J Street hails beginning of Mideast ‘proximity talks’

WASHINGTON, D.C. (Press Release)–J Street Executive Director Jeremy Ben-Ami on Monday welcomed the launch of indirect talks between Israel and the Palestinians, scheduled to begin on Wednesday.  His statement follows:

J Street welcomes the launch of Israeli-Palestinian proximity talks.

While the start of talks is a step in the right direction, those committed to ending the conflict peacefully should remain focused not on maintaining a process but concluding it successfully. This will require moving quickly to address the final status issues at the core of resolving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict through a two-state solution.

The role of the United States in the coming weeks is crucial. The Obama Administration will have to demonstrate that it is serious not simply about reaching a resolution quickly but that it is willing to exert the courageous leadership necessary to press both sides to take the hard decisions required to resolve the conflict.

The talks should be used to establish the positions of the sides on the core issues, to narrow gaps, and then to put on the table concrete ideas for bridging those gaps, in a process that holds the parties to task and accountable for results.

The outlines of a viable resolution are well-known and should serve as the basis for the parties’ discussions: borders based on the 1967 lines with land swaps, Jewish areas in Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, Palestinian areas of Jerusalem as the capital of the future Palestinian state, arrangements for the Old City that guarantee freedom of worship for all religions, and a reasonable resolution to the refugee issue, through compensation and resettlement in the new Palestinian state.

We urge Israelis, Palestinians, and the Obama Administration to seize this opportunity with a seriousness of purpose that matches the urgency of the moment. The clock is winding down on the viability of a two-state solution, and the only way to preserve Israel’s future as a Jewish, democratic home, prevent another round of violence and advance U.S. interests in the region is through successful American-led resolution of this conflict.

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Preceding provided by J Street

AJE announces summer classes for adults

SAN DIEGO (Press Release)–The Agency for Jewish Education has announced the lineup of their 2010 Sizzling Summer Classes. Noah Hadas, will kickoff the summer classes in June. Hadas’ class is titled,”Murder in the Torah: Cain, Simeon & Levi, and Moses stand trial”and meets once a week for 3 weeks beginning June 15, 2010.

Professor Sanford Lakoff of UCSD will teach a 5 week class beginning on July 8th on “Israel: A condensed history of its origins and challenges.”

Starting on August 11th, Rabbi Lenore Bohm will discuss over 3 sessions
“The seven quesitons you”re asked in Heaven: Reviewing and renewing your life in earth.”
 

These summer classes meet at Congregation Beth Israel in the morning and at the JCC (except for The Seven Questions class which meets at Temple Solel) in the evening. Tuition is $50 for the 3-session classes, and $80 for the 5-session class. For more information or to register, contact the Agency for Jewish Education, (858) 268-9200 ext.102 or visit www.ajesd.org.

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Preceding provided by the Agency for Jewish Education

ADL lauds walkout on Ahmadinejad’s nuclear speech at U.N. conference

 

WASHINGTON, D.C. (Press Release)–The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) on Monday praised the countries whose delegates walked out on Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s speech at a United Nations conference after he accused the U.S., Israel and an unspecified European country of threatening Iran with nuclear weapons.

The Iranian president was delivering remarks to the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) Review conference.

Abraham H. Foxman, ADL National Director issued the following statement:

 

“While there may be legal and diplomatic obligations to grant Ahmadinejad the UN podium, there is also a moral obligation to condemn his words, his actions and what he stands for. Ahmadinejad denies the Holocaust, denies there are homosexuals in Iran, and denies the existence of Iran’s nuclear weapons program. To this list of lies he added another – that the U.S. and Israel pose a nuclear threat to Iran, when in fact the opposite is true.

 

“We appreciate the gesture made by those states that walked out, for it sends a strong personal message to Ahmadinejad that his rants do not deserve the respect of an audience. We also appreciate UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon’s preemptive and public declaration that ‘the onus is on Iran’ to resolve this crisis.

 

“Ahmadinejad’s presence at the NPT conference is a perfect opportunity for the international community to send him the message that he needs to hear: If Iran doesn’t shut down its nuclear weapons program, there will be severe consequences.”

 

Representatives from the United States, Australia, Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Morocco, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Poland, Romania, Slovakia and the United Kingdom left the room as Ahmadinejad opened his remarks. Canada reportedly boycotted the speech from the outset.

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Preceding provided by the Anti-Defamation League

 

The intractability of the Palestinian-Israeli dispute

 

 By Alex Grobman

Alex Grobman

ENGLEWOOD, New Jersey — There are many attempts to understand why the Arab/Israel conflict remains unresolved.  Among the reasons advanced for this impasse are: years of suspicion, fear, feelings of injustice and stereotyping have created a psychological barrier between Israelis and Arabs.¹ Negative perceptions have reduced incentives to accept peace proposals, prejudice the viability of these proposals and preclude feelings of empathy.²

On the most personal level, there are differences in Arab and Jewish life-styles. Meron Benvenisti, a former deputy mayor of Jerusalem, laments the gulf dividing Arabs and Jews even when they live together as neighbors. They patronize the same stores, exchange information on common neighborhood issues, drink coffee in the afternoon, and watch their children growing up from opposite sides of the fence.³ 

Yet they do not share common holidays, days of rest, or free time activities. Holidays are especially alienating. Benvenisti would not invite his neighbors to sit in his sukkah (booths used during the Feast of Tabernacles) lest they be offended when he recites the prayer over the wine. Similarly, when one of his neighbor’s children returned from the hajj, the annual religious pilgrimage to Mecca, his family would not be invited to celebrate to save them embarrassment for not knowing how to behave.⁴

