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THE VIEW FROM JINSA
No negotiations expected at Annapolis
By Shoshana Bryen
 WASHINGTON, D.C. —Goals for the Annapolis Conference have been scaled way, way back. According to National Security Advisor Stephen Hadley, there will be no negotiations. There may be an "indication" by the parties "of their intention to start negotiations." Israel's Foreign Minister said the conference simply asserts that a process for the "establishment of two states for two people is now accepted by the entire world." Conference expectations have been scaled back, but hyperbole remains.
On the other hand, the Arab League Secretary General made sure everyone knew that normalizing relations with Israel is NOT on the agenda. The Saudis specifically said they would not speak to or shake hands with any Israelis. [We personally would be relieved not to have to touch the
Shoshana Bryen
representative of a country that sentenced a 19-year-old gang-rape victim to 200 lashes and six months in jail because she was out at the time of the rape with a man who was not her relative; the representative of a country that just publicly beheaded its 136th prisoner of 2007.] The Syrians are sending only a mid-level diplomat for the purpose of demanding the Golan Heights.
The conference takes place amid news reports indicating that the Israeli intelligence services believe: a) Hamas is as strong on the West Bank as it is in Gaza, carrying arms openly (Jerusalem Post); b) if the IDF stops operating in West Bank towns, the Palestinian Authority will not be able to impose order and it would take only a few months to create an infrastructure for producing Kassam rockets that would threaten Israel's central region. (Ha'aretz).
Also, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has warned Syria to stop meddling in Lebanon (Reuters), The New York Times reported that more than 40 percent of the "foreign fighters" in Iraq are Saudi, and the Japanese paper Sankei reported that North Korean experts discussed how to load chemical weapons onto Syria's Scud C missiles when they met with Syrian officials during a secret visit earlier this month. The Saudi Foreign Minister went to Moscow to coordinate with the Russians on the Annapolis talks (Bahrain News Agency).
In fact, the only thing going America's way in the Middle East right now is Iraq, where the UN is busy processing refugees returning to Baghdad.
At best, Annapolis will be a photo op indicating that Israelis and Arabs can sit in a room together without touching, talking or accomplishing anything - sort of like Democrats and Republicans in Congress. At worst, Annapolis will launch expectations of Israeli "confidence building measures" (concessions) that will damage to Israeli security with little or no return on the investment.
On another note: Our own confidence was revived slightly by the report in Ha'aretz that Prime Minister Olmert and President Bush would meet to discuss increasing efforts to halt Iran's nuclear program and other regional issues. Israel and the U.S. see eye-to-eye on most of the crucial regional issues, and share fundamental governing norms and societal values. To the extent that President Bush places bilateral interests above the regional cacophony, Israeli and American interests will be better served.
THE JEWISH CITIZEN
Jewish strands in the Lakeside tapestry
By Donald H. Harrison
Editor’s Note: The slogan of our publication is that “there is a Jewish story everywhere.” From time to time, this column will help to demonstrate the thesis by visiting areas without synagogues.
 LAKESIDE, California— This small unincorporated western-flavored town is known for its rodeo and for the former automobile track around Lake Lindo where pioneer race driver Barney Oldfield set a speed record a century ago, covering a mile distance in 51 and 4/5 seconds. It is not a town one normally associates with Jews, but here (and as we suggest, everywhere) some Jewish threads are included in the tapestry of local history.
One of the first Jews to make an impression on Lakeside was Edgar Klauber,
Donald H. Harrison
grandson of a rabbi and son of pioneer Jewish merchant Abraham Klauber of San Diego. He used to travel from San Diego to back country towns to take orders and deliver to stores such merchandise as tobacco, boots, shoes, dry goods, hardware, and farm implements.
He recalled in an article in the Journal of San Diego History attending a grocer’s picnic near Lakeside during the Depression year of 1893. A Republican, Klauber blamed economic hard times on Grover Cleveland, who was then the occupant of the White House.
"Suddenly I saw the manager of the Lakeside Hotel coming toward our Retail Grocers’ Picnic of 29 grocers, 29 wives, and a lot more children. He was running and when a manager of a hotel runs, there is something wrong. At first I thought he was going to have us arrested for not eating in his hotel, but, no, it was even worse than that. He called me aside and broke the news. He had just received a telegraph message from San Diego. There had been a run on the three San Diego banks and all three had closed their doors."
