Science, Medicine, & Education

College faculties often seek to eliminate Israel

SANTA CRUZ, California (Press Release)– As students settle back onto campuses across the country, AMCHA Initiative releases a new report, The Harassment of Jewish Students on U.S. Campuses: How Eliminationist Anti-Zionism and Academic BDS Incite Campus Anti-Semitism.  The report illuminates a number of critical shifts and increases in campus anti-Semitism in the past year and includes

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Middle East, Science, Medicine, & Education, USA

Our Shtetl San Diego County: September 16, 2019

Items in today’s column:

*San Diego County teens, successful in past, may apply for Diller Teen Tikkun Olam Awards
*Bible, Holocaust, and Israel subjects of new books by local authors
*Barbara Bry gets backing of neighborhoods group in mayoral race
*Sukkot activity planning well underway in the county

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Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Donald H. Harrison, International, Jewish Religion, Michael Leo Samuel-Rabbi, San Diego County, Science, Medicine, & Education, Sports & Competitions, Theatre, Film & Broadcast, USA

Victoria, what you’ve ‘learned’ in college about Israel is not true

I learned how Israeli forces slaughtered over 30 children in a protest for Palestinian rights. I read about the closure of the Gaza Strip, and how Palestinians have to apply to work or seek specialty medical care in Israel, and oftentimes have their application denied. And in one night of reeducating myself, I became a pro-Palestinian Jew.

S: Congratulations, another self-hating Jew – and in only one night, without ever visiting the area. Israel hasn’t slaughtered over 30 children. The IDF is second to none in restricting its soldiers’ behavior towards non-combatants. It’s the Palestinian Arabs who don’t hesitate to push their children in front of them, instead of putting themselves in front of the kids for their protection. The parents also allow, even encourage, their teenagers to participate in dangerous riots at the border. This is totally immoral. 

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International, Middle East, Science, Medicine, & Education, Steve Kramer, USA

Our Shtetl San Diego: September 12, 2019

Subjects in this column:
* 2020 may be the year of local exhibits on the Holocaust
* Rabbis weigh in on the controversy over kosher slaughter of animals
* How mayoral candidates are spinning the latest poll

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Donald H. Harrison, International, Jewish History, Jewish Religion, Michael Leo Samuel-Rabbi, San Diego County, Science, Medicine, & Education, The World We Share, Travel and Food

Our Shtetl San Diego: September 10, 2019

Subjects in this column:
* Nine Israeli professors join faculties at three area universities
*Traffic will detour during two days of construction at Schwartz Courthouse
* Republican Famela Ramos joins race to succeed Susan Davis
* ADL, Aspen Institute name Nathan Fletcher to Civil Society Fellowship
* San Diego’s New StandWithUs Director Has Roots in the Region
* Preliminary hearing Sept. 19 in Chabad of Poway shootings 

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Donald H. Harrison, Middle East, San Diego County, Science, Medicine, & Education, USA

Our Shtetl San Diego: September 9, 2019

Subjects in this column:
*Dr. Peter Salk to Discuss the Works of His Father, Dr. Jonas Salk, Oct. 28
*Beth Israel Men’s Club hosts San Diego Jewish World publisher Donald H. Harrison Oct. 16
*Love Chocolate?  You’ll love LFJCC’s Oct 29 Exhibit and Jan. 14 Lecture by Rabbi Prinz

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Donald H. Harrison, International, Jewish History, San Diego County, Science, Medicine, & Education, Travel and Food, USA

Jewish trivia quiz: Vaping

…A more complicated issue is whether a cigarette smoker could switch to vaping as a step towards cessation of all smoking, and on this authorities are still quite divided. There is rabbinic precedent that allows substitution of a less serious halachic violation for a more serious violation, i.e., that vaping, while harmful and generally forbidden, would be acceptable when replacing cigarette smoking, which is more dangerous. Authorities in this debate point to what other example where rabbis might allow a less serious transgression of Jewish law in lieu of a more serious one?

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Jewish Religion, Mark D. Zimmerman, Science, Medicine, & Education, Trivia, Humor & Satire

After breast cancer: Time to sing a new song

When you’ve had cancer, your emotional taste buds change everything. A sunset is more brilliant, smells of flowers are magnified, music touches the heart more. So when my daughter sent me a WhatsApp in December, 2017, that she was in the delivery room in a hospital in the Negev, I burst into tears. We have, bli ayin hara, many grandchildren, and I’ve attended some of those births, but I never cried before upon hearing that a daughter was in the delivery room. Yet here I was sobbing uncontrollably.

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Middle East, Science, Medicine, & Education, Toby Klein Greenwald

The Damage Created by Early Maternal Deprivation

… René Spitz, an Austrian-American psychoanalyst, had introduced the term hospitalism, a diagnosis for disorders in infants who were institutionalized for long periods and deprived of substitute maternal care, causing irreparable psychological damage. This is what I witnessed in the hospitals I visited. The same can be said for all children separated from primary care givers. The longer they are kept away, the more severe the damage. …

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Natasha Josefowitz, Science, Medicine, & Education, USA

Arugot — Helping Children Succeed

… “Arugot” is Hebrew for “flower beds” and in the last 30 years Arugot has planted seeds for the success of more than 4,000 children.

Dr Jeremiah Lubasch, founder of Arugot, is a pediatrician from Argentina, to which his parents had fled from Germany and the Nazis in 1939. He made aliya to Israel with his family in 1977 and they settled in Haifa, where he discovered, through his work, that there were  problems that were going untreated, especially among the Haredi population, who were unwilling to send their children to secular pre-schools or therapy centers.

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Middle East, Science, Medicine, & Education, Toby Klein Greenwald

Hadassah Hospital: An Oasis of Peace

To many, the term “Middle East peace” represents the impossible dream, if not the ultimate contradiction in terms. But there is a place in the region where Jews, Muslims, and Christians meet peacefully every day on the basis of shared concerns and a sense of humanity.

It’s not a country, though it is older than many of the nations in the vicinity. Nor is it a mirage, though the desert is within view.

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Middle East, Science, Medicine, & Education