Guardians of San Diego Hosts its 19th Annual Golf & Tennis Tournament
ENCINITAS, California (Press Release) — Guardians of San Diego hosted its 19th Annual Golf & Tennis Tournament July 19 at the exclusive, championship course at Rancho Santa Fe Golf Club, while tennis players competed in round robin play also at the beautiful Rancho Santa Fe Tennis Club. The event was a tremendous success with all proceeds directly benefitting Seacrest Village Retirement Communities.
This year’s committee was led by golf co-chairs James Haimsohn and John Kassar and tennis chair Paul Press and included members Earl Altshuler, Brad Blose, Bert Edelstein, Mary Epsten, Robert Haimsohn, Shirley Pidgeon and Kevin Wunderly. Together they welcomed over 100 golfers and tennis players.
The day began with a putting contest and the shotgun start began right at noon just as the tennis players began arriving for their tournament led by tennis pro Dophie Poiset. The weather was perfect and sunny, and all players enjoyed ice cold beverages donated by Dry Soda, Red Bull and Karl Strauss Brewery. The silent auction created a buzz with packages that included passes to the Del Mar Thoroughbred Club, golf at the Bridges, Rancho Santa Fe, La Costa Resort & Spa, Pala Casino & Resort and Sycuan Casino, hotel stays at both the Hyatt Regency at Aventine and Hilton La Jolla Torrey Pines and many more.
Players and guests enjoyed the warm summer evening with cocktails on the patio of the Rancho Santa Fe Golf Club then moved inside for a dinner buffet that included top sirloin, mashed potato bar, a variety of salads and vegetables and a delicious dessert spread. Earl Altshuler, President of Guardians of San Diego, welcomed guests and Pam Ferris, President/CEO of Seacrest Village Retirement Communities, thanked everyone for their continued support of the Homes’ mission. Chairman of the Board of Trustees Bob Haimsohn expressed his joy in passing on the legacy of the tournament to his son James Haimsohn and nephew, John Kassar, who co-chaired the event. James then auctioned off two exciting lots: a luxury suite at Petco Park for 23 guests and a private tour for 10 at the Karl Strauss Brewery with limo transportation.
The program and evening concluded with the announcement of the day’s winners: Daniel Wax, putting contest; Marshall Wax, Daniel Wax, Lou Wax and Glenn Goodstein, men’s first place/overall winners; Suzanne Weiner, Nancie Vann and Shirley Levine, women’s first place; and Ann & Steve Kavy, tennis. All winners received elegant magnums of Bremer Wine donated by Nowell & Associates and the overall winners will have their names engraved on our perpetual trophy. The day also included a Par 3 contest and two Hole-in-One opportunities sponsored by BMW South County and Kearny Mesa Infiniti.
For over 50 years, members of Guardians of San Diego have helped Seacrest Village raise funds to help care for the elderly of San Diego. The annual Golf & Tennis Tournament, now in its nineteenth year, has proven to be a successful, fun, and well-attended event, benefitting Seacrest Village, a non-profit, charitable organization that 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.
The 19th Annual Golf & Tennis Tournament was presented by The William Gumpert Foundation and sponsored by Addison Sheet Metal, Inc., AKT, Bycor, Certified Concrete, Lynn & Richard Gordon, G.S. Levine Insurance, Gulf South Medical Supply, Hanson Bridgett, LLP, Jackson & Blanc, Judy & Allen Lyon, Maxim Floor Systems, Meketa Investment Group, Quality Paint and Wall Coverings, RehabCare, Ron’s Pharmacy Services, Rowan Electric, SGPA Architecture & Planning, Sierra Pacific West, Simplex Grinnell, Struc Steel and Superior Roofing.
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Preceding provided by Seacrest Village Retirement Communities
Theater Review: ‘Engagement’ is, well, an engaging production
Ellie Schwartz and Jeremy Radin in 'Engagement'
By Cynthia Citron
Cynthia Citron
BEVERLY HILLS, California – The actors are terrific and their characters are complex, varied, and funny enough to keep you entertained and engaged for two hours. Unfortunately, the play goes on for three…
The play, written and directed by Allen Barton, is Engagement, now having its world premiere at the Beverly Hills Playhouse. And it starts off with a screaming tirade of profanity from Nicole (Audrey Moore) because her fiancé, Mark (David Crane) has taken her to a fast food joint to celebrate their first anniversary together instead of the romantic French restaurant she had in mind.
