It’s Good Enough, Until It’s Not By Rabbi Yaakov Marks SAN DIEGO –The Egyptians were given ample opportunities to free the Jewish people. They seemed to understand that keeping the Jews as slaves was ethically wrong but their tremendous power and lust for wealth and luxury kept them from doing what was appropriate. Relinquishing the […]
Weekly Torah portion: Bo Read More »
Jewish Religion
JERUSALEM (WJC) — Benjamin Netanyahu lashed back at Sweden’s Foreign Minister Margot Wallström, saying her call to investigate whether recent killings of Palestinian attackers by Israel were “extrajudicial” was “outrageous”, “immoral” and “stupid”. The Israeli prime minister, who also holds the post of foreign minister, said at the Government Press Office’s annual toast for members of the foreign media in Israel: “It
Netanyahu blasts Swedish foreign minister Read More »
International, Middle EastBy Rabbi Leonard Rosenthal SAN DIEGO — I am currently team teaching the Ethics class of the Melton Jewish education program that Tifereth Israel Synagogue is sharing with Temple Emanu-El. Last week’s session was about lashon hara, slander, gossip, and tale bearing. Some Jewish authorities hold that you can’t say anything about anyone even if the information
Lashon Hara and the snarling dogs of ancient Egypt Read More »
Jewish ReligionNetanyahu writes final letters of Torah scroll in memory of soldiers (Israel Hayom/Exclusive to JNS.org) Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Thursday wrote the final letters of a Torah scroll dedicated to Israel’s fallen soldiers. The scroll was one of 73 scrolls donated in August and showcased at the Western Wall before being sent to
Middle East Roundup: January 15, 2016 Read More »
Middle EastBy Joe Spier CALGARY, Alberta, Canada — In the Spring of 1991, my wife and I, touring Israel, together with a small group of Calgarians, found ourselves in a caravan camp on the outskirts of Mazkeret Batya, our sister city. There we encountered the most remarkable sight; Jews who before their very recent arrival in Israel
The amazing saga of Operation Solomon Read More »
International, Jewish History, Middle EastBy Dan Bloom CHIAYI CITY, Taiwan — On my Internet rounds the other day, quite by chance, I met up online with a Berkeley novelist and social activist named Steve Masover, whose debut novel titled Consequence was published last fall. In a recent email interview, Masover was kind enough to answer a few of my questions about literature,
No ‘silver bullet’ exists for fixing climate change Read More »
The World We ShareBy Dorothea Shefer-Vanson MEVASSERET ZION, Israel — What is it about women’s hair that preoccupies people so much? There was a time when it was considered unseemly for a woman to be seen with her hair uncovered. Still today Queen Elizabeth is never seen without a hat, and presumably for a similar reason it is
Reflections on women’s hair Read More »
Dorothea Shefer-Vanson, Trivia, Humor & SatireBy Rabbi Ben Kamin GAN YAVNEH, Israel—I wiped away a tear as my El Al jumbo jet floated in the sky above the blue Mediterranean and then gracefully tipped its wings over the Tel Aviv skyscrapers and the nearby groves and meadows of my birth-land. Below, in the sands and the sea foam, was the
An emotional return to his birthplace Israel Read More »
Middle EastSAN DIEGO (Press Release) – The San Diego County Bar Foundation (SDCBF) has awarded a total of $110,000 to 13 local nonprofit organizations, including Jewish Family Service, that offer legal services and promote understanding of the legal system to San Diego County residents. An affiliate of the San Diego County Bar Association and the charitable
JFS among grant recipients for legal programs Read More »
San Diego County
By Eileen Wingard SAN DIEGO — Violinist Zina Schiff will be at Tifereth Israel Synagogue this Sunday afternoon, Jan. 17, at 3 p.m., to introduce the MGM Academy Award-nominated movie The Fixer. Schiff’s solo violin playing is heard throughout the movie score, which was composed by Maurice Jarre. Jarre is famous for scores to such
Zina Schiff to tell of recording score of ‘The Fixer’ Read More »
Eileen Wingard, San Diego Calendar, Theatre, Film & Broadcast
By Eitan Arom/JNS.org NEW YORK — Conservative Judaism has always had something akin to middle-child syndrome: squeezed on both sides by the Orthodox and Reform movements. But lately, its identity crisis has become acute. This week, the United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism (USCJ)—an umbrella body that represents Conservative congregations across North America—is set to receive
The remaking of Cons. Judaism Read More »
Jewish Religion, USA
By Michael Freund PALERMO, Italy — Something extraordinary is happening in Palermo, the capital of Sicily. More than five centuries after the forced conversion to Catholicism of large numbers of Sicilian Jews, followed by the expulsion of the rest, a nascent rebirth is well underway, as growing numbers of Sicily’s Bnei Anousim (whom historians refer
Jewish life reborn in Sicily Read More »
International, Jewish HistoryBy Ira Sharkansky JERUSALEM–Police state? Not quite. But it’s best to behave yourself hereabouts. A while ago the stories were about Shin Bet interrogators who had tortured Jewish youths accused of burning an Arab home in the West Bank, killing three members of a family, and other crimes. Relatives and other supporters of the accused
Police must strike delicate balance in Israel Read More »
Ira Sharkansky, Middle East