The Arts

Voting by proxy in Congress during pandemic?

Congresswoman Susan Davis (D-San Diego) says she is in a favor of  a proposal that would permit voting by proxy in Congress as long as the requirement of social distancing is in effect or if similar emergencies should occur. [Our Shtetl San Diego County column by Donald H. Harrison]

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Donald H. Harrison, Jewish Religion, Middle East, San Diego County, Science, Medicine, & Education, Theatre, Film & Broadcast, USA

‘Children of Windermere’ a riveting dramatization

The BBC film Children of Wandermere is a heart- rending and at the same time heart-warming film of the incredible rescue mission of 300 children from ages 3 to 16 who survived the death camps of Germany in 1945. The first group of youngsters was flown for eight hours seated on the floor of a converted RAF bomber. They only had the clothes on their backs and some meager possessions. Until the Red Cross provided clothes, all the children went around in their underwear. [Cantor Sheldon Foster Merel]

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Cantor Sheldon Foster Merel, z"l, International, Jewish History, Theatre, Film & Broadcast

Movie probes Israelis who move to Germany, Austria

Back to the Fatherland is a documentary that raises more questions than it provides answers, but in so doing it portrays the anguish that Israeli Jews and Gentiles from Germany and Austria still feel about the Holocaust.  With occasional passages involving filmmakers Kat Rohrer and Gil Levanon themselves — one being Austrian, the other Israeli — the film for the most part focuses on ttwo young Israeli men who decided to make their homes in Austria and Germany, and the reaction and memories their decisions stir up within their grandparents, who were Holocaust survivors. [Movie review by Donald H. Harrison]

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Donald H. Harrison, Theatre, Film & Broadcast

Remembering dear ones of now and then

Suzanne Choney posted a photo on Facebook today of her parents, Rosa Rubel and Icek Choinowski, who 75 years ago today were “among 60,000 human beings being liberated from the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp in Germany.”  Choney added, “I know we all have so much to worry about now.  But I think of my parents, known in America as Rose and Irving Choney, the bravery of the Allies and the good people everywhere, and the evil faced by millions.  And I remember.  Just as all of us will remember this time.”  The photo, at left, of her parents was taken in London in 1947, two years after their liberation. [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, USA
https://youtu.be/hYlxVJubdww

Idan Raichel’s concert voiced a universal plea 

There is a sense of solidarity when an internationally acclaimed artist shares a living room space with the community at large, and a heightened sense of togetherness when viewers from all over the world take a moment in time to experience a resonant musical event as a people.  Idan Raichel’s “In Your Living Room” Live Concert from his home in Tel Aviv, Israel, continued the new format of live concerts in situ in this time of quarantine.  [Omr Zalmanowitz]

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Middle East, Music, Dance, and Visual Arts

How Shakespeare might have described Covid19

Now is the springtime of our confinement
Made mournfully frightful by the toll in New York.                                                                                             
A surfeit of time spent alone in our homes
Sheltering in place and bending the curve.  …
[Parody by Laurie Baron, Ph.D]

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Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Lawrence Baron, Trivia, Humor & Satire

Remembering via a virtual March of the Living

Residents throughout our county are joining a unique, worldwide virtual memorial to remember the victims of the Holocaust.  Sidelined by the coronavirus pandemic from attending this year’s “March of the Living” which brings thousands of Jews to the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration complex in Poland to mourn those who were murdered by the Nazis, members of the Jewish community instead are posting their sentiments on line via the Never Means Never website created for the purpose by March of the Living organizers. [Our Shtetl San Diego County column by Donald H. Harrison]

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

Congresswoman Davis announces financial help for students

Federal relief funds  for local universities and colleges and for their students in need during the coronavirus pandemic were announced on Monday by Congresswoman Susan Davis (D-San Diego).  In total, 23 institutions of higher learning in the count are receiving grant totaling $137,435,195, and will be required to distribute at least $71,360,718 in grants to students to pay for housing food, and other essentials. [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, Obituaries & memorials, San Diego County, Science, Medicine, & Education, USA

Streaming films about the Haredim

For a long time most films dealing with Orthodox and Ultra-Orthodox Jews sided with individuals whose choice of lifestyle, partners, or vocations conflicted with the expectations of their families and community.  While that is still true of many movies, in recent years films with sympathetic portrayals of traditional Jewish subcultures have emerged.  Here’s a sampling of both kinds of cinematic depictions. [Laurie Baron, PhD]

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Jewish Religion, Lawrence Baron, Theatre, Film & Broadcast

Jewish trivia quiz: The Beatles

Fifty years ago (April 10, 1970), the Beatles officially split up. Their popularity, however, has not waned. At an online auction last week, an ashtray used by Ringo Starr at Abbey Road Studios sold for $32,500 and a drawing by John Lennon and Yoko Ono called Bagism sold for $93,750. The handwritten lyrics of the song Hey Jude sold for $910,000, nine times the pre-auction estimate. What was the Jewish connection to that song? [Mark D. Zimmerman]

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Mark D. Zimmerman, Music, Dance, and Visual Arts, Trivia, Humor & Satire

Addressing Bible difficulties

It is only in recent times that Yeshivas (post-high-school religious schools) began again to teach Bible. The problem that the rabbis faced was that enlightenment scholars raised multiple questions about the Bible, questions that seemed to show that God did not write or inspire the Bible, but that it was composed by many different authors with different agendas, some of whom made mistakes. The Yeshiva rabbis did not know how to respond to the attacks. So, the rabbis stopped teaching Bible and told students that if they wanted to study the Torah they should do so on their own. Instead, the rabbis taught only Talmud and ethical books. This situation existed when I attended a prominent Yeshiva in the 1950s. [Rabbi Dr. Israel Drazin]

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

‘Plum Rains’ peeks into potential future

Plum Rains by Andromeda Romano-Lax is a novel set in the immediate future: 2029.  As such many common and universal human failings are on full display.  Greed, disdain, and full blown discrimination against people who are “others,” those who are not exactly like us, or who are like us, but from a slightly different location.  All of these human failings are all on full display throughout the novel. [Pamela Pollack Fremd]

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Theatre, Film & Broadcast, Travel and Food