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
By Jacob Kamaras LA JOLLA, California — I’ll never forget my first baseball game. My father brought me to Yankee Stadium in the Bronx on the last day of the regular season in 1993, as we watched the New York Yankees beat the Detroit Tigers, 2-1. Even as my interest in America’s Pastime has waned
Putting the ‘Community’ in Jewish Community Day at Petco Park Read More »
Jacob Kamaras, Sports & Competitions, USA
By Mimi Pollack LA MESA, California — It is unusual when a person combines great talent with compassion for others, but from personal and perhaps biased experience, I can attest that South African musician, Sharon Katz, has both in spades. Music can soothe and heal the soul, no matter where you are from. Imagine growing
Sharon Katz: Music and Mitzvahs Read More »
International, Mimi Pollack, Music, Dance, and Visual Arts
By Jerry Klinger KNOXVILLE, Tennessee — At-risk to his own life, Roddie Edmonds saved approximately 200 Jewish POW G.I.s during the Holocaust. He is the only American G.I. honored by Yad Vashem as a Righteous Among the Nations. East Tennessee is part of the Republican flyover country to the coastal elitists. Images of the Beverly
Historical Marker for Holocaust Hero Master Sgt. Roddie Edmonds Finally Dedicated Read More »
Jerry Klinger, Jewish History, USA
By Rabbi Dr. Israel Drazin BOCA RATON, Florida — None of the practices associated today with Rosh Hashanah are biblical. Yet they should be observed for they are very helpful. Sin The concepts of sin and repentance as a religious experience are not in the Bible; they are post-biblical. “Sin,” a prime element in Christian
Rosh Hashanah Practices: Not Biblical, But Still Important Read More »
Israel Drazin-Rabbi Dr., Jewish Religion
Shortly after the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, on December 7, 1941, the United States went into full war mobilization mode. While many men were drafted into the U.S. Armed Forces, others were needed to staff the shipyards, aircraft factories, and munition plants on the home front. It soon became apparent that there were more positions to be filled than available male workers and so the U.S. began to recruit women to work in these war industries at jobs for which they never before had been eligible. [Donald H. Harrison]
‘Rosie the Riveter’ Theme of National Park Read More »
Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Donald H. Harrison, Jewish History, Music, Dance, and Visual Arts, Theatre, Film & Broadcast, USA
By Jacob Kamaras LA JOLLA, California — In recent years, the advent of the Impossible and Beyond vegan burger brands has helped fulfill a seemingly impossible dream for the kosher consumer: the taste of an authentic cheeseburger. And that’s exactly what set the stage for my visit this week to Botanic Burgers, the new kosher
Botanic Burgers: Creative Kosher Treats, with a Kick Read More »
Jacob Kamaras, San Diego County, Travel and Food
By Steve Kramer KFAR SABA, Israel — Can Israel rely on any other country to support it when it’s critically endangered? First of all, Israel has never asked any other country to fight on its soil; but, Israelis hope and expect that other Western democracies would back it — on the world stage, in the
Israel Goes it Alone Read More »
Middle East, Steve Kramer, USA
By Dorothea Shefer-Vanson MEVASSERET ZION, Israel — Just over a week ago, while en route to Paris on our way home to Israel, we stopped to take a brief look at the famous city of Orleans, one of France’s foremost historical sites, and associated indelibly with Joan of Arc, a.k.a. the Maid of Orleans. Due
By Bruce S. Ticker PHILADELPHIA — In the Famous-Last-Words department: “The likelihood there’s going to be the Taliban overrunning everything and owning the whole country is highly unlikely.” The “highly unlikely” happened on Sunday as a dozen Taliban fighters garbed in native dress gathered around a desk in the presidential palace in Afghanistan’s capital, Kabul.
The ‘Highly Unlikely’ Happened in Afghanistan. Now What? Read More »
Bruce Ticker, Middle East, USA
By Michael R. Mantell, Ph.D. This week’s parasha, literally meaning, “When you go out…” opens with a description of facing war with enemies. Maimonides tells us that more than seventy mitzvot, 74 if I counted correctly, spring from this week’s Torah portion, from weights and measures and collecting debts in a righteous way, to proper
Parashat Ki Teitzei: Refining Our Soul Read More »
Jewish Religion, Michael Mantell
The Paso Robles Historical Society currently is housed in a building that had been donated for a library many years before by the philanthropist and industrialist Andrew Carnegie – one of 3,000 libraries he donated throughout the world. Outside the building there is a statue, but it is not of Carnegie nor of Drury James, the man who recognized that the city’s hot springs and mud baths could be made into a tourist attraction and who built the grand Hotel de El Paso de Robles. [Donald H. Harrison]
Talented Celebrity and Statesman Made Paso Robles His Second Home Read More »
Donald H. Harrison, International, Jewish History, Music, Dance, and Visual Arts, USA
By Laurie Baron, Ph.D SAN DIEGO — Donald Trump castigated Joe Biden for abandoning Afghans who helped U.S. forces: “I would never have done such a thing. It’s un-Kurd of.” Most Americans were appalled by the photograph of over six hundred Afghans sitting on the floor of a C-17 Globemaster III except for the owners
Satire: Reactions to Afghanistan Read More »
Lawrence Baron, Trivia, Humor & Satire
Not in Israel, as you might expect, but instead here along the Central California coast do you hear the words “Chumash” and “Jerusalem crickets” in the same sentence. [Donald H. Harrison]
A Tale of the Chumash and the Jerusalem Cricket Read More »
Donald H. Harrison, Travel and Food, USA
By Jacob Kamaras LA JOLLA, California — “Why don’t we have kosher restaurants?!?!?” That’s the desperate plea — often reaching a primal scream — issued by San Diegans who strictly observe kosher dietary laws. For those consumers, the recent opening of Parisien Gourmandises at 7643 Girard Avenue in La Jolla is certainly a reason to
New Kosher Bakery in La Jolla Offers an Authentic Taste of France Read More »
Jacob Kamaras, San Diego County