San DiegoJewish World San Diego's Online Jewish Newspaper

By Donald H. Harrison

SAN DIEGO--Recently Karen Primack’s fine review of Live and Become ran in San Diego Jewish World. It is the story of an Ethiopian child living in a refugee camp whose Christian mother orders him to get on the airlift to Israel. A woman who lost her child accepts him, gives him an identity, but dies not long after her arrival in Israel. He is alone and masquerading as a Jew, desperately missing his mother. A French-Israeli family adopts him, and we watch him grow into manhood.

I watched the video of this movie with my grandson Shor, 8, who could relate to the little boy moving to Israel. Shor has visited his father Shahar’s family in Israel many times. This movie marked the first time Shor had to read subtitles to follow the story, and I wondered if it would hold his interest. It did indeed.

For him, the most shocking aspect of the tale was the bigotry that Schlomo, the Ethiopian lad, encountered from white Israelis. Parents threatened to withdraw their children from class unless Schlomo were transferred—they said they didn’t want the classroom standards to be lowered. When he went to the birthday party of a schoolmate, her father closed the door in his face after warning him never to come back. When years later, he and that girl were married, the father and the rest of the family tore their garments and declared her dead. Rabbis meanwhile taught that Black people were the descendants of the biblical Ham, and that they carried Ham’s curse.

“Would they treat John Finley like that?” Shor demanded indignantly.

Shor was referring to a man who he thinks of as an uncle, a man who has been a friend of Shor’s mother Sandi since the time they were both students at UC Santa Barbara, a man who frequently drives down from Los Angeles to grace our family celebrations.

“Perhaps,” I said.

“It’s not right!”

The saddest part of this conversation was the knowledge that the people who were committing these wrongs were our fellow Jews.

My wife Nancy told Shor that the United States has its own bitter history of discrimination against Black people, and that was one of the reasons why the election of Barack Obama as President of the United States was such a momentous occasion.

But discrimination against Blacks, and against other peoples, continues, she pointed out.

Shor’s life has been fairly insular. He relates to African-Americans primarily through knowing John Finley and being a student at Soille San Diego Hebrew Day School of Physical Education teacher Christina Dawson and her cheerful family members who help her run various activities. Currently, Shor attends summer camp at the school under their supervision.

Of Africans, Shor has some knowledge—the husband of Gail Umeham, the assistant editor of San Diego Jewish World, being Okoronkwo Umeham, a Nigerian who has shared with us the culture of Arochukwu, his village in Eastern Nigeria.

So, Live and Become was a teaching moment. We should always strive to do right by other people, and not prejudge them by their race, religion, national origin, gender, or sexual preference. We all are fellow human beings, no matter what our packaging.

Within our own community, there are people who do not follow this rule—the rule set forth by Hillel as “what is hateful to you do not do to others” and repackaged by Jesus as “do unto others as you would have others do unto you.” We must do better.

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I felt good about Shor seeing Live and Become and the important message it helped teach.

At the same time, I felt terrible. I was sorry that the world could be so disillusioning for an 8-year-old boy.

Live and Become may be purchased online from Menemsha Films.

Harrison is editor of San Diego Jewish World. Email: editor@sandiegojewishworld.com

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Israel’s astonishing but unaccepted success, then and now

By J. Zel Lurie

DELRAY BEACH, Florida --In the summer of 1947 I was somewhat at loose ends. I had signed a contract with Hadassah to begin the October publication of a revised and rejuvenated Hadassah Newsletter which later morphed into the Hadassah Magazine. What to do until then?

I had covered the United nations Special Assembly on Palestine, for the Palestine Post and had received a congratulatory message from the editor, Gershon Agronsky. UNSCOP, the United Nations Special Committee on Palestine, was touring the Displaced Persons camps in Europe. Their report recommending that Palestine be partitioned into two states, one Arab and one Jewish, was adopted by the UN General Assembly on November 29, 1947, which signaled the beginning of the War of Independence.

The Haganah had been active through phony but legal commercial companies buying ships and supplying crews for Aliya B. But its purchases of arms and bullet making machines were entirely illegal.

Among my volunteer jobs. I helped Haganah chiefs in New York , Shlomo Shamir and his successor Teddy Kolleck, in their delicate public relations efforts, fighting the flamboyant Irgun outfits, led by Peter Bergson.

One day I was taken to a warehouse in the Bronx to photograph bullet-making machinery. They would be taken apart and shipped to Haifa as textile machines. “Don’t you have blueprints?” I asked the engineer in charge. “Of course we have.” he replied in a strong Polish accent. “But we want those who will put it together to be able to see photos of what it is supposed to look like.”