But that’s not all they don’t see eye to eye on. She is a non-political artist, while he is a right-wing Nazi (her words). And so they argue about that a bit.
She shares an apartment with a cynical, angry, overweight harridan called Rachel (Ellie Schwartz), who is the best thing in the play. She has most of the funny lines, and she makes the most of them. She also throws an unnecessary red herring into the works: if she is not a lesbian, why does she plant a passionate kiss on Nicole at the end of the first scene? It’s a moment that is neither explained nor repeated.
Mark’s roommate, on the other hand, is a sweet, funny, overweight geek, hopelessly pining for someone to love. He, Dennis, (played by a perfectly tuned Jeremy Radin) is the sensible foil for the insensitive Mark. While he and Nicole’s roommate Rachel spend a good deal of time pointing out their roommates’ personal flaws (“Get over yourself!” Rachel screams at Nicole, and Mark and Dennis engage in a contest of alliterative insults), the two ill-matched lovers struggle with commitment, connection, and communication.
Communication, in fact, is the major theme of the play. Each of the characters, plus Mark’s indefatigable mother (beautifully played by Brynn Thayer) deliver tart monologues on how communication has been co-opted and corrupted by cell phones and email and Facebook and Twitter. “No one answers the phone anymore,” Mark complains. “There’s no engagement between people.” He also expresses indignation at being “unfriended” on Facebook by “liberals” who don’t agree with his political views. But his mother puts it best: “We are drowning in the noise of useless communication,” she says.
Meanwhile, Mark, who has finally acknowledged that he loves Nicole, struggles to become a better man. “Nobody changes,” his mother advises him, “they just adapt.” And usually that works, unless they hook up with a woman who is clever enough to see through them. “She isn’t one of those, is she?” his mother asks.
Unhappily, she is, so the course of their love does not run smooth. Or quickly. There is much repetition, points are made again and again, and there are several extraneous scenes that the play can do without. But since in this case the playwright and the director are the same person, the director is unable to persuade the writer to part with a single thought. Too bad, because Engagement has all the makings of a very funny, even significant, piece of work. And one that, tightened up, could become a staple of theaters around the country.
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Citron is Los Angeles bureau chief for San Diego Jewish World
Commentary: Women of the Wall pioneering true egalitarianism in Judaism
By Rabbi Dow Marmur
Rabbi Dow Marmur
TORONTO–A scandalous aspect of virtually all religions has been their treatment of women. My own has shunned many excesses — stoning for alleged adultery, so-called honour killings or officially putting the ordination of women in the same category as pedophilia — but it nevertheless has a history of embarrassing discrimination.
One of the reasons for the growth of Reform Judaism, which this month marks its birth in Germany 200 years ago, was to bring about gender equality in worship and practice. Nowadays women and men have identical rights and obligations in Reform synagogues. Other Jewish religious streams have followed their example. There are now hundreds of women rabbis ordained by different rabbinic schools; about a dozen of them work in the GTA.
Though not a rabbi herself, Anat Hoffman is one of the leaders of Reform Judaism in Israel. She heads its Religious Action Centre that champions the rights of all citizens. She also chairs an interdenominational Jewish organization called Women of the Wall that conducts worship services at Jerusalem’s Western Wall, Judaism’s holiest place. The aim is to challenge the misogynist franchise that the Israeli ultra-Orthodox rabbinate has arrogated to itself there and with which political parties in power cynically collude.
At a service at the Wall earlier this month, Hoffman was arrested for carrying a Scroll of the Torah in the women’s precinct. The ultra-Orthodox custodians regard this as sacrilege and a provocation. In its effort to keep the peace, the local police tend to placate the fanatics at the expense of the women. Hence the arrest.
A couple of days later, Hoffman was in Toronto. When I suggested to her that normative Judaism celebrates holy events, not holy places, she said that the monthly worship services the women hold at the Wall are indeed holy events. It’s the only opportunity anywhere in the world for Jews across the denominational spectrum to pray together. In the 22 years that her group has existed — 21 of them with her as leader — countless women, many of them Orthodox, have participated and been greatly enriched by the experience.
Hoffman insists that the remnant of an outer wall that once surrounded the ancient Temple in Jerusalem isn’t an Orthodox synagogue that would entitle its male worshippers to relegate women to the back, or exclude them altogether, preventing them from even touching Torah Scrolls. She argues that the Wall is a national monument that must be accessible to all. To give one group sole rights to the exclusion of all others goes against Israeli democracy.
