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

Visit to Holocaust Exhibit Impresses Mother and Daughter

During my daughter Harriet’s recent visit from Portland, Oregon, I suggested we visit the Chula Vista Public Library to see the Holocaust Exhibit arranged by our friend, Sandra Scheller. Harriet teaches Middle School Humanities at the Portland Jewish Academy and one of her classes is learning about the Holocaust. The drive down from University City was under 25 minutes. Both of us found this visit profoundly worthwhile. Sandra met us there and gave us a private docent tour. [Eileen Wingard]

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Eileen Wingard, Jewish History, Middle East, USA

OpEd: Jews Endangered by Trump’s and Cruz’s Reckless Words

Those “authoritarian school board Nazis.” “Israel literally owned Congress.” Reckless words. Wacky parents raging at school officials? Pro-Arab students whipping a crowd into a frenzy? Comparable words were uttered by them, yet such words were echoed in the past week by the unfiltered voices of Republicans Donald Trump and Ted Cruz. [Bruce S. Ticker]

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Bruce Ticker, Middle East, USA

Novel Depicts Survivor’s Search for His Family

Dr. Julius Matthias, the chief protagonist of Michelle Mazel’s previous book, has managed by the skin of his teeth to escape deportation by the Nazis from his hometown in Transylvania. His wife, who had refused his entreaties to leave the town together with him, was shot and killed by the invaders during the round-up of the Jews of the town. Many years before that Matthias had sent his grown-up children to France to study, and so, left on his own, he manages for many months to make his way on foot through the fields and forests of Europe, eventually reaching Geneva, where he has friends and a bank account. [Dorothea Shefer-Vanson]

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Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Dorothea Shefer-Vanson

Memoir Relates How 2 Young Sisters- One Deaf, One Hearing – Survived the Holocaust Together

This joint memoir, intended for students in grades 3 through 7, tells the story of two young sisters — one hearing and one deaf — who survived World War II notwithstanding their transport as orphans from Bratislava to the Bergen-Belsen Concentration Camp, where, a year later, Renee, the older of the two sisters, was near death from typhus when the camp was liberated by British soldiers. [Donald H. Harrison]

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

What do we know about Lot, Abraham’s nephew?

A careful analysis of Abraham’s nephew Lot raises the question of whether or not he was a righteous man. What did he do to merit saving when the people among whom he lived died by fire? We may think we know about him, but actually virtually everything the Torah tells us about him is obscure, requiring us to make up our own interpretations and learn lessons from them. There are rational interpretations by rabbis and scholars as well as mystical and midrashic ones. Which should we accept? The following are some questionable items. [Rabbi Dr. Israel Drazin]

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Israel Drazin-Rabbi Dr., Jewish Religion

Holocaust Museum LA’s Expansion Advances Its Founding Vision

By Jacob Kamaras When California state lawmakers recently announced $2.5 million in funding to support the expansion of Holocaust Museum LA, it marked the latest step toward realizing a cornerstone of the museum’s founding vision. The state support will fund a new learning center pavilion and new programming for younger learners at the museum. It

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Jacob Kamaras, Jewish History, USA

Economic Relief for Low Income Families Could Diminish Israel-Bashing

Let’s hope Congress soon adopts the twin bills for infrastructure and social reforms. They will likely jumpstart the economy and aid both lower and middle-income Americans. This legislation could also yield dividends for Israel and American Jews: Eliminating much of the anti-Semitism from the Left. [Bruce S. Ticker]

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Bruce Ticker, Middle East, USA

People’s Need for Community Can Stir Positive Social Change

Israeli-American Shelly Tygielski is the founder of the “Pandemic of Love” movement, which champions people reaching out to each other, happy to give help and unafraid to ask for it.  However, before one can help others, one might need to engage in self-help, getting one’s priorities right, and, as the slang saying puts it, getting one’s head on straight. [Donald H. Harrison]

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Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Donald H. Harrison

Drama Depicts a Crisis of Conscience During the Civil War

The four-act play ‘Ben Byutler’ was written in 2014 by Richard Strand and conveyed the moral dilemma a Union lawyer-cum general (Richard Baird) confronted when faced with a fugitive southern slave, Shepard Mallory (Brandon Pierce), who appeared at the Yankee fort “demanding” to see the general. [Eva Trieger]

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Eva Trieger, San Diego County, Theatre, Film & Broadcast

What do we know about Abraham?

Most people think they know a lot about Abraham the father of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. They are mistaken. The events recorded about Abraham in scripture are generally if not always obscure. When the Bible does not clarify exactly what is happening, people tend to imagine details and come to think of them as really happening in the Bible. [Rabbi Dr. Israel Drazin]

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Israel Drazin-Rabbi Dr., Jewish Religion