Rifke: An Improbable Life

by Rosalie Wise Sharp

In this memoir, the author casts a wry and self-deprecating look back on her childhood, with anecdotes about the chance events and comic ironies that make up a life. Rifke (Rosalie Wise Sharp) grew up in North Toronto, which felt to her like a foreign place because there were no other Jewish families there in the late 1930s. Yiddish was spoken in her household, and the food, dress, and customs of Ozarow—the Polish shtetl (small Jewish town) from which her parents emigrated—were all maintained. Rifke's peers took lessons in tap dancing, ice skating, the piano, and the flute—activities that didn't translate into the Yiddish vocabulary, where only hard work, no-nonsense, and book learning were permitted. Rifke secretly decided to pass as a gentile, joining a bible class and the Christmas choir, and she was guilty about her pursuit of these activities during the war, when her mother was frantic with fear that their family in Poland was being slaughtered by the Nazis. In high school, Rifke's life it was there that she met and married her soul mate Isadore, who worked in the construction business, much to her parents' disappointment. Prosperity took time, however, and Isadore's audacious dream to build a world-class hotel chain, The Four Seasons, came to pass.

220 pages, Paperback

First published April 1, 2007

Reviews

[Aleksandra · Rating 1 out of 5]

I had high expectation from this one and I was quite disappointed. The parts about Toronto were very interesting but the Polish part had a lot of mistakes (like for example names of places) and misleading information. Also I felt like I couldn't care enough for the author and her stories, the events were described briefly, jumping from one thing to another, often without a time to really describe what happened. And call me ignorant but I didn't quite get what was so special about her life to write a book.

[Kelly · Rating 2 out of 5]

Shallow back. Still puzzled as to why it was even written. I do not recommend.

[Tony · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was an unusual book as I had no previous knowledge of the author, nor of her husband or her life. As a result, it was a little like talking to a stranger instead of a friend but I was still able to enjoy it. It provided a good look at Jewish culture and religion which I was ignorant about and was quite entertaining in parts. In other parts it became a little mundane but the chapter on the Holocaust was exceptional. She seems yo have lived a very satisfying life.

[Dianne · Rating 4 out of 5]

Rifke, or Rosalie Wise Sharp was born in the mid thirties in Toronto. Her family ties were Jewish and Polish and when she was young, her family moved from ethnic Kensington Market to North Toronto, alien to their Jewish ways. She married her high school sweetheart, Isadore Sharp, whose family was in construction. Izzie Sharp went on to be the founder of the Four Seasons Hotel and Resort chain. Her story is meant to be a link to the second World War Eastern European history, that was once a large part of those of us whose families originated there, and soon will be forgotten. The Sharp philanthropic footprint shows up in the "spider" at OCAD University and the Toronto Opera House. This book really resonated with me because of my Eastern European background, also because I danced at the Four Seasons clubs on Jarvis Street and at Inn on the Park and because my family also moved from downtown Toronto to North Toronto.