Jewish History

Good News from Israel (November 29, 2020)

The November 29, 2020 edition of Good News from Israel includes such stories as the following.

• An Israeli-developed eye scanner can detect early signs of Alzheimer’s.
• Israel is the top country in the world for women entrepreneurs.
• Time Magazine’s Best Inventions of 2020 include 5 Israeli innovations.
• An Israeli supermarket chain is to grow fruit and vegetables at its stores.
• The 3-day Israel-Dubai business conference was a huge success.
• An Israeli judoka won Gold in the European championships.
• A 9-year-old boy found a 1st Temple period gold bead in Jerusalem. [Michael Ordman]

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Business & Finance, International, Jewish History, Jewish Religion, Lifestyles, Michael Ordman, Middle East, Science, Medicine, & Education, Sports & Competitions, The World We Share, Theatre, Film & Broadcast, USA

TV Series on Yom Kippur War drives home peace necessity

Valley of Tears, the dramatic series currently being shown on Israeli TV about events in the Golan Heights at the outbreak of the Yom Kippur war, has had me and many others spellbound each week. Although several of my friends and acquaintances have told me that they are unable to watch it as it brings back too many painful memories, I find myself compelled to watch. I quite understand their attitude, and am almost surprised at my own ability to persist through every graphic scene. I admit that I find it difficult to sleep afterwards, but some obsessive preoccupation with the events of that traumatic time brings me back to the screen every week. [Dorothea Shefer-Vanson]

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Dorothea Shefer-Vanson, Jewish History, Middle East, Theatre, Film & Broadcast

Contentment, Mindfulness and Judaism

The world has never been more advanced than it is now. Humans have found cures for many of the major illnesses that threaten us; we can travel across the globe in a matter of hours; and we can communicate with each other almost instantaneously. Virtually every problem humans have historically had, besides suffering caused by other people, has been mitigated to some degree. Why is it then that so many of us are still unhappy? Daniel Cordaro says that the problem doesn’t lie with the state of the world, but with the state of our internal being. [Shor M. Masori]

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Jewish History, Jewish Religion, Lifestyles, Science, Medicine, & Education, Shor M. Masori

Fabiola Santiago: There’s poetic justice in Biden appointing a Cuban American to lead Homeland Security

The rise of Alejandro Mayorkas may be just the feel-good story Miami needs post-election.After his Jewish parents fled Fidel Castro’s Communist takeover of Cuba in 1960, Mayorkas lived in Miami as a child. They eventually left the capital of Cuban exiles for a life in Los Angeles, but the 61-year-old hasn’t forgotten his immigrant beginnings.It

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International, Jewish History, USA

Janet Yellen to be 3rd consecutive Jewish Treasury Secretary

Among Jews nominated for important posts in the Biden Administration is Secretary of the Treasury-designate Janet Yellen, a former chair of the Federal Reserve.  Although she and her husband, Nobel Prize-winning economist George Akerlof, have not to date talked much publicly about their religious beliefs, it is known that as residents of Berkeley, California, decades ago, they attended services at that city’s Congregation Beth El, and that their son Robert Akerlof, who is now himself a professor of economics at the University of Warwick, was enrolled by them in the Beth El preschool. [Donald H. Harrison]

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Donald H. Harrison, Jewish History, San Diego County, Science, Medicine, & Education, USA

Rosenwald’s and Washington’s Partnership for Good

The Jewish American Society for Historic Preservation, www.JASHP.org, has funded and completed another marker it its series honoring and recognizing the Partnership for Good of Jewish philanthropist Julius Rosenwald and Black educator Booker T. Washington. Rosenwald was key to the construction of over 5,400 schools, in the 13 States of “South” for Black school children. Millions of Black Americans were significantly benefited by Rosenwald’s generosity. [Jerry Klinger]

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Jerry Klinger, Jewish History, Science, Medicine, & Education, USA

Streaming Jewish Programs (Nov. 29-Dec. 4, 2020)

Following are programs of scholarly and popular Jewish interest that can be accessed via the Internet from Nov. 29 through Dec. 4, 2020.  All times are Pacific Standard Time. [Laurie Baron, Ph.D]

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Books, Poetry & Short Stories, International, Jewish History, Jewish Religion, Lawrence Baron, Lifestyles, Middle East, Music, Dance, and Visual Arts, San Diego County, Theatre, Film & Broadcast, Travel and Food, USA

Imagining the next White House seder!

