Category Archives: California

Orthodox Life In Northern California?

Michael emails: I stumbled across your site today, and got a sense that you have a good feel for Jewish life in Northern California. Is there no Orthodox life to be found north of SF and Berkeley? Seems so beautiful … Continue reading

Posted in California, Orthodoxy | Tagged , , , , | Comments Off on Orthodox Life In Northern California?

‘Towers of Gold: How One Jewish Immigrant Named Isaias Hellman Created California’

Here is the Amazon.com page for the book and here is the website for the author Frances Dinkelspiel. We did this interview a couple of weeks ago via email. I told Frances to only answer the questions she found interesting. … Continue reading

Posted in Author Interviews, California, Jews | Tagged , , , , , | Comments Off on ‘Towers of Gold: How One Jewish Immigrant Named Isaias Hellman Created California’

Towers of Gold: How One Jewish Immigrant Named Isaias Hellman Created California

My favorite part of this biography by Hellman’s great-great-granddaughter Frances Dinkelspiel came on page 181. It describes how affluent German Jews in the San Francisco Bay Area reacted with ambivalent feelings to the arrival of Russian Jewish immigrants. Why were … Continue reading

Posted in Book Reviews, California, Charity, Jews | Tagged , , , , , | Comments Off on Towers of Gold: How One Jewish Immigrant Named Isaias Hellman Created California

A Lesson From Smokey

Rabbi Avi Shafran writes: Which brings us back to more recent flames, those of the unprecedented California fires – which fire-management experts have dubbed “mega-fires,” since they are ten times larger and more intense than wildfires of a mere decade … Continue reading

Posted in California | Comments Off on A Lesson From Smokey

Paradise Lost

Luke at Stanford gay rights sculpture May 9 Another Stanford Taboo Cheeky At Albion Luke at CA/OR border May 10 Another Another Battle Creek, OR May 11 Another Another Luke at Angwin, CA May 13, the home I lived in … Continue reading

Posted in Adventist, California, Personal, PUC | Comments Off on Paradise Lost