Becoming a Yenta

As spring turned to summer, more Jewish activities began to emerge. It was almost as if the collective Hebrew community was dipping its toe in the water of social gatherings. Outdoors and with everyone at least six feet apart, I attended shul for the first time in months. In the midst of the swaying and chanting that so often accompanied davening, I felt some sense of normalcy return. While there was no kiddush after services, some people lingered around to chit chat. [Teresa Konopka]

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Jewish Religion, Lifestyles, San Diego County, Teresa_Konopka

Seacrest Village may be answer for isolated Jewish seniors

Jewish seniors isolated during the coronavirus pandemic may be better off both physically and mentally by moving to the Independent Living section of Seacrest Village Retirement Communities, its president and CEO Pam Ferris says. [Donald H. Harrison, “Our Shtetl San Diego County column]

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

Your Mindset is Your Compass

“It is not primarily our physical selves that limit us but rather our mindset about our physical limits.” — Ellen Langer, Ph.D. in Counterclockwise: Mindful Health and the Power of Possibilities. “What? But my world is upside down! I mean, I’m financially stretched way too thin, my waist is getting way too large, my relationship at home is disintegrating, and she’s saying it’s all in my mind?!” [Michael R. Mantell, Ph.D]

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Lifestyles, Michael Mantell

Superstitious believed the shofar could scare Satan

It is absolutely certain that both the spiritual leaders of Jewry and the masses of uneducated Jews (or at least the majority of these) before, during and after the talmudic period believed that the shofar, the ram’s horn, was blown on the holiday of Rosh Hashanah in order to scare Satan and his demonic cohorts. The widely held belief was that the blowing of the shofar would stop Satan from approaching God at a crucial moment, keeping him from indicting Jews for past sins in a heavenly judicial proceeding in which God decides the future of each Jew. [Rabbi Dr. Israel Drazin]

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Israel Drazin-Rabbi Dr., Jewish Religion

Cancel Culture or Learning to Accept One Another?

Should we cancel people and their ideas if we do not agree with them? This has become the dilemma of our era. The so-called “cancel culture” which consists in removing support for public figures for their opinions or actions is already a trend invading the Internet. At times when the lives of all revolve around the same struggles and challenges, what we need to cancel are our divisions. Instead, we need to embrace our differences and create an environment of acceptance. Our common destiny is at stake. [Michael Laitman, Ph.D]

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Lifestyles

A Trip to Myanmar in 2013

Back to Shwedagon Pagoda, it dominates the Yangon sky. The legend is that when Buddha was alive and preaching 2500 years ago, two brothers who were disciples were returning to Myanmar and asked Buddha for something personal they could take with them. He gave them a single strand of hair. The hair was presented to the ruling king who honored and encased it in a pagoda. Over the centuries, successive rulers felt compelled to enlarge the pagoda and make it more grandiose. Today it stands 336 feet tall and is covered with 60 tons of pure gold. It is is encrusted at the top with 5448 diamonds, 2317 rubies and sapphires, and a 76-carat diamond at the pinnacle. [Ira Spector]

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International, Travel and Food

On My Walks Again (Melody: On the road again)

On my walks again                                                                                                                                     
Twice a day I’m on my walks again.                                                                                                               
My owners’ home confines us like a pen.                                                                                                               
I need to get us out of the house again … [Elona Baron as Sung to Laurie Baron, Ph.D]             

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Lawrence Baron, Trivia, Humor & Satire

Fiction: Jewish perspectives on Niue, Part 2

Editor’s Note: In this fictional piece, Esther and Noa, representing the San Diego-based Rabinove Foundation, go on a cruise around the South Pacific Island of Niue. In the previous segment, their guide Matafetu told them about the northern part of the island, occupied by the Motu people. In this part, he guides them around the southern part, the land of the Tafiti people. [Donald H. Harrison]

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Donald H. Harrison, Jewish Fiction, Jewish Religion, Travel and Food

The raging fires also are within us

Entire neighborhoods are engulfed in fire; thousands have been evacuated from their homes in California. A historic and unusual summer thunderstorm and rare massive lightning strikes combined with record-breaking heat ignited devastating fires across the Golden State. Death Valley reported temperatures of 130°F in what is believed to be the highest temperature ever measured on Earth, and this is attributed to climate change. Other natural disasters around the globe endanger our very existence. What is nature trying to tell us? Its message is clear. We are unwanted guests on this planet unless we humans change. [Michael Laitman, Ph.D]

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Lifestyles, San Diego County, The World We Share, USA

It Ain’t Like John Wayne

When I visited a jail, it was a lonely ride, made lonelier by the barren landscape of empty hills and valleys. My V-8 powered, beige pickup truck, which easily climbed and descended the steep grades was the same color as the landscape. My final destination was a desolate outpost that could double as a frontier fort if Mexico decided to attack the United States in a refrain of the Alamo. The border is just over the next hill or two. [Ira Spector]

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Lifestyles, San Diego County

Fiction: Jewish perspectives on Niue

Boarding a comfortable but fast boat that would circumnavigate the South Pacific island of Niue, Noa and Esther were pleased with their earlier meeting with the country’s premier, who had promised his government’s cooperation as they explored the possibility of installing a desalination plant on the island.  However, he warned them that due to the atoll’s geography, rising as it did straight up from the Pacific Ocean, there were very few spaces for beaches or natural harbors. So, he said, finding a suitable location for a desalination plant might be very difficult indeed. [Donald H. Harrison]

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Donald H. Harrison, International, Jewish Fiction, Jewish History, Middle East, San Diego County, Travel and Food, USA

Satire: Trump is God’s way of testing humanity

Tell-all books about Donald Trump keep getting published. We have heard from Mary Trump that the president suffers from a narcissistic personality disorder, from John Bolton that he has no guiding principles in formulating foreign policy, and from Michael Cohen that he is a corporate criminal with a mafia mentality. Still 40 % of the American public considers him God’s gift to the United States. To discredit this belief, God has authored a book called This Is a Test: Why I Created Donald Trump. Here’s an advance excerpt. [Satire by Laurie Baron, Ph.D]

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Lawrence Baron, Trivia, Humor & Satire

We need a memorial for Jews who saved Jews and others

Yad Vashem Holocaust Museum in Jerusalem honors non-Jews who chose to save Jews, even at the risk of their own lives. Yad Vashem does not honor, document or recognize Jews who saved other Jews during the Holocaust, even at the risk of their own lives. Honoring Jews who saved Jews was and is not part of its mandate. Were not their life-risking efforts worthy of memorialization? There is no memorial to Jews who saved Jews and others, in Israel, or anywhere. [Jerry Klinger]

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Jerry Klinger, Jewish History, Jewish Religion, Middle East, Obituaries & memorials, USA