An unforgettable tour and cyclone in Borneo

Malaysia is a Muslim country. Don’t even try to enter with an Israeli passport!  A good percentage of the women wear a single colored scarf around their heads and necks for modesty. I don’t understand how they tolerate it in the Equatorial heat, but I became quite fond of the habit as a fashion statement. I liked how it framed the face, particularly the pretty ladies. The few wahines I saw draped floor to ceiling in black burkas I found mysterious, like covered statues at an unveiling. I figured they had to be ten degrees hotter than we infidels, unless they had battery-operated fans hidden inside the garb. [Ira Spector]

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International, Travel and Food

Juvenile arrested for attack on rabbi

Police reported on Friday that they had arrested a 14-year-old boy in connection with an attack on Saturday, Oct. 10. in which Rabbi Yonatan Halevy of Kehillat Shaar Hashamayim was clobbered on top of his head by an assailant who then rode off on his bicycle.  The 31-year-old rabbi, whose Sephardic congregation is engaged in outreach as part of a Shiviti movement, was knocked down but not seriously hurt.  At the time, Halevy was walking on Governor Drive in University City with his father, a stroke victim in his late 60s.  The father was not assaulted. [Donald H. Harrison, Our Shtetl San Diego County]

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Donald H. Harrison, Obituaries & memorials, San Diego County, USA

Feinstein demonstrated civility at Barrett’s hearing

Sen. Dianne Feinstein’s (D-California) praise of her Republican colleague, Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-South Carolina), followed by a spontaneous show of appreciation, shocked her liberal colleagues by hugging Graham. This would have been a positive note to end the raucous debates we have seen and imbibed since the beginning of the hearings. Yet, we are living in a time when conformity to the Democratic status quo is considered more important than anything else. Surprisingly to most of us, Feinstein stirred a hornets’ nest and many of her fellow Democrats excoriated her for showing a token of civility.  [Rabbi Dr. Michael Leo Samuel]

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Michael Leo Samuel-Rabbi, USA

A Word of Torah: A New Beginning, Again

Adam and Eve were very special souls, created from the earth by the ‘hands’ of the Almighty. They were infused with the Divine Spirit as, ‘G-d blew into his nostrils a living soul,’ and from Adam fashioned Eve. G-d created the first humans in His ‘image,’ which means they were endowed with a G-dly spark to serve as their soul and the great gift of free choice. It is only by virtue of the fact that we have free choice that we are able to refine and uplift the world in a way that nothing else can. [Rabbi Yeruchem Eilfort]

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Jewish Religion, Yeruchem Eilfort-Rabbi

Yes on Proposition 21: Rachmanis for Renters

Proposition 21 poses a philosophical question.  In these hard times, do we vote to assure that renters will be able to remain in their homes, or do we, in the name of unrestricted capitalism, permit landlords to raise rents so high that their tenants are forced to find cheaper apartments, or in some cases, to become homeless? [Donald H. Harrison]

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

Migrant workers hard hit worldwide by COVID19

As an economic recession looms, migrants vulnerable to poverty, facing conflict, displacement, or unsafe working and living conditions require greater economic support as unemployment rises, access to PPEs, and legal assistance.Migrant workers have been at the forefront of the world economy during the COVID-19 pandemic, as essential workers. Yet, at the same time this comes with risk. [Jacqueline Skalski-Fouts]

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International, Middle East, USA

A new blow to Iran’s forgotten Jews

Next week, an online event organized by the human rights group “3 Generations” will feature New York Times op-ed columnist Roger Cohen, who sparked an international furor in 2009 when he visited Iran and announced that the oppressed Jews there were not really so oppressed, after all.  Cohen’s assertion that Iranian Jews were “living, working and worshiping in relative tranquility” was met with scorn across the political spectrum. Jeffrey Goldberg, in The Atlantic, called him “credulous.”  The Anti-Defamation League charged Cohen with viewing Iran through “dangerous rose-colored lenses.” J.J. Goldberg, in The Forward, characterized Cohen as “simply naive, and dangerously so.” [Rafael Medoff, Ph.D]

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International, Jewish History, Middle East, USA

Virtual meetings spur Jewish theatre community

By Toby Klein Greenwald EFRAT, Israel — In April, the board members of the Alliance for Jewish Theater bit the bullet and decided to morph their annual autumn conference into a three-day Zoom event. Like everyone, they hoped for the best, but were being proactive and not assuming there would be a miracle. Theater makers

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International, Middle East, Theatre, Film & Broadcast, Toby Klein Greenwald, USA