Estrangement is even more pronounced the moment visible symbols are involved. When Benvenisti displays the flag on Israeli Independence Day, he knows his neighbors will be upset. On Yom Kippur, work ceases throughout the country. During the month of Ramadan, Arabs rise at 3: 00 a.m. A blind man in his neighborhood, who is escorted by a drummer, wakes-up the pious at 3:a.m. to prepare the meal before the fast. ⁵

Security issues add another layer of distance. Every one of his Arab neighbor’s homes has been searched at least once during the 14 years the Benvenisti’s lived in Jerusalem. Every single male over the age of 18 has been detained by the security forces during the same period. “We are simultaneously enemies and neighbors,” he concludes.⁵

The many wars, endless clashes and threats of total annihilation have left memories of “hatred, paranoia, brutality, dehumanization, and tribalism.” Even as Israel becomes more powerful, many Israelis still feel “vulnerable and weak.” The Holocaust continues to be a “national trauma.”  Fear remains an overwhelming emotion.⁶

Sari Nusseibeh, scion of one Jerusalem’s most prominent Muslim Arab families, president of Al Quds University in Jerusalem, and a former PLO representative in the city, posits that the “inability to imagine the lives of the ‘other,’ is main reason why the conflict persists. Everyone is so absorbed in their own adversity they are unaware of each other’s experiences and even antagonistic to them.⁷

The late Edward Said, a pro-Palestinian activist and a professor of English and Comparative Literature at Columbia University, underlined the fundamental reason why when he spoke of Palestinians becoming the victims of Zionism, of the Zionists being responsible for the destruction of their society, the loss of their land, and the painful exile they are forced to endure.⁸

He accused the Zionists of being a “tool of imperialism” who usurped their land, established settler colonies and a sovereign state whose only means of preservation is by aggression and expansion.  Some Arabs believe that Israel is by nature an expansionist nation, and will continue to take more land at Arab expense.⁹ 

Seizing Arab land cannot be tolerated.  Bernard Lewis, one of the world’s leading experts on Islam, explains that once a territory has become part of Islam‘s domain, it can never be relinquished or surrendered to anyone. No land is more significant than Arabia and Iraq. And of the two, Arabia is clearly the most important.¹⁰

The sacredness of Muslim land led to the eviction of Jews and Christians from their homes and property. In 641, 20 years after Muhammad moved from Mecca to Medina, Caliph Umar decreed that Jews and Christians be expelled from Arabia in accordance with the Prophet’s deathbed pronouncement: “Let there not be two religions in Arabia.”

This meant Jews of the oasis of Khybar in the north and Christians of Najran in the south were to be banished even though both groups had very deep roots in the region and differed from their Muslim neighbors only in their religion.¹¹

The Jews were relocated to Syria and Palestine and the Christians to Iraq. Compared to the expulsions Jews experienced in Europe, this was more limited. Jews were not forced out immediately.  They left gradually, but the decision to expel them was irrevocable. From then on, non-Muslims were forbidden to walk on this sacred soil, which became a major transgression. Elsewhere in the Saudi Kingdom, non-Muslims could enter as temporary visitors, but could not become residents or practice their religion.¹²

Arabs call Israeli Independence Day, the Nakba (Catastrophe), and regard it as a day of mourning.  Hanan Ashrawi, a leading Palestinian advocate, regards the establishment of the Jewish state was as an “unimaginable aberration.”¹³ Other Arab leaders portray Zionism as “a disaster”¹⁴ and a “sword …at the necks of the Palestinian people.”¹⁵

 What Benvenisti, Nusseibeh and others fail to mention is that the fundamental objective of the militant and violent Arabs is to destroy Western culture and civilization and replace it with their own “civilization of dhimmitude,” where non-Muslims will be forced to become a “protected” minority subordinating themselves to restrictive and degrading Islamic law to avoid death or enslavement. For 1,300 years, this jihad political force has subjugated and even eliminated major areas of Judeo-Christian, Buddhist, Hindu and other religious civilizations in Europe, Asia and Africa. Non-Muslims either converted, disappeared or were rendered incapable of further development.¹⁶

The goal of conquering the West is avowed in the introduction to The Charter of Allah: The Platform of Hamas: “We say to this West, which does not act reasonably, and does not learn its lessons: By Allah, you will be defeated. You will be defeated in Palestine, and your defeat there has already begun. True, it is Israel that is being defeated there, but when Israel is defeated, its path is defeated, those who call to support it are defeated, and the cowards who hide behind it and support it are defeated. Israel will be defeated, and so will whoever supported or supports it.”¹⁷

That is why the Israeli and American war on terrorism in the twenty- first century is one and the same. ¹⁸ Hamas prime minister Isma`il Haniya, confirmed this when he said: “…the march of resistance will continue until the Islamic flag is raised, not only over the minarets of Jerusalem, but over the whole universe.”¹⁹ The delusion that they are separate conflicts has conferred an element of legitimacy on the vicious acts of terrorism in Israel.²⁰

The attacks against the U.S. on September 11, 2001 were the latest manifestation of the Islamic jihad to establish universal world domination.²¹This goal can be realized through demographic growth and conversion of the local population. Large numbers of teachers and religious leaders will be mobilized to teach Islam in every language and dialect. Should peaceful methods prove inadequate, physical force can be used. ²²

Even if Hamas agreed to a hunda (truce) with Israel, this would only be a strategic tactic that would not signal an end to the struggle or a change in objectives. Abbas al-Sayyid, (the political leader of Hamas in Tulkarm and the convicted Izz-ad-Din al- Qassam Brigades commander of Hamas’ military wing), who was the architect of the bombing of the Park Hotel in Netanya on March 27, 2002 in which 30 people were killed and 140 injured, made this clear.²³

Hamas, he said, is prepared for a truce for an extensive period of time, but for religious reasons could not allow Israel to occupy Islamic lands. If Abbas did not succeed in obtaining the land that is “rightfully mine” then perhaps his “son or grandson will.” ²⁴

