san diego jewish world, May 7, 2007

The letter, which extensively outlined Israeli medical efforts in behalf of Palestinians, follows:

"We, the representatives of medicine in Israel, categorically deny these accusations and wish to take a stand in support of the IMA and humane medical treatment for all in Israel.

"It is all too clear that Dr. Derek Summerfield is once again feeding his own personal, systematic dislike of Israel and will persist in doing so regardless of the truth.

"As for Dr. David Hapin, if the best he can do is quote Amira Hass: Life Under Israeli Occupation—published August 26,2001 in The Independent, at the height of the Intifada, we suggest he embarks on a more recent and through research of the situation, as stipulated below.

"Unfortunately, the other signatories were presumably unaware of the reality of the situation.

"We would therefore like to clarify some facts and provide a sampling of health activity pertaining to the Palestinian Authority, coordinated between the Israeli and Palestinian Ministries of Health.

*"The number of children with birth defects who were operated on in Israel: 1,604 in 2005; 2,346 in 2006.

*"Palestinian physicians attending medical programs or conferences in Israel or internationally: 30 in 2005, 131 in 2006.

*"Palestinian patients permitted to undergo medical treatment in hospitals in Israel: 24,076 in 2005; 29, 919 in 2006.

*"Palestinian patients given permission to undergo medical treatment in hospitals in East Jerusalem: 30,136 in 2005; 51,156 in 2006.

*"Permits granted allowing the import of medical supplies and medication: 400 in 2006.

*"Dealing with cases of ambulance delays at barriers: 600 in 2006.

"*Dealing with requests from external sources, such as Physicians for Human Rights, MPs, IMA: 300 in 2006.

"*Palestinian emergency patients transferred by ambulance to hospitals in Jerusalem or Israeli medical institutions: 800 in 2005, 1,600 in 2006."

The letter, whose principal author was IMA President Dr. Yoram Blacher, continued:

"We would like to reiterate what was expressed in a recent IMA letter, namely 'The IMA is not, and has never been, the executive arm of the Israeli establishment. It is an apolitical organization that, like every other national medical organization, concerns itself with medical and health issues and not the establishment or support of any sort of political policy.'

"The IMA has continuously called for funds to be transferred (to the PA) not in kind but in the form of food and medicine so that help could be given where it is truly needed.

"In addition to the above, tens if not hundreds of Palestinian patients receive medical care in Israel each year, usually at a cost absorbed by the Israeli government. As an example, in 2004, NIS36,645,507 (approximately 8,143,446 USD at the time) were offset. The IMA has intervened on occasions where a patient was about to be evicted from an Israeli hospital for lack of funds. The IMA has also intervened on many occasions on behalf of Palestinian patients, physicians, and medical students who encountered difficulties at Israeli checkpoints, including petitions to the High Court of Justice on certain matters.

"The organization has, at several points in the past, attempted to meet with its Palestinian counterparts in an effort to foster mutual cooperation and better understanding, including the release of a joint statement. Almost none of these meetings have taken place, because of refusal on the Palestinian side."

"In addition to the above, several collaborative health care initiatives have taken place in the past few months, including the First International Congress on Chronic Disorders in Children (April 26-27) attended by 300 Israeli and 100 Palestinian doctors at Jerusalem's Regency Hotel and the First Middle East Symposium on Dental Medicine (Nov. 27, 2006) which represented a further expression of the relationship launched between the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and Al-Quds University.

"Under the Israeli program 'Save a Child's Heart,' doctors at Wolfson Hospital repair congenital heart defects for children from the Palestinian territories, Iraq, Jordan and Africa; more than 1,000 children, about half from Gaza and the occupied West Bank have been helped so far by the program.

"Teams at Bethlehem University and at Tel Aviv University have worked together to investigate the genetic causes of deafness. The Israeli and Palestinian professors leading the project have now launched a graduate research program to enable Palestinian students to pursue post-graduate research in this field at Tel Aviv University.

"With funding from the Peres project, Hadassah has trained physicians and nurses in cancer treatments. Advocate Health Care, an ELCA-related institution, sends specialists to train Augusta Victoria's staff in advanced radiology techniques. This Palestinian-Israeli hospital project also trained psychologists and holds monthly meetings of 'Pediatricians Across the Mount,' where staff from three Palestinian hospitals and Hadassah hospital exchange ideas and information.

"It saddens us greatly to see and hear of Palestinian civilians receiving inadequate health care, including in Gaza, from which Israel unilaterally withdrew in 2006. It saddens us that funs transferred to the Palestinian leadership are often used for guns and bombs instead of for hospitals and medicines. It saddens us that Hizbollah kidnapped our soldiers and rained missiles on Israel cities, and then hid among civilians and civilian structures such as hospitals. We do our best to help whenever possible, despite these constraints, and have often called for a separation of political and humane issues, so that no one suffers from the current conflict.

"The 'facts' expressed in the letter of the Palestinian organizations calling for a boycott of the IMA, are a far cry from reality. It is our hope that your readers will form unbiased opinions and recognize the steps that Israeli doctors are taking to improve the health and treatment of all peoples, regardless of race or religion. Those who have preconceived opinions will undoubtedly stick with them. But for those who want the truth, we have attempted to present it."

Besides Blachar, some of the Israeli signers of the letter included Prof. Shmuel C. Shapira, deputy general director of Hebrew University-Hadassah School of Public Health; Dr. Jacob Yahav, director of the Kaplan Medical Center; Prof. Zvi Zemishlany, director of Geha Mental Health Center: Meir Oren, director general of the Hillel-Yaffe Medical Center; Dr. Zvi Stern, director of Hadassah Medical Center at Mt. Scopus; Dr. Orna Blondheim, director of the Haemek Medical Center in Afula; Dr. Raphi Pollack, medical director of Bikur Cholim Hospital in Jerusalem; Dr. Shimon Scharf, director of the Barzilai Medical Center in Ashkelon; Dr. Yehezkel Caine, director general of Herzog Hospital; and Dr. Itzhak (Tzakie) Siev-Ner, head of orthopedic rehabilitation, Sheba Medical Center, Israel.

