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

Historians, biographers probe Jewish Cleveland

Cleveland Jews and the Making of a Midwestern Community contains a pair of biographical essays, which I read with considerable interest, and more than a majority of essays of the historical type, dealing with such phenomena as the growth of Jewish Orthodoxy in Cleveland; the impact of Jewish philanthropy on that city; the growth of Jewish schools; The development of feminist ideals among Jewish women’s organizations;  Black-Jewish relations in Cleveland; suburbanization of Cleveland’s Jewish community; Reform Judaism in the Cleveland suburbs; and programs to assimilate into Jewish society refugees from the Soviet Union. [Book review by Donald H. Harrison]

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Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Donald H. Harrison, Jewish History, USA

San Diegans’ dream trip leads to new website

In 2017, newlyweds Jonathan Moed and Zoe (Jurkowski) Moed went on a year-long dream trip around the world, and now Jonathan is pursuing a “passion project” to help high-tech start up entrepreneurs in developing nations realize dreams of their own. [Donald H. Harrison]

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Business & Finance, Donald H. Harrison, International, Jewish History, San Diego County, Travel and Food, USA

A Word of Torah: Living with the times

This week’s Torah portion is titled, Terumah, which means gifts. Just as last week’s portion – which dealt in detailed specifics of Torah law in everyday life – represented a dramatic shift from the portion before – which told the story of the 10 Commandments – so too this week’s portion makes another dramatic turn and conveys the specifics of building the Tabernacle. The word ‘Tabernacle’ comes from the Latin ‘tabernaculum,’ which means ‘tent.’ The Torah describes this unique mobile structure as the Mishkan (Dwelling Place) and as the Ohel Mo’ed (Tent of Meeting).

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Jewish Religion, Yeruchem Eilfort-Rabbi

History tells of Nazi looting of Rosenberg gallery in Paris

Based on extensive research, the author describes what happened to the Paris art gallery that her grandfather, Paul Rosenberg, owned and directed in the first part of the twentieth century, until the invasion and occupation of France by the Germans in 1940. When France was taken over by the Germans all Jews, including the Rosenbergs, were deprived of their citizenship and property. In its heyday the Rosenberg Gallery exhibited the works of painters such as Matisse, Braque, Picasso and others with whom Paul Rosenberg maintained warm relations and in some cases, especially that of Picasso, a close friendship. Many of these artists were defined as ‘degenerate’ by the Nazis, although that did not prevent them from using these works for their own ends, often selling them to museums and collectors who paid handsomely for them.[Dorothea Shefer Vanson]

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Dorothea Shefer-Vanson, International, Jewish History, Music, Dance, and Visual Arts, USA

13-year-old cello virtuoso to perform in San Diego

SAN DIEGO — Fresh from winning gold medals in two major international music competitions, the 13-year-old Israeli cellist, Nahar Eliaz, will be coming to San Diego for a recital Saturday evening, March 7, 7:30 p.m. at Congregation Beth Am, 5050 Del Mar Heights Rd., San Diego, CA, 92130. The prodigious young talent received the grand prize in the London virtuoso competition which will lead to a performance at the Elgar Room at the Royal Albert Hall in London on April 14 of this year.  She also received two top prizes earlier this month from the Vienna Music Competition. In this contest, Nahar garnered the gold medal in the Strings-Young Artist division, and the Beethoven Centenary Award for the most outstanding performance of a work by the great composer.  Beethoven’s 250th birthday is being celebrated throughout the world. [Eileen Wingard]

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Eileen Wingard, Music, Dance, and Visual Arts, San Diego County

347 rabbis denounce Sanders’ comment about AIPAC

Two Reform rabbis from San Diego – Devorah Marcus of Temple Emanu-El and Jeremy Gimbel of Congregation Beth Israel – are among 347 rabbis who have signed a letter rejecting the “outrageous comments” made by Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders about the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC). In announcing he would not attend the AIPAC Policy Conference in March, Sanders, who like the rabbis is Jewish, said “I remain concerned about the platform AIPAC provides for leaders who express bigotry and oppose basic Palestinian rights. For that reason, I will not attend their conference.”  In a press release, AIPAC subsequently described that comment as “truly shameful.” [Donald H. Harrison]

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Donald H. Harrison, International, Jewish History, Middle East, San Diego County, USA

Why God wanted a sanctuary built

This week in parasha Terumah, (“gift,” “portion’ or “offering” depending on whether you read the Jewish Publication Society, the Stone edition or the Soncino chumash ) we learn the many specific details of the building of the Tabernacle, Hashem’s dwelling place. It says in the parasha, “And they shall make Me a sanctuary and I will dwell in their midst” וְעָ֥שׂוּ לִ֖י מִקְדָּ֑שׁ וְשָֽׁכַנְתִּ֖י בְּתוֹכָֽם (Exodus 25:8). [Michael Mantell, Ph.D]

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Jewish Religion, Michael Mantell

