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Observations substantiate relationship between white dwarfs and red giants

REHOVOT, Israel—When white dwarf stars explode, they leave behind a rapidly expanding cloud of 'stardust' known as a Type Ia supernova. These exploding events, which shine billions of times brighter than our sun, are all presumed to be extremely similar, and thus have been used extensively as cosmological reference beacons to trace distance and the evolution of the Universe.

Astronomers have now – for the first time ever – provided a unique set of observations obtained with the ESO Very Large Telescope in Chile and the 10-meter Keck telescope in Hawaii, enabling them to find traces of the material that had surrounded a white dwarf star before it exploded. Their data set is unique in that no Type Ia supernova event has ever been observed at this level of detail over a several-month period following the explosion.

These observations support a widely accepted model proposing that a white dwarf star interacts with a companion star – a red giant. Due to the white dwarf’s strong gravitational pull, this companion star continuously loses mass through ‘force feeding’ its gases to the white dwarf. When the mass of the white dwarf grows past a critical value, it explodes.

Through their observations, which took place over the course of four months, and combined with archival data, the astronomers detected the presence of a number of expanding shells surrounding a Type Ia super-nova event. The make-up of these shells suggests they are the remnants of the red giant star that fed the white dwarf.

These results were recently published in the journal Science. The data were collected by two teams of researchers; one at ESO headed by Dr. Ferdinando Patat, and one at the California Institute of Technology, USA, led by Dr. Avishay Gal-Yam. Dr. Gal-Yam has recently joined the Weizmann Institute of Science as a senior.

Hebrew U prof. mum on plant source for new generation anti-wrinkling cosmetic

JERUSALEM (Press Release)--A new method for fighting skin wrinkles has been developed at the Hebrew University Faculty of Agriculture, Food and Environmental Quality Sciences.

In her doctoral research at the university, Dr. Orit Bossi succeeded in isolating a plant-based antioxidant that delays the aging process by countering the breakdown of collagen fibers in the skin. Dr. Bossi conducted her research under the supervision of Zecharia Madar, the Karl Bach Professor of Agricultural Biochemistry at the Hebrew University, and Prof. Shlomo Grossman of Bar-Ilan University.

Antioxidants operate against free radicals which cause a breakdown of many tissues in the body, including the skin. When found in small quantities in the body, free radicals are not harmful and are even involved in various physical processes. When there is an excess of free radicals, however, as occurs during normal aging or as a result of excessive exposure to ultra-violet radiation from the sun, the result, among other things, is a breakdown of the collagen and elastin fibers in the skin. When this happens, there is a loss of skin elasticity and the formation of wrinkles.

“A problem with many of the commercial antioxidants found today in the market that are said to retard the aging process is that they oxidize quickly and therefore their efficiency declines with time,” said Dr. Bossi.

“Vitamin C, for example, oxidizes rapidly and is sensitive to high temperatures. This is also true of the antioxidant EGCG which is found in green tea, and vitamin E. As opposed to these, the antioxidant which I used in my research is able to withstand high temperatures, is soluble in water, and does not oxidize easily and thus remains effective over time.”

Dr. Bossi is looking towards a new generation of cosmetic products which will not only combat wrinkles but will be more effective against deeper levels of skin wrinkles than current products. Dr. Bossi did not reveal the plant source she used to derive the antioxidant, since the research is in the process of being patented.

In her research, Dr. Bossi conducted experiments on mice skin tissue, which, she says, resembles that of humans. She applied her antioxidant on two skin cell groups – those which had been exposed to the sun’s rays and received her antioxidant and those which also had been exposed to sun but did not receive the antioxidant. The untreated cells showed a rise in free radicals causing wrinkles, while those cells which had been treated showed no significant increase in the free radicals level.

The preceding was provided by Hebrew University

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Ten Commandments for safety of children in and near road traffic

RAMAT GAN, Israel (Press Release)—Dr. Tovah Rosenblum, head of The Phoenix Road Safety Studies at Bar-Ilan University, reminds us all to keep our children safe. "They are never too old to be reminded" she says, and gives her own set of rules for going back to school:

These children need carefully supervised practical training to recognize traffic dangers and develop safe strategies for the times when they are in the street unsupervised. Research shows children this age are still unable to judge the speed of the car arriving, its size or distance from where he is standing.

