Life Along the Silk Road, by Susan Whitfield, 2nd edition, University Press, 2015 By Sheila Orysiek SAN DIEGO — The book opens with several explanatory sections: a “Preface to the Second Edition,” a “Note of Transliteration and Names,” an “Introduction,” a “Prologue,” and a map spread across two pages. The map is arresting. It shows […]
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Books, Poetry & Short Stories
The Ghost Warriors: Inside Israel’s Undercover War Against Suicide Terrorism by Samuel Katz; Berkley (2016) ISBN: 1592409016; $18; Rated: 5* By Rabbi Michael Leo Samuel CHULA VISTA, California — There is hardly a day when we don’t read another story about a terrorist attack. For the most part, Radical Islam has demonstrated an almost uncanny ability to raise
Katz’s book on Israel’s war against terror is outstanding Read More »
Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Michael Leo Samuel-Rabbi, Middle EastOr the Daughter of Not Without My Daughter By Sheila Orysiek SAN DIEGO — One day in 1991, a huge “skyscraper” size portrait of Iran’s Ayatollah Khomeini was draped on full display in Israel and as can be imagined caused quite a bit of consternation. Police arrived on the scene to find that it actually
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Books, Poetry & Short StoriesBy Eileen Wingard LA JOLLA, California–The works of two great Jewish poets, Leah Goldberg (1911-1970) and Zalman Shneour (1887-1959) will be featured at the Tuesday, February 23, 7 p.m. program of Jewish Poets—Jewish Voices in the Astor Judaica Library of the Lawrence Family JCC. All the poems will be read in their original language as
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Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Eileen Wingard, Music, Dance, and Visual Arts, San Diego CalendarFalse Facts and True Rumors: LaShon HaRa in Contemporary Culture by Rabbi Daniel Z. Feldman, Maggid Books, Jerusalem; ISBN 978-1-59264-441-4 ©2015, $29.95, p. 261, plus bibliography and indexes By Fred Reiss, Ed.D. WINCHESTER, California–The Hebrew expression lashon hara, literally meaning “an evil tongue,” is often translated as slander, gossip, and malicious or disparaging speech. In contemporary
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Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Fred Reiss, EdD, Jewish ReligionSergei Prokofiev: A Soviet Tragedy by Victor Seroff, Funk & Wagnalls, 1968 By Sheila Orysiek SAN DIEGO — Anton Rubenstein. a composer and one of the greatest piano virtuosos of the 19th century was born to Jewish parents in the vicinity of Odessa. Though he and Prokofiev never met – indeed Prokofiev was only three
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Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Music, Dance, and Visual Arts
The Tree in the Courtyard: Looking Through Anne Frank’s Window by Jeff Gottesfeld; illustrated by Peter McCarty; ©2016 Alfred A. Knopf, Junior Library Guild Selection; 34 pages; $17.99 By Donald H. Harrison SAN DIEGO – This beautifully written, magnificently illustrated, sentimental remembrance of Anne Frank is being marketed as a children’s book, but I’m not
Can a derivative story teach the Holocaust? Read More »
Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Donald H. Harrison, Jewish History
Ghosts: Images of War by Carrie Zeidman; © 2015 Swiss Creek Publications; ISBN 978-0970227652; 71 pages; $40. By Donald H. Harrison SAN DIEGO – This is an unusual book of photo essays touring venues of the American Revolutionary War, Civil War, World War I, World War II and the Holocaust. Photojournalist Carrie Zeidman visits these places
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Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Donald H. Harrison, International, Jewish History, USA
Stop The Fight: An Illustrated Guide for Couples by Michelle Brody, PhD; © 2015; The Experiment, LLC; ISBN 978-1-61519-280-9; 295 pages plus index and notes; $15.95 By Donald H. Harrison SAN DIEGO—Psychologist Michelle Brody offers a dozen scenarios illustrating typical fights between married couples, along with suggestions for how the couples might understand what those
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Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Donald H. HarrisonThe Myth of the Cultural Jew: Culture and Law in Jewish Tradition by Roberta Rosenthal Kwall, Oxford University Press, New York; ISBN 978-0-19-537370-7 ©2015, $34.95, p. 297, plus index By Fred Reiss, Ed.D. WINCHESTER, California — If you’ve ever heard a new employee at work say something like, “We didn’t do it that way when I
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Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Fred Reiss, EdD, Jewish Religion
Anna and the Swallow Man by Gavriet Savit, Random House Children’s Books, ©2016; fiction; ISBN 978-0-553-51334-9; 230 pages; $17.99. By Donald H. Harrison SAN DIEGO – Here is a fictional story that is both fascinating and improbable. A 7-year-old Jewish girl in Poland is left alone after the Nazis take away her father, a professor
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Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Donald H. Harrison
The Timechart History of Jewish Civilization, edited and designed by Meredith MacArdle, World Press Ltd., 2010, Consultant: Judy Gold, Director, London Jewish Cultural Center By Sheila Orysiek SAN DIEGO — This is a large coffee table sized book that opens with a spectacular full color, sixteen page, unfolding panel which is eleven feet long. It
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Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Jewish HistoryThe Practical Guide to the Laws of Kashrut by Rabbi Pinchas Cohen, Maggid Books, Jerusalem; ISBN 978-1-59264-434-6 ©2015, $17.95, p. 75, plus glossary and figures By Fred Reiss, Ed.D. WINCHESTER, California–The Hebrew word kosher means “proper” or “fit,” and in the case of food, the term kosher refers to food that God says is
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Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Fred Reiss, EdD, Jewish ReligionEvery Man in This Village is a Liar, by Megan K. Stack, Doubleday Publishers, 2010 By Sheila Orysiek SAN DIEGO — Megan K. Stack, a reporter for the Los Angeles Times writes from distant lands wracked by war and unrest. She takes the reader to Afghanistan, Yemen, Iraq, Lebanon, Egypt, Libya, various Palestinian areas, Israel and
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Books, Poetry & Short Stories