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

1850s teen diarist Victoria Jacobs Franklin recalled

  By Donald H. Harrison SAN DIEGO — The San Diego History Center on Sunday welcomed three Arizona women whose family lent to its museum the diary of mid-19th century teenager Victoria Jacobs for the current exhibition about the history and heritage of the local Jewish community. The visitors included Alden Hardy Carroll, the great-great […]

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Donald H. Harrison, International, Jewish History, Obituaries & memorials, San Diego County, USA

Finding oneself–or not–in the land of Israel

The Book of Love and Hate by Lauren Sanders; Akashic Books ©2017; 300 pages; ISBN 9781617-755828. By Donald H. Harrison SAN DIEGO – Jennifer is the daughter of a fugitive billionaire, American businessman who is somewhere on the lam in Israel—or is he already dead?  Jennifer’s mother abandoned the family years ago, and her brother,

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Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Donald H. Harrison

JNF holds a pre- inauguration for Lizerbram

By Donald H. Harrison SAN DIEGO—An outdoor party at the Hilton Bayfront Hotel on Monday night celebrated San Diegan Sol Lizerbram’s approaching inauguration in November as national president of Jewish National Fund.  The organization, noted Russell Robinson, its executive director, is 115 years old and going strong.  In fact, it is in the middle of

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Donald H. Harrison, Middle East, San Diego County

Surprise klezmer music in a French church

By Dorothea Shefer-Vanson DOMEYROT, France –Spending  part of the summer in central France has constituted our annual vacation for several years now. We enjoy the peaceful atmosphere, the beautiful scenery, and the cooler weather. If there are any musical events we are happy to attend them, but they are not the main reason for our

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Dorothea Shefer-Vanson, International, Music, Dance, and Visual Arts

What does Jewish tradition say about eclipses?

By Rabbi Michael Leo Samuel CHULA VISTA, California — This past week, some of my congregants asked me: What does Jewish tradition have to say about solar eclipses? Like many ancient peoples, the Jews did not develop a scientific understanding of eclipses until much later in its history. Before we examine what exactly Jewish tradition

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Jewish Religion, Michael Leo Samuel-Rabbi, Science, Medicine, & Education

Rabbi tells rationale for accepting Torah as divine

Reason to Believe: Rational Explanations of Orthodox Jewish Faith by Chaim Jachter, Menorah Books, New Milford, CT, © 2017,ISBN 978-1-940516-71-4, p. 234 plus appendices, $24.95 By Fred Reiss, Ed.D.  WINCHESTER, California – If believing is having faith in the evidence, then one might suspect that religion and reason share no common ground, but this is not the

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

Isaac Artenstein: Telling frontier Jewish stories

Isaac Artenstein from Bettina Hanna on Vimeo. By Mimi Pollack SAN DIEGO — Filmmaker Isaac Artenstein likes to tell good stories, especially unknown ones, and if those stories inform and entertain others, even better. He feels that the Jews of the Southwest have an untold story as the narrative has been mostly about the Anglo

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Jewish History, Mimi Pollack, San Diego County, USA

The author’s joke, alas, is on the reader

A Horse Walks Into a Bar by David Grossman (published in Hebrew by Hasifriya Hahadasha) By Dorothea Shefer-Vanson DOMEYROT, France —   I am proud to announce that I have completed my first vacation task, namely, to read the Hebrew version of David Grossman’s book, the English translation of which was awarded the prestigious Man Booker

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Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Dorothea Shefer-Vanson

Op-Ed: Europe is committing suicide

By Steve Kramer ALFE MENASHE, Israel — According to Wikipedia, “Eurabia” is a concept used to describe a “conspiracy theory” of globalist elements, coined by author Bat Ye’or in the early 2000s and described in her 2005 book titled “Eurabia: The Euro‐Arab Axis.” Unfortunately, it’s fact, not a conspiracy theory.  France and the other EEC

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International, Middle East, Steve Kramer