What will happen to the people who allegedly stole Arab lands?  Mahmoud Darwish, a very popular poet of the Palestinian resistance, provided the answer in a powerful poem “Bitaqit Hawia,” (Identity Card) written in 1964. Although professing not to “hate people,” Darwish warned, “The usurper’s flesh will be my food. Beware, Beware, Of my hunger And my anger!”²⁵

 “The curious power of this little poem is that when it first appeared in the late sixties, it did not represent as much as embody the Palestinian whose political identity in the world had been pretty much reduced to a name on an identity card,” Edward Said noted. ²⁶

Is there any Zionist poetry or statement that describes the Palestinians in comparable ways? And if any does exist, who could claim that it is the “embodiment of the Israelis,” that it represents the view of the Jewish people? ²⁷

For many Arabs, the conflict with Zionism is a religious war against the Jewish people. Since the Jews are not going to leave their homeland voluntarily, the solution is clear according to Abdallah Jarbu’, Hamas deputy minister of religious endowments:   ”May He annihilate this filthy people who have neither religion nor conscience.  I condemn whoever believes in normalizing relations with them, whoever supports sitting down with them, and whoever believes that they are human beings. They are not human beings. They are not people. They have no religion, no conscience, and no moral values.”²⁸

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Endnotes

1. Saul Friedlander and Mahmoud Hussein, Arabs and Israelis: A Dialogue. (New York: Holmes and Meier, 1975), 3-16; William B. Quandt, “Ideology and Objectives,” in The Politics of Palestinian Nationalism, William B. Quandt, Fuad Jabber and Ann Mosely Lesch, ed. (Berkeley, California: University of California Press, 1973), 94-95. 

2. Moises F. Salinas, Planting Hatred, Sowing Pain, (Westport, Connecticut: Praeger, 2007), 5-10, 33; Nadim N. Rouhana and Daniel Bar-Tal, “Psychological Dynamics of Intractable Ethnonational Conflicts: The Israeli-Palestinian Case,” American Psychologist Volume 53 number 7: 760-770; Oz Almog, The Sabra, The Creation of the New Jew. (Berkeley, California: University of California Press, 2000), 190-201.

3. Meron Benvenisti, Conflicts and Contradictions. (New York: Villard Books, 1986), 13.

4. Ibid.13.

5. Ibid. 13-16.

6. Amos Elon, A Blood-Dimmed Tide: Dispatches From the Middle East. (New York: Columbia University Press, 1997), 6, 268-270; Ofer Grosbard, Israel on the Couch: The Psychology of the Peace Process. (Albany, New York: State University of New York, 2003), 1-6.

7.  Sari Nusseibeh, Once upon A Country: A Palestinian Life. (New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2007), 12; an attempt to understand each other’s tragedies can be found in Paul Scham, Walid Salem and Benjamin Pogrund, eds., Shared Histories: A Palestinian-Israeli Dialogue (Jerusalem: The Harry S. Truman Research Institute for the Advancement of Peace of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Palestinian Center for the Dissemination of Democracy and Community Development (Panorama) and Yakar Center for Social Concern, 2005); Amos Elon and Sana Hassan, Between Enemies: A Compassionate Dialogue Between An Israeli and An Arab. New York: Random House, 1974; Friedlander and Hussein, op.cit; Simha Flapan, ed. When Enemies Dare To Talk: An Israeli-Palestinian Debate, (London: Croom Helm, Ltd., 1979).

8.  Edward W. Said and Christopher Hitchens, eds. Blaming the Victims: Spurious Scholarship and the Palestinian Question. (New York: Verso, 1988), 6-7; please also see Fawaz Turki, The Disinherited: Journal of a Palestinian Exile. New York: Monthly Review Press, 1972; Abu Iyad, My Home, My Land: A Narrative of the Palestinian Struggle. (New York: Times Books, 1981); Issa Khalaf, Politics in Palestine: Arab Factionalism and Social Disintegration 1939-1948. (Albany, New York: State University of New York, 1991); Flapan, op.cit.

9. Mark A. Heller, and Sari Nusseibeh, No Trumpets, No Drums: A Two-State Solution of the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict (New York: Hill and Wang, 1991), 5,-8,150-151; Edward Said, The Question of Palestine. (New York: Vintage Books, 1979) , 7-8, 10, 69, 71.; Hassan Nafaa, “Manifest Colonial Domination,” Al-Ahram (August 9-15, 2007) Issue Number 857, Online; Richard P. Stevens, “Zionism as a Phase of Western Imperialism,” in Transformation of Palestine, Ibrahim Abu-Lughod, (Evanston, Illinois: Northwestern University Press, 1987), 27-59; Sami Hadawi, Bitter Harvest: Palestine Between 1914-1967 (New York: The New World Press, 1967), 3-8; Sami Hadawi, Palestinian Rights And Losses In 1948: A Comprehensive Study. (London: Saqi Books, 1988); Mohamed Sid-Ahmed, op.cit. 110-11, 115. 125; Quandt, “Ideology and Objectives,”op.cit. 100-107; Yehoshafat Harkabi, Arab Strategies and Israel’s Response. New York: The Free Press, 1977; Kathleen Christianson, Perceptions of Palestine: Their Influence on U.S. Middle East Policy (Berkeley, California: University of California Press, 2000), 1-4.

10. Bernard Lewis, Faith and Power: Religion and Politics in the Middle East (New York: Oxford University Press, 2010), 4.

11. Ibid.5.

12. Ibid.

13. Hanan Ashrawi, This Side of Peace. (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1995), 24; Hanan Ashrawi, “Palestine and Peace: The Looming Challenges,” Miftah (April 30, 2007), Online; Flapan, ed. o.cit.79, 82. 

