Streaming American Jewish Comedies
These are times we need the laughs, so Prof. Laurie Baron has compiled a list of streaming movies.
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Lawrence Baron, Theatre, Film & BroadcastThe Arts
Book review: Life of a Sar-El volunteer
Mark Werner is a retired corporate attorney from North Carolina, who at least once a year for the past 18 years has traveled to Israel at his own expense to sweat and grunt for three weeks as a manual laborer at various installations maintained by the Israel Defense Force. The jobs varied from assignment to assignment, but they all involved hard work, typically in the hot sun of Israel and inside even hotter warehouses. [Book review by Donald H. Harrison]
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Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Donald H. Harrison, Middle East, USAAnti-Semitism and psychiatry
One of the distinct pleasures I’ve found that serving as a contributing author for San Diego Jewish World brings, is the opportunity to review material related to psychology and mental health. When I was asked to review Anti-Semitism and Psychiatry edited by H. Steven Moffic, John R. Peteet, Ahmed Hankir and Mary V. Seeman and published by Springer this year, I welcomed the prospect. [Michael R. Mantell, Ph.D]
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Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Jewish History, Lifestyles, Michael Mantell, Science, Medicine, & EducationA tune for Memorial Day? ‘Here’s One,” in fact, four
One of the earliest Memorial Day commemorations was organized by a group of freed slaves in Charleston, South Carolina, after the Civil War, less than a month after the Confederacy surrendered. So it is fitting that, in honor of Memorial Day, I write about my sister Zina Schiff’s 1994 4-Tay CD, Here’s One” featuring works by American composers, including “The Deserted Garden,” by African-American composer Florence Price. Inspired by African-American spirituals, the simple beauty of “The Deserted Garden” reflects the somber longing for lost loved ones. [Eileen Wingard]
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Eileen Wingard, Jewish History, Music, Dance, and Visual Arts, USAA Shavuot revelation
Shavuot is a mysterious holiday. This commemoration of receiving the Torah at Mount Sinai isn’t given a specific date for its celebration; instead we are told in Sefer Sh’mot (the Book of Exodus) to schedule it seven weeks from the second night of Passover. This year Shavuot will arrive the evening of Thursday, May 28. [Sam Glaser]
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Jewish Religion, Lifestyles, Music, Dance, and Visual Arts, Sam GlaserSan Diegan Carla Berg performs in concert Sunday
In the video above, Carla Sitton Berg and her daughter Liora Sitton Berg of San Diego perform a mother-daughter duet urging us “Don’t Dream It’s Over.” Carla, wife of Geoffrey Berg, a board officer of Soille San Diego Hebrew Day School, will be among artists presenting a free online concert Sunday at 3 p.m for which you can register via this website. The concert is co-sponsored by Music on the Inside (MOTI) and Balanced Guitar (BG) “through their shared belief in community and the powerful role of music, especially now.” [Our Shtetl San Diego County column by Donald H. Harrison]
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Donald H. Harrison, Jewish History, Jewish Religion, Music, Dance, and Visual Arts, San Diego County, Science, Medicine, & Education, USAStandWithUs celebrates 19th anniversary of its founding
StandWithUs celebrated the 19th anniversary of its founding on Thursday with an international webcast that showcased its growth and successes helping students on college campuses, high schools and middle schools learn about Israel and defend against anti-Semitic attacks. The program was emceed by comedian Elon Gold and also featured the singing of “Hatikvah,” Israel’s National Anthem, by Rabbi/ Cantor Alison Wissot of Temple Judea of Tarzana, California, and a popular, optimistic Hebrew song by Israeli singer David Broza on the theme of “things will get better.” [Our Shtetl San Diego County column by Donald H. Harrison]
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Donald H. Harrison, International, Jewish History, Jewish Religion, Middle East, San Diego County, Science, Medicine, & Education, Theatre, Film & Broadcast, USAHow to Make COVID-19 Lemonade
You’ve heard the goody two-shoes saying, “When life hands you lemons, make lemonade.” It was initially used by writer Elbert Hubbard in a 1915 obituary he wrote about actor Marshall Pinckney Wilder, when he said, “He picked up the lemons that Fate had sent him and started a lemonade-stand.” Many attribute Dale Carnegie in his 1948 book, How to Stop Worrying and Start Living with using the phrase, “If You Have a Lemon, Make a Lemonade.” And note that Carnegie credited Julius Rosenwald. Regardless, you get the point. [Michael R. Mantell, Ph.D]
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Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Lifestyles, Michael MantellPoetry: Endless Night
Editor’s Note: Maile Faust, a junior at Francis Parker School, wrote this poem inspired by Elie Wiesel’s “Night,’ during her freshman year. Her family is of mixed Jewish-Christian ancestry. Maile has seven years of ballet and 8 years of Free Style Martial Arts, in which she has earned a black belt. An honors and advanced placement student at Francis Parker, she intends to pursue a college degree in mechanical engineering.
