Travel and Food

By Anav Silverman JERUSALEM — Sara Katsoff is not the typical seminary girl spending her gap year studying in Jerusalem. Back in New York, the 18-year-old from Monsey owns Sara’s Sweets, a custom cake and design business where she sells specialty cakes, cupcakes and cookies. The talented teen decided to bring her cake-baking talents to […]

By Dorothea Shefer-Vanson LONDON– This city has many delights to offer all year round, but London at Christmas has a special atmosphere. I’m not talking about the sledgehammer-like advertising campaigns to get people to buy, buy, buy, but rather about the decorations all over the city, mainly festive Christmas trees festooned with many-coloured lights, some

By Anav Silverman JERUSALEM — While Jerusalem remained in lock down over the weekend, as 50 centimeters of snow and power outages took over the city, Hadassah Medical Center worked over time to meet the needs of 80 women who gave birth during the snowstorm. Professor Simcha Yagel, the head of the Division of Obstetrics

By Eva Trieger SOLANA BEACH, California -It is rumored that even Tchaikovsky disliked “The Nutcracker Suite” but was commissioned to write it back in 1892.  If you’ve seen it every year since its inception, North Coast Rep has a suggestion for a way to shake things up this holiday season.  “The Humbug Holiday Spectacular” has

By Cynthia Citron LOS ANGELES — In the new film Saving Mr. Banks Walt Disney devotes 20 years to trying to persuade P.L. Travers to let him make a movie of her classic children’s book Mary Poppins. She finally does, but with the proviso that she work with the writers and have complete control over

By Anav Silverman JERUSALEM — Israel’s capital became a white city on Thursday as heavy snows blanketed the city throughout the day and into the night. Considered a rare snowstorm, over 10 centimeters of snow fell on the city during the day, setting a December record. Jerusalem mayor, Nir Barkat described the snowfall as a

Ben Urwand,  The Collaboration: Hollywood’s Pact With Hitler, BelknapPress, 2013. By David Strom CHULA VISTA, California –I am not a historian of Hollywood and/or the movie industry, and despite this fact, or perhaps because of it, I found Ben Urwand’s book to be interesting and informative. However, I also found the title to be misleading,

By Dorothea Shefer-Vanson MEVASSERET ZION, Israel –I have just finished reading the last volume of Maggie Anton’s monumental trilogy, Rashi’s Daughters, (published by Plume Inc.) which contains an imaginative reconstruction of the life of a medieval Jewish community, and in particular those of three Jewish women. The author has spent many years researching various aspects

By Rabbi Michael Leo Samuel CHULA VISTA, California — Did Joseph really forgive his brothers? The biblical text strongly indicates that he did, one notable 18th century scholar, Hayim Ibn Attar (Ohr HaHayyim) argues that he didn’t. He explains that based upon Noahide law, anyone who had kidnapped or robbed is guilty of the death

By Eva Trieger SOLANA BEACH, California — “It’s a very Jewish Christmas show, or a very Christmasy Hanukkah show,” reports Omri Schein, describing “Humbug”, North Coast Repertory’s holiday musical. The show was co-written by Schein and one of San Diego’s favorites, Phil Johnson.  If those names jingle bells, perhaps you’ll recall the talented pair from

By Laurie Baron SAN DIEGO― Markus Zusak’s The Book Thief has been a best seller since its publication in 2006.  It occupies a particular niche in Holocaust and World War Two fiction as a novel targeted at adolescent audiences.  Thus, it cautiously navigates between the grim reality of the mass violence of that era and