San Diego Jewish World

Sunday Evening
, June 17, 2007    

Vol. 1, Number 48
 

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Livni tells Portuguese leaders of Israel's  new
'dual strategy' for dealing with the Palestinians


LISBON (Press Release)—Israel's Vice Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Tzipi Livni visited Portugal, which is to assume the EU Presidency in July 2007. Over Thursday and Friday, June 14 and June 15, she met with Foreign Minister Luis Amado, President Anibal Cavaco Silva, Assembly President Jaime Gama and Prime Minister Jose Socrates.
 

6/17/07 SDJW Report
(click on headline below to jump to the story)


International and National

*
Livni tells Portuguese leaders of Israel's  new 'dual strategy' for dealing with the Palestinians

*I
s Israel waiting for a causus belli to deal with Gaza?

*
30 ways to save water suggested by Jewish National Fund and International Arid Lands Consortium

*Even Yad Vashem can have a typo, so verify listings

Commentary


*
Reply to Alvarado de Soto: U.S. is pro-Israel and is not neutral between its friend and terrorists

Regional and Local

*Don't spill the wine on the Lamborghini's leather

Arts, Entertainment & Dining

*94-foot scroll by Ruth Weisberg provides
centerpiece for retrospective at Skirball


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Livni discussed with her hosts Israel's relations with the EU, Israel-Portugal bilateral relations, and current topics concerning the Middle East. Livni stressed that Israel is strongly in favor of a dual strategy towards the Palestinians, supported by the international community, that exerts constant pressure on the extremists insisting on adherence to the three conditions of the Quartet, while at the same time, reinforcing the moderates – and encouraging moderates in the Arab world to lend them their
support. 


Tzipi Livni and Portugal's Prime Minister Jose Socrates*

FM Livni said: "Israel is closely following the situation in the Gaza Strip. The recent pictures from Gaza provide clear testimony to the true nature of Hamas, which certainly is not serving Palestinian interests. Hamas has created a separate reality in Gaza, different from the West Bank, turning Gaza into a trap for the Palestinian people. Israel is waiting to see whether the Palestinian moderates are willing to create a better political reality."

 

 
 

In answer to a question regarding Palestinian taxes collected and held by Israel, Livni said that the Israeli government has already stated that if the Palestinian government would not be a Hamas government, and if it would accept the conditions set by the Quartet, there would be no reason not to transfer the funds to the PA. There is no change in this position.

FM Livni also related to the ongoing arms smuggling from Egypt to the Gaza Strip through the Philadelphi corridor and stressed the importance of increased Egyptian intervention.

Concerning the possibility of stationing an international force there, Livni pointed out that the effectiveness of such a force must be carefully examined, as to whether such a force could function better than mere international observers who have no real power to act.

*Alberico Alves photo via Israel's Ministry of Foreign Affairs

The foregoing article was provided by Israel's Ministry of Foreign Affairs

International and National


____________________________________________________________________

Letter from Jerusalem  
_________________By Ira Sharkansky____________

Is Israel waiting for a causus belli to deal with Gaza?

JERUSALEM—The bloodshed and the destruction in Gaza should be no surprise. Properties belonging to ranking Fatah personnel, and to Yassir Arafat, have been looted and burned. We see pictures of Palestinians walking away with television sets, plumbing facilities, computers, and window frames. It's almost as bad as New Orleans.
 
Heads of Arab governments are saying meaningless things about negotiating peace between Hamas and Fatah. Fatah personnel who fled to Egypt are being sent back to Gaza on the basis of Hamas promises that they will not be harmed.
 
Hamas and its friends have their own conception of what to do with individuals they accuse of fighting against them, or cooperating with the Israelis. I would not pay the insurance premiums of Palestinians who the Egyptians are sending back.
 
From all signs, there are now two Palestines. One in the West Bank ruled by Fatah, which may be strong enough there to hang on; and one in Gaza ruled by Hamas. In both cases, "rule" is not what one expects in orderly countries. Extended families control their neighborhoods, are armed to the teeth, hold hostages (like the Israeli soldier and the British journalist), and are managing their own foreign policy.
 
