Jewish History

Jewish-Muslim partnership flourishes in Morocco

By Nicolas Pantelick MARRAKECH, Moroccoa — Meandering through the dusty foothills of the Moroccan Atlas Mountains, I played an earnest game of speculation. I knew of my destination, its history and constitution, but had yet to see it or feel the restless potential it encapsulated. The gentle hum of the engine, propelling me past the

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International, Jewish History, Middle East, Science, Medicine, & Education, Yossef Ben-Meir

The pioneering American Jewish women directors

I should have compiled this list during March for Women’s History Month, but better late than never. I’ve been doing research for the past 2 years on American Jewish women directors and wanted to share some of the films by the pioneers that you can stream at home.  Although a considerable number of women directed films during the silent era, those numbers dwindled to two, Dorothy Arzner and Ida Lupino, between 1930 and 1960.  The decline of the studio system and the political and social movements of the 60s opened up opportunities for more women directors in the next decade.  Jewish women were disproportionately represented in their ranks. [Laurie Baron, Ph.D]

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Jewish History, Lawrence Baron, Theatre, Film & Broadcast, USA

The tapestries that bind us

The watercolor has been in my family seemingly forever. It used to hang in my parents’ apartment in Tel Aviv, but it has been in my different homes in California for decades. In it a young girl of five or six years faces the painter with a slight pout and a high forehead crowned by a white ribbon. The sadness along her lip line is unmistakable. One can imagine small pools of tears about to gather in her big dark eyes. She is wearing a summer dress, but the painter chose to focus on her face and in quick brush strokes drew two blue straps over small shoulders that are colored a distinctive pink. [Varda Levy]

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International, Jewish History, Middle East, Music, Dance, and Visual Arts, San Diego County, USA

Remarkable history of Holocaust Torah at Chabad of La Costa

Ed [Richard]was understandably deeply moved by the dedication ceremony, and profoundly touched when he saw us using the Torah that he had donated in loving memory of his amazing parents. And so, a few years later, when Ed had an Aliyah, and when we made the blessing for him following his Aliyah, he whispered to me, “I want to donate another Torah.” “What?!” I exclaimed. I was sure I must have misheard. NOBODY donates two Torahs! [Rabbi Yeruchem Eilfort]

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Donald H. Harrison, International, Jewish History, San Diego County, Yeruchem Eilfort-Rabbi

Pollard case recalls two women’s bipartisanship

Jonathan Pollard’s second wife, Esther, has advanced metastatic cancer and is fighting for her life, while Jonathan cannot be with her much of the time.According to various news reports, Israeli officials and, in America, the Orthodox Union, Agudath Israel, and the Coalition for Jewish Values, have asked President Trump to lift his parole on “humanitarian grounds.” Based on his release date of November 20, 2015, Pollard’s difficult parole conditions would end in November, 2020. There was a time when Israeli MK’s reached across the aisle to try to help the Pollards. [Toby Klein Greenwald]

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Jewish History, Middle East, Toby Klein Greenwald, USA

Kibbutz with San Diego connections subject of new memoir

Located south of the Kinneret (Sea of Galilee) and about a kilometer west of Israel’s border with Jordan, Kfar Ruppin, a kibbutz with San Diego connections, is the subject of an enchanting memoir by Rachel Biale, a Berkeley, California, resident who grew up there. [Our Shtetl San Diego County column by Donald H. Harrison]

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Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Donald H. Harrison, Jewish History, Middle East, San Diego County, Travel and Food

Books, Internet tell of plagues through history

The plague has interested me for over 60 years. On my shelves I have Daniel Defoe, A Journal of the Plague Year 1665; William H. McNeill, Plagues and Peoples (1976); John Aberth, the author of The Black Death, The Great Mortality of 1348-1350 (2005), the first of his several studies on mass mortality; Teofilo F. Ruiz, The Terror of History, on the Uncertainties of Life in Western Civilization (2011); and Rachel Kadish, The Weight of Ink (2017). I knew people who suffered through the 1918 Influenza epidemic. And I know three of the above mentioned authors. One of the first books I received as a gift was Defoe’s Robinson Crusoe. [Oliver B. Pollak, Ph.D]

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Books, Poetry & Short Stories, International, Jewish History, Oliver Pollak, USA

Torah laws foresaw need for good hygiene

With the coronavirus threatening people’s health in the first major pandemic we have seen in over a hundred years, Jewish tradition has much to say about the importance of handwashing. As a “priestly people,” (Exodus 19:6), priests in the Torah were always instructed to wash their hands whenever they enter into the Tent of Meeting or upon entering the Temple.
Just how serious is this precept? [Rabbi Dr. Michael Leo Samuel]

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Jewish History, Jewish Religion, Michael Leo Samuel-Rabbi, Science, Medicine, & Education

‘Fate of Our Fathers’ tells horror of Stalin’s purges

Stalin ruled from the mid-1920s to 1953. Vladimir Berger was born in 1931. In 1937, at the age of 6, his father, Iosif Shmulevich Berger, was arrested by the secret police. Vladimir, his mother and sister never saw him again. The family went from being reasonably well off to selling what they had to make ends meet. [Book review by Oliver B. Pollak, Ph.D]

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Books, Poetry & Short Stories, International, Jewish History, Oliver Pollak

ADL’s anti-Semitism primer heading to candidates

Beginning this week, ADL (the Anti-Defamation League) will share a new comprehensive guide to contemporary antisemitism with candidates running for national office in 2020, as well as every member of Congress. Antisemitism Uncovered: A Guide to Old Myths in a New Era identifies some of the most stubborn tropes about Jews, explains why they are dangerous, provides the backstory behind the myths and shows how they have evolved into the present day. [Press Release from Anti-Defamation League]

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Jewish History, USA