Not all this precious machinery made it through the British blockade of Haifa. A crate fell down and broke apart in the American port. To this day I believe that the “accident” was arranged by the F.B.I. Their counter-intelligence experts identified the machinery and traced it to the Bronx warehouse. But by the time they raced to the Bronx, the warehouse was empty.

American counter-intelligence to this day is not friendly to Israel, contrary to the Administration and Congress. CI is keeping the Israeli spy, Jonathan Pollard, in jail despite presidential willingness to pardon him. But that is another story.

In the summer of 1947 I could fit in another part time job. And one turned up.

I was called to the office of Abraham Feinberg, the Haganah’s banker. Abe explained that the Haganah needed a public front. I was to open an office of a new organization, the American Friends of the Haganah.

Then he went to his safe and extracted $5,000 in cash for me to open a bank account for the new organization. It was hot, steamy July day in New York. I had no brief case. It was before the days of air conditioning. All I was wearing was a short sleeve shirt. I placed the large bundle of bills inside the shirt next to my skin. I had never previously handled more than few hundred dollars. I gave no receipt.

I opened an office in an East Side townhouse belonging to a doctor who was working for the Haganah in the D.P. camps in Europe. Our desks were interspersed with cloth-draped medical machinery.

By summers end, we had hired a permanent executive director and I moved my office to Hadassah.

I tell my brief fragmented story to illustrate the vast difference between then and now. Then the Haganah was preparing to fight the invading armies of six Arab nations. Vastly outnumbered, but better trained and better led, the Jewish men and women won almost every important battle.

The brave fighters of the Yishuv, who lost six thousand young men and women, one percent of the population, were assisted by foreign volunteers, who had been discharged from Allied armies. The Jewish lad taking the subway uptown, with $5000 pressed against his skin, saw the beginning of this operation.

NOW the State of Israel has an army, air force, and navy stronger than all of the six Arab states put together,

In addition, although it has never been acknowledged publicly, Israel reportedly has nuclear bombs and the submarines to carry and fire them if Israel is attacked by a nuclear bomb. Israel has nothing to fear from Iran, but that too is another story.

NOW Israel has peace treaties, including the exchange of ambassadors with two of its closest neighbors, Egypt and Jordan.

NOW Israel has had on the table for seven long years a proposal by all of the Arab states and scores of Moslem states including Iran for full peace, including exchanges of ambassadors, on the 78 percent of Palestine/Eretz Israel which was won in the war that we prepared for in ‘47.

Israel says the proposal is interesting and worth discussing while continuing to expand Jewish settlements in the remaining 22 percent of Palestine/Eretz Israel, not to mention continuing to demolish Palestinian homes, and to construct an apartheid road system for Israelis only

NOW the current Israeli prime minister has finally uttered the words a “demilitarized Palestine state.’ This is a wee tiny step on the long road to peace. He still refuses to freeze settlement construction. Acceptance of a freeze would be a major step towards peace and would save he Israel taxpayer a half billion shekels ($125 million). This is the sum allocated to “housing construction” in West Bank settlements in the 2010 budget now before the Knesset.

NOW Hamas while refusing to recognize Israel in words has accepted Israel by deed. It has offered Israel a long term truce, up to fifty years, which would become a de facto peace. Israel has officially ignored the offer.

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Hamas resembles the the Palestine Liberation Organization in its early days. The charter of the PLO called for the destruction of Israel. It took Yassir Arafat five years after he signed the Oslo Accords on the White House lawn to succumb to President Bill Clinton’s pressure and publicly declare that the PLO charter was null and void. He promised a new charter in six months.

The new charter never appeared but Palestine President Mahmoud Abbas derives his authority over the Palestinians in the West Bank and theoretically Gaza and the Palestinian Diaspora as Chairman of the PLO.

NOW in the words of Daniel Gavron, a British journalist who emigrated to Israel in 1961, Israel is an “astonishing success’” In an op-ed piece in the New York Times on February 11, 2008, he wrote “we are repudiating our astonishing success.”

If in 1948 or even 1957, Gavron continued, “if somebody had said that one day virtually the entire world, including all the Arab nations, would accept the existence of the State of Israel in 78 percent of the land of Israel, he would have been regarded as idiotically optimistic or clinically insane. That, however, is where we are today. We have won but we reuse to accept the result.”

NOW, that refusal, engineered by the minority of West Bank settlers, has continued while President George Bush dilly-dallied.

NOW the new Obama/Clinton era has begun. Their first demand is that Israel abides by the Road Map issued by George Bush six years ago and freezes all settlement construction.

