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 tale of adventure, romance, and Russian anti-Semitism

Now in paperback, A Bend in the Stars takes its name from the idea posited by Albert Einstein that light during a solar eclipse will bend around the darkened celestial object.  One of the main characters in this novel is Vanya Abramov, a mathematician who believes his calculations together with photographs not only could prove Einstein’s theory but improve upon it. However, more than a few obstacles face Vanya’s potential bid for international recognition and perhaps even a Nobel Prize. [Book review by Donald H. Harrison]

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Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Donald H. Harrison

Putting police practices under the microscope in the wake of George Floyd’s death

George Floyd’s death was tragic. What made his death all the more tragic is that it was at the hand of a policeman. As a country, we need to do some serious soul-searching. I am reminded of the early 19th century Baptist preacher, C.H. Spurgeon (1834-1892), where he writes about Cain’s question: “Am I my brother’s keeper?” [Rabbi Dr. Michael Leo Samuel]

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Michael Leo Samuel-Rabbi, San Diego County, USA

Modern woman tells of life under the ayatollahs

Author Jacqueline Saper, part of a Jewish family, the daughter of an Iranian university professor and a British mother, an assistant airport manager, describes growing up in a wealthy and idyllic setting, a large house with opulent furnishings in the Tehran neighborhood of Yousefabad, dining in the best restaurants, attending private schools, travelling back and forth between England and Iran, and surrounded by maids and household laborers. [Fred Reiss, Ed.D]

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Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Fred Reiss, EdD, Jewish History, Middle East

U.S. wary of China’s economic interest in Israel

Israel’s greatest ally is unquestionably the US. Under the leadership of Prime Minister Netanyahu, Israel has augmented its reliance on America and the West with an outreach to the East, primarily China, which has become its second-largest trading partner. The US sees Chinese inroads into Israel as a threat to itself. [Steve Kramer]

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Business & Finance, International, Middle East, Steve Kramer, USA

Music of Peter Jona Korn performed by Zina Schiff

My sister, violinist Zina Schiff, has championed the works of many contemporary composers, as illustrated by her recordings.  The 1998 release of the Peter Jona Korn (1922-1998) Violin Concerto was a result of my friendship with the composer. At it US premiere with the Baton Rouge Symphony. Korn’s friend, Peter Paul Fuchs, was the conductor; the country’s foremost music magazine, Musical America, came to review the concert; and the composer himself, was in the audience. [Eileen Wingard]

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Eileen Wingard, Music, Dance, and Visual Arts

George Floyd honored, dishonored by protests, riots

Here in San Diego County, peaceful demonstrators honored the memory of George Floyd, the African-American victim of a white Minneapolis policeman who continuously and fatally pushed his knee into Floyd’s neck, hampering the prone man’s ability to breathe. The demonstrators’ cries for racial justice were heart-felt, appropriate, and in need of urgent redress. Also, here in San Diego County, particularly in La Mesa, rioters of diverse racial backgrounds dishonored George Floyd, using his unwarranted death as an excuse for arson and looting. [Our Shtetl San Diego County column by Donald H. Harrison]

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Donald H. Harrison, Jewish History, Jewish Religion, Music, Dance, and Visual Arts, San Diego County, USA

California battle resumes over ethnic studies

StandWithUs, the international organization that battles anti-Semitism on college, high school, and middle school campuses, is engaged in a drive to prevent wording of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) anti-Israel movement from being restored to a proposed,  ethnic studies model curriculum (ESMC)  for schools throughout California. [Our Shtetl San Diego County column by Donald H. Harrison]

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Donald H. Harrison, International, Jewish History, Jewish Religion, Middle East, Sam Litvin, Science, Medicine, & Education, USA

Susan Davis urges steps to curb sexual assaults in military

Reps. Susan Davis (D-San Diego) and Mike Turner (R-Ohio) are co-sponsoring legislation to shine more light on the extent of sexual assault in the military.  Among other provisions, the proposed legislation would require Judge Advocates General of each Armed Service to assess how well current laws and regulations dealing with the subject are working and make recommendations for further improvement. [Our Shtetl San Diego County column by Donald H. Harrison]

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Donald H. Harrison, Jewish History, Middle East, San Diego County, Science, Medicine, & Education, Travel and Food, USA

A Word of Torah: The Shavuot holiday

This Friday and Saturday we celebrate the awesome Holiday of Shavuot. Shavuot means ‘Weeks,’ and it also means ‘Oaths.’ Shavuot is also called Z’man Matan Toratainu, which means ‘The Time of the Giving of Our Torah.’ Additionally it is called Chag HaBikurim, ‘The Festival of the First Fruit,’ as the holiday marks the beginning of the season when the First Fruit Offerings would be brought to the Holy Temple in Jerusalem. [Rabbi Yeruchem Eilfort]

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Jewish Religion, Yeruchem Eilfort-Rabbi

Biblical Shavuot and its practice today

The current observance of Shavuot has no relationship to its biblical ancestor and doesn’t even occur at the same time. Very few people know the truth about this day. Most Jews think Shavuot recalls the day the Torah was revealed to the Israelites during the days of Moses. This is not true. This significance was given to the holiday in the middle ages when the holiday had lost one of its original purposes; the sacrifice prescribed for the day was discontinued when the second Temple was destroyed in 70 CE. I am not advocating that Jews should not observe Shavuot. Judaism today is not Torah Judaism. It is Rabbinic Judaism. Jews observe the Torah as it is interpreted by the rabbis. I observe Shavuot. The purpose of this article is simply to reveal its historical development. [Rabbi Dr. Israel Drazin]

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Israel Drazin-Rabbi Dr., Jewish History, Jewish Religion

A ‘Mischling’ growing up in WWII Hamburg

Marione Ingram was born in Hamburg in 1938 to a Jewish mother and a non-Jewish father, and so was defined as a ‘mischling’ (half-breed) by the Nazi authorities. Her autobiographical book begins with her account of having been sent by her mother when she was eight years old to take her younger sister to their aunt. She decided to return unbidden and found her mother in the throes of an attempt to commit suicide by putting her head in their gas oven. [Dorothea Shefer-Vanson]

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Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Dorothea Shefer-Vanson, International, Jewish History