Montreal in the 1940s and '50s was Canada's largest, richest, most vibrant and colourful city. It was, at the end of those prosperous decades, "bursting at the seams" and still growing. William Weintraub, writing with insight and affection, brings the Montreal of his youth vividly, entertainingly and wittily to life. The Montreal he describes so well was a city with two communities, English and French, who lived separate lives. They met along the dividing line that was "the Main" -- St Lawrence Boulevard and the nearby streets, where gambling joints, bordellos and night clubs prospered, and where striptease artiste Lili St. Cyr became the toast of the town and gangsters raked in profits while the police looked the other way. It was the Montreal of the charismatic Mayor Camilien Houde within the repressive Quebec of Premier Maurice Duplessis. Weintraub also looks at what he calls the Third Solitude, Montreal's Jewish community, which brought not just smoked meat and delicatessens to the vibrant area around the Main but a lively community that has played a major part in shaping the city and from which sprang such writers as Mordecai Richler and Irving Layton. William Weintraub looks at all aspects of life in Montreal in what Mordecai Richler called "an engaging, evocative book about Montreal's prime-time".

"Shut Up, I'm Talking" is a smart, hilarious insider take on Israeli politics that reads like the bastard child of Thomas Friedman and David Sedaris. Now a political writer for Salon, Gregory Levey stumbled into a job as speechwriter for the Israeli delegation to the United Nations at age twenty-five and suddenly found himself, like a latter-day Zelig, in the company of foreign ministers, U.S. senators, and heads of state. Much to his surprise, he was soon attending U.N. sessions and drafting official government statements. The situation got stranger still when he was transferred to Jerusalem to write speeches for Prime Minister Ariel Sharon. "Shut Up, I'm Talking" is a startling account of Levey's journey into the nerve center of Middle Eastern politics at one of the most turbulent times in Israeli history. During his three years in the Israeli government, the Second Intifada continued on in fits and starts, Yasser Arafat died, Hamas came to power, and Ariel Sharon fell into a coma. Levey was repeatedly thrust into highly improbable situations -- from being the sole "Israeli" delegate (even though he's Canadian) at the U.N. General Assembly, with no idea how "his" country wanted to vote; to nearly inciting an international incident with his high school French translation of an Arab diplomat's anti-Israel remarks; to communicating with Israeli intelligence about the suspected perpetrators of suicide bombings; to being offered leftover salami from Ariel Sharon's lunch. As Levey got better acquainted with the personalities in the government's inner sanctum, he witnessed firsthand the improvisational and ridiculously casual nature of the country's behind-the-scenes leadership -- and realized that he wasn't the only one faking his way through politics. With sharp insight and great appreciation for the absurd, Levey offers the first-ever look inside Israel's politics from the perspective of a complete outsider, ultimately concluding that the Israeli government is no place for a nice Jewish boy.

Winner of the National Jewish Book Award (Holocaust Category) Winner of the Canadian Historical Association John A. Macdonald Prize Featured in The Literary Review of Canada 100: Canada's Most Important Books [This] is a story best summed up in the words of an anonymous senior Canadian official who, in the midst of a rambling, off-the-record discussion with journalists in 1945, was asked how many Jews would be allowed into Canada after the war ... 'None,' he said, 'is too many.' From the Preface One of the most significant studies of Canadian history ever written, None Is Too Many conclusively lays to rest the comfortable notion that Canada has always been an accepting and welcoming society. Detailing the country's refusal to offer aid, let alone sanctuary, to Jews fleeing Nazi persecution between 1933 and 1948, it is an immensely bleak and discomfiting story - and one that was largely unknown before the book's publication. Irving Abella and Harold Troper's retelling of this episode is a harrowing read not easily forgotten: its power is such that, 'a manuscript copy helped convince Ron Atkey, Minister of Employment and Immigration in Joe Clark's government, to grant 50,000 "boat people" asylum in Canada in 1979, during the Southeast Asian refugee crisis' (Robin Roger, The Literary Review of Canada). None Is Too Many will undoubtedly continue to serve as a potent reminder of the fragility of tolerance, even in a country where it is held as one of our highest values.

