Books, Poetry & Short Stories

Book Provides an Ideological Scaffolding of Jewish Life

“Why Do Jewish? A Manifesto for 21st Century Jewish Peoplehood,” by Zack Bodner; Gefen Publishing, Jerusalem, ©2022; ISBN 978-965-7023-68-6; 196 pages, plus references and index; $18.00. By Fred Reiss, Ed.D. WINCHESTER, California – Prognostication is very difficult, particularly as it pertains to the future. Zack Bodner, having extensive background in Jewish communal life and currently […]

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Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Fred Reiss, EdD, Judaism

Program Showcases San Diego Jewish Community’s Poetic Talent

By Eileen Wingard LA JOLLA, California —The poetic talent in the San Diego Jewish Community was once more on display last Monday evening, January 24, when three featured poets and nine others on open mic read their works during the “Jewish Poets-Jewish Voices” program. Sponsored by the Lawrence Family Jewish Community Center’s Astor Judaica Library

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Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Eileen Wingard

Soviet Jewry Book ‘Hidden Heroes’ Will Both Haunt and Inspire You

Hidden Heroes: One Woman’s Story of Resistance and Rescue in the Soviet Union by Pamela Braun Cohen; Gefen Publishing House © 2021; ISBN 9789657-023365; 393 pages including appendices and an extensive index. By Toby Klein Greenwald EFRAT, Israel — How did the prisoners of Zion and refuseniks have the courage, strength and dedication to apply

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Books, Poetry & Short Stories, International, Jewish History, Toby Klein Greenwald, USA

Entrepreneur Tells of Taking 2 Companies Public and the Deal He Made for the San Diego Jewish Academy

This memoir tells of a man bouncing on the exceedingly rough seas of entrepreneurship and finding emotional safe harbor again and again in the warmth of his family.  It is not your standard how-I-made-a-bundle-and-you-can-too motivational book; it is a very intimate autobiographical portrait of Del Mar resident Richard Jaffe, which he wrote with the assistance of his daughter Charly.  [Donald H. Harrison]

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Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Business & Finance, Donald H. Harrison, Jewish History, Lifestyles, San Diego County, Science, Medicine, & Education, Travel and Food, USA

Author Tells of Survivor Mother and the Extraordinary Medical Campaign that Saved Her

This is an academic work, yet a very personal one for Bernice Lerner of Boston University’s Center for Character and Social Responsibility. The Jewish girl referred to in the subtitle was author Lerner’s mother, Rachel Genuth.  Her Romanian hometown of Seghet was annexed by Hungary, then an ally of Nazi Germany. Teenaged Genuth and the town’s other Jews were rounded up and sent to Auschwitz. [Donald H. Harrison]

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

Children’s Literature: Turning Conflict into Cooperation

Their story starts off as a tale of conflict between two towns, one of which grows apples, and the other which raises honey bees.  When the residents of Dvash stripped an apple tree in the town of Tapuchim, the first reaction of the adult residents of Tapuchin was to retaliate against Dvash.  But a little girl suggested that before they do anything, they should seek the advice of their rabbi. [Donald H. Harrison]

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Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Donald H. Harrison, San Diego County, Travel and Food

How Did Early Christians Begin to Believe Jesus was God?

By Rabbi Dr. Israel Drazin BOCA RATON, Florida — How Jesus Became God by Dr. Bart D. Ehrman is an excellent, comprehensive, easy to read history about the beginning of Christianity by a man who was once a very conservative Christian, who is now an agnostic, but who offers readers a non-dogmatic, respectful, historical examination

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

Rethinking Cain’s Famed Remark, ‘Am I My Brother’s Keeper?’

The Trial of Cain: A Jewish Courtroom Drama by Rabbi Dr. Dan Ornstein; Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society; © 2021; ISBN: 0827614675; 232 pages; $20.93. By Rabbi Dr. Michael Leo Samuel CHULA VISTA, California — Rabbi Dan Ornstein’s excellent book, The Trial of Cain: A Jewish Courtroom Drama, reminded me of something I once did with

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Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Jewish Religion, Michael Leo Samuel-Rabbi

‘East West Street:’ Genocide and Crimes Against Humanity

Over the course of six years the author toiled to trace the movements, ideas and political currents underlying two seminal terms in modern international law: ‘genocide’ and ‘crimes against humanity.’ In this undertaking he has interwoven the history and fate of his own family in Galicia (Poland and Ukraine), as well as that of a number of incidental characters, who were involved directly or indirectly in the rescue of some of his family members and the failure to save others. [Dorothea Shefer-Vanson]

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Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Dorothea Shefer-Vanson, International, Jewish History

YA Fiction: A Magical Journey to Save the Environment

This Young Adult novel is a mystical adventure in which four pre-teenage American girls representing the four cardinal directions are brought together to save the world from environmental disaster. The leader, Maia, representing the North, is a Lakota from South Dakota; the others are a Black-Jewish girl from New York (Sara, East); a Chicana from New Mexico, (Ava, South) and a Chinese girl who had been adopted by a Caucasian family in California (Yue, West). [Donald H. Harrison]

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Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Donald H. Harrison, The World We Share

Book Review: All You Need is Revolutionary Love

There are voices, in the here-and-now, that are heard, but not listened to, and seemingly ignored and unheeded. One of those voices flows from Rabbi Dr. Michael Lerner, some menschkatz and psychotherapist philosopher with licensing letters succeeding his surname. He is an old and wise hippy who was inspired by the dreams of the 1960s and -70s, fought the good fight, survived that fight, learned from the mistakes of that era, and who, to this day, continues to learn from and educate others. [John E. Finley]

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Books, Poetry & Short Stories, The World We Share, USA