Part Of

David Vanek fonds

Level

Fonds

Fonds

1

Material Format

textual record

graphic material

Date

1906-1999

Physical Description

12 cm of textual records

10 photographs : b&w and col. ; 21 x 26 cm or smaller

Admin History/Bio

David Vanek (1915–2008) was born on a farm in Whitchurch Township, York County, Ontario in 1915. He was the sixth of seven children born to Jacob and Jesse Vanek, Jewish-Russian immigrants from the Ukraine who immigrated to Canada in 1913. The family lived in the Newmarket-Oak Ridges area, where they owned a farm and the Vanek Grocery and Confectionary Store in Oak Ridges. The family also owned Cedarholm Park in Lake Wilcox, which had a bandstand and cottages and sold refreshments. They opened the park specifically for Jews who were being excluded from other nearby social venues. The family also lived in Toronto.

Vanek completed his elementary school education at Annette Street Public School and attended Richmond Hill High School and Harbord Collegiate. He was admitted to the honour law course at the University of Toronto. In 1936, he graduated with a bachelor of arts in honour law and went on to law school at Osgoode Hall. While in law school he worked for Carswell’s Canadian Law Abridgement and was editor of the Obiter Dicta student publication at Osgoode Hall. He received his bachelor of laws in 1939.

During the Second World War, Vanek served in the Canadian Intelligence Corps and Field Security in England from 1943 to 1945. Following his military service, he returned to Toronto where he tried private practice briefly before beginning a new career as a lecturer in the newly-created Faculty of Law at the University of Toronto. He taught a variety of subjects, including legal bibliography, real property, and public international law.

A community activist, Vanek was the founder of the Lawrence Manor Ratepayers Association. In 1963, he ran for the Ontario Provincial Legislature as a Conservative candidate but failed to win the seat. He was the founder of the Credit Counselling Service of Metropolitan Toronto, which was established in 1965. Vanek was also actively involved in the new Reform congregation Temple Sinai and served as its third president.

In September 1968, Vanek was appointed to the magistrates' court. A few months later, the Provincial Courts Act came into being and he became a judge of the provincial court's criminal division. Vanek presided over and wrote judgements in many significant cases, including Weightman and Cunningham, involving the residual power of a trial judge to stop unfair prosecution, and Squires, involving the lawful exclusion of cameras from the courtroom. His best-known case was that of Susan Nelles, a nurse who was charged with the death of four babies at Toronto’s Hospital for Sick Children in the early 1980s. He also served as president of the Ontario Provincial Judges' Association. In 1989, after twenty-one years on the bench, David Vanek retired. A decade later, he published his autobiography, "Fulfilment : Memoirs of a Criminal Court Judge," which documents his life and career.

David Vanek married Joyce Lester in 1942, and the couple had three children. Vanek died in 2008.

Custodial History

The records were donated to the Ontario Jewish Archives by David Vanek in July 2000. The records were used to help with the researching of his autobiography.

Scope and Content

Fonds consists of textual records and graphic material that document Vanek's family history and career as a prominent lawyer and provincial court judge in Ontario. The fonds includes family records from Russia, newspaper articles, correspondence and documentation relating to his military service during the Second World War, and press clippings and photographs of his family and community activities. The fonds has been arranged into the following series: Personal records, Military service records, Occupational records, and Community organizations.

Name Access

Vanek, David, 1915-2008

Subjects

Judges

Lawyers

Creator

Vanek, David, 1915-2008

Accession Number

2000-7-5

Source

Archival Descriptions

Part Of

David Vanek fonds

Personal records series

Level

File

Fonds

1

Series

1

File

2

Material Format

textual record

Date

1913-1954

Physical Description

1 folder of textual records

Scope and Content

File consists of mortgages, assignments of mortgage, chattel mortgage, and an abstract of title from the Newmarket land registry office pertaining to the family farm called Cedar Valley.

Physical Condition

Records are good condition.

Source

Archival Descriptions

• 

Part Of

David Vanek fonds

Personal records series

Level

Item

Fonds

1

Series

1

File

3

Material Format

textual record

Date

1945

Physical Description

1 folder of textual records

Admin History/Bio

Jacob Vanek was the father of David Vanek. He was born in the province of Kiev, Russia in 1880. He married and had five children in Russia and decided to leave for Canada in 1913. He departed with his eldest son Thomas that year and sent for his wife and remaining children in 1914. The youngest two Vanek children, David and Mary, were born in Canada after that time.

