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760-943-8891 Info@ChabadatLaCosta.com www.ChabadatLaCosta.com 58 SDJewishJournal.com l January 2016

THE NEGEV

T

he only Israeli university created by government mandate, BenGurion University of the Negev (BGU) was established in 1969 with a mission to be the engine for the development of Israel’s Negev region.

Today, BGU, with some 20,000 students, is more than a worldrenowned institution of research and higher learning. Ben-Gurion University has succeeded in transcending the boundaries of academia, turning Beer-Sheva into a cyber security and high-tech ecosystem with the only government-academic-industry partnership in the nation.

The University was inspired by the vision of Israel’s first prime minister, David Ben-Gurion, who believed that the future of Israel lay in Negev region, a desert area comprising more than 60 percent of the country.

With campuses in Beer-Sheva, Sede Boqer and Eilat, BGU is truly an oasis of innovation, leading projects in fields such as alternative energy, desert and water research, medical research, homeland and cyber security, Israel studies, Jewish thought, robotics, and more.

The Southwest Region of American Associates, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev (AABGU) plays a vital role in sustaining David Ben-Gurion’s vision, supporting a world-class institution of education and research in the Israeli desert, nurturing the Negev community and sharing the University’s expertise throughout Israel and around the globe.

Activities include educating individuals about the BGU’s groundbreaking research through exciting and informative local educational programs, featuring BGU’s world-renowned faculty.

Join us in implementing our shared vision for BGU and the Negev: the next great pioneering era in Israel. Attend an event in your community; visit the University on your next trip to Israel; support scholarships for the next generation of Israel’s leadership; make an impact on groundbreaking research. Contact us to learn more at 310-552-3300, southwest@aabgu.org or visit www.aabgu.org

FEATURE

San Diego Symphony Gets Upright and Grand Month-long piano festival underway Jan. 8

BY ERICA MINER

LEFT: Ben Folds, RIGHT: Marc-André Hamelin

T

his month, San Diego Symphony kicks off New Year 2016 by inaugurating Upright & Grand, the orchestra’s very first monthlong festival focusing on one particular instrument. This series of events, which shines a spotlight on the ever-popular piano, opens on Fri., Jan. 8, and continues through Sat., Feb. 6. Internationally celebrated classical, jazz and contemporary artists will be featured in performances, master classes and workshops.

Upright & Grand affords the Symphony a unique opportunity to connect with the people of San Diego by offering a huge roster of world-class artists in a unique and complex schedule of concerts and recitals. Pianists slated to perform are Marc-André Hamelin, Garrick Ohlsson, Jeremy Denk, Emanuel Ax, Vadym Kholodenko, Joshua White, Helen Sung, Eric Reed, Jessie Chang, Horacio Gutiérrez and Ben Folds, as well as Symphony Music Director Jahja Ling.

Maestro Ling will helm the orchestral programs, along with worldrenowned guest conductors Pinchas Zukerman, Cristian Macelaru, Jacomo Rafael Bairos, and debuting conductor Karina Canellakis. Scheduled concerts include those that are part of the Symphony’s Jacobs Masterworks Series as well as a special appearance by the visiting Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by Zukerman. Venues include Jacobs Music

Center, MCASD Sherwood Auditorium in La Jolla, Poway Center for the Performing Arts, and California Center for the Arts in Escondido.

“The piano is both a solitary and partner instrument,” says Symphony CEO Martha Gilmer. “Pianos can be found in concert halls, night clubs, homes, schools, libraries and department stores. The piano is a partner to instrumentalists and singers. A pianist can play entire symphonies or a solo sonata.”

Gilmer emphasizes that numerous musical works were first written on the piano and subsequently orchestrated. An example of this type of work performed in Upright & Grand is “Pictures at an Exhibition,” written for piano by Modest Mussorgsky and orchestrated by Maurice Ravel.

Symphony Director of Artistic Planning Tommy Phillips says the heart and soul of Upright & Grand is its performers.

“An important component of this festival is to offer an array of acclaimed artists who are at the top of their game – superstars in their own right performing the most exciting repertoire written for the piano,” he says.

Among these artists are two of the most celebrated Jewish musicians of our time: pianist Emanuel Ax and much-loved violinist Itzhak Perlman, who will perform together in recital at the Jacobs Music Center on Wed., Jan 20., presented by the La Jolla Music Society.

Tevet • Shevat 5776 | SDJewishJournal.com 59

The festival opens on Fri., Jan. 8, with “All About the Piano: Rhapsody in Blue,” conducted by Canellakis, with well-known Canadian pianist MarcAndre Hamelin as soloist.

Arguably George Gershwin’s most famous solo work, and certainly the one that established his reputation as a serious composer, “Rhapsody in Blue” is considered a thoroughly American piano masterpiece written by a thoroughly brilliant Jewish-American composer. Originally composed in 1924 for two pianos, subsequently scored for solo piano and jazz band, the piece combines jazz influences with classical music.

Competition, will be joined by pianists Helen Sung and Eric Reed, bassist Rodney Whitaker and drummer Willie Jones III to combine their formidable talents in a tribute to jazz piano masters. On Sat., Jan. 30, Ling will both conduct and perform on the piano for the “Mozart’s Triple” program with pianists Horacio Gutiérrez and Jessie Chang.

Added to this musical feast will be other activities ranging from jazz workshops, a music app demonstration combining technology and music with representatives from the Apple Store, a piano tuning demonstration, and more.

LEFT: Jahja Ling; MIDDLE: Jessie Chang; RIGHT: Eric Reed

Gershwin’s first biographer, Isaac Goldberg, writes that the composer found inspiration from a locomotive’s “steely rhythms” while on a train journey, and conceived the composition as a “sort of kaleidoscope of America … our vast melting pot … our metropolitan madness.”

Often thought of as a musical portrait of New York City, the work has been performed by luminaries from all fields of music, from Leonard Bernstein to Herbie Hancock and Lang Lang.

One unique festival highlight is “Beyond The Score,” a special one-nightonly event on Sat., Jan. 9. The first half of this concert features Hamelin performing the original piano version of “Pictures at an Exhibition” as part of a live documentary that makes use of theater and visual projections to illustrate the series of paintings portrayed in the piece. On the second half, Canellakis conducts the Symphony in Ravel’s powerful orchestration of the work. The innovative program originated as a production of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra.

For just plain piano lovers, either professional or amateur, as well as those who have long wished to play the piano, San Diego Symphony has created “Hands On: Play a Little, Learn a Lot.” This “Day for the Community” educational program will include activities for all ages at the Jacobs Music Center, on Sat., Jan. 16. Featured will be a performance of Saint-Saëns’ perennial favorite, “Carnival of the Animals;” a Q&A with Symphony spokesperson Nuvi Mehta and pianist Jeremy Denk; a master class for advanced students with Dr. William and Evelyn Lamden; and “15 Minutes of Fame,” which gives attendees the opportunity to be in the limelight by playing a short piece on stage. The event concludes with a “rock star” moment: MONSTER PIANO Live On Stage, a spectacle of 10 pianists simultaneously performing the same piece at five grand pianos.

