56 | MARCH 21 • 2024
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ARTS&LIFE
BOOKS
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any women in the Detroit area
know the medical skills of Firooz
Banooni, a retired obstetri-
cian-gynecologist who served patients at
Sinai, St. John’s and Beaumont hospitals and
also taught at Wayne State University.
What they don’t know about
the retired specialist who wrote
for medical texts has to do with
the hurdles he experienced
growing up in Iran and the chal-
lenges he faced getting a medical
degree in that country and mak-
ing his way to the United States.
The doctor hopes to express his life story,
and the story of other Jews who have lived in
Iran, by writing his newly released book, A
Life in Two Eras: Rites of Passage of a Jewish
Iranian-American, written over 10 years and
available on Amazon.
Some research about the history of his
birth country, where he plodded through
27 years, is referenced and documented in
footnotes.
Banooni, living with his wife, Rana, in
Bloomfield Hills, marks an April 15 cele-
bration of his 85th birthday, and he wants
his younger family members and others to
understand the minority life in Iran and the
dramas that gave him serious hurdles to face
with the energy of wanting to be a doctor.
There are pictures and documents to
authenticate what he reveals throughout the
text, which is edited for fast and fulfilling
reading.
A Life in Two Eras reaches from often liv-
ing with difficult conditions in Iran, without
indoor bathrooms and electricity, to the ways
of sustaining a constructive Jewish identity
in Michigan. The doctor tells about reaching
out to people he got to know in fulfillment of
his dreams.
One of 10 siblings, he has four brothers
in America as well as one brother and two
sisters in Israel. Two sisters who stayed in
Iran chose to remain because of the status of
the relatives they acquired through marriage.
In the anecdotes expressed in the book,
Banooni tells of the incidents that kept his
family in touch.
“I am very proud of what I achieved,
”
Banooni said. “I am very proud for my next
generation to look and see where many of
my family came from.
”
PUTTING IT ON PAPER
The book was started 10 years ago at the
encouragement of Norma Goldman, a late
friend who was a Wayne State professor.
Banooni asked his children and a profes-
sional editor to go over the book before pub-
lishing. Banooni expressed that he speaks
four languages (Farsi, French, Hebrew and
English) and wanted to make sure of the
grammar as presented in English.
“I came to this country in 1968, and it
seemed many people did not know there
were Jews in Iran,
” Banooni said. “I wanted
people to know that Jews have been in Iran
for 2,700 years and what went through the
lives of Jews in Iran. I switched to the mod-
ern conditions of the Jews and how many
troubles they had.
”
Along the way, Banooni told of the sym-
bolic acts that were part of Jewish living in
Iran and describes his marriage and the rit-
uals that were practiced associated with the
ceremony. Among the chapters in the book,
there is one where Banooni outlines the
school system faced by him and his family
members and his education at the Tehran
School of Medical Sciences.
“Members of my family were able to
achieve what seemed impossible,
” the doctor
explained. “Ten percent of the students in
medical schools were Jews.
”
He also explained what he had to endure
as serious illness, with high fevers, com-
plicated his school life. In America, he
described living through cancer treatment
as he found specialists and had the help of a
long line of family members to sustain him.
“Part of my purpose in writing this book
is to show that you don’t have to accept
whatever life hands you passively,
” Banooni
wrote. “You can take charge of your own life,
your own destiny and create the changes
necessary to achieve your goals.
”
There are chapters that include his fol-
lowing requirements as his three children
attended Hillel Day School and as he pur-
sued charitable interests that included ser-
vice to Israel through the bond program. A
congratulatory letter from Michigan Gov.
Gretchen Whitmer is shown to illustrate the
work that he has done.
Banooni’s retirement is filled with atten-
tion to four grandchildren, travel and ser-
vice to Jewish causes. He is happy that his
daughter followed his inklings and became a
doctor in his specialty.
Because Banooni, a member of
Congregation Shaarey Zedek in Southfield,
faced minority treatment in Iran, he wanted
readers to learn about his firsthand experi-
ences long ago. He originally planned to use
different book titles but was discouraged by
a son.
“I wanted to title the book Refused to Be
Minority or Refused to Stay a Minority,
” he
said. “I did not want to be a minority all my
life. I want Americans, especially American
Jews, to know that people often come out of
minority by their own efforts.
”
Retired doctor tells his own history in
A Life in Two Eras: Rites of Passage of
a Jewish Iranian-American.
An Iranian
Jewish Story
Firooz
Banooni
SUZANNE CHESSLER CONTRIBUTING WRITER
Can include multiple images & any design!