When Brooklyn Was Heaven

World-renowned fundraising guru Stan Levenson takes readers on a loving and carefree thirty-year journey of memorable misadventures -- propelled solely by his own determination and sheer chutzpah -- starting in Depression era Brooklyn and continuing a lifestyle that crisscrossed the continent and the globe helping others.


The book chronicles a 30-year journey through Brooklyn neighborhoods rich in history and culture, the Borscht Belt of the Catskills, small college towns in upstate New York, military duty in the United States Navy, and a lifestyle that crisscrossed a continent and the globe. Through sheer grit, determination and chutzpah, Levenson attended college, earned advanced degrees including a Ph.D., and transformed fundraising in the public schools.


By his own admission, Levenson's early Brooklyn years were far from auspicious. A self-proclaimed “goof-off,” the author had little aspiration other than to immerse himself in games of basketball, stickball and punchball on the streets of Brooklyn and questionable capers at Coney Island. With remarkable moxie he managed to survive one of the roughest vocational high schools in New York City before embarking on a multitude of adventures that would take him around the country and across the globe. When Brooklyn Was Heaven will make you laugh, it will make you cry, it will evoke a sense of nostalgia, and it will help to establish an historical perspective of the times. It is a must read for anyone with a New York connection, those who are fascinated by this joyful place, and all others who are intrigued by all the places “in-between.”

Stan Levenson in the author of four books in education, including Big-Time Fundraising for Today’s Schools (Corwin Press, 2007), How to Get Grants and Gifts for the Public Schools (Allyn & Bacon, 2002), Readings in Foreign Languages for the Elementary School (Blaisdell/Ginn), and Exciting Bulletin Board Ideas for Reading and Language Arts (T.S. Denison & Co.). His articles have appeared in American School Board Journal, Principal Leadership, The School Administrator, the English Journal, TESOL Quarterly, Hispania, and more.