Israeli leftists are expressing concern for their friends in Palestine, but tending not to name their friends, perhaps out of fear that they will mark them for something unpleasant in the extreme.
 
Israel controls the supply to Gaza of food, fuel, most of the electricity, and much of the fresh water. It also controls the export of agricultural goods that comprise an important part of Gaza's economy. Some officials and commentators are saying that Israel should make its activities contingent on the freeing of the Israeli soldier and the stopping of rocket attacks on Israeli towns. Others are saying that the IDF is planning a major attack that will destroy Hamas, and is waiting for an appropriate causis belli. That can be any rocket sent toward Israel. Even if its launch does not have Hamas finger prints, Hamas would not have prevented it.
 
Optimists are saying that power will make Hamas more pragmatic; it has to recognize Israel if it wants the people of Gaza to eat, drink, and keep the lights burning.
 
Some Fatah officials and their families received Israeli permission to flee Gaza for the West Bank via Israel. One ranking Fatah official said that the "occupation" of Gaza by Hamas is so much more brutal than Israeli occupation as to defy comparison. Another said that Fatah's defeat in Gaza was due to the weakening of Palestinian security forces by Israel's responses from the beginning of intafada. We must have done something to justify the efforts of British academics to boycott Israeli academics.
 
I recall the rice, flowers, and sweets that Lebanese threw on the first Israeli soldiers who came to free them from Palestinian violence in 1982. Then came the roadside bombs.
 
It is unwise to predict anything at this point, other than uncertainty. 


Buena Vista Hadassah


cordially invites you to hear


Rabbi Chaplain Joel D. Newman

based on his experiences in the war zone

"Passover in Iraq"

12:30 p.m., Tuesday, June 19
Vista Library, 700 Eucalyptus Avenue, Vista
Free refreshments
For further information: call Vivian (760) 967-0149  
 


30 ways to save water suggested by Jewish National Fund and International Arid Lands Consortium

 
Don't:  Leave water running          Do: Cover pool to prevent evaporation

NEW YORK (Press Release)—Did you know that a faucet that leaks just one drop per second can waste over 2,000 gallons of water per year? That a leaking toilet can waste 200 gallons a day? Or that an average shower uses 20-30 gallons of water?

Americans use an average of over 400 million gallons of water each day; much of that water is wasted due to carelessness.

The International Arid Lands Consortium (IALC) and the Jewish National Fund (JNF) offer these simple water saving tips to conserve our most valuable and vital natural resource:

Indoors

  • Turn faucets off when you are not using them; for example, do not leave the water running when washing dishes by hand or brushing your teeth.

  • Make sure to repair any leaking faucets, pipes and toilets.

  • Defrost frozen food in the refrigerator or microwave instead of running hot water over it.

  • Dispose of toxic chemicals properly; do not pour them down the drain.

  • Install water saving fixtures such as ultra low consumption toilets, efficient faucets and shower heads.

  • Do not throw trash into the toilet as it will result in unnecessary and wasteful toilet flushing; instead, dispose of trash in the proper containers.

  • Take a quick shower rather than a bath and save an average of 20 gallons of water.

  • Clean vegetables in a sink or pan partially filled with water rather than running water from the tap.

  • Re-use the water that vegetables are washed in for watering houseplants or for cleaning. (Jump to continuation)

                                                            ___________


 

                
 

 

              

      


A Herald in Zion....
   
      Notes from Mevasseret Zion
                                           
Dorothea Shefer-Vanson

Even Yad Vashem can have a typo, so verify listings

MEVASSERET ZION, Israel—Yad Vashem has  a website listing the names of three million of the six million Jewish victims of the Holocaust. Each entry gives the individual’s name and place of residence, as well as other pertinent details as recorded in the Page of Testimony submitted for that person.

It comes as a bit of shock to find one’s relatives commemorated on line. I remember bringing the Pages of Testimony to my parents many years ago so that they could fill them out for their parents and other relatives who were murdered. I recall, too, the effort it cost them to renew those memories.