Jazz piano takes center stage on Sat., Jan., 23, with “Jazz Piano Masters: a Tribute to Thelonious Monk, Art Tutum and Bud Powell.” Pianist Joshua White, second-place winner of the Thelonious Monk International

60 SDJewishJournal.com l January 2016

In addition, the Symphony is encouraging community participation throughout the city. Throughout the festival, the “Play Me: Pianos in Public Spaces” program will provide piano showcases around the city. The public will have free access to colorfully painted pianos on display in such locations as Horton Plaza, Liberty Station, The Quartyard at East Village and California Center for the Arts. The “Play Me” feature provides a chance for the public to become engaged by expressing their pianistic creativity while performing at these outdoor pianos in the city’s public spaces.

“This collaborative component of Upright & Grand has both a celebratory and accessibility element as we bring the piano festival to the people,” Phillips says.

To further involve the community and add to the festive atmosphere of Upright & Grand, San Diego Symphony has partnered with a diverse group of citywide organizations and local independent artists who have volunteered to paint the 10 pianos, intended to both reflect the vibrancy of the community and foster pride. Organizations include Urban Discovery Academy, Combat Arts, New Children’s Museum, and PATH – Connections Housing. Among the individual artists are Sheena Dowling; the multimedia artistic team of Anna Stoa, Grace Gray Adams and Grace Matthews; and mosaic artist Christie Beniston.

According to Gilmer, Upright & Grand “celebrates the spirit of creativity and variety inspired by the most accessible of all musical instruments.”

Undoubtedly the festival, with its large-scale, impressive array of glittering events, will fulfill any number of the musical fantasies and desires of aficionados and curiosity seekers throughout San Diego – and hopefully pave the way for future San Diego Symphony festivals and celebrations. A Box office, schedule and sandiegosymphony.org.

ticket

information:

(619)

235-0804;

PHOTOS COURTESY SAN DIEGO SYMPHONY

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In 2008, the solar industry was effectively “born” as a result of the implementation of large State and Federal incentives and tax benefits.

Native San Diegan and founder of Ecocentric Solar, Jonathan Sherr, quickly recognized the opportunity, starting his career in solar by helping to create the residential division of the now-largest solar company in Southern California. While the solar industry was growing at a rapid pace, Jonathan began to notice how quickly it had become infiltrated with several fly-by-night sales & marketing companies, taking advantage of unsuspecting San Diego homeowners. He also recognized the increasing consumer demand for more technologically advanced and affordable solar systems; along with other eco-friendly energies not being offered by any solar companies. So, in 2011 Jonathan launched Ecocentric Solar to provide a comprehensive, cost-effective solution with superior product offerings and a unique, transparent approach in client relations. In addition to serving homeowners, Jonathan has created the “Chai Solar Legacy” program whereby Ecocentric Solar will present a solar system to your non-profit organization at a heavily discounted price, which can then be purchased with no upfront costs through a specialized finance program. The end result: a typical electric bill is cut in half. With this in mind, Ecocentric Solar is excited to announce the installation of a new solar system for Chabad of UC - the first synagogue in San Diego to go solar! Jonathan and the Ecocentric Solar team invites you to join them for the ribbon-cutting ceremony on Sunday, January 10th, 2016 from 11:00am to 2:00pm at Chabad of UC (3813 Governor Dr, San Diego, CA 92122)

Chabad of UC Solar System Tevet • Shevat 5776 | SDJewishJournal.com 61

FOOD

in the kitchen WITH

TORI AVEY

GREEK SALAD QUINOA BOWL

W

Tori Avey is an awardwinning food writer, recipe developer, and the creator of the popular cooking website toriavey.com.

Mediterranean goodness on a bed of grain-like seeds from the Andean region of South America. A bit of a cultural mish-mosh, sure, but the flavor here is all Greek.

Lemon, dill, quinoa, and chickpeas make a protein-filled base for fresh, flavorful toppings. Crunchy cold lettuce and cucumbers, sweet ripe tomatoes, briny kalamata olives and creamy, salty feta add the zest. A drizzle of olive oil and a splash of fresh lemon juice are the only dressing you’ll need.

Many of us are gearing up to eat healthy in this postholiday season so we can live up to all of our end-ofyear resolutions. I always try to start the new year with a nice, healthy diet – “try” being the operative word here.

Whether or not I’ll stick to it is another story entirely!

It becomes easier to embrace a clean eating regime when you have an arsenal of easy, tasty dishes that can be whipped up in a few short minutes. Recipes like this Greek Salad Quinoa Bowl are one of my go-to healthy dishes because they can be made fast without a lot of fuss.

Feel free to dress it up with any other toppings you like.

PHOTOS BY TORI AVEY

She writes about food history for PBS Food and Parade. com. Follow Tori on Facebook by searching for “Tori Avey” and on Twitter: @toriavey.

henever I find myself feeling a bit run down after a busy holiday season, I take a “mental vacation,” usually to the Greek islands. I’ve never been to Greece, but it is at the very top of my bucket list. When I was a child, my grandfather would tell me colorful Greek tales – Zeus ruling Mount Olympus, Helen of Troy, the Trojan horse. I grew up knowing I had to visit this country someday, to soak in thousands of years of romantic, dramatic and tumultuous history.

In the heart of the Mediterranean, Greece seems like the ideal place to take a break from reality. Sunny beaches, turquoise waters, ancient history, people with a love of food and a zest for life. Simple pleasures, healthy and delicious meals, a bouzouki playing in the distance…I wish I was there right this very moment.

I’ve been traveling quite a bit recently, and after the hustle and bustle of the holiday season, the last thing I want to do is get on another plane. But I am never one to shy away from a staycation and an exotic destinationinspired meal. This Greek Salad Quinoa Bowl is

62 SDJewishJournal.com l January 2016

So go on, take a break from reality and eat like a Greek. Download some bouzouki music on iTunes, pour a glass of ouzo, and enjoy this salad bowl. It tastes so good you’ll forget that it’s healthy! Kalí óreksi!

Ingredients 1 cup quinoa ½ tsp oreganox1 cup chickpeas (garbanzo beans), cooked or canned 1 ½ tsp chopped fresh dill 1 large lemon, juiced, or more to taste 2 cups shredded hearts of romaine (or your favorite green) 3 small Persian cucumbers, sliced ½ cup pitted Kalamata olives ½ cup crumbled feta cheese 3 small ripe tomatoes, quartered Extra virgin olive oil Salt and freshly ground black pepper You will also need: mesh strainer, sauce pan Serves: 4 Total Time: 25 min Kosher Key: Dairy – omit cheese to make Pareve

IKWTA

Rinse the quinoa thoroughly in a mesh strainer or sieve, drain.

