VISTA, California (Press Release)–Shelley Zimmerman, San Diego Assistant Chief of Police Department, will be speaking about her life’s adventures at Congregation B’nai Tikvah on Friday, Feb. 24, at 6: 30 pm. This event will launch Congregation B’nai Tikvah’s new “L’Chayim Series” which focuses on the realities of ‘Life’. Read More »
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San Diego Jewish World 
Sinai now a focus for terrorist buildup
By Rabbi Dow Marmur JERUSALEM — Recently, Ruth Lapidot, retired professor of international law who had participated in formulating the 1979 peace agreement with Egypt, gave this year’s David Elazar Memorial Lecture under the auspices of the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs that the late professor Elazar founded. Read More »
Local theatre critics dole out ‘Craig Noel Awards’
By Carol Davis LA JOLLA, California – The San Diego Theatre Critics Circle threw a huge party Feb. 6 for the theatre community to celebrate and acknowledge the accomplishments of San Diego County’s local theatre heroes. This is the tenth year we have been at it and every year it gets better and better. Named for his powerhouse [… Read More »
No peace deal? Arabs, more than Israelis, are to blame
By Bruce S. Ticker PHILADELPHIA — Who really broke the deal? Granted, Israel’s conditions for a peace settlement appear to be a sure deal-breaker. Israeli negotiators notified their Arab counterparts on Wednesday, Jan. Read More »
Two views of Ofer Eini and the general strike
By Rabbi Dow Marmur JERUSALEM–I think of Ofer Eini, the Head ofIsrael’s Histadrut Labour Federation, as one of the most seasoned and balanced public figures inIsrael. Read More »
A search for Cain
Haazinu (Listen Up): A Book of Prophecy by Yerachmiel Ben-Yishe, Gefen Publishing House, 2011, 268 pages, ISBN 9789652295347,Retail price unlisted. By Donald H. Read More »
‘Brooklyn Boy’ done right at Scripps Ranch Theatre
By Carol Davis SAN DIEGO–Donald Margulies’ Brooklyn Boy is one of my favorite plays by one of my favorite playwrights. First seen at The South Coast Repertory Theatre in Costa Mesa in its premiere production in 2004, Margulies was approaching his 50th year; a time for self-reflection. His other works include Dinner With Friends, Sight [… Read More »
Theatre professionals analyze role of modern Jewish theatre
By Cynthia Citron LOS ANGELES — To paraphrase a very old joke: seven Jews sat down at the table to express 14 different opinions… In fact, they were the opening panel convened by the 31st annual conference of the International Association for Jewish Theatre, beginning Sunday at UCLA Hillel’s Dortort Arts Center to discuss “Jewish [… Read More »
Pianist approves predecessor’s piano choice; plays all five Beethoven concerti
By Eileen Wingard SAN DIEGO –Pianist Daniel Wnukowski performed the remarkable fete of playing all five Beethoven Piano Concerti on three consecutive nights with the Tifereth Israel Community Orchestra (TICO) under the direction of David Amos. Read More »
ACLU right to challenge U.S. targeting of American citizens overseas
By Shoshana Bryen WASHINGTON, D.C — Having to choose between siding with the Obama administration and siding with the ACLU is tough — but the ACLU wins this one. The ACLU sued the CIA for information about the deaths of Anwar al-Awlaki, his 16-year-old son, and Samir Khan in CIA/JSOC drone strikes in Pakistan. The [… Read More »
Latest peace agreement between P.A. and Hamas worrisome for Israel
By Rabbi Dow Marmur JERUSALEM–On the face of it, the latest agreement between Hamas and Fatah, signed in Qatar by Khaled Mashaal (who left Damascus presumably because of what’s going on in Syria and announced his impending retirement as the leader of Hamas) and Mahmoud Abbas (the President of the Palestinian Authority) could be a [… Read More »
Noah was a worker not a philosopher
By Rabbi Michael Leo Samuel CHULA VISTA, California –Avraham Burg is an interesting personality. He challenges the religious sensibilities of the Orthodox and Jewish world. Burg is also a leader in the Israeli peace movement. He served two terms in the Israeli Knesset. Over the years, he has emerged as one of Israel’s most articulate [… Read More »
San Diego Jewish Film Festival’s ‘shorts’ program culled from 100 entries
By Yvonne Greenberg SAN DIEGO — Speaking about this year’s Joyce Forum in a recent phone interview, its founder, Joyce Axelrod, proudly pointed out that this year’s shorts program (Shorts in Winter) received a record number of submissions, 100, that Read More »
Book probes schism in Lubavitch world over messiah’s identity
