Books, Poetry & Short Stories

Jewsraelis and other Jewish people of Israel

Today’s Israeli culture differs from Jewish culture at the state’s founding: Israel is more ethnically diverse, its Jews practicing along a broader spectrum of beliefs. They live mostly in cities, not on kibbutzim or moshavim. They are self-governing, speak a modern form of Hebrew, follow the Jewish calendar, and openly display rather than hide their identity. They live in a country in which they never have to fear de jure anti-Semitism. Israelis are rabbis and talmudic scholars, estheticians and economists, police and politicians, taxi drivers and technical wizards. [Fred Reiss, EdD]

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Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Fred Reiss, EdD, Jewish History, Jewish Religion, Middle East

Seacrest Village sells its Rancho Bernardo facility

Although it issued no news release to announce it, Seacrest Village Retirement Communities has sold its 56-unit Rancho Bernardo campus at 12730 Monte Vista Road to Pacifica, which will maintain it as an independent living community.
Michael Mather, Seacrest Village’s director of community relations, says residents of the facility have been able to transfer to the main campus in Encinitas, if they so desired.. [Donald H. Harrison]

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Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Business & Finance, Donald H. Harrison, Jewish Religion, Marcia Berneger, San Diego County, The World We Share

‘Great Torah Roll’ fun at Seacrest Village

Rabbi Leah Herz created a fun-filled Simchat Torah learning session called “The Great Torah Roll”  for residents of the Seacrest Village Retirement Community in Encinitas when she had the entire Torah unrolled and held by staff, volunteers, and residents, some of whom were in wheelchairs. [Donald H. Harrison]

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Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Donald H. Harrison, Jewish Religion, Music, Dance, and Visual Arts, San Diego County, Science, Medicine, & Education, The World We Share, Theatre, Film & Broadcast

Sherlock Holmes and an anti-Semitic forgery

Star Trek script screenwriter Nicholas Meyer has appropriated the characters of Sherlock Holmes and sidekick Dr. John Watson from the long-dead Arthur Conan Doyle and has produced a detective mystery book in which the great sleuth travels across Europe in 1905 to learn who forged the Protocols of the Elders of Zion and why. [Donald H. Harrison]

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Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Donald H. Harrison

Davis joins Pelosi’s trip to Jordan, Afghanistan

U.S. Rep. Susan Davis (D-San Diego) was part of a delegation led by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-San Francisco) on a previously unannounced weekend trip to Jordan, where they met with King Abdullah II to discuss Turkey’s invasion of Syria.  The group also went to Afghanistan where they met with President Ashraf Ghani. [Donald H. Harrison]

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Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Donald H. Harrison, International, Middle East, San Diego County, Sports & Competitions, USA

A Jewish Tale of the Great American Prairie

It all started in 2013, when my son Lincoln was with me, visiting the Ashley, North Dakota Jewish Cemetery where my great-grandfather is buried. He began asking me questions about the community of Russian Jewish immigrants, who arrived in the early 1900s with no farming experience, to farm the North Dakota prairies. I didn’t have sufficient answers. But the seed was planted for me to learn more – for my son, myself, our family, and people I had never met. [Rebecca Bender]

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Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Jewish History, Lifestyles, USA

JNF: Israel schooling leads to Jewish continuity

Dr. Sol Lizerbram, the Rancho Santa Fe resident who serves as national president of the Jewish National Fund, offers some statistics to back up the claim that sending a teenager to JNF’s Alexander Muss High School program in Israel can contribute in the long run to Jewish continuity.

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Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Donald H. Harrison, International, Judaism, Middle East, San Diego County, Science, Medicine, & Education, Sports & Competitions, Theatre, Film & Broadcast, Travel and Food, USA

Jewish cartoon book delights

Thirty graphic artists are featured in this delightful 86-page book of cartoons on Jewish topics, that starts with the Bible, moves on to Jewish-Christian relations, Jewish holidays, Shabbat, Kashrut, the differences among Jewish denominations, kvetching, and bubbes/ yentas. There are other topics too, but you get the drift.

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Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Donald H. Harrison, Music, Dance, and Visual Arts, Trivia, Humor & Satire

Our Shtetl San Diego County: October 12, 2019

Items in today’s column include:
*UC San Diego books former Israeli FM Tzipi Livni for Nov. 11 lecture
*Three Jewish philanthropists to receive UC San Diego Chancellor’s Medal
*San Diego Humane Society hosts training for animal law enforcement officers
*Political bytes
*Fundraising
*Coming our way
*Remembering Sy Brenner

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Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Donald H. Harrison, International, Middle East, Music, Dance, and Visual Arts, Obituaries & memorials, San Diego County, Science, Medicine, & Education

Our Shtetl San Diego County: October 11, 2019

Items in today’s column include
*State creates fund to protect at risk non-profit institutions such as synagogues
*What our children/ grandchildren are reading
*Jewish War Veterans to honor returning active duty service members
*Political bytes
*Coming Our Way
(To read more, please click on the headline.)

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Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Donald H. Harrison, Jewish Religion, San Diego County, Travel and Food

Holocaust answers in de Wind memoir

Not all members of today’s de Wind family, although all descendants of the Patriarch Issachar, are Jewish.

After a “mini-diaspora” from “Holland” in the late 1800s and early 1900s to places as close as Belgium and Spain and as far as Asia and the Americas, the Levys-de Winds married into other nationalities, ethnicities and religions.

But most have never forgotten their Jewish roots.

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Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Dorian de Wind, International, Jewish History