Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    My Left Skate: The Extraordinary Story of Eliezer Sherbatov
    My Left Skate: The Extraordinary Story of Eliezer Sherbatov
    My Left Skate: The Extraordinary Story of Eliezer Sherbatov
    Ebook116 pages1 hour

    My Left Skate: The Extraordinary Story of Eliezer Sherbatov

    By Anna Rosner

    ()

    Read preview

    About this ebook

    WINNER, Red Cedar Nonfiction Award

    Based on extensive interviews, My Left Skate: The Extraordinary Story of Eliezer Sherbatov is a first-person biography of a Jewish teenager who had it all on the hockey rink: guts, drive, and exceptional talent. When a freak accident leaves him with a permanent disability and no feeling below his left knee, everyone believes Eliezer's career is over - everyone except his mother, a professional power skating coach. She teaches Eliezer to skate using the muscles in his upper leg, and after two and a half years of operations and rehabilitation, he returns to the rink to become one of Quebec's elite junior players.

    Still undrafted at age nineteen, Eliezer embarks on a professional career in Europe in the hopes of one day returning to the NHL. His travels lead him to France, Kazakhstan, Slovakia, and to Poland, where he lives and plays hockey just a few kilometres from the Auschwitz death camp, haunted by memories of the past.

    In its stunning conclusion, My Left Skate describes Eliezer's life in Ukraine and his struggle to escape from war after Russia invades the very region in which he plays.

    "Eliezer Sherbatov scores a hat trick with My Left Skate. This story is wonderfully told: gritty, inspiring, joyful at times and sad at other moments. He deserves to be a hockey hero for all that he has survived." — Marty Klinkenberg, The Globe and Mail

    ,
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherYellow Dog
    Release dateOct 1, 2022
    ISBN9781773370880
    My Left Skate: The Extraordinary Story of Eliezer Sherbatov
    Author

    Anna Rosner

    ANNA ROSNER is a teacher and writer who holds a PhD in French literature. She is the award-winning author of two hockey biographies for young readers — Journeyman: The Story of NHL Right Winger Jamie Leach and My Left Skate: The Extraordinary Story of Eliezer Sherbatov. Anna is the director of Books with Wings, which provides new, quality picture books for Indigenous children living in isolated communities. She lives in Toronto, Ontario.

    Related to My Left Skate

    Related ebooks

    YA Sports & Recreation For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • Article

      ORPHANED On The Ocean

      Apr 22, 2022

      ORPHANED On The Ocean
      3 min read

    • Article

      Over To You

      Apr 19, 2022

      We pay £50 for Letter of the Month and £30 for all others Jordan Stephens is talking sense when he says that if he ruled the world, he’d destroy phones. They are isolating, squirrel us down rabbit holes, and never follow through on their promise to m

      2 min read

    • Article

      Holiday Angles

      Oct 28, 2021

      Holiday Angles
      4 min read

    • Article

      SELF DISCOVERY In The Sand

      Oct 14, 2021

      SELF DISCOVERY In The Sand
      5 min read

    • Article

      Salad Maker

      Dec 10, 2020

      Salad Maker
      6 min read

    • Article

      Monday, January 2

      Dec 16, 2022

      “WHAT DO YOU WISH YOU could do better?” a friend asked me recently. Without missing a beat, I quickly replied, “Sing.” I’ve long admired those who have voices that can croon any type of music—Christian, opera, R&B, pop, jazz, or country. I love to si

      1 min read

    • Article

      DEPRESSION And How To Help Beat It

      Jun 10, 2021

      DEPRESSION And How To Help Beat It
      2 min read

    • Article

      Crocheting in Heaven

      Apr 27, 2022

      Crocheting in Heaven
      4 min read

    • Article

      Paved Paradise...

      Oct 14, 2021

      The value of a walk, a stroll, a tramp, a hike has come into a clearer vision of late. Covid/Delta has a massive raft of negatives attached to it for everyone, but one thing it did do is get people walking. Sure, they may not have been out on overnig

      1 min read

    • Article

      In Praise of Praise

      Sep 26, 2022

      In Praise of Praise
      4 min read

    • Article

      More Inspiration at Guideposts.org

      Jan 28, 2022

      * Get Boost your spiritual wellbeing! Visit guideposts.org for web-exclusive stories, life advice, prayer tips, recipes and more. * Watch Two-time Masters champion Bubba Watson (page 40) shares the Bible verses that help him cope with anxiety, plus t

