Story and photos by Ilene Lerner BOSTON– “We are here because the meek shall inherit the earth,” stated Steven Greenberg, the executive director of the Vilna Shul, Boston’s Center for Jewish Culture, as we sat on the Vilna’s front patio. The Vilna Shul is a synagogue museum on the backside of Beacon Hill, and is […]
The Vilna Shul of Boston recalls era of Jewish immigration Read More »
USA
By Donald H. Harrison SAN DIEGO — I received a phone call from a happy Yoni Peres on Wednesday night, June 13, a few hours after his father, Israel’s President Shimon Peres, was presented the Presidential Medal of Freedom by U.S. President Barack Obama at the White House. Yoni, a veterinarian who occasionally
By Donald H. Harrison SAN DIEGO — Rabbi Stanley Rabinowitz, who helped comfort President Lyndon B. Johnson and the nation after the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, died in his sleep Friday, June 8, in the nursing facility of Seacrest Village Retirement Community in Encinitas Rabinowitz, 95, longtime rabbi of Adas Israel Hebrew Congregation in
Famed Washington D.C. rabbi dies in San Diego County Read More »
Donald H. Harrison, USA
By Isaac Yetiv, PhD LA JOLLA, California–It was recently reported , and we saw the pictures on TV, that a Planned Parenthood employee had helped, and encouraged, a woman to have an abortion because of the gender of the fetus. The woman didn’t want to give birth to a girl. My personal opinion about abortion
Stop government funding of Planned Parenthood, Solyndra Read More »
USAEditor: Many citizens of Israel feel that the American Jewish Community can help in being the decisive weight needed to end Jonathan Pollard’s outdated prison sentence. We hope that we will all give our unconditional strength in ending one man’s punishment and prison sentence for a crime for which, we believe, the price has
Israeli letter writer seeks protests for Pollard Read More »
USABy Isaac Yetiv, Ph.D. LA JOLLA, California — Two factors make these elections different from the past: the outrageous amounts of money spent on both sides, passing the billion mark, (and its corollary, the unending and repetitious campaign,) and the excessive use of ad hominem attacks rather than a reasoned debate on the issues (and its corollary, a cynical demagoguery
Positions sadly get twisted in U.S. elections Read More »
USABy Ira Sharkansksy JERUSALEM – My wandering the library stacks produced Jeff Shesol’s Mutual Contempt:Lyndon Johnson, Robert Kennedy, and the Feud That Defined a Decade (New York: Norton, 1997). I recall the general picture from the 1960s onward, and have seen details in other writing. What challenges conventional wisdom is the degree of absolute nuttiness
LBJ and RFK compartmentalized their loathing for each other Read More »
Ira Sharkansky, USA
By Rabbi Ben Kamin SAN DIEGO — It’s hard not to choke back tears while watching the Changing of the Guard ceremony at the Tomb of the Unknowns at Arlington National Cemetery. I catch my breath short at even the smallest military or naval funeral I perform—particularly when a twenty-something boy or girl in a
Remembering the real reason for Memorial Day Read More »
USA
By James Colbert WASHINGTON, D.C — American Exceptionalism began when 56 brave patriots signed the Declaration of Independence, and has continued with the many thousands of Americans who paid the ultimate price to preserve the freedoms that make ours the greatest nation in the world. On Memorial Day, we remember and honor those who have
Moment of Remembrance at 3 p.m., May 30, to honor U.S. Armed Forces Read More »
USA
By David Amos SAN DIEGO–Two weeks ago I shared with you a few interesting experiences we encountered in our trip of a month ago. We were two couples, finding places that all tourists either know or wish to visit, and other locations with possible twists and surprises. In my first article, I covered visits with
Maryland, New Jersey and Pennsylvania fun to tour Read More »
USAWASHINGTON, D.C. (Press Release) – Congressman Brad Sherman (Democrat, California), a senior member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, introduced the Visa Waiver for Israel Act, a bill allowing Israel’s entrance into the U.S. Visa Waiver Program. Congressman Ted Poe (Republican-Texas) and the Chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (Republican-Florida), joined with
Bill introduced to allow Israelis to visit U.S. without a visa Read More »
USABy Ira Sharkansky JERUSALEM — This column is immodest, and is likely to provoke condemnation. It makes an appropriate nod in the direction of Jonathan Swift’s classic of a slightly different name. It also fits within my concern for politics, and the plight of Americans, old enough to vote and do other things, who are not
What’s the next political debate? Masturbation? Read More »
Ira Sharkansky, USA
By Shoshana Bryen WASHINGTON, D.C. — In early 2011, President Obama announced that the United States would sign the U.N. Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. Now the U.N. wants us to give Mt. Rushmore to the Indians. James Anaya, U.N. special rapporteur on the rights of indigenous peoples, spent twelve days in the
U.N. Indigenous Rights Declaration a recipe for global trouble Read More »
Shoshana Bryen, USABy Rabbi Ben Kamin SAN DIEGO — When I closed my eyes to sleep last night, I reflected about President Obama’s thoughtful affirmation concerning the legal right of any two people to declare a marriage between them. I confess that while never opposing anybody’s right to marry anybody else, the long-standing, Jewish oligarchic tradition that
‘Human love’–the thing there’s too little of Read More »
USA