I wondered then what Yad Vashem meant to do with the pages, though accepted that it was a commendable endeavour, and possibly even helpful in some cases. All this was long before the age of the Internet, indicating that someone was displaying remarkable prescience at that time.

Commendable though the project undoubtedly is, it is annoying to find that the information was not keyed in accurately, and that my father is listed as the daughter of his mother and my mother as her parents’ son.

Israel has many organisations and institutions dedicated to commemorating the Holocaust. It has marked an annual Holocaust remembrance day ever since the State was established. Israel is a young country, a Jewish country and a country of immigration, so that a large part of the adult population can be defined as Holocaust survivors in the broadest sense of the term.

Survivors are not solely those who went through the concentration camps, as some tend to think. Any Jew who lived in Europe before or during the Second World War, or is the descendant of people who did, can be defined as a survivor. And there is a growing network of organizations in Israel that focus on the psychological concerns of the second and third generations. It cannot be denied that the shadow of that terrible event continues to hang over many of Israel’s denizens and to influence its politics.

The foregoing article was reprinted from the AJR Journal (Association of Jewish Refugees) in England.

 


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Commentary
We welcome your comments or replies


Reply to Alvarado de Soto: U.S. is pro-Israel and
is not neutral between its friend and terrorists

[Ed. Note: this is part of a series about the demise of the Palestinian experiment in self-government and the implications for U.S. policy in the region.]

By Shoshana Bryen

WASHINGTON, DC (JINSA)—Alvaro de Soto, a former UN envoy to the Middle East Quartet and the Palestinian government, accused the Bush administration in a report of pushing the Quartet "from a neutral to a pro-Israel posture." According to The Washington Times, he "warned that a perception of UN partiality would discredit peacekeeping efforts and tarnish the office of the secretary general." And he complained that U.S. pressure had "limited his own ability to deal directly with the Hamas-led Palestinian government."

Leave aside the ability of anyone to tarnish the office of the secretary general of the UN more than Kofi Annan. And leave aside that there is more than a "perception of UN partiality" and it isn't toward Israel. And leave aside that UN peacekeeping efforts are discredited by the behavior of UN peacekeepers that permitted a massacre in Bosnia, left Rwanda to genocide and appear unable to keep their hands off young women in the areas of their deployment.

The worst part about Mr. de Soto's "analysis" is that he misunderstands completely the role and nature of the United States. We are NOT "neutral" between a democratic member-state of the UN and what is at best a terrorist organization trying to remake itself into a semblance of a government while pursuing a war against its ostensible peace partner. We are NOT neutral between our friend and ally Israel and the PLO - whether Fatah-dominated (with which we were willing to work) or Hamas-dominated (with which we are not). That is not only the American prerogative, but good policy.

Furthermore, the American commitment to Palestinian statehood was never absolute or unconditional and it wasn't to the Palestinians; it was to Israel. Israel (at Oslo) offered the Palestinians recognition for their national aspirations in exchange for equal recognition of Israel's nationalism. U.S. support for Oslo came after Oslo. Although Israel made the Palestinians a much better offer than the Jordanians and Egyptians ever did between 1948 and 1967, the Palestinians didn't take it - and the UN didn't care.

But the U.S. did, and does, care. Our policy is that the Palestinians have to accept "Israel's right to exist" (a demeaning phrase; we prefer "the legitimacy of Israeli sovereignty") with security. We have pushed, pressured (Israel), coddled (the Palestinians) and paid for the experiment, which is now a failure NOT because Israel didn't do enough, but because Fatah was never going to be Israel's partner and Hamas isn't looking for partnership with Fatah in building a state in part of Palestine. Hamas is an international Islamist organization seeking absolute control of the levers of Palestinian governance in its effort to erase Israel. The U.S. isn't and shouldn't be neutral about any of it.

