New Search
Photo Search
Audiovisual Search
Mary Soskin - 15 Nov. 1974
- Name
- Mary Soskin
- Material Format
- sound recording
- Interview Date
- 15 Nov. 1974
- Source
- Oral Histories
- Name
- Mary Soskin
- Number
- OH 1
- Subject
- Neighborhoods
- Schools
- Synagogues
- Interview Date
- 15 Nov. 1974
- Interviewer
- Sophie Milgram
- Total Running Time
- 001: 30.41 minutes 002: 20.58 minutes
- Conservation
- Copied August 2003
- Use Restrictions
- Conditional access. Researchers must receive permission from the interviewee or their heir prior to accessing the interview. Please contact the OJA for more information.
- Copyright is held by the Ontario Jewish Archives. Please contact the archives to obtain permission prior to use.
- Biography
- Mary Soskin (née Levine), the eldest child of Moses Levine and Sarah Levine (née Cass), was born in 1896 in Midland, Ontario. Her father, Moses Joseph Levine (1864–1919), immigrated to Toronto from Minsk in 1887. Moses first worked as a peddler and later became a grocer. Mary’s mother, Sara Levine (b. 1876), emigrated from Russia to Toronto around 1892 and worked as a seamstress. Mary had six siblings: Fanny (1898–1923), Anne Thuna (1899–1964), Abraham (“Abe”) (b. 1901–1984), Harry (b. 1903), Rita (1905–1975), and Dorothy Bliss (1909–1992).
- Mary’s parents, Moses Levine and Sarah Cass, met in Toronto. Following their marriage in 1895, they moved to Midland, Ontario, where they opened a store. After several years in Midland, they returned to Toronto. The family lived in several locations in Toronto including Chestnut Street, Centre Avenue, Spadina Avenue, near Dundas, and 224 Beverley Street, near College. The Levine family belonged to the Goel Tzedec Synagogue, which was located in a former church on University Avenue at Elm Street.
- Mary attended both the McCaul Street School and Phoebe Street School, one of the oldest schools in Toronto. She completed her studies at the Shaw School of Business. Mary first worked as a bookkeeper for several years before joining her father in his wholesale grocery business, located at 25 Jarvis Street. Tragically, Moses died in 1919 at the age of fifty-four after accidentally falling down an elevator shaft. The family closed the business shortly thereafter and continued to live on Beverley Street.
- Mary Levine married Saul Soskin (d. 1953) around 1920. They lived in Toronto and later moved to Los Angeles. They had three children: Estelle (1922–2010), Morton (“Bud”) (d. 2001), and Fred (1929–2000). In 1945, during a family visit to Toronto, Estelle met Irving Liss, the son of Morris Liss, Mary’s long-time friend. Estelle and Irving were married at the Beth Am Synagogue in Los Angeles in 1946 and settled in Toronto.
- Mary Soskin returned to Toronto in 1964 and passed away in 1990.
- Material Format
- sound recording
- Language
- English
- Name Access
- Goel Tzedec Synagogue (Toronto, Ont.)
- Levine, Moses
- Levine, Sarah
- Soskin, Mary
- Geographic Access
- Los Angeles (Calif.)
- Midland (Ont.)
- St. John's Ward (Toronto, Ont.)
- Original Format
- Audio cassette
- Copy Format
- Audio cassette
- Digital file
- Transcript
- G:\Description\Oral Histories\OH 1 - Soskin\OH1_001_Log.docx
- G:\Description\Oral Histories\OH 1 - Soskin\OH1_002_Log.docx
- Source
- Oral Histories