Among Righteous Men: A Tale of Vigilantes and Vindication in Hasidic Crown Heights, by Matthew Shaer. John Wiley Press, 2012. 243pp. By David Strom SAN DIEGO — On December 29, 2007, the Crown Heights Shomrim (Hebrew for guards) Rescue Patrol answered a call for help from the Lubavitcher yeshivah student dormitory at 749 Eastern Parkway, [… Read More »
Caucus formed to teach Knesset members about American Jews
By Rabbi Dow Marmur JERUSALEM — Members of the Knesset are discovering America, Jewish America to be precise. Prompted by Jay Ruderman of the Ruderman Family Foundation a dozen or so Israeli parliamentarians came together recently to form the Israel-American Jewish Knesset Caucus. The visit was preceded by a comprehensive US visit by six MKs [… Read More »
San Diego Jewish Film Festival preview: several movies have musical themes
By David Amos SAN DIEGO–We are very fortunate to have in San Diego a yearly film festival on Jewish subjects that never ceases to be interesting, provocative, educational, and entertaining. This year is no exception. Starting February 9 and ending the 19th, there are many interesting choices available. Due to my various activities in the [… Read More »
The Jews Down Under~News of the Jews of Australia
Compiled by Garry Fabian 180 Years of Chuppahs’ SYDNEY, 30 January – Australian grandfather Joe Kensell had a reason to celebrate January 30 – it was the 180th anniversary of Australia’s first officially sanctioned Jewish marriage – and the happy couple, Moses Joseph and Rosetta Nathan, were his great, great grandparents. Read More »
Does turning on the water faucet violate Shabbat?
By Rabbi Michael Leo Samuel CHULA VISTA, California — One of the most respected Chabad authorities on kosher food, who is also the chief rabbi of a haredi city in Israel, has banned the use of tap water on Shabbat. Bnei Brak’s Rabbi Moshe Yehuda Leib Landa issued a halachic ruling that using a faucet [… Read More »
Normal Arab-Jewish coexistence in Israel goes unreported by media
By Dorothea Shefer-Vanson MEVASSERET ZION, Israel — Despite rumors to the contrary, Israel is a normal country at least as far as retail therapy is concerned. Shopping malls are popping up with ever-increasing frequency wherever one looks. Read More »
‘The Lonesome West’ deserves its adjective
By Cynthia Citron SANTA MONICA, California — If there is a loaded shotgun hanging on the living room wall just below the crucifix, you sort of get a hint of the kind of household you’ve entered. In Martin McDonagh’s play The Lonesome West, currently onstage at the excellent Ruskin Group Theatre in Santa Monica, the [… Read More »
Jewish-interest license plate
SAN DIEGO — Melanie Rubin is a collector of Jewish-interest license plate images. And she has found another two. “A Mensh” (for those who don’t know) is someone who is a good person, a humanitarian. And” OyImla8″ suggests someone with a great sense of humor who’s a little tardy. If you have a Jewish-interest license [… Read More »
For Israel, anti-Iran sanctions far better than attacking
By Rabbi Dow Marmur JERUSALEM–The website of the British tabloid the Daily Mirror shows a detailed diagram of how Israel would attack Iran using sophisticated fighter planes, drones and missiles from its five ultra-modern submarines. It also predicts when: not later than April. Read More »
San Diego Jewish Film Festival preview: ‘The Agony and the Ecstasy of Phil Spector’
By Paul Greenberg SAN DIEGO — “I may not believe in God, I wish to hell I believed in God, but I believe in the devil,” explained the reclusive but nutty musical genius Phil Spector near the end of the strangely captivating and at times disturbing documentary film, The Agony and the Ecstasy of Phil [… Read More »
San Diego Jewish Film Festival preview: ‘Dolphin Boy’
By Yvonne Greenberg LA JOLLA, California — Dolphin Boy is an endearing yet heart-breaking film which left me feeling upbeat. Dolphin therapy helps the main character recover his lost communication skills. The plot reveals a deep love for family, boyfriend, and girlfriend, and a newly acquired one for dolphins. . Morad, an Israeli-Arab teen, [… Read More »
Federation joins in deploring haredi violence and intimidation in Israel
SAN DIEGO (Press Release)– Steven J. Morris President and CEO of the Jewish Federation of San Diego County, on Friday announced his concurrence with a statement by the Jewish Federations of North America (JFNA) urging positive change in Israel to promote “tolerance, respect and inclusion. Read More »
Dream of two peaceful states, side by side, still lives
