Part Of

Gerald Tulchinsky fonds

Level

Fonds

Fonds

149

Material Format

textual record

graphic material

Date

[185-?]-2017

Physical Description

4.36 m of textual records and other material

Admin History/Bio

Dr. Gerald “Jerry” Tulchinsky (1933–2017) was born in Brantford, Ontario, in 1933 to Harry Tulchinsky and Anne Tulchinsky (née Stemeroff). Gerald spent his childhood and teen years growing up in Brantford as one of four children. His parents owned and operated the Mayfair dress shop on Colborne Street. The Tulchinsky family were active members of their community and were involved with the Beth David Congregation and the Sharon chapter of Hadassah-WIZO. Anne received multiple awards for her volunteer work.

Gerald Tulchinsky left Brantford in order to attend university. He received his undergraduate degree from McGill University and went on to receive his PhD in history from the University of Toronto in 1971.

Gerald married his wife, Ruth Tulchinsky (née Rice), in 1961, and, after spending the first few years of their marriage in various Canadian cities, they settled in Kingston, Ontario. Tulchinsky and his wife had three children: Steve, Ellen and Laura.

Dr. Gerald Tulchinsky’s professional career as a historian began with a focus on Canadian business and labour; later, his research interests expanded to include Canadian Jewish history. He briefly taught at the University of Saskatchewan before becoming a professor at Queen’s University, where he taught in the history department from 1966 to 2000. During his time at Queen’s, Tulchinsky expanded interest in the field of Canadian Jewish studies through his encouragement and supervision of graduate students. As professor emeritus, he was involved in creating the Jewish studies program at Queen’s, which he later became the director of after his retirement from the history department in 2000. In 2005, Tulchinsky became the recipient of theLouis Rosenberg Award, which honoured his contributions to the field of Canadian Jewish studies.

It was also during this time at Queen’s that he became known as a leading scholar on Canadian Jewish history. Over the course of his career, he published six books, including "The River Barons Montreal Businessmen and the Growth of Industry and Transportation 1837–53," "Taking Root: The Origins of the Canadian Jewish Community," "Branching Out: The Transformation of the Canadian Jewish Community," "Canada’s Jews: A People's Community," "Joe Salsberg: A Life of Commitment," and "Shtetl on Grand." The latter is a collection of short stories based on his experiences growing up Jewish in Brantford.

In addition to his books, he wrote and edited dozens of articles on business, immigration, transportation, and antisemitism during his career. Towards the end of his life, he had been working on a book on the history of the Canadian clothing industry.

Tulchinsky died on 13 December 2017. He was eighty-four.

Scope and Content

Fonds consists of records created and accumulated by Dr. Gerald Tulchinsky. The records relate to his personal life and professional career. The majority of the records are textual and primarily consist of his research on J. B. Salsberg, Canadian Jewish history, business, labour, and the Canadian clothing industry. The records include photocopied research materials, such as articles, statistical reports, and scanned newspaper pages. The records also include research notes; interviews; correspondence; grant applications; photographs; six audio cassettes and two VHS tapes; newspaper clippings; and lecture notes and course syllabi; as well as drafts of Dr. Tulchinsky’s manuscripts, poems, short stories, and articles. Also included among the records are daily planners; some family photographs; birthday and congratulation cards; a passport; a travel diary; a record of the Tulchinsky family tree; Anne Tulchinsky’s volunteer awards and other records; and various materials related to the Tulchinsky family’s involvement in the Brantford Jewish community, the Beth David Congregation, and the Sharon chapter of Hadassah-WIZO.

The fonds is divided into the following six series: 1. Drafts and manuscripts, 2. Research, 3. Personal and family, 4. Correspondence, 5. Teaching materials, and 6. Miscellaneous.

Notes

Associated material: Records of the parish of Gerald Tulchinsky are also held by Queen's University Archives.

