By Morris J. Amitay WASHINGTON, D.C — The specter of the January 2, 2013 sequestration has created rare unanimity here in Washington. Just about everyone both in the defense establishment and Congress maintains it would have disastrous consequences if implemented. This new round of budget cuts was mandated by the U.S. Budget Control Act […]
Partisan gridlock jeopardizes U.S. military readiness Read More »
USA
By Rabbi Michael Leo Samuel CHULA VISTA, California — The recent attack upon the Sikh Temple in Wisconsin dredged up some old memories I thought I had buried. My story began not long after 2001. At that time, I was a rabbi in Glens Falls, New York, when the incident occurred. After the terrible 9/11
Attack on Sikh Temple stirs memories of Glen Falls Read More »
Michael Leo Samuel-Rabbi, USABy Ira Sharkansky OSLO–Neither Varda nor I are Holocaust mavens. We know what happened. Varda lights candles each year for her uncle and grandmother, whose name she carries and who last wrote to the family from Theresienstadt on her way elsewhere. Neither of us have visited Yad Vashem in decades, since the site added several
Norway’s Holocaust museum symbolically located Read More »
International, Ira SharkanskyBy Ira Sharkansky JERUSALEM–Israeli politics is currently more a muddle than usual. Leaving aside the knotty problem of defining the “left,” two newspapers identified with the Israeli and American Jewish left have published reports that define the problem of the left. Ha’aretz headlined a survey of Israelis finding that about half the adult population identify
Israeli left unable to capitalize on Netanyahu’s flaws Read More »
Ira Sharkansky, Middle EastBy Evelyn Gordon WASHINGTON, D.C. — When a blue-ribbon panel of Israeli legal experts issued a report this July declaring that the West Bank isn’t “occupied territory,” but territory to which Israel has a legitimate claim, and that settlements therefore cannot be considered ipso facto illegal, it raised an outcry both in Israel and overseas.
Levy Report makes legal and diplomatic sense Read More »
Middle East
By Shoshana Bryen WASHINGTON, D.C. — The news is out — President Obama is not just watching the gory events unfold in Syria. The president signed an intelligence finding permitting the CIA to help the opposition with $25 million’s worth of non-lethal assistance, possibly including communications, logistics, and intelligence. Public acknowledgement of the finding follows
U.S. naively tries to buy friends in Syria Read More »
Middle East, Shoshana Bryen
Editor’s Note: Our Australia bureau chief, Garry Fabian, recently received the following request from the city of Stuttgart, Germany: ” “On the 22nd August this year there will be the 70th anniversary of this very sad moment in Stuttgart (Germany) history. We are planning to commemorate this date when transport of Jewish citizens were commenced
Survivor commemorates his deportation from Stuttgart Read More »
International, Jewish History
Editor’s Note: The following article will introduce a new Tel Aviv correspondent who will be writing for San Diego Jewish World. By Candice Mervis TEL AVIV– Two and a half years ago I made Aliyah from Sydney Australia, and although the decision came as a surprise to most people, for me it had been burning
Olah hadash from Australia tells of her aliyah Read More »
Middle East
By Rabbi Leonard Rosenthal SAN DIEGO –I was appalled by one of the comments that I heard repeatedly in the wake of the murderous rampage at a Milwaukee Sikh temple last Sunday: the white supremacist shooter who attacked it probably mistook it for an Islamic house of worship. As if that is any kind of
Attack on ANY religious group is an outrage Read More »
USABy Ira Sharkansky OSLO, Norway — This city is one of Europe’s historic cities, having begun about the time William sailed to England. And a cool and damp respite from Jerusalem’s summer, where midday is only for mad dogs and Englishmen. This trip is part of my on-going project to compare other old cities with
A success story from the Oslo peace process Read More »
Ira Sharkansky, Middle East
By Rabbi Ben Kamin SAN DIEGO –Some folks enjoy the easy, racially-tinged declaration, after viewing an African American man on the television news being indicted or sentenced for some gruesome crime: “Well, of course.” The assumption, the throw-away epithet, is simple, coarse, and poorly-informed. It is driven by the insipid racism of too many people
What color is terror? Read More »
USABy Ira Sharkansky JERUSALEM–Others can accuse Israel of bringing the world to the edge of disaster over Iran, but not for doing it without discussion. It’s been going on sporadically for several years, and may be reaching a crescendo. Israel Hayom dedicated its weekend supplement to the subject, and gave it the headline “Before
Talk of Israel-Iran war reaching a crescendo Read More »
Ira Sharkansky, Middle EastBy Ira Sharkansky JERUSALEM — Mitt Romney and his crew were not at their best during the campaign trip outside of the United States. The candidate insulted the British in London, raised hackles of Palestinians and the politically correct everywhere with comments about the superiority of Jewish culture in Israel, and his press secretary lost
Friedman rebukes Romney for seeking ‘Jewish money’ Read More »
Ira Sharkansky, Middle EastBy Rabbi Ben Kamin SAN DIEGO — When the Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas, unsuccessfully pleaded for a state at the UN last year, many of us in the Jewish community noted with some bitterness: he failed to even mention either the historic Jewish association with the region of Palestine or the horrific Jewish suffering of
When politics erases basic human compassion Read More »
Jewish Religion, Middle East