Tag: autobiography

“Why I left the Old Country”

In 1942 the YIVO Institute for Jewish Research, which had only recently relocated from Vilna to New York City, sponsored a contest for the best autobiography by a Jewish immigrant on the theme, “Why I Left the Old Country and What I Have Accomplished in America.” More than 200 autobiographical essays were submitted, written mostly…

Barney Danson (1921-2011)

Barnett (Barney) Danson, the Canadian politician and Cabinet minister, died October 17, 2011 at the age of 90. Born to a Jewish family in Toronto’s Parkdale neighbourhood, Danson joined the Queen’s Own Rifles in 1939, rose to Lieutenant Colonel and lost an eye in the Battle of Normandy. He returned to Canada and joined his…

Blurb about ‘Times Square Rabbi’

Proferring an eight-step program for recovery based on the teachings of Maimonides, Rabbi Yehudah Fine prowls the mean streets of Manhattan, seeking young people to redeem from their chosen hells in his book Times Square Rabbi (Hazelden). Fine’s gritty, true-to-life realism rings completely true — and it is: this is a non-fiction account of the…

Barney Danson saga

Barney Danson, who served as the Member of Parliament for York North from 1968 to 1979, has published a book of memoirs, Not Bad For A Sergeant, that is must reading for anyone interested in Canadian politics and the Trudeau legacy in particular. Jewish readers will find the book especially illuminating because of the light…