‘West Side Story’ Goes Chanukah!
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Jewish Religion, Theatre, Film & BroadcastJudaism
Journalist Documents Little Known Concentration Camp Near Paris
French journalist Anne Sinclair confesses she had long felt guilty about not asking her late paternal grandfather Léonce Schwartz to tell her about his internment at a little-known concentration camp on the outskirts of Paris. Known by the French as the Royallieu-Compiegne Concentration Camp, and by the Nazi Germans as Frontstalag 122, it was not as well-known as Drancy, the notorious French transit point to the Nazi killing camps in Poland. However, the prisoners there were treated just as callously. Starvation, lice, frostbite were common ailments purposely neglected by the Nazis in their effort to humiliate and winnow the French Jewish population [Donald H. Harrison]
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Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Donald H. Harrison, International, Jewish HistoryGenesis Prize Foundation Honors Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks Posthumously
The Genesis Prize Foundation honored the late Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks with the Genesis Lifetime Achievement Award. The award recognizes Lord Sacks for his extraordinary role in inspiring the next generation of Jews, and his illustrious life-long work as a teacher of Jewish values and an advocate of inter-religious and inter-cultural dialogue. [Genesis Prize Foundation News Release]
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International, Jewish History, Jewish Religion, Middle EastParashat Vayeishev: Predictable Unpredictability
You’ve heard it many times, “Man plans, G-d laughs.” Or perhaps, like me, you’ve heard this version, “Mentsch tracht, Gott lacht.” I like “Man thinks, G-d Winks.” Regardless, like all of us who prefer to live without being mutchet or tcheppeht, (pressured or bothered), Jacob found that life has its challenges and disappointments. Just when we think all is well in our family, in our career, in our lives, G-d shows us that He has another lesson for us to learn. It seems the only thing predictable about life is how unpredictable it can be. [Michael R. Mantell, Ph.D]
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Jewish Religion, Michael MantellRabbi Puts Cain on Trial for Slaying Abel
Abel is dead, killed by his brother Cain, who confesses to God soon after the murder (Gen. 4:1-16). The proximate cause, God accepting Abel’s sacrifice, but rejecting Cain’s. Yet are these sixteen lines of biblical text the whole story? [Fred Reiss, Ed.D]
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Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Fred Reiss, EdD, Jewish ReligionA Rabbi’s Questions about Adam and Eve
The very introduction to the Bible is obscure. We would have expected the introduction to tell us why God created the world and what God expects from humans, a problem that bothered the famous Bible commentator Rashi (1040-1105), but instead chapters 1 and 2 and other parts of the Bible are obscure, as can be seen in the following items. The obscurities are apparently purposely opaque to prompt us to think, and by thinking improve ourselves and society. [Rabbi Dr. Israel Drazin]
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Israel Drazin-Rabbi Dr., Jewish ReligionA Cantor Says A Final Goodbye to the Grandfather Who Inspired Him
I flew to London last Wednesday, to say goodbye to my 97-year-old Grandpa. Although I usually see my grandparents half a dozen times a year, the pandemic has made it so that I haven’t been able to see them for two and half years. I entered their new assisted living apartment and went straight to my grandfather’s bed. Without hesitation I began to sing our favorite Yiddish song “Oy vey fein”. Immediately he chimed in and sang with me for about fifteen seconds. [Cantor Hanan Liberman]
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International, Jewish History, Obituaries & memorialsDid Jacob Actually Wrestle with an Angel? Or Was It a Vision?
Jacob’s wrestling with the angel is arguably one of the most famous images we encounter in the Torah. Commentaries since rabbinical times wondered: Did it really occur? Or did Jacob imagine it? Maimonides’ interpretation is novel; he offers a view that Freud and Jung have found fascinating. Although we tend to think of psychology as beginning with Freud, medieval scholars such as Maimonides and Aquinas possessed a remarkable understanding of human psychology. Here is one such example from Maimonides Guide for the Perplexed 2:42. [Rabbi Dr. Michael Leo Samuel]
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Jewish Religion, Michael Leo Samuel-RabbiHaftorah Reading for November 20, 2021
This single chapter is the only extant writing of the minor prophet Obadiah. Wordage is mainly poetry, its ending in prose. The setting is the Babylonian destruction of the first Judean Temple c. 586 BCE, in which the enemy nation Edom participated. This time a Hebrew prophet rails against enemy Edom, not his own leaders. [Irv Jacobs, M.D.]
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Irv Jacobs, MD, Jewish ReligionDolly Parton Inspired the PJ Library Program for Jewish Children
Jewish books from the PJ Library are mailed free every month to 680,000 Jewish children to be read to them at bedtime by their parents or guardians. Yes, you can thank Harold Grinspoon, the Massachusetts real estate entrepreneur who funds much of this philanthropy, along with Winnie Sandler Grinspoon, his daughter-in-law who serves as president of his Foundation. [Donald H. Harrison]
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Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Donald H. Harrison, Judaism, Lifestyles, USAQuestions Linger about Rebekah
As with all of the prior men and women mentioned in the Bible, including Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, patriarchs whom we might expect that the Torah would give us plenty of information about, there is nothing about Isaac’s wife Rebekah that is crystal clear. Every fact and every event is obscure. [Rabbi Dr. Israel Drazin]
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Israel Drazin-Rabbi Dr., Jewish ReligionLawrence Family JCC Senior Program Receives Chanukah Grant
The senior program at the Lawrence Family JCC is among the 26 programs receiving financial grants from the San Diego Seniors Community Foundation (SDSCF), it was announced Thursday, Nov. 18. [San Diego Seniors Community Foundation news release]
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Jewish Religion, Lifestyles, San Diego CountySutro Heights Park Marker to Honor Sutro’s Jewish Heritage
The National Park Service has agreed to a request from the Jewish American Society for Historic Preservation (JASHP) to include mention of Adolph Sutro’s Jewish heritage on a marker at Sutro Heights Park in the Golden Gate National Recreation Area, JASHP announced on Wednesday, Nov. 17. [SDJW]
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Jerry Klinger, Jewish History, USAGaming Site, ‘Torah Live,’ Enlivens Jewish Education
Torah Live’s graphics, animation and film level are highly professional and their team of men and women includes over thirty scriptwriters, animators, video editors, and sound and special effects artists. While the world was in lockdown, Torah Live kicked in big time. Since Covid over a million and a half videos have been viewed, and the website has been accessed by 168,000 active users. It has hundreds of thousands of viewers from around North America and the world, including in Moscow, Paris, London, Australia, and South Africa, and including 117 in San Diego, a number the Torah Live people hope will continue to grow. {Toby Klein Greenwald]
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International, Jewish Religion, Middle East, Music, Dance, and Visual Arts, Theatre, Film & Broadcast, Toby Klein Greenwald, USA