KRASNAYA SLOBODA, Azerbaijan — “Not good,” Rabbi Yona Yaakobi says in Hebrew, expressing his distaste while pointing to a grave featuring a statue of a man who died in 1988. Carved in white marble, the nearly life-size statue of the deceased portrays him staring ahead, cane in hand, flanked by two pots of artificial flowers.
A glimpse into Azerbaijan’s hidden all-Jewish town Read More »
International, Jewish History
-61st in a Series- Exit 47, Sunrise Highway, Mount Laguna, California By Donald H. Harrison MOUNT LAGUNA, California – Jackie Lucas dropped in on the Serra Museum in Presidio Park, San Diego, in 1975, to look around the museum that focuses on early San Diego history. She saw on display a photo of a Kumeyaay woman. She
I-8 Jewish Travel: Kwaaymii, Arden and oral history Read More »
Donald H. Harrison, International, Jewish Religion, San Diego County, Travel and Food, USANEW YORK (JNS.org) — Albert Klass, a co-founder of the widely read New York City-based newspaper The Jewish Press, died last Friday at his home Brooklyn, the Orthodox-Jewish news website Voz Is Neias reported. Klass was 105. Klass co-founded The Jewish Press in 1960 with his brother Rabbi Sholom Klass, who died in 2000. Albert
Albert Klass, 105, cofounded The Jewish Press Read More »
Obituaries & memorialsStuttgart, Germany (dpa) – A lawmaker with the nationalist Alternative for Germany (AfD) party whose membership was under dispute said Tuesday that he will no longer be active in the group. Wolfgang Gedeon, a physician-turned-AfD-lawmaker in the wealthy southern state of Baden-Wuerttemberg, made the announcement after a party meeting that was originally supposed to decide
German lawmaker to let party membership lapse over anti-Semitic works Read More »
International, Jewish History
HANNATON, Israel (SDJW) — Students from the Hannaton Educational Center, a pluralistic school at Kibbutz Hannaton, participated in an egalitarian service at the Kotel last Thursday which was disrupted by Haredi men opposed to the genders praying together. Pushing and shoving and numerous insults such as “You are not Jews” marred the occasion. The prayer session
Hannaton students not deterred by Haredi protests Read More »
Jewish Religion, Middle East
SAN DIEGO — Two San Diego teens who participated in the March of the Living earlier this year–in which a visit to the German Nazi concentration camps in Poland is followed by a trip to Israel — reflected on the first of these experiences in these articles below. Questions about the March of the
H.S. seniors share reactions to March of Living Read More »
International, Jewish History, Marcia Tatz Wollner, San Diego CountyThe President of the Conference of European Rabbis has challenged the Swedish government to lift all restrictions on Jewish practices in Sweden, after its Ambassador to Israel claimed his prime minister wants to lead the fight against worldwide anti-Semitism. In a letter to Prime Minister Stefan Löfven, Rabbi Pinchas Goldschmidt – who also serves as
Leading rabbi challenges Sweden: End bans on milah, shechita Read More »
International, Jewish ReligionJERUSALEM (WJC) — Colette Avital, the head of the Center of Holocaust Survivor Organizations in Israel and a member of the Executive of the World Jewish Congress-Israel, expressed indignation and outrage over a program available on Google Play which invited users to “live like a real Jew in Auschwitz.” “We cannot understand how the top management of Google
Google permitted Auschwitz game to be distributed as an app Read More »
International, Jewish History, Middle East, USABy Joel H. Cohen AMSTERDAM, Netherlands — Curiously, what finally undammed my tears were the faded photographs of movie stars, under glass, on the bedroom wall. More than anything else, it was the sight of them that tore me emotionally, more than the solemn walk up the steep staircase and through the revolving bookcases that
Geography as a blessing, and a curse Read More »
International, Jewish History, Joel H. CohenA 30-minute cut of Jewish comedian Jerry Lewis’s lost Holocaust movie has surfaced online, months after the BBC aired a documentary about the film the comedian had vowed no one would ever see. The rough clip was put together using YouTube videos made from footage grabbed from a German documentary on the film Lewis once
30-minute clip of lost Jerry Lewis Holocaust film surfaces Read More »
Jewish History, Theatre, Film & BroadcastThe ministerial legislation committee today rejected a bill proposed by MK Yael German (Yesh Atid) that would allow the local authorities to decide whether to operate public transportation on the Sabbath. German told “Globes” today, “We won’t give up. We’ll submit the bill again in six months, and again in a year, and again and
No buses on Jewish Sabbath, ministerial committee rules Read More »
Jewish Religion, Middle EastAMSTERDAM, Netherlands, June 18, 2016 – It happens to everyone the moment they enter. It’s a natural phenomenon. Quiet footsteps. Whispered voices. Reverent solemnity. They are now in the Anne Frank House in Amsterdam. Here, silence just naturally seems to be the appropriate thing to do. Amsterdam’s skyline from above. (Wikipedia) For more than two
Amsterdam’s Anne Frank House: A place where ‘silence is golden’ Read More »
International, Jewish HistoryBy Rabbi Leonard Rosenthal SAN DIEGO — Judaism holds that human life is absolutely and fundamentally sacred. With three exceptions (murder, sexual assault/incest/adultery, and public idolatry), any mitzvah in Judaism can be violated in order to save a human life. It may even be argued this violation is not voluntary but obligatory: mitzvot must be
No religious justification for Orlando murders Read More »
Jewish ReligionBy Rabbi Yaakov Marks SAN DIEGO — The formation of the new nation had materialized. The Holy Tabernacle was erected, a census was performed, the army was established, and the tribes were given their flags and assigned positions around the Tabernacle. Then G-d commanded: “Send out all people with Tzoraas (individuals who contracted a spiritually-generated skin
Weekly Torah portion: Naso Read More »
Jewish Religion