The Jewish Federation of the Desert in Partnership with

Transcription

The Jewish
Federation of
the Desert
in Partnership
with
StandWithUs
Invite You to a
Lecture by
JEWISH FEDERATION
OF THE DESERT
69-710 Highway 111
Rancho Mirage, CA 92270
(760) 324-4737
Nonprofit
Organization
U.S. Postage
Paid
Permit #113
Santa Ana, CA
A Muslim who survived the Arab Spring in Egypt and has become Pro-Israel
Hussein Aboubakr Mansour will share his personal story of growing up in Egypt while having an interest
for the Jewish culture, religion and tradition. We will talk about his childhood and the indoctrination
he experienced around anti-Semitism from his family, school and friends. His interest unabated, he
studied Jewish culture, religion and Hebrew in college. While in college, the Tahrir Square occurred,
and he was among the many protestors there fighting for a future for the Egyptian people. He was
put in jail for his involvement in the protest and his studies in school, ending up spending over a year in prison.
He was able to escape from this situation and sought political asylum here in the United States. Mansour shares
this story to encourage others to stand up for what they believe in and to have a voice against the injustices that
happen around the world, which include the demonization and delegitimization of the State of Israel.
Monday, June 6 at 4:00PM
Location: To Be Announced to those who RSVP
For Security Reasons, you must RSVP and bring photo ID.
To RSVP or for information, contact Rebecca Hope at Rebecca.Hope@jfedps.org or 760-324-4737
OF THE DESERT
On the cover....
The Jewish
Federation of
the Desert
in Partnership
with
StandWithUs
Invite You to a
Lecture by
OF THE DESERT
2016-2017 Officers
JEWISH FEDERATION
OF THE DESERT
69-710 Highway 111
Rancho Mirage, CA 92270
(760) 324-4737
Nonprofit
Organization
U.S. Postage
Paid
Permit #113
Santa Ana, CA
A Muslim who survived the Arab Spring in Egypt and has become Pro-Israel
Hussein Aboubakr Mansour will share his personal story of growing up in Egypt while having an interest
for the Jewish culture, religion and tradition. We will talk about his childhood and the indoctrination
he experienced around anti-Semitism from his family, school and friends. His interest unabated, he
studied Jewish culture, religion and Hebrew in college. While in college, the Tahrir Square occurred,
and he was among the many protestors there fighting for a future for the Egyptian people. He was
put in jail for his involvement in the protest and his studies in school, ending up spending over a year in prison.
He was able to escape from this situation and sought political asylum here in the United States. Mansour shares
this story to encourage others to stand up for what they believe in and to have a voice against the injustices that
happen around the world, which include the demonization and delegitimization of the State of Israel.
Monday, June 6 at 4:00PM
Location: To Be Announced to those who RSVP
For Security Reasons, you must RSVP and bring photo ID.
To RSVP or for information, contact Rebecca Hope at Rebecca.Hope@jfedps.org or 760-324-4737
OF THE DESERT
2016-2017
JEWISH FEDERATION
BOARD OF DIRECTORS
Celia Norian,
Chairman of the Board
Nancy Ditlove, Co-Chair, Campaign
Libby Hoffman, Co-Chair, Campaign
Sherry Schor, Co-Chair, Campaign
Phil Glass, Treasurer
Bernard Reiter, Secretary
Bill Chunowitz, Immediate Past Chair
Buce Landgarten,
Chief Executive Officer
Sheri Borax
Elliott Cohen
Judith Cohen
Arnie Gillman
Ellen Glass
Bobbi Holland
Margie Kulp
Celia Norian
Nancy Ditlove
Co-Chair, Campaign
Libby Hoffman
Co-Chair, Campaign
Sherry Schor
Co-Chair, Campaign
Bernard Reiter
Secretary
Philip Glass
Treasurer
Bill Chunowitz
Immediate Past Chair
Jewish Federation Annual Meeting
The Jewish Federation’s Annual
Meeting was held May 4th.
Outgoing Chairman of the Board Bill
Chunowitz welcomed the attendees
and expressed his gratitude for the
outstanding commitment of his board
and support from the staff of the Jewish
Federation, singling out the leadership
and support he received from Chief
Executive Officer Bruce Landgarten.
Campaign Co-Chair Libby Hoffman
gave a financial update, followed by
Nominating Committee Chair Celia
Norian thanking outgoing board
members Dr. Paul Ross, Vernon
Kozlen, Sondi Green, Howard Levy
Ron Langus
Allan Lehmann
Allan Nyman
Stephanie S. Ross
Gary Schahet
Elisa Schwartz
Sandy Seplow
Table of Contents
Vol. 42 • No. 10
Community Calendar
12-13
Federation
1-3, 5, 11, 20
Legacy
21
Women’s Philanthropy
4
Food23
Jewish Family Service
5
Schools15
Simchas & Classifieds
22
Temples Listing
12
Tributes14-15
Yom HaShoah
17
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Bill
Chunowitz
Bruce
Landgarten
Linda
Scherzer
and Roberta Nyman for their nine
years of service, then presenting
Judith Cohen and Arnie Gillman for
election to the board. Federation
CEO Bruce Landgarten spoke of
how the Jewish Federation is the
central address/resource for Jewish
activities in our Coachella Valley and
the challenge of having to prioritize
needs because of limited resources.
He also addressed how the Jewish
Federation, as the public voice of
our Jewish community, responds
swiftly to local anti-Semitic and
anti-Israel activity. The keynote
speaker was Linda Scherzer, former
CNN Jerusalem correspondent and
Director of Write On for Israel. She
spoke about her exciting work with
WOI, which engages high school
students and trains them to become
leaders in pro-Israel movements
when they get to college.
Priorities
From the CEO
BRUCE
LANDGARTEN
Jewish Federation
Chief Executive
Officer
Whether in our personal or
professional lives, prioritizing the
demands on our time and resources
is always a challenge. This is no
less true for our Jewish Federation.
People come to us with legitimate
concerns and want us to react by
prioritizing their issue NOW... and
provide the resources to make it
happen.
Frankly, in a perfect world, all
the issues that affect the wellbeing
of our local – and global –
Jewish community deserve to be
prioritized. The challenge is that
even though an issue is a priority,
there are times when we - as a
community - aren't able to address
these priorities due to lack of
resources.
Sadly, our priorities far outweigh
the amount of support given to
address those same priorities.
In a community of over 20,000
Jews in peak season, I frequently
hear about a multitude of needs
and priorities. However, when it
comes to our Federation’s Annual
Campaign, there are a finite
number of contributors.
In a community as strong and
vibrant as ours, only 1400+ people
contribute to the one fund in our
community that is there to address
the myriad of legitimate needs that
people want prioritized and met.
The Jewish Federation is the only
organization in the Palm Springs
and Desert Area charged with the
responsibility of assessing and
addressing those priorities and
needs; yet we are not getting the
resources to do what we are asked
to achieve.
Historically, Jews took care of
Jews in times of need. While today
American governmental agencies
offer a variety of resources for
people in crisis, the many requests
the Jewish Federation receives each
week tells us that too many of our
fellow Jews are falling through the
cracks … and are turning to us for
help.
All of the belt tightening and
watchdog efficiency will only go so
far. We cannot address the needs
and priorities of our community
without an increased level of
support from the community. At
our Federation, everything is a
priority, everything is important,
and everything is worthwhile.
There is no room for frivolity or
excess, because we are using the
community's resources to address
the needs.
The reality is that the many needs
that cry out for our attention and
support cannot be acted on without
resources. If you have contributed
to our 2016 Annual Campaign, we
extend our heartfelt “thank you.”
If you have not sent in your gift as
yet, or if you never have supported
our Federation campaign, we need
to have you make this your priority
now. Help the Jewish Federation
ensure that every need and priority
is addressed.
We Are the Public Voice
By Bruce Landgarten
Overt anti-Semitism is on the
rise. It is wrapped in language
that attacks Israel’s legitimacy by
contesting its very right to exist as
a Jewish state. Delegitimization
includes questioning the validity
of Israel’s founding, demonizing
Israel and equating its policies
with Nazism, apartheid, and racist
ideologies, and holding Israel to
double standards.
As the “central address” for our
local Jewish community, the Jewish
Federation of the Desert is ever
vigilant to safeguard the wellbeing
of Jews who live in our community,
and serves as the spokesman
when anti-Semitic issues arise.
We are the public voice. We
speak out against local antiSemitic and anti-Israel activity and
respond with education and open
communication. As part of our
mission, we articulate our Jewish
community’s positions on events
affecting Israel or Jews locally,
nationally, and globally, and strive
to create mutual understanding
and respect with other religious
and community organizations. A
core commitment is working to
eliminate hatred, violence, and
persecution.
We do not need to look any
further than the nearby University
of California Riverside campus
to hear about virulent attacks
on Jewish students, a situation
that has so affected the entire
University of California system that
the university’s governing board
recently adopting a statement
condemning anti-Semitic behavior,
becoming the first public university
system to do so since campaigns for
boycotts of Israel have taken root
on many college campuses.
Anti-Semitism must never
be tolerated or justified. Any
form of bigotry and hatred are
direct affronts to American and
Jewish values of inclusivity and
pluralism. Our Federation’s Jewish
Community Relations Committee
is focusing on developing positive
outreach programs that will build
bridges and coalitions, and forge
relationships based on issues that
affect our community.
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Inaugural Pearl Society
Luncheon a Great Success
Pearl Society Luncheon Co-Chair Nora Rado, E. Randol Schoenberg, Co-Chair Sherry Salzman,
Women’s Philanthropy Director Tina Friedman and Women’s Philanthropy Chair Sheri Borax.
Over 100 women attended the inaugural
event for Women’s Philanthropy’s Pearl Society,
held April 13th at the Desert Island Country
Club. Chaired by Sherry Salzman and Nora
Rado, the highlight of the afternoon was attorney
E. Randol Schoenberg sharing his compelling
story of the years of legal efforts that resulted in
the successful recovery of “The Woman in Gold”
painting, and other works of art, which had been
confiscated by the Nazis during World War II.
His efforts were later documented in the wellreceived movie “The Woman in Gold,” which
was released in 2015.
Women’s Philanthropy Council Installation of Officers May 2, 2016
Installing Officer: Roberta Nyman
Sheri Borax Stephanie Marjorie Kulp
S. Ross
Judy Cohn
Mimi Paley
Carol
Horwich
Luber
Sherry Marnie Miller
Salzman
Lainie Weil
Chickie
Steinberger
JEWISH
COMMUNITY
NEWS
A Publication of the
Jewish Federation of the Desert
VOL. 42, No. 10
EDITORIAL
Bruce Landgarten,
Miriam H. Bent, Editor
Bailey Communications,
Layout & Design
JCN STATEMENT
The Jewish Community News seeks
to provide news and feature material
of special interest to its readership,
and to create a heightened sense
of Jewish identity through the
dissemination of information about
people, events and issues at home
and abroad. The JCN seeks to serve
as a forum for the exchange of
ideas and opinions in the Jewish
community.
The JCN is published monthly,
ten months a year by the Jewish
Federation of the Desert,
69-710 Highway 111,
Rancho Mirage, CA 92270,
760-324-4737, fax 760-324-3154.
ARTICLES & ADVERTISING,
Miriam H. Bent, Editor
760-323-0255
e-mail-mhbentjcn@earthlink.net
Seated: Barbara Platt, Marcia Stein, Bonnie Carmell, Annette Novack, Barbara Weisberg, Judy Cohn, Marnie Miller and Sheila Sloan. Standing:
Lainie Weil, Celia Norian, WP Director Tina Friedman, Stephanie S. Ross, Michelle Carafiol, Marjorie Kulp, Dolly Levy, Roberta Nyman, Mimi Paley,
Sherry Salzman, Paula Klein, Edith Familian, Joanne Chunowitz, Libby Hoffman, Carol Horwich Luber, Arlene Volk, Debra Star, Judith Cohen,
Chickie Steinberger and Council Chair Sheri Borax.
