The Arts

Yiddish play (with English subtitles) examines power

By Eva Trieger SAN DIEGO — Latin is a dead language. This is defined as “one that has no native speakers.” Jana Mazurkiewicz Meisarosh is on a mission to make sure that Yiddish never goes the way of Latin. And she’s succeeding.  Two years ago, the doctoral candidate from the Slavic Languages Department at the

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Eva Trieger, Jewish History, San Diego County, Theatre, Film & Broadcast

‘All Quiet on the Western Front’ now in graphic format

All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque; graphic adaptation by Wayne Vansant, © 2019 published by Dead Reckoning, ISBN9781682-474601, 170 pages, $24.95. By Donald H. Harrison SAN DIEGO – If I suddenly had universal authority, I would order every world leader, every man or woman capable of summoning an army to fight

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Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Donald H. Harrison, International

Funeral May 23 for Prof. Janet Brody Esser

By Lawrence Baron SAN DIEGO — Janet Brody Esser died early morning May 22 from cancer and injuries related to a recent auto accident. Born and raised in Brooklyn, she received her BA from the University of Iowa, MA in art history with an emphasis on anthropology and archeology from California State University, Long Beach,

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International, Lawrence Baron, Music, Dance, and Visual Arts, Obituaries & memorials, San Diego County, Science, Medicine, & Education, USA

The floods of Gilgamesh and the Bible

By Rabbi Dr. Israel Drazin BOCA RATON, Florida — There are remarkable similarities between the biblical story of the flood and the more ancient version of Gilgamesh. The Babylonian epic Gilgamesh was written on twelve tablets around 2000 BCE and has survived in several versions. It was discovered in 1839 among the ruins of a

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

Zionism an important component of Wouk’s legacy

By Moshe Phillips PHILADELPHIA, Pennsylvania — Herman Wouk, the famed novelist who first became a household name for his 1951 Pulitzer Prize winning The Caine Mutiny died last week nearly 70 years after achieving fame. Besides his long career as a writer he was also a lifelong Zionist. This fact of Wouk’s love affair with the State of Israel has been completely absent from the many articles celebrating his literary

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Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Jewish History, Middle East, USA

An Independence Day tour of Israel

By Steve Kramer KFAR SAVA, Israel — Just 71 years ago, Israel declared its independence based on several factors: *God promised the Land of Israel to the Jews in the Bible – echoed in the Christian Bible and even (gasp!) in the Koran. *Three ancient Jewish kingdoms in Israel are part of archaeological and historical

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Jewish History, Middle East, Music, Dance, and Visual Arts, Steve Kramer, Travel and Food

Jewish trivia quiz: Herman Wouk, z”l

By Mark D. Zimmerman MELVILLE, New York — Best selling author Herman Wouk died last week at the age of 103. Wouk, an Orthodox Jew, won the Pulitzer Prize for his novel The Caine Mutiny, and also wrote many Jewish-themed novels, including The Winds of War, War and Remembrance, and Marjorie Morningstar. Marjorie Morningstar told

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Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Mark D. Zimmerman, Trivia, Humor & Satire

Pride and Prejudice with a comic twist

By Eva Trieger SAN DIEGO —  Big thanks to Kate Hamill for rewriting Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice in such a playful and accessible way. The cast did justice to the snappy, buffoonish, coquettish roles that Hamill created. The playwright sought to deliver Austen’s feminist message and did so in a way that engaged the

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Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Eva Trieger, San Diego County, Theatre, Film & Broadcast

Contrasting the Bible with Greek mythology

By Rabbi Dr. Israel Drazin BOCA RATON, Florida — Greek and Jewish myths, reports and tales appear at first blush to be remarkably similar, but there are stark differences in how each culture views God, the world, the presence of evil, the worth of people, their duty, and their future. Psychologists have recognized that one

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