Books, Poetry & Short Stories

Robert Silvers, founding editor of The New York Review of Books, dies at 87

Robert Silvers, the founding editor of The New York Review of Books and a towering patron of intellectual thought who championed writers including Norman Mailer and Joan Didion, has died at the age of 87. Silver died Monday at his Manhattan home after a brief illness, the literary publication announced. Under his guiding editorial hand, […]

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Books, Poetry & Short Stories, USA

Famed San Francisco radio host commands laughter with new Jewish humor book

Michael Krasny’s ‘Let There Be Laughter’ offers funny jokes and insightful commentary as antidote to trying times By Renee Ghert-Zand You know how a lot of people have trouble remembering jokes? Well, Michael Krasny isn’t one of them. An English professor and the longtime host of the most-listened-to locally produced public radio program in the

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Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Theatre, Film & Broadcast, USA

Amy Krouse Rosenthal, author of ‘You May Want to Marry My Husband,’ dies at 51

CHICAGO — Amy Krouse Rosenthal, a Chicago author who wrote a heart-wrenching column called “You May Want to Marry My Husband” while battling ovarian cancer, died Monday at 51. Rosenthal was a prolific creator described on her website as “a person who likes to make things.” That description includes children’s books and “grown-up books,” salads,

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Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Obituaries & memorials, USA

Five megillot are examined in ‘Textual Tapestries’

Textual Tapestries: Explorations of the Five Megillot by Gabriel H Cohn (Translated from the Hebrew by David Strauss), Maggid Books, New Milford, CT, © 2016, ISBN 978-1-59264-398-1, p. 433, $29.95 By Fred Reiss, Ed.D. WINCHESTER, California – The Tanakh, or Hebrew Bible, is divided into three broad sections: Torah, the Five Books of Moses; Nevi’im, the prophets;

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

‘The Lies They Tell’ excoriates U.S. society

 By Steve Kramer ALFE MENASHE, Israel — The Lies They Tell is the second Tuvia Tenenbom book that I’ve read, following the enlightening Catch the Jew!, which penetrates the bubble surrounding many Israelis and journalists. Tuvia (his irreverent style breeds a strange familiarity) is an expat Israeli who has lived in the United States, Germany

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Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Steve Kramer, USA

Works of Jewish poets of Spain’s Golden Age to be recited and sung

By Eileen Wingard LA JOLLA, California — The next Jewish Poets—Jewish Voices program, will feature the works of three of the leading Jewish poets from the Golden Age of Spain, Solomon Ibn Gabirol (1021-1058), Judah Halevi (1085 -1141) and Abraham Ibn Ezra (1092-1167). The free evening, under the auspices of the San Diego Center for Jewish

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

Fry saga leaves reviewer with mixed feelings

Moab is my Washpot by Stephen Fry; Hutchinson, 1997. By Dorothea Shefer-Vanson MEVASSERET ZION, Israel — I have mixed feelings about the author whose avowed brilliance is tempered by strange behavior, apparently due to his being subject to bi-polar disorder, as well as his aversion to Israel and Zionism. His half-Jewish background may partly account for the latter,

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Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Dorothea Shefer-Vanson

New book examines Judaism’s last three prophets

Haggai, Zechariah, and Malachi: Prophecy in an Age of Uncertainty by Hayyim Angel, Maggid Books, New Milford, CT, © 2016, ISBN 978-1-59264-413-1, p. 154 plus appendix, $24.95 By Fred Reiss, Ed.D. WINCHESTER, California –  Jewish prophets are missionaries in the sense that God calls them to fulfill a task, such as conveying important information to the

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

World of mystery at Fleet Science Center

By Eric George Tauber SAN DIEGO — Just the other day, I was explaining the term “spoiler” to my ESL students. If you wrote a who-done-it called “The Butler did it,” no one would read it because it’s the mental gymnastics it takes to untangle a web of intrigue that makes it worthwhile. Now at

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Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Eric George Tauber, San Diego County, Science, Medicine, & Education

Ross offers primer on Israel and U.S. Presidents

Doomed to Succeed: The U. S. – Israel Relationship from Truman to Obama by Dennis Ross, Fareerar, Straus, and Giroux, New York, © 2015, ISBN 978-0-374-70948-8, p. 408 plus notes and index, $30.00 By Fred Reiss, Ed.D.  WINCHESTER, California –  Did Obama’s communication to America’s UN ambassador, directing her to abstain on a vote condemning Israel

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Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Middle East, USA