The foregoing material was provided by the Israel Medical Association and Scholars for Peace in the Middle East.
______________________________

Letter from Jerusalem
_________________By Ira Sharkansky____

Some Jewish education goes
deep, but it is far too narrow

JERUSALEM—We highly educated Israelis wonder about the training of the younger generation.

On the one hand, the dominant image of the primary and secondary education available to most students is depressing in the extreme. Low salaries cannot attract decent students to enter the profession, existing teachers appear to be over-unionized and under-qualified, and the students' results on international tests have dropped from those of earlier years.

On the other hand, more than one-half of the country's universities appear in most rankings of the best in the world. Salaries are also low in this sector when compared to those in Europe and North America. We all know about good scholars and scientists who have gone elsewhere for more promising careers. However, there are usually more good candidates than the available positions, not only at the top universities, but also at the others and in the burgeoning category of colleges.

Among the signs of success in higher education are the likes of Google, Microsoft, and Intel that have located corporate research centers in Israel.

An article entitled "Jewish Genius," by Charles Murray in the April edition of Commentary Magazine includes a comprehensive discussion of historical and biological elements that may explain the signs of intellectual success over the ages. It reminded me of a conversation with a Korean friend. He told me that his nation had a high incident of literacy for a thousand years. I congratulated him on a record more impressive than that of any European nation, but reminded him that my nation was writing the Bible 2,500 years ago. At the time, I did not realize that my half-Korean, half-Jewish grandson was observed to be reading before his second birthday. Better than his father, who we did not notice reading until after his second birthday. Both began without parental efforts. Maybe both kids were equally skilled, and the younger parents were quicker to notice what was happening.

If one wants to find the most intense Jewish investments in schooling, the place to look is that of Ultra-Orthodox boys. Many of them begin school at 3 years, when they learn to read. By the end of primary school they are finished with the Bible, for which they have had to learn the Hebrew equivalent of Chaucerian English. Depending on the congregation, they may be conversant in Yiddish as well as Hebrew. By the equivalent of junior high school they are into the Talmud, which requires fluency in Aramaic as well as Hebrew, and a capacity to read the Hebrew alphabet as we know it, as well as the script used by Rashi and other commentators of the Middle Ages.

The utility of ultra-Orthodox education is less commendable. Typically there is no science, secular history, or literature aside from sacred texts.

An American anthropologist (himself religious but not ultra-Orthodox) observed a group of ultra-Orthodox 12-year olds in an Israeli yeshiva. He found himself jealous of their knowledge, which dwarfed his own. Yet he came to suspect their breadth. When he asked them to draw a map of Israel, none of the group knew what he meant by a map. None could name Israel's neighbors. One thought that the Philistines were still a problem. When asked to indicate how long it takes to travel from Beer Sheva to Jerusalem (83 kilometers), several said that the biblical Abraham had done it in three days, and since he had the Lord’s help it must take longer now (Samuel Heilman, Defenders of the Faith: Inside Ultra-Orthodox Jewry ).

My late father-in-law told a story about riding a bus in Jerusalem. When the hourly news broadcast reported something about Libya, an ultra-Orthodox man sitting alongside of him asked “What is Libya?” “A country in Africa,” was the response. The next question was, “What is Africa?” Erich began by asking the man if he had heard about Egypt. "Of course. What a question. We all know that we were slaves in Egypt." Assuming that the man actually knew how to locate Egypt on a map, and something about directions, Erich told him that Libya was just to the west of Egypt.

I recall a conversation with an ultra-Orthodox man who I perceived to be well educated. I commented that my experience with religious Christians was that they often had an intimate knowledge of the Bible, but did not know the stories of Tamar. I suggested that the unpleasant elements of the stories, one a story of seduction (Genesis 38), the other a story of rape (II Samuel 13) explained the lack of knowledge. Religious Jews, I assumed, knew the stories insofar as they read the Bible ritually every year. He seemed puzzled, and asked, "Who was Tamar?" He reminded me that it was forbidden to study the Bible alone, without a qualified teacher.

A book about ultra-Orthodox women by Tamar El-Or carries the title, Educated and Ignorant. It emphasizes the paradoxical contrast between a community that provides its members with intensive schooling and excludes outside influences.

Some of the ultra-Orthodox go on to one or another field of secular education, with or without abandoning their communities. Others study sacred texts for their whole lives, marry early, and send their many children to the schools thought to be appropriate. Their incomes typically consist of the government grants to yeshiva students and what the wife earns as a teacher or in one of the other occupations considered appropriate. They contribute to the statistics of low average family incomes, especially in Jerusalem and Bnei Brak.

The hope for the secular majority may lie in the Coleman Report, a product of the US Office of Education in the 1960s. It found that formal schooling was secondary in its importance for intellectual success. The stronger influences came from parents and friends. It did not inquire about genes.

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Jews in the News
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News spotters: Dan Brin in Los Angeles, Donald H. Harrison in San Diego, and you. Wherever you are, send a summary and link to us at sdheritage@cox.net. To see a source story click on the link within the respective paragraph.
_______________________________________________________________________

*Morris Casuto, regional director of the Anti-Defamation League, is among the people quoted in a touching story about the fight of Brian Bennett against Lou Gehrig's disease. Bennett is a Catholic educator who has been a close friend to the Jewish community sometimes at personal risk. The story by Helen Gao is in today's San Diego Union-Tribune.

*The murder trial in Los Angeles has a cast of characters with surnames resembling those on the rosters of almost any Jewish organization. Witness Gregory Diamond, Judge Larry Paul Fidler, defense attorney
Roger Rosen, USC law professor Jean Rosenbluth, Spector lawyer Robert
Shapiro, Loyola Law School professor Laurie Levenson, defense attorney
Bruce Cutler, character actor Stanford Blatch, attorney Sarah Caplan,
defense pathologist Michael Baden, and attorney Leslie Abramson
(who is quoted as saying "You want me not to be Jewish now?") and, oh
yes, the defendant, Phil Spector. Peter Y. Hong has the story of the latest round of the trial in today's Los Angeles Times.

