san diego jewish world, May 10, 2007

will be saluted for their contributions to the community.

The chamber listed these as the United Jewish Federation as "Most Active Non-Profit"; Qualcomm for "Most Philanthropic Business;" San Diego National Bank for "Most Supportive Bank to Businesses"; La Jolla Beach and Tennis Club for "Most Welcoming to Our Community;" Fresher Restaurant for "Cool New Business" and Geppetto's for "Fastest Growing Business."

Besides Besnainou, officers of the chamber include vice presidents Griff Stone, Martin J. Hare, and Tibi Zohar, secretary Betty Bes and treasurer Andy Levy. Besnainou said the organization currently works out of offices in the Gaslamp Quarter and La Jolla.

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Commentary
What does it mean when FBI says Cherry Hill 6 'unaffiliated'?

By Shoshana Bryen

WASHINGTON, D.C. (JINSA)—Six Muslim men were arrested in Cherry
Hill, NJ for advancing a plot to blow up American soldiers at Ft. Dix. One
Albanian, one Turk, one Jordanian, and three ethnic Albanians from Kosovo
—called "Yugoslavs" by authorities, which is a bit like being "Soviet." Three
were in the U.S. illegally. The FBI said the men did not appear to be "affiliated"
with al Qaeda, but that shouldn't make you feel better.

We have been down this road before. Without a clear association— like a
confession - the FBI considers terrorist-like people and incidents to be unrelated
to one another or anything else. Three Muslim men who purchased 1,000 cell
phones and who were - according to Michigan authorities - targeting a
5-mile long bridge, were said by the FBI to have no "connection to a known
terrorist group." This despite the fact that cell phones have been used as
detonators for bombs in Israel and Iraq, and the men carefully circumvented
Wal-Mart's limit on cell phone purchases by buying them in small batches.

"Sudden Jihad Syndrome" was invented by the FBI to explain why a
Naveed Haq shot up the Seattle Jewish Federation; why Hesham Hadayet, an
Egyptian with a history of radical statements, shot up the El Al ticket counter
in LA; why Derek Shareef, a convert to Islam, planned to firebomb a mall in
Rockford, IL; and why Sulejman Talovic, a Bosnian Muslim, killed five people
in a shopping center in Salt Lake City. All normal guys until they weren't;
none "affiliated" with terror organizations.

But al Qaeda is not a country, a religion, an ethnicity or a fraternity to which
one belongs. It is an ideology to which one ascribes. You don't get a
membership card or a passport and you can't tell who they are by looking.

The Cherry Hill case is instructive. Al Qaeda has, in fact, been active in
the Balkans, particularly in the former Yugoslavia - where a moderate,
inclusive form of Islam was dominant until the wars of the 1990s combined
with an influx of Saudi money plus Wahhabi ideology and fighters. Moderation
of all sorts is under siege in the Balkans as the Dayton Accords that ended
the fighting in 1997 are reaching their designated expiration date and the parties
jockey for position in the aftermath. Kosovo and Macedonia are shaky, as is
Albania next door. Serbia is threatening and Bosnia appears no more able
to reconcile its ethnic/religious actors today than it was a decade ago. Russia
is supporting the Serbs and the U.S. is supporting any moderates it can find
—with the State Department approving the independence of Kosovo from
Serbia.

The FBI should be praised for the 10-month investigation that had them
tracking the right people under the right circumstances. (And kudos to the
Circuit City clerk who saw something wrong with copying a jihadi DVD and
provided the tip authorities needed for the arrests.) We are grateful to them
and safer because of them. But the analytical understanding that radical
jihadi ideology binds people together in ways that may not be immediately
evident is necessary for our continued security in this war that has
permutations in our own country as well as abroad.

The foregoing article was provided by the Jewish Institute for National Security
Affairs (JINSA). Bryen is JINSA's director of special projects.
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Rabbinic Insights
Death and resurrection
for local Jewish news

By Rabbi Wayne Dosick

CARLSBAD, Calif—For more than eighteen years, I wrote a regular biweekly
column for the San Diego Jewish Times. No matter what was happening in
my professional or personal life, I met the deadline - that often seemed like
an “unrelenting mistress - every time. It was a wonderful part of my life and
career. I got to use and hone my creative writing skills; I got to develop and
enlarge my thinking —especially my theology—and I got to share those
thoughts with the community. Many of the ideas that I “tested” in the column
eventually wound up in some of my books.   I (too) often got to defend |
my political positions against fierce opposition and harsh critics.

