By Rabbi Michael Leo Samuel CHULA VISTA, California — An interesting conversation took place been CNN host Piers Morgan and Barbara Walters that caught my attention. Morgan asked Walters an important question. “You have interviewed every president of my lifetime. Why is Obama facing so much opposition now? Why is he struggling so much to […]
No Barbara, Obama’s not the messiah Read More »
Michael Leo Samuel-Rabbi, USA
WASHINGTON, D.C. (Press Release)–U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry has appointed Ambassador Stuart E. Eizenstat, a former Deputy Secretary of the Treasury, Under Secretary of State for Economic Affairs, and Ambassador to the European Union, and currently with the law firm of Covington & Burling, as his Special Adviser on Holocaust Issues. Ambassador Eizenstat held
Eizenstat named special advisor on Holocaust issues Read More »
USABy Rabbi Michael Leo Samuel CHULA VISTA, California — Human behavior and animal behavior resemble one another in so many interesting ways. When an animal approaches the territory of another, it is commonplace for one creature to growl or make noise whenever it perceives its space is invaded. A dog will characteristically bark whenever it
Obama’s handshake a commendable gesture Read More »
Michael Leo Samuel-Rabbi, USA
By Rabbi Ben Kamin ENCINITAS, California — They’re killing me—the folks at Google—with their new “Calico” venture, which is going to explore ways for a middle-aged person like me to live for a much longer time. Setting aside their mercenary interests, who asked them to get involved in my mortality? I’m fine with the current
No thanks, Google, I don’t want to live on and on Read More »
USA
By Rabbi Dow Marmur JERUSALEM –President Obama may not have said anything new but the fact that tonight (Saturday) he said it to the Israeli public direct is significant. I understand it as a way of bypassing the many politicians with their own often warped agendas and the many pundits who have their own twisted
Obama makes direct broadcast to Israelis Read More »
USA
By Shoshana Bryen and Stephen Bryen WASHINGTON, D.C. –The nuclear-related agreement signed between the P5+1 and the Iranian government is, on its face, one-sided. In essence, according to Senator Mark Kirk (R-IL), they get: billions in sanctions relief, 3,000 new centrifuges, a plutonium reactor and enough enriched uranium for one nuclear bomb. We get, essentially,
U.S. set back its own interests in Iran deal Read More »
Shoshana Bryen, Stephen D. Bryen, USABy Rabbi Michael Leo Samuel CHULA VISTA, California — Jesse Jackson once said that he gets nervous whenever he sees a group of young black men standing on a corner doing nothing—and he’s not the only one. By now, most of you may have heard about a game called “Knockout.” In places like Crown Heights in
Beware Black racism and ‘knockout’ gangs Read More »
Michael Leo Samuel-Rabbi, USABy Shoshana Bryen WASHINGTON, D.C. — When protests broke out in Syria in late 2011, Russia hoped for a short, nasty war as a matter of Russian national interest — just enough to put the Muslim Brotherhood and assorted Sunnis in their place. Violence from its own Sunni Muslim population has plagued Russia for decades.
New Obama allies: Russia, Iran, Syria? Read More »
Shoshana Bryen, USA
NEW YORK (WJC) – Representative Eliot Engel, the senior Democratic member on the US House Foreign Affairs Committee, will be appointed the new chairman of the International Council of Jewish Parliamentarians (ICJP), an initiative of the World Jewish Congress (WJC), at the meeting of the ICJP Steering Committee in New York City and
Engel to lead Jewish group of parliamentarians Read More »
USABy Rabbi Ben Kamin ENCINITAS, California — In director Steve McQueen’s haunting movie, “12 Years A Slave,” the kidnapped black protagonist, during one long grueling and painfully allegorical segment, is shown hanging from a tree with a noose choking his neck and one foot desperately tapping the muddy ground for balance and life. The spiritual
Obama is being spiritually lynched Read More »
USABy Rabbi Ben Kamin ENCINITAS, California — A letter to President John F. Kennedy. Dear Mr. President, You are so omnipresent, fifty years after Dallas, so vividly alive for those of us who have any memory of you while you were here with us, that it doesn’t seem all that preposterous to send you
A letter to President John F. Kennedy Read More »
USABy Rabbi Ben Kamin ENCINITAS, California — Like anybody else old enough, I remember when President John F. Kennedy was slain, fifty years ago this Friday. Our tiny Hebrew day school suddenly sent us home just before two o’clock—exactly when we would have concluded our day with the weekly, all-classes welcoming of Sabbath. There would
Life before and after JFK’s assassination Read More »
USABy Rabbi Ben Kamin ENCINITAS, California — God help our Veterans. Yes, this is the day originally termed “Armistice Day,” November 11, 1918—when the Great War (World War I) ended. Many saw that horrifically bloody conflict (The United States entered in the final year, 1917, but our “doughboys” were bludgeoned in ditches like the Europeans
Do we really understand Veterans Day’s meaning? Read More »
USABy Shoshana Bryen WASHINGTON, D.C. — A few years ago, when I was writing with a different hat, the Band of Brothers USMC Motorcycle Riding Club provided me with a list of companies providing free and discounted services to American military veterans in honor of Veteran’s Day. I wrote at the time: • Veterans Day
Supporting those who support veterans Read More »
Shoshana Bryen, USA