*Suppose you lived in a quiet cul-de-sac neighborhood and were told that the streets are for vehicles, so keep your children from playing on them and don't socialize with your neighbors out there either. How would you feel? When Steve Rubinstein received such a message from his homeowner's association in south Carlsbad, he complained that such rules smacked of Big Brotherism. Logan Jenkins devoted a column to the controversy in today's San Diego Union-Tribune.

* "The Scroll" by artist Ruth Weisberg is a 90-foot-long mixed media drawing that mixes autobiography, Jewish history and tradition. It will be the centerpiece of a new exhibit opening at the Skirball Cultural Center in Los Angeles tomorrow. Scarlet Cheng has the story in today's Los Angeles Times.

.__________________________________
The Jewish Grapevine

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LOCAL AWARDS—San Diego's Jewish American Chamber of Commerce has announced the organizations that will receive awards at its upcoming networking banquet Saturday evening at which San Diego Mayor Jerry Sanders will be the featured speaker. And the envelopes, please.... Most Active Non-Profit: The United Jewish Federation. Most Philanthropic Business: Qualcomm. Most Supportive Bank to Businesses: San Diego National Bank. Most welcoming to our Community: San Diego National Bank. Cool New Business: Fresher. Fastest Growing Business: Gepetto's.

SAN DIEGO-ISRAEL CONNECTIONS—Ellie Adams, president of Temple Beth Sholom, has been chosen by Legacy Heritage Foundation for a summer program in which she will attend leadership development sessions in Jerusalem and also spend three weeks learning Hebrew and Jewish religious subjects at the Conservative Yeahiva. It will be the immigration attorney's third trip to Israel. She went in 2001 on a solidarity trip, and again last year on a UJF mission.

Ellie Adams

JEWS IN SPORTS—Bruce Lowitt in his San Diego Jewish World debut column below discusses hero worship for Sandy Koufax. On a similar theme, here is a video when the boys in the broadcasting booth praise the fielding of Boston Red Sox first baseman Kevin Youkilis and vent about the anti-Semitic statements made by movie producer Mel Gibson.

POLITICAL SCENE—Sheriff Bill Kolender is hosting his fellow sheriffs from the border regions of the American southwest today and tomorrow in Old Town San Diego. "The Southwestern Border Sheriffs’ Coalition was established in 2006 to assist border Sheriffs from Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, and California, with the protection of lives, property, and the rights of citizens," a spokesperson said. "Nearly 30 elected Sheriffs from these four states share a common border with the Republic of Mexico and a common concern for public safety." ...

Do you have a simcha that you would like to share with the Jewish community? Send in notices of birth, bar/bat mitzvah, wedding, special anniversary, or other special events, honors or celebrations (with photos if you have them) to the San Diego Jewish World. There is no charge for items used in our Jewish Grapevine section. Our email address is sdheritage@cox.net
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Not Necessarily kosher
Bruce Lowitt
_____________________________________________________________________

The deification of Sandy Koufax

OLDSMAR, Fla—It was 1957, a couple of weeks before my 15th birthday, as I helped set the seder table in our house back in Brooklyn, I set a juice glass filled with wine next to Elijah's cup.

My mother glanced up. "What's that for?"

"Sandy Koufax."

The Dodgers had lost yet another World Series to the Yankees in October, a
new season was about to start and Koufax was not far from supplanting Hank
Greenberg as my favorite Jewish major leaguer—not that I knew of any other
Jewish major leaguers, mind you.

Sure, Greenberg had been elected to the Hall of Fame in 1956, but he'd
stopped playing when I was 5 years old and he'd played in Detroit, which was
somewhere "out there," meaning west of Brooklyn. Greenberg was a face on a
baseball card and comments by my father and uncles. Koufax was real and he
played for us.

Okay, Don Newcombe had won the MVP and Cy Young awards in 1956 and we had Campy and Pee wee and Duke and Jackie and Gil and so on. They played for us, too —us meaning Brooklyn.

But Koufax was different. So what if he wasn't particularly good in 1956? He was one of us — meaning Jewish.
The glass of wine stayed. My mother, who had learned to umpire arguments over the Dodgers between me and my older brother, understood.
Koufax's 1955 rookie card

(She also understood that if she'd demanded that I remove the glass, she'd
have had to deal with Manischewitz Malaga stains on the tablecloth —and
on maybe a wall or two.)

Thus began my serious deification of left-handed pitcher Sandy Koufax. From
1958 until 1969, when my New York Mets won the World Series and I finally
got over the Dodgers' desertion to California, I hated them. Not individually, but collectively.

Is "hated" too strong a word? I fantasized about the Dodgers and Yankees
getting ready for a World Series game in the Bronx and the stadium falling
down on them. Except not on Koufax. Or pitcher Larry Sherry and his brother,
Norm, a catcher. They were Jewish Dodgers, too. (Okay, and Ron Blomberg of
the Yankees, too.) But unlike Koufax, they were ordinary. Koufax wound up in
the Hall of Fame.

Obviously, I am not alone in my belief that the Brooklyn-born Koufax was the
best Jewish ballplayer to step onto a major-league field.

There is a six-team Israel Baseball League. It will begin its inaugural
season June 24. Last month the IBL conducted its player draft. The last
player selected by the Modi'in Miracle was Sandy Koufax.

By the way, the first draft pick, also by Modi'in, was Los Angeles-born
infielder Aaron Levin, 21, who played for Cuesta Community College in San
Luis Obispo, Calif., about 260 miles north of San Diego (and nine miles
north of Pismo Beach for you fans of Jack Webb's old Dragnet series on TV).

Koufax is 71 now, and not likely to throw a pitch for the Miracle —unless,
of course, you believe in Miracles.

