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
By Rabbi Michael Leo Samuel CHULA VISTA, California — This past Friday night, we rejoiced when we heard the news about Sgt. Andrew Tahmooressi, who was finally released from having spent 214 days in a horrible Mexican prison. For those of you who are unfamiliar with this story, Tahmooressi was arrested on March 31 after […]
Obama failed in his duty to redeem the captive Read More »
International, Jewish Religion, Michael Leo Samuel-Rabbi, USAAdon Olam: A Search for Meaning by Rabbi Zalman Weiss, Menorah Books, Jerusalem; ISBN 9978-1-940516-12-7 ©2014, $24.95, p. 350, plus glossary. By Fred Reiss, Ed.D. WINCHESTER, California — Ezra the Scribe, in 458 BCE, led a group of about eighteen hundred Jewish men together with their wives and children from the Babylon Captivity to their new home in
Adon Olam is catchy but do you know what it means? Read More »
Fred Reiss, EdD, Jewish ReligionBy Dorothea Shefer-Vanson MEVASSERET ZION, Israel — The organization known as Machsom Watch has been in existence for over ten years. Since its first tentative steps as a small group of humanitarian feminists who wanted to protect the human and civil rights of Palestinians it has grown in numbers, is less radically feminist, but is
Palestinians and Israeli check points Read More »
Dorothea Shefer-Vanson, Middle East
Photos and story by Donald H. Harrison SAN DIEGO—The sanctuary and social hall of Temple Emanu-El were transformed into an exhibit hall for 55 local artisans, with many of them exhibiting Judaica in various media on Sunday, Nov. 2. I went around to the booths and asked artists offering Judaica for sale why Jewish objects and designs
Artisans Festival brings out love for Judaica Read More »
Donald H. Harrison, Jewish Religion, San Diego County
By Caren Ford and Donald H. Harrison WESTLAKE VILLAGE, California—Radio commentator and print media columnist Dennis Prager says Israel is isolated in world opinion because it is the “Jewish state.” Prager, in an evening address Thursday, Oct. 30, sponsored by the Conejo Jewish Academy, offered four reasons why Jews and the Jewish state are
Prager offers 4 explanations for Jew- hatred Read More »
Donald H. Harrison, Jewish Religion, Middle East
Silent Bird by Reina Lisa Menasche, © 2014, ISBN978-14944-08831, 251 pages. By Donald H. Harrison SAN DIEGO—Back when I was an undergraduate at UCLA—has it already been more than 50 years?—college men talked hopefully about the mythic “Yale date,” which supposedly had been agreed upon by male and female students at that august institution across
There’s sex, and there’s intimacy Read More »
Donald H. Harrison, San Diego CountyBy Michael Mantell SAN DIEGO — Vote after informal vote, I was in the top five. But when the official decision of who was going to move ahead from the Master’s degree program to the doctoral program, I was reminded of my mother’s words, “Michael, when one door closes another opens.” I wasn’t among the
When one door closes…. Read More »
Michael Mantell
By Eileen Wingard LA JOLLA, California — The J Company’s production of Peter Pan is playing for two more weekends at the David and Dorthea Garfield Theatre at the Lawrence Family JCC. As grandmother of Adira Rosen, in the title role, I, of course am interested in encouraging all to see this musical. But,
Adira in title role prompts plenty of kvelling Read More »
Eileen Wingard, Marcia Tatz Wollner, San Diego County, Theatre, Film & Broadcast
Dare the Devil by Roger L. Conlee, © 2014, Pale Horse Books, ISBN 978-1-939917-11-9, 264 pages, $13.95 By Donald H. Harrison SAN DIEGO –This mystery novel is set in the late 1940s in Los Angeles, and author Conlee, a public relations man and former journalist, has researched the venue and era to provide verisimilitude
Book review: ‘Dare the Devil’ Read More »
Donald H. HarrisonMEVASSERET ZION, Israel — Between Gaza and Berlin Those two place names signify so many different views, concepts and even worlds, seeming to encapsulate the distinct worldviews that are so much a part of our life, here in Israel. In a local and very provincial sense these are the names of two roads in Rechavia, the Jerusalem
‘Between Gaza and Berlin’ prompts one to reflect Read More »
Dorothea Shefer-Vanson, Middle EastSchlepping Through the American West: There is a Jewish Story Everywhere by Donald H. Harrison, The Harrison Enterprises, San Diego, CA; ISBN 978-0-5024-9401-6 ©2014, $13.97 paperback/7.99 kindle, p. 220 By Fred Reiss, Ed.D WINCHESTER, California — Jack Kerouac did it. John Steinbeck did it, and now we can add Don Harrison to the list of authors who traveled
Schlepping book prompts a challenge to its author Read More »
Fred Reiss, EdD, Jewish Religion, USABy Laurie Baron SAN DIEGO─ The current buzzword in American politics is “quarantine.” * Governor Christie imposed a quarantine for all people returning from travel in Ebola-stricken areas of Africa and interned a nurse who had worked there in a make-shift tent near a hospital. After yielding to pressure to allow her to return home,
Humoring the headlines: October 29, 2014 Read More »
Lawrence Baron, Trivia, Humor & Satire
By Donald H. Harrison SAN DIEGO—Selwyn Isakow, a private investor who helped organize last weekend’s Shabbat San Diego events, said attendance statistics were impressive but the true test of the events that brought so many Jews together is whether it will spur many people to seek deeper levels of involvement with the Jewish community. Isakow told
7,500 in county had Shabbat dinner Friday, Oct. 24 Read More »
Donald H. Harrison, Jewish Religion, San Diego CountyBy Michael R. Mantell, Ph.D. SAN DIEGO — It used to be that psychiatrists put insane people into insane asylums. However, today, everyone is seemingly insane. Sort of. Just look at the pathology of our youth, the dysfunction of our families, the violence in our day to day lives, the poisonous popular culture to which
Nowadays we need sane asylums Read More »
Michael Mantell