San Diego County

‘Wooden Wars’: A play about Poles and Jews

By Donald H. Harrison SAN DIEGO – Jana Mazurkiewicz Meisarosh, founder of the Yiddish Arts and Academics Association of North America (YAAANA), says many Americans mistakenly believe that Polish people are anti-Semitic. In fact, she says, Polish people have an obsession with Judaism that leads some to be anti-Semitic and others to be just the

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Donald H. Harrison, International, San Diego Calendar, Travel and Food

‘Smokey Joe’s Cafe’ is dancin’ hot

By Eva Trieger CARLSBAD, California — Smokey Joe’s Cafe could just as aptly have been named “An Era of Music: From Lips to Hips.” As the sentimental crooners of the 1940s stepped back into the shadows, they made room for the restless, rebellious rockers who ushered in a whole new genre. New Village Arts brings audiences

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Eva Trieger, San Diego County, Theatre, Film & Broadcast

SDIJFF Movie Review: ‘Working Woman’

By Cantor Sheldon Foster Merel SAN DIEGO —  Working Woman,  an Israeli  drama filmed in Jerusalem, was shown at the San Diego International Jewish Film Festival on Friday  afternoon.  a It  was so vividly portrayed  that it left  me emotionally drained  The  cast  gave gut wrenching performances under excellent direction by Michal Avid. When the

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San Diego County, Theatre, Film & Broadcast

Jews in the News: February 9, 2019

By Donald H. Harrison NATIONAL/ INTERNATIONAL – As chairwoman of the House Appropriations Committee, Democratic Rep. Nita Lowey of New York has much to say about what new projects the government will be granted permission to finance.  As for President Trump’s demand for over $5 billion for a border wall, or a compromise proposal for

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

Schwinging start to the Jewish Film Festival

By Eric George Tauber SAN DIEGO — Miles Davis, John Coltrane, Quincy Jones, Art Blakey, Sonny Rollins, Herbie Hancock… If you’re a jazz fan, you know these names. They are the stars shining in the jazzosphere of Blue Note Records. And the magi we have to thank for these precious gifts were two German Jews,

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Eric George Tauber, Music, Dance, and Visual Arts, San Diego County, Theatre, Film & Broadcast

Jews in the News: February 8, 2019

By Donald H. Harrison NATIONAL/ INTERNATIONAL – Ronald S. Lauder and Robert Singer, president and executive vice president respectively of the World Jewish Congress, told a European Parliament committee on Thursday “to pick after Jews or go after Jews is not just wrong — it is dangerous for all Europeans. … Anti-Semitism eventually consumes everyone

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Donald H. Harrison, International, Middle East, San Diego County, Sports & Competitions, Theatre, Film & Broadcast, USA

Jews in the News: February 7, 2019

By Donald H. Harrison NATIONAL/ INTERNATIONAL – House Intelligence Chair Adam Schiff, in a New York Times report, says his committee will be “making sure the policy of the United States is being driven by the national interest, not by any financial entanglement, financial leverage or other form of compromise.”  President Trump responded that Schiff

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Donald H. Harrison, Eva Trieger, International, Middle East, Music, Dance, and Visual Arts, Obituaries & memorials, San Diego Calendar, San Diego County, Science, Medicine, & Education, Theatre, Film & Broadcast, USA

Sightseeing review: Birch Aquarium

By Donald H. Harrison LA JOLLA, California – If you want to know if a fish you see at the Birch Aquarium is kosher, look carefully.  Does it have fins?  Does it have scales?  If the answer to both these questions is “yes,” then probably it is a kosher fish. That doesn’t mean, however, that

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Donald H. Harrison, San Diego County, Science, Medicine, & Education, The World We Share, Travel and Food, USA

‘Familiar’ brings faraway world close to home

By Eric George Tauber SAN DIEGO — Welcome to the home of the Chinyaramwira family. Scenic Designer Walt Spangler invites us into a warm dwelling with rich, dark woods, tastefully furnished.  Like most immigrant families, they communicate in two languages, English and their native Shona, in the same conversation. Like all families, they laugh and

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Eric George Tauber, San Diego County, Theatre, Film & Broadcast

SDIJFF Film Preview: ‘Heading Home’

Heading Home: The Tale of Team Israel directed by Seth Kramer, Daniel A. Miller, Jeremy Newberger; Ironbound Films; 2018, 87 minutes, to be shown at the San Diego International Jewish Film Festival at 1 p.m., Sunday, February 10, at Edwards San Marcos Stadium 18, 1180 W. San Marcos Boulevard, San Marcos, and at 6 p.m.

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Donald H. Harrison, International, Middle East, San Diego Calendar, Theatre, Film & Broadcast, USA

Chang, Jewish Men’s Choir hits at TICO concert

By Eileen Wingard SAN DIEGO — Pianist Jessie Chang, the talented wife of the San Diego Symphony Orchestra’s Conductor Emeritus, Jahja Ling, was the soloist in Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 3 at TICO’s  January 27 concert at Tifereth Israel Synagogue. The lovely artist played with musicality and grace. The second movement was particularly lyrical and

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Eileen Wingard, Music, Dance, and Visual Arts, San Diego County

Artist Allison Adams celebrates pioneering women

  By Donald H. Harrison SAN DIEGO –Among the 40 portraits of “Groundbreaking Girls” on exhibit through April 28 at the Women’s Museum of California are six people who self-identified as Jews or were of Jewish descent.  A seventh portrait of particular Jewish interest is of Irena Sendler (1910-2008), who estimated she saved the lives

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Donald H. Harrison, International, Jewish History, Music, Dance, and Visual Arts, San Diego County, Travel and Food