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Andrew Hoffman, helper of military families, up for ‘All Star’ award
By Bruce Kesler
Bruce Kesler
ENCINITAS, California–Andrew Hoffman is a congregant at my synagogue, Temple Solel. Andrew Hoffman is a finalist in Major League Baseball and People magazine’s 2010 “All-Stars Among Us” national campaign, in conjunction with the MLB All-Star Game. The campaign is to recognize individuals who are serving their communities in extraordinary ways.
Andrew Hoffman works at Jewish Family Service’s Hand Up Youth Food Pantry in San Diego, which distributes food to families in need. Two Sundays each month Hoffman leads teens in distributing food and hygiene items to hundreds of needy military families in San Diego.
Andrew Hoffman is an everyday hero, helping to create a family-friendly environment for our courageous military heroes and their families. As one military mom said, “This distribution is a blessing. Last week I had to choose between diapers and groceries. Now I don’t have to.”
Andrew Hoffman deserves your support.
Please go to this link, click on the San Diego Padres, and vote for Andrew Hoffman. The site says you can return and vote as many times as you want between now and June 20.
So, please vote and often.
A total of 30 “All-Stars,” one representing each MLB team, will attend and be honored at the All-Star Week and at the pre-game ceremony on July 13 in Anaheim, CA. One of the “All-Star Among Us” winners will also be featured in People magazine during the week of the All-Star game.
By the way, today (June 8th) is Andrew Hoffman’s birthday, now 25. Let’s give him a BIG deserved birthday honor.
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Kesler is a freelance writer based in Encinitas, California. This posting also appeared on the Maggie’s Farm website
ADL seeks terrorist designation for two groups that organized Gaza flotilla
NEW YORK (Press Release)–The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) on Tuesday called on the U.S. Department of State to designate two of the principal organizers and funders of the “Free Gaza” flotilla as Foreign Terrorist Organizations.
Long before Insani Yardim Vakfi (Humanitarian Relief Fund, or IHH in Turkish) and The Union of Good (UG) raised their profiles as the main supporters of the Gaza-bound flotilla, both organizations had emerged as significant players in fundraising for the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas.
“After their pre-planned and violent assault against Israeli soldiers on the high seas, the flotilla organizers can no longer hide behind the notion that their only objective is to provide humanitarian services,” said Robert G. Sugarman, ADL National Chair.
“Actions speak louder than words, and the violence aboard the Mavi Marmara should be read as a warning that IHH and UG have a more sinister agenda,” added Abraham H. Foxman, ADL National Director. “A closer look at the record of some of these groups shows a history of fundraising and providing other material support to Hamas and other Islamic terrorist groups.”
In a letter to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, the League identified IHH and UG as having “well-documented ties to Hamas” and a long record of activities in raising funds and expressing support for the terrorist goals of Hamas and other groups:
- Insani Yardim Vakfi (IHH), an Istanbul-based Islamic charity, has emerged as a significant player in the Hamas global fundraising machine, maintaining direct contacts with senior Hamas officials. IHH organized several conferences in Turkey to demonstrate its support for Hamas, and senior Hamas officials have openly participated in these conferences. At the conferences, the heads of IHH have expressed their support for Hamas, including its armed warfare against civilians. IHH has sent activists to open branches in the West Bank and Gaza, and at least one activist has transferred thousands of dollars to Hamas-run charities.
- The Union of Good: According to the U.S. Treasury Department, UG – an umbrella organization that represents over 50 Islamic fundraising groups – facilitates the transfer of tens of millions of dollars a year to Hamas-managed associations in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, including funds to compensate Hamas terrorists by providing payments to the families of suicide bombers. Created by the leadership of Hamas, UG acts as a broker for Hamas by facilitating financial transfers between a web of charitable organizations.
“In light of the extensive connections and significant fundraising activities made by these groups to Hamas, a designated Foreign Terrorist Organization, we would urge the State Department make these two organizations subject to the same restrictions as Hamas,” the League wrote to Secretary Clinton.
