Anti-Jewish bias case heads to court
A Tuesday, March 22, Superior Court hearing in San Jose will weigh a former Alameda County prosecutor’s allegations of rampant bias against Jews and blacks in jury selections.
Jack Quatman — who alleged that Judge Stanley Golde chided him for allowing Jews on a death penalty jury — will testify at the evidentiary hearing on behalf of Fred Freeman, the man Golde sent to death row in a 1987 trial.
Golde, who was Jewish, died in 1998.
In a written statement, Quatman added that Golde’s advice was not entirely necessary as “it was standard practice to exclude Jewish jurors in death cases; as it was to exclude African-American women from capital juries.”
Numerous members of the Alameda County District Attorney’s office and longtime colleagues of Golde dispute the allegations.
If Freeman’s lawyers at the Habeus Corpus Resource Center are successful, Freeman could get a new trial. But it would also be a massive legal boon to dozens of condemned prisoners convicted in Alameda County and elsewhere who could make claims of biased jury selection.
ADL anticipates arrest in junior high graffiti
The vandal or vandals who plastered San Francisco’s A.P. Giannini Middle School with racist and anti-Semitic graffiti may be apprehended as soon as next week, according to the regional director of the Anti-Defamation League.
Jonathan Bernstein said the suspects are young people, who, in addition to racist, anti-Semitic and sexual imagery, spray-painted “sixth-graders rule” on the walls of the school last weekend in an apparent attempt to fob off the vandalism on others.
A Jewish teacher’s window was defaced with a swastika.
“I think it’s fair to say there are some very strong leads and the police are taking it very seriously,” Bernstein said.
Sibling cantors to perform at Beth Sholom
Three cantors who grew up at San Francisco’s Congregation Beth Sholom singing in the choir under the direction of their father, Cantor Israel Reich, will return to perform at the congregation 12:30 p.m. Sunday, March 27.
Cantor Barry Reich has served more than 30 years at Peninsula Temple Sholom in Burlingame. Linda Reich, who lives in Los Angeles, was the first woman cantor to be invested by the Conservative movement. And Brian Reich has served Berkeley’s Congregation Beth El as cantor for more than 10 years. The cantors will be joined by Linda Reich’s 14-year-old daughter, Rachel.
The Beatrice Horwitz Memorial Cultural Event, an annual concert, was established in 1971 by Morris Horwitz in memory of his wife, Beatrice. The public is invited free of charge. Beth Sholom is located at 1301 Clement St., S.F.
Educational group hires project director
JIMENA (Jews Indigenous to the Middle East and Africa) has hired Emily Blanck as its first full-time project director.
The Bay Area-based organization publicizes the plight of Jews expelled from Arab nations in 1948. Blanck is expected to expand the JIMENA speakers’ bureau and augment the organization’s role in educating the public about the expulsion of Jews from Arab nations.
Prior to this position, Blanck worked for, among other organizations, Hadassah and the S.F.-based Jewish Community Relations Council.