Jewish Fiction

Short-Story Collection Provides Tour of Human Situations and Emotions

This collection of short stories by Roberta Silman is similar to a travelogue, but instead of journeys through locales, these trips are through human emotions in given situations, especially, but not exclusively, through loss and dying. [Donald H. Harrison]

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Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Donald H. Harrison, Jewish Fiction, Staff and Bylined Contributors

Suicide or Murder? Novel Probes Death of Fictional Holocaust Survivor and Scholar

Was he, as some commentators suggested at the time, Hitler’s 6,000,001st victim, overcome by Holocaust-caused PTSD?  Or, was it something related to his contemporary life in Israel? For that matter, was it really a suicide? [Donald H. Harrison]

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Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Donald H. Harrison, Holocaust, Israel, Jewish Fiction, Jewish Religion, Staff and Bylined Contributors

Although It Was Just a Reading, It Had Lage Emotional Impact

Back in the beginning of the summer I had the opportunity to attend a Jewish Italian culture night through San Diego JFest. Part of that event was a reading of an excerpt of Ali Viterbi’s play In Every Generation.  In that reading, Marco Barricelli and his real-life wife Beatrice Basso read the parts of Davide and Paola in the scene that depicts them as post-World War II, newly-married immigrants to America, exploring their new freedom to publicly practice Judaism without fear of pogroms or Nazis. [Sandi Masori]

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Jewish Fiction, San Diego County, Sandi Masori, Staff and Bylined Contributors, Theatre, Film & Broadcast

Jewish Fiction: The Education of Boris Mikhailovich Borisov

Boris Mikhailovich Borisov loved the Soviet power. It lifted him up from the bottom of society and equalized him with its many multinational subjects in rights and lack thereof. Boris Mikhailovich could not pray, but he often and almost prayerfully thanked the dear power for the good life. To succeed, he joined the Communist party, received a law degree, and began seeing a speech therapist to correct his embarrassing Yiddish pronunciation. [Alex Gordon]

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Alex Gordon, International, Israel, Jewish Fiction, Science, Medicine, & Education, Staff and Bylined Contributors

German-Czech Future Fund supports Kafka anniversary projects

Published by DPA International To mark the 100th anniversary of Franz Kafka’s death, the German-Czech Future Fund is supporting cross-border projects that deal with the life and work of the German-Jewish writer. Interested parties from Germany and the Czech Republic can apply for funding until the end of this month, a spokeswoman said in Prague

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Books, Poetry & Short Stories, International, Jewish Fiction, Jewish History, Nordot

Treachery, Sex, Sportsmanship Dominate Novel about 1936 Olympic Games

Hitler sought a propaganda victory for his Nazified country with the Olympic Games supposed to be the setting for a demonstration of “Aryan” superiority. Brundage, blinded by his own lust for prominence, became Hitler’s stooge, so desperate was he to rise to the presidency of the International Olympic Committee.  [Donald H. Harrison]

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Antisemitism, Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Donald H. Harrison, International, Jewish Fiction, Staff and Bylined Contributors

Three Intriguing Stories Lead to One in ‘The Boy with the Star Tattoo’

The highly readable novel juxtaposes three stories: 1) love and survival in Vichy France;  2) Jewish efforts shortly after World War II to find European Jewish orphans who could be brought to Eretz Israel; and 3) the drama of Israel “stealing” its own ships from under the eyes of the French. [Donald H. Harrison]

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Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Donald H. Harrison, International, Israel, Jewish Fiction, Jewish History, Staff and Bylined Contributors

Book Teaches Children about Trying New Foods, Diversity

In this Australian-based story, when the Jewish community has a cholent competition, onlookers and most other competitors are surprised when Amira, whose Jewish roots are in Iraq, stuffs a chicken with such ingredients as garlic, ginger, onion, paprika, baharat, cinnamon,  and rice.  She cooked the stuffed chicken inside a mixture of sauteed tomatoes and cardamon, hard-boiling eggs on the side. [Donald H. Harrison]

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Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Donald H. Harrison, Jewish Fiction, Staff and Bylined Contributors, Travel and Food

Children’s Book Offers Myth of an Earlier Garden of Eden

It posits that before it was relocated to Earth, the Garden of Eden—with a man and a woman, the snake, and its fruits and vegetables—all existed on an unnamed planet.  There, the fruits each laid claim to being the best.  The apple boasted it was the “hardiest”; the pomegranate, the “biggest”; the grape, the “sweetest”; the fig, “the yummiest” and the citron (lemon) because it could make any of them taste better with just one drop. [Donald H. Harrison]

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Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Donald H. Harrison, Jewish Fiction, Staff and Bylined Contributors

OpEd: Imagined Voices and Motivations of Middle East Actors

Are we on the brink of plunging into a spiral of violence, potentially dragging the rest of the world into the horrors of World War III? Or will we strive to restore calm, seeking to cultivate a world marked by peace and prosperity for all its inhabitants?  What will be the answer? [Jose Galicot]

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International, Israel, Jewish Fiction, Jose Galicot, Middle East, San Diego County, Staff and Bylined Contributors, USA

Jewish Fiction: Another American Passover

The haroset is a mixture of fruit, especially those things with laxative qualities such as prunes, nuts and wine. It is very sweet and quite enjoyable. Is this really what the Rabbis intended to convey? The sandwich of Matzah, bitter herbs and cement is actually a tasty appetizer. Let me get this straight, the symbols of slavery are tasty? [Jerry Klinger]

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Jerry Klinger, Jewish Fiction, Jewish Religion, Staff and Bylined Contributors, Trivia, Humor & Satire