The Art Forger by B.A. Shapiro, Algonquin Books, 2012, 360 pages, ISBN 978-1-61620-132-6, $23.95. By Donald H. Harrison SAN DIEGO –This work of fiction is a compelling story in which the events of three time periods are laced through a single narrative, then tied up together in a literary bow. Novelist Shapiro sustains interest, remarkably […]
Art mystery keeps you in suspense as you learn Read More »
Donald H. Harrison
By Carol Davis ENCINITAS, California — If anyone ever told me that I would be sitting through a performance of Shakespeare’s “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” and listening to the small group of wandering wanna be actors doo whopping to “Life Could Be a Dream, Shaboom”, I would have called them out for it. And if
Shakespeare dooo-wop, dooo-wop Read More »
Carol Davis, San Diego County, Theatre, Film & BroadcastBy Rafael Medoff/JNS.org Like American boys and girls, youngsters growing up in British Mandatory Palestine or the new state of Israel experienced thrills through the adventures of Tarzan, the immortal Edgar Rice Burroughs character whose 100th anniversary will be celebrated next month. American Tarzan movies with Hebrew subtitles attracted standing room-only audiences, and Hebrew writers
Tarzan and the Holocaust Read More »
USAClinton says U.S. is not setting deadlines for Iran (Israel Hayom/Exclusive to JNS.org) The U.S. is “not setting deadlines” for Iran and still considers negotiations to be “by far the best approach” to prevent Iran from developing nuclear weapons, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton told Bloomberg in an interview published Monday. Speaking to
JNS News Briefs: September 10, 2012 Read More »
InternationalBy Ira Sharkansky JERUSALEM — The New York Times changes from moment to moment the stories at the top of its portion on my home page. If I had not seen an item on Gaza (“‘Forgotten Neighborhood’ Underscores the Poverty of an Isolated Enclave“) in that prized spot we could have spent this time on
Why some New York Times stories are chosen Read More »
Ira Sharkansky, Middle East
By Rabbi Ben Kamin SAN DIEGO — Some time ago, I read an analysis of the traffic flow on New York’s Fifth Avenue. Apparently, the average speed (horse-drawn, of course) in 1905 was ten miles per hour. In 1985, polluted by emissions, it was five miles per hour. This reality comes to mind several times
Is the computerized world really more advanced? Read More »
Travel and Food
By Donald H. Harrison SANTA ANA — Wounded Army National Guard Sgt. Ivan Garcia received a Purple Heart on Saturday, Sept. 8. The day before, Garcia’s civilian colleagues at Waxie Sanitary Supply in Santa Ana gathered to express their heartfelt relief that he had managed to come home to them alive from Afghanistan. Waxie’s
A grateful company welcomes its wounded warrior home Read More »
Donald H. Harrison
By Rabbi Yeruchem Eilfort CARLSBAD, California –I have a confession to make. Most people who know me at least fairly well already know that I am conservative in my political leanings. But with that being said I am very proud to be able to call many of my closest friends liberal Democrats. In fact, I
It’s a blessing that Jews are in both parties Read More »
USA, Yeruchem Eilfort-Rabbi
Editor’s Note: Tamara Greenspan Bennett of San Diego is among 101 authors in the anthology, Thin Threads: Real Stories of Hadassah Life Changing Moments, published by Hadassah in celebration of its centennial. Each of the stories is perhaps two or thee pages long, and the appendices of the book include biographical statements about all the
An emotional anthology about Hadassah’s impact Read More »
San Diego CountyBy Zach and Ali Shuman RANCHO SANTA FE, California — It is the “apparent” random intersection of events that many times leads to profound and permanent changes in the course of your life. Such was the case for us as we recently completed the first-ever donor mission to Israel sponsored by Taglit Birthright Israel. Several
The unintended, happy consequences of a Birthright trip Read More »
Travel and Food
By Loren Kantor STUDIO CITY, California — In Jewish Mystical Teaching, the 22 letters of the Hebrew Alphabet are the energetic building blocks of creation. Like the periodic table of elements, God formed all things in the universe through combinations of Hebrew letters (just as atoms of oxygen and hydrogen combine to form a molecule
Notes from the Woodcutter: The Aleph Read More »
Middle East, Music, Dance, and Visual Arts
Story and photo by Judy Lash Balint NITSAN, Israel — There’s the Zionist dream and then there’s the Zionist reality. There are those who dream about living in Israel but can’t quite make it for compelling personal reasons, or who just missed the boat when they had the chance. Others, like Moshe and
Through it all, they’ve been together Read More »
Middle EastBy Ira Sharkansky JERUSALEM — It isn’t pretty. Israel did what it could to keep the photographers away. It doesn’t play well against the history of Jews having to move from place to place, and encountering borders closed against them. Jewish officials have problems with their own population, ambivalent about providing refuge and the prospect
African migrants in Sinai stir emotional debate Read More »
Ira Sharkansky, Middle East
By Rabbi Baruch Lederman SAN DIEGO — When we adhere to G-d’s commandments, we are a truly blessed nation, as the following true account illustrates: Back in the mid nineties a Jewish advertising executive in New York came up with an idea. What if the New York Times – considered the world’s most prestigious newspaper
The enduring Sabbath tradition Read More »
Jewish Religion