The League also has written to Timothy Geithner, Secretary of the Treasury, urging his department to add IHH to its lists of terror-sponsoring organizations – which triggers restrictions on business and banking transactions with U.S. persons. In November 2008, UG was added to Treasury’s “Designated Charities and Potential Fundraising Front Organizations for FTOs” list and the Office of Foreign Assets Control list of “Specially Designated Nationals and Blocked Persons.”
Among other measures, the State Department’s terrorist organization designation makes it a crime to provide material support to terrorist organizations and freezes the financial accounts of terrorist organizations in U.S. financial institutions.
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Preceding provided by Anti-Defamation League
So, you want to boycott Israel?
SAN DIEGO– We received from Sigal Peres, a teacher in Israel, a referral to a YouTube video parody, suggesting how groups opposed to Israel can make certain they are carrying out an effective boycott.
Here is a link to that video.
U.S. bungles relationships with Turkey and Honduras
By Shoshana Bryen
- Shoshana Bryen
WASHINGTON, D.C. –Turkey and Honduras, in different ways, highlight the lack of effective leadership the United States currently is able to exercise in the world.
Turkey: Turkish government support for the IHH ship in the Gaza flotilla is now well understood and the anti-Semitic ravings of both official Turks and the Turkish media have made Turkey’s intention to split from Israel clear.
But it is a mistake to think this is only about Israel. Support for the flotilla was only the latest in a series of Turkish decisions designed to distance itself from the United States and move toward closer political relations with countries adversarial to us. Immediately after the bloody 2007 Hamas coup against Fatah in Gaza, the United States and the European Union reiterated that Hamas was a terrorist organization to be shunned. Instead, Turkey’s prime minister invited Hamas leadership to Ankara. The Hamas-Turkey relationship has grown as the Turkey-Palestinian Authority relationship, the relationship supported by the United States and the EU, has declined. Rapprochement with Russia, Syria and Iran, and the Iran-Brazil-Turkey enriched uranium deal are more of the same.
After his meeting with Secretary of State Clinton, Turkey’s Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu told reporters, “Citizens of member states were attacked by a country that is not a member of NATO. I think you can make some conclusions out of this statement.” The implication was that Turkey would ask NATO for some satisfaction-or some slap at Israel.
Thank you for the reminder, Mr. Minister.
Turkey, as a member of NATO, is privy to intelligence information having to do with terrorism and with Iran. If Turkey finds its best friends to be Iran, Hamas, Syria and Brazil (look for Venezuela in the future) the security of that information (and Western technology in weapons in Turkey’s arsenal) is suspect. The United States should seriously consider suspending military cooperation with Turkey as a prelude to removing it from the organization.
Honduras: The United States tried to have it both ways. The Obama Administration quickly jumped in with Venezuela, Brazil, Cuba and Nicaragua to denounce what it called a “coup” in Honduras. The United States voted with its new best friends to oust Honduras from the Organization of American States (OAS), and cut off various forms of diplomatic and economic aid to the small Central American country. After the Congressional Research Service (CRS) concluded that the Honduran Congress, Supreme Court and military had acted in accordance with the Honduran Constitution, the Obama Administration brokered a deal that permitted the previously scheduled election with previously nominated candidates to go forward. When the new president was sworn in, the United States recognized the new government and withdrew its sanctions.
All’s well that ends well, right? Not exactly.
At the OAS meeting in Peru this week, the United States tried to have Honduras reinstated. Guess who said no; Venezuela, Cuba, Brazil and Nicaragua refused to even to put the issue on the table. Hugo, Lula, Fidel and Danny were perfectly happy to let the Obama Administration join them in ganging up on a (former) American ally. But they still think they’re leading.
Maybe they are.
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Bryen is senior director of security policy of the Jewish Institute for National Security Affairs. Her column is sponsored by Waxie Sanitary Supply in memory of Morris Wax, longtime JINSA supporter and national board member.
