Book Review: ‘Chabad’s Secret’

Chabad’s Secret: Inside the World’s Most Successful Jewish Organization by Chaim Dalfin, Jewish Enrichment Press, Brooklyn, NY;  ISBN 978-0-9889580-7-4 ©2015, $35.00, p. 190, plus appendices, bibliography, glossary, and index By Fred Reiss, Ed.D.   WINCHESTER, California — Rabbi Israel ben Eliezer, universally known as the Baal Shem Tov, is considered the founder of Chassidism, when in […]

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Fred Reiss, EdD, Jewish Religion

Jewish news briefs: June 2, 2015

Israeli ministers increase efforts to fight boycotts (JNS.org) Israeli government ministers are increasing their efforts to fight academic, consumer, cultural, and sports boycotts against Israel in what has become a significant diplomatic priority for the Jewish state. Last Friday, Israel was able to thwart a Palestinian motion asking FIFA, world soccer’s governing body, to suspend

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International, Middle East, USA

SDJW thanks its May contributors

SAN DIEGO (SDJW)—San Diego Jewish World acknowledges and thanks those writers and photographers whose bylines appeared during the month of May on its website. They were: David Amos Laurie Baron Caren Besner Dan Bloom Shoshana Bryen Stephen Bryen Garry Fabian Abraham Foxman Donald H. Harrison Natasha Josefowitz Rabbi Ben Kamin Tony Klug Steve Kramer Lloyd

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Barry Shaw, Donald H. Harrison, Dorothea Shefer-Vanson, Eileen Wingard, Eric George Tauber, Eva Trieger, Fred Reiss, EdD, Ira Sharkansky, Lawrence Baron, Mark D. Zimmerman, Melanie Rubin, Michael Ordman, Mimi Pollack, Natasha Josefowitz, Sheryl Rowling, Shoshana Bryen, Steve Kramer

Jewish Trivia: NYC Celebrate Israel Parade

By Mark D. Zimmerman MELVILLE, New York — Which of the following marched in the 2015 Celebrate Israel parade in New York City? A.Saint Brigades Drum & Bugle Corps, Kars 4 Kids, and The Amazing Juggling Mohelim. B. Jordache, Areyvut Mitzvah Clowns, and Mr. Pickle. C. Bushwackers Drum & Bugle Corps, Caucasian Jewish Congregation, and The Cheese

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Mark D. Zimmerman, Trivia, Humor & Satire

Israeli diplomats calculate ‘payback’ costs, benefits

By Ira Sharkansky JERUSALEM–The techniques come from economic concepts of benefits and costs, but the subject is not primarily money Most of those benefits and costs concern human life and welfare, and the postures of great powers that facilitate or complicate Israeli actions Once it was primarily about money, i.e., what Israel could receive from

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Ira Sharkansky, Middle East

Finding one’s roots can be bitter and sweet

Out of the Shoebox, an Autobiographical Mystery Historical Novel by Yaron Reshef, translated from the Hebrew by Nina R. Davis and Shira E. Davis, Amazon, 2014 By Dorothea Shefer-Vanson MEVASSERET ZION, Israel– Yaron Reshef begins his book, which has been expertly translated by Nina and Shira Davis, with a declaration regarding the sequence of chance

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Dorothea Shefer-Vanson, Jewish History