II. Practice safety

A good opportunity for parents to practice road safety with their child is while walking to school with them. Use this time to demonstrate the right way to cross the street in different weather conditions, show them how to plan the route to use protected crossing places, where they are always seen by drivers.

Children should know never to rely on a "friendly driver" that "lets you cross.” Other drivers might not be so patient, and accidentally hit the child.

Even when they know the rules and understand them well, children are most likely to act in a spontaneous manner. Injuries are quite common for primary age children.

V. Go over the rules again

Children need to understand the danger they are facing, and need to be reminded. Again and again…

VI. Make sure children always wear a safety belt in the car

Children should always use a child restraint or wear a seat belt when they are traveling in cars and any other vehicle where these are fitted.

VII. Adapt car seat to the age and size of your child

Most people make sure that children use some kind of restraint when traveling on the road, but it is vitally important to use the right one. Small children need the protection that baby seats and child seats are designed to provide.

Always park away from the school entrance, and ensure that children get out of the car onto the footway and not the road.

IX . Avoid Parking in hazardous places

Even when you are in a great hurry, make sure your car is not blocking the view for children crossing the street.

X. Do not rely entirely on the green light

Even when crossing an intersection at a green light, it is still important to look all ways and watch for turning cars. Make eye contact with drivers to be sure you have been seen before crossing.

Ben-Gurion professor to coordinate Israel's campaign to counter Brits' academic boycott

BEER SHEVA, Israel --David Newman, professor of Political Geography at Ben Gurion University, has been appointed as the official academic representative of Israel for all matters relating to a potential academic boycott in the United Kingdom.

The appointment was made at a meeting of representatives of Israel's Foreign Ministry, Ministry of Education and the country's Universities held earlier this month. Professor Newman will work under the aegis of the International Advisory Board (IAB) for Academic Freedom, which works alongside the Israel Academy of Sciences to represent Israeli academic interests abroad.

Professor Newman, originally from the UK and a product of the British university system, will develop and strengthen academic and scientific links between Israel and the UK, working parallel to, and in coordination with, the Stop the Boycott campaign whose activities are aimed at overturning votes in the University and College Union’s (UCU) proposed boycott.

In May 2007, he was the only Israeli professor present at the UCU Conference in Bournemouth which raised the issue of an academic boycott where he addressed a meeting on the day of the vote trying to garner opposition to the boycott.

Following a recent meeting in London between Israeli Education Minister Yuli Tamir, and the Heads of British Universities, Newman said: “The heads of the British universities, as well as government leaders, have made it clear that they are against any form of academic boycott. They greatly value the cooperation between British and Israeli scientists. We will now take the challenge forward and work towards the creation of even more scientific collaborative projects between the two countries, as a fitting response to those illiberal and intolerant forces who would attempt to silence the voice of academic freedom”.

AJC praises Albania for its destruction of chemical weapons

WASHINGTON, D.C. (Press Release)— The American Jewish Committee has praised Albania for destroying its entire stockpile of chemical weapons.

“It is particularly noteworthy that the Republic of Albania was the first country to dismantle unconventional weapons systems placed on its soil during the Cold War,” said AJC in a letter to the Albanian ambassador to the United States.

“In an increasingly volatile international system, in which the proliferation of nuclear, biological, and chemical weapons poses the gravest of threats, your Government’s swift and successful accomplishment has made a major contribution to global security,” wrote Jason Isaacson, director of AJCs Office of Government and International Affairs.

Brandeis professor, kid entrepreneurs featured in upcoming PBS special

WALTHAM, Massachusetts (Press Release)-- Andrew Hahn, Ph.D. '78, a professor at The Heller School for Social Policy and Management at Brandeis University, will appear in a new PBS documentary, "These Kids Mean Business” which will be broadcast on local stations according to their local schedules.