Women’s Philanthropy Council 2016-2017
Women’s Philanthropy Council Chair Sheri Borax with newly elected
members of the WP Council: Marjorie Kulp, Michelle Carafiol, Edith Familian
and Arlene Volk. Not pictured: Jackie Cohen and Renee Mayer.
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Officers
Sheri Borax, Chair
Stephanie S. Ross, Co-Chair Campaign
Marjorie Kulp, Co-Chair Campaign
Judy Cohn, Co-Chair Education
Mimi Paley, Co-Chair Education
Carol Horwich Luber, Co-Chair Outreach
Sherry Salzman, Co-Chair Outreach
Marnie Miller, Recording Secretary
Lainie Weil, Immediate Past Chair
Chickie Steinberger, Immediate Past Campaign Co-Chair
Council
Sandra Borns • Michelle Carafiol • Bonnie Carmell
Joanne Chunowitz • Jackie Cohen • Edith Familian
Joanne Hirschfield • Libby Hoffman • Paula Klein
Lana Landa • Dolly Levy • Renee Mayer • Nora Rado
Gail Scadron • Sheila Sloan • Arlene Volk
Barbara Weisberg + Past Chairs • Judith Cohen
Celia Norian • Marcia Stein
ADVERTISING
The JCN does not endorse the
goods or services advertised in its
pages and makes no representation
as to the kashrut of food products
and services in such advertising.
The publisher shall not be liable
for damages if, for any reason
whatsoever, it fails to publish an
advertisement or for any error in
an advertisement. Acceptance of
advertisers and of advertising copy is
subject to the publisher’s approval.
The JCN is not responsible if ads
violate applicable laws and the
advertiser will indemnify, hold
harmless and defend the JCN from all
claims made by government agencies
and consumers for any reason based
on ads carried in the JCN.
Breakthrough Blood Test For Alzheimer’s Disease To Undergo Clinical Trials
By Yonatan Sredni, No Camels
In order to accurately diagnose
Alzheimer’s disease, medical
professionals must conduct a long
series of tests to assess a patient’s
memory impairment, cognitive skills,
functional abilities, and behavioral
changes. The process also includes
costly brain imagining scans and, in
some cases, invasive cerebral spinal
fluid tests to rule out other diseases.
Now, a new discovery by a team of
Israeli and American researchers seeks
to effectively screen and diagnose
Alzheimer’s using a blood test. The
new study, published in the Journal
of Alzheimer’s Disease, proposes a
new biomarker for cognitive aging
and Alzheimer’s disease: The activitydependent neuro-protective protein
(ADNP), whose levels can be easily
monitored in routine blood tests. The
study also found that higher ADNP
levels tested in the blood correlate
with higher IQ in healthy older adults.
The researchers now plan to move
forward into clinical trials in order to
create a pre-Alzheimer’s test that will
help to tailor potential preventative
treatments.
The research was led by Tel Aviv
University‘s Prof. Illana Gozes, and
spearheaded by Dr. Gad Marshall,
Dr. Aaron Schultz, and Prof. Reisa
Sperling of Harvard University, along
with Prof. Judith Aharon-Peretz of
Rambam Medical Center and the
Technion Institute of Technology.
Early intervention
During the study, significant
increases in ADNP levels were
observed in patients ranging from
mild cognitive impairment (MCI) to
Alzheimer’s dementia. ADNP levels
tested in plasma and serum samples,
as well as white blood cell RNA levels,
distinguished among cognitively
normal elderly, MCI, and Alzheimer’s
dementia participants.
The investigators analyzed blood
samples taken from 42 healthy adults,
MCI patients, and Alzheimer’s disease
patients at Rambam Medical Center
in Israel. After comparing the ADNP
expression in the blood samples, the
researchers prepared plasma samples
and once again compared the protein
levels.
“This study has provided the basis to
detect this biomarker in routine, noninvasive blood tests, and it is known
that early intervention is invaluable to
Alzheimer’s patients,” Gozes said in a
statement. “We are now planning to
take these preliminary findings forward
into clinical trials — to create a preAlzheimer’s test that will help to tailor
potential preventative treatments.”
This new research is based on Gozes’
earlier investigation of neuronal
plasticity and nerve cell protection
at the molecular, cellular, and system
level, and her discovery of novel
families of proteins, including ADNP,
associated with cross-communication
among neural nerve cells and their
support cells. “Interestingly, we also
found that the more ADNP in the
serum, the higher the person’s IQ
level,” Gozes said.
Joining Annabelle is Jewish Federation of the Desert
Chief Executive Officer Bruce Landgarten.
Bruce Landgarten, Chief Executive Officer of the Jewish Federation of the Desert;
Patti Park, Executive Director of Angel View; and Barbara Platt, the co-chair, along
with Debra Star, of the Federation Day event of the Women’s Association of Tamarisk
Country Club on behalf of the Federation Annual Campaign; stand in front of the
Angel View van, the purchase of which was made possible by funds from the Jewish
Federation and Women’s Association of Tamarisk Country Club.
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Israel’s Stunning New National Library Breaks Ground in Jerusalem
By Einat Paz-Frankel, NoCamels
The new National Library of Israel
(NLI) broke ground in Jerusalem in
early April, at a cornerstone-laying
ceremony led by President Reuven
Rivlin and Prime Minister Benjamin
Netanyahu. The 45,000-square-meter
building, which will be completed
in 2020, features stunning designs
by renowned Swiss architecture firm
Herzog & de Meuron.
The largest public library in Israel,
this monumental complex includes
six above-ground floors and four
below-ground floors, and will be
built next to Israel’s parliament and
the Israel Museum. “The beginning
of construction on the new building
is a major milestone in the National
Library’s transformative renewal
process, which aims to preserve
and open access to the cultural and
intellectual treasures of the State
of Israel and the Jewish people
safeguarded in its collections,”
according to NLI.
Founded in 1892, NLI is in the
midst of a renewal process designed
to address the challenges of the 21st
century. “The new building will enable
NLI to provide state-of-the-art services
to researchers, readers, visitors and
online users, making accessible the
millions of intellectual and cultural
assets it has collected for more than
120 years,” according to NLI.
The partners in the renewal project
are the government of Israel, the
Rothschild family, and the David and
Ruth Gottesman family of New York.
“For 2,000 years the writings of the
Jewish people were scattered across
the world,” Lord Rothschild said in a
statement. “Now, these writings from
the past as well as books yet to be
written and digital materials, together
with a wide range of collections, are
to have a permanent home.” The NLI
is currently located in Givat Ram, a
neighborhood of Jerusalem, and will
move to its new location in four years.
The Swiss firm Herzog & de
Meuron, famous for the design of
London’s Tate Modern, as well as
the Beijing National Stadium for
the 2008 Olympic Games. Herzog
& de Meuron’s design of the new
NLI complex – for which Israelis
Amir Mann and Ami Shinar served
as executive architects – reflects the
transition from a library to a digital
information hub. “The shift from print
to digital necessitates a rethinking of
the library both as an institution and
a building typology,” Herzog & de
Meuron said in a statement. “To sustain
their relevance in the information age,
contemporary libraries must function
for existing users by providing the
operation and spatial quality of
traditional library buildings, while
generating alternative spaces and uses
to attract new audiences.”
Harmless? Herbal Medicines Could Interfere With Life-Saving Cancer Treatments
By Aylen Silberman, NoCamels
Nearly two-thirds of the herbal
medicines used by cancer patients in
the Middle East have potential health
risks, according to a new Israeli study.
These seemingly harmless plants and
extractions were found to interact
with conventional cancer drugs and
chemotherapy, negatively affecting
life-saving anti-cancer treatments.
The study, led by Prof. Eran BenArye of the Technion-Israel Institute of
Technology, was recently published
in the prestigious scientific journal
Cancer. It concludes that herbal
remedies such as turmeric may
increase the toxic effects of certain
chemotherapies, while gingko biloba
and green teas could increase the
risks of bleeding in some cancer
patients. Other herbs, including black
cumin, can reduce the effectiveness
of chemotherapy.
In all, 29 of the 44 most popular
herbal products in 16 Middle Eastern
countries – from Turkey to Tunisia –
were associated with safety-related
concerns.
The findings are based on a survey
conducted by Ben-Arye and his
colleagues, who asked more than
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300 cancer care providers about
the kinds of herbal medicines their
patients were using. They found
that 57 percent of the providers had
patients who used at least one herbal
remedy.
The countries with the highest
rates of herbal medicine use include
Turkey, the Palestinian Authority and
Qatar. Stinging nettle, garlic, black
cumin and turmeric were among the
most used herbs, with other items
such as camel milk and honey also
making the list.
A skeptical view of alternative
medicine
Cancer care providers generally
have a skeptical view of these
alternative medicines, but the study
notes that they support having a
physician consultant who can speak
to “the effectiveness and safety of
these herbal practices, along with
conventional cancer treatments.”
Ben-Arye emphasizes that, “in
the majority of cases, patients seek
to combine the best of the two
worlds and do not perceive herbal
medicine as a real alternative to
modern oncology care.” However,
in many cases, there is a lack of
communication between the patient
and cancer care provider. According
to the study, more than 20 percent of
patients who use complementary and
traditional medicine, including herbal
agents, “are often reluctant to disclose
this practice to their conventional
medical professional.”
The researchers hope the new study
will urge cancer care providers to offer
“open, non-judgmental” advice about
the safety and effectiveness of herbal
medicine and improve physicianpatient communication and that their
findings will raise awareness to the
detrimental effects of certain herbal
products for cancer patients receiving
conventional treatment.
Responding to Anti-Semitism with Lemonade; Anti-Semitism at UC Riverside
By Kevin Giser, Director of Jewish Student Life for the Inland and Desert Hillel Council
Who can't relate to drinking
lemonade on a hot day? From
this statement an idea was born;
StandWithUs, a Los Angeles based
Pro-Israel organization, decided that
the fight against Boycott, Divestment
and Sanctions on college campuses
was truly a branding issue.
While Israel faces challenges
both economically and militarily
on a daily basis, the average college
student is unable to process this while
also balancing student debt, a job, a
full course load, their social life as
well as their involvement in student
organizations like Hillel.
These everyday challenges students
face are important, so from this
came the campaign "Squeeze the
Challenges in your Life". Based on the
saying, "when life gives you lemons,
make lemonade," this concept was
to quite literally identify challenges
in students’ lives, let them squeeze it
and give them lemonade.
Over 350 students participated
on a 91 degree day in April, and all
of them used a chalkboard attached
to a stuffed lemon to write challenges
such as "Midterms", "Student Debt",
"Racism", "Income inequality" and
many others. They took the lemon
and squeezed it in-front of a photo
wall, giving them a picture perfect
opportunity for a generation obsessed
with sharing in the moment photos
with their friends.
After the photo they were given
a glass of lemonade and a post card
with a picture of Israel with different
sets of facts on them, identifying some
of the challenges Israel faces. While
in line, Hillel students engaged the
eagerly waiting students about their
own personal challenges, as well as
the challenges the Jewish people have
overcome over our almost 6000 years
of existence.
We had students from all walks
of life participate and many of them
were extremely grateful to receive
free lemonade as well as a chance
to vent. We are confident that it will
be programs like this that will help
bring college students to the table for
discussions about Israel and why we
take her safety so seriously.
This program would not have
been possible without the Jewish
Federation of the Desert's support
of Hillel and incredible groups like
StandWIthUs.
Terror Ties of BDS Backers Revealed
Testimony at Congressional committee reveals close ties between BDS backers and Hamas fundraisers.
By David Rosenberg, Arutz Sheva
While the Boycott, Divestment and
Sanctions movement has done little to
hide its malicious anti-Israel hatred,
the movement hitherto has succeeded
in maintaining the appearance of
legitimacy, presenting itself as the
peaceful alternative to terrorism.
Despite rhetoric which pro-Israel
activists have noted signals a rejection
of Jewish statehood per se and draws
upon the kind of terrorist propaganda
disseminated by Hamas and the PLO,
no clear link tying BDS to supporters
of terror organizations could be
found.
