AAA-Writers and photographers

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

Metsitsa b’peh is a custom mohels should discard

By Rabbi Michael Leo Samuel CHULA VISTA, California –For the past 2000 years, enemies of the Jews have often portrayed the Jews as leeches and vampires. Some people think Bram Stoker’s gothic novel about the blood-thirsty demon bears an uncanny resemblance to the pale-skinned Jew, who hates anything associated with the light of Christianity. Over […]

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Jewish Religion, Michael Leo Samuel-Rabbi

Works of globe-girdling Yiddish journalist translated to English

Distant Dreams and Hard Truths: Zionist and Other Writings of Zelman Kagarlitsky by Daniel Harbour, editor, The Lansing Press; ISBN 978-0-9567661-0-6 ©2010, p. 218, including notes and index, cover price unlisted By Fred Reiss, Ed.D. WINCHESTER, California — Who is Zalman Kagarlitsky? Thanks to Daniel Harbour, the great-grandson of Kagarlitsky, the work of an articulate and

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Fred Reiss, EdD

Beating away idols during a percussion Shabbat

By Donald H. Harrison CHULA VISTA, California –If it had been the subject of publicity, it might have been labeled “Percussion Shabbat” because at the beginning of the Friday night service congregants of Temple Beth Sholom helped themselves to drums, cymbals, triangles, tambourines and maracas. As they drummed, tapped, rang, and shook their way through

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Donald H. Harrison

‘Thrillah Megillah’ sung to Michael Jackson melodies

SAN DIEGO — Members of Tifereth Israel Synagogue presented a joyously anachronistic dramatization of the Book of Esther — “The Thrillah Megillah” — retelling the Purim story on Wednesday evening,  March 7, with the songs, dances and costumes of the late Pop/ Rock Singer Michael Jackson. After Rabbi Leonard Rosenthal recited an abbreviated version of

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Donald H. Harrison

Book sets out the case for burial instead of cremation

Cremation or Burial?  A Jewish View by Doron Kornbluth, Mosaica Press, 2012, 192 pages including appendices, ISBN 978-1-937887-01-8, No retail price listed. By Donald H. Harrison SAN DIEGO — Doron Kornbluth is a prolific writer, having fairly recently published two books: Raising Kids To Love Being Jewish  and  Why Be Jewish? ,both of which have

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Donald H. Harrison

Some words to Obama that Netanyahu might have added

By Shoshana Bryen WASHINGTON, D.C. — Here are some comments that Israel’s Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu perhaps should have added in his talk with U.S. President Barack Obama earlier this week: “Mr. President, you live in a big country: wide and long with friendly neighbors and oceans. The distance of your journey from Honolulu to

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Middle East, Shoshana Bryen

Purim carnival delights Tifereth Israel congregants

  By Donald H. Harrison SAN DIEGO — In nearly every costume imaginable, including some Esthers and Mordechais, members and friends of Tifereth Israel Synagogue on March 4 held a Purim carnival, featuring a wide variety of games, prizes, activities and, of course, hamantaschen, looking forward to the joyous holiday that will be officially celebrated

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Donald H. Harrison

Greatly to their credit, most Jews hold Israel close

By Dorothea Shefer-Vanson MEVASSERET ZION, Israel–I finished reading Howard Jacobson’s book, The Finkler Question, and was still pondering its manifold messages in the evening as I attended a performance of Gilbert and Sullivan’s H.M.S. Pinafore. This was given in Jerusalem by an amateur troupe composed mainly of immigrants from English-speaking countries.. Friends had tried to

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Dorothea Shefer-Vanson, Travel and Food

What Shmuley Boteach could have written in ‘Kosher Jesus’

Kosher Jesus by Shmuley Boteach; Gefen Publishing House; ISBN-10: 9652295787 ©2012, $26, 300 pages. By Rabbi Michael Leo Samuel CHULA VISTA, California — Shmuley Boteach is a complicated man. At the risk of sounding obvious, Shmuley is not your typical Chabad rabbi. His past associations with singer Michael Jackson and his book on Kosher Sex

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Jewish Religion, Michael Leo Samuel-Rabbi