Month of May to be Jewish-American
Heritage Month in the United States

Staff Report

WASHINGTON, D.C—President George W. Bush has proclaimed the month of May as Jewish-American Heritage Month, the White House said.

A proclamation signed by the President today (Monday) called on all Americans to schedule activities to celebrate the contributions of Jews
to the United States.

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The Jewish Citizen
              by Donald H. Harrison
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An easy way to learn to speak Hebrew

You've always dreamed about that particular house. Now it's on the market and you have enough money to afford it.  What do you do?  Buy it!  And that is the way the word for house in Hebrew, bayit, is pronounced.  Games that stimulate memory, known as mnemonics, are part of the reason that
the Agency for Jewish Education-sponsored Hebrew courses are attracting and retaining so many students, said Noah Hadas, the agency's director for adult education.

Developed by Dr. Zev bar-Lev, emeritus professor of linguistics at San Diego State University, the Hebrew language program will be offered for beginners this summer in separate Monday through Thursday morning classes and evening classes, July 9-26.  The $295 fee includes course materials.

"The methodology is a lot of fun, very verbal," said Hadas.  "People enjoy
it." Unlike more traditional Hebrew

Linguistics Professor Zev bar-Lev

language classes, which may focus on grammar, declensions, and other tenses, bar-Lev has sought to make the course learner-friendly.  Hadas commented: "Usually the retention rate for other kinds of language classes is pretty poor. People don't realize how hard they are until they get into them, and before you know it you are down to a few students. But with this methodology we have had much better than anticipated retention."

Now in its second year, the course attracted two classes of 20 students
each in 2006, and six classes of the same size this year. The summer
school classes will be held from 9am to noon Monday through Thursday
at Congregation Beth Israel in La Jolla, and the evening classes will meet
from 6:30pm. to 9:30pm. also Monday through Thursdays.

Bar-Lev said mnemonics and other enjoyable learning strategies have
been combined into a technique with the acronym SILL—which stands
for "Sheltered Initiation of Language Learning." "I add a 'y' and call it the
'Silly' method," emphasizing that language learning should be fun,
bar-Lev said.  What SILL means in non-academic English is that the
teacher "shelters the learner from an abundance of detail," bar-Lev explained. "Most courses inundate people with too much detail." 

So instead of trying to teach immediately the grammar for both genders in Hebrew, bar-Lev and fellow linguist Alana Shuster commence with the masculine gender and wait for mastery before moving on to the feminine gender.

Bar-Lev, who has taught for 28 years at San Diego State in what is now
called the Linguistics & Asian and Middle Eastern Languages
Department, said he recently presented a paper to TESOL (Teaching
English to Speakers of Other Languages) in Seattle urging that the methodology be adopted for English as well. 

In fact, he said, although he speaks only four languages well and another
15 well enough to be a tourist in the country where it is spoken, bar-Lev said he has been able to adapt his methodology to over 40 languages.

In Israel, the favored way to teach Hebrew to new immigrants is
immersion in an ulpan.  Bar-Lev believes that for adults, his system"
will make new language acquisition even easier.
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The Jewish Grapevine
                                                 

CYBER TREASURES —Hillel Mazansky passes along for our enjoyment two presentations on Israel that can be found on the net: one a video on YouTube; the other a musical slide show, entitled "Israel Forever" featuring some fabulous scenic photography.

PRAYER VIGIL—Rabbi Yeruchem Eilfort of Chabad of La Costa shares with us the following: "It is a common practice in many communities that when a member of the congregation is not well, the women of the community gather to pray for that person's speedy recovery. Josie Perez, the daughter of Elias and Rachel Perez, is in a coma and needs our prayers! We will be holding a women's tehillim (prayer) group for her recovery at the  home of Rabbi and Rebetzin Eilfort on Tuesday, May 1st at 11:00am Directions may be obtained by calling Rebetzin Nechama at (760)-612-9787. Please give charity in Josie's merit even if you cannot attend the tehillim vigil.  Thank you."

CAMPUS WHIRL—The Jewish Student Union at San Diego State University was selected as theon-campus organization of the Year at the Aztec Achievement Awards

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Filner backs plan to permit undocumented
workers to pay fine and earn citizenship

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Jews in the News                 -------------------------------------------------------------

 News spotters: Dan Brin in Los Angeles, Donald H. Harrison in San Diego, and you;
if you spot a Jewish-interest story in your favorite publication, please send us a link.
 To see a source story click on the link within the respective paragraph. 

