Like many Jews of his generation, he had changed his name to avoid revealing that he was born Issur Danielovitch, the son of poor Jewish immigrants who lived in Amsterdam, New York. Even before that, he adopted the Americanized surname of his uncle Avram Demsky and preferred Isadore over Issur. {Lawrence Baron, Ph.D]
Kirk Douglas: Star of David and Hollywood Read More »
Lawrence Baron, Music, Dance, and Visual Arts, Obituaries & memorials
Other items in today’s column include: * A graveyard film inspired the SDIJFF chair * Political bytes * Coming our way * Recommended reading By Donald H. Harrison SAN DIEGO – You can tell a lot about any of the 35 movies to be shown at the 30th annual San Diego International Film Festival
The making of an international Jewish film festival Read More »
Donald H. Harrison, International, Jewish History, Middle East, San Diego County, Theatre, Film & Broadcast
This Parasha [Beshallah] deals with the early route of the Exodus; the crossing of the Sea of Reeds with the drowning of the pursuing Egyptian army; the famous reiteration in the poem “The Song at the Sea;” then a series of complaints such as inadequate drinking water and inadequate food (resolved sequentially); and ends with a successful defensive battle against an attack by Amalek’s forces. I have chosen three passages, with regard to seeking similarities with other ancient literatures. [Irvin Jacobs, M.D.]
Examining the miracles of Exodus Read More »
Irv Jacobs, MD, Jewish Religion
Last week Attorney General William Barr traveled to Boro Park in Brooklyn and vowed to bring down the full weight of the federal government upon anti-Semitic violence. Who did he target? She who slaps Jews or those who gun us down? Our esteemed attorney general went after what must be the most dangerous of these forces. He announced federal hate-crime charges against…drum roll, please…Tiffany Harris. [Bruce Ticker]
Gun laws, not more prosecution of slapper, needed Read More »
Bruce Ticker, Jewish History, USA
As we go into the final month before the March 3 primary election in California, I’d like to mention the names of Jewish candidates on the ballot for our readers to consider. We’re not making any endorsements in the primary election (although I personally announced for Amy Klobuchar) , but we’d like you to know who they are. In some cases, like Democratic presidential candidates Michael Bloomberg and Bernie Sanders, they oppose each other. [Donald H. Harrison]
A minyan of Jews on local election ballots Read More »
Donald H. Harrison, International, Jewish History, Obituaries & memorials, USA
Does your physician heal you from illness or prevent you from becoming ill in the first place? Maimonides informs us: “The greatest of all physicians is the Lord, of Whom it is said ‘I am the Lord thy physician.’ As proof of this, it is written ‘I will not place upon you the illnesses which I have placed upon ancient Egypt.’ Who is truly the good doctor? Not the person who heals the sick from their diseases, but rather the one who helps the person from becoming sick and sees to it that he maintains his health.” [Michael Mantell, Ph.D]
On God, the Healer Read More »
Jewish Religion, Michael Mantell
“Never again.” Those iconic words, widely used in the public discourse around the Holocaust, took a step toward codification under U.S. law with the House of Representatives’ recent passage of the Never Again Education Act on this year’s International Holocaust Remembrance Day. [Jacob Kamaras]
‘Never again’ becoming codified in U.S. law Read More »
International, Jacob Kamaras, Jewish History, USA
There are two accounts of the Ten Commandments. One is in Exodus 20 and the second in Deuteronomy 5. The two differ in more than a dozen instances in the spelling of some terms, added and changed expressions, word order changes, and the insertion of explanations in the Deuteronomic edition. [Rabbi Dr. Israel Drazin]
Two versions of the 10 Commandments Read More »
Israel Drazin-Rabbi Dr., Jewish Religion
Rabbi Dr. Michael Leo Samuel of Congregation Beth Shalom in Chula Vista is one of the most erudite pulpit rabbis in San Diego County, having written numerous books on the Jewish religion and on such Torah commentators at Philo and Maimonides. [Donald H. Harrison]
Chula Vista rabbi offers ‘Gentle Judaic Wisdom’ Read More »
Donald H. Harrison, Jewish History, Jewish Religion, Joe Gandelman, Lifestyles, Michael Leo Samuel-Rabbi, San Diego County
Marlon classifies more than eight hundred Jewish luminaries into one or more of fifteen categories, each its own chapter, including the High Priests of the Jews, Exilarchs of the Jews, and Generals of the Jews. He separates Jewish kings into five separate chapters: Kings of the United Monarchy, Kings of Israel, Kings of Judea, Hasmonean and Herodian Kings, and Jewish Kings of Himyar, Khazaria, and Ethiopia. A distinct chapter holds Queens of the Jews, starting with Mikhal (c. 900 BCE), youngest daughter of King Saul and ending with Gudit (c. 960 CE), who fought against Aksum, the capital of Christian Ethiopia. [Fred Reiss, Ed.D]
Book chronicles 4,000 years of Jewish leaders Read More »
Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Fred Reiss, EdD, Jewish History
Rabbi Drazin’s newest book sets out to prove that the Judaism that everyone observes today is a relatively later historical development. Judaism continues to undergo endlessly new permutations. This observation applies no less to Conservative, Reform, Reconstructionist, Renewal, even some of the vestigial practices of so-called “secular Jews,” which to a certain degree follow variations of rabbinical Judaism. Yet, as the author noted, “The term Orthodox did not exist before the 19th century” (p. 175). [Rabbi Dr. Michael Leo Samuel]
From Torah to rabbinic Judaism Read More »
Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Israel Drazin-Rabbi Dr., Jewish Religion, Michael Leo Samuel-Rabbi
It is now forty years since I began driving an automobile. I took driver’s education and it was through them I got my license, but it was my mother, of blessed memory, who taught me how to drive. Over the years I’ve heard that I have a reputation of being a New York driver. Some passengers in my car requested double seat belts and a parachute with an optional eject button just in case they needed access to an early departure. New York drivers are known to be aggressive; it is a direct correlation to the aggressiveness of daily life in New York city. In contrast, living in Charleston, South Carolina, cars can be sold with a horn because no one ever beeps such a rude, noisy device. [Rabbi Avraham Bogopulsky]
Parshas Bo – The Rules of the Road Read More »
Jewish Religion, San Diego County, Science, Medicine, & Education, Travel and Food
On the Northern Coast of South America, is a tiny third world country’s capital, Paramaribo, Suriname. It is 5,248 miles to Krakow, near Auschwitz. The tiny Jewish community of Suriname, alongside of their non-Jewish neighbors chose on Jan. 27 to remember the Holocaust. Unlike most commemorations that took place that day, the Suriname Jewish community dedicated a permanent interpretive historical marker telling the ill-informed and the future generations of the uninformed, what the Holocaust was. [Jerry Klinger]
A new Holocaust memorial in Suriname Read More »
International, Jerry Klinger, Jewish History
Exactly four months before their 50th anniversary, Rachel and Jerry Levens renewed their wedding vows in a backyard ceremony officiated by Rabbi Joshua Dorsch, the third rabbi to serve in Tifereth Israel’s pulpit since Jerry’s father, the late Rabbi Monroe Levens, retired in the 1970s.
[Donald H. Harrison]
A renewal of vows nearly 50 years later Read More »
Donald H. Harrison, Jewish Religion, Lifestyles, San Diego County, USA