Michael Mcalevey/Special to The Malibu Times

The Rangers of Malibu Little League came back from West L.A. with a championship. The District 25 Tournament of Champions combines the top individual teams from North Venice, Santa Monica, West L.A., Beverly Hills, Culver City, Playa Vista and South L.A.

Nobody can actually remember the last time a Malibu team won this tournament so this is a great accomplishment for the Rangers. Led by Manager John Puklus and his coaching staff of Stan Berk and Art Hale, the Rangers swept through the tournament by winning four games in a row. In the first game they defeated Santa Monica West 5-1. In the second game they completely dominated Beverly Hills 13-1. In the third game they slipped by Santa Monica East 4-3 and in the final game they defeated Playa Vista 7-2.

The team batted 402 in the week-long tournament and the amazing pitching duo of Jason Puklus and Brooks Fitch led the way by giving up only 7 runs in 23 innings and striking out 44 batters. The two young warriors continued their remarkable season into this tournament and dominated the opposing batters. Fitch and Puklus also each had 8 RBIs in the week to lead the hitting. Puklus ripped a huge home run in the championship game over the center field fence. Matt Hale came alive at the end of the season and he also smacked a home run in the last game. Young Hale turned-in some remarkable defensive plays throughout the tournament at second base. Grady Berk anchored the team at shortstop and showed why he might be the best 11-year-old in the entire District 25. Damion Walters, Matthew Mesher, Ryan Firedman, Ian Robinson, James Hurst, Thomas Clifford, Brooks Horn and Austin Beer all contributed to this winning effort. The Rangers season record, including all playoffs and TOC, was 23-3.

It was a remarkable year for the Rangers and for Malibu Little League.

Chinese Jews?

Yes, indeed, said Ellie Somerfield, Malibu resident and historian, who spoke at the Malibu Jewish Center recently

A docent for the past 20 years at the Skirball Cultural Center, Somerfield holds a special interest in the Jews of China, due to her interest in Jewish history. She herself has gone to China to see what remained of a once prosperous Chinese Jewish settlement.

Her talk, attended by 30 or so Malibuites, centered on a group of Jews in a town called Kaifeng on the Yellow River between Peking and Shanghai. The Chinese Jewish community actually got started around 1,000 years ago when Jewish traders and adventurers came to China on the Spice Route.

“There is proof of a Jewish presence as early as the 8th Century,” said Somerfield.

Much of the information comes from documents written in Persian by Iraqi Jews.

“The Jewish tradesmen had outposts about six days travel apart from each other, so that every six days they could stay with Jewish people,” said Somerfield.

Marco Polo also wrote about meeting Jews in China in 1286, she said. The Kubla Khan also allowed the celebration of a Jewish holiday in China.

Somerfield said that the Jews left Persia to escape the crusaders. The Chinese welcomed them because the Jewish traders brought with them the tools and techniques to process cotton seed and make cloth.

“Silk was in short supply, so cotton was an alternative,” she said. “The Emperor let them set up factories to make cotton goods and print on cotton.”

In that one area, pointed out Somerfield, “There were seven clans of Jews. They changed their names to Chinese names assigned by the Emperor–the equivalents of traditional Jewish names like “Gold” and “Silver.”

“Levi became Lee,” she said.

At one point, after showing photos of a synagogue, and other Jewish buildings that once composed the Jewish enclave in Kaifeng, she joked “It was the Fairfax of China.”

Eventually the Jewish settlers in China lost touch with the “Jewry of the world,” said Somerfield, because the Chinese translations of the Torah were lost in fires and floods, and, for one 100-year period, China was cut off from the outside world. The last rabbi of the original group died before the American Civil War. The first known synagogue in China was in 1163 and the last one was destroyed in 1863.

Somerfield highlighted her presentation with pictures of Chinese Jews taken late in the last century–with pigtails, silk coats and Chinese features, they were indistinguishable from other Chinese. She then showed pictures taken in recent years of the descendants of the original Jewish settlers.

“The 20 families or so that have descended from this group call themselves Jewish on their passports, but have lost touch with everything that was in their roots, except not eating pork,” said Somerfield.

Somerfield speculated that the reason the Chinese liked the Jews is that the two groups had similar values, which she enumerated as: a strong moral and ethical code, a pursuit of learning, and a respect for family.

Eventually, the group of Jews that had come from the Middle East married Chinese, and gradually became totally assimilated, with only dim distant memories of their Jewish past.

Some of the artifacts from this period were saved by Canadians building a hospital where the Jewish area of China once was. Among the artifacts is a Torah in Chinese. Other information comes from the reports of a Jesuit missionary in China who regularly reported on the activities of the Jews to Rome.

There were two other Jewish immigrations to China, pointed out Somerfield. One was Russian Jews who left Russia after the Revolution to escape the mass killings of Jews. The second wave was 20,000 Jews from all over Europe who were able to gain entry just before W.W.II because China was the only country which did not require entrance visas.

