National and International
*The missing Azmi Beshara
*Free speech vs. religion  
*Giuliani's nuclear knowledge
*IDF Music Ensemble to Perform in San Diego

 

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Letter from Jerusalem
_________________By Ira Sharkansky

Azmi Beshara, where are you?

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'Friends of IDF' urges San Diegans to attend
April 25 concert by visiting Israeli soldiers
 

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Ayn Rand Institute calls for rejection of U.N.

resolution to prohibit speech criticizing religion

IRVINE, Ca. (Publicity Release)—The U.N. Human Rights Council recently passed a resolution urging nations to pass laws prohibiting the dissemination of ideas that "defame religion." It appears that the resolution was partly a response to last year's Danish cartoon crisis, where hordes of angry Muslims rioted in violent protest of cartoons depicting the Prophet Muhammad.

"The advocates of this resolution perversely equate those who drew the Danish cartoons with those who rioted and threatened to murder the cartoonists," said Dr. Yaron Brook, executive director of the Ayn Rand Institute. "Both, they say, are guilty of a crime and should be restrained and punished by the government--with the unstated caveat that the cartoonists are guiltier, since they allegedly incited the violent mobs by defaming Islam.

"To morally equate the Danish cartoonists with the Muslim rioters is to wipe out the distinction between speech and force. It is to declare there is no essential difference between the filmmaker Theo van Gogh,and the Muslim who murdered him for producing a film that 'defamed Islam.'

"Freedom of speech means that individuals have the right to advocate any idea, without the threat of government censorship, regardless of how many people that idea may offend. To silence individuals in order to protect the sensibilities of mullahs and mobs is to wipe out this crucial right--and it is to whitewash the blood-stained hands of killers by declaring that they are no worse than those who peacefully criticize them.

"Yet this disgraceful moral equivalence is a symptom of the larger moral equivalence that pervades the U.N. Human Rights Council, which is based on the gross pretense that its members--including belligerent regimes such as Iran and Syria, and oppressive dictatorships such as China and Cuba--are champions of peace and individual rights. As a result, its main function is to provide a forum for thugs and dictators to criticize free nations such as the United States and Israel, while pushing their anti-freedom agendas.

"The United States should condemn this resolution--and the morally corrupt organization that produced it.

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Why jewishsightseeing.com inserts the words "Publicity Release"—I strongly believe that you, as readers, have the right to know where stories come from, whether they are staff-produced, or whether the subject of the stories are the same people who wrote them. If it were up to me, so as to avoid confusion, political organizations simply would . send signed commentaries instead of pseudo news stories.  But I believe that in whatever form these releases come, you are interested in news and commentary on issues of direct importance to the Jewish community.—Donald H. Harrison, editor
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National Jewish Democratic Council chides
Rudy Giuliani on his nuclear knowledge gap
 

WASHINGTON (Publicity Release) – Today, the National Jewish Democratic Council (NJDC) called on Republican presidential candidate Rudolph Giuliani to spend more time educating himself on Iran and Middle East politics.  NJDC’s rebuke of the former Mayor comes in light of Giuliani’s comments to a New Hampshire audience that he is unaware whether North Korea or Iran is further along in the development of nuclear weapons.  This after boasting about his foreign policy credentials.

NJDC, which is deeply troubled by the Iranian threat, has serious concerns about Giuliani’s ability to manage U.S. policy in the region. 

“In order to offer intelligent proposals for addressing Iran, one ought to be able to speak intelligently about the Iranian threat itself,” said NJDC Executive Director Ira Forman.  “With Iran posing such a grave challenge to American policymakers, we can ill afford to have a Commander-in-Chief who doesn’t truly understand the threat.”  

