- Accession Number
- 2013-2-3
- Source
- Archival Accessions
- Accession Number
- 2013-2-3
- Material Format
- textual record
- graphic material
- Physical Description
- 20 cm of textual records
- ca. 100 photographs
- Date
- [190-]-2012
- Scope and Content
- Accession consists of records related to three generations of the Ladovsky family and their restaurant, the United Bakers Dairy Restaurant. Also included is a small amount of material related to Jewish organizations in Toronto, such as the Kieltzer Society and B'nai Brith, as well as the Bakery and Confectionary Union. Records include family and business photographs, correspondence, newsclippings, UB menus and other ephemera, and records related to family simchas and celebrations.
- Custodial History
- The records were created and accumulated by Aaron Ladovsky, Herman Ladovsky and Ruthie Ladovsky.
- Administrative History
- Aaron Ladovsky was born in 1888 in Kielce, Poland. He immigrated with his wife Sarah to Toronto in 1906 at the age of 18. Soon after arriving, Aaron Ladovsky worked to help form a Jewish bakers’ union to advocate for collective rights among Jewish Bakers. In 1912 he opened the United Bakers Dairy Restaurant at Dundas and Bay Streets (known then as Agnes and Terauley Streets respectively) in the heart of the Ward. That same year, the couple had twin sons Herman and Samuel, who were born on September 23, 1912.
- Only a short time later, in 1920, Aaron moved the location of his restaurant to 338 Spadina Avenue, just north of Dundas. He and his family lived in an apartment upstairs. Herman and Samuel attended Hester How Elementary School until 1919, Lord Lansdowne Public School once the family moved to Spadina, and later Central Commerce. The twins worked in the family business in the 1920s delivering fresh breads and buns by horse cart.
- Aaron Ladovsky was involved in a number of community organizations. He was instrumental in founding the Kieltzer Society of Toronto in 1913; a community based immigrant-aid association extending aid to Kielcers in Poland and around the world. Ladovsky remained an active member of the organization until his death on April 5, 1960 . His restaurant provided a welcome gathering place for the Jewish community, serving traditional dishes and maintaining a friendly open-door policy. Aaron Ladovsky was known for his generosity and claimed that no one, whether they had money or not, left his restaurant hungry. The United Bakers' menu was mainly based on Sarah’s original recipes, and continues to be so to this day.
- During the Second World War, Herman served overseas as an electrician in the Canadian army show with comics Johnny Wayne and Frank Shuster. After returning from the war, he married Dora Macklin in 1947, a registered nurse from Regina. He also began to take over management of the family business. Later, his son Philip and daughter Ruth would follow in his footsteps, helping to run the restaurant with him and later taking over managment. United Bakers remained on Spadina Avenue for 66 years – until 1986 when it moved to its current location at 506 Lawrence Avenue West, off of Bathurst Street. Herman was an active fixture in restaurant until his death on January 6, 2002. He also supported and was involved in the work of the Ontario Jewish Archives over the years. Today, Philip and Ruth carry on the family tradition of running United Bakers Dairy Restaurant.
- Descriptive Notes
- To be integrated into the Ladovsky family fonds 83.
- Subjects
- Families
- Restaurants
- Name Access
- Ladovsky, Herman
- Ladovsky, Aaron
- United Bakers Dairy Restaurant (Toronto, Ont.)
- Source
- Archival Accessions
- Level
- Item
- ID
-
Item 1511
- Source
- Archival Descriptions
- Level
- Item
- Item
- 1511
- Material Format
- graphic material
- Date
- [between 1930 and 1935]
- Physical Description
- 2 photographs : b&w (1 negative)
- Scope and Content
- Item is a photo of the Kieltzer Sick Benifit Society. Pictured in the back row from left to right are: Gordon Mendly (1902-1998); [unknown]; Avrum Urman (?-1967) (president of Bakers' Union); Nathan (?) Rotfoge (?- 1964); Avromele Stancer (bakery on College St.); Getzel Tannenbaum (recording secretary); [?] Sugar (Sugar Bros. Tailors, College St.).
- Seated left to right: Dovid Levy (worked at Eaton's); Aaron Ladovsky (United Bakers, called "Tate Fun Keltzer"); Noson Yasne (president); [?] Bader (vice-president); [unknown].
- Notes
- Photo by Famous Studios.
