The Arts

Factual Errors Detract from Jewish Family Saga

This is a novel that traces a Jewish family through several generations from a shtetl in Poland to the big city of Warsaw, and later onward to Scotland, Germany, and England over the course of pogroms and two world wars. It is marred in the telling by a series of errors that might have been eliminated through more careful research or fact checking [Donald H. Harrison]

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Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Donald H. Harrison

March 30 Zoom Program to Feature Lawrence Family JCC Library’s Musical Samples

By Eileen Wingard   LA JOLLA, California — “Treasures from the Music Collection of the Astor Judaica Library,” a three-part Zoom series, will be launched this Wednesday evening, March 30 at 7 p.m. It is a free series under the auspices of the Astor Judaica Library and the Arts and Ideas series of the San

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Eileen Wingard, Music, Dance, and Visual Arts, San Diego County

Jewish Poets-Jewish Voices to Feature San Diego Jewish Academy Students

By Eileen Wingard   LA JOLLA, California — Several years after Jewish Poets-Jewish Voices was inaugurated, one of the programs in the series became designated for the work of students, a showcase for student poets in our community. This year, that program will be on Zoom, Sunday, March 27, at 3:30 p.m. Sara Appel-Lennon, co-chair

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

Garfield Concert Features Israeli Cellist, Alludes to the War in Ukraine

By Eileen Wingard LA JOLLA, California — After Israeli cellist Amit Peled and his piano collaborator, Hyeyeon Park, entered the stage, the amiable cellist introduced his three-sonata program during the “Arts and Ideas” concert on March 14 at the Garfield Theatre. His concise and informative remarks about each work offered welcome focus for his listeners.

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Eileen Wingard, Music, Dance, and Visual Arts, San Diego County

Scroll of Esther Honors Another Esther, Terror Victim Esther Horgen

By Toby Klein Greenwald It is always amazing to me how there are families who react to unbearable tragedy by creating something deeply meaningful and beautiful for the Jewish people and, indeed, for the world. This is what the family of Esther Horgen has done. Esther, 52, was brutally murdered by a terrorist on December

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

Jerusalem International Fellows Inaugurates Cultural Residency Program in Eastern and Western Jerusalem

JERUSALEM (Press Release) — Four artists, from Brazil, India, Mexico, and the United States will participate in the Jerusalem International Fellows  program, a 10-week residency for leading performing artists, choreographers, visual artists, and urban planners from around the world, who wish to collaborate with independent artists, ensembles, and cultural institutions in eastern and western Jerusalem.

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International, Middle East, The Arts, USA

Camp Leader at Auschwitz Details How She Helped Other Jewish Prisoners

If you hear of a Jew appointed to a position of authority at one of the Nazi concentration camps, what word comes immediately to mind? Is it “collaborator?” In “The Nazis Knew My Name,” the late Magda Hellinger tells of her experience being appointed first as a block leader and later as a camp leader by the Nazis during her three year incarceration in the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp complex.  She relates that it was never her choice to be a block or camp leader, and that had she refused, she most likely would have been severely disciplined or sent to the gas chambers.  As a leader, she was expected to keep order in the block, and later in a full camp, or else.  [Donald H. Harrison]

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

Attorney Provides Insight into U.S.’s Broken Immigration System

Author Susan J. Cohen is a compassionate attorney who handles many immigration cases on a pro bono basis for the Boston branch of the national Mintz Levin law firm.  This book, written with the help of journalist Steven T. Taylor, tells of eleven cases in which she helped immigrants obtain asylum or permanent residency in the United States. [Donald H. Harrison]

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Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Donald H. Harrison, International, USA

Zoom Program on Violinist Jascha Heifetz is Enlightening, Artistic, Entertaining

By Eileen Wingard LA JOLLA, California — Cesare Civetta, a native New Yorker, conductor of the Beethoven Festival Orchestra, has launched a series of programs on Zoom which are highly enlightening, artistic, and entertaining. The past two Sundays, Civetta presented a wonderful program on violinist Jascha Heifetz, whose name was often invoked as the standard

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Eileen Wingard, Music, Dance, and Visual Arts

World War II Novel Glosses over a Tough Moral Decision

A Girl During the War by Anita Abriel; New York: Atria Books © 2022; ISBN 9781982-181185; 317 pages; $17. SAN DIEGO – Many people have asked themselves if they had lived under the Hitler regime, and if they weren’t Jewish, would they have had the courage to protect a Jew, knowing if they were caught

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Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Donald H. Harrison, Music, Dance, and Visual Arts

North Coast Rep’s ‘The Homecoming’ Puts the Fun in Dysfunctional

By Eva Trieger SOLANA BEACH, California — If you ever wanted to know who put the “fun” in dysfunctional, all hands point towards the North Coast Rep’s latest cast of The Homecoming.  This offbeat, quirky, Pinter play is a hilarious romp from start to finish. Kudos to David Ellenstein for directing this British comedy, and

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Eva Trieger, San Diego County, Theatre, Film & Broadcast