Double Threat

Double Threat: Canadian Jews, the Military, and World War II is a 2018 book by Ellin Bessner.

Background
Ellin Bessner, the Canadian journalist and author who wrote Double Threat, was inspired to explore the role of Canadian Jews in the war effort by the words: "He died so Jewry should suffer no more" on a Jewish Canadian soldier's tombstone in Normandy.

Overview
Double Threat focuses on the 17,000 Canadian Jews who enlisted in the Canadian military during World War II, of whom 450 did not survive the war.

The soldiers faced a "double threat"– they were not only fighting against Fascism, but for the survival of the Jewish people. At the same time, they encountered widespread antisemitism and the danger of being identified as Jews if captured in combat. The title of the book comes from a letter written by Canada's Prime Minister during the war, William Lyon MacKenzie King, thanking the Jewish community for their efforts during the War and how they faced a "double threat" of both Nazi aggression and the survival of the Jewish people.

In conducting background research for Double Threat, the author conducted hundreds of interviews and performed extensive archival research to paint a picture of the historical complexities of the participation of Canadian Jews in World War II.

Reception
After its publication in 2019, Double Threat was featured in the Montreal Gazette; highly praised in the Hamilton Jewish News; called ‘excellent’ by a University of Western Ontario women's studies professor; compared to the classics None Is Too Many (Irving Abella-Harold Troper) and Canada’s Jews: A People’s Journey, (Gerald J. J. Tulchinsky) by the Canadian Jewish News; and described as "Heroes from north of the border!" in both the Long Island Jewish World and the Manhattan Jewish Sentinel. The work was also reviewed by Jennifer Shaw in the journal Canadian Jewish Studies.

About the author
Ellin Bessner was born and raised in Montreal, Canada. She used to skate at Mount Royal before heading to Ottawa to study. She graduated with a degree in journalism and political science from Carleton University. As a journalist, she worked for CTV News and CBC News, which took her not only in Canada but around the world, as well as stringing for the Globe and Mail and The Canadian Press. During the 1990s, Ms. Bessner covered several civil wars in Africa. She has conducted interviews with, among others, Prince Philip and the Dalai Lama. In addition to her work as a journalist and author, Ms. Bessner taught journalism at Centennial College in Toronto for almost 20 years.