Donald H. Harrison

[caption id="attachment_119310" align="alignright" width="100"] Donald H. Harrison[/caption]

Donald H. Harrison is the publisher and editor of San Diego Jewish World. 

Harrison began his journalism career in 1962 on the UCLA Daily Bruin.  Following graduation he joined the staff of the Associated Press, and later became politics writer for The San Diego Union.  Afterwards he pursued a career in tourism, helping to establish San Diego’s Cruise Ship Program as well as Old Town Trolley Tours of San Diego.  He also wrote for such Jewish publications as the San Diego Jewish Press Heritage and San Diego Jewish Times before starting San Diego Jewish World in 2007.

Don’s  latest work is the three-volume Schlepping and Schmoozing Along the Interstate 5.  

He is the author of six previous books.  Those with links may be obtained on Amazon.

[showhide type=”pressrelease” more_text=”Show More” less_text=”Show Less”]

[/showhide]

Book review: Life of a Sar-El volunteer

Mark Werner is a retired corporate attorney from North Carolina, who at least once a year for the past 18 years has traveled to Israel at his own expense to sweat and grunt for three weeks as a manual laborer at various installations maintained by the Israel Defense Force.  The jobs varied from assignment to assignment, but they all involved hard work, typically in the hot sun of Israel and inside even hotter warehouses. [Book review by Donald H. Harrison]

Book review: Life of a Sar-El volunteer Read More »

Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Donald H. Harrison, Middle East, USA

Zooming through Jerusalem’s religious sites

Traditionally, the Memorial Day weekend is one of the busiest of the year for travelers, but not so in 2020 because of the coronavirus pandemic.  However, technology, in the form of a Zoom meeting, whisked me on Sunday, May 24, from my home in San Diego and on to a tri-religious journey to Jerusalem, under the auspices of the America Israel Friendship League (AIFL). [Donald H. Harrison]

Zooming through Jerusalem’s religious sites Read More »

Donald H. Harrison, Jewish History, Jewish Religion, Middle East, Sports & Competitions, Travel and Food, USA

San Diegan Carla Berg performs in concert Sunday

In the video above, Carla Sitton Berg and her daughter Liora Sitton Berg of San Diego perform a mother-daughter duet urging us “Don’t Dream It’s Over.”  Carla, wife of  Geoffrey Berg, a board officer of Soille San Diego Hebrew Day School, will be among artists presenting a free online concert Sunday at 3 p.m for which you can register via this website. The concert is co-sponsored by Music on the Inside (MOTI) and Balanced Guitar (BG) “through their shared belief in community and the powerful role of music, especially now.” [Our Shtetl San Diego County column by Donald H. Harrison]

San Diegan Carla Berg performs in concert Sunday Read More »

Donald H. Harrison, Jewish History, Jewish Religion, Music, Dance, and Visual Arts, San Diego County, Science, Medicine, & Education, USA

StandWithUs celebrates 19th anniversary of its founding

StandWithUs celebrated the 19th anniversary of its founding on Thursday with an international webcast that showcased its growth and successes helping students on college campuses, high schools and middle schools learn about Israel and defend against anti-Semitic attacks. The program was emceed by comedian Elon Gold and also featured the singing of “Hatikvah,” Israel’s National Anthem, by Rabbi/ Cantor Alison Wissot of Temple Judea of Tarzana, California, and a popular, optimistic Hebrew song by Israeli singer David Broza on the theme of “things will get better.” [Our Shtetl San Diego County column by Donald H. Harrison]

StandWithUs celebrates 19th anniversary of its founding Read More »

Donald H. Harrison, International, Jewish History, Jewish Religion, Middle East, San Diego County, Science, Medicine, & Education, Theatre, Film & Broadcast, USA

30 leaders gather for an interfaith Iftar

“Iftar” is the break-the-fast meal at sunset each night during the Muslim month of Ramadan.  Ordinarily, participants–often including welcomed non-Muslims–will eat a prodigious meal together and share family stories and high points.  On Thursday, two organizations teamed up to host a different kind of Iftar that brought together celebrants from around the world and from several different religions. [Donald H. Harrison]

30 leaders gather for an interfaith Iftar Read More »

Donald H. Harrison, International, Jewish History, Jewish Religion, Middle East, The World We Share, USA

Novel tells of a woman surviving as a man in POW camp

The young wife dressed in men’s clothing, with her breasts tightly corseted. She shaved her head and pretended that shell shock had rendered her incapable of speech. Izabella and Bill, a British prisoner-of-war who had escaped from a lightly guarded Nazi-run work camp in Czechoslovakia, figured it was likely he would be recaptured, but if so, she was determined to be captured with him. And so they were, and so began the more intriguing part of the story. [Book review by Donald H. Harrison]

Novel tells of a woman surviving as a man in POW camp Read More »

Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Donald H. Harrison

Who were the Righteous Gentiles?

