Part Of

Ida Lewis Siegel fonds

Level

Fonds

Fonds

15

Material Format

multiple media

Date

1892-1980

Physical Description

60 cm of textual records and other material

Admin History/Bio

Ida Lewis Siegel (1885-1982) was instrumental in the founding and development of several prominent Jewish organizations, such as the Daughters of Zion, Hadassah-Wizo Organization of Canada, the Hebrew Ladies' Maternity Aid Society and the YM-YWHA She was also particularly active in the educational sector and in campaigning for the rights of female educators. She was internationally known for her devotion to Jewish learning and for her contributions to the development of the Toronto Jewish community.

Ida was born to Samuel Lewis (b. 1859) and Hannah Ruth (Ticktin) Lewis (b. 1864) on 14 February 1885 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. She was the first child to be born in the United States after her parents immigrated from Lithuania. She had two brothers, Abe Lewis (b. 1880) and Charles S. Lewis (b. 1883). She attended elementary school in Pittsburgh, and in 1894, she and her family moved to Toronto.

On 14 February 1905, Ida married Isidore Hirsch Siegel at the Elm Street Synagogue. Isidore was a travelling peddler, and later, owner of a store in Cochrane, Ontario. Together, they had six children: Rohama Lee (1905-?), Leah Gittel (Labovitz) (1907-2004), David Isar (1909-2004), Sarah (Sontag) (1912-1942), Avrom Fichel (1916-2010), and Rivka Hadassah (Gurau) (1923-2001).

Ida is credited with helping to found a large number of Jewish philanthropic and social organizations including the Daughters of Zion, the first ladies' Zionist society in Canada (1899); the Herzl Girls' Club (1904); Hadassah-Wizo Organization of Canada (1916); the Hebrew Ladies' Sewing Circle, which developed into the Hebrew Ladies' Maternity Aid Society (1907); the YM-YWHA (1919); the Women’s League of the United Synagogues of America in Toronto (192-); the Goel Tzedec Sunday School (1914); and the Goel Tzedec Sisterhood (192-). She was also named honorary president of the Beth Tzedec Sisterhood in 1953. With the help of her brother Abe, Ida formed the first free Jewish Dispensary in Toronto, located on Elizabeth Street in the Ward, which was the forerunner to the Mount Sinai Hospital.

Ida also helped form a unified fundraising body for the Jewish community known as the Federation of Jewish Philanthropies (1917), which would become the current UJA Federation of Greater Toronto. However, Ida was denied a seat on the executive after campaigning for a female representative.

Always involved in the field of education, Ida was one of the original founders of the Home and School Association in 1919. In 1930, she became the first Jewish woman to be elected to the Toronto Board of Education, a post which she held for six years. She was later named honorary secretary of the Toronto Board of Jewish Education. In 1937, she ran unsuccessfully for alderman in Toronto, but remained politically active with the Association of Women's Electors. She was active in the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom from 1915 onward and was an outspoken opponent of both world wars. Throughout her lifetime, Ida held the position of national vice-president of the Zionist Organization of Canada, sat on the executive board of the Canadian Jewish Congress and was a member of the Jewish Historical Society.

Her religious affiliations were with Goel Tzedec, Beth Tzedec, Shaar Shomayim and the Beach Hebrew Institute.

Custodial History

The records were created by Ida Siegel and were in her possession until 1982. After her death, her son Avrom and daughter Rivka took possession of the records until they were donated to the archives in 1998 and 2004.

Scope and Content

Fonds consists of the records created and accumulated by Ida Siegel, documenting her personal and professional life, along with her philanthropic work. The types of records include personal reminiscences, diaries and memoirs, family correspondence, professional correspondence, speeches, scrapbooks, newsclippings, oral histories and photographs.

Notes

Includes 30 photographs, 2 scrapbooks, 13 audio cassettes and 7 audio reels.

Name Access

Siegel, Ida Lewis, 1885-1982

Siegel, Isidore Hirsch

Siegel, Leah Gittel (Labovitz) (Sadker)

Siegel, Rohama Lee

Siegel, David Isar

Siegel, Sarah (Sontag)

Siegel, Avrom Fichel

Siegel, Rivka Hadassah (Gurau)

Access Restriction

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

Related Material

1979-1-3

1980-3-4

MG2 O1l

MG2 O1m

National Council of Jewish Women fonds 38

Arrangement

Records had previously been placed in acid free boxes and file folders and labeled according to their contents.

Creator

Siegel, Ida Lewis, 1885-1982

Accession Number

1988-2-13

2004-5-129

2004-5-163

2005-5-3

Source

Archival Descriptions

Part Of

Federation of Jewish Philanthropies of Toronto fonds

Level

Fonds

Fonds

66

Material Format

textual record

object

Date

1917-1939

Physical Description

49 cm of textual records

1 ruler : 6 in.