“At a house party in New Hampshire, Mr. Giuliani suggested that it was unclear which was further along, Iran or North Korea, in the development of a nuclear weapons program,” reported the New York Times.  The Times article went on to say that Giuliani then suggested a link between Iran and the September 11 attacks with no substantive evidence other than “they have a similar objective … in their anger at the modern world.” [New York Times, 3/7/07]

The editors of Foreign Policy offer this rebuttal to Giuliani: “For the record, North Korea tested a nuclear device on October 9, 2006, while the Iranians have yet to do so. The U.S. intelligence community believes Iran could have a nuclear weapon as early as 2010, but most likely in the time frame of 2012-2015.” [Foreign Policy Blog, 4/9/07]

“In the 1976 election, voters punished incumbent President Gerald Ford when he claimed in a debate that there was no Soviet domination of Poland,” continued Forman.  “American voters do not want someone who misunderstands geo-politics with a finger on the button.  Giuliani is apt to learn this the hard way, if he doesn’t move away from soundbyte politics.”

President Ford’s notorious debate gaffe on Poland has been described as “One of his most famous verbal gaffes [which] helped Jimmy Carter win the presidency.”  From the Associated Press: “’There is no Soviet domination of Eastern Europe and there never will be under a Ford administration,’ Ford said during the second presidential debate in October 1976, still the height of the Cold War. The audience gasped, but when the moderator gave Ford the opportunity to clarify his answer, he went on to say that Poland was ‘independent or autonomous.’” [AP, 12/28/06]
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The Jewish Citizen
              by Donald H. Harrison
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Filner, in return to his roots at SDSU,
draws divided reaction from students

Congressman Bob Filner (D-San Diego) returned to his old haunt—the history department of San Diego State University—to mixed reviews from students. He spoke this afternoon to a class of about 400 students about the differences between Democrats and Republicans, the war in Iraq, and some of his concerns as the new chairman of the House Committee on Veteran Affairs.

Reaction to his speech seemed to run along partisan lines, with some students saying they would like equal time for a Republican, and some students praising Filner and lining up after the lecture for his autograph.

The class taught by Professor emeritus Dr. Harry McDean, a former chairman of the History Department, currently is focusing on the development of the modern Republican and Democratic parties, as well as on the attitudes of the two parties toward the military. Invitations to address the class were conveyed both to Filner and to Republican Rep. Duncan Hunter, former chairman of the House Armed Services Committee.  According to McDean, Filner accepted but Hunter, busy running for U.S. president, declined, citing schedule conflicts.  (I serve as a teaching assistant in that class and provided Filner's introduction to the students.)
 

	Filner and McDean had been junior professors together in the department back in the late 1970s when Filner began his career in elective office as a member of the city Board of Education.  He later went on to serve in the City Council before winning election to Congress.  He now is in his eighth term.
Harry McDean and Bob Filner share some memories of their early careers as young SDSU history professors.	The congressman began his discussion of the differences between Republicans and Democrats by describing the ethnic

makeup of the two parties' representatives in Congress.  He said in the Republican delegation there are no African Americans, no Mexican-Americans, one Asian-American, three Cuban-Americans and one Jewish-American. Additionally there are 20 women. "That's it for diversity," he said, going on to describe Republicans as members of a party that is predominantly white, Christian, and wealthy.

In comparison, he said, Democratic members of Congress have 35 African Americans among their ranks, 30 Hispanic Americans (most of them Mexican-Americans), "four or five Asian-Americans," 25 Jewish Americans (including Filner himself) and 85 women."  Unlike Republicans, he said, Democrats "look like America."

Most Democrats come from districts within the major urban areas.  His own district which stretches along the Mexican border across the width of California is 85 percent persons of color, he said.  More than 50 percent are Mexican-Americans, with Filipinos making up another large percentage.

He characterized Republican districts as being typically in the suburbs, with constituents largely "people who are doing well" and with a large number of "homogenous, gated communities."

The constituents in his district and other Democratic districts, who are in lower economic brackets,  tend to think of government as a "good thing" which can serve as a guarantor of economic opportunity and protection from environmental degradation, Filner said.  On the other hand, people who live in the wealthier Republican areas don't have to worry about the same kinds of issues. They don't have industrial pollution in their areas;   "they think that government is bad because it takes their taxes" with spending chiefly for other people's needs.

