Navy Renames a Former San Diego-Based Ship After Slave and Sailor Robert Smalls

Published by The San Diego Union-Tribune The U.S. guided-missile cruiser Chancellorsville, which was homeported in San Diego for many years, has been renamed Robert Smalls, honoring a Civil War-era maritime pilot who commandeered a Confederate ship in 1862 and turned it over to the Union forces. Smalls was born a slave and went on to […]

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San Diego County

Sassoon Family History on Display in New York’s Jewish Museum

Published by DPA The story of the Sassoons, a family whose history spans centuries and nations, is now on show at New York’s Jewish Museum. The new exhibition follows four generations, from Iraq to India, China and England, showing their role in trade, art collecting, architectural patronage and civic engagement through more than 120 objects

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Jewish History

In Egypt, Pentagon Chief Seeks to Balance Human Rights and Security

Published by Reuters By Idrees Ali CAIRO (Reuters) – U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin travelled to Egypt on Wednesday to tell Cairo it wanted to deepen security and other ties but was concerned about human rights in country where activists say government critics are regularly rounded up. Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, who as army

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Middle East

God Speaks to Eric Adams, and NYC’s Mayor Tells the World…Adams, Adams, Adams

By Bruce S. Ticker PHILADELPHIA — New York City Mayor Eric Adams may well fit in somewhere between the great actor Frederic March’s portrayal of a fanatical lawyer delivering God’s instructions to the world, and that of lesser-known actor Jay Robinson as a frenzied Caligula when, as Rome’s emperor, he demands his court to “kneel…kneel…kneel

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Bruce Ticker, Opinion, USA

B’Shalom: Mineral Creations and Schmoozing with Bagels

By day, Carleigh Gold is a commercial contracts attorney, a precise occupation in which she must examine every clause to weigh its legal meaning and possible ramifications.  It is exacting work.  After work hours and on weekends, Gold gets to unleash her creativity.  For nearly 13 years now, she has painted in oils and acrylics, and over the past three years she has developed a new specialty: resin art utilizing minerals and gems found in nature. [Donald H. Harrison]

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California, Donald H. Harrison, Lifestyles, Music, Dance, and Visual Arts, San Diego County

How Jews Made Purim Personal

By Sarah Ogince (JNS) “Cursed is Hitler, cursed is Mussolini … Blessed is Roosevelt, blessed is Churchill.” With these words, the Moroccan scribe Prosper Hassine concluded his account of World War II and the Holocaust. The story was familiar, but what made Hassine’s work unique was its style: Written on a long parchment scroll, it

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Holocaust, International, Jewish History, Jewish Religion, Middle East, USA

Arnold Schwarzenegger: ‘Visiting Auschwitz Hit Me Harder Than Anything in My Life’

Published by BANG Showbiz English Arnold Schwarzenegger will “never” forget the emotional impact of visiting Auschwitz. The 75-year-old bodybuilder-turned-Hollywood star paid a visit to the Polish concentration camp – where more than one million Jewish people and other minority groups were tortured and killed between 1940 and 1945 – and admitted that the experience was

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Holocaust

Parashat Ki Tisa and Parah: Do You Count Time, Or Make Time Count? 

By Michael R. Mantell, Ph.D. SAN DIEGO — What do you do when you feel vulnerable, defenseless, in danger? Like the Israelites in this week’s Torah reading, perhaps you find that your neck stiffens as you shift into an alarm reaction. Life was good when just a short while ago, the Israelites felt the presence

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Jewish Religion, Michael Mantell

Thoughts on the Torah Portion Ki Tisa, Superstition, and Rabbinical Judaism

By Rabbi Israel Drazin BOCA RATON, Florida — The weekly portion of Ki Thissa begins with counting the adult male Israelites from age twenty, by each giving a half shekel so “that there not be a plague among them when you count them,” and raises the question if this is superstition. This is followed by

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Israel Drazin-Rabbi Dr., Jewish Religion

American Jewish Committee Opens San Diego Office, Names Sara Brown Director

SAN DIEGO (Press Release) – American Jewish Committee (AJC) has named Holocaust and genocide expert Sara E. Brown as director of its new San Diego Regional Office. Brown will represent AJC as the organization expands its presence in Southern California and the Southwest. AJC San Diego is the 25th U.S. regional office for AJC, the

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San Diego County, USA

B’Shalom: Abortion and the Guarantee of Religious Freedom

Thanks go to Marsha Sutton who drew my attention to Rabbi Barry Silver of Congregation L’Dor Va-Dor (Generation to Generation) of Palm Beach County bringing a federal suit in Florida seeking to overturn that state’s ban on abortions after the 15-week point of a pregnancy.  He was joined by Rabbi Arthur Wascow of the Shalom Center, as well as by the Unitarian Universalist ministers Harris Riordan and Tony Fisher, and by Buddhist minister Maya Malay. [Donald H. Harrison]

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California, Donald H. Harrison, USA

US Defense Secretary Aims to Reassure Mideast Allies, Deliver Tough Message

Published by Reuters By Idrees Ali AMMAN (Reuters) -U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, in Jordan to begin a three-country Mideast visit, is aiming to reassure key allies of American commitment to the region despite Washington’s recent focus on Russia and China, officials said, but plans frank messages for leaders of Israel and Egypt. The Pentagon

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Middle East