Synagogue vandalized in Olney, Maryland
OLNEY, Maryland (WJC)–Swastikas and anti-Semitic slogans including the Nazi slogans “Arbeit macht frei” (Work will set you free) and “Juden raus” (Jews out) were spray-painted on the outside of the B’nai Shalom synagogue in Olney, Maryland, about 20 miles to the north of Washington, DC, shortly before parents arrived to drop their children off at a Jewish summer camp. A pile of coins also was left at the door, possibly intended as a slur that Jews are money hungry, NBC reported.
Community President Debbie Kovalsky said the damage is “heart wrenching to see. The fact that someone out there is knowledgeable about this kind of hate, this is more upsetting than some teenager with spray-paint… We will heal, but this should not be tolerated in any community,” she told ‘Gazette.net’, a community publication.
The synagogue’s rabbi told an NBC news program that he did not immediately have the slurs painted over, because he wanted congregation and committee members to see what had happened. “If we just cover over the words and the symbols and get rid of it in the next hour or two hours, without a chance for people to come together and work at that and symbolically stand together as we remove these words, then a great teaching opportunity will have been lost,” the rabbi reportedly said.
In addition to the synagogue vandalism, two homes in the area were also spray-painted with swastikas and other symbols. The vandals had not been caught yet. Montgomery County police are investigating the attack as a hate crime, according to reports.
Meanwhile, the number of anti-Semitic incidents in the United States remained at a “sustained and troubling” level, according to the annual assessment of the Anti-Defamation League (ADL). The 2009 audit of anti-Semitic incidents, released on Tuesday, recorded 1,211 incidents of vandalism, harassment and physical assaults against Jewish individuals, property and community institutions across the United States last year. The number fell from the 1,352 incidents reported in 2008, but some of the decline was likely because of revised methodology for reporting and tracking incidents that was unveiled in the 2009 audit, the ADL said.
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Preceding provided by World Jewish Congress
Federal law opposing ‘libel tourism’ approved by Congress
By Rachel Ehrenfeld
NEW YORK–As the founder of the movement against libel tourism, I congratulate Congress foir unanimously passing HR 2765 (as amended by the Leahy-Sessions ‘Speech’ Act) on July 27th. A bipartisan bill, the ‘Speech’ Act is based on New York State’s “Libel Terrorism Protection Act” (also known as “Rachel’s Law”). The ‘Speech’Act marks the culmination of a national campaign I spearheaded following my own experiences with libel tourism.
Shortly after the book was published in the U.S., Mahfouz sued me for libel in London, attempting to use the plaintiff-friendly British libel laws to intimidate me into silence. Mahfouz had used this tactic to bully more than 40 authors and a publisher into apologies for and retractions of similar revelations. While British libel laws were often used by the rich and famous to silience and intimidate critisizm, the Saudi used the British laws and courts as a weapon in the lawfare against the American and Western media, and effectively “chillled” further exposes on Saudi and Gulf funders of terrorism.
I refused to acknowledge the British court’s jurisdiction over me as I did not live in England, nor was my book published or marketed there. The English court ruled against me by default, ordering that I pay a hefty fine, apologize, retract my statements and foot Mahfouz’s substantial legal fees.
Represented by Daniel Kornstein of Kornstein Veisz Wexler & Pollard, LLP, I countersued Mahfouz in New York to prevent the enforcement of the default judgment on the grounds that it did not meet the standard of American First Amendment protections for free speech. When the court dismissed the suit for lack of jurisdiction over Mahfouz, the New York State Legislature, led by Assemblyman Rory Lancman (D), and Senator Dean Skelos (R) acted quickly, and passed “Rachel’s Law,” in April 2008, enabling the New York courts to take jurisdiction over foreign libel plaintiffs who sue New York authors and publishers abroad.
Since then, seven states, including California, have passed similar protective legislation protecting their residents.
