Books, Poetry & Short Stories

Following Grandma’s WWII Path Leads Author to Self-Discovery

The bulk of the book is about Rachael’s grandmother Hana, who as a young teenager during the Nazi era was sent by her parents from Czechoslovakia to safety in Denmark, where for a while at least she could live unmolested as a farm girl.  When Denmark’s German Nazi conquerors decided to round up the Jews, she was among the thousands who were helped by the Danes to escape to neutral Sweden. [Donald H. Harrison]

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

‘Riding the Edge’ Is a Memoir of Self-Discovery

In the context of the Middle East, to which they traveled by way of a tortuous, yet exhilarating bike safari through Europe, the Jewish Michael Tobin and his Lebanese-Christian girlfriend Deborah were problematic candidates for a lasting romance.  Religion, nationalism, and past romantic attachments seemed to militate against their permanence as a couple  However, these two American psychologists were open to new experiences and to each other, and their time on the road meeting people for intensive discussions about life, love, and loss, impacted each of them differently and profoundly.   [Donald H. Harrison]

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Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Donald H. Harrison, Jewish History, Jewish Religion, Travel and Food

Thoughts on Organizing: Letter to a Younger Scholar

I started contributing to San Diego Jewish World in November 2017. About 100,000 words later this is my 102nd story. The ingredients are facts, imagination, inspiration, rigor, memory and the compulsion to write. Wife Karen and editor Don are faithful and critical readers. [Oliver B. Pollak, Ph.D]

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Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Lifestyles, Oliver Pollak, Science, Medicine, & Education

Satire: Hamlet’s Soliloquy in the Age of Covid

To mask or not to mask, that is the question:
Whether ’tis nobler in the mind to suffer
The coughs and dangers of contagious Covid,
Rather than cover nose and mouth, suffocating.    
Or by opposing mandates to die—to infect,  
Tethered to ventilators, bereft of breath,   
The long haul and virulent spikes
That flesh succumbs to, like consumption. … {Laurie Baron, Ph.D]

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Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Lawrence Baron, Theatre, Film & Broadcast, Trivia, Humor & Satire, USA

Philippines’ Rescue of the Jews Presentation Set for August 18

One of the lesser known stories of Holocaust rescue is that of the Philippines, which welcomed refugees from Nazi Germany during the 1930s.  The story is told in the documentary An Open Door: Holocaust Haven in the Philippines produced and directed by Noel “Sonny” Izon and SDSU history lecturer Bonnie Harris, Ph.D. [Beth Israel Men’s Club news release]

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Books, Poetry & Short Stories, International, Jewish History, San Diego Calendar

‘Torah IQ’ Provides More Than 1,000 Questions and Answers

The first of the two Torah sections presents twenty questions for each parashah (weekly Torah reading), such as, in parashat Chayei Sarah he asks, “Who in the Torah had 13 children? And in parashat Shoftim, “Which word is an acronym for the four types of leaders in Israel mentioned in parashat Shoftim?” The second of the two Torah sections offers 169 general Torah questions. For example, “Why did Paroh (Hebrew for Pharoah) change Joseph’s name?” and “What is the only birthday party mentioned in the Torah?” [Fred Reiss, Ed.D]

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Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Fred Reiss, EdD, Jewish Religion, Trivia, Humor & Satire

Former Israel ‘Hawk’ Tells of His Transformation to a ‘Dove’

It’s a well-worn political observation that “it took a Nixon to go to China,” meaning because President Richard M. Nixon was identified as a staunch conservative, he was trusted to go to mainland China and open a dialogue with that nation’s communist rulers, a dialogue that led to the establishment of diplomatic relations between the two adversary countries. [Donald H. Harrison]

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

An Explanation of the Famous Book ‘Tanya’

Maggid Books in association with Steinsaltz Center has published part of the text of one of the two famous books by the founder of Chabad Hasidim, also called Lubavitcher Hasidim, Rabbi Shneur Zalman of Liadi (1745-1812). Rabbi Zalman’s other famous book is Shulchan Arukh Harav, a book that only partially survived, which deals with Jewish law. This book, a translation and commentary of part of the Tanya, originally published in Hebrew in 1797, is by Rabbi Adin Even-Israel Steinsaltz (1937-2020) a Chabad Hasid, the author of over 60 books and more than 100 articles. Not all of Steinsaltz’s writings focus on Chabad mysticism, but this book is about Rabbi Shneur Zalman’s view of mysticism. [Rabbi Dr. Israel Drazin]

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Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Israel Drazin-Rabbi Dr., Jewish Religion

Book Review: ‘Rationalism versus Mysticism’

Many Jews would like to find an easy way to learn what Judaism teaches about various subjects. Rabbi Dr. Natan Slifkin, an Orthodox rabbi, gives them this information in his fact-filled book Rationalism vs. Mysticism: Schisms in Traditional Jewish Thought, with quotes from many sources and many learned footnotes, all easy to read.[Rabbi Dr. Israel Drazin]

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Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Israel Drazin-Rabbi Dr., Jewish Religion

Short Story Focuses on IBM’s Business With the Nazis

Short story writer Clive Aaron Gill presents the discovery of the connection between IBM and the Holocaust in a pair of moral dilemmas, faced first by a grandfather and much later by his granddaughter Rebecca, whom we first meet as a school girl and later as a public relations executive for a charitable organization. [Donald H. Harrison]

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Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Edwin Black, USA

Juvenile Fiction: Elephant Helps a Boy Find God

El, the elephant, offers to help the boy find God.  So off they go, the boy on El’s back, and they see a flower and a meadow; feel the effects of the wind and the sun; and the coolness of river water.  The boy asks when they will find God, and El explains that the boy already had met God in the beauty of the flower; the peacefulness of the meadow; the strong winds; the warmth of the sun; and the life-giving, thirst-quenching water of the river. [Donald H. Harrison]

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Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Donald H. Harrison, Jewish Religion

Novel Portrays Catskill’s Post-Borscht Belt Era

This is an American Jewish novel about two families coming to terms with the fact that the fictional resort that best friends Benny Goldman and Amos Weingold founded in the Catskill Mountains has long passed its prime. The Golden Hotel no longer is booked to capacity, nor even near capacity, and the once famous Borscht Belt resort has quite obvious wear and tear to show its decline. [Donald H. Harrison]

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Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Donald H. Harrison, USA