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.
Avi Miller, a Baltimore native who investigated other parts of the USA before deciding to move more than a year ago to San Diego, was the clever communicator for Team Israel on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook during the recent World Baseball Classic. [Donald H. Harrison]
San Diegan Is Social Media Voice of Baseball’s Team Israel Read More »
California, Donald H. Harrison, Israel, San Diego County, Sports & Competitions, USA
Observant Jews will be ridding their household of food products with leavening in advance of the Passover holiday that begins the evening of Wednesday, April 5. While checking the labels, they might also want to see if any of the foods they are consuming contain brominated vegetable oil, potassium bromate, propylparaben, red dye 3, or titanium dioxide. Those are the chemicals that a bill (AB 418) by Assemblyman Jesse Gabriel (D-Encino) would ban from food manufactured or sold in California. The chemicals already are banned as toxic by Europe, where some manufacturers have consequently reformulated products that had contained them. [Donald H. Harrison]
B’Shalom: Proposed California Food Bans, Technology, Jewish Politics and Celebrities Read More »
Business & Finance, California, Donald H. Harrison, Holocaust, Israel, San Diego County, Science, Medicine, & Education, USA
Rose Creek runs through Rose Canyon, which is known to seismographers as the site of the Rose Canyon Fault. The canyon, the creek, and the fault are not named for the rose flower. These locations are named for Louis Rose, who in 1850 became San Diego’s first Jewish settler. [Donald H. Harrison]
San Diego’s Jewish Pioneer Built Area’s First Tannery in Rose Canyon Read More »
Business & Finance, California, Donald H. Harrison, Jewish History, San Diego County, Travel and Food, USA
On March 31, in theatres around the country, His Only Son, a Christian movie by David Helling depicting the binding of Isaac, will open. Except for some Christian references at the beginning and end of the epic, the film fits in well with Jewish exegesis. It’s a fascinating cinematographic midrash on Genesis 22:1-19. [Donald H. Harrison]
‘His Only Son,’ Movie about Abraham and Isaac, Opens March 31 Read More »
Donald H. Harrison, Jewish Religion, Music, Dance, and Visual Arts
Imagine that you built a bridge out of Jengo blocks, and you wanted to see who could more accurately and more quickly replicate your bridge. Would it be students between the ages of 7 and 13 who watched a 20-second video of you building the bridge, step by step? Or would it be students of the same age range who simply viewed the bridge for 20 seconds and then, after it was removed from view, started building a copy from memory? [Donald H. Harrison]
Hebrew Day School Student Wins Invitation to State Science Fair Read More »
California, Donald H. Harrison, San Diego County, Science, Medicine, & Education
As the Major League Baseball season is about to get underway, I’m disappointed to report that our San Diego Padres do not have any Jewish player on the roster. However, there are eight Jewish players on National League teams that the Padres will play during the regular season. [Donald H. Harrison]
B’Shalom: Jewish MLB Players; Sabras, Jewish Political & Celebrity News Read More »
California, Donald H. Harrison, Israel, Jewish History, San Diego County, Science, Medicine, & Education, Sports & Competitions, USA
Too bad much of this book is fiction, although it is said to be based on a true story. If entirely true, it would identify more people who helped to save the Jews of Bulgaria from extinction, so they could be honored as Righteous Gentiles at Yad Vashem in Jerusalem. [Donald H. Hrrison]
Fictional Account Tells of the Rescue of Bulgarian Jews Read More »
Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Donald H. Harrison
Israeli Filmmaker Ran Tal has put together a fascinating documentary in which former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak contemplates whether Middle Eastern history would have changed if plans to assassinate Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat had been approved during the 1970s by his superiors. At that time, Barak was an up and coming officer in the IDF, not important enough to make policy, but sufficiently well placed to carry it out. [Donald H. Harrison]
Over coffee, Wayne explained to me that water from the higher elevations runs off regularly into the Bay. Sometimes it’s rainwater; other times it is water from people watering their lawns, or hosing off their driveways, or washing their cars. This water heads downhill, picking up whatever debris and pet excrement may lay in its path. Eventually, the polluted water may find its way into a storm drain and then flow down to Mission Bay or to any of the beaches along the Pacific Coast. [Donald H. Harrison]
Former Jewish Assemblyman Howard Wayne Tells How His Anti-Pollution Bill Became Law Read More »
California, Donald H. Harrison, San Diego County, The World We Share
Imagine a benevolent race of aliens, possessing technologies many thousand-fold more advanced than those on Earth, select you, for no apparent reason, to communicate humankind’s most pressing problems so they could fix them. [Donald H. Harrison]
2033: A Space Fantasy Read More »
Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Donald H. Harrison
Kristine Schomaker’s eating disorder had made her feel “othered” since her girlhood. She tried to imagine herself as a slender blonde but when she looked into the mirror, she saw herself as she was, a very large woman. Rather than hide from her physical presence, she decided to embrace it. She invited 59 fellow artists to depict her in the nude. Sculptures, photographs, paintings, and drawings in various media resulted in an exhibition now being shown through April 13 at the Mesa College Art Gallery. [Donald H. Harrison]
B’Shalom: Body Image, Military History, Baseball Classic, Jewish Political News Read More »
California, Donald H. Harrison, International, Israel, Lifestyles, Music, Dance, and Visual Arts, San Diego County, Sports & Competitions, USA
Documentary filmmaker Matthew Mishory has done a deep dive into the background of a San Diego couple who lived quietly, scrimped to such a point that they even reused their paper towels, and through their daughter made the largest philanthropic donation to Israel in the history of the Jewish state: $500 million. [Donald H. Harrison]
The Story Behind a San Diego Couple’s Historic Gift to Israel Read More »
California, Donald H. Harrison, Israel, San Diego County, Science, Medicine, & Education, Theatre, Film & Broadcast, USA
Before being herded onto separate trains, the couple made a vow that they would meet each other back in the main square in Kaunas whenever they should be liberated. [Donald H. Harrison]
Couple’s Post-Holocaust Reunification Story Has Emotional Impact Read More »
Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Donald H. Harrison, Holocaust, International, Jewish History
The tall ocotillo plant (Fouquieria splendens) that abounds in the Anza-Borrego Desert State Park has many common names, among them, according to the Britannica website, “coachwhip” and “vine cactus.” “Ocotillo” translates from Spanish to “little torch” because of the red flowers that grow at the end of its branches. Perhaps its most mysterious nickname is one that may or may not tell a Jewish story, “Jacob’s staff.”[Donald H. Harrison]
B’Shalom: ‘Jacob’s Staff’; TV’s ‘Equalizer,” and Israel in the WBC Read More »
California, Donald H. Harrison, Jewish Religion, San Diego County, Science, Medicine, & Education