One can imagine a crowded seder at the White Housed during Passover week next year, with President-elect Joe Biden and his First Lady Jill Biden observing and perhaps taking a turn reading the Haggadah as guests of honor.  Biden’s son by his first marriage, Hunter, is married to South African filmmaker Melissa Cohen, while Ashley, daughter of the President-elect and the First Lady-designate, is married to plastic surgeon, Dr. Howard Krein. There might be plenty of other Jews there, starting with the Second Gentleman (as perhaps he will be called) Doug Emhoff, the attorney who is husband to Vice President-elect Kamala Harris. [Donald H. Harrison]

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Donald H. Harrison, International, Jewish History, Jewish Religion, USA

Dershowitz on Jonathan Pollard, U.S.-Israel Relations, U.S. Election

Famed trial attorney Alan Dershowitz said Monday in an interview with San Diego Jewish World that he hoped Secretary of State-designate Anthony Blinken would ignore any advice about Iran from former Secretary of State John Kerry “who signed the original agreement and the original agreement was a disaster for Israel.” Kerry, meanwhile, was designated by President-elect Joe Biden to lead U.S. efforts to combat climate change. [Donald H. Harrison]

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Donald H. Harrison, Jewish History, Middle East, USA

Jewish Clergy Lobby Congress to Combat Hunger

Some families are preparing for Thanksgiving meals from which relatives and close friends will be absent because of the coronavirus pandemic.  At the same time, other families aren’t even even sure they will have enough to eat on Thanksgiving or any other day as a result of the growing hunger and food insecurity around the country, according to officials of MAZON: A Jewish Response to Hunger. [Donald H. Harrison]

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Donald H. Harrison, International, Jewish History, Middle East, Music, Dance, and Visual Arts, USA

Pakistan minister retracts Macron ‘Nazi’ jibe after French demands

A Pakistani minister withdrew comments comparing French President Emmanuel Macron’s treatment of Muslims to the Nazis’ persecution of Jews, after the remarks triggered outrage from Paris.France’s foreign minister demanded the remarks tweeted by Federal Minister for Human Rights Shireen Mazari be withdrawn over the weekend.”Macron is doing to Muslims what the Nazis did to the

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International, Jewish History

SANDAG Reopens Bids for Historic Salomon Property

The future of Rancho Lilac, Valley Center’s historic and culturally-significant ranch, has been up in the air since 2011 when it was purchased by Caltrans in what is known as an environmental mitigation land exchange program.  There had been concern that the site could be permanently closed to public access. That apprehension appears to have been abated, at least for the present due to governmental action taken last week. [Robert Lerner]

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International, Jewish History, San Diego County, USA

Biden to name longtime aide Blinken as US top diplomat: reports

Washington (AFP) – President-elect Joe Biden plans to nominate seasoned diplomat Antony Blinken as his secretary of state, a decision likely to signal a return to multilateralism after Donald Trump’s shunning of traditional allies, US media reported Sunday.A mild-mannered policy wonk who is fluent in French and plays guitar on the side, the 58-year-old Blinken

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International, Jewish History, Middle East, USA

Was Chaucer an Anti-Semite?

One of the tales that is told in Geoffrey Chaucer’s The Canterbury Tales is the controversial story told by a prioress called “The Prioress’s Tale.” A prioress is a woman who is head of a house of nuns. She is next in rank below an abbess. She is seemingly a religious person with religious ideas. Chaucer describes his prioress in his book in two ways. She is introduced in his Prologue as an aristocratic, genteel, pious nun, but the story she tells shows her demeaning Jews and stating that Jews drink Christian blood in a Jewish ritual. She describes how Jews were rounded up, treated brutally, and then murdered by the Christian community. [Rabbi Dr. Israel Drazin]

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