This novel concerns a Mexican-American family of mixed Catholic and Jewish religious backgrounds, one which celebrates Easter and Passover, Chanukah and Christmas as cultural holidays rather than religious ones. There is plenty of drama in the Alvarado family, but not because of any noticeable differences in religious outlook. [Donald H. Harrison]
‘L.A. Weather’ Stormy for Four Marriages Read More »
Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Donald H. Harrison
Meticulous research documents the lives of the Rabinowitz family in small town Poland; their suffering after the Nazis invaded; their miraculous escape to the forest, where they survived in hiding for several years; their post-war relocation to Italy, while awaiting permission to immigrate to Palestine; their decision to move instead to the United States; their lives in Connecticut; and the marriage of daughter Ruth to a future rabbi, from whom author Rebecca Frankel received her Jewish education. [Donald H. Harrison]
Biography Tells of Jewish Family’s Holocaust Survival in the Forest Read More »
Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Donald H. Harrison, International, Jewish History, USA
Koren Publishers Jerusalem has just published an excellent single 2033 page volume of the entire Hebrew Bible, the Tanakh, with the beautiful classic Koren Hebrew font and a new, modern, readable translation of the Torah, Prophets, and Writings by the recently deceased Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks, Rabbi Tzvi Hersh Weinreb, and other scholars. [Rabbi Dr. Israel Drazin]
Koren Publishes New Version of the Tanakh Read More »
Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Israel Drazin-Rabbi Dr., Jewish Religion
This is a novel about a survivor’s guilt. Millie Mosbach, a German-American Jew returns to Berlin immediately after World War II to participate in the denazification program administered by the U.S. Army. She and her brother had left Germany while still teenagers; American benefactors had arranged for her to attend Bryn Mawr College on a scholarship. Foregoing higher education, David was quick to enlist in the Army; he wanted to fight Germans. [Donald H. Harrison]
Survivor’s Guilt in Post-War Germany Read More »
Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Donald H. Harrison
These are the Developments of the Human by Ethan Daniel Davidson; self-published 2021; ISBN 1978057-883010; 459 pages; price not listed. By Rabbi Dr. Michael Leo Samuel CHULA VISTA, California — Ethan Daniel Davidson’s These are the Developments of the Human is a collection of poetic commentaries on thoughts drawn from the Pentateuch. His background is
‘These are the Developments of the Human’ Offers Novel Concept, Poetic Commentaries Read More »
Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Michael Leo Samuel-Rabbi
This is a story for Young Adults set in the turbulent 1960s, shortly after the U.S. Supreme Court unanimously struck down anti-miscegenation laws in 16 states via its decision in Loving v. Virginia. Leah, a recent high school graduate, has fallen in love with Raj, whose family immigrated from India. Raj, a business major at New York University, faces the same problem that the Jewish Leah does; his parents want him to marry within his own religion, which is Hindu. [Donald H. Harrison]
Young Adult Novel Deals With Miscegenation, Dysgraphia, Antisemitism Read More »
Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Donald H. Harrison
This is a biography of two Dutch Jewish sisters who survived much of World War II living under assumed identities in a country villa located on a high knoll in the middle of the woods near Amsterdam. [Donald H. Harrison]
Biography Tells of Hiding in a ‘High Nest’ from the Nazis Read More »
Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Donald H. Harrison, International, Jewish History
When I read a new book I want to turn my hours of page turning into a review. I have done this hundreds of times. Even compulsion has its limits. I list unpublished reviews in my 18,000 word resume under “Unsubmitted.” They were not rejected by an editor, they were never sent to one. Until yesterday it contained three books published between 2007-2014, and now has increased by 33 percent to four titles, totaling 1323 pages. I’m a non-fiction reviewer wary of speculation, creative non-fiction, and historical fiction. [Oliver B. Pollak, Ph.D]
Books That I Declined to Review Read More »
Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Oliver Pollak
This book, intended for students in late elementary and early middle schools, tells the story of two Ukrainian teenage sisters who are taken prisoners by soldiers of the Soviet Union. The soldiers and the sinister Soviet NKVD believe that however anti-Nazi the sisters might have been during the just-ended World War II, they also were opposed to the expansionist designs of the Soviet Union. From the standpoint of the commissars, although the girls were just teenagers, they were enemies of the state. [Donald H. Harrison]
A Nuanced Children’s Novel of the Post World-War II Era Read More »
Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Donald H. Harrison
This memoir more appropriately might have been titled “The Life of Riley,” except for the fact that title was immortalized in the 1940s and 1950s by radio and television actor William Bendix, who portrayed aircraft worker Chester A. Riley on both media. “Riley” in the instance of this book, is a black Flat-Coated Retriever, who remained very much a puppy even well into adulthood. The Beckerman family–which included the author’s husband Joel, son Josh, and daughter Emily — also owned various goldfish, many of whom they collectively named “Larry” (even those who occupied the fish bowl at the same time); a chinchilla; and a bearded dragon (lizard), but Riley was the star and most beloved of all these pets. [Donald H. Harrison]
Memoir of a Happy, Chaotic Life of a Pet Owner Read More »
Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Donald H. Harrison, Lifestyles, The World We Share, Trivia, Humor & Satire
“Games We Played” is about people, specifically the two main characters, who have psychological and sexual hangups and issues which complicate their lives, as well as those of the people around them. The chapters are written from the viewpoints of the two main characters, Rachel, now an actress in the New York area, and Stephen, a rather mixed-up young man and military drop-out, living in California. As children Rachel and Stephen lived near one another and played together, though their games sometimes involved some kind of sexual element. In addition, Stephen had been indoctrinated with neo-Nazi ideology by his grandfather, with whom Stephen and his mother lived, and this penetrated their childhood games. Rachel had what was seemingly a normal family, with a psychiatrist father and home-maker mother. [Dorothea Shefer-Vanson]
Novel Relates Tangled Lives of Grandchildren of Holocaust Survivor, Neo-Nazi Read More »
Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Dorothea Shefer-Vanson
Michael Kesler, Ph.D, died August 23, 2021 from advanced Parkinsons disease at the age of 97, surrounded by family at his home in East Brunswick, NJ. Born in Dubno, Poland (now Ukraine), Michael and his sister Luba fled their family home to escape the Nazis. They wandered through 3,000 miles to Uzbekistan. During four years, they suffered yet persevered in their quest to survive. [Kesler Family]
Michael Kesler, Holocaust Survivor and Author Read More »
Books, Poetry & Short Stories, International, Science, Medicine, & Education, USA
Shortly after the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, on December 7, 1941, the United States went into full war mobilization mode. While many men were drafted into the U.S. Armed Forces, others were needed to staff the shipyards, aircraft factories, and munition plants on the home front. It soon became apparent that there were more positions to be filled than available male workers and so the U.S. began to recruit women to work in these war industries at jobs for which they never before had been eligible. [Donald H. Harrison]
‘Rosie the Riveter’ Theme of National Park Read More »
Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Donald H. Harrison, Jewish History, Music, Dance, and Visual Arts, Theatre, Film & Broadcast, USA
Educators long have worked with STEM curricula — emphasizing Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math. When artists declared such curricula were too limiting, the notion of STEAM was introduced. Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, and Math. Now, here comes STREAM — Science, Technology, Religion, Engineering, Art, and Math… [Donald H. Harrison]
STEM, STEAM, and Now STREAM Children’s Books Read More »
Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Donald H. Harrison, Jewish Religion, Science, Medicine, & Education, Shor M. Masori