By Mike Hayutin SAN DIEGO — Activists will tell us that protest is the purest form of patriotism. Sounds pretty noble doesn’t it? Academics, primarily agenda driven leftists, encourage kids to march as a symbol of commitment. I suggest a more profound form of patriotism as a predicate before protest. How about gratitude? The former […]
OpEd: Virtue signaling Read More »
USABy Joel H. Cohen NEW YORK — The first Orthodox Jewish member of the U.S, Senate, Joe Lieberman of Connecticut, who ran for U.S. Vice President in 2000, has just published a book of philosophical essays related to counting the Omer. The book, With Liberty and Justice: The Fifty Day From Egypt to Sinai, (Maggid/OU Press),
As VP, he would have been on call 24/6? Read More »
Jewish Religion, Joel H. Cohen, USABy Rabbi Dow Marmur JERUSALEM — Three young men crossed the border at Gaza and were found wandering on Israeli territory in the hope of being jailed here. They reckoned, so I heard a commentator explain, that life in an Israeli prison is better than the life they now have in ostensible freedom in Gaza.
Waiting for the Gaza march Read More »
Middle East
NEW YORK (Press Release) –This April, millions of college students across the country will engage with a coalition of pro-Israel organizations to mark the Jewish State’s 70th birthday with Tel Aviv beach party-style celebrations at more than 160 university campuses across the U.S. and Canada including San Diego State University and UC San Diego. The
Tel Aviv style beach parties set for 160 U.S. campuses Read More »
Middle East, San Diego County, Science, Medicine, & Education
By Judy Lash Balint JERUSALEM — What’s it like to be in Israel where, according to a 2017 Jewish People Policy Institute survey, 97% of Israeli Jews host or participate in a Passover Seder? If you’ve never heard an Arab calling out “alter zachen” (‘old things’) in Yiddish, then you’ve never experienced pre-Passover preparations
Israel gets ready for Passover Read More »
Jewish Religion, Middle EastUne Vie (One Life) by Simone Veil, (c) 2017, Stock, France. By Dorothea Shefer-Vanson MEVASSERET ZION, Israel — On the cover of Simone Veil’s autobiography, written in 2007, we read that she is a member of the Academie Francaise, though this is not mentioned in the book. It would seem that after a long and
Simone Veil’s memoir provides inspiration for all Read More »
Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Dorothea Shefer-Vanson, International, Jewish History
HAIFA, Israel (Press Release) — Pigeons played an important role in turning the Byzantine Negev into a flourishing region 1,500 years ago. This is the conclusion of a new study held at the Institute of Archeology at the University of Haifa that was published Monday in the prestigious journal PlosOne. The study, which concentrated on
Pigeon droppings fertilized ancient Negev Read More »
Middle East, Science, Medicine, & EducationBy Ira Sharkansky JERUSALEM — A Palestinian used his car as a weapon and drove into a cluster of soldiers alongside an IDF base in the West Bank. He killed two and injured two others. A few days later, a Palestinian stabbed a security guard in Jerusalem’s Old City. Those were the third, fourth, and
Palestinian terror, American mass shootings Read More »
Ira Sharkansky, Middle East, USABy Barry Shaw NETANYA, Israel — Billionaire and philanthropist, Ronald Lauder, a regular and massive contributor to Jewish and Israeli charities, made the most bewildering statement in the New York Times: “…the Jewish democratic state faces two grave threats that I believe could endanger its very existence…The first threat is the possible demise of the two-state
OpEd: Why Ronald Lauder is wrong about Israel Read More »
Middle East
Editor’s Note: This is the third in a series of stories researched during Don and Nancy Harrison’s 50th Wedding Anniversary cruise from Sydney, Australia, to San Diego. Previous installments of the series, which runs every Thursday, may be found by tapping the number of the installment: 1, 2. By Donald H. Harrison SYDNEY,
Australian rabbi grew up in secular Los Angeles home Read More »
International, Jewish History, Jewish Religion, Travel and Food, USAJERUSALEM — Is this another occasion to sit shiva for the idea of a Palestinian state? Or yet another indication that the idea is well within the realm of dreamland, not to die, but not to achieve anything real? Several events qualify for the label of strategic, in the sense that they signal abject failure
Will there ever be a nation of Palestine? Read More »
Ira Sharkansky, Middle East
SANTA CRUZ, California (Press Release)– Within hours of San Francisco State University (SFSU) President Leslie Wong’s public apology to Jewish students and affirmation that “Zionists are welcome on our campus,” an SFSU professor shot back with a hateful and discriminatory message targeting Jewish and Zionist students. The message was posted on an official site of the Arab and Muslim Ethnicities and
By Alon Ben-Meir and Arbana Xharra NEW YORK — Less than a month ago, in advance of the summit of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) in Istanbul, the Turkish daily Yeni Şafak, which is considered one of the mouthpieces of Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP), published an
Turkish plans to conquer Israel, Europe Read More »
Alon Ben-Meir, International, Middle East, USABy Dorothea Shefer-Vanson MEVASSERET ZION, Israel — “What is your favorite sound?” was one of the questions that the legendary French interviewer and literary figure, Bernard Pivo, used to ask his interviewees. The answers were usually interesting but not very original. “The sounds of nature,” “A champagne cork popping,” “The harmonious cacophony of the orchestra tuning
Friday nights with the grand children Read More »
Dorothea Shefer-Vanson, Middle East, Travel and Food