Pour quinoa into a saucepan along with 2 cups of water, oregano and 1/8 tsp salt (if salt sensitive, just use a pinch). Bring the quinoa to a boil, then reduce heat to a low simmer. Cover the pot. Let the quinoa simmer for about 15 minutes.

While quinoa is steaming, prep your vegetables (chop, shred, etc.). Once they’re prepped I like to put them in bowls for easy assembly.

After the quinoa has cooked for 15 minutes, stir in the chickpeas. Recover the pot and steam for about 5 more minutes till water is absorbed and quinoa is tender. Uncover the pot and stir in the fresh dill and lemon juice; add more salt and lemon juice to taste, if desired.

Assemble your quinoa bowls. Divide the quinoa mixture evenly between each bowl (about 1 cup each). For each of the following ingredients, divide them evenly between the four bowls – top each bowl with shredded romaine and sliced Persian cucumbers, sprinkle on kalamata olives, tomato quarters and crumbled feta. Drizzle the bowl with extra virgin olive oil and squeeze on some fresh lemon juice. Season with salt and freshly ground black pepper, if desired (the feta is salty so go easy on the salt till you taste it). Serve.

You can also add some thinly sliced red onion to the bowls if you wish. I’m not a big fan of raw onion so I don’t use it. As you can see these bowls are very customizable; feel free to change up the toppings as you like. A

Tevet • Shevat 5776 | SDJewishJournal.com 63

? '?

WHAT S GOIN ON ?? '

BY EILEEN SONDAK

Broadway-San Diego

PHOTO BY SCOTT SUCHMAN

Broadway-San Diego will start off the year on Jan. 5 with “If/Then,” a contemporary new musical about living in New York. The highly-acclaimed show – starring Idina Menzel – will take over the Civic Theatre through Jan. 10. The organization is offering two “extra season events.” Jerry Seinfeld will share his special brand of comedy on Jan. 15, and “Riverdance 20,” is slated for Jan. 19-21.

This production features the Irish music and dance phenomenon in a welcome return to San Diego.

Anthony Roach as Dorante and Amelia Pedlow as Lucille in the Shakespeare Theatre Company’s production of “The Metromaniacs.”

Idina Menzel

The Old Globe

Cygnet Theatre

Cygnet will take audiences to the year 2039 in its first show of 2016, with “When the Rain Stops Falling,” an award-winning drama by Andrew Bovell. This unsettling play, directed by Rob Lutfy, unfolds with powerful dramatic thrust, surprising humor, humanity, and hope. The show will inhabit Cygnet’s Old Town Theatre Jan. 14-Feb. 14.

Lamb’s Players

The Lamb’s is reviving the comic masterpiece, “The Nerd” on its Coronado stage Jan. 8-Feb. 14. David Heath returns to the fold to star in this hilarious play about an architect facing a milestone birthday with his old army buddy.

The Old Globe will launch its new season with “The Metromaniacs,” a “translaptation of a classic French farce,” directed by the legendary stage director Michael Kahn (in his local debut). This clever piece abounds with wit, mistaken identities, playful poetry, and delicious plot twists. It will run on the Globe’s Main Stage Jan. 30-March 6, and it promises to be an uproariously funny romp into 18th century farce.

San Diego Junior Theatre

San Diego Junior Theatre will feature “Rippledink’s Repertory” Jan. 8-24.

The pair of plays includes “Ivy + Bean The Musical” and “Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day.” Both shows will alternate on the Casa del Prado Stage.

Moxie Theatre

San Diego Repertory Theatre

Moxie Theatre will stage “Brownsville Song” – the story of a blended and bi-racial family coping with a tragic loss – Jan. 31-Feb. 28.

San Diego Repertory Theatre will bring “Outside Mullingar” to the Lyceum Jan. 21-Feb. 14. The play, by the multi-awardwinning author of “Doubt,” was described as “a Valentine to the wonder and weirdness of love.” Todd Salovey will stage the play about a 40-something pair living in a tiny village in rural Ireland.

A funny family-feud erupts that challenges the pair’s quest for happily ever after, but these eccentric souls prevail in the end.

North Coast Repertory Theatre

North Coast Repertory Theatre will unveil the world premiere of “Sherlock Holmes and the Adventure of the Great Nome Gold Rush” Jan. 13-Feb. 7. David Ellenstein will direct this fresh look at the world’s greatest sleuth as he embarks on a mission that will take Sherlock into the wilds of the frontier town of Nome, Alaska. This funfilled who-dun-it delivers the obligatory dose of intrigue, suspense, and deception.

J*Company Jason Maddy as Sherlock Holmes at NCR. PHOTO BY AARON RUMLEY

64 SDJewishJournal.com l January 2016

J*Company will unveil “Seussical Jr.” on Jan. 15. The Dr. Seuss delight will remain at the La Jolla JCC through Jan. 31.

La Jolla Music Society

La Jolla Music Society will start the ball rolling on Jan. 14 with pianist Garrick Ohlsson at Sherwood Auditorium. The “Monterey Jazz Festival on Tour” arrives at the Balboa Theatre on Jan. 16 (with Grammy-winner Nicholas Payton on trumpet), followed by a special event at Symphony Hall. Virtuosos Itzhak Perlman and Emanuel Ax will share the stage for this blockbuster performance on Jan. 20, performing works by Mozart, Faure, and Strauss. They will perform several piano pieces, including the Goldberg Variations, BWV 988.

Reuben H. Fleet Science Center

The Reuben H. Fleet Science Center is highlighting four IMAX films: “Jean-Michel Cousteau’s Secret Ocean,” “Hubble,” “Journey to Space” and its newest and most exciting film, “Jerusalem.” Benedict Cumberbatch narrates this new film about one of the most beloved and mysterious cities in the world – and it is a must-see. The Center is also welcoming a new exhibit exploring creativity, where it comes from, and how to foster it.

Mingei International Museum

Mingei is showcasing an exhibition celebrating folk art from coast to coast.

“Made in America: Craft Icons of the 50 States” includes jewelry, pottery, You read all about the piano festival on pg. 59, but there’s still more to see at baskets, and textiles, and will be on view through Feb. 21. A display of the Symphony this month.

American Folk Art Walking Sticks will continue at Mingei through Jan. The great Pinchas Zukerman will conduct the Royal Philharmonic 10. Both “In the Realm of Nature” (a retrospective on the careers of Bob Orchestra on Jan. 22, with pianist Vadym Kholodenko. The program Stocksdale and Kay Sekimachi) and “Three on the Edge” (focusing on three includes Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No. 4, W.A. Mozart’s Piano Concerto San Diego architects) will remain at the Mingei through March 15.

