High court strikes down yeshiva students’ military exemption

JERUSALEM (WJC)–The Israeli Supreme Court has ruled that a law that exempts Jewish religious students from the mandatory military service is unconstitutional and can therefore not be extended after it expires next August. With six justices in favor and three against, the controversial law, called ‘Deferral of Service for Yeshiva Students for whom Torah is

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Middle East

Interpreters of Iran-Israel nuclear confrontation in many analytical camps

By Ira Sharkansky JERUSALEM — The current uncertainty is profound, but presents opportunities as well as threats.   Most of the attention is on Iran, widely assumed to be moving toward nuclear weapons, against the background of its leaders’ obsession with the destruction of Israel, raising the possibility of an Israel attack meant to avoid

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Ira Sharkansky, Middle East

New city ordinance encourages keeping goats, bees and chickens at home

SAN DIEGO (Press Release)–More San Diegans will be able to raise chickens, miniature goats, and bees at home, and have more options for selling the food they grow on urban farms, thanks to new regulations approved by the City Council on January 31st. “More and more, we realize the important role urban agriculture can play

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Travel and Food

DA, San Diego City Schools sign ‘mapping agreement’ to prevent juvenile crime

 SAN DIEGO (Press Release)–District Attorney Bonnie M. Dumanis announced on Tuesday, Feb. 21,  that her office has signed a partnership agreement with the San Diego Unified School District that allows both organizations to support student achievement through various activities and programs, including mapping juvenile crime around schools in order to streamline services to specific regions

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San Diego County

The opera ‘Moby Dick’ a visual sensation with strong new music

By Carol Davis SAN DIEGO— The West Coast Premiere of Jake Heggie’s long waited Moby-Dick finally anchored at The Civic Center for at the opening night production on Feb. 18  and from my seat in row U it was a visually splendid sensation. From the time the theatre went dark and Donald Holder’s brilliant light

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Carol Davis, San Diego County, Theatre, Film & Broadcast

Calls to Israel to delay attacking Iran a ‘good cop’ p-r ploy?

 By Yaakov Lappin      WASHINGTON, D.C. — Senior officials from the Obama administration have begun descending on Israel once again to ensure that Jerusalem holds off on an attack on Iran. That, at least, is the message the White House is seeking to generate. “The national security advisor [Tom Donilon] and the American intelligence head [James

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Middle East

Violence against Baptist Church in Jerusalem, mosques elsewhere, reprehensible and should be denounced

By Rabbi Dow Marmur JERUSALEM–When the founders of modern Zionism hoped that having a country of their own would make Jews like all other nations, they didn’t think that the Jews would adopt any of the despicable traits of the anti-Semites among whom they lived in dispersion. The aim of Zionism was not only to

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Middle East

University of Haifa to accept Cal State University students from all campuses on ‘study abroad’ programs

HAIFA, Israel (Press Release) — Almost a decade after suspending its study abroad opportunities for students wanting to study in Israel, California State University has reinstated the program and chosen the University of Haifa as its location of its study abroad students in Israel. The Cal State Study Abroad Program is being reinstated in Israel

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Science, Medicine, & Education

Is ‘faithism’ as dangerous as ‘racism’? Columnist seeks input

By Danny Bloom CHIAYI CITY, TAIWAN — If racism is the belief that inherent different traits in human racial groups justify discrimination, then faithism is the belief that belief in different gods or Gods justifies spiritualism discrimination in terms of who goes to heaven and who goes to hell, among other religious beliefs. In the

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Jewish Religion

Play depicting Simon Wiesenthal worth a standing ovation

By Cynthia Citron VENTURA, California– It’s well worth the trip to the Rubicon Theatre, believe me. Tom Dugan is absolutely brilliant as the Nazi hunter, Simon Wiesenthal. And completely Standing Ovation-worthy. Dugan’s one-man show is set in a replica of Wiesenthal’s office at the Jewish Documentation Center in Vienna on the day of his retirement. As

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Cynthia Citron

Remembering Gunther Plaut

By Rabbi Dow Marmur JERUSALEM –Had the Nazis not come to power in his native Germany, W. Gunther Plaut would have become a judge. But being barred from pursuing a legal career because he was a Jew, he dedicated himself to serving God and his people. That brought him to the Hebrew Union College in

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Jewish Religion