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 Laurie Baron SAN DIEGO─A recent poll indicated that only 4 % of Americans have a favorable view of Vladimir Putin; whereas 6 % think Congress is doing a good job. According to the pollsters, those queried feel that Congress merely occupies space whereas Putin occupies countries. * Two Americans who contracted Ebola while […]
Humoring the Headlines: August 6, 2014 Read More »
Lawrence Baron, Trivia, Humor & SatireBy Steve Kramer ALFE MENASHE, Israel — Now that Operation Protective Edge appears to be winding down, Secretary of State Kerry again feels the need to reach a “bigger, broader approach to a two-state solution.” One would think that the United States, Israel’s closest ally and the supposed leading Western power, would have learned
‘Two-state’ solution less likely after Gaza War Read More »
Middle East, Steve KramerBy Stephen Bryen and Shoshana Bryen WASHINGTON, D.C. — Der Spiegel, the German newsmagazine, reported that Israel spied on Secretary of State John Kerry’s phone calls while Kerry was in Paris with representatives of Qatar and Turkey, trying to arrange a ceasefire for Gaza. It appears straightforward. Kerry, says Der Spiegel, was using “open,” non-encrypted
Who intercepted Kerry’s phone calls? Read More »
Shoshana Bryen, Stephen D. Bryen, USABy Ken Stone Times of San Diego SAN DIEGO–Lawrence “Laurie” Baron is professor emeritus of modern Jewish history at San Diego State. He has a doctorate in modern European intellectual history from the University of Wisconsin at Madison. He’s an expert on Holocaust films. So what’s a nice Jewish teacher doing writing one-liners like these?
Times of San Diego profiles SDJW’s Laurie Baron Read More »
Donald H. Harrison, Jewish Religion, Ken Stone, Lawrence Baron, San Diego County
-Sixteenth in a Series– By Donald H. Harrison BROWNING, Montana – More than half-way between our previous night’s stop in Lethbridge, Alberta, and our evening’s destination of Kalispell, Montana, grandson Shor and I decided to stretch our legs in Browning, Montana, which is located on the sprawling Blackfeet Indian Reservation. We browsed the Blackfeet
Jews and Blackfeet Indians: plenty in common Read More »
Donald H. Harrison, Travel and Food, USA
By Donald H. Harrison CHULA VISTA, California — Congregant Luz Guadarrama of Temple Beth Shalom baked up a surprise for Rabbi Michael Leo Samuel: a cake shaped to look like a Torah. The Conservative rabbi turns 61 on August 6th. Arlene LaGary, the president of Temple Beth Shalom, was joined by Jorge Bernal in making the
How sweet the Torah at Beth Shalom Read More »
Donald H. Harrison, Michael Leo Samuel-Rabbi, San Diego County
-Fifteenth in a Series- By Donald H. Harrison LETHBRIDGE, Alberta, Canada – It’s a matter of happy circumstance that Lethbridge is the first Canadian city of moderate size that a traveler from U.S. Interstate 15 will connect with after crossing the U.S.-Canada border. My grandson Shor and I, making a trip from the bottom of
A Yiddish literature expert in western Canada Read More »
Donald H. Harrison, International, Travel and FoodBy Laurie Baron SAN DIEGO-Hamas broke the 3 day cease fire with Israel shortly after it began. Its spokesmen claimed that its fighters inadvertently used a stopwatch instead of a clock to time the cessation of hostilities or that the word “cease” was accidentally deleted from the email informing them of the armistice. *
Humoring the headlines: August 2, 2014 Read More »
Lawrence Baron, Trivia, Humor & Satire
By Eva Trieger SOLANA BEACH, California- In the words of George Eliot, “It is never too late to be what you might have been.” What was she telling us? Mary Anne Evans was petitioning women to become their authentic selves and though she penned these words before the turn of the century, they are no
Makeovers inside, outside, and throughout Read More »
Eva Trieger, San Diego CountyBy Dorothea Shefer-Vanson DOMEYROT, France –I saw the article in one of the glossy weekend supplements that comes with the French newspaper ‘Le Figaro’ which I try to read while I’m on vacation in France. The photography is beautiful, the articles intelligent, and it’s good for my French (I read it with the aid of
War is no time for a course in digital detoxing Read More »
Donald H. Harrison, International, Middle EastBy Rabbi Michael Leo Samuel CHULA VISTA, California — Maimonides raises a relevant question about the nature of repentance in his famous halachic tract, The Laws of Penitence, “How do we know whether a person has truly achieved repentance? If a person finds himself in the same situation where he now has the ability to
World must intervene to help M.E. Christians Read More »
Michael Leo Samuel-Rabbi, Middle EastBy Steve Kramer ALPHE MENASHE, Israel — We hear a lot about “disproportionate force” these days, aimed chiefly at Israel’s incursion into Gaza as part of its Operation Protective Edge. Various world luminaries have explained how Israel is running roughshod over the “poor Palestinians”: “U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon leveled his strongest criticism yet of Israel’s
Civilian casualties? Blame Hamas Read More »
Middle East, Steve Kramer
-Fourteenth in a series- By Donald H. Harrison GREAT FALLS, Montana – There are numerous eye-catching exhibits at the Lewis & Clark National Historic Interpretive Center here, including a life-size display showing how the early 19th century American explorers Meriwether Lewis and William Clark had to drag their boats around the five cascades of Great
In the footsteps of Lewis and Clark Read More »
Donald H. Harrison, USANature’s God, The Heretical Origins of the American Republic by Matthew Stewart, Norton & Co., New York; ISBN 978-0-393-06454-4 ©2014, $28.95, p. 435, plus Notes and Index By Fred Reiss, Ed.D. WINCHESTER, California — When I first read the title of Matthew Stewart’s newest book, Nature’s God, The Heretical Origins of the American Republic, I
The non- religious origins of U.S. democracy Read More »
Fred Reiss, EdD, USA