The upcoming Passover creates challenges for those who are looking forward to celebrate the Seders in person with friends and family. The availability of vaccination against the virus made it easier to resume the tradition of an in-person Seder although the risk of acquiring the infection is still high in some situations. [Itzhak Brook, M.D.]
Safety of Celebrating Seder in 2021 Read More »
Jewish Religion, Science, Medicine, & Education
Two months into our “cruise” (sans spas and umbrella drinks), it’s January 1985, when we start planning for a battlegroup-wide Passover seder for thirty when we discovered the ship’s supply system was ill-equipped for the task. [Jeff Goldfinger]
The Case of the Missing Matzoh Read More »
Jewish History, Jewish Religion, Lifestyles, USA
Municipal leaders from more than 32 cities across 21 countries took part today in the first-ever Mayors Summit Against Anti-Semitism, hosted by the Frankfurt am Main municipality in partnership with the Combat Anti-Semitism Movement (CAM). Participants including tens of city mayors pledged to make the summit the first step in establishing a long-term framework working towards defeating anti-Semitism, prejudice, and hatred. [Combat Anti-Semitism Movement press release]
Global Group of Mayors Decry Antisemitism Read More »
International, USA
JERUSALEM — Where are we now? Who knows? Indications of infections are down. The parties and religious events at Purim do not seem to have produced an increase. Widespread inoculations are the explanation. They work to prevent a spread. So we’re getting ready for a Passover close to normal. Seders with 30 or perhaps 50 members are said to be okay, if there isn’t an increase in infections before then. (ira Sharkansky, Ph.D)
Impossible to say who’ll win Israel’s upcoming election Read More »
Ira Sharkansky, Middle East
MAZON: The Jewish Response to Hunger, on Monday applauded the confirmation of Rep. Deb Haaland, a member of the Laguna Pueblo, to be U.S. Interior Secretary, the first Native American to hold the post. Also, on Monday, President Joe Biden announced he is nominating Jamie Simms Hipp, a member of the Chickasaw Nation and CEO of the Native American Agriculture Fund, to serve as general counsel for the U.S. Department of Agriculture. [Donald H. Harrison]
The Political E-Mailbag (March 15, 2021) Read More »
Travel and Food
Comedian Tiffany Haddish won a Grammy award for Best Comedy Album for her album Black Mitzvah, the recording of her 2019 Netflix comedy special. In the performance, Haddish explored her Jewish heritage, something she only discovered as a young adult when she learned that her father was an Eritrean Jew. Haddish embraced her Jewish heritage and held a bat mitzvah under the guidance of Rabbi Susan Silverman, including Torah reading and a d’var Torah speech about Jacob’s ladder from the Parsha Vayetze. But Haddish was no stranger to Judaism, as she had worked since the age of 17 as a dancer and an MC at more than 500 bar and bat mitzvah parties. What did Haddish say about that experience? [Mark D. Zimmerman]
Jewish Trivia Quiz: Tiffany Haddish Read More »
Mark D. Zimmerman, Theatre, Film & Broadcast, Trivia, Humor & Satire
The Secure Community Network (SCN), as the official safety and security organization of The Jewish Federations of North America and the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, has sent an alert to several thousand security directors, liaisons and heads of organizations and facilities, warning them to be vigilant as they begin to reopen their facilities. [Secure Community Network press release]
Caution urged as Jewish facilities reopen Read More »
Travel and Food
Perhaps what is most startling about the etchings of Francisco Goya, presently on view at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, is the artist’s intensity of focus, his obsession with understanding the nature of human evil. Goya was a child of the Enlightenment, and he knew what it was to see humanity as the pinnacle of creation, the paragon of animals, the embodiment of reason, “in form and understanding how like a god?” as Hamlet would say. Yet this same creature, the light of reason in the world, was capable of the most barbaric cruelty. In one series after another Goya’s etchings attempt to grasp the universality of evil, to see it as an essentially human problem to be understood in terms of our capacity for moral choice. Evil is universally human, for Goya – a propensity in human beings that is at once basic and inextinguishable. [Sam Ben-Meir, Ph.D]
