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 ASSEMBLYMAN JOEL ANDERSON

____________________ The Jewish Citizen              by Donald H. Harrison

Anderson used 2-pronged strategy to sell

veteran legislators on Iran divestment

EL CAJON, California  --With Democrats controlling the state Assembly by a 48-32 margin, normally you would not expect a freshman Republican legislator from a suburban San Diego district to make a lot of legislative news. Rather, you’d expect him to be squeezed with his staff into a tiny Capitol office suite and assigned to low-profile committees where he might languish as a minority voice until his maximum three terms were blissfully over.  

When Joel Anderson (Republican, El Cajon) took office last December, all seemed to be going according to such expectations.  He and his staff members were assigned to Capitol suite 2111, which is tiny compared to the offices of more senior members. The committees he drew were ones that many members of the Capitol news corps rarely visit: Public Employees and Retirement and Social Security; Public Safety, and Water, Parks and Wildlife.

It seemed that for the foreseeable future all anyone would ever say about Anderson was “Joel, who?”

However, no one—not even Anderson—had reckoned on how important his previous service as a board member and president of the Padre Dam Municipal Water District would become.
 
In that capacity, he had learned that there was a $2 million deficit in the medical portion of the water district’s pension plan—a deficit that required him and fellow board members to scrutinize the budget in order to “backfill” it.

On receiving his legislative committee assignment, he and his staff decided to pore over the books of the multibillion dollar pension funds operated for state employees and public school teachers to see if there were any similar deficits that might cause problems later.

But instead of deficits, Anderson found investment patterns that prompted him to complain:  The two state funds had invested in foreign companies that were doing business with Iran.  By his estimate, almost 10 percent of the Public Employees Retirement System (PERS) was tied up in companies doing business with Iran.

Had they been American companies, they would have been prohibited under U.S. imposed sanctions from doing business with Iran.  But because they were foreign based companies, such as Royal Dutch Shell and the French energy conglomerate Total, they did not come under the purview of American authority.

But why were the two largest public employee funds in the state supporting companies doing business with Iran, especially in its energy and defense sectors? Anderson asked managers of these funds.  (Jump to continuation)



 

Jerusalem Diaries          Judy Lash Balint

Fifteen sure ways to tell it is Succot in Jerusalem



BOOTHS—Two sukkot make their appearances in Jerusalem
Judy Lash Balint photos

JERUSALEM—Fifteen ways you know Sukkot is coming in Jerusalem: 

1. The clang of metal poles and the sounds of hammering are practically constant as Jerusalem's apartment dwellers hurry to erect their sukkot and squeeze them into small balconies, odd-shaped gardens and otherwise derelict rooftops.

2. The tourists have landed!  Overwhelmingly religious English and French speaking, they jam the city's take-out places and restaurants, and may be seen in packs wandering up and down Emek Refaim and Derekh Betlechem talking to their friends at top volume on their cell phones.

3.  Almost every non-profit group worth its salt has scheduled a fund-raising and/or familiarization event for the days of Chol Hamoed Sukkot, aimed at capturing the attention of the wealthy temporary Jerusalem residents.

4. Real estate agents are taking a deep breath before their busiest week of the year as they prepare to pitch their over-priced wares to eager foreign buyers. Each of the many luxury residential building projects around town managed to put up billboards depicting the completed construction and inviting prospective buyers in for a tour of an unfinished building site.

4. You can't get on a bus without being poked in the rear a dozen times with someone's stray lulav.

5.  The sweet smell of etrogim in Jerusalem's Machane Yehuda (Yehuda Market) is overpowering. Huge crowds descend on a lot on Jaffa Road neae the market to vie for the best lulav and etrog.

6.  One enterprising bookstore is offering "Machzor rentals" for tourists who inadvertently left their holiday prayer books at home.

7.  You've never seen such gaudy sukkah decorations in your life—unless you've been to Wal Mart on Christmas eve.  Kiosks manned by bearded Haredim in Meah Shearim are selling gold, green and red tinsel hangings—exact replicas of Noel decorations in the Old Country.

8.  Huge piles of schach (palm fronds for the roof of the sukkah) cover major city squares, and citizens are invited to take as much as they need for free.

9. The usual throngs of traditional Jews are expected at the Western Wall for the thrice-yearly observance of the ancient ritual of Birkat Cohanim—Blessing by the Priests—that takes place during the intermediate days of Sukkot.

10.  Like Christmas tree lots back in the US, empty city lots all over Jerusalem are taken over to sell sukkot of every size and description.  Some are marketed by large companies and feature the latest space-saving technology and hardiest material, while others are simpler affairs made of tubular piping and plastic walls..  Every kosher restaurant in town has a sukka of some kind and each boasts bigger and better holiday specials to entice customers.

11. Since the entire week of Sukkot is a national holiday you'll have a tough time deciding which festival/event to take part in.  There's the New Age Bereishit Festival at Dugit beach; The Tamar music and arts fest at Ein Gedi; Acco's acclaimed Fringe Theater Festival; Rishon L'Tzion's Wine Festival and a Storytellers Festival in Givatayim, to name just a few.

12.  Touring the country is another favorite Sukkot activity and every political group is promoting trips to "See For Yourself." Hevron is a perennial favorite for Chol Hamoed (intermediate festival days) with a special opening of the Isaac Hall in the Cave of the Patriarchs that's normally off-limits to Jewish visitors. The far left organization Ir Amim funded by the European Union and the Ford Foundation, offers to take visitors to see their version of Jerusalem.

13.  Not to be left out are those Christian friends of Israel—the International Christian Embassy of Jerusalem will bring 6,000 members from 80 nations to attend their annual Feast of Tabernacles celebration. Opening ceremonies this year will take place at Ein Gedi, near the Dead Sea.

The Christian contingent will also take part in another annual Sukkot event, the Jerusalem March, dressed in costume of their countries of origin.

Organizers claim that the Christian event will pump $10 million into the local economy, taking up 15,000 hotel room nights during their stay.

14. Another prominent group of tourists set to arrive are refugees from the young frum singles scene who make an annual migration to Jerusalem from the Upper West Side for Sukkot.  Discreet meetings of earnest, well-scrubbed, modestly dressed twenty-somethings take place in all the major hotel lobbies.

15. And speaking of refugees—spare a thought for those 1,700 families expelled from their homes in Gush Katif in August 2005.  More than two years on and hardly any of them are living in permanent housing. 1,375 former Gush Katif residents are still unemployed. Several have died at a young ages and many couples have divorced due to the economic and social pressure and the uncertain future they face. Neither they nor the Israelis in and around Sderot who continue to endure Hamas shelling will need to be reminded of one of the essential messages of the Sukkot holiday—the flimsiness of our physical existence and our reliance on God for sustenance and shelter.

Jerusalem Diaries II: What's Really Happening in Israel (Xulon Press) by Judy Lash Balint is now available at your favorite bookstore or from www. amazon.com and www.barnesandnoble.com

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