- Name Access
- Bader
- Eaton's
- Kieltzer Sick Benefit Society
- Ladovsky, Aaron
- Levy, Dovid
- Mendly, Gordon, 1904-1998
- Rotfogel
- Stancer, Avromele
- Sugar Bros. Tailors
- Tannenbaum, Getzel
- Urman, Avrum
- United Bakers
- Yasne, Noson
- Subjects
- Societies
- Repro Restriction
- 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.
- Places
- College Street (Toronto, Ont.)
- Accession Number
- 1978-3-6
- Source
- Archival Descriptions
- Level
- Item
- ID
-
Item 6070
- Source
- Archival Descriptions
- Level
- Item
- Item
- 6070
- Material Format
- graphic material
- Date
- 1931
- Physical Description
- 1 photograph : b&w
- Scope and Content
- Item is a composite photograph of the I. L. Peretz Branch 26 of the Jewish National Workers Alliance, Toronto.
- Notes
- Original photo by Schlachter.
- Name Access
- I.L. Peretz
- Jewish National Workers Alliance
- Subjects
- Labor unions
- Photomontage
- Repro Restriction
- 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.
- Places
- Toronto (Ont.)
- Accession Number
- 1993-9-2
- Source
- Archival Descriptions
- Level
- Item
- ID
-
Item 3961
- Source
- Archival Descriptions
- Level
- Item
- Item
- 3961
- Material Format
- graphic material
- Date
- 1936
- Physical Description
- 1 photograph : b&w
- Notes
- Photo by Simon.
- For identification see accession record.
- Name Access
- I.L. Peretz
- Workmen's Circle
- Arbeter Ring
- Arbeiter Ring
- Subjects
- Education
- Repro Restriction
- 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.
- Places
- Toronto (Ont.)
- Accession Number
- 1986-4-1
- Source
- Archival Descriptions
- Level
- Item
- ID
-
Item 3963
- Source
- Archival Descriptions
- Level
- Item
- Item
- 3963
- Material Format
- graphic material
- Date
- 1938
- Physical Description
- 1 photograph : b&w
- Notes
- Photo by Schlochter.
- Name Access
- I.L. Peretz
- Workmen's Circle
- Arbeter Ring
- Arbeiter Ring
- Subjects
- Education
- Repro Restriction
- 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.
- Places
- Toronto (Ont.)
- Accession Number
- 1986-4-1
- Source
- Archival Descriptions
- Level
- Item
- ID
-
Item 3962
- Source
- Archival Descriptions
- Level
- Item
- Item
- 3962
- Material Format
- graphic material
- Date
- 1937
- Physical Description
- 1 photograph : b&w
- Notes
- For identification see accession record.
- Photo by Simon.
- Name Access
- I.L. Peretz
- Workmen's Circle
- Arbeter Ring
- Arbeiter Ring
- Subjects
- Education
- Repro Restriction
- 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.
- Accession Number
- 1986-4-1
- Source
- Archival Descriptions
- Part Of
- Ladovsky family fonds
- Photographs file
- Level
- Item
- Fonds
- 83
- File
- 9
- Item
- 21
- Material Format
- graphic material
- Date
- [ca. 1933]
- Physical Description
- 4 photographs : b&w (2 negatives) ; 21 x 26 cm
- Admin History/Bio
- The Toronto Kielcer Maccabees Football and Sports Club was established following the First World War by Kielce landsmen in Toronto.
- Scope and Content
- Item is a photograph of the Toronto Kielcer Maccabees taken by photographer Gordon Mendly. Aaron Ladovsky is in the second row, fourth from right. Fishel Bimko is also in the second row, third from left.
- Notes
- Photo by Famous Studios, Toronto.
- The photograph was published in the Canadian Jewish News on September 23, 1987.
- Originally cited as photo # 4503 (original) and photo # 6224 ( reference copy).
- Name Access
- Ladowksy, Aaron
- Ladovsky, Aaron
- Bimko, Fischel
- Toronto Kielcer Maccabees Football and Sports Club
- Subjects
- Sports teams
- Repro Restriction
- 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.