Klauber went on to write that he made the following announcement: “Ladies and gentlemen, little boys and girls, and various innocent relatives, please stop eating and give me your attention. This man at my side is the manager of the Lakeside Hotel. You can see by his face that he carries bad news. All three banks in San Diego have closed their doors. I advise you to continue your picnic for two very good reasons. First, I happen to know that very few of you have any money in the closed banks. Second, even if you did have any money on deposit, you could not get it out with a crowbar. So please sit right down and go on eating before the ants set in…”
The Lakeside Historical Society reported in its book, Legends of Lakeside, that Klauber even earlier had recorded a sales trip on behalf of Klauber-Wangenheim Co: “My first day took me through Lemon Grove, Spring Valley, then by way of Sycamore Canyon to El Cajon, where I had lunch at the Knox Hotel. At El Cajon, I had three customers: my old friend John Burgess, who was doing a thriving general merchandise business in those days; Al Brower, the druggist, and Harry Hubbell, who I believe was the town constable in conjunction with his saloon business. In the afternoon I left for Lakeside, via Bostonia, stopping at Lakeside overnight.
“There was no store at that time in Lakeside, but I remember a fellow named John Ike ran what he called a ‘club’—you signed your name to a register, and after paying $1.00 for dues, you automatically, as it were, became a member in good standing. You could buy drinks as long as you could stand up and stand the drinks, as no saloons were allowed in Lakeside. John Ike’s club had a big membership.”
Eventually the Klauber Wangenheim Co. purchased property in Lakeside. Legends of Lakeside, noted: “In 1919, Lakeside’s first high school classes were help upstairs in the Klauber-Wangenheim Building on the southwest corner of Maine and Sycamore, with Alice Gibson its teacher. In 1920, Riverview H.S. was built on Woodside Avenue….”
Besides by Klauber, Lakeside was influenced by other Jews early in the century, especially some who were involved in filmmaking. In 1911, the silent movie industry produced some 45 short films between May 25 when it made A Trooper’s Heart and October 2 when it filmed The Love of the West, according to a compilation by Gregory L. Williams in a 2002 edition of The Journal of San Diego History. Although Allan Dwan, the writer and producer of most of these American Film Mfg. Co flicks, was a Catholic from Canada, these one-reelers evidently came under some Jewish influence, as one made on June 19 clearly attests. Its title: The Yiddisher Cowboy.
Lake Lindo, a birdwatcher’s paradise in the heart of Lakeside, always has been a pleasant destination for San Diegans. During World War II, Sam Sloan, a U.S. Marine, took Ruth Ann Trupin, whom he met at a USO dance at Temple Beth Israel in San Diego, on a spin in his car out to this lake. They liked what they saw, and in the 1950s, after Sam earned an optometry degree and they were married, the Sloans moved to Lakeside where Sam opened a practice, Ruth taught school, and they raised two children, Iris and Tom.
The Sloans became active civic boosters, Sam in particular. Lakeside’s chamber of commerce, its historical society, and its Kiwanis Club all, at one time or another, elected Sloan as their president. He is credited with helping to start the annual Lakeside parade, an occasion for which the former leatherneck recruited the Marine Corps Band, and attracted as a participant another former Marine—and a future U.S. senator and California governor— Pete Wilson.
Another Jewish professional in Lakeside was Robert Siegel, a dentist who arrived in the mid-1950s. His widow, Paula, recently recalled that Bob had intended to practice in El Cajon, where a medical/ dental center was being constructed. In the meantime, he participated in a San Diego County program to bring dental and medical services to areas of the county where there were no resident physicians and dentists.
“The county had a trailer for places without professionals,” Paula Siegel recalled. “So he would go there once a week and to other places. Some members of the Town Council came to him and asked if he would like to start practicing in Lakeside. They offered to set him up in a building. Bob’s feeling was that if they needed a dentist in Lakeside, it would be better to go there than to El Cajon where there were already dentists.”
Eventually, Siegel purchased a piece of land and built his own dental offices. He practiced there for approximately 28 years, until his death in 1983. Like Sloan, Siegel was a member of the Kiwanis Club and “we went to Chamber dances,” Paula said. She also recalled that for a while the Kiwanis Club had a piano that no one seemed to be able to tune. “It was like an old Jimmy Stewart movie—someone playing the piano out of tune.”
Although Lakeside was considered the back country, that didn’t stop Siegel from becoming a leader among California dentists. He regularly lobbied the Legislature for bills affecting the field of dentistry, among them one which called for the computerization of dental records. That program helped Siegel perform his work as a forensic dentist, particularly in identifying victims of the PSA crash in San Diego in 1978 that claimed 144 lives.
One of Lakeside’s most famous residents was a girl who lived to be only 12 years old, Heather Michele O’Rourke. As the story goes, the little blonde girl and her mommy were visiting the commissary of MGM Studios in Hollywood when a man asked her name.
