Judaism

Single Mom Stokes Her Son’s and Her Own Jewish Faith

After her divorce from her cantor husband, author Zark wanted to make certain that the small son whose custody they shared would be brought up Jewishly in both homes.  She wanted to make Shabbats and the full range of Jewish holidays interesting and accessible to her son, and in the process, she reflected upon the meanings of the holidays, Torah passages, and various Jewish customs. [Donald H. Harrison]

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Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Donald H. Harrison, Jewish Religion, Lifestyles

Surveying the Full Range of Jewish Life

The Book of Jewish Knowledge, Rabbi Yanki Tauber, ed., The Rohr Jewish Learning Institute, Brooklyn, NY, ©2022, ISBN 978-1-63668-012-5 p. 432, plus Appendices, $69.75. By Fred Reiss, Ed.D. WINCHESTER, California – Is it feasible to adequately convey the skills, information, and wisdom acquired by the Jewish people who, after nearly 4,000 years of living in

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Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Fred Reiss, EdD, Jewish History, Jewish Religion

Kolender Was City’s First Jewish Police Chief, County’s First Jewish Sheriff

A member of the Jewish community, known for his self-deprecating sense of humor, Kolender grew up at the Reform Congregation Beth Israel. However, when it was time for his bar mitzvah, he honored his grandfather’s wishes and had it at Beth Jacob Congregation, which is Orthodox. “The rabbi there was Baruch Stern, and it was the first bar mitzvah for him after the war,” Kolender told me back in 1996 when I profiled him for the now defunct San Diego Jewish Press-Heritage. Rabbi Stern’s children “had been killed in front of him by the Nazis, and he started crying and I started crying, and I’m not sure if we ever did get through the whole thing. It was something I never will forget.” [Donald H. Harrison]

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California, Donald H. Harrison, Jewish History, San Diego County, Travel and Food, USA

Ritual Bath Dating to Eve of Second Temple’s Destruction Uncovered Near Temple Mount

(JNS) The Hebrew University of Jerusalem announced on Wednesday that it had unearthed an ancient Jewish ritual bath (mikveh) dating back to the Late Second Temple period, or the first century C.E. The ritual bath was found inside a private village, the University’s statement said, “hewn into the bedrock and featuring a vaulted ceiling with

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Jewish Religion, Middle East, Science, Medicine, & Education

Jewish Studies Scholar Richard Freund (1955-2022)

By Laurie Baron SAN DIEGO — Dr. Richard A. Freund passed away in Charlottesville, Virginia on July 14, 2022 from complications arising from the rejection of a bone marrow transplant he had received 18 years ago.  He held an MA, PhD, and rabbinic ordination from the Jewish Theological Seminary and the Bertram and Gladys Aaron

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Jewish History, Lawrence Baron, San Diego County, USA

Genesis Prize Ceremony Relied on Work of Doctor/ Author Ron Eisenberg

A highlight of the proceedings was a ten-minute video, Jews in Medicine: A Legacy of Healing and Hope, much of it based on the book written by Dr. Ron Eisenberg, Jews inMedicine: Contributions to Health and Healing Through the Ages (Urim Publications, 2019). [Eileen Wingard]

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Eileen Wingard, Jewish History, Middle East, Science, Medicine, & Education

‘B.C.’; ‘New’ Testament and Other Historic Mistakes

The concept of BC and AD was apparently invented by a monk around the year 533 who thought Jesus was born 533 years before the day he invented the system. BC stood for “before Christ” and AD for the Latin “anno domini.” the year of our Lord. He was mistaken. [Rabbi Israel Drazin]

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Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Israel Drazin-Rabbi Dr., Jewish Religion

King George VI Personally Pinned Medal on Jewish Air Raid Warden

September 23, 1940, German bombs smashed into a residential pub in Manor Park, Newham, a few blocks from where Lewis was stationed.  Beneath the pub was a bomb shelter with 60 people trapped inside. The building burning, collapsing. A water main burst. The basement shelter was flooding, threatening to drown any survivors. 
Lewis and a colleague ran to the site. [Jerry Klinger]

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International, Jerry Klinger, Jewish History

Searching for Stanley Stein

Sidney’s life changed in the theater of New York. The specialist, Dr. Emil Loch, a renowned dermatologist, reported him to the authorities as a leper. The police swept up Sidney, almost overnight. With a small suitcase that contained his life, he was sent secretly, swiftly and with as little human contact as possible to vanish into the interior of America. He was shipped to the very isolated world of Carville, Louisiana on the banks of the Mississippi River. Carville was the continental United States’ concentration camp for victims of Leprosy. Standing naked before a board of medical examiners in Carville, Sidney Maurice Levyson was assigned a number that he was to be known forever more as, patient #746. [Jerry Klinger]

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Jerry Klinger, Jewish History, Science, Medicine, & Education, Travel and Food, USA

Parashat Balak: Opening Our Eyes to Goodness

We learn in Choshen Mishpat 137, “Behold, the first ‘good’ in the Torah was based on sight. And from this Rabbi Eliezer learned that the general way to achieve goodness is ‘ayin tova.’” Indeed, in Bereshit, we see that the first verse in the Torah using the word “good” is in relation to sight: “And G-d saw the light and it was good…” [Michael R. Mantell, PhD]

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Jewish Religion, Michael Mantell

Four Jews Who Served as Port Commissioners Tell of Their Tenures

Members of the Jewish community who have served on the Port Commission since its creation in 1962 were Harvey Furgatch (appointed 1969), Milton “Mickey” Fredman (1970), Ben Cohen (1977) and Louis Wolfsheimer (1979), all of whom had passed away prior to my undertaking this book, and Robert Penner (1988), Lynn Schenk (1990), Stephen Cushman (1998) and Laurie Black (2007), all of whom I had the opportunity to interview. All these Jewish Port Commissioners represented the City of San Diego, except for Penner and Cohen, who were appointed by Chula Vista and Coronado respectively. [Donald H. Harrison]

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Business & Finance, California, Donald H. Harrison, International, Jewish History, Middle East, San Diego County, Travel and Food, USA