Family history, tracing ancestors Books

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Book Synopsis

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Book Synopsis

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Book Synopsis

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Book SynopsisThe need for a legislative framework for ensuring equality of opportunity is not seriously questioned in the UK. However,despite the presence on the Statute book of various significant pieces legislation dating back to the mid 1970s, there remain deep-seated structural disadvantages which blight the lives of many women, Black and Asian people, and disabled persons. The Stephen Lawrence inquiry report highlighted the presence of institutionalised racism in the police. Similar barriers can also be found in other public services and in private sector organisations. There are also insistent demands for the extension of legislation to cover discrimination on other grounds such as religion, age and sexual orientation. Discriminatory behaviour cannot be remedied by legislation alone, or simply by the actions of government, courts and tribunals and Commissions. Political and social leadership, customer and peer pressure, the development of good practices and campaigning all have a crucial part to play. Employers, trade unions, social organisations and clubs, service providers and individuals all have to take voluntary action to achieve the goals of the legislation. One thing that is clear is that the present legislation is badly in need of modernisation. The present acts are outdated, piecemeal and inconsistent. They fall short of the standards set by EU law, international human rights law, and the Human Rights Act. In writing this report, the authors set out to develop an accessible and cost-effective legislative framework for ensuring equality of opportunity, and to propose other measures which will promote equal opportunity policies and spur compliance with those policies. In the course of preparing the report they have considered experience in other countries. They have heard from many individuals and organisations who have either experienced the effects of discrimination or attempted to counter it. They conducted a survey of employers in Britain, Northern Ireland and the USA, which shows that human resource managers are looking for a new more inclusive approach not only to prevent discrimination but also to provide positively for the fair participation of all groups. These views, together with those of an advisory group drawn from government, the Commissions, and tribunals, as well as a panel of academic and practising lawyers, form the backdrop to the recommendations contained in this report. Coming at a time when the Government is committed to introducing new equality legislation the report is bound to be highly influential. It will be essential reading for all those interested in human rights, discrimination and employment law, and human resources management. TABLE OF CONTENTS Introduction - Aims and Methodology Ch. 1 - Why a new famework is needed Ch. 2 - Harmonising legislation and institutions Ch. 3 - Changing organisational policy and behaviour Ch. 4 - Making procedures and remedies more effective Appendices The research was sponsored by the Joseph Rowntree Charitable Trust and the Nuffield Foundation, and was conducted under the auspices of the Centre for Public Law and the Judge Institute of Management Studies in the University of Cambridge.Trade ReviewThis Report is written in a fluent and straightforward style. The approach adopted, which lists recommendations relevant to the topic discussed at the end of each paragraph, is particularly useful. This Report is a valuable and welcome contribution to the development of an important principle and the relevant legislation.I would recommend it...The price makes this report accessible. Eugenia Caracciolo di Torella Journal of Social Welfare and Family Law June 2002 The report lays out the best short description of the present