Books, Poetry & Short Stories

Good values, but not history, in novel about Lincoln

Young Lincoln of New Salem by Sam Rawlins; © 2019; Yorkshire Publishing; ISBN 9781848-231946; 333 pages including author’s notes, acknowledgments and bibliography. By Donald H. Harrison SAN DIEGO – Lincoln biographers tell us that as a boy the 16th President of the United States read Parson Mason Weems’ Life of George Washington.  In my reading […]

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Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Donald H. Harrison

Kabbalah as explained by quantum physics

From Infinity to Man by Eduard Shyfrin, White Raven Publishing, © 2019, ISBN 978-1-911195-84-9, p. 122 plus notes and index, $24.99. By Fred Reiss, Ed.D. WINCHESTER, California – Kabbalah is esoteric Judaism, the mystical traditions handed down orally through the generations. Yet, Kabbalah is not a monolith, its concepts and structures evolve. In the introduction to

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Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Fred Reiss, EdD, Jewish Religion

How a Jewish tale differs from others

By Rabbi Dr. Israel Drazin BOCA RATON, Florida — There are many instances where both Jews and non-Jews tell stories with some variations on the same plot. In many of these instances, the Jewish version attempts to use its version to teach Jews proper behavior. The following is an example. Rip Van Winkle Washington Irving (1783-1859)

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

The hidden meanings of the Hebrew alphabet

By Zev Bar-Lev SAN DIEGO – A student, let’s call her Ida, says: “I find the Hebrew language completely opaque, as if hidden from me by a thick curtain. I’ve memorized the whole alphabet, all the shapes & their sounds, but I can’t make much out of words, much less sentences—even with a bunch of

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Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Middle East, San Diego County, Science, Medicine, & Education

‘Anne Frank’ may be presented to Muslims in Urdu

By Navras J. Aafreedi. Ph.D KOLKATA, India –The Diary of Anne Frank has been translated into seventy languages, including a few South Asian ones.  These include Hindi, the official link language of India and the fourth most widely spoken language with 341 million speakers; Bengali, the national language of Bangladesh and the fifth most widely

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Books, Poetry & Short Stories, International, Jewish History, Middle East, Theatre, Film & Broadcast

‘All Quiet on the Western Front’ now in graphic format

All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque; graphic adaptation by Wayne Vansant, © 2019 published by Dead Reckoning, ISBN9781682-474601, 170 pages, $24.95. By Donald H. Harrison SAN DIEGO – If I suddenly had universal authority, I would order every world leader, every man or woman capable of summoning an army to fight

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

The floods of Gilgamesh and the Bible

By Rabbi Dr. Israel Drazin BOCA RATON, Florida — There are remarkable similarities between the biblical story of the flood and the more ancient version of Gilgamesh. The Babylonian epic Gilgamesh was written on twelve tablets around 2000 BCE and has survived in several versions. It was discovered in 1839 among the ruins of a

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

Zionism an important component of Wouk’s legacy

By Moshe Phillips PHILADELPHIA, Pennsylvania — Herman Wouk, the famed novelist who first became a household name for his 1951 Pulitzer Prize winning The Caine Mutiny died last week nearly 70 years after achieving fame. Besides his long career as a writer he was also a lifelong Zionist. This fact of Wouk’s love affair with the State of Israel has been completely absent from the many articles celebrating his literary

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Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Jewish History, Middle East, USA

Jewish trivia quiz: Herman Wouk, z”l

By Mark D. Zimmerman MELVILLE, New York — Best selling author Herman Wouk died last week at the age of 103. Wouk, an Orthodox Jew, won the Pulitzer Prize for his novel The Caine Mutiny, and also wrote many Jewish-themed novels, including The Winds of War, War and Remembrance, and Marjorie Morningstar. Marjorie Morningstar told

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

Pride and Prejudice with a comic twist

By Eva Trieger SAN DIEGO —  Big thanks to Kate Hamill for rewriting Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice in such a playful and accessible way. The cast did justice to the snappy, buffoonish, coquettish roles that Hamill created. The playwright sought to deliver Austen’s feminist message and did so in a way that engaged the

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Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Eva Trieger, San Diego County, Theatre, Film & Broadcast