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	San Diego Jewish World 'There's a Jewish story everywhere'

Vol. 1, No. 141

Tuesday, September 18, 2007

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PLEASE SUPPORT OUR ADVERTISERS; THEY ARE HELPING TO BRING San Diego Jewish World TO YOU:
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●I'm There For You Baby radio show
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●San Diego Community Colleges
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● Seacrest Village Retirement Communities ●Tifereth Israel Synagogue

Columnists/
Writers
*David Amos
*Laurie Baron
*Judy Lash Balint
*Shoshana Bryen
*Cynthia Citron
*Carol Davis
*Rabbi Wayne Dosick
*Garry Fabian
*Gail Forman
*Sandy Golden
*Gerry Greber
.*Norman & Roberta Greene
*Alex Grobman,PhD
*Donald H. Harrison
*Irvin Jacobs, MD
*Natasha Josefowitz
*Bruce Kesler
*Judith Apter Klinghoffer
*Rabbi Baruch Lederman
*Dov Burt Levy
*Elizabeth Levy
*Ya'acov Liberman
*Bruce Lowitt
* J. Zel Lurie
*Joel Moskowitz, MD
*Joe Naiman
*Sheila Orysiek
*Yoni Peres
*Fred Reiss
*Michael Rosen
*Rabbi Leonard Rosenthal
*Dan Schaffer
*Ira Sharkansky
*Dorothea Shefer-Vanson
*David Strom
*Lynne Thrope
*Eileen Wingard
*Isaac Yetiv
*Edward Zeiden
*Heather Zeiden
____________
San Diego Jewish World interns
*William Bohannon
*Harry Doshay

Contact us
Email: sdheritage@cox.net
PO Box 19363
San Diego, CA 92159
(619) 265-0808

San Diego Jewish World is a publication of The Harrison Enterprises of San Diego, co-owned by Donald & Nancy Harrison.

Jews in Congress
This website regularly covers the activities of 43 members of the Jewish community currently serving in the Senate and the House of Representatives. Here, by state, is a roster:

key:
Democrat
Republican
Independent

Arizona (1)
Rep. Gabrielle Giffords

California (10)
Sen. Barbara Boxer
Sen. Dianne Feinstein
Rep. Howard Berman
Rep. Susan Davis
Rep. Bob Filner
Rep. Jane Harman
Rep. Tom Lantos
Rep. Adam Schiff
Rep. Brad Sherman
Rep. Henry Waxman

Connecticut (1)
Sen. Joseph Lieberman

Florida (3)
Rep. Ron Klein
Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz
Rep. Robert Wexler

Illinois (2)
Rep. Rahm Emanuel
Rep. Jan Schakowsky

Kentucky (1)
Rep. John Yarmuth

Maryland (1)
Sen. Benjamin Cardin

Massachusetts (1)
^{Rep. Barney Frank}

Michigan (2)
Sen. Carl Levin
Rep. Sandy Levin

Minnesota (1)
Sen. Norm Coleman

Nevada (1)
Rep. Shelley Berkley

New Hampshire (1)
Rep. Paul Hodes

New Jersey (2)
Sen. Frank Lautenberg
Rep. Steve Rothman

New York (7)
Sen. Charles Schumer
Rep. Gary Ackerman
Rep. Eliot Engel
Rep. Steve Israel
Rep. Nita Lowey
Rep. Jerrold Nadler
Rep. Anthony Weiner

Oregon (1)
Sen. Ron Wyden

Pennsylvania (2)
Sen. Arlen Specter
Rep. Allyson Y. Schwartz

Tennessee (1)
Rep. Steve Cohen

Vermont (1)
Sen. Bernie Sanders

Virginia (1)
Rep. Eric Cantor

Wisconsin (3)
Sen. Russell Feingold
Sen. Herb Kohl
Rep. Steve Kagen

Additionally, we report on the activities of fellow members of our Jewish community at various levels of government. These include:

Federal government

White House: Josh Bolten, chief of staff

Joel Kaplan, dep. chief of staff for policy

Cabinet:
Homeland Security: Michael Chertoff

U.S.Trade Representative:
Susan Schwab

Federal Reserve Board: Ben Bernanke, chair

U.S. Supreme Court Justices
Ruth Bader Ginsburg
Stephen Breyer

State Governments
California: Insurance Commissioner Steve Poizner
New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer
Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell

Big City Mayors:
Las Vegas, Nevada:
Oscar Goodman

Louisville, Kentucky: Jerry Abramson

New York, N.Y.: Michael Bloomberg

San Diego County
District Attorney Bonnie Dumanis
Sheriff Bill Kolender
Tax Assessor/ Recorder/ Clerk Greg Smith

Iranian general threatens missile attack on U.S. assets in Middle East

Rabbi Saperstein goes on $1 a meal food budget in protest of U.S. Food Stamp allocations

Federal Reserve Board drops interest rate 1/2 percent

Justice Department announces prosecution of Dutch company accused of smuggling to Iran