Mr. de Soto complains about pressure from U.S. envoys David Welch and Elliot Abrams to isolate Hamas. Well done, guys. And finally, Mr. de Soto complains that he didn't think the report would leak. "I would not have been so candid," he said candidly. We're glad he was and glad to find our government on the wrong side of a UN bureaucrat.

The foregoing article was provided by the Jewish Institute for National Security Affairs

 Features


Jews in the News          
 
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 Like you, we're pleased when members of our community are praiseworthy, and are disappointed when they are blameworthy.
Whether it's good news or bad news, we'll try to keep track of what's being said in general media about our fellow Jews. Our news spotters are Dan Brin in Los Angeles, Donald H. Harrison in San Diego, and you. Wherever you are,  if you see a story of interest, please send a summary and link to us at sdheritage@cox.net and we'll acknowledge your tip at the end of the column. To see a source story click on the link within the respective paragraph.
______________________________________________________________________________________________

*
Rudolf Arnheim, a leading cultural critic in pre-Nazi Germany who became an important academic theorist in the United States concerning the interplay between art and perception, has died at age 102. His obituary by Adam Bernstein of The Washington Post is in today's San Diego Union-Tribune.

*The Dead Sea Scrolls-writers never dreamed that their handiworks someday would cause something called a "parking jam" in a place called America in the "New World."  But that's what is predicted throughout the rest of this year in Balboa Park after the Dead Sea Scrolls exhibit opens. The Natural History Museum is proposing that a temporary parking lot be created to ease the expected crunch.  The story by Jeanette Steele is in today's San Diego Union-Tribune.

*Malcolm Hoenlein, chairman of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, says U.S. President George W. Bush has not given up on achieving peace between Israelis and Palestinians, notwithstanding the dramatic developments in Gaza.  "He's still wrestling with it," Hoenlein said following a private meeting between members of his organization and White House officials.  The story by Michael Abramowitz is in today's Washington Post.

*
The United States should keep its aircraft carriers off the coast of Iran and should let it be known that 60 years after the Holocaust, Israel has the right to protect itself against a country that is trying to develop a nuclear bomb and wipe Israel off the map.  Those are two of the recommendations in a paper by Victor Davis Hanson, a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution.  The paper is reprinted in today's San Diego Union-Tribune.

*
Reader responses to stories and past letters in today's letter-to-the-editor section of the San Diego Union-Tribune regarding both the 40th anniversary of the attack by the Israel Defense Forces on the USS Liberty and the Middle East conflict generally found pro-Israel positions taken by letter writers Stuart Greenbaum and Gregory Hirsch, and an opposition position taken by Dane Tovey

*Before leaving Israel for meetings in the United States with President George W. Bush and at the United Nations with Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon, Israel's Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said the decision by Mahmoud Abbas to form a new government without Hamas provides Israel with a "partner for peace." The Associated Press story by Karen Laub is in today's San Diego Union-Tribune. That newspaper also includes an analysis of the current situation by Steven Erlanger of the New York Times News Service.  In the Insights section of the San Diego Union-Tribune, an article by columnist Robert Caldwell says the Hamas victory in Gaza is part of a larger pattern of Islamists inspired by Iran and Syria pushing aside secular governments.

*Television journalist Barbara Walters now has her star on Hollywood's Walk of Fame. The story is in the Public Eye section of today's San Diego Union-Tribune.

Thanks to today's tipster, Rees Clark.

_________________________________________________
The Jewish Grapevine
                                                 
                                                                     -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------


BASEBALL JEWS
Baseball commissioner Bud Selig, in attempting to force Jason Giambi to meet with former U.S. Senator George Mitchell to discuss steroid use in baseball, really is trying to find a "fall guy" who can help him say to Congress that the matter has been dealt with. That is the thrust of an opinion piece by sports columnist Nick Canepa in today's San Diego Union-Tribune. In other stories or chartsof interest in that newspaper today: Shawn Green of the New York Mets is tied with Albert Pujols of the St. Louis Cardinals with the 14th highest batting average in the National League at .303That's well off the league leading .358 pace being set by Matt Holliday of the Colorado Rockies...Brad Ausmus hit three times in four plate appearances, scoring two runs and knocking in his 15th RBI, as his Houston Astros defeated the Seattle Mariners 9-4..Relief pitcher John Grabow of the Pittsburgh Pirates gave up two runs in an inning and a third of work en route to a 6-1 Chicago White Sox victory in an interleague game...