Admin History/Bio

For many years prior to 1917, Toronto Jewish community leaders had recognized the need to centralize fundraising for all local Jewish charities. The 1912 creation of the Associated Hebrew Charities was a partial improvement, but it proved unable to cope with the rapid growth in pre-war immigration, the effects of the 1916 economic recession, and the funding requirements of many still-unaffiliated agencies. The positive experiences of newly-established Jewish community federations in several American cities did, however, offer a better example for Toronto, where prominent Jewish leaders Edmund Scheuer, Abraham Cohen, and Ida Seigel provided the leadership that finally resulted in the establishment of a Toronto federation.

The Federation of Jewish Philanthropies of Toronto was chartered as a charitable organization under the laws of Ontario in September 1917. Its central goal was to end the frequent, uncontrolled, and competitive fund soliciting by a wide range of individual Toronto Jewish philanthropic and social service institutions and instead substitute a single, coordinated, city-wide community fundraising effort. This would ensure adequate and accountable funding for all its affiliated organizations and agencies in Toronto.

Original affiliated agencies of the FJPT were: the Ladies Co-operative Board, the Jewish Orphans' Home, the Jewish Girls Club, the Junior Council of Jewish Women, the Hebrew Ladies Maternity Aid and Sewing Circle, the Hebrew Young Ladies Boot and Shoe Society, the Jewish Branch of the Big Brotherhood Movement, the Hebrew Free Loan Society, the Jewish Dispensary, and the Hebrew Burial Society.

The original officers were: Edmund Scheuer (president), Joseph Singer (first vice-president), Jay J. Allen (second vice-president), Moses Gelber (third vice-president), Charles Draimin (forth vice-president), Eli Pullan (treasurer), and Abraham Cohen (honorary secretary). A board of trustees consisting of forty-five members was also constituted, one-third of whom were to be replaced each year.

Final decision powers of the federation were originally vested in the board, which met monthly and was responsible for funds distribution and the nomination of officers of the federation. The board also had the power to change, by a two-third vote, any federation bylaws, rules, or regulations. The president chaired all board meetings and had, along with the treasurer, signing authority for orders and cheques. In his absence, the president's responsibilities were transferred to the first or other vice-presidents, in order. The treasurer was responsible for receiving all donations and depositing them in the bank. He also had signing authority for disbursals.

A system of committees was also established in order to deal with individual issues such as annual meetings, fundraising, budgets, day-to-day administration, and policy, constitutional, and regulation changes. Recommendations from these committees were sent to an executive committee. When vetted, they were then forwarded to the board of trustees for final approval. By 1924, a new position of executive director was added to the list of officers in order to provide better management of the FJPT administration and to head up the executive committee. Also, by this time, six further agencies had become affiliated: Mount Sinai Hospital, the Jewish Boys' and Girls' Camps, Jewish Big Sisters, the Family Welfare Bureau, the Federation Health Clinic, and the Federation Employment Bureau.

The first office of the FJPT was at 206 Beverly Street, but by 1924 it was headquartered at 218 Simcoe Street. By 1928, it had moved to 179 Beverley Street, which was renamed Scheuer House after the FJPT's first president.

The onset of the Great Depression in 1929 created unprecedented and ever-growing service and monetary demands on the FJPT. Unable to cope, a major change was urgently required. In 1938, the FJPT was thus absorbed into a new and larger organization with an expanded mission and reorganized fundraising operations, the United Jewish Welfare Fund.

Although the FJPT was absorbed into the UJWF in 1938, meetings of the FJPT Board of Management (responsible for funds redistribution to the FJPT's affiliated agencies) continued to January 1939, when these responsibilities were finally transferred to the UJWF.

Scope and Content

Fonds consists of records documenting the incorporation, public reporting, planning, financial, administration and operational records of the FJPT. Included are: the incorporation certificate, committee meeting agendas and minutes, correspondence, budgets, annual reports and special reports. FJPT operational records document fund-raising, fund re-distribution and ongoing dialogues with member agencies. Records of specialized, short-lived committees document specific subjects such as salaries, a new community centre, funding of camps, and policies concerning the future of the organization are also included.

Series within this fonds are; 1. Incorporation, 2. Annual Meetings, 3. Annual Reports, 4. Board of Trustees, 5. Constitution Committee, 6. Executive Committee, 7. Budget Committee, 8. Sub-Committee Studying Salaries, 9. Policy Study Committee, 10. Fund-raising Campaign, 11. Federation and Camp Representative Group, 12. Committee on the Community Centre, and 13. Board of Management.

