Travel and Food

By David Amos SAN DIEGO–The ones of us who live within the world of classical music, either as performers or as listeners, have a strong tendency to visualize the composers we cherish as one-dimensional statues – just figures in history who composed, and did little else. It is refreshing to hear stories and read books […]

By Jeanette Friedman BROOKLYN, N.Y. — More than 400 folks turned up at Prospect Park Sunday morning, got their little digital chips attached to their sneakers and in separate races for men and women, took off on 5K (3.5 mile) race organized by JRunners. The goal was to raise money for an Orthodox drop-in center

By Danny Bloom CHIAYI, Taiwan– I recently sat down on the internet— and in internet time —  asked Los Angeles writer Racelle Rosett a few questions by email about her published short stories on Jewish life. Among her published gems are “Moving Waters,” Levi” and “Shomer.” (Our edited “conversation” follows below. Rosett is an award-winning

Pitching in the Promised Land by Aaron Pribble, University of Nebraska Press, 2011, 238 pages including epilogue and acknowledgments, $24.95. By Donald H. Harrison SAN DIEGO — It’s hard to imagine how putting bats in the hands of the people of the Middle East could bring peace to the region, but author Aaron Pribble is

By Dan Bloom CHIAYI, TAIWAN — A retired Oregon pastor writes in a new book about his life as a Methodist missionary professor in Taiwan in the 1960s that a Jewish Holocaust survivor was Martin Luther King’s German-language PHD exam tutor at Boston University in 1950s. Now I am on a newsroom quest to find

By Cynthia Citron   BURBANK, California – You might think that living in an all-pink house would give you a toothache.  But, au contraire, Jackie Goldberg, the “Pink Lady,” has made her all-pink home a delightful nest of airy light and soft color.  White walls and tasteful pink furnishings, but nothing in Pepto-Bismol, thank you very

By Rabbi Ben Kamin SAN DIEGO–A bright and lovely girl, whom I blessed at her bat mitzvah ceremony not so long ago, was wondering about the story of this landmark ritual in Jewish—and American—life.   Beyond the parties (which are too often impossibly and embarrassingly lavish) and the hoopla, there remains a dead-serious chronicle that began

By David Amos SAN DIEGO–The 75 member Tifereth Israel Community Orchestra will present two programs of great variety and musical interest, on Sunday, March 27 at 3 p.m. at Temple Emanu-El, and Tuesday, March 29, 7:30 p.m. at the orchestra’s home, Tifereth Israel Synagogue. Featured as soloist will be the distinguished, retired concertmaster of the

By Rabbi Ben Kamin SAN DIEGO — There are the beloved Five Scrolls in the Hebrew Scripture, including Ecclesiastes, the Song of Songs, Lamentations and two named for heroic women: Ruth and Esther.  Ruth was the consummate loyalist, paradigmatic convert to Judaism—a maternal ancestor to the Davidic line.  Christians link her spiritually to Jesus.  Esther,

By Shoshana Bryen WASHINGTON, D.C. -The UN Security Council agreed Thursday to a no-fly zone over Libya to prevent Gaddafi from exacting the last measure of revenge against the rebels. In a joint report, FoxNews.com and the Associated Press reported that the opposition is counting on the resolution. “‘We think Qaddafi’s forces will not advance against us.

By Dov Hartuv KIBBUTZ NIR AM, Israel — Science and  medicine have enabled us to lengthen our life span, but they still don’t know how to guarantee the quality of our lives. Over the last three years I have been spending a morning a week with one of the founding members of Kibbutz Nir Am

By Dow Marmur JERUSALEM — If you describe yourself as progressive it’s likely that you’ll warm to Ehud Barak these days. Though he betrayed the Labor Party he was elected to lead, and though for a long time he has appeared as the fig leaf for the policies of the Netanyahu government, he has of