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

Ivanka: A fitting successor to Queen Esther?

By Rabbi Michael Leo Samuel CHULA VISTA, California — Someone in my synagogue asked me an interesting question about Ivanka Trump and her husband Jared Kushner: What kind of Halakhic dispensation was given to them to drive on the Sabbath to the Inauguration of the President? The same question came up recently when the Trump entourage […]

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Jewish History, Jewish Religion, Michael Leo Samuel-Rabbi, Middle East, USA

Jerusalem Day Celebrates Israel’s Sovereignty

By Steve Kramer ALFEI MENASHE, Israel — June 5–10, 1967, (earlier this year according to the Hebrew calendar) is the most consequential period in the history of modern Israel except for May 14, 1948, when David Ben-Gurion declared Israel’s independence. In the midst of this six-day period, Jerusalem Day marks the 50th anniversary of the

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Jewish History, Middle East, Steve Kramer

Memories of Mickey Marcus and the Exodus

By Jerry Klinger WEST POINT, New York —  American Veterans of Israel Legacy Corporation organized and commemorated on May 7 the life of Mickey Marcus. It is an annual event at West Point, the last number of years held at the Jewish Chapel overlooking the Hudson. This year was the 51st commemoration. The commemoration honors an extraordinary

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International, Jerry Klinger, Jewish History, Middle East, USA

Israeli teaches teachers in Ghana

By Dorothea Shefer-Vanson MEVASSERET ZION, Israel — Last week I was invited to hear a talk by Sharon Bashevkin Perry, who has been involved for many years in early childhood education in a variety of positions in Israel, the US and Africa. The talk was entitled ‘From Israel to Ghana – Building Bridges and Friendships Through Early Childhood Education. In 1958 Golda Meir, then Israel’s

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Dorothea Shefer-Vanson, International, Middle East

Practical tips for studying the Talmud

Understanding the Talmud: A Systematic Guide to Talmudic Structure and Methodology by Rabbi Yitzchak Feigenbaum; Feldheim; 2nd edition (1988); ISBN By Rabbi Michael Leo Samuel CHULA VISTA, California — Some Aramaic scholarly friends of mine who speak and know Talmudic Aramaic often complain about the poor syntax of the Talmud. To most English readers, it almost

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Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Jewish Religion, Michael Leo Samuel-Rabbi

North to Metula

By Steve Kramer ALFEI MENASHE, Israel — Spring is the perfect time to travel to the north in Israel: the temperatures are generally ideal, the hillsides and fields are green after the winter rains, and the streams are flowing with a respectable amount of water. So, not long after Passover, Michal and I and some

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Middle East, Steve Kramer, Travel and Food

Gospel choir and synagogue record double firsts

By Donald H. Harrison SAN DIEGO — It was a double first Saturday night at Tifereth Israel Synagogue.  It was the first time that the Conservative Jewish congregation had ever hosted a gospel choir. And, it was the first time that the Martin Luther King Jr. Community Choir San Diego had ever performed in a synagogue

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Donald H. Harrison, Jewish Religion, Music, Dance, and Visual Arts

A book in time for 6-day war’s 50th anniversary

The 28th of Iyar – The Dramatic, Day-by-Day Journal of an American Family in Israel During the Six Day War By Rabbi Emanuel Feldman, Feldheim Publishers, Jerusalem, © 2017, ISBN 978-1-68025-294-1, p. 171, plus glossary, $14.95. By Fred Reiss, Ed.D. WINCHESTER, California –  If you’re old enough, you know where you were on December 7,

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