A 17-year-old Jewish refugee in Paris on Nov. 7, 1938, shot Nazi diplomat Ernst vom Rath. The assassination provided Nazi Germany with a golden opportunity. Joseph Goebbels, Hitler’s propaganda minister, portrayed the teenager as an agent of the international Jewish…
Eugene Yelchin’s illustrations are an integral part of the storytelling in Arcady’s Goal. What a special tribute to a parent. Eugene Yelchin’s most recent children’s book, Arcady’s Goal, started with a 1945 photograph of the Red Army Soccer Club. One…
Men’s books. Normally, I don’t classify the novels I read along gender lines, though I have read and reviewed “chick lit.” Both Wiseman’s Wager by Dave Margoshes and Fun & Games by David Michael Slater are far removed from that…
There was an old lady who swallowed a dreidel … perhaps it’s fatal! There are many great stories to read to your kids over Chanukah. What a wonderful way to spend time with your family – curling up with a…
Narrated by the dog himself, Latke, The Lucky Dog by Ellen Fischer (Kar-Ben Publishing, 2014) is a charming book for kids 2-7 years old. In it, Latke the dog tells readers how lucky he is that a family with two…
This year, Isaac Waldman Jewish Public Library’s annual used book sale takes place Nov. 23-27 at the Jewish Community Centre of Greater Vancouver. (photo from IWJPL) For many of us, the Isaac Waldman Jewish Public Library is the go-to place when…
More than 30 authors are featured in this year’s Cherie Smith JCCGV Book Festival, from the time it opens on Saturday night, Nov. 22, with Israeli author Zeruya Shalev (The Remains of Love) till it closes on Thursday night, Nov.…
Zeruya Shalev (photo by Naomi Tokatly) In The Remains of Love, her latest novel to be translated into English, Zeruya Shalev once again explores (and crosses) intimate emotional boundaries. In this novel, however, she also overtly explores territory that she…
In a recently published memoir, A Childhood on the Move: Memoirs of a Child Survivor of the Holocaust, René Goldman, professor emeritus of Chinese history at the University of British Columbia, pieces together a fragmented and tragic childhood and adolescence.…
When I lived in New York for 10 years in the 1960s, going to the Lower East Side was a very regular part of my Sunday routine. However, while the name Yonah Schimmel might sound familiar to anyone traveling the…