With the SPEECH Act Congress has taken action against libel tourism – a dire threat to our freedom and democracy. Representatives Cohen (D-TN), King (R-NY) and Senators Leahy (D-VT), Sessions (R-AL), Specter (D-PA), Lieberman (D-CT), Schumer (D-NY), Wyden (D-MN), and Kyl (R-AZ), and their dedicated staffs, made the ‘Speech’ Act a reality. They have taken a great step forward in securing the freedom of expression that our constitution guarantees.
The “Speech’ Act will uphold First Amendment protections for American free expression by guarding American authors and publishers from the enforcement of frivolous foreign libel suits, filed in countries that do not have our strong free speech protections. Such lawsuits are often used by “libel-tourists” in an effort to suppress the rights of American scholars, writers, and journalists to speak, write and publish freely in print and on the Internet.
The Act grants “a cause of action for declaratory judgment relief against a party who has brought a successful foreign defamation action whose judgment undermines the First Amendment,” and provides for legal fees. These measures will help diminish the severe chilling effect such suits have already had on journalists, researchers, the general media, particularly on matters of national security and public safety.
“Libel tourism threatens to undermine the principles of free speech because foreign courts often don’t place as difficult a burden on plaintiffs in libel cases,” said Congressman Steve Cohen (D-TN). “I believe our First Amendment rights to be among the most sacred principles laid out in the Constitution. It is vital we ensure that these rights are never undermined by foreign judgments.”
The editorial pages of The New York Times, The Washington Post, New York Post, Los Angeles Times, Miami Herald, and the San Diego Jewish World, as well as organizations such as the Association of American Publishers, American Library Association, the American Society of News Editors, the Independent Book Publishers Association, the American Civil Liberties Union and 9/11 Families for a Secure America, among others, have supported me in this important fight for free speech.
The unanimity of support for this bill in Congress demonstrates the importance of combating libel tourism and its chilling effects on free speech. With a stroke of his pen, signing the bill into law, President Obama will help ensure that authors and publishers maintain the right to freely wield theirs in the pursuit of legitimate research and scholarship.
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Ehrenfeld is the director of the American Center for Democracy, based in New York
Commentary: Anti-Semites becoming ever more creative
Alex Liff
SAN DIEGO–Looking across the spectrum of recent news one can’t help but be amazed at the creative ways that in the words of Dennis Miller, “adjacent Jew haters” i.e so called Palestinians and their beloved friends are finding to express their unbridled anti-Semitism. The last month or so has brought a literal treasure trove of events to illustrate that point.
On a visit to Turkey, the recently minted PM of Britain, David Cameron unequivocally stated that “Gaza can not and must not be allowed to remain a prison camp”. He also characterized Israel’s interception of the Turkish flotilla as “completely unacceptable”. Where have you gone Gordie Brown, we miss you already. It’s nice to see that it hasn’t taken your supposedly conservative successor, long to see which way the British foreign policy wind is blowing. In fact Cameron showed himself to be a remarkable quick study with comments that were sure to delight both the domestic audience as well as the Turkish hosts. Of all the issues that are pertinent to Turks, Brits or the rest of Europe, of course the central one had to be the Gaza situation. I wonder if the Brits mint these anti-Semites in boarding schools or it’s in the genes. What sweet music this must have been to the unrepentant Islamist’s ears of PM Erdogan who quickly and delightfully jumped on the Zionist (i.e Jewish) bashing band wagon, once again demanding deepest Israeli apology, reparations, and a shipment of additional Drones he can use to exterminate more Kurds across the border. (Someone should have whispered in his ear that Israeli apology is coming as soon as he sends his own bit of an apology to the Armenians for cleansing 1.5 mil of their brethren not so historically long ago and provides oh say 20 billion in reparations).