Name Access

Federation of Jewish Philanthropies of Toronto

Subjects

Charities

Related Material

For records of the United Jewish Welfare Fund, successor to the Federation of Jewish Philanthropies, see Fonds 67.

Creator

Federation of Jewish Philanthropies of Toronto (1917-1939)

Source

Archival Descriptions

Part Of

United Jewish Welfare Fund fonds

Level

Fonds

Fonds

67

Material Format

multiple media

Date

1936-2010, predominant 1938-1976

Physical Description

14.3 m of textual records

5593 photographs, 25 x 20 cm and smaller, and other media

Admin History/Bio

The Federation of Jewish Philanthropies of Toronto (FJPT) was incorporated in Ontario in March 1917 to coordinate the fundraising activities of Jewish charitable, philanthropic, and social service agencies in Toronto. In 1918, ten separate agencies were funded by the FJPT. By 1937, fourteen agencies were funded. The Great Depression of the 1930s and the development of several newer Jewish aid, education, and medical care organizations created both increased need for resources and growing competition for ever-more scarce dollars. Within a very few years, this funding crisis forced a major review of the organization.

During 1936, a series of special meetings of leading individuals were held to examine the income and expenditures of all Toronto Jewish agencies and also to speculate about the need for a new Toronto Jewish "community chest" as the sole fund-raising organization for a federation of all Jewish agencies, including the FJPT. In 1938, the new United Jewish Welfare Fund was formally constituted. Added to the FJPT's previous list of Toronto client agencies in 1938 were: the Canadian Jewish Congress, the Hebrew National Association, the Jewish Immigrant Aid Association, the Mizrachi Society, the Toronto Free Loan Association, the Geverkshaften, and Old Folks Home, and the United Palestine Appeal, raising the total number of agencies to twenty-two.

When the State of Israel was established in 1948, the UJWF's annual fundraising campaign was combined with the CJC's United Palestine appeal to form a new, combined campaign named the United Jewish Appeal (UJA). In 1967, the UJA name was legally changed to the United Jewish Appeal of Metropolitan Toronto.

In mid-1976, the organization's public name was changed to the Toronto Jewish Congress. Although initially thought of as a merger between the UJWF and the CJC, the actual result was the expansion of the UJWF responsibilities to include local education and welfare services previously shared with the Canadian Jewish Congress, Central Region. The UJWF, however, remained the legal senior entity.

In 1991, the public name was again changed to the Jewish Federation of Greater Toronto and, in 1999, to UJA Federation of Greater Toronto. By this date, over thirty beneficiary and affiliated agencies, forty-nine affiliated schools and five federation departments were fully or partly funded by the federation.

In June 2010, the organization altered its legal structure, with the senior legal entity becoming the UJA Federation of Greater Toronto.

Scope and Content

Fonds consists of 25 series: Annual Meetings, Annual Reports, Board of Directors, Constitution Committee, Executive Committee, Officers Committee, Budget and Finance Committee, Administration Committee, Social Planning Committee, Committee on Capital Needs and Planning, Central Committee on Scholarships in Aid, Joint Committee of the BJE and UJWF Study on Jewish Education, Nominations Committee, Pension Fund Committee, Coordinating Committee, Special Ad Hoc and Temporary Committees, Annual Campaign, Client Agencies, Joint Committee of the CJC and the UJWF, Committee on Community Organization, Sub-Committee on Construction and Administration of Community Schools, Joint Committee on Fundraising, Personnel Committee, Community Leadership Development Council, and Israel at Fifty Community Celebration.

Over 4500 photographs and a variety of other media are managed within Series 17, Campaign records.

Notes

For exact details about the contents of individual series and sub-series, please review their scope and contents notes.

Name Access

United Jewish Welfare Fund

Federation of Jewish Philanthropies of Toronto

United Jewish Appeal

Toronto Jewish Congress

Jewish Federation of Greater Toronto

UJA Federation of Greater Toronto

Subjects

Charities

Fund raising

Access Restriction

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

Related Material

For records of the predecessor of the UJWF, see Fonds 66, the Federation of Jewish Philanthropies of Toronto fonds.

Further detailed documentation of the proposed merger between the UJWF and the CJC (creation of the TJC) may be found in Fonds 67, Sub-sub-series 5-5-1, Files 171 and 221.

Further documentation on the United Jewish Welfare Fund may be found within Fonds 9, Series 7, records of the Jewish Immigrant Aid Society.

For further detailed records of a key community leader's involvement with the UJWF see Accession 1982-8-8, the records of Samuel Godfrey, 1943-1972.

Creator

United Jewish Welfare Fund (1938-)

Places

Toronto (Ont.)

Source

Archival Descriptions