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BOSTON (JTA) — Within the early Nineteen Eighties, when Norman H. Finkelstein was the director of training at Camp Yavne in Northwood, New Hampshire, campers would greet his day by day bulletins by exuberantly chanting, “Norm, Norm!,” a reference to a well-liked character on the hit tv sequence “Cheers.”
The nice and cozy reception on the Jewish summer season camp mirrored Finkelstein’s enjoyable and vigorous character, in line with his oldest son, Jeffrey.
“He was an educator. However even in summer season camp, when the children aren’t there to study, however to have enjoyable, he made it enjoyable,” Jeffrey, president and CEO of the Jewish Federation of Higher Pittsburgh, advised the Jewish Telegraphic Company.
On the time, Finkelstein was a librarian within the Brookline Public Faculties, a profession that lasted 35 years. He and his spouse, Rosalind, had joined the camp’s summer season employees so they may afford to ship their three youngsters to the camp. As well as, he was a trainer at Hebrew Faculty’s Prozdor Hebrew highschool for practically 40 years.
Nevertheless it was one other function that introduced him acclaim in Boston and past: Finkelstein was an acclaimed writer of nonfiction books and biographies for older kids, together with many on Jewish topics. He was a uncommon, two-time winner of the coveted Nationwide Jewish Ebook award, for “Heeding the Name: Jewish Voices in America’s Civil Rights Wrestle” and “Cast in Freedom: Shaping the American Jewish Expertise.”
He was additionally the recipient of the Golden Kite honor award for nonfiction for his 1997 YA biography of newsman Edward R. Murrow.
“His unbelievable books championed the important contributions of Jewish People, immigrants, and staff to U.S. historical past and tradition,” Della Farrell, affiliate editor of the writer Vacation Home, wrote in an electronic mail.
Finkelstein, 82, died on Friday, Jan. 5 from what his household mentioned was an surprising sickness. Vacation Home is publishing considered one of two books that Finkelstein was wanting ahead to seeing in print on the time of his demise: “Superb Abe: How Abraham Cahan’s Newspaper Gave a Voice to Jewish Immigrants,” a biography of the legendary Yiddish Ahead editor illustrated by Vesper Stamper. The opposite is “Saying No to Hate: Overcoming Antisemitism in America,” which the Jewish Publication Society is publishing in Could.
He was drawn to tales that have been below the radar, together with “The Shelter and the Fence: When 982 Holocaust Refugees Discovered Protected Haven in America.”
“It’s a type of little holes in historical past that I appear to attempt to fill with my books,” Finkelstein mentioned in a 2021 interview concerning the Jews who discovered secure haven at a resettlement middle in Oswego, New York.
“He liked instructing. Whether or not he taught in a classroom, whether or not he taught in his library or whether or not he taught by his books, he was a pure trainer,” his son Jeffrey mentioned.
Susie Tanchel, the vp of Hebrew Faculty, mentioned he had a “profound” affect on the faculty and college students in its teen studying program.
“Together with his deep information and love of Jewish historical past, he woke up their minds and hearts to seek out their very own hyperlinks to our shared previous,” she wrote. “Norm’s sort method…and humorousness made studying with him an important pleasure.”
“I might seek advice from anyone like Norm as a Renaissance man, as a result of he was all in favour of so many issues like arts, leisure and politics,” mentioned Jordan Wealthy, of WBZ radio in Boston, who interviewed Finkelstein about his books some half-dozen instances over time.
The 2 have been neighbors and belonged to Temple Sholom in Framingham, Massachusetts, Wealthy advised JTA in a cellphone dialog.
Finkelstein had a eager wit and was a masterful storyteller, Wealthy mentioned.
He liked hanging out along with his grandkids, Jeffrey mentioned. “He knew how you can work together with youngsters.”
Finkelstein obtained amusing from the irony of sharing a reputation with Norman G. Finkelstein, a controversial political scientist whose harsh views on Israel have been polar reverse to his personal love for the nation.
“I’ve typically wished to alter my title to Lance,” he quipped to The Ahead in 2004, in article concerning the doppelgangers.
Norman Henry Finkelstein was born on Nov. 11, 1941, to working-class Jewish immigrant dad and mom who settled in Chelsea, a metropolis simply north of Boston that was teeming with Jewish life. It’s the place he met Rosalind, to whom he was married for 56 years. He earned bachelor’s and grasp’s levels at Hebrew Faculty, and a bachelor’s diploma from Boston College.
This Shabbat, for Temple Israel of Boston’s celebration of Martin Luther King Jr. Day, the synagogue’s librarian, Ann Abrams, will show “Heed the Name,” her favourite amongst all of Finkelstein’s books. She shows it yearly.
“After I consider Norm Finkelstein, I consider a mensch,” Abrams, the previous president of the New England Affiliation of Jewish Libraries, wrote in an electronic mail.
“I hope the world will proceed to learn his books. However, these of us who have been fortunate to get to know him, will at all times keep in mind his beneficiant spirit, and heat smile that clearly conveyed he was very blissful to satisfy you.”
Along with his spouse Rosalind and son Jeffrey, he’s survived by his son Robert, daughter Risa Sugarman and three grandchildren.
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