In Jewish Texas

Stanley Ely says that when the fiftieth or so person confronted him with a skeptical, "You mean you're Jewish, and you're from Texas?" he decided to do more than smile and say, "Yes." The result is this funny, caustic and nostalgic tale in the tradition of popular regionally and ethnically focused memoirs. Ely combines the stories of his grandparents, parents, aunts, uncles, siblings and friends, and an abundance of family photos as he shares his family story from the immigration of his parents (as young children) and grandparents to Galveston from Russia and Romania until today, as Ely faces his own senior years living in New York. The story of Ely's family and their friends reflects the impressive growth of Dallas and its Jewish population in the first half of the twentieth century. As he narrates the building of new lives in Texas, Ely also portrays the integration of a minority segment of Jewish immigrants in America outside the great cities of the North. Though the book is not a typical "coming out" story, the reader also learns of Ely's gradual and sometimes reluctant acceptance of himself as a gay man.