The Road Map, which was sponsored by a Quarttet (the United States, Russia, the European Union and the United Nations) also calls on Israel to dismantle the settlements, called outposts, which are illegal under Israeli law although they are supported by the government and the Army. This demand has been ignored for the time being.

NOW all polls show a solid majority of Israelis and Palestinians support the Obama/Clinton program.

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Guest Column

For Lowitt, shtick—writing it, producing it—is a Daily job

By Max Weiss and Bob Fryer
Jewish Press of Pinellas County, Florida

LARGO, Florida—Have you heard the one about the boy who began his Bar Mitzvah by performing standup on the bimah?

From a young age, Adam Lowitt (photo at right) had a flair for the comedic, even to the pleasant surprise of Rabbi Gary Klein during his Bar Mitzvah at Temple Ahavat Shalom in Palm Harbor.

Sporting a pair of earmuffs while taking the microphone on the bimah, he jokingly complained in his best Yiddish voice about the air conditioning being too cold, before starting the service.

Lowitt, son of Bruce and Arlene Lowitt of Oldsmar, grew up in Clearwater and graduated from the University of Florida in 2002. He is now a supervising producer for The Daily Show with Jon Stewart on Comedy Central, and also performs standup comedy.

Returning to his alma mater, Lowitt performed standup along with fellow rising comedian and Comedy Central regular Demetri Martin.

The show took place on April 14 and filled 6,000 seats at the Stephen C. O’Connell Center on the UF campus, with both comedians giving students a much-needed night of entertainment before finals week.

Lowitt performed his style of observational comedy on a variety of topics, ranging from his time in Gainesville and the college social scene, to his friends’ quirks and current life in New York City.

Both Lowitt’s and Martin’s material rang well with the college crowd, earning roars of laughter.

The event was put on by the student-run ACCENT Speakers Bureau, which brings in a variety of speakers to UF students, including past presidents, politicians, comedians, authors, and public figures. Lowitt’s and Martin’s performance was one of ACCENT’s most highly attended, and certainly brought smiles to the faces of his proud parents in attendance.

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Asked to e-mail some information on himself, Lowitt’s sense of humor shines through: “I went to Countryside High School, and was voted ‘most likely to appear in a Jewish Press article.’”

“My first job was at Boston Market but that was back when it was Boston Chicken and still had some street cred.”

Lowitt, 29, was a UF telecommunications major, studying TV and radio.

“I was always interested in comedy, but college is where I started to pursue it. I did a little bit of standup early on, but got really into long form improv.”

Lowitt says he does not do much improv these days, but that the training really helps his standup and writing skills. During his senior year at UF, he interned at The Daily Show and started working there a month after graduation.

“I’m a supervising producer now. It took several years of hard work, long days,” Lowitt says, adding with tongue firmly planted in cheek. “and correctly folding Mr. Stewart’s laundry.’’

Lowitt says standup is “a totally different beast than The Daily Show and I’ve been doing it for about five years. It’s just you and the microphone out there to do whatever you want for however much time you have. The number of sets I do in a week varies from none to seven but it’s usually somewhere in the middle. My job limits the amount of stage time I can get, but that’s a good problem to have.’’

Lowitt says a side benefit of his job, though, is “I’ve had amazing opportunities to perform with insanely talented people because of the friends I’ve made over the years at my job.”

The size of the crowd he performs for is not as important to Lowitt as the attitudes of people in the audience. “I’ve done midnight shows for four people that have gone better than shows at 8 [p.m.] with 50.’’

“I want to be involved in comedy in some capacity for the rest of my life, but I don’t think I could do standup fulltime. I like going to work every day, being around a bunch of funny people and putting together a show.”

Reprinted from the Jewish Press of Pinellas C0unty, Florida

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BASEBALL CARDS

Jewish Major Leaguers issues 50-card fifth edition

Newton, Massachusetts (Press Release)– Art Shamsky’s four consecutive home runs; Moe Berg’s record for consecutive errorless games, Phil Weintraub’s 11-RBI game, and Jake Pitler’s 15 putouts at second base, are just a few of the special achievements honored in the fifth edition of Jewish Major Leaguers baseball cards, now on sale.

The most heralded “niche” baseball card set of recent years also includes all Jewish players in the big leagues in 2008, noting Ryan Braun’s dramatic home run at the end of the regular season that thrust the Milwaukee Brewers into the playoffs, and Scott Schoeneweis moving to the top of the “games pitched” leaders among all Jewish players.

