San Diego Jewish World, MaY 26, 2007

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Berman introduces bill to permit U.S. to prosecute
those who committed genocide before immigrating

WASHINGTON, DC (Press Release)—Rep. Howard Berman (D-California) on Thursday, May 24, introduced the Genocide Accountability Act of 2007. This bill would close a legal loophole that prevents the United States Department of Justice from prosecuting people in the United States who have committed genocide abroad. “This bill is urgently needed to ensure that the United States can bring to justice those who commit this atrocious crime when they are not prosecuted elsewhere,” Berman said.

Under current law, the U.S. cannot prosecute foreign nationals suspected of genocide who are living in the United States. The Justice Department has identified individuals who had an active role in the Rwandan and Bosnian genocides living in the United States under false pretenses. They are unable to interview or charge any of these individuals because they lack jurisdictional rights. “The fact that we know who these people are and where they are, yet are unable to prosecute them is an injustice to all those who suffered from genocide,” said Berman. “This bill must be enacted as swiftly as possible to provide the Justice Department with the tools they need.”

Rep. Berman was joined by Rep. Mike Pence (R-Indiana) in introducing the bill. In March, the Senate passed by unanimous consent, S.888, identical bipartisan legislation introduced by Senators Richard Durbin, Tom Coburn, Patrick Leahy, John Cornyn, and Russell Feingold.

The Genocide Accountability Act of 2007 has been endorsed by
Berman
numerous organizations including Africa Action, the American Jewish World Service, Amnesty International USA, the Armenian Assembly of America, the Armenian National Committee of America, the Genocide Intervention Network, Human Rights First, Human Rights Watch, Physicians for Human Rights, Refugees International, and the Save Darfur Coalition.

The foregoing article was provided by the office of Congressman Howard Berman
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Sept 23-Dec 30: Princess Cruises: Dawn Princess: 7-day round trip to Mexico

Sept. 28: Celebrity Cruises: Summit: 14-day Hawaii

Sept. 29: Holland America: Oosterdam, 7-day Mexico.

Jews in the News
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Like you, we're pleased when members of our community are praiseworthy, and are disappointed when they are blameworthy. Whether it's good news or bad news, we'll try to keep track of what's being said in general media about our fellow Jews. Our news spotters are Dan Brin in Los Angeles, Donald H. Harrison in San Diego, and you. Wherever you are, if you see a story of interest, please send a summary and link to us at sdheritage@cox.net. To see a source story click on the link within the respective paragraph.
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*Two new biographies of Hillary Clinton—one by Washington Post journalist Carl Bernstein—thus far have caused little in the way of a political stir, despite being issued in time for the buildup to the 2008 presidential race. The story by Stephen Braun is in today's Los Angeles Times.

*Lowell Blankfort paid tribute to his golfing buddy, former U.S. Ambassador to Kuwait Frank E. Maestrone, who has died at 84. The diplomat, who helped draft the Second Sinai Withdrawal, had all but disappeared from public view in his retirement when Iraq's invasion of Kuwait in 1990 made him an interviewee in great demand, Blankfort recalled. An obituary by Tanya Sierra is in today's San Diego Union-Tribune.

*Fannie Lee Chaney, whose slain Civil Rights worker son James Chaney, was murdered in Mississippi in 1964 along with two New Yorkers Michael Schwerner and Andrew Goodman, has died at age 84. Emily Wagster Pettus of the Associated Press has the story in today's San Diego Union-Tribune.

*U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-California) is objecting to a plan by the Bush administration to relocate the Naval Special Warfare Command from the Naval Amphibious Base in Coronado to Little Creek, Virginia. The story by Paul M. Krawzak of the Copley News Service is in today's San Diego Union-Tribune

*Immigration attorney Jonathan Ginsburg says a law under consideration by the Senate would wipe out an exemption for exceptional individuals to jump to the head of the line of those waiting to become U.S. citizens. Would such a change have prevented Albert Einstein from coming to America? Anthony Faiola of The Washington Post has the story in today's San Diego Union-Tribune.

*Entrepreneur Irwin Jacobs—not the same man as the Qualcomm co-founder of the same name—has become a central figure in a legal controversy over whether Wal-Mart CEO Lee Scott received personal gifts from vendors. Jacobs has several companies, including one that builds recreational boats. The Associated Press story is in the Los Angeles Times.

*Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald says in court documents that I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, former chief of staff to Vice President Dick Cheney, should serve jail time for his conviction for lying to investigators about the source of leaks that exposed Valerie Plame as an undercover CIA agent. The Associated Press story by Matt Apuzzo is in today's San Diego Union-Tribune.

*Some antiwar activists were furious at the congressional Democrats who voted for the compromise funding bill for the Iraq War, because it didn't include a deadline for U.S. troop withdrawal. Among them was Eli Pariser of MoveOn.org. The story by Richard Simon was in today's Los Angeles Times.

*The sudden closure of private Harborside School in downtown San Diego has left some parents upset, including Joel Saltzman who complained of a "lack of creative thinking" on the part of the governing board. David E. Graham has the story in today's San Diego Union-Tribune.

*Billionaire investor Sam Zell's move to purchase the Tribune Co., which owns the Chicago Tribune and Los Angeles Times among other media outlets, had advanced with the company buying back stock from shareholders to clear the way for the deal. The Associated Press story by David Carpenter is in today's San Diego Union-Tribune.

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The Jewish Grapevine

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POP SCENE—Don Lichterman, CEO of Sunset Records, is bringing the Russian band Zamza to tour the United States in July in conjunction with the release of a CD, "Turn to You." The band features keyboardist Max Kourbanov, guitarist Serge Tarakhteyev and vocalist Evygenya Strochinskaya. The group hails from Khabarovsk and records in Vladivostok.

TALE OF TWO CITIES—If one were asked to identify a city where Jews are elected to prominent and highly visible offices, the names of San Diego and Louisville would not necessarily leap to anyone's tongue. But the two cities have some commonalities in this regard. In San Diego, there are five officeholders holding prominent positions: two Democrats who are serving in Congress, Susan Davis and Bob Filner, and three non-partisan countywide officeholders District Attorney Bonnie Dumanis, Sheriff Bill Kolender and Tax Assessor/Recorder/ Clerk Greg Smith, all of whom are personally registered as Republicans. In a county where Jews represent perhaps 120,000 of three million residents, five prominent Jewish officeholders is a more than respectable showing.

Harry & Sherry Jacobson-Beyer, visiting San Diego from Louisville, said the same pattern generally holds true in their city, although on a smaller scale. Of perhaps one million residents in metropolitan Louisville, perhaps 10,000 are Jews.

Yet the long-term (some say "perennial) mayor Jerry Abramson is a Jew and so is the first-term congressman John Yarmuth, who won recognition as the publisher of an alternative newspaper nicknamed "LEO" for Louisville Eccentric Observer.
Abramson Yarmuth

The anti-war Yarmuth ousted five-term incumbent Ann Northup, who some thought was too closely tied to President George W. Bush and his war policies in Iraq. Although 2006 proved to be a Democratic year, not many people thought Yarmuth could oust Northup given his decidedly liberal views in what may consider a conservative city. Yarmuth, for example, favored a woman's right to choose in matters of abortion; whereas Northup was squarely within the "Right to Life" camp. But the doubters didn't reckon on a legion of volunteers who walked precincts, set up booths at picnics and stuck Yarmuth's blue-and-white yard signs all over town. Since his election, Yarmuth has been serving on the Education and Labor Committee, as well as the Oversight and Government Reform Committee headed by Congressman Henry Waxman, D-California.

San Diego Jewish World report

CARDIFF BY THE SEA, Calif —Ari Brin, a third-generation writer, wasn't content to simply lead portions of Shabbat services and read Torah and Haftarah for her bat mitzvah. She wanted also to honor the memory of her poet grandfather, Herb Brin, who published a chain of Jewish Heritage newspapers, and to please her parents, science fiction writer David Brin and Cheryl Brigham.

So, when it came time for her to explain the week's portion, Naso (Numbers 4:21-7:89) during services at Temple Solel, a Reform congregation, she did so—in couplets.
Ari Brin

How did the ancient Jews keep to
Their spiritual paths without a stray?
The answer clearly is, of course,
The Torah portion for today.