      1 min read

    • Article

      The Broken Road

      Jun 24, 2023

      The Broken Road
      5 min read

    • Article

      The Mystery Egg

      Feb 1, 2022

      None of us had ever seen anything like it! Oh, our own Easter baskets contained many delicious treats—wonderful chocolate bunnies, jelly beans, marshmallow chicks and coconut-cream eggs, usually made by our mother. Mother’s eggs were very tasty, but

      2 min read

    • Article

      Escaping a Cult

      Nov 4, 2021

      Escaping a Cult
      5 min read

    • Article

      Delicate Details

      Apr 27, 2022

      Delicate Details
      3 min read

    • Article

      Kate Baer Poet Author Mother

      Jun 2, 2022

      Kate Baer Poet Author Mother
      6 min read

    • Article

      Angels in Bloom

      Feb 26, 2022

      Angels in Bloom
      4 min read

    • Article

      LATER LIFE mums

      Sep 23, 2021

      LATER LIFE mums
      6 min read

    • Article

      From Bikes to Buses

      Aug 2, 2022

      From Bikes to Buses
      2 min read

    • Article

      Reading My Mother’s Mind: On Packing Up a Personal Library

      Sep 18, 2017

      Books had always been a language my mother and I shared when she was well. And yet—once I was alone in her apartment with a stack of boxes, tasked with this move, and her books were all mine to do with as I liked, I knew one thing right away: I didn’

      9 min read

    • Article

      Monday, November 15

      Oct 15, 2021

      Therefore encourage one another and build each other up, just as in fact you are doing. 1 Thessalonians 5:11 (NIV) I RECENTLY BOUGHT A SMALL gift book for my son Jack, who is getting ready to leave for college in a couple months. It is called Lette

      1 min read

    Related categories

    Reviews for My Left Skate

    0 ratings

    0 ratings0 reviews

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

      Book preview

      My Left Skate - Anna Rosner

      Cover: My Left Skate The Extraordinary Story of Eliezer Sherbatov. Anna Rosner.

      My Left Skate

      The Extraordinary Story

      of Eliezer Sherbatov

      Anna Rosner

      Logo: Yellow dog

      Copyright © 2022 Anna Rosner

      Yellow Dog

      (an imprint of Great Plains Publications)

      320 Rosedale Ave

      Winnipeg, MB R3L 1L8

      www.greatplains.mb.ca

      All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or in any means, or stored in a database and retrieval system, without the prior written permission of Great Plains Publications, or, in the case of photocopying or other reprographic copying, a license from Access Copyright (Canadian Copyright Licensing Agency), 1 Yonge Street, Suite 1900, Toronto, Ontario, Canada, M5E 1E5.

      Great Plains Publications gratefully acknowledges the financial support provided for its publishing program by the Government of Canada through the Canada Book Fund; the Canada Council for the Arts; the Province of Manitoba through the Book Publishing Tax Credit and the Book Publisher Marketing Assistance Program; and the Manitoba Arts Council.

      Design & Typography by Relish New Brand Experience

      Printed in Canada by Friesens s

      Library and Archives Canada Cataloguing in Publication

      Title: My left skate : the extraordinary life of Eliezer Sherbatov / Anna Rosner.

      Names: Rosner, Anna, 1972- author.

      Identifiers: Canadiana (print) 20220220905 | Canadiana (ebook) 20220220964 | ISBN 9781773370873 (softcover) | ISBN 9781773370880 (ebook)

      Subjects: LCSH: Sherbatov, Eliezer. | LCSH: Hockey players—Biography. | LCSH: Athletes with disabilities—Biography. | LCGFT: Biographies.

      Classification: LCC GV848.5.S535 R67 2022 | DDC 796.962092—dc23

      Logo Government of Canada

      For Paula

      A.R.

      For my children, you are my home

      E.S.

      Contents

      Chapter 1

      Unwanted

      Chapter 2

      Israel

      Chapter 3

      Finding Home

      Chapter 4

      Playing for Israel

      Chapter 5

      Broken

      Chapter 6

      Healing

      Chapter 7

      Shifting

      Chapter 8

      Across the World: Kazakhstan

      Chapter 9

      The KHL

      Chapter 10

      Ghosts

      Chapter 11

      An Unexpected War

      Chapter 12

      What It’s All For

      : Eliezar, wearing an Israeli hockey unform, is standing face to face with a referee who has his hand on Eliezar’s arm. Other players are skate around the rink in the background.

