International

Jewish Musician and Cultural Leader Eileen Wingard Reminisces About Her Career

Violinist Eileen Wingard was never the star of the San Diego Symphony Orchestra. Such billings belong to conductors like Zoltan Rozsnyai, Peter Eros, David Atherton, Yoav Talmi, and Jung-Ho Pak, all of whom she played under during a career stretching from 1967 through 2004. Or perhaps the stars are donors like Irwin and Joan Jacobs, who in 2002 gave the San Diego Symphony an amazing gift of $120 million, the largest ever given to an orchestra in America. [Donald H. Harrison]

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California, Donald H. Harrison, Music, Dance, and Visual Arts, San Diego County, Travel and Food, USA

The Complex Legacy of German Chemist Fritz Haber

By Alex Gordon HAIFA, Israel — In 1919, the 1918 Nobel Prize in Chemistry was awarded to German scientist Fritz Haber “for the synthesis of ammonia from its constituent elements.” Ekstrand, president of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, said that Haber’s discoveries were extremely important for agriculture and the prosperity of mankind. Scientists of

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Alex Gordon, International, Opinion

Israel’s Weizmann Institute Joins NASA Planetary Defense Exercise

(JNS) Representatives from the Weizmann Institute’s Physics Faculty in Rehovot joined more than 100 astronomers worldwide in a recent NASA planetary defense exercise. As part of the exercise, David Polishook, a member of the faculty and also director of Weizmann’s observatory, deleted a previously detected “near-Earth object” asteroid from the asteroid database, to see if

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Middle East, Science, Medicine, & Education, USA

Tel Aviv: Israel’s Playground

By Dorothea Shefer-Vanson MEVASSERET ZION, Israel — To start with, Tel Aviv features the Mediterranean Sea, with its long sandy beaches, kept relatively clean by the municipality, with designated areas for people to play games (ah, the dreaded “matkot” with their constant noisy batting to and fro of a ball against wooden bats), another area

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Dorothea Shefer-Vanson, Lifestyles, Middle East, Travel and Food

William Paterson’s Senate Plan of 1787, No Gun Control in 2022

By Bruce S. Ticker PHILADELPHIA — After Adam Lanza murdered 20 children and six adults at an elementary school in Newtown, Conn., Democrats in 2013 represented 184 million Americans in the Senate and Republicans represented 118 million, according to a guest on a news program this past week. Yet the Republicans stopped dead legislation to

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Bruce Ticker, Opinion, USA

Charles Ray at the Metropolitan Museum of Art

By Sam Ben-Meir Charles Ray (b. 1953) — undoubtedly one of the most conceptually and visually breathtaking sculptors alive today — is enjoying something of cultural moment at present, with four exhibitions on two continents, including “Charles Ray: Figure Ground” at New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art. Throughout his career, Ray has been engaged in

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Music, Dance, and Visual Arts, Sam Ben-Meir, USA

Uvalde Ricochets

By Laurie Baron SAN DIEGO — I suspect Vladimir Putin of planning the mass shooting in Uvalde to overshadow news coverage of the war in Ukraine. The Texas legislature is considering a bill to arm fetuses with tiny Derringers. It plans to drum up popular support for the measure with the slogan, “The only thing

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Lawrence Baron, Opinion, USA

The Bitter Laughter and Tragic Fate of the First Writer of Anti-Soviet Jokes

By Alex Gordon HAIFA, Israel — The German historian and political scientist Otto-Ernst Schüddekopf wrote, “Walter Rathenau (the future German Foreign Minister, assassinated by the Nationalists in 1922 as one of the ‘ Elders of Zion’ – A.G.), who visited Radek in a Berlin prison in 1919 as an authority and read him his elegant

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Alex Gordon, International, Opinion

Novel Incorporates Vignettes about Patrons of a Jerusalem Café

Ehrlich’s Café Shira is an imaginative series of vignettes that take place in an establishment much like Café Tmol Shilshom, wherein the regulars at each table have their own stories. Sometimes they are interwoven with the stories of waitresses Rutha and Rona and café owner Avigdor; other times, they are in a world of their own, made known to us only by the remarkable insight and intuition of the hard-working, extremely empathetic Rutha. [Donald H. Harrison]

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Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Donald H. Harrison, Middle East

The Landscape Surrounding Guns in the US, Israel, and the Disputed Territories

By Ira Sharkansky, Ph.D   JERUSALEM — Americans are not quiet about Israel and the disputed territories. Neither are they quiet about gun deaths in their own country. Are the cases similar? No. Details, history, and explanations vary. But they are similar in reflecting serious problems. Neither country is perfect. Both have their defenders who

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Ira Sharkansky, Middle East, Opinion, USA

Larry Schwartz: Organizer of AFT Local 1931

A large crowd gathered on December 1, 1995, to rename the Quad at San Diego City College as Schwartz Square.  The gathering was in honor of history professor and American Federation of Teachers #1931 President Larry Schwartz.  He had died at age 62 of a brain tumor ten months prior to the ceremony. The dedication plaque there reads: “In memory of Larry Schwartz. He inspired students, challenged colleagues, and shared the passion and action of his time.” [Donald H. Harrison]

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Books, Poetry & Short Stories, California, Donald H. Harrison, Jewish History, San Diego County, Science, Medicine, & Education, Travel and Food, USA

From Jerusalem to Shusha: Jewish and Muslim Allies Can Stand Together

By Jacob Kamaras (JNS) With the latest wave of Palestinian terrorism, the tensions that surround the Temple Mount and the firestorm of unverified allegations against Israel that followed the death of Al Jazeera journalist Shireen Abu Akleh, the leadup to this year’s observance of Jerusalem Day on May 28-29 has been tumultuous. Yet as they

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International, Jacob Kamaras, Middle East, Opinion, USA