Music, Dance, and Visual Arts

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]

The emotion of Bloch’s ‘Schelomo’ Read More »

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

Federation chips in $100,000 for JCC Maccabi Games

Board members of the Jewish Federation of San Diego County have voted unanimously to contribute $100,000 to help the Lawrence Family JCC to host the August 2-7, 2020 JCC Maccabi Games which are expected to bring to San Diego 2,000 athletes from all over the world. [Donald H. Harrison]

Federation chips in $100,000 for JCC Maccabi Games Read More »

Donald H. Harrison, Judaism, Music, Dance, and Visual Arts, Obituaries & memorials, San Diego County, Sports & Competitions

San Diego gears up for 2020 JCC Maccabi Experience

The Lawrence Family JCC has been sending flyers to people throughout the county looking for athletes, artists, volunteers and donors for the 2020 JCC Maccabi Experience, in which over 400 San Diego County teen athletes and artists will become part of a competition among 2,200 teens from throughout the world from Sunday August 2 through Friday, August 7. [Donald H. Harrison]

San Diego gears up for 2020 JCC Maccabi Experience Read More »

Bruce F. Lowitt, Donald H. Harrison, International, Music, Dance, and Visual Arts, San Diego County, Sports & Competitions, Theatre, Film & Broadcast

Blue Man Group makes noise with ‘Speechless’

Masters of percussion, Blue Man Group employs an array of instruments of wood, metal and glass, plus found objects like large plastic tubes, extended and contracted to vary the pitch, and rubber chickens. All of this is done wordlessly as they work in blue latex masks with robotic moves and gestures, creating an effect that is both eerie and comical.   [Eric George Tauber]

Blue Man Group makes noise with ‘Speechless’ Read More »

Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Eric George Tauber, Music, Dance, and Visual Arts

‘Bluish’ concert features Jews and African-Americans

The multi-talented Strom, scholar-in-residence at SDSU’s Judaic Studies Department, has brought concerts combining his klezmer forces with international musicians from mariachi, and classical to jazz, from an Afghanistan drummer and an Israeli oud player, to a flaminco dancer. This time, the free concert on Thursday evening, November 7, 7:00 p.m. in Smith Recital Hall on the SDSU campus, will be celebrating the intersection of Jews and Blues. [Eileen Wingard]

‘Bluish’ concert features Jews and African-Americans Read More »

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

A busy November for Friends of Israel Defense Forces

With the Friends of the Israel Defense Forces (FIDF) planning its Western Regional Gala on Thursday, Nov.7, at the Beverly Hilton Hotel in Beverly Hills, and the San Diego/ Orange County/ Arizona chapter planning a local gala just two days later on Nov. 9 at the Hilton Bayfront Hotel here in San Diego, it’s likely to be a busy time for the local chapter’s board. [Donald H. Harrison]

A busy November for Friends of Israel Defense Forces Read More »

Donald H. Harrison, Middle East, Music, Dance, and Visual Arts, Obituaries & memorials, San Diego Calendar, San Diego County

StandWithUs, Poway salute shooting victims

SAN DIEGO – The Jewish and general communities are honoring the memory of Lori Gilbert Kaye, who was murdered April 27 by a gunman who barged into Chabad of Poway and wounded three other people before running away and later being apprehended. Exactly six months after the shooting attack that wounded Rabbi Yisroel Goldstein, 8-year-old Noya Dahan, and her uncle Almog Peretz from Sderot, Israel, StandWithUs San Diego focused on the victims at a gala which was themed “Standing Together Against Anti-Semitism.” [Donald H. Harrison]

StandWithUs, Poway salute shooting victims Read More »

Donald H. Harrison, International, Jewish History, Middle East, Music, Dance, and Visual Arts, Obituaries & memorials, San Diego County, USA

‘Great Torah Roll’ fun at Seacrest Village

Rabbi Leah Herz created a fun-filled Simchat Torah learning session called “The Great Torah Roll”  for residents of the Seacrest Village Retirement Community in Encinitas when she had the entire Torah unrolled and held by staff, volunteers, and residents, some of whom were in wheelchairs. [Donald H. Harrison]

‘Great Torah Roll’ fun at Seacrest Village Read More »

Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Donald H. Harrison, Jewish Religion, Music, Dance, and Visual Arts, San Diego County, Science, Medicine, & Education, The World We Share, Theatre, Film & Broadcast

State’s Ethnic Studies Curriculum awaits resolution

The state’s proposed ethnic studies curriculum was temporarily shelved in part because of objections from the California Jewish Legislative Caucus, the Anti-Defamation League, and other Jewish groups that the panel that created the document all but ignored the Jewish experience in the United States, while utilizing the curriculum to spread a false Palestinian narrative about Israel that includes support for the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement (BDS). [Donald H. Harrison]

State’s Ethnic Studies Curriculum awaits resolution Read More »

Donald H. Harrison, Jewish History, Middle East, Music, Dance, and Visual Arts, San Diego County, Science, Medicine, & Education

‘Never Again is Now’ references Poway shooting

Evelyn Marcus and Rosa Zeegers are a Jewish lesbian couple who uprooted themselves from Holland and moved to the United States because they saw ugly anti-Semitic history repeating itself in Europe.  Anti-Semitic graffiti, beatings, rallies, bombings, and demonstrations all seemed to presage the same kind of Holocaust that their parents had lived through.  Now, they are seeing some of the same troubling signs in the United States — last Passover’s shooting at San Diego County’s own Chabad of Poway being just one example.

‘Never Again is Now’ references Poway shooting Read More »

Donald H. Harrison, International, Music, Dance, and Visual Arts, San Diego Calendar, San Diego County, Theatre, Film & Broadcast, Travel and Food, USA

Jewish cartoon book delights

Thirty graphic artists are featured in this delightful 86-page book of cartoons on Jewish topics, that starts with the Bible, moves on to Jewish-Christian relations, Jewish holidays, Shabbat, Kashrut, the differences among Jewish denominations, kvetching, and bubbes/ yentas. There are other topics too, but you get the drift.

Jewish cartoon book delights Read More »

Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Donald H. Harrison, Music, Dance, and Visual Arts, Trivia, Humor & Satire