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*U.S. Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.), siding with grocery workers
demand for more pay, said a comparison between present wage levels and
what her son Doug earned 21 years ago as a Lucky supermarket clerk
is, when adjusted for inflation, $4.86 per hour less today than it was
in 1986.  Joe Matthews' story on the grocery labor situation is in today's
Los Angeles Times.

*A crowd estimated by the Los Angeles Times at 35,000 gathered in a
park in Encino to celebrate Israel Independence Day. Israel Consul
General Ehud Danoch was the featured speaker. Jia-Rui Chong wrote the story.

*A political reform law jointly authored by Republican John McCain
and Democrat Russell Feingold, U.S. senators respectively from Arizona and Wisconsin, is undergoing some serious scrutiny from the U.S.
Supreme Court—a development that is lauded as a victory for free speech  in an editorial by the San Diego Union-Tribune.

*"Big Sunday" started as a Mitzvah Day for Temple Israel in Hollywood, but it has spread across the city, and across religious lines, to become a citywide day of doing good deeds. David Levinson is the father of the
day which drew 50,000 participants yesterday. The story by Susannah Rosenblatt and David Haldane is in today's Los Angeles Times.


*Unlike former Israel Prime Minister Golda Meir, who felt she had to
prove how tough she could be in a man's world, women on the world
political stage today are free to be more feminine.  Jim Hoagland's column
appears in today' San Diego Union-Tribune.

*Israel's Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Defense Minister Amir
Peretz were bracing for a report today by the commission charged with looking into the conduct of the Second Lebanon War. The story by
Amy Teibel of the Associated Press is in today's San Diego
Union-Tribune.

*Richard Perle and Paul Wolfowitz and other neo-cons are described
by Republican U.S. Senator Chuck Hagel of Nebraska as peddling
nonsense about the alleged danger of terrorism from Iraq affecting the
U.S. homeland.  His comments are in a column by Robert Novak in today's
San Diego Union-Tribune.

*The melt down of a section of freeway leading to the Oakland Bay
Bridge following the crash of a gasoline tanker will force San Francisco
Bay area commuters to find alternative routes to work for weeks if not months, according to Jeff Weiss, a spokesman for the California Department of Transportation. The Associated Press story on the
spectacular mishap is in today's San Diego Union-Tribune.

                               
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Our lives in 1st Person
Jewish community members tell their stories in their own words
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We experience The Gift of the Magi

By Joel A. Moskowitz M D

SAN DIEGO—When I was in grade school, I admired O. Henry's short story, The Gift of the Magi. It was a story of love, sacrifice and devotion.  Little did I think then that I would be acting it out in my own life. 

O Henry's theme is of two persons in love who at some significant
sacrifice give the other a gift.  She sells her hair to buy a fob for his gold watch.  He sells his watch to buy a special comb for her glorious hair.  She no longer has the hair into which the comb might be set.  He no longer owned a gold watch toaffix to a fob. Yet they had a greater gift - love.

This just past weekend of April 28 and 29, my loving wife and I  exchanged similar gifts. At Arlene's persuasion, I had allowed my name to be entered in the selection for an Medical Master Teacher Award to
be presented on the occasion of this years Annual Alumni Celebration. 

Photo: Courtesy Pacificaires

It had been 50 years since my graduation from State University College of Medicine in New York City.   It was with a mixture of pride andhumility that I learned that I had been  chosen to receive the Richard Day Master Teacher Award for Achievement in Pediatrics.  The ceremony was scheduled for April 28 in New York City.

For Arlene this same weekend was scheduled to be an experience for
which she had yearned since her youth.  Although blessed with a
beautiful high soprano voice. her parents preferred she take piano
lessons instead. More recently Arlene, with my encouragement,
returned to singing.  She sang in several Synagogue choral groups. Knowledgeable music educators told her  that her voice would be more suitable for Italian opera. The opportunity to perform such a classical
piece in an illustrious venue as the Annual Balboa Park Festival in San Diego eluded her.. until April 29.

