Accession Number
2003-5-5
Source
Archival Accessions
Accession Number
2003-5-5
Material Format
multiple media
Date
[192-?]-1975
Scope and Content
The records in this accession document the Raxlen family and the Raxlen Clinic and Doctor's Hospital that was set up by the Raxlen brothers. The records also include personal correspondence between Katie Cherney and her mother, family photographs, greeting cards, press clippings and a booklet of articles written by Rabbi Fine of Peterborough. This booklet includes translated documents that he produced as rabbi from 1926 to 1934. Finally, there are three historic postcards documenting Holy Blossom's building on Bond Street, Jarvis Collegiate, and the Doctor's Hospital
Custodial History
Records were collected by Karen Fejer, the daughter of Alexander Raxlen.
Administrative History
The Raxlen brothers were born in Toronto in Cabbagetown, where their father operated a grocery store. The four brothers were Saul, Benjamin, Alexander, and Sam. All of the brothers graduated in medicine during the 1930s, except for Sam, who became a dentist. Together, they opened up the Raxlen Clinic in 1937, which was located on Carleton Street.
In 1953, the brothers opened their own private hospital, the Doctor's Hospital, which was located on Brunswick Avenue. The hospital started in a ninety-year-old building that was owned by a religious order. The brothers modernized and expanded it from a facility accomodating 59 patients to one that could hold up to 168 beds by 1955. It soon became the largest privately-held, non-profit hospital in North America. By the time the brothers sold it during the late 1970s, it had 554 full-time staff and five hundred hospital beds.
The other family documented in this accession is the Cherney family from Peterborough. The patriarch and matriarch were Abraham and B. Cherney. They had two children, Katie ("Kaye") and Meyer. Abraham and B. divorced, and Abraham remarried and had three more kids: Harry, Helen, and Louis. The family remained in Peterbough, but the ex-wife moved to Toronto. Kaye married Dr. Alexander Raxlen, and they had three children. Karen Fejer, their daughter, is the donor.
Use Conditions
Correspondence is restricted. Researchers must contact donor for permission to access them. The rest of the collection is open.
Descriptive Notes
Restrictions on access, use, reproduction, and publication: Some of the photographs are the property of the City of Toronto Archives.
Subjects
Families
Hospitals
Rabbis
Name Access
Doctor's Hospital (Toronto, Ont.)
Fine, Abraham
Places
Peterborough (Ont.)
Toronto (Ont.)
Source
Archival Accessions
Accession Number
2018-6-21 [Processed]
Source
Archival Accessions
Accession Number
2018-6-21 [Processed]
Material Format
multiple media
Physical Description
13 cm of textual records
Date
1982-1989
Scope and Content
Accession consists of material documenting Cantor Harold Klein and Rabbi Stuart Rosenberg. Cantor Klein's records include sound recordings and sheet music. Rabbi Rosenberg's records include certificates of conversion, divorce, and marriage; counselling and pastoral cards; decree absolutes; a letter to Mr. A. Copnick from Garry Goldberg regarding a "Burn the Mortgage Campaign" (the letter includes a note to the rabbi); a letter to Rabbi Rosenberg from Rabbi Bernard Baskin; and wedding record cards.
Custodial History
6/25/2018: Rabbi Yossi Sapirman of Beth Torah Congregation donated the records to the Ontario Jewish Archives.
Administrative History
Cantor Harold Klein was the chazzan of the Shaarei Shomayim Congregation in Toronto. Cantor Klein was a classmate, and then later a student for many years, of Professor Noach Schall of Yeshiva University.
Rabbi Stuart E. Rosenberg led Beth Torah Congregation for nine years. Prior to that, he was senior rabbi for seventeen years at Beth Tzedic, the largest Conservative congregation in Canada.
Use Conditions
Partially closed. Researchers must receive permission from the OJA Director prior to accessing some of the records.
Subjects
Cantors (Judaism)
Rabbis
Name Access
Klein, Harold
Rosenberg, Stuart E
Places
Toronto (Ont.)
Source
Archival Accessions