Women of the Hebrew Bible, Part 5: Five daughters of Zelophehad
The Five Daughters of Zelophehad (c) 2010, Sheila Orysiek
By Sheila Orysiek
SAN DIEGO–Mahlah, Noah, Hoglah, Milcah, and Tirzah as the only heirs of their deceased father, were determined to claim an inheritance and therefore honor their father’s name. Moses and the elders in Israel considered their plea and agreed. This set a precedent for women to inherit.
One of a series of seven concerning women of the Hebrew Bible illustrating the moment in their lives when they were at pivotal point, contributed significantly to subsequent events and/or set a precedent in the history of our people.
The original is pen and ink on paper, measuring 16 by 20.
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Orysiek is a freelance writer and artist based in San Diego
Commentary:Ground Zero mosque controversy confronts political correctness
By Ira Sharkansky
Ira Sharkansky
JERUSALEM–The issue of the New York City mosque near ground zero has awakened discussion of that big gorilla in the American living room. Despite all the platitudes slung back and forth about religious freedom and the separation of church and state, and the assertion that the problem of terror is not Islam, the gorilla will not go away.
Americans who write to me are strongly disinclined to see the reality, but they are already in the forefront of the battle in behalf of western civilization. It may not be mentionable in polite society, but a religious survey will not turn up many Christians or Jews among the enemy fighters killed in Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Somalia, and Yemen, or still kept prisoner in Guantanamo.
The Soviet Union spent great amounts of blood and treasure dealing with Islamic radicalism in Afghanistan, just over the border of its own Muslim republics. It encountered not the cooperation of the United States, but the active opposition of American arms and money. The result may have advanced the end of the Cold War and entered the books as an American victory, but what was left behind turned against the United States. The Russians are still hurting in the Caucasus and elsewhere. Like others, they are disinclined to say that the problem is Islam, per se.. The New York Times reports the latest chapter in this story.
Dissembling may be necessary when dealing with an issue as explosive as religion. Christians and Jews can become feisty when public figures attack values held dear like homosexuality, abortion, Christmas trees, Easter eggs, Chanukah, or ritual slaughter, but they are nothing like sword waving and suicide belt wearing Muslims.
Scholars can find hateful doctrines in all the monotheistic religions, but those of Judaism and Christianity are historic relics. There are rogue rabbis who write about the conditions when it is proper to overlook the suffering of goyim, and priests who insist that the Jews really were the killers of Christ, but they are far from typical. Aggressive elements of Islam may not be statistically dominant among the faithful, but they are loud, arguably ascendant, and in control of fighters, governments, and armies in enough places to be more than a nuisance.
Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf, prominent among the promoters of Cordoba House, has compiled a thick file of endorsements and doubts. Ambiguous comments about Hamas and American responsibility for violent Islamic anti-Americanism leave some wondering about his moderation, and the kinds of lessons that will be taught in the mosque and classrooms that he wants to build.
Dealing with Islam, or any other aggressive religious group is not simple in a society that prides itself on openness, tolerance, and moderation.
Israel suffers the disadvantage of being in the midst of a Muslim region, and having attracted the enmity of jihadists and their friends. It also has the advantage of long experience, and a willingness to invest heavily in intelligence gathering and defense. Critics speak out in embarrassment and anger about what their government does, but supporters are more numerous than doubters.
Israeli authorities know what is said in the mosques after Friday prayers. They pressure clerics who go over the line of what is acceptable. The police assemble in their thousands when the word is that something might happen. They announce that young men will not be allowed to enter the Old City, and put an observation blimp overhead. One of the most excitable clerics has been questioned about his incitement, arrested, tried, banished from Jerusalem, and imprisoned. An even more excitable cleric, based in Gaza, was sent to his Paradise by the IDF.
It is easier for Americans and Western Europeans to deal with rogue religious movements far from home, while telling their citizens that the issue is not Islam. There may be no better way of dealing with this problem while denying that it exists.
Santa Claus, the tooth fairy, and the stork also serve noble purposes.