14. Musa Alami, “The Lesson of Palestine,” The Middle East Journal Volume 3 Number 4 (October 1949): 375. 

15. Yoav Stern, “At rally, Hadash touts two-state solution without the Jewishness,” Haaretz (December 9, 2007); “Catholic leader rejects ‘Jewish state,’” Jerusalem Post (December 19, 2007).

16. Bat Ye’or, Eurabia: The Euro-Arab Axis. (Teaneck, New Jersey: Fairleigh Dickinson University Press, 2005), 9; Bat Ye’or, Islam and Dhimmitude: Where Civilizations Collide.  (Teaneck, New Jersey: Farleigh Dickinson University Press, 2002); Wilfred Cantwell Smith, Islam in Modern History (New York: Mentor Books, 1957); Daniel Pipes, “Islam and Islamism-Faith and Ideology,” National Interest (Spring 2000).

17. Yehudit Barsky, Hamas, op.cit. 1; Yehudit Barsky, The New Leadership of Hamas: A Profile of Khalid Al-Mish‘al, (New York: American Jewish Committee, 2004):1; Yehudit Barsky, Islamic Jihad Movement in Palestine (New York: American Jewish Committee, 2002): 5, 7.

18. Saul Singer, “Interesting Times: The two-conflict delusion,” The Jerusalem Post (May 12, 2004).

19. Barsky, Hamas, op.cit. 2. In an editorial in the Palestinian Al-Quds newspaper in July 2007, Israeli Arab Knesset Member Ahmed Tibi, said, “Palestine belongs to its Arab residents, not the Jewish occupiers.” Seven months earlier, he exhorted the Palestinian Authority in Ramallah to oppose the “occupation” until they reclaimed the West Bank and eastern Jerusalem. “Arab MK: ‘Palestine Belongs to Arabs, Not Jews.” Arutz 7 (July 29, 2007); “Arab MK: Fight Israeli ‘occupation’.” JTA (July 29, 2007).

20. Singer, op.cit. According to the latest edition of the Encyclopedia of Islam, the definition of jihad is: “In law, according to general doctrine and in historical tradition, the jihad consists of military action with the object of the expansion of Islam, and if need be, of its defense.” Quoted in David Cook, Understanding Jihad (Berkeley, California: University of California Press, 2005), 2; Lewis, Faith and Power: Religion and Politics in the Middle East op.cit. 8-9; Mark Steyn, America Alone: The End of the World As We Know It. Washington, D.C. Regnery Publishing, Inc., 2006); Robert S. Wistrich, “Muslim Anti-Semitism: A Clear and Present Danger,” American Jewish Committee (2002); Robert S. Wistrich, A Lethal Obsession: Anti-Semitism from Antiquity to the Global Jihad (New York: Random House, 2010); for an analysis of the challenges Western Europe faces from Islam see, Daniel Pipes, “Europe’s Stark Options,” National Interest (March-April 2007).

21. Efraim Karsh, “Islam’s World for World Mastery,” The New York Sun (May 18, 2007).  

22. Efraim Karsh, Islamic Imperialism: A History (New Haven, Connecticut: Yale University press, 2006), 232; Robert Spencer, Stealth Jihad: How Radical Islam Is Subverting America without Guns or Bombs (Washington, D.C.: Regnery Publishing, Inc, 2008);

Robert Spencer, The Politically Incorrect Guide to Islam (and the Crusades) (Washington, D.C.: Regnery Publishing, Inc, 2005; Steve Emerson, Jihad Incorporated: A Guide to Militant Islam in the US (Amherst, New York: Prometheus Books, 2006) Daniel Pies, Militant Islam Reaches America. (New York: W.W. Norton and Company 2002).

23. Matthew Levitt, Hamas: Politics, Charity, and Terrorism in the Service of Jihad. (New Haven, Connecticut: Yale University Press, 2007), 243.

24. Ibid.

25. Quoted in Said, op.cit. 155-156; Mahmoud Darwish, “Identity Card,” Online; See also “Gaza Palestinian Salafi Jihad Jama’at Al-Tawhid Wa’l- Jihad Issues Communiqué on Arab Regimes, Hamas, the Muslim Brotherhood, and Conflict with Israel: We Will Decapitate the Jews and Rip Their Hearts from Their Bodies,” MEMRI Special Dispatch 2878(March 26, 2010);

“Hamas Deputy Minister of Religious Endowments Abdallah Jarbu’ on Al-Aqsa TV: ‘Allah will Poison the Air Breathed by the Jews…the Americans… the Crusaders and All the Zionists…There Must be a Third Intifada,” MEMRI Special Dispatch 2879(March 28, 2010).

26. Said, op.cit.155-156.

27. Cameron S. Brown, “Answering Edward Said’s The Question of Palestine,” Israel Affairs Volume 13 Number 1 (January 2007,), 59.

28. “On Al-Aqsa TV, Hamas Deputy Minister of Religious Calls for Jews to be Annihilated, Saying They Are Bacteria, Not Human Beings,” MEMRI Special Dispatch 2858 ( March 15, 2010).

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Dr. Grobman, a Hebrew University trained historian, is the author of The Palestinian Right To Israel (Balfour Books, 2010). He is the president of Balfour Trust, an educational outreach to help Christians understand the Jewish roots of their faith, Zionism and the State of Israel.

Five congregations plan Shavuot study-in at San Diego Jewish Academy

SAN DIEGO (Press Release)–On May 18, San Diego Jewish Academy and several local synagogues will host a community wide event entitled Tikkun Leil Shavuot: An Evening of Learning, which will focus on uniting the Jewish community.

In July of last year, San Diego Jewish Academy (SDJA) invited local synagogues to participate in a compact designed to broaden and enhance the educational and spiritual opportunities available to San Diego’s Jewish community. This partnership became known as the Synagogue – SDJA Compact.