The 2008 season saw 13 Jewish players in the game including rookies Brian Horwitz and Josh Whitsell, along with Schoeneweis, Braun, Brad Ausmus, Jason Marquis, Gabe Kapler, Kevin Youkilis, John Grabow, Scott Feldman, Ian Kinsler, Jason Hirsh, and Craig Breslow. Youkilis, Braun and Kinsler were all named to the All-Star team, tying a record for the most Jews in the All-Star Game in one season. One-hundred fifty nine players of Jewish heritage have played in the Major Leagues according to the latest available research.

A newly-discovered player from the past – Bill Hurst of the 1996 Florida Marlins – receives his first card, and appears on the all-time roster of Jewish players, which is included along with career leaders.

The 50-card set also honors long-time Topps executive Sy Berger, the “Father of the Modern Baseball Card,” and the late Jerome Holtzman, a Hall of Fame sportswriter who created the “save” statistic.

A card honors three Jewish team owners of the past – Andrew Freedman of the New York Giants (1895-1902), Julius Fleischman of the Cincinnati Reds (1902-1925) and Judge Emil Fuchs of the Boston Braves (1923-1935).

With creative research, the cards also pay tribute to such oddities as Guy Zinn, who was the first batter in Fenway Park in 1912, and to Lou Limmer, who hit the last Philadelphia Athletics home run in 1954. Buddy Myer, the all-time Jewish stolen base champion, is cited for being the only Jewish batting champion in baseball history.

Kevin Youkilis, who nearly won the American League’s MVP award, did win the Jewish Major Leaguer’s MVP award for his spectacular 2008 campaign, and is thusly honored with an additional card.

The hugely popular master set of Jewish Major Leaguer baseball cards was issued in 2003, presenting a card for

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every player known to be of Jewish origin to that time. A Cooperstown seminar at the Hall of Fame on that theme was presented the following year, and a seminar last year honored Hank Greenberg’s career. Martin Abramowitz created the concept of this card set and continues to produce the followup editions.

The 2009 edition is available for $36 plus $3 shipping and handling, and orders should be sent to Jewish Major Leaguers, 104 Greenlawn Avenue, Newton, MA 02459. Checks should be made payable to JML. (www.Jewishmajorleaguers.org). Orders received prior to March 31 are just $30 plus $3 shipping and handling.

This year’s edition is printed by Upper Deck Company, and is limited to 3,000 sets, each sold in a clear plastic case suitable for display.

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JEWS FOR JUDAISM WRITING CONTEST

There were some things that fire could not consume

Editor's Note: Jews for Judaism, based in Los Angeles, recently sponsored a nationwide Be-True writing contest in three divisions: middle school, high school and college, in which contestants were asked to write about their pride in being Jewish. Jews for Judaism, headed by Rabbi Bentzion Kravitz, was formed in 1985 to combat efforts on campuses by representatives of other religions to proselytize Jewish students. This is the concluding article

By Josefa Corpuz
4th year student, UCLA, Los Angeles
1st place winner, college division

LOS ANGELES--After the fire, there was nothing left of my family's home but the concrete foundation, some charred wood beams, and mounds of ashes. Everything was gone: my mother's wedding dress, my father's library, the wooden menorah that my great-grandfather, a carpenter, had carved and brought with him from Latvia. All of it had disappeared in the ash that was our home, in the dust clouding the California sun.

When we saw there was nothing left to salvage, my mother scooped some of the ashes into a plastic bag. She said she wanted to keep it and remember what we had lost. She made me wonder, "What did we really lose?"

Say the word, "Judaism," and what I think of first are things. A challah board, dusty with flour. A tallit, neatly folded. My great-grandfather's menorah. And books upon books upon books. I don't know what we would be without these.

And I know our religion, perhaps more than others, is based on tangibles. So many mitzvot are nothing more than reminders.

Touching a mezuzah before we walk through a door, burning a little bit of bread, tying strings and lighting candles in a certain way. "Remember," these things say. As humans with only five senses to understand the world, this is how we must connect with God. We touch the sacred, we hear it, we taste it and see it. As humans, there's no other way.

This is why we pause to remember so many other fires that ravaged our history. Nothing can be the same after these unique reminders are lost. And increasingly, it seems everything we do is one long fight against forgetfulness. I see my Jewish friends, my cousins, my classmates, losing the battle and choosing to forget. I worry that years from now I'll be the only one of all of them who still calls myself Jewish, rather than "agnostic" or "atheist" or "spiritual, but notreligious." Dry tinder waiting to be consumed.

But what has been saved?

In many, many ways we are lucky. No one in my family was hurt by the fire. And stepping through the rubble and charred wood of our home, I realized: I am the ashes. I am what remains of my great-grandparents, my grandparents, my mother and father.

