Not a Nickel to Spare: The Great Depression Diary of Sally Cohen, Toronto, Ontario, 1932.
Description
Contains Photos, Maps
$14.99
ISBN 978-0-439-96762-7
DDC jC813'.54
Author
Publisher
Year
Review
It is July 1932 in Toronto. School is out and Sally’s cousin Benny has given her a scribbler to write in. Over the courses of a year, she writes about her family, school, and the political situation affecting the Jewish community. While she accepts what she is told, she also questions her parents’ reluctance to learn English and insistence on sticking to their Old World ways, and why there is trouble when her sister becomes involved with a non-Jew.
Sally describes the hardships of life in Depression Toronto and how hard it is for anyone—Jews in particular—to find work. Her sister and Benny have both had to leave school and find work. She remains at school loving her studies and mixing with Jews and non-Jews. Cousin Benny is her connection to the outside world, telling her about Hitler and what’s happening in Germany, as well as about what’s happening in Toronto. The last pages of her scribbler are filled with accounts of the riots at Christie Pits, while the epilogue chronicles what happens to the Cohen family.
This 19th instalment in the Dear Canada series is as well written as the others. It holds the readers attention, painting a very realistic picture of Jewish life in Toronto in the 1930s and hinting at the even worse events that are to come on the other side of the Atlantic. Recommended.