In the hour-long program, Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist Clarence Page looks at the role of entrepreneurship education as a character-building exercise in the lives of at-risk youth. The documentary tells the tale of underserved youth creating and living their own versions of the American success story.

Hahn was recently appointed to the Youth Entrepreneurship Summit Steering Committee for the Aspen Institute and National Foundation for Teaching Entrepreneurship.

The preceding was provided by Brandeis University

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Commentary
Jews must speak out, HUC-JIR President David Ellenson says

NEW YORK (Press Release)--At the High Holidays, the Avinu Malkeinu prayer challenges us to consider not only our “sins of intention and commission,” but also our “sins of inattention and omission.” This dichotomy provides a framework for considering “the sin of silence” that many have hurled at the organized Jewish community for its lack of assertive protest on behalf of our persecuted and murdered brothers and sisters during the Holocaust.

Indictments censuring the leadership of the organized Jewish community for its passivity during World War II are hardly new. However, the Jewish Press, an Orthodox publication, has approached these questions directly in a recent series of articles by the respected historian Rafael Medoff, and a conference entitled “Jewish Activists Who Shook the World” addressed these matters this past June. Furthermore, “The Accomplices,” an off-Broadway play, portrays the unapologetic efforts of Hillel Kook and his “Bergson group” to call vocally on the Roosevelt Administration to rescue European Jewry as heroic and courageous, and contrasts the Bergson group sharply and disapprovingly with the much more private attempts made at rescue by major leaders of Jewish community such as Rabbi Stephen S. Wise during the 1940s.

Thus, the questions surrounding this issue and the attendant charge regarding the “sin of silence” on the part of Jewish leaders in those days have been raised with a particular intensity this past year. While I reflect upon these charges as an historian, I also address them as the head of a major Jewish seminary. What important moral questions are raised and what lessons emerge as we consider today the “ethic of responsibility” our community and leaders play.

In regard to history, my tendency is to heed the teaching of Pirkei Avot: “Do not judge another until you stand in his place.” The world in the 1940s was so different from today. An American Jewish community not far removed from its immigrant origins surrounded by a world of “gentlemen's agreements,” where antisemitism was both genteel and real, was much more insecure than it is now, and the absolute trust in President Roosevelt virtually all American Jews had then— however misplaced we now know it to be — cannot be exaggerated. Furthermore, as former Jewish Theological Seminary Chancellor Ismar Schorsch pointed out in his Leo Baeck Lecture, “On the History of the Political Judgment of the German Jew,” the reality of genocide — the systematic and rationally executed bureaucratic extermination of an entire population as opposed to even the most horrible pogroms and antisemitic riots — had no real historical precedent, and the leadership of the Jewish community can hardly be morally condemned for its failure of imagination at that time. Their judgments were often unfortunately measured by then-extant standards. For all these reasons, I am hesitant to condemn the leadership of the American Jewish community during the 1940s for “the sin of silence.” To do so is to engage in an exercise of “cheap grace.” Hindsight is always perfect.

However, none of this excuses what I would regard as the moral responsibility today's communal leadership possesses to speak out on behalf of the interests of the Jewish people and to engage in public debate over any issue from a Jewish perspective. The present-day American Jewish community is secure in a manner that would have been unthinkable sixty years ago. Jews participate successfully in every walk of American life, and we have knowledge of the consequences that flow from “the sin of silence” that our forebears lacked. We cannot claim ignorance. Our leaders are morally required to offer public rebuke and assume public postures. In a world where antisemitism in Europe has resurfaced with a fury no one would have anticipated a few years ago, where the State of Israel is often unfairly attacked, where the government of Israel itself can often be criticized for not acting in accord with the highest elements of Jewish tradition, where there are legitimate Jewish positions on matters on the American political scene ranging from abortion to church-state relations to affirmative action, the leadership of our community should not hesitate to express “Jewish positions” on these and other issues in forthright and judicious ways.

In The Federalist Papers, James Madison wrote that the key to the preservation of American democracy was an ever-expanding public sphere in which both individuals and groups would present their positions with vigor and clarity before the court of public opinion. Jews are obligated no less than others to affirm this insight. As Ecclesiastes observed, there is a “time for silence.” During these Days of Repentance, we must also acknowledge there is a “time to speak.”

