- Accession Number
- 1977-8-11
- Source
- Archival Accessions
- Accession Number
- 1977-8-11
- Material Format
- textual record
- Physical Description
- 1 folder of textual records
- Date
- 1940-1966
- Scope and Content
- Accession consists of material from B'nai Jacob Congregation in Niagara Falls, Ontario. These include bank cheques, utility and hardware bills, insurance policy statements from the 1940s, general correspondence, as well as a report on the dedication of the rebuilt synagogue.
- Subjects
- Synagogues
- Communities
- Name Access
- B'nai Jacob Congregation (Niagara Falls, Ont.)
- Places
- Niagara Falls, Ont.
- Source
- Archival Accessions
- Accession Number
- 1977-8-12
- Source
- Archival Accessions
- Accession Number
- 1977-8-12
- Material Format
- graphic material
- textual record
- Physical Description
- 28 photographs : col (20 negatives) ; 9 x 13 cm and 35 mm
- 1 folder of textual records
- Date
- 1955-[ca. 1970]
- Scope and Content
- Accession consists of records related to the B'nai Jacob Congregation Sisterhood of Niagara Falls, Ontario. Included are general and executive meeting minutes as well as photographs of a Shavuot event at the synagogue. Beverly Blackstien is identified in one of the photographs.
- Subjects
- Synagogues
- Women
- Name Access
- B'nai Jacob Congregation (Niagara Falls, Ont.)
- Places
- Niagara Falls, Ont.
- Source
- Archival Accessions
- Accession Number
- 2007-6-32
- Source
- Archival Accessions
- Accession Number
- 2007-6-32
- Material Format
- graphic material (electronic)
- Physical Description
- 2 b&w photographs (copies)
- Date
- [193?]
- Scope and Content
- Accession consists of two scanned photographs of work scene in front of the Myer Salit Scrap Metal yard, Niagara Falls.
- Custodial History
- The records were transferred to the OJA as part of the Ontario Small Jewish Communities initiative.
- Administrative History
- The donor, Larry Cohen, was born 1931. His grandfather, Myer Salit, was born in Brest Litovski, Poland. At the age of twenty-three he booked passage to America on the S.S. Norge. On June 28, 1904 the ship struck a reef off the coast of Scotland and sank. Mr. Salit survived, along with approximately 160 other passengers, and made his way to New York and then St. Catharines, where his brother-in-law, Harry Rubin, was a scrap metal dealer. In 1905 he moved to Niagara Falls and set up his own scrap metal business. He was the first Jewish resident of that community.
- Over time, the business prospered and grew. After the Second World War, his son-in-law Irvin Feldman and grandson Larry Cohen joined the business. The company began to diversify, selling new and used steel products to local industry. Myer Salit passed away in 1958 and left the business in the hands of Irvin and Larry. By the 1960s, the company branched out and became a reinforcing steel (rebar) fabricator and changed its name to Salit Steel.
- During the 1980s the family sold off the scrap metal division of the company. Mr. Feldman retired and the responsibility for managing the firm was shared by Larry Cohen and Steven Cohen, Myer's great-grandson. The company has continued to expand and diversify and currently serves the needs of Southern Ontario.
- 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
- Related Material Note: See AC 302 for an oral history for Larry Cohen.
- Subjects
- Occupations
- Communities
- Name Access
- Salit, Myer
- Places
- Niagara Falls, Ont.
- Source
- Archival Accessions
- Name
- Irving Milchberg
- Material Format
- moving images
- Interview Date
- 26 Jul. 2007
- Source
- Oral Histories
- Name
- Irving Milchberg
- Number
- OH 333
- Subject
- Immigrants--Canada
- Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945)
- Holocaust survivors
- Refugees--Canada
- Interview Date
- 26 Jul. 2007
- Quantity
- 1 mini DV ; 1 archival DVD ; 1 reference DVD
- Interviewer
- Sharon Gubbay Helfer
- Total Running Time
- 1 hr
- Notes
- Part of Ontario Small Jewish Communities Project.
- Use Restrictions
- Copyright is held by the Ontario Jewish Archives. Please contact the archives to obtain permission prior to use.
- Biography
- Irving Milchberg, the Holocaust survivor known from Joseph Ziemian's book "The Cigarette Sellers of Three Crosses Square," used to sell cigarettes to Nazis in Warsaw as an oprhan during the Second World War.
- Milchberg, the leader of a group of orphaned Jewish children hiding their identities, used to gather at Three Crosses Square, the centre of the German occupation of Warsaw, to sell cigarettes. The group went wandering around under the very noses of policemen, gendarmes, Gestapo men, and ordinary spies.
- Before joining the cigarette sellers, Milchberg twice escaped from the Nazis. The first time he scaled a fence and fled the Umschlagplatz, where Jews were put aboard trains to the Treblinka death camp. The second time, he managed to break the bars of the train taking him to Treblinka and scramble out. His father, mother, and three sisters were all murdered by the Nazis.
- In 1945, Milchberg made his way to Czechoslovakia, then Austria, then to a camp for displaced people in occupied Germany, where he learned watchmaking, which became his lifelong occupation. In 1947, he moved to Canada, ending up in Niagara Falls, where he opened his own jewellery and watch business. In 1953, he met his wife, Renee, who had survived the war. They had two children and three grandchildren. Milchberg died in January 2014 at the age of eighty-six.
- Material Format
- moving images
- Geographic Access
- Niagara Falls, Ont.
- Original Format
- Mini DV
- Copy Format
- DVD
- Source
- Oral Histories
- Address
- 216 Beverley Street
- Source
- Landmarks
The Apter Synagogue was formed by a group of people who came to Toronto from the area of Opatow (Apt) in Poland around the turn of the century. They first established a small synagogue on Centre Avenue near Dundas Street in the Ward. In 1918, in anticipation of more Apter immigrants coming to Toronto after the First World War, the synagogue was sold and a larger one purchased on Beverley Street. Both the synagogue members and the Apter Friendly Society met there.
- Address
- 216 Beverley Street
- Time Period
- 1918-unknown
- Scope Note
- The Apter Synagogue was formed by a group of people who came to Toronto from the area of Opatow (Apt) in Poland around the turn of the century. They first established a small synagogue on Centre Avenue near Dundas Street in the Ward. In 1918, in anticipation of more Apter immigrants coming to Toronto after the First World War, the synagogue was sold and a larger one purchased on Beverley Street. Both the synagogue members and the Apter Friendly Society met there.
- History
- In later years, a bitter controversy between the synagogue and society erupted and the building was sold.
- Category
- Political
- Religious
- Private Clubs
- Source
- Landmarks