Federation Remembers Murray Galinson

The Jewish Federation of San Diego County mourns the loss of beloved and generous leader and philanthropist Murray Galinson. A respected and influential figure in the secular and Jewish communities, Murray served on the board of Federation for many years.

A Minnesota native, Murray came to San Diego in 1970 to teach law, and in 1981, he worked to open San Diego National Bank, where he served as President and CEO for 25 years. In the mid 1980s, he became widely known throughout the Democratic party with his work on Senator Walter Mondale’s presidential campaign, and he remained an influential local political figure. Never slowing down in his professional career, Murray and his business partner opened the development and investment firm La Jolla MJ Management just four years ago.

As an individual deeply committed to volunteer work, equality, and the underserved, Murray was incredibly active in the San Diego philanthropic community. He served as a board member for Price Enterprises, Price Legacy Corp., Price Charities, the Weingart Foundation, and San Diego Grantmakers, among a slew of other non-profit organizations. He established his own family foundation that contributed to various causes such as the Monarch School and the Children’s Museum.

Murray’s passion and love for the Jewish community were evident through his various commitments both nationally and locally. He served as the chairperson of the Jewish Funders Network from 2008-2011 and remained an active board member until his passing. As past president of Congregation Beth Israel, Murray had spearheaded efforts for the congregation to take over volunteer food service duties on Sundays at a local Catholic charity so the staff could attend church. Committed to both his personal Jewish community and that of greater San Diego, Murray served as chair of the Jewish Community Foundation of San Diego and board member of the Leichtag Foundation.

A dedicated Federation board member, Murray served as the 26th President of the Federation from 1989-1991 . He and his family are Legacy Society members, displaying a long lasting commitment to the future of our Jewish community. In 2006, Murray served as the co-chair for the Federation’s Together as One event, a landmark event bringing together both Women’s Philanthropy and the Men’s affinity group to celebrate the Federation’s 70th Anniversary. As co-chair and moderator for the evening, Murray used his political clout to help secure former President Bill Clinton, a move that guaranteed a fascinating and successful evening. 


Murray demonstrated vision and a commitment to innovation and the revitalization of San Diego through his professional and charitable efforts. When he first became head of San Diego National Bank, he filled three board positions with women, the bank’s first female trustees. In 2009, as chair of the Jewish Community Foundation, Murray worked on the creation of the San Diego Jewish Community Economic Recovery Fund, a partnership between the Federation and the Foundation to facilitate more efficient and effective raising and distribution of funds throughout the Jewish community following the 2008 economic recession. More recently, Murray demonstrated his passion for innovation and new ventures through his support of the San Diego Moishe House. 

Murray passed away unexpectedly on January 3. Nearly 1,000 people remembered and celebrated Murray’s life and achievements on Thursday, January 7, 2013. Murray leaves behind a beautiful legacy in his family, our community, country and Israel. He will be greatly missed by his family, friends, and his numerous communities. May his memory be a blessing.

Soille Hebrew Day School to Host Open House and Kindergarten Symposium This Tuesday Night

History Told of Soon-to-Open Chesed Home

Chesed Home, San Diego County’s adult residential facility serving Jews with serious mental illness, opens next month in this city.

Hope Village San Diego, a 501 3c non-profit, has developed Chesed Home. The mission is to provide a safe and nurturing residence for adults with serious mental illness, based on Jewish values and individualized services, compassionately delivered. Chesed Home is a place where its clients can achieve the highest level of personal dignity, self-worth and independence. Outside of New York and Florida, no other such facilities are operating in the US.

The recently built home will be open for touring 11 am Jan. 23 and Jan. 27 at 402 West Lincoln Avenue. Chesed Home has received two successive innovative grants of $5,000 and $10,000 from the Jewish Federation of San Diego County which has also donated time from webmaster Aaron Truax, and other personnel. Funds in excess of $300,000 have been raised and pledged; the goal is to raise $3 million to buy the buildings and provide scholarships. Client fees will be half what they are in similar full-treatment facilities, with a sliding scale for scholarship. Tuition for similar places run at least $6,000 a month and usually more.

Founders Devorah and Yaakov Shore chose the name Chesed Home because it means a home of loving kindness. Their project began two years ago when Devorah grew frustrated finding an appropriate treatment facility for her son Michael, 32, who was struck with schizoid affective disorder at 19. To this day Michael believes he doesn't have a mental illness. During the seven years since moving to San Diego from Portland, the Shores enrolled Michael in three different local board and cares without adequate treatment for Michael’s symptoms.

In these homes Michael found lice, was offered crack cocaine, and was given the freedom to wander downtown where he bought cough medicine and panhandled for beer and marijuana–dangerous combinations with the psycho-active drugs he was taking. Once he was punched in the nose and another occasion he was called a “dirty Jew”.