No. 21 and two other pieces. On Jan. 23, “Jazz Piano Masters: A Tribute to Thelonious Monk, Art Tatum, and Bud Powell will be on the docket for the San Diego Symphony, followed on Jan. 24 by the vintage film “Cyrano de The Natural History Museum The Natural History Museum is showing off “Coast to Cactus in Southern Bergerac,” with Russ Peck on the organ.

Maestro Jahja Ling will be on the podium when pianist Horacio Guterrez California” – an 8,000 square foot exhibition. “Maya: Hidden Worlds performs Brahms’ Piano Concerto No. 1 Jan. 29 and 31, and “Mozart’s Revealed,” an exhibition focusing on the Mayan civilization, packs up on Triple: Ling, Gutierrez, and Chang” will be performed on Jan. 30 – with Jan. 3, but a photography exhibition titled “Butterflies and Insects” will remain through Jan. 11. The Nat also offers “Fossil Mysteries,” “Water: A works by W.A. Mozart, Brahms, and Debussy.

California Story,” and “Skulls.”

San Diego Symphony

San Diego Museum of Art

PHOTO COURTESY SDMA

The San Diego Museum of Art is offering “East Coast West Coast and In-Between: Harry Sternberg and America” and “James Hubbell: California Wildfire Watercolors” through May 8. The museum is also featuring a multi-sensory, culturally diverse exhibition on the intersection of art and music, featuring works by Picasso, Dali, and Matisse, and music by Beethoven and others. You can even watch a dance video of Merce Cunningham’s Dance Company along the way. The show will run through Feb. 7, and it’s a beauty.

Harry Sternberg. “Mountains and Birches of Utah,” ca. 1957. Oil on board.

Museum purchase with funds provided by the Robert and Karen Hoehn Family.

Tevet • Shevat 5776 | SDJewishJournal.com 65

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© 2015 The Famous Abba

www.thefamousabba.com

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Find the bold italic words on this sheet.

The unused letters spell a secret message!

In 167 BCE, Antiochus Epiphanes of the Syrian-Greek Empire tried to force the Jews in his empire to practice his Greek religion. Antiochus desecrated the Bait Hamikdash, set up pagan idols, and gave the Jews the option of practicing Hellenism or facing death. Many Jews converted to Hellenism, but some refused to leave their Jewish faith. Antiochus also banned basic mitzvot such as: kashrut, shabbat, brit milah, and celebrating Rosh Chodesh and holidays. Matityahu the Kohen Gadol together with his sons, the Chashmonaim, fought back and, although greatly outnumbered, managed to miraculously defeat the Syrian-Greek army. The Maccabees did not gain complete freedom, but the Bait HaMikdash was reclaimed and Jews were able to practice their religion again. Upon entry to the Bait Hamikdash, the Chashmonaim found only one sealed cruse of pure olive oil. This oil, sufficient to burn for one day, miraculously burned for 8 days and nights. Almost a year later, the 2nd Bait Hamikdash was rededicated on the 25th day of Kislev, which is the date the Sages set to begin the celebration of Chanukah. Over the course of the 8 days of Chanukah we read from the Torah about the inauguration of the Mishkan (Tabernacle) in the midbar and of the mitzvah instructed to Aharon to light the menorah daily. By reading these portions, we connect the rededication of the Mikdash to the bravery of the Maccabees, and the commandment given to their ancestor Aharon to light the menorah and dedicate the Mishkan.

25 KISLEV 5776 CHANUKAH

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‫א ב ג ד ה ו ז ח ט י כ ל מ נ ס ע פ צ ק ר ש ת‬

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• Your neighbor did not have a menorah in his window during Chanukah.

• A cousin canceled the family Chanukah party at the last moment.

Can you judge these situations favorably?

you be the judge

MENORAH

Which one is different? (Hint: Hanerot Halalu - “These Candles”)

spot the difference

• The Chashmonaim cleaning the Holy Temple and re-dedicating it on the 25th of Kislev.

• A Hellinist telling you not to observe Shabbat, kashrus, or other Jewish laws and what you would do.

Act out these scenes with friends and family:

chanukah SKIT ideas

• The Maccabees found one jar of oil in the Holy Temple with enough oil to burn for 1 night, but the candles burned for 8 days.

• A small army of religious Jews led by the Maccabees defeated the mighty Greek army.

Wonders of hashem

SUPER CHANUKAH SHEET

I was brought before the king Antiochus with my seven sons. The king ordered my sons to acknowledge his godliness by bowing down to an idol of himself. All my sons refused to obey the king and to leave Judaism, so the king killed all of them.

WEEK IN REVIEW

CROSSWORD

Share with a friend or family member 2 things that made you think about HaShem this week.

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• On which Rosh Chodesh do we not recite Hallel at all?

• How many blessings are in Hallel?

WORD

CMRLESAB (scramble) ADCIETED BCIZPEULI LMEETP HTIGE

(Hint: Chanukah)

SDEANLC NAHOUTICS

Check your answers at: www.thefamousabba.com/chanukah

66 SDJewishJournal.com l January 2016

DIVERSIONS

By Natalie Jacobs “The Man in the High Castle” and “Transparent” If you were anywhere near the Internet the week of Thanksgiving, then you heard about Amazon’s marketing campaign to promote it’s new show “The Man in the High Castle” using what’s called as a “wrap” on New York City subway cars and seats.

The problem? The “wrap” included decontexualized Nazi symbols. It might have seemed like a good idea to well-intention marketing people, but in reality, no one was comfortable sitting on a seat that was decorated Still shot from “The Man in the High Castle,” out now on Amazon. like a Nazi flag. The new series, out on Amazon Prime, is loosely based on Philip K. Dick’s dystopian novel of the same name, which imagines a world where the Nazis won. Judging by the reaction from the failed subway marketing campaign, it’s not a world where many people would feel comfortable. Season one is now streaming on Amazon Prime. Also on Amazon Prime, season two of “Transparent,” written by a Jewish woman – Jill Soloway – who was inspired by her own father’s transition to womanhood. The series appears to be oozing with Jewishness.

“Challenger Deep” This novel just won a National Book Award for Young People’s Literature, and was inspired by the author’s second-grade son.

“Notorious RGB” Yes, the new biography of Ruth Bader Ginsburg sort of compares her to the rapper Biggie Smalls.

Bad. Ass.

“The Prime Ministers: The Pioneers” If you saw “Golda’s Balcony” when it was in town, watching this film, streaming on Netflix, will be a nice follow-up. Heralded as “the first and only insider account of Israeli politics from the founding of the Jewish State to near-present day,” this documentary explores Yehuda Avner, Levi Eshkol, Golda Meir, Yitzhak Rabin, Menachem Begin and Shimon Peres through narration by Sandra Bullock, Michael Douglas, Leonard Nimoy and Chrisoph Waltz. Their stories chart history, from the Six-Day War, to the development of Israel’s strategic relationship with the U.S., to the fight against terrorism, and the Yom Kippur War. “The Pioneers” is the first in a two-part series. Part two, “Soldiers and Peacemakers,” will screen at the San Diego Jewish Film Festival during several dates in February. Check back next month for details.

