Donald H Harrison
Harrison is editor of San Diego Jewish World. He may be contacted via donald.harrison@sdjewishworld.com
Friendship between Basques and Jews fuels novel
While the Basque people of Vitoria, Spain, were Christians, like the Jews, they were outsiders, not quite like the other Christians of Castile or other parts of newly united Spain. So, when King Ferdinand...
The Magic Realism of Paul Bond
Sometimes artists derive joy from hearing what you think their paintings are about versus what message they actually intended to impart. Paul Bond is one of those artists. I told him that while looking...
Beyond the Age of Reason: Art to inspire, raise questions, and perhaps anger
The contemporary art exhibit, “Beyond the Age of Reason,” curated by Larry and Debby Kline, is nearing the end of its run at the San Diego Art Institute in Balboa Park. If you want...
‘Samuel Project’ stars Hal Linden as Holocaust survivor
The Samuel Project, filmed in San Diego and screened at the San Diego International Film Festival, is a gentle post-Holocaust story starring Hal Linden as Samuel, a Holocaust survivor who is reluctant to talk about...
Surviving the Shoah by hook or by crook
This book came to me “over the transom,” that is, without any previous warning. Even though it is three years old, I’m glad that I had a chance to read and review it, as...
Photographer Irving Penn in retrospect at MOPA
SAN DIEGO – If you were a reader of Harper’s Bazaar or Vogue, especially during the 20thcentury, you might have become very familiar with the fashion photography of Irving Penn, who was born to a Jewish father and...
Novel relates a lesser known Holocaust experience
There are aspects of the story that are hauntingly familiar: A banging on the door and an arrest; people being crammed so tightly into boxcars that many have to sleep in cramped discomfort or...
Historian chronicles Hitler’s friends and fellow travelers
Former California Gov. Gray Davis, a liberal Democrat, and the Koch Brothers, billionaire businessmen and Libertarians often associated with conservative causes, would seem to have little in common. However, that is why digging into...
Holocaust survivor repays a debt in ‘The Last Suit’
Holocaust survivor Abraham Bursztein (Miguel Angel Sola), the protagonist in the Spanish language, English-subtitled film The Last Suit, has a promise to keep before his children in Argentina move him out of his house and pack...
Timeless Chanukah story set in 1912 New York City
My mother Alice was born in 1912, the same year in which is set this timeless Chanukah story originated in the 1950’s by Sydney Taylor and retold today by Emily Jenkins and Paul O....