Michael grew up in a religious home and has always had a Jewish connection. Devorah saw how Michael would come alive when he participated in Jewish activities and had Jewish friends. Devorah felt Michael and other Jewish young men would do well in a treatment facility based on Jewish values of compassion, love and understanding.

Mentally ill persons are the most neglected, dysfunctional people in society. Without someone to care for them, their lives consist of going through three revolving doors: living on the streets, spending nights in jail and doing short stays in psych wards. To rid their minds of voices, they self-medicate with alcohol and drugs and sugar-laden treats.

Parents of the MI often hide their loved one’s illness because of embarrassment. The care giver has very little personal life, is emotionally drained, strapped financially, and forever feeling guilty about the past and not doing more in the present. The MI person is out of touch with reality, and sometimes can’t be counted on to come home safely after his wonderings.

Shortly after her arrival in San Diego, Devorah joined Jewish Family Service’s behavioral health committee and met there its co-chair, Fern Siegel, and other Jewish parents with children who were seriously mentally ill. Fern is president of Hope Village San Diego, an organization set up a few years earlier whose mission was to build a home for Jews with mental illness. The home was eventually acquired, however county funding mandated that all residents be homeless–and no homeless Jews with serious mental illness ever applied to be residents.

Devorah wanted a home funded by the community, but didn’t know how to go about it. Her friend, Keren Horowitz, had just made aliyah and told Devorah about a former kibbutz there that became a home for the mentally ill. Called Kishorit, it had the support of the government with young people choosing to work there in lieu of serving in the IDF. Enough people volunteered so that each client could receive one-on-one attention all the time. The only problem with sending Michael to Kishorit was the cost: $500,000 for a non-Israeli. Intrigued by the idea of starting such a place here, Devorah urged and cheered on by Keren saying, “You can do it!” Never shy of greeting people and making friends, Devorah went to work.

She recruited her friends Marlene Rissman, Fern Siegel, who would become chairman of the CH working committee, and Judy Belinsky, board member of the Jewish Federation and friend she had met through Anne Katz. Fern brought in Hannah Moss and Judy enlisted Karen Yasgoor. Recently Audrey Viterbi Smargon and Karen Foster Silberman have joined the group.

Fern, Judy, Hannah, Karen, Marlene, Devorah and Yaakov met with Chabad Rabbi Yisroel Goldstein of Poway. Next they went to Changing Options in Ramona and had the very good fortune of meeting co-owner Michael Hellman, who became a friend and invaluable resource in the group’s design and start up needs for Chesed Home. Fern brought in Ray Schwartz, lscw, recently retired from the county mental health and who had several books on board and cares. Others who lent their knowledge and support were Karl Jacobs and David Feifel, two local psychiatrists; and Suzanne Marcus, PhD. in psychology. All board members and the advisory committee are listed on the website, chesedhome.org.

What has driven these people to create this enterprise and raise over $300,000 is their personal experience caring for a mentally ill family member. They know to their core that compassionate care and treatment of this disease is the right thing to do. And Chesed Home is a start.

via San Diego Jewish World: http://www.sdjewishworld.com

Israelis to Design San Diego-area Desalination Plant

Carlsbad power station site in San Diego area Photo: Courtesy IDE

IDE Americas Inc., a subsidiary of Israel’s IDE Technologies Ltd, to design project - the largest of its kind in western hemisphere.

The Israeli desalination giant that is already responsible for the brunt of Israel’s salty-to-fresh water transformation is now taking on San Diego, in the biggest desalination project to hit the western hemisphere.

IDE Americas Inc., a subsidiary of Israel’s IDE Technologies Ltd, will be designing a 204,412-cubic-meter seawater desalination plant for the San Diego region, the company announced on Sunday. The $922 million plan, called Carlsbad Desalination Project, is being administered by Poseidon Resources (Channelside) LP, a subsidiary of Poseidon Water LLC, and will be carried out in partnership with the San Diego County Water Authority.

For the design contract, IDE will be receiving $150m., while the O&M agreement will bring the company $500m. Construction of the plant will begin this year and is slated to begin bringing high-quality drinking water to the San Diego area by 2016, a statement from IDE Technologies said. The hope is that the new desalination plant will help San Diego County Water Authority alleviate its water shortage and achieve its goal of supplying 7 percent of the region’s water through desalination by 2020 – “creating a new map of the American water market,” the statement added.Kiewit Shea Desalination, a joint venture between subsidiaries of companies Kiewit Corp. and J.F. Shea Construction Inc., will be providing the engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) of the facility as well as the 10-mile (16- km.) pipeline required to deliver the treated water per day produced there, according to Poseidon Resources. Meanwhile, IDE Americas Inc. will design the processing plant, and will also be responsible for operation and maintenance (O&M) of the plant under a 30- year contract.

