By Ira Sharkansky KIBBUTZ AMIAD, Israel–Our apartment in Jerusalem’s French Hill neighborhood is about 810 meters above sea level. We began our trip to the Galilee by driving to the tunnel under Mt Scopus, and then through the Judean Desert to the Jordan Valley. At the junction to the road north we were 300 meters below […]
Sightseeing through the Galilee Read More »
Ira Sharkansky, Middle East
By David Brin ENCINITAS, California — In some cool, exciting news, I can now formally announce the fruition of a project that I’ve been helping put together for some time, led by my colleague, UCSD professor Sheldon Brown. The University of California, San Diego and the Arthur C. Clarke Foundation have agreed to establish the
UCSD establishes a center for human imagination Read More »
Science, Medicine, & Education
By Carol Davis SAN DIEGO —When there is no past to reflect on, the now seems the norm and even the ‘now’ is questionable when equality and ‘pride’ in who we are and whom we choose to be our life partners are still being challenged legally and in the court of public opinion. Alexi Kaye
‘The Pride’ contrasts gay life today and 50 years ago Read More »
Carol Davis, San Diego County, Theatre, Film & BroadcastBy Rabbi Ben Kamin SAN DIEGO — It is told: A rabbi lived in the Polish village of Danzig as the storm clouds began to bring in the Nazis in the late 1930s. This week’s Holocaust Remembrance Day is a chance to reflect on human behavior. It was the rabbi’s custom to take a daily
The smile that saved a life Read More »
Travel and Food
The Essential Guide to Jewish Prayer and Practices by Andrea Lieber; ISBN 978-1-61564-138-3 ©2012, $16.95, p. 316, including appendices and index Jewish Liturgy and its Development by A. Z. Idelsohn; ISBN 978-0-486-28648-8 2012 reprint by Dover Publications, Inc., New York of ©1931, p. 404, including appendices, notes, and index By Fred Reiss, Ed.D. WINCHESTER, California
Two guides explain Jewish worship services Read More »
Jewish ReligionBy Yaakov Lappin WASHINGTON, D.C –At the start of this week, hundreds of pro-Palestinian activists planned to board passenger planes and fly to Israel. Their plan, according to Israeli intelligence assessments, was to join Palestinian demonstrations in east Jerusalem and the West Bank, events that had a high potential to turn violent. The activists,
Israel’s organization turned ‘flytilla’ into a non-event Read More »
Middle East
By Rabbi Leonard Rosenthal SAN DIEGO — On Tuesday night I shared a fascinating lesson plan from Yad Vashem (Israel’s Holocaust Martyrs’ and Heroes’ Remembrance Authority) with my Community Jewish High students. The lesson juxtaposed two reports from a transport that carried Jews from Dusseldorf, Germany to Riga, Latvia that left on December 11, 1941.
Let’s be the ‘village’ that supports Israel locally Read More »
International, Jewish History, Middle East
Rabbi Baruch Lederman By Rabbi Baruch Lederman SAN DIEGO — The Torah tells us that we cannot eat just any animal, bird, or fish. It has to be kosher. But don’t worry, even though the Torah prohibits us from many many foods, there is still plenty of kosher food to be found. Just have a
Can we believe 100 percent in an outcome? Read More »
Jewish Religion
By Donald H. Harrison SAN DIEGO–It’s been a busy week, marked by death, media controversy, a book release, birthdays and a brit milah for people closely associated with San Diego Jewish World, and I’d like to take the personal time to acknowledge and comment on these. First, as all our readers know by now, the
Week of death, birth, simchas for San Diego Jewish World Read More »
Donald H. Harrison, Shor M. Masori
By Mimi Pollack SAN DIEGO — Compassion without Borders. As a teacher of English as Second Language who works with students and refugees from all over the world, those words resonated with me. Also, as a Jubu [ a Jew and student of Tibetan Buddhism], it was an honor to see His Holiness the
Dalai Lama urges peacemakers to seek peace of mind Read More »
Mimi Pollack, Travel and Food
By Rabbi Dow Marmur JERUSALEM –The full Hebrew name of Holocaust Memorial Day is yom hasho’a v’hagvurah, the day of catastrophe and heroism. The commemorations in Israel tend to put at least as much stress on the heroism as on the catastrophe. Thus the annual state ceremony at Yad Vashem, the Holocaust Memorial complex, in
Yom HaShoah and the Iran threat Read More »
Middle East
By Rabbi Steven Burg NEW YORK — The shocking news came over the Passover holiday. Five young men, all Jews, were found in a basement, bound together nearly naked, covered in welts and smeared with honey, hot sauce and flour. When they were rescued, the victims were shivering and described as having “horrified and fearful
BU fraternity incident underscores need for anti-bullying measures Read More »
Science, Medicine, & Education
By James Colbert WASHINGTON, D.C. –Providing the Egyptian military with unrestricted military assistance no longer serves American goals. While conditional aid is a relatively weak diplomatic tool, it is the only approach left to the United States to alter meaningfully Egypt’s negative trajectory that is propelled by an economy nearing collapse, ongoing human rights abuses,
U.S. should put conditions on its military aid to Egypt Read More »
USA
Editor’s Note: The following eulogy was delivered at the funeral of Gert Thaler, 91, on Tuesday, April 17, at Ohr Shalom Synagogue in San Diego by her dear friend Norman Greene. By Norman Greene SAN DIEGO–As my friend Lorraine Schrag commented, “it is hard to imagine a world without Gert thaler.” Many here today have
Gert Thaler’s purposefulness and zaniness remembered Read More »
Obituaries & memorials, San Diego County