By Donald H. Harrison SAN DIEGO – Not all the books on sale at Comic-Con are graphic novels or comic books. Adam Greenfield, under auspices of the Puna Press, is selling a book of poetry, Regarding the Monkey. Greenfield is a San Diegan who makes his day-to-day living helping people record podcasts – he brings […]
A poet among the comic book writers Read More »
Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Donald H. Harrison, San Diego County
Jews in Medicine, Contributions to Health and Healing through the Age by Ronald L. Eisenberg Jerusalem and New York: Urim Publications, 2019, 464 pages, $34.95 By Oliver B. Pollak JACKSON HOLE, Wyoming — This 464-page encyclopedic reference book starts with the Talmud and comes into the present including still living practitioners. The author identifies Jewish
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Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Jewish History, Oliver Pollak, Science, Medicine, & Education
Sheol Country Blues by Adrienne O’Hare, Asna Publishing © 2019, ISBN 9780578-507248; 165 pages, $18. By Donald H. Harrison SAN DIEGO – I met the Jewish lady whose name sounds very Irish (thanks to her marriage to the affable Larry O’Hare) in February 2018 at shipboard Shabbat services aboard the MS Maasdam, which then
Childhood sexual abuse sent two ‘sisters’ to mental hell Read More »
Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Donald H. Harrison, Science, Medicine, & EducationThe Journey Back From Hell: Conversations with Concentration Camp Survivors by Anton Gill, Grafton Books, 1988. By Dorothea Shefer-Vanson MEVASSERET ZION, Israel — Although published thirty years ago, this book is at least as relevant today as it was when it first appeared. As the survivors of concentration camps grow old and die it is
30- year- old Holocaust research still relevant today Read More »
Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Dorothea Shefer-Vanson, International, Jewish History.…and won’t you please release us from our commitment of 1492 to preserve the Jewish cemetery. The city wishes to build on those grounds, which today is encircled by our growth…’ Restpectfully, The Vitoria City Council (January 1952) (paraphrased) At Vitoria by Marcia Sue Riman Selz, Ph.D. Archway Publishing, 2016 Reviewed by Irvin H. Jacobs,
The 527 -year- old pact between Jews and Basques Read More »
Books, Poetry & Short Stories, International, Irv Jacobs, MD, Jewish HistoryBy Rabbi Dr. Israel Drazin BOCA RATON, Florida — Maimonides: Between Philosophy and Halakhah: Rabbi Joseph B. Soloveitchik’s Lectures on the Guide of the Perplexed is interesting because it shows the basic ideas of Rabbi Soloveitchik’s thinking. But readers should not suppose that they will gain an insight into the teachings of Maimonides or even some
Book prompts Jewish rationalism vs. mysticism debate Read More »
Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Israel Drazin-Rabbi Dr., Jewish Religion
Newcomers in an Ancient Land: Adventures, Love and Seeking Myself in 1960’s Israel by Paula Wagner; She Writes Press, © 2019;ISBN 9781631-525292; 220 pages; $16.95. By Donald H. Harrison SAN DIEGO – For the most part, this is a pleasant if tentative memoir, which will be informative for people contemplating a first trip from the
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Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Donald H. Harrison, Middle East
Confessions of a Yiddish Writer and Other Essays by Chava Rosenfarb, McGill-Queens University Press © 2019, 282 pages including appendix and index. By Donald H. Harrison SAN DIEGO – Chava Rosenfarb was recognized as a novelist and essayist of substance by those of the post-Holocaust, shrinking, Yiddish-speaking world, but it remained for her daughter,
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Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Donald H. Harrison, Jewish HistoryBy Rabbi Dr. Israel Drazin BOCA RATON, Florida — The story of Peter Abelard (1079-1142) and Heloise (1095-1163) is considered a great medieval love story. We have still today Abelard’s autobiography and letters between the parties, so we know much but not all of the love story. James Burge’s Heloise and Abelard is an interesting
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Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Israel Drazin-Rabbi Dr.
By Donald H. Harrison SAN DIEGO – I am happy to announce the publication of my fifth book, with the sixth very soon to follow. Just published on Amazon as well as Barnes and Noble is Volume 1 of Schlepping and Schmoozing through San Diego County, which is drawn from over three decades of my
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Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Donald H. Harrison, San Diego County
Young Lincoln of New Salem by Sam Rawlins; © 2019; Yorkshire Publishing; ISBN 9781848-231946; 333 pages including author’s notes, acknowledgments and bibliography. By Donald H. Harrison SAN DIEGO – Lincoln biographers tell us that as a boy the 16th President of the United States read Parson Mason Weems’ Life of George Washington. In my reading
Good values, but not history, in novel about Lincoln Read More »
Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Donald H. HarrisonFrom Infinity to Man by Eduard Shyfrin, White Raven Publishing, © 2019, ISBN 978-1-911195-84-9, p. 122 plus notes and index, $24.99. By Fred Reiss, Ed.D. WINCHESTER, California – Kabbalah is esoteric Judaism, the mystical traditions handed down orally through the generations. Yet, Kabbalah is not a monolith, its concepts and structures evolve. In the introduction to
Kabbalah as explained by quantum physics Read More »
Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Fred Reiss, EdD, Jewish ReligionBy Rabbi Dr. Israel Drazin BOCA RATON, Florida — There are many instances where both Jews and non-Jews tell stories with some variations on the same plot. In many of these instances, the Jewish version attempts to use its version to teach Jews proper behavior. The following is an example. Rip Van Winkle Washington Irving (1783-1859)
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Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Israel Drazin-Rabbi Dr., Jewish Religion
By Zev Bar-Lev SAN DIEGO – A student, let’s call her Ida, says: “I find the Hebrew language completely opaque, as if hidden from me by a thick curtain. I’ve memorized the whole alphabet, all the shapes & their sounds, but I can’t make much out of words, much less sentences—even with a bunch of
The hidden meanings of the Hebrew alphabet Read More »
Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Middle East, San Diego County, Science, Medicine, & Education