"His selection is a tribute to the esteem with which he is held by everyone
associated with this league," Miracle manager Art Shamsky, who spent four of
his eight big-league seasons with the Mets, told The Associated Press. "It's
been 41 years between starts for him. If he's rested and ready to take the
mound again, we want him on our team."

Koufax pitched four no-hitters, one of them a perfect game, in his 12-year
major-league career. But he may well be as well known for a game he
didn't pitch: Game 1 of the 1965 World Series, in Minnesota, because if fell on Yom Kippur.

Koufax, by the way, never pitched during the High Holy Days, but until 1965
none had fallen on the opening of the World Series. Koufax never considered
his refusal to pitch that game particularly consequential. The Dodgers also
had Don Drysdale, their other ace.

But Minnesota jumped on Drysdale. He lasted less than three innings and gave
up seven runs. When Dodgers manager Walter Alston got to the mound, Drysdale
looked at him and said, "I bet you wish I was Jewish today, too, huh?"
Koufax then lost Game 2.

That 1965 World Series was, for me, the textbook definition of Mixed
Emotions. Y'know, like the old joke about seeing your mother-in-law drive
over a cliff in your brand-new car.

Koufax pitched twice more, shutouts in Games 5 and 7.

The Dodgers won the World Series.

One year later, at age 30, after arguably his best season, Koufax retired,
his left arm wracked by traumatic arthritis that threatened to leave him
disabled for life. "When I'm 40 years old," he said at the time, "I'd still
like to be able to comb my hair."
--
Bruce Lowitt grew up short, fat, and Jewish in Bensonhurst, then a short,
fat, and Jewish section of Brooklyn (where Koufax, neither short nor fat,
had lived), and spent 36 years covering sports for The Associated Press and
St. Petersburg Times before retiring in 2003. Since then he has been a
freelance writer for various publications. He and his wife live in the Tampa
Bay area on Florida's Gulf Coast.
___________________________________________________________

The Greene Line
Norman Greene
___________________________________________

Father of the bride to-be

First in the series

SAN DIEGO—The wedding would be on the 17^th, the rehearsal dinner on the 16^th, the morning after brunch on the 18^th and the bank hold up on the 19^th. That’s the way the whole event shaped up in my mind.

My daughter hated to hear me say it, but that day was finally coming when she would wed. Hooray and hallelujah! Now it remained to be seen whether I, as father of the bride, could weather the approaching storm.

Sure, every Jewish father longs for the day when his children will start families of their own. I was certainly no different. Some parents have a short wait until that moment comes around. Others of us, have had to be patient, very patient, until Mr. Right showed up.

At my house, there seemed to be one long revolving door. After a while, I gave up memorizing their names. Why get attached to someone who undoubtedly would disappear in a week, or a month or two? In the meantime, my daughter not only enjoyed the perpetual whirl, but she turned her experiences into a series of singles columns that are being published across the U.S. of A. in Jewish weekly newspapers. Waste not, want not. Guess we taught her something.

When we learned of the engagement, thoughts of the wedding flooded our thinking. To be frank, I had a momentary sense of loss. Both our parents are gone and all but one of our many aunts and uncles, too. There are those cousins we still speak to and others who have faded from view. Even the count on our closest of friends has diminished somewhat due to divorces and relocations.

We were, however, warned that my daughter’s fiancee had a large family and the two of them seemed to have a full roster of friends and professional associates.

"Who is there to invite?" I asked my wife. So the two of us sat down and started a list. Eliminating business associates, fellow board members, members of the congregation, neighbors we hardly speak to and relatives we don’t speak to at all, we were amazed and somewhat staggered by the remaining number.

Well, we reasoned, they all won’t come. But that proved to be a fallacy. Even before the invitations were printed, word spread and the feedback was quite positive. They were coming from France, Florida, New York, Rhode Island, Kansas City, Seattle and beyond. Mon Dieu! By the time the invitations were actually received, I expected a virtual flood of costly affirmative responses.

At first my daughter wanted a beach wedding, but the date was set for February...not exactly beach weather even in sunny Southern California. She toyed with a destination wedding as well, but Indonesia was not in her parents’ travel plans.

We arranged for a synagogue ceremony and signed the deal for the main venue, but not without an exhaustive search of every ballroom, club house, and large scale restaurant in the County. One country club suggested that we could tent over their tennis courts for our event, but the music had to stop by ten p.m..."Because of neighbors." My daughter was upset at the early hour, but I was thinking about the cost of a tent. "Oh, its only $125 per person," the coordinator cheerfully reassured me.

A grand hotel downtown had us tenting over their roof for the reception. My daughter was in love with the idea. but not her old man. "I am not paying to build a room for this wedding," I sourly ended that conversation.

My daughter and son-in-law-to-be were fairly cooperative, especially after being reminded who was footing the bill. I did the reminding and it finally sunk in...to a degree.

So now we were down to the nitty gritty....menus, colors, decorations, wedding gown, mother of the bride outfits, refining the guest list, cooperating with those who wished to throw bridal showers, selecting the wedding party, the band, the florist, the videographer, the photographer, the printer and two or three poorly guarded banks in town. Honestly, we needed them in a big way.

Uncle Charley hosted three daughters’ weddings. How did he manage? I marvel at the friends and relatives who have given lavish wedding affairs in the past. Prices were somewhat more reasonable back then, I am told. It was daunting to think this could cost more than my first house and it had four bedrooms.

Elopement was looking better as each moment passes. So speaks the father of the bride.