Everywhere I go, they will go with me. When I pray, when I learn, when I light the Shabbat candles alone in my apartment, I am using

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the gifts they gave me. Nothing is needed to remind me. I
myself am the reminder.

There is a fire inside of me that will never go out. I will remember and guard it the rest of my life.

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Bible in Pop Culture: God blessed the seventh day...

Genesis 2:3

God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it because on it He abstained from all His work which God created to make.

Do you have a photo that you think illustrates how a biblical verse has worked its way into pop culture. Please send it to us for possible publication in this series, "The Bible in Pop Culture."

You may send your jpg photo for posting online to us at San Diego Jewish World, emailing it to editor@sandiegojewishheritage.com.

If possible, please send it at 72dpi resolution and 400 pixels wide. Please include the name of the photographer, the date and place the photo was taken, and any other relevant caption information.

For our growing "Pop Bible" collection please see Bible in pop culture index

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Abraham's Oasis in Iraq
oasis1

GREETINGS FROM ABRAHAM'S OASIS—Talal "Tony" S. Hilantu is a member of the Chaldean community of San Diego County, who recently visited "Abraham's Oasis" near Al Asad Base in Al Baghdadi city west of Baghdad, Iraq. Writing to San Diego Jewish World editor Don Harrison that he recently read his 2002 story online about San Diego's Chaldean community, he added: "I figured I have to send you these pictures of our father Abraham’s Oasis. I hope you like them, please, remember us in your prayers. God
bless." Local tradiiton is that on his journey to the land God would show him (Canaan), Abraham stopped here to water his
animals. The site is close to the Euphrates River. Thank you, Talal! We're delighted to share the photos with our readers.

oasis2 oasis3

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San Diego County Jewish news and publicity

Filner backs Shoah education bill

SAN DIEGO (Press Release) — Congressman Bob Filner on Wednesday announced his support of the Simon Wiesenthal Holocaust Education Act, H.R. 2089, to combat hate and violence through education about the Holocaust.

“As the generations who survived the Holocaust pass away, we must make sure their stories live on forever so those who would deny the Holocaust never have the ability to re-write history,” said Congressman Filner.

The Simon Wiesenthal Holocaust Education Act is named after the renowned survivor of the Nazi death camps who dedicated his life to documenting the crimes of the Holocaust. The bill will provide federal grants to educational organizations to teach students about the Holocaust.

Filner continued, “Many students across the country have not learned about the Holocaust because their schools do not have the necessary funds or tools to teach about this horrific event in humanity’s history. It is important that students learn about the consequences of intolerance and hate so that we can truly say, never again!”

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Three Chambers of Commerce to hold joint mixer in Solana Beach

SOLANA BEACH, California—The San Diego Jewish Chamber of Commerce will join the Great Women Chamber of Commerce and the local Philippine Chamber of Commerce in a joint mixer from 5:30 to 8:30 p.m., Wednesday, July 15, at Shampoo Too Hair Salon, 406 No. Cedros, Solana Beach.

The catered function will include "mingling, networking, raffle prizes and giveaways, not to mention increasing your business contacts," according to organizers

Andrews Sisters songs to be performed at Tifereth Israel

SAN DIEGO (Press Release)—Tifereth Israel's Friendship Club--a luncheon group for senior members—at 11 a.m. today (Thursday) will be treated to a nostalgic afternoon of Andrews Sisteers songs performed by Marla Worm and April Wilkolm.

While members eat their sack lunches, such songs as "Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy" and "Don't Sit Under the Apple Tree" will be performed.

Further information may be obtained from the synagogue at (619) 697-6001.

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Thursdays with the songs of Hal Wingard, z"l

SAN DIEGO—We have been putting up the late Hal Wingard's songs thematically, meaning that we have been skipping around the body of his numbered works. Today, in contrast, we will fill in missing numbers.

#5 Tomorrow
#6 Sometime tomorrow
#7 My love

#5, Tomorrow
Oh, lady of shadows and fears,
How weakly you fight back your tears;
But you needn't worry, for out of the flurry
I'll rise up in garlands and cheers.

Today there's no cause for alarm.
El toro can do me no harm.
There'll be no disaster, for I am the master
Of toro and all of your charm.

Tomorrow in loving we'll lie.
The fear of today will be by;
And you will discover, tomorrow I'm lover..
If toro is dead and not I.

Oh, lady of shadows and fears,
How weakly you fight back your tears;
But you needn't worry, for out of the flurry
I'll rise up in garlands and cheers.

Tomorrow in loving we'll lie.
The fear of today will be by;
And you will discover, tomorrow I'm lover..
If toro is dead and not I.

(c) 2009 Estate of Hal Wingard; January 15, 1977; to Myla.

