PERFORMANCE—The Musical Scouts of Tel Aviv perform on the outdoor stage at San Diego's celebration of Israel's 59th Birthday, held Sunday at the Lawrence Family JCC, Jacobs Family Campus in La Jolla.
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Yom Ha'atzmaut 2007

              
               Photos by Nancy E. Harrison

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Top: There's The Wall in Israel and then there's the wall at San
Diego's Israel Festival, which one young lady scales at left. T-shirts,
you bet, there were plenty. Liran Erande of Young Judaea displays
one.  Bottom: And llamas from South America?  Well lama lo? On Israel Independence Day, everyone is Israeli, even llamas, as handler Tim Graves of Pacific Crest Llamas and riders Nadiv Meltzer (left), Jenny Epstein (waving) and Shayna Meltzer can attest.


Soille San Diego Hebrew Day School attracted youngsters with free
Balloon Utopia hats. Sandi Masori (left) crafted them for Jonas Jacobs and Dania Halperin. Food concessionaires like Aaron's provided yummy
Middle Eastern foods like felafel.  (Felafel? No, I feel good!)


Rafe Taylor of Chabad of Del Mar shows Alex Goldsmid of B'nai
B'rith Youth Organization the proper way to put on tefillin. Conductor Blake Dmochowski of S&S Fun Bounce drives well-patronized train.


Marcia Tatz Wollner (left) discusses Agency for Jewish Education
programs with Sandy Golden. Lydia Kravetski hands out brochures
for the Israel Government Tourist Office.

Although giant slides are becoming ubiquitous, what better way
to spend a day than to learn a little bit about Israeli culture and
to go on an adventure. Mendel Lisbon escorts his son Yehuda and
friend Yona Dov Ptahia.

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The Jewish Citizen
              by Donald H. Harrison
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Some men thought themselves
powerful—before meeting G.T.


LA JOLLA, Ca.—All of us are used to thinking of people like former Gov. Pete Wilson of California, or Adm. Abraham Ben Shoshon, former head of Israel's Navy, or Tel Aviv Mayor Ron Huldai as in-charge executives—the kind of people who give the orders, rather than take them.

For good parts of their careers, of course, they were just that.  But all three men admitted last night that when the same formidable woman came into their lives, they were the ones who were on the receiving end of the orders. Gert Thaler, who was honored by the Tel Aviv Foundation, has the kind of personality that best can be described as a force majeure  You would have an easier time arguing with a hurricane.

Guests at a well-attended dinner in her honor at the La Jolla Marriott would have had to agree.  When a dinner occasion extends beyond midnight, who would blame people for slipping out the back door and heading home to their comfortable beds?  But when, at last, Gert Thaler is at the lectern, giving her acceptance speech and knowingly watching the crowd, who actually would dare?

	It was an evening of many highlights, including a presentation by Huldai to Thaler of a certificate naming her as a Benefactor of Tel Aviv-Yafo.  He said that people of San Diego have contributed more money to the Tel Aviv Foundation than the people of any other U.S. city—obviously a case
Mayor Ron Hudai, left, and Admiral Abraham Ben Shoshon applaud following presentation to Gert Thaler of a certificate recognizing her as a Benefactor of Tel Aviv-Yafo.	of even more people who couldn't say "no" to Thaler. Thaler, who

might be described as  matriarch of San Diego's Jewish community, took up Tel Aviv's needs as a personal cause.

A columnist for decades for various Jewish publications and a president or board member of most Jewish organizations in San Diego, Thaler knows or knows someone who knows practically every member of San Diego's Jewish community. Through her contacts, San Diegans have funded numerous educational projects in Tel Aviv, cumulatively affecting the lives of tens of thousands of young residents of the cosmopolitan seaside city. 

Proceeds from the evening's dinner, in fact, went to fund that city's program to train promising high school scientists and mathematicians at a city-owned high tech learning center (HEMDA).

Wilson, who was mayor of San Diego and later a United States Senator before becoming governor of California, told how Thaler, whose travel business specialized in missions to Israel, took him and other San Diegans during the 1970s to Israel where they were all
given VIP treatment. Wilson recalled that at one point the delegation called upon then President Ephraim Katzir, on	Former Governor Pete Wilson (center) and California First Lady Gayle Wilsonshare a moment with Shlomo Caspi, back to camera.

the same day that then-Prime Minister Golda Meir was due to report to him that she had failed to put together a coalition capable of commanding a majority in the Knesset. 

That the president of a nation should be playing civic host when a constitutional crisis was looming seemed remarkable to Wilson. Perhaps, he suggested, the delegation should not even have been greeted, given the import of the coming day's events.  "Don't worry, we'll handle it," Katzir told Wilson. Perhaps Katzir was looking over The San Diego mayor's shoulder at Thaler for his cue.

Thaler later recalled that she also took Wilson late at night to the airport to watch refugees from the Soviet Union arriving in Israel.  She had arranged for him to be standing right at the foot of the ramp as the refugees descended, and when Wilson happily greeted them with "Shalom! Shalom!" the refugees thought the San Diego mayor was an official of the Israeli government.  They thanked him profusely.

On Israel missions led by Thaler, participants could expect to be out of bed and ready to travel early, and to stay up late, so jam-packed was their schedule. And woe to the straggler.

Admiral Ben-Shoshon, now the executive director of the Tel Aviv Foundation, said that he has fought in three wars, and as a submariner has been deep in treacherous waters.  However, he said, he was never so scared as he was while driving in San Diego with Thaler.  He said that she doesn't necessarily stop for red lights, because for her a red light is not an order, "it is a suggestion."

