Ellin Bessner unveils the phantastic story of brave Mitchell Sterlin outside the RCR circles. Sterlin's story, his heroism and his humanity are well known to those who served or serve in The Royal Canadian Regiment, less so to the general public. Ellin’s book, Ellin Bessner who is a Canadian journalist, a professor of journalism at Centennial College in Toronto, and a sought-after speaker on Canadian military and Jewish history. Ellin was born in Montreal and graduated with a degree in journalism and political science from Carleton University. She was a reporter and anchor for CBC News and CTV News. As a foreign correspondent based in Rome, Italy, she reported on the Mafia, Italian food, fashion, the opera, and, of course, on soccer. Ellin also covered several civil wars in Africa. She’s reported on Ottawa’s Parliament Hill, the Canadian military, the Columbia space shuttle disaster, 9/11, and she’s interviewed the late Prince Phillip and the Dalai Lama.

In 2019, Ellin published Double Threat: Canadian Jews, the Military, and World War II. She spent six years researching, travelling, and interviewing over 300 veterans and their families, to tell the untold stories of how and why Canada’s Jewish community sent 17,000 men and women to serve under the Allied Forces during the Second World War. It is a story that has never been comprehensively told before and fills an important gap in the publicly known accounts of how a country of volunteers helped win the war. In her book, Ellin Bessner tells us who these Jewish Canadian were, why they enlisted, and what their lives were like as Jews in Canada, in the barracks, or on the battlefield. To paraphrase Peter Mansbridge, Bessner’s book brings a part of our history out of the shadows.

Double Threat: Canadian Jews, the Military, and World War II, can be found on Amazon, on Ellin’s website and soon in our own gift shop.

The RCRM Speakers Series will be back in 2022, with a third season.