The year was 1905 and Shoshana, Mama, older sister Libke and twin toddler sisters Pearlie and Tsivia were fleeing persecution and finally got sponsors to bring them to America from Ukraine. [Cailin Acosta]
Fiction for Middle Schoolers: Jewish Immigrants Settle on North Dakota Prairie Read More »
Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Cailin Acosta, Staff and Bylined Contributors
The main character in this novel is Liv Weisz, a wealthy Jewish South African opposed to the apartheid regime of South Africa, who allows her home on the outskirts of Johannesburg to be a meeting place in 1960 for indigenous Africans and sympathetic Whites. [Donald H. Harrison]
‘Liv’s Secrets’ in Apartheid South Africa Were Political and Sexual Read More »
Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Donald H. Harrison, International, Staff and Bylined Contributors
If you were to walk into a JCC or visit a Camp Ramah in virtually any city in this country and utter the name Sam Glaser, you would likely receive a smile of recognition and maybe even be treated to a few bars from a track of one of his 26 albums. [Eva Trieger]
Jewish Biography: Sam Glaser, Musician and Author Read More »
Books, Poetry & Short Stories, California, Eva Trieger, Music, Dance, and Visual Arts, Sam Glaser, Staff and Bylined Contributors, USA
In his novel … and Company (1917), Bloch depicted the conflicts faced by a Jew who wishes to preserve his inner world within the framework of French culture. [Alex Gordon]
Jewish Biography: French Novelist and Playwright Jean-Richard Bloch Read More »
Alex Gordon, Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Holocaust, International, Jewish History, Staff and Bylined Contributors
Was he, as some commentators suggested at the time, Hitler’s 6,000,001st victim, overcome by Holocaust-caused PTSD? Or, was it something related to his contemporary life in Israel? For that matter, was it really a suicide? [Donald H. Harrison]
Suicide or Murder? Novel Probes Death of Fictional Holocaust Survivor and Scholar Read More »
Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Donald H. Harrison, Holocaust, Israel, Jewish Fiction, Jewish Religion, Staff and Bylined Contributors
I live just outside Jerusalem, and this central part of Israel has been less subjected to rockets fired by Hamas and Hezbollah, though the missiles from Iran have been directed here. The bottom line is that we have not had to go to our bomb shelter as often as our compatriots in the north and south of the country. [Dorothea Shefer-Vanson]
Jerusalemites Have Been Mostly Spared, but They Worry About Israelis Elsewhere Read More »
Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Dorothea Shefer-Vanson, International, Israel, Lifestyles, Staff and Bylined Contributors
After David Kimche, director general of Israel’s foreign ministry, told U.S. National Security Adviser Bud McFarlane in July 1985 that Iranian “moderates” had expressed a desire to improve relations with the United States and possibly release five American hostages, President Ronald Reagan instructed McFarlane to explore the idea. [Donald H. Harrison]
Review of ‘Reagan: His Life and Legend,’ Part 3 Read More »
Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Donald H. Harrison, International, Israel, Jewish History, Middle East, Staff and Bylined Contributors, USA
Jewish danger also awaited Father in connection with his new hero. Father did not realize that he was writing about a Jew again. Béla Frankl-Máté Zalka- General Paul Lukács was a Jew! [Alex Gordon]
My Father and the Russian-Hungarian Writer Máté Zalka Read More »
Alex Gordon, Books, Poetry & Short Stories, International, Jewish History, Staff and Bylined Contributors
President Ronald Reagan’s relationships with Israel were complicated, dramatic and tortuous, according to Max Boot’s new biography, “Reagan: His Life and Legend.” {Donald H. Harrison}
Book Review, Part 2: Reagan’s Fraught Relationship with Israel Read More »
Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Donald H. Harrison, Holocaust, Israel, Jewish History, Staff and Bylined Contributors, USA
For many readers, the takeaway from the 731 pages of text in Max Boot’s Reagan: His Life and Legend will be that President Ronald Reagan took direction from his subordinates, and depending on which ones he listened to, the results either were very good or disastrous. [Donald H. Harrison]
Poring Through a New Reagan Biography to Glean His Relationships with Jews Read More »
Antisemitism, Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Donald H. Harrison, International, Israel, Jewish History, Staff and Bylined Contributors, USA
He examines the Torah text from Jewish and non-Jewish sources. He follows the rational view that Maimonides (1138-1204) taught in his introduction to his Guide of the Perplexed: that the truth is the truth no matter its source. [Rabbi Dr. Israel Drazin]
The City of Lodz, Poland, declared 2023 the Year of Chava Rosenfarb, with displays and readings highlighting the life of the well-known Yiddish writer. Meanwhile, Goldie was translating some of the short stories her mother had written after immigrating to Canada called In the Land of the Postscript, which I was able to review on July 6, 2023. [Donald H. Harrison]
Yiddish Translator Saluted with Canadian Jewish Literary Award Read More »
Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Donald H. Harrison, Holocaust, International, Jewish History, San Diego County, Science, Medicine, & Education, Staff and Bylined Contributors, USA
The Toby Press 2024 English translation of Israel’s number one Hebrew bestseller, One Day in October, tells the stories of forty heroes who performed remarkable acts on that bloody Shabbat. The stories are dramatic and inspiring. The heroes usually tell them, but a surviving relative or friend narrates the tale if they were killed during their heroism. [Rabbi Dr. Israel Drazin]
Israeli Book Records October 7, 2023 Actions and Reactions Read More »
Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Israel, Israel Drazin-Rabbi Dr., Staff and Bylined Contributors
Seymour remembers the menorah but doesn’t remember the candles. He only knows that what he was supposed to bring started with the letter “C.” So, he stuffs his backpack with a cantaloupe. … carrots … cookies … cashews… cauliflower… and candy in the form of Hanukkah gelt. [Donald H. Harrison]
Squirrel and Chipmunk Decide to Celebrate Hanukkah Read More »
Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Donald H. Harrison, Jewish Religion, Staff and Bylined Contributors