Novel captures horror, confusion of Holocaust, recovery

I have read and reviewed numerous Holocaust memoirs, but none hit me with the impact of this novel — perhaps because the author infused The Brothers of Auschwitz  with such onomatopoeia as the sounds of machine gun fire, the clubbing of human beings, the whistle of death.  This made the experience different from  reading the more flatly narrated memories of Holocaust survivors; it stimulated me to not only read about the horrors of the camp, but to empathically experience them. [Donald H. Harrison]

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Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Donald H. Harrison

Gaining self-confidence in a synagogue’s embrace

We need to work together to make a better world, advancing the Jewish value of Tikkun Olam. It is through us and our allies advocating for marginalized communities that we can begin to reshape how people think about us. Disability has long been stigmatized and the fight to remove those stigmas has been an arduous journey. If we remember that all people no matter their disability, race, religion, or sexual orientation are capable of achieving anything, and that we are all made in the image of God, it should strengthen and motivate us to be better and to do better. [Joshua Steinberg, RespectAbility]

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Jewish Religion, Lifestyles, USA

Torah for Children: It’s Rosh Hashanah!

This weekend we will celebrate Rosh Hashana. This holiday, which starts on Friday evening, marks the beginning of the new Jewish year. One of the special things that happens on Rosh Hashana is the shofar is blown one hundred times. (This year, Rosh Hashana falls on Shabbat. The shofar is not usually blown on Shabbat.) The shofar calls to us: WAKE UP and work hard to make this year a better year than the last one. [Marcia Berneger]

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Jewish Religion, Marcia Berneger

Satire: Barr’s 6 Months a Slave

“You know, putting a national lockdown, stay-at-home orders, is like house arrest. It’s — you know, other than slavery, which was a different kind of restraint, this is the greatest intrusion on civil liberties in American history,” –Bill Barr, September 16, 2020 … If Attorney General Bill Barr ever writes his autobiography, it might go something like this: [Satire by Laurie Baron, Ph.D]

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Lawrence Baron, Trivia, Humor & Satire, USA

We must not let the Holocaust be ‘old news’

“Old news” is perhaps the most dismissive way an editor can reject a suggestion from a reporter, or an outside contributor, about an issue that the media outlet should tackle. San Diego Jewish World promises never to consider the Holocaust “old news,” whatever form that news may come, be it in recollections of still-surviving Holocaust victims; the efforts of second and third generation survivors to measure the Holocaust’s impact on their lives and those of their children; the novelists and playwrights who retell Holocaust stories; or the efforts of some in the academic world to minimize or distort the Holocaust. [Donald H. Harrison, ‘Our Shtetl San Diego County’]

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Donald H. Harrison, International, Jewish History, Jewish Religion, Middle East, San Diego County, Science, Medicine, & Education, USA

Tracking the Fate of My Grandparents

“We don’t know anything about what happened to our (mutual) grandparents. Our parents never talked about them,” my American cousins told me when I visited them last year. The two sons of my mother’s brother, the late Dr. Kurt Hirsch, live comfortable lives in Virginia. Jack and Harry and their families maintain their connection with Israel and Judaism, and are loyal American citizens. [Dorothea Shefer-Vanson]

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Dorothea Shefer-Vanson, International, Jewish History, Middle East, USA

Rainbow – What Will We Take out of Our Arks?

I also took into the sealed room a siddur that had been my mother’s, and one of my father’s, 1941 U.S. Army issue, so I could tell them I prayed from their prayer books. I ended the column, “We took into our sealed rooms fears, and uncertainty, and prayers. We must now ask ourselves what we brought out.” [Toby Klein Greenwald]

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Jewish Religion, Lifestyles, Middle East, Music, Dance, and Visual Arts, Theatre, Film & Broadcast, Toby Klein Greenwald, USA

A Word of Torah: Rosh Hashanah 5781

This week we are not only celebrating Shabbos, but we are also ushering in a New Year, 5781. Many of us are uttering a sigh of relief as we close the door on 5780. In Hebrew we write out 5780 as Tav Shin Pay, which some have read as Tihay Shnas Pandemic (It will be the year of pandemic). According to that reading we are entering Tav Shin Pay Alef – Tihay Shnas AIN Pandemic – It will be the year WITHOUT pandemic. [Rabbi Yeruchem Eilfort]

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Jewish Religion, Lifestyles, Yeruchem Eilfort-Rabbi