Books, Poetry & Short Stories

Novel Traces the Life of a Jewish Baby Boomer

Typically, novels have some conflicts that need to be resolved, but although this one hints of several conflicts, they are papered over.  For example, the fact that her mother was a Christian who pretended to be a very “Reformed” English Jew in order not to upset Sherrie’s grandparents was a situation that could have been deeply explored, but it wasn’t. [Donald H. Harrison]

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Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Donald H. Harrison, Staff and Bylined Contributors

 Isaac Bashevis Singer’s tale ‘Simple Gimpl’ is Dissected

People persuade Gimpl that the town’s pregnant prostitute is a virgin who is in love with him and wants to marry him. They claim that a youngster living with her is not her child but her brother. He believes them, goes to her, and proposes marriage. [Rabbi Dr. Israel Drazin]

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Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Israel Drazin-Rabbi Dr., Staff and Bylined Contributors

Novel Imagines Political Consequences if Aging Could Be Reversed

Geiderman presents us with an opportunity to imagine what it would be like to suddenly grow younger than one’s daughter, but rather than diving deeply into that story, he had another story in mind – one which, I am sad to say, was not nearly so interesting. It plowed the familiar ground of political intrigue. [Donald H. Harrison]

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Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Donald H. Harrison, Staff and Bylined Contributors

Today’s Jewish Birthday: Nora Ephron

Courtesy of Wikipedia Nora Ephron (May 19, 1941 – June 26, 2012) was an American journalist, writer, and filmmaker. She is best known for writing and directing romantic comedy films. She received numerous accolades including a British Academy Film Award and nominations for three Academy Awards, a Golden Globe Award, a Tony Award, and three Writers Guild of America Awards. Ephron started her career writing

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Books, Poetry & Short Stories, The Arts, Theatre, Film & Broadcast, Today's Jewish Birthday, USA, Wikipedia

Three Intriguing Stories Lead to One in ‘The Boy with the Star Tattoo’

The highly readable novel juxtaposes three stories: 1) love and survival in Vichy France;  2) Jewish efforts shortly after World War II to find European Jewish orphans who could be brought to Eretz Israel; and 3) the drama of Israel “stealing” its own ships from under the eyes of the French. [Donald H. Harrison]

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Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Donald H. Harrison, International, Israel, Jewish Fiction, Jewish History, Staff and Bylined Contributors

‘Kosher Jammers’ Links Jewish and African-American Jazz

From the 1920’s through the early 1950’s, luminaries like Harold Arlen (Hyman Arluck) Yip Harburg (Isidore Hochberg) and countless others wrote tunes that became the jazz standards that helped make Louis Armstrong, Ella Fitzgerald, Billie Holiday, Coleman Hawkins, Charlie Parker, Teddy Wilson, et al, world famous. [Yale Strom]

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Antisemitism, Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Jewish History, Music, Dance, and Visual Arts, Staff and Bylined Contributors, USA

Author Tells of Finding His Birth Parents and Learning Their Secrets

This memoir and autobiography is filled with secrets, doubts, anticipation, anxiety, temporary disappointments, regrets, the thrill of the chase and the exaltation of success. He repeatedly states the discoveries changed his life, and it also enriched the lives of the brothers and sisters he discovered. [Oliver Pollak]

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Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Lifestyles, Oliver Pollak, Staff and Bylined Contributors

Book Teaches Children about Trying New Foods, Diversity

In this Australian-based story, when the Jewish community has a cholent competition, onlookers and most other competitors are surprised when Amira, whose Jewish roots are in Iraq, stuffs a chicken with such ingredients as garlic, ginger, onion, paprika, baharat, cinnamon,  and rice.  She cooked the stuffed chicken inside a mixture of sauteed tomatoes and cardamon, hard-boiling eggs on the side. [Donald H. Harrison]

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Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Donald H. Harrison, Jewish Fiction, Staff and Bylined Contributors, Travel and Food

Agriculture, Sharing, and A Dollop of Torah for Toddlers

Shavuot arrives this year on Tuesday night, June 11.  This hard-cover book is intended to introduce your toddler to the holiday of Shavuot, getting your hands dirty gardening, the joy of sharing, and the names of the seven species of ancient Israel. [Donald H. Harrison]

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Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Donald H. Harrison, Israel, Jewish Religion, Staff and Bylined Contributors, The World We Share

Israeli Book Helps Children Cope with Being Uprooted from Their Homes

The charming illustrations and rhyming text in Hebrew give an account from a child’s viewpoint of what it is like to have to quickly pack up and leave your home under the protection of the IDF, and the experiences of becoming acquainted with the new surroundings, and the surprise, curiosity and even delight at the differences between their old, familiar home and the new environment of a hotel. [Dorothea Shefer-Vanson]

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Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Dorothea Shefer-Vanson, Israel, Staff and Bylined Contributors

Children’s Book Offers Myth of an Earlier Garden of Eden

It posits that before it was relocated to Earth, the Garden of Eden—with a man and a woman, the snake, and its fruits and vegetables—all existed on an unnamed planet.  There, the fruits each laid claim to being the best.  The apple boasted it was the “hardiest”; the pomegranate, the “biggest”; the grape, the “sweetest”; the fig, “the yummiest” and the citron (lemon) because it could make any of them taste better with just one drop. [Donald H. Harrison]

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Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Donald H. Harrison, Jewish Fiction, Staff and Bylined Contributors