Books, Poetry & Short Stories

Mitzvot and Kindness Mark Visit to a Recycling Center

As I took my bottles and cans to EDCO Recycle this morning, I reflected that the “haul” used to be filled with Diet Coke cans. However, years ago, I switched to SodaStream, an Israeli product that carbonates your water.  I don’t add any syrups.  I simply drink fizzy water.  The volume of my recycling has decreased, but I feel, nevertheless, that I am dong my part for the environment. [Cailin Acosta]

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Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Cailin Acosta, Israel, Lifestyles, Music, Dance, and Visual Arts, Philanthropy & Volunteerism, San Diego County, Science, Medicine, & Education, Staff and Bylined Contributors, Travel and Food

Classic Debates in Israel’s Parliament

I found myself involved in the translation of five of the six volumes of Major Knesset Debates, 1948–1981, edited by former Clerk of the Knesset, Netanel Lorch. This project, which occupied me for several years, gave me a unique insight into the workings of the Knesset and the nature of the debates held there as well as of the various individuals (i.e., politicians) who participated in those debates. [Dorothea Shefer-Vanson]

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

Chuckling Over a New Anthology of Jewish Humor

Movie director Salvador Litvak (When Do We Eat?; Guns and Moses) has compiled 162 Jewish jokes.  Some are very old. I’m 79 years old, and I can remember my father telling me some of the stories that he heard from his father. Call them classics.  But others are fresh–or at least they are to me–and I couldn’t help but laugh out loud (“lol” to social media habitués) and then read them across the breakfast table to my wife, Nancy. [Donald H. Harrison]

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

Elie Wiesel Was Fascinated by Joshua, Elijah, Saul, Jeremiah, and Jonah

Wiesel was convinced that the power of literature lies in its ability to galvanize human action. This includes the Bible. “The text is not – cannot be – neutral, nor is it an end in itself: it must serve to humanize our society.” Wiesel shows this in his discussions of Joshua, Elijah, Saul, Jeremiah, and Jonah’s lives and actions. [Rabbi Dr. Israel Drazin]

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

Romance Novella Emphasizes Importance of True Communication

Arielle Weiss and Asher Gold are home for the Thanksgiving holiday in Chicago and run into each other at the local neighborhood bar as they reunite with others from their Hebrew School class. They immediately locked eyes on each other and stepped away from the group to talk. Each received mixed signals. [Cailin Acosta]

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Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Cailin Acosta, Lifestyles, Staff and Bylined Contributors

Getting to Know Edna Ferber by Following Her ‘Giant’ Odyssey

This biography of novelist Edna Ferber was written by her grandniece Julie Gilbert, who had access to Ferber’s journals, relatives, friends, and co-workers in addition to archival sources. The result is a splendid recounting of the high points in Ferber’s life, with particular emphasis on the research, production and success of “Giant,” both in its novel and movie forms. [Donald H. Harrison]

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Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Donald H. Harrison, Jewish History, Staff and Bylined Contributors, Theatre, Film & Broadcast

Moving to a New Apartment While Retaining Two Cultures

Yeh Yeh surprises her with a present: a new mezuzah, explaining that Zayde had told him that would be a good present for her new home.  When they all sit down for Shabbat dinner inside the new apartment, Zayde gives Miri another gift:  two small guardian lions that she can put on the chest of drawers by her bed. [Donald H. Harrison)

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

Poems, Songs of Inge Strusberg, Ehud Manor to be Featured Nov. 19 at JCC

A program, “Jewish Poets of the Past,” will feature works by the Peruvian-Jewish poet, Inge Strusberg, and the Israeli poet/song writer, Ehud Manor, in a program at 7 p.m., Tuesday, Nov. 19, in the Astor Judaica Library of the Lawrence Family JCC. It is presented by Jewish Poets–Jewish Voices under the auspices of the Center for Jewish Culture. [Eileen Wingard]

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Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Eileen Wingard, Music, Dance, and Visual Arts, San Diego County, Staff and Bylined Contributors

Males Buy Themselves Trouble when Suppressing Emotions

Dr. Levant, a renowned psychologist, delves into the underlying emotional and psychological challenges that many men face in contemporary society. He addresses the traditional notions of masculinity that often compel men to suppress emotions, leading to detrimental effects on mental health and interpersonal relationships. The book provides insights into overcoming these stereotypes and encourages men to engage in healthier emotional expression and vulnerability. [Michael R. Mantell, Ph.D]

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Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Lifestyles, Michael Mantell, Staff and Bylined Contributors

‘Gift Shop of Gratitude’ Links Common Souvenir Items to How Readers Experience Life

Playing Cards suggest a gallery of portraits of the people most influential in your life; bobbleheads might immortalize the people you put on a pedestal; scented candles might bring back favorite aromas such as burning leaves in Fall (now outlawed for reasons of air pollution) or perhaps the smell of a relative’s pipe tobacco. [Donald H. Harrison]

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

A Jewish Tale Woven Through Napoleon’s Campaign in Egypt and Eretz Israel

This Jewish love story is woven into an account of Napoleon’s unsuccessful war in Egypt and Ottoman Palestine in the final years of the 18th century. Descriptions of the battles and the wanton cruelty of both sides in the war pitting mainly French Christian troops against indigenous and Turkish Muslim defenders remind current-day readers of the murderous barbarism attendant to Hamas’ invasion of southern Israel on October 7, 2023. [Donald H. Harrison]

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

Daughter Pictures Life of Mother Who Died Two Hours After Giving Her Birth

Two hours after Lola Kantor was born, her mother died of complications in childbirth. Lola was given her mother’s first name, but, of course, she had no memory of her. [Donald H. Harrison]

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Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Donald H. Harrison, Holocaust, International, Israel, Music, Dance, and Visual Arts, Staff and Bylined Contributors, USA

Violin is the Centerpiece of a Holocaust Story

Nazis pounded on the door and confiscated the treasured violin, throwing it onto a flatbed truck, breaking its string, and then putting it in storage in a cellar, where dust filled its body and extreme weather warped and cracked it.  In the years after the Nazis’ defeat, the cellar was found, and the violin located.  A luthier lovingly repaired it. [Donald H. Harrison]

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Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Donald H. Harrison, Holocaust, International, Music, Dance, and Visual Arts, San Diego County, Science, Medicine, & Education, Staff and Bylined Contributors

Short-Story Collection Provides Tour of Human Situations and Emotions

This collection of short stories by Roberta Silman is similar to a travelogue, but instead of journeys through locales, these trips are through human emotions in given situations, especially, but not exclusively, through loss and dying. [Donald H. Harrison]

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