Physicians mobilize to fight proposed boycott of Israel Medical Association RAMAT GAN, Israel (Publicity release)—Responding to an effort by 135 British physicians to bar the Israel Medical Association from participating in activities of the World Medical Association, Israeli physicians are sending to their fellow physicians around the world an appeal for letters and telegrams in support of IMA and in opposition to the boycott. An advocacy group, Scholars for Peace in the Middle East, joined the IMA in attempting to get the word out to physicians to help head off the boycott with their immediate letters.
5/7/07 SDJW Report International and National Physicians mobilize to fight proposed boycott of Israel Medical Association Some Jewish education goes deep, but it is far too narrow. Daily Features Jews in the News Jewish Grapevine Sports The deification of Sandy Koufax ^{Jewish Lifestyles Father of the bride-to-be} For Your Reference San Diego Jewish Community Calendar San Diego Jewish Community Directory	Edward S. Beck, president of Scholars for Peace in the Middle East and Esti Sherbelis, international public relations officer for the Israel Medical Association, pleaded with the physicians in Israel, the United States and elsewhere: "Please respond directly to the IMA at estish@ima.org, with your name, title and affiliation and please copy Scholars for Peace in the Middle East spme@spme.net, so they can gauge how many signatures" are being added to a list of prominent physicians who already have signed a May 2 letter outlining the Israeli view of the controversy. That letter referenced a communication published by the group of British doctors in The Guardian last month that called for the World Medical Association (WMA) to expel the Israel Medical Association for allegedly failing to uphold international medical ethical standards in the Palestinian territories.
The letter, which extensively outlined Israeli medical efforts in behalf of Palestinians, follows: "We, the representatives of medicine in Israel, categorically deny these accusations and wish to take a stand in support of the IMA and humane medical treatment for all in Israel. "It is all too clear that Dr. Derek Summerfield is once again feeding his own personal, systematic dislike of Israel and will persist in doing so regardless of the truth. "As for Dr. David Hapin, if the best he can do is quote Amira Hass: Life Under Israeli Occupation—published August 26,2001 in The Independent, at the height of the Intifada, we suggest he embarks on a more recent and through research of the situation, as stipulated below. "Unfortunately, the other signatories were presumably unaware of the reality of the situation. "We would therefore like to clarify some facts and provide a sampling of health activity pertaining to the Palestinian Authority, coordinated between the Israeli and Palestinian Ministries of Health. "The number of children with birth defects who were operated on in Israel: 1,604 in 2005; 2,346 in 2006. "Palestinian physicians attending medical programs or conferences in Israel or internationally: 30 in 2005, 131 in 2006. "Palestinian patients permitted to undergo medical treatment in hospitals in Israel: 24,076 in 2005; 29, 919 in 2006. "Palestinian patients given permission to undergo medical treatment in hospitals in East Jerusalem: 30,136 in 2005; 51,156 in 2006. "Permits granted allowing the import of medical supplies and medication: 400 in 2006. "Dealing with cases of ambulance delays at barriers: 600 in 2006. "Dealing with requests from external sources, such as Physicians for Human Rights, MPs, IMA: 300 in 2006. "Palestinian emergency patients transferred by ambulance to hospitals in Jerusalem or Israeli medical institutions: 800 in 2005, 1,600 in 2006." The letter, whose principal author was IMA President Dr. Yoram Blacher, continued: "We would like to reiterate what was expressed in a recent IMA letter, namely 'The IMA is not, and has never been, the executive arm of the Israeli establishment. It is an apolitical organization that, like every other national medical organization, concerns itself with medical and health issues and not the establishment or support of any sort of political policy.' "The IMA has continuously called for funds to be transferred (to the PA) not in kind but in the form of food and medicine so that help could be given where it is truly needed. "In addition to the above, tens if not hundreds of Palestinian patients receive medical care in Israel each year, usually at a cost absorbed by the Israeli government. As an example, in 2004, NIS36,645,507 (approximately 8,143,446 USD at the time) were offset. The IMA has intervened on occasions where a patient was about to be evicted from an Israeli hospital for lack of funds. The IMA has also intervened on many occasions on behalf of Palestinian patients, physicians, and medical students who encountered difficulties at Israeli checkpoints, including petitions to the High Court of Justice on certain matters. "The organization has, at several points in the past, attempted to meet with its Palestinian counterparts in an effort to foster mutual cooperation and better understanding, including the release of a joint statement. Almost none of these meetings have taken place, because of refusal on the Palestinian side." "In addition to the above, several collaborative health care initiatives have taken place in the past few months, including the First International Congress on Chronic Disorders in Children (April 26-27) attended by 300 Israeli and 100 Palestinian doctors at Jerusalem's Regency Hotel and the First Middle East Symposium on Dental Medicine (Nov. 27, 2006) which represented a further expression of the relationship launched between the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and Al-Quds University. "Under the Israeli program 'Save a Child's Heart,' doctors at Wolfson Hospital repair congenital heart defects for children from the Palestinian territories, Iraq, Jordan and Africa; more than 1,000 children, about half from Gaza and the occupied West Bank have been helped so far by the program. "Teams at Bethlehem University and at Tel Aviv University have worked together to investigate the genetic causes of deafness. The Israeli and Palestinian professors leading the project have now launched a graduate research program to enable Palestinian students to pursue post-graduate research in this field at Tel Aviv University. "With funding from the Peres project, Hadassah has trained physicians and nurses in cancer treatments. Advocate Health Care, an ELCA-related institution, sends specialists to train Augusta Victoria's staff in advanced radiology techniques. This Palestinian-Israeli hospital project also trained psychologists and holds monthly meetings of 'Pediatricians Across the Mount,' where staff from three Palestinian hospitals and Hadassah hospital exchange ideas and information. "It saddens us greatly to see and hear of Palestinian civilians receiving inadequate health care, including in Gaza, from which Israel unilaterally withdrew in 2006. It saddens us that funs transferred to the Palestinian leadership are often used for guns and bombs instead of for hospitals and