“My Life on the Road” An intimate portrait from a hugely influential Jewish, female activist.

Tevet • Shevat 5776 | SDJewishJournal.com 67

news

Ariana Berlin (left)

Friendship Circle San Diego Celebrates 10 Years with Guest Speaker, Ariana Berlin L-R: Jean-Paul Riveria, Jamie Pratt, Simcha Schwartz, Itai Siegel and Eliza “Ellie” Honan

Leichtag’s Coastal Roots Farm Opens Apprenticeship Program for Young Farmers In November, Coastal Roots Farm, the new name of the Leichtag Farm on the Ranch property in Encinitas, announced the four recipients of an apprenticeship at the farm, a new program for the nonprofit organization which also announced the hiring of Simcha Schwartz, the apprenticeship and associate program director.

“We’re so proud to bring such a diverse and amazing group of young farmers to this community,” said Daron “Farmer D” Joffe, interim executive director of Coastal Roots Farm and director of agricultural innovation and development at Leichtag Foundation.

The yearlong apprenticeship program provides housing, a living wage and professional development. This year’s apprentices are: Jamie Pratt, San Diego, educational and programming apprentice; Jean-Paul Riveria, Puerto Rico, food forest and nursery apprentice; Eliza “Ellie” Honan, Minnesota, animal husbandry and composting apprentice; and Itai Siegel, Israel, vegetable production apprentice.

“These four individuals bring tremendous skill sets that we will develop,” Joffe said.

Simcha Schwartz will manage the program. He comes to CRF with 15 years experience in Jewish community farming. Coastal Roots Farm (CRF) is an independent, nonprofit community farm and education center founded by the Leichtag Foundation in North County San Diego with the goal of becoming a model for Jewish community farming, sustainability and social justice. Learn more at coastalrootsfarm.org.

San Diego’s Friendship Circle will celebrate its 10th year in the community on Sunday, Jan. 31 at 6 p.m. Ariana Berlin, San Diego native and the subject of the 2015 film “Full Out” staring Jennifer Beals, will speak about overcoming obstacles.

Berlin is known in San Diego for surviving a debilitating car accident in her youth, only to go on to compete for UCLA gymanstics.

The Friendship Circle is a Jewish organization for children with special needs with 79 locations worldwide.

They pair teen volunteers with children with special needs, helping the latter gain confidence through social interactions.

Tickets for the anniversary event are $36, available at friendshipcirclesd.org.

Women’s Museum of California Soliciting Donations for Fund at Jewish Community Foundation In December, the Women’s Museum of California announced that they are soliciting donations for a Women’s Museum Fund to be held at the Jewish Community Foundation. Donations will be applied to help support the future sustainability of the Women’s Museum of California. To learn more and become part of the fund, visit womensmuseumca.org/product/donation/donation.

Originally founded in 1983, the Women’s Museum of California is one of only six museums devoted to women’s history in the United States. Located at the NTC at Liberty Station in Point Loma, they offer a huge array of exhibits, classes and lectures and programming that bring women’s history to life.

68 SDJewishJournal.com l January 2016

Local Brandeis National Committee Events This month, two local Brandeis National Committees will host two very different speaking evets. First, the Rancho Bernardo Chapter will host Oceanside Police Lieutenant Karen Laster on Jan. 12, 1 p.m. at the Rancho Bernardo Community Center, Glassman Building.

Lieutenant Laser will speak about the Department’s Homeless Outreach Program and will take audience questions. Admission is $10 and refreshments are included.

For information, call Linda at (858) 487-8041.

Later in the month, the San Dieguito Chapter of the Brandeis National Committee will present a program with Leslie Levine Adler, co-author of “Jewish Luck: A True Story of Friendship, Deception, and Risky Business,” on Jan. 20 at 10 a.m. at Seacrest Village in Encinitas.

The book tells the true story of a forbidden friendship between the author’s sister and a Russian woman, beginning in 1976 Leningrad. Cost is also $10 and all proceeds benefit the BNC Scholarship Campaign.

For more information, call (760) 753-4987.

Papal Sword that Knighted a Local J. Co Makes Jew Lands in San Diego History Center Headlines with History was made in 1974 when, for the first time ever, the Pope conferred Knighthood on a person of the Jewish faith. The man was Col. Irving Salomon Interfaith Vigil of Valley Center, and the sword used in that knighting has gone on public display at the Valley Center History Museum.

The sword was commissioned following a Papal Order from Pope Paul VI to honor Col. Salomon for distinguished and notable life achievements and for his support of humanitarian and philanthropic causes. At the time, the knighting of a Jewish layman generated headlines across the nation.

A longtime Valley Center rancher, Salomon was a diplomat in the United Nations and held Ambassador status. He died in 1979.

The sword was donated to the museum by the estate of his daughter, the late Abbe Wolfsheimer Stutz, who cared for the historic item during the past four decades. It will remain on permanent exhibition and become part of the museum’s extensive Salomon Archive which contains papers, documents and memorabilia of Salomon’s career and personal life.

For more info, visit vchistory.org or call (760) 749-2993.

On Dec. 8, the Jewish Collaborative of San Diego, the North County Islamic Foundation, and the Christ Presbyterian Church of Carlsbad, held a successful candlelight vigil for the victims of the San Bernadino shooting that took place at a holiday party for county health department workers on Dec. 2.

The interfaith vigil attracted nearly 100 people and garnered local broadcast news headlines across the county.

Dr. Jaime Breziner, Dr. Abraham Romanowsky and the staff of La Jolla Family Smile Design team up with the San Diego Chargers in providing free dental care to children of the community in need.

Tevet • Shevat 5776 | SDJewishJournal.com 69

HAPPENINGS by tina b. eshel

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his month, you’re invited to laugh, eat and pray with a smorgasbord of January fun. And since Tu B’Shevat begins at sundown on the evening of Jan. 24 – the 15th day of the Jewish month of Shevat – we’ve put some extra focus on getting outdoors.

First up, the California Center for the Arts, Escondido brings you Yakov Smirnoff, Happy Ever Laughter on Saturday, Jan. 9. Call the box office at (800) 988-4253 to get your tickets. Then prepare for the big one (belly laugh, that is) as Broadway San Diego brings you Jerry Seinfeld for one performance only on Jan. 15. If tickets aren’t already sold out, grab yours at ticketmaster.com/venueartist/82007/795942.

Finally, the one, the only, Captain Kirk, a.k.a., William Shatner is coming to town on Jan. 28. His show, Shatner’s World, We Just Live in It, will be a signature laugh fest at The Balboa Theatre. Get your larger-than-life pass at sandiegotheatres.org/shatners-world.