state of anti-discrimination law in the United Kingdom that I am aware of, presents a clear description of the failings of that law and proposes that a new, fourth generation law be enacted to sustain what is good in the present scheme, to remedy what is less than adequate and to take U.K. anti-discrimination law to the cutting edge. The authors are to be admired for a first class job that attempts a number of interesting techniques that will certainly influence how future projects for the reform of the law will be structured. Michael J. Zimmer, Seton Hall University Comparative Labor Law and Policy Journal September 2002 ...Equality: A New Framework is such an important document. It scrutinises all aspects of discrimination and unequal treatment, providing new solutions aimed at achieving equality of opportunity. [it] offers the first real attempt to define the kind of legal rights, which all members of discriminated against groups, should have. Sonia McKay, Labour Research Department Industrial Law Journal February 2003 The comprehensive nature of the analysis and the extensive scope of the consultation, the quality and esteem of the expert advisory panel and the independence of the review team in particular makes the report a credible and important commentary. Muriel Robison Scolag Legal Journal February 2003Table of ContentsWhy a new framework is needed: challenges to the present framework - outdated legislation, the law of the European Union, devolution, the Human Rights Act 1998, summary; the changing face of discrimination and disadvantage: social structure and attitudes, the labour market and unemployment, the gender pay gap, discrimination; changed social and employment practices; towards a new framework. Harmonising legislation and institutions: a single statute? - defects of the present framework, how to harmonise; principles; the concepts of equality and discrimination - direct discrimination, victimisation, knowledge, intention and motivation, indirect discrimination, equality of opportunity, fair participation and fair access, interpretative principles; justification of discrimination - direct discrimination, disability discrimination, genuine occupational qualification, reasonable adjustments, positive action; harassment and bullying; grounds of discrimination - general considerations, specific grounds; harmonising or merging the commissions - a single commission?, structure of a single commission. Changing organisational policy and behaviour: regulatory strategies; duty on public authorities to promote equality - purposes, principles, scope, equality schemes, which authorities and functions?, enforcement; employment equity - lessons from the USA, Northern Ireland, a scheme for Britain; pay equity - introduction, EOC and TUC proposals, the Ontario Pay Equity Act, enforcement of pay equity schemes, relationship of pay equity to individual right, pay comparisons; contract and subsidy compliance - meaning, practice in Britain, Northern Ireland, objections and justifications, restrictions under EC law, proposals. Making procedures and remedies more effective: specialisation and training - a specialist division?, training of chairmen, lay members, the title of "chairman"; jurisdiction - employment appeal tribunal and county and sheriff courts - transfer of cases to the Employment Appeal Tribunal, county and sheriff court cases; pre-hearing matters - unmeritorious cases, interlocutory hearings, questionnaire procedure, class actions and group litigation, equal pay claims; the hearing - length of hearings, legal help and representation, burden of proof; time limits; remedies - compensation, exemplary (punitive) and aggravated damages, reinstatement and re-engagement, power to make recommendations, interim relief; costs; conciliation, mediation and arbitration. Appendices: findings from employer case studies; legislation; comparison of legislation; consultations and interviews; selected bibliography; research team, advisory committee and panel of experts; working papers.

