Staff and Bylined Contributors

Spinoza: A Latter-Day Disciple of Maimonides?

Many, including Spinoza’s family, fled to Amsterdam, where Jews were tolerated as long as they did not “clash with (Amsterdam’s) Calvinism on such matters as the immortality of the soul, belief in the afterlife, God the creator or the divine origin of the Holy Scriptures – all dogmas that Spinoza would later repudiate.” [Rabbi Dr. Israel Drazin]

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Books, Poetry & Short Stories, International, Israel Drazin-Rabbi Dr., Jewish History, Jewish Religion, Staff and Bylined Contributors

Congressional Candidate Bill Wells Tells His Stand on Israel

Our commitment to Israel is of course strategic, but it is also based upon friendship and commonality of values. An Israel that can protect, for its people, the right to exist in peace and pursue happiness and prosperity, is an ally that shares the values and ideals of America. A strong alliance with Israel is both a strategic and moral imperative. [Bill Wells]

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Antisemitism, Israel, Middle East, Opinion, San Diego County, Science, Medicine, & Education, Staff and Bylined Contributors, USA

Children’s Book Teaches Israel Geography and Conservation

In this picture book for children between the ages of 3 and 8, a young girl who is a future conservationist travels up and down Israel finding treasures that she can hold in her hands for moments before restoring them to their rightful place in nature. [Donald H. Harrison]

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Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Donald H. Harrison, Israel, Staff and Bylined Contributors, The World We Share

Community Marks an Emotional Yom HaShoah at the JCC

The Jewish Federation of San Diego has received a very generous donation, the biggest in its history. With these funds, they are building a mobile Holocaust educational vehicle. It will include the latest technologies, relics, interactive components, and so much more. [Miriam Gershenson]

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Albert Kreimerman, Holocaust, International, Israel, Jewish History, Miriam Gershenson, San Diego County, Staff and Bylined Contributors

Pro-Israel Rally Held Sunday at UCSD

We were instructed not to interact with them, but I felt an urge to ask some of the poster holders for explanations. Not to pick a fight, but to understand what they meant or to confirm my suspicion that they didn’t fully grasp what they were saying. For example, I would have liked to discuss with a lady holding a sign that read: “Proud to be a Jew. Proud to be anti-Zionist.” What did she mean? As anti-Zionism literally means the dismantling of our Jewish state, how could it coexist with being a “proud Jew”? [Yakov Nayerman]

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Israel, San Diego County, Science, Medicine, & Education, Staff and Bylined Contributors, USA

Jewish Biography: Wilhelm Reich and the Sexual Revolution

Reich’s calls for a return to the sexual practices of primitive societies repulsed many. Marcuse criticizes Reich in Eros and Civilization, although he is also a neo-Marxist and a supporter of the sexual revolution: “Sexual liberation per se becomes for Reich a panacea for individual and social ills. […] A shameless primitivism begins to prevail, foreshadowing Reich’s wild and fantastic predilections in the years to come.” Criticizing Reich for “primitivism” became a common view of his theory and practice. [Alex Gordon]

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Alex Gordon, International, Staff and Bylined Contributors

University President’s Memoir Tells of Growing Up Jewish in Rural South

Most of Gitenstein’s memoir probes in depth her relationship with her parents, siblings, and grandparents and their relationships with each other.  The family saved the letters they wrote to each other and Gitenstein quoted from those letters frequently. [Donald H. Harrison

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Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Donald H. Harrison, Jewish History, Science, Medicine, & Education, Staff and Bylined Contributors

Our Shtetl San Diego County: Love for Critters

Animal rescue is an important aspect of the San Diego County Humane Society, according to Gary Weitzmann, its President and CEO. I rescued an Angora rabbit from a depressing living situation and she is living the best life as a “free roam” house rabbit with my family. [Cailin Acosta]

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Cailin Acosta, Obituaries & memorials, San Diego County, Staff and Bylined Contributors, The World We Share, USA

The Lion’s Trail: Gush Etzion

Looking to the east, from the viewing platform, are the Mountains of Moab; present day Jordan. Moses stood atop one of the Moab Mountains, Mount Nebo, his heart breaking. God permitted Moses to see the “Promised Land” only from afar. Moses was not permitted to enter the “Land” because of the sin he committed, doubting God, in front of the Jewish people.  [Jerry Klinger]

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Israel, Jerry Klinger, Jewish History, Jewish Religion, Music, Dance, and Visual Arts, Staff and Bylined Contributors, Travel and Food

‘Instead of an Epitaph’: A Yom HaShoah Reflection

The Nazis were defeated in World War II, but Nazism lives on and continues to make up smears about the Jews, including the popular claim that they did not fight in World War II. The blood libel “Jews didn’t fight” coexisted with the official false statement: “It was not Jews who were killed during the occupation, but Soviet citizens.” The places of mass extermination listed “Soviet citizens” as having been murdered. The Holocaust was hushed up in the USSR: Jews in these places were executed not because they were Soviet citizens, but because they were Jews. [Alex Gordon]

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

She Cried When He Said Her Parents Are in Hell

When Sarah’s parents died within a year of each other, she asked her messianic “rabbi” to say the mourner’s Kaddish prayer for them. Sarah cried when he told her, “There is no reason to say Kaddish since your non-believing parents are burning in hell.” Sarah was devastated by the callousness of this statement, and she started to entertain doubts about Christianity. [Rabbi Bentzion Kravitz]

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Jewish Religion, Staff and Bylined Contributors, USA

San Diego Jewish Community Statement on Campus Turbulence

The presence of pro-Palestinian, anti-Israel protests, including a significant walkout at SDSU and an unsettling encampment at UCSD, has created an atmosphere of intimidation and misinformation that deeply concerns us all. [Heidi Gantwerk]

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Antisemitism, Heidi Gantwerk, Israel, Opinion, San Diego County, Science, Medicine, & Education, Staff and Bylined Contributors, USA