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Sharkansky is professor emeritus of political science at Hebrew University
Adventures in San Diego Jewish History, January 8, 1955, Part 3
Compiled by San Diego Jewish World staff
City of Hope
Southwestern Jewish Press, January 8, 1955, Page 5
The Installation of Officers of the City of Hope Auxiliary has been postponed due to the untimely death of Bill Schusterman, husband of Goldie Schusterman.
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Temple Men’s Club
Southwestern Jewish Press, January 8, 1955, Page 5
With “Sports Nite” as the theme, Temple Beth Israel Men’s Club I planning a get-acquainted meeting for all members and prospective members, January 11 in the Temple Center.
Prominent local sports personalities who will speak include: Olin Dutra, Mission Valley golf pro; Sammy Stein, former top notch pro wrestler, Bill Starr and Bob Elliott of the Padre Ball Club.
During the meeting a 16 mm movie sound projector will be presented to the Temple. This projector was purchased from Men’s Club funds set aside for such worthwhile projects.
For further information regarding “Sports Nite” contact the program chairman, Al Brooks, Atwater 4-618.
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(High School search)
Southwestern Jewish Press, January 8, 1955, Page 5
Possible sites for a new high school in the East San Diego area are under examination by the Board of Education.
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Native Son to Sing At Russ January 26
Southwestern Jewish Press, January 8, 1955, Page 6
Theodor Uppman, California-born baritone, who created the title-role of the Benjamin Britten opera, “Billy Budd,” highlight of the London 1951-52 music season, will give a San Diego recital Wednesday evening, 8:30, Jan. 26 in Russ Auditorium.
Young Uppman’s local engagement is the second event on the current Master Artist Series.
Uppman is considered one of the most exciting opera and concert stars to arrive on the international music scene in a long time.
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Salzburg Marionette Theatre Here Jan. 15
Southwestern Jewish Press, January 8, 1955, Page 6
One of the famous Salzburg Marionettes measuring 3 /12 feet tall is shown by Professor Herman Aicher. The famed Marionette Theatre will present three performances at Roosevelt Auditorium on Saturday, January 15.
The most famous marionette theatre in the world comes to San Diego for three performances on Saturday, January 154 at Roosevelt Auditorium. Coming from Salzburg, Austria, since its founding in 1913, the Salzburg Marionette Theatre have given some 7733 performances in Salzburg alone, hwere, since 1936, they have been an integral part of the Salzburg Music Festival.
Professor Herman Aicher, founder, and his family, will present “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs” at the matinees at 10:30 a.m. and 2:30 p.m., while a Johann Strauss evening will be given at 8:30 pm.., including the complete English versio of the opera, “The Fiedermaus” and the “Blue Danube” pantomime ballet. These programs are designed for young and adults alike, and offer entertainment of the highest order and genuine art.
The deLannay-Howarth box office opens January 3 from 10 to 5:30 daily for public sale of tickets. Matinee tickets are unreserved and are available at $1.66 while reserved tickets for the evening performance are available at $2.76, $2.21 and $1.66. Reservations can be made by telephoning BE-2-3457.
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Ballet Theatre Here January 16
Southwestern Jewish Press, January 8, 1955, Page 6
The Ballet Theatre, first American-born of the big-time dance companies, will appear in San Diego Sunday evening Jan. 16 at 8:30 in Russ Auditorium. The famed dance troupe’s local engagement is a William E. King attraction.
When the Ballet Theatre plays here, its leading dancers will be Igor Youskevitch, top-ranking classical dancer in the ballet field today, the peerless dramatic dancer, Nora Kaye, John Kriza, one of the most vital and versatile young dancers in America, and Ruth Ann Koesun, Eric Braun, Lupe Serrano, Erik Bruhn and Sonia Arova.
This dance company of 100 will travel with its own symphony orchestra, under the musical direction of Joseph Levine. Dimitri Romanoff is regisseuer.
Tickets are available at Palmer Box Office, 640 Broadway.