Be a part of the inaugural Coronado Island Film Festival Jan. 15-18 and the enduring love affair between Hollywood and our own world-famous coastal hideaway. Many movies have been filmed in and around Coronado; at the festival, expect to enjoy classic films, connect with emerging filmmakers, festival parties and panel discussions and more. Your movie passes are waiting at coronadoislandfilmfest.com.

The Center for Jewish Culture boldly brings you Sex, Magic, and Death in the Bible and Its World on Jan 13, 7 p.m. Dr. Sharon Keller will take you on a tour of the ancient Biblical perspective on these timeless curiosities. Your ticket to the complete Distinguished Speakers Series is at tickets.lfjcc.org.

Moms and dads, Disney On Ice Presents Frozen is coming to Valley View Casino Center Jan. 20-24. A few weeks later, the Harlem Globetrotters are bouncing into town for two shows, Feb. 12 and 19! Details and tickets can be purchased at valleyviewcasinocenter.com.

Nature lovers may want to Hike it with Tarbuton on Jan. 10.

The 10 a.m. morning trek through Discovery Lake in San Marcos is open to the community, and you’ll get to practice your Evrit to boot! R.S.V.P. at eventbrite.com/e/hiking-group-double-peak-trailtickets-19506674990. Help plant an edible forest in honor of Tu B’Shevat, the Jewish birthday of the trees, at the Food Forest Festival on Jan. 25 at Coastal Roots Farm in Encinitas. For those who don’t yet know, Coastal Roots Farm is the new name for the nonprofit community farm and education center at the Leichtag Ranch. Get more details at leichtag.org/event.

Also check out the San Diego Fermentation Festival the following week on Jan. 31, taking place at the Leichtag Ranch in Encinitas.

Register at sandiegofermentationfestival.com. A

70 SDJewishJournal.com l January 2016

BEST BETS

Mark your calendar.

LAUGHS ABOUT TOWN! Jan. 9, Yakov Smirnoff, “Happy Ever Laughter;” Jan 15, Jerry Seinfeld; Jan. 28, William Shatner, “Shatner’s World, We Just Live in It”

SEX, MAGIC, AND DEATH IN THE BIBLE AND ITS WORLD Jan. 13, 7 p.m.

Temple Solel 3575 Manchester Ave, Cardiff-by-the-Sea, CA 92007 lfjcc.org

DISNEY ON ICE PRESENTS FROZEN Jan. 20-24.

Valley View Casino Center 3500 Sports Arena Blvd, San Diego, CA 92110 valleyviewcasinocenter.com

FOOD FOREST FESTIVAL Jan. 25, 10 a.m Coastal Roots Farm 441 Saxony Road, Encinitas, CA 92024 leichtag.org/event

SENIOR CENTERS Lawrence Family JCC 4126 Executive Drive, La Jolla Behind the Scenes at JFS Contact Melanie Rubin for details or to R.S.V.P. (858) 362-1141.

North County Inland Center at Adat Shalom Teen Technology Tutors for Seniors Thursdays, Jan. 7 and 28, 4 p.m.

15905 Pomerado Road, Poway, CA 92064 Bring your charged device and questions to these free sessions.

Cost is $15. R.S.V.P. at (858) 637-7320.

Beethoven’s Emperor Concerto with San Diego Symphony Monday Jan. 18, bus departs 10 a.m.

Sunday, Jan. 17, bus departs at 12:45 p.m.

Price $54, JCC member $45 includes ticket and bus from JCC. Lunch and Learn! Don’t Get Taken Tuesday, Feb. 2 at noon, R.S.V.P. by Jan. 26 Includes free lunch and interactive seminar at the JCC with a panel of experts. Bernardo Winery, Rancho Bernardo Friday, Feb. 12, bus departs at 10 a.m.

Cost: $55 by Feb. 1.

North County Jewish Seniors Club at the Oceanside Senior Center JFS No. County Inland Center at Adat Shalom 455 Country Club Lane, Oceanside 15905 Pomerado Road, Poway Contact Josephine at (760) 295-2564 Contact (858) 674-1123 for details.

Eileen Lohner Turk, Manager, Neighborhood Services Division, Most Activities are free to members, and lunch is $7 with reservations.

City of Oceanside Get Organized: Go Digital with Museum of Photographic Arts Thursday, Jan. 21, 12:30 p.m.

Wednesday, Jan. 6, 11 a.m.

Light refreshments served. Visitors are welcome.

Bring your photos or documents with you to this event and learn by doing.

Bulls and Bears: Stock Market w/ Financial Planner Daniel Gomes Veterans Association of North County Wednesday, Jan. 13, 11 a.m.

1617 Mission Avenue, Oceanside CA 92058.

Contact Marc Poland (858) 232-1645.

Behind the Scenes at JFS Monday Jan. 18, bus departs 10 a.m.

Jewish War Veterans meetings Take a trip with On the Go for a VIP tour of the newly renovated Turk Second Sunday of each month, noon. campus. Seating is limited. Cost is $15.RSVP at (858) 637-7320.

San Diego North County Post 385.

Seacrest Village 211 Saxony Rd. Contact Jon Schwartz (760) 516-2001 to R.S.V.P. Dr. Michael Mantell, guest speaker Thursday, Jan 14, 2 p.m.

No cost to attend.

JFS University City Older Adult Center 9001 Towne Centre Drive, La Jolla Contact Aviva Saad for details or to R.S.V.P. (858) 550-5998.

Martin Luther King Program Tuesday, Jan. 19, 10 a.m.

Celebrate Tu B’Shevat Tuesday, Jan. 26, 10 a.m.

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, please call Jo Kessler at (858) 637-7320.

The Best of Times Variety Show Sunday, Jan. 17, bus departs at 11 a.m.

Sisterhood Theatre explores the fabulous 40s and 50s with your favorite songs, dances and comedy. Kosher lunch is included. Cost: $20, by Jan. 7 Seussical JR. at J*Company at the JCC Sunday, Jan. 31, bus departs at noon Cost: $33, by Jan. 18.

JFS Coastal Club at Temple Solel 3575 Manchester Ave., Cardiff by the Sea Contact (858) 674-1123 for details.

R.S.V.P. for lunch by Monday at 12:30 p.m.

All activities are free and lunch is $7.

Bulls and Bears: Stock Market w/ Financial Planner Daniel Gomes Tuesday, Jan. 12, 11 a.m.

Explore the World with Road Scholar Tuesday, Jan. 19, 11 a.m.

JFS College Avenue Center 6299 Capri Drive, San Diego, CA 92120 Contact Sara Diaz (858) 637-3270 for details on any events or to R.S.V.P. Lions, Coyotes, and Bobcats, Oh My! with Linda Hawley, Mission Trails Regional Park Thursday, Jan. 7, 2:45 p.m.

Linda Hawley, Mission Trails Regional Park trail guide and educator, will introduce you to San Diego’s natives with real pets and replicated skulls, tracks and scats.

