Donald H. Harrison

San Diego Jewish Book Fair presents a mother who gave all, did all, to save her child

Saving Henry: A Mother’s Journey by Laurie Strongin, Hyperion, 2010, 271 pages including epilogue, $22.99. By Donald H. Harrison SAN DIEGO—When Laurie Strongin comes to speak at 4 p.m., Tuesday, Nov. 9, at the Lawrence Family JCC, many in the San Diego Jewish Book Fair audience will attend not only to meet an author, but

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Donald H. Harrison

A witch in time

By Cynthia Citron BURBANK, California — There are certain witches that everyone remembers.  Macbeth’s three brewed toil and trouble in a steaming cauldron.   Bewitched’s Elizabeth Montgomery did the dishes by twitching her nose.  The Wicked Witch of the West melted when Dorothy threw a bucket of water on her.  But unless you are a movie

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Cynthia Citron

Tel Aviv University researcher says more breech babies should be delivered vaginally

  TEL AVIV (Press Release)― Most babies are delivered head-first, but in about 4% of all deliveries babies are “born breech” ― with their buttocks or feet first. Doctors usually exercise caution and use caesarean sections (C-sections) as the delivery method of choice for such births, believing it safer for the baby. After a large-scale

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Science, Medicine, & Education

25 Conservative congregations latest to join ‘Mitzvah Initiative’

NEW YORK (Press Release)– A new cohort of 25 congregations from Judaism’s Conservative Movement will enroll in The Jewish Theological Seminary’s groundbreaking Mitzvah Initiative this fall, joining the nearly 50 synagogues, Solomon Schechter day schools, and Ramah camps already involved with the program, among them Tifereth Israel Synagogue in San Diego. The 2010–2011 cohort includes

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Jewish Religion

Lighter side: Austria, Cuba and other ‘Middle Eastern’ players

By Barry Rubin HERZLIYA, Israel — What could be more routine than those little notes countries send other countries to say Happy Birthday? Yet even here there’s a sort of strangeness about the current U.S. government’s approach to the Middle East . On October 25, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton sent national day greetings to

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International, Middle East, USA

Education Department rules threats, hostile acts toward Jews are Civil Rights violations

WASHINGTON, D.C. (Press Release) — Congressman Brad Sherman applauded Secretary of Education Arne Duncan for agreeing to return to its 2004 policy and applying Title VI of the Civil Rights Act to the protection of Jewish students from anti-Semitism on campuses. “For two years, I have been pushing the U.S. Department of Education to adopt this

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USA

Judy Gross pleads in letter to Raul Castro for release of her husband Alan

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The wife of a Jewish American aid worker jailed in Havana for allegedly being a spy has written a letter to Cuban President Raúl Castro expressing regret for his actions. The ‘Reuters’ news agency also reported that Judy Gross, wife of US Agency for International Development employee Alan Gross, had claimed President

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Travel and Food

Historians say German Foreign Office, notwithstanding denials, were Nazi collaborators

BERLIN (WJC)–A task force of historians commissioned in 2005 by then German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer has found that during the Nazi-era many diplomats at the Foreign Office were in the Holocaust and covered up their involvement in the crimes after the end of World War II. Fischer said he was “disgusted” by the revelations.

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Travel and Food

Pennsylvania legislators protest anti-Israel speech of Lincoln U. prof

HARRISBURG, Pennsylvania (WJC)– Two state lawmakers have sent a letter of complaint to the head of Lincoln University in Oxford, Pennsylvania, about a literature professor who made strong anti-Israel statements at a rally in Washington, DC in September. Professor Kaukab Siddique, 67, had said: “We must stand united to defeat, to destroy, to dismantle Israel,

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USA

U.S. sponsors speech by Iranian apologist in Saudi Arabia

By Barry Rubin HERZLIYA, Israel (Press Release)– There are days when you think: No, this nightmare can’t be real! Is the Obama Administration really so bad? Have the policymakers really taken leave of their senses? And then you see this: The U.S. Consulate-General in Saudi Arabia “hosted Dr. Trita Parsi, founder and President of the

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Middle East, USA

D.A. to run commercials against insurance fraud on area movie screens

SAN DIEGO (Press Release)– District Attorney Bonnie M. Dumanis on Monday, Oct. 25, announced a new public awareness campaign featuring a series of short ads placed on over 340 movie screens in theaters across San Diego County aimed at curbing insurance fraud. Insurance fraud costs California consumers an estimated $15 billion dollars every year and

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San Diego Calendar, San Diego County

U.S., Jordan sign $275 million compact to improve Jordan’s water supply

WASHINGTON, D.C. (Press Release) — U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Jordan’s Foreign Minister Nasser Judeh, along with Daniel Yohannes, chief executive officer of the Millenium Challenge Corporation, signed an agreement on Monday, Oct. 25, to upgrade Jordan’s water supply in the Zarqa area. Following is a text of comments made at that ceremony: MR.

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Travel and Food

JWV urges Dec. 17 be made an evening for a special Kaddish

WASHINGTON, D.C. (Press Release)– Steve Zeitz, national commander of the Jewish War Veterans, has called on synagogues to set aside the evening of Friday, Dec. 17, as a Shabbat for commemorating losses of Jewish and Allied lives in World War II. He issued the following statement: “The JWV is requesting that special memorial prayers be recited

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USA