I've written a poem and
I've written a rhyme
To clearly explain
What went on at that time

(Torah):

When Moses led the Jews
To freedom at last
Out of Egypt and away
From a terrible past

God spoke to him day after day
And finally God to him did say
"If the people of Israel wish to rise above
The people so dear and the ones that they love

"They can then take a vow
That will make them special and divine
It will set them apart, a transformation
None can malign."

If we follow the Hebrews
Way back 'fore their growth
We'll find something called
The Nazirite Oath

This oath was a promise
From the Jews to our God,
It bound us to a set of rules
Some of which sound quite odd

If you made this vow back then,
A quite strict discipline
There was no alcohol, you see
Your hair you could not trim.

(Interpretation):

We may wonder, would someone do this?
Deny themselves this bliss
Being free to choose
The hair they'd lose.
I'd sure give that vow a miss.

Now that I'm getting older
I'm starting to envision
What exactly went on inside their minds
When the Jews made that decision.

They meant to keep a pure soul,
So that God would look
Kindly down upon them
Their commitment all it took

(Application):

What does it mean to us
If the Jews from days long past
Made a vow to keep their shadows hidden
And start life anew at last?

But would we as Americans
Or just humans today
Take an oath that would cost us
Quite a bit to pay

I have noticed that commitment
Is something many lack
Terrified of marriage or such
Some would rather just turn back

This oath was a sense
Of a bond for the Jews
To each other or themselves
This life was what they'd choose

But how is this relevant,
To us, you might ask?
For some, taking on this topic
Might seem like a task.

For me, you see
A challenge is divine
For when I finally beat the odds,
The victory is mine!

So while the Nazirite Oath
Is something I might pass on
This does not mean that from
All commitments I am withdrawn

(Personal):

For example becoming
Part of a club or team
Like myself in a band
Or even pursuing a dream

Then, we have made
An oath on our own
To succeed at the path we've taken
Indeed we have grown

From the writhing and crying
Babies we so used to be
To the decisions we make
And the paths that we take
This all shows that we are free.

I say, that looking back
On the life I've led so far
That I'm proud of most things I've done
But I've not yet become a star

For all the things I want to be
Taking an oath seems a definite possibility
Being a part of the temple
And Judaism as a whole
I feel as if I am part of a community
In which I play a role

Even when I'm living
My day-to-day life,
Through the hardships and eases
And the pleasures and strife,

I know that I always
Have and will be,
A part of this people
For they are a part of me

(Conclusion):

So here I am, finally here
Accepting the scrolls of Torah
From my parent's arms . I know
That this moment will last but for a
Instant

But the meaning of this all
Will be encrypted in my heart
As a special moment in my life
But it is only just the start.

For the future, I now know
That it is best to grow
Beyond the standards laid before us
We must soon let go

We will surely become the ones
Who will rise above
We must find the courage to
Make our dreams the ones we love

And now be decisive, make the choice
To take on such a vow
To change our life forever
The time to breathe is NOW.

Shabbat Shalom.

In a dor v dor (generation to generation) ceremony, in which they passed a Torah scroll to their daughter, David and Cheryl told in a joint presentation just what their daughter's spiritual coming-of-age meant to them:

Ari, today you mark a transition that Jews have taken seriously for countless generations - an important step along the road from dependent childhood to
responsible adulthood.

As you grow in skill and hope and courage, so will your confidence to face the challenges of the road ahead.

A road that will develop your many talents and teach you to apply them with a generous heart, making you ablessing, to your people and all of those you touch.

You already take this path seriously. From your grandfather, the poet you are honoring by example today, and from the sages, along with all those who
suffered and triumphed in the past, you have been passed an obligation to make a good life, to strengthen the Jewish community, and help make a better world, according to tikkun olam.

As you'll pass on this obligation and opportunity to those who follow you, taking your place along the great chain, holding up Torah and the pursuit of truth.

You stand among those who have a rare chance to move this story forward, by both remembering and inventing. Both revering the old and crafting the new.

You've already expressed a enthusiasm and zeal for this quest, one that ultimately ensures that our ancestors struggled and persevered for something that
will endure. Something that deserves to endure.

That is why we are proud to pass Torah on to you today.

So that, through you and your generation, the great journey continues and our people - all people - will grow in wisdom and joy.