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
I Scream, You Scream, We All Scream for Ice Cream’ Lots of screaming in this season of ice cream lust. First Ben & Jerry’s set events in motion by declaring to inhabitants of Israel’s territories, as they might phrase it on “Seinfeld”, “No ice cream for you!!!!” [Bruce Ticker]
Who Screams for Ben & Jerry’s? Read More »
Bruce Ticker, Middle East, Travel and Food, USABy Bruce S. Ticker PHILADELPHIA — “If the Republicans will stop telling lies about the Democrats, we will stop telling the truth about them.” — Adlai Stevenson “During the 1948 war,” says letter-writer Bob Holden of Los Angeles, “the Israelis expelled more than half the Palestinian population (some 700,000) and seized their land and businesses
Telling the Truth About the Palestinians Read More »
Bruce Ticker, Middle East, USA
By Michael R. Mantell, Ph.D. SAN DIEGO — Is your glass half empty, half filled, or as mine is, filled with 6 ounces of water and the rest, air? Yes, “the link is what you think,” and this week’s Torah reading underscores this idea with its words, “See, this day I set before you a
Parashat Re’eh: Finding the Right Sight Read More »
Jewish Religion, Michael Mantell
By Eva Trieger SOLANA BEACH, California — What a sweet ride! San Diego Rep’s end-of-summer offering, 57 Chevy, provides not only a cruise down Memory Lane, but reveals the immigrant experience of one man’s family as they assimilated to life in the United States. Cris Franco and co-writer Valerie Dunlap’s story vrooms to life in this one-man
San Diego Rep’s ‘57 Chevy:’ A True Celebration of Immigration Read More »
Eva Trieger, San Diego County, Theatre, Film & Broadcast
By Jacob Kamaras LA JOLLA, California — When it came to planning my family’s summer vacation this year, the process could be summed up by a Yiddish proverb: Der mentsh trakht un Got lakht. Man plans and God laughs. Initially scheduled to depart for Hawaii on August 24, we later realized that we booked that
To mask or not to mask, that is the question:
Whether ’tis nobler in the mind to suffer
The coughs and dangers of contagious Covid,
Rather than cover nose and mouth, suffocating.
Or by opposing mandates to die—to infect,
Tethered to ventilators, bereft of breath,
The long haul and virulent spikes
That flesh succumbs to, like consumption. … {Laurie Baron, Ph.D]
Satire: Hamlet’s Soliloquy in the Age of Covid Read More »
Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Lawrence Baron, Theatre, Film & Broadcast, Trivia, Humor & Satire, USA
The first of the two Torah sections presents twenty questions for each parashah (weekly Torah reading), such as, in parashat Chayei Sarah he asks, “Who in the Torah had 13 children? And in parashat Shoftim, “Which word is an acronym for the four types of leaders in Israel mentioned in parashat Shoftim?” The second of the two Torah sections offers 169 general Torah questions. For example, “Why did Paroh (Hebrew for Pharoah) change Joseph’s name?” and “What is the only birthday party mentioned in the Torah?” [Fred Reiss, Ed.D]
‘Torah IQ’ Provides More Than 1,000 Questions and Answers Read More »
Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Fred Reiss, EdD, Jewish Religion, Trivia, Humor & Satire
Exploring the theme, Self and Sound, this year’s Summerfest once again bears the stamp of the creative vision of Inon Barnatan, the music director of the La Jolla Music Society. The concert pianist/head organizer has put together a 16-concert festival, with many ancillary free events, that promises to be pleasurable and challenging for its listeners. [Eileen Wingard]
‘Self and Sound’ Theme for La Jolla Music Society’s Summer Programs Read More »
Eileen Wingard, Music, Dance, and Visual Arts, San Diego County“This N….. voted for Joe Biden.” Brazen racism – by using the most despicable racial slur possible – is all we need to know about the low-lives who invaded the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6. [Bruce S. Ticker]
Capitol Rioters Displayed Their Racism Jan. 6 Read More »
Bruce Ticker, USA
Although not a fan of swashbuckling, derring-do literature, I was tempted to buy this book because its subject-matter combined ancient archaeology and the struggle to establish the modern State of Israel. An irresistible combination for me. [Dorothea Shefer-Vanson]
Book Review: ‘The Age of Exodus’ Read More »
Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Dorothea Shefer-Vanson
It’s a well-worn political observation that “it took a Nixon to go to China,” meaning because President Richard M. Nixon was identified as a staunch conservative, he was trusted to go to mainland China and open a dialogue with that nation’s communist rulers, a dialogue that led to the establishment of diplomatic relations between the two adversary countries. [Donald H. Harrison]
Former Israel ‘Hawk’ Tells of His Transformation to a ‘Dove’ Read More »
Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Donald H. Harrison, Jewish History, Middle EastDelta strain, why is Covid still our bane?
Could it be we will return to a lockdown?
And if I have my shots, can I go maskless inside spots?
Or will there be a mandate in my town? [Laurie Baron, PhD]
Satire: Delta Strain Read More »
Lawrence Baron, Science, Medicine, & Education, USA
The approximately 4,000 year old Babylonian tale “Gilgamesh” disturbs many religious people who feel threatened by the idea that a story that is very similar to the biblical flood story was written before the story of Noah and the flood. Gilgamesh was composed around 2000 B.C.E. and predates the scriptural version. A Jewish tradition dates the revelation of the Bible to 2448 years after creation, or about 1312 B.C.E. Both stories concern a flood caused by divinities: in the pagan myth by gods and in the Hebrew Bible by God. Both are saved by a boat and by using birds to discover if the flood water receded. [Rabbi Dr. Israel Drazin]
Two floods: Gilgamesh and Noah Read More »
Israel Drazin-Rabbi Dr.This year’s JFest had many unusual highlights. Some events seemed more fitting than others to be part of a Jewish Arts Festival. Although I savored the Hershey Felder offering, Nicholas, Anna, and Sergei –I love Rachmaninoff’s music–( reviewed in the May 19th San Diego Jewish World), I did not understand its place in a Jewish Festival, given that the subjects were all authentic or pretending Russian aristocrats, the class that often helped perpetrate pogroms. [Eileen Wingard]
Is JFest’s Programming Really ‘Jewish’? Read More »
Eileen Wingard, Music, Dance, and Visual Arts, San Diego County, Theatre, Film & Broadcast