In the middle of an explanation about a band of nerve fibers in our brains, Josh Kornbluth has a question. He grabs his phone. “Siri, do animals have a corpus callosum?” Siri bails. Kornbluth is more confident about a different section of our gray matter. “The amygdala is in the limbic part of the brain,”…
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Jewish Life
Lifecycles
Lifecycles for the week of May 17, 2019
Births Betty Dvorson is delighted to announce the arrival of her great-grandson, Itai Maxwell Fisher, born on April 12 in Berkeley. Itai’s parents are…
Obituaries
Deaths for the week of May 17, 2019
Obituaries are supported by a generous grant from Sinai Memorial Chapel. Malvin Barer, MSc, MD May 22, 1931–May 8, 2019 Malvin was born in Brooklyn, New…
Torah
I’m using this space to write about time
The Torah column is supported by a generous donation from Eve Gordon-Ramek. Emor Leviticus 21:1–24:23 Archaeologists believe that people began marking…
Organic Epicure
Q&A: An artful cocktail creator who rarely drinks alcohol himself
After 23 years in the theater, Jared Hirsch, 44, found his calling at the bar. These days, the former New York actor is bar manager at Sidebar in Oakland,…
Mixed & Matched
It hurt to learn I wasn’t considered Jewish or Christian
Dear Dawn: My father is my Jewish parent and my parents did not raise me and my siblings with either of their religions. Instead they exposed us to the…
Jew in the Pew
A journey into the Holy of Holies — in a Latter-day Saints temple
Last Monday morning, I found myself in an unexpected place, sitting silently with a group of Bay Area journalists in the Celestial Room of the Oakland…
Parenting
So much anti-Semitism, and a trip I will never forget
When our kids were 12 and 14, we spent two weeks traveling around Eastern Europe. We visited the Pinkas Synagogue in Prague, where the sanctuary and…
Synagogues
Peninsula cantor Doron Shapira a ‘calm inspiration’ for 25 years
Cantor Doron Shapira tapped on a set of miniature bongos in his office. He used to play the instrument, a gift from his father when he was 4, with a whole…