Donald Harrison: Relentless Pursuer of Jewish Stories

By Jacob Kamaras

LA JOLLA, California — What’s there to say about Donald (Don) Harrison, founder of the San Diego Jewish World and our soon-to-be editor emeritus, that hasn’t already been said?

The media coverage surrounding my impending ownership of the publication has focused on the $1 purchase price, my unconventional mixture of careers in journalism and public relations, and Don’s legacy from the perspective of his writers.

As I described in a recent Times of San Diego article, Don and I met for the first time in 2012 when I was engaged to my wife, Megan, and was visiting her family in San Diego. He gave me a tour of Jewish landmarks in this city — my first taste of his astoundingly encyclopedic local knowledge.

Don and I kept in touch over the years before my family moved to San Diego in February 2018, first while the San Diego Jewish World subscribed to the Jewish News Syndicate wire service during my time as editor of the latter outlet, and later as I pivoted to PR work. Across our communication, some things never changed, namely Don’s lightning-quick response time to any email inquiry and his equally swift turnaround time for posting an article on the San Diego Jewish World — regardless of the hour, day or night. It’s been said before, and I’ll say it again: Don is a mensch. And I hope he doesn’t mind, but I’ll also describe him as a workaholic. These absolutely won’t be easy shoes to fill.

In August 2019, I reviewed Don’s book “Schlepping and Schmoozing Through San Diego County (Volume 1: City of San Diego)” for The Times of Israel. At the time, I observed the parallel between the San Diego Jewish World website’s tagline, “There is a Jewish story everywhere,” and Don’s own approach to his craft.

“Schlepping and Schmoozing uncovers Jewish stories in unexpected places,” I wrote at the time, “like the Comic-Con comic book convention, the Salk Institute (of polio vaccine discoverer Dr. Jonas Salk), the airport, the library, and even Sea World, where Harrison’s research bucks the popular notion that the biblical prophet Jonah was swallowed by a whale. (According to his investigation, it was more likely a great white shark.)”

“At the same time, Harrison’s undying curiosity enables him to find stories in the context of seemingly routine Jewish events where others wouldn’t necessarily find a unique story,” I continued. “For instance, his musings over fish and ducks being ‘the beneficiaries of the bread to which Jews symbolically transfer our sins’ for the pre-Yom Kippur Tashlich ritual lead him to the Scripps Institute of Oceanography, where a biophysicist deems his question an “open inquiry.”

I concluded, “Jewish journalism is more than a ‘rough draft’ of Jewish history. By finding a Jewish story ‘everywhere,’ like Harrison does, we can appreciate our history while it continues to unfold in every moment.”

These sentiments resonate even more powerfully today. The only thing that’s more impressive than Don’s writing is his voracious appetite for reading — or more specifically, for writing about reading. San Diego Jewish World readers would be hard-pressed to find a week without multiple book reviews penned by Don Harrison posted on the site.

On January 1, it’ll be my time to carry the torch from this relentless pursuer of Jewish stories. (More to come on that in my column next week.) Can I hope to be as relentless, tireless, and curious as Don? I’m not sure if anyone can. Yet I’m humbled and grateful to have a wonderful mentor who has endlessly pursued his passion — not for the motives of profit or fame, but for the sake of his passion and purpose, in and of themselves. Perhaps most importantly, it’s clear that Don enjoys his work and has fun doing it. I think we can all learn a lot from that.

Thank you, Don, for allowing me to make the best $1 investment that I could possibly imagine making. I won’t let you down.

*

Jacob Kamaras is Managing Editor of the San Diego Jewish World