Stunning Costumes, Sets Embellish ‘The Lion King’

The stand-out actors were Timon and Pumba (played by Tony Freeman and John E Brady), the three hyenas (played by Martina Sykes, Forest VanDyke, and Robbie Swift), and Rafiki the medicine woman baboon (played by Gugwana Dlamini, who also added some powerful African vocals and can be heard on the original movie soundtrack as well).  Judging by the audience’s roars at curtain call, there was consensus on these stand-out performances.  [Sandi Masori]

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Sandi Masori, Theatre, Film & Broadcast

Iran’s Coming Windfall

Anyone paying attention knows that Iran negotiates circles around its interlocutors. The Iranians needn’t have much skill to accomplish that! Iran follows the same playbook time after time, lying through its teeth, procrastinating, taking “breaks,” while ceaselessly increasing its stockpile of enriched uranium. Contemptuously, Iran continues to foment terror on its own and via its proxies, especially Hezbollah in Lebanon, insisting that it will destroy the Big and Little Satans (the US and Israel respectively). Yet, the West insists on begging and bribing Iran: “Let’s make a deal.” [Steve Kramer]

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Israel, Opinion, Steve Kramer, USA

Playwright Myla Lichtman-Fields Scoring in Los Angeles & London

The prolific San Diego County playwright, Myla Lichtman-Fields, will be traveling to Los Angeles next month, and then to London, England in November to see performances of two of her 16 published plays that have gone global through lulu.com. [Eileen Wingard]

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California, Eileen Wingard, International, San Diego County, Theatre, Film & Broadcast

Mar-a-Lago Raid Backlash Imperils Jewish Congregation

For the first time that I can recall, former President Trump managed to imperil, almost directly, a large bloc of American Jews in far northern Palm Beach County. The synagogue was readying to host a “beach Shabbat” when Donald Trump’s henchmen lashed out at U.S. Magistrate Judge Bruce E. Reinhart for signing the Department of Justice’s search warrant of Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate, 16 miles south of the judge’s synagogue. [Bruce S. Ticker]

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Bruce Ticker, Jewish History, Opinion, USA

‘Philip Guston Now’ at Boston Museum of Fine Art

During his 50 years as a painter, Canadian American artist Philip Guston created a body of work that stands out as among the most significant and daring of the 20th century. His development as an artist involved several phases, and culminated with images notable for their dark, biting humor, distinct palette, unmistakable lexicon of objects, and concern with themes when taken together seem designed to heighten our uneasiness and have us question everything we thought we knew about painting. [Sam Ben-Meir]

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Music, Dance, and Visual Arts, Sam Ben-Meir

Some Little-Known Jewish Calendar Facts

The Jewish calendar is a lunisolar calendar because the Torah requires Passover to fall in “Hodesh Ha-Aviv,” the month of spring. If the Jewish calendar were not linked to the seasons, ruled by the Sun, the Jewish calendar would retrogress about 11 days a year, or one season every eight years. The calendar achieves this balance by adding thirty-day month 7 times every 19 years, a scheme learned during the Babylonian captivity and taught by the Greeks. Rosh Hashanah falls early or late every year compared to the secular calendar because these “make-up days” are sometimes added two years and sometimes three years apart, rather than annually. [Fred Reiss, Ed.D]

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Fred Reiss, EdD, Jewish History, Jewish Religion

What Should We Read and Why?

The Greek philosopher Aristotle (384-322 BCE) wrote that humans are better than plants and animals because humans can think. He stressed that a person who does not think is no better than a plant or animal. The Jewish philosopher Maimonides (1138-1204) agreed but took one step further. He added that when the Bible states that God placed the image of God in humans, this image is the ability to think. The main benefit of reading is acquiring information about the world, how it functions, how humans behave, and how we can use this information to improve ourselves and society. [Rabbi Israel Drazin]

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Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Israel Drazin-Rabbi Dr., Jewish Religion, USA

Parashat Re’eh: Leave the ‘I’ and Enter the ‘We’

By Michael R. Mantell, Ph.D. Look for the “I” in the words happy, joy, glad, cheerful, and pleased and you obviously won’t find it. In this week’s Torah reading, we learn an important insight into this simple observation. There is a recurring theme in Re’eh regarding simcha, meaning happy or joyful. The Hebrew root of

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Jewish Religion, Michael Mantell

New KKL-JNF Project Broadcasts Live From the World’s Most Valuable Spots for Wandering Birds

HULA VALLEY, Israel (Press Release) — After a long process of being developed as an international birdwatching park, KKL-JNF has initiated a unique project for the benefit of land site visitors, professional and amateur birdwatchers worldwide, an extensive project consisting of network of HD live cameras. The project includes installation of electric infrastructure, laying a

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Israel, Middle East, Science, Medicine, & Education

Jewish Trivia Quiz: Allen Weisselberg

By Mark D. Zimmerman Allen Weisselberg, longtime Chief Financial Officer of the Trump Organization, pleaded guilty to 15 felony criminal charges including grand larceny, tax fraud, and falsifying business records. While he has not agreed to testify against Donald Trump, he is expected to testify against the Trump Organization in a trial scheduled to begin in a

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Mark D. Zimmerman, Trivia, Humor & Satire