By Rabbi Ben Kamin SAN DIEGO — I was born in Israel just a few years after its inception in 1948. My father and mother were there, however, as the British withdrew on May 14 of that year, lowering the Union Jack over the port of Haifa, and raising the stakes considerably for the [… Read More »
World should accept impossibility of ‘peace process’ in Middle East
By Shoshana Bryen WASHINGTON, D.C. –The current round of Israeli-Palestinian meetings in Jordan ended with a Palestinian decision to leave. “The Israelis brought nothing new in these meetings,” said one official, without bothering to note the obvious — neither did the Palestinians. Read More »
U.S. must plan for contingencies as fractured opposition fights Syrian regime
By James Colbert WASHINGTON, D.C. –At the United Nations, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton called for an international response to the crisis in Syria, warning that if the UN fails to act it should consider itself complicit with the brutal regime of Syrian President Bashar Assad. And there are certainly steps that the United States [… Read More »
American Jews should speak and write against discrimination in Israel against women
By Rabbi Leonard Rosenthal SAN DIEGO — This week I wanted to write about Miriam, Moses’ and Aaron’s sister. The Torah records that after the Children of Israel crossed the Sea of Reeds in their escape from Pharaoh, “Then Miriam the prophetess, Aaron’s sister, took a timbrel in her hand, and all the women went [… Read More »
Four Israeli musicians, including Itzhak Perlman, to perform this month in San Diego
By Eileen Wingard SAN DIEGO–Lighting up the musical firmament over an eight day period in February, four outstanding Israeli musicians will be featured in performances in our fair city. Super Star Itzhak Perlman will present a Violin Recital in Copley Symphony Hall on Sunday evening, February 18. Read More »
San Diego Jewish Film Festival preview: ‘Salsa Tel Aviv’
By Yvonne Greenberg SAN DIEGO — Not only does the movie Salsa Tel Aviv focus on cultural aspects of Mexico’s and Israel’s lifestyles of the young and marriageable, but also features a modern plot for Mexico’s contemporary females. A young and very attractive female from Mexico City is travelling to Israel to look for [… Read More »
A bold newspaper helps a gay Orthodox man to tell his side
Courage is what it takes to stand up and speak; courage is also what it takes to sit down and listen–Winston Churchill By Rabbi Michael Leo Samuel CHULA VISTA, California–Over the years, many of us regarded the Jewish Press as the Orthodox answer to the National Enquirer. Mind you, the Enquirer is quite entertaining. However, [… Read More »
A woman seeks to annul her vow
By Rabbi Baruch Lederman SAN DIEGO — After the splitting of the Red Sea, it was necessary for the children of Israel to see the lifeless bodies of the Egyptian soldiers as they were washed ashore. Otherwise they would never feel deep down that they were free. The trauma of bondage leaves a life long [… Read More »
Canada’s Foreign Minister is staunchly pro-Israel
By Rabbi Dow Marmur JERUSALEM–The staunchly pro-Israel statements that Canada’s Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird made during his recent visit to Israel is a wholesome reminder that the Jewish state has many friends in the world and that such friendship at its best doesn’t have ulterior motives but is founded on the new understanding for, [… Read More »
San Diego Jewish Film Festival preview: ‘David’
By Jack Forman SAN DIEGO — Joel Fendelman is a young independent film producer and director whose feature-length documentary film Needle Through Brick (which is about the development of Kung Fu) recently won the Silver Palm award at the Mexico International Film Festival. In making his first feature film David, Fendelman has drawn on his [… Read More »
San Diego Jewish Film Festival preview: ‘The Judge’
By Paul Greenberg SAN DIEGO — The documentary film, The Judge, is primarily about Aharon Barak’s (real name: Erik Brick) tenure as Justice on the Israeli Supreme Court (1978-2006), where he served as its President for 11 years (1995-2006), although it understandably devotes less time to his prior stint as Israel’s Attorney General (1975-1978). Read More »
Jerusalem hosts its first kosher wine exhibit
By Judy Lash Balint JERUSALEM–As the center of the Jewish religious world, you would think that Jerusalem would have hosted a kosher wine festival before–but no, the first Jerusalem Kosher Wine Exhibit took place just this week at the Binyanei HaUma convention center. With a steep entry price of 70NIS per person (my press card [… Read More »
Are family business owners prepared for transition?