The Democratic congressman suggested that many Republicans embrace
a form of social Darwinism, which he paraphrased as saying "if God wanted them (poor people) rich, he would have made them rich."  In contrast, he said, "Democrats say 'we are all in this together.'"  He said if people in poorer areas are without medical coverage, they will get diseases that eventually could spread to the rest of the population, so for everyone concerned it is better to provide medical coverage.

Filner told the students that these highly contrasting attitudes between the parties tend to shape every debate in Congress.  Each side, he suggested, is attempting to represent its constituents.

Moving to the sources of money Republicans and Democrats draw on, the congressman said typically Republicans go to corporations, whereas Democrats go to labor unions.  He said he considered the system far from ideal, with a tendency to foster corruption.  He told the students that former U.S. Rep. Randy "Duke" Cunningham (R-Rancho Santa Fe), who was convicted and imprisoned on bribery charges, "sold his votes for a Rolls Royce in his garage" and a fancy mansion.

"Most bribery is less clear than that, legalized in a lot of ways," said Filner.  He said some people contribute money to a congressional representative not because they agree with his or her ideas but to gain access to that person and to push their own agenda.  He described himself as a believer in public financing.

Filner, who was among those who voted against sending troops to Iraq in the first place, described the war there as "very stupid and criminal."  He said it has thus far squandered over 3,300 American lives, and injured 25,000 more troops, while causing even more harm to Iraqis.

Nevertheless, he charged, "the President can't say what we're fighting for."  He said when President George W. Bush's administration told the American people that there were "weapons of mass destruction" in Iraq, many members of Congress like himself knew that was not true.  He suggested that the Bush administration thought by fighting the war in Iraq it could improve America's strategic position versus Iran, but instead the war has put American troops in the middle of a civil war between Sunni and Shiite Muslims while "getting shot at by both sides." The cost of the war is $1 billion every 2 1/2 days, Filner said.  Such spending diverts funds from domestic priorities, he added.

"I think the American people are against it," Filner said.  "The President is delusionary...divorced from reality."

The Veteran Affairs Committee chairman said returning soldiers are suffering from "incredible problems" especially brain injuries caused by the shock waves from being near Improvised Explosive Devices (IED's).  He said the average combat soldier experiences "five concussions a year."  However, when they return home, often to small towns, they do not receive the medical attention they need with the result that their medical conditions regress.  Furthermore, he said, many suffer from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. "You can't go into a war, see a friend blown up, or kill kids in the fog of war" without later suffering PTSD, he said.  Nevertheless, America's medical system doesn't give sufficient attention or credence to mental illness.

The same kind of problems in Vietnam resulted in the 200,000 homeless veterans now on the streets of our nation's cities, Filner said.

He said not only was the Bush Administration inadequately prepared to conduct the war—failing to provide the soldiers with proper armor or vehicles—but also the Bush administration didn't plan for the ongoing medical treatment of veterans after the war.  "Part of the cost of war is treating the warrior!" he said. 

Although he can be combative—and in fact was when a student later asked what Filner assumed was a hostile question—the Democratic congressman described himself as a pacifist who literally learned at the feet of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King. While a college student in the1960s, Filner had been a "Freedom Rider" and was briefly jailed for his activities in the South.

He said the foot soldiers of terrorism, if not the leaders, are driven by despair, poverty, hunger and lack of hope.  He asked the students to consider what would have happened if instead of dropping bombs in Afghanistan, the United States instead had launched a campaign of humanitarian aid, dropping books, medicines and foods.

"I think it would have changed the history of the world," he said. 

However, instead of dropping food, he said, the United States dropped bomb packages that looked like food, resulting in children being attracted to and killed by the bombs.

He said he and several other members of Congress would like to see the United States create a Department of Peace that would explore ways in which the United States could peacefully interact with the rest of the world.