“The Carlsbad Desalination Project is a significant milestone for us, California and the US at large, as we believe it will set the stage for the future of desalination in America,” said Avshalom Felber, CEO of IDE Technologies Ltd. “For decades, we’ve successfully completed similar projects in countries all over the world, and we’re excited to be a part of what will be the largest desalination plant in the US.”

Based in the Sharon Industrial Park in Kadima, near Netanya, IDE has built and operates some of the world’s largest desalination plants, currently providing a cumulative capacity of over 2.3 million cubic meters a day around the world, according to the firm.

The company has worked in 400 plants in 40 countries over four decades thus far – including Israel’s own Ashkelon and Hadera desalination plants, as well as the future Sorek facility.

“The Carlsbad project that we’re about to embark upon will accelerate both the visibility of desalination in North America and the ability of potential clients, both public and private, to understand how creative project delivery, creative finance and innovative process design allow these types of projects to happen,” said Mark Lambert, CEO of IDE Americas. “The movement in the US toward desalination has been a long time coming, and we’re ready to lead the charge.”

While there are many industrial desalination projects already throughout North and South America, there are very few such plants for the mainstream populations of these two continents, Felber told The Jerusalem Post on Sunday. “This is a developing market as far as desalination is concerned,” he said. Because this is the first major mainstream desalination project in the region, IDE can by default end up in the “unique position as the leading desalination company in the whole area,” Felber explained.

Although IDE has a huge amount of experience in building and operating desalination facilities, until now it has been difficult to enter the American market, and this project gives the company the opportunity to show that it is able to operate according to American standards, Felber said. When vying for the project, IDE was competing with companies from France and Spain as well as one local American firm. The San Diego Water Authorityhas already signed on 20 municipalities within its bounds that have committed to receiving the desalinated water when it comes online, Felber noted.

After completing this project, he stressed that IDE would like to expand its involvement in the emergent American desalination market, looking specifically to regions like Florida, Texas and other parts of California.

“It’s no news that we and other Israeli [desalination] companies are well-known,” Felber said. “The real global news is entering the American market, which is really hard to penetrate.”

via JPost

Israel Experience to Operate OTZMA Program

We are excited to announce that the OTZMA Israel experience program will continue to offer young Jewish adults an opportunity to live in Israel, learn Hebrew and volunteer in small communities. Upon completion of this year’s program, JFNA will transfer ownership of OTZMA to the Israel Experience Educational Tourism Services Ltd., a subsidiary of The Jewish Agency for Israel.

 

The Israel Experience specializes in providing organized trips to Israel for teens, university students and adults from all over the globe. With a mandate to “facilitate and implement Jewish-Zionist experiential/ educational visits to Israel in order to strengthen Jewish identity among Jews – especially youth – living in communities outside of Israel,” we are confident that Israel Experience will maintain the mission and values that have made OTZMA a success for more than 26 years.

 

In determining the best new home for OTZMA, JFNA utilized a professional task force and advisory committee comprised of past and present OTZMA chairs. After a thorough process that included vetting and interviewing several organizations, JFNA selected Israel Experience based on its successful track record in both short- and long-term Israel experiences for young adults, its valuable relationship with Masa Israel Journey and Israel Teaching Fellows, and its financial stability. In addition, Israel Experience currently provides OTZMA with logistical services, thus is well-versed with its program.

 

While we expect many logistical details to be forthcoming, Israel Experience is committed to serving the proud community of OTZMA alumni. In the coming weeks, JFNA will contact each OTZMA alumnus requesting information and consent for future communication from Israel Experience.

  

Through OTZMA and its passionate volunteers and professionals, we are proud to have sent more than 1,400 Jewish young adults from nearly 100 communities in North America to Israel. We are excited to transition the program to Israel Experience, and know the organization will work towards developing young leaders around the Jewish community, and creating strong connections to Israel and the Jewish Federation world.

Mark Your Calendars: Jewish Film Festival Begins February 7th

Mark your calendars and be sure to join us for the 23^rd Annual San Diego Jewish Film Festival, February 7-17, 2013. Film and music lovers won’t want to miss Opening Night’s screening of Under African Skies, the documentary following Paul Simon and his return to South Africa, revisiting the 25^th Anniversary of Graceland.

This year’s screenings will be held in Clairemont, San Marcos, Carlsbad & La Jolla. Our films, shorts & legendary Joyce Forum, Shorts In Winter, are once again not to be missed. For a full schedule, synopsis, ticket information and more, please check out the San Diego Jewish Film Festival’s website at http://www.sdjff.org. 