David Ellenson is President of Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion.

CYBER-REFERRALS—San Diego Jewish World appreciates and thanks those individuals and organizations which recommend or post stories of interest to the worldwide Jewish community:

American Jewish Committee: A paper by Ben Cohen, AJC's expert on extremism and anti-Semitism, on the roots of the boycott campaigns in Britain against Israel. Here is the link.

San Diego Union-Tribune: Pope Benedict XVI and Rabbi Chaim Eisenberg prayed together before a stone memorial to the Holocaust victims of Austria. Here is the link.

Greater San Diego County

SAN DIEGO—“From M*A*S*H to possibly ‘mashed’ and on to Mama’s Kitchen” might be the title for Congregation Beth Israel’s line up of secular programs this fall. The Reform congregation also has scheduled lectures by a leading professor of midrash, a discussion of the challenges faced by interfaith families, and an examination of what rabbis over the ages thought was essential to have in a synagogue.

Here is a chronological listing of the programs. For more information or to RSVP for any of them, contact Bonnie Graff at (858) 535-1111, Ext 3800, or email her at bgraff@cbisd.org

Sunday, Sept. 23, 4:30 p.m.—Alan Alda (star of television’s M*A*S*H) and Roger Rosenblatt are the featured guests in the interactive broadcast presentation of “Live from NY’s 92^nd Street Y” in which their topic is “Talking About Talking.” The program will take note of the San Diego audience and provide a chance for audience members to send in questions via fax or email. The San Diego audience will gather in the David and Dorothea Social Hall, with a reception following the program. Ticket: $5 CBI member; visitor $10.

Thursday, Oct. 11, 6 p.m.—Women of Beth Israel Happy Hour Kick-Off. Sam the Cooking Guy will prepare his favorite appetizers, and other tasty offerings (perhaps something “mashed”) will be featured in a live demonstration following a 6 p.m. reception in the David and Dorothea Garfield Social Hall. Among features of Sam Zien’s approach to cooking is that he makes it both casual and easy. No fancy equipment is necessary, and he speaks English instead of “chef speak.” The event is free for paid-up members of Women of Beth Israel, and $15 for guests of those members.

Saturday, Oct. 20, Noon—Continuation of Installation Weekend. Rabbi Lewis Barth, professor of Midrash and Related Literature as well as a past dean of Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion in Los Angeles, will address a free luncheon sponsored by Congregation Beth Israel’s ALEINU Committee, Men’s Club and Women of Beth Israel, in the David and Dorothea Garfield Social Hall.

Thursdays, Oct. 25 and November 15, 7:30 p.m.—Interfaith Discussion. Russ Gold, PhD and Susan Sincoff, L.C.S.W., facilitate discussions for interfaith couples in which they explore the expectations and challenges of their relationships, including such questions as “How do you resolve questions about your religious identity and that of your spouse, children and extended family?”

Month of November—For the fifth year, Congregation Beth Israel will have collection bins for food for Mama’s Kitchen, a support organization that prepares and delivers food to men, women and children affected by AIDS or other critical illnesses. Items may also be brought to the Interfaith Services on November 22.

Saturday, Nov. 10, Noon—Shabbat Lunch and Learn: Rabbi Michael Berk, noting that in the morning liturgy Jews regularly chant “Ma Tovu,” which evokes images of a tent, tabernacle, house and temple, will examine what visions rabbis, and the congregation, have had about houses of worship. Attendees are encouraged to bring their own lunches.

The preceding was based on material provided by Congregation Beth Israel

Klezmer fun and cookies being 'cooked up' for kids at Tifereth Israel Synagogue

SAN DIEGO (Press Release)—The "legendary ad hoc polyphonic klezmer orchestra" will perform at Tifereth Israel Synagogue during the Torah processions of Simcha Torah at 7 p.m., Thursday, Oct. 4.

"Singing, dancing, honoring the Torah and special treats for the children" will be highlights of the service, for which kazoo players are especially sought, according to Beth Klareich, Tifereth Israel Synagogue's program director.