But, I ventured to suggest, in view of Israel’s precarious diplomatic and security situation, its leaders have more urgent matters to deal with than gender equality at the Wall. She disagreed and argued that religious fanatics can be no less dangerous than armed terrorists. Erosion from within may turn out to be an even greater threat than attacks from without. The women are defending the soul of Israel, she told me.
They also reflect an important trend in contemporary Jewry. Gender equality has had a profound effect on all Jewish denominations. There are now even Orthodox congregations in Israel and elsewhere that encourage women to be full and equal participants in worship, including holding the Torah and reading from it. A maverick Orthodox rabbinic school in New York ordains women rabbis.
A seemingly local skirmish in Jerusalem is the tip of an enormous iceberg that stands in the way of dramatic changes in the very fabric of Judaism. Anat Hoffman and her group are pioneers. People of all faiths committed to religious freedom and women’s rights have reason to applaud and support them.
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Rabbi Marmur is spiritual leader emeritus of Holy Blossom Temple in Toronto. This column appeared in the Star of Toronto.
Jerusalem tourism waxes and wanes with international politics
By Ira Sharkansky
Ira Sharkansky
JERUSALEM–More than two million overseas visitors arrived in Jerusalem during a recent year. The attractions are well maintained places linked to individuals and events featured in the Hebrew Bible and New Testament, and a functioning Old City enclosed by walls built in ancient times and last reconstructed in the 16th century. The Old City offers sites and shopping for tourists, and four distinctive neighborhoods that are the homes of 30,000 Jews, Muslims, Armenians and other Christians. Only a short ride away is Bethlehem, equally compelling for those wanting to see the roots of Christianity. Jericho is not much further in another direction. It offers winter visitors a chance to dine comfortably in an outdoor restaurant, while ten miles away in Jerusalem it may be raining and close to freezing.
While the numbers coming to Jerusalem are impressive, and often a nuisance to locals having to cope with crowds and traffic, the city ranks lower than 50 others in the numbers of tourists it attracts. London, New York, Bangkok, Paris, and Rome attract from three to seven times the number of international tourists as Jerusalem. Dublin, Amsterdam, and Prague get twice as many, while even Kiev and Bucharest, plus resorts near Bangkok attract 50 percent more international visitors than Jerusalem.
Jerusalem may have more of a mystic pull than these other places. The “Jerusalem syndrome” is a documented condition whereby some visitors believe themselves to be biblical characters. Jewish and Christian sufferers act as David, Jesus, or some other figure associated with their faith. I am not aware of visitors to London and Paris thinking that they are Henry VIII, Napoleon, or any of the other figures associated with local history.
Why does Jerusalem rank only #51 on a sophisticated ranking of international tourism?
Distance has something to do with it. Visitors to Western Europe can avail themselves of numerous attractive destinations as part of the same trip from home. There are decent beaches and other features in Tel Aviv and Netanya, but they attract only 60 and 10 percent of the overseas visitors as Jerusalem. Tiberias is on the Sea of Galilee and close to sites important to Christians, but draws only 25 percent of the number of visitors to Jerusalem.
There are other sites in countries close to Jerusalem, notably Egypt, Jordan, Syria, and Lebanon, but the borders of the Middle East are not as easy to cross as those of Western Europe. For some years now Israeli security personnel have not allowed Israeli Jews to visit Bethlehem or Jericho without special permits, and others have to pass through barriers and inspections meant to protect us.
Politics and tension are more likely to figure in a decision to visit Jerusalem than other cities. The number of overseas tourists to Israel dropped from 2.4 million in 2000, which was mostly prior to the onset of the latest intifada, to a bit over one million in 2003, which was one of the bloodiest years. Numbers increased to 1.9 million by 2005 when the violence had diminished significantly. No other country included in the regions of Europe and the Mediterranean surveyed by the United Nations tourist agency showed comparable variations in the same period. Even on a mundane issue like this, the U.N. is unable to consider Israel part of the Middle East region, which includes all of the countries bordering it and Palestine.
Jerusalem has drawn more tourists that some well-known sites in Europe. It does better than Florence and Venice, and is pretty much tied with Athens. Why less than Kiev and Bucharest? There are mysteries in the world of tourism that may boil down to nothing more than current fashion or a lack of precision in the numbers.
