____________________ The Jewish Citizen              by Donald H. Harrison

In bar mitzvah year, San Diego Jewish Book Fair stays up longer, broadens horizons

SAN DIEGO – It is the bar mizvah year of the San Diego Jewish Book  Fair and now that it has attained adulthood, it is staying up longer and is broadening its horizons, according to organizers.

Most events will be concentrated in the six days of November 3-8, but there will be additional speakers and book-purchasing opportunities on November 1, 10, and 27 at the Lawrence Family JCC, Jacobs Family Campus.  Yet another lecture, on a date in October to be announced, will feature actor Kirk Douglas on his latest book.

In all, the 13th annual Jewish Book Fair will feature more than three dozen authors, some of them stars in their field.  Honored as the fair’s  featured evening speakers will  be business and finance writer Todd G. Buchholz (Nov. 1); comedian David Steinberg (Nov. 3) Israeli political biographer Michael Bar  Zohar (Nov. 4); educator Wendy Mogel (Nov. 5); Tony Award winning playwright Tony Kushner (Nov 6);

Muslim feminist Ayaan Hirsi Ali (Nov. 7); former U.S. Middle east envoy Dennis Ross (Nov. 8); Israeli author and analyst Michael Oren (Nov. 10), and Anti-Defamation League national director Abraham Foxman (Nov. 27). 

A complete list of authors and the times of their appearances, as well as ticket information, may be obtained via the fair’s website.

The San Diego Jewish Book Fair in past years has attracted between 7,000 and 8,000 attendees, leading to its ranking as one of the top three Jewish book fairs in North America, according to Gloria Stone, this year’s fair chair.

Stone, a former president of the United Jewish Federation of San Diego, said her committee members and fair director Jackie Gmach, wanted to attract a wide range of authors, offering “something for everyone’s interest.”

“So we have authors speaking about parenting, authors who are experts on literature, a number of Israeli authors, a well-known comedian, a world renown statesman, and an entire complement of children’s authors,” she said.

The children’s authors, including among others Amy Hest (Remembering Mrs. Rossi) and Fiona Rosenbloom (You Are So Not Invited to My Bat Mitzvah) will be featured on Sunday, Nov. 4, on “Family Day” at which there will be music, storytelling, arts and crafts, and special exhibits for children.

Another Sunday feature will be a meeting of the Viterbi Family Baby Book Club, in which parents and teachers expose infants to the world of books and reading.  The club is named for the Andrew and Erna Viterbi and members of their family, who are founding benefactors of the San Diego Jewish Book Fair.

That Sunday will also be a time for other Jewish youth-oriented programs to be showcased, such as Mountain Chai, the sleepover camp run under community auspices. 

Additionally,  300 students from Garfield Elementary School, mostly from minority backgrounds, will be bused to the fair on Sunday in a program funded by Target stores  “We are developing programs about tolerance and diversity, and we will have the San Diego Children’s Choir singing,” said Gmach.

Many of the books that will be on sale focus on values that are both “Jewish and universal,” Gmach added.  To spread the reach of the program even further one of the books will be translated into Braille.

Stone said the committee not only wanted breadth, it also wanted “to find authors who can add something to people’s lives, teach them something and expand their horizons.”  Although there are a number of local authors included in the line-up, emphasis was placed on “giving San Diegans access to authors and people whom they wouldn’t normally meet.”

“Tony Kushner, David Steinberg…these are names that are not always readily available,” said Stone.  “There are some extraordinary opportunities.  If you live in New York City, perhaps you could get this all the time—any day of the week you can go to 100 different places and hear 100 different authors— but in San Diego we don’t get that opportunity, so it is extraordinary.”

Another indication of growing cosmopolitanism is the fact that not all the authors will lecture in English.  At least one, and possibly more of the Israeli speakers, will lecture in Hebrew, and another lecturer, Jose “Pepe” Galicot, a leader of the San Diego/Tijuana Jewish community, will address the fair in Spanish, according to Stone.

Gmach said that as exciting as the event is, she as a Jewish communal worker takes pleasure in the intra-community connections it fosters.  Perhaps someone who brings a child to meet a children’s author will decide to send that child to Jewish sleepover camp, she suggested

She said that she also appreciates the fact that directors of other organizations, both secular and Jewish, help the fair obtain its speakers.   For example, Morris Casuto, regional director of the Anti-Defamation League, let her know that Foxman would be coming to town. 

Buchholz, who is a high-drawing speaker at business conventions, is a San Diegan whose wife, Debby, is general manager of the La Jolla Playhouse.  An attendee herself of past book fairs, Debby Buchholz told her husband he simply had to accept an invitation to speak, according to Gmach.

In the weeks leading up to the 13^th annual San Diego Jewish Book fair, San Diego Jewish World will run reviews of some of the books by authors who will be speakers there.

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Commentary

Innovative Reform movement has much to teach other style Jews

By Rabbi Michael Berk
Congregation Beth Israel, San Diego

SAN DIEGO—In the middle of December one of the most amazing gatherings of the Jewish people will occur right here in San Diego. I am referring to the URJ (Union of Reform Judaism) Biennial Convention. As the flagship Reform congregation in San Diego, it is CBI's honor to join in hosting this event and provide a warm welcome to the nearly 5,000 delegates who will attend from hundreds of congregations around North America and the world.

