Don Canaan went from a Bronx tenement to success in television news film, immigration to Israel, return to the U.S. and then to print journalism.
He edited news film and document...view moreDon Canaan went from a Bronx tenement to success in television news film, immigration to Israel, return to the U.S. and then to print journalism.
He edited news film and documentaries for NBC News in New York, receiving a joint editorial commendation (as Donald Swerdlow) for Producer Fred Freed’s “American White Paper: Organized Crime in the United States.” In 1974, Canaan immigrated to Israel as part of an American group planning to found and settle in the new city of Yamit in the Sinai, north of El Arish. Upon returning to the U.S, Canaan became a unemployment statistic because news film had been superseded by videotape, which was controlled by a different union..
Ohio State University's School of Journalism came to the rescue with an offer to earn a master's degree while serving as an assistant in its TV news workshop.
Canaan was hired as staff writer and photographer for The American Israelite in Cincinnati where he enterprised many stories.. His series, "Jews in Ohio's Prisons: Does Anybody Care?" won first place for best weekly journalism in Ohio from the State of Ohio Bar Association.
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He is the author of “Horror in Hocking County” (a true-crime documentation of alleged satanic murders.view less