CROSSING DIVIDESSan Diego Union-Tribune feature writer Peter Rowe writes about transsexual Bobbi Swan who formerly was Robert Schwanhausser.  Another divide that s/he crossed was that between Arabs and Israelis, selling drones to both sides while working for Ryan Aeronautics. Here's a link to the story.

IN MEMORY—Meyer Rosenzweig, 72, of San Diego died June 4, leaving his wife Marilyn, sons Michael and Jay, and sister Ruth Katzenberg.  A short obituary is in today's San Diego Union-Tribune.



 

Regional and Local

_____________________________________________________________________________
The Jewish Citizen     
              by Donald H. Harrison
____________________________________________________________

Don't spill the wine on the Lamborghini's leather

SAN DIEGO—For Mikael Besnainou, who serves as the North American representative for his French family’s haute couture line of fine accessories for upper-class canines, there have been some occasional moments of stress in becoming, at the tender age of 21,
the president and chief executive officer of the Jewish American Chamber of Commerce.

Recently, as new members of his San Diego-based organization gathered for a mixer at Symbolic Motors, a La Jolla dealership for Lamborghinis and other fine imported cars, Besnainou wondered if maybe the wine and cheese menu wasn't really the smartest choice for the occasion.  Couldn’t wine stain those inviting leather seats?

Ahh, but there was no problem, everyone was careful, said Besnainou in the thick French accent that is both charming and sometimes difficult for American ears to understand precisely.

In fact, he smiled, the automobile dealer was quite happy. The sale of three fine imported cars stemmed from that mixer.
                                                                                                               
Mikael Besnainou
“Partnership! Co-marketing!”  these are words that flow easily from the lips of this recent immigrant to San Diego, who studied business at the University of San Diego before deciding with Martin Hare, a financial advisor at Merrill Lynch, to launch a business organization that celebrates Jewish American culture but which is open to everyone.

He says the organization has grown to approximately 550 members in a year’s time—not bad considering that initially, some local members of the Jewish community  told him that he was crazy, that the last thing Jews needed was another organization—and especially not one for business.

They said “Jews have their own way to network here” through temple memberships, the United Jewish Federation and other organizations, Besnainou recalled.

The first mixer he put together drew, in addition to the organizers, the representatives of only three businesses.  But Besnainou said he wasn’t discouraged.  “I learned I would have to market differently,” he said.  As a result, he decided events should have more to lure people than just the chance to schmooze.  Thus, he decided, attendees should be given the chance to slide behind the wheel of a Lamborghini at the second mixer.

The Jewish American Chamber of Commerce  also stages joint promotions with such arts venues as the San Diego Opera and the La Jolla Playhouse—both of which appeal to an upper demographic audience.  And, in what may be an example of noblesse oblige, it also engages in fundraising for Jewish causes such as the House of Israel in Balboa Park.

If all this sounds terribly chic and maybe overly expensive, here’s a surprise. Membership fees are geared more to the budgets of wannabe executives than those who have already arrived.  A year’s business membership, for example, is $100.

A student of the art of the  transaction, Besnainou said mixers such as one featuring a behind-the-scenes tour of the opera provide everyone with something they want. The arts organization gets to meet ambitious business persons who might be attracted as patrons.  In addition to the opportunity to exchange business leads with each other, the chamber members get an interesting place to meet—something out of the ordinary. 

Besnainou volunteers his efforts for the Chamber, a good deed which brings its benefits, he says with a smile. There are many customers in La Jolla, Rancho Santa Fe, and other areas of San Diego County where women would just love to have a fine handbag that perfectly matches the collar on their little poodle—and Dog in Paris, one of his family’s businesses, sells just such matching accessories.  But beyond that, through the Chamber, Besnainou gets to meet older people who share his entrepreneurial enjoyments.