In late April, a former terrorism
finance analyst for the US Treasury
Department offered testimony to
congress suggesting connections
between the BDS movement and
supporters of the Hamas terror group.
Jonathan Schanzer, who worked
for the US Treasury Department from
2004 to 2007 monitoring terrorist
funding, spoke before a House
Foreign Affairs subcommittee last
Tuesday regarding the ties between
the BDS movement and terror
fundraisers including the now defunct
Holy Land Foundation for Relief and
Development.
Schanzer noted that three prominent
Islamic organizations – the Holy Land
Foundation, the Islamic Association
for Palestine, and the KindHearts for
Charitable Development – had been
prosecuted and eventually shut down
after serving as fronts for the Hamas
terror group.
While many of the organizers
responsible for these three groups
were given prison sentences or
deported from the US, others highlevel members were involved in the
founding of American Muslims for
Palestine.
An inquiry by the Investigative
Project on Terrorism found that five
high-ranking officials in American
Muslims for Palestine had been
members of the Islamic Association
for Palestine.
Schanzer pointed out other senior
Islamic Association for Palestine
members now operating in the AMP.
Rafeeq Jaber, for instance, had served
as President of the IAP. Today, he is
an official working for the AMP’s
Educational Foundation. Former
IAP secretary general, Abdelbasset
Hamayel, is now listed as an AMP
agent in the organization’s Chicago
branch.
Other AMP members include
Hossein Khatib, a former regional
director for the Holy Land Foundation
who now serves on the AMP board
of directors. Salah Sarsour is another
AMP board member with ties to the
Holy Land Foundation. Both Salah
and his brother, Jamil, had served
time in Israel over their ties to Hamas.
Jamil admitted that he and his brother
Salah had raised funds for the Qassam
Brigades, the military wing of Hamas.
Anti-Israel organizations like
Students for Justice in Palestine, which
operates on college campuses across
the US, are heavily funded by the
AMP. In recent years the AMP has
become one of the leading financial
backers of BDS groups like the SJP.
Aside from direct financial support,
the “AMP provides speakers, training,
printed materials… and grants to SJP
activists. AMP even has a campus
coordinator on staff whose job is
to work directly with SJP and other
pro-BDS campus groups,” Schanzer
testified.
In some cases, terrorists were
involved directly in the operation of
BDS organizations. Schanzer offered
the example of the US Coalition to
Boycott Israel, a Chicago-based BDS
group run by a former PFLP terrorist.
“The group’s president is
Chicago resident Ghassan Barakat,
a consular notary for the Palestine
Liberation Organization who has
been identified… as a member of the
Palestine National Council.”
Barakat was a “’fighter in the
ranks of the mountain brigade’ for
the PFLP,” a reference to the Popular
Front for the Liberation of Palestine,
a terror group responsible for some
of the worst atrocities committed
in Israel including the 1972 Lod
Airport Massacre and 2014 Jerusalem
Synagogue Massacre.
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Israeli Experts Help California Grow More Rice with Less Water
By NoCamels Team
Drought is a continued concern
for farmers in California, especially
those who grow rice, which requires
large amounts of water. Now, a
project based on Israeli research and
water technology aims to create one
of the first sustainable rice farms in
the United States, which will reduce
water use at the 17,244-acre Conaway
Ranch in Woodland, California.
The project seeks to better understand
if rice can be grown effectively with
subsurface drip irrigation. The method
consists of a series of pipes that deliver
water directly to the roots of the plant
and has the potential to reduce water
usage, as well as save on fertilizers
and improve weed control.
“We believe this initiative represents
the first use of drip irrigation in the US
for a rice crop,” Kyriakos Tsakopoulos,
owner of the ranch, said in a statement.
“We couldn’t ask for better partners.”
The ranch has enlisted the help
of Israel’s Ben-Gurion University
(BGU) and drip-irrigation leader
Netafim, which have experience
growing rice in arid regions. “This
effort could serve as a model for other
farms and potentially save hundreds
of thousands of acre feet of water
in California if widely adopted,”
according to Tsakopoulos.
Bryce Lundberg, vice president
of agriculture for Lundberg Family
Farms, which is one of the world’s
largest producers of organic rice
and whole grain products, agrees.
“As a partner in this cutting-edge
project, we are hopeful that this
Terraced rice fields
concept could provide farmers with a
revolutionary form of rice production
not only in California, but wherever
rice is grown worldwide,” he said in
a statement. “We are always looking
to implement new technologies that
can benefit growers and promote
sustainable farming practices, and
we hope that the project’s success
can be duplicated to improve organic
weed management while producing
environmental and conservation
benefits.”
“Helping farmers reduce their water
consumption”
Over the past 18 months, BGU’s
water expert Prof. Eilon Adar has
traveled several times to meet with
California legislators and water
resource officials, discussing how
Israel, an arid country, has created a
surplus of water through innovation,
technology and effective water
management policies.
After evaluating a number of
options to enhance water use
efficiency, Conaway Ranch decided
to move forward with his subsurface
drip irrigation pilot project. “We’ve
outlined the testing procedures
necessary to maximize success,
based on experience growing a
variety of crops in arid climates
using subsurface drip irrigation,”
Adar explained. “We’re pleased to
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Sub-surface irrigation
be playing a leading role, providing
knowledge and expertise to help
California farmers reduce their water
consumption.”
Agronomists from Israeli company
Netafim, which pioneered and
perfected the drip-irrigation system,
have conducted a few rice crop trials
in other parts of the world. Installation
of the system and the first plantings at
the Conaway Ranch are scheduled for
completion this year. Based on results
from previous projects, this trial is
expected to produce an improvement
in yield, while reducing water use.
“As drought conditions persist,
efficiency in every aspect of farming
is critical to the sustainability of
California farming,” Netafim’s Scott
Warr said in a statement. “Through
research trials and partnerships,
Netafim continues to be committed
to providing growers with access
to viable solutions that address the
challenge of maintaining profitable
farming in a resource-limited world.”
Quantifying Overweight Teen's Risk of Heart-Attack Death as Adults
Israeli study finds elevated BMI during adolescence predicts fatal cardiovascular events later in life. The study had some surprises, too.
By Abigail Klein Leichman, Israel 21c
A nationwide study of 2.3 million
Israeli adolescents examined from
1967 through 2010 has found a clear
association between elevated bodymass index (BMI) in late adolescence
and subsequent cardiovascular
mortality in midlife.
The unusually broad scope of
this study provides further support for
findings of previous studies suggesting
such an association. The results were
published on April 13, 2016 in the New
England Journal of Medicine.
“Our findings appear to provide a
link between the trends in adolescent
overweight during the past decades and
coronary mortality in midlife,” said the
paper’s senior author, Prof. Jeremy Kark
of the Hebrew University-Hadassah
Braun School of Public Health and
Community Medicine. “The continuing
increase in adolescent BMI, and the
rising prevalence of overweight and
obesity among adolescents, may
account for a substantial and growing
future burden of cardiovascular disease,
particularly coronary heart disease,”
Kark said.
BMI is a calculation of weight
divided by the square of height. People
with a BMI of 25 to 29.9 are considered
overweight (84th to 94th percentile),
while obesity is defined by a BMI of 30
or more (95th percentile).
Kark and 11 other researchers,
including Dr. Hagai Levine from the
Braun School and Dr. Gilad Twig of
Sheba Medical Center, examined a
national database containing height and
weight values of 2.3 million 17-year-old
Israelis recorded over a 43-year period.
They assessed the association between
BMI in late adolescence and 32,127
deaths among the cohort in midlife
from coronary heart disease, stroke and
sudden death by mid-2011.
The results showed an increase in risk
of death from coronary heart disease at
BMI values above 20, even within the
“normal” range of 18.5 to 24.9 BMI.
As BMI scores increased into the
75th to 84th percentiles, there was an
elevated risk of death from coronary
heart disease, stroke and sudden death,
while the rates of death per person-per
year were generally lowest in the group
that had adolescent BMI values in the
25th to 49th percentiles.
Higher rates also were observed
among those considered underweight,
below the fifth percentile (less than 18.5
BMI).
The researchers offered two possible
reasons for the apparent influence of
adolescent BMI on cardiovascular
outcomes in adulthood. One is simply
that overweight adolescents tend to
become overweight or obese adults
more prone to cardiovascular disease.
They also speculate that early obesity
could exacerbate the effects of obesityassociated metabolic abnormalities
later on, such as high plasma lipid or
lipoprotein levels, increased blood
pressure, impaired glucose metabolism,
insulin resistance, and coronary and
aortic atherosclerotic plaques.
However, weight is not the sole
risk factor. Several other associations
were revealed by crunching the data.
For example, low residential socioeconomic status was associated with
a greater risk of coronary heart and
stroke mortality, whereas the reverse
was noted for sudden death. Height
and years of schooling were inversely
related to all four cardiovascular
endpoints, indicating that taller and
better-educated people are at less risk.
Country of origin also seems to
impact health. The data showed that
people of Israeli and Asian origin were
at excess risk of coronary heart disease
mortality; Asian and North African
origins were at higher risk of stroke
mortality; and USSR, Asian and North
African origins were at a greater risk of
sudden death and total cardiovascular
disease mortality.
Scientists involved in this research
are affiliated with Sheba Medical
Center in Ramat Gan, the Israel
Defense Forces Medical Corps,
Sackler School of Medicine at Tel
Aviv University, Hebrew UniversityHadassah Braun School of Public
Health and Community Medicine,
the Israel Ministry of Health, and
Mount Auburn Hospital and Harvard
Medical School in Massachusetts.
Representing Buyers and Sellers throughout
the desert for more than 28 years
When you think of real estate, "Just Ring a Bell"
760.902.9206
rng.bell@aol.com/www.beverlybell.com
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Rock legend Phil Lesh gathers musician friends for a Grateful Dead Passover
Fans of the iconic psychedelic band celebrate the Jewish holiday at Terrapin Crossroads, the bassist’s Marin County club
BY ALIX WALL , The Times of Israel
“Why can’t we eat veggie burritos
tonight? Will I be miracled? Will they
play ‘The Wheel?’ Will Phil sing?” These
four additional questions were asked at
a Passover seder this week that’s quickly
becoming a new Bay Area tradition.
Fans of the legendary psychedelic band
the Grateful Dead celebrated Passover
for the third year in a row Wednesday
night at Terrapin Crossroads, the Marin
County club owned by the band’s bassist,
Phil Lesh.
This was the first year that seders were
held on consecutive nights, Tuesday
and Wednesday. Tickets for both sold
out within minutes; 150 guests attended
each night.
These seders were unlike many others
in that after the reading of the Haggadah
and a meal of matzah ball soup and
brisket, the tables were cleared to make
way for a dance floor, and guests were
treated to an hour-and-a-half set of music
by Lesh and friends, the Terrapin All Stars.
Lesh and his wife, Jill, opened Terrapin
Crossroads in 2012, with community
building part of its mission. Lesh, who
is not Jewish, had always noticed the
disproportionate number of Jews among
the band’s fans, known as Deadheads.
Encouraged by Ross James, a Jewish
guitarist in his band, Phil Lesh and
Friends, Lesh decided in 2013 to hold a
Hanukkah menorah lighting.
It was so popular that when it came
to a seder, “we felt we had no choice,”
James told the J. Weekly in 2014.
Enter Jeannette Ferber. A cantorial
soloist at the Renewal synagogue
Chochmat HaLev in Berkeley, Ferber
and her husband, Cory, were Terrapin
regulars. Ferber offered to help with
the menorah lighting, which led to her
becoming the go-to person to form a
seder planning committee.
In 2014, she led the first seder, and
was invited to sing a song that night
with the band of Bay Area musicians in
Lesh’s post-Dead circle. (The surviving
members of the Dead – Lesh, Bob Weir,
Bill Kreutzmann and Mickey Hart – have
performed in solo projects and bands
since the band’s last major tour in 2009.)
