Jewish History

Michelle Obama’s ‘Becoming’ also about belonging

Becoming by Michelle Obama; © 2018; Crown Publishing; ISBN 9781524-763138; 421 pages plus acknowledgments and photo credits; $32.50 By Donald H. Harrison SAN DIEGO —  If one theme predominates throughout former First Lady Michelle Obama’s memoir, it is that, notwithstanding the fact that she and her husband had risen to the very pinnacle of power […]

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

Weighing the ‘Tattooist’ controversy

By Dan Bloom CHIAYI CITY, Taiwan — Do novels about the Holocaust have to be vetted before publication? It’s a good question and one that literary critics and Holocaust historians and educators have been grappling with since 1945. Now in 2018, the question remains as important as ever, and new novels about the Nazi concentration camps under

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Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Jewish History

Debate intensifies over ‘Tattooist of Auschwitz’ novel

By Dan Bloom CHIAYI CITY, Taiwan — As readers around the world are finding out now, the Holocaust sex-and-romance novel by the non-Jewish Australian screenwriter Heather Morris titled The Tattooist of Auschwitz is not all that the feel-good, based-on-a-true story that it says it is. Sure, the memoir published as a novel tells the alleged

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Books, Poetry & Short Stories, International, Jewish History

Chula Vista has diverse Jewish history

By Donald H. Harrison CHULA VISTA, California — Steven Schoenherr, a professor emeritus of history at the University of San Diego, researched information for a book celebrating the Chula Vista Centennial, published in 2011.  As the book could not contain all Schoenherr’s research, unpublished material subsequently was put on line.  In 2014, Schoenherr and Susan

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Donald H. Harrison, Jewish History, San Diego County

Editor’s E-Mail Box: November 28, 2018 (3 items)

CNN wins StandWithUs plaudits for series on anti-Semitism StandWithUs has applauded CNN for its week-long series reporting on resurgent anti-Semitism in Europe during November, 2018. CNN commissioned a poll of over 7,000 European adults that found, “Anti- Semitic stereotypes are alive and well in Europe, while the memory of the Holocaust is starting to fade… a third

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International, Jewish History, Middle East, Theatre, Film & Broadcast, USA

More doubt cast on Auschwitz tattooist novel

By Dan Bloom CHIAYI CITY, Taiwan — A bestselling novel about the Holocaust has generated a strong backlash from readers around the world, and most importantly, from the Auschwitz Museum in Poland, which maintains an internet and Twitter presence online. After many people, Jewish and non-Jewish, sent in messages to the museum concerning the veracity

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Books, Poetry & Short Stories, International, Jewish History

Veracity questioned of “The Tattooist of Auschwitz’

By Dan Bloom CHIAYI CITY, Taiwan — In a personal blog post I published in September I asked my readers if the current bestseller The Tattooist of Auschwitz, a Holocaust sex and romance “novel” concocted by a well-intentioned but somewhat nervy non-Jewish screenwriter in Australia, was ever going to be called in question by literary critics

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Books, Poetry & Short Stories, International, Jewish History

Women of the Wall envoy details struggle for equality

By David Ogul SAN DIEGO — It’s all about equality. That was the message from Cheryl Temkin, an executive member of the Speakers Bureau for the Jerusalem-based Women of the Wall, who was the featured speaker Nov. 16 at Tifereth Israel Synagogue in San Diego following Kabbalat Shabbat services. Just months after Israeli paratroopers liberated Jerusalem’s

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David Ogul, Jewish History, Middle East, San Diego County

This life in academia makes for pleasant reading

Holocaust Survivor to Harvard Dean: Memoirs of a Refugee’s Progress by Michael Shinagel © 2016, Xlibris, ISBN 9781524-509606; 150 pages plus Index; Available on Amazon. By Donald H. Harrison SAN DIEGO —  Having served for nearly four decades as dean of the Harvard Extension School – the longest known deanship in Harvard’s history – author

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

We came to Pittsburgh

By Doron Krakow PITTSBURGH, Pennsylvania — On Tuesday, more than 100 Jewish community leaders from across the continent gathered in Pittsburgh for a day of solidarity with the beleaguered Jewish community there, just 17 days after the massacre of Jews at prayer at the Tree of Life Synagogue on Squirrel Hill. We came representing Jewish federations, Jewish family

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Jewish History, USA