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
In One Era, Out the Other: A Memoir of a 20th-21st Century Jewish Life by Michael Kaufman, Mekor Press of Menucha Publishers, 2012, 564 pages including glossary of Hebrew and Yiddish terms, and endnotes; ISBN 978-1-61465-060-7; Price unlisted on cover. By Donald H. Harrison SAN DIEGO — There is much in this book that […]
Book extols Orthodoxy over other forms of Judaism Read More »
Donald H. HarrisonBy Shoshana Bryen WASHINGTON, D.C. — President Obama’s visit to Israel, and particularly his speech to 500 university students, was a winner at many levels including one he probably had not even considered. In how many countries can the President of the United States call forth the passions of the local people and have confidence
President Obama’s call for peaceful protest in Israel Read More »
Middle East, Shoshana BryenBy Dorothea Shefer-Vanson MEVASSERET ZION, Israel — The visit to Israel of US President Obama caused great excitement for a variety of reasons. The first was why had he come? Was it to reach an agreement regarding dealing with Iran’s steady progress towards a nuclear bomb or to exert pressure towards a solution of the
Some impressions of Obama’s Israel visit Read More »
Dorothea Shefer-Vanson, Middle EastBy Shoshana Bryen WASHINGTON, D.C. — President Obama has had an opportunity during his visit to see some of Israel’s pioneering technology. The list (with thanks to Tom Gross) includes energy alternatives; search and rescue technology; a bionic exoskeleton that allows paraplegics to walk; and a “third eye” camera that helps prevent automobile collisions. If
The President and Israel’s scientific accomplishments Read More »
Science, Medicine, & Education, Shoshana BryenThe Sons of Pigs and Apes: Muslim Antisemitism and the Conspiracy of Silence by Neil J. Kressel, Potomac Books, Washington, D.C.; ISBN 978-1-59797-702-9 ©2012, $29.95, p. 206, plus addenda and index By Fred Reiss, Ed.D. WINCHESTER, California — The word “anti-Semitism” is a relatively new word to the English language, being coined sometime after 1860.
Book examines Muslim anti-Semitism Read More »
Fred Reiss, EdD, Middle EastBy Laurie Baron SAN DIEGO — When you think of Holocaust movies, you conjure up the black and white images of corpses and and skeletal survivors preserved on film by military camera crews as they followed Allied troops liberating concentration and death camps. Feature films like The Pawnbroker or Schindler’s List employ the same
The Wandering Review: ‘Lore’ Read More »
Lawrence Baron
By Donald H. Harrison SAN DIEGO — Retired symphony violinist Eileen Wingard gave members of her havurah (friendship group) from Ohr Shalom Synagogue a demonstration of that “old time religion” at her home Sunday evening, March 17. Wingard, a vegetarian, organized a potluck dinner assembled from fruits and vegetables mentioned in the Bible, ranging from lentil
A biblical jam session in San Diego Read More »
Donald H. HarrisonBy Donald H. Harrison EL CAJON, California — As we Jews get ready to gather around our seder tables to tell again the story of the biblical Exodus, 16 Grossmont College performers are enacting another famous journey of ancient times, that of Odysseus, king of Ithaca, hero of Troy, and long-lost sailor struggling to get
‘The Odyssey’ at Grossmont not unlike a Passover seder Read More »
Donald H. HarrisonBy Shoshana Bryen WASHINGTON, D.C. — Israel has a government, Mr. President. That’s something to remember when you arrive there next week. Israel has a government, elected by its people in a free, fair, open and democratic election. Multiple parties representing widely divergent points of view met a wildly diverse electorate through free media and
President Obama and the new Israeli government Read More »
Middle East, Shoshana BryenBy Rabbi Michael Leo Samuel CHULA VISTA, California–With great anticipation, I was intrigued who the next Pope was going to be. Then the news came on the airwaves: Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio of Argentina was chosen the next Pope; and he has chosen the name, “Francis I,” after the St. Francis of Assisi because he
The new Pope is a mentsch Read More »
Jewish Religion, Michael Leo Samuel-RabbiBy Shoshana Bryen WASHINGTON, D.C. — Training Syrian rebels to conquer the Golan Heights and shoot down Israeli aircraft? No, they don’t say it quite like that. But after years of hypocrisy, the Obama administration has admitted that while it declined to arm Syrian rebels directly for fear that weapons would end up in the
Is U.S. aiding Syrian rebel plans to fight Israel? Read More »
Middle East, Shoshana Bryen
By Donald H. Harrison CARLSBAD, California — It’s a cynical way to look at it, but perhaps parents of preschoolers and elementary school students will consider the recent economic slowdown as a blessing in disguise. When microbiologist Rudy Gonzalez was laid off from the biotech industry last year, he became a house husband. Taking
Slow economy, kids’ creativity formula for business Read More »
Donald H. HarrisonBy Dorothea Shefer-Vanson MEVASSERET ZION, Israel– On our recent visit to Malta we were given special permission to examine the enormous painting by Caravaggio, ‘The Beheading of John the Baptist,’ that hangs in the massive co-cathedral (double cathedral) of Valletta, which is run by the Order of St. John of Jerusalem. After the cathedral was
John the Baptist, Crusaders, Jerusalem invoked in Malta Read More »
Dorothea Shefer-VansonBy Dorothea Shefer-Vanson GIVAT CHAYIM IHUD, Israel — The Theresienstadt Memorial Museum is situated in Israel’s verdant Jezreel Valley, in premises attached to this kibbutz. Once or twice a year I receive the museum newsletter, continuing the subscription taken out by my late father. For many years it appeared in stencil form on plain
Theresienstadt memory kept alive on Israeli kibbutz Read More »
Dorothea Shefer-Vanson, Middle East