The Vaneks first lived on a farm in Pine Orchard, a community north of Toronto. They moved to Toronto in 1916 and then relocated to Oak Ridges in 1918. Jacob Vanek operated a general store in that area that catered to locals as well as travellers from Toronto who were vacationing nearby or heading north.

Scope and Content

File consists of a certified copy of Jacob Vanek's naturalization certificate. The original copy was issued on December 13, 1921. In 1945 his son Thomas Vanek requested a certified copy of the certificate be made, so that his wife Anna could attain Canadian/British nationality by virtue of her husband's status as the son of a naturalized Canadian.

Source

Archival Descriptions

Part Of

David Vanek fonds

Occupational records series

Level

File

Fonds

1

Series

3

File

1

Material Format

textual record

Date

1946-1982

Physical Description

1 folder of textual records

Scope and Content

File consists of articles and correspondence relating to his education and career at the University of Toronto School of Law. Some of the documents include a copy of a story with photo of the University of Toronto Moot Court 1935-36, and a letter confirming David Vanek's appointment as lecturer in the School of Law for the academic year 1946-1947.

Source

Archival Descriptions

Part Of

David Vanek fonds

Military service records series

Level

File

Fonds

1

Series

2

File

1

Material Format

textual record

Date

1945-1974

Physical Description

1 folder of textual records

Scope and Content

File includes documents such as a confirmation record of David Vanek's active war service from Public Archives of Canada as well as a certificate of attendance at Oxford University Leave Course in 1945.

Source

Archival Descriptions

Part Of

David Vanek fonds

Personal records series

Level

File

Fonds

1

Series

1

File

6

Material Format

textual record

Date

1946-1950

Physical Description

1 folder of textual records

Scope and Content

File includes correspondence from David Vanek to his wife Joyce from New York and Washington, D.C.

Source

Archival Descriptions

Part Of

David Vanek fonds

Personal records series

Level

Series

Fonds

1

Series

1

Material Format

textual record

graphic material

Date

1906-1999

Physical Description

6 cm of textual records

4 photographs : b&w ; 21 x 26 cm or smaller

Scope and Content

Series includes correspondence and documents pertaining to the Vanek family in Russia and their early years in Ontario, recent letters from a cousin concerning family genealogy, and personal letters from Vanek to his wife, as well as correspondence concerning personal and professional matters from colleagues and friends. There is also an itinerary and notes from a judges' trip to China that took place in 1983 plus several photographs of the Vanek family.

Source

Archival Descriptions

Part Of

David Vanek fonds

Military service records series

Level

Item

Fonds

1

Series

2

Item

1

Material Format

graphic material

Date

1943

Physical Description

1 photograph : b&w ; 21 x 26 cm

Admin History/Bio

David Vanek served in the Wireless Wing Corps during the Second World War.

Scope and Content

Item consists of a photograph taken at Camp Borden, Ontario. It includes members of R30B-1 Loader Operators and A9 Wireless Wing Corps.

Source

Archival Descriptions

Part Of

David Vanek fonds

Personal records series

Photographs file

Level

Item

Fonds

1

Series

1

File

9

Item

3

Material Format

graphic material

Date

[194-?]

Physical Description

1 photograph : b&w ; 9 x 13 cm

Admin History/Bio

Aunt Sonya Clayman was the only sister of Jacob Vanek. She and her husband Nacham (Norman) had two children, Harry and Pearl.

Scope and Content

Item is a photograph of Sonya Clayman with an unidentified child, likely one of her grandchildren.

Source

Archival Descriptions

Part Of

David Vanek fonds

Personal records series

Photographs file

Level

Item

Fonds

1

Series

1

File

9

Item

4

Material Format

graphic material

Date

1946

Physical Description

1 photograph : b&w ; 9 x 11 cm

Admin History/Bio

Sam Lester, his father-in-law, was one of the first people in the motion picture business in Toronto. For many years he operated the Doric Theatre on Bloor Street near Gladstone Avenue. David married Sam's daughter Joyce in Toronto in 1942.

Scope and Content

Item is a photograph of David Vanek with his father-in-law Sam Lester. On the back of the photo David Vanek is described as "Lecturer in Law" as a humorous counterpart to Sam Lester, his father-in-law.