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Books, Poetry & Short Stories, International, Jewish History, San Diego County, Science, Medicine, & EducationStreaming Jewish content for Week of May 24
A roundup of Jewish content available on the web and via the Public Broadcasting System, Sunday May 24-Thursday, May 28 by Laurie Baron, Ph.D
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Jewish History, Jewish Religion, Lawrence Baron, Theatre, Film & BroadcastNovel tells of a woman surviving as a man in POW camp
The young wife dressed in men’s clothing, with her breasts tightly corseted. She shaved her head and pretended that shell shock had rendered her incapable of speech. Izabella and Bill, a British prisoner-of-war who had escaped from a lightly guarded Nazi-run work camp in Czechoslovakia, figured it was likely he would be recaptured, but if so, she was determined to be captured with him. And so they were, and so began the more intriguing part of the story. [Book review by Donald H. Harrison]
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Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Donald H. HarrisonLocal political races re-energized
As the only daily Jewish news outlet in our county, San Diego Jewish World has made it a mission to keep track of important races in the county in which members of the Jewish community will be runoff candidates in the November general election. Now, with the nation, state, and local governments all in the process of looking beyond the coronavirus pandemic to the recovery of the economy, candidates for mayor, Congress, and the County Board of Supervisors are again making news. [Our Shtetl San Diego County column by Donald H. Harrison]
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Donald H. Harrison, Middle East, Theatre, Film & Broadcast, USASan Diego County, nation, respond to hate incidents
Two grocery store incidents in Santee earlier this month in which a man wearing the hood of the Ku Klux Klan, and a man and woman wearing masks featuring swastikas, continue to reverberate. San Diego County Supervisor Nathan Fletcher proposed that a countywide Human Relations Commission be re-established and empowered to look into such incidents, and the San Diego Union-Tribune ran three opinion pieces Monday on the incidents and their impact on the City of Santee. In another response to hate, the Combat Anti-Semitism Movement (CAM) arranged for 25 olive trees to be planted at Kfar Silver Youth Village in southern Israel in memory of Lori Gilbert Kaye, who was murdered when a gunman attacked Chabad of Poway on the last day of Passover in 2019. [Our Shtetl San Diego County column by Donald H. Harrison]
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Donald H. Harrison, Eva Trieger, Jewish History, Middle East, San Diego County, Theatre, Film & Broadcast, USAFour violin pieces by Zina Schiff in celebration of Jerusalem Day
Yom Yerushalayim, marking the unification of the City of Jerusalem at the end of the Six Day War, will be commemorated this Friday, May 22. Thus, I am writing this column about my sister, violinist Zina Schiff’s 1995 4Tay Records release, King David’s Lyre, a celebration of Jerusalem 3000. The CD consists of works by Jewish composers from many different corners of the globe. Since Jewish longing for Jerusalem spanned over two thousand years in Diaspora, it is fitting that a tribute to Jerusalem includes Jewish composers from around the world. [Eileen Wingard]
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Eileen Wingard, Jewish History, Music, Dance, and Visual Arts