The slights, slurs, and racist comments that Marra had to endure will make my fellow Jewish readers’ cringe. How can any Jew, knowing how our people have long felt the sting of prejudice, inflict such outrageous behavior on a person of another ethnicity? But to our shame, some of us do. [Donald H. Harrison]
A memoir of overcoming racism Read More »
Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Donald H. Harrison, USA
The largely rural Vivarais-Lignon plateau enjoys a climate considered to be healthy during the summer months, resulting in the existence there of several hotels, children’s homes and convalescent centres for visiting tourists. In the winter, however, it was more or less cut off from the rest of the country by deep, long-lasting snow and its mountainous terrain. These conditions enabled the villagers to provide sanctuary for people – and especially children – seeking to evade capture and deportation to concentration camps. [Dorothea Shefer-Vanson]
The World War II bravery of remote French villages Read More »
Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Dorothea Shefer-Vanson, International
David Tabatsky had been working as a street performer in Japan when he received news that his father, a cantor, was gravely ill. He flew home but arrived too late. The experience, perhaps the guilt, sent him into a tailspin, and he did something very stupid: he mailed a small supply of marijuana to his address in Japan, figuring the weed would help him feel better. [Donald H. Harrison]
What minds might do in prison Read More »
Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Donald H. Harrison, International
Ah, the joys of time travel! San Diego author Marcia Berneger, a retired teacher, uses this device to imaginatively retell the story of the first Chanukah in A Dreidel in Time, a chapter book for children between the ages of 8 and 13. [Donald H. Harrison]
Time travel fiction dramatizes first Chanukah Read More »
Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Donald H. Harrison, Jewish Religion, Marcia Berneger, San Diego County, The World We Share
With Jews around the world scheduled to read the story of Noah’s Ark next Saturday, the Abraham Ratner Torah School at Tifereth Israel Synagogue held a blessing for the animals in a brief outdoor ceremony on Sunday. Rabbi Joshua Dorsch, with arms raised, blessed about a dozen dogs and one rabbit that were brought by congregants of the Conservative shul. [Donald H. Harrison]
Animals receive a blessing at Tifereth Israel Synagogue Read More »
Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Donald H. Harrison, Jewish History, Jewish Religion, Lifestyles, Middle East, San Diego County, Science, Medicine, & Education, The World We Share, Travel and Food, USA
Today’s Israeli culture differs from Jewish culture at the state’s founding: Israel is more ethnically diverse, its Jews practicing along a broader spectrum of beliefs. They live mostly in cities, not on kibbutzim or moshavim. They are self-governing, speak a modern form of Hebrew, follow the Jewish calendar, and openly display rather than hide their identity. They live in a country in which they never have to fear de jure anti-Semitism. Israelis are rabbis and talmudic scholars, estheticians and economists, police and politicians, taxi drivers and technical wizards. [Fred Reiss, EdD]
Jewsraelis and other Jewish people of Israel Read More »
Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Fred Reiss, EdD, Jewish History, Jewish Religion, Middle EastSo here I am, once again on the verge of sending a child, er, I mean a book, out into the big wide world, to sink or swim and hopefully find someone brave enough to undertake the task of reading it, whether as an ebook or a paperback.
It’s coming. The day is nigh. [Dorothea Shefer-Vanson]
Sometimes novelists are the ones in suspense Read More »
Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Dorothea Shefer-Vanson, Middle East
Although it issued no news release to announce it, Seacrest Village Retirement Communities has sold its 56-unit Rancho Bernardo campus at 12730 Monte Vista Road to Pacifica, which will maintain it as an independent living community.
Michael Mather, Seacrest Village’s director of community relations, says residents of the facility have been able to transfer to the main campus in Encinitas, if they so desired.. [Donald H. Harrison]
Seacrest Village sells its Rancho Bernardo facility Read More »
Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Business & Finance, Donald H. Harrison, Jewish Religion, Marcia Berneger, San Diego County, The World We Share
Rabbi Leah Herz created a fun-filled Simchat Torah learning session called “The Great Torah Roll” for residents of the Seacrest Village Retirement Community in Encinitas when she had the entire Torah unrolled and held by staff, volunteers, and residents, some of whom were in wheelchairs. [Donald H. Harrison]
‘Great Torah Roll’ fun at Seacrest Village Read More »
Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Donald H. Harrison, Jewish Religion, Music, Dance, and Visual Arts, San Diego County, Science, Medicine, & Education, The World We Share, Theatre, Film & Broadcast
Star Trek script screenwriter Nicholas Meyer has appropriated the characters of Sherlock Holmes and sidekick Dr. John Watson from the long-dead Arthur Conan Doyle and has produced a detective mystery book in which the great sleuth travels across Europe in 1905 to learn who forged the Protocols of the Elders of Zion and why. [Donald H. Harrison]
Sherlock Holmes and an anti-Semitic forgery Read More »
Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Donald H. Harrison
U.S. Rep. Susan Davis (D-San Diego) was part of a delegation led by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-San Francisco) on a previously unannounced weekend trip to Jordan, where they met with King Abdullah II to discuss Turkey’s invasion of Syria. The group also went to Afghanistan where they met with President Ashraf Ghani. [Donald H. Harrison]
Davis joins Pelosi’s trip to Jordan, Afghanistan Read More »
Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Donald H. Harrison, International, Middle East, San Diego County, Sports & Competitions, USA
It all started in 2013, when my son Lincoln was with me, visiting the Ashley, North Dakota Jewish Cemetery where my great-grandfather is buried. He began asking me questions about the community of Russian Jewish immigrants, who arrived in the early 1900s with no farming experience, to farm the North Dakota prairies. I didn’t have sufficient answers. But the seed was planted for me to learn more – for my son, myself, our family, and people I had never met. [Rebecca Bender]
A Jewish Tale of the Great American Prairie Read More »
Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Jewish History, Lifestyles, USA
Dr. Sol Lizerbram, the Rancho Santa Fe resident who serves as national president of the Jewish National Fund, offers some statistics to back up the claim that sending a teenager to JNF’s Alexander Muss High School program in Israel can contribute in the long run to Jewish continuity.
JNF: Israel schooling leads to Jewish continuity Read More »
Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Donald H. Harrison, International, Judaism, Middle East, San Diego County, Science, Medicine, & Education, Sports & Competitions, Theatre, Film & Broadcast, Travel and Food, USA
Thirty graphic artists are featured in this delightful 86-page book of cartoons on Jewish topics, that starts with the Bible, moves on to Jewish-Christian relations, Jewish holidays, Shabbat, Kashrut, the differences among Jewish denominations, kvetching, and bubbes/ yentas. There are other topics too, but you get the drift.
Jewish cartoon book delights Read More »
Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Donald H. Harrison, Music, Dance, and Visual Arts, Trivia, Humor & Satire