International

Cli-fi author helped Jewish neighbors on Shabbat

The more I work at this column-writing gig, the more I realize how true the motto of this website is that that “there’s a Jewish story everywhere.” Case in point: I was writing a draft about a hilarious new cli-fi novel from a Canadian humorist named David Millar when during one of our casual online chats about his book The Ministry For Ignoring Climate Change he told me a great little anecdote about his connection to Jewish people and Jewish culture. [Dan Bloom]

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Books, Poetry & Short Stories, International, The World We Share

Local Jewish candidates series: Joe Leventhal

San Diego City Council candidate Joe Leventhal served on the City of San Diego’s Ethics Commission for only a year before resigning to run for office, but he’s proud that he has left behind what he says colleagues on the commission refer informally to as the “Leventhal Amendment.” [Our Shtetl San Diego County column by Donald H. Harrison]

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

Books, Internet tell of plagues through history

The plague has interested me for over 60 years. On my shelves I have Daniel Defoe, A Journal of the Plague Year 1665; William H. McNeill, Plagues and Peoples (1976); John Aberth, the author of The Black Death, The Great Mortality of 1348-1350 (2005), the first of his several studies on mass mortality; Teofilo F. Ruiz, The Terror of History, on the Uncertainties of Life in Western Civilization (2011); and Rachel Kadish, The Weight of Ink (2017). I knew people who suffered through the 1918 Influenza epidemic. And I know three of the above mentioned authors. One of the first books I received as a gift was Defoe’s Robinson Crusoe. [Oliver B. Pollak, Ph.D]

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Books, Poetry & Short Stories, International, Jewish History, Oliver Pollak, USA

Council candidate tells of being Cheney’s gatekeeper

Attorney Joe Leventhal, who is seeking election in the 5th San Diego City Council District, once served as a “gatekeeper” for U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney, deciding what memos should go to him, which should first be vetted by others, and reading his proposed speeches for accuracy.  It was a pretty heady job for a young lawyer, just 26 years old.  Previously having served on the staff of U.S. Rep. Tim Johnson (R-Illinois), he had observed then that “Washington at the highest levels of government is actually run by all of these folks under 40, even under 30 — the Administration, Capitol Hill, even at the Supreme Court. [Our Shtetl San Diego County column by Donald H. Harrison]

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

Coronavirus prompts delay in Netanyahu’s trial

By all accounts, Prime Minister Netanyahu may turn out to be one of the beneficiaries of the coronavirus crisis. Benefit #1: As his sidekick the minister of justice has closed the courts, his trial, due to have started this week, has been postponed for a couple of months or more. Benefit #2: The call for a unity government to better respond to the crisis will mean that he may stay in office for a considerable time, even though his bloc doesn’t have the required minimum 61 votes of the 120 Members of Knesset. [Rabbi Dow Marmur]

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Middle East

Politics and coronavirus in Israel

It’s been two weeks since the election, and just now the President has interviewed party heads, and selected Benny Gantz to have the first chance at forming a coalition. Earlier signs of a minority government with Blue and White, Meretz-Labor, and Israel Our Home, with outside support from the United Arab List, have faded, but not completely.Two members of Blue and White and one of Meretz-Labor have indicated their opposition to allying with the United Arab List, and that brings Gantz’s vote down to 59. [Ira Sharkansky, Ph.D]

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Ira Sharkansky, Middle East

‘Fate of Our Fathers’ tells horror of Stalin’s purges

Stalin ruled from the mid-1920s to 1953. Vladimir Berger was born in 1931. In 1937, at the age of 6, his father, Iosif Shmulevich Berger, was arrested by the secret police. Vladimir, his mother and sister never saw him again. The family went from being reasonably well off to selling what they had to make ends meet. [Book review by Oliver B. Pollak, Ph.D]

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Books, Poetry & Short Stories, International, Jewish History, Oliver Pollak

