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

Growing young and happy in older age

We learn profound lessons from the lives of Sarah and Abraham about growing young and happy in older age. Yet we still seem to have the need to turn to, for example, a famed Harvard University study that found the following personality characteristics relating to happiness in aging: A future orientation and the ability to plan positively (“I figure if I can do this when I’m 85, I’ll be doing pretty well.”) The capacity for both gratitude and forgiveness The ability to see the world through the eyes of another The desire to do things with, and for, people. [Michael R. Mantell, Ph.D]

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Jewish Religion, Michael Mantell

Film Review: The Last Vermeer

The Last Vermeer – producer Dan Friedkin’s directorial debut – is a well-paced and thoroughly engaging World War II drama. Joseph Piller (played by Claes Bang), is a Dutch Jew who fought with the Resistance during the war; and is now commissioned with uncovering and redistributing art stolen by the Nazis. Enter the flamboyant painter and art dealer, Han van Meegeren (masterfully played by Guy Pearce) who is suspected of selling Dutch art treasures to Field-Marshal Hermann Goering and other top Nazi officials. Piller’s story is complicated by a fraught relationship with his wife (played by Marie Bach Henson), who remained in Holland during the occupation; and while she provided intelligence to the Resistance, the implication is that she was only able to acquire such intelligence by carrying on a romantic dalliance with Nazi officers. [Sam Ben-Meir, Ph.D]

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International, Music, Dance, and Visual Arts, Sam Ben-Meir

Contest Dec. 10 for San Diego City Council President

Two Democratic San Diego City Councilwomen — Jennifer Campbell, who is Jewish, and Monica Montgomery Steppe, who is African American — have announced their intentions to compete for the position of President of the San Diego City Council, which Georgette Gomez will relinquish next month when she leaves office following an unsuccessful run for the U.S. Congress. [Donald H. Harrison]

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Donald H. Harrison, San Diego County

White Supremacist Tom Metzger dead at 82

Tom Metzger, one of the nation’s most notorious white supremacists and anti-Semites, has died, according to a post on his White Aryan Resistance website. He was 82. The post said: “Thomas Linton Metzger, born April 9th, 1938 in Warsaw, Indiana, passed away in Hemet, California, on November 4th, 2020.” [Ken Stone, Times of San Diego]

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Donald H. Harrison, Jewish History, Ken Stone, San Diego County, USA

Book is irreverent but useful guide to Jewish practice

Why Jews Do That, authored by Rabbi Avram Mlotek, co-founder and the Rabbi of Base Manhattan, a group described as an “organization aiming to be a pluralistic Jewish salon for the post-college set,” is occasionally irreverent, often amusing, and always succinct and to the point with its answers. [Fred Reiss, Ed.D]

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Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Fred Reiss, EdD, Jewish Religion

Bry concedes mayoral race; plans neighborhood political organization

San Diego City Councilwoman Barbara Bry, conceding she had lost the mayor’s race to Assemblyman Todd Gloria, told a news conference on Zoom Monday that she plans to organize a new political organization to give neighborhoods and residents a stronger voice at City Hall. [Donald H. Harrison]

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Donald H. Harrison, Jewish History, San Diego County

Hebrew Day alumna Tova Winick briefs 2 Defense Ministers

Sooner or later, many schools will learn of an  alumna who made it big.  For example, Patrick Henry High School in San Diego boasts as one of its graduates the actress Annette Bening.  Westmount High School in Westmount, Quebec, claims  U.S. Vice President-elect Kamala Harris as a 1981 graduate.  And Soille San Diego Hebrew Day School now can brag about Tova Winick, Class of 2013. Okay, Tova isn’t a household name yet, but there has been quite a buzz about her ever since she was pictured in late October in the uniform of an officer of the Israel Defense Forces giving a briefing on the workings of the Iron Dome missile defense system to U.S. Secretary of Defense Mark Esper accompanied by Israel’s Defense Minister Benny Gantz. [Donald H. Harrison]

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Donald H. Harrison, Middle East

Retiring Rep. Susan Davis considers possible role with JFS

Now that Sara Jacobs has been elected as her successor, retiring Congresswoman Susan Davis (D-San Diego) says she would like to work in the future either part-time or as a volunteer in the San Diego Jewish community, specifically mentioning her admiration for the work of Jewish Family Service. [Donald H. Harrison]

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Donald H. Harrison, International, San Diego County, USA

A Radical View about ‘Truth’

I read some books and essays recently focusing on the “truths” that people of different religions have that differ with the “truths” held by people of other religions. The object of the books and essays is to find how we can improve interfaith relations when the lives of different people are based on ideas that they find hard to give up despite others refusing or unable to accept what they believe. Examples include the “truth” held by many Christians that there is a trinity of three gods, that of many Jewish mystics that God was composed of ten parts that came apart, and that of Muslims who “know” that Mohamed received the Koran from God. [Rabbi Dr. Israel Drazin]

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Israel Drazin-Rabbi Dr., Jewish Religion

Satire: 50 Ways to Leave the White House

(Melody: Fifty Ways to Leave Your Lover)
The problem is that you lost the vote, she said to him. 
The networks are telling you the results are grim.  
Your chances are none and no longer slim.  
There must be fifty ways to leave the White House.                                                                                         
Fifty ways to leave the White House.  …. [Laurie Baron, PhD]

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Lawrence Baron, Trivia, Humor & Satire, USA

Mazal tov to Joe Biden and Kamala Harris

For me, it was symbolic that there was a sudden downpour of rain at approximately 9:30 a.m., PST,  an hour after CNN and MSNBC projected Joseph R. Biden and Kamala Harris to be the President-elect and Vice President-elect of the United States.  Having had a long, dry, wildfire-prone season, the rain seemed to be just what we needed to move our city through another period of dangerous weather.  And, in my opinion at least, the election of Biden and Harris was what our country needed to get us past growing division and hatred, and onto reconciliation and mutual cooperation. [Donald H. Harrison]

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Donald H. Harrison, San Diego County, USA

Sara Jacobs urges ‘quick impact’ action on COVID

Sara Jacobs, whom unofficial election returns and her opponent’s concession point toward her being our next congresswoman, says the new Administration and the new Congress should seek immediately to pass legislation that will help all Americans recover from the economic and medical impacts of the coronavirus pandemic. [Donald H. Harrison]

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Donald H. Harrison, San Diego County, USA