Books, Poetry & Short Stories

Gardens, cacti and a ring grab poets’ attention

By Eileen Wingard LA JOLLA, California — The “Jewish Poets—Jewish Voices” program featured a stellar line-up of poets for its Tuesday, March 16 program, attracting over 100 virtual audience members. The attendees were well-rewarded with the high caliber of poetry, beautifully delivered by local poets Annette Friend, Jen Laffler and Susan L. Lipson. A sample […]

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Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Eileen Wingard, San Diego County

A Pilot’s Love Affair With a Beautiful Israeli

I ordered this book from Bibliophile because the blurb proclaimed that its main character was a pilot who fell in love with an Israeli woman and fought for his adopted country. That, in essence, is the nub of the story, but around it surges and swells a series of events and adventures involving love and enmity, joy and sorrow, and a veritable roller-coaster of emotions for the reader, who cannot help but be drawn into this gripping tale of romance, adventure and action. [Dorothea Shefer-Vanson]

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

Dorothea: In total, this is not the Oz I knew

The latest scandal to erupt in Israel’s literary arena has been triggered by the book published by Galia Oz, the daughter of the late, greatly-esteemed writer, Amos Oz. The memoir, entitled Something Disguised as Love, burst upon the Israeli reading public in a blaze of publicity arising from its controversial revelations concerning the behavior of Amos Oz towards his daughter. [Dorothea Shefer-Vanson]

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

Op Ed: Cancel Shmancel

There’s been quite a bit of buzz about “Cancel Culture.” For some, this may be just a ploy to avoid weightier topics like economic disparity, unemployment, healthcare, and looming evictions. But it can also open up a serious discussion about who we are as a society, where we have been and where we want to go. In some ways, I can see both sides. So, like Tevye in Fiddler on the Roof, I’d like to do a little “on one hand this, on the other hand that” exploration of who and what is being “cancelled.” [Eric George Tauber]

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Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Eric George Tauber, Lifestyles, Theatre, Film & Broadcast, USA

West Coast Jewish Youth Recite the Poetry Within Them

Jewish Poets—Jewish Voices featured the poetry of young writers from San Diego, Los Angeles, and Portland, Oregon, last month.  The Internet audience for the Lawrence Family JCC sponsored event consisted of poetry lovers young and old from the entire West Coast. [Eileen Wingard]

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Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Eileen Wingard, Science, Medicine, & Education, USA

Thriller Novel Tells of War, Rogue Operations on Israel-Lebanon Border

In his fourth appearance in a Joel Rosenberg fictional thriller, CIA Agent Marcus Ryker fights valiantly when he and two others making a peaceful inspection tour of the Israeli-Lebanese border are ambushed and captured by a unit of Hezbollah.  The operatives of the Radwan unit don’t know how big a prize Ryker is, thinking at first that he is an Israeli, and finding out belatedly that he is an American.  But, given that he provides them with his alias, they don’t know his real name of why such countries as Russia and Iran have put a big price on his head. [Donald H. Harrison]

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Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Donald H. Harrison

Thomas Jefferson, Religion, and the Cancel Culture

Often when I hear people wanting to destroy statues of historical figures and burn books of authors who mentioned something they considered wrong, even though these men and women also did good things and are part of our history, I wonder what they would do with the Hebrew Bible if they found out that all the men and women mentioned in the Hebrew Bible arguably did something wrong, such as King David’s adultery. The only totally innocent good man in the Hebrew Bible is Job, and that story according to many rabbis and scholars is just a parable. By pointing out the wrongs, the Torah is telling us that the biblical heroes were humans like us. The Bible does not expect any human to never do wrong. We should learn from these narratives to strive to be as good as we can be. [Rabbi Dr. Israel Drazin]

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

Jewish Trivia Quiz: Dr. Seuss

Later works by Dr. Seuss carried strong messages of the importance of acceptance of others, including Horton Hears a Who!, with a theme of “a person’s a person no matter how small.” Seuss, who made his home in San Diego County, was inspired by a post-World War II visit to Japan that opened his eyes to seeing the Japanese people differently than he had during the war. Which of Dr. Seuss’s works was inspired by something Jewish? [Mark D. Zimmerman]

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Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Mark D. Zimmerman, Trivia, Humor & Satire

Rubenstein’s ‘Agamemnon’ wins posthumous plaudits

The late Dr. Howard Rubenstein’s translation of the famed Greek playwright Aeschylus’ play Agamemnon is a brilliant work. It is the first modern, very readable, very interesting and educational translation of an important classic with a wealth of explanatory information. The problem with former translations is that its English is outdated, stilted, and often hard to understand. Dr. Rubenstein’s version was performed in 1997 in California and in 2002 in Florida with high acclaim. The work is so good that it should become part of the literature courses in upper high school grades and in colleges. [Rabbi Dr. Israel Drazin]

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

Jerusalem 1000 Years Ago a Treasure Trove of Artifacts

Jerusalem 1000 – 1400; Every People Under Heaven is a beautifully-produced combination of a coffee-table book and exhibition catalogue produced in conjunction with the exhibition of that title held in New York in 2016. For the exhibition hundreds of precious, beautiful and fascinating artifacts produced in and concerning Jerusalem in the Middle Ages were amassed from a wide range of sources all over the world. [Dorothea Shefer-Vanson]

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Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Dorothea Shefer-Vanson, Middle East, Music, Dance, and Visual Arts

Hits and Misses on the Book Store Circuit

One of the venues publishers like to send their authors to are book stores where the author gives a talk and sells books. Our local bookstore, Warwick’s, regularly sends out a newsletter advertising an author and his/her book, such as Hillary Clinton, Margaret Thatcher, and Julie Andrews. I lectured there about half a dozen times on my various books. Warwick’s does a great job organizing space to hold 140 chairs. What I like about the Warwick’s talks is that there a lot of familiar faces in the audience. [Natasha Josefowirtz, Ph.D., ACSW]

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Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Business & Finance, Lifestyles, Natasha Josefowitz, San Diego County

Jonas tells of bouncing back from hardship

I’m Not the Boss, I Just Work Here,”  was written by the founder and chairman of the multibillion dollar publicly traded telecommunications corporation IDT, and Genie Energy Ltd, Howard Jonas.  Reading his personal short and succinctly portrayed story will leave you feeling that you too can overcome barriers of clinical depression and emerge with faith and profound success. [Michael Mantell, Ph.D]

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Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Business & Finance, Lifestyles, Michael Mantell