Politics more toxic than pandemic

In addition to the corona crisis, Israel also has a political crisis. After three general elections within a year, it still only has a transition government. Most members of it seem to run the prime minister’s often very personal errands. Perhaps that’s why when, last Saturday night, he announced the easing of restrictions to enable more people to return to work, we hear that he didn’t even bother to inform his cabinet colleagues ahead of time. [Rabbi Dow Marmur]

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Middle East

Canadian vs. American responses to mass shootings

Yesterday, April 19, 2020, in Portapique, Nova Scotia, a gunman on a shooting rampage killed at least 16 people including one Mountie. The gunman was able to flee and lead the police on a 55-mile chase because he was dressed as a Royal Canadian Mounted Police officer and driving a car made to look like one of their vehicles. Thankfully, he was later cornered at a gas station and taken out by the RCMP. Nova Scotia’s Premier, Stephen McNeil called it “one of the most senseless acts of violence in our province’s history.” [Eric George Tauuber}

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Eric George Tauber, International, USA

Six-camp survivor Ben Midler leads off Yom HaShoah observances in S.D. County

Benjamin Midler, 91, a survivor of six Nazi concentration camps, led off the Jewish Federation of San Diego County’s Holocaust remembrance via a Zoom presentation narrated by daughters Nurit Kotick and Ellen Winter. [Our Shtetl San Diego County column by Donald H. Harrison]

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Donald H. Harrison, International, Jewish History, Middle East, USA

Doggie Diary

Today marks one month since Governor Newsom ordered the lockdown in California.  Although the news is full of stories about how humans are coping with confinement, little attention has been paid to how having them at home 24/7 affects us dogs.  I hope my diary entry fills this lacuna. [Humor column by Elona Baron as told to Laurie Baron]

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Lawrence Baron, Trivia, Humor & Satire

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