Science, Medicine, & Education

Making San Diego a Yiddish Destination

During the pandemic, YAAANA, the Yiddish Arts and Academics Association of North America, a tiny non-profit organization I founded four years ago, saw significant growth, and is about to move into a new physical space in La Jolla. In June 2021, we plan to open a mini-Yiddishland California in the Village of La Jolla. Among the activities planned for that space are Yiddish music concerts, theater performances, activities for children, Yiddish classes, and festive Yiddish-style dinners. And, just like our previous pop-up and Zoom events, all YAAANA activities will be accessible to all regardless of Yiddish-speaking abilities. Additionally, childcare will be available to visiting parents. [Jana Mazurkiewicz Meisarosh]

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Donald H. Harrison, San Diego County, Science, Medicine, & Education, Theatre, Film & Broadcast, USA

Advocates Petition Against California Ethnic Studies Bill

More than a thousand Californians, including nearly 70 rabbis, today petitioned the California Legislative Jewish Caucus to oppose AB 101, a bill to make ethnic studies courses a high school graduation requirement. The California Assembly is likely to debate AB 101 next week. [AMCHA Initiative Press Release]

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Middle East, Science, Medicine, & Education, USA

The Lasting Significance of David Hume

The pandemic, which has taken over three million lives and continues to ravage parts of the world; the rise of Trumpism, culminating in the January 6th attack on the Capitol; the degradation of the environment and the threat posed by anthropogenic climate change; these things, and others, have served to alert many of us that the comfort we take in the notion that what has always been the case one’s whole life will always remain the case is nothing more than a pleasant fiction. Several centuries ago, a Scottish philosopher made a similar observation, and notably took it quite a bit further. [Sam Ben-Meir, Ph.D]

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Sam Ben-Meir, Science, Medicine, & Education

Good News from Israel (May 16, 2021)

NETANYA, Israel — In the May 16, 2021 edition of Israel’s good news, the highlights include:
–US doctors use an Israeli device to remove blood clots from stroke patients.
–Israel has sent tons of coronavirus aid to India.
–4 top multinationals are expanding Israeli hi-tech operations.
–Israeli innovators are turning CO2 emissions into an energy source.
–Israel’s economy continues to improve.
–An Israeli has won France’s top literary prize.
–The festival of Shavuot is uniting Israelis, just as it did 3,333 years ago
[Michael Ordman]

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Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Business & Finance, Jewish Religion, Michael Ordman, Middle East, Science, Medicine, & Education, Sports & Competitions, USA

Good News from Israel (May 9, 2021)

In the May 9, 2021 edition of Israel’s good news, the highlights include:
-New Israeli treatment allows multiple myeloma patients to get bone transplants.
-Israeli kidney specialist donates his own kidney.
-Israeli leaders host Muslims for Ramadan events.
-Israel’s next astronaut will supervise 44 Israeli space experiments.
-An Israeli startup is recycling worn out car tires.
-An Israeli consultancy is project managing a new industrial zone in Dubai.
-Unique videos, photos and a new discovery to help celebrate Jerusalem Day.
[Michael Ordman]

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Business & Finance, International, Jewish History, Jewish Religion, Michael Ordman, Middle East, Science, Medicine, & Education, Sports & Competitions, The World We Share, USA

San Diego Native Named Director of L.A.’s Skirball Museum

Nearly four decades have rushed by since the day that Sheri L. Bernstein served as a high school docent at the San Diego Museum of Art, during which she learned all she could about one of the paintings on exhibit and recited to visitors what she knew. [Donald H. Harrison]

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Business & Finance, Donald H. Harrison, Music, Dance, and Visual Arts, San Diego County, Science, Medicine, & Education, Travel and Food, USA

Jewish Folk Remedies from the Pale of Settlement

Wait, it’s not the chicken soup, it’s the herbs that count! Eastern European Jewry, particularly those living in the area known as “The Pale of Settlement,” on the western side of the Dnieper River, in present-day Ukraine, whose history there began in the Middle Ages, have a “long and distinguished canon dedicated to the healing process,” a research area unfortunately ignored, by-and-large, by sociological scholars. Cohen and Siegel, in their joint venture Ashkenazi Herbalism, describe the history and role of plants and herbs employed by Ashkenazi folk-healers, piecing together sparse, fragmented sources, and weaving them into an engaging story. [Fred Reiss, Ed.D]

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Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Fred Reiss, EdD, International, Jewish History, Science, Medicine, & Education

Commission to Study Possible SDSU Mascot Change

On Tuesday, May 4, the San Diego State University Senate passed a resolution urging SDSU President Adela de la Torre and the administration to begin the process of changing the university’s mascot.  The resolution passed 53-9 with 10 abstentions. It calls for the creation of a commission, chaired by the university Tribal Liaison Dr. Jacob Alvarado Waipuk, who is a member of the San Pasqual Band of the Kumeyaay Nation. [Brenden Tuccinardi, SDSU Daily Aztec]

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San Diego County, Science, Medicine, & Education

B’Tselem’s Anti-Israel Report Gets the Facts Wrong

South Africa’s apartheid laws mandated Black South Africans to use separate, often inferior facilities like public restrooms, public transport, beaches, schools, et cetera.  B’Tselem claims that a comparable system of inequality exists between Arabs and Jews, both within Israel proper and the disputed territories of the West Bank and Gaza. This is simply false. [Benjamin Zaghi]

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Middle East, San Diego County, Science, Medicine, & Education, USA

SDJA Senior Class Program Resumes in Israel

HOD HASHARON, Israel  (Press Release)– San Diego Jewish Academy high school seniors were among the first students traveling to Israel again to continue learning and touring the country through the Jewish National Fund-USA Alexander Muss High School in Israel program (AMHSI). The spring semester abroad in Israel is a regular part of the SDJA experience,

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Middle East, San Diego County, Science, Medicine, & Education, Travel and Food, USA