Books, Poetry & Short Stories

‘Planet Corona’ Is Everyone’s Current Residence

An American living in retirement in Jerusalem, Chaya Passow has been described by her friends as a “pollyanna,” one who tries to see the best in everything and everybody.  So when the coronavirus pandemic confined many people to their homes – except to go out for necessities or approved errands – she unsurprisingly decided to “glean from this unprecedented experience any lessons for better understanding the human condition, for self-improvement, for a closer connection to Hashem and others.” [Donald H. Harrison]

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

Book Provides Useful Pet Advice

The pandemic has changed many people’s daily routines. More folks have been spending time at home and because of this, pet adoptions have increased.  What better time to adopt a pet than while spending so much time at home! However, there have also been a lot of first time pet owners who need some guidance. [Mimi Pollack]

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Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Mimi Pollack, San Diego County, The World We Share

Taking a pen as her sword and challenging the patriarchy: Nawal El Saadawi’s phenomenal legacy

In her 89 years, Dr Nawal El Saadawi was relentless in her fight against the persecution of women. She passed away on March 21, but her legacy as an advocate and writer lives on. Her multifaceted approach to feminism, pulling from her experience as a writer, physician and psychiatrist ensured her advocacy reverberated transnationally, overwhelming

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Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Middle East

Adventure story is gentle introduction to the Holocaust

This graphic novel is a relatively gentle introduction for children to the Holocaust, wherein two Polish Jewish children escape from their ghetto to the woods, where they are found by a Gentile farmer who has been working with the resistance.  In fact, the farmer has been hiding from a German search party three Partisans who blew up a train that was headed with weapons and supplies to the Russian front.  Among the brave Partisans is none other than the children’s aunt, who had left home before the Jews of their town had been moved and restricted to  a ghetto. [Donald H. Harrison]

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

Rabbi Dosick provides advice on ‘Radical Loving’

Radical Loving: One God, One World, One People,  written by Rabbi Wayne Dosick, begins with the statement, “What an incredible time it is to be alive!”  Immediately the reader is asked to question the author’s opinion “Is it really?”  We turn the page and so begins an anecdote of a village of rice growers and how wonderful their lives are.  Then in an instant, a terrible storm causes a flood that completely destroys their village and their food supply of rice fields. Thanks to one of the village elders, the people were warned ahead of time and were able to escape to higher elevation and were saved.  The anecdote ends of course with a message:  “The village and the fields can rise up again. And the villagers can forever tell the tale.”  Rabbi Dosick is calling on the world to band together and to not forget that we are “One World, One People” and stronger together.  We the readers are the villagers and as my Aunt Nancy has told me, my generation and the next,will be retelling our tale of the 2020 pandemic to our grandchildren for years to come. [Heather Z. Rothstain]

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Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Jewish Religion, Travel and Food, USA

Book Review: ‘The Taming of the Jew’

Tuvia Tenenbom is an expat Israeli who has lived in Germany and elsewhere for many decades, working as a journalist and author. Holding many academic degrees, Tenenbom is also a playwright, essayist, and the founding artistic director of the Jewish Theater of New York. Tenenbom has a very idiosyncratic style. His sardonic personality goes well with his cherubic appearance, and the reader is soon caught up in Tenenbom’s droll reporting of mundane encounters with people all around the world. His latest book, The Taming of the Jew, features people from Ireland and Britain. The thing is, most of those interviewed either know almost nothing about what they are saying, or are consciously spreading vicious, false narratives [Steve Kramer]

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Books, Poetry & Short Stories, International, Middle East, Steve Kramer

Ancient Greek Play Raises Some Still-Modern Questions

The late Dr. Howard Rubenstein’s Prometheus Bound was scheduled to open off-Broadway at The Tank in September of 2020, but alas: Covid. So, the publisher sent me a copy of the script for review. Rubenstein’s play is not a translation of Aeschylus but a free adaptation, which is a good thing. Translations of ancient texts often require long winded explanations of why certain references were funny or topical at the time, which audiences don’t have time for. [Eric George Tauber]

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Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Eric George Tauber, Theatre, Film & Broadcast

Gardens, cacti and a ring grab poets’ attention

By Eileen Wingard LA JOLLA, California — The “Jewish Poets—Jewish Voices” program featured a stellar line-up of poets for its Tuesday, March 16 program, attracting over 100 virtual audience members. The attendees were well-rewarded with the high caliber of poetry, beautifully delivered by local poets Annette Friend, Jen Laffler and Susan L. Lipson. A sample

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

A Pilot’s Love Affair With a Beautiful Israeli

I ordered this book from Bibliophile because the blurb proclaimed that its main character was a pilot who fell in love with an Israeli woman and fought for his adopted country. That, in essence, is the nub of the story, but around it surges and swells a series of events and adventures involving love and enmity, joy and sorrow, and a veritable roller-coaster of emotions for the reader, who cannot help but be drawn into this gripping tale of romance, adventure and action. [Dorothea Shefer-Vanson]

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

Dorothea: In total, this is not the Oz I knew

The latest scandal to erupt in Israel’s literary arena has been triggered by the book published by Galia Oz, the daughter of the late, greatly-esteemed writer, Amos Oz. The memoir, entitled Something Disguised as Love, burst upon the Israeli reading public in a blaze of publicity arising from its controversial revelations concerning the behavior of Amos Oz towards his daughter. [Dorothea Shefer-Vanson]

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