Ingrid Blumenstein, age 71, of Westlake Village, was one of the “involuntary” Chinese residents during the war, and was invited to speak at the program as well.

Blumenstein told a harrowing story of her parents and their two young daughters–she being one of them–escaping Berlin at the last moment and taking the proverbial “slow boat to China.”

In China, said Blumenstein, the Jews were put up in camps, but, she said, “they were not like concentration camps. There was crowding and low quality food but no extermination program as in Germany.” “Things got worse when the Japanese took over the camps,” she said. Blumenstein spoke with revulsion as she described the Japanese commandant who humiliated and beat the Jewish settlers at every opportunity. Near the war’s end, the Americans came, at first bombing the camp incurring some fatalities, and she and the survivors were liberated.

Blumenstein moved to the U.S. in 1948.

“I can speak a little Chinese,” she said of her ordeal, “but I mostly spoke German because I lived in the camp for eight of the 10 years I was there.”

Eli Broad, the richest man in L.A. according to the Los Angeles Business Journal, owns a home in Malibu, and at least nine others of L.A.’s 50 richest people either live or have second homes here.

Though Malibu is quickly becoming an estate haven for the richest, with many just being part-time residents, they account for a slight seven percent of retail business sales in Malibu, according to the City of Malibu Economic Plan report, prepared by consultants Applied Economic Development.

The report states that most of Malibu’s retail market is “driven by the residential population, rather than visitor spending.”

The majority of spending on local business comes from permanent Malibu residents, who account for 55 percent of local retail business sales.

Of that percentage, less than one quarter are made up of moderate-income residents who earn less than $40,000 per year. They include: renters, Pepperdine students and homeowners who purchased property before real estate in Malibu, and in L.A. County generally, spiked to soaring levels.

The other larger portion of Malibu’s residents as reported in the Los Angeles Business Journal earn an family income average of $249,000 per year, and that may be a good thing because the average price of single-family homes in Malibu is now reaching the 1991 levels of more than $1 million.

The rest of Malibu city’s income comes from out-of-town day visitors (10 percent), overnighters ( four percent), and residents of nearby communities (24 percent.)

As the report noted, “higher incomes do not create significantly higher demand for more retail services.”

However, Malibu’s richest buying their second homes here may contribute at least some income for the city.

The plan states that Malibu’s housing sector contributed at least $32.5 million to the city’s economy in 1999.

Richest people in Malibu

The following men were recently listed in the Los Angeles Business Journal as part of the elite 50 richest people in L.A. Another commonality they share is that of property owners and/or residents of Malibu. The estimates of wealth are taken from the L.A. Business Journal.

Eli Broad, 1st

Age: 66, Net worth: $5.5 billion

The richest man in L.A., Broad, who owns property in Malibu and whose residence is listed as Brentwood, made his first millions by co-founding Kaufman & Broad Home Corp., the nation’s largest home-builder, 40 years ago. He became a billionaire when he founded SunAmerica Inc., a financial services company, and then sold it to American Insurance Group Inc., with his converted stock appreciating to $3.1 billion.

A major political figure, leading the drive to bring the Democratic National Convention to L.A., Broad is also “one of the 50 most powerful people in the art world,” according to Art News Magazine.

David Geffen, 4th

Age: 57 Net worth: $2.8 billion

One of the wealthiest L.A. people in the entertainment business, Geffen started on his path to billionairhood in the mailroom of the William Morris Agency, where, no doubt, he and his Dreamworks SKG partners, Steven Spielberg and Jeffrey Katzenberg, now hire talent. Geffen started out founding Asylum Records in 1970, which he sold to Warner Communications Inc. two years later. He was then vice chairman of Warner Bros. Pictures for six years before founding Geffen Records in 1980. After selling Geffen Records to MCA, he put in his share of $33 million to found Dreamworks SKG in 1994 with the above mentioned partners.

A. Jerrold Perenchio, 5th

Age: 68 Net Worth $2.5 billion

Perenchio gathered his fortunes in the entertainment and media worlds. Chairman and controlling shareholder of Univision, Perenchio made his original fortune when he and Norman Lear sold Embassy Communications to Coca-Cola for $485 million. In 1992 he, along with Venevision, a Venezuelan TV company, bought Univision in 1992 for $550 million.

Steven Spielberg, 7th

Age: 53 Net worth $2 billion

The guru of filmmaking, Spielberg is one of the owners of Dreamworks SKG, which has put out successful films such as “Saving Private Ryan” and “American Beauty” which grossed $130 million.

Merv Griffin, 13th

Age: 74 Net worth: $1.3 billion

Merv Griffin has run the gamut in the entertainment business, starting out in radio in the 1940s, going on to host a talk show, create game shows — “Jeopardy” and “Wheel of Fortune” — to operating a production company and parlaying his successful ventures into hotel and real estate. He owns the Beverly Hills Hotel and is said to live on the top floor while in Los Angeles. He has recently released his first album in 25 years “It’s Like a Dream.”

