Coalition-building and coronavirus in Israel’s top news

Election night was a time for Bibi to declare a big victory. Likud outpolled Blue and White, but Likud plus its right wing block didn’t make it to 61 seats. Final results look like this:
Likud 36 seats; Blue and White 33 seats; United Arab List 15 seats; SHAS 9 seats; United Torah Judaism 7 seats; Meretz-Labor 7 seats; Israel Our Home (Lieberman) 7 seats; Yamina (Bennett, Shaked, Peretz, Smotrich) 6 seats. [Ira Sharkansky, Ph.D]

Coalition-building and coronavirus in Israel’s top news Read More »

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

March of Living postponed; 12 local residents affected

Eight students and four adult leaders from San Diego County who had expected to participate during April in the annual “March of the Living” – a two-week trip including the concentration camps in Poland and a visit to the nation of Israel – have received news that the journey has been cancelled because of the coronavirus. [Our shtetl San Diego County column by Donald H. Harrison]

March of Living postponed; 12 local residents affected Read More »

Donald H. Harrison, International, Jewish Religion, Marcia Tatz Wollner, Middle East, San Diego County, Travel and Food, USA

Jewish trivia quiz: SXSW

South by Southwest (SxSW) is an annual conference and festival held in Austin, Texas since 1987. The 10-day event includes a film festival, concerts, workshops, a trade show, speaker panels, and many other activities, attracting tens of thousands of people. Because of the coronavirus pandemic, SxSW organizers have decided to cancel this year’s event, which was scheduled to begin this week. In the past, there has been a large Jewish presence at SxSW, not only in the number of Jewish attendees, but in terms of the specific activities taking place. Films on Jewish themes, panels on topics of interest to Jews, and Shabbat activities are among the many programs with a Jewish theme. Which of the following was a 2018 Jewish-themed SxSW event? [Mark D. Zimmerman]

Jewish trivia quiz: SXSW Read More »

Mark D. Zimmerman, Trivia, Humor & Satire

It may be Tibi, not Bibi, in a winning coalition

Will Israel’s next government be led by Bibi Netanyahu, the longest serving prime minister in the history of Israel, or will it be dominated by Ahmad Tibi, the leader of one of the factions in the Joint Arab List in the Knesset, a man whom many Israelis love to hate? Though the Corona pandemic dominates the news also in Israel, the media here have also much to say about politicians, including allegations that some of them try to compromise health professionals dealing with Corona in order to further their own agendas. As things look now, Benny Gantz, the leader of the Blue and White party, is likely to form a government with Avigdor Lieberman, the leader of Yisrael Beiteinu, as a disproportionately strong partner. They will be supported by the Joint Arab List, like all other Arabs seemingly despised by Lieberman. The Joint List won’t join the government but will vote with it on issues of mutual interest. [Rabbi Dow Marmur]

It may be Tibi, not Bibi, in a winning coalition Read More »

Middle East

Esther is the true heroine of Purim

Esther is the brave face and conscience of Purim. She is weeping from above for the suffering peoples of today–and for all the girls and women enslaved and brutalized by the jihadists. I love her story, one rooted in real, painful history, harvested from the timeless male penchant for shackling women and exhibiting brutality, because—unlike any other book in the Hebrew Scripture—it never mentions the divine name. Indeed, God is not quoted, cited, or present even once. The Scroll of Esther is being chanted in synagogues over the entire world this month even as Jewish revelers make noise to drown out of the name of the genocidal Prime Minister Haman. [The hissing and booing and even the drunken shrieking should only extend to today’s Hamans—from Kim Jong-un to Khameniei to Isis and on and on.] [Rabbi Ben Kamin]

Esther is the true heroine of Purim Read More »

Jewish Religion

Mordecai, not Esther, was the real hero of Purim

Esther was not a heroine. She repeatedly expressed hesitation from the moment that Mordecai requested that she speak to the king to save the Judeans from Haman’s decree, to every encounter she later had with the king. She needed the assurance gained by having people fast for her safety. It appears that she was unable to talk to Ahasuerus when she approached him after the fast because she feared for her life, so instead of revealing why she came she invited him and Haman to a feast. Even at the feast, she was hesitant and stalled by inviting the pair to a second feast. Mordecai is the hero of Purim. It is he, not Esther, whom the book praises in its conclusion. According to II Maccabees 15:36, Adar 14 was called the “Day of Mordecai.” [Rabbi Dr. Israel Drazin]

