By Rabbi Ben Kamin ENCINITAS, California — They’re killing me—the folks at Google—with their new “Calico” venture, which is going to explore ways for a middle-aged person like me to live for a much longer time. Setting aside their mercenary interests, who asked them to get involved in my mortality? I’m fine with the current
No thanks, Google, I don’t want to live on and on Read More »
USA
WASHINGTON, D.C. — U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry on Monday, Dec. 10, addressed the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee. After being introduced by Stuart Eizenstat, who had held office in both the Carter and Clinton administrations, Kerry complimented the JDC (affectionately called the “Joint”) for its work in many countries helping not only Jews
Kerry: Israel-P.A talks continue ‘despite the skepticism’ Read More »
Middle East
By Anav Silverman Israel, Jordan and the Palestinian Authority, on Monday afternoon, Dec. 9, at the Washington D.C. headquarters of the World Bank, signed an agreement on laying a water pipeline to link the Red Sea with the Dead Sea. The pipeline, which will take three years to complete, will help slow the drying up
Israel, Jordan and PA agree on Red Sea-Dead Sea pipeline Read More »
Middle East
Hats in the Ring: Choosing Britain’s Chief Rabbis from Adler to Sacks by Meir Persoff, Academic Studies Press, Boston; ISBN 978-1-61811-269-9 ©2013, $24.95, p. 337, including index By Fred Reiss, Ed.D. WINCHESTER, California — The position of a chief rabbi, which originally had such titles as Resh Galuta, Exilarch, and Gaon, has a long history.
Inside Britain’s chief rabbinate Read More »
Fred Reiss, EdD, Jewish Religion
Jim Baumgardner, Esther Queen of Persia: A Courageous Woman for a Dangerous Time, Wichita, Kansas: Baumgardner Press, 2013, ISBN 978-0-9884107-1-8, 293 pages, $16.95, www.biblenovels.net By Donald H. Harrison SAN DIEGO — For centuries rabbis have been providing supplemental information to that found in Jewish Scriptures. You might think of Esther Queen of Persia as such
Fictional biography of Esther an extended midrash Read More »
Donald H. Harrison
Rabbi Menachem Genack, In Letters to President Clinton: Biblical Lessons on Faith and Leadership Sterling Ethos/OU Press, New York, 2013. 288 pages, ISBN 978-1-4549-0791-6. Price: $24.95 By Rabbi Michael Leo Samuel CHULA VISTA, California — President Bill Clinton is in many ways one of the most iconic and beloved presidents of recent history. His congenial manner
Rabbinic letters to Clinton prove grist for sermons Read More »
Jewish Religion, Michael Leo Samuel-Rabbi
By Rabbi Dow Marmur JERUSALEM — Writing out of my customary ignorance about what’s really going on in Israeli politics, I’ve nevertheless ventured to suggest that the election of the centrist – and by all accounts very sensible – Yitzhak Herzog as the new leader of Israel’s Labor Party opens up new possibilities for Labor
Will Herzog bring Labor into Israel’s Government? Read More »
Middle East
Israel lobbied against death penalty for Nelson Mandela, new documents show (JNS.org) Newly declassified documents reveal that the Israeli Foreign Ministry, under the leadership of future prime minister Golda Meir, in 1964 convinced Jewish philosopher Martin Buber and Israeli author Haim Hazaz to send a letter asking the South African apartheid government not to seek
JNS news briefs: December 9, 2013 Read More »
International
By Anav Silverman Nearly 100 years ago, French aviator Jules Vedrines landed his Bleriot monoplane in the pre-State Land of Israel, near the beach in Tel Aviv in 1913. The first airplane to land in Eretz Israel, it was flown ten years after the Wright brothers flew the world’s first airplane in the United States
Israel stamp commemorates 100 years of aviation Read More »
Jewish History
Newsmax reports that Israel’s President Shimon Peres, in answer to a question, said he would be willing to meet with Iran’s new leader Hassan Rouhani. While no such meeting has been proposed, Peres said he feels no personal enmity toward the Iranian leadership, stating Israel’s differences with them are differences of policy not of personality.
The Jewish Citizen: December 8, 2013 Read More »
Donald H. Harrison, International
By Isaac Yetiv, Ph.D. LA JOLLA, California — Much has been said and written, by both Democrats and Republicans, about President Obama’s disastrous “deal” with Iran that has been justly compared to “Munich” where, in 1938, British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain surrendered to Hitler’s demands and sacrificed Czechoslovakia. The Iranian mullahs were granted a “down payment”
Iran’s mullahs, Obama, ideologically in tune Read More »
Middle East
By Donald H. Harrison SAN DIEGO–Skot Golden-Needham shyly approached the aron kodesh on Sunday, Dec. 8, with his kindergarten teacher Lori Bunshaft. Then, turning around, he displayed the model aron kodesh that he made and Mora Lori showed another one fashioned by one of his classmates. It was hard to tell what was brighter,
The arts and the teaching of religion Read More »
Donald H. Harrison, Jewish Religion, Music, Dance, and Visual Arts
By Laurie Baron SAN DIEGO―As happens this time annually, conservatives are decrying the secular war on Christmas. Having Christmas designated a national holiday, having a national Christmas tree, and having the media flooded with Christmas advertisements and messages from Thanksgiving until December 25th does constitute a war, but it is being waged against people who
Humoring the Headlines: December 8, 2013 Read More »
Lawrence Baron, Trivia, Humor & SatireBy Ira Sharkansky JERUSALEM — One cannot help but be impressed with the focus of the Obama administration with the Middle East, despite expectations that the region would be left to its own miserable self. Both U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and President Barack Obama have spent time with the Saban Forum, trying again
Smiles mask disappointment in Kerry talks Read More »
Ira Sharkansky, Middle East