Travel and Food

By Rabbi Ben Kamin SAN DIEGO — Unlike Jesus, I don’t plan on a resurrection and I really don’t know for sure what happens after this life.  And that suits me fine.  It is this life, and doing some good works while here, that matters to me; don’t have much to say about any other

By David Amos SAN DIEGO–You may not recognize the name, but you certainly have heard his music. He lived to the age of 88, and died in Los Angeles in 1995 after a long illness. To the music world, he was recognized as one of the greatest film composers of all time. He composed music

Far to Go by Alison Pick, Paperback: 336 pages, Harper Perennial (April 19, 2011),  ISBN-10: 9780062034625,  List price: $14.95 By Laurel Corona SAN DIEGO– Far to Go gets under your skin early and stays there.  This new novel by Canadian writer Alison Pick follows the fate of one affluent Jewish family caught up in the quick

By Rabbi Ben Kamin SAN DIEGO — Yes, she married a lot, but never as anyone other than herself.  She coped with booze and weight (like a lot of us) but in breathtaking contrast to the vast majority of us blowhard gossipers, she actually did not care what people thought and she withstood withering and

By Lynne Thrope SAN DIEGO–I love it when I’m asked to participate in a blind taste test. I entered into one yesterday in preparation for my Passover seder.  The contestants, this day, were Kosher-for-Passover cupcakes.  Here’s how it went. First, there’s the smelling ritual. Much better with eyes closed. Then, it’s on to a speck

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