In the question and answer session, one student asked if Democrats are opposed to the tax refunds that had been pushed through Congress by the Republicans, why they don't refuse to accept the refunds, or send them back to the U.S. Treasury?

Filner appeared to take exception to the question, asking the student, "what is the point"  of the question  After the student rephrased the question, Filner responded that he keeps his entire $165,000 salary as a congressman and doesn't send any of it back.  He likened this to someone who is for environmental protection yet drives an SUV.  But whatever individual inconsistencies there may be, Filner argued that the important issue for taxpayers in lower economic brackets is whether the situation can be changed. 

Another student asked Filner if he preferred Hillary Clinton or Barack Obama for President.  Filner responded that he hasn't made up his mind who to back for the Democratic party nomination,  then commended New Mexico Gov. and former United Nations Ambassador Bill Richardson, whom he noted also would score a first if he reached the White House.  As Senator Clinton is a woman, Obama an African American, so too is Richardson of Mexican background.  Additionally, Filner said, he likes the tongue-in-cheek bumper sticker "Reelect Gore in 2008" —a reference to the disputed election in 2000 in which Bush beat Gore after a contested recount in Florida.

A student asked what could be done about people who are raised to hate Israel.  Filner responded that as in the case of anyone raised to hate someone or something else, "education is the best thing."

Another asked Filner what would happen in Iraq if the United States withdrew its military forces.  The congressman said that would be for the Iraqi people to decide.  Whatever happened, he suggested, the situation could not deteriorate much more than it has already.


Gruss Foundation/CIJE Invests $500,000 in
Academics at San Diego Jewish Day Schools

SAN DIEGO, CA (publicity release) —Children at San Diego’s three Jewish Day Schools are benefiting from a $500,000 investment to improve academics and $22,500 in tuition incentives from the Center for Initiatives in Jewish Education (CIJE) of the Gruss Monument Life Funds. To explain the academic enhancements and hold the tuition drawing, Chabad Hebrew Academy, San Diego Jewish Academy, Soille San Diego Hebrew Day School and CIJE invite the community to a “Celebration of Academic Excellence,” a free kosher gala dinner reception on Monday, May 14 at 6:00 p.m. at the Lawrence Family Jewish Community Center at 4126 Executive Drive in La Jolla. 

At the event, Jason Cury, President of CIJE and Karl Gustafson, Senior Vice President of Sales & Marketing of Pearson Digital Learning will explain the impact of the CIJE education technology labs they invested in each school as well as E2K, the new math and science program for motivated middle school students.  Families who attend are also eligible to win $7,500 to $15,000 to be used as tuition over the next three years at any private Jewish elementary day school.   To enter the drawing, families must enter online at www.jewishinsandiego.com no later than May 9, 2007 and be present at the presentation to win.

The May 14 event is free and begins at 6:00 p.m. with registration and hors d'oeuvres followed at 6:30 p.m. with a gourmet kosher dinner reception.  At 7:30 p.m. the presentation and tuition drawing begins in the main theatre followed at 8:30 p.m. with a decadent dessert reception to conclude the evening.  Free childcare with a kosher dinner will be available for children ages two to eleven.  Pre-registration is required for the event and childcare.  Families must register online at www.jewishinsandiego.com by Wednesday May 9  or R.S.V.P. to the San Diego Agency for Jewish Education to Marcia Wollner at (858) 268-9200.

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Arts in Review

 by Carol Davis
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Sailor's Song: An enchanting air

Pulitzer- Prize winning playwright John Patrick Shanley’s Sailor’s Song is making it’s West Coast premiere at The New Village Arts Theatre in Carlsbad through April 29th. I want to say “run, don’t walk to see this beautifully captivating evening of theatre.” I want to say leave your imaginations open to whatever the creative team of this young theatre company puts before you because I know you will leave with a feeling
as light hearted and thoughtful as I, when the magic ends. In fact I still feel the magic.