Source

Archival Descriptions

Part Of

David Vanek fonds

Military service records series

Level

Series

Fonds

1

Series

2

Material Format

textual record

graphic material

Date

1945-1974

Physical Description

1 folder of textual records

1 photograph : b&w ; 21 x 26 cm

Admin History/Bio

David Vanek served in the Canadian Intelligence Corps and Field Security in England during the Second World War.

Scope and Content

Series includes a confirmation record of David Vanek's active war service, a certificate of attendance at Oxford University Leave course, and a request for financial assistance for study in England pending repatriation to Canada.

Source

Archival Descriptions

Part Of

David Vanek fonds

Occupational records series

Level

Series

Fonds

1

Series

3

Material Format

textual record

graphic material

Date

1946-1990

Physical Description

3 cm of textual records

2 photographs : b&w and col. ; 21 x 26 cm and 9 x 12 cm

Admin History/Bio

David Vanek attended the University of Toronto School of Law and subsequently was a lecturer in that school for one academic year. Twenty years later, he was appointed provincial court judge, criminal division, and served on the bench for twenty-one years.

Scope and Content

The material includes articles and correspondence pertaining to his education and career at the University of Toronto School of Law and his career as a provincial court judge. The address David Vanek delivered at his retirement dinner and several photographs taken during the period of his time on the bench are included.

Source

Archival Descriptions

Part Of

The Shuls Project fonds

Reference series

Level

Series

Fonds

64

Series

5

Material Format

textual record

graphic material

architectural drawing

Date

1859-1980

Physical Description

35 cm of textual records

10 photographs

41 architectural drawings

Scope and Content

Series contains reference materials created by and written about the synagogues. Primary records include commemorative booklets, a small number of newsletters, brochures, and programs from special events. There are also newspaper clippings and copied articles providing histories of synagogues. There is a small number of photograph prints and negatives, but many of the files also include photographs from books, magazines or photocopies. The series is arranged in alphabetical order by city, then by synagogue. Not every synagogue the project team researched has a reference file, and there may be reference files for shuls for which no photographs survive.

Subjects

Synagogues

Repro Restriction

Copyright is not held by the Ontario Jewish Archives. It is the responsibility of the researcher to obtain permission prior to use.

Source

Archival Descriptions

Part Of

The Shuls Project fonds

Level

Fonds

Fonds

64

Material Format

multiple media

Date

1859-1980, predominant 1977-1979

Physical Description

ca. 5178 photographs and other material

Admin History/Bio

The “Shuls Project” was the work of three University of Toronto architecture students, who in 1977 wrote a research paper on the eight Toronto synagogues built before World War II. Concerned at the lack of resources on these synagogues, Sidney Tenenbaum, Lynn Milstone and Sheldon Levitt foresaw the loss of communities’ recorded history as membership dwindled and elders passed on. The students conceived a project that would photograph and document every synagogue in Canada, gathering visual evidence, memorabilia, plaques and stories before they disappeared and history was lost. The students’ goal was to document synagogues’ architecture, art, and historical development through research, interviews and site visits.

The students secured a large portion of the required funding for the project from the Samuel and Saidye Bronfman Family Foundation in Montreal, funding which was matched by the Canadian Jewish Congress. This financial support enabled Levitt, Milstone and Tenenbaum to begin their study, named “Shuls… A Study of Canadian Synagogue Architecture.” They began in the summer of 1977, traveling through the Western provinces. The next summer, they visited eight Maritime cities, Montreal and other Quebec communities. Financial support in the project’s second year was again provided by the Bronfman Family Foundation, along with the Canadian government and donations in kind from businesses, including Benjamin Photo Finishers in Toronto, and Polaroid. The summer of 1979 was spent in Ontario, with an added grant from Wintario. In total, the Shuls project team traveled over 24,000 kilometres, taking thousands of photographs and conducting several hundred interviews. Photographs were taken by Tenenbaum, with Levitt and Milstone assuming primary responsibility for researching synagogues’ history and gathering historic records. Interviews were conducted by all three researchers, in both English and Yiddish.

With no handy index of every shul in Canada, the researchers located small shuls by word of mouth. They spread word of their project and solicited assistance using press releases, letters to known communities, and slideshow presentations as they traveled. They would first examine a building to get an idea of a community’s character and heritage, then conduct interviews with designers, architects, rabbis and other prominent community members.