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“Affairs of State” Next at Old Globe
Southwestern Jewish Press, January 8, 1955, Page 6
A witty attire on love and politics, set in Washington during the Truman administration, “Affairs of State” will open the New Year at the Old Globe Theatre. Starting on January 10 and playing e3very night but Sunday for a limited run, the show will feature an outstanding cast under the direction of Craig Noel.
Leading lady Charlotte Henry, who will be remembered for her career in motion pictures and on the professional stage, has appeared as principal in three Globe hits: “John Loves Mary,” “Strange Bedfellows” and “Goodbye, My Fancy.” Leading man, Robert Hartle, a graduate of famed Cleveland Playhouse, last winter was visible in a Channel 8 TV Show, “Green Thumb.” Globe Theatre favorites Jack Mosher and Eleanor Rose, last seen in the Community Theatre production “Lo and Behold.” Bill Nelson has done radio work at WWRL and WMGM in New York, in Bremerton, Wash., and as disc jockey aboard the USS Princeton, broadcasting to Task Force 77 during the Korean campaign.
These five fill the stellar roles in “Affairs of State,” a smartly place Louis Verneuil comedy relating what happens when the Hon. Dan Cupid drops a few bombs over the Capitol dome.
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L.A. Philharmonic Presents Piatagorsky
Southwestern Jewish Press, January 8, 1955, Page 6
Gregor Piatigorsky, world famous cellist, will be guest soloist when the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra resumes its current local concert series, Sunday, Jan. 23 at 8:30 p.m. in Russ Auditorium. Alfred Wallenstein will be on the podium.
Piatigorsky, who has been heard by more people than any other living cellist, began his career at the age of 8 playing in the orchestra of a small theatre in Dnepropetrovak, his home town. By the time he was 15, his fame had spread to Moscow where he was appointed first cellist of the Imperial Opera. When he arrived in this country in 1929, his reputation already was international. In the two decades since his American d3ebut, he has performed in the United States and Canada more than 1000 times including some 250 appearances as soloist with every major orchestra in America.
Tickets are available at the Palmer Box Office, 640 Broadway.
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(Success Ladder)
Southwestern Jewish Press, January 8, 1955, Page 6
You can’t get up the ladder of success any faster by stepping on the heads of those you are passing.
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“Adventures in San Diego Jewish History” is sponsored by Inland Industries Group LP in memory of long-time San Diego Jewish community leader Marie (Mrs. Gabriel) Berg. Our “Adventures in San Diego Jewish History” series will be a regular feature until we run out of history. To find stories on specific individuals or organizations, type their names in our search box.
Leichtag Family Foundation donates $20,000 to North County’s Food Bank
SAN MARCOS, California (Press Release)- North County’s Food Bank received a donation from the Leichtag Family Foundation in the amount of $20,000.00 that will enable North County’s Food Bank to continue providing food to those individuals and families in North County that need it most.
Sharyn Goodson of the Leichtag Family Foundation presented the check to Stan Miller, Executive Director of North County Community Services which oversees North County’s Food Bank.
North County Community Services (NCCS) is committed to improving individual health and well being by providing programs that educate young children, support working families, feed the hungry and ultimately create opportunities to improve the quality of life for residents in north San Diego County. For 40 years, NCCS has been providing vitally needed services to North County residents in San Diego County, operating nine child development centers as well as North County’s Food Bank which was established in 1989.
North County’s Food Bank services income-qualified individuals and families within the Cities of Oceanside, Carlsbad, Encinitas, Solana Beach, Vista, San Marcos, Poway, Escondido, Del Mar and the community of Rancho Bernardo – this translates into an area of approximately 1,815 square miles and is equivalent to 1/3 of the total square miles of the entire San Diego County.
Attending the ceremony were Paul Hammans (Food Bank Operations Manager), Michael Lawson (Director of Food Bank Operations), Stan Miller (NCCS Executive Director), Sharyn Goodson (Leichtag Family Foundation) and Dennis Chamberland (Development Specialist).
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Preceding provided by North County Community Services
Commentary: Palestinians, Israelis ever so slowly being pushed by U.S. into direct talks
By Ira Sharkansky
Ira Sharkansky
JERUSALEM– Israel and Palestine may be inching, crawling, or sidestepping toward direct, face to face negotiations.
