LOS ANGELES (Press Release) — The Western States Jewish History Association has announced that Donald H. Harrison, editor and publisher of San Diego Jewish World, will also assume the position of editor of the quarterly journal Western States Jewish History, starting with Volume 50, Issue #1 – Fall 2017
Harrison has been a contributor to Western States Jewish History over the past decade. He succeeds David Epstein of Woodland Hills, who has served for 25 years as managing editor and co-publisher with Gladys Sturman, since they took over publication of the journal from the late Rabbi William Kramer. Western States Jewish History was founded in 1968 by Kramer and the late Norton B. Stern. Epstein and Sturman will continue as the co-publishers of Western States Jewish History, and Epstein also will continue to serve a director of the affiliated online Jewish Museum of the American West, www.JMAW.org.
Harrison, 71, has a long history in Jewish journalism, having served as an editor and later co-publisher of the San Diego Jewish Press-Heritage from 1986 through 2003, and as a columnist for the San Diego Jewish Times, before founding San Diego Jewish World, an online daily accessible via www.sdjewishworld.com.
Prior to his involvement with Jewish newspapers, Harrison, a 1966 graduate of UCLA, worked for the Associated Press in the Los Angeles, Sacramento and New York bureaus, and came to San Diego in 1972 to become a politics writer for The San Diego Union. He left that newspaper in 1980 for a career in public relations, which included a stint as press secretary to San Diego’s Acting Mayor Bill Cleator in 1983; serving as executive director of the San Diego Cruise Industry Consortium, and as the founding general manager of Old Town Trolley Tours of San Diego.
The new Western States Jewish History editor is the author of three books: A biography, Louis Rose: San Diego’s First Jewish Settler and Entrepreneur; a Jewish travelogue, Schlepping Through The American West: There Is a Jewish Story Everywhere, and a company history, Waxie: An American Family Business Success Story. He also serves on the editorial board of The Journal of San Diego History.
Married to the former Nancy Zeiden since 1968, Harrison has two children: Sandi Masori of San Diego and David Harrison of Moraga, California, and a total of four grandchildren.
In honor of the San Diegan becoming the editor, Western States Jewish History is offering a special rate to residents of San Diego County and Baja California, and to Imperial, Riverside and Orange Counties, all of which border San Diego County. New subscribers may receive mailed copies of the journal each quarter for an introductory yearly subscription rate of $12 instead of the regular annual rate of $36, with the offer ending August 15, 2017. Requests for subscriptions may be sent to David Epstein at 22711 Cass Avenue, Woodland Hills, CA 91364.
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Preceding provided by the Western States Jewish History Association.