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Memoir of child of Holocaust survivors takes riveting twists
Book Review by Julie Kirsh (former Sun Media News Research Director)
Exclusive to The Jewish Post
“We used to Dream of Freedom, A Memoir of Family, the Holocaust, and the Stories We Don’t Tell”
By Sam Chaiton (Dundurn Press) 2024
Sam Chaiton’s memoir of growing up with Holocaust survivor parents in downtown Toronto in the 1950s is a compelling read.
Jeanne Beker, a well known Toronto fashion writer, mentions in her praise for “We used to Dream of Freedom” that her survivor parents talked incessantly about their war experiences.
My own parents, both survivors, would drop tidbits of their stories now and again. I learned to be watchful and vigilant for these rare moments of revelation. However, questioning my parents about the Holocaust, would cause them pain. I knew when to stand down.
In his memoir, Sam Chaiton tells the reader that his parents chose to remain completely silent about their wartime experiences. Poignantly their son was left with a silence that he interpreted as huge empty sound. Although the son could understand some Yiddish, his parents turned to Polish in order to keep the “kinder safe”. Outright denial of illness and death was part of his parents’ way of coping.
Born in the 1950s on Palmerston Boulevard in downtown Toronto, Chaiton paints a vivid picture of his youth as the middle son of five boys. He describes the mayhem of a household of barked orders and punishment by his father’s belt. His mother, as with many other survivors, was obsessed with eating and food. Chaiton learned early that rejecting his controlling mother’s food was one of his few weapons. “It’s hard not to do what a Holocaust survivor wants you to”, he says. Chaiton had to stare down two parents both with tattoos.
Dance proved to be a saving grace for Chaiton. On the dance floor, with a partner, the gates of happiness and permission to be oneself, opened. The Toronto Dance Theatre in Yorkville was a salvation and home for Chaiton. Also important to Chaiton was a family – not his troubled blood family but a chosen one – a commune.
In 1973, after a sojourn in New York, Chaiton decided that he was not a performance dancer. Back in Toronto as he pointedly danced with his mother at his brother’s wedding, she told him that he was her favourite child, imposing “the psychological damage that parental favouritism caused”.
Living in a commune with a chosen family afforded Chaiton the freedom to dig deep into his psyche, face his traumatic upbringing and tear down the rigid rules of society and the biological family. At a certain point, for reasons he explains in the book, Chaiton made the decision to vanish from the lives of his parents and brothers.
In 1980 the commune took up the cause of the injustice and illegal jailing of Rubin “Hurricane” Carter. Carter had been exonerated, released from prison and then reconvicted and sent back to prison.
In hindsight Chaiton wonders if his disengagement from his family caused them the same wounds and feelings of emptiness that Carter had to face when he was reincarcerated.
In 1985 while sitting in a New Jersey prison yard with friends and Carter, Chaiton had the riveting vision that he was in a concentration camp, “on a mission to liberate (his) parents – the dream of every Holocaust survivor’s child.”
In the summer of 1985, Chaiton received the news from Toronto that his parents were involved in a fatal car accident. Only after his mother’s death, was Chaiton able to acknowledge that in spite of her smothering, she gave him a sense of self worth and strength.
In 1988 Chaiton co-wrote the story of freeing Carter. One of his brothers saw him on a news broadcast, contacted him and the 20-year silence between Chaiton and his blood family was over.
Riding on the coattails of the successful release of Carter, Chaiton and some friends established an organization that continues to exist today. Innocence Canada has helped wrongfully convicted people like Guy Paul Morin, David Milgaard and Steven Truscott.
In chapter 16, entitled Wierzbnik, Chaiton finally learns about his father’s testimony published in a book, “Remembering Survival”, by a university professor. Reading about his father’s history helped Chaiton to understand the damage done to survivors, his parents’ trauma and why the home that they created for their sons after the war was so fraught.
Chaiton remarks on the interconnectedness of learning about the sufferings of his parents, his own personal struggles and the gift his father left him of being able to tell his own story.
Sam Chaiton’s profound memoir took courage and brutal honesty to write.
His book teaches that the legacy left by Holocaust survivors, along with a deep sadness, is the innate need of the children to persevere and find their own path of survival and growth.
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82 years after his plane was shot down in China, Jewish WWII pilot Morton Sher is laid to rest at home
An American Jewish fighter pilot whose plane was shot down in the Chinese theater during World War II was given a proper burial 82 years after his plane went down, according to the United States Department of Defense.
The remains of Lt. Morton Sher, identified earlier this year, were buried in Greenville, South Carolina on Dec. 14 — what would have been his 105th birthday.
