Who Gets In

An Immigration Story

Norman Ravvin

• Publisher: University of Regina Press
• Year: 2023
• Topic: Social Sciences
• eBook ISBN:
  9780889779242
• Subtopic: Religious Biographies
• Index: Social Sciences

An eye-opening account of the Jewish immigration experience in the 1930s, and one man's battle against anti-Semitic immigration policies.
 
In 1930, a young Jewish man, Yehuda Yosef Eisenstein, arrived in Canada from Poland to escape persecution and the rise of Nazism in the hopes of starting a new life for himself and his family. Like countless others who made this journey from "non-preferred" countries, Eisenstein was only granted entry because he claimed to be single, starting his new life with a lie. He trusted that his wife and children would be able to follow after he had gained legal entry and found work. For years, he was given two choices: remain in North America alone, or return home to Poland to be with his family.
 
Born from years of archival research, Who Gets In is author Norman Ravvin's deeply personal family memoir, telling the story of his grandfather's resolute struggle against xenophobic and anti-Semitic government policies. Ravvin also provides a shocking exposé of the true character of nation-building in Canada and directly challenges its reputation as a benevolent, tolerant, and multicultural country.

Table of contents

• Part
• ONE
• Another Ship, Another Time
• Leaving
• “Pure Russian, Jew, German”
• Oh, Ottawa
• Go West, Slowly West, Knowing Nothing at All
• Coming Forward, from Radzanów
• Dysart, Saskatchewan, Capital of the Forgotten West
• The Bennett Years
• The Immigration Files: The Heart of the Matter
• At Hirsch on the Southeastern Borderlands
• How to Become a Character in a Canadian Novel
• The Immigration Path, Dark and Twisted
• Enter the Great Lady
• The Train I Ride
• Going to the Archives
• You Come from Far Away: The Danzig Story
• Last Thoughts upon Leaving
• Acknowledgements
• Sources Cited and Consulted
• Illustration Credits