In conjunction with local synagogues Congregation Beth Am, Beth El, Beth Israel, Temple Solel and Ohr Shalom, SDJA will host this May 18 event on its campus. Shavuot is a traditional Jewish holiday that involves studying late into the evening. The goal of the event is to bring the diverse Jewish community together to explore its differences by examining the topic of pluralism, which is also a core value of SDJA.

Pluralism is defined as the tolerance of multiple religious beliefs in one community or society. Although Judaism is a unified culture, the religion has various sects with different beliefs, which makes pluralism an appropriate topic for the evening. The evening will feature various study groups and discussion panels relating to this topic.

“San Diego’s Jewish community is broad,” stated David Kornberg, Rabbi at Congregation Beth Am. “An event like Tikkun Leil Shavuot gives us an opportunity to come together as a community, explore our differences and figure out how we can work together.”

Tikkun Leil Shavuot: An Evening of Learning will begin at 6:00 pm with a candle lighting and prayer, and then be followed by an optional kosher dinner for $10. Dinner tickets need to be purchased in advance to observe religious beliefs. At 7:15 pm, the evening will culminate with the keynote speaker, Rabbi Mordecai Finley, Ph.D., who is the former president of the Academy for Jewish Religion. After the keynote speaker, the event will continue with various learning sessions and discussion panels from prominent Jewish San Diegans. The study groups will continue late into the evening, as is traditional on Shavuot, and a dairy dessert will be available to attendees as well. 

“We tried to offer diverse programming that would appeal to a wide Jewish audience,” said Larry Acheatel, executive director at SDJA and discussion group leader. “It is important to provide an event that can accommodate all ages and Jewish beliefs. We are even offering special teen programming,” continued Acheatel.

The event is free to the public and welcomes all San Diegans. For more information or to purchase dinner tickets, visit www.sandiegojewishcommunity.com or contact Rebecca Besquin at (858) 704-3861 or rbesquin@sdja.com.

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Preceding provided by San Diego Jewish Academy

JFS offers workshops for the economically squeezed

SAN DIEGO (Press Release)–Jewish Family Service of San Diego has created a new program to provide special help to individuals and families who are struggling through the tough economic times. The JFS Economic Crisis Response Program provides free workshops, counseling, and case management services to the entire San Diego community.

Upcoming May workshops include:

May 4 •  6:30-9:00pm • Career Planning: Effective Job Search Strategies at Temple Emanu-El

May 5 •  6:30-8:00pm • Nutrition: Healthy Eating on a Budget

May 11 • 6:30-9:00pm • Career Planning: Interviewing Skills at Temple Emanu-El

May 12 • 6:30-8:00pm • Introduction to Meditation and Stress Reduction

May 13 • 6:30-8:00pm • A Guide to Making Positive Financial Change: Budgeting and Debt Reducing Strategies

May 18 • 6:30-8:00pm •  Bankruptcy: A Financial Strategy for Troubled Times

May 25 • 6:30-9:00pm • Career Planning: Writing Resumes That Work at Temple Emanu-El

May 26 • 6:30-8:00pm • HOME Workshop: Loan Modifications as a Foreclosure Prevention Option

All workshops are at the JFS Turk Family Center, located at 8804 Balboa Ave., San Diego 92123 unless otherwise noted. For more information about these workshops and to register online, visit www.jfssd.org/ECR. All workshops are free and open to the public. Locations vary.

Individuals who are seeking counseling and case management services are invited to call the JFS Access Line at (877) 537-1818, or contact Jewish Family Service online at www.jfssd.org.

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Preceding provided by Jewish Family Service of San Diego

JFS honors current volunteers, seeks more

JFS Volunteer Wayne Bradbury was honored by Jewish Family Service CEO, Jill Spitzer and seated Lorraine Stern

SAN DIEGO (Press Release)--The On the Go program of Jewish Family Service held its Volunteer Appreciation Event on Friday, April 23 from 11:30am to 1:30pm.

On the Go is a program of the Jewish Senior Service Council, delivered by Jewish Family Service, that provides both group and individual transportation to older adults who no longer drive. The 50’s themed event was held at the San Diego Collection, a museum featuring the private collection of rare and exotic vehicles of Mr. Charles R. (Chuck) Swimmer.

One volunteer thanked On the Go for the event, saying “The food, the place, the gifts and all the thank you’s made for a very memorable event. JFS sure knows how to appreciate its volunteers.”

The event honored Wayne Bradbury with the Jack Stern Volunteer of the Year Award for Outstanding Volunteer Service. Retired Police Detective, Wayne first joined North County Inland (NCI) Rides & Smiles® as a volunteer driver in February 2008. Wayne now provides rides five days a week, several times a day, to older adults going to dialysis, employment, doctor appointments, volunteer opportunities, synagogue, shopping and more. From March 2008 through February 2010, Wayne provided more than 1,200 rides, totaling more than 1,500 volunteer hours and nearly 37,000 miles of driving.

Rides & Smiles®, one of three components of the On the Go program, is an award-winning program that uses volunteer drivers to provide individual transportation for older adults to necessary medical appointments, grocery shopping, and other life necessities in the North County Inland area, College Area, Allied Gardens, San Carlos, Grantville, University City, Clairemont, and La Jolla. Rides & Smiles® is currently holding a volunteer recruitment campaign with a goal of recruiting 60 new drivers by June 2010. All new volunteers will receive a coupon good for one full service car wash, valued at $13.49, at any Body Beautiful Car Wash & Auto Detailing Center. For more information on how to become a volunteer driver, visit www.jfssd.org/onthego or call (858) 637-3050. 

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Preceding provided by Jewish Family Service

Palestinians will be disappointed by hope U.S. or Arab League can deliver Israeli concessions

By Ira Sharkansky

Ira Sharkansky

JERUSALEM–The wet dream of the Palestinians is that someone else will solve their problems by forcing Israel to do what is right. They are told time and again by their leaders that it is only they who have suffered, and only they whose claims are just.

