Staff and Bylined Contributors

Today’s Jewish Birthday: Isaac Asimov

The family immigrated to the United States in 1923 and owned candy stores, where, as youngsters, Isaac, his sister Manya, and brother, Stanley, all worked. The stores stocked science fiction magazines and newspapers, perhaps accounting for Isaac becoming a science fiction writer and Stanley a vice president of Long Island Newsday. [SD Jewish World staff]

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

Fighting Antisemites in the U.S. and Around the World

By Brooke Goldstein NEW YORK — As we welcome 2024, I am honored to share with you a recap of the impactful journey we’ve undertaken at The Lawfare Project over the past year. Amidst unprecedented challenges, our team has remained steadfast in our commitment to upholding justice and defending the legal rights of the Jewish

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Antisemitism, International, Israel, Jewish History, Staff and Bylined Contributors, USA

Today’s Jewish Birthday: J. D. Salinger

The Catcher in the Rye, featuring the adventures of the cynical Holden Caulfield, was greeted enthusiastically by literary reviewers and by high school teachers, but in other parts of the country, it was denounced as smut because of Salinger’s frequent use of such words as “goddamn,” bastard,” “Chrissakes.”[SDJW Staff report]

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

Last Word: A Satiric Review of 2023

By Laurie Baron SAN DIEGO – Laughing to keep from crying, here’s a look back at 2023: January My Blue Kevin (Melody: My Blue Heaven) The GOP votes multiple times. ‘Cause the crazies reject blue Kevin. Turn to the right, the extreme MAGA right Will make him the blue, blue Kevin. He bargained away, whatever

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International, Lawrence Baron, Staff and Bylined Contributors, Trivia, Humor & Satire, USA

New Year’s Wisdom from My Fig Tree

So, what is the New Year’s wisdom from my fig tree? Its seasonal variations remind me that change happens gradually; that nature takes patience and time to produce its fruits – its goals. The tree is not making a resolution to produce a certain number of figs. It cannot. It is unable to control how much water it receives, unforeseen weather patterns, or the quantity and sweetness of the figs it will eventually yield. [Shayna Kaufmann]

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Lifestyles, Shayna Kaufmann, Staff and Bylined Contributors

How I Plan to Triumph over Antisemitism: My New Year’s Resolution

I am asking the lobbyists for their help in securing a Congressional investigation into the federal grant programs intended for insuring equity and inclusion of university students, but have, instead, been usurped by propagandists, who have used these funds to bring in guest lecturers and core faculty members who espouse a full-fledged frontal assault on Israel as “colonists” and “apartheidists.” [Amy Neustein, PhD]

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Amy Neustein, Antisemitism, Science, Medicine, & Education, Staff and Bylined Contributors, USA

A New Home for the Bezalel Academy

A plaque embedded into the entrance wall of the building states in Hebrew, Arabic and English: “Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design, Jerusalem; Based on principles of human dignity, equality, pluralism and freedom of thought, speech and creative expression.” One can only hope that the students, who come from all segments of Israeli society, will benefit from this noble aspiration. [Dorothea Shefer-Vanson]

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Dorothea Shefer-Vanson, Israel, Music, Dance, and Visual Arts, Staff and Bylined Contributors

Jenny Camhi: Building Jewish Community in North County

While not everyone was Jewish, “we had a community ketuba of values” in which it was agreed that “we all come from different faith backgrounds, but we can agree that innovation, caring for one another, caring for the environment, and acting with intention were the things that we all wanted to do. So, we had one of our Hive members create a community ketuba (a written contract, usually for marriages.) We illustrated it and we all signed it.” [Donald H. Harrison]

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Ben Dishman, Donald H. Harrison, Jewish Religion, Lifestyles, San Diego County, Science, Medicine, & Education, Staff and Bylined Contributors, Travel and Food

The Diameter of the Bomb

By Doron Krakow Yehuda Amichai | יהודה עמיחי was one of Israel and the Jewish world’s foremost poets. Born Ludwig Pfeuffer in Würzburg, Germany, in 1924, he and his family immigrated to Mandatory Palestine in 1935, during Hitler’s rise to power, eventually settling in Jerusalem. He chose the surname Amichai | My People’s Lives to express his patriotic

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Doron Krakow, Israel, Opinion, Staff and Bylined Contributors, USA