Sher was a member of the pilot group known as the “Flying Tigers” — formed to protect China from Japanese invasion following the assault on Pearl Harbor in 1941. He was piloting a P-40 Warhawk when he was shot down by Japanese bombers on Aug. 9, 1943. His mother Celia received Sher’s Purple Heart that same year.
Sher’s squadron put up a memorial stone at the crash site in Xin Bai Village, and a postwar army review in 1947 concluded that his remains had been destroyed and were assumed to be unrecoverable.
The remains of Morton Sher were returned to Greenville, North Carolina and buried on Dec. 14, 2025. (Courtesy Department of Defense)
Two attempts were made to locate his remains in 2012 and 2019, but neither was successful. A breakthrough came in 2024 when a Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency excavated a crash site in the province where Sher’s plane fell, and then in April 2025, when DNA analysis was conducted. The match was confirmed in June.
Sher was born in Baltimore, Maryland on Dec. 14, 1920, and his family later moved to Greenville where they became members of the Conservative synagogue Congregation Beth Israel. In high school, he was a member of the aviation club and enrolled in ROTC. Sher was a founding member of B’nai B’rith Youth Organization’s Aleph Zadik Aleph chapter in Greenville, according to the funeral home that organized his burial.
“He dreamed of being a pilot,” Sher’s nephew, Steve “Morton” Traub told Greenville’s local NBC station. “This guy did a lot for his country. He was my hero.”
Traub, who never met his uncle, but heard stories and read his letters, was raised by Sher’s father, David.
“I wish I had known him, but if he had, I wouldn’t have been named after him. I feel like I knew Mason because I knew Papa,” Traub said.
This article originally appeared on JTA.org.
The post 82 years after his plane was shot down in China, Jewish WWII pilot Morton Sher is laid to rest at home appeared first on The Forward.
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Trump administration Christmas messages emphasize Jesus in overtly religious terms
The Trump White House marked Christmas with a formal message that celebrated “the birth of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ,” extending a week of overtly religious holiday communications from federal agencies and prompting renewed debate over church-state boundaries.
“The First Lady and I send our warmest wishes to all Americans as we share in the joy of Christmas Day and celebrate the birth of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ,” the presidential message, posted on the White House website on Thursday, began.
The statement went on to recount the Nativity story in devotional language, calling Jesus “the Light of the World, the source of eternal salvation, and the living Son of God,” and praising “the graces of Christ’s life, death, and resurrection.”
While previous presidents have routinely issued Christmas greetings, they have typically emphasized themes of charity, family and goodwill in language meant to include Americans of many faiths. The White House message this year asserted a specifically Christian vision of faith and national identity.
The presidential message followed a series of social media posts from federal departments that also invoked Jesus directly. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth wrote, “Today we celebrate the birth of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.” The Department of Labor posted, “Let Earth Receive Her King.” A video from the Department of Homeland Security declared, “We are blessed to share a nation and a Savior,” alongside images of a Nativity scene and the American flag.
The president of Americans United for Separation of Church and State, Rachel Laser, who is Jewish, called the messaging “divisive” in a statement to The New York Times, saying that citizens “should not have to sift through proselytizing messages to access government information.”
Some Jewish commentators reacted with unease, saying the cumulative effect of the posts was to define the American “we” in explicitly Christian terms. Critics see something closer to Christian nationalism, the idea that the United States is fundamentally a Christian nation and should be governed accordingly.
“This is not a comforting message for American Jews,” one Jewish writer posted in response to the Homeland Security video.
Others emphasized that the objection was not to Christmas itself, but to the government’s role in promoting religious belief. Seth Abramson, an author and political commentator who is Jewish, wrote on X that while he enjoys celebrating Christmas with relatives, “separation of church and state is vital.”
The First Amendment prohibits the government from establishing a religion or favoring one faith over others. Jewish organizations have historically viewed that principle as a key protection for religious minorities. As of Friday afternoon, major Jewish groups had not issued statements specifically addressing the Christmas messages.
Supporters of the administration say its messaging is merely stating the obvious, and serving to restore space for faith in public life. According to an editorial in The Nevada Globe, “For many Nevadans — and millions of Americans nationwide — it was a welcome return to the simple truth of the season: Christmas is about Christ, family matters, faith still belongs in public life, and America is worth praying for.”
This article originally appeared on JTA.org.
The post Trump administration Christmas messages emphasize Jesus in overtly religious terms appeared first on The Forward.