Reluctantly she told him, but added: “You’re a stranger; I can’t talk to you.” The man waited for Heather’s mother to return sothat he and Heather could be properly introduced. It was Steven Spielberg, and there was something about Heather that made the famous producer think she might be just perfect in a movie about the supernatural: The Poltergeist. After two auditions—the first not having gone so well—5-year-old Heather got to act in the movie, and also to utter one of cinema’s most famous lines: “They’re here.”
Heather, who won election as president of her 5th grade class, starred in two Poltergeist sequels. She died of cardiopulmonary arrest brought on by a chronic intestinal condition before the completion of Poltergeist III, which was dedicated to her memory.
In Music, Number 1 is not always the best
By Eileen Wingard
 SAN DIEGO—The Tifereth Israel Community Orchestra’s (TICO’s) first concert of the season was appropriately called "Numero Uno" because it featured Beethoven’s Leonore Overture #1, Schumann’s Symphony #1 and Brahms Piano Concerto #1. The November 13 performance at Tifereth Israel Synagogue demonstrated how the musicians relished playing this serious standard fare.
Conductor David Amos and his forces brought forth the intrinsic beauties of the Schumann score. The secure opening fanfare, the flute and oboe solos, the precise dotted rhythmic passages, all contributed to the first movement's effectiveness.
The second movement larghetto showcased the full cello section in the lovely melodic theme. Amos and the orchestra captured the spirit of the vigorous scherzo, and the final movement opened with a wonderful burst
Eileen Wingard
of virtuosity from the first violins. Even though the symphony is subtitled "Spring," it was a joyous listening experience in the Fall.
Soloist for the Brahms Piano Concerto was Dan Franklin Smith. A graduate of the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor, he has performed in Western Europe, the United States, Bermuda, Taiwan and Puerto Rico. He has recorded with the Gavle Symfoniorkester and the Stuttgart Philharmonic.
Smith demonstrated great power and digital dexterity in the concerto. He was attentive to the intricate obligato piano passages which Brahms interweaves with the orchestral material. This concerto often pits the piano as another orchestral voice in the thick symphonic texture, unlike most piano concerti where the piano is dominant with the orchestra accompanying in a subservient role. Although his dynamic palette did not contain enough lyrical tenderness for my taste, his style was well suited for this concerto’s assertive themes.
Leonore Overture #1 is seldom programmed. It has many of Beethoven’s remarkable musical characteristics, but it does not have the melodic appeal nor the cohesiveness of the other Leonore Overtures and the Fidelio Overture, all written for the same opera, Fidelio.
This program, presented at Temple Adat Shalom in Poway, was introduced by Rabbi Arnold Kopikis. TICO is a cultural asset of the Jewish Community and it is gratifying to see it perform at other synagogues, churches and parks in addition to its home base at Tifereth Israel Synagogue.
Donald H. Harrison in San Diego: A call for reinvigorating Thanksgiving
Rabbi Baruch Lederman in San Diego: This worker put his trust in his boss
Max Schindler in San Diego: The Chain, a story from the Shoah
FRIDAY-SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 23-24
Natasha Josefowitz, PhD in La Jolla, California: Why I chose a retirement community
Dov Burt Levy in Salem, Massachusetts: ADL actions in Armenian controversy suggest leadership delusions of grandeur
Lynne Thrope in San Diego: Jewish community turned out en masse for San Diego Bay Wine and Food Festivalwish community turned out en masse for San Diego Bay WLarry Zeiger in San Diego: Gay love bubbles among Mideast rivals
THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 22
Shoshana Bryen in Washington, D.C.: Rice should be in Baghdad, not Annapolis
Rabbi Wayne Dosick in Carlsbad, California: 'Who by fire'—when the words of our liturgy crackle beyond our doorsteps
Donald H. Harrison in San Diego: Appreciating all our Rembrandts
WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 21
Garry Fabian in Melbourne, Australia: * Orthodox dispute poll indicating most New South Wales Jews favor gay unions ... * Victorian Premier praises Jewish volunteerism ... *ZFA funding safe—at least for now ... * Journalists must make truth again the priority, Carl Bernstein tells Australian Jewish National Fund
Donald H. Harrison in San Diego: Eve was superior to Adam, biblical scholar Shalom Paul asserts
Judith Apter Klinghoffer in Cherry Hill, New Jersey: Now let us give thanks for Judith, a Jewish female prototype found in the Apocrypha
Ira Sharkansky in Jerusalem: The pros and cons of Annapolis
Isaac Yetiv in La Jolla, California: Mr. President, please cancel conference
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