At both seders this year, Ferber sang
numerous songs, including Bob Dylan’s
“Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door,” which for
Phil Lesh lights the candles as Jeannette Ferber, a Cantorial soloist at Berkeley’s Renewal
Congregation Chochmat HaLev, sings the blessing and guitarist Ross James looks on at
Passover seder April 2016.
years has been part of the High Holidays
liturgy at Chochmat HaLev, and Leonard
Cohen’s “Hallelujah.”
Most of the songs sung over the two
nights had some kind of connection to
Passover or the Bible, like the Dead’s
“Samson and Delilah.” In “All New
Minglewood Blues,” James changed the
lyric from “a couple shots of whiskey” to
“a couple shots of Manischewitz.”
This year the seder was led for the first
time by Wendy Garf-Lipp, of Dartmouth,
Massachusetts, who flew across the
country for the event. Garf-Lipp has
taught at Solomon Schechter day schools
in Jericho, New York, and Providence,
Rhode Island. Her son Ezra Lipp, an
alumnus of the Providence Schechter, is
now a frequent drummer for Lesh.
“I’m 60 and he’s 32. L’dor v’dor,” said
Garf-Lipp of her son, using the Hebrew
phrase meaning “from generation to
generation.” “To have this 30-year
gap between the two of us and share
this music that we both love” is an
incredible thing, she said. “To see your
child taking the music you grew up with
and reinterpreting it for a new audience
is spiritual.”
Ross James, a member of Phil Lesh and
Friends, singing with Jeannette Ferber.
(Jamie Soja via JTA)
Garf-Lipp has been a Deadhead
since 1967, and was at their legendary
concert at the Great Pyramid of Giza in
1978. She had been in Israel when it was
announced.
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“I’ve always seen Judaism as this
fusion of fixity and flux, this continuum
of thought and idea and behavior,” GarfLipp said. “And I’ve always seen being a
Deadhead in the same way.”
As soon as her son began playing
at Terrapin Crossroads, she knew she
wanted to be involved with the seder.
She offered to revamp the Haggadah and
spent six months working on it. Culled
from a range of Haggadot – including
ones produced by the Reform movement,
Chabad and the JQ International Jewish
LGBT group — it includes readings about
contemporary social issues like human
trafficking and domestic violence.
Besides lighting the candles, Lesh
narrated the Passover story and could
be seen singing his way through the four
questions along with the crowd.
Brian Markovitz, who runs the
deadheadland website as well as the
Facebook group Jews for Jerry (as in
Garcia, the band’s late guitarist and
guiding spirit, who died in 1995),
has been part of the seder planning
committee all three years.
“This is my family, and who I spend
the most time with, so it makes sense
that this is how I’d spend my Passover,”
Markovitz said. “It’s so great that Phil
recognizes that.”
Jerome Marcus, attending the seder
for the first time, was struck by watching
the 76-year-old Lesh play with his son
Grahame and other musicians much
younger than Lesh.
“He’s passing it through,” Marcus said.
“I’ve brought my parents [to Terrapin
Crossroads], and now I’ve brought my
2-year-old son here.”
As for Ferber, it’s been a dream come
true. Before she became a cantorial
soloist six years ago, she hadn’t sung
in over 10 years. Ferber, 38, grew up
in Canton, Ohio, attending the Reform
Temple Israel. She first discovered her
love of singing at Camp Wise outside
of Cleveland. A data analyst by day at
Kaiser Permanente, she found Chochmat
HaLev after a period of disconnection
from Judaism and began singing in the
choir.
When its choir director moved
away, she tapped Ferber to succeed her
as cantorial soloist. Since becoming
Terrapin’s consultant for all things Jewish,
Ferber has been asked to sing with Lesh’s
band at other gigs as well. One weekend
last June, when they re-created the
Dead’s shows from 1977 – including one
from Barton Hall in Ithaca, New York,
that many consider to be the Dead’s best
performance ever — she sang the parts of
Donna Jean Godchaux, a former backup
singer in the band.
Grammy Award winner John Mayer
played with the band that weekend, and
an Instagram photo of her with Mayer
taken after the show caused a flurry of
speculation among his female fans as
to who his new lady friend was (the star
has dated everyone from Katy Perry to
Jennifer Aniston, and many fans were
relieved to learn that the photo was taken
by her husband).
A video from the Barton Hall show,
thanks to Mayer’s appearance, has over
200,000 views on YouTube.
Whether she’s singing at shul or
at Terrapin, Ferber said, “I try to open
myself up to be a channel for song and
not overthink things. So much of the
Dead’s music has a deep story or spiritual
element to it, so that makes it the same.”
For the longtime Deadhead, “getting
to sing with someone from such an
influential band is more than I ever
could have imagined, and I love the
fact that it happened through singing in
synagogue,” she said. “I’m so beyond
grateful.”
DESERT HOLOCAUST MEMORIAL
OF THE DESERT
The Desert Holocaust Memorial is located in the Palm Desert Civic Center Park
at San Pablo Avenue & Fred Waring Drive.
Residents and visitors are encouraged to visit this moving memorial,
a place of remembrance and monument of hope.
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Shabbat and Holiday Information
Check the websites or call the synagogues for the full schedule of their services.
BETH SHALOM (Member,
United Synagogue of
Conservative Judaism)
Ken Hailpern, Spiritual Leader
79-733 Country Club Drive,
Bermuda Dunes, CA 92203
congregationbethshalom.net
760-200-3636
8 pm Friday/9:30 am Saturday
Shabbat Services. Sit down
Kiddush after Shabbat morning
services.
Friday, May 27 & July 1: Shabbat
Celebration and Round-Table
Discussion.
Shavuot services: Sunday, June
12 – 9:30 am; Monday, June
13 – 9:30 am/Yizkor
Weekday minyan on hiatus for
the summer months.
CENTRO CULTURAL HEBREO
DE MEXICALI (Conservative)
Mexicali, Baja California,
Mexico Contact: Ron Cohen
www.judiosdemexicali.com
760-960-3392 US
(686) 216-7152 Mexico
CHABAD OF PALM SPRINGS &
DESERT COMMUNITIES
Rabbi Yonason Denebeim
425 Ortega, Palm Springs, CA
92264
www.chabadpalmsprings.com
760-325-0774
Shabbat services Friday/Saturday;
daily morning and evening
minyan.
CHABAD OF PALM DESERT
A project of Chabad of Palm
Springs & Desert Communities
Rabbi Mendy Friedman
www.chabadpd.com 760-9692153 / 760-969-2158
CHABAD OF RANCHO MIRAGE
Rabbi Shimon Posner
72295 Via Marta, Rancho
Mirage, CA 92270
www.chabadrm.com
760-770-7785
Shabbat services Friday: check
website for service times.
Saturday 10 am; children’s
program/service 11:15 am.
Daily morning and evening
minyan. M-F 7:00 am; Sundays
8:00 am/check website for
mincha/maariv times.
Candle Lighting Times
Friday, May 13
Friday, May 20
Friday, May 27
Friday, June 3
Friday, June 10
Saturday, June 11
Friday, June 17
Friday, June 24
Friday, July 1
Friday, July 8
Friday, July 15
Friday, July 22
Friday, July 29
Shabbat Kedoshim
Shabbat Emori
Shabbat Behar
Shabbat Bechukotai
Shabbat Bamidbar
Erev Shavuot
Shabbat Naso
Shabbat Bahalotcho
Shabbat Shelach
Shabbat Korach Shabbat Chukat Shabbat Balak
Shabbat Pinchas
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6:56 pm
7:02 pm
7:06 pm
7:11 pm
7:15 pm
After 8:40 pm
7:17 pm
7:19 pm
7:19 pm
7:18 pm
7:16 pm
7:12 pm
7:08 pm
CONGREGATION HAR-EL
(Member, Union for
Reform Judaism)
Rabbi Richard Zionts
harelurj@aol.com
760-779-1691
For information contact
Har-El by email or phone.
CONGREGATION SHALOM
BAYIT (Reform)
Rabbi Kenneth Milhander
1320 W. Williams Ave.,
Banning, CA 92220.
Contact 951-769-3678/7697514
Shabbat Service 3rd Friday/
Havdallah 1st Saturday evening.
DESERT HOT SPRINGS
Monthly services on hiatus
until September. Call Jewish
Federation, 760-324-4737,
for schedule.
SHADOW HILLS JEWISH
OUTREACH GROUP
Monthly Shabbat services
third Friday of the month at
6 pm, with Rabbi Julian King.
760-406-3323 Montecito
Clubhouse, Sun City Shadow
Hills.
TEMPLE HAR SHALOM,
Idyllwild
Friday, June 10 – 6 pm Friday
night services and Farewell
Potluck for Rabbi King at
St. Hugh Church, 25525
Tahquitz, Idyllwild. For July
and August, check www.
templeharshalomidyllwild.org
for schedule with Rabbi Malka
Drucker.
TEMPLE ISAIAH
Rabbi David J. Lazar.
332 West Alejo Road,
Palm Springs, CA 92262,
760-325-2281.
www.templeisaiahps.com.
First Friday 6:30 pm; rest of
month 7:30 pm /10 am
Saturday Shabbat Services.
Shavuot services: Sunday,
June 12 -10 am; Monday,
June 13 – 10 am/Yizkor
TEMPLE SINAI (Reform)
Rabbi Andrew Bentley
73-251 Hovley Lane West,
Palm Desert, CA 92260.
www.templesinaipd.org
760-568-9699.
7:30 pm Friday/8:45 am
Torah study; 10 am Saturday
Shabbat Services.
Saturday, May 28 - Bar Mitzvah
of Seth Curtin.
Beginning June 3rd, Friday
evening Shabbat Services at
5:30 pm for summer.
June 10 - Shabbat Zimra
Dinner – 5:30 pm, followed
by services at 6:30 pm,
celebrating Shavuot and
Confirmation. Sunday, June
12: 10 am – Shavuot services/
Yizkor.
BIKUR CHOLIM
(Community Outreach)
Rabbi Yankel Kreiman
www.BikurCholimPS.com
760-325-8076.
Summer Community Calendar
Wednesdays
10:00 am and 1:30 pm Tolerance
Education Center free movies.
Check website or call 760-3288252 for list of films.
Wednesdays
3:00-4:15 pm Temple Isaiah
ExploraTorah with Rabbi David
Lazar (call 760-325-2281 to
check which weeks over the
summer Rabbi will be out of
town and class is cancelled)
Chabad Rancho Mirage
Children’s Programs
C Teen Global Teen network
offering social, educational &
humanitarian programming.
C Teen Jr. For 7-8 graders.
Educational and social
programming.
C Kids ages 4-11. Meets Sundays
10:30-noon. Trips. Art.
Cooking. Teaching life skills.
Call 760-272-1923 or email
Chaya@chabadrm.com for
information about the groups
and meeting date.
Tuesdays, May 17, 24, 31
9:00 am Temple Sinai Men’s
Opinion Exchange Group
Tuesdays, May 17, 24, 31
5:00-7:00 pm Chabad Rancho
Mirage’s weekly BBQ.
Affordable, fun and kosher!
Reservations not required, but
helpful: 760-770-7785. BBQ
will go on hiatus June 1 until
Sukkot.
Wednesdays, May 18, 25
9:00 am Temple Sinai
Introduction to Judaism
Wednesdays, May 18, 25
Noon Temple Sinai Lunch and
Limud.
Thursdays, May 19, 26
2:00 pm Temple Sinai Kabbalah
Class.
Thursday, May 19, 26
3:30-5:00 pm Chabad of Rancho
Mirage CTeen Pizza and
Parsha. Call 760-272-1923 or
email Chaya@chabadrm.com
for information and to RSVP.
Thursday, May 19
4:00 PM Beth Shalom Book Club
discussion of “Safekeeping:
A Novel” by Jessamyn Hope,
led by Ken Hailpern. For
information call 760-200-3636.
Sunday, May 22
12:30 pm Beth Shalom Lag
B’Omer Barbecue and Bingo.
Members: $15/non-members
$20. Reservation required: 760200-3636.
Tuesday, May 24
7:00 pm Temple Isaiah Twice
Blessed’s Movie and Mingling.
