The Montreal Shtetl

The Montreal Shtetl PDF Author: Zelda Abramson
Publisher: Between the Lines
ISBN: 1771134054
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 218

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Book Description
As the Holocaust is memorialized worldwide through education programs and commemoration days, the common perception is that after survivors arrived and settled in their new homes they continued on a successful journey from rags to riches. While this story is comforting, a closer look at the experience of Holocaust survivors in North America shows it to be untrue. The arrival of tens of thousands of Jewish refugees was palpable in the streets of Montreal and their impact on the existing Jewish community is well-recognized. But what do we really know about how survivors’ experienced their new community? Drawing on more than 60 interviews with survivors, hundreds of case files from Jewish Immigrant Aid Services, and other archival documents, The Montreal Shtetl presents a portrait of the daily struggles of Holocaust survivors who settled in Montreal, where they encountered difficulties with work, language, culture, health care, and a Jewish community that was not always welcoming to survivors. By reflecting on how institutional supports, gender, and community relationships shaped the survivors’ settlement experiences, Abramson and Lynch show the relevance of these stories to current state policies on refugee immigration.

The Montreal Shtetl

The Montreal Shtetl PDF Author: Zelda Abramson
Publisher: Between the Lines
ISBN: 1771134054
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 218

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Book Description
As the Holocaust is memorialized worldwide through education programs and commemoration days, the common perception is that after survivors arrived and settled in their new homes they continued on a successful journey from rags to riches. While this story is comforting, a closer look at the experience of Holocaust survivors in North America shows it to be untrue. The arrival of tens of thousands of Jewish refugees was palpable in the streets of Montreal and their impact on the existing Jewish community is well-recognized. But what do we really know about how survivors’ experienced their new community? Drawing on more than 60 interviews with survivors, hundreds of case files from Jewish Immigrant Aid Services, and other archival documents, The Montreal Shtetl presents a portrait of the daily struggles of Holocaust survivors who settled in Montreal, where they encountered difficulties with work, language, culture, health care, and a Jewish community that was not always welcoming to survivors. By reflecting on how institutional supports, gender, and community relationships shaped the survivors’ settlement experiences, Abramson and Lynch show the relevance of these stories to current state policies on refugee immigration.

A Shtetl and Other Yiddish Novellas

A Shtetl and Other Yiddish Novellas PDF Author: Ruth R. Wisse
Publisher: Wayne State University Press
ISBN: 9780814318492
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 376

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Book Description
The five short novellas which comprise this anthology were written between 1890 and World War I. All share a common setting--the Eastern European Jewish town or shtetl, and all deal in different ways with a single topic--the Jewish confrontation with modernity. The authors of these novellas are among the greatest masters of Yiddish prose. In their work, today's reader will discover a literary tradition of considerable scope, energy, and variety and will come face to face with an exceptionally memorable cast of characters and with a human community now irrevocably lost. In her general introduction, Professor Wisse traces the development of modern Yiddish literature in the late 19th and early 20th centuries and describes the many shifts that took place between the Yiddish writers and the world about which they wrote. She also furnishes a brief introduction for each novella, giving the historical and biographical background and offering a critical interpretation of the work.

I Am Hava

I Am Hava PDF Author: Freda Lewkowicz
Publisher: Intergalactic Afikoman
ISBN: 1951365151
Category : Juvenile Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 40

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Book Description
Experience the story of the world's most famous Jewish song, as told by the song herself. In her spare, poetic text, Freda Lewkowicz has personified the song of Hava Nagila and made her the narrator of her own story, known simply as "Hava." Renowned Indian-American Jewish illustrator Siona Benjamin, who is known for her blue characters, draws Hava as a young blue girl in a sari. Follow Hava as she spreads joy and hope throughout the world.

There Once Was a World

There Once Was a World PDF Author: Yaffa Eliach
Publisher: Back Bay Books
ISBN: 9780316232395
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 864

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Book Description
For 900 years the Polish shtetl was a home to generations of Jewish families. In 1944 almost every Jew was murdered and with them died a way of life that had survived for centuries. Yaffa Eliach has written a landmark history of the shtetl.

