The Arts

Cantor’s Archive Led to Book on Philippine Rescue of European Jews

Enthralled by the stories Cysner told, Harris immediately asked the UC Santa Barbara History Department if she could change her dissertation subject so that it could be based upon Cysner’s experiences, both in Poland, where he was a prisoner of the Nazis, and in the Philippines, where he later became a prisoner of the Japanese. The department agreed, even though this meant changing Harris’ academic advisor and the schedule of courses to which she would commute from her home in San Diego. [Donald H. Harrison]

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

A Scholarly Rabbi Comments on the Book of Esther and More

By Rabbi Dr. Israel Drazin BOCA RATON, Florida — Urim Publications in Jerusalem and New York has just published Faith Fulfilled: Megillat Esther and The Maariv Evening Service for Purim with Commentary from the Writings of Rabbi Eliezer Berkovits. It is compiled and edited by Rabbi Dr. Reuven Mohl. The book is excellent. Rabbi Berkovits’

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

‘Jewish Bestiary’ Unpacks the Actual and Mystical Roles Animals Play in Our Lives

“A Jewish Bestiary: Fabulous Creatures from Hebraic Legend & Lore,” by Mark Podwal; The Pennsylvania State University Press, University Park, PA, ©2021; ISBN 9780271091730; 70 pages, plus bibliography; $14.86. By Fred Reiss, Ed.D. WINCHESTER, California – Close contact between animals and humans, according to the Hebrew Bible, happened soon after creation: God brought them before

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

Children’s Literature: Pesach in 1950’s Iran

A Persian Passover by Etan Basseri (Illustrated by Rashin Kheiriyeh); Moosic, Pennsylvania: Kalaniot Books, © 2022; ISBN 9781735-087566; 32 pages including glossary; $19.99. SAN DIEGO – The red-cheeked children on the cover of this charming little story are Ezra, who likes to run, and his little sister, Roza, who adores her big brother.  Unfortunately, Ezra

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

‘Forged’ Offers Real Insight on Bible’s Authors

By Rabbi Dr. Israel Drazin BOCA RATON, Florida — Bart C. Ehrman is a highly respected historian who was once a protestant clergyman who became an agnostic when he saw what biblical scholars consider the numerous errors, inconsistencies, forgeries, and deceits in the New Testament. He offers readers in Forged a view of the conclusion

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

‘Desert Rock Garden:’ A Landmark Piece of History With the Full Array of Emotions

By Eva Trieger CARLSBAD, California — I believe I was in my final years of high school or perhaps even early years of college when I first learned of the Japanese internment camps. What horrified me most of all was one thought, “How could Americans, who had just witnessed the inhumanity of the Nazi Holocaust, treat

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

‘The Voice of Silence:’ Captivating and Timely Reading on the Jewish Underground in the USSR

The Voice of Silence, The Story of the Jewish Underground in the USSR, Ephraim Kholmyansky, Boston: Academic Studies Press, 2021 284 pages; $22.63 (Paperback) By Toby Klein Greenwald In a frosty February of 1988, I took a short drive from my home in Efrat to Kibbutz Rosh Tzurim, in Gush Etzion. There was a special

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Books, Poetry & Short Stories, International, Toby Klein Greenwald

Israel’s First Ethiopian Rabbi Speaks to Us

By Rabbi Dr. Israel Drazin BOCA RATON, Florida — Rabbi Dr. Sharon Zewde Shalom, the author of the very thoughtful book Dialogues of Love and Fear, is without doubt what the late Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks wrote about him, “a shining light of not only Ethiopian Jewry but of the Jewish people as a whole.”

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

Clear Communication: A Review of ‘Sapience’ at Moxie Theatre

By Danielle Levsky SAN DIEGO — By creating an inclusive environment for audiences and the creative team, Moxie Theatre brought Diana Burbano’s Sapience to life as a story that shared the many complexities and different experiences of how neurodivergent and neurotypical individuals communicate with themselves and with each other. In Sapience, Elsa (Mariel León) is

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San Diego County, Theatre, Film & Broadcast