Many gray areas in domestic politics and foreign policy

By Ira Sharkansky JERUSALEM — Politics is not an arena for participants or observers who insist on clear decisions. It requires judging the quality of grays, rather than  the clarity of black or white, or demanding one’s concept of the good. The condition reflects the complexities of interests and perspectives. Shifting alliances are more likely […]

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Ira Sharkansky, Middle East

Easy-to-read book provides deep Biblical insight

Daily Life in Biblical Times by Liora Ravid, Gefen Publishing House, 2013, ISBN 978-965-229-609-2, 461 pages plus bibliography, $24.95 By Donald H. Harrison SAN DIEGO — If Liora Ravid’s book receives the attention I believe it deserves, it will transform the Bible for many readers from a vaguely-understood, often misunderstood, set of documents to one

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Donald H. Harrison

In the maternity ward at the onset of the Yom Kippur War

By Dorothea Shefer-Vanson MEVASSERET ZION, ISRAEL –Just as Americans remember where they were when Jack Kennedy was assassinated, Israelis remember where they were when the sirens went at 2 p.m. on Saturday, 6th October, 1973. Anyone who is now under forty or had not yet immigrated to Israel and wasn’t there at that crucial time

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Dorothea Shefer-Vanson, Jewish History

Germany is poison gas supplier to the Mideast

By Shoshana Bryen WASHINGTON, D.C. — Jewish organizational support for President Obama’s temporary determination to enforce international norms and his own red line on Syrian use of chemical weapons brought out the nasty legions. DavidDuke.com and Blacklistednews.com, among others, were vociferous in their condemnation of Jewish “warmongering.” Even Jewish media outlets — TabletMagazine, The Forward

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Middle East, Shoshana Bryen

Sukkot in the Lodz ghetto 1941

By Anav Silverman A series of photos documenting the observance of Sukkot in Ghetto Lodz in 1941 were recently revealed by the Shem Olam Institute, also known as the Faith  and the Holocaust Institute for Education Documentation and Research in Kfar Haroeh. The photos show the ghetto’s Jewish occupants praying with the four species; the

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Jewish History

Humoring the headlines: September 19, 2013

By Laurie Baron SAN DIEGO — As the Republican Party tries to broaden its appeal, it has developed more factions: The Defundamentalists: Republicans who oppose any bill that does not defund Obama Care. The limmigrationists: Republicans who oppose any bill that creates a pathway to citizenship. Deficit Attentionists: Republicans who oppose any bill that raises

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Lawrence Baron, Trivia, Humor & Satire