Israeli Film: “Yossi & Jagger.”
$5 members/$10 guests. RSVP
to 760-325-2281 or online at
Tuesdays, May 31, June 7, 14
2:30-4:45 pm Congregation
Har-El Second Annual Galen
Mini Film Course, held at
the Tolerance Education
Center No fee. See ad page
9. Call 760-779-1691 or email
harelurj@gmail.com.
Tuesday, May 31
6:00 pm Temple Har Shalom
congregational meeting
and showing of “The Jews
of Azerbajian; The Jews of
Czechoslovakia” by Nancy
Pearlman. At Idyllwild Library.
Saturday, June 2
Shalom Group Saturday
Shabbat Social. Visit www.
ShaomGroupPS.com for more
information and to RSVP.
Monday, June 6
4:00 pm Jewish Federation, in
partnership with StandWithUs,
presents a lecture by Hussein
Aboubakr Mansour. See
cover for details. Reservations
required. Contact Rebecca
Hope at Rebecca.Hope@jfedps.
org or 760-324-4737.
Sunday, June 12
6:30 pm Temple Sinai: Jewish
Community Day at Power
Baseball. Tickets for sale at
Temple Sinai for $8.00.
Wednesday, June 15
7:00 pm Temple Isaiah Twice
Blessed’s Movie and Mingling.
Israeli Film: “Yossi.” $5
members/$10 guests. RSVP
to 760-325-2281 or online at
Sunday, June 26
3:00 PM Beth Shalom, Movie
and Discussion: “Woman
in Gold.” Discussion led by
David Baellow. No charge.
Community welcome.
Reservations appreciated by
June 23. Call 760-200-3636.
Tuesday, July 5, Mondays July 11,
18, 25
7:00-9:00 pm Sabra Hadassah
28th annual Summer Study
Series, a program for women by
women. For more information
call Debbie at 760-289-7987 or
Miriam at 760-323-0255.
Wednesday, July 20
Har-El Galen Academy of Jewish
Learning. Fee: $12. Lunch
served. Pre-registration
required. Email harelurj@gmail.
com or call 760-779-1691.
See ad page 16.
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Tribute Card Donations
Sending tributes and memorials is a meaningful way to honor loved ones.
Honorarium Tributes –
All contributions received by the Jewish Federation for
Tribute Cards are placed in our special Tzedakah Fund,
which provides direct monetary intervention for needy
Jews living in the Coachella Valley.
• Harlan and Randi Steinberger, in your
honor, from Chickie and Claude Steinberger.
• Sally and Miles Berger, Thank you from
Barbara Platt and Norm Lewis, Gail and
Bob Scadron.
• Frances Horwich, Happy birthday from
Judith and Elliott Cohen, Lilo and Leslie
Cooper, Jane Effress and Harvey Lambert,
Cindy Farber, Cass Graff-Radford, Jo Ellen
Leifer, Kenny and Barbara Lieberman, Mary
Jo and Robert Pomerantz, Gary and Phyllis
Schahet, Trudy and Eddie Schwartz, Gloria
Scoby, Elaine and Ted Stein, Leslie and Barry
Usow, and Linda Zuker.
• Annabelle Bresler, Happy 90th birthday
from Stephanie and Dr. Paul Ross
• Bruce and Susie Konheim, Thank you from
Sanford and Rosemary Hertz.
• In honor of the birth of my great
granddaughter Ella Joy Cantle, by Elaine
Kravitz.
• Margie Kulp, Thank you from Gloria Scoby.
• Lainie Weil, Happy birthday from
Chickie Steinberger.
• Carol Horwich Luber, Thank you from
Gloria Scoby.
• Allen Wolf, Happy birthday, from
Harold and Mimi Paley.
• Elliott Cohen, In honor of your 80th birthday,
from Bertel Lewis, Marilyn & Josh Shubin.
• Robert and Patty Mack, Thank you from
Carole and Don Alter.
Refuah Shleimah –
• Arnold and Edith Familian, Thank you from
Leslie and Barry Usow, Arlene and Irwin
Volk.
• Joni Maltzman, Happy big birthday from
In Appreciation For:
• Shoshana Barer, Happy special birthday,
from Phyllis Eisenberg.
• Barbara Fuller, Thank you from Barbara
Platt and Norm Lewis.
• Raymond and Jeannette Galante, Happy
anniversary, from Cora and Ted Ginsberg.
• Helene Galen and Jamie Kabler, Thank you
from Sanford and Rosemary Hertz, Barbara
Platt and Norm Lewis.
• Hal and Diane Gershowitz, Thank you from
Phyllis and Marvin Eisenberg.
• Wendy Goodfriend, Happiest and healthiest
from Jane Effress.
• Murray Gordon, In honor of your 90th
birthday, from Don and Sherrill Petite.
• Margot and Jerry Halperin, Thank you from
• Judy and Mel Hecktman, Thank you from
Bobby and Toni Garmisa, Muriel and Ron
Goldberg, Stephen and Margie Kulp, Eunice
and Jerry Meister, Iris and Jerry Pollan, Gail
and Bob Scadron, Gary and Phyllis Schahet.
• Benny Herbst, Happy special birthday, from
Phyllis Eisenberg.
• Rosee and Sandy Hertz, Happy Passover
from Margot and Jerry Halperin.
• Marcia Milkis, Happy birthday from Sanford
and Rosemary Hertz, Libby and Buddy
Hoffman.
• Mr. and Mrs. Lester Morris, Best wishes as
you celebrate Will’s Bar Mitzvah, from
Gail and Bob Scadron.
• Annette Novack, Happy special birthday,
from Judith and Elliott Cohen, Barbara Platt,
Gail and Bob Scadron, and Helen Stern.
• Rabbi Faith Tessler and the Jewish
Federation, Thank you for your support of
continuing Jewish programming in Desert
Hot Springs and High Desert, from Daniel
and Sona Stork.
• Judy Torodor, Thank you from
Chickie and Claude Steinberger.
Get Well Wishes To:
• Robert Appelbaum, Wishing you a speedy
and complete recovery, from Barbara Platt.
• Susie Diamond, Wishing you a speedy
recovery, from Harold and Mimi Paley.
• Barbara Gilbert, Get well soon, from
Marnie Miller and Joe Noren.
• Roger Kaplan, Wishing you a speedy
recovery, from Gail and Bob Scadron.
• Iris Pollan, Happy birthday from Judith and
Elliott Cohen.
• Berna Pollak, Wishing you a complete
recovery, from Judith and Elliott Cohen,
Barbara Platt, Gail and Bob Scadron.
• In honor of Sondra Schwartz from
Suzanne and Jeffrey Feder.
• Ben Schoenfeld, Wishing you a speedy
recovery, from Stephen and Marjorie Kulp.
• Sandy Schwartz and Ben Rinkey, Thank you
from Muriel and Ron Goldberg.
• Claude Steinberger, Get well soon, from
Phyllis and Marvin Eisenberg.
• Mr. and Mrs. Mickey Sheppard, Mazel tov
and good health in your new residence,
from Barbara Platt and Norm Lewis.
• Lainie Weil, Wishing you an easy recovery,
from Mary Levine and Alan Goldstein,
Gail and Bob Scadron.
• Larry and Jane Sherman, Thank you from
Gloria and Michael Scoby.
Memoriam Tributes –
• Marilyn Snyder, Happy birthday from
Judith and Elliott Cohen.
• Ted and Elaine Stein, Thank you from
Cora Ginsberg, Stephen and Margie Kulp.
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Condolences Sent To:
•Charles and Sally, In memory of our beloved
friend Ralph Davidow, from Cora and Ted
Ginsberg.
•Seymour and Rita Cohen, In memory of
your son, from Philip and Ellen Glass.
•Phyllis Saltzstein, In memory of your
husband, from Harold and Mimi Paley.
•Mr. and Mrs. Joe Kirschenbaum, In memory
of your beloved brother Kevee, from Marnie
Miller and Joe Noren.
•Patti Taube and Family, In memory of your
beloved mother, from Gail and Bob Scadron.
•LeMar Family, In memory of your beloved
husband and father, Carl, from Marnie Miller
and Joe Noren.
•Robert Michels, In memory of your beloved
mother Neda Michels, from Cora and
Ted Ginsberg.
•Mickey Unger Family, In memory of your
beloved Mickey, from Marnie Miller.
•Dianne Warner, In memory of Gary Warner,
from Bob and Carol Friedman.
Barbara & Bernie Fromm –
Jewish Youth
Enrichment Fund
• Barbara and Bernie Fromm, In celebration
of your anniversary, from Susan, Michael,
Jake and Casey Fromm.
• Barbara and Bernie Fromm, In celebration
of your anniversary, from David, Reid,
Hannah and Jeremy.
• Diane and Hal Gershowitz, In your honor,
from Barbara and Bernie Fromm.
• Annette and Larry Novack, In your honor,
from Barbara and Bernie Fromm.
London Elects First Muslim Mayor, Labour’s
Sadiq Khan
A self-styled ‘British Muslim who will take the fight to the extremists,’ landslide
winner hails triumph of ‘hope over fear’
By Jill Lawless, Danica Kirka and Times of Israel Staff
Sadiq Khan
became London’s
first Muslim
mayor May 7, as
voters rejected
attempts to taint
him with links
to ex t re mi s m
Sadiq Khan
and handed a
decisive victory to the bus driver’s
son from south London. Khan, whose
family is from Pakistan, hailed his
victory as the triumph of “hope over
fear and unity over division.”
Labour Party candidate Khan
received more than 1.3 million
votes — 57 percent of the total — to
Conservative rival Zac Goldsmith’s
43 percent, after voters’ first and
second preferences were allocated.
Turnout was a relatively high 45.6
percent, up from 38 percent in 2012.
The Labour candidate’s victory
came with his party mired in a
spiraling controversy over antiSemitism within its ranks. Khan
firmly distanced himself from the
most vicious of the offenders, former
London mayor Ken Livingstone,
who has been suspended from the
party for insisting that Hitler was
once a Zionist, and who declared
that the establishment of Israel was
“fundamentally wrong” and “a great
catastrophe.”
Khan was elected to replace
Conservative Mayor Boris Johnson
after a campaign marked — and
many said marred — by U.S.-style
negative campaigning. Conservative
candidate Zac Goldsmith, a wealthy
environmentalist, called Khan
divisive and accused him of sharing
platforms with Islamic extremists.
Khan, who calls himself “the
British Muslim who will take the fight
to the extremists,” accused Goldsmith
of trying to scare and divide voters
in a proudly multicultural city of
8.6 million people — more than 1
million of them Muslim.
The attacks, criticized by some
senior Conservatives, appear not to
have deterred voters from backing
Khan. London has seen attacks by
Islamic extremists, including July
2005 suicide bombings that killed
52 bus and subway commuters,
but has avoided the level of racial
and religious tensions seen in some
European cities.
“Fear does not make us safer — it
only makes us weaker,” Khan said in
his victory speech. “And the politics
of fear is simply not welcome in our
city.”
Community Schools
RELIGIOUS/HEBREW SCHOOLS
Aleph Academy
A Project of Jewish Sunshine Circle
Director: Shaindy Friedman
73-550 Santa Rosa Way, Palm Desert,
Ca. 92260
alephacademy.org • 760-413-4425
Temple Sinai
Director: Leslie Pepper
73-251 Hovley Lane West, Palm Desert,
CA 92260
www.templesinaipd.org
760-568-9699
PRE SCHOOLS
Temple Sinai Tikvah Pre-School
Director: Debbie Midcalf • 24 mos - Pre-K
73-251 Hovley Lane West, Palm Desert, CA 92260
760-568-6779
The Gan @ Chabad – a place where
children develop and blossom. Chabad
of Rancho Mirage Early Childhood
Program ages 18 months – 5. Part and
full day options. Contact Chaya Posner
for more information and to register
Chaya@chabadrm.com or 760-2721923.
Aleph Schoolhouse- A warm, childcentered environment nurturing
each child's sense of wonder, love of
learning, and Jewish identity. Ages 18
months- 5 years. Call Dina Pinson 347721-8782. School Address: 73-550
Santa Rosa Way in Palm Desert.
