Travel and Food

By Eylon Shamir SAN DIEGO — As an Israeli who resides in San Diego I’m a fervent believer that the future of Israel as a secure and democratic homeland for the Jewish people can only be achieved by resolving the Israel-Palestinian conflict and establishing the state of Palestine within the 1967 lines alongside the state

The Closer: A Baseball Love Story by Alan Mindell, Sunbury Press, Inc.,2013, 978-1-62006-240-1,184 pgs., $14.95 By Eva Trieger Perseverance. This critical and deeply embedded trait is a trademark of Jews, Israel, great athletes, and Alan Mindell.  I had the extreme pleasure of sitting with Alan and discussing how his novel, The Closer: A Baseball Love

  By Dorothea Shefer-Vanson MEVASSERET ZION, Israel–I happen to be one of those annoying people who wake up early in the morning full of vim and vigour and ready to tackle anything. Getting up at around six a.m. is no big deal for me and sometimes I wake up even before that and have no

By Laurie Baron SAN DIEGO — If Will Rogers were alive today, he’d say, “I’m not a citizen of any organized country; I’m an American.” One week ago John Boehner tried to assure Wall Street that he would rely on Democratic votes to raise the debt ceiling.  Now he is threatening to link the vote

By Eric George Tauber SAN DIEGO — School shootings have tragically become so common that we have to ask: “which school shooting?”  The Nickel Mines shooting took place on Oct 2nd, 2006 in a one-room schoolhouse. Several Amish girls were shot and killed. Inside the school, “there was not one desk, not one chair, in

By Laurie Baron SAN DIEGO — The title The Goldbergs evokes childhood memories of the one primetime program that revolved around a Jewish family.  I fondly recall Gertrude Berg as a folksy, wise, and warm maternal presence whose accented English and Jewish mannerisms contrasted sharply with the bland American characters of competing series like Ozzie

SERENADE, A memoir of music and love from Vienna and Prague to Los Angeles, 1927 to World War II to 2012 by Carol Jean Delmar, Willow Lane Press, Beverly Hills, California By Eileen Wingard SAN DIEGO — This is a beautifully written love story of Franziska Perger and Franz Jung against the backdrop of Europe

By Rabbi Tzvi Hersh Weinreb NEW YORK _- Anyone who has ever taught anything can confirm the adage of our Sages: “I have learned from all my teachers, but I have learned most from my pupils.” It is especially true that one learns a great deal from his students if he does not limit himself

By Eileen Wingard SAN DIEGO — The excerpts from Schumann’s Piano Concerto in A, heard near the beginning of the current hit movie, Lee Daniels’ The Butler, is performed by Gerald Robbins, with the Moscow Symphony under the direction of Kenneth Klein. Robbins, known to San Diego audiences by his recitals and solo appearances with

By Eileen Wingard In a special ceremony at the Henry Crown Hall of the Jerusalem Theatre in Jerusalem, Yoav Talmi, Music Director of the Israel Chamber Orchestra, former conductor of the San Diego Symphony, and one of Israel’s most gifted composers, was awarded the prestigious Prime Minister’s Prize for Composers last week. This honor, whose

By Sheli Grumet SAN DIEGO — On Aug 28 2013, a map of the Middle East was handed out to an Arabic Class at San Diego State University.  The class is taught by Professor Ghassan Zakaria, a respected professor at San Diego State. The map did not show the state of Israel, but instead, labeled