- Accession Number
- 1988-4-12
- 1999-11-4
- Source
- Archival Descriptions
- Part Of
- Isaac Matenko fonds
- Level
- Fonds
- Fonds
- 89
- Material Format
- graphic material
- textual record
- Date
- 1911-1971, predominant 1911-1935
- Physical Description
- 6 cm of textual records
- 17 photographs
- Admin History/Bio
- Isaac Matenko (1874–1960) was a founder, teacher, and principal of the I. L. Peretz School. He worked tirelessly to preserve and promote secular Jewish culture and the Yiddish language in Toronto. He was also a prominent member of local Jewish organizations, such as the Socialist-Territorialist Club and the Yiddish Kultur Gesellshaft.
- Isaac was born on 1 February 1874 in the town of Makariv, located in the Kyiv Oblast (province) of Ukraine. He married Elke Yelia Moshkevitch (1878–19 November 1953) on 4 August 1900 in Yekaterinoslav (today Dnipro). They immigrated from czarist Russia to Toronto in 1906, passing first through New York with their two children, Percy (30 June 1901–May 1987) and Theodore (1903–1906, died of measles at Ellis Island), and Yelia’s three sisters, Dvora, Bracha, and Celia, and Isaac’s younger half-brother, Paul Frumhartz. They had two more children after arriving: Abraham (14 August 1908–October 24, 1989) and Shoshana (Sue) (1911–2001). Although he had been a teacher in Russia, Isaac worked as an operator in a cloak factory in Toronto, where he was instrumental in forming the union (likely the Cloakmakers’ Union of Toronto, which later affiliated with the International Ladies’ Garment Workers’ Union).
- As a child, Isaac received a traditional Jewish education. This, combined with his self-taught secular education and the teachings of Yiddish nationalist Dr. Chaim Zhitlovski, informed his future career and philosophies. He was described as an idealist by his friends, whose dedication to Yiddish culture and language motivated him to bring this knowledge to a younger generation.
- On 11 July 1911, Isaac and his fellow Socialist-Territorialist members established the Toronto Yiddish National-Radical School. By 1916, it had been taken over by the Workmen’s Circle and renamed the I. L. Peretz School, after the well-known Yiddish author and playwright. The school began in a rented room at the Zionist Institute on Simcoe Street, moving to larger locations on Richmond Street West, then Beverley Street as it grew. Eventually, several more branches opened, such as the Maria Street school that Isaac was affiliated with. He taught at the school for free in the evenings after working during the day in a shop. His brother Paul was also a founding teacher at the school.
- Isaac was described by family, friends, and community members as a passionate teacher with an iron will. He was well-versed in Jewish knowledge, with a desire to pass it on to a younger generation and his fellow union members. He remained involved in the school and in teaching, even after retirement. He died on 2 June 1960 at the age of eighty-six.
- Custodial History
- These records were donated to the OJA by Sue Levy, daughter of Isaac Matenko.
- Scope and Content
- Fonds consists of records documenting Isaac Matenko's involvement with the Workmen's Circle and other Jewish organizations. Included are photographs, programmes, certificates, I. L. Peretz School jubilee books, a songbook, a yearbook, articles, and newsclippings.
- Fonds has been arranged into one series for the Workmen's Circle. There are also two files attached to the fonds-level. The records are described at the series and file-level, with some item-level descriptions.
- Name Access
- Arbeiter Ring
- Arbeiter Ring Schools
- Arbeter Ring
- Camp Yungvelt
- Frumhartz, Paul
- I.L. Peretz
- Matenko, Isaac, 1874-1960
- Matenko, Percy
- National Radical School
- Peretz Shule
- Workman's Circle
- Workmen's Circle
- Subjects
- Schools
- Teachers
- Yiddish language
- Related Material
- For additional Workmen's Circle records, see: accessions 1979-4-4, 1980-2-2, 1983-6-3, 1984-10-1, 1986-4-1, 1992-1-2, 1997-2-1, 1998-3-32, 2004-5-41, 2004-5-105, and fonds 30.
- For additional Camp Yungvelt records, see: accessions 1979-4-4, 1986-4-1, 1991-12-4, 1993-6-6, 1999-5-1, 2004-5-37, 2005-6-4, 2006-12-3, photographs # 2964, # 4014, # 6021, MG2N1K, Benjamin Brown fonds 49, and Dorothy Dworkin Fonds 10 (item 14).
- Creator
- Matenko, Isaac, 1874-1960
- Accession Number
- 1987-11-4
- 1991-4-2
- 2007-5-3
- 2007-6-28
- Source
- Archival Descriptions