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Mamdani Taps Anti-Israel Voices Ms. Rachel, Cynthia Nixon, Jewish Voice for Peace Director for Inaugural Committee
New York City mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani attends a press conference at the Unisphere in the Queens borough of New York City, US, Nov. 5, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Kylie Cooper
New York City Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani on Wednesday unveiled the members of his inaugural committee, and the list includes a slate of anti-Israel appointments, sparking renewed concerns over the incoming administration’s commitment to protecting the Jewish community.
Among the most controversial appointees are high-profile activists and cultural figures who have taken public anti-Israel positions or are affiliated with organizations sharply critical of the Jewish state, such as children’s entertainer Rachel “Ms. Rachel” Accurso and actress Cynthia Nixon. Another controversial name on the list is Beth Miller, political director at Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP), an organization that rejects Zionism and has defended protests targeting Israeli institutions.
In the two years following the Hamas-led Oct. 7, 2023, assault on Israel, Accurso has used her sizeable platform to launch an unremitting barrage of condemnation toward Israel, accusing the Jewish state of committing so-called “genocide” and starving children. She sparked backlash after posting about a three-year-old Gazan girl named Rahaf, who lost her legs in an Israeli airstrike. Accurso did not contextualize the situation by acknowledging that the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas often uses children as human shields during their operations, instead framing Rahaf’s injuries as a result of Israeli military malfeasance. She has also falsely accused Israel of purposefully triggering starvation in Gaza against the civilian population.
“We must not let one more baby or child die of starvation. This isn’t about politics, it’s about basic humanity,” she posted on Instagram.
Nixon has repeatedly lambasted Israel and signed a petition supporting South Africa’s genocide case against the Jewish state at the International Court of Justice.
Miller helps lead one of the most vocal anti-Israel organizations in the country. She recently shared a post on X which read that Israel has “starved, abducted, and displaced Palestinian children every day in 2025.” She also shared another post which characterized Israel’s military operations as “unfathomably evil” and wrote that Israel is “actively carrying out a genocide,” citing allegations from “Palestinian, Israeli, and international human rights organizations.” She even condemned outgoing New York City Mayor Eric Adams for visiting Israel, saying he “continues to demonstrate what it looks like to truly not give one single flying f–k about New Yorkers.”
Despite JVP’s name, a poll released earlier this year found that the vast majority of American Jews believe that anti-Zionist movements and anti-Israel university protests are antisemitic. The findings also showed that Jews across the US overwhelmingly oppose the views and tactics of JVP.
Meanwhile, StandWithUs (SWU), an organization which promotes a mission of “supporting Israel and fighting antisemitism,” released a report in January examining how the far-left JVP organization “promotes antisemitic conspiracy theories” and even partners with terrorist organizations to achieve its “primary goal” of “dismantling the State of Israel.”
According to the report, JVP weaponizes the plight of Palestinians to advance an “extremist” agenda which promotes the destruction of Israel and whitewashes terrorism, receiving money from organizations that have ties to Middle Eastern countries such as Iran.
JVP, which has repeatedly defended the Hamas-led Oct. 7 massacre, argued in a recently resurfaced 2021 booklet that Jews should not write Hebrew liturgy because hearing the language would be “deeply traumatizing” to Palestinians.
Critics of the organization often point out that many JVP chapters do not have a single person of Jewish faith. The organization does not require a Jewish person to found a chapter and has even helped orchestrate anti-Israel demonstrations in front of synagogues.
The new appointments cast doubt over whether the Mamdani administration will protect the city’s Jewish population amid a record wave of antisemitic attacks in the city. The mayor-elect has vowed to defend Jewish New Yorkers and attempted to mend relations with outreach to Jewish leaders. He has also expressed public grief over the recent Bondi Beach massacre targeting a Hanukkah celebration in Sydney, Australia.
Mamdani, a far-left democratic socialist and anti-Zionist, is an avid supporter of boycotting all Israeli-tied entities who has been widely accused of promoting antisemitic rhetoric. He has repeatedly accused Israel of “apartheid” and “genocide”; refused to recognize the country’s right to exist as a Jewish state; and refused to explicitly condemn the phrase “globalize the intifada,” which has been associated with calls for violence against Jews and Israelis worldwide.
Leading members of the Jewish community in New York have expressed alarm about Mamdani’s victory, fearing what may come in a city already experiencing a surge in antisemitic hate crimes.
A Sienna Research Institute poll released in early November revealed that a whopping 72 percent of Jewish New Yorkers believe that Mamdani will be “bad” for the city. A mere 18 percent hold a favorable view of Mamdani, according to the results, while 67 percent view him unfavorably.