"A major influence on the BBC and independent television in Britain in the 1960s, as well as on CBC and the National Film Board in Canada, Sydney Newman acted as head of drama at a key period in the history of television. For the first time, his comprehensive memoirs--written in the years before his death in 1997--are being made public. Born to a poor Jewish family in the tenements of Queen Street in Toronto, Newman's artistic talent got him a job at the NFB under John Grierson. He then became one of the first producers at CBC TV before heading overseas to the U.K. where he revitalized drama programming. Harold Pinter and Alun Owen were playwrights whom Newman nurtured, and their contemporary, socially conscious plays were successful, both artistically and commercially. At the BBC, overseeing a staff of 400, he developed a science fiction show that flourishes to this day: Doctor Who. Providing further context to Newman's memoir is an in-depth biographical essay by Graeme Burk, which positions Newman's legacy in the history of television, and an afterword by one of Sydney's daughters, Deirdre Newman."--

A history of the influential labor Zionist youth movement Habonim. the movement's history is recounted in its members' words, including those of Golda Meir, Mordecai Richler and Leonard Fein. the afterword is provided by Chaim Herzog, a founder of habonim in ireland

This classic reference book chronicles the history of Reform Judaism. Historical documents and writings by renowned authors that reflect the on-going evolution of Reform Judaism are included. This book will aid the reader in understanding the changing issues that have occurred since its establishment. This timely book traces the development of Reform Judaism in light of the ideas contained in the Statement of Principles for Reform Judaism adopted at the 1999 Pittsburgh Convention of the Central Conference of American Rabbis. The book covers such areas as theology, social action, the Sabbath, and education. -- Ideal for high school and adult study -- Classic reference for every Reform Jewish home and library -- Each document preceded by an introduction by the authors -- Online study guide available at www.uahcpress.com

Girl Unwrapped is a girl's coming-of-age story set in 1960s Montreal about the burdens and blessings of history, the divided self, and the quest to be whole. Toni Goldblatt's awakening to taboo desire conflicts with her Holocaust-scarred parents' expectations. Yearning to reinvent herself, she flees to Israel in the wake of the 1967 war, but the Zionist dream doesn't save her; only on her return, when she discovers kindred spirits in the underground lesbian bar scene, does Toni begin to find her own path. Girl Unwrapped is a novel about love, isolation, and the search for personal truth despite the stranglehold of family.

"When her marriage suddenly ends, and a diary documenting her beloved grandfather's escape from Nazi-occupied Netherlands in the summer of 1942 is discovered, Naomi K. Lewis decides to retrace his journey to learn about her family history. Despite suffering from extreme disorientation and a lifetime of anxiety, she travels alone for the first time. Moving from Amsterdam to Lyon--relying on the marvels of GPS--she discovers family secrets and her own narrative as a second-generation Jewish Canadian. With vulnerability, humour, and wisdom, Lewis's memoir asks tough questions about her identity as a secular Jew, the accuracy of family stories, and the impact of the Holocaust on subsequent generations. How do immigrants weave their sense of identity into their chosen countries? Must we be able to locate ourselves within family and cultural geography to belong?"--

This volume is a documented history of the Jewish people in North America from the late 16th century. It chronicles the evolving domestic, religious and political experiences of Jews in the American colonies and later the United States.