Francisco Goya at the Metropolitan Museum of Art Read More »
Music, Dance, and Visual Arts, Sam Ben-Meir
Not many Jews today recall a 19th century Jewish leader who wrote a booklet that inspired young Jews to move to the Land of Israel. The man at first believed passionately in assimilation as an answer for Jews and later, due to what he saw as rising anti-Semitism advocated a new idea, what eventually became known as Zionism. He himself met with notables all over Europe to advance his plans. The booklet made an impact and led to his chairing a movement that convened a groundbreaking convention of Jews who came from all over Europe to speak about practical ways to spark a mass Return to Zion. [Moshe Phillips]
A Bicentennial to Mark Modern Zionism Read More »
International, Jewish History, Middle East
Initially, the event on Sunday, March 14, was advertised by the Tifereth Israel Synagogue Men’s Club as a lox and bagel brunch, during which members could gather by Zoom and discuss how the coronavirus pandemic affected them, and what they look most forward to when it is over. Members were invited to drive to the synagogue’s parking lot, where a boxed lox n’ bagel meal would be waiting for them. As my wife Nancy had some errands to run in the neighborhood of the synagogue, she volunteered to pick up the boxed brunch. Inside of the box were two individual fruit pies — one apple, another cherry — in addition to the advertised lox, bagels and cream cheese. How come? “It’s pi day,” explained Bram Rubinstein, a Men’s Club member. [Donald H. Harrison]
In San Diego, it was lox, bagel and ‘pi’ day Read More »
Donald H. Harrison, Jewish History, Lifestyles, San Diego County, Science, Medicine, & Education, Travel and Food, USA
In the March 14, 2021 edition of Israel’s good news, the highlights include:
Israel re-opens to millions of vaccinated and recovered Israelis.
Israeli researchers have successfully implemented an alternative to animal testing.
An IDF medical team is on its way to treat victims of explosion in Equatorial Guinea.
An Israeli diaper cleaning system protects the environment.
Israeli cultured beef will help Brazil cut greenhouse gas emissions.
After a century, Israel’s Moshav farms are still going strong. [Michael Ordman]
Good News from Israel (March 14, 2021) Read More »
Business & Finance, International, Michael Ordman, Middle East, Science, Medicine, & Education
When Israelis were exiled, they were sent to Babylon, from which Abraham had previously come. There, in Babylon, they dispersed and assimilated until once again, a great hater of Jews arose and sought to destroy them: the arch-antisemite known as Wicked Haman. [Michael Laitman, PhD]
Jewish Unity and Antisemitism, Part V Read More »
Jewish History, Jewish ReligionI attended the bar mitzvah of a young man who recoils from compliments or recognition. So I can’t say who he is, but I can tell you that his friends and relatives are shaking their heads in wonder. The young man turned 14 just two days ago, on March 11. But today it was if he were 13 again. Or so it seemed, because today he finally had his bar mitzvah, which normally occurs when a boy turns 13. [Donald H. Harrison]
A most unusual bar mitzvah Read More »
Donald H. Harrison, Jewish Religion, Lifestyles, San Diego County
Earlier this week, an unidentified resident advisor at South Campus Plaza North, a large dormitory serving hundreds of students at San Diego State University, found scrawled on the exterior of the building three swastikas and coded messages often associated with white supremacist philosophy. She immediately got some poster board to cover the offensive messaging, and drew hearts upon the poster board along with the message “Spread Love.” After campus police were called to the scene and photographs taken of the offending material as part of an ongoing investigation, the antisemitic message was eliminated. [Donald H. Harrison]
Antisemitic graffiti riles SDSU Read More »
Donald H. Harrison, Jewish History, San Diego County, Science, Medicine, & Education