The Arts

S.D. International Jewish Film Festival to return Feb. 7

SAN DIEGO (Press Release) – The San Diego Center for Jewish Culture (CJC) announced on Wednesday the annual San Diego Jewish International Film Festival will return for its 29th anniversary, Thursday, Feb. 7 through Sunday, Feb. 17, 2019. The festival showcases a selection of the best contemporary Jewish-related films across multiple genres and aims to

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San Diego County, Theatre, Film & Broadcast

Movie Review: ‘The Green Book’

By Sheldon Foster Merel ENCINITAS, California — I just saw the movie The Green Book and was captivated watching the changing relationship between the two main characters and their encounter with blatant racism in their journey through the south during the 1960s. Black people in the south at that time were restricted from using the same

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

Film Review: ‘Sacred’ from PBS

By Donald H. Harrison SAN DIEGO – Sacred, now streaming at https://www.pbs.org/wnet/sacred/sacred-full-episode/, views life cycle events and religious practices through the lenses of more than 40 videographers stationed on five continents – Europe, Asia, Africa, North America, and South America.  We see not only the well known western and eastern religions, but also tribal and

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International, Jewish Religion, Middle East, Theatre, Film & Broadcast, Travel and Food, USA

Shimmering Lights bright at SDSU concert

By Eileen Wingard SAN DIEGO — A highlight of the Hanukkah week in San Diego was the Broken Consort concert December 4, at Smith Hall, on the campus of San Diego State University. The program was entitled, “Shimmering Lights,” and was based on the newly released album by klezmer violinist Yale Strom, his wife, vocalist

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

Book review: ‘Memories, Miracles & Meaning’

Memories, Miracles & Meaning: Insights of a Holocaust Survivor by Fanny Krasner Lebovits (with Selwyn Isakow and Sid Shapira); Mascot Books (c) 2019; ISBN 9781643-071909; 199 pages plus family tree, photos and glossary; $22.95. By Donald H. Harrison SAN DIEGO – At 96, Fanny Krasner Lebovits is still going strong.  I saw her as recently

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

Tim Shaw exhibit contrasts with peaceful Balboa Park

In Xanadu did Kubla Khan A stately pleasure dome decree… By Dorothea Shefer-Vanson SAN DIEGO — The words of Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s poem could well apply to San Diego’s stately Balboa Park, with its landscaped grounds, and 17 museums dedicated to different subjects, as well as centers for music, theater, recreational activities, and of course

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Dorothea Shefer-Vanson, Music, Dance, and Visual Arts, San Diego County, USA

The Jewish stories behind ‘Miracle on 34th Street’

By Jerry Klinger BOYNTON BEACH, Florida — Every year, about this time of year, Christmas themed movies are flooding T.V. screens across the country. Ranked #9 out of 100 by the American Film Institute greatest films of all times is the 1947 beloved holiday comedy classic, Miracle on 34th Street. It is a warm feeling

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Jerry Klinger, Jewish History, Theatre, Film & Broadcast, USA

New Orthodox siddur provides modern translations

Siddur Avodat Halev by Rabbi Basil Herring, Editor-in-Chief, Toby Press, New Milford, CT © 2018, ISBN 978-965-301-936-2, p. 1346, plus an introduction and essay section, $34.95. By Fred Reiss, Ed.D. WINCHESTER, California – Siddur Avodat Halev, the newest prayer book from the Rabbinical Council of America, one of the largest Orthodox Jewish rabbinical associations in the world,

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Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Fred Reiss, EdD, Jewish Religion

From the ashes of the Shoah, a Talmudic Encyclopedia

By Toby Klein Greenwald EFRAT, Israel — The recent marking of 80 years from Kristallnacht, and the approaching 10th of the Hebrew month of Tevet, which the Israeli chief rabbinate designated as the day of Kaddish for those who perished in the Holocaust, brings to mind a ground-breaking project that grew out of the ashes

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Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Jewish Religion, Toby Klein Greenwald

Michelle Obama’s ‘Becoming’ also about belonging

Becoming by Michelle Obama; © 2018; Crown Publishing; ISBN 9781524-763138; 421 pages plus acknowledgments and photo credits; $32.50 By Donald H. Harrison SAN DIEGO —  If one theme predominates throughout former First Lady Michelle Obama’s memoir, it is that, notwithstanding the fact that she and her husband had risen to the very pinnacle of power

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