Judaism – Page 335 – San Diego Jewish World

Junior high girl prepares for Anne Frank role

April 17, 2019

By Donald H. Harrison SAN DIEGO – A line formed after Eva Schloss, stepsister of Anne Frank, spoke recently at Chabad of Poway. When it was the turn of 15-year-old Bryn Williams to kneel next to the chair of the 90-year-old Schloss, they had a particularly animated discussion. Williams, a veteran of the Pickwick Players

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Passover Haroset’s mysterious origin

April 17, 2019

By Rabbi Dr. Israel Drazin BOCA RATON, Florida — Many Jewish practices are not as old as people think and many had no religious significance when first introduced. We do not even know how or when most Jewish practices began and why they began. We can only guess. And in many instances our guesses reveal

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Israel Drazin-Rabbi Dr., Jewish History, Jewish Religion, Travel and Food

Who compiled the Haggadah, and why?

April 17, 2019

By Moshe Dann JERUSALEM — Although Jews have been retelling the story of the Exodus from Egypt at the Pesach Seder for millennia, the Haggadah as we know it was compiled during the Gaonic period (8th-9th century CE) in Babylon, with additional songs written by Jews probably during the Middle Ages. Based on Torah, Mishna

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Books, Poetry & Short Stories, International, Jewish Religion, Middle East

Sometimes, “It’s Hard to Be a Jew”

April 16, 2019

By Rabbi Michael Leo Samuel CHULA VISTA, California — As Jews are observing the Passover holiday this coming weekend, recalling a time when our ancestors left Egypt, the land of their oppression, we are witnessing a new kind of Exodus taking place today: Jews are leaving France in record numbers amidst the rising anti-Semitic attacks that have

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Jewish History, Jewish Religion, Michael Leo Samuel-Rabbi

Pesach during the Holocaust

April 16, 2019

By Simmy Allen JERUSALEM — The Pesach holiday – which marks the Jewish people’s exodus from enslavement in ancient Egypt – was never more reminiscent in modern times as during the Holocaust. In the Pesach Haggadah, which recounts the miraculous story, Jews are told to proclaim: “This year we are here; next year we will

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International, Jewish History, Jewish Religion

Book Review: ‘In Good Faith’

April 15, 2019

By Rabbi Michael Leo Samuel CHULA VISTA, California — Often the greatest critics of religion offer us a series of criticism about the depth of our faith; they confront us with our hypocrisy. They challenge us to reexamine what it means to “believe.” As a young teenager, I remember hiding Raphael Patai’s book, Hebrew Myths in

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

S.D. Yom Hashoah focuses on preserving memory

April 14, 2019

By Michael Jeser SAN DIEGO — My grandfather Morris Cohen was the youngest of 28 children. Yes, you read that correctly. His father, my great grandfather, was in his 70s when my grandfather was born in a town near Vilnius, Poland. My great grandfather was actually married twice (not at the same time), and had

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International, Jewish History, San Diego County

Where did those Passover traditions come from?

April 14, 2019

By Rabbi Dr. Israel Drazin BOCA RATON, Florida — Unlike Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, which I describe in my book Mysteries of Judaism, the holiday of Passover did not continue to exist in a radically modified fashion with a new name after the temple was destroyed in 70 CE. It disappeared entirely and Chag

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Israel Drazin-Rabbi Dr., Jewish History, Jewish Religion

Holocaust survivor recalls miracle of Israel’s founding

April 13, 2019

By Genia Kutner Florida Jewish Journal DELRAY BEACH, Florida — During the war I was lucky to survive with my parents and brother; another died from pneumonia. He was 2 years old. I was 11. My brother was 13. When the Nazi’s neared our town – Pinsk in Poland – in 1941, we fled towards

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International, Jewish History, Middle East, USA

Why do we call this Shabbat ‘Shabbat HaGadol’?

April 12, 2019

By Rabbi Joshua Dorsch SAN DIEGO — This Shabbat, the Shabbat before Passover, is referred to as Shabbat HaGadol – The Great Shabbat. Shabbat HaGadol is the last of what has been a series of special Shabbats, leading up to Passover. We have several special Shabbats sprinkled throughout the year – each one singled out

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Jewish Religion

Book Review: Passover Haggadah Graphic Novel

April 12, 2019

Click here for related story By Rabbi Dr. Israel Drazin BOCA RATON, Florida — Jordan B. Gorfinkel and Erez Zadok’s 2019 Passover Haggadah Graphic Novel, published by Koren Press, will delight parents and children. There are humorous comics explaining the Haggadah and Seder ceremonies in about half of the book’s 170 pages with the chad

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Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Israel Drazin-Rabbi Dr., Jewish Religion

Holocaust artist recalled as Beresheet nears moon

April 11, 2019

Bulletin: Beresheet crashes on moon’s surface By Adam Henderson JERUSALEM — Marking the highly anticipated landing on the moon by the Beresheet spacecraft Yad Vashem, the World Holocaust Remembrance Center, reflects upon the drawing “Moon Landscape”, created by 14-year old Petr Ginz while he was incarcerated in the Theresienstadt ghetto. Beresheet’s lunar landing will make

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International, Jewish History, Science, Medicine, & Education

Superman, Batman and deeper Torah concepts

April 11, 2019

By Donald H. Harrison SAN DIEGO – Superhero comics have been influenced greatly by Jewish life in the United States and by Torah learning, according to Jordan Gorfinkel, 51, the entertainment entrepreneur who managed the Batman franchise for a decade before creating his own Avalanche Comics Entertainment company. In the sanctuary of Tifereth Israel Synagogue

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Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Donald H. Harrison, Jewish History, Jewish Religion, Music, Dance, and Visual Arts, San Diego County, Theatre, Film & Broadcast

Why Was first Passover different from all others?

April 10, 2019

By Rabbi Dr. Israel Drazin BOCA RATON, Florida –The Israelites’ first Passover, celebrated in Egypt just prior to the exodus and described in Exodus 12:1-11, was radically different from the Torah mandated holiday observed after the exodus. Exodus 12, which describes the Egyptian ceremony, raises many questions. (1) Why does the Torah command that “this

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Israel Drazin-Rabbi Dr., Jewish History, Jewish Religion, Travel and Food

Junior high girl prepares for Anne Frank role

Passover Haroset’s mysterious origin

Who compiled the Haggadah, and why?

Sometimes, “It’s Hard to Be a Jew”

Pesach during the Holocaust

Book Review: ‘In Good Faith’

S.D. Yom Hashoah focuses on preserving memory

Where did those Passover traditions come from?

Holocaust survivor recalls miracle of Israel’s founding

Why do we call this Shabbat ‘Shabbat HaGadol’?

Book Review: Passover Haggadah Graphic Novel

Holocaust artist recalled as Beresheet nears moon

Superman, Batman and deeper Torah concepts

Why Was first Passover different from all others?

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