#6, Sometime Tomorrow

Grind, grind: keep the mill turning.
Stir, stir: keep the pot churning.
    Wait 'til sometime tomorrow,
    Sometime tomorrow,
    To be happy.

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Reap, reap: keep the scythe mowing.
Stitch, stitch: keep the thread sewing.
    Wait 'til sometime tomorrow,
    Sometime tomorrow,
    To be happy.

Dig, dig: keep the hoe weeding.
Squeeze, squeeze: keep the dough kneading.
    Wait 'til sometime tomorrow,
    Sometime tomorrow,
    To be happy.

Fan, fan: keep the fire burning.
Plough, plough: keep the soil turning.
    Wait 'til sometime tomorrow,
    Sometime tomorrow,
    To be happy.

Pound, pound: keep the nail driving.
Work, work: never stop striving.
    Wait 'til sometime tomorrow,
    Sometime tomorrow,
    To be happy.

(c) 2009 Estate of Hal Wingard; January 20, 1977

#7, My Love
Who is my love? Will I know her?
Who is the love for me?
How can I be
Happy and free?
Who is my love? Will I know her?

Where is my love? Will I find her?
Where is the love for me?
How can I be
Happy and free?
Where is my love? Will I find her?

You are my love. I have found you.
You are the love for me.
Now I can be
Happy and fee.
You are my love. I have found you.

(c) 2009 Estate of Hal Wingard; March 18, 1977; to Eileen.

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Tom Dudzick, the 'Catholic Neil Simon,' has humor for all

By Carol Davis

SOLANA BEACH, California—For those of us who survived the ‘50’s there are stories to be told, especially on the cusp of the ever changing ‘60’s. Rock’n Roll, Martin and Lewis, Buddy Holly, The Day The Earth Stood Still, African Queen, green stamps, drive in movies, dairy queen, Mc Donald’s, The Ed Sullivan Show and Elvis are now in the history books and in the hearts and minds of those of us who lived through them. Recreating them takes careful planning and someone who was either born into the fifties, lived their early childhood or even teen years through them and has fond memories of them.

Playwright Tom Dudzick, known as the Catholic Neil Simon, has written his own trilogy: semi autobiographical/fictional comedies Over The Tavern, Hail Mary! and Last Mass at Saint Casmir’s that have been successful in box offices and among audiences wherever they play. Dudzick was born over a tavern in 1950 in Buffalo, New York. Both Simon and Dudzick have their trilogies and their memories. Simon is more of my generation. Both capture the imagination of the times, one with a strong Catholic upbringing and the other with Jewish roots. Both level their string of zingers, fast and furious, yet both playwrights capture the essence of their particular ethnic backgrounds.

The North Coast Repertory Theatre in Solana Beach is mounting Over The Tavern, and it is a winner! David Ellenstein, artistic director who also directed this play got it so right with his excellent cast of age appropriate actors, Marty Burnett’s spot on set design, Lynne Griffin’s period costumes and Chris Luessmann’s sound especially recordings from the Jack Paar and Ed Sullivan shows.

Bonnie Durben’s prop and set dressings round out the picture of middle class family that indeed lives above a tavern and whose moderate station is as natural as, well the bunk beds the two middle boys share or the tension that exists between a family just making ends meet and groping for the right answers to satisfy their three teen aged children’s curiosity about sex, among other things. Remember Alfred E. Newman and Action Comic Books? Posters of them were hanging on the wall of the boy’s bedroom.

The play opens with Rudy (Ian Brinistool) the thirteen year old being reprimanded by Sister Clarissa (Lynne Griffin) for not knowing his catechism or questioning the rules set down by the Church. “You’ll never be confirmed this way." She’s standing over him with a ruler and one wrong answer by him and it’s a swat in the head. Poor kid is also in trouble for imitating Ed Sullivan (he does a great impression, by the way) and making the other kids in his class laugh. But his problems are exacerbated by his inquisitiveness about things like being a good soldier for Christ, and why aren’t his prayers answered and ‘why can’t kids just do what kids are supposed to do?’

Dad, Chet Pazinski, (Matt Thompson) is too preoccupied with his own mishigas to really be present for his four kids. His own alcoholic father whose Tavern Chet runs while keeping Dad out of the faces of the customers, is time consuming and exhausting. Mom, Ellen Pazinski, (Courtney Corey) is busy looking after the household and keeping thing in order at home while being a buffer between the kids and Dad, a common pastime in those days as I remember.