JAFI brings teen emissaries in SD County home

Three Israeli youth who have been serving in San Diego County as shlichim (emissaries) for the Jewish Agency for Israel (JAFI) left for Israel on Sunday — their one-year tours in the United States interrupted by the shutdown of many area Jewish institutions in reaction to the spreading coronavirus.  Opportunities to interact with Jews on an organized level having been greatly reduced in San Diego County, the three 18-year-olds will return to Israel where, after a mandatory 14-day quarantine for all returnees to Israel, they will be able to do volunteer work and have Pesach seders with their families. [Our shtetl San Diego County column by Donald H. Harrison]

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Donald H. Harrison, Jerry Klinger, Middle East, San Diego County, Science, Medicine, & Education, The World We Share, Travel and Food, USA

Stocking up for emergencies an Israeli constant

I’m ready. I had no need to stock up on toilet paper, pasta, tins of food or any other staple, as I am always certain to have good supplies of those items. Anyone, like myself, who has lived in Israel, and especially Jerusalem, for over fifty years, has learned to always be well supplied with good stocks of foodstuffs. [Dorothea Shefer-Vanson]

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Dorothea Shefer-Vanson, Lifestyles, Middle East, Science, Medicine, & Education

Israelis, Palestinians join forces against coronavirus

When Israel was hit by a monstrous fire, Palestinian firefighters crossed the Green Line with their firetrucks and risked their lives to save Israelis. And when Palestinians are hit by COVID-19, Israel’s public health professionals work side by side with their Palestinian colleagues, supplying them with test kits, medicine and knowhow. “There are no borders here…There is no ‘them’ and ‘us,’” Brig. Gen. Ghassan Alian, the commander of Israel’s Civil Administration in the West Bank, told Israel Radio last week. In such times, you cannot but wonder why Israelis and Palestinians do not harness their shared humanity, their common sense and their sense of common future to end the bloody conflict between them. Unlike pandemics, wildfires and earthquakes, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is manmade. And this manmade calamity can be undone by humans – if they find it within themselves to relate to the other as humans, as equals, as equally human. [By James B. Klutznick and Aviva Meyer]

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Middle East, Science, Medicine, & Education, USA

Parent of 3 SDJA students tests positive for coronavirus

A parent of three San Diego Jewish Academy students has tested positive for coronavirus, according to Chaim Heller, the retiring head of the school.  In a letter to other parents sent on Saturday (Shabbat) , he wrote, “The parent was at school during the past week.  Their children, who are in grades, 1, 3, and 6, were in many rooms, including the Ulam (Auditorium), many times during the past week as well.  They were with their friends acting in a regular, non-distance manner during that time.  Effectively, they could have been with anyone from the school, from ECC [Early Childhood Center] to high school.” [Our Shtetl San Diego County column by Donald H. Harrison]

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Donald H. Harrison, Jerry Klinger, Jewish Religion, Lawrence Baron, Science, Medicine, & Education, Trivia, Humor & Satire, USA

Congresswoman Davis tells federal response to coronavirus

Like you, I am deeply concerned about the impact of the coronavirus (COVID-19) on our health, our loved ones, our lifestyle and our economy. As we continue to face this outbreak, I will keep updating you on what Congress is doing to counter the coronavirus (COVID-19) and its effects. My office is dedicated to keeping our constituents informed about the virus and focused on helping San Diegans who need assistance. [Congresswoman Susan Davis]

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San Diego County, Science, Medicine, & Education, USA

Biden’s victories reassure Jews worried about Sanders

Maybe now the threat of anti-Semitism – government-sanctioned anti-Semitism, to be specific – could be slackening with Bernie Sanders’s slackening presidential campaign. American Jews feared that a Bernie Sanders presidency would intensify the anti-Semitic movement that has been haunting our country, especially during the past few years. Had Sanders swept Super Tuesday states last week, we should still be worried. [Bruce S. Ticker]

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Bruce Ticker, Middle East, USA