Creative Writing 101 with Lisa Balderston Monday, Jan. 11, 10 a.m.

This course will give students an opportunity to write in a variety of genres.

Students can choose to either refine a story or start something new.

Tevet • Shevat 5776 | SDJewishJournal.com 71

SHABBAT EVENTS

SYNAGOGUE LIFE FUNDRAISERS Cabaret Night Torah School Fundraiser at Temple Emanu-El Saturday, Jan. 9, 6 p.m.

6299 Capri Drive, San Diego, CA 92120; (619) 286-2555 Annual Gala “Speakeasy” at Congregation Beth Am Saturday, Jan. 30, 6 p.m.

5050 Del Mar Heights Rd, San Diego, CA 92130; (858) 481-8454 betham.com/civicrm/event/info?reset=1&id=2634

LEARNING OPPORTUNITIES Jews on the Chocolate Trail with Rabbi Deborah Prinz at Temple Adat Shalom Friday, Jan. 8 – Sunday, Jan 10 15905 Pomerado Road, Poway, CA 92064; (858) 451-1200 Scholar-in-residence program with a Saturday evening gala and more Art & Soul: Literature, the Art of Storytelling with Chabad of Scripps Ranch Monday, Jan. 11, time TBD 10785 Pomerado Road, San Diego, CA 92131; (858) 566-1996 $25 includes class, materials and light meal “The Lost Key,” film at Chabad of Poway Wednesday, Jan. 13, 7 p.m.

16934 Chabad Way, Poway, CA 92064; (858) 451-0455, ex. 12 Kabbalistic secrets: sexual relationships beyond the physical Shabbat Lunch & Learn w/ Nigel Savage at Temple Solel Saturday, Jan. 16, noon 3575 Manchester Ave, Cardiff, CA 92007; (760) 436-0654 templesolel.net 72 SDJewishJournal.com l January 2016

SOCIALIZE Shabbat Dinner and Services at Temple Beth Shalom Friday, January 8 at 6:15 pm 208 Madrona St. Chula Vista 91910 (858) 344-5632 $8 donation, R.S.V.P. requested Martin Luther King Jr. Day of Interfaith Community Service with Temple Beth Israel Monday, Jan. 18, 9 a.m.

Marston House 3525 Seventh Avenue, San Diego, CA 92103 Contact Beth Israel office at (858) 535-1111 for more information New Member Meet and Mingle Havdalah with Jewish Collaborative of San Diego Saturday, Jan. 23, 6 p.m.

Held in a private home in Santa Luz; R.S.V.P. at (760) 707-7111 *Interested in having your event featured?

Contact tinamarieb@sdjewishjournal.com. Submissions are due by 15th of the month for the next issues.

In Memoriam

Lottie Blumlein Marcus 19 1 6 - 2 0 1 5

T

he board and staff of American Associates, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev (AABGU) are deeply saddened by the loss of our dear friend, Lottie Blumlein Marcus, an energetic, kind-hearted woman of valor. Together with her beloved late husband of 72 years, Dr. Howard Marcus, Lottie made a significant impact on Israel’s Negev region through her magnanimous support of Ben-Gurion University of the Negev (BGU).

In 2004, they were awarded honorary doctoral degrees by BGU in recognition of their pioneering spirit, exceptional philanthropy and dedication to higher education.

Lottie was just a teenager when Hitler came to power.

Despite her parents’ refusal to leave Germany, she immigrated alone to New York at the age of 18 and ultimately became the only surviving member of her family.

She was a young, independent woman working on Wall Street at a time when that was rare. The skills and budding stars she met there paved the way for great investment success. In 1942, she married Howard, another German refugee, and they later moved to San Diego. Despite their modest lifestyle, they became noted philanthropists, Israel supporters and treasured members of the AABGU family.

The Marcus Family Campus in Beer-Sheva reflects their commitment to BGU and to the fulfillment of David Ben-Gurion’s vision to build a world-class institution of education and research in the Negev desert.

Through their longstanding support of BGU’s Zuckerberg Institute for Water Research, Lottie and Howard have endowed global breakthroughs in water research and science. Their generosity will make a dramatic impact on the development and growth of Ben-Gurion University for many years to come.

Lottie will be deeply missed, but her legacy will be felt in every BGU hallway and courtyard; in each classroom and laboratory; and by the faculty, students and technicians who will be touched by her noble-spirited generosity far into the future.

We extend our profound condolences to her daughter and our good friend, Ellen Marcus, a BGU board vice chair, and Ellen’s husband, Harvey Malyn; to Lottie’s granddaughter, Jennifer Hill and her husband, Ryan; and to all those who have been touched by Lottie’s gentle benevolence.

MAY T HEY BE COMFORT ED AMONG T HE MOURNER S OF ZION AND JERUSALEM.

Lloyd Goldman, President Ruth Flinkman-Marandy, Southwest Campaign Chair Doron Krakow, Executive Vice President Philip Gomperts, Southwest Regional Director

Tevet • Shevat 5776 | SDJewishJournal.com 73

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74 SDJewishJournal.com l January 2016

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ASK MARNIE

by Marnie Macauley

ADVICE asksadie@aol.com

Wonderful World of Women Women! What other gender thinks with such complexity, nuance, and, according to Louann Brizendine, author of “The Female Brain,” speaks an average of 20,000 words per day, nearly three times the mere 7,000 spoken by men. Of course this may have been a rumor spread by Jewish male marriage counselors, but we don’t need a “study” to tell us we’re … sensitive, empathetic, and have issues. Let’s look.

WIFE UNDER A PEDESTAL

Dear Marnie: Intelligent Husband vs. Dumbo Wife here. I’m really ashamed to say this, but I’m no match for my husband. He’s extremely intelligent, quick, decisive and successful.

Because of this, I have lost my self-confidence.

I don’t open my mouth in public, even though I know I’m right, for fear I might be wrong. He’s a computer genius, and I’m nothing, not even an undergraduate. I don’t want to spend a lot of money on college. How do I boost my esteem and become equal with him?

- Dazed and Confused

MARNIE SAYS: If you don’t stop crouching in that supine position, I’ll fly out there and thwack you upright! I know you have opinions. You said so. Unless your brilliant husband adored the idea of spending eternity with a potted plant, you must have been or done something he found delectable.

Before you threw yourself beneath his pedestal, who were you? Only positives now, even if it’s hearsay. Finish the sentence, “I am, most of all, a truly great...” listener? Mambo dancer? Decision maker?

Who do you wish to be? That’s “who,” not “what.” Use the words “a little more” or “a little less,” and write down the qualities you wish to own precisely. For example, “I’d like to be a little more assertive” or “a little less shy.”

Mamala, your husband didn’t put you under that pedestal, you did. And this stage was set early. Somewhere in the backwaters of your childhood you “learned” lies about you that still haunt the adult you, today. Get tough.