Sanders has short coattails, if any at all

Possibly our first Jewish president, and already Americans are panicking. This sigh of relief: Democratic leaders and others are raising concerns about an overreaching agenda and a misguided approach to Israel, not over his religion or ethnicity. It looks like that, anyway. We must face it – the election of a President Bernie Sanders could become a reality. It is yet too soon to predict the outcome, but this one result is foreseeable: Sanders will confront an adversarial Congress, if not a hostile Congress. [Bruce S. Ticker]

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Bruce Ticker, Middle East, USA

Palestinian commentator: BDS hurts us

Bassam Eid is a Palestinian author and commentator, who may be seen frequently on Israeli television.  While he is critical of various Israeli policies, he also speaks out frequently against corruption in both the Palestinian Authority and Gaza Strip.  On Tuesday evening, at the Fairbanks Country Club, in this affluent community wedged between northern San Diego and Rancho Santa Fe, Eid condemned the boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) movement as being harmful to ordinary Palestinians. [Donald H. Harrison]

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Donald H. Harrison, Middle East, San Diego County, USA

The Dogacratic dog fight

2020 is the year American canines elect a top dog.  The preliminary matches are dog fights.  Normally, the competitors aren’t so aggressive, but the humans who stage these contests prefer that they bite, growl, and scratch each other.  After all, it improves the television ratings.   St. Bernard, Amy Komodor, Elizabeth Westie, Tom Skye Terrier, Pete Boxerdoodle, Joe Bichon, and Miniature Mike are battling in the pit.  Since Elizabeth Westie goes for Mike’s jugular, the human commentators dismiss her as a bitch, but she doesn’t want anyone to forget that Mike ordered dogcatchers to pick up any mutt who seemed dangerous and joked about spaying pregnant females.  Many dogs will never forgive him for that. [Satire from Elona Baron as told to Laurie Baron} 

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Lawrence Baron, Trivia, Humor & Satire

Esther never fasted on the Fast of Esther

Esther 9:31 has been interpreted by people to state that the Judeans consented to observe this fast of 13 Adar. The verse states that the Judeans in the days of Mordecai and Esther agreed to observe Purim “just as Mordecai and Esther the queen had instructed them and just as they had accepted upon themselves and their descendants the matters of the fastings and their cry.” The problems with this interpretation, that “the fastings and their cry” are associated with Purim, are: (1) The quoted words seem to imply that the Judeans accepted the fasts and cry before agreeing to observe the two days of Purim. (2) Mordecai and Esther did not request the Judeans to fast. (3) The word is not “fast” in the singular, but “fastings” in the plural. (4) The fast of Esther on 13 Adar was introduced into Judaism centuries after the lives of Esther and Mordecai. [Rabbi Dr. Israel Drazin]

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Israel Drazin-Rabbi Dr., Jewish Religion

Liberator and POW fast friends 75 years later

The liberation of a prisoner-of-war camp in Manila, Philippines, in 1945 forged a bond many years later between a Jewish band leader and a Coronado civil servant. Lou Berger, a drummer and leader of the “Berger Kings,” was playing a Saturday night gig at the Town & Country Hotel in San Diego about 15 years ago for an ex-prisoners of war organization when he was introduced to Tom Crosby, a longtime purchasing agent and risk manager for the City of Coronado, who also was known as a  successful volunteer springboard diving coach. [Donald H. Harrison]

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Donald H. Harrison, International, Jewish History, Middle East, Music, Dance, and Visual Arts, San Diego County

Poetry of Holocaust victims set for March 3

The words of poets, some murdered during the Holocaust, some who survived, will be presented by Jewish Poets— Jewish Voices Tuesday, March 3, 7 p.m. in the Astor Judaica Library of the Lawrence Family JCC. The program, Jewish Poets of the Holocaust, will feature seventeen poems, read first in their English translations, then in their original language. In addition, the 23-voice Ohr Shalom Choir, under the direction of Elisheva Edelson, will sing several Yiddish selections, Farvos Iz Der Himl? (Why Is The Sky?), with Bernardo Bicas, solo, Ghetto, with Elisheva Edelson, solo, Yisrolik with Elisheva Edelson, solo and the Partisan Song. Myla Wingard will open the program with the song, The Butterfly. [Eileen Wingard]

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Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Eileen Wingard, San Diego County

Bomb threats against JCCs, including La Jolla’s, not credible

The Lawrence Family JCC  in La Jolla was among a group of JCCs across the United States that received a non-specific, general bomb threat via email on Sunday morning, according to Betzy Lynch, its chief executive officer.  She said the staff immediately notified the San Diego Police, which has a substation right next door.  Law enforcement determined that the threat was not credible and no evacuation was necessary, Lynch reported.  This was in contrast to the JCC in Albany, New York, which evacuated approximately 100 people to allow bomb-sniffing dogs and officers to comb through the facility, which also was subsequently declared to be safe. [Donald H. Harrison]

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Donald H. Harrison, Middle East, San Diego County, USA