By Aryeh Savir JERUSALEM – Yad Vashem has posthumously honored Maria Zurawska as Righteous Among the Nations from Poland. The medal and certificate of honor were accepted by her daughter Bronislawa Skoczylas who arrived from Poland to attend the ceremony. As told during the Jan. 16 ceremony, Zurawska’s story is one of self-sacrifice in the […]
Widowed by the Nazis, she agreed to again shelter Jews Read More »
Jewish History
By Loren Kantor STUDIO CITY, California — Simon Wiesenthal was an Austrian Jewish Holocaust survivor who came to prominence after World War II as a Nazi hunter. With the aid of the Israeli, Austrian and West German governments he helped capture nearly 1,100 Nazi war criminals. Wiesenthal was born in 1908 in Lvov (in
Tales of the Woodcutter: Simon Wiesenthal Read More »
Jewish History, Music, Dance, and Visual Arts
MUNICH (WJC) — The government of Bavaria, one of the 16 German states, announced on Tuesday that it would introduce a bill in the upper house of the German legislature aimed at facilitating the restitution of Nazi-looted art. If adopted, the new legislation would eliminate a 30-year statute of limitations in the German Civil Code
Lauder: Bavarian bill on looted art ‘insufficient’ Read More »
Jewish History, Jewish Religion
San Diego Prepares for 8th National Shakespeare Festival at Old Globe Southwestern Jewish Press, July 12, 1957, Page 5 The San Diego 8th Annual National Shakespeare Festival is scheduled for the Old Globe Theatre in Balboa Park July 19 through September 1. Plays to be presented each night at 8 p.m. are “King Lear” and
Adventures in San Diego Jewish History, July 12, 1957, Part 3 Read More »
Adventures in SD History, Jewish History
Female (top) and male ducks spotted at Poway Lake on Saturday, Dec. 28 By Donald H. Harrison POWAY, California — On the periphery of a bunch of old coots, I saw a couple keeping more or less to themselves, clearly outsiders. On that Shabbat afternoon, Dec. 28, he wore what looked like a
Water animals and the Jews Read More »
Donald H. Harrison, Jewish History, The World We Share, Yeruchem Eilfort-Rabbi
My Bargain with God: The Story of Holocaust Survivor Lou Dunst, by Ben Kamin. Sunbelt Publishing, Inc., El Cajon, California, 2014. By David Strom SAN DIEGO — San Diegan Lou Dunst has had at least three lives. Family love gave Lou the foundation and core of who he is today. Growing up as the youngest
Biography of Lou Dunst tells of his three lives Read More »
Jewish History
The International Jewish Labor Bund After 1945 by Charles Slucki; Rutgers University Press 2012 By Garry Fabian MELBOURNE, Australia – An academic based here, Charles Slucki, notes in his recent book that the Jewish Labor Bund was one of the major political forces in early 20th Century Eastern Europe. But the decades after the Second
After World War II, what became of the Bund? Read More »
International, Jewish History
LA JOLLA, California (Press Release) – The exhibition “To Me There’s No Other Choice” celebrates the life and honors the courageous deeds of Swedish diplomat and businessman Raoul Wallenberg. It will be on display from December 5, 2013 until February 28, 2014 along the second floor of the Lawrence Family Jewish Community Center, 4126
JCC announces exhibit on Raoul Wallenberg Read More »
Jewish History
By Anav Silverman Nearly 100 years ago, French aviator Jules Vedrines landed his Bleriot monoplane in the pre-State Land of Israel, near the beach in Tel Aviv in 1913. The first airplane to land in Eretz Israel, it was flown ten years after the Wright brothers flew the world’s first airplane in the United States
Israel stamp commemorates 100 years of aviation Read More »
Jewish History
By Dorothea Shefer-Vanson MEVASSERET ZION, Israel — The title of the lecture, ‘An Ode to Salonika: the Ladino Verses of Boueno Sarfatty,’ was not particularly enticing, but I decided to go along anyway. In the event, I was taken by surprise and completely captivated by the erudition, mental agility and linguistic ability of the speaker,
In remembrance of a heroine of Salonika Read More »
Dorothea Shefer-Vanson, Jewish History
Hitler’s Furies: German Women in the Nazi Killing Fields by Wendy Lower, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, NY’ ISBN 978-0-547-86338-2©2012, $26, p. 270, including index By Fred Reiss, Ed.D. WINCHESTER, California — That Hitler and the Nazi Party succeeded in killing more than twelve million “undesirables,” including six million Jews, hinges as much on the technology available
Book studies women murderers in the Holocaust Read More »
Fred Reiss, EdD, Jewish HistoryNEW YORK (Press Release) — Bonhams will offer two extraordinarily rare 1790 newspaper clippings in the inaugural Judaica sale on December 10, documenting President George Washington’s visit to the Touro Synagogue in Newport, RI, the oldest surviving Jewish Synagogue building in North America (est. $80,000-100,000). The experience would inspire Washington’s famous quote, “To bigotry no
George Washington’s Touro press clippings up for auction Read More »
Jewish HistoryLA JOLLA, California– Susan Magee, author of Into the Light, a pictorial biography of artist Kalman Aron, speaks at the San Diego Jewish Book Fair today (Tuesday, Nov. 5). Here is a video about the artist whose work has been greatly influenced by surviving the Holocaust.
Kalman Aron: Survivor and artist subject of Book Fair talk Read More »
Jewish HistoryThe Auschwitz Volunteer: Beyond Bravery by Captain Witold Pilecki, Translated from the original 1945 report by Jarek Garliński, Aquila Polonica (U.S.) Ltd., Los Angeles; ISBN 978-1-60772-009-6 ©2012, $34.95, p. 401, including pictures, maps, appendices, index, and discussion questions By Fred Reiss WINCHESTER, California — On September 10, 1940, the German battleship Bismarck fired six shells
The Pole who volunteered to be imprisoned at Auschwitz Read More »
Fred Reiss, EdD, Jewish History