And, then, without any warning, without any prior hint or inkling, the paper
ceased publication.

It felt like a “death in the family,”—for me and for the entire community —and
I have been mourning its demise—and my involuntary severed relationship
with it—for weeks now.

Yet, as our tradition teaches, “mourning turns into dancing; joy comes in
the morning.” After death, comes resurrection, and life eternal.

And, in this modern age, resurrection takes the form of cyberspace.

You see, the demise of the Jewish Times is reflective of our age. Newspapers
and periodicals across the world are diminishing because of the increasing |
costs of printing and postage. Some survive on advertising, and some thrive
on advertising with little content. So, the marketplace is rejecting the old form
and creating anew. It is sad, but just as we no longer mourn the demise of the
Pony Express, because innovation and technology far surpassed its capabilities,
one day, I assume, we will no longer mourn the death of the daily or biweekly,
or monthly periodical, because it, too, has been surpassed by a “new world.”

So, along comes Don Harrison, a veteran writer, reporter, publisher; a great
lover of Judaism, Jews, and San Diego; and an all-around “good guy.”
He understands the new mindset and the new technology that is upon us.

Frankly, I—along with many others—feel like a dinosaur in this new age.
Our children and our grandchildren know computers and the internet like they
know mother's milk. For me, while I appreciate the magic, I doubt if I will ever
understand the mystery. (I am writing this column on a brand-new computer,
with all its “bells and whistles,”—which I barely begin to understand or have
the ability to utilize —and I am longing for the old familiar computer and its
programs - which, of course, no longer work - or, better yet, for a yellow pad
and a pencil with which I wrote for so long.

But, Don Harrison is far ahead of me, and he has found the way to bring
San Diego Jewry —and, I am told, the rest of the world through the internet—
the immediacy of news and commentary. This daily internet publication—|
San Diego Jewish World —will be a great blessing for all who have access,
and we all owe Don—and his long-forbearing and delightful wife Nancy—
a great debt of gratitude for his vision, his determination, his courage, and
his commitment.

We will have to find the way to get this publication to those who do not
have internet access. We will have to find the way to attract advertisers, so
that Don's “labor of love” can also put bread on his table. And we will do these
things and more, so that this community can have what it deserves—excellent
Jewish journalism with full integrity.

So, a few not-so-random thoughts about what has been happening in the
Jewish and the secular world since I last wrote.

● A few weeks ago, Newsweek magazine published a list of “The Top 50 Rabbis
in America.” It was a foolish list, put together by three multimillionaires in the
entertainment industry who had nothing else to do one weekend at their
vacation homes. The list contained many highly visible rabbis who are heads of
organizations and institutions—thus creating their high visibility. Because the
list-makers live in New York and California, they know few rabbis in between
the coasts, so rabbis in the mid-west, south, and southwest were hardly
represented. And women rabbis—no surprise—were tremendously
underrepresented, just as women rabbis are, so sadly, still invisible to many
in the Jewish community.

I know quite a few of the rabbis on the list, so I now jokingly call them by
number. Hi, #¬___, Wayne here, saying “hello.”

So, it was silly list, but it was taken very seriously—mostly by rabbis who were
not on the list, and by member of their Boards of Directors. “Why weren't you
on the list?” “Why was so-and-so on the list, but you weren't?” “Why shouldn't
our synagogue have a rabbi who is in the top 50?” There were even synagogue
Boards whose rabbis were on the list, who asked why another rabbi in the same
city was higher on the list. “Aren't you better than so-and-so?” “Isn't our
synagogue served as well by you as the other synagogue by its rabbi?”

