Border Tension (Ukraine-Russia) high!

Reports that Russia  has rejected the idea of direct military intervention disguised as a peacekeeping operation may not be accurate. Border tension remains high between Ukraine and Russia, drawing both countries nearer to direct conflict. Foolish to think this chaos is controllable. When Klara Rasputnis left Odessa in “Klara’s Journey,” an historical novel covering the Russian Civil War, utter chaos was the norm. For further background, Amazon.com http://amzn.to/13Sp769 . Ebook formats, nook, ipad, Kobo, etc, Follow me on twitter @bengfrank .

 

 

Cuba, visit by Israeli phtog team

In a country that appears at a standstill, the Cuban Jewish community is, “very much an integral part of the country and the national identity, but they also have their institutions and keenly observe the religious holidays and other important dates in the Jewish and Israeli cultural calendar,” notes a participant in an Israel-based photography team that visited Cuba recently. Check out my Cuba Chapter in “The Scattered Tribe, Traveling the Diaspora from Cuba to India to Tahiti & Beyond,” (Globe Pequot Press), available wherever books are sold, including Amazon.com,  http://amzn.to/J3Z47T as well as an ebook.

 

 

My Jerusalem Post travel articles, NYC and The South by auto train.

Having traveled to 89 countries, I’ve also journeyed by bus and train in cities and countryside.  Hence, two of my recent travel articles in the Jerusalem Post, one on the “Auto Train: traveling up the east coast of the U.S”. Riding the Auto Train  and one on the “M103 bus from the Upper East Side of Manhattan to Chinatown,  Riding the M103 to Chinatown For more of my travels, check out “Klara’s Journey,  (Marion Street Press) Amazon.com .http://amzn.to/13Sp769 . Ebook formats, nook, ipad, Kobo, etc, as well as “The Scattered Tribe, (Globe Pequot Press), http://amzn.to/J3Z47T as well as my travel guides published by Pelican Publishing,: “A Travel Guide to Jewish Europe, 3^rd edition, “A Travel Guide to Jewish Russia and Ukraine,” and “A Travel Guide to Jewish Caribbean and South America.”---all the guides are available on Amazon.com and Barnes & Noble, J. Levine

Lest We Forget

Lest we forget:  100 years ago, tomorrow, on 28 June 1914, Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria, heir presumptive to the Austro-Hungarian throne, and his wife, Sophie, Duchess of Hohenberg, were shot dead in Sarajevo. On August 1 Germany declared war on Russia. But by that time, the beginning of World War I,  Gershon Rasputnis of “Klara’s Journey,” was in America. Little did he know it would be seven years until his family was reunited. For a story of “betrayal, drama and love,” check out the historical novel, Klara’s Journey,” also a gripping saga of Russia’s Civil War that followed WWI. Wherever books are sold: ,” Amazon.com .http://amzn.to/13Sp769 . Ebook formats, nook, ipad, Kobo, etc, Follow me on twitter @bengfrank .

 

This story won't go away!

1. The story that won’t go away. Hundreds of people have been killed and thousands have fled their homes amid rising violence, insecurity and crime in areas of eastern Ukraine that are under the control of pro-Russia armed groups, according to the UN as cited in NYT. Klara Rasputnis left Ukraine also when there was a “reign of fear, if not of terror.” You can read this story of “betrayal, drama and love,” in “Klara’s Journey,” Amazon.com .http://amzn.to/13Sp769  ,also an ebook, Follow me on twitter @bengfrank .

 

the new Cold War

1. A civil war and a new Cold War in 2014?  In 1917, a civil war and the beginnings of a Cold War occurred in the days when Klara Rasputnis left Odessa after the October Bolshevik Revolution. Going to Moscow, she boards the Trans-Siberian railway in a story of “betrayal, drama and love.” For a gripping saga of Russia’s civil war, check out “Klara’s Journey,” (Marion Street Press),  Amazon.com .http://amzn.to/13Sp769   ,also an ebook, Follow me on twitter @bengfrank .

 

 

D-Day & "Klara's Journey

D-Day. One bright June morning, actually the Sixth of June, 1944 our elementary school  teacher, Mrs. Woods, asked us to stand up and say a silent prayer for our troops who had just landed in Normandy, France. A week later I was to learn that Cousin Manny Charach, landed on those beaches on D+4. A year before my Aunt Clara took me to see a war-time movie, called ”This is the Army.” She cried, her son Manny was in the service in England. Little did I know that 70 years later, I would write a book about her, called, “Klara’s Journey.” .http://amzn.to/13Sp769