Adat Yeshurun hosts JFEST’s South African Jewish night

Marcus also shared that when they first came to South Africa from Lithuania in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, Jews became peddlers, traders and small business owners, similar to the American Jewish immigrant stories. (Sandi Masori)

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International, Jewish History, Lifestyles, Music, Dance, and Visual Arts, San Diego County, Sandi Masori, Staff and Bylined Contributors, Travel and Food

Eighth-grade students commemorate the Holocaust by painting ceramic butterflies

La Mesa Arts Academy’s eighth-grade Social Studies classes, taught by Mrs. Debra Lunamand and Mrs. Heather Filippelli, participated in The Butterfly Project just before the end of the school year as students completed testing and finalized semester grades. More than 300 plaster butterflies were painted. [Cailin Acosta]

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Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Cailin Acosta, Holocaust, International, Jewish History, Music, Dance, and Visual Arts, San Diego County, Science, Medicine, & Education, Staff and Bylined Contributors

Jewish composer Justin Hurwitz featured at final concert of the semester at La Mesa Arts Academy

Composer and songwriter Justin Hurwitz, who wrote the music for La La Land, is Jewish and of Russian, Polish, Syrian, and Lebanese descent. Hurwitz attended Harvard University, where he was roommates with director Damien Chazelle. The two later collaborated on La La Land and several other films. [Cailin Acosta}

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Cailin Acosta, Jewish History, Music, Dance, and Visual Arts, San Diego County, Science, Medicine, & Education, Staff and Bylined Contributors

Parsha Shelach: ‘The link is what you think’

The Torah records one of the most revealing statements in all Tanach: “We were like grasshoppers in our own eyes, and so we were in theirs.”
The first half of the verse is understandable. The spies felt intimidated. They felt small in comparison to the challenges before them. But the second half raises an obvious question. How could they possibly know how the inhabitants of the land viewed them? [Michael R. Mantell, Ph.D]

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Jewish Religion, Michael Mantell, Staff and Bylined Contributors

Silent Movie Mondays ends with Harold Lloyd comedy: ‘Safety Last’

The hanging from a clock scene is one of the most famous sequences in film history: Harold Lloyd dangling from the hands of a giant clock high above the city streets of Los Angeles. The scene remains thrilling today … [Sherrie Rose]

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California, Jewish History, San Diego County, Staff and Bylined Contributors, Theatre, Film & Broadcast

Anti-Israel protesters demand that Colorado release firebomber

The contempt that some Israel-bashers hold for America’s laws never ceases to surprise. Their accomplices in Boulder, Colorado, eclipsed them all on June 1, the first anniversary of Karen Diamond’s murder in a firebombing on Boulder’s Pearl Street. They are demanding the release of her convicted killer, Mohamed Soliman, who was sentenced to life plus 2,178 years in prison last month after pleading guilty to 101 charges in the attack. He injured 13 others. (Bruce S. Ticker)

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Bruce Ticker, Israel, Jewish History, Obituaries & memorials, Opinion, Staff and Bylined Contributors, USA

Jewish history projects win college scholarships

The Combat Antisemitism Movement (CAM) and PeerK12 concluded their 2026 San Diego Jewish American Heritage Month (JAHM) Student Scholarship Contest with a special awards ceremony held at the RUTH: Remember Us The Holocaust exhibit at the La Jolla Library on Tuesday. The event brought together students, community members, and Holocaust survivor Ben Midler to celebrate the next generation of young leaders committed to preserving Jewish history and combating antisemitism through education. (Press Release)

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Jewish History, Press Release, San Diego County, Sports & Competitions