The celebration of completing a cycle of Torah reading will continue at 9:15 a.m., Friday, Oct. 5, she noted.

On Sunday, Oct. 14, the congregation is inviting children, who are accompanied by an adult (especially a grandparent) to learn how to bake cookies in the congregation's kitchen. The mass cookie production begins at 1 p.m. and last through the afternoon. Ticket is $5 per family, due by October 8.

For information about either of these programs, contact Klareich at (619) 697-6001, or via email at program@tiferethisrael.com

The preceding was provided by Tifereth Israel Synagogue

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Food, comedy and crafts highlight October
at JFS College Avenue Senior Center

SAN DIEGO—October Programming at Jewish Family Service's College Avenue Senior Center, at 4855 College Avenue, will include lunch in the Sukkah on October 2; a comedy musical production, Our Thelma, on October 19, and a craft show and sale on October 24.

Marsha Howe, spokeswoman for the center, said pianist Rachelle Danto will lead a sing-a-long of songs in English, Yiddish and Hebrew during the special Tuesday noon lunch in the sukkah. Suggested donation for the lunch is $3 for seniors, 45 for others.

On Friday, October 19, at 12:45 p.m., the College Avenue Comedy Troupe will present its humorous view of medical troubles in Our Thelma, a production directed by Polly Columbo and accompanied musically by Al Jacobs.

A first Arts and Crafts show, featuring the work of arts/crafts and sewing class participants at the center, is planned between 10 a.m. and 1:30 p.m. Wednesday, October 24. Other exhibitors and participants are also invited. Interest parties may arrange registration by telephoning (619) 583-3300.

The October programs are in addition to a wide range of activities that occur on Mondays through Fridays, including four new classes. These occur:

Tuesdays, 4 p.m. to 6 p.m.—Beginning Ballroom Dancing. Such dances as swing, fox trot, and tango will be taught by Sharon Emerson, who has been a dance instructor for over 20 years, according to spokewoman Howe."

Wednesdays, 11 a.m. to Noon—The Healing Power of Laughter, a class led by Michael Coleman, described as a "laughter yoga teacher." He says that simple stretching and guided laughter exercises can enhance people's lives while improving their health.

Thursdays, 2p.m. to 4 p.m.—Theatre Games and Improvisation, an activity led by Holly Ritter based on Chicago's Second City Format. According to Howe: "Participants will be led and supported through various structured theatre games and exercises that build self-confidence by learning how to channel any nervousness. There is no memorizing of lines and no need to worry about making mistakes—there are none."

Fridays, 1 p.m to 3 p.m., beginning Oct. 19—Nutrition for Older Adults. Kim McIntyre examines food trends and introduces new foods, and food groups. Some healthy snacks and treats will be made during the class, and she will suggest ways recipes can be improved with healthy ingredients.

The preceding was based on materials provided by Jewish Family Service

Sports

On 21 occasions during Del Mar Racetrack meet, it was Miller's time

By Joe Naiman

DEL MAR, California—The leading Jewish trainer at this year's Del Mar Thoroughbred Club meet wasn't Bobby Frankel or Barry Abrams, but Peter Miller.

Miller saddled 53 horses during the 43-day meet and had 11 wins, including Set Play in the Grade I Del Mar Debutante stakes race. He also had five second-place finishes and five third-place results, and his horses accumulated earnings of $517,787 for the meet.

The eleven wins ranked sixth among trainers, although in actuality Miller and Craig Dollase each had 11 wins and Dollase is officially the fifth-ranked trainer due to two more second-place finishes. For just over two weeks at the beginning of the meet, Miller was the leading trainer in terms of wins.

Miller grew up in Beverly Hills and graduated from Beverly Hills High School. While many of his classmates went to school for white-collar professions, Miller chose to follow his dream of becoming a horse trainer and started grooming horses for legendary trainer Charlie Whittingham.

For the past 15 years Miller has been training at the San Luis Rey Thoroughbred Training Center in Bonsall. He also served as the racing manager for Golden Eagle Farm from 2003 to 2005.

In 2006 Miller won two stakes races. During the Hollywood Park meet Pinata captured the Landaluce Stakes. When racing moved to Del Mar, he entered Fast Parade in the Green Flash Handicap. Fast Parade not only won that stakes race but also set a track record on the turf course for that distance.

Miller won a total of six races at Del Mar in 2006. Altogether last year he won 30 races in 141 starts.

Miller added to his stakes wins when Fast Parade won the Grade II Nearctic Stakes at Toronto's Woodbine track and when Thoroughly took the Willard L. Proctor Memorial Stakes at Hollywood Park earlier this year.

It took Miller two weeks of the 2007 meet to match his Del Mar win total for the previous year. In the fifth race on Opening Day, Run Forest Run gave Miller his first win on the Del Mar's new Polytrack surface. He became the only trainer to win twice on Opening Day when Icanmakeitrain captured the eighth race.

Miller would win his first four starts of 2007, as on the meet's second day Princess Susan M and Mix also put Miller, along with the Gerson Racing team which owns both horses and the jockeys of the two races, into the winner's circle.

After six wins in the first two weeks the rest of the Del Mar season almost looked like a slump for Miller.

But on September 3 Set Play won the seven-furlong Del Mar Debutante by two lengths despite going off at 14.7:1 odds.

In addition to winning the Del Mar Debutante, Set Play was also selected as the top two-year-old filly of the meet. The vote was unanimous among the media members who voted for the top horses in various categories.

The last San Luis Rey Downs horse to have won a category at Del Mar was Azeri in 2003.

Miller credits his success to fast horses and hard work, and he notes that his hard work helps him obtain the fast horses from owners.

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{Marc Kligman, who combines being a sports agent with his life as an observant Jew, invites you to listen. Click on the ad above for more information}

They're not just pieces of furniture

LA JOLLA, California—Just about the time my mother died, my daughter had finished building her house. She and her husband worked full-time and had three children at home. With no time to shop for furniture, she was delighted when I suggested I ship most of my mother’s furniture to her—that included a full living room, dining room, and three bedrooms.

As serendipity would have it, that same daughter had just finished remodeling a small summer cottage by a lake when we moved from our large, five-bedroom house to a much smaller, two bedroom apartment in a retirement community, and sure enough she was again thrilled to get the furniture from the living room, dining room, and bedrooms. That furniture had come all the way from a chalet in the Swiss Alps that we owned many years ago and was mostly heavy, dark-oak peasant pieces from the 1600 and 1700s none of which would fit into our new small rooms overlooking the ocean—we needed to redecorate with rattan and pastels, but my daughter’s country cottage was a perfect setting for the old, Swiss peasant pieces.

What is most remarkable is that whenever I visit my daughter in her town home, I am back in my mother’s house, the furniture arranged the way it was then, the way it was when I was a child growing up, and the memories of these years are embedded in the deep armchairs, the boys I dated in high school have left their marks on the sofa, and the musical events still resonate around the four chairs with needlepoint pillows made by my mother and my aunt, where they sat playing bridge waiting for the war to end.

As émigrés in 1939, my parents had lost everything, so this furniture was their new start in the new world, and seeing this continuity in the same furniture my three grandchildren are now sitting in and sleeping in provides an unbroken thread from my parents to myself to my children and grandchildren. The same is true of my furniture from the Swiss chalet, where I used to come to rest from a day of skiing, today the kids come to rest from a day of swimming. They are now the age I was then.

The memories of spending holidays with my growing family and their friends, with a wood fire burning, the snow falling, country bread and cheese, and my German shepherd—now long dead—lying by my side.

Even if your children say they don’t want that old chest of drawers or that rocking chair with the worn armrests, put it in storage until they are old enough (you may have to wait a decade or two) to appreciate the link that binds families together

Pieces of furniture are not just inanimate objects, they are where families got together, they are the recipients of clan gatherings, the silent witnesses to conversations, they heard the laughter and the tears, held babies and grandparents in cushioned arms. So keep some of your furniture for the generations to come and create memories full of stories evoked by the old wood and faded cloth.

Natasha Josefowitz's columns also appear in La Jolla Light