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
Peter Mehlman, Mandela Was Late, Sager Group of Smashwords, (c) 2012, ISBN: 978-1481250771, 132 pages. By Donald H. Harrison SAN DIEGO–Here is a book of 21 light and frothy essays, most of which sitcom writer Peter Mehlman published in high circulation newspapers or magazines over the years. Like the Seinfeld TV series for which he […]
Comedy writer’s book light and frothy Read More »
Donald H. Harrison
Mira’s Diary:” Lost in Paris” and “Home Sweet Rome” both by Marissa Moss, Sourcebooks, Inc., ISBNs respectively 978-1-4022-66065 and 978-1-4022-66096, $12.95 each. By Donald H. Harrison SAN DIEGO– A teenage heroine learns to her surprise that, unsought, she has the power to travel through time, a genetic gift from her mother whose mysterious disappearance also was
‘Time travels’ take Jewish girl through Paris and Rome Read More »
Donald H. HarrisonBy Rabbi Michael Samuel CHULA VISTA, California –Children have an unusual ability when it comes to confronting our spiritual hypocrisy as parents and as adults; very often they get to the essence of the problem as they perceive things. Frequently, as parents, we often fail to hear the questions our young people ask of us;
Pushing the seder leader’s buttons Read More »
Jewish Religion, Michael Leo Samuel-Rabbi
By Donald H. Harrison SAN DIEGO — From a student-invented device to strengthen tongue muscles, and thereby battle some speech impediments, to a survey to determine how familiar Ashkenazi Jews are with the threat posed to them by Tay-Sach Disease, I found there was much to learn at the Greater San Diego Science and
Much to learn at Science and Engineering Fair Read More »
Donald H. Harrison
In One Era, Out the Other: A Memoir of a 20th-21st Century Jewish Life by Michael Kaufman, Mekor Press of Menucha Publishers, 2012, 564 pages including glossary of Hebrew and Yiddish terms, and endnotes; ISBN 978-1-61465-060-7; Price unlisted on cover. By Donald H. Harrison SAN DIEGO — There is much in this book that
Book extols Orthodoxy over other forms of Judaism Read More »
Donald H. HarrisonBy Dorothea Shefer-Vanson MEVASSERET ZION, Israel — The visit to Israel of US President Obama caused great excitement for a variety of reasons. The first was why had he come? Was it to reach an agreement regarding dealing with Iran’s steady progress towards a nuclear bomb or to exert pressure towards a solution of the
Some impressions of Obama’s Israel visit Read More »
Dorothea Shefer-Vanson, Middle EastThe Sons of Pigs and Apes: Muslim Antisemitism and the Conspiracy of Silence by Neil J. Kressel, Potomac Books, Washington, D.C.; ISBN 978-1-59797-702-9 ©2012, $29.95, p. 206, plus addenda and index By Fred Reiss, Ed.D. WINCHESTER, California — The word “anti-Semitism” is a relatively new word to the English language, being coined sometime after 1860.
Book examines Muslim anti-Semitism Read More »
Fred Reiss, EdD, Middle EastBy Laurie Baron SAN DIEGO — When you think of Holocaust movies, you conjure up the black and white images of corpses and and skeletal survivors preserved on film by military camera crews as they followed Allied troops liberating concentration and death camps. Feature films like The Pawnbroker or Schindler’s List employ the same
The Wandering Review: ‘Lore’ Read More »
Lawrence Baron
By Donald H. Harrison SAN DIEGO — Retired symphony violinist Eileen Wingard gave members of her havurah (friendship group) from Ohr Shalom Synagogue a demonstration of that “old time religion” at her home Sunday evening, March 17. Wingard, a vegetarian, organized a potluck dinner assembled from fruits and vegetables mentioned in the Bible, ranging from lentil
A biblical jam session in San Diego Read More »
Donald H. HarrisonBy Donald H. Harrison EL CAJON, California — As we Jews get ready to gather around our seder tables to tell again the story of the biblical Exodus, 16 Grossmont College performers are enacting another famous journey of ancient times, that of Odysseus, king of Ithaca, hero of Troy, and long-lost sailor struggling to get
‘The Odyssey’ at Grossmont not unlike a Passover seder Read More »
Donald H. HarrisonBy Rabbi Michael Leo Samuel CHULA VISTA, California–With great anticipation, I was intrigued who the next Pope was going to be. Then the news came on the airwaves: Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio of Argentina was chosen the next Pope; and he has chosen the name, “Francis I,” after the St. Francis of Assisi because he
The new Pope is a mentsch Read More »
Jewish Religion, Michael Leo Samuel-Rabbi
By Donald H. Harrison CARLSBAD, California — It’s a cynical way to look at it, but perhaps parents of preschoolers and elementary school students will consider the recent economic slowdown as a blessing in disguise. When microbiologist Rudy Gonzalez was laid off from the biotech industry last year, he became a house husband. Taking
Slow economy, kids’ creativity formula for business Read More »
Donald H. HarrisonBy Dorothea Shefer-Vanson MEVASSERET ZION, Israel– On our recent visit to Malta we were given special permission to examine the enormous painting by Caravaggio, ‘The Beheading of John the Baptist,’ that hangs in the massive co-cathedral (double cathedral) of Valletta, which is run by the Order of St. John of Jerusalem. After the cathedral was
John the Baptist, Crusaders, Jerusalem invoked in Malta Read More »
Dorothea Shefer-VansonBy Dorothea Shefer-Vanson GIVAT CHAYIM IHUD, Israel — The Theresienstadt Memorial Museum is situated in Israel’s verdant Jezreel Valley, in premises attached to this kibbutz. Once or twice a year I receive the museum newsletter, continuing the subscription taken out by my late father. For many years it appeared in stencil form on plain
Theresienstadt memory kept alive on Israeli kibbutz Read More »
Dorothea Shefer-Vanson, Middle East