By Cynthia Citron LOS ANGELES — Friends who have similar personalities and mannerisms sometimes joke about being “twins separated at birth.” It’s not a joke, however, to a set of triplets born in New York in 1961. They were together in the hospital until they were six months old, at which time they were separated […]
Film Review: ‘Three Identical Strangers’ Read More »
Cynthia Citron, Theatre, Film & Broadcast
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
Michelle Obama’s ‘Becoming’ also about belonging Read More »
Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Donald H. Harrison, Jewish History, USABy Cantor Sheldon Foster Merel CARLSBAD, California — On my first visit to the New Village Arts Theatre for me last Sunday, I enjoyed a spritely performance of Miss Bennet, Christmas at Pemberley. Lauren Gunderson and Margot Melcon wrote this charming sequel to Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austin. It is a delightful twist on Austin’s original
‘Pride and Prejudice’ sequel enchants in Carlsbad Read More »
Cantor Sheldon Foster Merel, z"l, San Diego County, Theatre, Film & Broadcast
National broadcast planned of concert for Tree of Life Synagogue massacre victims PBS will broadcast nationally WQED’s locally-produced Tree of Life: A Concert for Peace and Unity, a free community event, presented and hosted by the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra to honor the Tree of Life Synagogue victims and first responders. The performance, featuring Itzhak Perlman at Pittsburgh’s Heinz
Editor’s E-Mail Box: December 4, 2018 (4 items) Read More »
Middle East, Music, Dance, and Visual Arts, Science, Medicine, & Education, USABy 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
Weighing the ‘Tattooist’ controversy Read More »
Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Jewish History
By Chavi M. Lemberger Courtesy of Children’s Village of Jerusalem It’s cold outside, the winter is here. The wind is blowing, it’s that time of year. Snow’s lightly falling, but inside it’s bright. Chanukah is here, the Festival of Lights. We commemorate the miracle of long long ago, when the Menorah in the Holy Temple
The Story of the Menorah Read More »
Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Jewish ReligionBy Pamela Pollack-Fremd SPOKANE, Washington — Roger Ailes was an intelligent, complex, and perhaps conflicted human according to the documentary, Divide and Conquer: The Story of Roger Ailes directed by Alexis Bloom and produced by Alex Gibney. From a young age his classmates in Warren, Ohio, his hometown, considered him to be witty and intelligent. His
Divide and conquer: the Roger Ailes story Read More »
Theatre, Film & BroadcastBy Dan Bloom CHIAYI CITY, Taiwan — As readers around the world are finding out now, the Holocaust sex-and-romance novel by the non-Jewish Australian screenwriter Heather Morris titled The Tattooist of Auschwitz is not all that the feel-good, based-on-a-true story that it says it is. Sure, the memoir published as a novel tells the alleged
Debate intensifies over ‘Tattooist of Auschwitz’ novel Read More »
Books, Poetry & Short Stories, International, Jewish HistoryCNN wins StandWithUs plaudits for series on anti-Semitism StandWithUs has applauded CNN for its week-long series reporting on resurgent anti-Semitism in Europe during November, 2018. CNN commissioned a poll of over 7,000 European adults that found, “Anti- Semitic stereotypes are alive and well in Europe, while the memory of the Holocaust is starting to fade… a third
Editor’s E-Mail Box: November 28, 2018 (3 items) Read More »
International, Jewish History, Middle East, Theatre, Film & Broadcast, USA
By Mark D. Zimmerman MELVILLE, New York — “What?,” you say? “A Chanukah trivia book? I don’t get it. I mean sure, RASHI, RAMBAM and HAGGADAH-LAMADINGDONG, the Passover trivia book, makes sense. It’s a holiday that’s totally based on asking four questions. So why not ask 25 more? But Chanukah? No point in asking questions
You’ll gladly pay the ‘price’ for this Chanukah book Read More »
Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Jewish Religion, Mark D. ZimmermanBy Rabbi Michael Leo Samuel CHULA VISTA, California — Whenever we talk about the protagonists of the Bible, we must remember that every biblical actor’s character evolves in the course of a lifetime. What each person starts out differs from what each one ultimately becomes. In the latter half of Genesis, the ancient storyteller lavished
Stan Lee’s heroes, like our patriarchs, overcame flaws Read More »
Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Jewish Religion, Michael Leo Samuel-RabbiSDSU Jewish Studies Program sponsors Chanukah concert Dec. 4 San Diego State University’s Jewish Studies Program will present a Chanukah concert, “Shimmering Lights,” featuring Yale Strom’s Broken Consort at 7 p.m., Dec. 4, in the Smith Recital Hall. Strom, who serves as artist in residence for the Jewish Studies Program, says the concert will include
Editor’s E-Mail Box: November 26, 2018 (4 items) Read More »
International, Jewish Religion, Middle East, Music, Dance, and Visual Arts, San Diego Calendar, USABy Dan Bloom CHIAYI CITY, Taiwan — A bestselling novel about the Holocaust has generated a strong backlash from readers around the world, and most importantly, from the Auschwitz Museum in Poland, which maintains an internet and Twitter presence online. After many people, Jewish and non-Jewish, sent in messages to the museum concerning the veracity
More doubt cast on Auschwitz tattooist novel Read More »
Books, Poetry & Short Stories, International, Jewish History
The Jewish American Paradox: Embracing Choice in a Changing World by Robert H. Mnookin; © 2018; Public Affairs, Hachette Book Group; ISBN 9781610-397513; 228 pages plus 80 pages of notes, acknowledgments and index; $28 By Donald H. Harrison SAN DIEGO –Author Robert Mnookin, a Harvard Law professor, argues that Jewish peoplehood should have permeable boundaries.
Redefining who can become a Jew Read More »
Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Donald H. Harrison, Jewish Religion, Middle East, USA