Do you want to know who are really the top rabbis in America? You already
know. He or she is the rabbi who sits with you all night in the hospital when
your husband had a heart attack. He or she is the rabbi who holds you and
comforts you when you bury your wife.   He or she is the rabbi who counsels
your child who is hooked on drugs. He or she is the rabbi who brings supreme
meaning to your daughter's Bat Mitzvah, your son's wedding, your parents'
milestone wedding anniversary celebration. He or she is the rabbi who creates
holy space to bring you to God, and teaches you the sublime lessons of Torah.

The top rabbi in America is your rabbi, who cares about you and for you,
who guides you and inspires you, who loves you.

Let the others have their list. You have your rabbi.

● The current administration recently cut $78 million from the Medicare budget.
Now, it is easily argued that $78 million is “cab fare” in a budget so large. But,
$78 million is $78 million, and, as they say, “that's money.” It's money that
Medicare—thus, the health and welfare of our elderly and ailing—will not have.

Meanwhile, we continue to spend $8 billion—that billion with a “b”—dollars
a month—that's a month, not a year—on the war in Iraq.

A country lives or falls on its priorities—especially how it cares for the most
needing and the most vulnerable in its midst.

3,213 young American soldiers have now died in the war in Iraq.

Do you still want to continue to send our young to die for a civil war in the
Mideast, which we do not understand (because we still do not understand
the Mideast mindset), and which we cannot control?

● Here a some numbers that should make us feel better—or, at least, give us
hope and challenge us: A recent survey divides Jewish colleges students into
two groups - 16% who affiliate with a Jewish organization (like Hillel) on |
campus, and 69% who affiliate with a Jewish organization. The difference?
Jewish summer camp.

Youngsters who have attended a Jewish sleep-away summer camp—even for
one summer—affiliate with the Jewish campus organizations at the rate of 69%.
Those who never attended camp affiliate at only 16%.

My guess is that a summer in Israel (though that was not part of this research
study) raises the affiliation rate even higher.

The lesson is obvious. Jewish summer camp has a tremendous and dramatic
effect on a youngster's Jewish identity and commitment. So: Start choosing
your camp and packing up those duffel bags for your young ones. Their Jewish
lives seem to depend on it.

And, far better you should bag the duffels for camp than for war.

Let's get our priorities straight. Let's get young men and women out of Iraq, and
our Jewish little ones into summer camp.

I'll be here every other Thursday. I look forward to continuing our conversation.

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Commentary
Don’t extend 'hate crime' law—abolish it

Editor’s note: Many in our Jewish community favor “hate crime laws” because they offer protection against people who attempt to intimidate our community
by defacing synagogues, cemeteries or offices of public officials. However,
Yaron Brook, executive director of the Ayn Rand Institute in Orange County, offers a differing perspective.

IRVINE, Calif. (Publicity Release)— Last week the House passed a measure that extends the federal "hate crime" law to include attacks motivated by the victims' gender or sexual orientation.

"Congress should not extend the federal 'hate crime' law," said Yaron Brook, executive director of the Ayn Rand Institute. "It should abolish the law.

"The government's job is to punish criminals for initiating force against other citizens; objective laws that ban the use of force and fraud are its means of doing so. But 'hate crime' laws undermine objective law at the root by punishing criminals, not for their actions, but for their ideas.

"According to 'hate crime' laws, a murderer deserves a greater punishment if his crime is motivated by an idea such as racism or sexism. If the government assumes the power to punish on the basis of 'unacceptable' ideas, it has assumed the power to exonerate and offer leniency to favored ideas. If anti-abortion religionists hold sway in government, on the premise of 'hate crime' laws, a zealous Christian who guns down an abortion doctor could receive a lighter sentence or be exonerated--on the grounds that such an act is evidence of noble 'idealism.'

"Once the government starts punishing criminals for acting on 'unacceptable ideas,' it has assumed the role of arbiter for which ideas are acceptable or not. If whoever wields power can shape the law to advance an ideological agenda, then it cannot be long before merely holding unorthodox or unconventional ideas becomes a crime that the government punishes.

"The government has no business punishing people for their ideas, no matter how repugnant. By demanding the government do precisely that, 'hate crime' laws threaten our freedom of thought--and undermine the system of objective law that protects it. Such laws should be abolished."

The foregoing commentary was provided by the Ayn Rand Institute.