We have heard this before. It is a long and contorted road even to the beginning of talks. Neither side appears to be enthusiastic. They are being pushed by the pathetically naive, led by the champion of brazen optimism who is trying to outdo his predecessor by choosing peace in the Holy Land over democracy in Iraq as an icon of foreign policy. European leaders can do no less than add their voices to that of a president with the status to define what is politically correct. Those in power hope that a miracle will occur quickly enough for them to claim credit.
What is shaping up is a call to negotiations from a quartet that includes representatives of Europe, Russia, the US and the UN with parameters favorable to the Palestinians. It is said to include the 1967 boundaries as the basis of negotiations, and a continuing freeze on Israeli construction over that line. Israel has already rejected those conditions, but may be willing to accept an invitation from the United States that is less unfriendly.
One can guess about the prospects of discussions that neither side wants, and which begin with each claiming to be operating according to different invitations. For Palestinians, the 1967 lines represent their major hope of rescuing something from an area shrinking and cut up with the settlements of Jews they do not want living among them.
Also important to the Palestinians is a continuation of a freeze in the building of settlements. They are also talking about a freeze in what they call Arab neighborhoods of Jerusalem, but one can reach a high level of skepticism about any chance of achieving that detail. A continuation of the freeze over 1967 boundaries outside of Jerusalem will be difficult enough, given the intensity of the opposition in the polity that counts for more than the Palestinian and perhaps more even than that in Washington.
Recent news is that settlers and their friends have approvals for 5,000 housing units ready to be unfrozen in September, and will not tolerate a continuation of a freeze that has failed to show any tangible results with respect to its contribution to peace.
One can only wonder at the importance of 1967 or any other date in a conflict between peoples that was already apparent to the authors of the Books of Joshua and Judges, whenever it was that they began to tell their stories.
“The Israelites lived among the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites. They took their daughters in marriage and gave their own daughters to their sons, and served their gods.” (Judges 3:5)
Today there are considerable personal interactions, cooperation in the workplace and the universities, more mutual tolerance in Jewish than Arab neighborhoods, along with few romances or conversions in the directions of Islam or Judaism.
The boundaries of Jerusalem have changed several times since the British arrived in 1917, and many times before then. The walls around the Old City reflect the lines defined by the Ottoman Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent in the 1530s. They are only one of several walled arrangements meant to protect a city whose shape changed going back at least to the time of David.
Conceptions of “Palestine” are fuzzier. The bombast of activists represent their efforts to find some basis for a national claim in what can fairly be described as a backwater of empires thinly populated by diverse and quarreling families.
No doubt that all national claims–including those of the Jews–rest on contentious narratives more often spiritual than factual in nature. The Bible, Talmud, numerous other writings, and the success of modern Israel represent the Jews’ claims to legitimacy. It will take some time to see if the Palestinians can achieve the status of other Arab countries. The records achieved by Gaza and the West Bank indicate that the phrase “Arab democracy” will remain an oxymoron even if the Palestinians do accomplish something.
We should expect maneuvering rather than anticipate anything like a breakthrough. Part of the playbook we can write already. There will be some further hemming and hawing by the principals, with each adhering to its own rules of the game. Palestinians will emphasize those 1967 boundaries and maybe a settlement freeze; Israelis will insist that they are beginning negotiations without preconditions. If things go well, overseas sponsors may invite the principals to a party on the White House lawn, or some other ceremonial venue where they declare a breakthrough and their commitment to helping the parties reach an agreed solution within a short period of time.
The principals will put on their frozen smiles and express mutual commitments to settling disputes peacefully, or maybe their stern faces and commitments to what those loyal to each side will see as a reaffirmation of well known principles.
Given Muslim sensitivities, the refreshments will feature fruit juice rather than wine.
Beyond these details, my predictive capacity weakens. After a brief flurry of daily bulletins, it is likely that the weather will provide more interesting news. Americans will concern themselves with who will win and lose by how much thanks to the president’s health reform, as well as the World Series and the endless parade of college sports. For Europeans there will be a new season of football.