Mordecai, not Esther, was the real hero of Purim Read More »

Israel Drazin-Rabbi Dr., Jewish Religion

Works of Holocaust poets performed at LFJCC

“That was the last butterfly. Butterflies don’t live in the Ghetto” wrote Pavel Friedmann in Terezin, before he was deported to Auschwitz, where he perished in 1944. Myla Wingard opened the March 3 program in the Astor Judaic Library, Poets of the Holocaust, with an inspiring musical rendition of that iconic poem. “Never say that you are going your last way.” Those words, penned by Hirsh Glik, became the anthem of the Jewish Partisans. The Ohr Shalom Choir was joined by the audience in singing that song of defiance and hope to conclude the program in which fifteen poets were represented. [Eileen Wingard]

Works of Holocaust poets performed at LFJCC Read More »

Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Eileen Wingard, International, Jewish History, San Diego County

‘No Place for Hate’ expanding to 150 local schools

The Anti-Defamation League currently partners with approximately 100 local schools in its “No Place for Hate” program, and next semester that number will go up to 150 schools, says Tammy Gillies, the ADL’s regional director in San Diego. [Our shtetl San Diego County column by Donald H. Harrison]

‘No Place for Hate’ expanding to 150 local schools Read More »

Donald H. Harrison, Middle East, San Diego County, Science, Medicine, & Education, USA

Trump’s Israel policy is topsy-turvy like Purim

By Ori Nir WASHINGTON, D.C. — I heard that America’s largest hummus producer is introducing a new product: a dessert chocolate “hummus.” And on the web, you will find recipes for brownie batter “hummus,” sweet potato “hummus,” as well as “hummus” cake and “hummus” milkshake. Now listen, I know from hummus. Real hummus. My physique

Trump’s Israel policy is topsy-turvy like Purim Read More »

Middle East, USA

Local law enforcement and Israel

Israel boycott advocates in San Diego County have been attempting, so far without success, to persuade local law enforcement executives to refuse to travel with the Anti-Defamation League for familiarization with Israeli police techniques. Tammy Gillies, regional director of the Anti-Defamation League, said such a push was successful a few years ago in Raleigh-Durham, North Carolina, “where the City Council was asked to stop organized trips to Israel by law enforcement.  They passed that and it was a shock to us. … There are organizations in San Diego working very hard and lobbying our law enforcement agencies not to send people to Israel.” [Sour shtetl San Diego County column by Donald H. Harrison]

Local law enforcement and Israel Read More »

Donald H. Harrison, Eva Trieger, International, Middle East, San Diego County, Theatre, Film & Broadcast, Travel and Food, USA

A Czech woman’s journey through the Holocaust

Published  posthumously with the help of her author daughter Helen Epstein, Franci’s War by Franci Rabinek Epstein is a well-written step-by-step recounting of Franci’s experiences during the Holocaust. A dress designer of  good reputation in Prague, Franci was transported with her parents to Terezin, the Nazis’ “model ghetto” nearby.  She was able to secretly rendezvous with her first husband, Pepik “Joe” Solar, who had been arrested and sent away earlier than she was.  Soon, however, her parents were taken on another transport to their deaths, and with Joe leaving the ghetto daily to work as slave labor on a railroad spur, Franci often was left to her own devices [Donald H. Harrison]

A Czech woman’s journey through the Holocaust Read More »

Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Donald H. Harrison, International, Jewish History

All you can do is cultivate your garden

Reading the headlines of The New York Times wreaked havoc with my immune system, my hippocampus, my cardiovascular system, or possibly all of the above. Did I need to know that Venezuela’s hospitals are lacking medicines or that there is no food on the shelves of grocery stores? That there is a terrible drought in Australia while fires are ravishing the country and cattle are dying from lack of water? That bad floods are inundating city streets in India? [By Natasha Josefowitz, Ph.D]

All you can do is cultivate your garden Read More »

Lifestyles, Natasha Josefowitz, San Diego County