Ah, the joys of time travel! San Diego author Marcia Berneger, a retired teacher, uses this device to imaginatively retell the story of the first Chanukah in A Dreidel in Time, a chapter book for children between the ages of 8 and 13. [Donald H. Harrison]
Time travel fiction dramatizes first Chanukah Read More »
Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Donald H. Harrison, Jewish Religion, Marcia Berneger, San Diego County, The World We Share
Had he lived, today, Monday October 28th, would have been Jonas Salk’s 105th birthday. Last night, an audience of mostly senior citizens remembered and appreciated the enormity of the contribution that he made to world health by developing the polio vaccine. And, indirectly, the man who was the speaker at Tifereth Israel Synagogue—Salk’s son, Dr. Peter Salk—played an important role in that drama while he was still a child.[Donald H. Harrison]
The legacy of Dr. Jonas Salk Read More »
Donald H. Harrison, Jewish History, Jewish Religion, San Diego Calendar, San Diego County, Science, Medicine, & Education, USA
With Jews around the world scheduled to read the story of Noah’s Ark next Saturday, the Abraham Ratner Torah School at Tifereth Israel Synagogue held a blessing for the animals in a brief outdoor ceremony on Sunday. Rabbi Joshua Dorsch, with arms raised, blessed about a dozen dogs and one rabbit that were brought by congregants of the Conservative shul. [Donald H. Harrison]
Animals receive a blessing at Tifereth Israel Synagogue Read More »
Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Donald H. Harrison, Jewish History, Jewish Religion, Lifestyles, Middle East, San Diego County, Science, Medicine, & Education, The World We Share, Travel and Food, USA
The general scholarly and rabbinical view is that the Oral Torah blossomed during the Second Temple period, when Judeans, as Jews were called at that time, who had returned from the Babylonian exile were faced with new problems that the Torah did not address and others that were addressed but needed updating to fit the situations they found. [Rabbi Dr. Israel Drazin]
What is the origin of the Oral Torah? Read More »
Israel Drazin-Rabbi Dr., Jewish History, Jewish Religion
Professor Lisa Levin of the Scripps Institution of Oceanography in La Jolla will be awarded the Prince Albert I Grand Medal for science on Nov. 7 in Monaco by Prince Albert II, the principality’s reigning monarch, in a ceremony that also will honor former United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon. [Donald H. Harrison]
Scripps oceanographer’s date with a prince Read More »
Donald H. Harrison, Jewish Religion, San Diego County, Science, Medicine, & Education, The World We Share, Theatre, Film & Broadcast
Ferris told San Diego Jewish World that only 25 of the 54 units had been occupied, making unprofitable the facility designed under auspices of the San Diego Hebrew Home to accommodate Jewish religious practices. She said surveys of the Jewish community indicated that one of the problems might have been that the residential facility had only independent living units, rather than a mix of units such as there is at the 250-unit Seacrest Village Retirement Community in Encinitas. [Donald H. Harrison]
More details on sale of Seacrest’s Nellie Cohn Residence Read More »
Business & Finance, Donald H. Harrison, Jewish Religion, San Diego County, The World We Share, Travel and Food
Today’s Israeli culture differs from Jewish culture at the state’s founding: Israel is more ethnically diverse, its Jews practicing along a broader spectrum of beliefs. They live mostly in cities, not on kibbutzim or moshavim. They are self-governing, speak a modern form of Hebrew, follow the Jewish calendar, and openly display rather than hide their identity. They live in a country in which they never have to fear de jure anti-Semitism. Israelis are rabbis and talmudic scholars, estheticians and economists, police and politicians, taxi drivers and technical wizards. [Fred Reiss, EdD]
Jewsraelis and other Jewish people of Israel Read More »
Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Fred Reiss, EdD, Jewish History, Jewish Religion, Middle East
Although it issued no news release to announce it, Seacrest Village Retirement Communities has sold its 56-unit Rancho Bernardo campus at 12730 Monte Vista Road to Pacifica, which will maintain it as an independent living community.
Michael Mather, Seacrest Village’s director of community relations, says residents of the facility have been able to transfer to the main campus in Encinitas, if they so desired.. [Donald H. Harrison]
Seacrest Village sells its Rancho Bernardo facility Read More »
Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Business & Finance, Donald H. Harrison, Jewish Religion, Marcia Berneger, San Diego County, The World We Share
My curiosity is over the origin of the seven-day week. Understandably days, years, and months are marked by astronomical events. Days are measured by sunset to sunset, or dawn to dawn. Years are derived from the annual cycle of the sun. Months are derived from the 29 &1/2 day cycle of the moon, simplified via reduction to a unified 28 days per month, plus addition of leap years to periodically accommodate the growing overage of days. The seven-day week doesn’t apparently have an astronomical connection. Historically, scholars have considered the week to be a Hebrew invention, derived from its creation story. [Irv Jacobs, MD]
Why does a week have seven days? Read More »
Irv Jacobs, MD, Jewish ReligionJERUSALEM — Who was the better person, Cain or Abel? It is possible to see the tale of Cain and Abel in a different light. [Rabbi Dr. Israel Drazin]
Some questions about Cain and Abel Read More »
Israel Drazin-Rabbi Dr., Jewish Religion
Rabbi Leah Herz created a fun-filled Simchat Torah learning session called “The Great Torah Roll” for residents of the Seacrest Village Retirement Community in Encinitas when she had the entire Torah unrolled and held by staff, volunteers, and residents, some of whom were in wheelchairs. [Donald H. Harrison]
‘Great Torah Roll’ fun at Seacrest Village Read More »
Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Donald H. Harrison, Jewish Religion, Music, Dance, and Visual Arts, San Diego County, Science, Medicine, & Education, The World We Share, Theatre, Film & Broadcast
The Maharal, Yehuda Aryeh Löwe of Prague, teaches, “that we are called to deal kindly with all of humanity and certainly not to cause harm to anyone’s physical being, financial welfare, or personal dignity nor to disgrace or diminish the Divine image in our fellow.” The diversity of humanity is a crucial component of this understanding. After all, we learn in 1:27 that G-d created mankind b’tzelem Elohim, “in [the divine] image.” [Michael Mantell, PhD]
With Bereishit we begin learning Torah Read More »
Jewish Religion, Michael Mantell
Astronaut Jessica Meir, who earned her doctorate from the Scripps Institute of Oceanography here in San Diego, on Friday was part of the first all-female team to do a space walk from the international space station. She and fellow American astronaut Christine Koch were tasked with repairing a power control unit – a job that in the slow motion of space took seven hours and 17 minutes, including interruptions to take congratulatory calls from President Donald Trump, Vice President Mike Pence, Presidential Advisor Invaka Trump, and NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine. [Donald H. Harrison]
15th Jew in space in first all-female space walk Read More »
Cantor Sheldon Foster Merel, z"l, Donald H. Harrison, Jewish History, Jewish Religion, Middle East, San Diego County, Science, Medicine, & Education, USA
Nearly one year after the worst anti-Semitic attack in U.S. history that claimed the lives of 11 people worshiping inside a Pittsburgh synagogue building, the Tree of Life*Or L’Simcha Congregation announced it will move forward with rebuilding plans that reflect resiliency, strength and community collaboration. [News Release]
Pittsburgh’s Tree of Life Synagogue charts re-opening Read More »
Jewish History, Jewish Religion, USA