Judaism

Today’s Jewish Birthday: Chaim Potok

In 1967 Potok published The Chosen, and in 1969 a sequel The Promise, which helped delineate differences between Orthodox and Hasidic Jews.  The Chosen was made into a film in 1981.  In the interim,  the Potoks moved to Jerusalem in 1970, returning to the states in 1977.  Potok’s My Name is Asher Lev was published in 1972. [SDJW staff]

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Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Israel, Jewish Religion, Staff and Bylined Contributors, Today's Jewish Birthday, USA

Antisemitic Callers Overwhelm La Mesa City Council Meeting with Hate Speech

Words turned ugly during the council’s public comment period on Tuesday when a series of callers, each held to a council-mandated three-minute limit per speaker, used their allotted time to debase and degrade Jews with callous accusations and conspiracy theories. [J.W. August, Times of San Diego]

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Antisemitism, Holocaust, Israel, Jewish Religion, San Diego County, Times of San Diego

Today’s Jewish Birthday: Barbara Myerhoff

Following advice to “study your own,” Myerhoff began fieldwork on the elderly Jews at the Israel Levin Center in Venice, California, resulting in a 1977 Oscar-winning short documentary film, Number Our Days, and in 1979 a book of the same title. [SDJW staff]

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Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Jewish History, Science, Medicine, & Education, Staff and Bylined Contributors, Theatre, Film & Broadcast, Today's Jewish Birthday, USA

Jackie Gmach Utilizes the Arts to Teach Lessons of the Holocaust and the Tree of Life Synagogue

That drawing inspired Gmach to develop “We Are The Tree of Life,” a project focusing on Holocaust education utilizing the arts to promote a message of hope and survival. Literature, music, dance, poetry and drawings created by prisoners in the concentration camps and ghettos during World War II show that beauty can survive, even when experiencing unspeakable horrors. [Eileen Wingard]

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Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Eileen Wingard, Holocaust, International, Jewish History, Music, Dance, and Visual Arts, San Diego County, Science, Medicine, & Education, Staff and Bylined Contributors, Theatre, Film & Broadcast, USA

Verdi’s ‘Requiem’ Revisited in Tel Aviv Performance

At the performance in Tel Aviv last week the audience sat in rapt silence as the orchestra played and the choir and soloists sang, bringing the majesty and drama of Verdi’s music to life. In Israel of today, with war being waged in the Gaza Strip and skirmishes raging in the north of the country, the performance of the Requiem has special significance. In the plaza of the nearby Tel Aviv Museum families of the hostages held in Gaza were demonstrating in order to convince the government to do more to get them released. [Dorothea Shefer-Vanson]

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Dorothea Shefer-Vanson, Holocaust, Israel, Jewish History, Jewish Religion, Middle East, Staff and Bylined Contributors, Theatre, Film & Broadcast

Anne Frank musical hits Dutch stage, ‘we should never forget’

Published by Relaxnews By Nick Gammon / AFP A new musical production based on Anne Frank’s diary has hit the stage in The Netherlands, with the producer and star convinced the story needs telling now more than ever. A new musical production based on Anne Frank’s diary has hit the stage in The Netherlands, with

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Holocaust, International, Jewish History, Music, Dance, and Visual Arts, Nordot, Theatre, Film & Broadcast

Rescue of 2 Hostages from Gaza was an Entebbe-Type Moment

I was reminded of Israel’s military tour de force in Entebbe when I read of the recent rescue of hostages Fernando Marman, 60, and Luis Har, 70, from a Rafah apartment. The reuniting of the hostages with their families and community members brought elation and joy to them. [Amy Neustein, Ph.D]

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Amy Neustein, International, Israel, Jewish History, Opinion, Staff and Bylined Contributors, USA

Republicans impeach US homeland security chief over border crisis

Published by AFP Washington (AFP) – Republicans impeached US President Joe Biden’s immigration chief on Tuesday, the culmination of months of attacks on the Democratic administration as they seek to make border security a key issue in November’s election. Conservatives in the House of Representatives, which is narrowly controlled by Republicans, blame Homeland Security Secretary

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International, Jewish History, Nordot, USA

Documenting Darkness: National Library of Israel preserving ‘collective memory’ of Oct 7

Published by ANI News Tel Aviv [Israel], February 13 (ANI/TPS): The National Library of Israel has embarked on a massive project to collect and archive any materials from around the world that have been published about the October 7 massacre, both the good and the bad. While scholars and the curious public explore the new

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International, Israel, Jewish History, Middle East, Nordot, USA

Today’s Jewish Birthday: Richard Blumenthal

Blumenthal worked in all three branches of the U.S. government before winning elective office himself.  He was an aide to U.S. Sen. Abraham Ribicoff of Connecticut, an assistant to Daniel Moynihan during his time in the Nixon White House, and a law clerk for Supreme Court Justice Harry A. Blackmun. [SDJW staff]

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Jewish History, Staff and Bylined Contributors, Today's Jewish Birthday, USA

Daniel Sperber’s Superb New Book: ‘Vegetarianism, Ecology, and Business Ethics’

Many readers will be surprised by the 82 pages of facts that Dr. Sperber reveals from both Jewish and non-Jewish sources about vegetarianism, how animals are treated, often in unhealthy ways for the animals and those who eat them, and how animals suffer. [Rabbi Dr. Israel Drazin]

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Business & Finance, Israel Drazin-Rabbi Dr., Jewish Religion, Staff and Bylined Contributors, The World We Share, Travel and Food, USA

Parasha Terumah: A Sanctuary for God in Our Hearts

Making a sanctuary is understood to be the requirement for Hashem to dwell within us. We cannot be passive and expect Hashem to dwell within us. We are required to take the first step. He doesn’t live in a building, isn’t restricted to one place, but rather lives within us, within our hearts, and within our minds. [Michael R. Mantell, Ph.D]

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Jewish Religion, Michael Mantell, Staff and Bylined Contributors

Jewish Biography: The Love and Death of Ferdinand Lassalle

Lassalle was a “wunderkind” of the socialist movement. At the age of 23, during the revolution of 1848, he was already a prominent figure in the radical Democratic Party in Prussia. As an employee of the radical New Rhine Gazette, whose editors were Marx and Engels, he claimed to be a follower of their ideas. Lassalle defied the authorities by “challenging them to a duel” with his vivid sociopolitical agitation. His fame was aided by the charge of high treason for this activity. He was arrested, the jury acquitted him, but the correctional police court sentenced him to six months’ imprisonment. In 1858 he became known as a philosopher by publishing a work on the ancient Greek philosopher Heraclitus. Three years later he became famous as a jurist through the publication of a major work, The System of Acquired Rights (1861). In 1863 Lassalle founded the workers’ union, from which today’s Social Democratic Party of Germany grew. [Alex Gordon, Ph.D]

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Alex Gordon, Antisemitism, International, Jewish History, Staff and Bylined Contributors