Arlene's encouragement led to my having been designated as recipient
ofthe prestigious Master Teacher Award from my medical school.  My
encouragement that she earnestly pursues her desire to sing resulted in
her singing an Italian Operatic piece "Nella Fantasia."   Both Arlene's
performance and the Award Ceremony at which I was to receive
the Master Teacher Award were on the same weekend, 3000 miles apart. Arlene didn't want me to miss this once-in-a-lifetime experience. I chose
to forgo the presentation ceremony for my award (April 28, New
York City) [My sister, Sheila, graciously agreed to accept it for me]. 
Rather, I would thrill to Arlene's long longed for chance to sing
operatically (April 29, San Diego).

The parallels to the theme of the Gift of the Magi, and our lives seem
poignant.  O. Henry wrote, "But in a last word to the wise of these days
let it be said that of all who give gifts these two were the wisest. O all
who give and receive gifts, such as they are wisest. Everywhere they are
wisest. They are the magi."

Editor's Note:  Mazal Tov to both of you.  How sweet love can be.

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Arts in Review

 by Carol Davis
                     ___________________

August Wilson re-creates the 60s in Old Globe's Two Trains Running

SAN DIEGO—On April 23, news flashed on printing presses, on line and TV announced that Turner County High School (that’s in Georgia in case you missed it) will have its "first integrated senior prom." Why is it still a segregated prom, you ask? “Because it’s always been tradition to hold two different proms: One for Blacks and one for Whites.” I don’t know if you’ve ever been locked out of a social, political or economic situation or not, but tradition seems like a sorry reason for continuing a policy that clearly smacks of discrimination.

I’m sure many of us Jew have felt that pressure of denial and ignorance,
of discrimination and downright hate in the past as some still do in many countries.  But discrimination is discrimination whether it be against 
Blacks, Jews or Gays. Whether or not you leave it in or take it out
of the history books, there are always oral historians like August Wilson whose words will be remembered for generations. However, after the Civil Rights Act, Blacks thought they had finally won  their victory against discrimination. They wanted  what every other (White) citizen had; equal rights, treatment and justice. It wasn’t always that easy as witnessed by this latest news release in Georgia.

When Black Playwright August Wilson wrote Two Trains Running in
1992, he had already penned Gem of the Ocean; Joe Turner’s Come
and Gone; Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom; The Piano Lesson; Seven Guitars; and Fences. Yet to be written before his untimely death to cancer in 2005 were Jitney; King Hedley II; and Radio Golf.  His gift to us was to write
a decade by decade cycle of plays chronicling the Black experience in
20th century America. His history chronicle spanned the twentieth
century starting in 1900 with the slave trade in America to the next generation.

Two Trains Running ,which premiered in San Diego in 1990 at the
Old Globe, is back there once again in another multifaceted  production directed by The Globe’s associate artistic director Seret Scott. The action takes place in the Hill District of  Pittsburgh in Lees Cafe toward the
end of the 60’s.The once booming neighborhood is almost deserted
and save for Memphis Lees’ eating establishment, which is on the auction block, and a few other Black businesses, the area is slated for urban renewal. The 60’s is already in the throes of civil strife and there’s
more to come. 

Like so many other small neighborhood businesses in this country,
there was always one store in particular, and probably one in every
ethnic group,  where the locals hung out, shot the breeze, did some
dealings, made new contacts and without a doubt,  knew everyone else’s business whether they were regulars or not. Not much  of what went
on in this diner contradicts this observation. Again, as in every ethnicity, there is a rhythm to the conversation, a musical cadence, if you will.  Wilson’s characters in Trains are no different and it doesn’t take long to follow the different tempo’s of each character.  Some of the language is politically incorrect in today’s politically correct environment, but Wilson wrote as it was.

At the center of this drama, and a large presence, both physically and emotionally is Memphis (Chuck Cooper). His hue and cry is that he
wants fair market price for his property (not less than $25,000) and
he damn well better get it. He knows time is not on his side, but he will
hold out not matter what. If he has to go to City Hall every day, he will.
He was cheated out of some land years ago and it’s not going to happen
to him again.

His one and only Girl Friday is Risa (Roslyn Ruff) who has major issues about her self esteem. In an act of daring some time ago she disfigured
her legs leaving scars on them so as not to draw attention to her full
figure. She waits tables, makes the items on the daily menus and does
some shopping. She moves like someone in slow motion and is rather the mystery woman in the group. Still, she has the unwanted attention of both Wolf  and Sterling. 