Tourist flows change with politics and economics. Thirty years ago there was virtually no direct travel between Israel, the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe. Now Russian visitors are in second place behind those from the United States; there are sizable numbers from Ukraine and Poland. Thousands come each year from India, Korea, Japan, China, and Nigeria. Indonesia and Morocco receive Israelis and send visitors to Israel, even though there are no formal diplomatic relations. There are even a few hundred visitors annually from Malaysia and Iran, whose officials are usually among our most intense critics .
My latest Jerusalem experience may be part of a multicultural gesture to attract overseas visitors, or it may reflect nothing more than the lack of experience or attention by the person responsible. While I usually pay no attention to the music piped into the exercise room at the university gym, this morning I became alert to something familiar. It was Silent Night, in the English version I was required to sing many years ago at the Highland School. But only in December. Never in July.
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Sharkansky is professor emeritus of political science at Hebrew University
Firecrackers shatter synagogue windows in Malmo
MALMO, Sweden (WJC)–A firecracker has exploded on the steps of the synagogue in the Swedish city of Malmö, a day after a bomb threat was taped to the building. The explosion happened in the early hours of Friday. A bomb threat written on paper had reportedly been taped to the synagogue on the previous evening. It was the second threat directed at the synagogue in two weeks, according to the Swedish newspaper ‘The Local’. Security at the synagogue was increased last week, it reported.
No one was injured by the powerful blast, but three window panes were shattered. “It’s incredibly sad that this should happen again,” Jewish community President Fred Kahn said, adding: “We thought we were finished with this sort of thing.”
Bjorn Lagerbäck, coordinator of a dialog forum in Malmö which works against hate crimes, said the vandalism was extremely serious: “We condemn this completely. Such an event is not just directed against the synagogue, but also at other targets that could be described as ethnic or religious.”
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Preceding provided by World Jewish Congress
Oliver Stone declares media should put Hitler and Stalin ‘in context’
LONDON (WJC)–American movie director Oliver Stone has alleged that Jewish control of the media was preventing an open debate about the Holocaust. Stone told the British newspaper ‘The Sunday Times’ that the Jewish lobby had been controlling Washington’s foreign policy for years. In the interview, Stone said public opinion in America was focused on the Holocaust as a result of the “Jewish domination of the media,” adding that an upcoming film of him aims to put Nazi dictator Hitler and Soviet dictator Stalin “in context.”
“Hitler did far more damage to the Russians than the Jewish people, 25 or 30 million,” Stone told the newspaper. “Hitler was a Frankenstein but there was also a Dr Frankenstein. German industrialists, the Americans and the British. He had a lot of support.”
He then alleged Jews were dictating US foreign policy. “There’s a major lobby in the United States. They are hard workers. They stay on top of every comment, the most powerful lobby in Washington.” He claimed Israel had “fucked up United States foreign policy for years,” adding that US policy toward Iran was “horrible”, although “Iran isn’t necessarily the good guy.”
Stone also asked his interviewer if she could look into the newspapers archives to find information about the “Israelis and the bomb”.
Earlier this year, speaking at the at a press tour of the Television Critics Association, Stone had said that “Hitler is an easy scapegoat throughout history and it’s been used cheaply. He is the product of a series of actions.”
The famous Hollywood director has a Jewish father.
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Preceding provided by World Jewish Congress
The Jews Down Under~Roundup of Australian Jewish News
Garry Fabian
Compiled by Garry Fabian
Opposition leader speaks on Hizb utTahir
CANBERRA, 21 July – Australian opposition Leader Tony Abbott has conceded that members of Islamist organisation Hizb ut-Tahrir hold concerning views, but as long as they do not incite terrorism, the group has a place in Australian society.
Speaking to radio shock jock Alan Jones last week, Abbott said if reports that the group was
agitating to establish an Islamic caliphate were correct, it would be “abominable, absolutely abominable”.
But he continued: “The general principle in this country is that we don’t punish bad thoughts, we don’t even punish bad words, as long as those words don’t amount to incitement to break the law.”
Hizb ut-Tahrir an international Islamist group that has a small branch in Australia is banned
in some countries, mostly in the Middle East. It has come under fire on a variety of fronts, not
least because of its anti-Semitic rants. and calls for the eradication of the Jewish State.
The Bangladesh arm of the group released a statement earlier this year calling on Muslims to
“teach the Jews a lesson” and “march forth to fight them, eradicate their entity and purify the earth of their filth”.