Federation Gives more than $230,000 in Supplemental Grants

During Chanukah your Federation was able to make more than $232,000 in supplemental grants thanks to our donors’ generosity in the 2012 campaign exceeding our estimates and because we controlled spending in that same period.  Lisa Haney, Director of Community Planning and Innovation, wrote to inform our great partners that we would be providing additional funding to their programs. Today, we'd like to share some of their wonderful responses, below:

San Diego Jewish Academy

Dear Lisa,

What a lovely and unexpected email! Thank you for thinking of SDJA and for all of the tremendous work that you and everyone else is doing to build up community and create a true Kehillat San Diego. May every campaign exceed our goals.

In the spirit of how we would celebrate Hanukkah in Israel, Nes Gadol Haya Po.(A great miracle happened here...)

On behalf of SDJA, thank you.
Chaim Heller, Head of School

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Chabad Hebrew Academy

Lisa,

Thank you to the entire Federation leadership for this tremendous Chanukah gift. We are most appreciative that you have made Jewish education a vital and recognized priority.

Thank you for revitalizing and reinvigorating San Diego Jewish leadership.

Chanukah Sameach,
Rabbi Josef Fradkin Head of School

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Torah High School of San Diego

Dear Lisa,

Thank you very much. It is a wonderful Chanukah present. As always, we greatly appreciate everything you do for Torah High and for San Diego.

Happy Chanukah and have a wonderful Shabbos.

Sincerely yours,
Rabbi Michoel Peikes

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Southern California Yeshiva High School

Hi, Lisa.

We are so happy that the campaign was so successful, and we are very appreciative to the Board for thinking of us.

Happy Chanukah!

All the best,
Rabbi Moishe Adatto

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Sha’ar HaNegev Regional Council, Mayor

Dear Lisa,

Mayor Alon Schuster

Thank you for the great news; I am glad for the success of the campaign and, of course, for upgrading our grant. We accept your idea for splitting the supplemental grant as indicated in the chart.

Please, send our thanks and appreciations to our friends in the board of the Federation.

I wish to meet you all very soon,
Alon Schuster רטסוש†ןולא

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Sha’ar HaNegev Regional Council, Resource Development Director

Dear Lisa,

Thank you so much for increasing your support for our programs I really appreciate the efforts you are making to help us. We are now marking 4 weeks since the cease fire was signed between Israel and the Hamas. Only days will tell if the quiet will remain or we will be forced to suffer another difficult security operation in the near future. We are doing all we can to maintain a "regular routine" and pray that one day peace will return to the region. We got remarkable achievements thanks to wonderful people who believed in our vision and full partners in the long road we did. The SD federation is an integral part of Shaar Hanegev Regional council through all those challenged years and we are very proud of this important friendship

Thank you so much for your time and consideration
Varda Goldstein ורדה†גולדשטיין†

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Jewish Federations of North America

Fabulous. Thank you so much.

William C. Daroff, Vice President for Public Policy & Director of the Washington office

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Seacrest Village Retirement Communities

Dear Lisa,

What a beautiful and timely gift this 5th night of Chanukah! On behalf of all of us at Seacrest, I want to thank you for this additional funding to support the charitable care needs of our residents. Happy Chanukah to you and yours.

Warmly,
Pam Ferris

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Ken Jewish Community

We will review but wanted to thank you immediately for your support and generosity.

Leonardo Simpser

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Moishe House

Wow! Wonderful news, thank you. We will certainly put it to good use in building strong Jewish community for young adults in San Diego.

An early Shabbat Shalom,
David Cygielman

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Jewish Family Service

Hi Lisa,

Thank you! It really does help as the needs for services doesn't ever seem to become less. Enjoy your weekend.

Shabbat Shalom.
Michael Hopkins

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Hillel

This is wonderful news! Thank you for sharing this and for providing the supplemental funding. I am very happy to hear the campaign closed higher than expected. That bodes well for our community.

I am excited to share this with our board.
Michael Rabkin

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Birthright Israel Foundation/SD

Dear Lisa,

Birthright San Diego 2012

Please accept my sincerest thank you for this supplemental donation to Birthright Israel due to your campaign closing higher than projected. That is fabulous news for us and your board must be so pleased to have such a successful campaign.

May I ask that you thank the board, and Michael Sonduck, on our behalf for their graciousness and support in 2012?

It has been a pleasure working with Michael and I am grateful for his kindness and that of your entire board.

Wishing the San Diego Federation a most successful 2013 and I look forward to our continued collaboration.

My best,
Harriett Zeitlin