By Danny Bloom CHIAYI CITY, Taiwan — There’s a Jewish story everywhere, for sure, and this one spans three continents and winds its way from North America to Taiwan to Israel. Let me explain. Peter Kubicek, now 83, lives in New York, but he was born in Czechoslovakia, a nation that no longer exists. The […]
Post-Holocaust story spans three continents Read More »
Jewish ReligionBy Rabbi Dow Marmur JERUSALEM — The good news about 92 year-old Rabbi Ovadiah Yosef – whom the Shas party describes as its spiritual leader but who acts more like its sole owner – is that he has made a complete recovery from his mini stroke. The bad news about him is that he continues
Will Bennet succeed Netanyahu as prime minister? Read More »
Middle East
By Cynthia Citron SANTA MONICA, California — So this Jewish atheist gets into a conversation with an atheist convert to the Church of England… Sounds like there should be a shaggy dog punch-line at the end, but instead you get Mark St. Germain’s riveting play, Freud’s Last Session , an imagined discussion between Sigmund
Sigmund Freud vs. C.S. Lewis in philosophical repartee Read More »
Cynthia CitronBy Fred Reiss, Ed.D WINCHESTER, California — A news story under the byline of Jonathan Mizrahi has been making its way around the Internet. The story says that this year will be the only time that Chanukah will fall on Thanksgiving. So, is the story true? Yes and no. President Lincoln in 1863 proclaimed a
Truly rare occurence: Chanukah-Thanksgiving Read More »
Fred Reiss, EdD, Jewish Religion
By Donald H. Harrison SAN DIEGO — For the close reader, the current issue of The Journal of San Diego History offers some interesting information of local Jewish interest, one article in particular contrasting the philosophy of merchant Julius Wangenheim with those of many of his non-Jewish neighbors for whom the construction of Camp Kearny
Wangenheim remembered fondly in history journal Read More »
Jewish HistoryBy Abraham H. Foxman NEW YORK — It is fitting that the United Nations, as part of the international commemoration of the Holocaust on January 27, is paying tribute this year not only to the millions of innocents who died in the Nazi gas chambers, but also to those who made extraordinary sacrifices to hide
Remembering Those Who Had Courage to Care Read More »
Jewish ReligionBy Ira Sharkansky JERUSALEM — One definition of a hypocrite is an individual who is guilty of faults more serious than those done by others that the hypocrite condemns as intolerable. Evolving events in northwestern Africa invite another look at Barack Obama’s comment that Israelis–and especially Benyamin Netanyahu–do not know what is good for
Hypocrisy in U.S. policy on fighting Muslim terrorists Read More »
Ira Sharkansky, USABy Rabbi Leonard Rosenthal SAN DIEGO — Although helping those in need is one of my fundamental guiding principles, I rarely give to individuals who solicit funds on street corners. When someone with a sign reading “Anything Helps. God Bless” walks by my car I usually look away. I am never sure whether such people
Should we give to street corner beggars? Read More »
Jewish ReligionJewish man who helped Sandy Hook children harassed (JNS.org) Gene Rosen, a Jewish man who found and sheltered six terrified children who had run away from the shooting at the Sandy Hook Elementary school on December 14, 2012, is being harassed by phone and email by conspiracy theorists who believe that the Newtown shooting was
JNS news briefs: January 18, 2013 Read More »
Middle EastBy Rabbi Baruch Lederman The following illuminating excerpt from Season of Life, published by Simon & Schuster, was submitted to ShulWeek by Josh Lintz, Kew Gardens Hills, NY: In today’s excerpt – as reported by Pulitzer Prize winning author Jeffrey Marx, Gilman High School in Maryland has an unusual and highly successful football team. And
A football coach’s rules for living Read More »
Jewish ReligionBy Laurie Baron SAN DIEGO — In an article published last week in the Times of Israel, Jessica Steinberg welcomed “a remarkable first for the Israeli film industry: Two local films were named Thursday among the five documentaries nominated for the Best Documentary Oscar.” The Gatekeepers directed by Dror Moreh and Five Broken Cameras directed
The Wandering Review: The Politics of Oscar Picks? Read More »
Lawrence Baron
Dan Fulop, Bob Breitbard: San Diego’s Sports Keeper,” AuthorHouse, (c) 2012; ISBN 978-1-4634-1020-9, 166 pages including notes and bibliography. By Donald H. Harrison SAN DIEGO — Sportsman Bob Breitbard devoted his life to recognizing athletes and to making San Diego a professional sports town. He was the man who built the Sports Arena (now called
Breitbard biography a chronicle of S.D. sports Read More »
Donald H. HarrisonBy Shoshana Bryen WASHINGTON, D.C. — As President Obama stood with Afghan President Karzai to announce the “Afghanization” of the war, it seems appropriate to weigh the president’s words on the way out against his words on the way in. We were in Afghanistan, of course, long before he got there, but the president’s 2009
Obama withdraws from Afghanistan; objectives unmet Read More »
Shoshana Bryen, USASAN DIEGO (Press Release) – The San Diego Jewish Film Festival, announces its 23rd season with an 11-day run, February 7-17, 2013, featuring 47 films and shorts from 10 different countries. Heralded as the largest Jewish cultural event in San Diego, the festival expects to draw over 16,000 patrons to four convenient venues around the county:
Major events of S.D. Jewish Film Festival announced Read More »
San Diego County