Most people know me as Ask Ella, the advice columnist in The Canadian Jewish
News, however this year I am gaining notoriety for my book that was published by
Second Story Press – HIDDEN GOLD – A True Story of the Holocaust.

I am the daughter of Holocaust survivors Shoshana Gold and Fishl Burakowski.
Hidden Gold is the story of my mother’s family who were hidden in a cramped,
secret compartment of a barn for over two years.

After the war my parents smuggled on one of the Aliyah Bet ships and eventually
made their way to Israel where my sister Sarah and I were born.

We immigrated to Canada in 1959 when I was a young child, and I was raised here
in Toronto, attending both Hebrew and public schools.

My mother died when I was 14, long before I ever had the opportunity of knowing
her story of survival from the Holocaust. Writing Hidden Gold has allowed me to
reconnect with my mother and walk in her footsteps through the darkest time in her
life.

Today, I live with my husband, Marshall Cohen, in a North York home and I’m the
Operations Manager as well as the Advice Columnist at The Canadian Jewish News.

In the last few months since the books release, I have been enjoying speaking to different groups about writing narrative non-fiction and creating presentations about HIDDEN GOLD to young and old alike.