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Scope and Content: Accession consists of various lettters, one in Polish and others in Hebrew and Yiddish. One of the letters appears to have been addressed to Rabbi Shemen's mother (Gitl), although undated, it appears to be from the late 1920s or early 1930s. A letter in Yiddish is addressed to the Boimoil family of Chodel, Poland. Boimol was the original last name of Rabbi Shemen.

Custodial History: It appears that the documents came directly from Rabbi Nachman Shemen

Administrative History: Rabbi Shemen was a Rabbinic scholar, author and Jewish civil servant. He held the following positions: Executive secretary of the Canadian Federation of Polish jews (1940-1993), Director of Orthodox Division of CJC, Ontario (1950-1992). Rabbi Shemen died in 1993.

Physical Description: 5 cm textual records; 2 photographs : b&w, sepia toned (tiff)

Scope and Content: Accession consists of correspondence between members of the Teper family. Included are letters that Wilfred Teper sent from Tsumeb (Namibia), Lausanne, and Barcelona, to his mother Seina Teper (née Grossman) in Cape Town. Also included are letters from Seina to Wilfred’s sister Rita Burton, brother-in-law David Burton, and niece Oriane Falkenstein . Seina forwarded Wilfred’s letters to Rita and David, and requested that they forward his letters to her as well.; 001: Claremont Talmudic Society tenth anniversary, Nov. 1955, Cape Town, South Africa. Photograph by Bridge Studio, Salt River. Identified in photo back row, left to right, M. Marks, H. Kagan, M. Polliack, A. Wasserman, M. Katz, S. Yutar, Y. Teper. Middle row, A. L. Resnick, M. Fletcher, B. Stein (Secretary), W. Rubin, Jack Levin, J. Levin. Front row, Menashe Ben-Dov, M. Stone, Rabbi Romm, B. Margolis (Chairman), Rev. Ch. Gordon, Rev. A. Kramer, Mr. N. Tobias.; 002: Wilfred (right) standing with unidentified friend, Cape Town, South Africa [1946?].

Custodial History: Seina Teper sent all the letters she received from her son Wilfred Teper to her daughter Rita Burton (née Teper) in Johannesburg. Rita's daughter Oriane Falkenstein (née Burton), gave the letters to Wilfred in 2013.

Administrative History: Wilfred Teper (b. 1939) is the son of Edel Teper (d. 1958) and Seina (Grossman) Teper (d. 1963), both immigrants from Lithuania to South Africa. After graduating from the University of Cape Town with a degree in chemical engineering, Wilfred spent a year working at a Germanium extraction plant in Tsumeb, Namibia (then known as South West Africa and administered by the South African government) from 1961-1962. While there he bought a motor bike (which he traded for a radio and a bicycle) and on a weekend off he went to Etosha Game Reserve (now Etosha National Park). His mother sent him parcels of food, which Wilfred shared with his housemate. During this time, pieces of mail went astray.; Having saved enough money for his European travel, Wilfred left Tsumeb in January 1962, returning to Cape Town briefly before departing for Europe for three months with two long-time friends. In 1963 he married Anna Cvi of Kimberley, South Africa. They had four children and lived in Waterkloof, a suburb of Pretoria, before immigrating to Toronto in 1976, where they became members of Beth Tikvah Synagogue.

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