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The Surgery-Free Operating Room of Tomorrow is Here
Exablate MRI-guided ultrasound platform from Israel can fix conditions from fibroids to tremors without anesthesia or incisions.
In March, 200 participants in the
16th International Symposium on
Therapeutic Ultrasound in Tel Aviv
saw a livestreamed medical procedure
to cure a woman’s essential tremor
without incisions or anesthesia.
Neurology and radiology experts
at Rambam Health Care Campus in
Haifa used the Exablate Neuro system
developed in Israel by Insightec.
Guided by magnetic resonance
(MR) imaging, they focused multiple
ultrasonic beams of acoustic energy
to heat and destroy target cells in the
patient’s thalamus.
Looking on in amazement from
Tel Aviv, the conference attendees
saw the 65-year-old baker – who had
suffered tremors for a decade despite
medication – walk out of the threehour procedure, sit down and slice
a celebratory cake to share with the
neurology team.
“I wanted to cry, because I could not
remember when I was able to drink
a glass of water, and for the first time
in over 10 years, I can finally return
to serving people in my bakery,” she
said.
The first patient to get an Exablate
Neuro treatment at the Haifa hospital
is still without tremor two years later,
said Rambam neurologist Ilana
Schlesinger.
“I think it is the most gratifying and
amazing treatment that exists,”
Schlesinger said. “Pre-treatment, all of
our patients suffer from severe tremor
and they all come out of the Exablate
Neuro treatment without it. I call it
magic.”
Neurology, Oncology, Gynecology
Kobi Vortman, formerly president
of Elbit Medical Imaging, founded
Insightec as an Elbit subsidiary in
1999 to develop and commercialize
MR-guided focused ultrasound
(MRgFUS) technology.
Since 2011, when Exablate won a
spot on TIME magazine’s 2011 list of
50 best inventions, the Israeli-made
Exablate (for body treatments) and
Exablate Neuro (for brain treatments)
have been used in several countries to
treat more than 14,000 neurosurgery,
oncology and gynecology outpatients
noninvasively.
Vortman, who has a PhD in electrooptics from the Technion-Israel Institute
of Technology, envisioned MRgFUS
as the centerpiece of the scalpel-free
operating room of the future.
“We started with benign uterine
fibroids, which afflict a quarter
of all women sometime in their
lives and usually are treated with a
hysterectomy.”
“We expanded into oncology,
beginning with metastatic bone
tumors. Our next steps will take us into
significant unmet needs in liver and
pancreas cancer,” he says. “Exablate
is becoming a mainstream treatment
alternative in oncology and benign
applications.”
In the United States, Exablate is
approved for alleviating pain from
cancerous bone tumors and for
removing uterine fibroids. Exablate
Neuro is under FDA review for
treatment of essential tremor. In Europe,
Exablate is CE approved for treating
essential tremor, tremor-dominant
Parkinson’s disease, neuropathic pain,
bone metastasis, primary bone tumors,
uterine fibroids and adenomyosis.
CE approval for prostate cancer
indications could be granted within
the coming year, says Vortman.
Last October, Insightec signed
distribution agreements for Exablate
in India, Australia, New Zealand and
Turkey. The Korean Ministry of Food
and Drug Safety recently approved
Exablate Neuro to treat movement,
pain and behavioral disorders. And
Japan is now considering approval
of the Exablate Neuro platform for
various neurosurgical disorders.
“In the brain, our strategy was to start
with addressing diseases of the central
nervous system such as essential
tremor, tremor-dominant Parkinson’s
disease and neuropathic pain,” says
Vortman. “We intend to add to this
advanced Parkinson’s and hopefully
epilepsy. The second part will be brain
tumors. We hope to start significant
clinical research in this application by
the end of this year.”
Worldwide, 29 clinical studies
of Exablate have been completed,
including the first-ever clinical study
that successfully opened the bloodbrain barrier (BBB) temporarily in order
to deliver chemotherapy to a Canadian
patient’s malignant brain tumor.
“This is a very important step in the
development of MR-guided focused
ultrasound technology,” said Eyal
Zadicario, Insightec’s vice president
for R&D. Dr. Maurice R. Ferré, CEO
and chairman of Insightec, said the
company “will continue to invest in
the development of its technology for
a wider range of clinical indications.”
Though the global company Philips
established an MRgFUS division in
2006 for body indications, “We are
doing everything humanly possible
to keep Insightec as the world leader
in this field,” says Vortman.
The 168-employee company
completed a $22 million Series D
funding round in December last year.
Insightec is based in Tirat Carmel,
Israel, with offices in the United States,
China and Japan. While Exablate
is currently compatible only with
GE imaging devices, the company
recently signed a non-binding
memorandum of understanding with
Siemens as well.
“The realization of the vision to
build a next-generation, noninvasive
outpatient operating room is well on
its way,” noted Vortman. “In the next
two to five years we’ll see more and
more indications joining the approvals
we have for body applications and
neurosurgery. I visualize a time when
surgeons will think of MRgFUS as the
first treatment alternative. This is really
where we want to be.”
Sabra Hadassah Holds 28th Annual Summer Study Series
For the 28th year, Hadassah is
offering its four session Summer
Study Series in July. Coordinated
by Miriam Bent, the 2016 theme is
“Nurturing Our Spirit.” Normally held
on Monday evenings, since July 4th
falls on a Monday the first session will
be on Tuesday, July 5th, followed by
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Monday July 11, 18 and 25, from 7:00
to 9:00 pm. Hadassah members with
email will receive eblast of program.
Others wishing information should
call Miriam Bent, 760-323-0255 or
Debbie Orgen-Garrett, 760-2897987 to receive a flyer.
2016 Yom HaShoah – Holocaust Observance: May 1, 2016
Keynote Speaker Stephen Smith, Executive
Director, University of Southern California
Shoah Foundation and Jewish Federation
(Left to right) Yom HaShoah co-chair Roberta Nyman, Benjamin Gallardo, Emily Lozano, Blaze Bautista, Shea Hauswirth, Alyssa
Ramos, Jenetta Seeger, Mariana Villarroel, Alexander Campbell, Katherine Peterson, Stefan Pejovic, Emma Vanderwerf and Zoe Slater. CEO Bruce Landgarten.
Left: Keynote speaker
Stephen Smith, Holocaust
Survivor Mike Resmo,
Jewish Federation
Bruce Landgarten, Yom
HaShoah observance
co-chairs Ellen Glass
and Roberta Nyman,
and Jewish Federation
Yom HaShoah attendees in the Helene Galen Auditorium in the
Annenberg Center for Health Sciences of Eisenhower Medical Center.
Bill Chunowitz.
Art Contest Winning
Submissions:
Student Essay and Art Contest
As in past years, winners for the 2016 Holocaust Essay and Art Contests
were divided into two divisions; the Senior Division of students in grades
10-12 and Junior Division of students grades 8 & 9. Winners were:
Essay Contest Senior Division: First place - Katherine Peterson, 11th
Grade, Palm Desert High School; second place - Alexander Campbell,
12th grade, Palm Springs High School; and third place - Mariana
Villarroel, 10th Grade, Palm Desert High School.
First Place Senior Division
Essay Contest Junior Division: First place - Zoe Slater, 9th Grade,
Palm Desert High School; second place - Emma Vanderwerf, 9th Grade,
Palm Desert High School; third place - Stefan Pejovic, 8th Grade, Palm
Desert Charter Middle School.
Art Contest Senior Division: First place - Blaze Bautista, 10th
grade, Palm Springs High School; second place - Emily Lozano,
11th grade, Nova Academy; third place - Benjamin Gallardo, Nova
Academy.
Art Contest Junior Division: First place - Jenetta Seeger, Raymond
Cree Middle School; second place, Alyssa Ramos, Horizon; and third
place - Shea Hauswirth, Palm Desert High.
First Place Junior Division
Senior Division First
Place: Painting depicting
survivors saved by Oskar
Schindler and their
children placing stones
on Schindler’s grave.
Senior Division Second
Place: Artwork inspired
by the French Resistance.
Senior Division
Third Place: Image
of a wounded Jewish
resistance fighter tied to a
pole by Nazis.
Junior Division First
Place: Photos of six
women active in the
resistance, whose
achievements can be
read by lifting each point
of the star.
Junior Division Second
Place: Jehovah’s Witness
inmate in concentration
camp.
First place Essay Contest Winner:
First place Essay Contest Winner: Spiritual leaders participating in program: Ken Hailpern (Beth Shalom),
Senior Division – Katherine Peterson Junior Division – Zoe Slater
Rabbi David Lazar (Temple Isaiah) and Rabbi Richard Zionts (Har-El)
Junior Division Third
Place: Depicting Irene
Sendler, who saved 2,500
children from the Nazis.
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Israeli Anti-tunnel Tech Could Thwart US-Mexico Smugglers
Reports claim the innovative detection system can pinpoint the length of a smuggling tunnel and its exact location without false alarms.
By Viva Sarah Press, Israel 21c
Smugglers of drugs and illegal
migrants using tunnels along the
US-Mexico border may want to keep
an eye on Israel. The US government,
after all, is cosponsoring the tunneldetection technology now being
developed by Israeli engineers.
Described by the Hebrew media
as the underground equivalent of Iron
Dome anti-missile defense system, this
latest innovation hit world headlines
upon the announcement that the
Israel Defense Forces (IDF) uncovered
a two-kilometer-long, concrete-lined
tunnel on its Gaza border.
The media is awash with reports
about this first-of-its kind tunnel
detection system. While the Israeli
government has been funding its
development for five years, few details
about the new system have been
reported until now.
News reports say that up to 100
companies – including Iron Dome’s
developers, Elbit Systems and
Rafael Advanced Defense Systems
— are involved in assembling this
groundbreaking detection system.
Military units, Shin Bet security
agency officers, civilian engineering,
infrastructure contractors and tunnel
Hamas Tunnel
construction experts are also credited
with helping.
“The search for tunnels is at the
top of our priority list … and we will
not spare any efforts,” said Defense
Minister Moshe Ya’alon, following
the IDF announcement that it found a
tunnel extending from southern Gaza
into Israeli territory.
The fine details about how the
anti-tunnel technology works are still
under wraps. But according to Yediot
Aharonot, dozens of Israeli-developed
sensors gather information from the
field and transmit it to a control
system for analysis using advanced
algorithms. The system, says the
report, can identify the length of the
tunnel and its exact location without
false alarms.
Like many of Israel’s other astonishing
tech achievements, this “world’s first”
anti-tunnel technology reiterates the
extraordinary culture of Israeli military
research and development.
“We do whatever we can to
find a technological solution,” Maj.
Gen. Nitsan Alon, head of the IDF
operations directorate, said at a
briefing.
“Dealing with the phenomenon
of tunnels is very complex, and the
state of Israel is a world leader in
this field. This battle demands from
us persistence, creativity, and also
responsibility and good judgment,”
said Ya’alon.
According to a report in Defense
News, Israel’s Ministry of Defense has
invested more than $60 million in
anti-tunnel technologies. In February,
the Financial Times reported that the
US will provide $120 million over
the next three years to help develop
complementary technologies.
An Israel Today report says the
country is building a counter-tunnel
barrier along the Israel-Gaza border
that “will also feature a state-of-theart fence, complete with sensors,
observation balloons, see-shoot
systems, and intelligence gathering
measures, as well as an underground
wall.”
IsraAID Sets Up Field Hospital in Ecuador
As death toll rises over 650, Israeli humanitarian aid group offers earthquake survivors medical treatment and psycho-social care.
By Viva Sara Press, Israel 21c
Israeli humanitarian aid organization
IsraAID has set up a field hospital in
Ecuador, focusing efforts on medical
treatments and psycho-social care.
The field hospital – operating since
April 23, 2016 — is located in
Canoa, near San Vincente, a popular
beach town usually hopping with
international tourists.
