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 Eileen Wingard SAN DIEGO — Guitar virtuoso, recording artist, and arranger, Gregg Nestor, has moved back to San Diego after living a number of years in London and Los Angeles. He has recently released five CDs. One of them, Dancing On Air, is a delightful collection of works based on folksongs. The recording opens […]
Guitarist Nestor’s ‘Dancing on Air’ delightfully international Read More »
Eileen Wingard
The Forgotten Zionist: The Life of Solomon (Sioma) Yankelevitch Jacobi by Rodney Benjamin and David Cebon; Jerusalem: Gefen Publishing House, ISBN 978-965-229-571-2, 248 pages including index, $24.95. By Donald H. Harrison SAN DIEGO — This is a loving biography, well researched historically by the son-in-law and grandson of Sioma Jacobi, who was an assistant to
Biography recounts struggles of General Zionists and Revisionists Read More »
Donald H. Harrison
By Shoshana Bryen WASHINGTON, D.C. –Mitt Romney is being castigated for praising the culture that has allowed a democratic, (mainly) free market Israel, operating under the rule of law, to thrive amid decades of threat and periodic open warfare and a heavy defense burden. Actually, he’s being castigated for what his praise of Israel implies
Palestinian mindset: better to slap Israel than to improve self Read More »
Middle East, Shoshana Bryen
By Dorothea Shefer-Vanson ZIKHRON YA’AKOV, Israel — It’s over twenty years since my own children were teenagers, and it was with some trepidation that my husband and I agreed to leave our home and spend a week in Zikhron Ya’akov attending to our three grandsons while their parents took a well-deserved break abroad. Like everywhere
Here’s Zikhron Ya’akov from grandma’s perspective Read More »
Dorothea Shefer-Vanson, Travel and FoodBy Shoshana Bryen WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Palestinians face an economic crisis more severe than the World Bank had anticipated; the Bank fears that the territories may become “ungovernable.” This is not actually new, but since the Bank in its panic is considering bypassing restrictions on money to Hamas, it is worth looking at the
Palestinians can blame themselves for shattered economy Read More »
Middle East, Shoshana Bryen
By Laurie Baron SAN DIEGO — I had been looking forward to last week. Todd Solondz’s Dark Horse and Sarah Polley’s Take This Waltz were opening in San Diego, and I knew both featured Jewish characters. Finally, I would have the opportunity to review movies currently playing in theatres for my column. Unfortunately, depicting Jewish
The Wandering Review: ‘Dark Horse’ and ‘Take This Waltz’ Read More »
Lawrence BaronBy Charlene Seidle & Brachie Sprung JERUSALEM–During the Hebrew month of Av, Jews around the world mark the nine somber days of mourning followed by Tisha B’Av (the 9th of Av), one of the most solemn days on the Jewish calendar. There are many reasons that we mourn during this period, but most famously it
Entrepreneurial institutions reinvigorating Jerusalem Read More »
Donald H. Harrison
Unbroken Spirit: A Heroic Story of Faith, Courage, and Survival by Yosef Mendelevich, Gefen Publishing House; 2012; ISBN 978-965-229-563-7; 337 pages. By Donald H. Harrison SAN DIEGO –Feeling desperate that Jews were not allowed to emigrate freely from the Soviet Union, Yosef Mendelevich and a few compatriots planned some 42 years ago to hijack a
How Judaism survived the gulag Read More »
Donald H. HarrisonBy Donald H. Harrison SAN DIEGO — Having watched the July 27 opening ceremony of the 30th Olympiad on television, and having read Danny Boyle spent $42 million to produce that spectacle, I had the altogether unwarranted and vain notion that I could produce a shorter version, but one more compelling. While there were moments of
An alternative opening ceremony for the Olympics Read More »
Donald H. Harrison
By Michael Leo Samuel CHULA VISTA, California –This Shabbat is the 9th of Av, the saddest day of the Jewish year. Yet, Shabbat does not afford us the opportunity to grieve. For this reason, the fast is postponed to Saturday night. The time of the “Three Weeks,” leading up to Tisha’ b’ Av, are traditionally
Surfacing our inner heroes Read More »
Michael Leo Samuel-Rabbi, Travel and Food
Einstein’s Jewish Science: Physics at the Intersection of Politics and Religion by Steven Gimbel; Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore, Maryland; ISBN 978-1-4214-0554-4 ©2012, $24.95, p. 245, including endnotes, bibliography, and index By Fred Reiss, Ed.D. WINCHESTER, California — In 1922, a year after winning the Nobel Prize in physics for what we know today as
Einstein at the crossroads of science and religion Read More »
Fred Reiss, EdD, Science, Medicine, & Education
By Eva Trieger VISTA–David Ellenstein, Artistic Director of North Coast Repertory Theater in Solana Beach, set aside some time for an interview between rehearsals for Fiddler on the Roof at Moonlight Amphitheater and his home theater’s summer tap dancing extravaganza. He has eagerly embraced the role of Tevye, an observant Jew, living in Czarist
Theatre director himself being directed as Tevye Read More »
Eva TriegerBy Shoshana Bryen WASHINGTON, D.C. — As Governor Romney continues overseas travel that includes Israel, he doesn’t have to be ready to solve the problems of the region, or have a “peace plan” in his pocket. A few basic principles — previously observed by both Republican and Democratic presidents — will serve him well. 1.
Some tips for Romney’s Israel visit Read More »
Shoshana Bryen, USABy Rabbi Michael Leo Samuel CHULA VISTA, California — Some anthropologists, like Mircea Eliade, argue that the biblical notion of time is essentially linear, while the Oriental notion of time is cyclical in nature. Eliade was only partially correct. The Jewish holiday cycle certainly has a strong cyclical element. If anything, Jewish concept of time
Jews must guard against gratuitous hatred Read More »
Jewish Religion, Michael Leo Samuel-Rabbi