AAA-Writers and photographers

Below are the names of writers who are currently active.  For others, living and deceased, please type their name into the search box above the masthead on our home page, www.sdjewishworld.com

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]

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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]

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

COVID-19: A Time for More ‘We’

From a seemingly far separate world, business leadership, that isn’t at all detached from this topic, comes the concept of “conscious leadership.” This concept, with its key leadership group founded by Jim Dethmer and Diana Chapman, helps leaders bring their whole authentic selves, with total awareness, to their positions as partners, transformers and visionaries. But why only to corporate leadership? Isn’t this notion valuable for all, particularly during this time of forced separateness, when we are lacking “we” time? With the coronavirus pandemic that’s triggered so many reacting, not consciously responding, to daily confused medical advice, politically driven shutdowns and restrictions of life, uncertainty and lack of trust in our leaders, perhaps “conscious leadership” needs to apply to daily life by us all as we lead our own lives with authenticity, integrity, curiosity, mindfulness, and responsible openness. I call this “conscious loveship.” [Michael R. Mantell, Ph.D]

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Lifestyles, Michael Mantell

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]

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

Let the sun shine in your COVID19 mind

Orison Swett Marden wrote in 1910, “Optimism is a builder. It is to the individual what the sun is to vegetation. It is the sunshine of the mind, which constructs life, beauty, and growth in everything within its reach. Our mental faculties grow and thrive in it just as the plants and trees grow and thrive in the physical sunshine. Pessimism is negative, it is the darkened dungeon which destroys vitality and strangles growth.” [Michael R. Mantell, Ph.D]

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Lifestyles, Michael Mantell

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]

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

Lean into COVID-19

If you believe Abraham Maslow, and I have no idea why you wouldn’t, then Robert Emmon’s quote of the well regarded humanistic psychologist may well resonate with you, “the most important learning lessons… were tragedies, deaths, and trauma… which forced change in the life-outlook of the person and consequently in everything that he did.” [Michael R. Mantell, Ph.D]

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Lifestyles, Michael Mantell

Four violin pieces by Zina Schiff in celebration of Jerusalem Day

Yom Yerushalayim, marking the unification of the City of Jerusalem at the end of the Six Day War, will be commemorated  this Friday, May 22. Thus, I am writing this column about my sister, violinist Zina Schiff’s 1995 4Tay Records release, King David’s Lyre, a celebration of Jerusalem 3000. The CD consists of works by Jewish composers from many different corners of the globe. Since Jewish longing for Jerusalem spanned over two thousand years in Diaspora, it is fitting that a tribute to Jerusalem includes Jewish composers from around the world. [Eileen Wingard]

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Eileen Wingard, Jewish History, Music, Dance, and Visual Arts

Mend, restore, rebuild yourself through COVID19

While coronavirus has killed, toppled, and impaired so many, there’s a far more mammoth plague that has disturbed our planet. The lack of self-love, self-care, and self-acceptance is linked to many physical and emotional conditions and infirmities, far too many to catalogue here. Self-acceptance could well be, heck it is, the starting place for all healing, particularly during the emotional trauma and anxiety triggered by COVID19. [Michael R. Mantell, Ph.D.]

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Lifestyles, Michael Mantell

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]

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