Trump’s pandemic failure: A missed opportunity

Instead of minimizing the ominous danger of the virus and ignoring the warning of top scientists about the prospective disastrous consequences it could unleash, he could have mobilized from the onset of this pandemic every national resource to tackle the virus head on. This includes the military, the National Guards, and thousands of companies and medical institutions to produce critical equipment and testing on a national scale, and creating an aggressive national program to fight this virus as a war on all fronts. [Alon Ben-Meir, Ph.D]

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Alon Ben-Meir, USA

Author probes ‘desert Islam’ versus its cosmopolitan form

The author was born into a Muslim family living in Canada, so therefore she grew up in a modern, pluralistic and capitalist society while being educated in the tradition of the Muslim religion. In the first part of her book she identifies herself as a lesbian, a journalist and a feminist with an inquirinig mind and openness to interaction with other cultures. She has studied the Koran and the various Muslim texts extensively, and has come to the conclusion that the way the religion is pursued in most Muslim countries today is in fact a travesty and a distortion of its original principles. [Book review by Dorothea Shefer-Vanson]

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Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Dorothea Shefer-Vanson, International, Middle East

A virtual Passover in passing

On Wednesday night, many of us had Passover seders we’ll always remember, when we met by Zoom, Facebook, and other Internet devices because the Coronavirus made it unsafe for us to hold our usual celebratory family gatherings.  We’ve been collecting photos from Facebook and our email of San Diegans in their unusual celebrations. [Our Shtetl San Diego County column by Donald H Harrison]

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Donald H. Harrison, International, Jewish Religion, San Diego County, Travel and Food, USA

What Fauci may really think when Trump speaks

“I’ve presented him with the best data I have.  I put it on charts and graphs because I know he doesn’t read.  Now if I can only convince him it is not fake news.”” “If he thinks there’s nothing to lose giving Covid19 patients with hydroxychloroquine because it cures malaria, I’d like to persuade him to let me inject his vocal chords with Botox assuring him it will protect him from coronavirus because it removes wrinkles and lessens migraine pain.” [Satire by Laurie Baron, Ph.D]

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Lawrence Baron, Trivia, Humor & Satire

UK report: Plague and political turmoil

We are suffering dreadfully in UK from the Coronavirus plague. In view of the fact that you are also experiencing the ravages of the virus, I do not need to recount the horrors. However it is worth just mentioning that it is particularly impacting the Jewish Community in UK. It appears that Jews account for 2% of deaths, but are less than 0.5% of the population. [Lloyd Levy]

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International, Lloyd Levy

Will the Messiah come this year?

Ever since the coronavirus started, many of my congregants asked me whether this year might be the year of the Messiah’s arrival. A couple of days I ago, I came across an earlier article about how the Israeli Health Ministry Yaakov Litzman has done a poor job in managing the coronavirus crisis that we see in the Haredi (Ultra-Orthodox) community in Israel. The pandemic has impacted their community, as much as four to eight times faster than elsewhere in Israel. [Rabbi Dr. Michael Leo Samuel]

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Jewish History, Jewish Religion, Michael Leo Samuel-Rabbi

Passing on Passover thoughts

SAN DIEGO — Members of our community have been sharing their thoughts about this unusual Passover via emails and social media. We are pleased to pass along some of them: Rabbi Joshua Dorsch of Tifereth Israel Synagogue says, “One of the many things that Passover teaches us is that amidst the darkness, and challenging moments in our lives, together, we will persevere. We will emerge from the struggle and the challenges before us, stronger and more connected together.”  Along with Tifereth Israel staff members Michelle Barbour, Amy Stanley, Beth Klareich, and Alissa Messian, he performed in a video parodying Dr. Seuss’s Green Eggs and Ham:  “I do not want you in my house/ I do not want you or your spouse/ I do not wish to eat with you/ At Seder one or Seder Two/ Don’t get me wrong: I think you’re nice/ but the CDC gave out this advice:/ You must avoid one plague more/ And shoo Elijah from your door./ At next year’s seder, we will tell/ How we were all saved by Purell.” [Our Shtetl San Diego County column by Donald H. Harrison]

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

The secret message of C.O.V.I.D

Seems that with WAZE, Google Maps, and other similar apps everyone these days has their own “navi” system. Only problem is, the other day I plugged “Happiness” into one of these and the app exploded! I asked Siri, Alexa and even my Apple watch…no help. Could COVID19 have infected my course-plotting devices? Of course not. But during these sheltered-at-home days, any journey out needs to be swift, calculated and well-planned. That’s when it hit me. I needed to rely a better GPS system, one that’s guided me well in the past and surely would do so during these emotionally strained times. [Michael R. Mantell, Ph.D]

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Lifestyles, Michael Mantell

1997 novel about 2020 predicted a lethal pandemic

Neta Halperin, a literary critic in the leftwing Israeli newspaper Haaretz, leads off with a headline: ”The Coronavirus Novel: An Israeli Author Wrote a Book on the 2020 Pandemic 23 Years Ago” accompanied by a subheadline that reads: ”In her science fiction novel ‘2020’ published in 1997, an Israeli author described a global pandemic much like the coronavirus. Now she explains why she went there and how she managed to get things so right.” [Dan Bloom]

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Books, Poetry & Short Stories

Pandemic teaches we are not so advanced

The affairs of the world were running as usual; not necessary right, to a great extent, but as usual. With this world not knowing any better, things were considered normal. All of a sudden, the world woke up to face a terrible pandemic affecting all.  And now thousands are getting sick and many are dying. With all our advancements, we were not prepared. [Arkady Mamaysky]

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Arkady Mamaysky, International, Science, Medicine, & Education, USA

Passover awakens Jewish memory

Passover is a unique holiday. While most people tend to see themselves as a product of the present, the Jew is different in one basic respect. Regardless of denomination, Jews are a people forged by the fiery crucible of memory. We say in the Passover Haggadah, “We were slaves to Pharaoh in Egypt . . .Had not the Holy Blessed One taken us out of Egypt, then we and our children, and our grandchildren would still be slaves to Pharaoh in Egypt.” [Rabbi Dr. Michael Leo Samuel]

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Jewish Religion, Michael Leo Samuel-Rabbi