The Arts

Book review: ‘The Myth of the Cultural Jew’

The Myth of the Cultural Jew: Culture and Law in Jewish Tradition by Roberta Rosenthal Kwall, Oxford University Press, New York;  ISBN 978-0-19-537370-7 ©2015, $34.95, p. 297, plus index By Fred Reiss, Ed.D. WINCHESTER, California — If you’ve ever heard a new employee at work say something like, “We didn’t do it that way when I […]

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

Holocaust quandary: At what cost survival?

Anna and the Swallow Man by Gavriet Savit, Random House Children’s Books, ©2016; fiction; ISBN 978-0-553-51334-9; 230 pages; $17.99. By Donald H. Harrison SAN DIEGO – Here is a fictional story that is both fascinating and improbable.  A 7-year-old Jewish girl in Poland is left alone after the Nazis take away her father, a professor

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Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Donald H. Harrison

Film Festival Preview: ‘The Prime Ministers’

The Prime Ministers: Soldiers and Peacemakers directed by Richard Trask; Moriah Films; USA; 2015; 114 minutes; English, Hebrew; English Subtitles, Documentary; Southern California Films; to be shown twice at the Reading Cinemas 14, at 4665 Clairemont Drive, San Diego, at 5 p.m., Sunday February 7, and at 1 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 11; and once the

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Donald H. Harrison, Middle East, San Diego Calendar, Theatre, Film & Broadcast, USA

From the Jewish Library: ‘Timechart History…’

The Timechart History of Jewish Civilization, edited and designed by Meredith MacArdle, World Press Ltd., 2010, Consultant: Judy Gold, Director, London Jewish Cultural Center By Sheila Orysiek SAN DIEGO — This is a  large coffee table sized book that opens with a spectacular full color, sixteen page, unfolding panel which is eleven feet long.  It

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Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Jewish History

Film Festival Preview: ‘The Price of Sugar’

The Price of Sugar directed by Jean van de Veide/ Netherlands, Germany, South Africa/ 2013/120 minutes; Dutch/ English Subtitles/ Drama/ U.S. premiere.  To be shown three times at the San Diego Jewish Film Festival: at 7 p.m., Thursday, Feb. 3, and 4 p.m., Thursday Feb. 11 at the Reading Cinemas 14, 4665 Clairemont Drive, San

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Donald H. Harrison, Theatre, Film & Broadcast

Book of the Dead, Yom Kippur and Verdi’s Requiem

By Dorothea Shefer-Vanson MEVASSERET ZION, Israel — I know I’ve written before about Verdi’s Requiem, the role it played in my childhood and musical education in general, about the impression made on me when I read of its performance by prisoners in Theresienstadt and finally being privileged to attend a performance of the reconstruction of

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Dorothea Shefer-Vanson, Jewish Religion, Middle East, Music, Dance, and Visual Arts

Sherlock Holmes from a Jewish point of view

By Eva Trieger SOLANA BEACH, California-  Sherlock Holmes and the Adventure of the Great Nome Gold Rush opened to a full and enthusiastic house on Saturday night.  Part of the reason for the fervent response was a group of very fine actors.  Jason Maddy, Nicholas Mongiardo-Cooper, Richard Baird, Jacquelyn Ritz, Julian Diaz, Louis Lotorto, Katie

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Eva Trieger, Theatre, Film & Broadcast