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!

