Books, Poetry & Short Stories

Son relates his father’s Holocaust survival

Through My Father’s Eyes by Barry Fischer; Fischer Family Press; © 2014; ISBN 9780991-073313; 211 pages; $19.95. By Donald H. Harrison SAN DIEGO –This memoir is a good introduction to the Holocaust for middle school students and older.  It is written in a clear, conversational style, the author remembering how his father, Mayer Fischer, described […]

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Books, Poetry & Short Stories, International, Jewish History

‘Jewish Poets – Jewish Voices’ resumes Jan. 23

By Eileen Wingard SAN DIEGO — “Jewish Poets—Jewish Voices” opens its tenth season at the Lawrence Family JCC’s Astor Judaica Library Tuesday evening, January 23, at 7 p.m., with three outstanding San Diego poets: Chris Baron, Professor of English at San Diego City College; Roger Aplon, former teacher at The Writing Center;  and Ruth Benjamin,

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Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Eileen Wingard, San Diego Calendar

The Holocaust seen through its postal history

Holocaust Postal History by Justin Gordon; Six Point Watermark;© 2016; ISBN 9780997-840100; 138 pages plus glossaries, bibliography and index. By Donald H. Harrison SAN DIEGO – The author of this richly illustrated book deserved compliments for his persistence as a collector, his clarity as a writer, and his ability as a researcher.  No matter how

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Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Donald H. Harrison, International, Jewish History

‘American Stranger’ describes several of its characters

American Stranger by David Plante, Delphinium Books © 2018, ISBN 9781883-285759;  239 pages. By Donald H. Harrison SAN DIEGO – Nancy is the daughter of Jewish parents who escaped Hitler’s Germany physically, but apparently not emotionally.  There is a distance about them that Nancy never can seem to penetrate. Trying to compensate for their lack

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Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Donald H. Harrison

‘Journey to a Dream’ had many detours

Journey to a Dream; A voyage of discovery from England’s industrial north to Spain’s rural interior by Craig Briggs; (c) 2012; ISBN 9781480-254930; Prices vary on Amazon By Dorothea Shefer-Vanson MEVASSERET ZION, Israel –Author Craig Briggs describes in great detail the process whereby he and his wife decamped from the north of England to Spain in

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Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Dorothea Shefer-Vanson, International

‘The Immortalists’ examines living in the face of death

The Immortalists by Chloe Benjamin; © 2018, G.P. Putnam’s Sons; ISBN 9780735-213180; 345 pages; $26. By Donald H. Harrison SAN DIEGO – This is a story of four young Jewish siblings who visit a fortune teller in New York City, who tells them the exact dates that they will die.  The woman’s predictions take root

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Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Donald H. Harrison

Holocaust novel braces the human spirit

We Were the Lucky Ones by Georgia Hunter; Penguin Books; © 2017; ISBN 9780399-563096; 398 pages plus acknowledgments; $16. By Donald H. Harrison SAN DIEGO – Having already achieved New York Times best-seller status in hardback, this novel of survival has now been issued in paperback, hopefully to acquaint an even wider audience with the

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Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Donald H. Harrison

‘The Great Shift’ tells of different viewpoints on God

The Great Shift: Encountering God In Biblical Times by James L. Kugel, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, New York, © 2017, ISBN 978-0-544-52055-4, p. 344, plus notes and appendices, $30 By Fred Reiss, Ed.D. WINCHESTER, California –  In the mid-nineteenth century Charles Darwin proposed that any species unable to adapt to its dynamic environment is doomed to extinction.

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Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Fred Reiss, EdD, Jewish Religion

Life described of a 20th- century man

He Could Make Words Sing: An Ordinary Man During Extraordinary Times by David Greene, © 2017 DCG Publishing; ISBN 980998-018201; 193 pages plus endnotes; $17.95. By Donald H. Harrison   SAN DIEGO – History teacher David Greene has written a combination social history and biography of his father-in-law, Harry Greissman, an advertising man. We come

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Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Donald H. Harrison

New book tells stories of Jews sheltered in China

7 years of research yields trove of material about wartime experience A new book was launched on Dec 12 in Shanghai that gives a new Chinese perspective on Jewish refugees in China during World War II. Publication of Jewish Refugees in China (1933-1945): History, Perspective and Chinese Model marked the conclusion of a project sponsored

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Books, Poetry & Short Stories, International, Jewish History

Israeli team probes how people make decisions

  The Undoing Project; a Friendship that Changed Our Minds by Michael Lewis; W.W. Norton and Co. (c) 2017. By Dorothea Shefer-Vanson   MEVASSERET ZION, Israel — In this book Michael Lewis sets out to describe the way two Israeli psychologists worked together over the course of several years to develop a theory about the process

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Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Dorothea Shefer-Vanson, Middle East

Jerome Crowe, the FBI agent who delivered the ransom money in the Frank Sinatra Jr. kidnapping, dies at 93

LOS ANGELES — Jerome Crowe, a former L.A.-based FBI agent who delivered the ransom money in the Frank Sinatra Jr. kidnapping and led a SWAT team in the bloody SLA shootout, has died after a long struggle with Alzheimer’s disease. A lifelong law enforcement officer who is credited with assembling the FBI’s first SWAT team

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Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Music, Dance, and Visual Arts, Obituaries & memorials, Theatre, Film & Broadcast, USA

‘P is for Palestine’ children’s picture book ignites controversy in New York

By Renee Ghert-Zand The saga of a newly published ABC children’s book that has had adults up in arms just may have a happy ending after a summit this week between New York rabbis and an independent bookstore chain’s owners. Once upon a time in mid-November, the launch of “P is for Palestine” was immediately

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Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Middle East, USA