Judaism

Baghdad to destroy home of Jew who helped found modern Iraq

The Baghdad municipality announced Friday it would demolish and then give to a developer the 100-year-old home of Iraq’s first finance minister, Sir Sassoon Eskell, while an official in Iraq’s Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities slammed the decision as a “violation” of the law. Eskell, who was born into an aristocratic Baghdadi Jewish family in

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Jewish History, Middle East

Shabbat San Diego weekend set for Nov. 10-12

“We’ll Sing and Dance To the Sky, With Our Spirits So High” By Michael R. Mantell, Ph.D. SAN DIEGO–With chaos, conflict and confusion so continually evident in our lives more and more, how can anyone find peace these days? “Shabbat can do that.” That’s the inspirational mantra Shabbat San Diego 2016 begins and ends its

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Jewish Religion, Michael Mantell, San Diego Calendar, San Diego County

Pete Fountain, clarinet virtuoso, dies at 86

{Editor’s Note: San Diego Jewish World’s eulogy series is sponsored by Marc and Margaret Cohen in memory of Molly Cohen, and by Inland Industries Group LP in memory of long-time San Diego Jewish community leader Marie (Mrs. Gabriel) Berg.  Comments intended for publication in the space below MUST be accompanied by the letter writer’s first and last

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Music, Dance, and Visual Arts, Obituaries & memorials, USA

WWII-Era Tunnel Unearths Story of Lithuania’s Jews

The diary of Kazimierz Sakowicz opens with his description of a pleasant summer day in the Ponar forest, outside the Lithuanian capital of Vilnius: “July 11: Quite nice weather, warm, white clouds, windy, some shots from the forest. Probably exercises.” The shots were not exercises, as Sakowicz would very quickly discover. The year was 1941,

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International, Jewish History

Parents of AMIA bombing victims become plaintiffs in case against former Argentine President Kirchner

BUENOS AIRES, Argentina (WJC) — The fathers of two victims of the 1994 AMIA center bombing were admitted Tuesday by a judge as plaintiffs in the case against former Argentine President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner that could reopen the investigation of the late prosecutor Alberto Nisman into a cover-up of Iran’s role in the 1994 bombing.

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International, Jewish History

‘Then there is the man of horror’: Heinrich Himmler’s recovered diaries reveal both family man and monster

Diaries belonging to Nazi leader Heinrich Himmler, the head of the SS and architect of the Holocaust, have been recovered in a Russian archive after being thought lost for more than 70 years. The diaries, which are being published in daily excerpts by the German newspaper Bild, cover 1938 and the crucial war years of

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International, Jewish History

Venice welcomes back Shylock in marking its Jewish history

Last week, an international, multilingual cast performed Shakespeare’s controversial play, “The Merchant of Venice,” in the secluded main plaza of the city’s historic Jewish Ghetto. It was the first time the play was performed in the iconic location. Enclosed by tall tenements and the arched windows of 16 th-century synagogues, audiences — US Supreme Court

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Books, Poetry & Short Stories, International, Jewish History

Reflections on a somber interview with Elie Wiesel

    By Alyssa Goldstein Sepinwall SAN MARCOS, California — In 2007, I received an unexpected invitation: interviewing Elie Wiesel for a program at the Carlsbad Library (California). The city has an annual program in which residents discuss a common book; that year, it was Wiesel’s Holocaust memoir Night. To culminate the program, the city

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International, Jewish History, San Diego County

Winners of Jewish Culture Prize for literature announced

Minister of Education Naftali Bennet announced on Sunday this year’s winners of the Education Minister’s Prize for Jewish Culture in the field of literature: Haim Sabato and Sarah Friedland. The committee responsible for electing the winners wrote of Sabato: “His work […] reveals the world of the Sephardic traditions of Torah – in which sharpness

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

UN remembers Israeli athletes murdered in 1972 Olympics

With the Olympic Games set to open in Rio de Janeiro next week, the Israeli Mission to the United Nations on Thursday held the first of its kind memorial event at the UN to honor the Israeli athletes murdered in the attack on the 1972 Munich Olympics. Michal Shahar, the daughter of slain Olympic shooting

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International, Jewish History, Middle East, Sports & Competitions