But Over The Tavern is not a downer, it is a nostalgic slice of reality that takes pace in 1959 ‘Americana’ over the course of a week (Friday to Friday) in the Pazinski family with all the drama of a soap opera and the humor of a loving family who cares for each other, the Church and family values. It is brought to the fore with excellence and tender loving care.

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OVER THE TAVERN—Shown from left are actors Thor Sigurdsson, James Patterson, Courtney Corey, Matt Thompson, Ian Brininstool, Abbey Howe in production at North Coast Repertory Theatre. Photo Credit: Aaron Rumley

On opening night the entire cast was on target and from the laughter that could be heard especially from audience members who must have lived through those Catholic School ‘horrors’ of being whacked on the head with a ruler and being made to confess to sins of the flesh, etc., I found myself equally involved in the mirth, mostly because of the great and credible acting of the entire cast.

As mentioned earlier, Brininstool is a standout. His natural comedic timing is perfect just as are the questions he poses to ‘No Sass’ Sister Clarissa, like why aren’t his prayers being answered to showing up at one of Sister Clarissa’s sessions with a Mickey Mouse hat sans ears to look like a skull cap. That one brought the house down.

James Patterson is Rudy’s older brother Eddie, who has his own set of worries, like being found out for reading girlie magazines and stomping out of the house indignantly threatening to make it on his own is wonderful as the fifteen year old ready for his own manhood. And sister Annie (Abby Howe) has skipped school to see a forbidden foreign film, which puts ideas into her head, ideas Mom is not quite ready to deal with. That and the secret Twinkie eating personify the plight of teenagers of any generation. Remember the slogan; “Tell your troubles to a Twinkie?”

Added to this mix they all deal with the youngest son’s disability (he’s slightly retarded and has picked up the word ‘shit’ from one of his siblings and shouts it out at some of the most inappropriate times) but for the most part he’s pretty much in the background of things. Thor Sigurdsson plays Georgie with just the right amount of quirkiness to be believed.

Both Thompson and Corey bring credibility to their roles of caring and tough loving Mom and distracted Dad doing what his family before him and thinking it was enough for his family. Lynne Griffin is perfect as the strict and demanding Sister Clarissa. Griffin has long been a San Diego actor who has also performed and taught all over the world. We’re thrilled to have her back in San Diego. She is also responsible for coaching the Buffalo dialect and designing the ‘50’s style clothing.

While sitting through Tavern, I found myself comparing the kids in Simon’s Brighton Beach Memoirs to the kids in Tavern. It’s not much different. That said someone with no knowledge of what goes on in the world of Orthodox Judaism some might find Chaim Potok’s The Chosen (another play mounted successfully at the NC) to be as alien to their religious upbringing as were my Jewish friends in the audience who might have found the teachings of the Church to be. But fear not, that will not stop you from laughing out loud at the antics of the playwright’s family. It’s good clean fun and I highly recommend seeing it.

ENJOY! See you at the theatre.

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nancy.harrison@americasvacationcenter.com

Adventures in San Diego Jewish History

“At Least Once A Year" {Editorial}
Southwestern Jewish Press May 29, 1953, Page 2

A number of parents have spoken to me regarding the yearly picnic of the Sunday School children. For the past two years the annual picnic has been a joint affair by all three Synagogues. This year each of the religious schools went their own way and had separate events.

The question that the parents asked was, “Why?” what, they wanted to know was happening. Well, we had no ready answer but in thinking it over we spotted a trend that bodes no good for the Jewish Community. It is a tendency which the adults in this community have been indulging in for the past 5 years. That is, a separatism in religious affairs. It has spread so that people are being FORCED to take a stand in regard to the Congregation to which they belong; sometimes to the detriment of other organizations to which they belong.

But why visit this sort of thing on our children? Why can’t they at least get together once a year? Who is responsible for this attempt to divide the Jewish Community? Do we have no hope of ever presenting a united front on communal problems? Is it a matter of personalities? Do the boards of directors of each of the Congregations REALLY want to spread this separation beyond the religious spheres? It will happen if nothing is done to stop it.

It is not too late to call a joint meeting of the leaders of the three Congregations during the summer and thrash this problem out. We would be glad to do all in our power to promote such a meeting in order not to “visit the sins of the parents on the children.”

Jewish Center News
Southwestern Jewish Press May 29, 1953, Page 2

Softball for Softies—Unaffiliated men (over 17) who want to play softball every Sunday morning are asked to be at Wilson Junior High School playground on Sunday morning, June 7th, 10:30 a.m. The Jewish community Center is sponsoring a softball league for Jewish groups and teams will be organized of interested ball players—Alpha Phi Pi, Lasker Lodge B’nai B’rith, B’nai B’rith Young Adults, A.Z.A. are organizing teams and all are looking forward to copping the championship.