To their own harm, much of the world has signed onto some or all of their narrative. It is common to demand that Israel go back to where it was in 1967. Well-to-do countries pour resources into Palestine, either via UNRWA, or as direct grants to the Palestine National Authority.

The Arab League has adopted the Palestinian baby as its own, and can be counted upon to weigh in with its demands on Israel and others. The League has approved indirect talks between Palestinians and Israelis, and insists on the right to decide if the talks can move into a direct mode.

Now the Palestinians seem to have the American White House in their corner. It is thanks to President Obama that there is about to be another round of negotiations between Palestinians and Israelis.

This is a time for great expectations and speculation. Is there a Palestinian State in the offing? Or will the Palestinians miss another opportunity?

Being modest in the extreme, I will avoid the big questions, and confine myself to comments on the value of all that help the Palestinians have received.

One of my views is that the Palestinians are suffering from the world’s worst case of welfare dependence. Another is that there are too many cooks in this kitchen to produce a good broth.

Welfare kills, at least in the quantity that it has come to Palestinians. If any of their officials have had the skill or the will to join Israelis in formulating a decent proposal for dividing what is available, that has been emasculated by six generations of feeding at someone else’s table and demanding one or another great power to solve their problems.

This may be the Palestinians last chance to work with Israel, rather than with Americans, the UN, Europeans, the Arab League, Third World or non-governmental allies.
It is only Israeli authorities who can agree to something that most Israelis want to achieve: a reasonable division of the land, in light of what has happened to it up until today. If the Palestinians do not make that effort this time, Israelis might gobble up so much of what remains that Palestinians will go the way of the Dodo bird, or all those American Indian tribes that used to be.

The active engagement of the White House, the Arab League, and other hangers-on does not bode well for negotiations. They will reinforce Palestinian dependence on others, and Palestinian insistence on the full mantra of their standard demands.
Palestinians would be better off working with Israel to define an accommodation that appeals to both parties.

That will not be easy. One problem for the Palestinians will come from the insistence of the Arab League and others in behalf of the standard demands. Another is the composition of the Israeli government. It is not a Palestine-friendly collection of individuals and political parties. 

President Obama might help the Palestinians with his rhetoric, but they should remember that he is an American, and not an Arab president. That means he is in a position to lead public opinion at home and abroad, but is dependent on others in political arrangements that may be the most multi-faceted and complex in the world. Congress and the Democratic Party do not make foreign policy, but they provide leverage on the president for American voters, opinion leaders, interest groups, campaign donors, and fund raisers.

We saw some of this at work in the recent moderation of a White House-Israel squabble. It came after a number of prominent Americans expressed the view that the President was too attentive to Palestinian, and not sufficiently concerned with Israeli interests.

Barack Obama likes accomplishments. Like a pragmatic politician in the way of western democracies, he may be more concerned with getting a deal than bothering with all the details.

Will the Palestinians find themselves caught between the insistence of the Arab League and other enthusiasts, their own fascination with a long-serving narrative, a stubborn Israeli government, and an American President pushing for a deal? And what if the American President decides that he cannot go against Israelis and Americans turned off, once again, by Palestinian insistence?

This is not a time for detailed predictions, and it is not my style in any case.

In the remote possibility that any of my words may get to the Palestinians who are involved in this process, I would urge them to stop dreaming, wake up, and take their future into their own hands. 
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Sharkansky is professor emeritus of political science at Hebrew University

San Diego County’s Historic Places: California Surf Museum

Exhibit at California Surf Museum

By Donald H. Harrison

Donald H. Harrison

OCEANSIDE, California – Surf historian Jane Schmauss vividly recalls the day she waited expectantly as the telephone rang at the home of Kathy Kohner Zuckerman, a legendary figure in the development of surfing as a popular sport.

“Hello?” responded the voice on the other end.

“Hello,” said Schmauss. “Is this the real Gidget?”

There was a pause on the other end. “Who wants to know?” asked Zuckerman.

Schmauss explained that she was among a group of surfing enthusiasts in San Diego County who had started the California Surf Museum, which was trying to preserve both the history and the legends of surfing.

“Gidget” was the nickname young surfers had given to Kohner in the late 1950s when she was a 15-year-old girl hanging around the beach at Malibu. It was a contraction for “Girl Midget.”

The pop culture figure told Schmauss that in the years since her father, Frederick Kohner, had written the best-selling book Gidget: The Little Girl With Big Ideas, based on her diaries, and after the television sitcom Gidget, which had launched the acting career of Sally Field, she had been living a quiet life, working in a book store and being married to Yiddish professor Marvin Zuckerman.

That first conversation occurred sometime in the 1980s when the surfing museum movement—which now has blossomed into a worldwide phenomenon—was just getting underway, said Schmauss, who was in the group of the museum’s founders.

Once surf museums started to spring up, Schmauss added, “people were curious to see the real Gidget, to get her diary, to her her recollections. She speaks very well, she’s a very capable, very entertaining guest lecturer. From that time until now, they fly her all over the world to talk about the music, the personalities, and her own experiences of that time.”

Sam Zugner, a surfing semi-professional who supplements his income by working at the museum, commented that he has a copy of the book Gidget on which the cover illustration is of a young Kathy Kohner. After Field became the personification of Gidget thanks to the television series, new book jackets had Field’s photo, rather than Kohner’s, he recalled. His particular edition of the book, therefore, is quite a collector’s item.

The lives of Kohner and other legendary surfers and surf enthusiasts are described in the museum on posters that follow the development of the sport from its earliest days when George Freeth and Duke Kahanamoku were popularizing it in the early 20th century to modern times when Lisa Anderson and Kelly Slater are inspirations for a new generation of surfers. The museum also displays numerous surfboards ranging from “Makai,” a surf board 9’8 in length that was owned by Kahanamoku to Anderson’s lightweight 5’11 board, personally autographed.