Recently, an Orthodox rabbi was a guest at one of our B'nai Mitzvah services. After the service he commented about the Torah passing service. He said, "You know, that's something we could do too!" He reminded me of a truth I wish all Jews recognized, that each stream of Judaism has its strengths and weaknesses; and we can learn a lot from each other. Having said this, I want to add that with the Biennial coming, it is a good time to recognize and speak of our Reform Judaism as something to be proud of.

I am proud to be a Reform Jew because it represents the Judaism which first seated Jewish men and women together in worship; it brought grandeur to our services by introducing new liturgy and majestic liturgical music; it has helped us cope with the modern world by printing old prayers

Rabbi Berk

alongside new outpourings of the heart in new siddurim (prayerbooks); it has trained rabbis and cantors longer than any other movement in America and, due to the Nazis, its seminary (Hebrew Union College) is the second oldest in the world; it has articulated in
 loud and clarion voice the ethical and moral imperatives of our faith through its social justice program; it is the first movement to ordain women and gays as rabbis and cantors; it was the movement which was willing, when no other was, to welcome the non-Jewish spouse into the synagogue. We have done these things because we knew they were right; even if it meant we incurred the wrath of those who disagreed with us and thought our Judaism to be less than authentic.

The Biennial is an extraordinary opportunity to join with others who are concerned about making their synagogues the best they can be. As a host congregation, we have many opportunities to participate, including volunteering. I hope you will join me and the other leaders, lay and professional, at the Biennial. The opportunities to learn about every facet of synagogue life are vast, but are only part of the program. There are opportunities to study with some of the best teachers and scholars in the world, worship using the new Reform siddur, Mishkan T'filah, with 5,000 others on Shabbat, meet authors, shop in a huge Jewish marketplace set up just for the Biennial, hear national political and religious leaders speak, or pick from hundreds of workshops on any synagogue topic you can imagine.

The Reform movement is a community of passionate Jews struggling with God's demands on us today. It is a movement of serious seekers, people like you and me, who live in this world and search out and respond to God's commanding voice. The URJ Biennial is a magnificent event to help us as we seek to fulfill our purpose and mission. Hope to see you there!

Rabbi Berk is the spiritual leader of Congregation Beth Israel in San Diego. His article is reprinted with permission from the October issue of Tidings, the congregational news letter.

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Bar Kamza story in Talmud provides inspiration for UCSD arts project

By Barry Jagoda

SAN DIEGO|—A new interdisciplinary project, taking a unique approach to understanding stories and myth, has been launched as one of the first programs sponsored by Chancellor Marye Anne Fox’s “Collaboratories” initiative. 
 

The “Kamza and Bar Kamza Project,” begun by Shlomo Dubnov, associate professor of music, uses a Talmudic story about the destruction of the temple in Jerusalem as the basis for scholarly debates and artistic presentations.  The three-year project hopes to explore insights, energies and emotions that can be unleashed by cultural expression when it is subjected to a variety of perspectives.

Shlomo Dubnov

After an initial collection of materials, and shaping by a varied group of scholars and students, the project will have a theatrical presentation in early April 2008.  An accompanying symposium will discuss how myth and interpretation influence the human thought process and will look at new ways of using information technology and media arts to address questions of collaboration, understanding and decision-making.

Dubnov explains, "People enjoy stories for their suspense, drama and emotions. But when we gain new knowledge and understanding from a story, it becomes a powerful source of influence that can shape our thoughts and even change culture.”

During the current academic year, a team of scholars has come together to experiment with ways of understanding the “Bar Kamza” story, to develop systems for collecting commentaries and for pulling together varied understandings and interpretive methodologies.  The project hopes to benefit from Hebrew Talmudic learning traditions, from debates and commentary in Buddhist philosophy and from other sources. 

"The Talmud has been used frequently as an example of early hypertext," says Dubnov. “In addition to its inherent manner of linking commentaries to a story, the Talmudic method of argumentation has interesting relations to methods of modern game theory.”

The story, which is the namesake of the project, describes the history of a man named Bar Kamza who was invited by error to a feast at the house of an adversary. When the host realizes the mistake, he expels Bar Kamza, who in revenge reports to the Romans a Jews’ rebellion in the making. This treason ends up generating a Roman invasion, destruction of the Temple and the beginning of contemporary Judaism.

"Besides being full of drama and passion, the story has multiple interpretations. A common one is ‘needless hatred,’ or how little conflicts can escalate and bring a whole society to destruction. But there are other possible interpretations as well, including conflict that can be understood through mathematical models and game theory,” said Dubnov.

Expertise in this area is provided by project collaborators Joel Sobel and Eli Berman, members of the UCSD economics faculty.  Historical perspective comes from UCSD historian David Goodblatt, an authority on the early period of Jewish history.  To shape the artistic presentation that is expected to be central to contemporary understanding of the ancient story Shahrokh Yadegari, from the theatre and dance department, and Steve Schick and Philip Larson, from music, bring their special skills to the project.

In announcing the Collaboratories Program Chancellor Fox said, “Interdisciplinary scholarship is at the heart of the truly excellent research university. More and more frequently, solutions to the most challenging research problems require the collaborative talents of groups of investigators with a range of disciplines.” 

In this spirit, graduate students who have benefited from the Bar Kamza Collaboratories Program include Jose Ignacio Lopez Ramirer-Gaston, music, Benjamin Kay, economics and Toby Algaya, theatre. 

Additional support is provided by the UCSD Music Department and Center for Research in Computing and the Arts, UCSD.  A catalyst for the project was Michael Bernstein, former dean of Arts and Humanities.

Jagorda is a writer on the UCSD staff.  His article initially appeared on the This Week@UCSD website.

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