Perhaps PM Cameron was biased in his view by the recently released British report funded by the “Medical Aid for Palestinians” group. This apparently completely unbiased and scientific research was carried out by the apparently prestigious university of Birzeit in the West Bank. The findings? Well some of you may be shocked to hear that apparently a whopping eighty-five percent of respondents reported moderate or high levels of insecurities, fears and threats, and 49 percent said they had moderate or high levels of distress. So is the global financial crisis getting to the “we just can’t catch a break” Gazans? Well apparently, not quite. To quote the study, “ Asked to say what had been the biggest causes of suffering in Gaza, the respondents named, in order of magnitude, the Israeli siege of Gaza; the previous Israeli occupation of Gaza; the Israeli attack; and internal Palestinian fighting.” So there you have it, despite leaving Gaza 5 years ago, the big bad Zionists are continuing to stress out those impressionable and frail souls in Gaza. Unfortunately, the study did not specify exactly when the stress levels were at their highest. For example was it before or after a Gazan would fire an indiscriminate Qasam rocket into Israeli women and children and then run for cover trying to escape the fury of the Zionist drones. Perhaps the interviews were taken during the tunnel smuggling operations, the ones used to bring in vast amounts of weapons to enable the peace loving Gazans to kill as many of the Zionists as possible during the sneak attacks across the border. Finally, the authors did nor precise if Gilad Shalit’s captors were interviewed and if they also exhibited higher levels of distress and anxiety having to be on the constant lookout for those bad Zionist spies, looking to free a kidnapped soldier illegally held now for 4 years. So as you can see, the details were a bit murky but of course the all important conclusions were quite clear and well covered in the British press.
So while the Brits were busy bashing the Zionists on their side of the Atlantic, Boney M, an iconic 1970’s disco group, got a chance to entertain the oppressed inhabitants of Ramallah, Samaria, (West Bank). The concert goers had a chance to enjoy many of the old favorites with one notable exception. The Palestinian Authority, expressly forbid the group from performing its best known hit, Rivers of Babylon, deeming it “inappropriate”. So the question naturally arises, what so offended the peace seeking, harmony loving Palestinians in the well known international hit song? Well, the answer is that the song’s chorus quotes from the Book of Psalms, referring to the exiled Jewish people’s yearning to return to the biblical land of Israel. The exact wording is in fact as follows: “By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat down. Yeah, we wept when we remembered Zion. When the wicked carried us away in captivity.” The Palestinian powers that be, did not want the impressionable young Palestinian minds to be confused by any deviation of the official line stating that Jews simply descended from Europe to usurp the Arab land and have not historical connection to Israel whatsoever. In other words, more of the same triple D offense they have engaged in for years now, demonizing, denying, and destroying anything remotely resembling facts and the truth.
Now, on the way to the concert, many of the attendees undoubtedly had a chance to stop by and enjoy the newly opened Mughrabi square in the adjoining town of El-Bireh. In fact as is documented by Arlene Kushner of the Center for Near East Policy Research in Jerusalem, the square was recently named after Dalal Mughrabi, a 19 year old female terrorist who led the worst terrorist attack in Israel’s history – the Coastal Road Massacre of 1978. Mughrabi and her squad of terrorists came down from Lebanon via the Mediterranean by raft; they landed on the beach south of Haifa. First they killed American nature photographer Gail Rubin, and then they hijacked a bus. Ultimately, they killed, in cold blood, 38 innocent Israeli civilians, including, I repeat including, 13 children, before Mughrabi herself was shot by IDF. The large scale of the carnage, the devastation and of course the fact that young Israelis were killed during this glorious operation have made Dalal a beloved figure among the Palestinians. It should be noted that during the inauguration ceremony, a large banner was held aloft, which read: “On the anniversary of the Coastal Road Operation we renew our commitment and our oath that we uphold the charge and that we will not stray from the path of the shahids.”
In fact, according to Palestinian Media watch organization’s recently released report, “Contrary to the PA’s moderate statements to the West, its statements to its people in Arabic continue to delegitimize Israel’s existence, deny Israel’s right to exist, define the conflict with Israel as a religious war for Allah, promote hatred through demonization, slander and libel, and glorify terror and violence”.
