User:Jweissgold/Nora Gold

Nora Gold (November 29, 1952- )

is the second of three children, and the only daughter, of the late Alan B. Gold and Lynn Lubin Gold. Nora was born in Montreal and educated at St. George's School of Montreal High School (1965-1969). After high school, she spent a year studying in French at Cégep du Vieux Montréal, majoring in philosophy and “Faith and the Human Condition.” The following year, Gold enrolled at McGill University, where she acquired a Bachelor of Social Work in 1975. Upon graduation she moved to Israel, where she made aliya (became an Israeli citizen) and lived until 1981. During these six years, she held two major social work positions. The first was in Beit Shemesh, a development town outside Jerusalem, where she headed a national pilot project for the Ministry of Welfare, and developed innovative community-based services for the elderly. Subsequently, Gold worked at a vocational training school in Jerusalem, providing social work services to the families of developmentally challenged adolescents. During these years in Israel, Gold also helped to found Kehillat Yedidah, at that time the only left-wing Orthodox congregation in Israel. In addition, she supervised social work students for the Israeli Institute for Social Work Training, taught English as a second language at a private language institute, and wrote and published short stories and poetry.

In 1981 Gold returned to Canada to do her Masters of Social Work at the Faculty of Social Work, University of Toronto, completing her degree Magna cum Laude the following year. She then worked for three years with the TRE-ADD Program for Autism at Thistletown Regional Centre, providing social work services to families with autistic children and adolescents. In 1985 Gold returned to the Faculty of Social Work, University of Toronto to do a PhD in social work, which she completed in 1990. Immediately upon graduation, Gold began teaching at the School of Social Work, McMaster University, in the role of Assistant Professor, and three years later was promoted to Associate Professor and was granted tenure. Gold remained at McMaster until January 2000, and during her 10 years there, conducted a number of different research studies, most significantly a national study of Canadian Jewish women and their experiences of sexism and antisemitism, and a follow-up study with Canadian Jewish girls, focussing on these same two phenomena. Both studies received external funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada.

In addition to her academic work, during this decade Gold also wrote fiction, and in 1998, her first book, Marrow and Other Stories, was published. One year later, Marrow and Other Stories was awarded the Louis Lockshin Prize for Short Fiction (one of the Toronto Jewish Book Awards), and was also short-listed for the Danuta Gleed Award, an award for the best first short story collection in Canada. On January 1, 2000, Gold resigned from McMaster in order to have more time to write. She kept a hand in academia, though, through teaching part-time at the Faculty of Social Work, University of Toronto, through her research on Jewish girls (which she completed in 2008, including making a short film about it), and through her ongoing (and still current) affiliation with the Centre for Women’s Studies in Education, at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education, University of Toronto (OISE/UT).

In addition to her fiction and her academic and professional work, Gold has always been very involved in social activism and community work, and has served on many community boards, task forces, and committees. Probably her most significant contribution to date has been, in 1982, founding (with several others) the New Israel Fund of Canada, a branch of the New Israel Fund, which is an international organization devoted to promoting civil rights, democracy, pluralism, and social justice in Israel. For the following 18 years, Gold served in a variety of leadership roles at NIFC, including Vice-President, and was also, for six of these 18 years, a member of NIF’s International Board and/or International Executive. Gold’s other significant contribution in terms of social action was to help found, in 1998, Canadian Friends of Givat Haviva, a branch of Givat Haviva, which is an educational organization in Israel promoting tolerance and mutual understanding between Jewish and Arab youth. Gold served as the Vice-President of Canadian Friends of Givat Haviva from 1998-2003, and during this time was also involved in various other organizations and institutions in Canada and the U.S. In 1998 Gold was recognized by the Toronto Jewish Community as an Outstanding Volunteer.--Jweissgold (talk) 21:51, 7 June 2011 (UTC)