medicines. It saddens us that Hizbollah kidnapped our soldiers and rained missiles on Israel cities, and then hid among civilians and civilian structures such as hospitals. We do our best to help whenever possible, despite these constraints, and have often called for a separation of political and humane issues, so that no one suffers from the current conflict. "The 'facts' expressed in the letter of the Palestinian organizations calling for a boycott of the IMA, are a far cry from reality. It is our hope that your readers will form unbiased opinions and recognize the steps that Israeli doctors are taking to improve the health and treatment of all peoples, regardless of race or religion. Those who have preconceived opinions will undoubtedly stick with them. But for those who want the truth, we have attempted to present it." Besides Blachar, some of the Israeli signers of the letter included Prof. Shmuel C. Shapira, deputy general director of Hebrew University-Hadassah School of Public Health; Dr. Jacob Yahav, director of the Kaplan Medical Center; Prof. Zvi Zemishlany, director of Geha Mental Health Center: Meir Oren, director general of the Hillel-Yaffe Medical Center; Dr. Zvi Stern, director of Hadassah Medical Center at Mt. Scopus; Dr. Orna Blondheim, director of the Haemek Medical Center in Afula; Dr. Raphi Pollack, medical director of Bikur Cholim Hospital in Jerusalem; Dr. Shimon Scharf, director of the Barzilai Medical Center in Ashkelon; Dr. Yehezkel Caine, director general of Herzog Hospital; and Dr. Itzhak (Tzakie) Siev-Ner, head of orthopedic rehabilitation, Sheba Medical Center, Israel. The foregoing material was provided by the Israel Medical Association and Scholars for Peace in the Middle East. ______________________________ Letter from Jerusalem _________________By Ira Sharkansky____ Some Jewish education goes deep, but it is far too narrow JERUSALEM—We highly educated Israelis wonder about the training of the younger generation. On the one hand, the dominant image of the primary and secondary education available to most students is depressing in the extreme. Low salaries cannot attract decent students to enter the profession, existing teachers appear to be over-unionized and under-qualified, and the students' results on international tests have dropped from those of earlier years. On the other hand, more than one-half of the country's universities appear in most rankings of the best in the world. Salaries are also low in this sector when compared to those in Europe and North America. We all know about good scholars and scientists who have gone elsewhere for more promising careers. However, there are usually more good candidates than the available positions, not only at the top universities, but also at the others and in the burgeoning category of colleges. Among the signs of success in higher education are the likes of Google, Microsoft, and Intel that have located corporate research centers in Israel. An article entitled "Jewish Genius," by Charles Murray in the April edition of Commentary Magazine includes a comprehensive discussion of historical and biological elements that may explain the signs of intellectual success over the ages. It reminded me of a conversation with a Korean friend. He told me that his nation had a high incident of literacy for a thousand years. I congratulated him on a record more impressive than that of any European nation, but reminded him that my nation was writing the Bible 2,500 years ago. At the time, I did not realize that my half-Korean, half-Jewish grandson was observed to be reading before his second birthday. Better than his father, who we did not notice reading until after his second birthday. Both began without parental efforts. Maybe both kids were equally skilled, and the younger parents were quicker to notice what was happening. If one wants to find the most intense Jewish investments in schooling, the place to look is that of Ultra-Orthodox boys. Many of them begin school at 3 years, when they learn to read. By the end of primary school they are finished with the Bible, for which they have had to learn the Hebrew equivalent of Chaucerian English. Depending on the congregation, they may be conversant in Yiddish as well as Hebrew. By the equivalent of junior high school they are into the Talmud, which requires fluency in Aramaic as well as Hebrew, and a capacity to read the Hebrew alphabet as we know it, as well as the script used by Rashi and other commentators of the Middle Ages. The utility of ultra-Orthodox education is less commendable. Typically there is no science, secular history, or literature aside from sacred texts. An American anthropologist (himself religious but not ultra-Orthodox) observed a group of ultra-Orthodox 12-year olds in an Israeli yeshiva. He found himself jealous of their knowledge, which dwarfed his own. Yet he came to suspect their breadth. When he asked them to draw a map of Israel, none of the group knew what he meant by a map. None could name Israel's neighbors. One thought that the Philistines were still a problem. When asked to indicate how long it takes to travel from Beer Sheva to Jerusalem (83 kilometers), several said that the biblical Abraham had done it in three days, and since he had the Lord’s help it must take longer now (Samuel Heilman, Defenders of the Faith: Inside Ultra-Orthodox Jewry ). My late father-in-law told a story about riding a bus in Jerusalem. When the hourly news broadcast reported something about Libya, an ultra-Orthodox man sitting alongside of him asked “What is Libya?” “A country in Africa,” was the response. The next question was, “What is Africa?” Erich began by asking the man if he had heard about Egypt. "Of course. What a question. We all know that we were slaves in Egypt." Assuming that the man actually knew how to locate Egypt on a map, and something about directions, Erich told him that Libya was just to the west of Egypt. I recall a conversation with an ultra-Orthodox man who I perceived to be well educated. I commented that my experience with religious Christians was that they often had an intimate knowledge of the Bible, but did not know the stories of Tamar. I suggested that the unpleasant elements of the stories, one a story of seduction (Genesis 38), the other a story of rape (II Samuel 13) explained the lack of knowledge. Religious Jews, I assumed, knew the stories insofar as they read the Bible ritually every year. He seemed puzzled, and asked, "Who was Tamar?" He reminded me that it was forbidden to study the Bible alone, without a qualified teacher. A book about ultra-Orthodox women by Tamar El-Or carries the title, Educated and Ignorant. It emphasizes the paradoxical contrast between a community that provides its members with intensive schooling and excludes outside influences. Some of the ultra-Orthodox go on to one or another field of secular education, with or without abandoning their communities. Others study sacred texts for their whole lives, marry early, and send their many children to the schools thought to be appropriate. Their incomes typically consist of the government grants to yeshiva students and what the wife earns as a teacher or in one of the other occupations considered appropriate. They contribute to the statistics of low average family incomes, especially in Jerusalem and Bnei Brak. The hope for the secular majority may lie in the Coleman Report, a product of the US Office of Education in the 1960s. It found that formal schooling was secondary in its importance for intellectual success. The stronger influences came from parents and friends. It did not inquire about genes. