Donald H. Harrison is the publisher and editor of San Diego Jewish World.
Harrison began his journalism career in 1962 on the UCLA Daily Bruin. Following graduation he joined the staff of the Associated Press, and later became politics writer for The San Diego Union. Afterwards he pursued a career in tourism, helping to establish San Diego’s Cruise Ship Program as well as Old Town Trolley Tours of San Diego. He also wrote for such Jewish publications as the San Diego Jewish Press Heritage and San Diego Jewish Times before starting San Diego Jewish World in 2007.
Don’s latest work is the three-volume Schlepping and Schmoozing Along the Interstate 5.
He is the author of six previous books. Those with links may be obtained on Amazon.
By Donald H. Harrison SAN DIEGO—The exterior of the San Diego House adobe in Old Town San Diego State Historic Park is unremarkable, but historians will tell you that the building had a way of attracting to its ownership over the last century and a half the kind of people of whom legends […]
San Diego’s Historic Places: San Diego House, Old Town Read More »
Donald H. Harrison, USA
Ben Kamin, Nothing Like Sunshine, Michigan State University Press, 146 pages, $24.95. By Donald H. Harrison SAN DIEGO—Rabbi Ben Kamin was in the tenth grade in Cincinnati, Ohio, on the April day in 1968 that Martin Luther King was assassinated while standing on the balcony of the Lorraine Motel in Memphis. The murder of the
Kamin’s ‘Nothing Like Sunshine’ is a personal exploration of Black-Jewish relationship Read More »
Donald H. Harrison
By Donald H. Harrison EL CAJON, California –Denny Whitson lives across the street from the large mushroom shaped water tank with clouds around its rim. He likes it very much, noting that he can look up from 20 miles away and know exactly where his home is. Other people aren’t quite so enamored
Brown mushroom water tower is cloudy but seen for miles Read More »
Donald H. Harrison
By Donald H. Harrison SAN DIEGO—When a U.S. Marine Corps detachment from the USS Cyane marched from the shore of San Diego Bay to the plaza in Old Town San Diego on July 29, 1846 and raised the American flag without serious challenge, thus ending Mexican control over this city, someone must have thought, ‘Wait
San Diego County’s Historic Places: San Pasqual Battleground Read More »
Donald H. Harrison, USA
Eva’s Story by Eva Schloss (with Evelyn Julia Kent), William B. Eerdman Publishing Co, 2010, 226 pages. By Donald H. Harrison SAN DIEGO—This is an updated version of the memoirs of Eva Schloss, who was the posthumous stepsister of the immortal Anne Frank. Originally published in 1988, the current edition brings readers up to date
Eva Schloss, stepsister of Anne Frank, writes intriguing memoir Read More »
Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Donald H. Harrison, Jewish History
By Donald H. Harrison SPRING VALLEY, California—Speculation was popular from the 17th through 19th centuries that Native Americans might have been descended from the Lost Tribes of Israel. In this community off State Route 94, there once lived a famous historian who was among those who investigated the Lost Tribe theory and then dismissed it as being
San Diego County’s Historic Places: Bancroft Ranch House Read More »
Donald H. Harrison
By Donald H. Harrison SAN DIEGO – When this city was a frontier town, punishments for transgressing the rules were meted out to pupils and, in one notable instance, to Mary Chase Walker, the first teacher. A visit to the Mason Street School, built in 1865 and now sitting within the confines of Old
San Diego’s Historic Places: Mason Street School Read More »
Donald H. Harrison
By Donald H. Harrison SAN DIEGO – Thanks to fictionalized accounts of the lives of “lawmen” in the Old West, many people have romanticized notions about what it was like to be the sheriff in a frontier town. Probably a front parlor in a two-story Greek revival home where the children played the piano and
San Diego’s Historic Places: McCoy House Read More »
Donald H. Harrison
By Donald H. Harrison OCEANSIDE, California – Surf historian Jane Schmauss vividly recalls the day she waited expectantly as the telephone rang at the home of Kathy Kohner Zuckerman, a legendary figure in the development of surfing as a popular sport. “Hello?” responded the voice on the other end. “Hello,” said Schmauss. “Is this
San Diego County’s Historic Places: California Surf Museum Read More »
Donald H. Harrison
By Donald H. Harrison SAN DIEGO—There are many automotive museums around the world, interpreting their missions in a variety of fashions. Some collect, wanting to obtain representative automobiles of every make, nationality, or year. Others love to show the marriages of art and technology, form and function, and marketing and self-perceptions all shaping people’s
San Diego’s Historic Places: San Diego Automotive Museum Read More »
Donald H. Harrison, Jewish History, USA
By Donald H. Harrison SAN DIEGO—Probably no event has seared into the consciousness of the Japanese-American community more painfully than their forced relocation from their homes on the West Coast of the United States to internment camps in the interior of the country during World War II. This is the central portion of
By Donald H. Harrison SAN DIEGO–The Casa de Estudillo in Old Town San Diego State Historic Park is a re-creation of a hacienda owned by Jose Antonio Estudillo, one of the most influential men to live in San Diego under Spanish, Mexican and American rule. Jose Antonio was the son of Captain Jose Maria Estudillo,
San Diego’s Historic Places: Casa de Estudillo Read More »
Donald H. Harrison, USA
By Donald H. Harrison SAN DIEGO—The intersection which Jewish settler Louis Rose called 1st and Main Streets back in 1869 as of Thursday, April 29, bears a plaque recognizing it as the place where the community of Roseville began. Today Roseville is a section of Point Loma, a neighborhood in the City of San Diego.
Roseville has its La Playa Trail marker again Read More »
Donald H. Harrison, Jewish History, USA
By Donald H. Harrison LAKESIDE, California –Lindo Lake’s name is a combination of English and Spanish meaning “Beautiful Lake” and no doubt exercise enthusiasts, water fowl admirers, picnickers, horseshoe pitchers, antiquarians, and automobile racing fans would agree that the description is apt. The water surface area is divided into two basins—the slightly larger
San Diego’s Historic Places: Lindo Lake in Lakeside Read More »
Donald H. Harrison