Our Jewish Parenting: Keeping Consistency Constant

Two key factors have kept us sane while raising the next generation of Jewish kids: involving God in the process and striving for consistency in our parenting effort. My wife, Shira and I leave the heavy lifting to God. What we eat, how we treat others and what we do on Shabbat and holidays isn’t something we have to negotiate. We have a priceless 3500-year-old tradition offering precise guidelines on maximizing life and minimizing drama. [Sam Glaser]

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Jewish Religion, Lifestyles, Sam Glaser

Holocaust Museum LA’s Expansion Advances Its Founding Vision

By Jacob Kamaras When California state lawmakers recently announced $2.5 million in funding to support the expansion of Holocaust Museum LA, it marked the latest step toward realizing a cornerstone of the museum’s founding vision. The state support will fund a new learning center pavilion and new programming for younger learners at the museum. It

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Jacob Kamaras, Jewish History, USA

American Lifestyles Contrast with Israel’s, Western Europe’s

You want it, you pay for it. Economic liberalism is the essence of the American experience. Don’t tread on me. Don’t make me pay for someone else’s benefit. Of course it’s not total. In the U.S., there are programs to pay, or help to pay for those in need. And there’s lots of insurance, often associated with a job, that pays most or all of health care needs. And government programs to lend money for education.  [Ira Sharkansky, Ph.D]

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Business & Finance, International, Ira Sharkansky, Lifestyles, Middle East, USA

A Prayer for Our Planet

This is a good week within our synagogues to think about our planet and its future given the start of the United Nation’s Global Climate Change Conference of the Parties (COP26). As global leaders meet in Glasgow, Scotland to hammer out a deal to tackle climate change, what can we as Jews do based upon Torah’s teachings, our ethics and the moral imperative to be better stewards of our planet and all life that depends upon its sustainability? [Dan Tomsky]

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Jewish Religion, The World We Share

Israelis love the ‘Land of Smiles’

Published by The Bangkok Post The Israel embassy to Thailand temporary chargé d’affaires, Orna Sagiv, is confident many fully vaccinated Israeli tourists will return to Thailand from Monday. Israel is one of 63 countries and territories whose fully vaccinated nationals can enter Thailand without quarantine under the Thai government’s plan to stimulate the economy. According

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International

Economic Relief for Low Income Families Could Diminish Israel-Bashing

Let’s hope Congress soon adopts the twin bills for infrastructure and social reforms. They will likely jumpstart the economy and aid both lower and middle-income Americans. This legislation could also yield dividends for Israel and American Jews: Eliminating much of the anti-Semitism from the Left. [Bruce S. Ticker]

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Bruce Ticker, Middle East, USA

People’s Need for Community Can Stir Positive Social Change

Israeli-American Shelly Tygielski is the founder of the “Pandemic of Love” movement, which champions people reaching out to each other, happy to give help and unafraid to ask for it.  However, before one can help others, one might need to engage in self-help, getting one’s priorities right, and, as the slang saying puts it, getting one’s head on straight. [Donald H. Harrison]

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Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Donald H. Harrison

Drama Depicts a Crisis of Conscience During the Civil War

The four-act play ‘Ben Byutler’ was written in 2014 by Richard Strand and conveyed the moral dilemma a Union lawyer-cum general (Richard Baird) confronted when faced with a fugitive southern slave, Shepard Mallory (Brandon Pierce), who appeared at the Yankee fort “demanding” to see the general. [Eva Trieger]

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Eva Trieger, San Diego County, Theatre, Film & Broadcast

What do we know about Abraham?

Most people think they know a lot about Abraham the father of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. They are mistaken. The events recorded about Abraham in scripture are generally if not always obscure. When the Bible does not clarify exactly what is happening, people tend to imagine details and come to think of them as really happening in the Bible. [Rabbi Dr. Israel Drazin]

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Israel Drazin-Rabbi Dr., Jewish Religion

Arab vs. Arab Homicides Increasing in Israel

Yes, there’s gang violence in Israel, but not nearly on the scale of American gang violence. Violent crime in Israel is predominantly found in Israeli Arab towns and in mixed Arab-Jewish cities. It’s often clan/tribal related, consisting of organized crime disputes and more personal, vengeance attacks. In addition, there’s a continuing problem with so-called honor killings, which are intra-family. (In general, Israel is a very safe place, with women not afraid to walk on city streets at night and children having few limits placed on their play time.) [Steve Kramer]

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Middle East, Steve Kramer