While all of that was going on, the great moderate, PA leader, Mahmoud Abbas found time to put on a bit of a charm offensive in a meeting with the so called Jewish leaders in U.S. A bit unusual you may say but hey give credit where credit is due. I mean the man is no fool. After seeing 79% of the Jews vote for the Israel bashing Hussein Obama and with fine pro-Palestinian organizations like J street springing up left and right, Abbas figured why not to also try to impress the malleable American Jewish minds and maybe even raise a couple of bucks for the Swiss bank coffers while he’s at it.
Abbas tried to charm the audience by stating that “Nobody denies the Jewish history in the Middle East. A third of our holy Koran talks about the Jews in the Middle East, in this area. Nobody from our side at least denies that the Jews were in Palestine.” Abbas conveniently forgot to add that while Koran does mention the Jews it does so comparing them to monkeys and pigs or to call for their extermination. Also, the budding historian, Abbas, did not explain exactly what this entity called Palestine was, as all attempts to find that nation in numerous historical publications were unsuccessful.
To their credit, the so called Jewish leadership, unlike the world press, did not immediately fall for the slickster’s nicely combed hair and a well pressed suit but actually threw a few questions of substance at the great moderate. According to the meeting notes, at the dinner Abbas was pressed repeatedly on the issue of incitement among Palestinians.
“I accept your accusations,” Abbas said, referring to charges of incitement on PA-run TV, according to the transcript. “I will say, OK, let us say there is incitement. How can we deal with this? Shall I talk about Israeli incitement?” Ah yes, least one forget, offense is the best defense.
Furthermore, one participant, described it as “a polite but pointed exchange over a series of questions that were asked again and again, because Abbas avoided the questions each time they were asked.” He pointed particularly to questions about what Abbas was doing to condition his people for peace. Abbas instead spoke of the recent interview he did with Israel’s Channel 10, concluding, “I asked Netanyahu to appear on our TV. He refused.” Ah yes, spoken like a true visionary representative of the peace loving, peace seeking nation, indeed.
Given Abbas’ previous track record and his non-answers to even a semblance of tough questions I think most rational, sane minds would look at the above and agree that the man is a fraud, emptier than a water reservoir in Sahara. Not so for the leader of the J Street organization, Jeremy Ben-Ami, who summed up Abbas’s basic message as one that recalled past Israeli characterizations of the Palestinians as never missing an opportunity to miss an opportunity. “He basically said, ‘Now it’s your turn. Don’t mess this up.” Ben-Ami added, “Israel will never have a better partner than Mahmoud Abbas.”
So what’s one to make of all of these seemingly disconnected events? Let’s connect the dots shall we. The bottom line is that when it comes to the Palestinians, there is no partner for peace, there never has been and given their clearly documented approach there never will be. To the world at large that fact is irrelevant. And so the David Camerons of this world will continue to use the Palestinian issue as a kind of modern day stick with which to perpetrate the politically correct pogrom on the Zionists whom the world loves to hate. Some call it madness but in reality it’s all quite rational you see. It’s pure unadulterated anti-Semitism of the highest degree, and it needs no reason. For Israel and its supporters world wide, it’s damned if you do and damned if you don’t situation. So let’s do, and state unequivocally to Abbas, Cameron, Erdogan and anyone else who questions our resolve, the weeping is over, we never forgot Zion, we came back and we’ll do whatever it takes to stay.
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Liff is a freelance writer based in San Diego
Commentary: Mamas, keep your daughters off the barricades
Ira Sharkansky
JERUSALEM–One of the consequences of Israel’s demonization is the incidence of young people who participate in demonstrations against one or another of what they perceive as the abominations created by the oppressor of Palestine.
