- published: 05 Jul 2011
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Jonah or Jonas (Hebrew: יוֹנָה, Modern Yona, Tiberian Yônā ; dove; Arabic: يونس Yūnus, Yūnis or يونان Yūnān ; Latin: Ionas) is the name given in the Hebrew Bible (Tanakh/Old Testament) to a prophet of the northern kingdom of Israel in about the 8th century BC. He is the eponymous central character in the Book of Jonah, famous for being swallowed by a fish or a whale, depending on translation. The biblical story of Jonah is repeated, with a few notable differences, in the Qur'an.
Jonah is identified as the son of Amittai, and he appears in 2 Kings aka 4 Kings as a prophet from Gath-Hepher, a few miles north of Nazareth. He is therein described as being active during the reign of the second King Jeroboam (c.786–746 BC), and as predicting that Jeroboam will recover certain lost territories.
Jonah is the central character in the Book of Jonah. Commanded by God to go to the city of Nineveh to prophesy against it "for their great wickedness is come up before me," Jonah instead seeks to flee from "the presence of the Lord" by going to Jaffa, identified as Joppa or Joppe, and sailing to Tarshish, which, geographically, is in the opposite direction. A huge storm arises and the sailors, realizing that it is no ordinary storm, cast lots and discover that Jonah is to blame. Jonah admits this and states that if he is thrown overboard, the storm will cease. The sailors try to dump as much cargo as possible before giving up, but feel forced to throw him overboard, at which point the sea calms. The sailors then offer sacrifices to God. Jonah is miraculously saved by being swallowed by a large whale-like fish in whose belly he spends three days and three nights. While in the great fish, Jonah prays to God in his affliction and commits to thanksgiving and to paying what he has vowed. God commands the fish to spew Jonah out.
Jonah Raskin (born January 3, 1942) is an American writer who left an East Coast university teaching position to participate in the 1970s radical counterculture as a free-lance journalist, then returned to the academy in California in the 1980s to write probing studies of Abbie Hoffman and Allen Ginsberg and reviews of northern California writers whom he styled as "natives, newcomers, exiles and fugitives." Beginning as a lecturer in English at Sonoma State University in 1981, he moved to chair of the Communications Studies Department from 1988 to 2007, while serving as a book reviewer for the San Francisco Chronicle and the Santa Rosa Press-Democrat. He retired from his teaching position in 2011.
Born in New York City to a secular Jewish family, Raskin was raised in Huntington, Long Island. His parents were Communists in the 1930s and 1940s, but as his father became a successful attorney in the 1950s, they concealed their radical politics and were careful to blend into their middle-class community. Hiding, dissembling, and disguising would become persistent themes in Raskin's writing, along with the personas of the exile and the fugitive. Raskin gave every appearance of being the all-American teenager; he was co-captain of his high school football team, and named to Newsday's All-Suffolk Football Squad in 1958. He also worked as a sports reporter for The Long Islander in his last year of high school.
John Griffith "Jack" London (born John Griffith Chaney, January 12, 1876 – November 22, 1916) was an American novelist, journalist, and social activist. A pioneer in the then-burgeoning world of commercial magazine fiction, he was one of the first fiction writers to obtain worldwide celebrity and a large fortune from his fiction alone.
Some of his most famous works include The Call of the Wild and White Fang, both set in the Klondike Gold Rush, as well as the short stories "To Build a Fire", "An Odyssey of the North", and "Love of Life". He also wrote of the South Pacific in such stories as "The Pearls of Parlay" and "The Heathen", and of the San Francisco Bay area in The Sea Wolf.
London was part of the radical literary group "The Crowd" in San Francisco and a passionate advocate of unionization, socialism, and the rights of workers. He wrote several powerful works dealing with these topics, such as his dystopian novel The Iron Heel, his non-fiction exposé The People of the Abyss, and The War of the Classes.
Jonah Raskin is a major figure in counterculture journalism. He holds a Ph.D. in English and American literature, though he got much of his education after he joined the Yippies and raised hell with Abbie Hoffman, Jerry Rubin and Paul Krassner. Raskin helped Abbie Hoffman go underground in 1974 and wrote a novel out of that experience, Underground. He has covered just about every major counterculture event of his time, from the birth of the American Indian Movement to the persecution of the Black Panthers. Jonah Raskin was there. He also documented and celebrated counterculture literature like no one else, championing the lesser-known work of Jack London and B. Traven. Raskin devoted years to solving the riddle of Traven's true identity, only to discover that Traven would be shrouded forev...
Complete video at: http://fora.tv/2008/05/29/Jonah_Raskin_The_Radical_Jack_London Jonah Raskin, editor of "The Radical Jack London," discusses the legendary author's controversial, and often contradictory, political beliefs. ----- Jonah Raskin talks about The Radical Jack London. He lays out the social, economic, and political context for London's writings and shows him to be Americas leading revolutionary writer at the turn of the twentieth century. Raskin is the author of American Scream: Allen Ginsbergs Howl and The Making of the Beat Generation - Book Passage Jonah Raskin is the author of The Radical Jack London. He left an East Coast university teaching position to participate in the 1970s radical counterculture as a free-lance journalist, returned to the academy in ...
Interview with Jonah Raskin, Professor and Chair of Communication Studies at Sonoma State University, about his book "The Radical Jack London: Writings on War and Revolution"
Inteview with Jonah Raskin on his 14th book, Marijuanaland; on the pros and cons of the war against marijuana in the United States.
Introduction to Oak Hill Farm in Glen Ellen by Jonah Raskin
Jonah Raskin discussing investigative journalism and protecting sources in the 21st century