Books, Poetry & Short Stories

Poems of Senesh and Amichai to be featured May 23

By Eileen Wingard SAN DIEGO — Hannah Senesh (1921-1944) and Yehuda Amichai (1924-2000) were two of Israel’s most celebrated poets. Their works will be featured in Poets of the Past at the Astor Judaica Library, Lawrence Family JCC on Wednesday evening, May 23, 7:00 p.m. Rabbi Martin Lawson, Rabbi Emeritus of Temple Emanu-El, will speak […]

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Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Eileen Wingard, San Diego Calendar

Zionism, diplomacy, and God’s covenant in new book

By Edwin Black NEW YORK — For decades, Rabbi Yotav Eliach, esteemed principal of Rambam Mesivta High School in Long Island, has accumulated his teachings, writings, and those of many other scholars and rabbinical authorities, tracking the history of Israel. His mission was not just to chronicle the dispossession and repossession of a people, as

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Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Edwin Black, Middle East

Jews and the culinary revolution

Andrew Friedman, Chefs, Drugs and Rock & Roll, How Food Lover, Free Spirits, Misfits and Wanderers Created a New American Profession, Ecco, $27.99, 464 pages © Oliver B. Pollak RICHMOND, California — Andrew Friedman gave a reading at San Francisco’s Omnivore Bookstore.  After the talk I asked the author if the book has some Jewish content.

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Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Oliver Pollak, Travel and Food

A journalist’s life in David Feldman’s memoir

Irreverent Forever: True Tales From a Newspaperman’s Outrageously Rewarding Life by David Arledge Feldman; © 2018, Gray Castle Publishing, ISBN 9781987-713190; 226 pages plus appendix and acknowledgments. By Donald H. Harrison   SAN DIEGO – Journalist David Arledge Feldman inherited his father’s sense of humor, but not his Jewish religion.  For most of his life,

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

Book rebukes Jews for passivity toward haters

(((Semitism))) Being Jewish in the Age of Trump by Jonathan Weisman, St. Martin Press, New York, © 2018, ISBN 978-1250169938, 224 pages, plus acknowledgements and notes, $25.99 By Fred Reiss, Ed.D.  WINCHESTER, California –  The introduction to author Jonathan Weisman’s newest book (((Semitism))), in which he chronicles the unchecked growth of hate in this country against

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Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Fred Reiss, EdD, USA

German Jews fared well in 20th century Britain

Their Promised Land; My Grandparents in Love and War by Ian Buruma; Penguin Random House, 2017 By Dorothea Shefer-Vanson MEVASSERET ZION, Israel — I found this book so fascinating that I read it more or less in one sitting and, having read it on my Kindle, proceeded to order the paperback version from Amazon as I knew I

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Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Dorothea Shefer-Vanson, International, Jewish History

Non- fiction book profiles 15 Israeli inventions

Thou Shalt innovate: How Israeli ingenuity Repairs the World by Avi Jorisch; © 2018; Gefen Publishing; ISBN 9789652-299345; 176 pages with 90 additional pages of acknowledgments, notes, bibliography, and index. By Donald H. Harrison SAN DIEGO – Discover a problem; figure out how to fix it; create a company to market your solution; and in

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Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Donald H. Harrison, Middle East, Science, Medicine, & Education

Biography of Jerusalem has its agenda

By Shoshana Bryen WASHINGTON, D.C. — Simon Sebag-Montefiore brings impeccable credentials to the monumental task of writing Jerusalem: The Biography. A history Ph.D. from Cambridge, he has been a banker and a foreign correspondent reporting on, among other events, the fall of the Soviet Union. He is also the great-great-nephew of Sir Moses Montefiore, the international

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Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Jewish History, Middle East, Shoshana Bryen

It could be, it might be, it is (!) a great sports book

The Game Isn’t Everything: The reality beyond the arena by Bruce Lowitt; Barstad Comminications; © 2015; 281 pages; 14.95. By Donald H. Harrison SAN DIEGO – I learned when I was a rookie reporter for the Associated Press back in 1967 that any fool, including yours truly, could write a story about an athletic contest. 

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Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Bruce F. Lowitt, Donald H. Harrison, Sports & Competitions

A Jewish guidebook for life’s big questions

Beyond the Instant by Rabbi Mark Wildes; Skyhorse Publishing © 2018; 141 pages. By Donald H. Harrison SAN DIEGO – I read this book with great enthusiasm, possibly because I agreed with almost everything Rabbi Mark Wildes writes about such subjects as happiness, love, sex, success, blaming, taking charge of one’s life, understanding one’s place

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

Book details pre-war Jewish life in Romania

 Julius Matthias; a Pact with the Devil by Michelle Mazel; New Meridian (c) 2017. By Dorothea Shefer-Vanson MEVASSERET ZION, Israel — This family saga spans the first half of the twentieth century, focusing primarily on good-looking Julius Matthias, the son of a poor Jewish family, whose one ambition in life is to become a doctor. In

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Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Dorothea Shefer-Vanson