Awaiting the end of Elijah

Imagine, if you will, six strong personalities stranded in a Thank God It’s Friday pub while a hurricane rages outside. The accompanying rain has flooded the streets, and all the highways in this small Texas town have been closed. So begins a play called Elijah, but it doesn’t have anything to do with the Biblical figure.  Elijah is the name given to the hurricane that threatens this small town. [Cynthia Citron]

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Cynthia Citron, Theatre, Film & Broadcast

Female beauty: Torah, mythology, and ancient history

The passage I have chosen to explore is offensive to modern sensibilities:  Genesis, Ch. 12, vv. 11-13  “As he was about to enter Egypt, he said to his wife Sarai, ‘I know what a beautiful woman you are.  If the Egyptians see you, and think, She is his wife, they will kill me and let you live.  Please say that you are my sister, that it may go well with me because of you, and that I may remain alive thanks to you.'” Sarah was carried off by Pharoah’s officials, and placed in his harem.  According to the story, she was not violated, because of God’s intervention.

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Irv Jacobs, MD, Jewish Religion, Lifestyles

Rejecting complacency, embracing our true selves

This week’s parasha teaches that to live a meaningful life, turning inward and reflecting on these questions are important, yet we may also have to ditch the links to our past and project a new course…guided by Torah as our road map to discovering our real purpose. We may have to leave our comfortable Haran to go to our Canaan, our Land of Israel. [Michael Mantell, PhD

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Jewish Religion, Lifestyles, Michael Mantell

How U.S. benefits from alliance with Israel

The origins of U.S.-Israel security cooperation are in the Cold War understanding that the United States could not engage all the adversaries of all its allies and friends around the world. It was embraced warily at first — the Americans were unconvinced they would receive anything of value and the Israelis were concerned about continued freedom of action. But it worked. Israel went from being considered a net security consumer to a net security producer, meaning the United States did not have to expend resources to defend Israel. And Israel participated in making the Middle East and eastern Mediterranean regions more secure due to its presence. [Shoshana Bryen]

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International, Middle East, Shoshana Bryen, USA

Chula Vista exhibit to focus on Holocaust survivors

Stephen D. Smith is the executive director of the USC Shoah Foundation, which houses the archive of interviews of Holocaust Survivors financed by movie producer Steven Spielberg.  He will be a special guest Jan. 12 at the grand opening of RUTH (Remember Us The Holocaust), a Chula Vista Civic Library exhibit named in honor of the late Holocaust survivor Ruth Sax. [Donald H. Harrison]

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Donald H. Harrison, International, Jewish History, San Diego County, Science, Medicine, & Education, Theatre, Film & Broadcast, Trivia, Humor & Satire, USA

Suspense novel speculates on dystopian future

A character based on Theodore Kaczynski, the real-life Unibomber, is a dark presence in this book, as he sends bombs to people and institutions that he believes have been irresponsibly pursuing technological change without fear of the consequences.  This novel’s “Techno-Bomber” has even issued a manifesto, Kaczynski-like, inveighing against the direction in which scientists and industrialists are taking the world. [Donald H. Harrison]

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Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Donald H. Harrison

‘The Last Five Years’ pulls heart strings

Jamie Wellerstein and Cathy Hiatt are young, bright, talented and ambitious. Jamie is a writer sending out manuscripts to agents and publishers. Cathy is an actress going from audition to audition. Jamie’s success and Cathy’s lack of it complicate matters. Set Designer Justin Humphries has created a tornado of loose pages tearing through their home filled with packing boxes. [Eric George Tauber]

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

If dogs could vote

100 years ago American women received the right to vote.  I think it is time to consider canine suffrage.  For those who scoff at the idea of letting a domesticated animal with limited intelligence vote, consider that nearly 63,000,000 US citizens voted for the Golden Deceiver to be president, a man who has never read the Constitution or anything but his clippings as far as I can tell.  [Elona Baron as told to Laurie Baron]

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Lawrence Baron, Trivia, Humor & Satire

Chutzpah and Balagan: partners in innovation

he State of Israel is an amazing place. Ever wonder about the secrets behind how Israel, a tiny country with the highest concentration of start-ups per capita worldwide, is raising generations of entrepreneurs who are disrupting markets around the globe and bringing change to the world? What factors have led to these remarkable achievements, and what secrets do Israeli tech entrepreneurs know that others can learn? [Rabbi Michael Leo Samuel]

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Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Michael Leo Samuel-Rabbi, Middle East