Happy Old Timers—The next meeting of the Happy Old Timers will be held Thursday, 2:00 p.m., June 4th, at the Jewish Community Center, 3227 El Cajon Blvd. Besides the usual lounge activities the film, “So You Want to See Israel,” will be shown. All men and women past 50 years of age are invited to attend and join the fun. The Hebrew Home for the Aged Auxiliary sponsoring the Happy Old Timers, will arrange for hostesses and refreshments. Co-chairladies of this activity are Mmes. David Greenberg and Morris Freed. Volunteers are needed to assist several of the participants in transportation to and from their homes. Please call T.1-7744 if you’re available to help.

B.B.’s Plan Award For
Youth Contribution
Southwestern Jewish Press May 29, 1953 Page 2

The Birdie Stodel Chapter, Bay City Chapter, Samuel I. Fox, and Lasker Lodge of B’nai B’rith, are sponsoring a project entitled “The Youth of the Year Award.” An award will be presented to an outstanding boy and girl, of each of the public high schools and parochial high schools of San Diego, for their participation in Community Affairs, or any contribution for the welfare of the community.

The awards will be presented to these outstanding students on June 24 at the Roosevelt Jr. High School. Several prominent people will be present and prepared to speak on Youth.

B.J. Sisterhood Hold Elections
Southwestern Jewish Press May 29, 1953 Page 2

At the meeting of Beth Jacob Sisterhood held Tuesday, May 26th, Election of Officers was held, and the following ladies were unanimously elected: Ruth Bobrof, Pres.; Muriel Strauss,

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Dorothy Penn, Esther Brisker, V.-Pres.; Frances Strauss, Treas.; Jennie Penn, Fin. Sec.; Mitzi Ornstein, Rec. Sec.; Ceil Schwartz, Corr. Sec.; Bess Schissel, Parl.; Bess Siegel, Historian.
Plans are being made for an Installation of these incoming officers by Ruth Brav, Chairman of Installation Program, assisted by Jean Camiel and Esther Brisker.

Pioneer Women Induct
Incoming Officers
Southwestern Jewish Press May 29, 1953 Page 2

Installation of Officers of Pioneer Women will take place on Thursday, June 4th at Beth Jacob Center. Lunch will be served at 12:00 noon, followed by installation program with a guest from the Los Angeles Council as installing officer. Pauline Press will turn over the President’s gavel to Jeanette Abrams. Business will be deferred at this meeting and a fine program is planned.

The Annual donor dinner will be held on Sunday, June 21st at Manor Hotel. Florence Barach, Chairman, is planning an outstanding program for this most important event of the year.

City of Hope Jr. Aux
Installation Dance
Southwestern Jewish Press May 29, 1953 Page 2

Last minute details for the glamorous City of Hope Junior Auxiliary dinner-Dance and Installation at the El Morocco Saturday evening, June 6, are being worked out by Ruth Axelrod, Installation Chairman and Leah Hoggard, incoming President.

Arrangements have been made for an appealing chicken or fish dinner to be served at 8:00 p.m. and to be enjoyed while listening to soft music by Stan Morton and his orchestra. A short installation ceremony will be next on the agenda to be followed by dancing, intermingled with the top-notch entertainment that is customarily supplied by the City of Hope Medical Center at Duarte whenever its Auxiliaries request.

Donations will be $3.00 per person. For reservations call Ruth Axelrod, T-2333 or Leah Hoggard, R-8140.

Officers Named By
Young Jewish Couples
Southwestern Jewish Press May 29, 1953 Page 2

Taking their bow at the next meeting of the Young Jewish Couples Club Sunday, June 7, at 8:00 p.m., at the Tifereth Israel Synagogue, will be the newly elected officers of the group. Elected May 17 were Mmes and Messrs: Sandy Alter, President; Joe Singer, Vice-Pres.; Sumner Alpert, Rec. Sec.; Sonny Demberg, Corr. Sec.; Joe Finkelman, Treas.; Lew Anfanger, Herman Hornstein, Abe Sandler, and Al Rosen, Board of Directors.

This meet5ing, of course, will usher in a new Y.J.C. Club year. It is most appropriate; therefore, that Rabbi Monroe Levens should take this opportunity to summarize again for the young couples the goals and ideals which prompted the forming of this group. He will speak on “Directing Our Course.”

“Adventures in Jewish History” is sponsored by Inland Industries Group LP in memory of long-time San Diego Jewish community leader Marie (Mrs. Gabriel) Berg. Our indexed "Adventures in San Diego Jewish History" series
will be a daily feature until we run out of history.