Some of the websites I like to read

 

 

Other items in this column include:
*Political bytes
*Writers always wanted

By Donald H. Harrison

SAN DIEGO — In today’s column, I would like to share with you current editions of websites that I routinely visit as I familiarize myself with Jewish news from around the world.  If you have the time and inclination, I’m certain that the hard-working staffs who publish these websites would very much welcome your readership and support, as, of course, do I.

Michael Ordman carefully compiles links to “good news” stories in Israel ranging from scientific advances to diplomatic breakthroughs in a blog he calls “Very Good News Israel.”  Here is a link to the current edition.

 

Andrew Silow-Carroll is editor-in-chief of the New York Jewish Week.  In his current column, he writes about composer Irving Berlin‘s mixed record in his relationship with Black Americans.  To  Berlin’s credit, he composed “Supper Time,”  a moving song mourning the murders of lynch victims sung by Ethel Waters in a production called “As Thousands Cheer” that had stories from the different sections of a newspaper come alive on stage.   I have never met Silow-Carroll, but I have a fondness for the newspaper he now heads.  Many years ago, my elderly cousin, the late Richard Yaffe, served as that publication’s associate editor.  He also served as the United Nations correspondent for the The Jewish Chronicle of London, as well as for an Israeli newspaper which, if I remember correctly, was published by the leftist Mapam party.  It was Richard who interested me in making the switch from secular journalism (Associated Press, San Diego Union) to Jewish journalism during his frequent winter visits to San Diego in the 1970s and 1980s to escape the cold winters of New York City.  I’ll never forget the day he was reading the morning San Diego Union.  With a wry smile, he said, “I think I’ll move to San Diego permanently.”  “That would be wonderful, Dick, but what made you decide?” I asked, unwittingly playing straight-man.  “I’ve been reading the obituaries regularly,” he said, “and I realize that Jews don’t die here!”  Even today, you will find relatively few obituaries in the San Diego Union-Tribune that mention the deceased’s Jewish affiliations.

PMW Bulletin published by Palestine Media Watch (an Israeli organization)  is not an enjoyable reading experience, but it is both informative and educational, as it culls from the Arab-language Palestinian press stories and cartoons commenting on current events in Israel, Gaza, and the Palestinian Authority.  Many of these cartoons and stories reveal how deep is the Palestinian animus toward Israel specifically and Jews generally.  In the current issue, major attention is paid to the Palestinian reaction to the news that Israel and the United Arab Emirates have agreed to make peace.  While we Jews might celebrate this move toward regional peace, the Palestinian leadership denounced it as a “knife in the back.”

There are Israeli publications that I turn to, including The Jerusalem Post, Times of Israel, and Ha’aretz, and of course I read The San Diego Union-Tribune and various other daily news publications as a matter of course.

Locally, I make it a point to read on a daily basis Times of San Diego, whose editor-in-chief Chris Jennewein and contributing editor Ken Stone are fellow Jews and are sensitive to the issues that affect our community.  For example, in today’s edition, Times of San Diego runs an OpEd piece by San Diego County School Board member Mark Powell telling why he believes the proposed Ethnic Studies Curriculum for K-12 schools should not limit its discussion of Middle Eastern peoples to Arabs alone.  ” I am the son of Sephardic Jewish refugees who were forced to leave Egypt due to religious persecution. Being the only Sephardic Jewish student attending elementary school in the 1960’s was a bit lonely, for there were no other students like me in the school or mention of students like me in any of the books,” Powell writes.

East County Magazine, edited by Miriam Raftery, one of the hardest-working journalists I know, covers all the cities and rural areas that lie east of the Interstate 15, a geographic area that may rival those of some of America’s smaller states.  Such incorporated cities as Santee, La Mesa, El Cajon, Lemon Grove, and Poway fall within East County Magazine’s purview as do such unincorporated areas as Spring Valley, Lakeside, Alpine, Ramona, Julian, Borrego Springs, Warner Hot Springs, , the Cleveland National Forest.  During hot summers like this one, East County Magazine is a go-to source for up-to-the-minute reports on wildfires in our area.

Joe Gandelman, a former San Diego Union-Tribune reporter, is a ventriloquist by trade, entertaining both children and adults with his clever routines that he performs with a collection of dummies.  To keep his talented hands in journalism, Gandelman publishes The Moderate Voice website, which solicits OpEds from many interesting writers who expound upon a wide variety of topics.  The current issue is filled with commentaries about Joe Biden’s selection of Kamala Harris as his vice presidential running mate.  However, there is also a piece by David Robertson that says it wasn’t the New Testament that changed the Sabbath from the Jewish Saturday to the Christian Sunday, rather it was ancient Romans who wanted to incorporate pagan sun worship into the Christian religion which their Empire was adopting.

I’m happy to say that Times of San Diego, East County Magazine, The Moderate Voice, and San Diego Jewish World created an informal group called the San Diego Online News Association (SDONA) through which the four publications have granted each other the rights to republish those stories which their staffs originate.  As all of us have small staffs, the agreement enables us to cover more stories than we would be able to otherwise.

It will be my pleasure, in future columns, to introduce you to other useful and interesting publications for those who like to keep abreast of the Jewish world.

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Political bytes

*Lou Rosen has signed a petition and has urged friends and relatives to do likewise calling on the U.S. Postal Service’s Board of Governors to remove Louis DeJoy as U.S. Postmaster General because of slowdowns in mail delivery in this time only months away from the November general election while controversy rages over absentee voting.

*The New York Post reports that the Democratic Socialists of New York City, which helped in the 2018 congressional election of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and the 2020 Democratic party nomination of Jamaal Bowman to replace Congressman Eliot Engel is now quizzing candidates for City Councils whether they would agree not to visit Israel and to support the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions campaign against the Jewish state.  The organization calling itself “Jews Choose Trump” has disseminated the story, commenting “Antisemitism is Now a Prerequisite for Office on the Left.”

*Terra Lawson-Remer, seeking to unseat County Supervisor Kristin Gaspar in the 3rd District, is critical of the incumbent’s ballot statement, which reads: “Supervisor Kristin Gaspar has earned a reputation as someone who works with everyone to get things done.  From Governor Newsom and Supervisor Fletcher, to Mayor Faulconer and President Trump, Krisin focuses on results–not politics–to help San Diegans.”   Lawson-Remer responds: “Gaspar doesn’t work across the aisle, she storms out of meetings, gets into Twitter fights with her Democratic colleague, and has more Fox News appearances than endorsements from her fellow Supervisors. Kristin Gaspar is a wolf in sheep’s clothing trying to obscure her right-wing agenda from San Diego voters, and it might work.”

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Writers always wanted
We have an expanding list of Jewish writers in San Diego, across the United States, and around the world.  If you’re interested in joining our unpaid, volunteer corps of authors who would like to share their thoughts just for the joy of expressing yourself to a wider audience, I would welcome seeing some samples of your work.  Please send them to me, via email, at donald.harrison@sdjewishworld.com On the theory that I just won’t be able to resist your work, once I read it, please send along with the samples, the name you use for a byline, the city and state (country) in which you live, a photo of yourself to accompany your work, and an acknowledgment that you understand there will be no financial payment for your work, though no doubt you’ll be recompensed with psychic joy!

 

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Donald H. Harrison is editor of San Diego Jewish World.  He may be contacted via donald.harrison@sdjewishworld.com