Books, Poetry & Short Stories

Biography of David Sealtiel Tells Struggles of Pre-State Israel

This small book, subtitled (in German) “I want to be a compatriot of the Jewish people,” describes the life of the man who rebelled against the bourgeois and orthodox way of life of his family in early twentieth-century Hamburg, and embarked on a life of almost unceasing adventures and escapades in Europe and the Middle East. Although the book is short, the content is amazingly dense and Sealtiel’s life was so eventful that this review will inevitably be long. What an astonishing life this man had! [Dorothea Shefer-Vanson]

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

‘Choosing Judaism’ Provides Cheerful and Painful Accounts

Why do you want to become Jewish? How is Judaism, with its many rules and rituals, a more appropriate religion, than your former religion or lifestyle? How do you identify with the Jewish people in relation to Israel, world Jewry, the local Jewish community, and your local synagogue? These are just some types of questions that people are asked by a Bet Din, a rabbinical court, before their official conversion into Judaism. [Heather Z. Rothstain]

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Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Jewish Religion, Lifestyles

Author Dissects Popular Myths About the Bible

Rabbi Dr. Israel Drazin’s latest book in his trailblazing series entitled Mysteries of Judaism IV;  Over 100 Mistaken Ideas about God and the Bible offers the reader a glimpse into this seasoned scholar’s views on many of Judaism’s most sacred beliefs concerning subjects as diverse as the importance of the creation narrative in the early chapters of Genesis, as well as many of the thorny problems emerging out of the creation narrative.  [Rabbi Dr. Michael Leo Samuel]

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

Children’s Literature: The Candy Man Mystery

Rabbi Kerry Olitzky, author of The Candy Man Mystery, is primarily known as a Jewish educator having served as a dean at the Hebrew Union College—Jewish Institute of Religion and as a vice president of the Wexner Heritage Foundation.  Perhaps, however, he was remembering his 15 years at Congregation Beth Israel in West Hartford, Connecticut, when he wrote The Candy Man Mystery, a book likely to intrigue elementary school-aged children about synagogue Judaism. [Donald H. Harrison]

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

What Kamala Harris’ Book Teaches Children

Last month there was a brief kerfuffle when a copy of Vice President Kamala Harris’ book for children, Superheroes Are Everywhere, was spotted among materials being handed out to migrant children at the Long Beach Convention Center.  There was only one copy that someone had donated, but the New York Post reported that the book was being given to all the children.  Subsequently, that newspaper retracted the story, but not before other right-wing media jumped on it including Fox News. [Donald H. Harrison]

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

‘Proof of Life,’ though a memoir, reads like a suspense novel

I jumped into this book without reading the introduction and believed right through the end that I was reading a well-crafted, highly believable suspense novel.   In fact, Daniel Levin had written a memoir about his efforts to find out what had happened to a young man who had disappeared in Syria.  He didn’t know the young man, but as a favor to a friend, he had promised to make inquiries. [Donald H. Harrison]

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

Children’s Literature: ‘The Rabbi and the Painter’

‘The Rabbi and the Painter,’ a children’s book imagines a fictional friendship between the Mannerist painter Tintoretto and Rabbi Leon of Modena, whose most famous work, Historia de gli riti Hebraici, describing for non-Jews the rites and customs of the Jewish people, was written more than 40 years after Tintoretto’s death.

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

A Jewish Odyssey from Ethiopia to Israel and Back

“From Africa to Zion” is a remarkable memoir that takes us from the author’s childhood in a rural Ethiopian village without electricity or running water through his perilous journey to a crowded, multi-ethnic refugee camp in the Sudan, where disease and crime were rampant, and onto his arrival to the modern world of Israel, in which his family were initially mystified by such conveniences as toilets and refrigerators. [Donald H. Harrison]

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

Good News from Israel (May 16, 2021)

NETANYA, Israel — In the May 16, 2021 edition of Israel’s good news, the highlights include:
–US doctors use an Israeli device to remove blood clots from stroke patients.
–Israel has sent tons of coronavirus aid to India.
–4 top multinationals are expanding Israeli hi-tech operations.
–Israeli innovators are turning CO2 emissions into an energy source.
–Israel’s economy continues to improve.
–An Israeli has won France’s top literary prize.
–The festival of Shavuot is uniting Israelis, just as it did 3,333 years ago
[Michael Ordman]

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Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Business & Finance, Jewish Religion, Michael Ordman, Middle East, Science, Medicine, & Education, Sports & Competitions, USA

George W. Bush’s Warm Embrace for Immigrants to U.S.

If this book’s title, Out of the Many, One  sounds familiar, it is the English translation of the Latin expression  E pluribus unum, the unofficial motto of the United States, which can be found on the back of the $1 bill above the wings of the eagle.  Former President George W. Bush decided to include 43 portraits within this book, a number that was not happenstance.  He was the 43rd President of the United States. [Donald H. Harrison]

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Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Donald H. Harrison, International, Middle East, Music, Dance, and Visual Arts, USA