It was as Lawrence Baron, the distinguished history professor, rather than as Laurie Baron, the brilliant satirist, for whom women and some men gathered for a Zoom presentation on Tuesday sponsored by Tifereth Israel Synagogue’s Sisterhood.  They asked him to evaluate the factors that led some non-Jews during the time of Hitler to risk their lives and those of their families to protect Jews from the genocide.  Who, indeed, were the people who have become known in history as “The Righteous Gentiles”? [Our Shtetl San Diego County column by Donald H. Harrison]

Who were the Righteous Gentiles? Read More »

Donald H. Harrison, International, Jewish History, Lawrence Baron, San Diego County, Science, Medicine, & Education, USA

Local political races re-energized

As the only daily Jewish news outlet in our county, San Diego Jewish World has made it a mission to keep track of important races in the county in which members of the Jewish community will be runoff candidates in the November general election.  Now, with the nation, state, and local governments all in the process of looking beyond the coronavirus pandemic to the recovery of the economy, candidates for mayor, Congress, and the County Board of Supervisors are again making news. [Our Shtetl San Diego County column by Donald H. Harrison]

Local political races re-energized Read More »

Donald H. Harrison, Middle East, Theatre, Film & Broadcast, USA

San Diego County, nation, respond to hate incidents

Two grocery store incidents in Santee earlier this month in which a man wearing the hood of the Ku Klux Klan, and a man and woman wearing masks featuring swastikas, continue to reverberate.  San Diego County Supervisor Nathan Fletcher proposed that a countywide Human Relations Commission be re-established and empowered to look into such incidents, and the San Diego Union-Tribune ran three opinion pieces Monday on the incidents and their impact on the City of Santee. In another response to hate, the Combat Anti-Semitism Movement (CAM) arranged for 25 olive trees to be planted at Kfar Silver Youth Village in southern Israel in memory of Lori Gilbert Kaye, who was murdered when a gunman attacked Chabad of Poway on the last day of Passover in 2019. [Our Shtetl San Diego County column by Donald H. Harrison]

San Diego County, nation, respond to hate incidents Read More »

Donald H. Harrison, Eva Trieger, Jewish History, Middle East, San Diego County, Theatre, Film & Broadcast, USA

Havdalah from the porch of a celebrated cantor

Shavua tov! Shavua Tov!  A good week!  A good week! In Voorhees, New Jersey, Cantor Alisa Pomerantz-Boro and her daughter Rebecca have often led Havdalah services by Zoom from their porch since the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic  This last Saturday night, May 16, was no different. [Our Shtetl San Diego County column by Donald H. Harrison]

Havdalah from the porch of a celebrated cantor Read More »

Donald H. Harrison, Jewish History, Middle East, Music, Dance, and Visual Arts, San Diego County, USA

AJC rabbi fights international anti-Semitism

Rabbi Andrew Baker, an official with both the American Jewish Committee and the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), says because of the coronavirus pandemic, there probably will be a drop in anti-Semitic incidents in 2020.  However, this is because potential targets, such as synagogues and Jewish schools, have been closed during the pandemic.  When re-opened, he said, they may become targets again. [Our Shtetl San Diego County column by Donald H. Harrison]

AJC rabbi fights international anti-Semitism Read More »

Donald H. Harrison, International, Jewish History, Middle East, Music, Dance, and Visual Arts, Science, Medicine, & Education, Theatre, Film & Broadcast, Trivia, Humor & Satire

Coronavirus from the medical profession’s viewpoints

Six doctors and two nurses participated in a coronavirus Zoom forum moderated on Wednesday night for Tifereth Israel Synagogue members by the Conservative congregation’s program director Beth Klareich. Speaking from the perspective of being both a recovered coronavirus patient and a physician was Dr. Seth Krosner, an emergency and trauma surgeon at Scripps Mercy Hospital. [Our Shtetl San Diego County column by Donald H. Harrison]

Coronavirus from the medical profession’s viewpoints Read More »

Donald H. Harrison, San Diego County, Science, Medicine, & Education