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
Enfold Me: A Novel of Post Israel by Steven Greenberg; 2012; ISBN 978-0-9856873-1-1; 280 pages; price unlisted By Donald H. Harrison SAN DIEGO — This brutal, shockingly violent novel imagines a high intensity earthquake that leaves Israel defenseless against an opportunistic strike by Iran and its Arab allies. When the smoke and dust clear, […]
Violent novel depicts Israel after its fall Read More »
Donald H. Harrison
By Laurie Baron SAN DIEGO — The Ken Cinema (4061 Adams Avenue) will reprise Nicolas Winding Refn’s Drive (2011) for the midnight shows this Friday and Saturday. The film which earned Refn the award for best director at Cannes is filled with gory killings that will repel squeamish viewers. For those who can stomach the
The Wandering Review: ‘Drive’ Read More »
Lawrence Baron
By Eva Trieger SAN DIEGO — According to Exodus 20, we are bid to “honor thy father and thy mother.” This edict presents something of a challenge for Pippin, son of Charlemagne, as we see in Pickwick Players’ courageous and feisty production at the Moxie Theater. This playful remake of the 1970s’ Broadway production entertains
Pickwick Players present ‘Pippin’ pretty playfully Read More »
Eva Trieger
By Dorothea Shefer-Vanson MEVASSERET ZION, Israel -In preparation for our summer in France, or perhaps simply because I like to think I can read books in French, I bought Anne Sinclair’s book, 21 Rue la Boetie. Reading it took me into the fascinating world of French art in the twentieth century, with extensive ramifications regarding
Picasso, Rosenberg and the Nazi looters Read More »
Dorothea Shefer-Vanson
By Rabbi Michael Leo Samuel SAN DIEGO — Rabbi Abraham Isaac Kook writes in his famous mystical and moral tract, The Lights of Penitence: The greatest impediment to the human spirit, upon reaching maturity, results from the fact that the conception of God is crystallized among people in a particular form, which goes back to childish habit
Anthropomorphizing God does HaShem a disservice Read More »
Jewish Religion, Michael Leo Samuel-Rabbi
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. HarrisonBy 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 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. HarrisonBy 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