Here's an example of what makes many chuckle and just as many despair of the man's output (I'm a chuckler)

"On occasion, life does improve upon art. Take, for instance, the case of my novel St. Urbain's Horseman, in which a striving Duddy Kravitz is seen to be involved in more than one louche enterprise, just possibly his most dubious being the publication of a Canadian Jewish Who's Who, which he irreverently dubs The Jew's Who. Duddy calculates that anybody listed in his slapdash compendium will buy two, maybe three copies, and he cleverly demands a fee from those sufficiently vain to wish to have a photograph adorn their entry.

Now along comes the third edition of Who's Who in Canadian Jewry, a slipshod production that also bills those who wish to have a photograph included with their biography. The Who's Who in Canadian Jewry, published by JESL Educational Products in Toronto, was edited by Dr. Edmond Yehuda Lipsitz, principal of the Kitchener-Waterloo Hebrew Day School. He has kindly sent me a copy, requesting a review, and, obliging fellow that I am, I have decided to oblige.

For the most part, the entries in this catalogue are made up of doctors, lawyers, professors and entrepreneurs, many of whom profess to enjoy golfing, aerobics and tennis, and all of whom are proud of their families, which strikes me as awfully nice. The honours list is preceded by several learned essays, rich in statistics and tables.

Leo Davids, associate professor, Atkinson College, York University, Toronto, for example, offers "Table III, Jewish Endogamy vs. Exogamy and Unmarried Cohabitation in Canada's Major Cities, 1991." That is to say, a chart of those married within the faith, or those married to shiksas, or simply shacking up together without benefit of clergy. I sometimes think that sociologists are not merely indifferent to the beauties of the English language, but actively conspire against it.

In any event, just in case you're interested, there are 525 "Jew-Jew Cohabitant Couples" in Toronto, but only 400 in Montreal, which establishes, contrary to popular belief, that Torontonians are far more morally suspect (or shmutzik, as my grandmother would have said) than Montrealers.

In his introduction, Dr. Lipsitz ventures that, despite his efforts to be all-inclusive, there are those Jews who chose not to be included in such a publication due to fear of being listed in a book on Jewry. Well now, I can't say for sure if that was true of Stockwell Day (ne Dubinsky?), but he certainly hit the nail on the head in my case. Word gets out that I'm a Jew and I'm done for. Next thing I know a United Jewish Appeal fundraiser will phone to say today is Super Sunday. "Remember the Six Million. It could happen here. One day it's Haider in Austria and the next God knows who in Canada. Israel is our refuge. The only country where we can be safe."

"But Israel is surrounded by hostile Arab countries armed with missile-launchers."

"And you're too cheap to give? Shame on you."

for the most part, this is an honour roll of worthy rather than distinguished people, who deserve admiration for their community work. They seem to take turns at being designated Man or Woman of the Year and many have won a Samuel Bronfman Medal for something or other.

Edgar Bronfman, BA, LL.D (Hon.), D.Hum.Lett (Hon.), is commendably reticent about his achievements. He owns up to being Pres., Distillers Corp.-Seagram Ltd., as well as the prez of World Jewish Congress, but he does not list what I take to be his greatest accomplishment, moving billions of the family swag out of Canada without having to fork over $700- million in tax.

Bram Appel, on the other hand, obviously needy, lists a most pathetic distinction, namely his award of a 1967 Centennial Medal. My God, there were something like 50,000 of these cheap aluminum medals sent out in '67.

Even I got one, mailed to me in London. I promptly gave it to my then six-year-old son, Noah, who wore it on the top of his soccer knee stocking until it was lost somewhere in Richmond Park.

This was not a necessary book."