Books, Poetry & Short Stories

More doubt cast on Auschwitz tattooist novel

By 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 […]

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Books, Poetry & Short Stories, International, Jewish History

Redefining who can become a Jew

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.

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

Is it India or is it Gehenna?

Mother India by Tova Reich; ©2018; Syracuse University Press, ISBN 9780815-611066; 253 pages. By Donald H. Harrison SAN DIEGO – If you walk through ankle-deep sewage overflow while batting away flies and choking on ashes of incinerated human remains, you’ll experience the India of author Tova Reich’s description.  You probably would prefer to visit Dante’s

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Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Donald H. Harrison

Veracity questioned of “The Tattooist of Auschwitz’

By Dan Bloom CHIAYI CITY, Taiwan — In a personal blog post I published in September I asked my readers if the current bestseller The Tattooist of Auschwitz, a Holocaust sex and romance “novel” concocted by a well-intentioned but somewhat nervy non-Jewish screenwriter in Australia, was ever going to be called in question by literary critics

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Books, Poetry & Short Stories, International, Jewish History

Book review: ‘The New American Judaism’

The New American Judaism: How Jews Practice Their Religion Today by Jack Wertheimer, Princeton University Press, Princeton, NJ, © 2018, ISBN 978-0-691-18129-5, p. 272 plus bibliography and index, $29.95.   By Fred Reiss, Ed.D. WINCHESTER, California – American Jewry is balkanized, divided into denominations ranging from the Haredi, who scrupulously and meticulously strive to obey both the

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Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Jewish Religion

This life in academia makes for pleasant reading

Holocaust Survivor to Harvard Dean: Memoirs of a Refugee’s Progress by Michael Shinagel © 2016, Xlibris, ISBN 9781524-509606; 150 pages plus Index; Available on Amazon. By Donald H. Harrison SAN DIEGO —  Having served for nearly four decades as dean of the Harvard Extension School – the longest known deanship in Harvard’s history – author

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

Vicious politics, betrayal, divide fictional college faculty

All Quiet on the Midwestern Plains by Dorothea Shefer-Vanson © 2018, ISBN9781723-871801, 399 pages plus acknowledgements, available on Amazon. By Donald H. Harrison SAN DIEGO – My colleague, Dorothea Shefer-Vanson, has written a novel based in part upon the time that she and her husband Yigal had come to the American Midwest together while he

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Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Donald H. Harrison, Dorothea Shefer-Vanson

Online dealers sell historic Judaic, Nazi artifacts

By Oliver B. Pollak RICHMOND, California — Combining the keyword “Hitler” and “Highest Price” on AbeBooks founded in 1995 and owned by Amazon since 2008 produces an amazing Judaica juxtaposition priced between $180,000 and $527,815. For less than $1.5 million you could own three unique 20th century works on Palestine, Mein Kampf and Einstein, and

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Books, Poetry & Short Stories, International, Jewish History, Oliver Pollak, Science, Medicine, & Education

Book details the battles over Nazi-looted art

A Tragic Fate: Law and Ethics in the Battle Over Nazi-Looted Art (2017) by Nicholas M. O’Donnell By Herbert I. Lazerow SAN DIEGO — This is a terrific book that everyone should read. Nicholas O’Donnell’s book begins by describing as the paradigm case Camille Pissarro’s Rue St. Honore, apres-midi, effet de pluie, sold by the German

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Books, Poetry & Short Stories, International, Music, Dance, and Visual Arts, San Diego County, Science, Medicine, & Education, USA

Crafts, art, books featured at Temple Emanu-El fair

By Donald H. Harrison SAN DIEGO – Often you will meet women who either are in their second careers, or have become very proficient at their hobbies, at the Artisan Festival sponsored annually by the Women of Temple Emanu-El. On Sunday, I found that to be the case when I interviewed artist Enid Texler and

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

‘BeteBrune’ novel filled with hateful stereotypes

BêteBrune (Brown Beast): The Saga of Judith Sanders by Kim Hester, Kim Hester LLC, © 2018, ISBN 9781543-939330; 241 pages. By Donald H. Harrison SAN DIEGO – This was a truly difficult book to read.  Not stylistically; the author has a clear and concise style.  The book’s content was severely off-putting, so filled is this

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Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Donald H. Harrison

Bucharest Diary: Tale of a Jewish American ambassador

Bucharest Diary: Romania’s Journey from Darkness to Light by Alfred H. Moses; Brookings Institution Press © 2018; ISBN 9780815-732723; 394 pages including index and glossary of people and places. By Donald H. Harrison   SAN DIEGO – Formerly national president of the American Jewish Committee, trial attorney Alfred H. Moses had successfully lobbied the Communist

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