Legislation would change rules for deploying soldiers in Iraq, Afghanistan

Israel and Middle East

Olmert donates blood; calls on other Israelis to help alleviate shortage

IDF soldier slain during anti-terror operation at Ein Beit Ilma camp

Hamas adults increasingly sending children to be terrorists for them

Olmert shuffles the Cabinet

Madonna now a self-styled
'ambassador' of Judaism

Peres Diary: Accepting the credentials of four European ambassadors

Donald H. Harrison: Planting peace through agriculture

France suggests Europe-wide economic sanctions against Iran

Far-right party wins 10 seats in Greece

Kramer seen as maneuvering for presidency
of the Berlin Jewish community

Commentary

J. Zel Lurie: Israel bombs Syria; please don’t mention it

Features

Jewish Grapevine

18-Day Calendar

Volunteers sought for
Reform Judaism's biennial convention here

Norman Manson: Re-issue of survivors novel worthwhile

Iranian general threatens missile attack on U.S. assets in Middle East

LONDON (Press Release)—A senior commander of the Iran Revolutionary Guards on Monday threatened to fire long-range missiles at U.S. targets in the Middle East, the British newspaper The Telegraph reported.

“Today the Americans are around our country but this does not mean that they are encircling us. They are encircled themselves and are within our range,” said Gen. Mohammed Hassan Koussechi.

“We have reached capacities that allow us to hit the enemy at a range of 2,000 kilometers [1,243 miles].” The headquarters of U.S. Central Command in Qatar, the main harbor of the U.S. Fifth Fleet in Bahrain and the oilfields of Saudi Arabia’s eastern province are all within Iranian missile range.

In Washington today, the comment by Koussechi prompted this exchange between a reporter and U.S. State Department spokesman Sean McCormack:

QUESTION: There was a comment by a Revolutionary Guard leader in Iran that American forces were within range of their new Shahab-3 rocket.

MR. MCCORMACK: Uh-huh.

QUESTION: I was wondering if you had any comment on that.

MR. MCCORMACK: Look, you know, our guys know how to protect themselves.

The preceding combined information from the American Israel Public Affairs Committee and the U.S. State Department
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Rabbi Saperstein goes on $1 a meal food budget in protest of U.S. Food Stamp allocations

WASHINGTON, DC (Press Release) – To highlight the inadequacy of current food stamp benefits and to push for a strong nutrition title in the 2007 Farm Bill, Rabbi David Saperstein, Director of the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism, pledged on Monday, Sept. 17, to live on only $1 worth of food per meal—the average Food Stamp Program benefit level—from September 14 to 22.

Rabbi Saperstein is taking the “Food Stamp Challenge” with Rabbi Steve Gutow of the Jewish Council on Public Affairs and Rabbi Nina Beth Cardin of the Baltimore Jewish Environmental Network, as well as Democratic Representatives Keith Ellison of Minnesota and Raul Grijalva of Arizona.

Rabbi Saperstein issued the following statement about his participation in the “Food Stamp Challenge:”

“The Food Stamp Program is the country’s single most important anti-hunger program. Yet at a time when 38 million Americans, including 13.9 million children, live in hunger or regularly face food insecurity, the program’s effectiveness has been increasingly diluted. With the 2007 reauthorization of the Farm Bill upon us, Congress has the chance to strengthen the Food Stamp Program and help more families put food on the table in the richest country in the world.

“By living on a food stamp budget for the next week, I know that I can not fully know the anxiety millions of Americans face on a daily basis. Walking a mile in someone’s shoes, after all, is not the same things as wearing those shoes each and every day. But I am hopeful that my participation will help illustrate the challenge faced by America’s poor every day, and the need for a strong Food Stamp program.

“This week, during the High Holy Days, Jews across the country will reflect on the past year and the year ahead. Let us remember that Jewish tradition teaches that “A small bit of bread may be life to the poor; one who deprives them of it sheds blood” (Ben Sira 34:21). We have a moral responsibility to end hunger in America. By strengthening the Food Stamp Program, we come one step closer to fulfilling that holy task.”

The preceding story was provided by the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism

Legislation would change rules for deploying soldiers in Iraq, Afghanistan

WASHINGTON, D.C (Press Release)—Senator Bernie Sanders on Tuesday cosponsored legislation to require the Pentagon to let active duty troops returning from battle in Iraq and Afghanistan stay home at least as long a their tour of duty lasted in the war zones. Also under the measure no reservists or National Guard members could be redeployed to Iraq or Afghanistan within three years of a previous deployment. “The war in Iraq has been devastating in so many ways to our troops and their families,” Sanders said. “It is unconscionable that we are shipping off to war, over and over again, the same troops from units that already have been stretched too thin.”

Sanders cosponsored the amendment introduced by Sen. James Webb, a Vietnam veteran and former Navy secretary. The full Senate was expected to debate the legislation as early as this week when it takes up a major Defense Department policy bill.

Speaking at a Capitol press conference before a group of 40 veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan, Sanders said, “Passing the Webb Amendment is an important step forward.”

Pentagon policy now calls for active-duty Army units to get one year at home for every 15 months deployed. Individual soldiers who may have been transferred from other units, however, may be sent back on a faster timetable.

“I come from a small state, the State of Vermont, which I believe has lost more soldiers per capita than any other state in this country, so we know the costs of this war and we know the courage of the men and women and we thank you very much for all that you have done in battle and equally important for…standing up for this country,” Sanders said.

The preceding was provided by the office of U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders