During the early 1970s, he started the first university course in Canadian Jewish studies at Glendon College, which he considered his greatest achievement.
[2] He stated that the latter – which detailed the Canadian government's immigration policy during the 1930s that led it to accept only 5,000 Jewish refugees during World War II – was not intended to be more than an academic text.
After Ron Atkey, the minister of immigration, read a draft copy of the manuscript, the Canadian government welcomed 50,000 Vietnamese boat people by the end of 1980 (up from the original goal of 8,000 refugees per year).
[2][8] He was conferred the National Jewish Book Award in 1983 under the Holocaust category for None Is Too Many: Canada and the Jews of Europe, 1933–1948.
[12][13] Abella later received the Order of Ontario in 2014 "for his contribution to documenting the story of Jewish Canadians, and his commitment to the principles of social justice and tolerance.