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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.
_______________________________________________________________________

*Michelle Berman of the Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History says toxic algae off the Southern California coast is poisoning some whales, dolphins and porpoises. Kenneth Weiss reports the story in today's Los Angeles Times.

*Former San Diego Mayor Susan Golding has accepted a position as chief executive officer and president of the San Diego Child Abuse Prevention Foundation. Columnist Diane Clark reports in today's San Diego Union-Tribune that Golding is succeeding a woman who once served as an aide in her honor's City Hall office.

*U.S.. Sen. Bernard Sanders was the lone "no" vote on a bill approved by the Senate 93-1 to give the Food and Drug Administration more power to regulate pharmaceuticals both before and after going to market. Sanders expressed disappointment that the bill did not also permit Americans to import lower-cost pharmaceuticals from other countries. The story by Robert Pear of the New York Times News Service is in today's San Diego Union-Tribune.

*Stephanie Jennings and Elizabeth Grosvenor were the latest women to testify in record producer Phil Spector's murder trial that he threatened them with a gun. Defense lawyers brought up that one of them had been paid by a tabloid newspaper to tell her story and the other had been convicted of embezzlement. Matt Krasnowski of the Copley News Service has the story in today's San Diego Union-Tribune.

*U.S. Rep. Henry Waxman (D-Los Angeles) has asked the National Academy of Sciences to convene experts to help Congress deal with a conundrum: some members would like to promote the use of liquified coal as a substitute for Middle Eastern petroleum, but others are concerned that mass conversion will be more harmful to the environment than coal. Richard Simon and Janet Wilson have the story in the Los Angeles Times.

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The Jewish Grapevine

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EDUCATION BEAT —The Agency for Jewish Education announced today
that it has added 24 Jewish educational events to its online listing of
opportunities available to community members.

HATIKVAH IN BERGEN-BELSEN—Tad Seth Parzen says he does not often pass along material from the Internet, but made an exception for this recording made of the BBC of Jewish inmates at Bergen-Belsen Death Camp singing "Hatikvah" upon their liberation on April 20, 1945. Here is the recording.

SAN DIEGO-ISRAEL CONNECTIONS—The current issue of Mercaz USA,
a newsletter for the Zionist arm of the Conservative movement, reports that
the Krayot Masorti congregation, near Haifa, has been allocated a site by the Kiryat Bialik Municipality on which to build a permanent synagogue facility. Facilitated by Gerry Burstain, a frequent traveler between San Diego and
Israel, Ner Tamid Synagogue of Poway enjoys a sister congregation
relationship with the Kiryat Bialik congregation where Rabbi Mauricio
Balter is the spiritual leader. The Conservative/ Masorti movement has
decided to emphasize worldwide celebrations of Israel's upcoming 60th
birthday, as well as such other anniversaries as the 110th anniversary of
the first Zionist Congress, the 90th anniversary of the Balfour Declaration
and the 40th anniversary of the reunification of Jerusalem.

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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The Greene Line
Norman Greene
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The 'little things' about a wedding

Fourth in the "Father of the Bride," series

It’s the "little" things that make for a successful wedding celebration, or so I
was told. Of course, there seemed to be some disagreement as to what
constitutes "the little things."

My friend Carolyn, twice a successful mother of a married child, told me in
no uncertain terms, that "flowers make a wedding." But at the same time, my friend Jay advised that a successful wedding was one where the music carried
the evening.

So there it was. We had to have beautiful flowers and a wonderful band. The search was on to find both, but at an affordable fortune.

The country club shared with us a list of preferred providers and we thought
that was a good place to start. The first florist on the list had a convenient address, so I made an appointment. There were no flowers in the office into which the three of us were ushered, but there were a few well placed photos
on the walls.

Before I was even seated, the proprietor announced: "Well. of course, you
know that I am the most expensive florist in the county." I was not sure if she was joking or not, as I seated myself rather uncomfortably. She discussed my daughter’s long list of preferences and then announced, "I couldn’t possible do this wedding for under $30,000. I guess she wasn’t joking after all. We left.

It seemed as though we were interviewing florists every other day thereafter.
In hindsight, it helped us to formulate what we really wanted for our daughter’s big event. Throwing away the preferred providers list, we resorted next to the Yellow Pages.