With the research and photographs created, the team compiled three catalogues of the Western, Eastern/Quebec, and Ontario phases of the project. These catalogues have entries on each synagogue that include historical summaries highlighting the founding, growth, mergers and decline of Jewish communities, their changing needs, changing architectural expressions and trends, and the evolving uses of synagogues over the course of the twentieth century. There are also building descriptions, some with critical comments by the authors, and lists of the photographs and slides produced.

The compilation of materials and preparation of these catalogues took place at the Project’s offices at 26 Ava Road in Toronto, and continued through the summer of 1980 when the Ontario catalogue was completed. In 1985, Tenenbaum, Milstone and Levitt published a book highlighting their work, called Treasures of a People: The Synagogues of Canada.

Scope and Content

Fonds consists of the records created and collected by the team of students conducting the Shuls study from 1977 to 1980. The majority of the fonds is made up of graphic material, in the form of 35mm colour slides and black-and-white Polaroid prints and (print-size) negatives. There are approximately 5110 photographs in the fonds. Fonds also consists of notes and inventory forms of buildings' architectural features. There are no interview transcripts, but the fonds does include three audio cassettes with recorded interviews and shul tours. Reference materials used in researching the history of the shuls include dedication and anniversary commemorative books and programmes, newsletters, articles and newspaper clippings. In addition the fonds contains 47 blueprints, the majority from Montreal synagogues. The fonds is arranged in the following series: 1. Quebec synagogues; 2. Ontario synagogues; 3. Western Canada synagogues; 4. Eastern Canada synagogues; 5. Reference.

Notes

Physical description note: includes 92 cm of textual records, 42 architectural drawings, 3 audio cassettes, and 1 drawing.

Physical extent note: many of the slides were culled because they were felt to be reproductions. Some of the synagogue images in the research book may therefore not be included in the fonds.

Name Access

Shuls Project

Subjects

Synagogues

Repro Restriction

Copyright is not held by the Ontario Jewish Archives. It is the responsibility of the researcher to obtain permission prior to use.

Creator

Levitt, Sheldon

Milstone, Lynn

Tenenbaum, Sidney T.

Places

Canada

Source

Archival Descriptions

Part Of

The Shuls Project fonds

Reference series

Level

File

Fonds

64

Series

5

File

12

Material Format

textual record

Date

1949

Physical Description

1 folder of textual records

Scope and Content

File contains photocopied pages from the synagogue's 1949 Dedication program.

Name Access

Beth Isaiah Congregation (Guelph, Ont.)

Subjects

Synagogues

Repro Restriction

Copyright is not held by the Ontario Jewish Archives. It is the responsibility of the researcher to obtain permission prior to use.

Places

Guelph (Ont.)

Source

Archival Descriptions

Part Of

The Shuls Project fonds

Reference series

Level

File

Fonds

64

Series

5

File

23

Material Format

graphic material

textual record

Date

[ca. 1910]-1978

Physical Description

1 folder of textual records

4 photographs : b&w prints (2 negatives) ; 12 x cm

Scope and Content

File contains notes, lists, clippings, copied pages from directories and 4 unidentified photographs (2 negatives).

Subjects

Synagogues

Repro Restriction

Copyright is not held by the Ontario Jewish Archives. It is the responsibility of the researcher to obtain permission prior to use.

Places

Montréal (Québec)

Source

Archival Descriptions

Part Of

The Shuls Project fonds

Reference series

Level

File

Fonds

64

Series

5

File

33

Material Format

architectural drawing

Date

1947

Physical Description

7 architectural drawings

Scope and Content

File contains 7 blueprints for the 1947 extension and alterations to the shul.

Name Access

Congregation Ahavath Shalom

Subjects

Synagogues

Repro Restriction

Copyright is not held by the Ontario Jewish Archives. It is the responsibility of the researcher to obtain permission prior to use.

Places

Montréal (Québec)

Source

Archival Descriptions

Part Of

The Shuls Project fonds

Reference series

Level

File

Fonds

64

Series

5

File

41

Material Format

textual record

architectural drawing

Date

1859-1978

Physical Description

1 folder of textual records

4 architectural drawings

Scope and Content

File contains photocopied articles, a newspaper clipping, photocopied photographs, a greeting card with photograph on cover, copies of the 1859 contract commissioning the erection of the synagogue as well as a list of specifications for the masons, and blueprints for the 1967 extension.

Subjects

Synagogues

Repro Restriction

Copyright is not held by the Ontario Jewish Archives. It is the responsibility of the researcher to obtain permission prior to use.

