Judaism

Ancient views on menstruation, epidemics STDs

Leviticus 12-15 – The text deals with purification procedures after menstruation and childbirth; evaluating and separating out various skin lesions, and stains on objects, to sort the serious from the benign; the purification of a healed leper/leprous lesion; and dealings with venereal discharges, benign or serious. [Irv Jacobs, MD]

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International, Irv Jacobs, MD, Jewish Religion, Middle East, Science, Medicine, & Education

Jewish Travel: Great Synagogue of Vilna

VILNIUS, Lithuania (Press Release) — Today marks the 300th birth anniversary of Vilna Gaon Elijah ben Solomon Zalman. On this occasion, the city of Vilnius offers a new possibility to explore one of the treasures of Jewish heritage in Vilnius – the Great Synagogue of Vilna. These days, when travel possibilities are limited, the new

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International, Jewish History, Jewish Religion, Travel and Food

Especially during pandemic, we must avoid lashon hara

Once again, with open eyes, we can see the weekly parasha coming with contemporary lessons to help us live better. Parashat Tazria – Metzorah focuses on our physical wellbeing and a specific disfiguring infectious disease, tzara’at, or what has come to be seen as leprosy. The first parasha deals with the infliction while the second deals with the purification process. [Michael R. Mantell, Ph.D]

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Jewish Religion, Michael Mantell

Rabbi salutes his father, the rabbi who resisted white flight from Baltimore

Today is my dad’s yahrzeit.  My dad, Rabbi Dr. Nathan Drazin was born on March 16, 1906 and passed away in Israel on 28 Nisan 1976. He is well-known as a brilliant man, a scholar with a beautiful personality. He was also a hero. It is proper to remember him today. [Rabbi Dr. Israel Drazin]

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Israel Drazin-Rabbi Dr., Jewish History, USA

Ritual purity and the coronavirus

When I was a young yeshiva student, I would get up every day and bathe in the hot mikveh (similar to a jacuzzi) around 5:00 in the morning. Then I would walk to the yeshiva hall and study the entire Mishnah while observing the sunrise. By my second year, I had completed the study of the Mishnah with its commentaries. This experience afforded me the opportunity to study the laws of animal sacrifices. Most people might be surprised to see how the sacrificial cult influenced the origins of Jewish prayer—especially with respect to the role of intentionality, for one stray thought, could invalidate a sacrifice.   [Rabbi Dr. Michael Leo Samuel]

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

San Diego’s Internet Yom HaShoah commemoration

With social distancing policies in effect during the coronavirus pandemic, Rabbi Scott Meltzer of Ohr Shalom Synagogue and Rabbi Ralph Dalin, the community chaplain who works under auspices of the Jewish Federation of San Diego County, jointly conducted an Internet observance of Yom HaShoah on Monday evening.  The ceremony included such traditional prayers as the 23rd Psalm, and  El Moleh Rachamim as well as a special Holocaust Kaddish during which the names of the Nazi death camps are interjected into the traditional Kaddish text. [Our Shtetl San Diego County column by Donald H. Harrison]

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Donald H. Harrison, International, Jewish History, Jewish Religion, Music, Dance, and Visual Arts, San Diego County, USA

The eye of prophecy?

Great writers of science fiction literature often have a keen intuition of what the future might bring. Whether you read H.P. Lovecraft or H. G. Wells, whose science-fiction writings makes the impossible seem almost believable. H.G. Wells’ is probably best known for his classical story, The Time Machine, which he published in 1895. His insights into the future were prescient in many ways. Wells anticipated many technological changes, e.g., wars conducted in the air; the sexual revolution; motorized vehicles, world-wars, a federalized Europe (think: European Union), the emergence of the atomic bomb. Wells especially anticipated the dystopian genre. The same could be said about Gene Roddenberry’s Star Trek series. [Rabbi Dr. Michael Leo Samuel}

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Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Jewish Religion, Michael Leo Samuel-Rabbi

We Remember!

In the Jewish tradition, we are commanded to remember (zachor) and not to forget (lo tishkach). This week we commemorate Yom HaShoah, the Day of Holocaust Remembrance. On this solemn occasion, 75 years after the end of World War II: We remember the six million Jewish martyrs, including 1.5 million children, who were exterminated in the Holocaust. .. [David Harris]

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International, Jewish History, Middle East, USA

Cottbus, Germany joins San Diego in Holocaust memory

In a second day of Holocaust observance, the Jewish Federation of San Diego County sponsored a webcast on Monday featuring Steven Schindler in San Diego and Nicole Nocon and her daughter, Antonia, in Cottbus, Germany, the home town where Schindler’s late father, Max Shindler, was arrested as a child by the Nazis and sent to a concentration camp. [Our Shtetl San Diego County column by Donald H. Harrison]

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Donald H. Harrison, International, Jewish History, San Diego County, USA

Six-camp survivor Ben Midler leads off Yom HaShoah observances in S.D. County

Benjamin Midler, 91, a survivor of six Nazi concentration camps, led off the Jewish Federation of San Diego County’s Holocaust remembrance via a Zoom presentation narrated by daughters Nurit Kotick and Ellen Winter. [Our Shtetl San Diego County column by Donald H. Harrison]

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Donald H. Harrison, International, Jewish History, Middle East, USA

Some advice about school bullying

Melissa Rubenstein Levin, who worked for Drasnin Communications in San Diego from 2000 to 2002, is now based in Houston, where she is handling publicity for IndieFlix. That production company recently issued three films.  Angst, which includes an interview with Olympic swimmer Michael Phelps, deals with understanding anxiety disorders; Like “explores the impact of social media on our lives and the effects of technology on the brain,” and The Upstanders, which I recently watched, “explores cyber-bullying,” as can be seen in the trailer above. [Our Shtetl San Diego County by Donald H. Harrison]

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Donald H. Harrison, International, Jewish History, Joe Gandelman, Lifestyles, San Diego County, Science, Medicine, & Education, USA

Book Review: A Rosenberg by any other name

You gotta love this book. Page 1 leads with my favorite “Ferguson” (shayn fergessen) joke which I have retold tirelessly for years. Fermaglich reveals that Winona Ryder, born in Winona, Minnesota and currently playing the role of Evelyn Finkel in the Netflix series The Plot Against America, based on Philip Roth’s 2004 novel of the same name, was born Winona Laura Horowitz. But this book is not about jokes and celebrities but about the real choices that the nearly three million Jews who came to America between 1880 and 1920 had to make to feel comfortable and make progress in America. [Oliver B. Pollak, Ph.D]

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