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Jews in the News ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- News spotters: Dan Brin in Los Angeles, Donald H. Harrison in San Diego, and you. Wherever you are, send a summary and link to us at sdheritage@cox.net. To see a source story click on the link within the respective paragraph. _______________________________________________________________________ Morris Casuto, regional director of the Anti-Defamation League, is among the people quoted in a touching story about the fight of Brian Bennett against Lou Gehrig's disease. Bennett is a Catholic educator who has been a close friend to the Jewish community sometimes at personal risk. The story by Helen Gao is in today's San Diego Union-Tribune.* The murder trial in Los Angeles has a cast of characters with surnames resembling those on the rosters of almost any Jewish organization. Witness Gregory Diamond, Judge Larry Paul Fidler, defense attorney Roger Rosen, USC law professor Jean Rosenbluth, Spector lawyer Robert Shapiro, Loyola Law School professor Laurie Levenson, defense attorney Bruce Cutler, character actor Stanford Blatch, attorney Sarah Caplan, defense pathologist Michael Baden, and attorney Leslie Abramson* (who is quoted as saying "You want me not to be Jewish now?") and, oh yes, the defendant, Phil Spector. Peter Y. Hong has the story of the latest round of the trial in today's Los Angeles Times. Suppose you lived in a quiet cul-de-sac neighborhood and were told that the streets are for vehicles, so keep your children from playing on them and don't socialize with your neighbors out there either. How would you feel? When Steve Rubinstein* received such a message from his homeowner's association in south Carlsbad, he complained that such rules smacked of Big Brotherism. Logan Jenkins devoted a column to the controversy in today's San Diego Union-Tribune. * "The Scroll" by artist Ruth Weisberg is a 90-foot-long mixed media drawing that mixes autobiography, Jewish history and tradition. It will be the centerpiece of a new exhibit opening at the Skirball Cultural Center in Los Angeles tomorrow. Scarlet Cheng has the story in today's Los Angeles Times. .__________________________________ The Jewish Grapevine -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- LOCAL AWARDS—San Diego's Jewish American Chamber of Commerce has announced the organizations that will receive awards at its upcoming networking banquet Saturday evening at which San Diego Mayor Jerry Sanders will be the featured speaker. And the envelopes, please.... Most Active Non-Profit: The United Jewish Federation. Most Philanthropic Business: Qualcomm. Most Supportive Bank to Businesses: San Diego National Bank. Most welcoming to our Community: San Diego National Bank. Cool New Business: Fresher. Fastest Growing Business: Gepetto's. SAN DIEGO-ISRAEL CONNECTIONS—Ellie Adams, president of Temple Beth Sholom, has been chosen by Legacy Heritage Foundation for a summer program in which she will attend leadership development sessions in Jerusalem and also spend three weeks learning Hebrew and Jewish religious subjects at the Conservative Yeahiva. It will be the immigration attorney's third trip to Israel. She went in 2001 on a solidarity trip, and again last year on a UJF mission. Ellie Adams JEWS IN SPORTS—Bruce Lowitt in his San Diego Jewish World debut column below discusses hero worship for Sandy Koufax. On a similar theme, here is a video when the boys in the broadcasting booth praise the fielding of Boston Red Sox first baseman Kevin Youkilis and vent about the anti-Semitic statements made by movie producer Mel Gibson. POLITICAL SCENE—Sheriff Bill Kolender is hosting his fellow sheriffs from the border regions of the American southwest today and tomorrow in Old Town San Diego. "The Southwestern Border Sheriffs’ Coalition was established in 2006 to assist border Sheriffs from Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, and California, with the protection of lives, property, and the rights of citizens," a spokesperson said. "Nearly 30 elected Sheriffs from these four states share a common border with the Republic of Mexico and a common concern for public safety." ... Do you have a simcha that you would like to share with the Jewish community? Send in notices of birth, bar/bat mitzvah, wedding, special anniversary, or other special events, honors or celebrations (with photos if you have them) to the San Diego Jewish World. There is no charge for items used in our Jewish Grapevine section. Our email address is sdheritage@cox.net _________________________________________________________________ Not Necessarily kosher Bruce Lowitt _____________________________________________________________________ The deification of Sandy Koufax OLDSMAR, Fla—It was 1957, a couple of weeks before my 15th birthday, as I helped set the seder table in our house back in Brooklyn, I set a juice glass filled with wine next to Elijah's cup. My mother glanced up. "What's that for?" "Sandy Koufax." The Dodgers had lost yet another World Series to the Yankees in October, a new season was about to start and Koufax was not far from supplanting Hank Greenberg as my favorite Jewish major leaguer—not that I knew of any other Jewish major leaguers, mind you. Sure, Greenberg had been elected to the Hall of Fame in 1956, but he'd stopped playing when I was 5 years old and he'd played in Detroit, which was somewhere "out there," meaning west of Brooklyn. Greenberg was a face on a baseball card and comments by my father and uncles. Koufax was real and he played for us. Okay, Don Newcombe had won the MVP and Cy Young awards in 1956 and we had Campy and Pee wee and Duke and Jackie and Gil and so on. They played for us, too —us meaning Brooklyn. But Koufax was different. So what if he wasn't particularly good in 1956? He was one of us — meaning Jewish. The glass of wine stayed. My mother, who had learned to umpire arguments over the Dodgers between me and my older brother, understood. Koufax's 1955 rookie card (She also understood that if she'd demanded that I remove the glass, she'd have had to deal with Manischewitz Malaga stains on the tablecloth —and on maybe a wall or two.) Thus began my serious deification of left-handed pitcher Sandy Koufax. From 1958 until 1969, when my New York Mets won the World Series and I finally got over the Dodgers' desertion to California, I hated them. Not individually, but collectively. Is "hated" too strong a word? I fantasized about the Dodgers and Yankees getting ready for a World Series game in the Bronx and the stadium falling down on them. Except not on Koufax. Or pitcher Larry Sherry and his brother, Norm, a catcher. They were Jewish Dodgers, too. (Okay, and Ron Blomberg of the Yankees, too.) But unlike Koufax, they were