Part Of

Morris Norman collection

Level

Collection

Fonds

22

Material Format

multiple media

Date

1856-1995

Physical Description

1.1 m of textual records and other material

Admin History/Bio

Morris Norman (b. 1946) is a chartered accountant living and working in Toronto. He is an avid collector of Canadiana, specifically Judaica. He purchases lots at auction and donates them to the Ontario Jewish Archives, as well as other institutions.

Scope and Content

This collection consists of the individual items collected at auction by Morris Norman. The records relate to the Toronto Jewish community and Ontario Jewry and include textual documents, photographs, near-prints, publications, artifacts, posters and broadsheets, sound recordings, and ephemera. Most of the items relate to various Jewish organizations, businesses, synagogues and individuals, and to Christian missionary work in Toronto. The material has been described at the file level, or where appropriate, the item level.

There are also four distinct series of records which document Berul Sugarman, who was a concert violinist and orchestral leader; the Franklin family, who owned a large amount of property in Toronto in the late 1800s and early 1900s; radio and television scripts written by Wayne and Shuster, Henry Karpus and Russell Bradley; and a collection of Turofsky photographs.

Notes

Physical description note: Includes 49 objects, 25 photographs, 7 audio recordings and 4 prints.

Name Access

Norman, Morris

Norman, Jessie

Creator

Norman, Morris (1946-)

Accession Number

1995-9-3

1995-9-4

1995-9-8

1996-6-3

1996-7-3

1996-9-1

1997-7-1

1998-1-1

1998-3-44

1998-7-2

1999-10-1

2000-7-4

2000-12-3

2001-3-3

2001-4-3

2001-8-5

2001-10-6

2001-11-1

2002-4-1

2002-5-1

2002-7-1

2002-9-1

2002-10-5

2002-10-58

2002-12-3

2003-5-3

2003-10-6

2004-7-4

Source

Archival Descriptions

Accession Number

2012-8-1

Material Format

multiple media

Physical Description

ca. 18 cm of textual records and other material

Date

1884-1985

Scope and Content

Accession consists of records documenting the Coppel and Cooper families of Galt (now Cambridge) and Toronto respectively. Coppel family records include family correspondence, photocopies of Moses Kappel's discharge papers from the Austro-Hungarian military (1884), B'nai Israel Synagogue sisterhood meeting minutes, financial records, photographs, Hadassah booklets and programmes, and a photo album documenting the closing of B'nai Israel Synagogue in 1985. Also included are records relating to Elizabeth Cooper (née Coppel)'s involvement in Canadian Young Judaea and her work as a camp counselor at a Jewish day camp near Kitchener-Waterloo (Judaean Day Camp/Camp Ruach). These records include correspondence, publications, activity schedules, lists of camp counselors, and a Young Judaean scarf. Coppel family records also include marriage and burial records of Aaron Coppel, audio cassettes of an oral history interview conducted with Cy Coppel in 1976, and military records documenting Max David Simonoff's service in the Canadian Navy during the Second World War. Finally, included is a Farband Shule (Folks School) program book (1927) and class photo (ca. 1931). Identified in the photograph is Ethel Raicus (first row, third from the right).

Cooper family records include digital photographs of Sam Cooper and the weightlifting club at the YMHA in Toronto (1930s), portraits of Jacob Cooper (Cooperberg), a school photo of Sam and Max Cooper, and a photo of Hilda Cooper.

Finally accession consists of program books for various events, including a Canadian Jewish Congress song book, an Israel Dance Theatre at the Royal Alexandra, and a Queen Esther Purim play.

Administrative History

Aaron Selig (Archie Aaron) Coppel (Kappel / Koppel / Cappell / Kappele) was born to Moses Kappel and Perl (nee Pistenfeld) in Galicia in 1882. He came to Canada in 1903 and lived with a landsmen family, the Siegels. Mr. Siegel was a horse dealer who took Aaron under his wing and taught him the horse trade. Aaron married Mr. Siegel's daughter, Chaya Geitel (Gertrude) Seigel, in 1905. Aaron and Geitel had seven children: Helen, Rose, Newt, Cyrus ("Cy," born in 1911), Les, George, and Harry. After marrying, Aaron and Geitel remained in Galt, and Aaron continued dealing in livestock. Although he was eager to assimilate into Canadian society (he gave his children British names and spoke with no accent), the family kept kosher and Aaron hired itinerant Hebrew teachers for the children.

Cyrus Coppel married Channa "Anna" Simonoff on 25 August1946. Anna was born in Russia to Avraham Dov and Chashe Bryna Tzaitzeck. Anna had three siblings: Sarah Merle, Faigle (died en route to Canada), and Mordecai Doved. She immigrated to Ottawa in 1914 with her family. An uncle already living in Ottawa had changed his last name to Simonoff and the family decided to change their name to Simonoff as well. Avraham worked as a tailor in Russia and likely continued in this profession in Canada. The family moved to Toronto sometime after 1919 and was actively involved in the Labour Zionist movement. Anna was in the milliner's union and two of her aunts, Slaava Raicus and Esther Cohen, were members of Club One (Pioneer Women). Anna and Cyrus had two children together: Bryna (24 February 1949-12 January 2006) and Elizabeth (b. 16 Dec. 1950). Cyrus initially worked as a mechanic, but later worked in the office of an auto shop and traded in auto parts. He also traded in livestock as a hobby. Cyrus was one of the founders of the B'nai Israel Synagogue in Galt. Initially, synagogue services were held in the homes of local residents, such as the Spring family; however, a building was finally purchased in 1946. After the synagogue closed, the Torahs and plaques went to the synagogue in Kitchener. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Jacob Cooperberg (Kupferberg, Cooper) came to Canada around 1910 from Kielce, Poland. His wife and children (Max, Sam, and Aidel or Ida) remained in Poland, waiting for Jacob to earn enough money for them to come to Canada as well. His family was unable to join him until after the First World War had ended, arriving in 1920. Jacob and Sarah had three more children in Canada: Irving, Joey, and Hilda. Jacob worked as a peddler in Toronto and later opened a scrap yard, Cooper Iron and Medal. The family lived on Oxford Street in the Kensington Market area.

Sam Cooper married Kay Gernstein in 1948. They had two children together: Neil and Donna (married name is Speigel). Sam initially worked as a tailor, but later worked as a scrap dealer. Neil married Donna Coppel and also works in the scrap trade. Donna is a librarian.

Use Conditions

Copyright is in the public domain and permission for use is not required. Please credit the Ontario Jewish Archives as the source of the photograph.

Descriptive Notes

Includes 1 photo album, 7 photographs (tiff), 3 photographs, 2 audio cassettes, and 1 scarf.

Subjects

Families

Places

Galt (Cambridge, Ont.)

Toronto (Ont.)

Source

Archival Accessions

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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