Böcker utgivna av Now and Then Books

In The Jewish Hour, author Michael Mandel delves into the pages of a Yiddish newspaper, the Kanader Nayes, to learn about his late father's Yiddish radio show and the world of the Jewish immigrants who lived in Toronto from the 1930s through the 1950s. Adds significantly to our knowledge of Toronto's Jewish history. Yiddish song lyrics included.

This forthright memoir is based on the author's experiences as a child evacuee from the East End of London during World War Two. Kitty is not a child from the Kindertransport, but a Jewish Londoner who is evacuated along with the rest of London's children to the safety of the British countryside. But after lodging in a series of foster homes, she decides that not even the imminent threat of Nazi bombs can keep her away from her Mum and Uncle Yudi in London. A new epilogue brings the story up to war's end and the historic victory celebration outside Buckingham Palace. Praise for I'm Not Going Back "Kitty recounts life in a country village under the thumb of a dour and cold taskmaster. She is a spirited, determined youngster whose mind is set upon returning to London . . . . She is a very strong and engaging character, even at her young age." - Jewish Book World "The details are absorbing . . . Kitty gets completely inside her young personality" - London Jewish Chronicle "Like a friend telling you about her experiences over coffee." - Marcia Weiss Posner, Association of Jewish Libraries "At each stage in [her] full life, Ms Wintrob has displayed the same spunk and spirit she did as a 10-year-old girl forced to leave her Jewish working-class home with no indication where she was going or when she would be back." - National Post (Toronto)

With a remarkable ear for dialogue and a keen eye for the biting ironies of life, Shirley Faessler brings the magic of a born storyteller to these linked stories about a coterie of Jewish immigrants in Toronto's Kensington Market in the 1920s and 1930s. Presenting recurring glimpses of the same characters, the stories create a richly-textured, almost novelistic portrait of downtown immigrant life, peopled with pedlars, bootleggers, "dollar down" merchants and ordinary working-class folks down on their luck. All six of the author's acclaimed "Kensington Market" stories are presented here for the first time since their initial publication in book form in 1988. Faessler's friend, Alice Munro, called her "a witty and uncompromising writer," while the Toronto Star described her as "indisputably one of Toronto's most gifted writers." Although Faessler died in 1997, this volume brings her splendid literary voice back to vivid life.

Toronto's old Jewish neighbourhoods centered in the Ward and on Spadina Avenue are vividly recalled in these 18 evocative pieces by Ben Kayfetz and Stephen Speisman, both well-known chroniclers of Toronto's Jewish community. ONLY YESTERDAY features colourful stories of the Jewish community and its daily concerns, synagogues and social institutions, Yiddish theatres and newspapers, and an assortment of memorable characters from Mayor Nathan Phillips to anarchist Emma Goldman. Kayfetz is at his best as he explains the names of Toronto synagogues, reminisces about the city's once-formidable Jewish press, and profiles the legendary J. B. Salsberg; he also revisits the days when discrimination against minorities in everything from private clubs to the professions was both legal and socially acceptable. Speisman's articles include a masterful essay on the vanished downtown neighbourhood of St. John's Ward, a thumbnail history of the once-vibrant local Yiddish theatre, and a profile of Benjamin Brown, Toronto's first Jewish architect who designed many city landmarks. The text is enhanced with 144 photographs and illustrations, including dozens of photographs of former Toronto synagogues, many taken by Speisman and not published before. Additional photos came from the City of Toronto Archives, Ontario Jewish Archives, Archives of Ontario and private collections."

A sweet coming-of-age novel about Shloime (Sol) Kenner's first three years in America, as lived in a Jewish neighborhood in Brooklyn. The protagonist, a sort of Jewish David Copperfield, takes a job in a butcher's shop to help his tradition father put bread on their table. The cast of characters includes a colorful assortment of Shloime's relatives as well as pushcart peddlers, merchants, night-school students, communists, anti-Semitic bullies, and the girls with whom he falls in love. Some of the book's most satisfying scenes take place on the boat coming over to America, while others, written in flashback, present gripping tableaux of his childhood "shtetl" in Galicia. Originally published in 1950, "One Foot in America" is a forgotten classic of Jewish immigration fiction, recommended for readers of all ages. Written with warmth, humor and a savoury Yiddish flavour; suitable for young readers. Note: Replaces 978-0-9784435-6-6.

The Rise of the Toronto Jewish Community paints one of the most colourful and authentic portraits yet to emerge of what is now Canada's largest Jewish community, from its earliest days to about 1950, highlighting its strong immigrant and Yiddish flavour. Here are vivid thumbnail sketches of many early synagogues, "anshei" congregations, landsmanschaft organizations and immigrant aid societies, along with a gallery of key personalities from the community's formative period. The author, himself a prominent figure in his day, brings Toronto's vanished Ward neighbourhood back to life with vivid descriptions of the soup kitchens, soda parlours, steamship agents, coffee houses and Christian missions that once graced its predominantly Jewish streets. The narrative also offers detailed accounts of the evolution of the local Yiddish press, Jewish labour unions and indigenous garment industry on Spadina Avenue, as well as of the consequential garment workers' strike at the T. Eaton Company in 1912. The text is enhanced with many period photographs and illustrations, a glossary of Yiddish and Hebrew terms, and an afterword by the late Benjamin G. Kayfetz.