A Toronto bagel bakery backstory

I recently received an email from a Canadian novelist named Roberta Park in Toronto, author of a new cli-fi novella titled The Disappearing Shore. “We are at an extraordinary point in human history, and my eco-lit tale addresses the fears and responsibility we must face,” she told me. She sent me a copy of her novel and I am reading it now. I also noticed on her blog that she knows the story of ”Moishe” in Jewish storytelling … [Dan Bloom]

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Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Travel and Food

Some advice about school bullying

Melissa Rubenstein Levin, who worked for Drasnin Communications in San Diego from 2000 to 2002, is now based in Houston, where she is handling publicity for IndieFlix. That production company recently issued three films.  Angst, which includes an interview with Olympic swimmer Michael Phelps, deals with understanding anxiety disorders; Like “explores the impact of social media on our lives and the effects of technology on the brain,” and The Upstanders, which I recently watched, “explores cyber-bullying,” as can be seen in the trailer above. [Our Shtetl San Diego County by Donald H. Harrison]

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Donald H. Harrison, International, Jewish History, Joe Gandelman, Lifestyles, San Diego County, Science, Medicine, & Education, USA

Book Review: A Rosenberg by any other name

You gotta love this book. Page 1 leads with my favorite “Ferguson” (shayn fergessen) joke which I have retold tirelessly for years. Fermaglich reveals that Winona Ryder, born in Winona, Minnesota and currently playing the role of Evelyn Finkel in the Netflix series The Plot Against America, based on Philip Roth’s 2004 novel of the same name, was born Winona Laura Horowitz. But this book is not about jokes and celebrities but about the real choices that the nearly three million Jews who came to America between 1880 and 1920 had to make to feel comfortable and make progress in America. [Oliver B. Pollak, Ph.D]

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Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Jewish History, Oliver Pollak, USA

Succeed or Recede. You CAN’T?

Perhaps you’re exasperated with many of the behavior and habit change schemes aimed at helping you overcome these types of demoralizing thoughts. Diets, exercise programs, meditation practices, gratitude journals, medication, the latest “therapy” procedures, vacations and even drugs and/or alcohol. Nothing helps, right? Perhaps you’ve got a bit too much “nah” going on. “Never accepting hope.” OK, OK, had to get at least one acronym in this article. [Michael R. Mantell, Ph.D]

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Lifestyles, Michael Mantell

A Word of Torah: And it was the eighth day

As the name of the portion indicates this week’s Torah reading begins on the eighth day of the process of inaugurating the Mishkan / The Tabernacle. For a full week Moses had assembled and disassembled the mobile sanctuary as well as modeling the services that would be done within it. At the end of that week, his brother, Aharon HaKohen / Aaron the High Priest, took over the duties for which he had been designated. [Rabbi Yeruchem Eilfort]

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Jewish Religion, Yeruchem Eilfort-Rabbi

Voting by proxy in Congress during pandemic?

Congresswoman Susan Davis (D-San Diego) says she is in a favor of  a proposal that would permit voting by proxy in Congress as long as the requirement of social distancing is in effect or if similar emergencies should occur. [Our Shtetl San Diego County column by Donald H. Harrison]

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

CRAFT SEEDS for well-being

Can you think of anything that you disturb and harm yourself with more than your persistent negativity? Negativity eradicates whatever energy you’ve got left while sheltering-at-home. It diverts indispensable attention that you need to even hope to achieve goals that you have (you DO have goals, right?). And, of course, it weakens your overall morale.  Oh, and your gray sky, cloudy outlook that kills any rainbow? Well, that similarly pollutes those close to you as well. [Michael R. Mantell, Ph.D]

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Lifestyles, Michael Mantell

Pandemic shines light on federalism’s true role

States, jealous of their power and prerogatives when it suits, have been furious over what some governors call federal inaction on COVID-19, deliberate or not. But equally, each state has a department of public health, a director of that department and staff. Each state is presumed to have a plan for emergencies: floods, forest fires, airliner crashes (the last fatal crash in the U.S. occurred in 2009, but it used to be on the “prepare for” list) or pandemics. Closing schools and parks is not handled in Washington. Calling out the state National Guard is, as its name suggests, a state prerogative. [Shoshana Bryen]

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Shoshana Bryen, USA

Yemen war a crime against humanity, Islam

The proxy war that Saudi Arabia and Iran have been waging in Yemen for the past five years goes beyond the pale of human capacity for extreme cruelty and ruthlessness, and against the spirit and the letter of the Quran. Ironically, whereas Saudi Arabia has many reasons to end the war, which prompted its recent decision to declare a unilateral ceasefire, Islam’s forbidding of the killing of innocent people was never considered a reason to halt the fighting. [Alon Ben-Meir, Ph.D]

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Alon Ben-Meir, Middle East

‘Children of Windermere’ a riveting dramatization

The BBC film Children of Wandermere is a heart- rending and at the same time heart-warming film of the incredible rescue mission of 300 children from ages 3 to 16 who survived the death camps of Germany in 1945. The first group of youngsters was flown for eight hours seated on the floor of a converted RAF bomber. They only had the clothes on their backs and some meager possessions. Until the Red Cross provided clothes, all the children went around in their underwear. [Cantor Sheldon Foster Merel]

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Cantor Sheldon Foster Merel, z"l, International, Jewish History, Theatre, Film & Broadcast

The high crime of discussing peace with israelis

The Gaza Youth Committee’s concept of self-determination was short-circuited by Hamas, which rules Gaza with a tight grip. The decade-old committee has spent the last half of its existence virtually meeting with Israelis in small-scale video chats targeted to develop a new generation of leaders who seek to live in peace. Last week, Hamas pulled the plug when it arrested the committee’s leader and several others who participated in its latest video chat on Zoom, the popular teleconferencing platform, The New York Times reports. [Bruce S. Ticker]

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Bruce Ticker, Middle East