International

SWU webcast illustrates diverse support for Israel

StandWithUs on Wednesday evening presented a packed webcast, nearly an hour long, demonstrating the diversity of people who support Israel and the urgency that support has for Jewish and pro-Israel students attending high schools, colleges, and universities in North America and around the world. [Donald H. Harrison]

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Donald H. Harrison, International, Music, Dance, and Visual Arts, Science, Medicine, & Education, Theatre, Film & Broadcast, USA

Seacrest Village may be answer for isolated Jewish seniors

Jewish seniors isolated during the coronavirus pandemic may be better off both physically and mentally by moving to the Independent Living section of Seacrest Village Retirement Communities, its president and CEO Pam Ferris says. [Donald H. Harrison, “Our Shtetl San Diego County column]

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Donald H. Harrison, Jewish Religion, Obituaries & memorials, San Diego County, USA

A Trip to Myanmar in 2013

Back to Shwedagon Pagoda, it dominates the Yangon sky. The legend is that when Buddha was alive and preaching 2500 years ago, two brothers who were disciples were returning to Myanmar and asked Buddha for something personal they could take with them. He gave them a single strand of hair. The hair was presented to the ruling king who honored and encased it in a pagoda. Over the centuries, successive rulers felt compelled to enlarge the pagoda and make it more grandiose. Today it stands 336 feet tall and is covered with 60 tons of pure gold. It is is encrusted at the top with 5448 diamonds, 2317 rubies and sapphires, and a 76-carat diamond at the pinnacle. [Ira Spector]

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International, Travel and Food

The raging fires also are within us

Entire neighborhoods are engulfed in fire; thousands have been evacuated from their homes in California. A historic and unusual summer thunderstorm and rare massive lightning strikes combined with record-breaking heat ignited devastating fires across the Golden State. Death Valley reported temperatures of 130°F in what is believed to be the highest temperature ever measured on Earth, and this is attributed to climate change. Other natural disasters around the globe endanger our very existence. What is nature trying to tell us? Its message is clear. We are unwanted guests on this planet unless we humans change. [Michael Laitman, Ph.D]

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Lifestyles, San Diego County, The World We Share, USA

Fiction: Jewish perspectives on Niue

Boarding a comfortable but fast boat that would circumnavigate the South Pacific island of Niue, Noa and Esther were pleased with their earlier meeting with the country’s premier, who had promised his government’s cooperation as they explored the possibility of installing a desalination plant on the island.  However, he warned them that due to the atoll’s geography, rising as it did straight up from the Pacific Ocean, there were very few spaces for beaches or natural harbors. So, he said, finding a suitable location for a desalination plant might be very difficult indeed. [Donald H. Harrison]

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Donald H. Harrison, International, Jewish Fiction, Jewish History, Middle East, San Diego County, Travel and Food, USA

We need a memorial for Jews who saved Jews and others

Yad Vashem Holocaust Museum in Jerusalem honors non-Jews who chose to save Jews, even at the risk of their own lives. Yad Vashem does not honor, document or recognize Jews who saved other Jews during the Holocaust, even at the risk of their own lives. Honoring Jews who saved Jews was and is not part of its mandate. Were not their life-risking efforts worthy of memorialization? There is no memorial to Jews who saved Jews and others, in Israel, or anywhere. [Jerry Klinger]

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Jerry Klinger, Jewish History, Jewish Religion, Middle East, Obituaries & memorials, USA

San Diego races attract big-name endorsers

With less than two months to go until election, Democratic candidates in technically non-partisan local races are touting endorsements from big-name Democrats. For example, Assemblyman Todd Gloria, who is running for mayor of San Diego against City Councilwoman Barbara Bry, is sending out a short video showing U.S. Sen. Kamala Harris, the Democratic nominee for vice president, endorsing him. [Donald H. Harrison, “Our Shtetl San Diego County”]

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Donald H. Harrison, International, Jewish History, Jewish Religion, Middle East, USA

Hal the horseradish man

While waiting for my meal I noticed a small, freestanding wood building across the street. The building was painted yellow, which was not extraordinary by itself, but across the entire length of the façade, hand-painted in huge, block, green-painted letters, was the word “horseradish.” Now this is not the message on your typical store sign. I was so intrigued, that after lunch I crossed the street to see what they sold. To my amazement, the store, true to its sign, primarily sold three kinds of horseradish-regular, beet, and lemon- in pint or quart jars. [Ira Spector]

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Business & Finance, Travel and Food, USA

A mind is a fine thing to grow

I climbed the cheap metal steps to one of the many cheap “temporary” classroom buildings that sprouted like weeds between my Spring 1965 campus visit to SUNY Buffalo [UB] and the August start of freshman year. The classic Gothic campus on Main Street had turned into a muddy mobile home park, but I was happy to be there. Not quite 17, I celebrated as my parents drove off in tears, leaving me 400 miles from home. They had told me to choose a state school, and the map told me Buffalo was as far as I could get from Brooklyn. A bonus was UB’s academic reputation, good enough for the elitists in my high school to express surprise that I had been accepted. [Michael Ginsberg]

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Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Lifestyles, Michael Ginsberg, Science, Medicine, & Education, Theatre, Film & Broadcast, USA

Food, pandemics, and heat waves

Our editor has opened SDJW pages to contributors of  fiction. What follows is true, but has the hallmarks of incredulity. We are wending our Pandemic way from August in Wyoming with the lowest Covid rate in the nation, to Richmond with a detour staying with my sister and brother in law in Laguna Woods. It is 2 pm and 104 degrees outside, and today, Sunday, is predicted to be 108 with “Very Unhealthy Air Quality.” [Oliver B. Pollak]

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Lifestyles, Oliver Pollak, Travel and Food, USA

Exploring ‘The Other Side’: Journeys in Baja California

With ethnic studies being required in K-12 public school and at the California State University, I recently picked up a book published by my friends at Sunbelt Publishing in El Cajon to engage in some welcome learning about another ethnicity. The Other Side: Journeys in Baja California by Judy Goldstein Botello, which I chose from Sunbelt’s warehouse at 1250 Fayette Street was not newly issued, but it was on topic and quite readable. [Donald H. Harrison]

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Donald H. Harrison, International, San Diego County, Travel and Food

A portrait of my pop

grew up in the fifties, through the fits and starts of adolescence, the revealing mysteries of puberty and the inculcation of ambition all Jewish boys are indoctrinated with before leaving home. Growing up I never thought of my father as handsome or ugly. He was just “Pop.” He was good to me as a kid, but was afflicted with a terrible depression that permeated his personality and behavior and prevented a close relationship between us. His perpetual sadness limited his sharing of his life’s experiences and wisdom gained that might have guided me from making some of the mistakes I made later in life. [Ira Spector]

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Lifestyles, USA

Jewish Teen Foundation invites high schoolers to apply

The Jewish Teen Foundation (JTF) is recruiting San Diego County Jewish high school students to learn about philanthropy, tikkun olam, and tzedakah. Under auspices of the Jewish Community Foundation, “teens will learn grant making, collaboration, public speaking, and constructive discourse skills while building their own personal networks,” according to a JTF news release. [Donald H. Harrison, “Our Shtetl San Diego County”

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Donald H. Harrison, Jewish Religion, San Diego County, USA