San Diego (special) -- Prof. Jacob Goldberg of Tel Aviv University -- who is "almost a San Diegan," according to his many friends here -- recently was named by Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak as his senior advisor on regional affairs.

Lucy Goldman said she learned of the appointment last week when she received a phone call from Goldberg who teased her playfully, "You'll never guess where I am calling you from." "From a guest room at the Blair House!" Goldberg went on to tell his friend excitedly. The Blair House is the exclusive guest house reserved for foreign heads of state and their entourages and other distinguished visitors to the White House. Goldberg was among those accompanying Barak in his first meeting as Israel's prime minister with U.S. President Bill Clinton. The friendship of Goldberg and Goldman dates back to 1984 when Goldman was involved in the campaign to

Jacob Goldberg, advisor to Ehud Barak

create a full-blown Judaic Studies Department at San Diego State. Goldberg was hired by SDSU to serve as a visiting professor -- the first step toward establishing such a program

Rabbi Simcha Weiser, headmaster of Soille San Diego Hebrew Day School, recalled that he first met Goldberg the day that "Lucy Goldman came to visit the Hebrew Day School with him, and told me that we wanted to start a school for Judaic Studies, that it was very important, and that this man could be the founding professor but that he wouldn't come unless he had a day school for his two girls to go to. 

"I think he had been a visiting professor before in upstate New York or some place where there was no Jewish day school," Weiser recalled. "He (Goldberg) said that it was not a good situation for his girls and that if we wouldn't accept them, he would go back to Israel. He would stay in the United States only on the condition the kids could go to a Jewish school."

The daughters, Iris and Tali, were welcomed to the day school. Goldberg and his wife Chaya immediately became active in school affairs, with Jacob serving on the relocation committee. 

"He really took an interest in the Jewish community on all fronts," Weiser recalled. "He is a brilliant man," added the school's principal, Elaine Lepow.

Prof. Sanford Lakoff remembers meeting Goldberg about the same time at a function which was held at the Lakoff home. Goldberg, who had received his doctorate from Harvard University, lectured on the Middle East.

"I was very impressed with him when he gave that talk," Lakoff said. "At that time, I think, I was still the chairman of my department (political science) at UCSD, and I arranged for him to be appointed as a visiting lecturer.

As the founding professor in the department that spawned SDSU's Lipinsky Institute for Judaic Studies, and as a visiting lecturer at UCSD, Goldberg became well known among faculty members and students in San Diego's two large universities.

"It was almost unprecedented the degree of warmth which students had for him," Lakoff said. And not just Jewish students but "Arab students as well," Lakoff said.

"I think what makes him popular with students and so effective with audiences in general ...is that he has a remarkable knowledge of not just developments in Israel but in the surrounding areas," Lakoff said. 

"He has a very broad understanding of these issues -- it isn't confined just to the domestic issues or for that matter to the Palestinian issue. He can put things in the context of the whole regional conflict. What is alsoremarkable about him is that he organizes things extremely well and he explains things very, very clearly.

You put that all together and he has the makings of a first-rate teacher."

Goldberg inspires a loyalty among his friends, so much so that Goldman, who is well known in San Diego as a liberal Democratic activist, even took him on a visit to Richard M. Nixon's Presidential Library in Orange County -at Goldberg's request. "The entire time I was trying to tell him that the idea that they had in Israel that Nixon was a great president was completely and unforgivingly wrong," Goldman said, laughing over the memory.

Perhaps partisan Democrats would dispute Goldberg on U.S. politics, but arguing with his analysis of events in the Middle East -- or specifically in Saudi Arabia, his area of sub-specialty -- would be another matter.

"We're in constant e-mail contact," Lakoff said. "Especially when things go on in Israel I immediately get in touch with him and say 'how should we understand this?' and I get these wonderful e-mail messages back which explain things much better than I can get if I read the newspaper or try to think through it myself.

"So it is not surprising to me that Barak has found him so useful."

Congressman Bob Filner (D-San Diego), who served as the first acting director of the Lipinsky Institute for Judaic Studies after Goldberg completed his stint as a visiting professor, said whereas he doesn't know Goldberg well, "the connection between politics and the study of history and philosophy is particularly close. So I think he brings an incredible wide ranging knowledge of history and the way of governing that should be of help to anybody."

Besides teaching at San Diego's two major universities, Goldberg is known and appreciated for giving lectures to various Jewish organizations on numerous occasions.

Eileen Wingard said she and her husband Hal "have attended all his lectures. We have always admired his insightful analysis and his ability to bring both sides of the issue in a very fair manner."

"We have attended lectures of his that were at Beth El, at Beth Am, at Adat Ami (before the congregation merged with Beth Tefilah to become Ohr Shalom Synagogue), and at the Jewish Community Center."

The Goldberg daughters were of similar age to the Wingards' nieces, Avlana and Cherina Eisenberg. Additionally, Tali Goldberg was quite interested in music as is the whole Wingard/ Schiff family -- forging another bond between the two families, which has been expressed over the years by many visits back and forth.

Goldberg came to San Diego to lecture nearly every year since 1984, typically drawing appreciative audiences. The last time he lectured in San Diego was in July 1998, when he delivered three lectures in a packed Garfield Studio at the Lawrence Family JCC on successive Tuesday evenings.

According to Jackie Gmach, cultural affairs coordinator at the JCC, the speeches reflected the
comprehensive way that Goldberg approaches his subject.

Designed to mark the 50th year of Israel's independence, the lecture series began with an examination of "Israeli society at the crossroads -- political, religious, cultural and socio-economic challenges." The second lecture concerned "Israel and the Arab world -- between the peace process and the military threat." The third examined Israel's relations with the United States and with the American Jewish community. "Will the partnership continue?" 

Prior to Barak's election, Goldberg was feeling distressed about government policies under Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government.

Remembering that period, Lakoff said, "one of the things that happened under Netanyahu unfortunately was that Israeli intellectuals felt alienated; they really felt as if he was against them. He was always denouncing the "elite'; whether it was the 'press elite' or the others, and so they sort of withdrew into their shells and I thought that was a very bad development for the country. 

"I am not only talking about Jacob but I have been in touch with a number of friends of mine who are Israeli intellectuals, whose work I value very much, and I urged all of them not to withdraw and not to feel that they are outsiders in the game, but to be open if people come along and urge them to take part."

Lakoff said that Goldberg took his advice, and "I was delighted when Barak realized his importance and value to him with this appointment."