Carl Reiner Left Us Laughing

With all of the obituaries about Carl Reiner’s life and career, I would like to write about what he meant to me personally. In 1994, after a disastrous year with a fledgling theatre company, I was a college graduate working as a waiter in Cincinnati trying to figure my life out. There was a casting call for community theatre at the Jewish Community Center. Why not? [Eric George Tauber]

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Eric George Tauber, Theatre, Film & Broadcast

Bothered and bewildered no more

Is it “safe” to go to shopping malls, grocery stores, bars, gyms, movie theaters, churches and synagogues, attend gatherings at private homes, or travel in commercial airplanes? Yes? No? May we safely get haircuts? And oh my goodness, those masks. Should we wear them? Yes, we should? No, we don’t have to wear them? Who really knows? It seems the answer is, nobody. (Michael R. Mantell, Ph.D]

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Lifestyles, Michael Mantell

Coronavirus and political medicine

In the time of pandemic lack of COVID-19 vaccine makes us all vulnerable. We have to rely on medical advice to stay home, keep social distance and not gather in houses or outside. It is tough, frustrating, bad for economy but necessary – thus we obliged. Then mass protests and riots started in support of BLM movement. Twelve hudnred medical professionals stated that mass gathering is good for public health because it promotes social justice reforms. The major medicine’s principle “do not harm” and basic public safety recommendations got ignored. [Alex Glikin]

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International, Science, Medicine, & Education, USA

Annexation mess comes amid a coronavirus mess

The noise about annexation, more or less, is reaching toward a climax. July 1 is supposed to be the date. Discussions proceed in Jerusalem and Washington, with arguments in both places. And holding fire are the Palestinians, Jordanians, Arabs of the Gulf, American Jews, and others, all with relevant opinions. [Ira Sharkansky, Ph.D]

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Ira Sharkansky, Middle East, Science, Medicine, & Education

Israel Philharmonic Orchestra gala features well-known guest performers

The Academy-Award winning actress, Dame Helen Merrin, served as the host of the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra Global Gala, streamed on Sunday, to a world-wide audience. Her father, Vasily Mironoff, played viola with the London Philharmonic Orchestra, so she grew up loving symphonic music. She eloquently introduced the participating artists, some of whom spoke, while others presented cameo performances. [Eileen Wingard]

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Eileen Wingard, Middle East, Music, Dance, and Visual Arts

On letters, columns, and civility

SAN DIEGO — We Jews have a love for debate.  Argument, in its purest sense, helps us to clarify issues, to determine right and wrong, and sometimes to set us upon specific courses of action.  It’s for that reason that I welcome, even relish, articles and letters to the editor with diverse, even opposing, points of view. Yet, sometimes, as the editor and co-publisher of this publication, I feel obligated not to run an article, or simply to delete a letter to the editor. [Donald H. Harrison]

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

Theology vs. Philosophy; Aquinas vs. Maimonides

Saint Thomas Aquinas was authored by G. K. Chesterton, whose output includes both fiction and nonfiction books, including the famous Father Brown murder mysteries. Chesterton wrote this comparatively short history of the Italian Roman Catholic saint who was canonized in 1323. Aquinas’ teachings became the official teachings of Catholicism in 1917. [Rabbi Dr. Israel Drazin]

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Books, Poetry & Short Stories, International, Israel Drazin-Rabbi Dr., Jewish Religion

Jewish Trivia Quiz: Al Jaffee

Al Jaffee was a major contributor to Mad Magazine’s Jewish ethos, which included the use of Yiddish and faux-Yiddish words such as furshlugginer, farshimmelt, and Potrzebie (possibly based on the insult “putz-rebbe”), as well as the use of Yiddish phrases, such as when the Superman spoof character Superduperman uttered the words, “Shazoom? Vas ist das Shazoom?” In addition to working for Mad Magazine for 65 years, what other magazine did Al Jaffee write for? [Mark D. Zimmerman]

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Jewish History, Mark D. Zimmerman, Trivia, Humor & Satire

Farmer-to-Farmer program helps developing nations

Bill Nichols served as a volunteer consultant to the High Atlas Foundation (HAF) through the Farmer-to-Farmer Program (F2F) for two weeks in January 2020. Originally from New Mexico, now residing in Boston, Nichols collaborated as an F2F volunteer with four of HAF’s tree nursery cooperatives in southern Morocco. He was tasked with improving their productivity. One immediate benefit of his visits with Moroccan farmers at these sites is that he was able to share not only his technical and business skills but also to find ways for the four individual cooperatives within the same province to share their own specialized skills with one another. [Yossef Ben-Meir]

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International, Middle East, Science, Medicine, & Education, The World We Share, USA, Yossef Ben-Meir

On being Black and Jewish

Being of mixed racial background and also Jewish often feels like no matter what group you are with, you are perceived as the “other,” sometimes prompting doubts if there is any group with which you truly belong.  Such was the thrust of comments made by Jessica Lemoine and Jenni Asher during an Internet forum on Sunday sponsored by the San Diego Outreach Synagogue and moderated by Rabbi/ Cantor Cheri Weiss and her husband Dan Weiss. [Our Shtetl San Diego County column by Donald H. Harrison]

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Donald H. Harrison, Jewish Religion, Music, Dance, and Visual Arts, San Diego County, Science, Medicine, & Education

A conversation with artist Ruth Poniarski

Ruth Poniarski is a painter and the author of Journey of the Self: Memoir of an Artist (Warren Publishing, 2020), in which she tells the story of her decade long struggle with mental illness, a “spiraling malady” which led her into a “pattern of psychosis.” I recently had the opportunity to talk with Poniarski about her life and work, and how she eventually overcame her demons. [Sam Ben-Meir, Ph.D]

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Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Jewish Religion, Music, Dance, and Visual Arts, Sam Ben-Meir

Satire: Kvetching in Boynton Beach, Florida

My dues went up for my synagogue. Do we really need as big a building that can sit 500 with three rabbis, a cantor, ten office staff, security, and more? My grandson’s bar mitzvah was canceled. I don’t count a 23-car caravan circling the house as his Aliyah is called by Zoom from the front porch as quite the right experience. [Satire by Jerry Klinger]

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Jerry Klinger, Trivia, Humor & Satire, USA