Escape from Mount Moriah: Memoirs of a Refugee Child's Triumph - Hardcover

Jack Engelhard

3.34

184 ratings by Goodreads

9780967407487: Escape from Mount Moriah: Memoirs of a Refugee Child's Triumph

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0967407486 ISBN 13: 9780967407487

Publisher: ComteQ Publishing, 2000

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The adventures of 'Tom Sawyer' with an ironic, Yiddish twist."

WINNER -- 2001 MPA -- "Excellence In Independent Publishing" Award.

OFFICIAL Selection CANNES Film Festival 2011 for this memoir's first short story, My Father, Joe...filmed by Nikila Cole.

The adventurous, humorous, sometimes wonderfully strange exploits of a youth during his family's adjustment to a new world, these compelling boyhood memories are of an almost Tom Sawyer character, albeit with ironic Yiddish twist.

"All the short stories within this memoir illuminate and pack a wallop. They sparkle and shine in Engelhard’s unique minimalist style...prose that is lean, reserved and economical...if there is one word to describe Engelhard’s writing, I’d choose CHARM. What a gift to those of us who understand the trials and triumphs of growing up. Escape From Mount Moriah...the finest, perhaps the greatest memoir I have ever read." Reviewer S. Dite

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From the Author:

I was just an infant when all those exploits transpired and I would have had to undertake much research in order to get the stories right—and I simply could not get up the gumption for such an effort, perhaps because so many writers had already beaten me to the task.

The only road still unmarked was this: the life of a child refugee.

This was terrain not well traveled, and so sketch by sketch I went ahead with this collection, motivated by no greater ambition than to its being a keepsake for my children. And once I got started I couldn’t stop. It all came flooding back.

Yes, the children. It’s so important for them (and their whole generation) to know—and to never forget.

The children must be made aware that the freedom they enjoy today in America—and too easily take for granted—comes with a responsibility to appreciate and respect the past.

Then comes the matter of anti-Semitism. To put it bluntly: It’s still as pervasive as ever. I’ve spoken at enough college campuses to know that there are too many ministers of hate who have cleverly targeted the impressionable young and have gained a new world of adherents—among them blacks, whites, and even young Jews.

Thanks to them, I am convinced that for each Jewish kid growing up today, there’s an anti-Semite to match. With some watering, they sprout like weeds.

And...who would have thought...that the greatest calculated massacre of all-time would produce, barely a generation later, an obscene legion of Holocaust deniers...people who say it didn’t happen—just as there once were those who claimed that the earth was flat.

It was mostly for these reasons—that is, to wage against forgetfulness and the terrorism of lies—that the book’s publisher, Rob Huberman—also a lover of words—encouraged the publication of this work, persuaded, as he was, that it possesses a universal message.

Maybe he’s right.

About the Author:

Jack Engelhard's novel Indecent Proposal has been translated into 22 languages and is a bestseller around the world. Praised for its "sparseness of Hemingway but moral intensity of I.B. Singer," the book has been described as "a gem that was overlooked" until the release of Paramount's movie starring Robert Redford and Demi Moore.

His recent award-winning novel, The Days of the Bitter End, takes readers back to the streets of the political and cultural focal point of the sixties: New York City's Greenwich Village -- at the moment of one of contemporary history's life-changing events -- John F. Kennedy's assassination. Engelhard "was there" during that thrilling era. He was the doorman at the now-famous Bitter End nightclub that played host to many counter-culture legends including Bob Dylan, Peter, Paul & Mary, Lenny Bruce, Bill Cosby, Richard Pryor, and Jack Kerouac.

Engelhard is also the author of The Horseman, Deadly Deception, and the award-winning Escape from Mount Moriah: A Refugee Child's Triumph, which depicts his childhood adventures after his family's escape from the Nazi invasion of France. His weekly op-ed newspaper column, "A View of the Absurd" is distributed nationally and he has written three plays.

Deadly Deception is under development by Fast Carrier Pictures in Hollywood as the movie "The Crapshooter." Reminiscent of "The Hustler" and "The Cincinnati Kid," the drama focuses on Julian Rothchild, a crapshooter who runs afoul of an unscrupulous casino boss one memorable weekend in Las Vegas.

Born in Toulouse, France Engelhard spent his formative years in Montreal and Cincinnati. Though not conventionally religious, he admits to being inspired by Scriptures for both style and substance, as evidenced in his writings, wherein he puts his characters to the test - placing the spotlight on men and women to see how they behave and perform under moral pressure. His personal experiences - beginning with his family's dramatic escape, to earning a place as a worldwide bestselling novelist - may explain his search for integrity in a world of chaos.

Engelhard settled in the Philadelphia area in the 1960s where he edited his own newspaper in South Jersey and later became an award-winning journalist and special features columnist for the Philadelphia Inquirer for over 15 years. He is also a former KYW News Radio and newspaper editor covering the Middle East. Engelhard served as an American volunteer in the Israeli Defense Forces and is a ranking belt in Krav Maga, Israeli martial arts. He currently resides in southern New Jersey with his wife Leslie and their children David and Rachel.

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