Huldai is a former brigadier general in the IDF. When he comes to the United States, he does what Thaler tells him.  Wear this one, not that one?  Okay.  When she goes to Israel, she redefines him.  "I am 'blue eyes,' not 'the mayor' anymore," he confided.

One might have thought this was a meeting of the G-A, "Gert's Anonymous," the way members in the audience responded with such knowing and sympathetic nods.  In a video, various community members shared their Thaler experiences, with her indomitability a constant theme.  Among the contributors were her granddaughter Shelley Neiman, Shimon and Joyce Camiel, Eddy Cohen, Gladys Block, Fanny Rosental, Joyce Heyman, Leslie and Shlomo Caspi, Roberta Greene and Norman Greene, the emcee of the evening. 

Norman Greene had perhaps one of the funniest stories about the time Thaler persuaded him to go to a Turkish bath with her in Petra, Jordan.  Assuming they were husband and wife, Arabic-speaking staff members led them together  to a vapor filled room, where no one seemed to understand Thaler's quaint English phrase: "He's not my husband!" The massage attendant then asked by gesture if it were okay for him to touch Gert on this place or that place.  "Sure!" said Greene, pretending to cover his eyes in shock.  "Gert," he declared, "we see each other a lot, and we've seen a lot of each other!"

There were other moments at the dinner that will go down as unusual, if not utterly unique.  For example, Mayor Huldai was persuaded to play his flute to accompany singer Alma Moshonov and pianist Omer Klein.  So what song did this instant trio perform?  "Jerusalem of Gold."  Imagine, under Thaler's watchful eye, the mayor of the City of Tel Aviv played a tune in celebration of the City of Jerusalem.  Maybe we can get  Mayor Jerry Sanders of San Diego to sing Tony Bennett's version of "San Francisco" at a League of Cities meeting?

And who do you think could not say "no" when Thaler asked him to give the invocation over this kosher dinner?  Of course, it was Monsignor Dennis Mikulanis of the Roman Catholic Diocese.

Among the Orthodox, there is a doctrine known as kol isha, which says that a man must not listen to the singing voice of a woman, who is not his wife.  When it became clear that Alma Moshonov was there to sing, Rabbi Jeffrey Wohlgelernter of Congregation Adat Yeshurun quietly slipped out of the room.

Barry Kassar, Rabbi Jeffrey Wohlgelernter

No doubt, Thaler understood and silently had to excuse him. As the tag line for commercials of Hebrew National products goes: The rabbi answers to an even "higher authority."
                               
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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. To see a source story click on the link within the
respective paragraph.  If you spot a Jewish-interest story in your favorite publication,
please send us the link.
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*Los Angeles Planning Director Gail Goldberg hears complaints from residents of South Los Angeles about the city failing to close down troublesome liquor stores. The story by Deborah Schoch and Rong-Gong Lin II is in today's Los Angeles Times.

*Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist David Halberstram is remembered by Dexter Filkins of the New York Times News Service in today's San Diego Union-Tribune.

*U.S. Sen. Joseph Lieberman (I-Conn.) has a commentary in today's Hartford Courant arguing that Al Qaeda has made Iraq its chief battleground, with the daily toll of murders ordered by the same organization that engineered the 9/11 attacks on the United States.

*The Invention of Hugo Cabret by illustrator Brian Selznick receives a favorable write-up from art critic Robert Pincus in today's San Diego Union-Tribune.

*The investigation by the congressional committee headed by U.S. Rep. Henry Waxman (D-Calif.) into why the death of Cpl Pat Tillman in Iraq was misreported by the Pentagon as resulting from hostile fire has won a commendation from San Diego Union-Triune columnist Ruben Navarrette Jr.

*David Wiesner wins the Caldecott Prize for Flotsam, his wordless book about what a boy can see about the sea when he finds a special camera. Jane Clifford has the story in today's San Diego Union-Tribune.

*Support is eroding for World Bank President Paul Wolfowitz to keep his job in the scandal over the alleged financial favoritism he showed a girlfriend. Jeannine Aversa of the Associated Press has the story in today's San Diego Union-Tribune.


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The Jewish Grapevine
                                                 

EDUCATION BEAT—Former California First Lady Gayle Wilson, attending the salute to Gert Thaler last night (Saturday) with former Gov. Pete Wilson, listened with more than ordinary interest to a video presentation by the Tel Aviv Foundation on its HEMDA program, which provides high-level learning opportunities in science and technology for high school students.  Mrs. Wilson serves as the chair of the statewide advisory board of COSMOS, which offers a mathematics and science summer program on four University of California campuses under legislation her husband signed during his last year in office.  

Mrs. Wilson told jewishsightseeing.com that the late Admiral Hyman Rickover inspired her to recommend the program for California.  She had met Rickover while her husband was serving in Washington D.C. as a U.S. Senator from California prior to this governorship.  As one who loved science herself while a student, she became interested in the Center for Excellence in Education that Rickover had started at the Massachusetts Institute for Technollogy


CONGREGATIONAL CURRENTS—Rabbi Carlos Salas-Diaz and his wife Maria of Congregacion Hebrea de Baja California was among the guests at last night's Tel Aviv Foundation salute to Gert Thaler.  He said that he recently dedicated land in Tijuana for construction of a rabbinical seminary he hopes will become affiliated with the Conservative movement.  He said there are numerous people throughout Mexico who are interested in training for the rabbinate.

SIMCHAS—On the first Sunday close to both their 6th birthdays, Jacob Lerner and Shor Masori held a joint celebration with their friends from the kindergarten classes of Soille San Diego Hebrew Day School at the Place, a kosher restaurant  on El Cajon Boulevard in the San Diego State College area. The photo shows from left Shahar Masori, father of Shor (in Batman shirt), Jacob;  his father Joseph, and little brother Jordan.

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