Donald H. Harrison

[caption id="attachment_119310" align="alignright" width="100"] Donald H. Harrison[/caption]

Donald H. Harrison is the publisher and editor of San Diego Jewish World. 

Harrison began his journalism career in 1962 on the UCLA Daily Bruin.  Following graduation he joined the staff of the Associated Press, and later became politics writer for The San Diego Union.  Afterwards he pursued a career in tourism, helping to establish San Diego’s Cruise Ship Program as well as Old Town Trolley Tours of San Diego.  He also wrote for such Jewish publications as the San Diego Jewish Press Heritage and San Diego Jewish Times before starting San Diego Jewish World in 2007.

Don’s  latest work is the three-volume Schlepping and Schmoozing Along the Interstate 5.  

He is the author of six previous books.  Those with links may be obtained on Amazon.

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Memoir of a Happy, Chaotic Life of a Pet Owner

This memoir more appropriately might have been titled “The Life of Riley,” except for the fact that title was immortalized in the 1940s and 1950s by radio and television actor William Bendix, who portrayed aircraft worker Chester A. Riley on both media.  “Riley” in the instance of this book, is a black Flat-Coated Retriever, who remained very much a puppy even well into adulthood.  The Beckerman family–which included the author’s husband Joel, son Josh, and daughter Emily — also owned various goldfish, many of whom they collectively named “Larry” (even those who occupied the fish bowl at the same time);  a chinchilla; and a bearded dragon (lizard), but Riley was the star and most beloved of all these pets. [Donald H. Harrison]

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Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Donald H. Harrison, Lifestyles, The World We Share, Trivia, Humor & Satire

‘Rosie the Riveter’ Theme of National Park

Shortly after the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, on December 7, 1941, the United States went into full war mobilization mode. While many men were drafted into the U.S. Armed Forces, others were needed to staff the shipyards, aircraft factories, and munition plants on the home front. It soon became apparent that there were more positions to be filled than available male workers and so the U.S. began to recruit women to work in these war industries at jobs for which they never before had been eligible. [Donald H. Harrison]

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Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Donald H. Harrison, Jewish History, Music, Dance, and Visual Arts, Theatre, Film & Broadcast, USA

Talented Celebrity and Statesman Made Paso Robles His Second Home

The Paso Robles Historical Society currently is housed in a building that had been donated for a library many years before by the philanthropist and industrialist Andrew Carnegie – one of 3,000 libraries he donated throughout the world.  Outside the building there is a statue, but it is not of Carnegie nor of Drury James, the man who recognized that the city’s hot springs and mud baths could be made into a tourist attraction and who built the grand Hotel de El Paso de Robles. [Donald H. Harrison]

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Donald H. Harrison, International, Jewish History, Music, Dance, and Visual Arts, USA

STEM, STEAM, and Now STREAM Children’s Books

Educators long have worked with STEM curricula — emphasizing Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math.  When artists declared such curricula were too limiting, the notion of STEAM was introduced.  Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, and Math. Now, here comes STREAM — Science, Technology, Religion, Engineering, Art, and Math… [Donald H. Harrison]

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Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Donald H. Harrison, Jewish Religion, Science, Medicine, & Education, Shor M. Masori

Following Grandma’s WWII Path Leads Author to Self-Discovery

The bulk of the book is about Rachael’s grandmother Hana, who as a young teenager during the Nazi era was sent by her parents from Czechoslovakia to safety in Denmark, where for a while at least she could live unmolested as a farm girl.  When Denmark’s German Nazi conquerors decided to round up the Jews, she was among the thousands who were helped by the Danes to escape to neutral Sweden. [Donald H. Harrison]

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Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Donald H. Harrison, International, Jewish History, Middle East, USA

‘Riding the Edge’ Is a Memoir of Self-Discovery

In the context of the Middle East, to which they traveled by way of a tortuous, yet exhilarating bike safari through Europe, the Jewish Michael Tobin and his Lebanese-Christian girlfriend Deborah were problematic candidates for a lasting romance.  Religion, nationalism, and past romantic attachments seemed to militate against their permanence as a couple  However, these two American psychologists were open to new experiences and to each other, and their time on the road meeting people for intensive discussions about life, love, and loss, impacted each of them differently and profoundly.   [Donald H. Harrison]

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Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Donald H. Harrison, Jewish History, Jewish Religion, Travel and Food

Former Israel ‘Hawk’ Tells of His Transformation to a ‘Dove’

It’s a well-worn political observation that “it took a Nixon to go to China,” meaning because President Richard M. Nixon was identified as a staunch conservative, he was trusted to go to mainland China and open a dialogue with that nation’s communist rulers, a dialogue that led to the establishment of diplomatic relations between the two adversary countries. [Donald H. Harrison]

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

Juvenile Fiction: Elephant Helps a Boy Find God

El, the elephant, offers to help the boy find God.  So off they go, the boy on El’s back, and they see a flower and a meadow; feel the effects of the wind and the sun; and the coolness of river water.  The boy asks when they will find God, and El explains that the boy already had met God in the beauty of the flower; the peacefulness of the meadow; the strong winds; the warmth of the sun; and the life-giving, thirst-quenching water of the river. [Donald H. Harrison]

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

Novel Portrays Catskill’s Post-Borscht Belt Era

This is an American Jewish novel about two families coming to terms with the fact that the fictional resort that best friends Benny Goldman and Amos Weingold founded in the Catskill Mountains has long passed its prime. The Golden Hotel no longer is booked to capacity, nor even near capacity, and the once famous Borscht Belt resort has quite obvious wear and tear to show its decline. [Donald H. Harrison]

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

An American Jewish Memoir of Food and Travel

In her zany account of her travels out west from her home in Plantation, Florida, Shari Wallack never got to San Diego, so I didn’t get the chance to see how her impressions of my hometown might match up with my own experiences.  If the two jibed, then I’d probably put utmost faith into her accounts of other places.  As it was, I simply had to enjoy her impressions of diverse locales between New York and Utah. Also, I was astonished by her reliance on serendipity and good Jewish cooking to turn even prosaic locales into adventures. [Donald H. Harrison]

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Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Donald H. Harrison, Travel and Food, USA

Dual Tragedies of a Patient with a Brain Hemorrhage and Her Caregiver Husband

Attorney Daniel P. Shapiro deeply loved his wife Susan and their three children.  He and Susan had enjoyed special moments together; places, songs, meals that ignited memories; meaningful yet  unspoken understandings typical of the happily married.  And then disaster in the form of a brain hemorrhage happened.  Susan slurred her speech, lost her mobility, and seemed unable to relate with the rest of her family. [Donald H. Harrison]

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Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Donald H. Harrison, Lifestyles