Byliners

Election results mixed for Jewish candidates

SAN DIEGO—Well, were the recent elections good for us Jews? Yes and no. Some Jewish incumbents lost their seats, others retained them, and some Jewish candidates will become freshmen members of Congress next term. Some Jews lost their committee chairmanships in the House, but one Jew—Eric Cantor of Virginia—appears poised to become the next majority […]

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Donald H. Harrison, USA

Ion’s ‘Jekyll and Hyde’ …chilling yet entertainingly good theatre

  By Carol Davis SAN DIEGO–Sometimes bringing back a scary old classic can be a ‘what else is new moment’ especially if it opens late in October and the play is Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde. Don’t be misled by either, though. Ion Theatre is mounting an intriguing production of Jeffrey Archer’s new adaptation of

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Carol Davis, San Diego County, Theatre, Film & Broadcast

Chutzpah: U.S. electorate thinking its representatives know how to run the world

By Ira Sharkansky JERUSALEM– The coverage of the mid-term election provokes me once again to think that Americans are mad. Already my American friends are reaching for the delete or the reply button. The madness appears in the weight of the Tea Parties and Sarah Palin, plus the intensity against the president’s efforts for economic

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Ira Sharkansky, USA

A humorous approach to understanding Kabbalah

Hey Waiter…There’s God in My Soup! Learning Kabbalah through Humor by Sam “Simcha” Krause with Terry Krause; ISBN 978-1-553-4537-2980-9, ©2010, $16.00, 98 pages By Fred Reiss, Ed.D. WINCHESTER, California — Jewish tradition holds that Moses received three things from God on Mt. Sinai. First, he received the Written Law, known as the Torah and Five

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Fred Reiss, EdD, Jewish Religion

The thin line between madness and genius was generational in James Joyce household

By Cynthia Citron   NORTH HOLLYWOOD — “Shakespeare was God, and so was my father,” Lucia Joyce says.   Then she adds, by way of explanation, “God comes down to earth and forgets who He is.”  Lucia (Meg Wallace), the passionate, obsessive daughter of James Joyce is eventually consumed by her desperate hunger for his attention.  He (Ian Patrick Williams), for his part,

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Cynthia Citron

Heartfelt condolences to our neighbors and cousins, the Chaldeans

  SAN DIEGO — It was horrifying to read about the wanton attack on a Catholic Church in Baghdad in which more than 50 people were violently slain and even more were injured. I’m sure I speak in behalf of the entire Jewish community in offering  heartfelt condolences to the large Chaldean community of San

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Donald H. Harrison, San Diego Calendar, San Diego County

San Diego book tells of sadistic exploitation of homeless and one man’s redemption

A Bum Deal: An Unlikely Journey from Hopeless to Humanitarian, by Rufus Hannah & Barry Soper, Source Books, ISBN -13: 97801-4022-4471-1; 2010, 238 pages, $24.99. By Donald H. Harrison SAN DIEGO – For people in this city, one of the most startling things about this book is that its events occurred, in great measure, in

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Donald H. Harrison, San Diego Calendar, San Diego County

Europe’s history of warfare, treachery, and peace offers lessons to Israel

By Dorothea Shefer-Vanson MEVASSERET ZION, Israel–The Punic Wars, the Roman Empire; the migrations and conquests of the Germanic tribes; the Visigoths, the Ostrogoths, the Barbarians; the split between the Roman and the Byzantine churches; the Islamic conquest of Spain; Charlemagne; the Wars of the Three Brothers, which ended with the treaty of Verdun in 843;  the

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Dorothea Shefer-Vanson

Sharansky: Final mass Ethiopian aliyah in the works; will Marranos be next?

-second in a series– By Donald H. Harrison SAN DIEGO – – Even as a program is pending to complete massive immigration to Israel from Ethiopia, Natan Sharansky, chairman of the Jewish Agency for Israel, is pondering how Israel will react if other communities around the world that were forced to convert from Judaism to

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Donald H. Harrison, Middle East

Kennedy and 9/11 monuments in Israel are in out-of-the-way places

  By Ira Sharkansky JERUSALEM–A cousin is visiting from the Old Country. He is a patriot, proud of America’s accomplishments and sensitive to its pains. He asked to visit Israel’s monument to 9-11. Here in Israel? Oh yes. There was something about a dedication ceremony several months ago. How to find it? Googling found a

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Ira Sharkansky