Vivian Jeanette Kaplan (born June 17, 1946) is a Canadian writer and business owner. The daughter of Gerda Kosiner, she was born in

Shanghai Shanghai, Shanghainese: , Standard Chinese pronunciation: is a direct-administered municipality and the most populous urban area in China. The city is located on the Chinese shoreline on the southern estuary of the Yangtze River, with the ...

. Her parents were Jews from

Vienna Vienna ( ; ; ) is the capital city, capital, List of largest cities in Austria, most populous city, and one of Federal states of Austria, nine federal states of Austria. It is Austria's primate city, with just over two million inhabitants. ...

; her mother tongue was German. Kaplan came to Canada with her parents at the age of two; the family settled in

Toronto Toronto ( , locally pronounced or ) is the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, most populous city in Canada. It is the capital city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Ontario. With a p ...

. She studied English, French and Spanish at the

University of Toronto The University of Toronto (UToronto or U of T) is a public university, public research university whose main campus is located on the grounds that surround Queen's Park (Toronto), Queen's Park in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It was founded by ...

. Kaplan operated Vivian Kaplan Oriental Interiors, a company which imported home furnishings from

East Asia East Asia is a geocultural region of Asia. It includes China, Japan, Mongolia, North Korea, South Korea, and Taiwan, plus two special administrative regions of China, Hong Kong and Macau. The economies of Economy of China, China, Economy of Ja ...

, for twenty years. She wrote her family's story in '' Ten Green Bottles: The True Story of One Family's Journey from War-Torn Austria to the Ghettos of Shanghai''. The book received the

Canadian Jewish Book Award The Helen and Stan Vine Canadian Jewish Book Awards were a Canadian program of literary awards, managed, produced and presented annually by the Koffler Centre of the Arts to works judged to be the year's best works of literature by Jewish Canadian ...

in 2003 and the Adei-Wizo Prize presented in Florence, Italy in 2007. A play based on the book was brought to the stage in Toronto in 2009. In 2013, Kaplan published a historical novel ''Blind Vision''. Within this book Kaplan, after extensive and meticulous research, describes in fine detail how she concluded, beyond a reasonable doubt, that Christopher Columbus was a secret Sephardic Jew. In a 2014 interview, available on YouTube, she provides an overview of what led her to this surprising conclusion. Ten years later, in 2024, it was shown to be correct as a result of DNA analyses of his bones.

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* {{DEFAULTSORT:Kaplan, Vivian Jeanette 1946 births Businesspeople from Shanghai Living people Jewish Canadian writers 21st-century Canadian biographers Canadian people of Austrian-Jewish descent Canadian women biographers University of Toronto alumni Writers from Shanghai 21st-century Canadian women writers