Flight and Freedom

Flight and Freedom PDF Author: Ratna Omidvar and Dana Wagner
Publisher: Between the Lines
ISBN: 1771132302
Category :
Languages : en
Pages :

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Book Description


The Joyful Child

The Joyful Child PDF Author: Norman Ravvin
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781554470877
Category : Jews
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
In his third novel, Norman Ravvin writes about a father and his young son, and the companionship they develop at home and on the road. Returning to the wanderlust of his travelogue Hidden Canada and to the European Jewish past that often underwrites his characters' lives, Ravvin follows the interconnections of urban living, the experience of travel and abandonment, and a man's love of neighbourhoods, of jazz and old cars

We Are on Our Own

We Are on Our Own PDF Author: Miriam Katin
Publisher: Drawn & Quarterly
ISBN: 1770464255
Category : Comics & Graphic Novels
Languages : en
Pages : 137

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Book Description
A stunning memoir of a mother and her daughter's survival in WWII and their subsequent lifelong struggle with faith In this captivating and elegantly illustrated graphic memoir, Miriam Katin retells the story of her and her mother's escape on foot from the Nazi invasion of Budapest. With her father off fighting for the Hungarian army and the German troops quickly approaching, Katin and her mother are forced to flee to the countryside after faking their deaths. Leaving behind all of their belongings and loved ones, and unable to tell anyone of their whereabouts, they disguise themselves as a Russian servant and illegitimate child, while literally staying a few steps ahead of the German soldiers. We Are on Our Own is a woman's attempt to rebuild her earliest childhood trauma in order to come to an understanding of her lifelong questioning of faith. Katin's faith is shaken as she wonders how God could create and tolerate such a wretched world, a world of fear and hiding, bargaining and theft, betrayal and abuse. The complex and horrific experiences on the run are difficult for a child to understand, and as a child, Katin saw them with the simple longing, sadness, and curiosity she felt when her dog ran away or a stranger made her mother cry. Katin's ensuing lifelong struggle with faith is depicted throughout the book in beautiful full-color sequences. We Are on Our Own is the first full-length graphic novel by Katin, at the age of sixty-three.

A Future Without Hate or Need

A Future Without Hate or Need PDF Author: Ester Reiter
Publisher: Between the Lines
ISBN: 1771130172
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 360

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Book Description
Driven from their homes in Russia, Poland, and Romania by pogroms and poverty, many Jews who came to Canada in the wave of immigration after the 1905 Russian revolution were committed radicals. A Future Without Hate or Need brings to life the rich and multi-layered lives of a dissident political community, their shared experiences and community-building cultural projects, as they attempted to weave together their ethnic particularity—their identity as Jews—with their internationalist class politics.

Outwitting History

Outwitting History PDF Author: Aaron Lansky
Publisher: Algonquin Books
ISBN: 9781565125131
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 340

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Book Description
“Incredible . . . Inspiring . . . Important.” —Library Journal, starred review “A marvelous yarn, loaded with near-calamitous adventures and characters as memorable as Singer creations.” —The New York Post “What began as a quixotic journey was also a picaresque romp, a detective story, a profound history lesson, and a poignant evocation of a bygone world.” —The Boston Globe “Every now and again a book with near-universal appeal comes along: Outwitting History is just such a book.” —The Sunday Oregonian As a twenty-three-year-old graduate student, Aaron Lansky set out to save the world’s abandoned Yiddish books before it was too late. Today, more than a million books later, he has accomplished what has been called “the greatest cultural rescue effort in Jewish history.” In Outwitting History, Lansky shares his adventures as well as the poignant and often laugh-out-loud stories he heard as he traveled the country collecting books. Introducing us to a dazzling array of writers, he shows us how an almost-lost culture is the bridge between the old world and the future—and how the written word can unite everyone who believes in the power of great literature. A Library Journal Best Book A Massachusetts Book Award Winner in Nonfiction An ALA Notable Book

Jews and Power

Jews and Power PDF Author: Ruth R. Wisse
Publisher: Schocken
ISBN: 0307533131
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 258

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Book Description
Part of the Jewish Encounter series Taking in everything from the Kingdom of David to the Oslo Accords, Ruth Wisse offers a radical new way to think about the Jewish relationship to power. Traditional Jews believed that upholding the covenant with God constituted a treaty with the most powerful force in the universe; this later transformed itself into a belief that, unburdened by a military, Jews could pursue their religious mission on a purely moral plain. Wisse, an eminent professor of comparative literature at Harvard, demonstrates how Jewish political weakness both increased Jewish vulnerability to scapegoating and violence, and unwittingly goaded power-seeking nations to cast Jews as perpetual targets. Although she sees hope in the State of Israel, Wisse questions the way the strategies of the Diaspora continue to drive the Jewish state, echoing Abba Eban's observation that Israel was the only nation to win a war and then sue for peace. And then she draws a persuasive parallel to the United States today, as it struggles to figure out how a liberal democracy can face off against enemies who view Western morality as weakness. This deeply provocative book is sure to stir debate both inside and outside the Jewish world. Wisse's narrative offers a compelling argument that is rich with history and bristling with contemporary urgency.