The son of a Tunisian father and Russian mother, David and Beatrice, who met when the father sold his mother a “car at one of his dealerships,” Besnainou has a natural feeling for the automotive world and for other family enterprises. As a boy, he said, he enjoyed selling cars on the sales floors of such family agencies as CASP and Paris Est Motors; customers evidently enchanted that one so jeune could seemingly know so much.  Later, Besnainou taught himself another facet of the automobile game. He began buying  used cars, fixing them up, driving them for a while, and then selling them for a profit.

Although his father's cousin, Pierre Besnainou, is the president of the European Jewish Congress, Mikael said he has become far more identified with the Jewish community here in San Diego than he was in France. Openly wearing a Magen David around his neck, as he does in San Diego, might have been drawn an insult in France.  While that’s possible in San Diego, it is far less likely, he says.

The organized Jewish community is yet another beneficiary of the Jewish American Chamber of Commerce, he suggests.  For whatever reason, a lot of Jews simply aren’t affiliated with synagogues or other traditional Jewish organizations, he noted  

Gathering with other business people provides these unaffiliated Jews with easy entry to the organized community—and who knows where such involvement will take them once they start identifying themselves as Jews.
 


 

 

Arts, Entertainment & Dining

At the museums
94-foot scroll by Ruth Weisberg provides
centerpiece for retrospective at Skirball

LOS ANGELES (Press Release)—Ruth Weisberg Unfurled, an exhibition presenting three decades of work by Los Angeles artist Ruth Weisberg (b. 1942), dean of the Roski School of Fine Arts at the University of Southern California, will be on view at the Skirball Cultural Center through July 29. The retrospective centers on The Scroll, a 94-foot-long mixed-media drawing, which will be exhibited for the first time in 20 years. Considered by critics to be Weisberg’s most significant and challenging body of work, The Scroll will be featured in the context of more than 30 paintings, drawings and prints that explore related issues.

Among the highlighted themes of the exhibition are: Weisberg’s life story and its convergence with art history and Jewish memory; the parallels she draws between contemporary life and the Bible; her desire to provide an identity to those who perished in the Holocaust; and her fervent belief in the possibility of new beginnings.

Cited by art historian and Rutgers University professor emeritus Matthew Baigell as “one of



the most important Jewish works of art made at the end of the 20th century,” The Scroll was completed in 1987 and was acquired by the Skirball Museum that same year. Employing an embroidered, 18th-century Torah binder from the museum’s collection as a recurring motif, the work envelops the viewer in a powerful narrative, much like the Jewish Torah scroll. It entwines imagery from Jewish life-cycle events and holidays with Weisberg’s experiences as an American Jewish woman. Birth, childhood, coming of age, marriage, adulthood and death—in conjunction with scriptural motifs, Jewish history and rabbinic legend—are chronicled in the artist’s classical drawing style. Inspired by Renaissance and Roman mural cycles, Weisberg risked presenting Jewish themes in a new, almost cinematic format in The Scroll.

Originally displayed in New York in 1987–1988 and Los Angeles in 1989, The Scroll is a challenging work to exhibit, largely due to its scale. Designed to be read continuously from right to left, like the Torah, it was installed at the Skirball in an enveloping semi-circular space, with nine-foot, double-height panels at its center. The accompanying works in the exhibition are organized thematically, demonstrating how Weisberg has developed her ideas over time and tracing visual motifs, narrative themes and symbolic imagery evident in The Scroll from their origins to their most recent evolution.

“The Skirball Cultural Center is pleased to present The Scroll in its entirety for the first time in 20 years, along with selected highlights from Weisberg’s career as an artist,” remarks Uri D. Herscher, Skirball Founding President and CEO. “Her art celebrates the renewal and meaning of an ancient heritage.”

