Revisiting the The Rothschilds
While sorting through and getting rid of books in order to accommodate a new item of furniture I came across “The Rothschilds: A Family Portrait,” which I had given to my father for his birthday in...
Waxing and Waning Relations Between the Jewish and Mexican-American Communities in Los Angeles
SAN DIEGO – When I was a student at UCLA in the 1960s, one of the most pressing concerns was where to park. Many students commuted from their homes elsewhere in Los Angeles, but...
Ruthless Businessman’s Ego Destructive of His Family
This novel traces the lives of the Feldman family as they build a nationally successful shoe store chain, but at a terrible price.
Max, the founder of the chain, is ruthless in his business practices...
The Miracle of the 2,000-Year-Old Date Seeds Brought Back to Life
SAN DIEGO — This book tells an amazing, true story about the Judean date palm that was thought to be extinct but was brought back to life thanks to two women scientists.
Six seeds were...
‘Nay Leaven’d Bread Shalt Beest Eaten’: Author Martin Bodek has a Shakespearean twist on...
Wherefore is this Haggadah diff’rent from all oth’r Haggadahs?
Author Martin Bodek, the writer of the Emoji Haggadah, Festivus Haggadah and Coronavirus Haggadah, has released another version of the Passover story, translated fully into Elizabethan English.
Author Martin Bodek....
Two Mysteries for Price of One in ‘Trouble’
Hella Mauzer is a fictional former policewoman in Helsinki, who now works as a private investigator. She is asked in 1953 by her old colleague to do a background check on a man who...
Documentary Reveals Gruesome Discoveries at Sobibor
In 1987, the television movie Escape from Sobibor made quite an impression because, similar to the stories of the uprising in the Warsaw Ghetto and the movie Defiance in 2008, about the exploits of the Bielski Brothers and...
Observing, Reading, and Kvelling Over Grandchildren
I am what some people call a “compulsive reader.” If it is printed, and in front of me, I will read it. Flyers. Cereal boxes. Newspapers. Blogs. And most of all, books, books, and...
Overcoming Hatred in a Time of Crisis
SAN DIEGO – This novel about the friendship that forms between two preteen girls in a time of great stress hits many important issues. The danger of radiation from a nuclear power plant. Government...
Di avantures fun Sherlock Holmes
You might have read Sir Arthur’s books, watch the tv programs and the movies made from his stories but, if you have never read it in Yiddish -and in such clean good Yiddish- you...