The house at 263 Prinsengracht (Prince’s Canal) in Amsterdam was built in 1635, more than three centuries before its most famous resident—Anne Frank–lived and hid there from the Nazi occupiers. [Donald H. Harrison]
Book Traces History of the Anne Frank House from Its Construction in 1635 Read More »
Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Donald H. Harrison, Holocaust, International, Jewish History, Staff and Bylined Contributors
Dr. Shapiro reveals Rabbi Kook’s surprising, sometimes radical, and breathtaking ideas, prompting us to rethink what we have accepted as sensible. It is the best book I have read in years. [Rabbi Dr. Israel Drazin]
Rav Kook’s Unique Vision Told by Author Marc B. Shapiro Read More »
Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Israel, Israel Drazin-Rabbi Dr., Jewish Religion, Staff and Bylined Contributors
With three outstanding featured poets and a large number of poets reading for open mic, last Tuesday evening’s Jewish Poets –Jewish Voices program was a memorable event. [Eileen Wingard]
Trans Experience, ‘Mr. Right,’ and A House on Jabotinsky Street Read More »
Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Eileen Wingard, San Diego County, Staff and Bylined Contributors, Travel and Food
Our regular readers will not be surprised that in this book he poses answerless questions intended to make us think. He speculates about the sacred and the mundane, inquiring in chapter 30 “What do we know about God?” and in chapter 26 about “Ethical behaviors concerning shoes.” [Donald H. Harrison]
Rabbi Drazin’s Speculations Generate an Eclectic Book Read More »
Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Donald H. Harrison, Israel Drazin-Rabbi Dr., Jewish Religion, Staff and Bylined Contributors, Trivia, Humor & Satire
By Rabbi Dr. Israel Drazin PIKESVILLE, Maryland — I have been reading and reviewing the inspiring, fascinating books by the brilliant writer Rabbi Dr. Charles H. Freundlich for over ten years and have enjoyed them all. Sol’s Journey, his eleventh fiction book since he started writing them at age eighty, is no exception. It is
‘Sol’s Journey’ Contains Good Advice for American Jews Read More »
Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Israel Drazin-Rabbi Dr., Jewish Religion, Staff and Bylined Contributors, USA
This novel is a collection of sequential short stories about the Toplansky family, whose patriarch Shlomo immigrated in 1920 from Bialystok, Poland, to Louisville, Kentucky. He changed his first name to Sol and eked a living from his tailoring shop supplemented by singing and gambling. He served as the chazzan at the Orthodox synagogue. [Donald H. Harrison]
Novel Explores an Immigrant Jewish Family’s Life in Louisville Before World War II Read More »
Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Donald H. Harrison, Jewish Fiction, Staff and Bylined Contributors, USA
Poet Allisa Cherry is entranced by Hebrew Scriptures, turning to them to express her anguish over the tragic lives of the members of a Mormon family. A grandmother had a double mastectomy; a father died of radiation poisoning caused by nuclear testing in the desert; a brother died in a car accident before he was 20; and a wife, caught in a loveless marriage, divorces her ne’er-do-well husband. [Donald H. Harrison]
Biblical Imagery Brightens Poet’s Bleak Account of Life in the Arizona Desert Read More »
Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Donald H. Harrison, Jewish Religion, Staff and Bylined Contributors, USA
Struggling against American xenophobia, racism, and antisemitism in the 1930s, Labor Secretary Frances Perkins—the first woman to serve in a President’s Cabinet – sought in several ways to spare German Jewish refugees from annihilation by Adolf Hitler’s Nazi Germany. [Donald H. Harrison]
Frances Perkins, Nation’s First ‘Madam Secretary’ Tried to Help European Jewish Refugees Read More »
Antisemitism, Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Donald H. Harrison, International, Jewish History, Staff and Bylined Contributors, USA
In a big city, a little girl notices that a swing has become unhooked on one side so that it hangs limply. Another swing has some off both hooks and is lying on the ground. She wants to fix them. With the help of her grandmother, she rehooks the swings. [Donald H. Harrison]
Good Deeds, Even Little Ones, Change the World for the Better Read More »
Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Donald H. Harrison, Lifestyles, Philanthropy & Volunteerism, Staff and Bylined Contributors
Emily Hahn (January 14, 1905 – February 18, 1997) was an American journalist and writer. Considered an early feminist and called “a forgotten American literary treasure” by The New Yorker magazine, she was the author of over 50 books and more than 200 articles and short stories. [Wikipedia]
Today’s Jewish Birthday: Emily Hahn Read More »
Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Today's Jewish Birthday, Wikipedia
Love affairs between Arabs and Jews seldom turn out well. In this debut novel by an Israeli Jewish writer, such an affair ends as badly as that between Shakespeare’s fictional Romeo and Juliet. [Donald H. Harrison]
Novel Pits Young Jewish and Arab Lovers Against Societal Prejudices Read More »
Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Donald H. Harrison, Israel, Staff and Bylined Contributors, USAGuri Stark, Alecia Rodney and Michael Moskowitz are the three poets to be featured in the Jewish Poets—Jewish Voices at 7 p.m. Tuesday, Jan. 21, program in the Astor Judaica Library of the Lawrence Family JCC. [Eileen Wingard]
Jan. 21 Jewish Poets-Jewish Voices Program Features Stark, Rodney & Moskowitz Read More »
Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Eileen Wingard, San Diego County, Staff and Bylined Contributors
He identified Amon Göth, the commandant of Plaszow, whose brutality was graphically depicted in the movie Schindler’s List. Göth used to shoot inmates for target practice from a vantage point overlooking the concentration camp. Touring the camp, Göth would abruptly murder inmates on a whim. He reveled in making Jews quake. [Donald H. Harrison]
When Jews were expelled from Portugal, many moved East to form the Sephardic community we all know, but as many Jews, perhaps 100,000, moved West to the Americas in the 16th century. Today it is estimated that a quarter of Hispanic Catholics in the Americas derive from Jewish stock, with many now awakening to their heritage. [Mark A. Schneegurt, Ph.D.]
Sephardic Prayer Songs Found in Church Records of Mexican Inquisition Read More »
Books, Poetry & Short Stories, International, Jewish History, Jewish Religion, Music, Dance, and Visual Arts, Staff and Bylined Contributors