Prodded by her own contemplations from afar, or incited by others, she appeared on an active battlefield in Gaza during the height of the latest intifada in 2003, dressed in a bright vest, carrying a poster, and yelling that Israeli soldiers must stop their activity. She was killed by an armed bulldozer in the midst of noise and dust, whose driver could see only from a small window that was most likely dirtied by what he and others were doing. While her parents continue a campaign of blaming the driver, the IDF, and the whole of Israel, an official investigation determined that their allegations were without foundation. A civil case continues in Israeli courts, whose characteristic slowness may keep it going for several more years.
Don’t play in traffic is an appropriate element of any parent’s efforts to raise children. Stay away from battlefields and demonstrations likely to get ugly is a lesson appropriate for older offspring.
Sharkansky is professor emeritus of political science at Hebrew University
Are Arab nurses taking over in Israel?
By J. Zel Lurie
- J. Zel Lurie
DELRAY BEACH, Florida — Thirty or forty years ago, at a time when women were beginning to break out of the traditional female occupations of teaching and nursing, a book promoter had a cute idea. She would ask a writer to query high school seniors on their career ambitions and publish the results.
The writer found one significant difference between Jewish and non-Jewish girls. The Christians still chose nursing as their first choice. The Jews placed nursing at the bottom of their list.
Cleaning bedpans was not the advice that Jewish mothers passed on to their daughters. They would rather be engineers. The non-Jews were satisfied with engineers in the second place of their choice list. Nursing still claimed first place.
I wonder whether the same fact of Jewish girls shunning nursing in favor of hi-tech start-ups holds true in the Jewish state.
I ask this question because of what I learned at Chautauqua from Maram Higazi a 21-year-old Moslem nursing student at the Hadassah nurse’s school in Jerusalem.
Maram is a resident of Neve Shalom/Wahat al-Salam, the Oasis of Peace, where she attended the primary school I built twenty years ago. Together with a Jewish boy who had graduated the school, they were invited to Chautauqua to talk about their unique village and the bilingual, bicultural, binominal primary school they had both attended.
Maram looks and dresses like an attractive American girl. But she is a devout Moslem who prays five times a day, she told me. She wears a traditional hijab to cover her hair only when she prays.
Her father is a doctor who heads the Department of Biochemistry at Hadassah. He is one of two Arabs who heads departments at the Hadassah Medical Center. He rises at 5 every morning to pray, she said.
Maram will enter her junior year at the Henrietta Szold nursing school next month. She will receive a bachelor’s degree in nursing in two years. And here is the surprise.
“Of the sixty girls in my class,” she said, “twenty-six are Arabs.”
The same proportion of Arabs to Jews holds true in the other three classes, she said. That is over 43 percent of the graduates of Hadassah’s nursing school will come from the Arab minority, who are, except for the residents of East Jerusalem, citizens of Israel.
Maram identifies herself as a Palestinian Israeli. She, and the village of Jews and Arabs in which she lives, are the best answers to the bigoted American Jews who identify all Moslems with anti-Israel suicide bombers.
Maram says that she finds it wonderful that so many American Jews have such a strong attachment to Israel despite the fact that many have never been there.
One Chautauquan took it for granted that Maram and the Jewish boy, Omar Schwartz, were traveling together as a couple. She was quickly disabused. Omar keeps kosher. He refused to eat meat while he was in Chautauqua.
Many years ago, an Arab mayor of the village explained to me that because they live together and are close friends as they grow up, they cling to their own ethnicity and religion.
Unlike American schools where interdating and intermarriage are common, there has never been a romance between Jewish and Arab graduates of the Lurie school at the Oasis of Peace.
I will leave further details to the sociologists. They must also look into the question of why so many Jewish girls are avoiding the honorable profession of nursing.
Maram chose to be a nurse, she said, because it combined her love of science and her desire to work with people.
It was a pleasure for me to listen to these two kids chattering in Hebrew. “My Hebrew is better than his Arabic,” Maram explained. Both speak perfect English with an American accent.
