Books, Poetry & Short Stories

European Family’s Lives Tracked Through Several Countries and Holocaust

Particularly telling is the account of the way the German occupiers gradually close in on the Jewish population, depriving them of their rights and property and eventually deporting them in [ cattle trains to concentration camps in the east, with the cooperation of the French authorities. All those events are described in harrowing detail. [Dorothea Shefer-Vanson]

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Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Dorothea Shefer-Vanson, Holocaust, International, Staff and Bylined Contributors

Young, Committed Jews Offer Their Thoughts on the Future of Our People

ollege students and youth in their 20’s contributed 31 essays to this anthology.  Some essays are descriptive like that of Stanford University student Julia Steinberg’s “Home, Transcendence, and the Land,” in which she describes the feelings of belonging and of being home on her first visit to Israel. Others were proscriptive such as Ashira Boxman’s “To Stand United, We Must Respect Our Different Paths,” and Kivi Franks’ “Stop Overfocusing on Antisemitism.” [Donald H. Harrison]

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Antisemitism, Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Donald H. Harrison, Israel, Jewish Religion, Science, Medicine, & Education, Staff and Bylined Contributors, USA

Billings, Montana, Set an Example of Brotherly Love after a Rock was Hurled through a Little Jewish Boy’s Window

When the police chief came to investigate, he concluded that it was done by the same group of neo-Nazis who had been harassing African Americans. Native Americans, Hispanic Americans, and gays and lesbians. Previously, a swastika signboard had been nailed to the Beth Aaron Synagogue, and Jewish tombstones had been pushed over in the cemetery. [Donald H. Harrison]

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Antisemitism, Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Donald H. Harrison, Jewish History, Jewish Religion, Staff and Bylined Contributors

Today’s Jewish Birthday: Ayelet Waldman

Courtesy of Wikipedia Ayelet Waldman (December 11, 1964) is an Israeli-American novelist and essayist. She has written seven mystery novels in the series The Mommy-Track Mysteries and four other novels. She has also written autobiographical essays about motherhood. Waldman spent three years working as a federal public defender and her fiction draws on her experience as a lawyer.

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Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Today's Jewish Birthday, Wikipedia

Murder Mystery Secondary to a Fine Portrait of Skid Row

This murder mystery takes place on Chicago’s run down southside, circa 1966. But two murders don’t start the novel, they occur very close to the end. The story begins with a young, idealistic Jewish dentist starting a practice on Skid Row and becoming acclimated to the drunkards and junkies who inhabit the neighborhood. [Donald H. Harrison]

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Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Donald H. Harrison, Staff and Bylined Contributors

Elisha Expanded on His Mentor Elijah’s Role as Prophet

Israel Drazin’s Who Was the Prophet Elisha? is a thought-provoking exploration of one of the Bible’s most enigmatic figures. Through a blend of scholarly rigor and accessible analysis, Drazin offers a comprehensive examination of Elisha’s life, ministry, and legacy, presenting new insights into the prophet’s role in biblical narratives. [Rabbi Dr. Michael Leo Samuel]

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Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Israel Drazin-Rabbi Dr., Jewish Religion, Michael Leo Samuel-Rabbi, Staff and Bylined Contributors

Jewish Biography: Ludwig Wittgenstein, Philosopher and Logician

At the age of 14, Ludwig left his parents’ home to attend a real gymnasium in Linz, where his fellow student was Adolf Schicklgruber, the future Hitler, who was born six days earlier than Wittgenstein. Although the Wittgenstein family had converted to Christianity, they were considered Jews throughout the neighborhood. Therefore, the appearance of a Jew in the classroom provoked the ill-will of his classmates and the hatred of Hitler. “This Jew we did not particularly trust, […] we doubted his trustworthiness,” Hitler wrote in Mein Kampf. [Alex Gordon]

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Alex Gordon, Antisemitism, Books, Poetry & Short Stories, International, Jewish History, Science, Medicine, & Education, Staff and Bylined Contributors

‘The ABC’s of the World’s Religions’ Shows Their Similarities

With the author having grown up in western Christianity and the illustrator having experienced eastern religions, their collaboration, written in couplets on left-facing pages and with explanatory information on right-facing pages, uses the alphabet as a teaching vehicle. [Donald H. Harrison]

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Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Donald H. Harrison, Jewish Religion, Lifestyles, Staff and Bylined Contributors, USA

Jewish Biography: Otto Weininger: A Jewish Antisemite

Sex and Character asserts that all human beings are composed of a mixture of masculine and feminine matter. “Masculine” is active, productive, conscious, moral and logical, while ‘feminine’ is passive, unproductive, unconscious, amoral and illogical. In this book, Weininger emerges not only as a misogynist but also as an antisemite. [Alex Gordon]

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Alex Gordon, Antisemitism, Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Jewish History, Staff and Bylined Contributors

World War II’s Impact on German Civilians Told in Biography of Heidi Posnien

This, as the title suggests, is the story of Heidi, a little Catholic girl born in 1936 who grew up in Berlin and the nearby countryside during the Hitler regime that culminated in Germany’s utter defeat in World War II.  [Donald H. Harrison]

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Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Donald H. Harrison, International, Staff and Bylined Contributors

A Handbook for Social and Political Action

This is a handbook for social and political activism, written by a medical doctor who has spent his life engaged in protests, demonstrations, and movements for change. Whether you agree with his positions on a variety of issues, or disagree, reading this book may be enlightening. [Donald H. Harrison]

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Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Donald H. Harrison, International, Israel, Staff and Bylined Contributors, USA

Hasidic Rebbes and what they taught us

Eight of Elie Wiesel’s fifty-seven books could be called “Theological Biographies.” They are books on biblical figures and stories about Hasidim. They are Souls on Fire (1972), Four Hasidic Masters and Their Struggle Against Melancholy (1978), Somewhere a Master (1982), and Wise Men and Their Tales (2003), which focus on Hasidim. Messengers of God (1976), Five Biblical Tales (1981), and Sages and Dreamers (1991) look at biblical people. Filled with Fire and Light is a 2021 posthumous book addressing biblical, Talmudic, and Hasidic figures.    [Rabbi Dr. Israel Drazin]

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Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Israel Drazin-Rabbi Dr., Jewish Religion, Staff and Bylined Contributors