ordinary. Koufax wound up in the Hall of Fame. Obviously, I am not alone in my belief that the Brooklyn-born Koufax was the best Jewish ballplayer to step onto a major-league field. There is a six-team Israel Baseball League. It will begin its inaugural season June 24. Last month the IBL conducted its player draft. The last player selected by the Modi'in Miracle was Sandy Koufax. By the way, the first draft pick, also by Modi'in, was Los Angeles-born infielder Aaron Levin, 21, who played for Cuesta Community College in San Luis Obispo, Calif., about 260 miles north of San Diego (and nine miles north of Pismo Beach for you fans of Jack Webb's old Dragnet series on TV). Koufax is 71 now, and not likely to throw a pitch for the Miracle —unless, of course, you believe in Miracles. "His selection is a tribute to the esteem with which he is held by everyone associated with this league," Miracle manager Art Shamsky, who spent four of his eight big-league seasons with the Mets, told The Associated Press. "It's been 41 years between starts for him. If he's rested and ready to take the mound again, we want him on our team." Koufax pitched four no-hitters, one of them a perfect game, in his 12-year major-league career. But he may well be as well known for a game he didn't pitch: Game 1 of the 1965 World Series, in Minnesota, because if fell on Yom Kippur. Koufax, by the way, never pitched during the High Holy Days, but until 1965 none had fallen on the opening of the World Series. Koufax never considered his refusal to pitch that game particularly consequential. The Dodgers also had Don Drysdale, their other ace. But Minnesota jumped on Drysdale. He lasted less than three innings and gave up seven runs. When Dodgers manager Walter Alston got to the mound, Drysdale looked at him and said, "I bet you wish I was Jewish today, too, huh?" Koufax then lost Game 2. That 1965 World Series was, for me, the textbook definition of Mixed Emotions. Y'know, like the old joke about seeing your mother-in-law drive over a cliff in your brand-new car. Koufax pitched twice more, shutouts in Games 5 and 7. The Dodgers won the World Series. One year later, at age 30, after arguably his best season, Koufax retired, his left arm wracked by traumatic arthritis that threatened to leave him disabled for life. "When I'm 40 years old," he said at the time, "I'd still like to be able to comb my hair." -- Bruce Lowitt grew up short, fat, and Jewish in Bensonhurst, then a short, fat, and Jewish section of Brooklyn (where Koufax, neither short nor fat, had lived), and spent 36 years covering sports for The Associated Press and St. Petersburg Times before retiring in 2003. Since then he has been a freelance writer for various publications. He and his wife live in the Tampa Bay area on Florida's Gulf Coast. ___________________________________________________________ The Greene Line Norman Greene ___________________________________________ Father of the bride to-be First in the series SAN DIEGO—The wedding would be on the 17^th, the rehearsal dinner on the 16^th, the morning after brunch on the 18^th and the bank hold up on the 19^th. That’s the way the whole event shaped up in my mind. My daughter hated to hear me say it, but that day was finally coming when she would wed. Hooray and hallelujah! Now it remained to be seen whether I, as father of the bride, could weather the approaching storm. Sure, every Jewish father longs for the day when his children will start families of their own. I was certainly no different. Some parents have a short wait until that moment comes around. Others of us, have had to be patient, very patient, until Mr. Right showed up. At my house, there seemed to be one long revolving door. After a while, I gave up memorizing their names. Why get attached to someone who undoubtedly would disappear in a week, or a month or two? In the meantime, my daughter not only enjoyed the perpetual whirl, but she turned her experiences into a series of singles columns that are being published across the U.S. of A. in Jewish weekly newspapers. Waste not, want not. Guess we taught her something. When we learned of the engagement, thoughts of the wedding flooded our thinking. To be frank, I had a momentary sense of loss. Both our parents are gone and all but one of our many aunts and uncles, too. There are those cousins we still speak to and others who have faded from view. Even the count on our closest of friends has diminished somewhat due to divorces and relocations. We were, however, warned that my daughter’s fiancee had a large family and the two of them seemed to have a full roster of friends and professional associates. "Who is there to invite?" I asked my wife. So the two of us sat down and started a list. Eliminating business associates, fellow board members, members of the congregation, neighbors we hardly speak to and relatives we don’t speak to at all, we were amazed and somewhat staggered by the remaining number. Well, we reasoned, they all won’t come. But that proved to be a fallacy. Even before the invitations were printed, word spread and the feedback was quite positive. They were coming from France, Florida, New York, Rhode Island, Kansas City, Seattle and beyond. Mon Dieu! By the time the invitations were actually received, I expected a virtual flood of costly affirmative responses. At first my daughter wanted a beach wedding, but the date was set for February...not exactly beach weather even in sunny Southern California. She toyed with a destination wedding as well, but Indonesia was not in her parents’ travel plans. We arranged for a synagogue ceremony and signed the deal for the main venue, but not without an exhaustive search of every ballroom, club house, and large scale restaurant in the County. One country club suggested that we could tent over their tennis courts for our event, but the music had to stop by ten p.m..."Because of neighbors." My daughter was upset at the early hour, but I was thinking about the cost of a tent. "Oh, its only $125 per person," the coordinator cheerfully reassured me. A grand hotel downtown had us tenting over their roof for the reception. My daughter was in love with the idea. but not her old man. "I am not paying to build a room for this wedding," I sourly ended that conversation. My daughter and son-in-law-to-be were fairly cooperative, especially after being reminded who was footing the bill. I did the reminding and it finally sunk in...to a degree. So now we were down to the nitty gritty....menus, colors, decorations, wedding gown, mother of the bride outfits, refining the guest list, cooperating with those who wished to throw bridal showers, selecting the wedding party, the band, the florist, the videographer, the photographer, the printer and two or three poorly guarded banks in town. Honestly, we needed them in a big way. Uncle Charley hosted three daughters’ weddings. How did he manage? I marvel at the friends and relatives who have given lavish wedding affairs in the past. Prices were somewhat more reasonable back then, I am told. It was daunting to think this could cost more than my first house and it had four bedrooms. Elopement was looking better as each moment passes. So speaks the father of the bride.