We had almost selected an Ocean Beach Florist, with real flowers in her shop, whose ideas were similar to our own, but the fact that she had never worked
in a synagogue made me somewhat queasy. Each time, she slipped and said "church," my heart stopped. Still she was a lovely woman and her product seemed close to our imagined ideal.

A call from a friend came with another suggestion. My daughter and I met with Sandy Goldstein of Chantal Flowers at her home and, although language was a bit of a barrier, her ideas jelled. We had found a florist who not only excited us, but also promised to provide in February a Lilies of the Valley bridal bouquet
for a somewhat reasonable price. Those lilies were important to my daughter. After all, the same flowers had been carried by Jacqueline Bisset.

You have heard of the wedding crashers? Well, we became them.
Accompanied by my future son-in-law, and once even by his parents, we |
began sampling musical groups. We usually had the approval of the bands
to sort of stand at the back of the various ballrooms and once even the wedding party’s. I only sampled one cocktail at a no-host bar, which obviously wasn’t a Jewish wedding.

Perhaps it was generational, even with a drink in hand, the bands were either dead sounding, with long breaks in between numbers, or they were blaringly noisy with no music. Even our kids agreed. We hadn’t found the right group to make the evening flow. If their sample CD’s sounded good, their actual performances did not. It was a bit disconcerting as the days passed. How many times could we be voyeurs without getting bounced?

What I found most annoying was the groups with three or four leggy, no-talent females standing in front of the bands and swaying or waving or twitching or whatever it was they were doing.

We wanted danceable music, not a nightclub show.

In the back of my mind, I kept thinking about the Wayne Foster Band, but I knew I could not afford him. Many years earlier, when Foster and his wife
Marin were first getting started in town, I had hired them for my Father’s 70^th birthday party. They were terrific then and judging by their reputation, I knew they were fabulous now....still, the money thing bothered this
father-of-the-bride.

My daughter made an appointment at Wayne Foster Entertainment where we interviewed Jacqueline Foster who promised us a seamless evening of
non-stop, multi-generational music and an affair to remember. Surprisingly enough, she appealed to both my daughter and her dollar-conscious father
almost instantaneously. Can I tell you how rare an occurrence that was?

So gradually, I was getting the hang of this father-of-the-bride thing, saying yes often and calmly writing the checks as an image of Steve Martin became ingrained upon my memory.

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Jewish Family Service salutes its volunteers — and there are hundreds of mitzvah-doers

SAN DIEGO (Publicity Release)—Jewish Family Service of San Diego held a volunteer appreciation event April 28 for the agency’s College Avenue Senior Center (CASC) programs. Over 110 volunteers from all four of the CASC programs including senior center activities, Senior Nutrition, Foodmobile, and JFS Fix-it Service were honored and recognized for their commitment to enhancing the lives of seniors. The heartwarming event, which included a performance by classical guitarist Magdalena Loza Flores from San Diego State University, was sponsored by Atria Collwood Senior Living Facilities.

Volunteers are an essential part of Jewish Family Service of San Diego (JFS)
and its commitment to be One Source for a Lifetime of Help. JFS has over 400 volunteers divided among the more than 50 programs and services JFS has to offer. On April 26, 76 volunteers were honored by Jewish Family Service for their commitment to the Rides & Smiles program at a ceremony sponsored by Belmont Village at Sabre Springs. In May and June over 200 more volunteers will receive recognition and appreciation awards.

Every year JFS nominates its most dedicated volunteers for the Jack Stern Volunteer Recognition Award. This year’s nominees included Jack Forman of Jewish BIGPals for Boys and Girls, Myrna Reese of Rides & Smiles, Susan Revak of Mentoring Mothers, A.J. Mason of JFS Fix-It Service, Sophie Verona of the CASC and Senior Nutrition, Pauline Green of North County Inland Senior Center, and Marlene Greenstein, of JFS’s Foodmobile and Mental Health Committee. Marlene Greenstein was the recipient of the award for her almost eight years of service and dedication to JFS and its clients.

The foregoing was provided by Jewish Family Service of San Diego.