      Eliezer as captain of the Israeli national hockey team in 2019

      Israel Hockey Foundation of North America

      Reprinted with permission

      Chapter 1

      Unwanted

      My mother, Anna,

      is the strongest person I know. She was a short and solid girl, athletic enough to fight any boy who insulted her. Call me a name, she would hiss, and I’ll knock out your teeth. As a Jewish child in Moscow, she faced taunts from children and teachers alike. Her religion was stamped onto her school records, so it followed her like a shadow, year after year.

      The Soviet Union was a dangerous place for Jews. My mother’s grandfather, a proud man, had been imprisoned for ten years for his Semitic ways, meaning his only crime was practising his religion. My mother’s family had the same stubborn pride, though many saw it as foolish. Once a month, they climbed the steps of the local synagogue, staring straight ahead and pretending not to notice the men who watched them from the street. Even as a child my mother knew that government agents wrote the names of Jews in a little notebook to frighten them, or to threaten their families. Don’t look at them, Anna, said her father. They don’t even exist.

      There was one place where my mother felt safe and happy, sheltered from the darkness around her: on a skating rink. She received her first pair of figure skates for her fifth birthday, and from then on they never left her feet. That love of ice was something she and I would share our entire lives. She gave up her childhood to train twice a day, both in the early morning and after school. Even though she was the smallest girl on the rink—she never grew past five feet in height, though she longed to—my mother could spin faster and jump higher than any of her competitors. Soon she was winning championships in Moscow and filling her room with trophies.

      Years of intensive training in poorly made skates took a toll on my mother’s feet. My grandmother would bring her hot water bottles and medicines at night to ease the pain, but nothing helped. No matter how much she hurt, my mother refused to stop training. She just couldn’t imagine her life any other way, as though skating were the air in her lungs. When she turned fifteen, her coaches finally offered her a choice: retire from competition or leave home to live and train with other young Soviet athletes who had the same dream.

      My grandfather wasn’t happy. You’re so young, Anna, he said gently, and you’ve had so many injuries. You barely sleep at night. I know you love to skate, but feet can only take so much. As stubborn as she was, my mother knew deep down that he was right. She tucked her skates into a box and didn’t touch them again for a decade, too heartbroken to ever return to a rink.

      A preschool-aged girl stands outside in a garden.A preschool-aged boy is standing in a photographer’s studio. He is wearing a sailor jacket and hat.

      Eliezer’s mother and father in the Soviet Union in the 1960s

      Courtesy of the Sherbatov family

      When my mother met my father, Alexei, they were still teenagers. He was handsome, with thick, dark hair and olive skin. My parents married young, and my elder brothers, Boris and Yonatan, were born soon after. Though Jews were rarely admitted to universities, my father was a talented student and studied engineering at the University of Moscow. He could fix anything: kettles, radios, and electric heaters. Neighbours lined up at the door with broken appliances, offering him packages of biscuits or whatever money they could find. He always refused to take it.

      My father had two great loves in his life: my mother and ice hockey. If there was one thing that brought the Soviet Union together, it was sports. Once a year, everyone in Moscow would gather wherever they could find a television to watch the World Hockey Championships, often broadcast from the West. My father would make pots of hot tea, and he and his friends would crowd into our living room to see the greatest players in the NHL face off against the Soviet Union. The entire apartment building would either groan or cheer in unison after every play. Sometimes people yelled to one another across hallways and down balconies about the referees’ bad calls. Did you see that, Alexei? How is that a penalty? We were robbed! My father loved it all. He cheered for the Russians but quietly admired Guy Lafleur of the Montreal Canadiens. Look at him skate, boys, he would laugh. He’s almost flying! Every Soviet goal sent my father leaping around the apartment and throwing his sons in the air. He was a wrestler and had the strength of a lion.

      As my brothers grew older, my parents always seemed to need money to support the family. They counted their savings and found it was enough for my father to start a small company specializing in plastic and bronze. The business became successful in the late 1980s, and the income made their lives easier, for a time. My father was able to surprise my mother for her twenty-fifth birthday by pretending to buy her a pair of tights but stuffing the package with rubles instead. She still laughs when she talks about tearing the box and watching the bills and coins fall to the floor.

      It wasn’t long before trouble found my father; he was Jewish, and he was making a little money. It was a dangerous combination in Moscow. Soon, corrupt officials began to demand payment in exchange for our family’s safety. It was money my father couldn’t spare, but he paid as many people as he could. Policemen, gangs, even firemen

      Enjoying the preview?
      Page 1 of 1