Donald T. Sterling, 15th

Age:63 Net Worth: $1.2 billion

Sterling is one of two listed in L.A. Business Journal’s 50 richest list, as having a residence in Malibu. He also owns the Malibu Beach Club. However, he’s a part-timer, as his other home is in Beverly Hills. Success came from working as a divorce and personal injury lawyer. Investing in real estate helped push him to billionaire status, and he is reportedly the largest apartment owner in Beverly Hills. His success, however, hasn’t rubbed off on the team L.A. Clippers, which he bought for $13.5 million in 1981 when they were the San Diego Clippers.

Jeffrey Katzenberg, 29th

Age: 49 Net worth: $800 million

Another movie mogul, and the third owner of Dreamworks SKG, Katzenberg was hired as Barry Diller’s personal assistant when Diller was an executive at ABC. Katzenberg became president of Paramount and then joined Disney in 1984, heading the studio division. After a falling out with Eisner at Disney, which later gained him around $250 million from a lawsuit against Disney, he joined Spielberg and Geffen in their Dreamworks venture.

Arnon Milchan, 31st

Age: 55 Net worth: $800 million

Milchan is a resident of Malibu–not a part-timer, as far as we know. Milchan was born in Israel and became a producer after reviving his family-owned fertilizer business and then later becoming one of Israel’s largest arms dealers. He owns 50 percent of independent film company, New Regency Productions, and created Regency Television with Twentieth Century Fox Television, which produced the hit television shows “Malcolm in the Middle” and “Roswell.”

Michael Eisner, 36th

Age: 57 Net worth: $700 million

Eisner started as a clerk at NBC and worked his way up to senior vice president of prime-time production and development at ABC Entertainment. Before joining Disney in 1984, he was CEO and president of Paramount Pictures. Eisner’s residences are listed as Burbank and Malibu.

Lloyd E. Cotsen, 47th

Age: 71 Net worth: $590 million

Cotsen made his fortune in cosmetics. He worked for his father-in-law at Neutrogena Corp., a soap and cosmetics maker, and later became CEO in 1982. He made $148 million when Johnson & Johnson bought Neutrogena in 1994. Cotsen owned 38 percent of Neutrogena Corp. when it was sold.

Sometime during the evening hours of June 10, some very knowledgeable thieves skillfully plucked an estimated $25,000 worth of rare antique collectibles from the old courthouse building at 21337 Pacific Coast Highway in east Malibu.

The thieves entered the north side of the newly remodeled building known as the La Costa Court by climbing over a five-foot wall into an outdoor dining area. Once inside they broke out a window pane to a set of double doors and gained access to the building.

Among the items taken were two bronze wall sconces from the 1920s, two outdoor freestanding lanterns, dishes and a bronze Spanish style basket, an iron dragon torchiere, antique curtain rods and an oak carved lion, also from the 1920s.

Property Manager Steve Steger, who was the last to leave the building at 4:30 p.m. that day, said he did not notice anything that looked out of the ordinary when he left for the evening. Steger speculated that the burglar or burglars may have been someone who was familiar with the building and knew exactly where all the costly antiques were located.

“They were only after the good stuff,” Steger said as he pointed out that only select areas were hit.

In the weeks prior to the incident, Steger noticed an increase in the amount of suspicious people taking pictures and wandering on to the property.

Property owner Doug Himmelfarb has spent many years collecting the antiques that were stolen. He described them as priceless and unique.

“They were the finest, top of the line, all from the 1920s,” said Himmelfarb. “The market has essentially dried up, and they’re now irreplaceable.”

Himmelfarb, who has been burglarized before at the same location, expressed disappointment at what he viewed as the lack of cooperation he experienced from the local Sheriff’s Department during the investigation. According to Himmelfarb, the Sheriff’s Department has only taken a limited amount of reports and has not given the case a very high priority.

“I’m just looking for more of a response,” he said.

Himmelfarb has hired his own investigators and enlisted the help of friends to expedite the recovery of his pieces.

“I have people driving around to all the antique shops in Pasadena to inform the shop owners that the items might be coming on the market,” he said.

Himmelfarb also has friends in the antique business scouring swap meets around Southern California and is searching the on-line auction site e-bay for any sign of his antiques.

“There is a current investigation going on and we hope to have our culprits in the next couple of weeks,” he said.

Himmelfarb has owned the old courthouse and former filling station/flower shop/restaurant property for more than 11 years. The restaurant location, which formerly housed the restaurant Georgio Malibu and is now called The La Costa Court, has been remodeled and will open as an upscale French restaurant. The old courthouse building is now called the Mission Club, and will be an elegant members-only club decorated in 1920s Spanish revival decor.

The break-in and theft has postponed the grand-opening from early July to late August. Himmelfarb looks to the Malibu community for future assistance.

“We just want people in the neighborhood to keep an eye on anything out of the ordinary,” Himmelfarb said.