By Oliver B. Pollak RICHMOND, California. — The New York Times Book Review section used to carry “Author Queries” where working researchers and authors would reach out to readers for information. This use of the press has served well. I am now working on a project that will be based on evidence standing on reader’s […]
Is your Settlement House Cook Book inscribed? Read More »
Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Oliver Pollak, Travel and FoodRed Sky at Noon by Simon Sebag-Montefiore; Penguin, Random House, UK, 2017 By Dorothea Shefer-Vanson MEVASSERET ZION, Israel — This novel gives a detailed account of the days leading up to the German attempt to take Stalingrad in the summer of 1942, doing so by tracing the exploits of a group of former prisoners, taken
Novel shines a light on Soviet WWII decison- making Read More »
Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Dorothea Shefer-Vanson, International
By Donald H. Harrison CHULA VISTA, California – The 1st Century Jewish philosopher and religious scholar, Philo, was very familiar with the Torah, commenting here and there on different portions of the Five Books of Moses in writings that were spread over approximately 40 publications in the native Greek language that he spoke in his
Rabbi Samuel introduces Philo to the modern world Read More »
Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Donald H. Harrison, International, Israel Drazin-Rabbi Dr., Jewish History, Jewish Religion, Michael Leo Samuel-Rabbi, Middle East
“One piece of log creates a small fire, adequate to warm you up, add just a few more pieces to blast an immense bonfire, large enough to warm up your entire circle of friends; needless to say that individuality counts but teamwork dynamites.” Jin Kwon By Eva Trieger MAMARONECK, New York — Mamaroneck Library is
Humor, or should we say levi-tea, in pottery Read More »
Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Eva Trieger, Music, Dance, and Visual Arts, USA
The Israel Bible (Hebrew and English Edition) by Rabbi Tuly Weisz; Hardcover: 2212 pages; Publisher: Menorah Books; Bilingual edition (July 10, 2018); Language: Hebrew, English; ISBN-10: 1940516803; Cost: $44.00 By Rabbi Michael Leo Samuel CHULA VISTA, California — In today’s world, there are all sorts of different types of commentaries on the Scriptures on a variety
The Librarian of Auschwitz by Antonio Iturbe, translated by Lilit Thwaites,Godwin Books, Henry Holt and Co., New York, $19.99, 424 pages. By Oliver B. Pollak RICHMOND, California — This story, set in Prague, Theresienstadt, Auschwitz, Hamburg, and Tel Aviv, is creative non-fiction. It appeared in Spanish in 2012 and was translated into English in 2017.
Pondering in ‘Librarian’ where truth ends, fiction begins Read More »
Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Jewish History, Oliver Pollak
A Politically Incorrect Feminist by Phyllis Chesler; St. Martin’s Press; © 2018; ISBN 9781250-094421; 304 pages including acknowledgments. By Donald H. Harrison SAN DIEGO – Possibly before, but especially after publication of Women and Madness, which exposed the practice of falsely committing women to insane asylums and the abuse of women within those institutions, author
Chesler’s memoir insightful into feminist movement Read More »
Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Donald H. Harrison, Jewish History, Jewish Religion, USA
By Oliver B. Pollak ENCINITAS, California — Jerry Joe Seller was born in St. Louis in 1928. Life expectancy in 1930 was 58 for men and 62 for women. We celebrated his 90th birthday on August 19 at Vigilucci’s Trattoria Italiana on Pacific Coast Highway in Encinitas. Birthdays come and go. They last a
30 gathered to salute Jerry Joe Seller on his 90th Read More »
Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Oliver Pollak, San Diego County
My Pashtun Rabbi: A Jew’s Search for Truth, Meaning, and Hope in the Muslim World by David Eden, BookBaby, (c) 2018, ISBN 9780692-086155. NEW YORK (Press Release) — A Jewish American working in the United Arab Emirates fears hostility but finds humanity in this debut memoir. Fleeing divorce and midlife crisis, journalist Eden left Ohio in
What a Jewish teacher learns in United Arab Emirates Read More »
Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Middle East, Science, Medicine, & Education
By Oliver B. Pollak RICHMOND, California — In July we vacationed in Oceanside and visited relatives and friends living near the coast. We sat with my cousin Rob and his wife Ande in their Carlsbad living room on chairs and couches within arms-reach of a stunning coffee table acquired over 50 years ago by his
California Jews and their coffee tables Read More »
Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Oliver Pollak, Travel and FoodBlack Diamond Fall by Joseph Olshan; Polis Books, © 2018,263 ISBN 9781947-9933410; 263 pages. By Donald H. Harrison SAN DIEGO – Sam Solomon, a gay Jewish man, is accused in the disappearance and possible homicide of a lover young enough to be his son. When he awakens in a hospital in Utah, following a skiing
‘Black Diamond Fall’ a Utah and Vermont whodunnit Read More »
Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Donald H. Harrison
By Oliver B. Pollak RICHMOND, California. –Some sixty or more years ago my parents facilitated my sex education by leaving Giovanni Boccaccio’s Decameron, illustrated in 1949 by Rockwell Kent, on the coffee table. Adolescent curiosity took care of the rest. Kent introduced me to pornography or erotica before Playboy. From the late 1950s the Book
Baudy ‘Decameron’ told a story of a Jew’s conversion Read More »
Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Oliver Pollak, Travel and Food
Bitter and Sweet by Sandra V. Feder, illustrations by Krysten Brooker, Groundwood Books, (c) 2018, ISBN 9781554-989959; 30 pages, $17.95. By Donald H. Harrison SAN DIEGO — Author Sandra Feder notes that Judaism acknowledges a duality in life: with the bitter often will come the sweet, and vice versa. “Sweet wine or grape juice is
Two children’s books for Jewish holidays Read More »
Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Donald H. Harrison, Jewish Religion
The Library Book, A coffee table book that stirs the reader’s soul Oliver B. Pollak RICHMOND, California — The Library Book, a 14½x11 3/8 coffee table book, weighs 6 lbs. I saw it in the new books section of the Richmond Public Library and “checked it out.” Then I checked it out at the circulation
‘The Library Book’: Cleverly titled tome about libraries Read More »
Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Oliver Pollak, Travel and Food