Good News from Israel (November 15, 2020)

In the 15th Nov 20 edition of Israel’s good news, the highlights include: • A new Israeli endoscopy device takes better biopsies for diagnosing cancer. • Saudi Arabia diverted an Israeli plane to fly near Mecca, to avoid a storm. • An Israeli’s learning difficulties led him to develop an educational app. • Israelis helped build Apple’s new microprocessor.
• Latest figures show Israel is the highest spender on R&D as a proportion of GDP. • Israeli hi-tech is the subject of the new TrueFuture TV series. • An on-line Israeli course on Islam has hundreds of students across the Muslim world. [lMichael Ordman]

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Michael Ordman, Middle East

SD Rep Lineup: Strom, Feldshuh, Felder

The San Diego Repertory Company is presenting two remarkable virtual music events this month.

JFest (Lipinsky Jewish Arts Festival) will be hosting  the 19th Annual Klezmer Summit at 7 p.m., Thursday evening, Nov. 19  featuring Yale Strom’s band, Hot Pstromi, in their first concert as a full band since the onset of Covid-19. Hershey Felder will be featured in Paris Love Story, streamed  from his home in Florence, Italy, for four performances, at 5 p.m., Sunday, Nov.22, and at 7:30 p.m., Monday, Nov. 23, through Wednesday, Nov.. 25. [Eileen Wingard]

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Eileen Wingard, Music, Dance, and Visual Arts, Theatre, Film & Broadcast

Obama calls Netanyahu ‘smart, canny, tough’ in new tell-all book

Former US President Barack Obama described his often complicated and constantly scrutinized relationship with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Promised Land, the first of two books Obama is writing about his time in office, which will be released on Tuesday, according to Jewish Insider.Despite reports of constant fights, name-calling, leaks, and an altogether dysfunctional relationship,

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Middle East, USA

SCN develops training program in case of attacks on synagogues, schools

The Secure Community Network (SCN) has developed a new training program to help combat extremist and terrorist actions in Jewish communities in the Diaspora, focusing on active threat response and emergency life-saving responses.As the official safety and security organization of the leading US Jewish umbrella groups Jewish Federations of North America (JFNA) and the Conference

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Jewish Religion, USA

The Wisdom of Gersonides

 It is tragic even bizarre that most rabbis today sermonize by quoting Midrashim as if what the Midrash states, despite being contrary to nature, actually occurred. They also quote the views of mystics, but not rational thinkers such as Maimonides other than to quote a legal view of his that parallels those of mystics, leading congregants to think that the rabbi is teaching them what Judaism wants them to know. They do not tell congregants that Midrashim are parables, stories designed like Aesop’s fables to make us think. They do not encourage congregants to think. They are, in essence, anti-rational. In view of this tragic practice, it is a good idea to view the ideas of some rational Jewish thinkers such as Gersonides. He was not of the intellectual level as Maimonides, but he was a thinker and will prompt us to think as well. [Rabbi Dr. Israel Drazin]

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Israel Drazin-Rabbi Dr., Jewish Religion

Coast Guard Officer Candidate School in the Mid-1950s

The U.S. Coast Guard Academy sits high on a bluff overlooking the Thames River in New London, Connecticut. A group of colonial, brick, Georgian buildings, trimmed in white moldings and shutters, sit serenely among tall trees and a pampered lawn that goes on forever. Pyracantha bushes with bouquets of pouting red berries line the driveways and keep order. Midshipman in their crisply pressed black and white uniforms walk briskly from class to class for four years of nurtured perfection, until they graduate. The rewards are shiny gold ensign’s bars designating them as the next generation of leaders. [Ira Spector]

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Lifestyles, USA

Transition time for elected officials and staffs

The weeks immediately following an election are exciting ones for officeholders, their campaign staffs, and for the staffs of outgoing officeholders.  This is the time when legislators learn what committees they’ll serve on; when campaign workers learn whether they will be hired by the new officholders, and when the staff of retiring or defeated officeholders begin looking for other jobs, both inside and outside government. [Donald H. Harrison]

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Business & Finance, Donald H. Harrison, Lifestyles, San Diego County, USA

Biden Declared Winner Of Arizona After Decades Of GOP Dominance

On Thursday night, President-elect Joe Biden was projected to win the battleground state of Arizona.Despite Arizona’s long tradition for voting for Republicans, the growth in the Latino population, which strongly favors Democrats, the increase in migrant residents from prominent blue states like California and the unpopularity of Trump with suburban voters were the major factors

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USA

Trump lawyers withdraw from key Pennsylvania case challenging vote count

PHILADELPHIA — The law firm leading President Donald Trump’s legal effort to challenge the results of Pennsylvania’s election abruptly withdrew from his campaign’s marquee case late Thursday.Lawyers from Columbus, Ohio-based Porter Wright Morris & Arthur offered no explanation for their departure from a federal lawsuit filed Monday in Williamsport that asked a judge to block

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USA

Jason Greenblatt, Trump’s ex-envoy who helped broker UAE-Israel deal, celebrates daughter’s engagement in Dubai

The former White House Middle East envoy Jason Greenblatt celebrated his daughter’s engagement in Dubai just weeks after the normalisation of relations between Israel and the UAE.Greenblatt’s daughter, Anna Greenblatt, said yes to a surprise proposal from her boyfriend in Dubai where she was travelling with her father.Greenblatt, who played a key role in drafting

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Middle East, Travel and Food, USA