By Gary Rotto SAN DIEGO — President Obama is only the fifth sitting US President to visit Israel and like his predecessor, George W. Bush, waited until after the first term to make such a visit. Major diplomatic announcements or breakthroughs are not expected in any of the stops – to Israel, the West Bank or Jordan. [...]
By Gary Rotto SAN DIEGO –The shootings in Connecticut hit me hard. Just the thought of a gunman coming into a school and shooting children was too much for me. I thought of the times when my daughter was younger and attended San Diego Jewish Academy that she would tell me of a Code Red, [...]
By Gary Rotto SAN DIEGO — This is a full throated endorsement of the re-election of Barack Obama. Why? Well, let’s look at what he has achieved: Hunted down and killed Osama bin Laden; But the President understands that the fight against terrorism and Al Qa’ida is not over. In his National Security Strategy, the [...]
By Gary Rotto SAN DIEGO — To counteract the impression that he didn’t have the credentials to be the commander in chief or positions on key international issues, Governor Romney recently put forward his ideas on Syria. Actually, he made like a cliff diver and made a huge splash with great risk. His solution is [...]
By Gary Rotto SAN DIEGO — I often forget how much modern Hebrew language is influenced by the Torah. On Kol Nidre, Barbara Carr,one of the great Jewish educators in our community was talking about the scapegoat as part of her D’var Torah. And as she talked about the destination of the scapegoat – Azazael, [...]
By Gary Rotto SAN DIEGO — I have come to realize that one can never be prepared totally for someone to die. I thought that I was. My father lived for over 30 years with congestive heart failure. In May 1981, he suffered a major heart attack. The heart attack was so severe; the [...]
By Gary Rotto ENCINITAS, California — My father, Daniel Rotto, a founding member of Congregation Dor Hadash who later served as a president of the Reconstructionist congregation, has died at age 89 at Seacrest Village Retirement Community here. Many of the early meetings of Congregation Dor Hadash were held in the Rotto home, and [...]
By Gary Rotto SAN DIEGO — The question is “How should the International Olympic Committee commemorate and remember the slaying of 11 Israeli Olympic Athletes at the Munich Olympics?” The conversation has focused on one answer, which, of course, is not the question, but only one answer. Whether on Facebook or via the petition [...]
By Gary Rotto MONTREAL, Canada — Sometimes you find the Jewish community when you’re not really looking for it. We were to arrive in Montreal on Friday and I thought it would be nice to attend services. As a member of a Reconstructionist congregation, I contracted Congregation Dorchei Emet, but discovered that the congregation held [...]
By Gary Rotto TORONTO, Canada –It was 20:00 and I was waiting at a restaurant for a chicken shishkebab. Make that a kosher shishkebab. Clearly I was not in San Diego County because other than when I join my parents at Seacrest Village Retirement Communities for Shabbat, nowhere can I find a restaurant that serves [...]