Books, Poetry & Short Stories

Lederer, Garin, Floto at JCC poetry night Jan. 8

By Eileen Wingard LA JOLLA, California — One of the most stellar line-ups of poets since” Jewish Poets—Jewish Voices’” inception a decade ago, the Tuesday, January 8, at 7 p.m. program in the Lawrence Family JCC’s Astor Judaica Library will feature two local literary celebrities, Richard Lederer and Nina Garin, as well as Abigail Floto. […]

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Books, Poetry & Short Stories, San Diego Calendar

Book Review: ‘My Brilliant Friend’

My Brilliant Friend, Book 1: Childhood and Adolescence by Elena Ferrante, Europa Editions, 2018. By Dorothea Shefer-Vanson MEVASSERET ZION, Israel — This novel, the first of a quartet, has become an international bestseller and has been widely praised in literary circles. So I was overjoyed when I was able to pick up a copy someone

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Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Dorothea Shefer-Vanson, International

Farewell to Ruth Sax, ‘Super Hero Without A Cape’

By Marcia Tatz Wollner SAN DIEGO — The lyrics from Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat “There’s one more angel in Heaven” are fitting for the beloved Ruth Goldschmiedova Sax, 90, who died this past Shabbat. Her daughter, Rabbi Eva Sax Bolder, spoke about how her mother loved to design clothes and wanted to be

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Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Jewish History, Marcia Tatz Wollner, Obituaries & memorials, San Diego County

Editor’s E-Mail Box: December 28, 2018 (5 items)

U.S. State Department supports Israel’s military action against Iranian forces in Syria The U.S. State Department issued the following statement on Thursday:  “The United States fully supports Israel’s right to defend itself against Iranian regional actions that endanger Israeli national security and the safety of the Israeli people. Iranian support of and supply to terrorist

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Books, Poetry & Short Stories, International, Jewish History, Middle East, Obituaries & memorials, Science, Medicine, & Education, USA

Book Review: Siddur Avodat HaLev

Siddur Avodat HaLev (Hebrew and English Edition) Hardcover by Rabbinical Council of America; Editor: Rabbi Basil Herring, by Koren Publishers Jerusalem, 97896530-19362; 1346 pages By Rabbi Michael Leo Samuel CHULA VISTA, California — The brand new Siddur Avodat Halev is a fabulous new commentary on the traditional siddur, but unlike most commentaries you have read, the writers of this project

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Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Jewish Religion, Michael Leo Samuel-Rabbi

Editor’s E-Mail Box: December 20, 2018 (5 items)

Protection against Iran and Hezbollah needed after U.S. withdraws from Syria — AIPAC The American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) on Thursday issued the following statement concerning President Trump’s decision to withdraw U.S. troops from Syria. “With the decision announced yesterday to immediately withdraw U.S. troops from Syria, it is imperative that Iran and Hezbollah

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Books, Poetry & Short Stories, International, Jewish History, John McCormick, Middle East, Science, Medicine, & Education, USA

Book review: ‘Memories, Miracles & Meaning’

Memories, Miracles & Meaning: Insights of a Holocaust Survivor by Fanny Krasner Lebovits (with Selwyn Isakow and Sid Shapira); Mascot Books (c) 2019; ISBN 9781643-071909; 199 pages plus family tree, photos and glossary; $22.95. By Donald H. Harrison SAN DIEGO – At 96, Fanny Krasner Lebovits is still going strong.  I saw her as recently

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

New Orthodox siddur provides modern translations

Siddur Avodat Halev by Rabbi Basil Herring, Editor-in-Chief, Toby Press, New Milford, CT © 2018, ISBN 978-965-301-936-2, p. 1346, plus an introduction and essay section, $34.95. By Fred Reiss, Ed.D. WINCHESTER, California – Siddur Avodat Halev, the newest prayer book from the Rabbinical Council of America, one of the largest Orthodox Jewish rabbinical associations in the world,

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Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Fred Reiss, EdD, Jewish Religion

From the ashes of the Shoah, a Talmudic Encyclopedia

By Toby Klein Greenwald EFRAT, Israel — The recent marking of 80 years from Kristallnacht, and the approaching 10th of the Hebrew month of Tevet, which the Israeli chief rabbinate designated as the day of Kaddish for those who perished in the Holocaust, brings to mind a ground-breaking project that grew out of the ashes

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Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Jewish Religion, Toby Klein Greenwald

Michelle Obama’s ‘Becoming’ also about belonging

Becoming by Michelle Obama; © 2018; Crown Publishing; ISBN 9781524-763138; 421 pages plus acknowledgments and photo credits; $32.50 By Donald H. Harrison SAN DIEGO —  If one theme predominates throughout former First Lady Michelle Obama’s memoir, it is that, notwithstanding the fact that she and her husband had risen to the very pinnacle of power

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

Weighing the ‘Tattooist’ controversy

By Dan Bloom CHIAYI CITY, Taiwan — Do novels about the Holocaust have to be vetted before publication? It’s a good question and one that literary critics and Holocaust historians and educators have been grappling with since 1945. Now in 2018, the question remains as important as ever, and new novels about the Nazi concentration camps under

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Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Jewish History