In 2007, then attorney-general Philip Ruddock oversaw an investigation into possible terrorist
links with the local branch, but eventually decided not to proscribe the group.
Abbott said the group has very limited support in this country at the moment, and argued the
mainstream Muslim community is not behind it. “My hope, my expectation, my confidence is that this is a minority view among Australian Muslims, but I’ve got to say anything that looks like an incentive, an incitement to break the law, is something [that] should certainly attract the very closest interest from the law enforcement agencies.”
Hizb ut-Tahrir has come back into focus after hosting a conference in Sydney earlier this month.
A spokesperson for Attorney-General Robert McClelland said it would be inappropriate to
confirm or deny whether the group is under investigation by Australia’s intelligence agencies.
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Union for Progressive Judaism condemns Israeli Convdersion Bill
MELBOURNE, 22 July – The local Union for Progressive Judaism (UPJ) has added its voice to global Reform and Conservative condemnation of attempts to push a conversion Bill through the Knesset.
Sponsored by Yisrael Beitenu MK David Rotem, the Bill would delegate the authority to municipal rabbis to carry out conversions to, in an attempt to streamline the conversion process for non-Jewish Israelis.
The Bill’s opponents complain that the same clause effectively provides legal backing for the
authority of the Orthodox rabbinate over all conversions, and threatens the status of those
who converted overseas through non-Orthodox rabbis.
In a letter to Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, signed by UPJ president David Robinson and other senior officials, Progressive Judaism’s Asia-Pacific roof body expressed “great disappointment and shock” at news that Rotem had taken action to drive the Bill through the Knesset without coordination with representatives of all streams of Judaism.
Rotem’s action also drew the condemnation of Jewish Agency chairman Natan Sharansky, who had been working to bridge Diaspora and Israeli concerns over the Bill since it was proposed earlier in the year. While American Jewish organisations have been most vocal in speaking out against the Bill, the UPJ rejected Rotem’s view that some concerns about the proposed legislation are solely American, writing “We believe that it is important for you to know that the grave concerns expressed about this legislation extend far beyond the United States .
“We join the leadership of the World Union for Progressive Judaism in viewing this Bill in its
current form as an affront to all Progressive and Conservative Jews.”
The Zionist Federation of Australia (ZFA) also weighed into the debate. ZFA president Philip
Chester wrote a letter to Netanyahu, warning that the passage of such legislation “would do
incalulable harm to the unity of the Jewish people”.
Anat Hoffman, executive director of the Israel Religious Action Centre, the advocacy arm of the Progressive movement in Israel, told The AJN during a recent visit to Australia that those
parts of the Bill “bring us back from our tremendous achievement [in Israel’s Supreme Court] of six years ago that allReform and Conservative conversions all around the world are recognised in Israel for purposes of aliyah.”
Rotem, defending the Bill on Monday, told The Jerusalem Post that he was unwilling to delay
resolving a problem that affects thousands of immigrants.
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Controversy or birthright
SYDNEY, 23 July – Australian Birthright program organisers have rejected reports in the
international media claiming a recent group visit to Hebron was “unprecedented”.
An article, first published in the New York Jewish Week last week, reported that the trip
made by the Australian Chabad Campus Birthright group earlier this month also “raised questions about whether the program has shifted policy on visits to the West Bank”.
But Rabbi Yehudah deVries, who is responsible for the Australian Chavaya Taglit-Birthright Israel trips for Chabad Campus students, said that those undertaking the extended program for longer than the 10-day free trip have always visited Hebron, with the exception being the past two years.
Rabbi deVries explained he was approached by Birthright’s official trip organiser, Israel
Experience, to arrange the visit to the Cave of the Patriarchs, or Ma’arat HaMachpela, the site
where according to the Torah Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Sara, Rebecca and Leah are buried.
“The entire 10-day program was submitted for Taglit’s approval, as always, and was, as always, approved.
“This includes security approval,” he explained.
“The trip went ahead and was run according to exact security requirements,”
Rabbi deVries said security would not have been approved if the army, police and education
department had deemed the visit to be a potential risk.
“If we can visit Kibbutz Misgav Am, which is in the firing range of Hezbollah on the Lebanese
border; we stand on a Golan Heights border lookout at Mizpe Gadot and look into Syria, then why make a point ofHebron being either dangerous or political?” Rabbi deVries questioned.
And as for the politics of the visit?