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Sharkansky is professor emeritus of political science at Hebrew University.
150 Irish artists, intellectuals declare Israel boycott
DUBLIN (WJC)–More than 150 Irish artists and intellectuals have declared a boycott of Israel, saying they would not perform or exhibit there until Israel ceases what they call “abuse of Palestinian human rights.”
The artists also pledged to reject funding from any institution associated with the Israeli government. The Ireland Palestine Solidarity Campaign (IPSC) said the boycott would continue until “Israel complies with international law and universal principles of human rights”.
Eoin Dillon of the Irish world music band Kila said he had signed up to the campaign because “it worked in South Africa.” An Israeli Embassy spokesman in Dublin said the boycott was regrettable and ill-advised. He added: “Vilifying and ostracizing Israel and promoting a lose-lose program of boycotts is not the way to secure legitimate Palestinian rights”.
Among the artists supporting the boycott are the musicians Damien Dempsey and Donnal Lunny, artists Robert Ballagh and Felim Egan, playwright Jimmy Murphy and actress Neilil Conroy.
“Culture cannot stand aloof from politics,” boycott coordinator Raymond Deane said in a statement. “Whether or not art is ‘above politics’, its presentation and representation in the real world can all too easily be hijacked by oppressive states. With this pledge, Irish artists have an opportunity to distance themselves from such exploitation, and to take a non-violent stand on behalf of the oppressed Palestinian people.”
The move comes in a period in which several high profile artists have cancelled concerts in Israel for “political reasons”. Elvis Costello, the Pixiesand the Gorillaz Sound System were among those who boycotted scheduled performances there for political reasons. Earlier this month the band Massive Attack used a spot at a festival to attack Israel and promote the cause of Palestinian refugees.
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Preceding provided by World Jewish Congress
Australians hold inter-faith discussions on Israel
SYDNEY (WJC)– Jewish and Christian leaders have met to heal the wounds caused by the National Council of Churches’ call last month for a boycott of Israeli goods made in the West Bank. The church council called for Australians to consider the boycott at the request of Middle Eastern churches.
The president of the Executive Council of Australian Jewry, Robert Goot, wrote to the council saying the resolution was a “most unpleasant surprise” and added: “We feel that we have been badly let down by people we have long thought of as our friends”.
Last week, Goot met in Sydney with the leaders of the Catholic and Anglican churches, archbishops Philip Wilson of Adelaide and Phillip Aspinall of Brisbane. On Monday, both councils said in a joint statement that a “serious exchange of views” had helped Christian leaders better understand Jewish concerns and Jewish leaders better understand why the resolution was adopted.
The general-secretary of the National Council of Churches, Tara Curlewis, said the statement showed the depth of the relationship between the groups. They would meet again to work on a “more comprehensive” statement. In the meantime, the boycott resolution remained in place.
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Preceding provided by World Jewish Congress
Iran tells Western nations not to interfere in stoning sentence
TEHERAN (WJC)–Iran has told Western nations to stay out of the case of a woman who faces death by stoning, warning it would not tolerate any interference in the matter as it was still under examination by the judiciary.
“Independent nations do not allow other countries to interfere in their judicial affairs,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast said at a press conference. He was responding to questions from reporters about the status of Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani, a 43-year-old mother of two sentenced to death by stoning by an Iranian court.
“Western nations must not pressurize and hype it up… judicial cases have precise procedures, especially when it concerns murder. If a person committed a crime in Iran, that person is prosecuted which is normal, especially if she has killed somebody. The heavier the sentence, the more meticulous we are in carrying it out. This is being done,” said Mehmanparast.
Western nations and human rights groups have come out strongly against Mohammadi-Ashtiani’s stoning sentence and warned that her execution was imminent. The head of Iran’s judiciary, Sadeq Larijani, temporarily suspended the sentence from being carried out.
The human rights organization Amnesty International says Mohammadi-Ashtiani was only sentenced for having an “illicit relationship” with two men and that the murder charge was adopted later.
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Preceding provided by World Jewish Congress
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