By Steve Kramer AMSTERDAM, Holland — It wasn’t quite winter, but it felt like it, when my wife Michal and I visited Amsterdam at the end of November. Having been to Amsterdam about 25 years ago with our young sons, it wasn’t at the top of our wish list, especially since it’s overcrowded with […]
Amsterdam: the good and the ugly Read More »
International, Jewish History, Steve Kramer, Travel and Food
Sephardic Jews who were expelled in the late 15th century from Portugal and Spain learned about cocoa and the production of chocolate from the indigenous peoples of Central and South America and the Caribbean. Keeping up contacts with non-Jewish acquaintances who had remained on Europe’s Iberian Peninsula, they helped to popularize chocolate and develop it as a product in international trade. [Donald H. Harrison]
Jews and chocolate: 500 years of sweetness Read More »
Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Donald H. Harrison, International, Jewish History, Middle East, San Diego County, Science, Medicine, & Education, Travel and Food, USA
On one side of the seating area on Sunday, Dec. 8, was a documented German cattle car used to transport Jews from Warsaw to their death in Treblinka. On the opposite side was a full-sized WWII era American Sherman tank, the kind of war machine needed and used to end the Holocaust. It was a dramatic setting for a crowd of hundreds to view the opening of Israel Then and Now, a traveling exhibit combining historical images, milestone moments, interactive media, and film. [Jerry Klinger]
Traveling Israel exhibit opens in Florida Read More »
Jerry Klinger, Jewish History, Music, Dance, and Visual Arts, USA
Binyamin Netanyahu is the most powerful politician in Israel. Yet he often describes himself as a victim – of the media, of the police, of the judiciary, now even of an alleged cabal within his own party led by his rival Gideon Sa’ar. [Rabbi Dow Marmur]
Netanyahu has a persecution complex Read More »
International, Jewish History, Middle East
Other items in this column include: *Numbers add up for Butterfly Project *Political bytes *Mazal tov! Mazal tov! By Donald H. Harrison SAN DIEGO — In furtherance of the goals of the newly created San Diego Holocaust Survivor Coalition, the Jewish Federation of San Diego County has published a prototype book, sketching the lives of
Book charts lives, legacies of Holocaust survivors Read More »
Donald H. Harrison, International, Jewish History, San Diego County, USA
Elana Levens-Craig, granddaughter of the late Rabbi Monroe Levens of Tifereth Israel Synagogue, is seeking election to a third term on the Santee School District Board. In 2016, she ran unopposed, and, so far, it looks as if she will again have no opposition. The Santee School District has nine K-8 schools, serving approximately 7,000 students.[Donald H. Harrison]
Rabbi’s granddaughter seeks 3rd school board term Read More »
Donald H. Harrison, International, Jewish History, Music, Dance, and Visual Arts, San Diego County, Science, Medicine, & Education
True to its roots, when it was founded in 1936 to help European Jews who were being persecuted by the Nazi regime in Germany, the Jewish Federation of San Diego County on Tuesday, Dec. 3, launched a community-wide coalition to come to the aid and honor an estimated 500 Holocaust survivors who live in the county today. [Donald H. Harrison]
Community coalition to aid Holocaust Survivors Read More »
Donald H. Harrison, International, Jewish History, Lifestyles, Music, Dance, and Visual Arts, San Diego County, Science, Medicine, & Education, Travel and Food, USA
[BDS advocates] have persuaded the European Union to introduce a labeling policy on Jewish produced products and services from Judea and Samaria in Israel, frequently called “the West Bank,” and in diplomatic circles the “disputed territories.” In a unique policy, the EU is insisting that Israeli products emanating from Jewish towns, villages, and industrial areas in these areas can no longer be labeled “Made in Israel” but must be designated some other description. [Barry Shaw]
EU’s Blatant Anti-Semitism Read More »
Barry Shaw, International, Jewish History, Middle East
One is reminded of the saying “to save life is to save a world” when viewing the family tree of Sa’adi Besalel Ashkenazi a-Levi (1820-1903), who was a publisher during the 19th century in the Ottoman empire city of Salonica, known today as the Greek city of Thessaloniki. He has over 100 descendants spread across nine countries, and that doesn’t count spouses of the children, grandchildren, great-grandchildren, and so forth. [Donald H. Harrison]
Sephardic family spread over nine countries Read More »
Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Donald H. Harrison, International, Jewish History
Humans have always been storytellers, whether around a firepit in some jungle or around a fireplace in an urban apartment, the children and grandchildren listen to the stories. They learn the sagas of their parents, their grandparents, and their grandparents’ grandparents, who became Indian chiefs or generals or were jailed and escaped or who started a business or a university. [Natasha Josefowitz, PhD]
Connecting to ancestors and descendants Read More »
Jewish History, Lifestyles, Natasha Josefowitz
There will be an emphasis on Holocaust education in December and January. The U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum of Washington D.C. puts on a presentation Dec. 5 at Congregation Beth El about the experience of deaf people under the Nazis. The main Chula Vista Library prepares for an exhibition that begins Jan. 12 on Survivors who immigrated to the South Bay. [Donald H. Harrison]
Holocaust education planned throughout county Read More »
Donald H. Harrison, International, Jewish History, San Diego County, Science, Medicine, & Education, Theatre, Film & Broadcast
Three congregations and the Jewish Federation of San Diego County are preparing for the visit of an Israel Defense Force reserve unit whose members have been through the stress of battle and now need rest and relaxation to help them cope with symptoms of PTSD. [Donald H. Harrison]
IDF reservists to undergo therapy in San Diego Read More »
Donald H. Harrison, Jewish History, Middle East, Music, Dance, and Visual Arts, Science, Medicine, & Education
Attorney Kate Clark, who serves as the senior director of immigration services for Jewish Family Service, told a congressional panel on Friday that officials of the Department of Homeland Security at the southern border routinely ignore DHS’s own regulations concerning the protection of unaccompanied minors and individuals with significant medical issues. Furthermore, she said, the Remain-in-Mexico program “has caused unnecessary suffering and harm to over 55,000 asylum seekers forced to return to Mexico and has completely overwhelmed the U.S. immigration courts. [Donald H. Harrison]
JFS official tells DHS abuses of asylum seekers Read More »
Donald H. Harrison, International, Jewish History, Jewish Religion, San Diego County, Science, Medicine, & Education, USA
Vice President Henry Wallace, an eye-witness to the event, recorded in his diary that when President Roosevelt and British Prime Minister Churchill met in mid-1943, Churchill raised the “Jewish question” to which Roosevelt replied the Jews should be spread as thinly as possible all over the world, noting that he tried this method where he lived—Meriwether County, Georgia and Hyde Park, New York and his neighbors appreciated it. This anecdote encapsulates the mindset of Franklin Roosevelt. [Fred Reiss, EdD]
Historian tells of FDR’s anti-Semitism Read More »
Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Fred Reiss, EdD, International, Jewish History, USA