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

Preserving Holocaust memory in the future

For years I have been predicting that all the Holocaust education, the museums, the books and the testimonies will not save Holocaust memory. I remember saying this at a recent lecture I gave and a teacher challenged me telling me we had a great Holocaust commission. Yes I answered, I served on it for nine years, was one of its original founders,and served as one of the editors of the curriculum. [Rabbi Bernhard H. Rosenberg]

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Bernhard H. Rosenberg-Rabbi, Jewish History, Jewish Religion

San Diego Dems cancel anti-Semitism debate

The chairman of the San Diego County Democratic Party, Will Rodriguez-Kennedy, doesn’t want the debate over anti-Semitism in the party’s ranks to be held until after the Nov. 3 election, if ever. On Sept. 10, Rodriguez-Kennedy sent a message to the county party’s central committee explaining his reason for wanting a delay. [Donald H. Harrison, Our Shtetl San Diego County]

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Donald H. Harrison, Jewish Religion, Middle East, Obituaries & memorials, San Diego County, Science, Medicine, & Education, Theatre, Film & Broadcast, USA

The volume of Jewish music in America

As I read this comprehensive, engaging book about Jewish Music in America, I kept thinking about the extensive music collection we have in our Astor Judaica Library of the Lawrence Family Jewish Community Center and what a wonderful course we could develop, using this volume as the textbook and our library’s lp records, CDs and DVDs for illustrations. We have most of the music Fruhauf writes about in her book. [Eileen Wingard]

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Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Eileen Wingard, Music, Dance, and Visual Arts, USA

Prospective and veteran clergy members contrast in style

Mark Dolson (Timothy Benson) is a seminarian ready to change the world, or at least the Catholic Church. He’d like to see women admitted to the priesthood. And he believes the church’s attitude opposed to homosexuality is outdated and archaic. Most of all, he believes that it is the job of the clergy to shake their parishioners from their materialism and complacency in order for them to truly follow the teachings of Jesus. [Play review by Donald H. Harrison]

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Bernhard H. Rosenberg-Rabbi, Donald H. Harrison, Lifestyles, Theatre, Film & Broadcast

OpEd: Tim Nader for Judge

Two years I wrote an opinion piece for San Diego Jewish World supporting my friend, Tim Nader, for San Diego Superior Court judge.  I pointed out his superb qualifications for the position.  The unstated subtext for the piece was that as a member of the San Diego Jewish Community, who had known Tim for more than 35 years, was vouching for the personal character of a Lebanese American lawyer. [Howard Wayne]

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San Diego County, Science, Medicine, & Education