Find a better place: upright. Where? In exactly the place you don’t want to “spend a lot of money on.” College (or specialty training). Stop with the excuses. There are night classes, video courses, computer courses (if your Michael Dell is such a turk, he can spring for a few semesters). If school isn’t your fancy for now, focus that “I know I’m 76 SDJewishJournal.com l January 2016

right” on other things. Volunteer! There are scores of Jewish organizations just waiting for your input. Serve meals to AIDS patients. Teach a child to read. “Woman” a hotline.

Quit competing with your husband or anyone else. Do you want to be a Xerox or a unique creation?

Do what it takes to lift yourself from that stupor. You say you don’t want to lose him. My friend, how can there be a “we,” if there is no “you”?

SOLO SONG

Dear Marnie: I am a 40-year-old woman with my own website. I look good, I have funds, I’m educated. I love life and what it offers. I’ve had two marriage proposals, but from the wrong men. I worry I may intimidate prospects because I travel on my own, golf and am independent.

Friends have suggested that I play the defenseless, but I can’t do it. I am who I am and cannot fake what I’m not. What do you say?

- Ms. Independent MARNIE SAYS: Sweetie, you’ve got that bite ’em in the beeswax pepper that makes me want to bottle you! While Judaism considers marriage a mitzvah, we’re each considered as unique as snowflakes. You’re captain of your soul and have chosen freedom over a chuppah with the wrong man. Honey, as the kids say “you’ve got it going on.”

Play some helpless gothic heroine? Pish posh.

Your pals’ bibble babble is what’s making you wonder if you’re coming on like the Terminator.

If your desire for independence instead of picketfencing-it upsets them, their egos are made of Silly Putty. Ask yourself who’s got the problem?

Get new friends, OK? Useful ones who adore you for who you are, admire your pluck, and don’t feed their own needs on “pitying” damsels in need rescue, thank you.

ASK NOT WHAT HE CAN DO FOR YOU

Dear Marnie: I’ve been dating a nice guy now for about a year. We were friends for seven years in Day School before we became involved. I’m going to be 21 soon and I find myself thinking more and more about marriage (my parents are also pushing). My concern is, he’s too complacent about things. We have discussed what he wants and he’s content to get his degree and take an ordinary boring job as an accountant. Do I worry about finding a man to give me my exciting “happily ever after” or do I just stop worrying and be happy with the relationship?

- Young and Perplexed MARNIE SAYS: Oh, suffering space shoes! Who are you, some ancient, geezette! My heart just felt the pang of early suffocation – yours – at your words! Mamala, you’re mucking up your brain with the wrong stuff.

At your age, the choice isn’t whether to settle for a “if it’s Monday it must be meatloaf ” mate, even if you do adore him (although not once did I hear the word “love”).

Hanging in and getting all nutsy about the canyon between you is a bigger waste of time than me trying to bake a challah from scratch.

You haven’t even made a shidduch yet and you’re already kvetching.

It’s my sad duty to inform you that you could marry a cross between Mark Cuban and Matisyahu at this stage and still blow it. You see, despite rumors to the contrary, there is no mate, no paragon, no flesh and blood-er in the cosmos who can carve out your perfect “happily ever after.”

Time to state the “right” question. “Ask not what another can do for you, but rather – what you can do for you.” Now go do it. A

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ALL SERVICES ALREADY HELD Rose Slov-San Diego Dr. John Joseph GreismanCarlsbad 3/5/1918-10/6/2015 2/15/1938-10/11/2015 Survivors: daughter, Barbara Survivors: brother, William Ziering Greisman William Kolender-El Cajon Victor Jacobson-San Diego 5/23/1935-10/6/2015 8/21/1918-10/12/2015 Survivors: wife, Lois Kolender; Survivors: daughter, Barbara Grace Brenner-San Diego daughters, Randi Hoch and Jodi Jacobson 3/12/1923-10/1/2015 Karas; sons, Dennis and Michael Survivors: husband, Bernard Kolender; and five grandchildren David Flaum-San Diego Brenner; daughters, Deborah, 12/15/1922-10/12/2015 Sydney Porshin-San Diego Barbara and Gail Brenner; four Survivors: son, Iser Flaum 4/15/1917-10/7/2015 grandchildren and two greatSurvivors: wife, Annabel Porshin; grandchildren daughters, Jan Nielsen and Marsha Mark Hoffman-Rancho Mirage 7/8/1947-10/10/2015 Fern Kohn-San Diego Porshin; and one grandchild Survivors: sister, Elyse Garcia 10/10/1941-10/1/2015 Bertha Zeloner-Encinitas Survivors: husband, Allan Kohn Jeffrey Frank-Coronado 5/8/1911-10/9/2015 Barbara Jean Samuels-Carlsbad Survivors: daughter, Judi Schaim; 11/17/1952-10/14/2015 Survivors: daughter, Jessica Frank; 12/28/1953-10/4/2015 and son, Larry Perrin sister, Shawn Frank; and one Survivors: husband, Mark Samuels grandchild Sidney Silverman-Encinitas Sylvia Wilks-San Diego 6/21/1923-10/12/2015 8/24/1920-10/4/2015 Survivors: daughters, Stacy Survivors: daughter, Randee Halberg and Marci Gardiner; and Walker; and son, Douglas Wilks son, Scott Silverman Adela Hanono-Chula Vista 11/27/1930-9/30/2015 Survivors: husband, Abraham Hanono; sons, Ezra, Helfon, Jose and David Hanono; 10 grandchildren and two greatgrandchildren

Milton Iseman-Carlsbad 6/13/1929-10/21/2015 Survivors: Domestic Partner.

Marlene Sherman; daughter, Roni Sherman; and son, Steven Iseman Eva Gerstle-La Mesa 4/20/1914-10/21/2015 Survivors: daughters, Susan Page and Jacki Gerstle David Weinrieb-San Diego 4/16/1920-10/23/2015 Survivors: daughters, Diana Weinrieb and Rosalyn Hegler; and two grandchildren Fortunee Levy-El Cajon 8/26/1926-10/24/2015 Survivors: daughter, Lillian Keller; sons, Eli and Isaac Levy and Andrew Rubin; eight grandchildren and three greatgrandchildren

Tevet • Shevat 5776 | SDJewishJournal.com 77

Every family has a secret...

LET’S DO THE TIME WARP AGAIN!

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RICHARD O’BRIEN’S

ROCKY HORROR SHOW

WHEN THE

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JAN 14 FEB 14

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78 SDJewishJournal.com l January 2016

THE HIT MUSICAL COMEDY

From the Producers of MY MOTHER’S ITALIAN, MY FATHER’S JEWISH & I’M IN THERAPY!, RESPECT: A MUSICAL CELEBRATION OF WOMEN!, & YOU SAY TOMATO, I SAY SHUT UP!

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Tevet • Shevat 5776 | SDJewishJournal.com 79

SAN DIEGO

2016

films

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