"In this definitive and meticulously researched account of the Jewish experience in Canada, award-winning and critically acclaimed author Allan Levine documents a story that is rich, accessible, often surprising, and epic in its scope. Relying on an abundance of primary sources and first-hand documentation and interviews, Seeking the Fabled City chronicles the successes and failures, the obstacles overcome and those not conquered, of a historic journey and the people who travelled it. Seeking the Fabled City is a story that unfolds over 250 years--from the decade after the conquest of New France in 1759, when small numbers of Sephardic Jews of Spanish and Portuguese descent arrived in British North America, through the great wave of Russian and Eastern European Jewish immigration at the turn of the twentieth century, to the present, in which Canada's large Jewish community, no longer hindered by the anti-Semitism of the past, is free to flourish. This is a chronicle of a people that takes place at hundreds of locales across the country--mainly in the large urban centres of Montreal, Toronto, Vancouver, and Winnipeg, but also in west coast and maritime villages and tiny prairie towns--in a riveting drama with a cast of thousands."--

Rekindling the Torch: The Story of Canadian Zionism begins with the long and troubled history of the Jewish people that informed the nineteenth-century idea of Zionism: the search for a homeland. After surviving anti-Semitic laws and pogroms, Jewish refugees faced not only the ultimate crime against humanity, but also the shocking indifference of the West when they were turned back from safe havens. Far from weakening the spirit, these combined tragedies strengthened their collective will. In Canada, Jewish immigrants created communities, pooled their resources, and rose to become captains of industry, among them the Bronfmans, the Batshaws, and the Hayes. They organized and actively pursued the goals of nationhood in Palestine. Richly illustrated and extensively researched, Rekindling the Torch celebrates the struggle of the Canadian Jewish people and their contributions to the state of Israel.

Published in conjunction with a travelling exhibition entitled "A Coat of Many Colours" mounted by the Canadian Museum of Civilization. Pp. 105-111 discuss antisemitism in the late 19th-early 20th centuries, particularly the views of Goldwin Smith of Toronto and his widespread influence on politicians and in the press, and antisemitism in French Catholic Quebec. Ch. 8 (pp. 179-207), "The Dark Years, 1930-1945, " deals with a period in which the country was permeated with antisemitism. Describes discrimination against Jews in universities, employment opportunities, sale of properties, etc. In Quebec, the Catholic Church and French Canadian nationalist movements advocated antisemitic actions, including support for a boycott against Jewish merchants and anti-immigration crusades. Mentions organized Jewish efforts to combat this trend, and the fascist organizations which became active during this period. Pp. 213-220 deal with the successful postwar campaign by Jewish organizations and individuals against the discriminatory practices.

Analyzes the works of Canadian Jewish poet A.M. Klein (1909-1972) written in the late 1920s-early 1950s, reading them as a combative poetic response to history. Klein's early poetry in "Hath Not a Jew, " composed against the background of the rise of antisemitism in Europe and in Montreal, his hometown, reveals his deep identification with Jewish tradition and his disillusionment with the humanist inability to confront Nazism. Deeply affected by news of the Holocaust, he wrote his mock epic "The Hitleriad" in 1942, in which he presented Hitler's ugliness, mediocrity, and meanness of spirit. This seems an attempt to demystify Hitler, paralleled perhaps by Arendt's concept of the banality of evil. "The Rocking Chair, " a collection of poems, and the novel "The Second Scroll" represent Klein's attempt to come to terms with the post-Holocaust world. Ch. 4 (pp. 61-80), "The Hitleriad: Against the Silence of the Apocalypse, " appeared in "Studies in American Jewish Literature" 9 (1990).

Rabbi Shuchat tells of the emergence of Shaar Hashomayim as a congregation separate from the Spanish and Portuguese fold, the generation-long tension between the two congregations, and the rebellion that produced the Temple Emanuel. He describes the role of the Canadian government in the ups and downs of Jewish immigration and details the effects of world-wide anti-Semitism on the local community, as well as the struggle for Jewish educational rights that ultimately produced a real public school system in the province of Quebec. The student protest that almost paralysed the Passover festival and the day school crisis that almost split the congregation are recounted in detail, and the Pavilion of Judaism at Expo '67 is described. Weaving together individual stories and the history of the Shaar, Rabbi Shuchat demonstrates how the turbulence of the nineteenth century produced a twentieth-century Shaar and Montreal Jewish community that are second to none in tolerance and creativity.