A Talk about Jewish San Diego at Yiddishland

I’ve been invited by Jana Mazurkiewicz Meisarosh, the energetic, entrepreneurial founder of the Yiddish Academic and Arts Association of North America (YAAANA), to discuss Schlepping and Schmoozing Along the Interstate 5 at her Yiddishland site at 4 p.m., Sunday, August 27. I gratefully accepted, even though the book touches only briefly on specifically Yiddish subjects.

The only chapter in the three-volume set that delves into Yiddish is the one about Yiddishland, itself, which is located at 1128 Wall Street in La Jolla, although others touch on the mama loschen. However, every one of the 90 stories in the set deal with some aspect of Jewish culture, history, or religion right here in San Diego County. The three volumes are intended to demonstrate how varied and interesting the members of our Jewish community are, including its Yiddishists.

If you are a regular reader of San Diego Jewish World, you may have noticed our slogan that appears on its masthead.  “There is a Jewish story everywhere,” it says.  I don’t mean that as hyperbole; rather it is a reflection of the fact that Jewish influence on the world has been so pervasive that if you look long enough, you’ll find a Jewish story anywhere that you go.

How can I make such a claim?  Well, think about the influence that the Bible has in the Western world, especially among the three major Abrahamic religions.  We have in San Diego place names with biblical origins. Think of the Mount Olivet Cemetery in the community of Nestor, or the various places that allude to Mount Carmel, or, as it is called here, Carmel Mountain. Throughout the United States, even if there isn’t a synagogue around for miles, you may find Christian churches that reflect places mentioned in the Hebrew Bible, for example the many Bethel churches, whose names are derived from Beth El, the House of God.

Biblical heritage is but one source of Jewish stories. Another is the fact that we Jews have been world travelers almost since the get-go. Our people have been merchants, doctors, government advisers, and sometimes government officials, among many other positions, throughout the world. As we look at the business and professional landscape of San Diego County, there are many Jewish stories to be harvested.

We have no shortage of specifically Jewish institutions in the county. There are numerous synagogues, Hillel houses, Jewish agencies, and Jewish charitable organizations to be found in what I would call the six centers of Jewish life in San Diego County.  These are:

–The border area, comprising southern San Diego County and northern Tijuana.

–Downtown, Old Town, Hillcrest, North Park and Kearny Mesa, where one finds historic Jewish buildings and the homes of modern agencies.

–The College area along with the Del Cerro and San Carlos neighborhoods, where there are a variety of synagogues.

–La Jolla, with its synagogues and the Lawrence Family Jewish Community Center, and a troubled town history when Jews were excluded.

–North County Coastal, stretching from Del Mar to the Orange County Line, with new congregations and institutions reflecting Jewish interests.

–North County Inland, along the Interstate 15 up to the Riverside County line, with Jewish schools, congregations, and professionals.

Another key to finding Jewish stories is the nation of Israel. Countries throughout the world maintain both formal and informal diplomatic and trade relations with Israel, and therein can be found stories.  Even those countries that do not have such relations with Israel can be the source of stories.  One such story is the obvious question, “Why not?”

These are just some of the themes that provide background for the talk that I plan to give at Yiddishland. What I am hoping to do is to engage attendees in a journey.  I’ve already written about stories along the Interstate 8 (77 Miles of Jewish Stories) and the Interstate 5 (Schlepping and Schmoozing Along the Interstate 5, Volumes 1 through 3), but I have not yet tried to do an exit-by-exit examination of Jewish life along the other major freeway in our area: the Interstate 15.

So, imagine that you were to write a book, as I did, for which you got off every exit of that freeway and hunted for a Jewish story nearby.  What stories would you be likely to find along the Interstate 15?

I’ll share with audience members a list of the I-15 exits in San Diego County and see how quickly we can determine what story or stories we might like to tell. Occasionally, I will make reference to the I-5 and I-8 books to provide examples of the kind of stories that might be found.

While I focus on Jewish stories for my books, I am convinced that members of other religions and ethnic groups could use a freeway exit-by-exit approach to tell the rich stories of their communities.  I would love to be able to read such books!

Ticket information about my talk, as well as about many interesting upcoming cultural offerings at Yiddishland may be found on its website.

Republished from San Diego Jewish World