Jewish Fiction

Love Competes with Jealousy in YA ‘Summer Nights and Meteorites’

There are passing mentions of b’nai mitzvah, Shabbat, and studying Hebrew but these are not essential to the plot, and I wonder sometimes whether such Jewish content is there simply to be placed on Jewish reading lists.  You won’t learn anything about Judaism or Jewish culture, but interesting information abounds about the space and the sea. [Donald H. Harrison]

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

‘Redwood’ Dramatizes Jewish Concept of ‘Lo tash’chit’

Prior to Jesse climbing the tree, Becca is trying to get her to leave and suddenly says “Lo tash’chit!” At this point my mind said “Wow, that sounded like Hebrew, but no it couldn’t have been.” But in fact it is.  Becca goes on to explain that it’s a Jewish concept of taking care of the trees as well as you take care of yourself. She’s bageling Jesse, assuming that Jesse is Jewish. [Sandi Masori]

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

Today’s Jewish Birthday: Judy Blume

Blume’s fight against the book banners, led to her becoming active in the National Coalition Against Censorship. Her treatment of menstruation, masturbation, teen sex, and birth control in different books have prompted calls for their banning. In 2000, the Library of Congress named her a “Living Legend.” [SDJW staff]

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Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Jewish Fiction, Staff and Bylined Contributors, Today's Jewish Birthday, USA

Today’s Jewish Birthday: Israel Zangwill

His play “The Melting Pot” was credited with penning that phrase to describe absorption of immigrants in the United States. After seeing it, former President Theodore Roosevelt reportedly leaned out from his theater box and shouted, “That’s a great play, Mr. Zangwill. That’s a great play.” [SDJW staff]

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International, Israel, Jewish Fiction, Jewish History, Staff and Bylined Contributors, Today's Jewish Birthday, USA

A Klezmer Adventure in old Bessarabia

Shloyml Boyml and his band receive an invitation from a rebbe from some distance away to play at his Purim party.  The rebbe requests that the band compose and play on the violin a special Purim melody.  Shloyml is both ecstatic and worried by the invitation.  It’s a great honor to play for the rebbe.  But his band does not have a violinist. [Donald H. Harrison]

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

Supernatural Tales Embody Wishes of Holocaust Rescue

SAN DIEGO – This collection of five graphic stories was released on Halloween, October 31, not coincidentally.  Each fictional tale has elements of the supernatural, mostly intervening on behalf of Jews who otherwise would have been murdered by the Nazis in the Holocaust. [Donald H. Harrison]

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Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Donald H. Harrison, Holocaust, Jewish Fiction

Short Stories to Momentarily Distract Us from the Awful News

At times, you must have a quick break, if only for the reason of your mental sanity, from watching the horror on TV.  I found the short breaks I needed in the clever, refreshing, short stories, of only a few pages each, in this anthology of semi-biographical Feingold pieces. [Donald H. Harrison]

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

With Heirs’ Permission, Rube Goldberg Reimagined as a Modern 6th Grader

In this fictional story, Rube Goldberg is a 6th grader, living in modern times, and he is obsessed with building novel machines.  You might think of the story as a guess about what the real Rube Goldberg might have been like if he were a kid today. [Donald H. Harrison]

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

San Diegan Elizabeth Schwartz Retells 3 Yiddish Horror Stories

These are not the kind of stories that you would read to your little children, although you might be tempted by the time they are tweens to retell these stories around a nighttime campfire while using a flashlight to illuminate your face from the chin up. [Donald H. Harrison]

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Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Donald H. Harrison, Jewish Fiction, San Diego County

Rosenfarb’s Short Stories Depict the Inner Worlds of Holocaust Survivors

This year, 2023, was declared in Lodz, Poland, to be the year of Chava Rosenfarb, one of its most famous Yiddish writers. In Lethbridge, Canada, meanwhile Goldie Morgentaler, daughter and translator of Rosenfarb from Yiddish to English, completed for publication 10 of her late mother’s stories. [Donald H. Harrison]

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Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Donald H. Harrison, Holocaust, International, Jewish Fiction, Lifestyles

A High-Stakes Love Triangle in the Warsaw Ghetto

When the actors were backstage, they were enmeshed in a real-life love triangle featuring the competition of Edmund (Ferdia Walsh-Peelo) and Patryk (Mark Ryder) for the affection of Stefcia (Clara Rugaard).  Patryk’s on-stage wife Ada (Valentina Belle) was left out of the backstage action. [Donald H. Harrison]

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Donald H. Harrison, Holocaust, Jewish Fiction, Theatre, Film & Broadcast