Travel and Food

SAN DIEGO — Here ae some thoughts in time for Rosh Hashanah from the “Dear Money Maven” column Q:        My son is the apple of my eye.  I want to set up a Section 529 college savings account for him, but heard that the custodian controls the investments.  I’m not an expert, but I’d like […]

By Rabbi Ben Kamin SAN DIEGO — Some time ago, I read an analysis of the traffic flow on New York’s Fifth Avenue. Apparently, the average speed (horse-drawn, of course) in 1905 was ten miles per hour. In 1985, polluted by emissions, it was five miles per hour. This reality comes to mind several times

  By Ariel Schnitzer RAMLE, Israel — If it weren’t for the Hebrew exit sign that hung above the entrance,  I would have never imagined I was in Israel, or rather, the Israel that I had always known. Boys played soccer, girls gossiped in tight groups. The setting was all too familiar–after all, I had

By David Amos SAN DIEGO — I do not usually go to the San Diego Symphony Summer Pops concerts, choosing instead programs with more substance and inspiration. However, the concert we attended on Saturday, September 1, was certainly of serious musical value, and lots of fun. This was the orchestra’s traditional close to the Summer

By Danny Bloom CHIAYI CITY, TAIWAN — While Taiwan is mostly a Buddhist country, with many Taoist shrines and temples dotting the landscape, about five percent of the population is Christian, with a similar percentage of Muslims as well. On the island nation of 23 million souls, there are about 100 Jews living and working

By Rabbi Ben Kamin SAN DIEGO — My stepson recently was hired for his first-ever job, a part-time tenure scooping and selling ice cream. He brings home some change in his pocket from the modest tips and he mentions the long hours and the pain in his shoulder from grappling with the brick-hard cold stuff. But

By  Rabbi Baruch Lederman SAN DIEGO — Through the pitch-black night, the captain sees a light dead ahead on a collision course with his ship. He sends a signal: “Change your course 10 degree east.” The light signals back: “Change yours, 10 degrees west.” Angry, the captain sends: “I’m a navy captain! Change your course,

  By Danny Bloom CHIAYI CITY, TAIWAN — There aren’t many bubbies or zadies in Taiwan, although there are, of course, lots of elderly grandmas and grandpas among the island nation’s 23 million people. Grandmothers are lovingly  called “Amah” and grandfathers “Akong.” And like grandmas and grandpas everywhere, they get sick and die, and children

  The First Lady of Fleet Street: The Life of Rachel Beer, by Eilat Negev and Yehudah Koren, pub., Bantam Books, New York. 349pp. By David Strom SAN DIEGO — A new book, The First Lady of Fleet Street, is about the life and times of Rachel Sassoon Beer, a woman who died in the

By David Amos SAN DIEGO — When the question is asked as to “which is the greatest symphony of them all?” classical music enthusiasts will name you their favorite, which could be one of several deserving masterpieces. But more often than not, the answer will be Ludwig Van Beethoven’s incomparable Symphony No. 9 in D