The Arts

Curator hopes Iranian art exhibit in Israel will build bridges

Jerusalem (dpa) – Can an art exhibit improve ties between Israelis and Iranians? Curator Yossi Lemel hopes so, which is why he has put together a display of art from Iran – the first of its kind in Israel – which he says will help smash prejudices and build a bridge between the two enemy […]

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International, Middle East, Music, Dance, and Visual Arts

Jewish Orthodoxy and the modern world

Torah and Western Thought: Intellectual Portraits of Orthodoxy and Modernity by Rabbi Dr. Meir Y. Soloveichik, Dr. Stuart W. Halpern, and Rabbi Shlomo Zuckier, editors, Magid Books, New Milford, Connecticut;  ISBN 978-1-59264-436-0©2015, $29.95, p. 313, plus index and appendix By Fred Reiss, Ed.D.   WINCHESTER, California–Over its nearly 5,000 years of existence, Judaism has struggled with

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Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Fred Reiss, EdD, Jewish Religion

Film on Butterfly Project well received

LOS ANGELES (Press Release)– Emmy-nominated documentary filmmaker Joe Fab screened his latest effort, Not the Last Butterfly, in a sneak preview at the  Museum of Tolerance in Los Angeles on May 3. Fab co-directed and co-produced the story of a global project to memorialize the 1.5 million Jewish children murdered in the Holocaust with first-time

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Shor M. Masori, Theatre, Film & Broadcast, Travel and Food

Recognition sought for Gypsies as Holocaust victims

Johann Trollmann and Romani Resistance to the Nazis by Jud Nirenberg; KO Publications; (c) 2016; ISBN 978-0-9903703-76; 220 pages. By Donald H. Harrison SAN DIEGO — Despite some problems in its organization, this is an important book for the Jewish community to ponder. Utilizing the story of Johann Trollman– a Sinto boxer who in 1933

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Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Donald H. Harrison, International, Jewish History

As one play opens, Old Globe prepares for 2 more

By Donald H. Harrison SAN DIEGO – As luck would have it, our backstage tour of the Old Globe Theatre in San Diego’s Balboa Park came the day before the opening of Camp David, a play by Lawrence Wright which premiered in Washington D.C. and now has its second opening here, at one of America’s

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Middle East, San Diego County, Theatre, Film & Broadcast, Travel and Food, USA

LFJCC to feature Hebrew Day School poets May 17

By Eileen Wingard SAN DIEGO –Seven students from the Soille Hebrew Day Middle School will be participating in the May 17, 7:15 p.m. Jewish Poets—Jewish Voices program at the Astor Judaica Library at the Lawrence Family JCC. Also reading that evening, will be a prize-winning student poet and playwright from Mesa Verde Middle School. Rabbi

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Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Eileen Wingard, San Diego Calendar

The Psychology of Tzimtzum

By Michael R. Mantell, Ph.D. SAN DIEGO — When Don Harrison recently gifted me a copy of Professor Mordechai Rotenberg’s The Psychology of Tzimtzum, it, like most gifts, came with a string. “Michael, I thought you’d enjoy this book and I’m wondering if you’d be kind enough to write a review of it for our

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Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Donald H. Harrison, Michael Mantell, Middle East, Science, Medicine, & Education

Yiddish writer Rosenfarb’s works and life examined

By Donald H. Harrison SAN DIEGO—Perhaps if the late Yiddish novelist Chava Rosenfarb had lived to see how many people crowded the Seuss Room at UCSD’s Geisel Library to hear a discussion about The Tree of Life, her trilogy about life in the Lodz ghetto, the depression she felt over the fate of the Yiddish

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Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Donald H. Harrison, San Diego County

‘Healing the world’ is Marlee Matlin’s matter

Jewish upbringing helped celebrated deaf actress break barriers to success Oscar-winning actress Marlee Matlin said the best thing to do for people “who have special needs is to communicate with them.” Marlee Matlin and actor Henry Winkler, a longtime friend and mentor, at the Walk of Fame Ceremony honoring Matlin in Hollywood, May 6, 2009;

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Jewish Religion, Theatre, Film & Broadcast, USA

‘Shtum’: A family deals with autism

LONDON — “The only thing predictable about Jonah is his unpredictability,” says Ben, the narrator in Jem Lester’s debut novel “Shtum.” As he cautiously monitors Jonah, his profoundly autistic son, sitting in the back of a car Ben knows even a mere detour has the potential to cause Jonah anxiety and Ben “untold stress.” “Shtum”

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Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Science, Medicine, & Education

Why French radio played ‘Bolero’ the entire day

By Dorothea Shefer-Vanson MEVASSERET ZION, Israel — After a week of cultural delights in Vienna, we spent a week in France to recover from our exertions before returning to Israel a few days ago. And so it was that, as usual, on our first full day in the beautiful Limousin region we tuned our radio

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Dorothea Shefer-Vanson, International, Music, Dance, and Visual Arts