Aaron Howard

1 week ago | jhvonline.com | Aaron Howard

David Sandberg, M.D., is the director of Pediatric Surgery at McGovern Medical School at The University of Texas Health Science Center Houston. He performs surgery on children’s brains. As Sandberg writes in the first chapter of his memoir, “Brain and Heart” (Pegasus), performing surgery on the brain is unique. The brain governs everything the body does. It also is where our consciousness lives. Surgery on children differs from surgery on adults.

2 weeks ago | jhvonline.com | Aaron Howard

At the beginning of the documentary feature film “Sabbath Queen,” Rabbi Amichai Lau-Lavie is conducting a Jewish wedding in New York. He displays a ketubah, which is being signed by two men. “I broke the law,” Rabbi Lau-Lavie says to the camera. “My choice and my action represent betrayal. I imagine looking through my grandfather’s eyes.”The rabbi has yichus (lineage). It descends through 38 generations of rabbis.

3 weeks ago | jhvonline.com | Aaron Howard

Born on the Island (Galveston) in 1896, Laurie Bricker’s grandmother, Lorraine Rey Isaacs Hofeller, lived a full life until her passing in 2002. Hofeller, of blessed memory, lived through the 1900 Galveston Storm. In September 2000, shortly before the 100th anniversary of the storm, Bricker contacted local newspapers to ask whether they would be interested in interviewing her grandmother, the last known survivor of the hurricane. Of course, who would pass up that opportunity?

1 month ago | jhvonline.com | Aaron Howard

It’s breeding season at the Smith Oaks Sanctuary, located at High Island on the Bolivar Peninsular. From now until mid-May is the best time for avid and casual birders to view, photograph and count birds at this Upper Gulf Coast birding Mecca. Smith Oaks Sanctuary features the 700-foot-long Kathrine McGovern Canopy Walkway, an elevated boardwalk that leads to a U-shaped island in the middle of Claybottom Pond. The island serves as a rookery, a roosting and nesting place for thousands of waterbirds.

1 month ago | jhvonline.com | Aaron Howard

“Fagin The Thief”By Allison Epstein(Doubleday)When Charles Dickens wrote “Oliver Twist” in the 1830s, he created the character of Fagin as a Jewish stereotype and a thoroughly evil and devilish corrupter of youth. In “Fagin The Thief,” contemporary novelist Allison Epstein reimagines Fagin with a first name, Jacob, a family and a specific story about growing up in Victorian London. Fagin’s mother, Leah, is a seamstress, who dotes on her son. His father was hanged as a thief.