Shanley’s Sailor pulls you right into its spell from the beginning. The
play opens on a broad set (Nick Fouch) at Jazzercise, Inc in Carlsbad (their temporary home). On one end is the siding of a southern Atlantic (the gals sounded more like Maine to me) coastal town beach cottage
with a porch, screen door, and a cot resting under  On the other side of the stage in a raised platform are two or three cabaret tables with small lamps on them, chairs on either side and between the two is a  rowboat anchored to a dock.

Rich, (Manny Fernandes) a seaman who had aspirations beyond being a crane operator on a cargo ship, never made captain. Now he isn’t sure about anything in his life and comes to this seacoast town to be with his uncle John (Doren Elias) whose wife is dying of cancer. John is a crusty old salt who sees life as it is while Rich sees life through music, waltzing and fantasizing, or as some might say :through rose colored glasses."
Rich is lonesome. He can’t commit to relationships. His feelings are buried so deep from years of suppressing them that even if he wanted to emote he wouldn’t know how. He is, however, hopeful that one day he will find himself or settle down at something he really likes. He does, though, know a good time.

The fun begins when Rich wanders into a bar that first night, and sitting at a table are two very pretty young women. One of them (Amanda Sutton), Joan, is writing continuously on a yellow pad
while surveying the comings and goings of  the evening. The other (Amanda Morrow) is Lucy who introduces herself to Rich at first glance and  is smitten with him from the get go. 

Eventually we learn from Lucy that the girls are sisters and Joan 
is ‘an automatic writer’. In other words, she’s a psychic who
channels, through writing, the thoughts of a Punjabi  businessman who died several years earlier. It is a hoot watching her predict things at a
flash and really believe them. Lucy, the more down to earth sister,
works at the local bank. Both women plant strong ‘open mouthed’
kisses on Rich within minutes of meeting and we’re off to the races.

Rich can’t decide which of the girls he wants and rather than make a choice, waltzes them both around the stage before heading for his
uncle’s house. This sets the mood for what follows and when Rich reaches the house and tells his uncle of his experiences, John tells him
 to pick one or lose both. He’s a man of decision and frankly, envies his nephew's dilemma. The contrast in the two men almost makes one think that there must be some mistake; they couldn’t be related.

After they settle in with a drink or two, their talk centers around
John and his dying wife, Carla (Robin Christ) and how John is
coping. John shares how he met Carla and why he really didn’t have
to marry her (for reasons I’ll save for you to learn when you see the show.) But he stayed with her over the years and now he’s trying to understand her death. Rich is stunned by John’s openness and can’t understand how he can speak so freely about a very personal matter,
let alone allow his feelings to be worn on his sleeve. He concludes that John is certainly different from what he expected.

In the meantime, while John  faces life squarely in the eye, Rich
avoids all that by taking the girls out on a boating outing the next
day. Again, the magic fills the stage with romance, music, laughs and dance. It is one exquisite moment .

Shanley’s script calls for dancing and music and while the play seesaws between frankness and fantasy, life and death, mortality and spirituality, romance and sex, real things are happening. Back at the cottage, Carla is nearly close to death and when she awakens from  her coma and she
and John share one last dance together, it’s heartbreakingly beautiful. There isn’t a dry eye in the house. And, in her after death ballet with him, everyone just about melts into a puddle of water. In Shanley’s words, “Sailor’s Song  is about the almost unbearable beauty of choosing to love in the face of death. Love is the most essential act of courage.”

Under the deft direction of Kristianne Kurner with choreography by Robin Christ and Kathy Meyer, Adam Brick’s sound design, (“Blue Danube Waltz”, “Try A Little Tenderness”), and Justin Hall’s lighting design, the cast is able to put their best feet forward. Manny Fernandes, whom I’ve seen dozens of times, is absolutely amazing and light footed
as he waltzes the girls around the new dance floor at the Jazzercise complex. His comfort and ease, twinkle and steadfastness, lend tremendous credibility to his character. While his physical presence says strength, he convinces that his character’s mind vacillates when it comes to exploring his emotions.

