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

Torah-Science Expert to Uncover ‘Hidden Meaning in Everything’ on Biblical Nature Walk

By Jacob Kamaras LA JOLLA, California — As Dr. Jon Greenberg views Jewish history, “Anything terrible that happened, it’s going to become dessert.” The Passover Seder’s haroset symbolizes the cement that the Jews used to build pyramids while enslaved in Egypt. In different Jewish communities around the world, essentially every part of the Purim story

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Jacob Kamaras, San Diego County, Science, Medicine, & Education, Travel and Food

Novelists Paint Complex Portrait of Hitler

Unbeknown to Hitler, Richard has become appalled by der fuehrer’s recklessness, paranoia, racism, and antisemitism.  An urbane man, he secretly meets with German military leaders to plan a coup d’etat, even as Hitler scores dizzying (and terrifying) successes rearming his country in violation of the Versailles Treaty, forcing union (Anschluss) with Austria, and taking over German-speaking portions of Czechoslovakia. [Donald H. Harrison]

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Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Donald H. Harrison, International

Postponed Tifereth Israel Community Orchestra Concert Was Worth the Wait

By Eileen Wingard LA JOLLA, California — The Strings of TICO, the Tifereth Israel Community Orchestra, needed to postpone its concert, originally scheduled for last November, to February, due to the Omicron variant of the coronavirus. The program finally took place in the First Methodist Church in Chula Vista on February 6 and then, in

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Eileen Wingard, Music, Dance, and Visual Arts, San Diego County

Morris Casuto, 79, Defender of the Jewish People

Morris Casuto, the Anti-Defamation League regional director who defended San Diego County’s Jewish community against antisemites while forging good relations with other ethnic and religious groups within the county, died from leukemia Friday night, February 11, at the UCSD Jacobs Medical Center.  Graveside funeral services for Casuto, 79, will be conducted at 2 p.m., Tuesday, at El Camino Memorial Park. [Donald H. Harrison]

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California, Donald H. Harrison, Obituaries & memorials, San Diego County

A Stronger, More Rooted San Diego Jewish Community

By Heidi Gantwerk SAN DIEGO — A few weeks ago I had the privilege of listening to Deborah Lipstadt speak in conversation with Rabbi Jason Nevarez in a wide-ranging discussion about security, antisemitism, racism, Holocaust denial, and Jewish identity. She was asked how she stays standing given all the ugliness she deals with and teaches

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Heidi Gantwerk, Opinion, San Diego County

Parashat Tetzaveh: Our Spirituality is Deep Within Us

By Michael R. Mantell, Ph.D. SAN DIEGO — It’s been 60 years since I hearkened to the glorious words, “Yaamod Ha’Bachor ha’Bar Mitzvah Moshe Rafoyel ben Betzalel Shlishi,” and chanted this parasha, Tetzaveh, at Temple B’nai Abraham in Newark, N.J., under the watchful eye and full heart of Rabbi Joachim Prinz, zt”l. I recall our

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Jewish Religion, Michael Mantell

The Unexpected Successes of Satmar Hasidim

By Rabbi Dr. Israel Drazin BOCA RATON, Florida — American Shtetl: The Making of Kiryas Joel, A Hasidic Village in Upstate New York is a brilliant, eye-opening, thought provoking, easy to read and enjoyable book by two university scholars, Nomi M. Stolzenberg of the University of Southern California, Gould School of Law, who has written

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

Jerusalem Symphony Orchestra’s Beethoven Feast

By Dorothea Shefer-Vanson MEVASSERET ZION, Israel — Being able to hear all five Beethoven piano concerti played on two successive evenings was a rare treat. This was provided by the Jerusalem Symphony Orchestra, conducted by maestro Steven Sloane, and brought Beethoven’s immense oeuvre in this realm into sharp and impressive perspective. On the first evening

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Dorothea Shefer-Vanson, Middle East, Music, Dance, and Visual Arts

Dissecting the Ongoing Wave of Antisemitism

By Bruce S. Ticker PHILADELPHIA — Never would we expect Nazis assaulting an American Jew near Disney World. Or anywhere else in this nation. Yet authorities report that Nazis did in Orlando nearly two weeks ago what Nazis commonly did in Germany 85 years ago. Furthermore, the victim – identified as David Newstat, a student

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Bruce Ticker, Holocaust, International, Middle East, Opinion, USA

‘Ripped Away’ Is a Jewish Tale of Time Travel

Here is a short time-travel novel suitable for Young Adults and older readers imagining two high school students who barely acknowledge each other being transported to Whitechapel, London, during the time of the Jack the Ripper murders.  Abe and Mitzi, who are both Jewish Americans, find themselves transformed into the 19th Century Asher and Maya, two Jewish teenage neighbors, born to impoverished immigrant families. [Donald H. Harrison]

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Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Donald H. Harrison