San Diego’s historic places: Model Railroad Museum, Balboa Park
Leah Rosenfeld exhibit
By Donald H. Harrison
Donald H. Harrison
SAN DIEGO—At the San Diego Model Railroad Museum you can enjoy trains that are 1/48 scale; 1/87 scale and 1/160 scale among others. As you walk along the large exhibit cases observing to-scale scenes of San Diego and the Southwest, you also can learn about a railroad woman whose persistence was a model for other feminists who wanted equal opportunities.
Her name was Leah Rosenfeld and although she had more seniority than the men who applied for the job of Southern Pacific station agent in Saugus, California (today part of city of Santa Clarita in Los Angeles County), she was denied the position. Southern Pacific said that the job would require her to occasionally work more than eight hours per day, and to lift articles weighing more than 25 pounds. California’s protective laws prohibited companies from giving jobs exceeding such weight and time limits to women.
According to a narrative board researched and written by Shirley Burman, Rosenfeld’s male-dominated telegraphers union wasn’t interested in coming to her aid. There was not much she could do about the matter until after Congress passed and President Lyndon B. Johnson signed into law the Civil Rights Act of 1964 prohibiting discrimination on the basis of race or sex.
Rosenfeld filed a complaint with the federal Equal Employment Opportunities Commission (EEOC), chaired in 1966 by Franklin D. Roosevelt Jr. The station master position, she wrote, was “denied to me and assigned to a junior employee because I am a woman and he is a man. The question of ability was not raised, the company stating only that position might require working more than 40 hours a week or lifting articles in excess of 25 pounds prohibited to women by California Industrial Act.”
She said that while Southern Pacific had used that “excuse” to deny better paying jobs to women, when it came to undesirable jobs, the “prohibition is seldom enforced.” She added that the discrimination worked a hardship against her; noting that “I pay the same for groceries as do men.”
In 1971, “California’s Protective Laws were declared unconstitutional; Leah had won her case,” the narration continued. According to Judge Rolleen W. McIlwirth, the decision not only helped the women of California, but by creating a precedent helped women throughout the United States.
The railroads did not treat women uniformly throughout its history—their hiring and promotion practices influenced by pragmatism and work force availability. As early as the Civil War, Abbey Strubel was working as a telegrapher, even though alarmists “feared that the physical stamina and nervous systems of women would be wrecked if they operated machinery,” according to the narrative.
“Isolated duty stations were preferred by many female operators because they were good places to raise children,” it went on to say. “They could keep their eyes on the kids and still do the jobs.”
In rural communities along the tracks, where trains did not make regular stops, “mistresses like Ina Adkins of Caliente, California, hung the outgoing mail on the mail crane to be grabbed by a hook on the moving post office car. After the train had passed she picked up the thrown off incoming mail.”
Englishman Fred Harvey in 1876 created a series of restaurants in Santa Fe train stations across the country, and “hired young girls between the ages of 18 and 30 of good character and who radiated an image of wholesomeness. The ‘Harvey Girls’ were more than waitresses; they were hostesses. The girls dressed in a simple black dress with a white neck collar and black bow with a starched white apron with no jewelry or make up. The Harvey Girls brought a civilizing influence to many communities with their good manners and social poise. Many married local ranchers, miner and railroaders.”
An offshoot of the “Harvey Girl” program came in 1926 with the establishment of “Indian Detour Couriers” – sightseeing guides who took passengers from trains on detour excursions to break up their transcontinental trips. The women guides were called “couriers” with preferred hires being “college-educated women who had a knowledge of native people, languages, culture and the landscape.”
In 1935, another opportunity opened for women as “registered nurse stewardesses” on passenger trains. “The duties were to assist women and children and to attend to the needs of the elderly on cross-country journeys. The nurses were known for their intelligence and candid friendliness. Babies and small children required extra attention. Formula had to be made and bottles warmed while games kept small children amused on long journeys.” Some railroads created programs in which little girls could be helpers as junior stewardess nurses.
Even before one enters the model railroad museum, one can pick up bits of railroading knowledge. On the bottom floor of the Casa de Balboa, which the museum shares with the archives of the San Diego Historical Society, one finds a semaphore—the old mechanical signaling device for railroads—with an explanation of how they worked.
