November 2011

For another generation learning Anne Frank’s story, Otto inspires admiration

    By Donald H. Harrison CHULA VISTA, California — I’d have expected my grandson Shor to relate most closely to either the characters of Peter Van Daan (Mitchell Pfitzmeier), Anne Frank (Lucia Vecchio), or Margot Frank (Rachel Throesch) as he watched the play, The Diary of Anne Frank  at the Onstage Playhouse because Shor […]

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Carol Davis, Donald H. Harrison, San Diego County, Theatre, Film & Broadcast

‘Mamaloshen’ in Taiwan gets a boost from unlikely expat

http://youtu.be/xBZNqqa_qts   By Dan Bloom CHIAYI CITY, Taiwan –In many countries, languages ebb and flow as generations replace generations and new words replace old words. In Taiwan, where 23 million people live on a tobacco-leaf shaped island where several languages mix on a daily basis — from Mandarin Chinese to Hoklo Taiwanese to Hakka and

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Travel and Food

When three nice guys run for President

Gallahad’s Quest by Dixon Arnett, Xlibris, 2011, ISBN 978-1-4653-5707-6,  342 pages, Price Unlisted. By Donald H. Harrison SAN DIEGO–Gallahad’s Quest is a political thriller without sex, without domestic violence, without dramatic surprises.  It’s a thriller without thrills. Yet there is a point. If you happen to be a wonk who loves the political process — or

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Donald H. Harrison

God, in politics, is the All-Present and the All-Elusive

By Ira Sharkansky JERUSALEM — One cannot observe the politics of America or the Middle East without thinking, at least occasionally, about God.   And one cannot be a decent political scientist without looking beyond one’s own locale, country, and continent, to see how things are done elsewhere.   All this makes it hard for

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Ira Sharkansky, Jewish Religion

Anne Ratner, 100, eulogized at Tifereth Israel service

-Staff Report- SAN DIEGO — Anne Frances Ratner, one of the matriarchs of San Diego’s Jewish community, was eulogized Friday, Nov. 11,  at a crowded service at Tifereth Israel Synagogue on Friday–her 100 years lauded as having been filled with leadership, philanthropy and devotion to family. Ratner, who died Wednesday, Nov. 9, helped to start

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San Diego Calendar

JWV dedicates a temporary plaque at Miramar National Cemetery

By Donald H. Harrison SAN DIEGO — Anyone who has ever confused “Veterans Day” with “Memorial Day” can understand how it might have happened. The plaque to be dedicated on Nov. 11–Veterans Day–came back with an inscription saying it was dedicated Memorial Day. But, no real harm done– Given that the permanent monument for the

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Donald H. Harrison, Jewish History

Nobel-prize-winning discoverer of quasi-crystals casts doubt on scientific orthodoxy

By Rabbi Avi Shafran © 2011 AMI MAGAZINE JERUSALEM — The latest Nobel Prize for chemistry was awarded last month to Israeli scientist Daniel Shechtman for his discovery of “quasicrystals.” In the 1980s, the Israeli chemist noticed something peculiar as he examined a glowing hot metal he had cooled. The diffraction pattern that formed in

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Science, Medicine, & Education

Tharp’s choreography, Sinatra’s voice star in ‘Come Fly Away’

By Carol Davis SAN DIEGO–It’s not that I haven’t seen this show, Come Fly Away before, because I have. It’s not that I don’t love Frank Sinatra. I do love his voice. It’s because of the above-mentioned Sinatra voice and Twyla Tharp’s absolutely stunning choreography that I love this show. Once in Vegas was not

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Carol Davis, Music, Dance, and Visual Arts, San Diego County, Theatre, Film & Broadcast

U.S. declines to identify Jerusalem as part of Israel–not even on passports

By Daniel Halper WASHINGTON, D.C. — Where is Jerusalem located? What seems like a simple matter of geography is actually a thorny diplomatic issue, one the U.S. State Department has aggressively avoided answering on official U.S. forms since the early 1990s. On passports and birth certificates, Americans born in Jerusalem are prohibited from adding “Israel”

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Middle East