Name Access

Tulchinsky, Gerald, 1933-2017

Subjects

Authors

College teachers

Historians

Creator

Tulchinsky, Gerald, 1933-2017

Places

Canada

Accession Number

2008-7-1

2014-8-4

2015-2-2

2016-2-7

2016-5-10

2017-9-4

2018-1-4

Source

Archival Descriptions

Part Of

John J. Glass fonds

Level

Fonds

Fonds

109

Material Format

multiple media

Date

1914–1974

Physical Description

71 cm of textual records and other material

Admin History/Bio

John Judah Glass was born in England on 31 October 1895 to Morris and Pearl Glass. In 1907, he immigrated to Toronto—two years after his father. In 1917, he graduated from the University of Toronto. During the First World War, he served overseas in the 58th Battalion of the Canadian Expeditionary Force and was awarded the Military Medal for bravery. In 1921, Glass he earned his law degree from Osgoode Hall Law School. That same year, he was called to the Ontario bar. Glass became a practicing barrister and solicitor and was a member of the Canadian Bar Association.

Glass went on to have a political career that spanned fifteen years. From 1928 to 1930, he served as trustee for the Toronto Board of Education. From 1931 to 1934, he represented the former Ward 4 as alderman in Toronto City Council. From 1934 to 1943, he represented the St. Andrew riding as Liberal MPP in the Legislative Assembly of Ontario. In 1943, he left the world of active politics.

A significant portion of Glass' life was devoted to Jewish community work. For more than ten years, he was national president of the Canadian Federation of Polish Jews. He was also a member of Beth Tzedec Congregation's board of governors, a past president of the Toronto Zionist Council, a member of the Zionist Organization of Canada's national and regional executive, a founder of the Canadian Jewish Congress, a past president of Toronto B'nai Brith, and a founder and first president of the General Wingate Branch of the Royal Canadian Legion. His affiliations included the Toronto Council of Christians and Jews, the Palestine Lodge, the Jewish Home for the Aged and Baycrest Hospital, the Jewish Historical Society, United Jewish Appeal, the Jewish National Fund, and State of Israel Bonds.

In addition to his involvement in various Jewish organizations, Glass was a Mason and past-president of the Scarborough Liberal Association. He died on 22 September 1973 and was survived by his wife, Anne Ethel Glass (née Horowitz), and two sons, George and Jesse.

Scope and Content

Fonds documents the life of John Judah Glass (1895-1973), including his involvement in the military, politics, and the Jewish community. The fonds is divided into three series: Artifacts, Documents, and Photographs.

Of note are those records documenting Glass' military service in the First and Second World Wars and his progression through the ranks of public service from lawyer to trustee of the Board of Education, Toronto City Council alderman, and Liberal member of the Parliament of Ontario.

Records also document Glass' participation in the unveiling of the Vimy Ridge Memorial as representative of the Government of Ontario and his role in the purchase of a historic building on Spadina Avenue for a new Zionist headquarters. (The chain of ownership of that property since 1883 is detailed in the records.)

Name Access

Glass, John Judah, 1895-1973

Subjects

Politicians

Repro Restriction

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

Physical Condition

Some of the textual records are in poor condition and are enclosed in plastic. Panoramic photos are in fragile condition.

Creator

Glass, John Judah, 1895-1973

Places

Canada

France

Israel

United States

Source

Archival Descriptions

Part Of

General Wingate Branch 256, Royal Canadian Legion fonds

Level

Fonds

Fonds

74

Material Format

graphic material

textual record

Date

1914-1986

Physical Description

35 photographs : b&w and col. ; 21 x 79 cm or smaller

2 folders of textual records

Admin History/Bio

The Jewish Brigade was a member of the Great War Association in the 1920s. After its first president was installed in the early 1930s, the Royal Canadian Legion granted a charter for a Jewish veterans' branch. The brigade was renamed the General Wingate Branch in the mid-1940s after the British army officer Major General Orde Charles Wingate, DSO. Although Major Wingate was not Jewish, he was a passionate Zionist, hence the name.

At first, the branch met at a veteran’s hall at Crawford and College Streets in Toronto, but later purchased its own house at 1610 Bathurst Street. In 1968, the branch moved to Eglinton Avenue West. It was then located at the Zionist Centre on Marlee Avenue.

The branch held an annual memorial march and service at the Mt. Sinai Cemetery, and distributed poppies to raise funds for veterans and their families, hospitals and medical research. Members also gave speeches at schools on Remembrance Day. It closed in September 2018 after more than eighty years.

Scope and Content

Fonds consists of photographs and textual records that document the activities and history of the General Wingate Branch 256. Included are images of parades, memorials, picnics and executive members. There is also one 1950s branch newsletter documenting the branch's purchase of Wingate House.