	Included in the regulars is Wolf (Montae Russell), who runs the numbers out of the diner and that becomes a bone of
(l-r)Roslyn Ruff as “Risa” and Edi Gathegi as “Sterling”; (l-r) James Avery as “Holloway,” Al White as “West,” Montae Russell as “Wolf” and Edi Gathegi as “Sterling”; James Avery and Chuck Cooper as "Memphis." Photos by Craig Schwartz.	contention between Memphis and himself even though Memphis bets a few here and there.

He’s what I would call "the underworld figure." He knows where to purchase guns (carries one himself) and makes sure everyone
knows about his conquests.  Holloway (James Avery) is the store philosopher. He is the voice of reason and experience. West (Al White)
is the community undertaker and the wealthiest of the group because “everyone dies sometimes.” West is dressed like a dandy in black
from head to toe including black leather gloves. And while he shows up now and then, he carries a large presence. He would like to buy
Memphis’ property, but won’t offer him fair market price. Another little song and dance.

There is a  character named Hambone (Willy C. Carpenter) who is a bit
off his rocker always in a fit because he once painted the fence of the local butcher (white) and the butcher promised him a ham if he did a good job, but instead gave him a chicken. It’s a recurring visit he makes, and no
one seems to take notice of him, but no one can completely ignore him; somewhat like the issue of segregation. All are pretty much ‘old school’, follow-the-rules-and-you-will-be- rewarded types. Rounding out the
group is Sterling (Edi Gathegi) the new kid on the block. He just got out
of jail and is fightn’ ready to join Malcolm X in his quest for ‘Black
Power’. He sees Martin Luther King as passé. He has eyes for Risa, but so far, she ignores him.

I would be remiss if I failed to mention the one inanimate character,
the jukebox which garners more attention while it’s broken than when it finally works in the last scene of the second act. There is also an offstage, 350-year-old woman, Aunt Esther, whose name is used in reverence as
their spiritual guide. Another  wealthy local whose body is on display
in the funeral parlor for all to pay their respects is also a common topic
of conversation.  All three become the center of some conversation at
one time or another.

In what amounts to a little close to three hours, we are leisurely drawn
into Wilson’s slice of life drama not so much by what happens, because there is very little action going on, by what’s being said. This is a community of friends, shooting the breeze, worrying about property, money, politics and the future. They dance a dance that can only look
like it’s been rehearsed because they have been around the floor before
and with the same people. With the exception  of Sterling, who  manages
to snag just what he wants, his future and their  past are on a collision course.

With a talented cast that has a clear understanding of where they fit in
this picture drama, Cooper’s Memphis holds his own while retelling a sorrowful tale of anguish when his property was stolen from him years
ago. In such situations as Memphis ordering Ruff’s Risa around in a fatherly-like scolding way  to White’s West continual low balling Memphis for the sale of his property, all the characters fit like a completed puzzle. Montae Russell’s Wolf is a powerhouse of anxious energy and drive
while James Avery’s Holloway’s confident and soothing manner lends
an absolute credibility to his philosophical teachings.

Roslyn Ruff’s Risa is a bit more difficult to figure out. Shy at the outset,
one almost has to wonder what this character is about. Willie Carpenter’s Hambone is one character you will not forget. His portrayal of the
troubled man is right on target and if you have ever been downtown
and seen some of the street people you will understand. Finally, Edi Gathegi’s Sterling is another storehouse of energy just waiting to blossom to be, what?  That is the unanswered question.

Karen Perry’s costumes are right on target 60’s. With  Chris Rynne’s
lighting and Tony Fanning’s picture perfect 60’s set. all is reminiscent of  many local diners of the past having everything in it needed to be serviceable including that jukebox. In the background are two larger than life portraits of Martin Luther King, Jr. and Malcolm X hanging over the
set as a reminder of a future still unsettled. Across the street from the
diner are a series of business signs in black and white of establishments
out of business; another gauge of  the signs of the times. It’s a
worthwhile production and a chance for one more look at a struggle,
from other eyes, in another era, that has yet to be resolved.

Two Trains Running will continue through May 27th. Globe Box Office can be reached by calling: 619-23GLOBE or on line at: www.TheOldGlobe.org.

See you at the theatre.