Midway through the exhibit is the story of Kohner, whose family went regularly from their home in Brentwood to the beach at Malibu. Rather than sit with her parents and engage in long conversations with their friends, Kohner recollected in a forward to her father’s book, “I would wander up the beach, taking long walks.” She came upon the “surfers who dwelled beside Malibu Pier. Watching them ride the waves was incredible. I immediately decided to buy a surfboard and try my best to learn the art of surfing. I bought my surfboard from Mike Doyle for $30 and hit the water. I wasn’t really sure what I was doing but I watched the boys on their boards and imitated as best as I could. I also started to socialize with the same group of surfers, mostly male, and actually became rather fascinated with their way of life. It was a most alluring life style, especially to a 15-year-old girl.”

She told her parents about the boys who lived on a shack on the beach and who lived for nothing more than to go surfing. As a Hollywood screenwriter, her father recognized a good story when he heard one. In just six weeks he converted her diary into the novel that helped to popularize the sport. With the emergence of surf music—particularly as popularized by the Beach Boys—surfing became a permanent part of the California culture.

Chasing down the stories of the sport is what Schmauss, a former school teacher, just loves to do. Prevented by arthritis from surfing herself, she nevertheless has become as immersed in the subject matter as a surfer deep within a “tube” experiencing a cresting wave.

“The thing I get time and time again from the older surfers is the joy and passion and fun of catching a wave, and optimally sharing that moment with your friends,” she said. “Every wave is different. It can’t be repeated. And every one is a gift.”

Schmauss said she has come to appreciate that there are “people who surf” and then there are “surfers,” the latter category being an honor that relatively few attain.

She told of meeting a 96-year-old woman in Hawaii, who “lives next to the beach, next to the ocean, listens to its rhythm, knows the weather, the sight of a wave, the shape of the wave, the feel and the smell and the clutch of the wave, and she carries it in her bones.” The nonagenarian doesn’t surf anymore, hasn’t in more than 30 years, “but she is a surfer and she will always be.”

Asked what she hopes visitors who come to the museum at 312 Pier View Way in Oceanside will take away from the experience, Schmauss responded she would like them to understand “how much fun surfing is.”

That means visitors who aren’t quite sure what it means when something is described as “gnarly,” need not feel intimidated. Museum personnel enjoy teaching the uninitiated about the sport’s legends and lingo. “Gnarly,” by the way, means bad—like a wave on which a surfer “wipes out.”

In addition to its permanent exhibit, the museum sponsors special exhibits and special events. From March 2010 to the end of February 2011, for example, an exhibit on the women of surfing is planned, to which guests will be invited like “Gidget” and Lisa Anderson (who in the late 1980s dropped out of high school, traveled from Florida to California, and proceeded to win honors as ‘rookie of the year’ of surfing’s Professional Women’s World Tour.)

At a museum-sponsored festival two years ago featuring the 1966 classic surfing movie, The Endless Summer, writer/ director Bruce Brown showed up with his son and grandson. Poster-maker John Van Hammersville, whose works on enamel are on display at the museum, also showed up, as did cast member Mike Hynson and its music composer Gaston Georis.

The festival was a day that both surfers and people who surf were in their element.

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Harrison is the editor of San Diego Jewish World.  This article appeared previously on examiner.com

The Jews Down Under … Roundup of Australian Jewish News

Garry Fabian

Compiled by Garry Fabian

Premier in the House

SYDNEY, 29 April – NSW Premier Kristina Keneally this week delivered her first address to the community since becoming premier in December last year.

She used the opportunity to announce a $53,000 government grant to Jewish House at the social welfare organisation’s inaugural business luncheon on Tuesday.

More than 300 people heard the Premier speak about the importance of the centre, which helps Jewish people in NSW in crisis.

“Jewish House is an organisation that is solely there to help others,” Keneally said. “It brings comfort to those in distress and offer support, shelters and counselling.

American-born Keneally, whose seat is in the eastern Sydney electorate of Heffron explained that she was well-versed in the work of Jewish House.

“When I became a member of parliament Jewish House was one of the first organisations I had the pleasure of visiting because it does so much work for people of south Sydney, in my electorate, and for the state.”

The premier also paid tribute to Jewish House chief executive Rabbi Mendel Kastel.

“As an individual, I have long held the belief that society runs at its best when socially,
culturally and economically we all get that  ‘fair go’,” Keneally said. “The Jewish
House and Rabbi Kastel are definitely the ‘fair go’ in action.”

The grant, as part of the Community Building Partnership Program, will be used to support renovations of the crisis accommodation in Flood Street, Bondi.

“We are going to be able to upgrade the crisis accommodation,” Rabbi Kastel said. “It means we can do a lot of upgrades that we need to do to the building that is very important to us.”

Delighted with the turnout at the small group’s first business luncheon, Rabbi Kastel said: “It was heartwarming to hear the Premier’s comments and to see so many people supporting Jewish House.

“I feel it is important to get the corporate sector together to be aware of community work.”

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Kosher on University Campus

MELBOURNE, 29 April – Kosher food is now on the menu at Melbourne’s Monash University’s Clayton Campus for the first time in 20 years, following the efforts of Chabad Campus’ Rabbi Daniel Rabin.

Following a pledge of assistance from local businesspeople, Rabbi Rabin began investigating options, coming to an agreement with a convenience store owner to stock a range of kosher snacks and sandwiches for kosher students.

“I have been receiving emails from students saying thanks they forgot their lunch today but were still able to buy something. People are happy to have snacks,” Rabbi Rabin said. “The beautiful thing is that the store owner is Muslim. I think it’s really nice” While still in the early stages, Rabbi Rabin is also investigating the option of hot food, such as pies and soups, being sold during the winter months.