According to local reports, the
devastating magnitude 7.8 earthquake
destroyed virtually all of the simple
one- and two-story buildings in the
town. Many of the town’s residents,
Earthquake’s distruction
according to reports, are sleeping
outside or in makeshift shelters.
IsraAID’s team arrived in Canoa via
private planes “as land infrastructure
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Interacting with children
was totally ruined,” the aid group
said. In addition to its medical aid,
the humanitarian volunteers have also
set up child-friendly spaces.
IsraAID field hospital
000Ecuador’s government says the
death toll of the earthquake and
aftershocks has risen to 654. Local
reports also say that more than 25,000
people remained in shelters.
Israel Cancer Research Fund Brings Israeli Scientist to Desert
Bernard Reiter, Israel Cancer Research Fund Board
Member, Barbara Fromm, Dr. Ran Taube, an Israel
Cancer Research Fund scientist, and Bruce Landgarten,
Jewish Federation CEO.
Two organizations that received
funding from the Jewish Federation in
2015 joined with Eisenhower Medical
Center to present a program on new
research that has the potential to
revolutionize understanding of cancer,
HIV and leukemia, and the options for
treatment. Dr. Ran Taube, an Israel
Dr. Steven Scheibel of Desert AIDS Project, Dr. Ran
Taube, an Israel Cancer Research Fund Scientist, ICRF
Board Member Jerry Keller, and Barbara Keller, Board
Chair of Desert AIDS Project.
Cancer Research Fund scientist from
Ben Gurion University of the Negev,
presented his findings on the common
pathways that occur in what was
thought to be very different diseases.
Dr. Taube’s research is on how
human pathogens develop unique
strategies to infect their target cells,
Dr. Ken Lichtenstein of Eisenhower Medical Center, Dr.
Steven Scheibel of Desert AIDS Project, Event Co-chair
Dr. Jeralyn Brossfield, Dr. Ran Taube, an Israel Cancer
Research Fund scientist, and Event Co-chair /Desert
Chapter ICRF President Patrick Mundt.
specifically the interactions between
the virus and its host at the level of
viral synthesis – or transcription.
In addition, Dr. Taube studies the
mechanisms that drive HIV into gene
silencing. This is a major obstacle
for the eradication of HIV, as current
drugs cannot cure viral infection.
Dr. Dr. Ken Lichtenstein of
Eisenhower Medical Center and
Dr. Steven Scheibel of Desert AIDS
Project also addressed the almost
100 attendees about research on HIC
and cancer being done at their two
institutions.
An Unlikely Trio: Israel, Hamas and Egypt Align Against ISIS in Sinai
The Jerusalem Post Online
The last week in April, Hamas
deployed several hundred fighters
along the Gaza-Sinai border together
with Egypt to prevent ISIS fighters in
the region from breaching the coastal
enclave.
Israel, Hamas, and Egypt have aligned
their strategies and formed an unlikely
alliance against the Islamic State in
Sinai, who are planning increasingly
sophisticated and daring attacks in the
region, The Washington Post reported
on May 1st.
Islamic State's Egyptian affiliate,
referred to as Wilayat Sinai, is well
equipped with weaponry and has
been plotting more sophisticated
attacks since taking responsibility for
the October bombing of a Russian
charter plane which killed all 224
passengers aboard. Additionally, the
group consistently carried out attacks
against Egyptian soldiers, bombarding
military outposts and planting roadside
bombs in the vicinity.
“They have genius strategists,” said
Mohannad Sabry, an Egyptian journalist
and author of a book on Islamist
insurgency in the Sinai. “If you study
the map of their attacks, they obviously
know what they are doing exactly, and
it shows that they have a great deal of
freedom of mobility."
Hamas deployed several hundred
fighters along the border between
Gaza and the northern Sinai as a
precautionary measure together with
Egypt to prevent ISIS fighters in the
region from breaching the coastal
enclave. Hamas has also, for the first
time, set up military checkpoints and
border patrols along the frontier border
with Israel, according to AFP.
Growing concern of threats from
the Egyptian terror group has led to
the greatest cooperation between the
militaries of Egypt and Israel since both
nations signed a peace agreement in
1979. In recent months, Israel has
tightened security and built a new
barrier along the Israel-Egypt border,
after reports from sources close to
the militant group have claimed to
be planning attacks against Israel in
the south. Prime Minister Benjamin
Netanyahu praised the security
coordination between Egypt and
Israel, saying that without increased
security efforts “we would have been
overflowed by thousands of ISIS fighters
from Sinai.”
Egyptian intelligence agencies have
struggled to infiltrate the secretive
militant group, Israeli military officials
and Egyptian activists in the Sinai have
said. Israel is particularly concerned that
the militants could target multinational
peacekeeping efforts that maintain
peace between Egypt and Israel along
the Sinai border.
“Like anywhere, they [peacekeeping
forces] could be considered a potential
target,” said Lt. Col. Yaron Malka, the
deputy commander of Israel’s Saqi
Brigade that defends Israel's border
with Sinai.
Israel and Egyptian officials have
been wary of Hamas' relationship to
Sinai militant groups, and suspect that
Hamas used smuggling tunnels to allow
fighters from Sinai to use the Gaza Strip
as a safe haven. Israel says that Hamas
has smuggled arms from Sinai groups
to the Gaza Strip, with some groups
allegedly tied to ISIS. Hamas has denied
ties to the terror group, saying it has no
sympathies to the Islamic State.
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UK Labour Secretly Suspended 50 Members in Recent Months Over anti-Semitic
and Racist Comments
By Ben Ariel, Arutz Sheva
The British Labour party has secretly
suspended 50 of its members over
anti-Semitic and racist comments
in recent months, senior sources
revealed to the Telegraph on May 2nd.
The report came hours after it was
reported that the party had suspended
three members in one day over antiSemitic comments, but the source
said the party’s compliance unit has
actually suspended 50 members in
the past two months.
They include up to 20 members
within the past two weeks alone, with
the unit struggling to cope because it
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does not have necessary resources,
according to the Telegraph.
While more than 50 have been
suspended, only 13 have been
publicly named since October after
being suspended.
"There are just six people in the
compliance unit with one more
joining after the EU referendum and
frankly, it's nowhere near enough,” the
source told the newspaper, adding,
"They can't cope with the number of
new members that have joined since
Jeremy became leader, they need
more resources."
Labour has come under fire due
to repeated anti-Semitic remarks
by its members. Its leader, Jeremy
Corbyn, has come under fire for
calling Hamas and Hezbollah his
"friends", and on Sunday he outright
refused to condemn those two terrorist
organizations despite being urged to
do so by local Jewish groups.
Earlier on Monday it was revealed
that Corbyn had glorified Fatah arch-
terrorist Marwan Barghouti, who is
serving five life sentences in Israel, and
compared him to Nelson Mandela.
Last week two other Labour Party
members were suspended for antiSemitic comments. Bradford West
MP Naz Shah, who had called for
the removal of Jews from Israel, was
suspended by the party’s General
Secretary despite objections from
Labour chief Jeremy Corbyn.
Ken Livingstone, a senior party
official and former mayor of London,
was also suspended after defending
Shah and claiming that Hitler
“supported Zionism."
On May 2nd John Woodcock,
a Labour MP and critic of Corbyn,
said, "The Labour party should make
public the number of incidents it has
reported in recent years to the present,
we mustn't allow any impression that
we are seeking to minimize this very
serious issue or sweep it under the
carpet."
App Uses Adapted Israeli Air Force Imaging Tech to Detect Skin Cancer
Every child gets a vision and hearing
check in school on a regular basis. Dr.
Moshe Fried, an Israeli plastic surgeon,
believes an annual skin check is
necessary as well, starting in the teens.
This is why he agreed to be the medical
consultant for Emerald Medical
Applications’ DermaCompare, a
free smartphone app that uses image
processing and predictive analytics to
detect changes in marks and moles
over time. The app alerts the user to
changes that ought to be screened for
cancer.
“The skin is the biggest organ in
the body,” says Fried. “The need for
this comparative system came from
the concept that as dermatologists
and plastic surgeons we have to check
everyone throughout life to look for
changes in moles – the medical term
is ‘nevi’ — for signs of skin cancer. This
is quite difficult to do. We think that
together with this application we can
accomplish this goal.”
The public company, founded in
Petah Tikva in 2013, has distribution
agreements in Israel, Sweden, United
Kingdom, Germany, Italy, Brazil, New
Zealand and Australia (in Australia,
one out of seven people get skin
cancer). In April, the Brazil Chamber of
Commerce selected DermaCompare
as the Israeli technology “most likely
to succeed in Brazil.”
A Spanish version of the app was
recently launched for Puerto Rico,
Mexico and Argentina, with more
South American locations to come.
“There is no other product like ours,”
Emerald founder and CEO Lior Wayn
tells ISRAEL21c. “Our competitors
use manual diagnostics and don’t
use algorithms to compare images.
This is a proprietary technology that
we adapted from the Israeli Air Force,
using aerial photos to track enemy
moves. Our enemy is moles and we
know how to track them.”
Last year, Wayn gave a TEDx Talk
in Berlin about how he decided to
adapt Israeli military technology into
a lifesaving medical solution after
his own father was diagnosed with
melanoma, the most deadly form of
skin cancer.
To use the free iOS or Android app,
you strip down to your underwear and
have someone take smartphone or
digital camera photos of your moles
and lesions according to instructions
explained by a friendly avatar.
DermaCompare’s algorithm then
analyzes the photos. If any suspicious
moles or changes are found, the app
recommends contacting a doctor for
evaluation, and can automatically
link you to a dermatologist near your
location.
“The system knows how to
distinguish between benign and
malignant and tells us if there is a
change that could be malignant,” says
Fried. “The aim is to find melanoma
in the earliest stages. This offers great
advantages in terms of saving money
and treatment time.”
Approximately 420 million people
worldwide have a high risk of getting
melanoma, particularly those with fair
skin. Annual treatment expenditures
for melanoma in the US alone total
$8 billion.
Fried says that thousands of
pictures of volunteers taken for the
development of the DermaCompare
app demonstrated that changes in
moles could clearly be detected over
the course of the three-year trial period.
He envisions everyone, starting in their
teens, using the app at regular intervals
to build a cloud-based medical file
providing physicians with real-time
data on skin history and changes. If a
user is concerned about a particular
spot, a photo can be transmitted
directly to his or her dermatologist.
DermaCompare can also be used
as a follow-up at home to professional
total body photography, which more
and more people are using for early
detection of skin cancer. The app
harnesses the power of the crowd,
Wayn explains. As users upload
photos of their skin to the cloud,
they are building a database toward
more accurate identification and
comparison of moles and lesions.
Machine learning and artificial
intelligence can use this crowdsourced
data to predict which kinds of moles
are most likely to become cancerous,
“and by using that we can prevent
melanoma in advance,” says Wayn.
The Jewish Federation of the Desert is now a registered nonprofit with Amazon Smile!
It couldn’t be easier to register:
1. Go to smile.amazon.com 2. Register Jewish Federation of the Desert as your
favorite charity 3. Shop! 4. Bookmark the smile.amazon.com page and don’t forget
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Purchases made through regular amazon.com will NOT lead to charitable contributions.
OF THE DESERT
We appreciate your support!
JCNJCN
• Summer
Iyar/Tammuz
II/Nissan5776
Simchas
Harvey Krasner called to say he and
fellow vets from Jewish War Vets
Post 750 will be selling poppies the
week before Memorial Day (May
24-30) outside Gelson’s Market in
Rancho Mirage, the raised funds
going to the First Marine Division
from Twenty Nine Palms for the
children in their YMCA program,
the Loma Linda Hospital War
Veterans Program and the Palm
Springs USO
... Mazel tov to
Barbara Fromm on
her April election
as President of
J e w i s h Fa m i l y
Service of the
Desert ... Mazel Barbara Fromm
tov to Seth Curtin,
son of David and
Jennifer Curtin,
who will be called
to the Torah as a Bar
Mitzvah at Temple
Sinai on May 28
... Tina and Dr.
