Donald H. Harrison

The Jewish candidates: Sarah Davis in the 78th A.D.

Sarah Davis faces San Diego City Councilman Chris Ward, who is another LGBTQ Democrat, so such issues as gay rights, marriage equality, and others that in former years were hot topics will not be matters for much debate in the 78th Assembly District contest prior to the Nov. 3 runoff election.  However, Davis, a member of the Jewish community, says she and Ward have plenty of differences about such issues as placing greater emphasis on women’s health and fighting climate change. [Our Shetl San Diego County column by Donald H. Harrison]

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Donald H. Harrison, Lifestyles, Obituaries & memorials, San Diego County, Science, Medicine, & Education, USA

Mind mastery can control fear during pandemic

Mental mastery, whether it’s for the current coronapocalypse, a business meeting, a physical workout, academic success or mindful meditation, requires that you fully engage your mind.  We’ve learned through years of research that our brains are capable of continued growth throughout life, especially when we are engaged in frequent intellectual stimulation. With the right nourishment, engagement, social connections and physical activity, the right dietary nourishment, we do quite well in maintaining brain health. These are anchored in lifestyle choices we make daily. [Michael Mantell, Ph.D]

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Lifestyles, Michael Mantell

Incompetence riddles Israel’s temporary government

It seems that, all things considered, Prime Minister Netanyahu is having a good coronavirus crisis or, at least, is using it to his advantage. To start with, the courts have been closed, which means that his trial that should have started last week has now been postponed for at least a couple of months and probably longer. His minister of justice is a most faithful servant who takes every opportunity to run his master’s errands.No doubt other ministers do it also, if for no other reason than to stay in office. Should a unity government come about – which is reasonable and desirable at this time yet by no means certain – several of them will have to go back to the back benches. Their retirement will greatly benefit the country. Thus, for example, the present defense minister seems more interested to protect the settlements than the country. [Rabbi Dow Marmur]

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Middle East

Briefing songs for President Trump

Whether Donald Trump holds his daily coronavirus press conferences to calm and inform the public or as a social distance substitute for his campaign rallies, the disinformation he disseminates through them is dangerous.  Since he doesn’t read, I am encouraging his closest advisors to have him listen to these cautionary songs before he utters a word.  [Satire column by Laurie Baron]                

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Lawrence Baron, Music, Dance, and Visual Arts, Trivia, Humor & Satire

Positivity is positively best antidote to anxiety

It’s well known that what you feed, you grow. When it comes to health, longevity, successful social connections and long-term loving relationships, personal and communal wellbeing, even physical fitness and finances, leading-edge transformational coaches know that optimistic, positive seeds are the no-longer-secret predictive ingredients to living life optimally. As I’ve taught in my helping people for years, “the link is what you think.” [Michael Mantell, Ph.D]

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Lifestyles, Michael Mantell

Assembly candidate advocated as a midwife

State Assembly candidate Sarah Davis, 39, is no stranger to the Legislature.  With baby Lucia in tow, she often made the rounds of legislative offices and committee rooms in the state Capitol arguing successfully for greater state recognition of midwives, so that they could be considered full-fledged health care professionals rather than semi-professionals requiring supervision by physicians.  The issue was important not only for the midwives but for the new mothers who preferred to be attended by them at home or in home-like clinics, rather than in hospitals.  Until the law was changed, without a physician present, Medi-Cal would not pay the cost for their treatment. [Our shtetl San Diego County column by Donald H. Harrison]

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Donald H. Harrison, Lifestyles, San Diego County, Science, Medicine, & Education

The Life and Time of Hasdai Crescas

One of the most tragic occurrences in Judaism’s long history is the frequent absorption of alien, often heathen and Christian notions. For example, many people do not realize that when they say “gosh almighty” they are speaking about the Christian Holy Ghost and when they say “bloody” they are talking about the blood of Jesus or when they say “knock on wood” they are referring to the crucifixion cross. This occurred not only among the uneducated masses; rabbis fell prey to this phenomenon as well, simply because they did not know Jewish history or understand the processes involved in the assimilation and rationalization of beliefs to correspond with what is being said around them or a person’s perception of proper Jewish thinking. The story of Rabbi Hasdai Crescas and his impassioned battle against Christianity is a good example of this phenomenon.[Rabbi Dr. Israel Drazin]

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Israel Drazin-Rabbi Dr., Jewish Religion

Are there enough hospital beds for Covid-19 and gun victims?

Baltimore Mayor Jack Young sounded a curious plea this past Wednesday: “We cannot clog our hospitals and their beds with people that are being shot senselessly because we’re going to need those beds for people infected with the coronavirus.” Yet it seemed commendable nearly a month earlier when the House of Representatives passed the Emmett Till Anti-Lynching Act which, true to its name, would make lynching a federal hate crime. It occurred to me that perhaps a century from now the House will vote to make gun violence a federal hate crime – thousands of bullet-ridden bodies later. [Bruce S. Ticker]

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Bruce Ticker, USA

Pandemics, God, and social responsibility

As the coronavirus is spreading throughout the world, I am social-distancing myself from the rest of the outside world. In quiet but worrisome times like this I enjoy reading literature from history’s most thought-provoking answers—and that is how I decided to re-read Albert Camus’ 1947 short story, The Plague, about a bubonic plague ravaging the people of a North African coastal city of Oran; it is considered to be a classic of twentieth-century literature. [Rabbi Dr. Michael Leo Samuel]

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Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Michael Leo Samuel-Rabbi

Waxie hires staff as demand for toilet paper, supplies swells

It’s not every day that Charles Wax, owner of Waxie Sanitary Supply, receives phone calls from mayors, county supervisors, or governors. But these are not everyday times. As the largest privately owned janitorial and sanitary supply company in America, Waxie Sanitary Supply stocks the bathrooms and janitorial supply cabinets of many schools, hospitals, government office buildings, prisons, and other institutions throughout the nine western states. To do so, it has 200 delivery vehicles stationed at 25 regional warehouses. Headquarters for the entire operation is in the Kearny Mesa neighborhood of San Diego. [Our Shtetl San Diego County column by Donald H. Harrison]

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Donald H. Harrison, Jewish Religion, Music, Dance, and Visual Arts, San Diego County