He said he has spoken to a number of rabbis and while they have confirmed that his plans are halachically permissible, he is taking extra precautions to ensure every detail is taken into account.

“It’s going to take time but it’s very exciting,” he said.

Meanwhile, at Deakin University, local students wrote letters to Israeli soldiers of the same age for Yom Hazikaron.

The initiative brought together the Australians who are studying hard – and partying hard – at university, at the same time that their peers in Israel don khaki uniforms to defend the Jewish State.

After a short ceremony, the students penned personal notes, which will be sent to an Israeli defence base.

The event was organised by the Australasian Union of Jewish Students Deakin president Danielle Shmerling and Rabbi Rabin, the campus chaplain.

Campus Chabad  joined with Hagshama for a Lag b’Omer evening at an indoor archery
centre. The May 1 event included music and a barbecue.

Roadwork renders eruv unkosher
MELBOURNE, 30 April – For the first time in 13 years, certain members of the community were not able to reap the benefits of Melbourne’s eruv last Shabbat.

The perimeter of the religious boundary is inspected each week and until now, when any damage has been found, repairs have been immediately arranged.

However, on this occasion, it was discovered that roadworks had compromised the halachic status of the eruv and the matter could not be resolved prior to Shabbat.
As the problem was in Highett, it was feasible to resuscitate the old boundary along Jasper, Grange and South roads, which meant that the majority of the community in Caulfield and St Kilda East were served by the eruv.

However, congregants at Moorabbin and Carnegie shuls and Bentleigh Chabad were unable to carry outside over Shabbat because of the damage caused by the ­roadworks.
Advice to the community was circulated via shul offices and communal email networks.

According to eruv administrators Melbourne Eruv, last Shabbat’s rare incident showed the community that the all-important boundary cannot be taken for granted.
At the time of going to press, it was not yet clear as to whether the problem would be resolved in time for the coming Shabbat, although eruv administrators promised every effort would be made to ensure that the full boundary is operative.

An eruv is a boundary made of a connection of wires and posts in public places and allows Orthodox Jews to carry children and belongings outside during Shabbat – an action usually prohibited on the holy day. Melbourne’s eruv takes in most of the areas of Caulfield, St Kilda, Elwood, Brighton, Moorabbin, Carnegie and Bentleigh, with a full map available on the Council of Orthodox Synagogues of Victoria’s website.
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Tributes to a Ghetto hero

MELBOURNE, 30 April – Notes From the Warsaw Ghetto is a play by Neil Cole based on the work of Emanuel Ringelblum, who secretly compiled vital information about what was happening in the ghetto and smuggled it to the outside world.

Although Ringelblum did not survive the war, his important work was noticed by American Elayne Le Truink, who unsuccessfully attempted to write a book based on Ringelblum’s work.

Le Truink had read Cole’s The Trial of Adolf Eichmann and contacted the Melbourne playwright to ask him to take up the challenge.

Cole, who is associate professor of mental health at the University of Melbourne Health Research Institute and was a Victorian Labour MP from 1988-99, said that once he read the material about Ringelblum, he found it too compelling not to write a play.

Cole, who is not Jewish, spent six months researching the piece, visiting the Jewish
Holocaust Museum in Elsternwick and spending hours at the State Library of Victoria.

The result was Notes From the Warsaw Ghetto, which premiered at La Mama Courthouse theatre this week.

Cole says the play is a celebration of the struggles of the Jewish people in the Warsaw
Ghetto, while also emphasising the message that the Holocaust should never happen again.

In The Trial of Adolf Eichmann, Cole wrote: “Eichmann was not a bureaucrat simply obeying orders, but someone actively devoted to destruction. He knew what he was doing.”

Cole said he was interested in the extremities of human suffering and psychopathic killing.

“This is the value of history and we must make a contribution to that debate.”

He said that in the face of oppression, the choice facing most people was to give in or resist.

Cole has strong views about the world of theatre and is not enamoured with the concept of subsidies.

He has written 12 plays as well as works of non-fiction. In 1999, he won the Griffith Theatre Award for the best new writing in the theatre. He has become a mental health spokesperson and activist, and is currently writing a novel.

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Aged care facility set for growth

MELBOURNE 2 May -  Emmy Monash Aged Care this week finalised the purchase of an adjoining property in Caulfield North.

Located at 7 Hawthorn Road, the site abuts the current Dandenong Road home and adjoins 9 Hawthorn Road, purchased by the aged-care provider in 2006. Combined, numbers 7 and 9 Hawthorn Road will add about 4600 square metres to the already prominent site, while also providing “new opportunities to overhaul the home”, according to management.

“This is very exciting for the whole community as we will have the opportunity to assess how we can best meet the care and lifestyle needs of the elderly members of our community right now, and into the future,” president Michele Lasky said.

While Emmy Monash has approval for the construction of independent living units on
9 Hawthorn Road, Lasky said the new acquisition means “it’s back to the drawing board”.

Emmy Monash’s board of deputies met this week to discuss the new site and put in motion the consultative process, which will include brainstorming sessions with aged-care experts and, ultimately, a masterplan for the double block.

“It’s a very large project,” Lasky said. “When we had the single block, there wasn’t much more [than independent living apartments] we could do because it was a stand-alone facility. Now, with[number] 7 [Hawthorn Road] that joins our block  it [offers] such exciting opportunities for the future.”

Lasky said the new development will be far-sighted, taking into account “what the baby
boomers of today will want in 20 years time”.

With a “plethora” of options available, Lasky added that Emmy would involve the community in the planning process through questionnaires and surveys. The aged-care provider is hoping the community will then return the favour by assisting with funds, in this, the organisation’s appeal week.

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Fabian is Australia bureau chief for San Diego Jewish World