Books, Poetry & Short Stories

Book Review: ‘Confessions of a Yiddish Writer’

Confessions of a Yiddish Writer and Other Essays by Chava Rosenfarb, McGill-Queens University Press © 2019, 282 pages including appendix and index.   By Donald H. Harrison SAN DIEGO – Chava Rosenfarb was recognized as a novelist and essayist of substance by those of the post-Holocaust, shrinking, Yiddish-speaking world, but it remained for her daughter, […]

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

Abelard & Heloise: A medieval love story

By Rabbi Dr. Israel Drazin BOCA RATON, Florida — The story of Peter Abelard (1079-1142) and Heloise (1095-1163) is considered a great medieval love story. We have still today Abelard’s autobiography and letters between the parties, so we know much but not all of the love story. James Burge’s Heloise and Abelard is an interesting

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Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Israel Drazin-Rabbi Dr.

Good values, but not history, in novel about Lincoln

Young Lincoln of New Salem by Sam Rawlins; © 2019; Yorkshire Publishing; ISBN 9781848-231946; 333 pages including author’s notes, acknowledgments and bibliography. By Donald H. Harrison SAN DIEGO – Lincoln biographers tell us that as a boy the 16th President of the United States read Parson Mason Weems’ Life of George Washington.  In my reading

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Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Donald H. Harrison

Kabbalah as explained by quantum physics

From Infinity to Man by Eduard Shyfrin, White Raven Publishing, © 2019, ISBN 978-1-911195-84-9, p. 122 plus notes and index, $24.99. By Fred Reiss, Ed.D. WINCHESTER, California – Kabbalah is esoteric Judaism, the mystical traditions handed down orally through the generations. Yet, Kabbalah is not a monolith, its concepts and structures evolve. In the introduction to

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

How a Jewish tale differs from others

By Rabbi Dr. Israel Drazin BOCA RATON, Florida — There are many instances where both Jews and non-Jews tell stories with some variations on the same plot. In many of these instances, the Jewish version attempts to use its version to teach Jews proper behavior. The following is an example. Rip Van Winkle Washington Irving (1783-1859)

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

The hidden meanings of the Hebrew alphabet

By Zev Bar-Lev SAN DIEGO – A student, let’s call her Ida, says: “I find the Hebrew language completely opaque, as if hidden from me by a thick curtain. I’ve memorized the whole alphabet, all the shapes & their sounds, but I can’t make much out of words, much less sentences—even with a bunch of

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Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Middle East, San Diego County, Science, Medicine, & Education

‘Anne Frank’ may be presented to Muslims in Urdu

By Navras J. Aafreedi. Ph.D KOLKATA, India –The Diary of Anne Frank has been translated into seventy languages, including a few South Asian ones.  These include Hindi, the official link language of India and the fourth most widely spoken language with 341 million speakers; Bengali, the national language of Bangladesh and the fifth most widely

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Books, Poetry & Short Stories, International, Jewish History, Middle East, Theatre, Film & Broadcast

‘All Quiet on the Western Front’ now in graphic format

All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque; graphic adaptation by Wayne Vansant, © 2019 published by Dead Reckoning, ISBN9781682-474601, 170 pages, $24.95. By Donald H. Harrison SAN DIEGO – If I suddenly had universal authority, I would order every world leader, every man or woman capable of summoning an army to fight

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

The floods of Gilgamesh and the Bible

By Rabbi Dr. Israel Drazin BOCA RATON, Florida — There are remarkable similarities between the biblical story of the flood and the more ancient version of Gilgamesh. The Babylonian epic Gilgamesh was written on twelve tablets around 2000 BCE and has survived in several versions. It was discovered in 1839 among the ruins of a

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Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Israel Drazin-Rabbi Dr., Jewish Religion, Middle East

Zionism an important component of Wouk’s legacy

By Moshe Phillips PHILADELPHIA, Pennsylvania — Herman Wouk, the famed novelist who first became a household name for his 1951 Pulitzer Prize winning The Caine Mutiny died last week nearly 70 years after achieving fame. Besides his long career as a writer he was also a lifelong Zionist. This fact of Wouk’s love affair with the State of Israel has been completely absent from the many articles celebrating his literary

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