By Ira Sharkansky JERUSALEM — There is good news and other news on the issue of peace and harmony between Jews and Arabs within Israel. Note “within Israel.” This is not primarily about the Israel and the Palestinian Authority, but of simple decency and accommodation between Jews and Arabs on the streets, in neighborhoods,
On inter-ethnic relations within Israel Read More »
Ira Sharkansky, Middle East
Flags over the Warsaw Ghetto: The Untold Story of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising by Moshe Arens, Geffen Publishing House, 406 pages including index and appendices, ISBN 9652295279978, price not listed. By Donald H. Harrison SAN DIEGO–Given Moshe Arens’ credentials as a serious student of world affairs, who had served both as defense minister and as
Has history been fair to ALL the Warsaw Ghetto defenders? Read More »
Donald H. Harrison
By Rabbi Dow Marmur TORONTO, Canada–Women are reviving Judaism. I’ve been part of the Reform Jewish movement since 1957 when I enrolled in a rabbinic college in England. Though in theory Reform Judaism was fully committed to gender equality, there was still little of it in practice other than that, unlike in Orthodox synagogues, women
Women reviving Judaism Read More »
Jewish Religion
By Ira Sharkansky JERUSALEM — A rainy weekend leads me to thoughts about climate. This is a note about my locality, not about the fate of the world. Perhaps some of you thought I was living in the desert. Not true. Jerusalem has almost as much rain on an annual basis as
Rain in Jerusalem? Almost as much as London Read More »
Ira Sharkansky, Science, Medicine, & EducationBy Dr. Ehud Eilam WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Sinai Peninsula has been the main battlefield in most of the wars between Egypt and Israel. The latter seized a small part of Sinai during the 1948-1949 war, and then most of it in the 1956 war. All of Sinai was soon after returned to Egypt without
Protecting Sinai from terrorists could lead to its remilitarization Read More »
Middle EastWASHINGTON, D.C. (Press Release)–While the Obama administration has pursued Middle East policies that could be characterized as being sometimes indifferent to Israel’s precarious security situation, relations between our Department of Defense and the Israel Defense Forces are as good today, if not better, than they have ever been. Both countries reap the benefits that flow
Payoffs for U.S. from Israeli alliance Read More »
Middle EastSAN DIEGO (Press Release) — For the 31st year in a row, San Diego’s oldest Jewish and United Methodist congregations will celebrate Thanksgiving together with an interfaith service, this year at First United Methodist Church of San Diego. Dr. Jim Standiford, senior pastor of First United Methodist, and Rabbi Michael Berk, senior rabbi of congregation Beth
Beth Israel, First United Methodist plan joint Thanksgiving service Read More »
San Diego Calendar
By Rabbi Leonard Rosenthal SAN DIEGO –Last Wednesday was “Stump the Rabbi Day” at our Torah School at Tifereth Israel Synagogue. I meet with most classes once a month and this month, instead of a prepared lesson, I let them ask whatever questions were on their minds. They took the opportunity seriously and asked questions
Oh, God hears you all right! Read More »
Jewish Religion
By Rabbi Michael Leo Samuel CHULA VISTA, California — One of Erich Fromm’s most penetrating insights pertains to his distinction between authoritarian vs. humanistic religion. Fromm’s You Shall Be as Gods: A Radical Interpretation of the Old Testament and Its Tradition is one of the most remarkable books I have ever read on the early
Healing our dysfunctional images of God Read More »
Jewish Religion, Michael Leo Samuel-RabbiSAN DIEGO (Press Release)–If you have already purchased a 2012 Calendar/ Planner, here are some important San Diego Jewish communal activities you may want to enter. Thursday, Jan. 12 — Elliott Abrams, senior fellow for Middle Eastern Studies at the Council of Foreign Relations, and Bakari T. Sellers of the South Carolina House of
Some dates for your 2012 Jewish calendar Read More »
Travel and Food
By David Amos SAN DIEGO–If you are interested in the inner workings of the classical music industry, this book is certainly worth your attention. It is called Musical Chairs, (published by G.P. Putnam’s Sons, New York), and it comprises the memoirs of a gentleman who during his career of administrator in the performing arts, was
‘Musical Chairs’ is insightful autobiography of legendary Met general manager Read More »
Travel and FoodBy Rabbi Ben Kamin SAN DIEGO –Sometime in the blistering heat of 1965, while Martin Luther King, Jr. and his allies were marching for the nation’s first inclusive voting rights bill, a wiry, feisty, articulate Baptist minister stood up to the condescending white sheriff of Dallas County—which encompasses Selma, Ala. Rev. Cordy Tindell Vivian, better
C.T. Vivian is a very human civil rights icon Read More »
USABy Ira Sharkansky JERUSALEM — Politics has been the curse of this corner in the Middle East. Proclamations and grand intentions coming from those claiming to be leaders of Palestine, Israel, the United States and other great powers who say they are pursuing peace are actually paving the road to nowhere. Neither Palestinian nor Israeli
More so than politicians, technocrats get things done in Middle East Read More »
Ira Sharkansky, Middle East
By Dorothea Shefer-Vanson MEVASSERET ZION, Israel – Reading the recent review of the Chula Vista production of the play, The Diary of Anne Frank, I was taken back twenty-five years, to the year I spent in Lincoln, Nebraska, where my husband was teaching at the University. The Cliff’s Notes publisher of booklets intended to
The Via Dolorosa of Anne Frank Read More »
Dorothea Shefer-Vanson