Seth Curtin
Noah Friedman
are delighted to
announce the
engagement of
th ei r d au g h t e r
Aliza to Zachary
Ko g a n , s o n o f
M a r i n a Ko g a n Aliza Friedman &
Zachary Kogan
and Yefim Kogan
of Salem, Massachusetts. Aliza
and Zach are planning a June
2017 wedding in Boston. Tina is
our Jewish Federation’s Director
of Women’s Philanthropy and
Development ... When the
entries are received for the annual
Holocaust Essay and Art Contest
each is assigned a number, and the
child’s identity is unknown to the
judges. So it was a special joy to
discover, for the second year in a
row, among the winners are children
of our Jewish community. Last
year Danielle Hjerpe and Jordan
Etziony were first place winners
in the Junior Division essay and
art contests. This year two winners
in the Senior Division are Jewish
and both had been students at
Jewish Community
School of the
Desert. Alexander
C a m p b e l l
(grandson of
Alex Reifer,
who was one of
Alexander
the Holocaust
Campbell
survivors lighting
candles at the
Yo m H a S h o a h
observance this
year) was the
second place
winner in the Essay
Blaze Bautista
Contest and Blaze
Bautista was the
first place winner
in the Art Contest ...
Congratulations to
Morris Beschloss
on being inducted
into the Executive Morris Beschloss
Board of the Palm
Springs Chapter of
Military Officers
Association of
America on May
20 ... Temple
Har Shalom in
Rabbi Malka
Idyllwild will be
Drucker
welcoming a new
rabbi. Rabbi Malka Drucker is
retiring to Idyllwild and will begin
serving as the congregation’s
spiritual leader in the next few
months. Rabbi Drucker, until
recently a rabbi in Santa Fe, New
Mexico, is a prolific writer, with
20 published books, and we look
forward to welcoming her to our
community. Share your simchas
with us. Email Miriam Bent at
mhbentjcn@earthlink.net or call
760-323-0255.
JCN••April
Summer
• Iyar/Tammuz
5776
• www.jfedps.org
22 • JCN
20162016
• Adar
II/Nissan 5776
• www.jfedps.org
Classifieds
SPACIOUS PRIVATE ENSUITE
B E D R O O M / B AT H F O R
RENT with new furnishings
in new upscale 2800 square
foot home. Owner works full
time in Los Angeles. In gated
community. On golf course.
Golf course and mountain
views. Close to community
clubhouse, gym and pool.
Spacious and beautiful living
room and kitchen. Laundry
room w/washer/dryer. House
privileges. $1225 monthly/
negotiable. Call 760-6256704.
CAREGIVER AVAILABLE Let
me give you a helping hand at
a reasonable rate. Experienced
in personal care, Alzheimer’s,
Parkinson’s, Stroke cases.
Cooking, errands and light
housekeeping. Strong. Reliable.
References and background
check available. Call 760-6686764.
J E W I S H FA M I LY S E RV I C E
S U P P O RT E R S w e l c o m e d .
JFS has rewarding volunteer
opportunities in its community
programs and is now accepting
applications for several positions.
Tribute cards provide a unique
way to celebrate a special
occasion or honor a loved
one, all while supporting JFS
programs. If you’re interested in
learning more about volunteer
opportunities or supporting JFS
through the purchase of tribute
cards, please contact 760-3254088 ext. 101.
CONGREGATION HAR-EL,
Member, Union for Reform
Judaism, offering a contemporary
approach to Study, Worship
and Creating Community. Our
season is not over, it’s just
beginning. You are welcome
to join Shabbat services, Galen
Courses, Membership, and
summer programs. For schedule
of classes, Shabbat Services,
dinners, programs and High
Holy Day information e-mail
harelurj@gmail.com or call 760779-1691. Rabbi Richard Zionts
is available for a presentation
on Jewish and general topics for
organizations. Call or email. See
Har-El ads on pages 9 and 16,
and Sage cartoon on page 13.
P E R S O N A L A S S I S TA N T /
PERSONAL AFFAIRS MANAGER
Excellent local references.
Bill paying, reconcile bank
statement, run errands, drive to
appointment. Computer help:
MS Office, QuickBooks, emails.
Notary. 2 hours minimum.
Trustworthy, discreet, dependable.
760-408-5260.
DAVID’S CONSTRUCTION
Conscientious licensed, insured,
bonded, general contractor.
Catering to all your home repair
needs. No job too small or big.
Room additions, remodeling,
patio covers, decks, carpentry,
electrical, plumbing, masonry,
drywall, cement, wood floors,
tile, fences, painting, sprinklers,
landscaping, swamp coolers,
custom homes and more. License
#506-370. davidsconstruction@
ymail.com 760-671-4476.
We Mourn the Passing of...
Richard “Dick” Arrow, Gerald Benston, M.D.; Marvin Ehrlich, Kathy
Fabricant, Dottie Fields, Jerry Frankel, Rusty Grossman, Leonard Heller,
Warren Kross, Seymour Lazar, Carol Love, Lisa Michelle Rhodes, Ed
Singer, Rosalyn Tardash and Inesa Vishnevsky. Our deepest sympathies
to their families and friends. May their memories endure as a blessing.
Have A Nosh With Miriam
By Miriam H. Bent
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs serving in loco parentis hit a
new height when a citizen in Israel called the Situations Room in
Jerusalem to say his uncle in Atlanta, Georgia had texted his family
in Israel on his cell phone ”I’m dying!” saying he was in a Motel
6 in an Atlanta, Georgia suburb…
The Israeli consul in Atlanta, Ron Bromer was immediately pressed into action by
Jerusalem. Realizing the motel chain had several branches in the suburb and with
no time to spare, the consul repeatedly called the uncle’s number until, the stricken
Israeli, downed with a stroke, managed in a genuine stroke of luck to answer his
phone and told the diplomat where he was, enabling Bromer to call an ambulance.
Doctors said swift intervention had saved the patient’s life. (Yediot)
COMING CLEAN
Periodically, the IDF launches a campaign to ‘retrieve’
gear that soldiers have taken home without permission –
from winterized jackets to night-vision binoculars ‘just in
case they need them’ in reserves, or as a personal souvenir
of their national service.
Anyone can hand back anything – from a handful of
ammo in an old army duffle bag, to a pristine purloined assault rifle – without fear
of being prosecuted. Those dropping off gear between mid-March and mid-April
didn’t even have to give their names to make a clean breast of it.
Among the oddities returned in the ‘Don’t Ask – Don’t Tell campaign’ was a 109
year-old rifle used by the American cavalry, found buried in the sand in Gaza (no
one knows how it got there) and two F-15 joysticks – worth tens of thousands of
shekels - in perfect working condition…. (Yediot)
SEEK AND YOU SHALL FIND…
Time took its toll, and Rachel Magda-Feldmir from
Moshav Mavki’im in the Negev slowly found herself with
fewer and fewer cronies for a good old hand at Rummikub
– the Israeli-designed card game based on plastic Scrabblelike cubes. So what did the 91 year-old Holocaust survivor
do? Settle for Solitaire? Not on your life! She played a wild
card…placing a ‘want ad’ in the newspapers stating: “Interested in playing Rummy
at my house. Seek players to join me”…and aced a flood of potential participants
of all ages, even without mentioning tea and cookies…(Israel HaYom)
GAY GA ZUNT*
Whom has the Ministry of Tourism chosen as presenters
for the Israeli booth at the world’s biggest international
tourism convention held annually in Berlin? Last year it
was two chefs making shakshuka – a cholesterol-flaunting
skillet of a zillion eggs pouched in a piquant tomato sauce.
This year the come-on is beer made from…hummus (what else!), and Tel Aviv’s
leading drag queen - Arie Oshri - billed to advertise the annual June Gay Pride
parade in Tel Aviv. The rationale? There has been a steep drop in tourism from Russia
due to the collapse of the ruble, and according to a tourism expert, gay tourism
is more stable than family tourism…unfazed by security concerns and economic
conditions. (Yediot)
Snippets items are garnered from Chelm-on-the-Med.com
Shavuot begins the night of June 11th
and the tradition is to serve dairy meals
on this holiday. I am giving you three
very different noodle kugels this year: a
decidedly “Southern U.S.” sweet potato
bourbon kugel, a lovely dessert kugel
made with three fruits that is a hit every time I make it, and a
fun recipe of my beloved mother-in-law, who made individual
“kugelettes” for her family. I’m giving you her traditional kugel
ingredients, but feel free to experiment with your favorite
kugel flavors. These kugelettes are crusty on the outside and
creamy on the inside ... divine! Hag samayach! Miriam Bent.
SWEET POTATO BOURBON NOODLE KUGEL
4 medium sweet potatoes (about 1.5 lbs) 1 teaspoon kosher salt, plus more to salt
4 tablespoons bourbon
water for noodles
one 1-lb package wide egg noodles
Topping
6 eggs
2 cups corn flakes
¼ cup brown sugar
1 cup whole shelled pecan halves,
1 ½ lb cottage cheese (not low fat)
coarsely chopped
1 cup unsalted butter (2 sticks), melted
¼ cup unsalted butter (½ stick)
¼ cup brown sugar
Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Wrap sweet potatoes individually in foil and roast in
the oven until soft and completely cooked through, about 1 hour and 10 minutes. Let
cool completely, then peel and puree with the bourbon in a blender or food processor
until completely smooth. You will need 3 cups of the puree. Lower oven to 350°F.
In a pot of heavily salted water, cook the egg noodles al dente (about 5 minutes),
pour into a colander to drain, running cold water over the noodles until they are
cool. Drain thoroughly.
In a very large bowl, beat eggs, then add brown sugar and beat just until combined.
Add cottage cheese, melted butter, and the sweet potato puree, then mix with a
rubber spatula until combined. Finally, add salt and the cooked noodles, and mix
with a spatula until combined. Pour noodle mixture into a 9x13-inch baking dish.
Bake uncovered for 50 minutes (if noodles start to brown cover kugel with foil).
While kugel is baking, prepare the pecan topping. Crush cornflakes into small
pieces. Brown the butter in a medium saucepan. When brown, removed from heat
and add sugar, chopped pecans and crushed cornflakes and stir with a spatula until
just combined. Take kugel out of oven and sprinkle topping over in an even layer.
Return to oven and bake for additional 30 minutes, covering with foil if the pecans
start to brown before kugel is set. Serve immediately. Serves 10-12.
TRIPLE FRUIT KUGEL
½ lb. fine noodles, cooked
1 teaspoon vanilla
8 oz. cream cheese, at room temperature 4 eggs
1/4 lb. butter or margarine, at room 2 15-oz. cans mandarin oranges, drained
temperature
1 20-oz. can crushed pineapple, drained
8 oz. sour cream
1 16-oz. can pitted dark cherries, drained
½ cup sugar
Cinnamon and sugar for topping
Preheat oven to 350̊ degrees. Combine cream cheese, butter, sour cream, sugar,
vanilla and eggs in a blender until well combined. Pour in a bowl and add contents
of one of the cans of mandarin oranges, the pineapple, cherries and cooked noodles.
Combine well. Pour into a 9" X 13" baking dish. Sprinkle with cinnamon sugar and
arrange remaining mandarin oranges over top. Bake for 45 minutes until golden
brown and a knife inserted into center comes out clean. Can be made several days
ahead, refrigerated, and served cold.
GOLDIE’S COTTAGE CHEESE KUGEL-ETTES
1 pkg. fine noodles
1 small carton sour cream
7 eggs
1 large carton cottage cheese
1 teaspoon sugar
Salt
Cook noodles in boiling water, adding a little oil to the water. Drain in cold water,
then hot. Beat eggs. Add cottage cheese and sour cream, salt and sugar. Fold into
noodles. Mix well. Fill 24 muffin tins that have been sprayed with Pam. Bake at
375 degrees for 30 minutes. Makes 2 dozen kugel-ettes.
JCNJCN
• Summer
Iyar/Tammuz
II/Nissan5776
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Order your ad today! Deadline September 9. Call Miriam Bent
760-323-0255, for prices on custom and larger ads

The Jewish Federation of the Desert in Partnership with

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