AAA-Writers and photographers

Below are the names of writers who are currently active.  For others, living and deceased, please type their name into the search box above the masthead on our home page, www.sdjewishworld.com

Satire: The Unexpurgated Draft of the Right to Contraception Act

By Laurie Baron The House of Representatives passed the Right to Contraception Act to protect “a person’s ability to access contraceptives and to engage in contraception, and to protect a health care provider’s ability to provide contraceptives, contraception, and information related to contraception.” The text of the bill, however, was considerably abridged from the original […]

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Lawrence Baron, Trivia, Humor & Satire

Kolender Was City’s First Jewish Police Chief, County’s First Jewish Sheriff

A member of the Jewish community, known for his self-deprecating sense of humor, Kolender grew up at the Reform Congregation Beth Israel. However, when it was time for his bar mitzvah, he honored his grandfather’s wishes and had it at Beth Jacob Congregation, which is Orthodox. “The rabbi there was Baruch Stern, and it was the first bar mitzvah for him after the war,” Kolender told me back in 1996 when I profiled him for the now defunct San Diego Jewish Press-Heritage. Rabbi Stern’s children “had been killed in front of him by the Nazis, and he started crying and I started crying, and I’m not sure if we ever did get through the whole thing. It was something I never will forget.” [Donald H. Harrison]

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

‘Witnesses’ Brings Voices of Teenage Holocaust Victims Back to Life

By Eileen Wingard SAN DIEGO — The musical Witnesses was conceived by Jordan Beck a decade ago, after his reading of Jacob Boas’ book, We Are Witnesses: Five Diaries of Teenagers Who Died In the Holocaust. Of the five diarists quoted in the book, Beck was familiar with only one, Anne Frank. He found the

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Eileen Wingard, Holocaust, Music, Dance, and Visual Arts

J Street Gets a Z on Credibility

By Bruce S. Ticker PHILADELPHIA — Jeremy Ben-Ami might best be advised to check Principle #4 of J Street’s mission before he opens his big mouth in the future. Principle #4 of the Israel-centric organization advocates “vibrant but respectful debate about Israel.” Is “respectful” how J Street’s longtime president would characterize his statement in Saturday’s

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Bruce Ticker, Middle East, Opinion, USA

Hounding the Headlines: From January 6 to Supply Chain to Gun Control

By Elona Baron (as barked to Laurie Baron) It has been a long time since I decided to take pen in paw and comment on what’s going on in the world. (Actually, I’m lying. I always have dictated my columns because God forgot to give dogs opposable thumbs. Those primates have all the luck!). January

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Lawrence Baron, Trivia, Humor & Satire

Presidential Visit to Israel is Hardly Extraordinary

By Steve Kramer KFAR SABA, Israel — President Joe Biden’s recent visit here in Israel was hardly extraordinary. President Richard Nixon visited in 1974, the first American sitting president to do so. That was the year after the Yom Kippur War, when Nixon overruled his Secretary of State Henry Kissinger and made sure Israel was

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Middle East, Opinion, Steve Kramer, USA

How a Sightseeing Company Got its Start in San Diego

This chapter is a chance for me to step again from third-person history into first-person history because I was highly involved in the start-up in 1989 of Old Town Trolley Tours of San Diego. It came about because through The Harrison Enterprises, the public relations agency which I owned, I served as the executive director of the San Diego Cruise Industry Consortium. The consortium was created in 1983 under the aegis of Acting Mayor Bill Cleator to attract cruise ships to the Port of San Diego. Previously, I had served as communications director for Cleator during the period he served as a city councilman and acting mayor. [Donald H. Harrison]

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Business & Finance, California, Donald H. Harrison, San Diego County, Travel and Food, USA

Jewish Studies Scholar Richard Freund (1955-2022)

By Laurie Baron SAN DIEGO — Dr. Richard A. Freund passed away in Charlottesville, Virginia on July 14, 2022 from complications arising from the rejection of a bone marrow transplant he had received 18 years ago.  He held an MA, PhD, and rabbinic ordination from the Jewish Theological Seminary and the Bertram and Gladys Aaron

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Jewish History, Lawrence Baron, San Diego County, USA

Genesis Prize Ceremony Relied on Work of Doctor/ Author Ron Eisenberg

A highlight of the proceedings was a ten-minute video, Jews in Medicine: A Legacy of Healing and Hope, much of it based on the book written by Dr. Ron Eisenberg, Jews inMedicine: Contributions to Health and Healing Through the Ages (Urim Publications, 2019). [Eileen Wingard]

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Eileen Wingard, Jewish History, Middle East, Science, Medicine, & Education

Biden Will Find Abbas Opposed to Two-State Solution’s Requirements

Before he meets with Palestinian Authority (PA) strongman Mahmoud Abbas on Friday, Biden should be aware that Abbas has already rejected the notion of “normalization” of relations between the PA, Israel and the Arab States, nixing the principle of accepting the State of Israel, i.e., nixing a solution ending in two states. [Shoshana Bryen]

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Middle East, Shoshana Bryen

‘B.C.’; ‘New’ Testament and Other Historic Mistakes

The concept of BC and AD was apparently invented by a monk around the year 533 who thought Jesus was born 533 years before the day he invented the system. BC stood for “before Christ” and AD for the Latin “anno domini.” the year of our Lord. He was mistaken. [Rabbi Israel Drazin]

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Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Israel Drazin-Rabbi Dr., Jewish Religion