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 — Philosopher George Santayana is perhaps best known for saying, “He who forgets the past, is condemned to repeat it.” This attitude finds profound expression in much of the rabbinic literature regarding the period of time that is better known as, “The Three Weeks,” which culminates […]
Akiba stayed optimistic even after Temple destroyed Read More »
Jewish Religion, Michael Leo Samuel-RabbiBy Donald H. Harrison SAN DIEGO — Evidently Assembly Majority Leader Toni Atkins, Assemblywoman Lorena Gonzalez, San Diego City Council President Todd Gloria and Vince Hall, who resigned Friday as Mayor Bob Filner’s chief of staff, are privy to information they don’t feel the public is entitled to know. All four of these powerful Democrats
Political lynch mob circles Mayor Filner Read More »
Donald H. HarrisonBy Donald H. Harrison SAN DIEGO–If it were likened to a tennis match, Donna Frye and her two lawyer friends came up with a very weak serve in their effort to force Bob Filner to resign as mayor. Filner decisively volleyed the political ball right back to them, leaving them to scramble for a way
Arrogance of Filner’s accusers enables mayor to bounce back Read More »
Donald H. HarrisonBy Donald H. Harrison SAN DIEGO — The accusations against Mayor Bob Filner are coming fast and furious, and I feel heartsick that the Jewish mayor’s administration seems to be imploding. He’s been accused of improperly soliciting payment from land developers to the city treasury for his favorite projects, an accusation that has evidently aroused
Say it isn’t so, Mayor Bob Read More »
Donald H. HarrisonBy Rabbi Michael Leo Samuel CHULA VISTA, California — When the nine days of the Jewish month of Ab arrives, our joy diminishes accordingly.[1] Unlike other times of the year, this period in particular beckons us to give thought to the reasons why the Second Jewish Commonwealth of the 1st century ended in disaster for the
Tisha B’Av and the attack on a Haredi soldier Read More »
Michael Leo Samuel-Rabbi, Middle East
By Eileen Wingard LONG BEACH, California — The Long Beach Opera Company’s staging of Ernest Bloch’s Macbeth was an unusual production, taking place in San Pedro’s World Cruise Center. With bleacher seating on two sides of a center aisle, there were no set changes, costumes were minimal, and the three acts were telescoped into 105
Opera company cruises through Bloch’s ‘MacBeth’ Read More »
Eileen WingardBy Rabbi Michael Leo Samuel CHULA VISTA, California — The list of famous people President Obama has invited to the White House is something most of us would find surprising, amusing, and even outrageous. He has on occasions invited Gangsta Rappers like the rap artist named Common, whose poetical lyrics extols the virtues of cannibalism,
Obama’s Middle Eastern guest list raises questions Read More »
Michael Leo Samuel-Rabbi, USA
By Donald H. Harrison SAN DIEGO– From my vantage point on the other side of the United States, the fact that two Jewish politicians who resigned their offices in separate sex scandals are now seeking to return to elective offices in New York indicates that America continues to change its sexual attitudes. Someday, we may
Weiner and Spitzer: Beneficiaries of changing sexual mores? Read More »
Donald H. HarrisonJuly 7, 2013 Mayor Bob Filner San Diego City Hall 202 C Street San Diego, CA 92101 Dear Mayor Filner, As you know, over the years the publications with which I have been associated (San Diego Jewish Press-Heritage, San Diego Jewish World) have endorsed you every time you’ve run, impressed by your commitment since your
An open letter to Mayor Bob Filner Read More »
Donald H. Harrison
Shanghai Love by Layne Wong; She Writes Press; 2013, ISBN 978-1-938314-18-6; 321 pages, $16.95. By Donald H. Harrison SAN DIEGO– Peilin is a young woman from rural China, and Henry is a refugee from Nazi Germany. In this novel, they meet in the Shanghai apothecary where she is working temporarily. They are brought together because
Novel matches Jewish refugee and Chinese woman Read More »
Donald H. HarrisonBy Rabbi Michael Leo Samuel CHULA VISTA, California — The following are the stages by which the Israelites journeyed up by companies from the land of Egypt under the guidance of Moses and Aaron. — (Numbers 33:1) The biblical narrator lists 42 stopping points beginning with Egypt. Some of the mystical commentaries make a penetrating
Pesach, 4th of July and Morsi’s overthrow Read More »
Jewish Religion, Michael Leo Samuel-Rabbi
By Dorothea Shefer-Vanson MEVASSERET ZION, Israel — One of the readers of the AJR Journal (Association of Jewish Refugees), published in London, to which I contribute a monthly column entitled ‘Letter from Israel,’ wrote an irate letter to the editor complaining about what I write. They wrote: “Why doesn’t Mrs. Shefer-Vanson write about the real
Jerusalem and Northwest London Read More »
Dorothea Shefer-Vanson, Middle East
Anyway by Arthur Salm, Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers, 2012, ISBN 978-1-4424-2931-4; 182 pages, $6.99. By Donald H. Harrison SAN DIEGO–Arthur Salm is the former book review editor of the San Diego Union-Tribune, so you really have to admire his courage, putting himself out there. In that position, he must have made many
Tweener, not wanting to be a nebish, reinvents himself Read More »
Donald H. Harrison
Foxes in the Vineyard: Templars, Nazis, and the Battle for Jerusalem by Michael J. Cooper, iUniverse, Inc., Bloomington, IN; ISBN 978-1-4620-6308-6 ©2011, $18.95, p. 275 By Fred Reiss, Ed.D WINCHESTER, California — Foxes in the Vineyard, the 2011 grand prize winner of Indie, a book contest sponsored by independent publishers, is a work of historical
Nazis, Templars novel set during Israel’s independence battle Read More »
Fred Reiss, EdD