The Arts

Postponed Tifereth Israel Community Orchestra Concert Was Worth the Wait

By Eileen Wingard LA JOLLA, California — The Strings of TICO, the Tifereth Israel Community Orchestra, needed to postpone its concert, originally scheduled for last November, to February, due to the Omicron variant of the coronavirus. The program finally took place in the First Methodist Church in Chula Vista on February 6 and then, in […]

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Eileen Wingard, Music, Dance, and Visual Arts, San Diego County

The Unexpected Successes of Satmar Hasidim

By Rabbi Dr. Israel Drazin BOCA RATON, Florida — American Shtetl: The Making of Kiryas Joel, A Hasidic Village in Upstate New York is a brilliant, eye-opening, thought provoking, easy to read and enjoyable book by two university scholars, Nomi M. Stolzenberg of the University of Southern California, Gould School of Law, who has written

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Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Israel Drazin-Rabbi Dr., Jewish Religion

Jerusalem Symphony Orchestra’s Beethoven Feast

By Dorothea Shefer-Vanson MEVASSERET ZION, Israel — Being able to hear all five Beethoven piano concerti played on two successive evenings was a rare treat. This was provided by the Jerusalem Symphony Orchestra, conducted by maestro Steven Sloane, and brought Beethoven’s immense oeuvre in this realm into sharp and impressive perspective. On the first evening

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Dorothea Shefer-Vanson, Middle East, Music, Dance, and Visual Arts

‘Ripped Away’ Is a Jewish Tale of Time Travel

Here is a short time-travel novel suitable for Young Adults and older readers imagining two high school students who barely acknowledge each other being transported to Whitechapel, London, during the time of the Jack the Ripper murders.  Abe and Mitzi, who are both Jewish Americans, find themselves transformed into the 19th Century Asher and Maya, two Jewish teenage neighbors, born to impoverished immigrant families. [Donald H. Harrison]

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Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Donald H. Harrison

Redefining ‘Religious’ With Yuval David

By Eric George Tauber CINCINNATI, Ohio — When most of us hear the term “religious,” we think of sheitels, shtreimels, and what we can’t do on Shabbos, which is why most of us aren’t “religious” or “that religious.” However, Yuval David, an actor, filmmaker, and activist, is reclaiming what it means to be “religious” as

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Eric George Tauber, Middle East, Theatre, Film & Broadcast, USA

Loews Coronado Bay Resort: A Tisch Family Outpost

The 440-room Loews Coronado Bay Resort was opened in 1991 on a 15-acre spur of land jutting into San Diego Bay. Like other Loews Properties around the United States, it is owned by the Tisch Family, which operates the hotel business and other subsidiaries through Loews Corporation, a holding company. Tracing the Tisch family’s enterprises is an interesting study in how a family grows its wealth [Donald H. Harrison]

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Business & Finance, Donald H. Harrison, San Diego County, Sports & Competitions, Theatre, Film & Broadcast, Travel and Food, USA

Dr. Bart Ehrman Lists Many Inconsistencies in the New Testament

By Rabbi Dr. Israel Drazin BOCA RATON, Florida — Many Christians are convinced that God dictated the New Testament, that it has no errors and no contradiction, and that it contains the true facts concerning Jesus and the beginning of Christianity. In contrast, many scholars in America and Europe for at least several hundred years

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Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Israel Drazin-Rabbi Dr.

OpEd: Whoopi Goldberg’s Mistake Wasn’t So Terrible

By Donald H. Harrison SAN DIEGO – Whoopi Goldberg was wrong but as far as I’m concerned, the folks at ABC and The View were too harsh when they suspended her for two weeks. Let me explain. In a discussion of the Holocaust on The View television show, Goldberg commented that the Holocaust wasn’t racist

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Donald H. Harrison, Holocaust, Jewish History, Jewish Religion, Opinion, Theatre, Film & Broadcast

Book Provides More Complete Picture of Concentration Camp Life

“Never Forget Your Name: The Children of Auschwitz,” by Alwin Meyer; English version Polity Press (c) 2022; ISBN 13:978-1-5095-4550-6; 496 pages. By Sandra Scheller CHULA VISTA, California — In 1971, 21-year-old Alwin Meyer made his first trip to the Auschwitz concentration camp, not as a relative of a survivor but as a German observer. He

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Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Holocaust, International, Jewish History, Sandra Scheller

Murder and Approaching Death Fill a Tale of Hoffman

Author Wayne Hoffman regales us with two concurrent non-fiction stories. His search to learn the identity of the person who murdered his great-grandmother as she lay sleeping in her bed, with an infant child at her side, occurred at the same time that his mother, Susan, was having increasing problems with her memory as Alzheimer’s progressively took a worsening toll. [Donald H. Harrison]

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Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Donald H. Harrison, Jewish History

Why Is There Suffering in the World?

By Rabbi Dr. Israel Drazin BOCA RATON, Florida — Bart Denton Ehrman, born on 10/5/55, a PhD American New Testament scholar and author or editor of several dozen very popular, fascinating, and informative books, began life as a fundamentalist Christian, became a minister, and preached in churches. But he gave up Christianity and became an

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Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Israel Drazin-Rabbi Dr., Jewish Religion