Trump had rationale for upbraiding witnesses

Trump commented that “turncoats” against him include “even Gordon Sondland” who changed his testimony to declare that there was indeed a “quid pro quo” sought by the president and his supporters on Ukraine. Dismissing Sondland’s influence, Trump commented, “He thought he could buy my affection with a little donation to my campaign (reportedly a million dollars); I did name him ambassador to the European Union, whatever that is, but his disloyalty eventually came to the surface.” [Satire by Joel H. Cohen]

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Joel H. Cohen, Trivia, Humor & Satire

Backyard Renaissance fits ‘American Buffalo’

Director Rosina Reynolds, with only three characters in this black comedy, manages pull off the heist of the year with her excellent cast, perfect timing and gentle nudging to build on Mamet’s language that is oft called ‘Mametspeak.’ She strikes it rich with the solid gold talent pool she has at her center. [Carol Davis]

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Carol Davis, San Diego County, Theatre, Film & Broadcast

What local Jewish candidates are telling voters

From time to time, we’ll be checking the websites, Facebook pages, and news releases of local Jewish candidates to see what they are emphasizing to voters.  As they are competing in contests for federal, state, county, and city offices, it is natural that they address different kinds of issues. [Donald H. Harrison]

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Business & Finance, Donald H. Harrison, Jewish Religion, Middle East, Obituaries & memorials, The World We Share

JFS official tells DHS abuses of asylum seekers

Attorney Kate Clark, who serves as the senior director of immigration services for Jewish Family Service, told a congressional panel on Friday that officials of the Department of Homeland Security at the southern border routinely ignore DHS’s own regulations concerning the protection of unaccompanied minors and individuals with significant medical issues. Furthermore, she said, the Remain-in-Mexico program “has caused unnecessary suffering and harm to over 55,000 asylum seekers forced to return to Mexico and has completely overwhelmed the U.S. immigration courts. [Donald H. Harrison]

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

The Conscientious Canine’s Thanksgiving Dilemma  

I should show solidarity with the turkeys of the world (the poultry not the defenders of the Golden Deceiver.)  Although I can’t read, I have heard the quote from Isaac Bashevis Singer’s Enemies: A Love Story:  “As often as Herman had witnessed the slaughter of animals and fish, he always had the same thought: in their behavior toward creatures, all men were Nazis. The smugness with which man could do with other species as he pleased exemplified the most extreme racist theories, the principle that might is right.” [Elona Baron as told to Laurie Baron]

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Lawrence Baron, The World We Share, Trivia, Humor & Satire

$200m offered in match for Rady Children’s Hospital

In the past, philanthropists Ernest and Evelyn Rady donated $60 million and $120 million to Children’s Hospital, which renamed itself as Rady Children’s Hospital.  Now, the married philanthropists have offered to outdo themselves.  They promised to match $200 million in donations from other people in an effort to create a $400 million Rady Reimagine Fund to chart and implement the pediatric hospital’s growth. [Donald H. Harrison]

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Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Business & Finance, Donald H. Harrison, International, Middle East, San Diego County, Science, Medicine, & Education, Theatre, Film & Broadcast, Travel and Food

‘Hold These Truths’: A story we need to hear

Hold These Truths is a story we need to hear. Director Jessica Kubzansky describes it as “a love story between a man and his Constitution.” The true shonda is that Gordon Hirabayashi resisted injustice precisely because he believed in the noble ideals enshrined in our Constitution far more than the leaders who swore to uphold and defend them. [Eric George Tauber]

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Eric George Tauber, San Diego County, Theatre, Film & Broadcast

‘Cambodian Rock Band’ at La Jolla Playhouse tells of genocide

The story picks up in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, 30 years after the invasion of the Khmer Rouge, and as it unfolds it travels back and forth in time between then and now. Yee’s ‘Band’ story is a father-daughter revelation, about not knowing what daddy did in the war 30 years earlier and the music that drove him to stay in his native homeland. {Carol Davis]

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Cantor Sheldon Foster Merel, z"l, Carol Davis, Eric George Tauber, Eva Trieger, Theatre, Film & Broadcast

The political cost Netanyahu inflicted on Israel

The long-anticipated indictment of Prime Minister Netanyahu has finally come to pass today (Thursday, Nov. 21). For three years, Netanyahu spared no effort to scuttle three criminal cases against him, but failed. These charges and their implications have now become rather clear. They have occupied Netanyahu’s thinking as to how to save himself and maintain his position as Prime Minister. They have impacted Israel’s policies, in particular toward the Palestinians, and without a doubt the charges have adversely impacted Netanyahu’s efforts to form a government following the last two elections. [Alon Ben-Meir, PhD]

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Alon Ben-Meir, Middle East

The emotion of Bloch’s ‘Schelomo’

Cellist Alisa Wallerstein’s dramatic, passionate playing was well-suited to the demands of Ernest Bloch’s grandiloquent Hebraic Rhapsody for cello and orchestra, Schelomo. In his musical attempt to present a portrait of the Biblical monarch, Bloch strives to reflect “the Jewish soul, the complex, glowing, agitated soul, that I feel vibrating throughout the Bible.” [story by Eileen Wingard]

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Eileen Wingard, Music, Dance, and Visual Arts, San Diego County

Historian tells of FDR’s anti-Semitism

Vice President Henry Wallace, an eye-witness to the event, recorded in his diary that when President Roosevelt and British Prime Minister Churchill met in mid-1943, Churchill raised the “Jewish question” to which Roosevelt replied the Jews should be spread as thinly as possible all over the world, noting that he tried this method where he lived—Meriwether County, Georgia and Hyde Park, New York and his neighbors appreciated it. This anecdote encapsulates the mindset of Franklin Roosevelt. [Fred Reiss, EdD]

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Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Fred Reiss, EdD, International, Jewish History, USA