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

A Yiddishfest to Kvell for

Already in progress and continuing through September 13, the YIddishkayt Initiative (YILoveJewish.org) is hosting a virtual festival that encompasses a taste of everything Yidden. More than 35 online events include geshmach cooking demonstrations, concerts, films, singing, staged readings, a Holocaust commemoration, klezmer by San Diego’s own Yale Strom, discussions, lectures, a world-premiere play, and so much more! Major American and International celebrities gather to entertain your Jewish soul and share simcha and provocative ideas. The froelich action-packed programming promises to have something for everyone and as long as you’ve got a device you’re invited to tune in for free! [Eva Trieger]

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Eva Trieger, Music, Dance, and Visual Arts, Theatre, Film & Broadcast

Israel-Bahrain peacemaking draws applause

On a day that the world mourns the 2001 terror attack that felled the World Trade Center in New York City, damaged the Pentagon in Washington D.C., and took the lives of passengers aboard four hijacked airliners, there was some hopeful news as well. Peace in the Middle East is becoming contagious. Encouraged by the United States government, Bahrain and Israel have announced that they — like Israel and the United Arab Emirates previously — will sign a peace pact. [Donald H. Harrison]

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Donald H. Harrison, Jewish Religion, Middle East, Music, Dance, and Visual Arts, Science, Medicine, & Education, Travel and Food

A Word of Torah: Secular vs. Spiritual Success

Those who are viewed as the top of the heap are not necessarily so in the World of Truth. A person may engage in manual, even menial labor in this world. He may be very poor. But because one is poor in material wealth does not mean that he is poor in spiritual wealth. In fact, this world is upside down. In this crass material world our values are confused. We hold as precious things that are not precious and we, G-d forbid, undervalue or neglect to value altogether those things that truly are precious. [Rabbi Yeruchem Eilfort]

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Jewish Religion, Yeruchem Eilfort-Rabbi

A time of return to good spiritual health

he parashiyot of Nitzavim–Vayelech are often read on the Shabbat preceding Rosh Hashanah. For good reason. Especially this year with synagogues closed, shortened services, reduced attendance, Zoom classes, with a never far off apprehension about health for those who do attend religious gatherings, many have wandered from observance, from Hashem, from mitzvot.  [Michael R. Mantell, Ph.D]

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Jewish Religion, Michael Mantell

SWU webcast illustrates diverse support for Israel

StandWithUs on Wednesday evening presented a packed webcast, nearly an hour long, demonstrating the diversity of people who support Israel and the urgency that support has for Jewish and pro-Israel students attending high schools, colleges, and universities in North America and around the world. [Donald H. Harrison]

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Donald H. Harrison, International, Music, Dance, and Visual Arts, Science, Medicine, & Education, Theatre, Film & Broadcast, USA

Seacrest Village may be answer for isolated Jewish seniors

Jewish seniors isolated during the coronavirus pandemic may be better off both physically and mentally by moving to the Independent Living section of Seacrest Village Retirement Communities, its president and CEO Pam Ferris says. [Donald H. Harrison, “Our Shtetl San Diego County column]

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Donald H. Harrison, Jewish Religion, Obituaries & memorials, San Diego County, USA

Your Mindset is Your Compass

“It is not primarily our physical selves that limit us but rather our mindset about our physical limits.” — Ellen Langer, Ph.D. in Counterclockwise: Mindful Health and the Power of Possibilities. “What? But my world is upside down! I mean, I’m financially stretched way too thin, my waist is getting way too large, my relationship at home is disintegrating, and she’s saying it’s all in my mind?!” [Michael R. Mantell, Ph.D]

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Lifestyles, Michael Mantell

Superstitious believed the shofar could scare Satan

It is absolutely certain that both the spiritual leaders of Jewry and the masses of uneducated Jews (or at least the majority of these) before, during and after the talmudic period believed that the shofar, the ram’s horn, was blown on the holiday of Rosh Hashanah in order to scare Satan and his demonic cohorts. The widely held belief was that the blowing of the shofar would stop Satan from approaching God at a crucial moment, keeping him from indicting Jews for past sins in a heavenly judicial proceeding in which God decides the future of each Jew. [Rabbi Dr. Israel Drazin]

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Israel Drazin-Rabbi Dr., Jewish Religion

On My Walks Again (Melody: On the road again)

On my walks again                                                                                                                                     
Twice a day I’m on my walks again.                                                                                                               
My owners’ home confines us like a pen.                                                                                                               
I need to get us out of the house again … [Elona Baron as Sung to Laurie Baron, Ph.D]             

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Lawrence Baron, Trivia, Humor & Satire

Fiction: Jewish perspectives on Niue, Part 2

Editor’s Note: In this fictional piece, Esther and Noa, representing the San Diego-based Rabinove Foundation, go on a cruise around the South Pacific Island of Niue. In the previous segment, their guide Matafetu told them about the northern part of the island, occupied by the Motu people. In this part, he guides them around the southern part, the land of the Tafiti people. [Donald H. Harrison]

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Donald H. Harrison, Jewish Fiction, Jewish Religion, Travel and Food