The women, both Amandas are exceptionally well suited to their oddball personalities. With straight faced resolution, each of them in their own way go after Rich with zest and verve. They are almost like bookends trying to outdo each other.  It’s not only the acting, however, that make this production so colorful. The dancing of all four, (Fernandes,
Morrow, Sitton, Elias and particularly Christ) is simply striking. And while they are just the fantasy in Rich’s world, it’s John who keeps pointing to the reality door. Doren Elias is at his best with his gruff, raspy voice and raw emotions pushing John to the edge while filling in the blanks of  his nephew’s emptiness and his wife’s impending  death.
He is, in fact, the center around which this play revolves.

Shanley’s Doubt and Moonstruck have made believers of many. His Sailor’s Song will as well.  New Village Arts Theatre is currently renting space at Jazzercise, Inc. at 2787 State Street in Carlsbad. They can be reached at www.newvillagearts.org  or by phone at: (760) 433-3245.
 

The night I attended the show, it was announced by Executive Director Kristainne Kurner that the very next day, Monday April 9, construction
of their new performance space in Carlsbad Village would begin. The new space is scheduled to open June 15 with Sam Shepard’s True West. I’ll keep you posted.

See you at the theatre.

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The Jewish Grapevine
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Roz Rothstein, national director of Stand With Us, an Israel advocacy group, is stepping up a campaign to discourage DePaul University from retaining Norman Finkelstein, who, despite being the children of Survivors, minimizes the Holocaust and has joined ranks with the opponents of Israel. Here is a link to a background article by Rothstein about the controversy and here is another link to a petition urging DePaul's President Dennis H. Holtschneider and the faculty to deny tenure to Finkelstein.

Heather Zeiden, in Israel as an art therapy instructor for a program in Tsfat, recently had the pleasure of meeting Former Prime Minister Shimon Peres during a visit to Tel Aviv.  Zeiden, who designed the logo of our Louis Rose Society for the Preservation of Jewish History, was introduced to Peres by his son, Yonatan Peres, a frequent visitor to San Diego.


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Jews in the News            ---------------------------------------------------------
 News spotters: Dan Brin in Los Angeles, Donald H. Harrison in San Diego., Marsha Sutton in North San Diego County. If you'd like to be a spotter in your California city, please contact Harrison at sdheritage@cox.net. 
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*Talk about a role with a challenge!  David Ellenstein, artistic director of North County Rep, remembers when he was cast to play Jesus in an Easter production at the Crystal Cathedral.  Ruth Marvin Webster told the story in the North County Times of San Diego County.

*U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein says the campaign for increased funding for stem-cell research will go forward notwithstanding President George Bush's almost certain veto of such legislation. Associated Press reporter David Espo has the story in The San Diego Union-Tribune.

*Choreographer John Malashock is among members of the San Diego arts community who believes the large Luce Theatre at the former Naval Training Center should be used to stage performances by arts groups, rather than as the home for a proposed pirate theatre tourist attraction.  Maureen Magee has the story in The San Diego Union-Tribune.

*Richard Meier, architect of the Getty Center, has been engaged to design an ultra-luxurious condominium complex at the Wilshire Boulevard site of the former Robinson-May Center. Roger Vincent reports in the Los Angeles Times.

*Richard Rothschild of the Western Center on Law and Poverty argued in appeals court that county restrictions deny necessary medical treatment to the indigent.  Cheryl Clark's story is in The San Diego Union-Tribune.

* Record producer Phil Spector suffered a setback in the pre-trial motions stage of his trail for the murder of actress Lana Clarkson. A judge permitted the prosecution to schedule as a witness a fifth woman who says Spector threatened her with a gun. Matt Krasnowski of the Copley News Service has the story in The San Diego Union-Tribune.

 

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