US VP, Mexican leader pledge to cooperate on border crisis

Published by AFP Washington (AFP) – US Vice President Kamala Harris and Mexico’s President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador pledged Friday to cooperate on resolving the roots of the long-running and politically sensitive issue of illegal migration into the United States. Harris, speaking with Lopez Obrador in a virtual meeting, said they should work together on helping

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International, USA

Adventures as a Cruise Ship Lecturer

One day in 1992, I received a phone call from a man who was representing Norwegian Cruise Lines after he had seen me on television. He said one of their ships was about to sail from Miami for a trip around South America; he invited me to be a lecturer on the cruise. The position was unpaid, but the offer included a free cruise for me and my husband in a luxury cabin, the plane trip to and from Miami in business class, and all of our expenses on board would be taken care of. [Natasha Josefowitz]

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International, Lifestyles, Natasha Josefowitz, Travel and Food, USA

U.S. backs giving poorer countries access to COVID-19 vaccine patents, reversing stance

Published by Reuters By Andrea Shalal, Jeff Mason and David Lawder WASHINGTON (Reuters) -President Joe Biden on Wednesday threw his support behind waiving intellectual property rights for COVID-19 vaccines, bowing to mounting pressure from Democratic lawmakers and more than 100 other countries, but angering pharmaceutical companies. Biden voiced his support for a waiver – a

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Business & Finance, International, USA

U.S. expands effort to allow in vulnerable migrants at Mexico border

Published by Reuters By Kristina Cooke, Mica Rosenberg and Ted Hesson SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) – The United States has begun rolling out a new system to identify and admit the most vulnerable migrants at ports of entry along the U.S.-Mexico border, according to three people briefed on the matter. The new system, which started at

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International, USA

California Legislative Jewish Caucus Tells Priorities

Assemblymember Jesse Gabriel (D-Woodland Hills) and Senator Scott Wiener (D-San Francisco), the Chair and Vice Chair of the California Legislative Jewish Caucus, announced Thursday the Caucus’ 2021 legislative priorities. Selected by the membership, the legislative package includes four Jewish Caucus Priority Bills, which address key Jewish community priorities, as well as a slate of nine Tikkun Olam Bills, which speak to core Jewish values, including tzedek (justice) and ve’ahavta lere’acha kamocha (loving the stranger as yourself). [California Legislative Jewish Caucus]

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USA

San Diego Native Named Director of L.A.’s Skirball Museum

Nearly four decades have rushed by since the day that Sheri L. Bernstein served as a high school docent at the San Diego Museum of Art, during which she learned all she could about one of the paintings on exhibit and recited to visitors what she knew. [Donald H. Harrison]

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Business & Finance, Donald H. Harrison, Music, Dance, and Visual Arts, San Diego County, Science, Medicine, & Education, Travel and Food, USA

Jewish Folk Remedies from the Pale of Settlement

Wait, it’s not the chicken soup, it’s the herbs that count! Eastern European Jewry, particularly those living in the area known as “The Pale of Settlement,” on the western side of the Dnieper River, in present-day Ukraine, whose history there began in the Middle Ages, have a “long and distinguished canon dedicated to the healing process,” a research area unfortunately ignored, by-and-large, by sociological scholars. Cohen and Siegel, in their joint venture Ashkenazi Herbalism, describe the history and role of plants and herbs employed by Ashkenazi folk-healers, piecing together sparse, fragmented sources, and weaving them into an engaging story. [Fred Reiss, Ed.D]

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Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Fred Reiss, EdD, International, Jewish History, Science, Medicine, & Education

Neighbor Competed for an International Piano Prize

Some fifty years ago the International Piano Master Competition honoring pianist Arthur Rubinstein was established in Israel. Every three years (four years in 2021 due to the Coronavirus pandemic), young pianists from all over the world compete in front of audiences in Israel  for the prizes awarded by an international jury in the framework of the competition. [Dorothea Shefer-Vanson]

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Dorothea Shefer-Vanson, International, Middle East, Music, Dance, and Visual Arts, Sports & Competitions