Fortunoff eventually headed a multimillion-dollar business based in New York and northern New Jersey, for which she hired mostly women to buy jewelry and gems from manufacturers and suppliers around the world. [Donald H. Harrison]
Helene Fortunoff Shattered the Diamond Ceiling Read More »
Business & Finance, Donald H. Harrison, Music, Dance, and Visual Arts, San Diego County, Staff and Bylined Contributors, USA
I’m answering emails and half watching the 2024 Emmy Awards on TV, mostly to see the fancy dresses and gorgeous humans. I gaze up from my laptop as Niecy Nash-Betts accepts her trophy for Outstanding Supporting Actress, proudly raises it to the sky, and yells “I’m a winner, baby!” Now, I am watching with my full attention. I see Niecy give a powerful, emotional acceptance speech, which includes a loud shout-out to an unusually recognized person. [Shayna Kaufmann]
Own Your Accomplishments; Give Yourself Credit Read More »
Lifestyles, Shayna Kaufmann, Staff and Bylined Contributors, Theatre, Film & Broadcast, USA
He started doing stand-up comedy during the 1950s, leading to a recording contract with Verve Records. His album “Inside Shelley Berman” won the first Grammy Award for “Best Comedy Performance-Spoken” and his voice was the inspiration for the Hanna-Barbera cartoon character Fibber Fox. He appeared in episodes of numerous television series including Curb Your Enthusiasm in which he played Larry David’s aged father, a role for which he received an Emmy nomination in 2008. He also had many movie credits, and taught humor writing at the University of Southern California. [SDJW Staff]
Today’s Jewish Birthday: Shelley Berman Read More »
Staff and Bylined Contributors, Theatre, Film & Broadcast, Today's Jewish Birthday, USA
Lauren Lizerbram of Rancho Santa Fe, the First Lady of Jewish National Fund-USA, extols the experience she had on a 4-day volunteer mission picking fruit at a kibbutz 3.7 miles from the Egyptian border. The wife of JNF-USA President Sol Lizerbram noted that Thai workers are no longer available in southern Israel, site of the Oct. 7 massacre by Hamas terrorists. “The farmer said he would have absolutely lost his entire crop if it wasn’t picked,” she reported. “And this was only one farmer. There are many farmers like him.” [SDJW staff]
Our Shtetl San Diego County: Local Volunteers Fly to Israel to Pick Fruit Read More »
Israel, Obituaries & memorials, Philanthropy & Volunteerism, San Diego County, Staff and Bylined Contributors, Trivia, Humor & Satire, USA
Set in Iran in 2008, the play follows a teacher and her students in a small school where the students are preparing for the TOEFL exam (test of English as a foreign language). As the play progresses we learn the hopes, dreams and fears of each character as they share why they are studying English, and they try to find their voice. [Sandi Masori]
‘English’ Probes Motivations and Problems of ESL Students Read More »
International, Middle East, San Diego County, Sandi Masori, Staff and Bylined Contributors, Theatre, Film & Broadcast
Admiral John Kirby, the coordinator for strategic communications at the National Security Council, said explicitly that the United States is not looking for a war with Iran. He failed to mention that Iran has proclaimed itself at war with the United States and has been using its proxies to attack US bases and killing and wounding American soldiers for years. Iran now controls Iraq, Syria, and Lebanon. [Shoshana Bryen and Stephen Bryen]
OpEd: Iraq and Iran Complicit in the Tower 22 Attack Read More »
Middle East, Shoshana Bryen, Staff and Bylined Contributors, Stephen D. Bryen, USA
At age of 7, he made his concert debut, performing the Mendelssohn Violin Concerto in Kovno. In 1910, he entered the St. Petersburg Conservatory and studied under Leopold Auer. At the age of 12, in Berlin, he met Fritz Kreisler, who was so impressed by the boy’s playing, he reportedly commented, “We may as well break our fiddles across our knees.” [SDJW Staff]
Today’s Jewish Birthday: Jascha Heifetz Read More »
California, Israel, Music, Dance, and Visual Arts, Staff and Bylined Contributors
His political career began in 1980, when as a Democrat he successfully challenged Republican Bill Royer, and went on to be reelected 13 times. His voting record was liberal on health care, conservative on spending, and protectionist on the environment. He was best known for his work on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, where he advocated for the rights of such minorities as Christians in Saudi Arabia and Sudan and Tibetans in China. He declared Turkey’s mass killings of Armenians during World War I to be genocide, and he demanded that Japan apologize for forcing women in conquered countries into sex slavery. [SDJW staff]
Today’s Jewish Birthday: Tom Lantos Read More »
Holocaust, International, Israel, Middle East, Staff and Bylined Contributors, Today's Jewish Birthday, USA
Pennsylvania native David McCormick now guarantees that the Israel-Gaza war will command attention until November as he attempts to unseat incumbent Democratic Sen. Robert Casey. Both are their parties’ presumptive nominees in the coming Pennsylvania Senate race. {Bruce S. Ticker]
In technology similar to that seen at such presidential museums as the Richard Nixon Library in Yorba Linda, the Schindler family has preserved the memory of the late Holocaust survivor Rose Schindler by creating a hologram of her that can answer questions from students or other audience members. [SDJW staff]
Our Shtetl San Diego County: Rose Schindler’s Hologram Addresses Students Read More »
Holocaust, Israel, Jewish History, Lawrence Baron, Middle East, Obituaries & memorials, San Diego County, Shanda File, Staff and Bylined Contributors, Theatre, Film & Broadcast, USA
The Torah’s narrative regarding the events leading to the acceptance of the Torah at Mount Sinai through Moshe Rabaynu is somewhat ambiguous, leaving scholars and commentators grappling with the persistent question: what precisely occurred? [Rabbi Daniel Reich]
Parsha Yitro: What Happened at Sinai Read More »
Daniel Reich-Rabbi, Jewish Religion, Staff and Bylined Contributors
He and his wife Lina Gutherz privately funded the Nathan Straus Pasteurized Milk Laboratory to combat infant mortality, and opened in Lakewood, New Jersey a Tuberculosis Preventorium for Children. During the Panic of 1893, his milk stations sold coal for the low price of 5 cents for 25 pounds. He opened homeless shelters for 64,000 people who paid a nickel each to get a bed and breakfast. He funded 50,000 meals for one cent each. At Abraham & Straus, he established a subsidized company cafeteria. [SDJW staff]
Today’s Jewish Birthday: Nathan Straus Read More »
Business & Finance, International, Israel, Jewish History, Staff and Bylined Contributors, Today's Jewish Birthday, USA
When I watched the unwatchable news on October 7, and then later doom scrolled through November and December and into 2024, inhaling episodes of rape and slaughter and captivity, but also excruciatingly moving scenes of incomplete family reunions, of young soldiers breaking down at funerals, and, of course, of women and children blown to bits in Gaza City and Khan Younis, a whispered prayer sometimes escaped my lips, “God, we don’t need any more stories.” [Rabbi Philip Graubart]
Jews and Palestinians, History and Memory Read More »
Holocaust, Israel, Jewish History, San Diego County, Staff and Bylined Contributors
I agree with the Torah, Hillel, Akiva, Ben Azzai, and others that the first basic principle is to treat others as you want them to treat you. [Rabbi Dr. Israel Drazin]
My List of Three Basic Principles of Judaism Read More »
Israel Drazin-Rabbi Dr., Jewish Religion, Staff and Bylined Contributors