Developed through her identification as a Jewish, feminist, classical artist, Weisberg’s work is richly layered, as will be illuminated throughout the exhibition. Weisberg has said, “I am nourished by the history of the Jews, the history of art and by the unwritten history of women.”

The convergence of Weisberg’s personal history with Jewish history and liturgy is a central theme of the exhibition. In commingling the two, Weisberg merges the sacred and the autobiographical. This enables her viewers to extrapolate the universal from the particular and identify with a living tradition. The dancers at a wedding depicted in The Scroll, for example, are not only our contemporaries, but also the Biblical Miriam and her Exodus companions. In another panel of The Scroll, contemporary Torah ritual is observed by a group of rabbis from centuries past. Of her layering of Biblical narrative, 20th-century history and events from her own life, Weisberg has spoken of her desire to “express a kind of synchronic time, where all periods interpenetrate.”

The redemptive power of memory is another important theme. Inspired by her grandmother’s Yizkor book (an example of memorials created for specific shtetls), Weisberg researched the Eastern European villages from which many Jewish Americans emigrated. In that process, she discovered a photograph that has become a recurring motif in her work, a group of early 20th-century children who likely died in the Holocaust. First portrayed in her limited-edition 1971 book of etchings, The Shtetl: A Journey and a Memorial, this same group of children appears in her 1984 painting series, Circle of Life, as well as in The Scroll and many other works. By rescuing these children from anonymity and keeping alive their memory, Weisberg performs a healing act of redemption.

Throughout the exhibition, life’s journey is portrayed in both personal and historical terms. Weisberg’s 2001 illustrations for a Passover Haggadah for the Reform Movement feature contemporary portraits instead of Biblical personages. Time periods merge as these contemporaries both enjoy the Passover meal and reenact the ancient story of the Exodus. In The Scroll, a contemporary birth scene overlaps the parting of the Red Sea, denoting the birth of the Jewish people. Redemption is seen in the contrast of concentration camp uniforms with an ancient view of Jerusalem, while revelation is portrayed by layering a wedding ceremony over a tree of life derived from Kabbalah, Jewish mystical teachings.

As critic Thalia Gouma-Peterson has suggested about The Scroll, the artist “wished to enrich the present through the past and to rejuvenate the past through the present.” Life-cycle events—whether personal or historical—are always seen as circular in Weisberg’s work. Ends engender new beginnings, as with the Torah binder itself, which is made from the fabric used to swaddle a newborn boy in the circumcision (bris) ceremony and often employed as a funeral shroud at life’s end. In a single mixed-media work, 1492/1942: Bound for Nowhere (1991), an image of Holocaust refugees boarding a ship is presented alongside a Columbus-era vessel, recalling the historic expulsion of the Jews from Spain as well as the promise of America.

Coming of age at the height of the women’s movement, Weisberg internalized many of its messages. Her work frequently focuses on female protagonists, as well as on her multiple roles as mother, artist and Jewish woman. In The Scroll, she relays Jewish history with a female voice, presenting a woman rabbi, a girl’s Bat Mitzvah ceremony and women in roles previously held only by men. In Sisters and Brothers (1994), she links the well-known stories of Jacob and Esau with those of Leah and Rachel. Weisberg even casts herself in the place of Diego Velázquez in her lithographic re-interpretation of his famous Las Meninas painting, Disparity Among the Children (1975).

As important as her Judaism is Weisberg’s identification with traditional, figurative art. She has lived and studied extensively in Italy, and the influence of frescoes and the atmospheric sfumato of Leonardo da Vinci may be seen in the thin washes of color she employs. Just as The Scroll hearkens back to historical narrative cycles, The Circle of Life references the Renaissance “Ages of Man” concept and Edvard Munch’s Frieze of Life. Often, the artist directly quotes art history, as in Time and Time Again (2003) from the Amore Sacro e Profano series, which is inspired by a 16th-century Titian masterpiece. Most significantly, in her choice to work in a classic, realist mode, Weisberg affirms the humanistic values first laid out in the Renaissance.