Places

Montréal (Québec)

Source

Archival Descriptions

Part Of

The Shuls Project fonds

Reference series

Level

File

Fonds

64

Series

5

File

45

Material Format

textual record

Date

1932-[ca. 1965]

Physical Description

1 folder of textual records

Scope and Content

File contains dedication book for new building (1960), copied articles, assorted pamphlets and programmes.

Name Access

Temple Emanu-El (Montréal, Quebec)

Subjects

Synagogues

Repro Restriction

Copyright is not held by the Ontario Jewish Archives. It is the responsibility of the researcher to obtain permission prior to use.

Places

Montréal (Québec)

Source

Archival Descriptions

Part Of

The Shuls Project fonds

Reference series

Level

File

Fonds

64

Series

5

File

48

Material Format

textual record

architectural drawing

Date

1949, 1978

Physical Description

1 folder of textual records

1 architectural drawing

Scope and Content

File contains a form letter from the congregation regarding High Holiday services (17 July 1978), and a blueprint for the auditorium building (1949).

Name Access

Young Israel of Montreal

Subjects

Synagogues

Repro Restriction

Copyright is not held by the Ontario Jewish Archives. It is the responsibility of the researcher to obtain permission prior to use.

Places

Montréal (Québec)

Source

Archival Descriptions

Part Of

The Shuls Project fonds

Reference series

Level

File

Fonds

64

Series

5

File

49

Material Format

textual record

Date

1925, 1945

Physical Description

1 folder of textual records

Scope and Content

File contains one copied newspaper article and several other transcribed newspaper articles.

Name Access

House of Israel

Subjects

Synagogues

Repro Restriction

Copyright is not held by the Ontario Jewish Archives. It is the responsibility of the researcher to obtain permission prior to use.

Places

Moose Jaw (Sask.)

Source

Archival Descriptions

Part Of

The Shuls Project fonds

Reference series

Level

File

Fonds

64

Series

5

File

54

Material Format

textual record

Date

1944, [1975?]

Physical Description

1 folder of textual records

Scope and Content

File contains two short historical overviews.

Name Access

Temple Israel

Subjects

Synagogues

Repro Restriction

Copyright is not held by the Ontario Jewish Archives. It is the responsibility of the researcher to obtain permission prior to use.

Places

Ottawa (Ont.)

Source

Archival Descriptions

Part Of

The Shuls Project fonds

Reference series

Level

File

Fonds

64

Series

5

File

66

Material Format

textual record

architectural drawing

Date

1920-1977

Physical Description

1 folder of textual records

1 architectural drawing

Scope and Content

File contains a copied photograph from The Jewish Post, the congregation's constitution adopted in 1920, and a blueprint from 1955.

Name Access

Agudas Israel

Subjects

Synagogues

Repro Restriction

Copyright is not held by the Ontario Jewish Archives. It is the responsibility of the researcher to obtain permission prior to use.

Places

Saskatoon (Sask.)

Source

Archival Descriptions

Part Of

The Shuls Project fonds

Reference series

Level

File

Fonds

64

Series

5

File

75

Material Format

textual record

Date

1935-1979

Physical Description

1 folder of textual records

Scope and Content

File contains a 1979 newsletter, "Voice of Radom," and copies from the 10th and 30th anniversary booklets.

Name Access

Beth Radom Congregation (Toronto, Ont.)

Subjects

Synagogues

Repro Restriction

Copyright is not held by the Ontario Jewish Archives. It is the responsibility of the researcher to obtain permission prior to use.

Places

Toronto (Ont.)

Source

Archival Descriptions

Part Of

The Shuls Project fonds

Reference series

Level

File

Fonds

64

Series

5

File

96

Material Format

textual record

Date

1930-1978

Physical Description

1 folder of textual records

Scope and Content

File contains the shul's dedication programme from 1930, the 25th (1954) and 49th anniversary programmes (1978).

Name Access

Congregation Shaar Hashomayim

Subjects

Anniversaries

Synagogues

Repro Restriction

Copyright is not held by the Ontario Jewish Archives. It is the responsibility of the researcher to obtain permission prior to use.

Places

Windsor (Ont.)

Source

Archival Descriptions

Part Of

David Vanek fonds

Personal records series

Level

File

Fonds

1

Series

1

File

9

Material Format

graphic material

Date

1928-[194-]

Physical Description

4 photographs : b&w ; 21 x 26 cm or smaller

Scope and Content

File consists of four photographs of members of the Vanek family.

Source

Archival Descriptions