Books, Poetry & Short Stories

Author’s Vivid Accounts Range From Nazi Death Camps to Boston’s Worst Neighborhoods

By Dorothea Shefer-Vanson MEVASSERET ZION, Israel — From Broken Glass: My Story of Finding Hope in Hitler’s Death Camps to Inspire a New Generation, by Steve Ross, is truly an inspiring story. Interspersed with the author’s vivid recollections of being incarcerated from the age of 8 in a succession of concentration camps are accounts of […]

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Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Dorothea Shefer-Vanson, Holocaust, International, USA

PJ Library Serves Up Stories About Passover and Mimouna

From PJ Library comes two Passover-related books suitable for reading to children.  Meet the Matzah is the kind of silly story that children will giggle over.  In this case, different kinds of breads and matzah have been anthropomorphized as students in a classroom where they learn about all kinds of holidays and the breads that are served.  For example, one might eat naan during the Hindu festival of Diwali and tortillas on the Mexican holiday of Dia de los Muertos. [Donald H. Harrison]

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Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Donald H. Harrison, International, Jewish Religion, Middle East

Reframing the Arguments in Israel and the Palestinian Authority

Almost all arguments about Israel revolve around one or more of the following themes: security, collective identity, freedom, and territory. Authors Gringras and Sterne help us to conceptualize these arguments with a series of analogies.  They challenge us to argue, in the classic sense of the word, about right and wrong in the hope that we may learn from each other. Arguments are different from fights; they are mental exercises, not physical, and they are laid out methodically, with each side trying to educate the other using such tools as logic and empathy. [Donald H. Harrison]

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Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Donald H. Harrison, Middle East, Science, Medicine, & Education

Book on Hope Through a Jewish Lens Comes Just in Time for Passover

“Choosing Hope: The Heritage of Judaism” by David Arnow; The Jewish Publication Society: March 2022; ISBN 9780827-615205; 352 pages; $30. By Michael R. Mantell, Ph.D. SAN DIEGO — In less than one second, searching for the word “hope” brings almost 2.5 billion references through Google. Wow! That’s a popular topic, and for good reason. I’ve

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Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Jewish Religion, Michael Mantell

Written in 1845, ‘Narrative of the Life of an American Slave’ Remains a Must-Read in 2022

By Rabbi Dr. Israel Drazin   BOCA RATON, Florida — “Narrative of the Life of an American Slave” by Frederick Douglass, written in 1845 with a preface by Wendell Phillips, is a brilliant book by a brilliant former slave in Maryland that everyone should read. It is a short, easy-to-read report of Douglass’ early life,

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Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Israel Drazin-Rabbi Dr., USA

‘Schlepping and Schmoozing Along the Interstate 5’ Tells Fascinating Jewish Stories at Every Exit

Schlepping and Schmoozing Along the Interstate 5 by Donald H. Harrison, with special architectural photography by Ben Dishman; San Diego, California: independently published (c) 2022; ISBN 9798441-789226; 308 pages; $19.95. By Dorian de Wind AUSTIN, Texas — According to Google Maps, the distance between San Ysidro, Calif., and Exit 18B off the Interstate 5 (the

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Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Dorian de Wind, San Diego County, Travel and Food

Student Poetry Reflects Wisdom, Deep Feelings, Nurturing Teachers

By Eileen Wingard   LA JOLLA, California — Seventeen middle school and high school students from the San Diego Jewish Academy, the Portland Jewish Academy, and Temple Solel were featured during the Jewish Poets-Jewish Voices Student Showcase on Sunday afternoon, March 27. Their works reflected their wisdom, their deep feelings, and the dedicated teachers who

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Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Eileen Wingard, San Diego County, Science, Medicine, & Education

To Whom Was the Promised Land Promised?

By Rabbi Dr. Israel Drazin BOCA RATON, Florida — Professor Abraham A. Sion — author of the interesting, significant, and eye-opening book “To Whom Was The Promised Land Promised?” — knows the subject of the Israeli and Arab claims to the land of Israel better than most people. He served as deputy state attorney for

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Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Israel Drazin-Rabbi Dr., Jewish History, Middle East

Factual Errors Detract from Jewish Family Saga

This is a novel that traces a Jewish family through several generations from a shtetl in Poland to the big city of Warsaw, and later onward to Scotland, Germany, and England over the course of pogroms and two world wars. It is marred in the telling by a series of errors that might have been eliminated through more careful research or fact checking [Donald H. Harrison]

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Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Donald H. Harrison