Donald H. Harrison

    Story and photos by Donald H. Harrison ENCINITAS, California — The Treehouse at the San Diego Botanic Garden here might have been called “The Leichtag Family Foundation’s Treehouse” but Rabbi Lenore Bohm says that wouldn’t have been in keeping with Toni Leichtag’s lack of  pretentiousness. Instead, Bohm suggested, and fellow members of the […]

Thirty Six by Kristopher White (art: George Zapata, color: Micki Zurcher); Fossil Creek Productions, 2012, ISBN 978-0-9853612-0-4; 132 pages, $18.99. By Donald H. Harrison SAN DIEGO — With current movies often focusing on Super Heroes, each seemingly more glamorous and powerful that the next, Kristopher White has reached into Jewish tradition and legend to present

    By Donald H. Harrison SAN DIEGO– It is hard to know whether Cole Thorpe, 11, will ever play professional baseball, or be one of the world’s greatest baseball fans like Andy Strasberg was and is, but there was one thing  for certain on Tuesday evening, August 28, as the youngster choked up on

  Old Lives and New: Soviet Immigrants in Israel and America by Edith Rogovin Frankel, Hamilton Books, 2012, ISBN 978-0-7618-5784-6, pp 207. By Donald H. Harrison SAN DIEGO — I am going to have to unlearn old reading habits.  Someone — was it a parent, or a teacher? — told me when I was a

    Sixth and last in a series By Donald H. Harrison TECATE, Mexico — Not all the teaching that goes on at the Rancho La Puerta health spa here is by the ranch’s exercise instructors or professional lecturers. A lot of it occurs serendipitously.  Guests who have the choice of sitting at large group

  Fifth in a series By Donald H. Harrison TECATE, Mexico — It was typical for the Rancho La Puerta health spa here that on the week that my wife Nancy and I visited , she was among the 80 percent of the guests who were women, while I was among the remaining male 20

-Fourth in a Series– Photos and story by Donald H. Harrison TECATE, Mexico — Out by one of the swimming pools, he was eating a quesadilla while I was enjoying a vegetable-packed omelet with salsa, both typical foods of this region.  However, the food that chef Rhagavan Iyer and I were talking about was matzo

  Third in a Series Story and photos by Donald H. Harrison TECATE, Mexico — Looking at a ceramic ‘Tree of Life’  in the gift shop of Rancho La Puerta, I discerned that it depicted Noah on his Ark.  In the Administration Building was another ‘Tree of Life,’ this one picturing God, the Archangel Michael, and

  Second in a Series Photos and story by Donald H. Harrison TECATE, Mexico — Sarah Livia Szekely Brightwood was designated to succeed her mother, Deborah Szekely, as the president of Rancho La Puerta after her brother, Alex, who had prepared for the administrative job,  died of cancer in 2002. “I never studied business, never

-First in a series- Story and photos by Donald H. Harrison TECATE, Mexico — Unlike some Mexican cities along the U.S. border, such as Juarez, or Tijuana, where there have been outbreaks of violence between rival drug gangs, or between law enforcement officials and drug lords, Tecate is a quiet town which derives much of

The Forgotten Zionist: The Life of Solomon (Sioma) Yankelevitch Jacobi by Rodney Benjamin and David Cebon; Jerusalem: Gefen Publishing House, ISBN 978-965-229-571-2,  248 pages including index, $24.95. By Donald H. Harrison SAN DIEGO — This is a loving biography, well researched historically by the son-in-law and grandson of Sioma Jacobi, who was an assistant to

Unbroken Spirit: A Heroic Story of Faith, Courage, and Survival by Yosef Mendelevich, Gefen Publishing House;  2012; ISBN 978-965-229-563-7; 337 pages. By Donald H. Harrison SAN DIEGO –Feeling desperate that  Jews were not allowed to emigrate freely from the Soviet Union, Yosef Mendelevich and a few compatriots planned some 42 years ago to hijack a