Avital’s mandolin featured in unique concert

By Eileen Wingard SAN DIEGO — Last month, the San Diego Symphony Orchestra (SDSO) concluded its Chamber Music Series at the Scripps Research Institute Auditorium with a program featuring an unusual instrument for classical chamber music concerts, the mandolin. That plucked folk instrument, in the hands of the Israeli-born mandolin virtuoso, Avi Avital, combined with string

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Eileen Wingard

JNS news briefs: June 11, 2013

Netanyahu: Construction has ‘no bearing’ on peace deal (JNS.org) Speaking behind closed doors at the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee on Monday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that if peace negotiations with the Palestinians were entered into, they were expected to “be long and tough, but that the alternative Israel faces is a

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International

Time to fight the online hate epidemic

 By Abraham H. Foxman and Christopher Wolf NEW YORK — Several women’s advocates recently put the spotlight on misogynistic postings to Facebook promoting and celebrating violent attacks on women.  As a result of their pressure on advertisers and others, Facebook eventually responded — admitting it could do better in policing online hate and outlining a

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USA

JNS news briefs: June 10, 2013

Assad could prevail in Syrian civil war, minister says (Israel Hayom/Exclusive to JNS.org) There is a “real possibility” that Syrian President Bashar al-Assad “could survive Syria’s civil war and even prevail in it” against the rebels trying to topple him, Israeli International Relations and Strategic Affairs Minister Dr. Yuval Steinitz told a group of foreign

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International

The tortured soul of Bobby Kennedy

By Rabbi Ben Kamin ENCINITAS, California–Robert F. Kennedy, 42, was shot several times in the kitchen of the Ambassador Hotel just before midnight on June 4, 1968. He had just won California Democratic presidential primary and seemed destined for the nomination. He lingered through the next day but wounds proved fatal and he died early

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USA

Arguments for knowledge versus those for power

By Rabbi Michael Leo Samuel CHULA VISTA, California — Dissension is nothing new in Jewish tradition. One of the most famous biblical disagreements is found in this week’s Torah portion, where we read about the famous controversy between Korah and Moses (Numbers 16ff.) Yet, unlike the debates between Hillel and Shammai, which for the most

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Jewish Religion, Michael Leo Samuel-Rabbi