After-Effects of Children Witnessing War

Yalom’s goal was “to understand the effects of…wartime experience on children living in Europe and the United States.” Her six friends provided intimate vignettes of terror, trauma, aerial bombing, bomb shelters, and hunger. They endured and became accomplished, but not unscarred, They are likely “the last individuals who can remember World War II” and they will soon “vanish.” She explored the concept of witnesses in her 2015 work, Compelled to Witness, Women Memoirs of the French Revolution. [Oliver Pollak

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Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Oliver Pollak

Jason Reitman admits that making Ghostbusters: Afterlife has been a ‘slow boil’

Published by BANG Showbiz English Jason Reitman admits that making ‘Ghostbusters: Afterlife’ has been a “slow boil”. The 44-year-old director has helmed the latest movie in the supernatural comedy series and admits that he first came up with the concept several years ago, before he realised that it could explore the legacy of Dr. Egon

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Jewish Celebrities

Andrew Garfield’s life changed dramatically after his mother’s death

Published by BANG Showbiz English Andrew Garfield’s life has changed completely since the death of his mother. The 38-year-old star tragically lost his mother Lynn to pancreatic cancer in 2019 and he revealed that her passing has totally “rearranged his psyche” and altered every aspect of his life. Reflecting on his career since playing Spider-Man,

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Jewish Celebrities

Former Trump lawyer Michael Cohen freed after 3-year confinement

Published by Reuters By Carlo Allegri NEW YORK (Reuters) – Michael Cohen, the onetime personal lawyer and fixer for former U.S. President Donald Trump, walked out of federal court a free man on Monday at the end of his three-year sentence for campaign finance violations and other crimes. Cohen, 55, told reporters outside the U.S.

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Shanda File

Richard Johnson: Alan Dershowitz to depose ex-Victoria’s Secret CEO in Epstein case

Published by New York Daily News NEW YORK — Legal eagle Alan Dershowitz has won the right to depose Leslie Wexner of Victoria’s Secret fame. Dershowitz, a Harvard Law School professor, has been fighting the allegation of Virginia Giuffre that he, along with Prince Andrew, had sex with young women provided by the late Jeffrey

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Jewish Celebrities

A Rabbi’s Questions about Adam and Eve

The very introduction to the Bible is obscure. We would have expected the introduction to tell us why God created the world and what God expects from humans, a problem that bothered the famous Bible commentator Rashi (1040-1105), but instead chapters 1 and 2 and other parts of the Bible are obscure, as can be seen in the following items. The obscurities are apparently purposely opaque to prompt us to think, and by thinking improve ourselves and society. [Rabbi Dr. Israel Drazin]

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Israel Drazin-Rabbi Dr., Jewish Religion

What Accounts for Israel’s Weight in World Affairs?

Israel is a serious country. It’s hard to imagine, from a perspective of years ago. Now more than 9 million in population, with a currency increasing in value against others, and apparently able to extract two citizens accused of treason in Turkey due to what seems like the innocent photograph of the President’s residence, without an overt concession to Turkey. [Ira Sharkansky, Ph.D]

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International, Ira Sharkansky, Middle East, USA

A Cantor Says A Final Goodbye to the Grandfather Who Inspired Him

I flew to London last Wednesday, to say goodbye to my 97-year-old Grandpa. Although I usually see my grandparents half a dozen times a year, the pandemic has made it so that I haven’t been able to see them for two and half years. I entered their new assisted living apartment and went straight to my grandfather’s bed. Without hesitation I began to sing our favorite Yiddish song “Oy vey fein”. Immediately he chimed in and sang with me for about fifteen seconds. [Cantor Hanan Liberman]

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International, Jewish History, Obituaries & memorials

One Poet Mourns Earth; Others Sing Songs of Immigration

The 14th season of Jewish Poets—Jewish Voices launched last Monday evening with an outstanding program that attracted 70 attendees on Zoom. It opened with poetry read by local psychologist and poet, Richard Alan Schere. A sample of his offerings, Echo, can be read below. It is a poem that should be on the desks of all politicians as they contemplate their actions regarding climate change. Other Schere poems showed a lighter side with a fine-tuned sense of humor. Schere has made recordings and his work is in the Smithsonian Museum in Washington, D.C. We were fortunate to have such an accomplished poet open our series.  [Eileen Wingard]

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Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Eileen Wingard, San Diego County

Satire: ‘I Shot the Vandals’

I shot the vandals, when I made myself a deputy.                                                                                                    
I shot the vandals, shield property from jeopardy.
Walking through Kenosha town
Pointing my rifle all around. … [Laurie Baron, Ph.D]

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Lawrence Baron, Trivia, Humor & Satire

Did Jacob Actually Wrestle with an Angel? Or Was It a Vision?

Jacob’s wrestling with the angel is arguably one of the most famous images we encounter in the Torah. Commentaries since rabbinical times wondered: Did it really occur? Or did Jacob imagine it? Maimonides’ interpretation is novel; he offers a view that Freud and Jung have found fascinating. Although we tend to think of psychology as beginning with Freud, medieval scholars such as Maimonides and Aquinas possessed a remarkable understanding of human psychology. Here is one such example from Maimonides Guide for the Perplexed 2:42. [Rabbi Dr. Michael Leo Samuel]

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Jewish Religion, Michael Leo Samuel-Rabbi