By Dorothea Shefer-Vanson MEVASSERET ZION, Israel — A cold and rainy Saturday morning with no visiting grandchildren or social obligations presented a golden opportunity to attend a concert of chamber music given in the nearby neighbourhood of Ein Kerem. This is an outlying part of Jerusalem, consisting mainly of picturesque old houses, many of
Chamber music and soup! Mmm-mm good! Read More »
Dorothea Shefer-Vanson
By Rabbi Michael Leo Samuel CHULA VISTA, California — Martin Buber told the following story: Once the Baal Shem Tov stopped on the threshold of a House of Prayer and refused to go in. “I cannot go in,” he said. “It is crowded with teachings and prayers from wall to wall and from floor to
Prayer simply doesn’t work in the third person Read More »
Michael Leo Samuel-RabbiBy Donald H. Harrison SAN DIEGO — The Jewish Community Foundation seeks three young leaders who can inspire other high school students in San Diego County to regularly engage in philanthropy and volunteerism. To find them, JCF is sponsoring a competition, with a deadline of Sept. 30 for entries, to pick suitable candidates for the
JCF searches for three more remarkable teens Read More »
Donald H. Harrison
By Laurie Baron SAN DIEGO — Note: I recently retired from San Diego State University after teaching there for 24 years and another 13 years at St. Lawrence University. (It is neither true that I taught at a Catholic university at my previous position nor that the school canonized me. It was in upstate New
The Wandering Review: Reflections on Jewish Film Read More »
Lawrence BaronEditor: Many citizens of Israel feel that the American Jewish Community can help in being the decisive weight needed to end Jonathan Pollard’s outdated prison sentence. We hope that we will all give our unconditional strength in ending one man’s punishment and prison sentence for a crime for which, we believe, the price has
Israeli letter writer seeks protests for Pollard Read More »
USA
By Mimi Pollack SAN DIEGO — The Line by Israel Horovitz is the longest-running play off-off Broadway, having made its debut in 1974. It has been seen in 25 countries and translated into 35 languages. One of those languages is Spanish and Teatro Punto y Coma recently presented it during the San Diego Repertory Theater’s 19th
‘The Line,’ aka ‘El Primero,’ played with gusto but script is boring Read More »
Jewish History, Mimi Pollack
By Cynthia Citron LOS ANGELES — A rather persnickety lady from Newton, Massachusetts wanders into a beauty salon in Framingham, forms an unlikely friendship with the hairdresser, and keeps coming back regularly for 40 years. That would seem to be loyalty above and beyond, since the distance between Newton and Framingham is the same as
‘Beautified’ needs more action to sustain interest Read More »
Cynthia CitronBy Ira Sharkansky JERUSALEM — There is an old rule of politics, which you can find in one or another textbook, that a ruling party or a coalition that is too big is bad. Small is better, insofar as its members are afraid of losing the whole game if they wander off the reservation. When
Bibi’s coalition has many fault lines Read More »
Ira Sharkansky, Middle East
By Shoshana Bryen WASHINGTON, D.C. — Few things ought to be as urgent as keeping Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons, yet the West – led from the front by the United States – has fallen into the “peace process” trap that considers talk to be progress and, once a conversation has begun, that there is
Iran’s talk-talk strategy is working Read More »
Middle East, Shoshana Bryen
By Danny Bloom CHIAYI CITY, Taiwan — I cannot see the future and I’m no prophet, but I have seen the future — so to speak — and it’s dank, dark and dystopian. In 500 years, if we do not tame climate change and global warming worldwide, Israel will be no more and the entire Middle
Is global warming a major Jewish issue? It should be Read More »
Science, Medicine, & Education
By Donald H. Harrison SAN DIEGO — The current issue of Western States Jewish History is devoted to the Jews of neighboring Orange County. One very familiar San Diego name is included, that of Dr. Abraham Nasatir, (1904-1991), who grew up in Santa Ana and learned Torah from his father, Morris, long before settling here
A San Diego voice from Orange County’s past Read More »
Donald H. Harrison
By Isaac Yetiv, Ph.D. LA JOLLA, California — Two factors make these elections different from the past: the outrageous amounts of money spent on both sides, passing the billion mark, (and its corollary, the unending and repetitious campaign,) and the excessive use of ad hominem attacks rather than a reasoned debate on the issues (and its corollary, a cynical demagoguery
Positions sadly get twisted in U.S. elections Read More »
USA
By David Amos SAN DIEGO — I find pleasure in planning concerts that have a particular theme. I feel that audiences also sense continuity and satisfaction when the entire program has a unifying element, as was the case in concerts of last April, when the Tifereth Israel Community Orchestra presented Hebraic Voices. This time, the
Summers conducts Autumn and other music of Nature Read More »
Travel and Food
By Donald H. Harrison DEL MAR, California — As a group of us walked into the press party Friday evening, June 1, at the San Diego County Fair, we were confronted by the old and the new. The old, in the sense of what expects to see at county fairs, was represented by a
The fair, politics, a Thai-Mandarin restaurant and the U-T Read More »
Donald H. Harrison