The device standing besides the track had an upper and lower arm, with the top one telling about track conditions over the immediately upcoming mile-long block; and the lower about track conditions on the following mile-long block. The blade for the upcoming or “home block” was painted red; while the one for the “distant block” was yellow with a fishtail. Red, green and yellow lights in connection with each arm indicated whether the train should stop, proceed with caution or go.
Immediately inside the museum doors one encounters a scale model Cabrillo Yard on the right side of a walkway and the depiction of the San Diego & Arizona Eastern Railway exhibit on the left. Wending one’s way around the San Diego and Arizona Eastern exhibit takes one to the Tehachapi Pass scale model and to the Pacific Desert Lines exhibit.
A sign board informs that “construction on all layouts began in 1982” with some 300 club members volunteering on the average of one night a week to construct the railroad. The volunteers put in over 10,000 hours a year from 1982 to 1987.
“There are approximately 115 scale miles of track in all the exhibits,” said the sign. “This equates to about 6,560 actual feet or 1 ¼ miles” of model railroad, exclusive of the many feet of sidings and yard trackage.
Currently the San Diego Model Railroad Club is working on a diorama that will recreate in miniature downtown San Diego as it appeared in the 1950s. Club members are working from photographs in the San Diego Historical Society’s archives and from Sanborn maps showing the location of each building.
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Harrison is editor of San Diego Jewish World. This article appeared previously on examiner.com
Dinner held for legacy donors to Seacrest Village Retirement Communities
ENCINITAS, California (Press Release)– Members of Seacrest Foundation’s Legacy of Promise program gathered on May 27, 2010 for an intimate evening of appreciation and gourmet fare in the newly remodeled Mel’s Place at the Seacrest Village Encinitas Campus. The Legacy of Promise provides donors the opportunity to secure the future for the residents of Seacrest Village Retirement Communities while meeting their own philanthropic goals.
The evening began with a cocktail hour on the terrace and moved inside to the beautiful new Mel’s Place café for a delicious four-course meal prepared by the culinary team at Seacrest. Sylvia Geffen, President of the Seacrest Foundation Board, spoke on behalf of the Foundation thanking the generous Legacy of Promise donors for their commitment to ensuring the quality of life for our community’s seniors well into the future. Each guest was presented with a beautiful pin designed just for them. Bob Haimsohn, Chairman of the Board of Trustees, and Pam Ferris, CEO of Seacrest Village, welcomed guests as well and provided a State of the Homes update. Other guests included Michael Berlin, Howard Brotman & Mamie Sorokin, Ellen & Ingram Chodorow, Betty & Melvin Cohn, Esther & Bud Fischer, Merrill Haimsohn, Joyce & Jere Oren, Jane Ottenstein, Linda & Shearn Platt, Jeannie & Arthur Rivkin, Milton Roberts and Paul Roberts.
Jane Ottenstein, touched by the evening, said a few words thanking the other attendees for understanding the importance of planned giving and for sharing in her love for Seacrest Village. She expressed joy in the building of the new Ottenstein Vitality Center which will further enhance the lives of seniors living at Seacrest Village. Guests Jere Oren and Shearn Platt were also moved to say a few words thanking the wonderful staff at Seacrest Village for providing such outstanding care for the residents.
The purpose of Seacrest Foundation is to support Seacrest Village Retirement Communities in its service to the elderly. The Foundation and Seacrest Village Retirement Communities are working together diligently to raise the necessary funds to meet the needs of our growing senior community.
As a non-profit, charitable organization, Seacrest Village provides housing and healthcare services for the community’s elderly. Because Seacrest Village strives to provide these services regardless of one’s ability to pay, an annual shortfall of over $1.3 million must be met through fundraising. Each year Seacrest Village Retirement Communities serves almost four hundred seniors between the Encinitas and Rancho Bernardo campuses.
For more information on Planned Giving or the Seacrest Foundation please contact Robin Israel at (760) 516-2018 or risrael@seacrestvillage.org.
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Preceding provided by Seacrest Village Retirement Communities
sdjewishworld 