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

Taxi drivers around the world are a special breed

By Dorothea Shefer-Vanson MEVASSERET ZION, Israel –Taxi! Taxi drivers the world over are a race unto themselves. The taxi drivers of London, have to acquire ‘The Knowledge,’ which involves studying London’s streets till they can find any address, and have to pass an exam to gain their taxi license. These days they are separated from […]

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Dorothea Shefer-Vanson, Trivia, Humor & Satire

Humoring the headlines: October 30, 2013

By Laurie Baron SAN DIEGO―Embarrassed over leaks that the NSA monitored German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s cell phone, President Obama called her on a secure line to apologize.  The next day he received a briefing from the NSA citing his conversation with Merkel verbatim and reminding him, “Espionage means you never have to say you’re sorry.”

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Lawrence Baron, Trivia, Humor & Satire

The Pole who volunteered to be imprisoned at Auschwitz

The Auschwitz Volunteer: Beyond Bravery by Captain Witold Pilecki, Translated from the original 1945 report by Jarek Garliński, Aquila Polonica (U.S.) Ltd., Los Angeles; ISBN 978-1-60772-009-6 ©2012, $34.95, p. 401, including pictures, maps, appendices, index, and discussion questions By Fred Reiss WINCHESTER, California — On September 10, 1940, the German battleship Bismarck fired six shells

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Fred Reiss, EdD, Jewish History

Novel extols Shabbat and Jewish tradition

Peri Berger, Broken Mirrors, Menucha Publishers, 2013, ISBN 978-1-61456-086-7, 270 pages, cover price unlisted. By Donald H. Harrison SAN DIEGO–From the very beginning of this novel, its denouement is telegraphed. Students at a Jewish school express confusion and consternation when they meet Judy Rangler, their new secular studies teacher. She doesn’t wear a sheitel, but

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Donald H. Harrison

Coming a long way to have a baby

Julie Weinberg, I Wish There Were Baby Factories, BookLocker.com, 2013, ISBN 9781626464124, 210 pages, cover price unlisted By Donald H. Harrison SAN DIEGO — Somehow smiling through her tears, Julie Weinberg tells “a story inspired by real life events” about a couple whose efforts to have a baby–including fertility and adoption–were beset with dramatic disappointments,

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Donald H. Harrison

Novel explores impact on teen girls of mentally ill mom

Shoshana Mael, Dancing in the Dark, Menucha Publishers, Inc., 2013, ISBN 978-1-61465-094-2, 276 pages, cover price unlisted. By Donald H. Harrison SAN DIEGO–Rikki and her older sister Daniella, who were both quite popular with their classmates at an Orthodox Jewish girls high school, showed up one day badly bruised. Rikki’s neck had been clawed with

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Donald H. Harrison

Abraham, Sarah, Moses turn the ‘Paige’ on age worries

  By Rabbi Michael Leo Samuel CHULA VISTA, California — Isn’t it amazing that Americans are living longer than ever before in recorded history  More than 87 million Americans will be over 65 by the year 2040, according to the National Institute of Aging.  Today, the over‑65 group accounts for about 30 million people; the

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Jewish Religion, Michael Leo Samuel-Rabbi

The diminishing fortunes of the Free Syrian Army

By Shoshana Bryen WASHINGTON, D.C. –Not saying that it will happen — not even that it might.  But if you don’t watch the confluence of events in Syria, you’ll miss the possibility that it could. Now that Washington is finished with last summer’s Elizabeth O’Bagy kerfuffle over the percentage of the Syrian opposition comprising jihadist militias,

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Middle East, Shoshana Bryen