By Rabbi Ben Kamin OCEANSIDE, California — Purim, or “Lots,”—a woman’s heroic story based in historical facts—begins Wednesday evening, March 23. The Scroll will be merrily read, recounting the rescue of the Persian Jews in 357 BCE from genocide. It should be noted that God is neither mentioned nor quoted anywhere in the text. God […]
When God is silent, Jews find a proxy such as Esther Read More »
Jewish History, Jewish ReligionBy Ira Sharkansky JERUSALEM — The news on Saturday night and Sunday was of a suicide bombing in Istanbul, with three Israeli tourists among the dead. Some will see a political irony in the death of an Iranian, as well. It’s not clear whether the presence of an Israeli tour group prompted the attack, whether
Suffering is not what makes Jews unique Read More »
International, Ira Sharkansky, Jewish History, Middle EastBy Joe Spier CALGARY, Alberta, Canada — In Quentin Tarantino’s World War II revenge film the Inglourious Basterds, a team of Jewish American soldiers wreaks panic and havoc on the Third Reich in German-occupied France by killing as many Nazi soldiers as possible. They do so with relish, one nicknamed “The Bear Jew,” with a baseball
The story of 3 Troop, 10 Commando Read More »
International, Jewish HistoryBy Steve Kramer ALFE MENASHE, Israel — The words we use are important, especially when explaining a situation or making an argument. Evidently, Israelis haven’t read Lewis Carroll’s “Through the Looking-Glass.” It was Humpty Dumpty who said, “When I use a word, it means just what I choose it to mean – neither more nor
Why the world should say ‘Judea’ and ‘Samaria’ Read More »
Jewish History, Middle East, Steve Kramer
By Donald H. Harrison SAN DIEGO – In my mail came a book of poetry for review, unbidden, a gift from its author, a stranger to me. Titled Above History, Behind Time, it contained the thoughts of Nathan Carliner Goldman, PhD, who is a professor of government at the College of the Mainland in Texas
Poet Nathan C. Goldman reflects on Jewish themes Read More »
Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Donald H. Harrison, Jewish History, Jewish Religion
JERUSALEM (WJC) — Colette Avital, chairwoman of the Center of Organizations of Holocaust Survivors in Israel, has launched a petition to Germany over the treatment of a German judge who has helped many survivors in Israel. Writing to Germany’s ambassador to Israel, Clemens von Goetze, Avital – a retired Israeli diplomat and former member
Germany puts judge who helped Survivors on trial Read More »
International, Jewish HistoryThe Dream of Zion: The Story of the First Zionist Congress by Lawrence J. Epstein, Rowman & Littlefield, New York; ISBN 978-1-4422-5466-5 ©2016, $36.00, p. 137, plus chronology and references. By Fred Reiss, Ed.D. WINCHESTER, California — Professor emeritus Lawrence Epstein in his newest book The Dream of Zion, argues that the nineteenth-century European Enlightenment’s
‘The Dream of Zion’ focuses on the life of Herzl Read More »
Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Fred Reiss, EdD, International, Jewish History, Middle EastBy Dorothea Shefer-Vanson MEVASSERET ZION, Israel — It’s one of the best-kept secrets of British journalism that the Life and Arts section of the Financial Times’ weekend edition contains some of the best-written and most stimulating articles and reviews. So as we were leaving the airport of our almost next-door neighbor of Cyprus for
Jewish family became British through and through Read More »
Dorothea Shefer-Vanson, International, Jewish History
In My Hands: Memories of a Holocaust Rescuer by Irene Gut Opdyke and Jennifer Armstrong; Penguin Random House/ Ember; (c) 1999, 2015; ISBN 978-0-679-99181-6; 278 pages including appendices, $10.99. By Donald H. Harrison SAN DIEGO — This publication has reviewed, and will continue to review, numerous memoirs by Holocaust survivors. What makes this memoir different
A Righteous Gentile’s own story Read More »
Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Donald H. Harrison, Jewish HistoryBy Joe Spier CALGARY, Alberta, Canada — The headline in the April 20, 1946 edition of the New York Times read “Poison Bread Fells 1,900 German Captives in U.S. Army Prison Camp near Nuremberg.” What the Times did not report nor know was who the perpetrators were. As World War II was ending, survivors trickled out
Holocaust survivors mass poisoned Nazis of Stalag 13 Read More »
International, Jewish History
JERUSALEM (WJC) — Samuel Willenberg, the last survivor of the Treblinka death camp who died on Friday in Israel at the age of 93, beat the odds.. About 870,000 people, most of them Jews, died in the gas chambers at Treblinka. It was the second largest Nazi German death camp after Auschwitz-Birkenau. “Samuel Willenberg wa a hero
Samuel Willenberg, last survivor of Treblinka Read More »
International, Jewish History, Obituaries & memorialsBy Dorothea Shefer-Vanson MEVASSERET ZION, Israel — You can have a flock of sheep and a herd of cows, a covey of witches and a murmuration of starlings, so why not a transport of translators? This is one of the thoughts that occurred to me in the course of the recent annual Conference organized by the
Public speaking translates into misery Read More »
Dorothea Shefer-Vanson, International, Jewish History, Middle East
By Donald H. Harrison CHULA VISTA, California –Temple Beth Shalom, a Conservative congregation that in 1958 became one of the first local Jewish houses of worship to locate outside the City of San Diego, was designated on Wednesday, Feb. 17, as a historic site of the suburban City of Chula Vista. The Jewish congregation, then
Temple Beth Shalom declared a historic site Read More »
Donald H. Harrison, Jewish History, Jewish Religion, San Diego County
By Lisa Herndon NEW YORK — At 102, J. Zel Lurie “39 is likely the Columbia Journalism School”s longest-working journalist. Lurie, who lives in Delray Beach, Florida, suffers from macular degeneration and can no longer read, but it has never occurred to him to end a writing career that started decades ago. Only now, he
Retire at 102? Not a chance! Read More »
Jewish History, Middle East, USA