They are a credit to Israel and their village and to the school which I built.
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Lurie is a freelance writer based in Delray Beach, Florida. His column appears in The Jewish Journal of South Florida
San Diego Rep. rocks the house down with ‘Hairspray’
Bethany Slomka and Tony Melson in 'Hairspray' (Photo by Daren Scott)
By Carol Davis
Carol Davis
SAN DIEGO– “Oh what a night”! The San Diego Repertory Theater has joined forces with San Diego School of Creative and Performing Arts and is mounting, as the opening show of its 35th season, the Tony Award winning musical Hairspray.
Based on the John Waters 1988 cult film (I happened to catch the newer version on TV the following night) the original Broadway (book by Mark O’Donnell and Thomas Meehan, music by Mark Shaiman and lyrics by Scott Wittman and Mark Shaiman) production opened in 2002, was directed by San Diego’s own Jack O’Brien, ran for over 2,500 performances and won eight Tony’s (including Best Musical).
Although the setting is 1960’s Baltimore the theme of the show is about an over weight teenaged gal Tracy Turnblad (Bethany Slumka) who loves dancing. Fitting in with her peers and becoming a regular on the hometown dance show, The Corny Collins Show (Victor Hernandez) would be the ultimate for her. It would be like being on American Bandstand, only in Baltimore.
The story could be about anyone trying to be accepted by their peers but there is more. Running about even in the theme of themes department is the battle of Race and Grace that comes right out of the twenty first century playbook where BIG is out and Black is bad and Whites define the standards.
Here’s the Scooby Doo. Plus sized Tracy Turnblad is a bubbly, happy and spunky (“Good Morning Baltimore”) teen that loves to dance. She does have trouble though, getting to school on time and aside from being a ‘big’ girl has big hair. For these offences, she’s sent to detention where a group of Black kids are there for various and sundry reasons.
They introduce her to a different kind of dancing and music, which she quickly adapts herself to. Here she meets Seaweed J. Stubbs (Tony Melson) son of the host of Negro Day, Motormouth Maybelle (Pam Trotter). Seaweed teaches her some of his dance step that she actually uses the next day at the school’s Sophomore Hop. (“The Madison”)
Meanwhile, Tracy’s parents, Edna (Peter Van Norden) and her Dad Wilber (Steve Gunderson) who owns the Har-De-Har-Hut joke store, are more or less supportive of Tracy’s dreams to dance on the TV show, but her Mom is more pessimistic about her weight being an issue if she does audition for the local Collins Show. (“Mama, I’m a Big Girl Now”). She compares her large size to hampering her own dreams and doesn’t want Tracy to be hurt. Her Dad, on the other hand, encourages her to follow her dreams, which she does. But Tracy’s Mom’s warnings about her size are the least of her worries.
In charge of the show is Velma Von Tussle (Leigh Scarritt), a bigoted, hateful and revengeful little woman and show’s producer whose only objective is for her daughter Amber (Megan Martin) to win all the marbles in the Miss Hairspray Pageant. Velma does her best to sabotage and get revenge (“Velma’s Revenge”) on anything Tracy has in the works like refusing to let her audition because of her size. (“The Legend of) Miss Baltimore Crabs. Adding insult to injury, Tracy also brings along (to the audition) her new Black friend Little Inez (Victoria Matthews) who is immediately, if not sooner, kicked out of the studio by Velma. And the beat goes on.
Regardless of the trials and tribulations Tracy faces and overcomes, and there are many, Hairspray is an up beat show that emphasizes that good can and does win out over evil and integration is not a thing of the past but is still (to this day) an integral part of the daily conversation.
The production at the San Diego Repertory Theatre, with the largest cast ever (26), a live orchestra under the direction of Bill Doyle and conducted by Tamar Page and the first regional production is one big happy and wild love fest. Between Tracy integrating the entire Corny Collins Show to her winning over the hearts and minds of her fellow contestants to her upending the nasty Velma to her shocking the socks off everyone by winning the love of Link Larkin (Efren Ramirez) Amber’s heart throb and the swoon of all the gals, the show rocks with surprises and talent.
