Books, Poetry & Short Stories

Was the whale created by Jonah’s subconscious mind?

Unusual Bible Interpretations: Jonah and Amos, by Rabbi Israel Drazin; Gefen Publishing House, 2016; ISBN-10: 9652298859; ISBN-13: 978-9652298850 By Rabbi Michael Leo Samuel CHULA VISTA, California — I would like to begin this book review with a conversation I had with the publisher of San Diego Jewish World, Don Harrison. He asked me whether there was […]

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Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Israel Drazin-Rabbi Dr., Jewish Religion, Michael Leo Samuel-Rabbi

Future historians may rue aspects of U.S. war on terror

By Ken Stone Times of San Diego LA JOLLA, California — Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Eric Lichtblau, author of an exposé of the Nazi era’s shameful American aftermath, is worried what a future historian might say about today’s War on Terror. With James Risen, Eric Lichtblau won the 2006 Pulitzer Prize for national reporting for revealing

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Books, Poetry & Short Stories, International, Jewish History, Ken Stone, Science, Medicine, & Education, USA

Sex with the powerful: A story of a D.C. intern

Young Jane Young by Gabrielle Zevin; Algonquin Books of Chapel Hills; (c) 2017; ISBN pending; 307 pages; tentative price $26.95. By Donald H. Harrison SAN DIEGO — Two young Jewish interns, Monica Lewinsky and Chandra Levy, z”l, as written about in the Washington D.C. media became caricatures of themselves. Lewinsky was the intern whose spotted

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Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Donald H. Harrison

Trump Is in ‘Meltdown’ Says ‘Art Of The Deal’ Co-Writer

The co-author of Donald Trump’s best-selling business guide and memoir The Art Of The Deal announced the president is undergoing a “significant meltdown” in a CNN interview with Anderson Cooper. “I think he’s reacting from a survival place,” Tony Schwartz told Cooper Wednesday. He’s in pure defensive mode…he’s being run by the part of his

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Books, Poetry & Short Stories, USA

Practical tips for studying the Talmud

Understanding the Talmud: A Systematic Guide to Talmudic Structure and Methodology by Rabbi Yitzchak Feigenbaum; Feldheim; 2nd edition (1988); ISBN By Rabbi Michael Leo Samuel CHULA VISTA, California — Some Aramaic scholarly friends of mine who speak and know Talmudic Aramaic often complain about the poor syntax of the Talmud. To most English readers, it almost

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Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Jewish Religion, Michael Leo Samuel-Rabbi

A book in time for 6-day war’s 50th anniversary

The 28th of Iyar – The Dramatic, Day-by-Day Journal of an American Family in Israel During the Six Day War By Rabbi Emanuel Feldman, Feldheim Publishers, Jerusalem, © 2017, ISBN 978-1-68025-294-1, p. 171, plus glossary, $14.95. By Fred Reiss, Ed.D. WINCHESTER, California –  If you’re old enough, you know where you were on December 7,

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Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Fred Reiss, EdD, Middle East

Chinese- language Jerusalem cookbook debuts

By Dan Bloom CHIAYI CITY, Taiwan –When the Chinese-language edition of the popular Israeli cuisine cookbook “Jerusalem” was recently published in Taiwan, Israel’s trade envoy to the island ​ nation Asher Yarden held a press conference in Taipei for the launch and charmed ​Taiwanese ​ reporters by playing cook for the day​,​ accompanied​, of course,​

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Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Travel and Food

Hitler’s Reich and Trump’s America

By Rabbi Dow Marmur JERUSALEM — In a review in a recent issue of The New York Review of Books of Hitler: Ascent 1889-1939 by Volker Ullrich – the book has recently appeared in English – the distinguished Holocaust historian Christopher Browning writes: “There are sufficient areas of similarity in some regards to make the book

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Books, Poetry & Short Stories, International, Jewish History, Middle East, USA