This single chapter is the only extant writing of the minor prophet Obadiah. Wordage is mainly poetry, its ending in prose. The setting is the Babylonian destruction of the first Judean Temple c. 586 BCE, in which the enemy nation Edom participated. This time a Hebrew prophet rails against enemy Edom, not his own leaders. [Irv Jacobs, M.D.]
Haftorah Reading for November 20, 2021 Read More »
Irv Jacobs, MD, Jewish Religion
Jewish books from the PJ Library are mailed free every month to 680,000 Jewish children to be read to them at bedtime by their parents or guardians. Yes, you can thank Harold Grinspoon, the Massachusetts real estate entrepreneur who funds much of this philanthropy, along with Winnie Sandler Grinspoon, his daughter-in-law who serves as president of his Foundation. [Donald H. Harrison]
Dolly Parton Inspired the PJ Library Program for Jewish Children Read More »
Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Donald H. Harrison, Judaism, Lifestyles, USA
As with all of the prior men and women mentioned in the Bible, including Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, patriarchs whom we might expect that the Torah would give us plenty of information about, there is nothing about Isaac’s wife Rebekah that is crystal clear. Every fact and every event is obscure. [Rabbi Dr. Israel Drazin]
Questions Linger about Rebekah Read More »
Israel Drazin-Rabbi Dr., Jewish Religion
The senior program at the Lawrence Family JCC is among the 26 programs receiving financial grants from the San Diego Seniors Community Foundation (SDSCF), it was announced Thursday, Nov. 18. [San Diego Seniors Community Foundation news release]
Lawrence Family JCC Senior Program Receives Chanukah Grant Read More »
Jewish Religion, Lifestyles, San Diego County
Shoulds are injunctions carried over from earlier in life, from parents, teachers, religious leaders, and other authority figures. Some have become dispensable. As we grow older, we shed many of these shoulds. [Natasha Josefowitz]
Gaining Freedom from Old “Shoulds’ Read More »
Lifestyles, Natasha Josefowitz
Congresswoman Sara Jacobs (D-San Diego) spoke on the House floor Wednesday evening on Transgender Awareness Week. Her remarks stressed the persistent threats trans people face, the importance of fighting for trans equality, and the need to honor and uplift trans voices. Congresswoman Jacobs’ remarks came as part of a Special Order program organized by the Congressional LGBTQ+ Equality Caucus. [Sara Jacobs Press Release]
Rep. Sara Jacobs Denounces Anti-Transgender Discrimination Read More »
San Diego County, USA
We cannot argue with Nancy Pelosi: “When a member uses his or her national platform to encourage violence, tragically, people listen.” Whenever her Democratic colleagues in the U.S. House of Representatives bash Israel and by association American Jews, they are inciting violence throughout the United States, as it trembles under the crush of antisemitism. However, the Speaker of the House was addressing the sins of Rep. Paul Gosar. [Bruce S. Ticker]
Gosar Is Censured But Why Not Omar and Tlaib? Read More »
Bruce Ticker, Middle East, USA
While sitting and reading a book about three weeks ago, I felt a sharp pain in my lower abdomen and looked down to see a golf ball size bulge protruding out of it. Since I had a hernia 25 years ago, I immediately thought it had recurred, though my cinematic imagination made me fear it was the larval form of the creature from Alien beginning to erupt through my skin and scamper around my house. My quandary was whether to go to urgent care or contact Segourney Weaver. [Laurie Baron, Ph.D]
Humoring the Hernia Read More »
Lawrence Baron, San Diego County, Science, Medicine, & Education, Trivia, Humor & Satire
Author Ethan Michaeli is an American journalist with a knack for schmoozing with people wherever he goes. While he lives in Chicago, his older brother and parents live in Israel. He travels frequently to Israel to see his Hungarian-born parents and his brother, and whenever he does so, he likes to go touring around the country, meeting people from as many different backgrounds as possible. [Donald H. Harrison]
Sampling Israel’s Ethnic Groups and Restaurants Read More »
Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Donald H. Harrison, Middle East, Travel and Food
The National Park Service has agreed to a request from the Jewish American Society for Historic Preservation (JASHP) to include mention of Adolph Sutro’s Jewish heritage on a marker at Sutro Heights Park in the Golden Gate National Recreation Area, JASHP announced on Wednesday, Nov. 17. [SDJW]
Sutro Heights Park Marker to Honor Sutro’s Jewish Heritage Read More »
Jerry Klinger, Jewish History, USA
Torah Live’s graphics, animation and film level are highly professional and their team of men and women includes over thirty scriptwriters, animators, video editors, and sound and special effects artists. While the world was in lockdown, Torah Live kicked in big time. Since Covid over a million and a half videos have been viewed, and the website has been accessed by 168,000 active users. It has hundreds of thousands of viewers from around North America and the world, including in Moscow, Paris, London, Australia, and South Africa, and including 117 in San Diego, a number the Torah Live people hope will continue to grow. {Toby Klein Greenwald]
Gaming Site, ‘Torah Live,’ Enlivens Jewish Education Read More »
International, Jewish Religion, Middle East, Music, Dance, and Visual Arts, Theatre, Film & Broadcast, Toby Klein Greenwald, USA
Not only was Israel’s self-defense denounced as disproportionate, illegal, overly aggressive, and tantamount to war crimes, but the broader question about Israel’s legal right to even exist was raised, along with the tired, loaded language of the woke Left, language which includes such terms, when describing Israel, as “colonial,” “occupation,” “siege,” “ethnic cleansing,” “settlements,” “state violence,” “racism,” as well as the favorite slur leveled against the Jewish state that it is enforcing a new form of “apartheid” and that a country called “Palestine” will be “liberated” as a result of global advocacy for the Palestinian cause. [Richard L. Cravatts, Ph.D]
The Anti-Israel Con at UConn Read More »
Middle East, Richard L. Cravatts, Science, Medicine, & Education, USA
This week’s Torah reading has more passukim, 154 verses, than any other in Sefer Bereishis. There must be a good reason, and indeed, there are many lessons from which we can derive benefit inside the depth of these many verses. The parasha is bursting with scheming, compromise, desire, retaliation, hostility, birth, and death. [Michael Mantell, Ph.D]
Torah Reading for November 20, 2021 Read More »
Jewish Religion, Michael Mantell
Located twenty miles south of Haifa, Zichron Yaakov is a charming city of 25,000 people situated on the southern end of the Carmel Mountain range. One of the oldest cities in modern Israel, it was established at the end of 1882 by one hundred pioneers from Romania, members of the Hovevei Tzion – or Lovers of Zion – movement. Hovevei Tzion was one of several organizations that gained traction in Europe in response to the waves of pogroms and openly antisemitic laws that had the cumulative effect of causing approximately 2,000,000 Jews to relocate, a minority of whom made their way to Israel. [Gedaliah Borvick]
Celebrating Diversity in Zichron Yaakov Read More »
Gedaliah Borvick, Jewish History, Middle East