Books, Poetry & Short Stories

Jewish poets read their works at Lawrence Family JCC

By Eileen Wingard LA JOLLA, California  — The tenth anniversary of Jewish Poets—Jewish Voices was ushered in with an impressive line-up of featured poets. The January 23 program in the Astor Judaica Library at the Lawrence Family JCC opened with Chris Baron, Professor of English at San Diego City College.  His book of poems, Under […]

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Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Eileen Wingard, Jewish History, Jewish Religion, San Diego County

Novel for teens depicts life in the DP camps

What The Night Sings by Vesper Stamper; Borzoi Book of Alfred E. Knopf; © 2018; isbn pending: 18.99;                 250 pages plus notes and glossary. By Donald H. Harrison SAN DIEGO – This novel is a welcome addition to Holocaust literature.  It plumbs the emotions of young Holocaust survivors in the Displaced Persons (DP) camps as

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Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Donald H. Harrison

‘No Resting Place’ sears and stuns

No Resting Place: Holocaust Poland by Rick Halperin and Denise Gee; photographs by Sherry Aikman SMU Embrey Human Rights Program/Terrace Partners (October 2017). Hardcover (11.75” x 11”); 168 pages; 206 color images; $39.95. ISBN 978-0-692-85960-5 By Edwin Black No Resting Place/Holocaust Poland achieves searing power to illuminate the dark burning reality of Nazi concentration camps

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Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Edwin Black, Jewish History

Son relates his father’s Holocaust survival

Through My Father’s Eyes by Barry Fischer; Fischer Family Press; © 2014; ISBN 9780991-073313; 211 pages; $19.95. By Donald H. Harrison SAN DIEGO –This memoir is a good introduction to the Holocaust for middle school students and older.  It is written in a clear, conversational style, the author remembering how his father, Mayer Fischer, described

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Books, Poetry & Short Stories, International, Jewish History

‘Jewish Poets – Jewish Voices’ resumes Jan. 23

By Eileen Wingard SAN DIEGO — “Jewish Poets—Jewish Voices” opens its tenth season at the Lawrence Family JCC’s Astor Judaica Library Tuesday evening, January 23, at 7 p.m., with three outstanding San Diego poets: Chris Baron, Professor of English at San Diego City College; Roger Aplon, former teacher at The Writing Center;  and Ruth Benjamin,

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

The Holocaust seen through its postal history

Holocaust Postal History by Justin Gordon; Six Point Watermark;© 2016; ISBN 9780997-840100; 138 pages plus glossaries, bibliography and index. By Donald H. Harrison SAN DIEGO – The author of this richly illustrated book deserved compliments for his persistence as a collector, his clarity as a writer, and his ability as a researcher.  No matter how

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

‘American Stranger’ describes several of its characters

American Stranger by David Plante, Delphinium Books © 2018, ISBN 9781883-285759;  239 pages. By Donald H. Harrison SAN DIEGO – Nancy is the daughter of Jewish parents who escaped Hitler’s Germany physically, but apparently not emotionally.  There is a distance about them that Nancy never can seem to penetrate. Trying to compensate for their lack

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Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Donald H. Harrison

‘Journey to a Dream’ had many detours

Journey to a Dream; A voyage of discovery from England’s industrial north to Spain’s rural interior by Craig Briggs; (c) 2012; ISBN 9781480-254930; Prices vary on Amazon By Dorothea Shefer-Vanson MEVASSERET ZION, Israel –Author Craig Briggs describes in great detail the process whereby he and his wife decamped from the north of England to Spain in

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

‘The Immortalists’ examines living in the face of death

The Immortalists by Chloe Benjamin; © 2018, G.P. Putnam’s Sons; ISBN 9780735-213180; 345 pages; $26. By Donald H. Harrison SAN DIEGO – This is a story of four young Jewish siblings who visit a fortune teller in New York City, who tells them the exact dates that they will die.  The woman’s predictions take root

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Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Donald H. Harrison

Holocaust novel braces the human spirit

We Were the Lucky Ones by Georgia Hunter; Penguin Books; © 2017; ISBN 9780399-563096; 398 pages plus acknowledgments; $16. By Donald H. Harrison SAN DIEGO – Having already achieved New York Times best-seller status in hardback, this novel of survival has now been issued in paperback, hopefully to acquaint an even wider audience with the

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Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Donald H. Harrison

‘The Great Shift’ tells of different viewpoints on God

The Great Shift: Encountering God In Biblical Times by James L. Kugel, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, New York, © 2017, ISBN 978-0-544-52055-4, p. 344, plus notes and appendices, $30 By Fred Reiss, Ed.D. WINCHESTER, California –  In the mid-nineteenth century Charles Darwin proposed that any species unable to adapt to its dynamic environment is doomed to extinction.

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Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Fred Reiss, EdD, Jewish Religion

Life described of a 20th- century man

He Could Make Words Sing: An Ordinary Man During Extraordinary Times by David Greene, © 2017 DCG Publishing; ISBN 980998-018201; 193 pages plus endnotes; $17.95. By Donald H. Harrison   SAN DIEGO – History teacher David Greene has written a combination social history and biography of his father-in-law, Harry Greissman, an advertising man. We come

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Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Donald H. Harrison