By Donald H. Harrison
SAN DIEGO — I met Goldie Morgentaler while on a trip with grandson Shor, who had celebrated his bar mitzvah in 2014. We decided to follow the Interstate 15 north from San Diego to Canada, finding Jewish stories at points along the way.
Noting that Lethbridge, Canada, would be the first moderately-sized Canadian city we’d see after crossing the U.S.-Canada border, I asked Shor to Google “Lethbridge” and “Jewish.” He did and Google found Goldie Morgentaler, a professor of English and Yiddish literature at the University of Lethbridge. We sent her a message, describing me as a Jewish journalist traveling with my 13-year-old grandson in search of Jewish stories. Could we meet? She messaged back that if this were not a prank, she’d be willing to meet us at a sushi restaurant for lunch, emphasizing that the place would be public.
I understood her caution, which naturally dissipated when she met the two of us — a grandfather and his eager-to-learn, post-bar mitzvah grandson. Lethbridge has a tiny Jewish population, but in Morgentaler I discovered a gold mine. She became the focus of a Jewish story that I published in my second book: Schlepping Through the American West: There is a Jewish Story Everywhere.
Goldie was the daughter of Chava Rosenfarb, a distinguished Yiddish writer who wrote The Tree of Life, a three-volume novel about life in the ghetto of Lodz, Poland, which Morgentaler translated into English. Also of interest, Morgentaler’s father, Henry Morgentaler, was an abortion activist, whose legal troubles after performing an abortion ended up changing Canadian law. Although he performed the abortion, which was illegal at the time, a jury refused to convict him. An appeals court tried to reverse the jury’s decision, prompting the Canadian Parliament to pass a law saying jury verdicts could not be reversed by appellate courts, although appellate courts could order new trials. This became known as the Morgentaler Amendment to the Criminal Code.
Goldie and her husband Jonathan Seldin invited Shor and me to continue the conversation over dinner at Ric’s Grill, which was located in the top of a converted 12-story-high mushroom-shaped water tower. I learned that her specialty in English literature was Charles Dickens, whose character of Faigin in Oliver Twist long has been considered antisemitic. Goldie said Dickens regretted the impression he gave that he was an antisemite and tried to redeem himself later in his career with the publication of Our Mutual Friend, in which the Jewish character, Riah, is treated very favorably.
After Shor and I returned home, we kept up our correspondence with Goldie. I successfully suggested to Susanne Hillman, coordinator of UCSD’s Holocaust Living History Workshop, that Goldie could provide an interesting lecture about her late mother. Arrangements subsequently were made for Goldie to lecture at the workshop, and she and Jonathan were Nancy’s and my guests during their visit to San Diego, providing an occasion to get to know them even better.
The City of Lodz, Poland, declared 2023 the Year of Chava Rosenfarb, with displays and readings highlighting the life of the well-known Yiddish writer. Meanwhile, Goldie was translating some of the short stories her mother had written after immigrating to Canada in a book called In the Land of the Postscript, which I was able to review on July 6, 2023.
It pleased me recently to read a press release from the Canadian Jewish Literary Awards that In the Land of the Postscript was one of seven outstanding books by Canadian Jewish authors to be recognized this year. The press release noted that Goldie “started translating her mother’s work at thirteen years old. Translation is an art. Morgentaler, who is Professor Emerita of English Literature at the University of Lethbridge, and her mother’s literary champion, has singular access to and insight into the author, her language, and the intricacies of transforming the Yiddish sentences into English while maintaining the intense emotions and experiences they convey.”
I’ve valued my friendship with Goldie and Jonathan. I’m glad that she hadn’t dismissed as a “prank” Shor’s and my unsolicited message to her a decade ago.
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Donald H. Harrison is publisher and editor of San Diego Jewish World.