Books, Poetry & Short Stories

 ‘Queens of Jerusalem’ Book Seeks to Rectify Historians’ Neglect of Women

By Dorothea Shefer-Vanson MEVASSERET ZION, Israel — Author Katherine Pangonis notes in her preface to “Queens of Jerusalem: The Women Who Dared to Rule” that “this is a book about women and power.” The wives and daughters of crusader kings and princes in the Holy Land sometimes found themselves in the position of default ruler […]

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Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Dorothea Shefer-Vanson, Israel, Jewish History, Middle East

Powerful Novel Indicts Lithuanian Role in the Holocaust

The plot is simple. The fictional Milia Gottstein-Lasker, the Israeli-based director of the Survivors Campaign who is known in Lithuania as a public enemy, receives an invitation from Darius Vidas, an idealistic Lithuanian professor, to keynote a conference titled “Our Neighbors, Our Friends” about the historic Lithuanian Jewish community that was all but totally wiped out in the Holocaust. [Donald H. Harrison]

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Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Donald H. Harrison, International, Jewish History

Memoir Offers Lessons in the Journey From Coping to Thriving

Greene, Joanne; By Accident: A Memoir of Letting Go; www.shewritespress.com; 177 pages, ISBN: 978-1-64742-444-2. By Eva Trieger SAN DIEGO — I always find it serendipitous when things fall into my lap when I’m needing them most. Allow me to explain. I’ve just finished reading an autobiographical book by broadcast journalist and talk show host, Joanne

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Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Eva Trieger

A Talk about Jewish San Diego at Yiddishland

If you are a regular reader of San Diego Jewish World, you may have noticed our slogan that appears on its masthead.  “There is a Jewish story everywhere,” it says.  I don’t mean that as hyperbole; rather it is a reflection of the fact that Jewish influence on the world has been so pervasive that if you look long enough, you’ll find a Jewish story anywhere that you go. [Donald H. Harrison]

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Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Donald H. Harrison, Jewish History, San Diego County

Joey Landwehr Takes the Reins at the Center for Jewish Culture

For the last 17 years Joey Landwehr has served as the artistic director of the JCompany youth theatre.  Now, he’s been elevated to the position of artistic director of the San Diego Centre for Jewish Culture, of which JCompany is a part.  [Donald H. Harrison]

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Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Donald H. Harrison, Music, Dance, and Visual Arts, San Diego County, The Arts, Theatre, Film & Broadcast, USA

Celebration Marks Purchase of Lot for San Carlos Branch Library

Now plans can proceed to build a modern, 25,000-square-foot “state-of-the-art” branch library in the San Carlos neighborhood. The planned structure has been estimated to cost between $29.5 million and $29.8 million and will replace a much smaller library that had been built in 1974. [Donald H. Harrison]

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Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Donald H. Harrison, Fred Kropveld, San Diego County

With Heirs’ Permission, Rube Goldberg Reimagined as a Modern 6th Grader

In this fictional story, Rube Goldberg is a 6th grader, living in modern times, and he is obsessed with building novel machines.  You might think of the story as a guess about what the real Rube Goldberg might have been like if he were a kid today. [Donald H. Harrison]

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Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Donald H. Harrison, Jewish Fiction

Meir Shalev’s ‘My Wild Garden’ Brings to Light Israel’s Ethos, History, and Development

By Dorothea Shefer-Vanson MEVASSERET ZION, Israel — From time to time I like to test my ability to read a literary text in Hebrew (the daily newspaper can hardly be called “literary”) by reading a book in that language. After all, I have been living in Israel for almost 60 years and have had to

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Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Dorothea Shefer-Vanson, Israel

San Diegan Elizabeth Schwartz Retells 3 Yiddish Horror Stories

These are not the kind of stories that you would read to your little children, although you might be tempted by the time they are tweens to retell these stories around a nighttime campfire while using a flashlight to illuminate your face from the chin up. [Donald H. Harrison]

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Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Donald H. Harrison, Jewish Fiction, San Diego County

Book on Albert Einstein’s Ongoing Legacy is Enjoyable to Read

In this breezy, easy-to-read, enjoyable book, Cohen surveys the world that has incorporated Einstein’s thought and image into every-day life, with Einstein’s celebrity continuing to grow, rather than fade, since his death in 1955 at age 76. [Donald H. Harrison]

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Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Donald H. Harrison, Israel, Jewish History, Science, Medicine, & Education, USA

Canadian Author Divides Antisemitism into Four Categories

In this book are eight topics essayed by Philip Slayton, an attorney and writer who serves as president of the literary society PEN Canada.  He first addresses the question of Jewish identity, then moves on to Jews in the World (where we live); Jews and Muslims; Jews and Christians; Jews and Zionism; Jews as Victims; Jews and the Media; Jews as Wanderers, and, beginning on page 143, he offers some conclusions. [Donald H. Harrison]

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Books, Poetry & Short Stories, California, Donald H. Harrison, Jewish History