Books, Poetry & Short Stories

‘Sage Advice’ unlocks some Pirkei Avot mysteries

Sage Advice: Pirkei Avot Translation and Commentary by Irving (Yitz) Greenberg; Maggid Books, New Milford, Connecticut; ISBN 978-1-59264-444-5 ©2016, $24.95, p. 336 plus index By Fred Reiss, Ed.D. WINCHESTER, California — Pirkei Avot, literally meaning “Chapters of the Fathers,” but often translated as “Ethics of the Fathers,” is part of the Talmud, the written form […]

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

The spy Ashraf Marwan and the Yom Kippur War

The Spy Who Fell To Earth: My Relationship with the Secret Agent Who Rocked the Middle East by Ahron Bregman; CreateSpace; © 2016; ISBN 13: 9781523339970; 120 pages including appendices. By Donald H. Harrison SAN DIEGO –Having read the San Diego Jewish World article by Joe Spier about the master spy Ashraf Marwan, historian Ahron

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

A post- Holocaust tale of ill-gotten diamonds

Max’s Diamonds by Jay Greenfield; © 2016; Chickadee Prince Books; 385 pages; ISBN 978-0-9913274-2-3;  $15.99 By Donald H. Harrison SAN DIEGO –Paul Hartman is incredibly bright, extraordinarily calculating, and horribly conflicted about the diamonds that his cousin, Max, a survivor of Auschwitz, conferred upon his family before he committed suicide.  Even as a boy, Paul

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Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Donald H. Harrison

Author Meg Rosoff wins Sweden’s 2016 Lindgren prize

Stockholm (dpa) – US author Meg Rosoff was Tuesday named winner of Sweden’s 2016 Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award in literature for children and young people. Rosoff’s novels for young adults “speak to the emotions as well as the intellect,” the jury said, adding that her “brave and humorous stories are one-of-a-kind. She leaves no reader

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Books, Poetry & Short Stories

Marriage choice should be “right” not “in” nor “out”

The Beauty Queen of Jerusalem by Sarit Yishai-Levi St. Martin’s Press, 2016; ISBN 978-1-250-07816-2; 372 pages; $25.99 By Donald H. Harrison SAN DIEGO– The heart rules supreme, or at least it should have, in this novel covering four generations of Ladino-speaking Israelis. Next time that you try to forbid a son or a daughter from

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Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Donald H. Harrison, Jewish Religion

How Streisand turned looking ‘too Jewish’ into stardom

When she decided to go into show business, iconic Jewish-American performer Barbra Streisand had to overcome tremendous odds, not the least of which was what some viewed as her distinctively Jewish appearance, according to an upcoming biography of the singer and actress. Long before she became a cultural icon, the Brooklyn-born Streisand was mocked, derided

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

Travel and turpinoid subjects for poets

By Eileen Wingard SAN DIEGO — Nelson Heller and Genine Rainbeau-Heart were the two featured poets at the Jewish Poets-Jewish Voices program Tuesday evening, March 22, at the Astor Judaica Library. With one of the original programmed poets absent due to illness, the open microphone segment was extended. The well-attended audience was rewarded with Rainbeau-Heart’s original

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Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Eileen Wingard

Novel explores Berlin on the eve of World War II

Midnight in Berlin by James MacManus; Thomas Dunne Books/ St. Martin’s Press; ISBN 978-1-250-07949-4; 404 pages; $26.99 By Donald H. Harrison SAN DIEGO – This is a novel of political intrigue set in Nazi Germany just before the outbreak of World War II.  The British military attache in Berlin, Noel Macrae, learns of Adolf Hitler’s

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Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Donald H. Harrison

From the Jewish library: ‘An Improbable Friendship’

An Improbable Friendship: The Remarkable Lives of Israeli Ruth Dayan and Palestinian Raymonda Tawil and Their Forty Year Peace Mission, by Anthony David, Arcade Publishing, 2015 By Sheila Orysiek SAN DIEGO — Ruth Dayan was married to and then divorced from Israel’s General Moshe Dayan. Raymonda Tawil was the mother-in-law of Palestinian Fatah Chairman Yasser

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Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Middle East

Gaza, Lebanon–An Israeli soldier’s diary

From the Wilderness and Lebanon: An Israeli Soldier’s Story of War and Recovery by Asael Lubotzky, Translated from the Hebrew by Murray Roston,Toby Press, New Milford, Connecticut; ISBN 978-1-59264-417-9 ©2015, $14.95, p. 188 By Fred Reiss, Ed.D. WINCHESTER, California –The Third Platoon of the Golani Brigade, now working near Gaza for training, but normally operating in Northern Israel,

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Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Fred Reiss, EdD, Middle East