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 national memorial to lynching victims at the site of where Leo Frank was lynched in Georgia had been rejected by the Georgia Department of Transportation until Congressman John Lewis stepped in. In Lewis’s memory, Jerry Klinger of the Jewish American Society for Historic Preservation recounts the story.
The National Anti-Lynching Memorial and John Lewis Read More »
Jerry Klinger, Jewish History, USA
What does DHS stand for? Deploying Homeland Stormtroopers. Following are some other examples of truth in acronyms. [Laurie Baron, Ph.D]
Satire: Truth in Acronyms Read More »
Lawrence Baron, Trivia, Humor & Satire
Rabbi Yeruchem Eilfort of Chabad of La Costa, who is among the longest-serving Chabad rabbis in San Diego County, on Sunday described the revelations of the tax fraud crimes of Rabbi Yisroel Goldstein of Chabad of Poway as “deeply shocking and profoundly hurtful.” [Our Shtetl San Diego County column by Donald H. Harrison]
Eilfort: ‘Deep sense of betrayal’ over Goldstein’s tax fraud Read More »
Donald H. Harrison, Jewish Religion, Obituaries & memorials, San Diego County, Yeruchem Eilfort-Rabbi
Dr. Tobi Lister works at an urgent care mill, where doctors are not supposed to spend more than 10 minutes with each patient — less if possible — and are graded by how many “likes” they get on Yelp-like medical reviews sent in by patients. The problem is that if they don’t spend sufficient time with their patients, the doctors are liable to get dinged; but if they do, wait times increase for other patients, resulting in even more dings. [Book Review by Donald H. Harrison]
Novel paints grim picture of medical ethics Read More »
Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Donald H. Harrison
California Gov. Gavin Newsom on Friday ordered most private and public schools in the state, including those in San Diego County, to offer only distance learning rather than in-person classroom instruction. His order came in response to spiking rates of coronavirus infection in California. The exceptions were schools in counties where the incidents of the virus are very low. [Our Shtetl San Diego County column by Donald H. Harrison]
Gov. Newsom’s order negates Hebrew Day’s plans for in-person learning Read More »
Donald H. Harrison, Jewish History, Jewish Religion, Music, Dance, and Visual Arts, San Diego County, Science, Medicine, & Education
There is no doubt that sometimes the best approach is a ‘bend but do not break’ attitude. There are also times, however, when we must remain rigidly opposed and refuse to compromise our morals. Sometimes, as Jews, we must proactively reject the evil that we see. Often this will be an unpopular position. Nonetheless, we must rigidly and stubbornly reject evil, even popular evil. [Rabbi Yeruchem Eilfort]
A Word of Torah: Flexibility and rigidity Read More »
Jewish Religion, Yeruchem Eilfort-Rabbi
The doctrine of Torah Min Ha-Shamayim, “The Torah is from Heaven,” is a fundamental teaching of Orthodox Judaism. Rabbis say it means that God dictated the Five Books of Moses to Moses. But even rabbis who strongly defend this doctrine do not know how God communicated the Torah to Moses or how much of it. For example, there are Orthodox rabbis who agree that Moses was the author of the book of Deuteronomy, or most of it, and God approved what he wrote. More significantly, Maimonides states that we have no idea how the Torah was revealed. A modern rabbi and scholar Louis Jacobs argues that he knows how it was revealed. [Rabbi Dr. Israel Drazin]
Debating Divine Revelation Read More »
Israel Drazin-Rabbi Dr., Jewish Religion
Are the doors of our synagogues honestly and completely wide open, inclusively and warmly, genuinely accepting all on equal footing, even modern day “Reubens and Gads”? After all, who is perfect? Are we missing parts of our community today, indeed are we turning away members of our community, explicitly or implicitly, from our synagogues? [Michael R. Mantell, Ph.D]
Are our synagogues sufficiently inclusive? Read More »
Jewish Religion, Michael MantellTo counter a boycott against Goya Food in protest of its CEO praising Donald Trump, Ivanka Trump posted a photo of her holding up a can of Goya Black Beans captioned in English and Spanish, “If it’s Goya, it’s got to be good.” Criticized for using her office to promote a product, she retorted that the photo was intended as a campaign ad to show Latino and African American voters that “black beans matter” to her father. [Satire by Laurie Baron, Ph.D}
Satire: Expect the worst Read More »
Lawrence Baron, Trivia, Humor & Satire, USAI have more than a few questions about the conduct of the tax fraud case in which Rabbi Yisroel Goldstein is being recommended for probation, rather than a prison sentence, notwithstanding the fact that his pattern of illegal conduct reaches back several decades. [Donald H. Harrison]
What did the White House know about Rabbi Goldstein’s criminality? Read More »
Donald H. Harrison, Jewish History, San Diego County, USA
Hospital data is now going directly to the Trump administration rather than the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. This will have immediate and far reaching consequences. Already valuable CDC pages that tracked changes in the number of occupied and available hospital beds in the nation for COVID-19 patients stopped working as a result of the switch. We have essentially lost this important metric for gauging the progress of the disease. The sidelining of the CDC is nothing less than a travesty and Americans should be outraged and alarmed. This loss of transparency will lead inevitably to an even worse pandemic and greater loss of life. [Sam Ben-Meir]
Less transparency will worsen the pandemic Read More »
Sam Ben-Meir, Science, Medicine, & Education, USA
Purportedly quoting the most reviled monster in modern history, the Eagles wide receiver last week posted on Instagram that Hitler accuses “white Jews” of having a “plan for world domination…Hitler said, ‘because the white Jews knows that the Negroes are the real Children of Israel and to keep America’s secret the Jews will blackmail America. … The white citizens of America will be terrified to know that all this time they’ve been mistreating and discriminating and lynching the Children of Israel.’” [Bruce S. Ticker]
DeSean Jackson: Ignorance or hatred? Read More »
Bruce Ticker, Sports & Competitions, USALaurie Baron, Ph.D., compiles a list of streaming lectures, available to computer users, on Jewish religion, history, culture, and current events.
Streaming Jewish lectures: July 19-23 Read More »
Jewish History, Jewish Religion, Lawrence Baron, Theatre, Film & Broadcast
Rabbi Yisroel Goldstein, former spiritual leader of Chabad of Poway, who was welcomed at the White House after he was wounded in an April 27, 2019 attack on his synagogue by a gunman, had meanwhile been under investigation by the Internal Revenue Service and the Federal Bureau of Investigation on charges of tax fraud, to which he pleaded guilty on Tuesday in federal court. U.S. Attorney Robert Brewer said he planned to recommend probation for Goldstein because he has helped his office obtain the convictions of five other co-defendants and is cooperating in numerous cases that are still pending. [Our Shtetl San Diego County column by Donald H. Harrison]
Rabbi Yisroel Goldstein pleads guilty to tax fraud Read More »
Donald H. Harrison, Jewish Religion, Obituaries & memorials, San Diego County, Science, Medicine, & Education, USA