MILWAUKEE, Sept. 08, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- “Despair is the question. Hope is the answer.” These words are associated with Romanian-born American writer, professor, political activist, Nobel laureate and Holocaust survivor Elie Wiesel and his response to the Holocaust. Rereading Wiesel’s works and the realization of a need to bear witness to important lifetime events and experiences prompted Herzl R. Spiro M.D., Ph.D. to write “Of Hope: A Memoir” (published by Balboa Press), the story of his many attempts and failures to lead a life of deep belief, meaning and service, despite living in a world full of confusion, despair, temptations, hardship and doubt.
In his early years, Spiro’s father was trying to help the Jews of Europe and worked on the establishment of Israel. Later, there were wonderful years growing and learning in Vermont. He also describes his personal experiences in the remarkable human rights movement of Martin Luther King. There were years of rising hope for a better community mental health care system as they built programs at Johns Hopkin, Rutgers University and the Medical College of Wisconsin. The defunding by the Reagan administration and the cruel consequences that occurred are described as he subsequently worked with residents of the inner city of Milwaukee.
In 1982, Spiro started to work on the absorption of immigrants to Israel and became chair as they tried to avoid the mistakes of the Black-white relationships in America for the tens of thousands of Black immigrants from Ethiopia. They worked to help integrate 1,250,000 immigrants who were penniless strangers from communist lands adapting to a new language and culture in Israel. The book also describes the hope engendered by his remarriage and his family. The epilogue describes the current reality of the COVID-19 pandemic and the rising awareness of the need to heal the long unfair relationship with Black Americans as well as an increasing deprived underclass. The book suggests bringing hope to those now deprived using some of the methods of absorption they used in Israel.
“Of Hope: A Memoir” is the story of an old man looking into the unknown, both backward and forward and realizing that he knows little and still must go on with a deep and abiding belief. This is what it means to return to his father’s house. This is, in a word, hope. For more details about the book, please visit https://www.balboapress.com/en/bookstore/bookdetails/802741-of-hope
“Of Hope: A Memoir”
Hardcover | 6 x 9in | 138 pages | ISBN 9781982251451
Softcover | 6 x 9in | 138 pages | ISBN 9781982251468
E-Book | 138 pages | ISBN 9781982251444
Available at Amazon and Barnes & Noble
About the Author
Herzl R Spiro MD PhD was educated in Vermont, Harvard, Rutgers, New York Hospital and Johns Hopkins. He helped organize medical care for Rev. King’s marches. He served the Jewish Agency Absorption Committee for 20 years. He was faculty at Johns Hopkins, and Rutgers before becoming professor and chair of psychiatry at the Medical College of Wisconsin and professor of psychiatry and psychology at The University of Wisconsin-Madison where he is now an emeritus professor. He published numerous books and research articles. He, currently at 85 years, still works as a psychiatrist full-time serving Milwaukee’s inner city.
Balboa Press, a division of Hay House, Inc. – a leading provider in publishing products that specialize in self-help and the mind, body, and spirit genres. Through an alliance with the worldwide self-publishing leader Author Solutions, LLC, authors benefit from the leadership of Hay House Publishing and the speed-to-market advantages of the self-publishing model. For more information, visit balboapress.com. To start publishing your book with Balboa Press, call 844-682-1282 today.
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