Ruth Weisberg is Dean of the Roski School of Fine Arts of the University of Southern California. Known for her work in painting, printmaking, drawing and large-scale installations, she has recently completed a major mural commission for the New York Jewish Federation. Recent honors include Doctor of Humane Letters, honoris causa, Hebrew Union College, 2001; College Art Association Distinguished Teaching Award, 1999; and Visiting Artist at the American Academy in Rome, 1995, 1994 and 1992.

Weisberg has exhibited actively, with over 70 solo and 160 group exhibitions. Her work is included in 60 major museum and university collections, including Fine Arts Museums, San Francisco; The Art Institute of Chicago; Bibliothèque Nationale de France; Istituto Nationale per la Grafica, Rome; Los Angeles County Museum of Art; The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.; and Whitney Museum of American Art, New York.

The foregoing article was provided by the Skirball Cultural Center 

 


If you have a serious interest in Jewish culture
and you would enjoy writing reviews, attending premieres, reporting on special events, then

San Diego Jewish World

may have just the volunteer position for you.

We're looking for columnists and writers on a wide variety of subjects who can help us interpret the Jewish experience.  Please contact Don Harrison, editor, at (619) 265-0808 or via this email link if you are interested in joining our creative team
 

 

Story continuations


Water Conservation...
(Continued from above)

  • Insulate water pipes; it’ll make your water hotter faster and avoid the waste that comes when heating water.

  • Instead of waiting for tap water to get cold enough for drinking, keep a bottle of water in the refrigerator.

  • Whenever possible, compost food scraps or dispose of them in the garbage rather than using the garbage disposal, which requires a high level of water for operation.

  • Only run your dishwasher when it is full to make the best use of water, energy and detergent.

  • Cut down on the amount of rinsing you do before loading the dishwasher. Most modern dishwashers do an excellent job of cleaning dishes, pots and pans.

  • Wait until you have a full load of laundry before running the machine to save both water and energy. If you can't wait for a full load, use the right water level to match the size of the load.

  • When washing clothes by hand, the water should not be left running. Fill a laundry tub with water, and re-use wash and rinse water as much as possible. Likewise with the dishes.

Outdoors

  • Water your lawn early in the morning or at night to avoid excess evaporation. Similarly, do not water your lawn on windy days as it can also help to avoid excess evaporation.

  • Don't follow a fixed watering schedule. Water when the grass or plants show signs of needing it. Over watering is bad for plants and lawns. It promotes shallow root growth, making your lawn less hardy. To determine if your lawn needs to be watered, simply walk across the grass. If you leave footprints, it's time to water.

  • Cover swimming pools to minimize the loss of water due to evaporation. Also install a more efficient water saving filter.

  • Use a broom rather than a hose to clean sidewalks or driveways.

  • Install efficient irrigation devices that can be adjusted according to seasonal irrigation needs. Install moisture sensors in each irrigation zone (sunny, shady, etc.) to better determine irrigation needs.

  • Do not leave sprinklers or hoses on unattended; it can result in leaks and over watering.

  • Maintain a lawn height of 2 1/2 to 3 inches to help protect the roots from heat stress and reduce the loss of moisture to evaporation. Allowing the grass to grow slightly taller reduces water loss by providing more ground shade for the roots and by promoting water retention in the soil.

  • Watering in several short sessions rather than one long one allows the lawn to better absorb water and helps reduce the risk of over watering.

  • Check sprinkler system valves periodically for leaks and keep the heads in good repair.

  • Make sure your sprinkler is placed so it only waters the lawn, not the pavement.

  • Avoid sprinklers that spray a fine mist, which increases evaporation.

  • Wash your car with a bucket of soapy water and use a nozzle to stop the flow of water from the hose between rinsing.

  • Consider washing your car on the lawn, if possible, to reduce runoff.

  • Consider Xeriscape landscaping which takes into consideration how the yard will be used and how it can provide the greatest benefit with the least amount of maintenance. This includes growing plants that are indigenous to the area and appropriate maintenance to reduce water use.

 The preceding article was provided by the Jewish National Fund