“Politics should not be brought to the groups. Taglit-Birthright Israel is most young people’s
first experience of the land of Israel. Let them see as much as possible . and let them make
informed decisions based on their own intellect and experience,” he said.
The Zionist Federation’s Israel Programs coordinator Brendan Bensky said the visit formed
part of the Chabad Campus group’s Jewish historical aspect and was approved by Birthright.
This trip was the first time an Australian group undertook the Birthright program mid-year.
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Israel a point of difference in Australian election campaign
CANBERRA, 23 July – Just two days into the election campaign, Opposition Leader Tony Abbott touted his party’s “unshakable commitment” to Israel.
Speaking at an Australia-Israel Chamber of Commerce lunch in Melbourne on Monday, Abbott took the opportunity to criticise the Rudd-Gillard Government’s record towards Israel.
“I have to say that it’s a little disappointing, given the deep affinity between the Australian
people and the Israeli people that the current Australian Government has somewhat weakened our longstanding bipartisanship on Israel,” Abbott said before the crowd of more than 1000
businesspeople and Liberal Party faithful.
“I want to reiterate here today, the Coalition’s unshakable commitment to Israel’s security and I want to assure you that a Coalition government would never support a one-sided United Nations resolution against Israel to curry favour with an anti-Israel majority in the General Assembly,” he said.
He continued: “And we would never overreact to any international incident, because we appreciate that Israel is under existential threat in a way that almost no other country in the world is.”
He told guests, including dozens of the nation’s finest journalists, who were following Abbott’s
campaign trail, that Australia needs to appreciate that “a diminished Israel diminishes the West”.
The Opposition Leader also used the opportunity to pay tribute to the achievements of the local Jewish community. He commented that Australia is the only country in the world, apart from Israel, where Jewish people have occupied the highest offices, including as the governor-general.
Among guests at the Crown Casino lunch were Shadow Treasurer Joe Hockey, Shadow Minister for Finance Andrew Robb, Victorian Opposition Leader Ted Baillieu and former treasurer Peter Costello.
Costello, who travelled with Julia Gillard to Israel last year for the Australia-Israel
Leadership Forum, delivered the vote of thanks, endorsing his former cabinet colleague’s tilt at the top job.
“Tony Abbott is a man of commitment and a man of drive,” Costello said. “I know he was party of a very successful government, I don’t know that about Julia Gillard.”
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Canadian MP Calls on Australia to charge Iran with conspiracy to commit genocide
MELBOURNE, 22 July- Australia should be the first country to refer Iran to the United Nation Security Council, a senior Canadian politician said this week.
Irwin Cotler delivered keynote addresses and met politicians from both sides this week during a whirlwind tour of Australia supported by the Anti-Defamation Commission (ADC).
The human rights law professor and former Canadian attorney-general said Australia, as a
signatory to the United Nations genocide convention, needs to “exercise leadership” and
refer Iran to the UN Security Council for conspiracy to commit genocide.
When probed as to why his country, which for many years has been outspoken on preventing genocide, would not do that itself, Cotler said “political leaders live in an insular bubble where issues of the day overwhelm these issues”.
“The country that does it first will be applauded by history,” he told the audience
He added that if Australia did refer Iran for investigation, Canada would certainly support the move.
Cotler, who chairs the Responsibility to Prevent Coalition, which recently completed a report on “The danger of a nuclear, genocidal and rights-violating Iran, said the evidence is
available to indict Iran over conspiracy to commit genocide.
The report states: “Repeated calls for the destruction of Israel and ‘prophecies’ of its
demise all work to normalise the idea of genocide in the minds of the Iranian people. Articulated in the context of demonising rhetoric implying a clash of civilisations, calls for the
annihilation of the Jewish State begin appearing not only moral and justifiable, but natural as well.”
Asked why, if the evidence is clear, Iran has managed to escape scrutiny, Cotler replied: “It
certainly does make a mockery of international law and it sustains a culture of impunity”.
“The Iranian regime can intensify incitement, knowing they won’t be held to account,” he said.
Cotler added that it is not just through incitement to genocide that the Iranian regime
threatens global stability. He said suspected nuclear weapons development, Iran’s sponsorship
of terrorist organisations and violations of the rights of the Iranian people were four distinct
threats posed by Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
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Ashley Brown selected for Australia Under 19 Football training squad
Ashley Brown joined North Caulfield Maccabi Junior Football club in 2010 and is a part of the
successful U18 Youth Development Programme, and plays in the Boys U16 and Under 18 competition.