Artistic director Sam Woodhouse has brought out some fine local and new talent as well the tried and true. Steve Gunderson is a scream and a hoot as Tracy’s goofy dad. But when he and Edna tip the light fantastic and swirl around the dance floor in what seemed to be an endless number (“You’re) Timeless to Me”) it brought the house down. In fact all the dancing (Javier Velasco) is on the spot lively especially with the stage (Trevor Norton) filled to capacity with the talents of the SPCA students.
Leigh Scarritt who stands less than five feet is menacing looking as nasty Velma wielding her hateful plots but getting away with none is another powerhouse of energy. Tim Irving, a gem of a comedian and actor, fills in as several of the male authority figures doing his split second costume changes (Mary Larson) with a straight face.
Peter Van Norden (the part of Edna was written for drag), for his large size is soft-spoken and quite gentle as Tracy’s mom. Bethany Slomka is more than believable as Tracy. Stacey Hardke is perfectly reliable as Tracy’s best friend Penny to be the shy and retired shlep along until she breaks out of her mold and takes off dancing with her new favorite squeeze, Seaweed.
Tony Melson is another talent to keep your eyes on. He’s good looking and one hell of a dancer. Pam Trotter is a standout as Motormouth Maybelle who can belt out a tune a la Aretha Franklin (“Big blond and Beautiful”, “I Know Where I’ve Been”). Watch out for another less than five foot tall gal to make it to the big time. Victoria Matthews, (as Little Inez) is a vocal major at SCPA and has been ‘acting since 6th grade’. Standing next to a tall Van Norden one might lose her in the crowd, but not her voice.
Overall, this is one big happy show, lots of misty Hairspray and one the entire family will love. Enjoy
See you at the theatre.
Dates: June 17-Aug. 15th
Organization: San Diego Repertory Theatre
Phone: 619-544-1000
Production Type: Musical Comedy
Where: 79 Horton Plaza San Diego, California 92101
Ticket Prices: $30.00-$53.00
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Theatre critic Davis is based in San Diego
Web: sdrep.org
Venue: Lyceum Stage
House adopts resolution memorializing advocate for children who died in Uganda terrorist attack
WASHINGTON, D.C. (Press Release)– The House of Representatives on Tuesday passed a resolution (H. Res. 1538) introduced by Congresswoman Susan Davis (D-San Diego) condemning the World Cup bombings in Kampala, Uganda and recognizing San Diego activist Nate “Oteka” Henn who died in the terrorist attacks.
Henn was a volunteer with Invisible Children Inc., a non-profit organization based in San Diego that helps children, especially child soldiers, impacted by Uganda’s 23-year war.
“Invisible Children works to shed light on the grim reality that is faced by many Ugandans, particularly the children who are abducted and forced to become child-soldiers there,” said Davis during the debate.
“Nate was a beloved and hard-working part of this cause…whether at the helm of an Invisible Children van as a member of a team of “roadies”…or as an effective and heartfelt fundraiser who helped send Ugandan students to school.”
As the world watched the World Cup finals on July 11, 2010, terrorists claiming to represent the Somalia-based al Shabaab terrorist organization launched suicide attacks against civilian targets in the city of Kampala, Uganda. Tragically, at least 70 people died in the blasts, including the 25-year-old Henn.
Because of Henn’s outsized personality, his friends had given him the Acholi name of “Oteka,” which means “the strong one.”
Davis’s resolution sends a message to the allies and adversaries of the United States that it stands by our strategic partners. It also highlights the urgent need for the United States to continue to work with the international community to address the root causes of extremism and terrorism in Somalia and the region.
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Preceding provided by Congresswoman Susan Davis
sdjewishworld 