The Arts

Biography of Nehemiah prompts mixed emotions

Nehemiah: Statesman and Sage by Dov S. Zakheim; Maggid Books © 2016; ISBN 9781592-643691; 246 pages including appendices; $27.95 By Donald H. Harrison SAN DIEGO – From the standpoint of one in whose family there have been several intermarriages in which the children have been raised as Reform Jews, I read this biography of the […]

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

From the Jewish Library: ‘A Spoonful of Sugar’

A Spoonful of Sugar: A Nanny’s Story, by Brenda Ashford, Doubleday 2013 (and co-writer Kate Thompson) By Sheila Orysiek SAN DIEGO — Fairy tales usually begin with “Once upon a time” and end with “they lived happily ever after.”   But is that true?  No, of course not – that’s why they are called “fairy tales,” silly.

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Books, Poetry & Short Stories

June 28 play, lecture to augment ‘The Unfinished Diary’

SAN DIEGO — Feivel Wolgelernter, whose father Chaim Yitzchok Wolgelernter wrote the The Unfinished Diary: A Chronicle of Tears, which detailed his experiences hiding in Dzialoszyce, Poland from the German Nazis, will speak at 7:30 p.m., Tuesday, June 28, at Congregation Adat Yeshurun, 8625 La Jolla Scenic Drive North. Feivel’s talk will be followed by a

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Books, Poetry & Short Stories, International, Jewish History, San Diego Calendar, Theatre, Film & Broadcast

Illustrated prayer book follows Ashkenazic tradition

Nehalel beChol: Weekday Siddur devised by Michael Haruni; Introduction by Rabbi Nathan Lopes Cardozo, Nevarech Press, Jerusalem, © 2015, ISBN 978-965-92180-1-1, p. 665 plus Photo and Credits Appendix, $29.95 By Fred Reiss, Ed.D. WINCHESTER, California – At first blush, one cannot help but be moved by the attractiveness of the color photographs permeating the Nehalel beChol

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

Netanyahu to Itzhak Perlman: You’re the ‘fiddler of the world’

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and his wife Sarah on Thursday hosted 2016 Genesis Prize laureate violinist Itzhak Perlman at the Prime Minister’s Residence in Jerusalem. The Genesis Prize award ceremony was hosted this year by Oscar-winning actress Helen Mirren, who toured the city of Jerusalem on Wednesday. The Prime Minister and his wife congratulated Perlman

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Middle East, Music, Dance, and Visual Arts

Brian Williams of MSNBC covers Trump speech savaging Brian Williams

That was one awkward moment for cable news channel MSNBC and anchor Brian Williams during their coverage of Donald Trump’s speech Wednesday attacking the record of Democratic rival Hillary Clinton in New York. At one point, Mr. Trump, the presumptive GOP nominee, lit into Mrs. Clinton for claiming to have come under fire during a

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Theatre, Film & Broadcast, USA

Hollywood star explores ancient Jerusalem in City of David

The ancient City of David welcomed a high-profile guest on Wednesday, when Oscar, Emmy, and Tony award-winning British actress Helen Mirren toured archeological sites in Jerusalem with Mayor Nir Barkat. Mirren, who has been chosen to award this year”s Genesis Prize, has a long history of interest in the Jewish state. The Genesis Prize honors

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Middle East, Theatre, Film & Broadcast

‘A Jewish Joke’ is a story of the McCarthy era

By Eric George Tauber SAN DIEGO — As the McCarthy Era recedes into history, we lose sight of the days when “patriots” thought they were protecting our sacred American freedom by denying people their First, Fifth and Sixth Amendment Constitutional Rights. HUAC (The House Un-American Activities Committee) led by Senator Joe McCarthy was a national

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Eric George Tauber, Theatre, Film & Broadcast

Malala and Anne could have been great friends

By Donald H. Harrison SAN DIEGO – The world’s youngest Nobel laureate, Malala Yousafzai of Pakistan, has often been compared to Anne Frank. Both kept diaries in times when rulers subjugated those whom they believed to be racially or religiously inferior. Both Anne and Malala suffered through warfare, their lives constantly threatened, respectively by the

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

Yelchin of ‘Star Trek’ fame killed in accident

(JNS.org) Russian-Jewish actor Anton Yelchin, who played the Russian starship navigator Chekov in the rebooted series of “Star Trek” movies, died Sunday after being accidentally crushed by his own vehicle against a driveway wall, police said. The 27-year-old Yelchin was born in St. Petersburg and emigrated to America as a child under political refugee status

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Theatre, Film & Broadcast, USA

To help another, reduce yourself

The Psychology of Tzimtzum: Self, Others and God by Mordechai Rotenberg, Maggid Books, New Milford, CT, ©2015, ISBN 978-1-59264-384-4, p. 109, plus appendices, $24.95 By Fred Reiss, Ed.D. WINCHESTER, California – The sixteenth century Safed mystics employed the Hebrew word Tzimtzum, meaning contraction, to answer the question: why is there something, rather than nothing. If God’s presence

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Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Fred Reiss, EdD

Musical scores save many a movie

By Jonathan L. Friedmann, Ph.D. MORENO VALLEY, California — Jerry Goldsmith, a top film composer of the second half of the twentieth century, regularly worked on projects unworthy of his artistic expression. His filmography includes over two hundred titles, along with a hefty body of television work. Much of it is stale genre fare: thrillers, westerns, maritime

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Music, Dance, and Visual Arts, Theatre, Film & Broadcast