Ashley will hopefully be selected later this year to once again compete in the Asian Qualifiers. She has just returned from the FFA Nationals in Coffs Harbour where she competed in the Victorian U17 girls team and was selected in the All Stars team (representing the best players of the tournament). Ashley has a long and impressive record of achievement on the football filed.
In 2006, Ashley aged 11 made the Victorian Primary Schools State soccer team, and was
included in the National Training Centre in Victoria for advanced players. At the time she
was the youngest player ever to be included in that squad.
In 2007, aged 12 and in 2008 aged 13, she was part of the Victorian State u15 team. In 2008 she was selected in the U17 Australian Team and travelled to Malaysia to compete in the Asian
Qualifiers. She was in the starting lining up playing against Thailand and Myanmar and the team finished top of their group. In 2009 Ashley won the Maccabi Victoria Deloitte’s Rising Star Award and in 2009, she was selected again in the Australian U 17 squad for the Asian Qualifiers (but unfortunately had to withdraw three days before due to injury). In
January 2009 Ashley represented Victoria in the National Futsal Championships.
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Tragic end to World Cup trip
MELBOURNE, 23 July–A local teenager critically injured in a diving accident in Malaysia died in Melbourne on Thursday.
On Tuesday, an air ambulance carried 14-year-old Reagan Milstein and his mother Tamara home from Singapore, where he had spent 18 days in hospital in a critical condition.
Upon arrival, he was taken straight to Melbourne’s Monash Medical Centre, where he remained in intensive care.
His mother Tamara said on Tuesday that while the family were very relieved to have their son
safely home, they now “embark upon the next stage of this sad journey where the road ahead will be very difficult and filled with uncertainty”.
“The family would like to express their immense gratitude to friends, family and the wider
community who have provided so much comfort and support and helped them all cope during this tragic time,” she said.
Tributes flooded in to the Facebook group ‘Regan’s Recovery’. Family, friends and other
members of the community had been posting their wishes and prayers on the Facebook page since the accident.
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CANBERRA, 26 July – Despite lobbying from the Jewish community, Education Minister Simon Crean failed last weekend to commit to compulsory Holocaust education in Australian schools.
Speaking to a standing-room only audience at the opening of the Jewish Holocaust Centre’s
refurbished main exhibition on Sunday, Crean praised the efforts of curator Jayne Josem.
“What struck me coming in was the joy, the happiness and the pride when I came in, but
you’re quickly brought back to perspective when you’re taken through the museum,” said the minister, whose full portfolio takes in education, employment, workplace relations and social inclusion.
Moving on to political matters, Crean discussed the draft national curriculum, which is open for public consultation until July 30. He outlined the option of year 10 students undertaking a
study of the Holocaust as part of their history classes.
“It is vital that our children are aware of the past and that they learn from the past,” he said.
But despite lobbying from the Executive Council of Australian Jewry for Holocaust studies to be made compulsory, the Member for Hotham did not give any indication this would be happening.
“All students in year 10 will undertake a depth study of war and peace in the 20th century, this
includes the impact of World War II on the modern world and will give students the chance to study the history of the Holocaust,” the former opposition leader said.
He added that the curriculum authority was also charged with building lessons of tolerance and respect into the curriculum, which is set to be unveiled later this year.
“Good education does help deliver a good citizen [and] the Jewish Holocaust Centre does a great job in fostering that understanding and that belief in tolerance and acceptance and that belief in diversity,” he said.
Speaking immediately before Crean, Josem said that since its opening in 1984, more than a
quarter of a million students have been guided around the centre by a survivor guide. But she
spoke of the challenge with today’s students – who come to the centre with piercings, low-slung shorts, iPods and mobile phones.
“Our job here is to penetrate through their digital armoury and get them to think about why they’ve come.”
The museum’s new interactive story pods and modern presentation, which were developed with the input of survivors, will go some of the way to achieving that.
“They arrive indifferent . but they leave different,” she said.
More than 500 people braved the rain to attend Sunday’s opening, which was held in a marquee alongside the museum, with overflow crowds watching on screens inside the centre. As deputy prime minister, Julia Gillard had accepted an invitation to open the refurbished exhibition, but she sent Crean in her place because of a timing clash/
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Fabian is Australia bureau chief for San Diego Jewish World
sdjewishworld 