“The Mystery of the Missing Pitom”, by Beverly Mach Geller
After Yosef, his brothers and father built their sukah, they went to buy a lulav and etrog. Yosef is fascinated by its fragrance and can’t wait until the holiday arrives to smell it again....
The Jewish Annotated New Testament, by Amy-Jill Levine
Although major New Testament figures–Jesus and Paul, Peter and James, Jesus’ mother Mary and Mary Magdalene–were Jews, living in a culture steeped in Jewish history, beliefs, and practices, there has never been an edition...
A Talmud-based Passover tale for children
The Passover Mouse by Joy Nelkin Wieder, illustrated by Shahar Kober; Doubleday Books for Young Readers, 2020;ISBN 9781984-895530; 24 pages including author’s note and glossary; $17.99
Somewhere in Eastern Europe, in a little Jewish village, a...
Book review: ‘Memories, Miracles & Meaning’
At 96, Fanny Krasner Lebovits is still going strong. I saw her as recently as December 2nd in attendance at a regional meeting of her beloved Hadassah, an organization to which she has devoted...
Book on Local Jewish Stories
Whether you are new to San Diego are or an old-timer, I think it is always interesting to learn about local places and people. “Schlepping and Schmoozing through San Diego County, Volume One” is...
Investigative reporting ‘almost impossible’ in modern work culture, journalist Edward Jay Epstein says
Investigative journalist Edward Jay Epstein has spent time over the decades with spies, international criminals, globe-trotting billionaires and world leaders, including former President Richard Nixon and U.S. statesman Henry Kissinger. He has penned more...
The Joys of Jewish Preserving: Modern Recipes with Traditional Roots, for Jams, Pickles, Fruit...
Food preservation, a necessity before the advent of modern refrigeration, is popular again. The slow food movement, which stresses the use of locally grown food prepared with minimal processing, is a factor. The Jewish...
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....
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...
A Kibbutznik Who Did Everything Well
Chicken Man by Michelle Edwards; Montgomery, Alabama: NewSouth Books © 2008, ISBN 9781588-382375; 26 pages; $9.79 on Amazon.
SAN DIEGO – For its October selection for 4-year-old children, PJ Library has brought back an oldie but a...