Books, Poetry & Short Stories

Novel Incorporates Vignettes about Patrons of a Jerusalem Café

Ehrlich’s Café Shira is an imaginative series of vignettes that take place in an establishment much like Café Tmol Shilshom, wherein the regulars at each table have their own stories. Sometimes they are interwoven with the stories of waitresses Rutha and Rona and café owner Avigdor; other times, they are in a world of their own, made known to us only by the remarkable insight and intuition of the hard-working, extremely empathetic Rutha. [Donald H. Harrison]

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

Larry Schwartz: Organizer of AFT Local 1931

A large crowd gathered on December 1, 1995, to rename the Quad at San Diego City College as Schwartz Square.  The gathering was in honor of history professor and American Federation of Teachers #1931 President Larry Schwartz.  He had died at age 62 of a brain tumor ten months prior to the ceremony. The dedication plaque there reads: “In memory of Larry Schwartz. He inspired students, challenged colleagues, and shared the passion and action of his time.” [Donald H. Harrison]

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Books, Poetry & Short Stories, California, Donald H. Harrison, Jewish History, San Diego County, Science, Medicine, & Education, Travel and Food, USA

A Guide for the Aging

Stand-up comedians know that audiences will laugh at jokes made about the subjects which make them the most uncomfortable, including their body shapes, their sexual activity (or lack of it) and the infirmaries of age. Janet Pitler, with a Jewish knack for self-deprecating humor, puts such material into 61 poems which Bob D’Amico illustrates with imaginative cartoons.  The result: an opportunity for those of us who are aging (and who isn’t?) to laugh at ourselves – either in the quiet of our reading chair, or possibly reciting the poems aloud with our friends. [Donald H. Harrison]

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Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Donald H. Harrison, Trivia, Humor & Satire

An Orthodox Jewish Woman Professor Explains the New Testament

By Rabbi Dr. Israel Drazin   BOCA RATON, Florida — Amy-Jill Levine tells us why Jesus’s teachings in the New Testament, can be seen to be sensible and acceptable to people of all religions, even Orthodox Jews, even Jewish women like her who attends an Orthodox synagogue and sits behind a segregated mechitza (separation) for

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

An Expressively Gripping World War II Graphic Memoir

“The English GI: World War II Graphic Memoir of a Yorkshire Schoolboy’s Adventures in the United States and Europe;” Edited by Jonathan Sandler and illustrated by Brian Bicknell; Graphic MEMOIR.co.uk, April 2022; ISBN: 9798793377874. By Michael R. Mantell SAN DIEGO — The author, a resident of Golders Green, London, notes in his preface to this

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Books, Poetry & Short Stories, International, Michael Mantell

Stan Andrews: A Foolish Hero?

Some will call Stan Andrews a hero because he fought and gave his life for Israel during that country’s War of Independence.  Others will call him a fool because he lusted after combat with the same recklessness that he pursued and casually bedded women. The truth lies somewhere in between the two assessments.  Through meticulous research, the authors pieced together a complex portrait of a young man who was an accomplished writer, portraitist, and pilot.  [Donald H. Harrison]

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

Before Melvin, Padres had 11 players, 2 coaches with at least one Jewish parent

Since the team’s induction into Major League Baseball in 1969 until 2021, the Padres counted 11 players and two coaches on its rosters who had at least one Jewish parent. In 2022, Bob Melvin became the team’s first manager with a Jewish parent. [Donald H. Harrison]

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AAA-Writers and photographers, Books, Poetry & Short Stories, California, Donald H. Harrison, Jewish Celebrities, Jewish History, San Diego County, Sports & Competitions, Travel and Food, USA

‘Poets of the Past’ Set for May 16

By Eileen Wingard   LA JOLLA, California — Brilliant Israeli poet and song lyricist, Avraham Shlonsky (1900-1973), and German-born Jewish Nobel Prize-winning poet, Nelly Sachs (1891-1970), will have their poetry read this coming Monday evening, May 16, 7 p.m. on Zoom. This program is sponsored by the Lawrence Family JCC Astor Judaica Library, the Senior

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

Frida Kahlo Loved Jews So Much She Invented Jewish Ancestry

The Mexican artist Frida Kahlo (1907-1954) is the subject of several murals at Chicano Park. Modern genealogists say that she was the daughter of a mother of mixed indigenous and Spanish descent, Mathilde Calderon y Gonzalez, and a German Lutheran father, Guillermo Kahlo. However, Frida herself always insisted that her father, who was an important influence on both her life and her art, was actually Jewish. [Donald H. Harrison]

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Books, Poetry & Short Stories, California, Donald H. Harrison, International, Jewish History, Lifestyles, Music, Dance, and Visual Arts, San Diego County, Travel and Food, USA

New Book Stops ‘Exit by Exit’ Along I-5 to Recount Jewish Experience in San Diego

By Jacob Kamaras Times of San Diego LA JOLLA, California — By finding at least one Jewish story at every exit from the Mexican border to Old Town San Diego, veteran journalist Donald H. Harrison’s book Schlepping and Schmoozing Along the Interstate 5 transforms the West Coast’s main north-south highway into a treasure trove of

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Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Jacob Kamaras, Jewish History, San Diego County

Book Puts the ‘Land’ in the Land of Israel

Essentials of the Land of Israel, Brandon Marlon, Vallentine Mitchell, London, ©2022, ISBN 978-1-91267-686-6, p. 186, plus biography and index, $69.75. By Fred Reiss, Ed.D. WINCHESTER, California – Anyone perusing the table of contents of Essentials of the Land of Israel by Brandon Marlon, a prolific, award-winning Canadian-Israeli author, would correctly conclude the book’s value

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Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Fred Reiss, EdD, Middle East, Travel and Food

Assassinated Gay Jewish Political Leader Harvey Milk Is Honored by the U.S. Navy

The “christening” ceremony featured a principal ceremonial address by Milk’s nephew, Stuart Milk, as well as remarks by Navy Secretary Carlos Del Toro; Vice Admiral Jeffrey Hughes, deputy chief of naval operations for warfighting development; and Rear Adm. Michael Wettlaufer, commander of the Military Sealift Command. Sponsors of the ship were U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein, who had served on the San Francisco Board of Supervisors with Milk, and Paula Neira, clinical program director of the Johns Hopkins Center for Transgender Health. Neira shattered a bottle of sparkling wine across the ship’s bow in a time-honored Navy tradition. [Donald H. Harrison]

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Books, Poetry & Short Stories, California, Donald H. Harrison, Jewish Celebrities, Jewish History, San Diego County, Travel and Food, USA

Centuries of Despicable Behavior Against Jews

By Rabbi Dr. Israel Drazin BOCA RATON, Florida — Dr. Emily Michelson, senior lecturer in history at the University of St. Andrews, describes the over two and a half centuries when the Roman Catholic Church in Rome, Italy, forced Rome’s Jews to attend weekly hostile sermons. The Church’s aim was to convert the Jews to

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