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Book Synopsis

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Book SynopsisAn unputdownable tale of one man’s quest to recover his family’s property, plundered by the Nazis. Menachem Kaiser’s brilliantly told story is set in motion when the author takes up his Holocaust-survivor grandfather’s former battle to reclaim the family’s property in Sosnowiec, Poland. Here, he meets a Polish lawyer known as ‘The Killer’ who agrees to take his case and becomes involved with a band of Silesian treasure-seekers, all the while piecing together his family’s complex history. Propelled by rich, original research, Kaiser immerses readers in profound questions that reach far beyond his personal quest. What does it mean to seize your own legacy? Can reclaimed property repair rifts among the living? Plunder is both a deeply immersive adventure story and an irreverent, daring interrogation of inheritance — material, spiritual, familial, and emotional.Trade Review‘Menachem Kaiser is a young writer and storyteller of stunning talent, originality, and wisdom, and his debut book is gloriously impossible to categorise — by turns hilarious and profound, digressive and suspenseful, intimate and sweeping, it stands as an enviable accomplishment.’ -- Gideon Lewis-Kraus, author of A Sense of Direction: pilgrimage for the restless and hopeful‘Reparations and treasure hunting: I can’t think of two better metaphors for memoir writing, and I can’t think of a better recent memoir than Menachem Kaiser’s Plunder, which has heart, humour, and intelligence to spare.’ -- Joshua Cohen, author of Attention: dispatches from a land of distraction‘A saga of family history and inheritance that reads like a murder mystery, Plunder begins with Menachem Kaiser’s journey to reclaim a Polish apartment building but immediately becomes something far richer and stranger. Probing with unusual insight and humour into questions of memory, loss, and what we owe to the past, this impossible-to-put-down book — part travelogue, part memoir, part meditation on all that history hides from us — marks the debut of a major writer.’ -- Ruth Franklin, author of NBCC Award-winning Shirley Jackson: A Rather Haunted Life‘Exceptionally well written, this candid and suspenseful work recasts the injunction that one generation of survivors demands of all descendants, never to forget. Plunder is a magnificent and stunning literary debut.’ -- André Aciman, author of Find Me and Call Me by Your Name‘What distinguishes Plunder from other similar accounts is its questioning, satirical tone, which destabilises some of the moral certainties of the genre and sends up its clichés.’ -- Daniel Trilling * London Review of Books *‘A twisting and reverberant and consistently enthralling story. It’s a weird story that gets weirder … Kaiser is a reflective man on the page, with a lively mind. He dwells on the moral seesaw he finds himself on … Kaiser considers the nature of conspiracy theories, in a way that’s highly relevant to our era. (His thinking about reparations of various kinds is as complex and timely.) … Plunder has many stories to tell … many moods and registers. It acquires moral gravity. It pays tender and respectful attention to forgotten lives. It is also alert to melancholic forms of comedy. Tonally I was reminded at times of Jonathan Safran Foer’s excellent first novel, Everything Is Illuminated … Traveling on a private road, closer to the ground, and at a slower pace, [Kaiser’s] walk turns up details that are fresh, unexpected and significant. His perceptions are sharp. We partake of his curiosity.’ -- Dwight Garner * The New York Times *‘In a literate, constantly surprising quest, the grandson of a Holocaust survivor returns to Poland to lay claim to the things of the past … Kaiser’s parallel quest then took him into the concentration camps, sometimes accompanied by treasure hunters who used his relative’s memoir as a guidebook to hidden Nazi loot. Of a piece with Anne-Marie O’Connor’s The Lady in Gold (2012), Kaiser’s story approaches the conclusion on an unsettled note that, he laments, would be simpler to resolve if he were writing a novel and not nonfiction — though it does end on a cliffhanger worthy of a thriller.’ * Kirkus Reviews, starred review *‘This is weird, complicated territory — by which I mean it’s fantastic … Plunder thrives as a morally complicated travelogue … it is original, and it finishes strong. Kaiser chases down the facts (fingers-crossed) of Abraham Kajzer’s story, and they devastated me. It’s not spoiling things to say that Kajzer survived the absolute worst humanity had to offer only to abandon life’s greatest reward. From the distance of all these years his choice is incomprehensible. It’s our duty to try to understand anyway.’ * The New York Times Book Review *‘A master storyteller embarks on a journey to learn about his grandfather and to reclaim an apartment building that was stolen during the Holocaust. The odyssey is fascinating and thought-provoking.’ * Christian Science Monitor, ‘The 10 Best Books of March’ *‘With smart, elegant prose, [Kaiser] manages to construct an engrossing chronicle of his foray into an elusive past. His narrative is wonderfully digressive, laced with coincidences and ambiguities, and filled with just enough revelations to keep readers contentedly turning pages.’ * The Forward *‘Spellbinding … Superbly written, this page-turner reads like a gripping adventure novel.’ * Publishers Weekly, starred review *‘This thoughtful and thought-provoking memoir of family secrets and family lore, like Daniel Mendelsohn’s The Lost, will appeal to readers of family histories.’ -- Laurie Unger Skinner * Library Journal *‘Kaiser teases out a fascinating tale in simple, effective writing.’ -- Steven Carrol * SHM *‘Plunder is both a thriller — lots of shady characters — and a highly readable excursion through the tangled web of history and contemporary politics. Kaiser takes you along on his journey of trying retrieving family possessions. He writes with sparkle, wit, and sensitivity. A great read.’ -- Deborah Levy, author of The Cost of Living‘Stranger than fiction … a rollercoaster journey.’ -- Jennifer Lipman * Jewish Chronicle *‘Plunder is considerably more than a thriller and intentionally raises more questions than answers … There is still space for one more book in the Holocaust quest library. Preferably by Kaiser.’ -- Amanda Hopinkson * Jewish Chronicle *

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