By Rabbi Dow Marmur JERUSALEM–Though the full interview with President Shimon Peres will only appear in the Friday supplement of Ha’aretz, there’s enough there in today’s front page trailer (also in the English edition) to warrant responses. Indeed, already the early morning hours had several from readers and more can be expected. I don’t feel […]
Peres reports Palestinians truly do want peace Read More »
Travel and FoodBy Ira Sharkansky JERUSALEM — Egyptian authorities have cancelled the agreement to supply gas to Israel, which hasn’t been flowing in any event due to repeated sabotage of the pipeline running through the northern Sinai. Various Israeli politicians have expressed the view that this is one more indication of worsening relations between the countries. One
Egypt cancels its agreement to deliver oil to Israel Read More »
Ira Sharkansky
By Rabbi Michael Leo Samuel CHULA VISTA, California —In this week’s parsha we read about the death of Aaron’s two sons, who died from an accidental explosion in the Tabernacle. Aaron’s reaction is quite telling–despite the absence of scriptural detail from the narrator. As is often the case with biblical narrative, more is said by
Sometimes God’s seeming indifference shocks us to silence Read More »
Jewish Religion, Michael Leo Samuel-Rabbi
By David Brin ENCINITAS, California — A look at how technology enables greater transparency…but not always both ways: Google Goggles… or Project Glass… is finally announced. See the official preview… and an amusing satire. These futuristic Goggles would project information directly in your field of vision, offering updates on the time, weather, map directions, road
Are we using the new technology, or vice versa? Read More »
Science, Medicine, & Education
By Donald H. Harrison SAN DIEGO–A city council candidate learned the ins and outs of government for eight years serving on the staff of U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein. He also worked for the San Diego Chamber of Commerce and later for the Service Employees International Union. As a result, Mat Kostrinsky, 41, says he has
Kostrinsky says council members should mediate disputes Read More »
Donald H. Harrison, Travel and FoodBy Rabbi Dow Marmur JERUSALEM — Israel has something of an anti-European complex. That’s the impression readers of The Globe and Mail, Canada’s “national newspaper,” are likely to get from a report by its Jerusalem-based correspondent Patrick Martin. Writing about Israeli reactions to the incident that cost a colonel his job because, as Martin put
Israel’s love-hate relationships with Europe Read More »
Middle East
A Lasting Reward: Memoirs of an Israeli Diplomat by Yissakhar Ben-Yaacov, Gefen Publishing House, ISBN 978-965-229-539-2, 309 pages, price unlisted. By Donald H. Harrison SAN DIEGO– Author Yissakhar Ben-Yaacov, who left Germany as a child and thereby was saved from the Holocaust, returned to Germany and Austria as an Israeli diplomat, and additionally served his
Israeli diplomat sketches foreign service life Read More »
Donald H. Harrison
By Ira Sharkansky KIBBUTZ AMIAD, Israel–Our apartment in Jerusalem’s French Hill neighborhood is about 810 meters above sea level. We began our trip to the Galilee by driving to the tunnel under Mt Scopus, and then through the Judean Desert to the Jordan Valley. At the junction to the road north we were 300 meters below
Sightseeing through the Galilee Read More »
Ira Sharkansky, Middle EastBy David Brin ENCINITAS, California — In some cool, exciting news, I can now formally announce the fruition of a project that I’ve been helping put together for some time, led by my colleague, UCSD professor Sheldon Brown. The University of California, San Diego and the Arthur C. Clarke Foundation have agreed to establish the
UCSD establishes a center for human imagination Read More »
Science, Medicine, & Education
By Carol Davis SAN DIEGO —When there is no past to reflect on, the now seems the norm and even the ‘now’ is questionable when equality and ‘pride’ in who we are and whom we choose to be our life partners are still being challenged legally and in the court of public opinion. Alexi Kaye
‘The Pride’ contrasts gay life today and 50 years ago Read More »
Carol Davis, San Diego County, Theatre, Film & BroadcastBy Rabbi Ben Kamin SAN DIEGO — It is told: A rabbi lived in the Polish village of Danzig as the storm clouds began to bring in the Nazis in the late 1930s. This week’s Holocaust Remembrance Day is a chance to reflect on human behavior. It was the rabbi’s custom to take a daily
The smile that saved a life Read More »
Travel and Food
The Essential Guide to Jewish Prayer and Practices by Andrea Lieber; ISBN 978-1-61564-138-3 ©2012, $16.95, p. 316, including appendices and index Jewish Liturgy and its Development by A. Z. Idelsohn; ISBN 978-0-486-28648-8 2012 reprint by Dover Publications, Inc., New York of ©1931, p. 404, including appendices, notes, and index By Fred Reiss, Ed.D. WINCHESTER, California
Two guides explain Jewish worship services Read More »
Jewish ReligionBy Yaakov Lappin WASHINGTON, D.C –At the start of this week, hundreds of pro-Palestinian activists planned to board passenger planes and fly to Israel. Their plan, according to Israeli intelligence assessments, was to join Palestinian demonstrations in east Jerusalem and the West Bank, events that had a high potential to turn violent. The activists,
Israel’s organization turned ‘flytilla’ into a non-event Read More »
Middle East
By Rabbi Leonard Rosenthal SAN DIEGO — On Tuesday night I shared a fascinating lesson plan from Yad Vashem (Israel’s Holocaust Martyrs’ and Heroes’ Remembrance Authority) with my Community Jewish High students. The lesson juxtaposed two reports from a transport that carried Jews from Dusseldorf, Germany to Riga, Latvia that left on December 11, 1941.
Let’s be the ‘village’ that supports Israel locally Read More »
International, Jewish History, Middle East