Jewish History

Family of Slain Lori Gilbert Kaye Speaks Out As Chabad of Poway Shooter is Sentenced

Before the expected sentence was handed down, family members of the murdered victim looked directly at the confessed shooter on Thursday, Sept. 30, and poured out their hearts. “What has your racist, entitled rage offered you in the end?” demanded Hannah Kaye of the defendant who had acknowledged murdering her mother, Lori Gilbert Kaye, 60, in the lobby of Chabad of Poway on April 27, 2019, the last day of Passover. [Donald H. Harrison]

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Donald H. Harrison, Jewish History, San Diego County

Refugee from Hitler Promoted Zionism in Britain and U.S.

This memoir combines journal entries of Zionist fundraiser Irma Ehrlich with the research and narrative of her granddaughter, Catherine Ehrlich, to tell the story of a strong-willed woman who migrated to England, and later the United States, with her son, Paul, from Vienna, following the Anschluss that merged Nazi Germany and Austria. [Donald H. Harrison]

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Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Donald H. Harrison, International, Jewish History, Middle East, USA

Jewish Infighting Contributed to Fall of Jerusalem in 70 CE

Intrigue, maneuvering, scheming, plotting, and murder highlight the years from Herod’s reign to the Jewish rebellion against Rome, beginning in 66. Herod, the Great, acting more like the King of the Jews than a Jewish king, ascended to the throne in 37 BCE. His rule lasted forty-one years. [Fred Reiss, Ed.D]

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Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Fred Reiss, EdD, International, Jewish History, Middle East

ADL, L’Oreal Partner in Holocaust Education Program

In response to the rise of antisemitism and other forms of discrimination in the United States, ADL (the Anti-Defamation League) and L’Oréal USA are partnering on an education initiative designed to raise awareness and promote understanding about the Holocaust among thousands of students in American classrooms. [ADL News Release]

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International, Jewish History, Science, Medicine, & Education, USA

Jewish Tales of the Old West: A Butcher on the Comstock

During the 1870’s, the population of Nevada’s legendary Comstock Lode, then at the height of mining fever, surged to nearly 25,000. In the canyons and down the slopes, housing was scarce, the noise was unceasing, the air nearly unbreathable and the violence endemic.1 Between them, the towns of Virginia City and Gold Hill were a crowded jumble of miners’ cabins, stamp mills, luxury mansions, hotels, restaurants, saloons, stores and stables, all built over an underground city of mining tunnels, adits and shafts. These underground works ultimately produced over 300 million dollars’ worth of precious ore that built the city of San Francisco and made fabulous fortunes for the fortunate. Among this crowd of fortune-seekers lived a Jewish community of about 500, and one of its most influential members was a butcher from Germany named Mark Strouse (1845-1898). [Susan E. James, Ph.D]

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Business & Finance, Jewish History, Travel and Food, USA

‘Squirrel Hill’ Portrays Pittsburgh Community Where Tree of Life Massacre Occurred

This journalistic tour-de-force tells the story of October 27, 2018, the day an antisemitic gunman snuffed the lives of 11 congregants at the three small congregations that occupied the Tree of Life Synagogue in the Squirrel Hill neighborhood of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. It is not simply a depiction of the carnage, but also a portrait of the community in which it happened.  Author Oppenheimer, a former religion columnist for The New York Times, methodically tells us the stories of the victims, including those who barely escaped with their lives, and of the diverse reactions in the community to the shooting.  There were those who organized vigils; those who protested a photo-op visit to the synagogue by then President Donald Trump with his wife, Melania, daughter, Ivanka, and son-in-law Jared Kushner.  Additionally, there were trauma tourists, compelled perhaps like moths to a flame, who wanted to see the site.  There were also presumptuous would-be helpers, who felt they knew better than Squirrel Hill’s residents how the victims should be mourned.   And there were fundraisers, who through various appeals including a Go-Fund-Me effort, raised millions of dollars for the families of the victims and for the congregations themselves. [Donald H. Harrison]

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Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Donald H. Harrison, Jewish History, Jewish Religion, Travel and Food, USA

Birds of a Feather

By Dorothea Shefer-Vanson MEVASSERET ZION, Israel — Under the title “Early Birds: Soaring with the Ancients,” the Bible Lands Museum in Jerusalem has put together an exhibition of archaeological items from the Land of Israel and the Ancient Near East depicting birds of various kinds. Upon entering the exhibition area and before inspecting even one

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Dorothea Shefer-Vanson, Jewish History, Middle East, Science, Medicine, & Education

The Story Behind ‘Ussishkin’ Street

While strolling around Rechavia, one notices a pattern in the street names of the community: they are almost all named after sages of the Golden Age in Spain. A few examples are Radak, Ibn Ezra, Saadia Gaon, Ramban (Nachmanides), and Ben-Maimon (Maimonides or Rambam) – parenthetically, the street was named Ben-Maimon and not Rambam in order to differentiate it from Ramban, which sounds very similar.
Why was Yehuda Halevi, one of Spain’s most prominent scholars, philosophers and poets during the Medieval Period, missing from the street names? [Gedaliah Borvick]

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Jewish History, Middle East, Travel and Food

Netherlands Memorialize 102,000 Holocaust Victims

A new memorial in Amsterdam’s Jewish Cultural Quarter pays tribute to the more than 102,000 Dutch victims of the Holocaust, the Associated Press reported. The National Holocaust Memorial of Names, which was unveiled on Sunday, is comprised of stainless-steel panels and a series of brick walls placed at different angles that together form four Hebrew letters, which spell out a word that means “In Memory of.” Each brick is inscribed with the name, date of birth and age at the time of death of a Dutch citizen who was murdered in Nazi concentration camps during World War II or died while being transported to the camps. [JNS.org]

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International, Jewish History

Good News from Israel (September 19, 2021)

NETANYA, Israel — In the Sept. 19, 2021 edition of Israel’s good news, the highlights include: 
–3 million Israelis have had their Covid antibodies boosted tenfold.
–Israeli surgeons successfully separate twins conjoined by their heads.
–Israel’s first female Muslim IDF Major.
–An Israeli startup converts text into video read by an animated narrator.
–The value of Israel’s trade with Arab states in 2021 is triple that of 2020.
–Israeli pianist wins international record contract.
–The Land of Israel reveals more Jewish history. [Michael Ordman]

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Business & Finance, International, Jewish History, Jewish Religion, Michael Ordman, Middle East, Music, Dance, and Visual Arts, Science, Medicine, & Education, Theatre, Film & Broadcast, Travel and Food, USA

Shooter at Chabad of Poway Pleads Guilty in Federal Court

John T. Earnest of San Diego pleaded guilty in federal court Friday to a 113-count hate crimes indictment, admitting that he set fire to an Escondido mosque and opened fire in a Poway synagogue because he wanted to kill Muslims and Jews. The religiously- and racially-motivated attacks resulted in the murder of one person and the attempted murders of 53 others. [U.S. Attorney’s Office, San Diego]

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International, Jewish History, San Diego County, USA