Name Access

Royal Canadian Legion. General Wingate Branch 256

Subjects

Veterans

Related Material

See also Fonds 51, series 5-3, file 15 for images of Remembrance Day ceremonies held by the General Wingate Branch 256.

Creator

General Wingate Branch 256, Royal Canadian Legion (Toronto, Ont.)

Places

Canada

Accession Number

1976-9-1

1987-12-1

2007-1-3

2007-12-10

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

Canadian Association for Ethiopian Jews fonds

Level

Fonds

Fonds

125

Material Format

multiple media

Date

1980-1993

Physical Description

ca 97 cm of textual records

3 audiocassettes

1 poster

Admin History/Bio

The Canadian Association for Ethiopian Jews was a non-profit organization established in 1980 for the sole purpose of assisting Ethiopian Jews. To this end, CAEJ (pronounced "cage") cooperated with other bodies such as the American Association for Ethiopian Jews.

Initially, CAEJ worked with the Canadian Jewish Congress Sub Committee for Ethiopian Jewry, but the two severed ties early on. The divorce was driven by a difference in strategy: The CJC subcommittee preferred quiet diplomacy while CAEJ wanted to make noise. CAEJ was prepared to criticize Israel in the media, for example, for failing to do enough for Ethiopia's Jews—something that provoked disagreement within the Jewish community.

Apart from advocating for Ethiopia's Jews, CAEJ's main work consisted of rescue and relief. Rescue took the form of a visa program, in which Jewish students in Ethiopia were issued visas so that they could attend Canadian universities; once out of Ethiopia, they were able to immigrate to Israel. Relief took the form of an Adopt-a-Family program, which delivered monthly stipends to Ethiopians in need. According to Cathy Himelfard, past president of CAEJ, at least five hundred individuals received stipends from the organization.

In 1980, CAEJ established a Pacific chapter in Vancouver, which undertook education and rescue programs. CAEJ later opened chapters in Montreal, Ottawa, Winnipeg, and Calgary.

In 1984, CAEJ received a $15,000 Wintario grant to produce a videotape on the black Jews of Ethiopia. Susan Fish, provincial minister of citizenship and culture, awarded CAEJ the grant. CAEJ was one of sixteen that were given that year.

In 1986, the organization sent a five-person team to Ethiopia's Gondar province, the home of many of Ethiopia's Jews. The team included CAEJ's executive director, Susan Schechtman, and its assistant administrative director, Donna Finkelstein. The team visited five villages, bringing relief and conducting a fact-finding mission, the findings of which were disseminated in the press upon the team's return.

In 1987, the CAEJ held a benefit concert at the EI Mocambo, a live music venue in Toronto, to aid the Jews stranded in Ethiopia.

In 1990, 15,000 Jews moved from their villages in the northern regions of Ethiopia to Addis Ababa, under the impression that they would be able to emigrate without delay. With immigration to Israel greatly reduced, these Jews founded themselves living in terrible conditions, with reports of several hundred individuals, mostly children, dying of malnutrition and disease. In response to these developments, the CAEJ redirected its Adopt-a-Family funds to the mass relief. This involved sending doctors and medication as well as launching projects to provide clothing, food supplements, and more medical supplies.

The association's final project, conducted after Operation Solomon, involved persuading two-hundred-and-fifty Jews in Sudan to return to Addis Ababa. Once there, they were flown to Israel.

In 1992, after twelve years of operation, CAEJ shut down. Former president Jack Hope told the CJN, "We've fulfilled our mandate."

Scope and Content

The fonds consists of material documenting the Canadian Associate for Ethiopian Jews. Included are letters, artifacts, meeting minutes and agendas, newspaper clippings, reference materials, audio recordings, an office manual, and a poster.

The fonds is divided into six series: Rescue and relief letters, Administrative records, Clippings and reference materials, Artifacts, Audiovisual materials, and Posters.

Notes

Related groups of records external to the unit being described: A CAEJ advertisement that appeared in the Toronto Star can be found in the Larry Becker fonds.

Name Access

Canadian Association for Ethiopian Jews

Subjects

Associations, institutions, etc

Jews, Ethiopian

Nonprofit organizations

Access Restriction

Partially closed. Researchers must receive permission from the OJA director prior to accessing some of the records.

Repro Restriction

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

Places

Canada

Ethiopia

Israel

United States

Accession Number

1993-1-2

Source

Archival Descriptions