Science, Medicine, & Education

Music Was The Flashlight: A Profile of Yale Strom

Strom is known in the modern Jewish world, and certainly around San Diego, for his accomplishments as a violinist, composer, filmmaker, writer, photographer, and playwright. He’s conducted significant research in Central and Eastern Europe and the Balkans among the Jewish and Roma communities, as well as toured with his klezmer band Hot Pstromi Trio. They compose their own New Jewish music combining klezmer with Chasidic nigunim, Roma, jazz, classical, Balkan and Sephardic motifs. [Danielle Levsky]

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Lifestyles, Music, Dance, and Visual Arts, San Diego County, Science, Medicine, & Education, USA

3 Subjects Worthy of Deep Study: Torah, JCC’s, Mideast History

The great Jewish texts and sources are an enormous trove of knowledge, insights, traditions, and wisdom. His months at Pardes will barely scratch the surface and are tantamount to studying the initial pages of the first volume of a 32-volume encyclopedia—just enough to know that he’ll hardly know anything. But through these months, he will have evolved both respect and appreciation for the works’ scope and breadth. [Doron Krakow]

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Jewish History, Jewish Religion, Lifestyles, Middle East, Science, Medicine, & Education, USA

The Jewish Agency for Israel Names New Director of Educational Innovation

JERUSALEM (Press Release) — The Jewish Agency for Israel has named Rabbi Joe Schwartz as its new director of educational innovation and of Makom: The Israeli Education Lab, the organization’s central resource for educating and empowering professionals to change the conversation around Israel. Makom works to develop new models of Israel and Jewish peoplehood education,

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Middle East, Science, Medicine, & Education

Humoring the Hernia

While sitting and reading a book about three weeks ago, I felt a sharp pain in my lower abdomen and looked down to see a golf ball size bulge protruding out of it.  Since I had a hernia 25 years ago, I immediately thought it had recurred, though my cinematic imagination made me fear it was the larval form of the creature from Alien beginning to erupt through my skin and scamper around my house.  My quandary was whether to go to urgent care or contact Segourney Weaver. [Laurie Baron, Ph.D]

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Lawrence Baron, San Diego County, Science, Medicine, & Education, Trivia, Humor & Satire

The Anti-Israel Con at UConn

Not only was Israel’s self-defense denounced as disproportionate, illegal, overly aggressive, and tantamount to war crimes, but the broader question about Israel’s legal right to even exist was raised, along with the tired, loaded language of the woke Left, language which includes such terms, when describing Israel, as “colonial,” “occupation,” “siege,” “ethnic cleansing,” “settlements,” “state violence,” “racism,” as well as the favorite slur leveled against the Jewish state that it is enforcing a new form of “apartheid” and that a country called “Palestine” will be “liberated” as a result of global advocacy for the Palestinian cause. [Richard L. Cravatts, Ph.D]

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Middle East, Richard L. Cravatts, Science, Medicine, & Education, USA

StandWithUs Seeks Formal Investigation of Antisemitism at UC Santa Cruz

StandWithUs called for a formal investigation by the University of California, Santa Cruz (UCSC) leadership into a case where the Muslim Students Association (MSA) likely denied a Jewish student their constitutional rights during a Zoom public meeting, as outlined in a legal letter to the administration sent by StandWithUs and the Jewish student. For the student’s safety, their identity is being kept anonymous. An independent source provided StandWithUs with a captured video of the MSA’s egregious effort to marginalize and stigmatize this Jewish student through discriminatory action. [StandWithUs]

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Middle East, Science, Medicine, & Education, USA

Eye Surgeon Works Nearly Non-Stop in Ethiopia

It comes as no surprise that we inhabit an unequal world. We have only to look around us to see that there are those blessed with material goods, living in areas where services are accessible and abundant, contrasted with those who lack even the essentials such as food and shelter. Here in America, as in most developed nations, we seldom consider what it means to have no constant clean source of water or minimal medical services. In Ethiopia, this is the norm. [Eva Trieger]

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Eva Trieger, International, Science, Medicine, & Education

No Time to Dress: Lifesaving Rescue Made in Pajamas

Just after 8:00 a.m. on Sunday morning, a 92-year-old woman was riding in a car with her daughter and granddaughter near the train station in Modi’in when she suddenly lost consciousness. Her conscientious daughter and granddaughter pulled the car over and called emergency services for help while attempting to perform CPR on the elderly matriarch in the car.  United Hatzalah volunteer EMT Noemie Dray was at her home in Modi’in when the emergency took place. Noemie was asleep after a late-night shift in the Pediatric Ward of Sheba Hospital where she works when she isn’t attending classes. Noemie heard the alert from her emergency communications device, got up, and ran out of the house, without even having time to change clothes.  [United Hatzalah]

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Middle East, Science, Medicine, & Education

Jewish Veterans Swap Favorite Stories of Military Times

After raising the flag and reciting the Pledge of Allegiance, military veterans at  Tifereth Israel Synagogue on Veterans Day, Thursday, Nov. 11, shared some of the happier stories about their time in the military or just afterwards. [Donald H. Harrison]

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

StandWithUs, with Students and Alumna, Submits Title VI Complaint Against Hunter College

LOS ANGELES (Press Release) — On November 10, StandWithUs, along with Jessica Shafran and Raphi Cooper, current students attending the Silberman School of Social Work at Hunter College, and Silberman alumna Morr Mazal Barton, submitted a complaint against the Silberman School and Hunter College, part of the City University of New York (CUNY) system, to

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Science, Medicine, & Education, USA

OpEd: Removal of Adolph Sutro’s Name from a School Was a Travesty

The San Francisco School Board voted 6-1 on January 29 to rename over 40 schools. The Board believes it inappropriate to have schools named for people who have been “engaged in the subjugation and enslavement of human beings, oppressed women, committed acts that led to genocide or who otherwise significantly diminished the opportunities of those amongst us to the right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.” [Jerry Klinger]

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Jerry Klinger, Jewish History, Science, Medicine, & Education, USA