By Sheryl Rowling SAN DIEGO — Are you an entrepreneur? You might be a maven in your own business, but have you considered transition issues? The primary points to consider include: Shalom: Financial Independence & Peace of Mind L’Dor v’ Dor: Estate Plan Updated & Completed Seykhl: Business Plan Geared to Build Value Macher: Management [… Read More »
A positive recommendation for ‘The Recommendation’
By Carol Davis SAN DIEGO—The next time you ask someone for a recommendation, you’d better ask the right person; one whose connected, is dependable and knows almost everything about you. Asking one who is connected can open doors. Asking one who is dependable will assure you get the recommendation. Asking one who knows almost everything [… Read More »
Adelson is a major right-wing factor in U.S., Israeli politics
By Ira Sharkansky JERUSALEM — The New York Times describes Sheldon Adelson as a poor boy who made himself rich, not especially attracted to Jewish affairs or Israel until middle age, now a major contributor to things Jewish, American, and Israeli. His most recent prominence comes from $10 million contributed by him and his [… Read More »
Mandatory contraception provision may upend national health care law
By Bruce Kesler ENCINITAS — The mandate by the Obama administration that contraception must be provided by religious hospitals even if contrary to their religious doctrine may influence the Supreme Court’s decisions on ObamaCare. Read More »
Movies tell more than one version of Jewish history
By Donald H. Harrison LA JOLLA, California — San Diego State University History Prof. Lawrence Baron was greeted with a full house Wednesday, Feb. 1, at Warwick’s Bookstore for his talk about The Modern Jewish Experience in World Cinema, an anthology he edited of movie analyses by 49 authors, including three from San Diego: himself, [… Read More »
U.S. needs to take more activist role in Syria
By Matthew RJ Brodsky WASHINGTON, D.C. — Conventional wisdom in Washington and in European capitals is that the Syrian regime of Bashar al-Asad is doomed. The protests that have spread across the country since March of 2011 and claimed the lives of more than 6,000 people appear to be progressing by their own inertia. Secure [… Read More »
Reasonable restrictions necessary on who can buy a gun
By Rabbi Michael Leo Samuel CHULA VISTA, California – Over a year has passed since the terrible Arizona shooting, when a gunman opened fire, killing six people and wounding 13 others. Gabrielle Giffords, a conservative Democrat representing Arizona’s Eighth District, was among those wounded. Read More »
Netanyahu’s continuation as Likud’s leader may lead to increasing isolation for Israel
By Rabbi Dow Marmur JERUSALEM–In this week’s Likud party primaries Binyamin Netanyahu got some 75% of the votes cast by card-carrying members. The rest went to Moshe Feiglin, an extremist with considerable nuisance value but, mercifully, not much political clout. Read More »
Are Egypt’s domestic problems so bad that war with Israel will be a welcome distraction?
By Evelyn Gordon WASHINGTON, D.C. – Last month, Victor Davis Hanson published a fascinating article on why Iran might nevertheless decide to start a war it can’t win. In it, he analyzed several cases in which countries did exactly that, including the Korean War in 1950, the 1973 Yom Kippur War, the 1982 Falklands War and [… Read More »
Headless in Judea; handless in Spokane
By Carol Davis SAN DIEGO– Overall, I consider myself one lucky gal. How many of us can boast of seeing endless hours of theatre; some good, some bad and some ugly and then having the privilege of sharing that experience by writing about it? And just to carry that theme a bit further, how lucky [… Read More »
Is Israel giving up its right to be called democratic?
