By Oliver B. Pollak RICHMOND, California — I started writing this in 2010 on the occasion of my 67th birthday about the unpredictable nature of what we give away and then need in the future. Retiring from Nebraska to California in 2016 only enlarged the scale of this conundrum. Now almost 75 I think this […]
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Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Oliver Pollak, Travel and Food, USABy Donald H. Harrison SAN DIEGO – Perhaps I am becoming my own grandfather, a gentle architect born in the 19th century who prided himself on being a proper and decorous man. Recently, I wrote a column decrying the bitter partisanship that divides Washington, D.C., and which sadly is exemplified by the rancorous way that
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Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Donald H. Harrison, USA
By Oliver B. Pollak POINT REYES STATION, California — I had heard on NPR that Steve Costa and Kate Levinson wanted to sell a bookstore they had owned since 2002 in this delightful Northern California coastal town, and get on with new life opportunities. In 2016 they interviewed prospective buyers. Karen and I looked at
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Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Oliver Pollak
Jewish Libya: Memory & Identity in Text & Image, edited by Jacque Roumani, David Meghnagi & Judith Roumani; © 2018, Syracuse University Press, ISBN 9780815-635628; 280 pages plus bibliography, appendices, and index. By Donald H. Harrison SAN DIEGO – Jewish Libya is an anthology about a place that no longer exists. Since Israel’s successful 1967
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Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Donald H. Harrison, Jewish History, Middle East
By Oliver Pollak SAN FRANCISCO — The Contemporary Jewish Museum just celebrated its 10th anniversary. The celebration coincided with an exhibit on cartoonist and inventor Rube Goldberg, curated by Goldberg’s granddaughter, Jennifer George. Initially that exhibit had opened in Seattle, then came to San Francisco from Canadian, Texas, and goes next to Portland, Maine. It
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Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Jewish History, Travel and Food
By Oliver B. Pollak RICHMOND, California — We come to the books we read from many directions. It could be newspaper and magazine reviews, suggestions from trusted friends, NPR reviews, looking at bookstore recent arrivals, ‘the book club is now reading,’ gifts from friends and family, looking over shoulders on the airplane, going to book
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Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Oliver Pollak
Celebrate, Commemorate: The History and Heritage of San Diego’s Jewish Community, editor Joellyn Zollman, San Diego History Center, ISBN 8780918-740090, 91 pages including acknowledgments and room for personal remembrances. By Donald H. Harrison SAN DIEGO – The recent exhibition at the San Diego History Center about our local Jewish community contained more information than most
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Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Donald H. Harrison, Jewish History, San Diego County
By Steve Kramer KFAR SAVA, Israel —Rabbi Ken Spiro’s new book, Destiny, successfully guides the reader through the central themes of Judaism: the impact of Jewish values on civilization, Jewish determination, the disproportionate impact of the Jewish people, anti-Semitism and its message, the Jewish vision of history and conception of time, and [even] mankind’s ultimate
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Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Jewish History, Jewish Religion, Middle East, Steve KramerTasting the Past, The Science of Flavor & the Search for the Original Wine Grapes by Kevin Begos. Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill, ISBN 9781616-205775, 277 pages, $26.95 By Oliver B. Pollak RICHMOND, California — Kermit Lynch Wine Merchant in Berkeley was the 2nd stop on a three-week, nine-event book tour traversing Florida, California and New York.
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Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Oliver Pollak, Travel and Food
Persecuted. Engaged. Married. Marriages of convenience in exile by Sabine Bergler and Irene Messinger, Jewish Museum Vienna, 2018, 147 pages. By Oliver B. Pollak RICHMOND, California.– We marry for love, romance, money, and to procreate and extend family lineages. Marriages of convenience (MOC) are embedded in politics, survival, citizenship, and migration. Marriage and Nazi domination evokes
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Books, Poetry & Short Stories, International, Jewish History, Oliver Pollak
By Mimi Pollack SAN DIEGO — My maternal grandparents were born in the 1800’s in the land that today is known as Israel. They passed away before I was born, and I regret I never got the chance to talk with them and hear their stories. Thus, it is with great interest that I perused
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Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Middle East, Mimi Pollack, Music, Dance, and Visual Arts, San Diego County
The Third Door by Alex Banayan; © 2018 Crown Publishing Group of Penguin Random House LLC; ISBN 9780894-136662; 286 pages plus acknowledgments; $26. By Donald H. Harrison SAN DIEGO – This is the story of a college student’s frenetic search for off-campus enlightenment in which he schemes and obsesses over interviewing the world’s most successful
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Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Donald H. Harrison, USA
The Blessing of Sorrow: Turning Grief into Healing by Rabbi Ben Kamin; © 2018 Central Recovery Press, 207 pages plus acknowledgments; $17.95 via Amazon By Donald H. Harrison SAN DIEGO – Rabbi Ben Kamin has been around death for a long time, both as a Reform rabbi and as a son. He was still a
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Books, Poetry & Short Stories, USAUscolia by Gabriel Lanyi; Sycorrax Books, Boston, 2017 By Dorothea Shefer-Vanson MEVASSERET ZION, Israel — It is many years since I read material on the theory of education, and this book on the subject came into my hands through the kindness of our new neighbor, who also happens to be the author. But it is no
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Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Dorothea Shefer-Vanson, Science, Medicine, & Education