To Kill a Rabbi

Brian Champion was Reference Librarian, Humanities and Social Sciences Library, University of Alberta, Edmonton.

The author’s note preceding the text reveals that “twenty Canadian publishing firms considered the manuscript and rejected it” before ECW Press picked it up. One rejection specified that the work was “controversial” but only for a limited audience. This is true. Rabbi Slonim has set forth his remembrances of his career with three Toronto congregations but to anyone who was not part of those assemblies, the interest of this work is minimal. Obviously, the rabbi has endeavoured to set the record straight, and to do that he has had to straighten out a number of people whom, one feels, he really hates. While the political intrigue of Toronto’s Jewish congregations may have some sociology of religion appeal, to most readers this is a boring, and vituperative, book.