“AMCHA Initiative welcomes the recently published recommendations of the Advisory Committee on Jewish Life at USC and President Carol L. Folt’s commitment to implement these thoughtful recommendations….” {AMCHA Initiative news release]
Thumbs Up for USC’s Latest Move Against Antisemitism Read More »
California, Israel, Science, Medicine, & Education, USA
During his 50 years as a painter, Canadian American artist Philip Guston created a body of work that stands out as among the most significant and daring of the 20th century. His development as an artist involved several phases, and culminated with images notable for their dark, biting humor, distinct palette, unmistakable lexicon of objects, and concern with themes when taken together seem designed to heighten our uneasiness and have us question everything we thought we knew about painting. [Sam Ben-Meir]
‘Philip Guston Now’ at Boston Museum of Fine Art Read More »
Music, Dance, and Visual Arts, Sam Ben-Meir
The Jewish calendar is a lunisolar calendar because the Torah requires Passover to fall in “Hodesh Ha-Aviv,” the month of spring. If the Jewish calendar were not linked to the seasons, ruled by the Sun, the Jewish calendar would retrogress about 11 days a year, or one season every eight years. The calendar achieves this balance by adding thirty-day month 7 times every 19 years, a scheme learned during the Babylonian captivity and taught by the Greeks. Rosh Hashanah falls early or late every year compared to the secular calendar because these “make-up days” are sometimes added two years and sometimes three years apart, rather than annually. [Fred Reiss, Ed.D]
Some Little-Known Jewish Calendar Facts Read More »
Fred Reiss, EdD, Jewish History, Jewish Religion
The Greek philosopher Aristotle (384-322 BCE) wrote that humans are better than plants and animals because humans can think. He stressed that a person who does not think is no better than a plant or animal. The Jewish philosopher Maimonides (1138-1204) agreed but took one step further. He added that when the Bible states that God placed the image of God in humans, this image is the ability to think. The main benefit of reading is acquiring information about the world, how it functions, how humans behave, and how we can use this information to improve ourselves and society. [Rabbi Israel Drazin]
What Should We Read and Why? Read More »
Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Israel Drazin-Rabbi Dr., Jewish Religion, USA
Project RUTH – “Remember Us: The Holocaust” – which was on exhibit for two years at the Chula Vista Public Library is in the process of closing, but even though it soon will be gone, creator and curator Sandy Scheller vowed Sunday, August 21, that its content won’t be forgotten. [Donald H. Harrison]
Curator Vows Holocaust Exhibit Will Find a Permanent Home Read More »
California, Donald H. Harrison, Holocaust, Jewish History, San Diego County
The staged reading of A Play for Tu B’Av, presented at the Hive at Leichtag Commons, Sunday evening, August 14, proved to be a delightful theatrical journey into six variants of love between two people. Five of the couples were from the San Diego Jewish Community and those of us familiar with the community were able to identify them, even though, in Ali Viterbi’s play, they remained nameless. The story of the sixth couple, whose love story wove seamlessly among the other tales, was based on the Biblical account of Jacob and Rachel. [Eileen Wingard]
Love Stories Reenacted at the Hive Read More »
Eileen Wingard, Theatre, Film & Broadcast
The three-book series offers 90 stories in all – a mosaic of Jewish life, personalities, and influences along the Interstate 5 corridor from the Mexican border to the Orange County line. It has been a pleasure authoring this trilogy, which has been augmented by the photography of Dr. Ben Dishman and Fred Kropveld, two fellow congregants of Tifereth Israel Synagogue. [Donald H. Harrison]
Where I-5 Jewish Stories Are Found Read More »
Ben Dishman, Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Donald H. Harrison, Fred Kropveld, San Diego County, Travel and Food
This marvelously written story relates a growing friendship between a 12-year-old girl, soon to celebrate her bat mitzvah, and a slightly older boy, whose family is from El Salvador and who expresses himself in poetry. [Donald H. Harrison]
Adolescents Find True Friendship in YA Novel Read More »
Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Donald H. Harrison
This book is a fictionalized account of Jacqueline Semha Gmach’s life in Tunisia and Canada before settling in San Diego where her store of cultural knowledge for many years defined programming at the Lawrence Family JCC. It is also a love story, travelogue, and collection of photos that are dear to Gmach. [Donald H. Harrison]
A Scroll of Ancient Music that Leads to a Romance Read More »
Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Donald H. Harrison, International, San Diego County
Jennifer Wolf Kam wrote and Sally Walker illustrated Until the Blueberries Grow about a young boy named Ben who successfully delays his grandfather for a year from selling his home and moving to a retirement community (hopefully like our Seacrest Village in Encinitas). During the year of delay, Ben and his zayde have many adventures such as picking and eating blueberries together; eating jelly sandwiches in the sukkah; drinking hot chocolate by the light of the chanukiah; and secreting and finding afikomen outside in the lilac bushes. But after the year delay, zayde tells Ben he just doesn’t want to keep climbing the stairs to his second-floor bedroom. So, he moves to a retirement community, and when Ben visits him there, he brings a gift. Blueberries! [Donald H. Harrison]
Three Stories for Young Children from PJ Library Read More »
Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Donald H. Harrison, Jewish Fiction
After her divorce from her cantor husband, author Zark wanted to make certain that the small son whose custody they shared would be brought up Jewishly in both homes. She wanted to make Shabbats and the full range of Jewish holidays interesting and accessible to her son, and in the process, she reflected upon the meanings of the holidays, Torah passages, and various Jewish customs. [Donald H. Harrison]
Single Mom Stokes Her Son’s and Her Own Jewish Faith Read More »
Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Donald H. Harrison, Jewish Religion, Lifestyles
A member of the Jewish community, known for his self-deprecating sense of humor, Kolender grew up at the Reform Congregation Beth Israel. However, when it was time for his bar mitzvah, he honored his grandfather’s wishes and had it at Beth Jacob Congregation, which is Orthodox. “The rabbi there was Baruch Stern, and it was the first bar mitzvah for him after the war,” Kolender told me back in 1996 when I profiled him for the now defunct San Diego Jewish Press-Heritage. Rabbi Stern’s children “had been killed in front of him by the Nazis, and he started crying and I started crying, and I’m not sure if we ever did get through the whole thing. It was something I never will forget.” [Donald H. Harrison]
Kolender Was City’s First Jewish Police Chief, County’s First Jewish Sheriff Read More »
California, Donald H. Harrison, Jewish History, San Diego County, Travel and Food, USA
This chapter is a chance for me to step again from third-person history into first-person history because I was highly involved in the start-up in 1989 of Old Town Trolley Tours of San Diego. It came about because through The Harrison Enterprises, the public relations agency which I owned, I served as the executive director of the San Diego Cruise Industry Consortium. The consortium was created in 1983 under the aegis of Acting Mayor Bill Cleator to attract cruise ships to the Port of San Diego. Previously, I had served as communications director for Cleator during the period he served as a city councilman and acting mayor. [Donald H. Harrison]
How a Sightseeing Company Got its Start in San Diego Read More »
Business & Finance, California, Donald H. Harrison, San Diego County, Travel and Food, USA
By Laurie Baron SAN DIEGO — Dr. Richard A. Freund passed away in Charlottesville, Virginia on July 14, 2022 from complications arising from the rejection of a bone marrow transplant he had received 18 years ago. He held an MA, PhD, and rabbinic ordination from the Jewish Theological Seminary and the Bertram and Gladys Aaron
Jewish Studies Scholar Richard Freund (1955-2022) Read More »
Jewish History, Lawrence Baron, San Diego County, USA