By Rabbi Dow Marmur JERUSALEM — The usual complaints about the inadequacy of democratic governance are about the majority that disenfranchises a minority. InIsrael, it seems to be the other way around. Often it’s relatively small groups that hold the rest to ransom – democratically. Read More »
Misogyny may be found in doctrines of some Muslims, some Jews
By Rabbi Michael Leo Samuel CHULA VISTA, California — Kingston, Ontario was once a quiet peaceful community. That all changed when Mohammad Shafia, his wife, and son decided to murder the girls of their family. When he discovered his daughters sending pictures of themselves posing in bras and panties to their boyfriends, he said, [… Read More »
PM’s administrator accused of harrassing woman on staff
By Ira Sharkansky JERUSALEM–The headlines are about a couple of issues roiling close to the Prime Minister. They do not concern the big stuff that will attract people around the world who look to Israel for the excitement of threat, promise, personal or collective salvation. Insofar as the Prime Minister is the Prime Minister, however, [… Read More »
‘Brooklyn Boy’: When ‘success’ is not enough
By Donald H. Harrison SAN DIEGO — In the play Brooklyn Boy, novelist Eric “Ricky” Weiss (Cris O’Bryon) should feel as if he’s on top of the world. His roman-a-clef, also bearing the title Brooklyn Boy, has made it to Number 11 on the New York Times best seller list. Katie Couric has interviewed him [… Read More »
Agudat Israel and the yeshiva that was never built
By J. Zel Lurie DELRAY BEACH, Florida– My father, Jacob “Yankel” Lurie and my mother, Ida “Hayele” Lurie, made aliya from Brooklyn to Haifa in 1929 a few months before the crash on Wall Street. My father, the owner of several ready-to-wear women’s fashion stores, was 54. My mother at 50 had brought up six sons and [… Read More »
Was King David guilty of adultery?
By Rabbi Michael Leo Samuel CHULA VISTA, California–After reading Neil N. Winkler’s new book, Bringing the Prophets to Life: A Timely Look at a Timeless Story (Jerusalem: Gefen, 2011), I felt elated. Somebody in the Orthodox world has finally written a book on the Prophets! The study of the Tanakh remains one of the most [… Read More »
Book review: ‘Tough Questions Jews Ask’
Tough Questions Jews Ask: A Young Adult’s Guide to Building a Jewish Life, 2nd Edition by Rabbi Edward Feinstein, Jewish Lights Publishing, 2012, 140 pages, ISBN 978-1-58023-454-2-51599, U.S. cover price: $15.99. By Donald H. Read More »
Planning for our descendants’ future
By Rabbi Baruch Lederman SAN DIEGO – Moshe accomplished his great mission. He liberated the Jews from the bondage of Mitzrayim (Egypt). One could feel that his accomplishment was offset by the fact that most of the Jews in Egypt never made it to the promised land. Most of them perished along the way. The [… Read More »
Intern who saved Giffords’ life sought her out because she’s pro-Israel
By Gary Rotto SAN DIEGO — You know how we hear about social media surveys in Twitter or Facebook? How the media measures “what’s trending now” about a person or a political event? Well, Daniel Hernandez was “trending now” amongst my Facebook Friends immediately after the regional AIPAC Dinner in San Diego. The name probably [… Read More »
The odyssey of little Lula
By Cynthia Citron LOS ANGELES — Quick! Who is Luiz Inacio da Silva? Or do you know him as “Lula”? Would it help if you were told that Time Magazine had named him one of the Most Influential People in the World in 2010? That Forbes ranked him One of the World’s Most Powerful People? [… Read More »
‘How to Succeed’ a timely success for the Welk
By Carol Davis ESCONDIDO, CA—It’s a pretty timely event, the dual openings of the Broadway hit, How To Succeed in Business Without Really Trying. Read More »
Facing the doctrines of the Neturei Karta
By Rabbi Michael Leo Samuel CHULA VISTA, California — The Neturei Karta cannot bear looking at the face of a woman—whether a real woman, or merely the image of a woman’s face, which they find “erotic.” The philosopher Emmanuel Lévinas observed that the face is the only part of the body that we see in [… Read More »
Why there are four tefillin compartments for the head but only one for the arm
By Rabbi Leonard Rosenthal SAN DIEGO–When a child becomes Bar or Bat Mitzvah, one of the first mitzvot for which they assume responsibility is tefillin. One of the verses which the rabbis say refers to the mitzvah of tefillin is in parashat Bo: “And this shall serve as a sign on your hand and as [… Read More »
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