Travel and Food

Ann Jaffe Who Helped Raise Money for SDJA’s Construction Insists on Good Nutrition

In 2008, Jaffe joined the school’s Healthy Habits committee which had been organized by Ashley Stone. The committee called for the elimination from the campus of stands at which children could purchase ice cream, pretzels, and other junk food. “Within a year, we got that phased out,” Jaffe recalled. “Why have processed foods when we are teaching the kids to be the best version of themselves, knowing what goes into their bodies? We got salad bars for the kids to be included in their lunch so they could fill up on as many vegetables as they’d want.” [Donald H. Harrison]

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Ben Dishman, Donald H. Harrison, San Diego County, Science, Medicine, & Education, Travel and Food

Connections and Disconnections on the New York Subways

Picture yourself taking the New York subway in the 1980s. You’re in a cramped subway car with your shoulder hitting the person next to you, claustrophobia creeping in. The heavy graffiti heightens how grimy it feels to be on the subway, and the smell only makes it worse. Not only that, but there may be other passengers who make you feel a little uneasy. [Rowanne Reifman]

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Lifestyles, Music, Dance, and Visual Arts, San Diego County, Travel and Food, USA

Children’s Nature Retreat in Alpine Takes a Page From Noah’s Ark

By Eva Trieger ALPINE, California — While archaeologists largely agree that Noah’s Ark found its final resting place on Mount Ararat in Turkey, I beg to differ. I have, with my own eyes, seen evidence that makes me believe the ark came to rest right here in Alpine, California, less than an hour east of

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Eva Trieger, San Diego County, Travel and Food

Where’s the (Kosher) Beef? San Diego’s Restaurant-Goers Finally Have an Answer

By Jacob Kamaras LA JOLLA, California — Where’s the beef? The famed commercial catchphrase is precisely what San Diego’s kosher consumers have long asked regarding their local restaurant scene. (My sincerest apologies for dropping a Wendy’s slogan in an article about kosher food — I just couldn’t resist.) This situation was particularly dire after the former

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Jacob Kamaras, San Diego County, Travel and Food

San Diego’s Lone Reconstructionist Congregation Makes Its Home at the Lawrence Family JCC

Ridberg had plenty of opportunities to compare the different denominations of Judaism before she committed to Reconstructing Judaism. As a child in Rockville, Maryland, she attended the Charles E. Smith Jewish Day School, which offers classes from kindergarten through 12th grade. Her family belonged to a Conservative synagogue. After graduating with a major in women’s studies and communication arts from the University of Wisconsin at Madison, she worked with the Reform movement in Washington D.C. In the nation’s capital, she also attended the non-denominational Farbrengen Havurah, “one of the oldest havurot that came out of the 1960s-1970s era.” [Donald H. Harrison]

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Donald H. Harrison, Jewish Religion, San Diego County, Travel and Food

Nachlaot: A Cultural Mosaic of the Jewish Diaspora

By Gedaliah Borvick JERUSALEM — Nachlaot is a cluster of over two dozen Jerusalem neighborhoods centrally located between Sha’are Chessed and the famous Machane Yehuda shuk. Nachlaot, which means lands of inheritance, became home to communities of Jews who emigrated from many different lands throughout the Diaspora. Nachlaot’s neighborhoods were established beginning in the 1870s

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Gedaliah Borvick, Israel, Travel and Food

On This Special Day, Caterer is Refused Entry to Chabad of La Costa’s Kitchen

Cooking is Lebovitz’s world. The kitchen from which she has been banished, for that one night only, officially has been named “Grammy’s Kitchen” in honor of Lebovitz, 85, who is called “Grammy Sheila” by the nine children and 15 grandchildren of Rabbi Yeruchem Eilfort and Rebbetzin Nehama Eilfort, as well as by other younger members of the congregation. [Donald H. Harrison]

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Donald H. Harrison, Jewish Religion, San Diego County, Travel and Food, USA

San Diego’s Historic Disregard for the Sanctity of Cemeteries

I was shocked on Old Town Trolley’s “Ghosts and Gravestones Tour,” not by any ghosts or spirits, but while learning about the callous disregard that San Diego city administrations of the past had for graveyards and the mortal remains of people who had lived, worked, and, in some cases, had built our city. [Donald H. Harrison]

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Donald H. Harrison, San Diego County, Shor M. Masori, Travel and Food

2 National Leaders of the JCC Movement Got Their Starts in San Diego

It took over 100 years before the JCC Association of North America chose someone from the U.S. West Coast to serve as its chairman. That person was Gary E. Jacobs of San Diego, a former president of the Lawrence Family JCC, Jacobs Family Campus in La Jolla.  As his four-year term was concluding, the JCC Association turned again to a San Diegan, David Wax, a retired executive with the San Diego-based, multistate Waxie Sanitary Supply company. [Donald H. Harrison]

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Donald H. Harrison, International, Jewish History, San Diego County, Travel and Food, USA

Chicago Roots Shape San Diego Author’s Creative Challah and Babka

By Eva Trieger SAN DIEGO — The saying goes that if you ask two Jews for their opinion on most topics, you will get three answers. While that may be so, one overriding unifier is our love of homemade challah and decadent babkas. These Jewish baked goods have helped inform the American-Jewish identity of baker

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Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Eva Trieger, San Diego County, Travel and Food

Ruth Mastron, House of Israel President, Volunteers for Janitorial Work in Israel

Ruth Mastron, the president of the House of Israel in Balboa Park, has had an active love affair with that nation since 2008, the year she first volunteered to work for three weeks on an Israeli Army base. [Donald H. Harrison]

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Donald H. Harrison, Israel, Jewish History, San Diego County, Travel and Food, USA