- Accession Number
- 2017-2-12
- Source
- Archival Accessions
- Accession Number
- 2017-2-12
- Material Format
- multiple media
- Physical Description
- 45 cm of textual records and other material
- 230 photographs : sepia and b&w ; 23 x 30 cm and smaller
- 8 sound recordings (50 wav files; 1 microcassette)
- 1 artifact
- Date
- 1937-2004
- Scope and Content
- Accession consists of textual records, photographs and audio recordings documenting the lives of Dick Steele, his wife Esther, and friend Bill Walsh. The materials are mostly correspondences between Dick and Esther during his internment at the Don Jail and Ontario Reformatory in Guelph, and from Dick and Bill's military service overseas during the Second World War. They also include correspondences between Esther and Bill, Bill and Anne Walsh, "Jack" and Esther, and other family and friends. Some of the letters show evidence of being censored. There are news clippings in English and Yiddish about the family from various newspapers including the Canadian Tribune (a Communist Party paper). There is a letter Esther wrote to campaign for Dick's release from internment, part of women's activism in this period. There is also a photocopy of a memoir written by Moses Kosowatsky and Moses Wolofsky "From the Land of Despair to the Land of Promise" ca. 1930s.
- The photographs include Dick and Bill in the army during the Second World War, a signed picture of Tim Buck addressed to Esther and the twins and a photo of Dick delivering a speech related to the Steel Workers. Also included is a recording of edited sound clips of Bill and Esther talking about Dick, Esther speaking about the letters, (how she received letters and flowers from Dick after he had already been killed), Bill reading a letter Dick wrote to Esther that he left with friends in England to send her in the case that he was killed (which he was), recordings of "Bill Walsh Oral history" Vols.1 and 2 compiled by Leib Wolofsky's (Bill's nephew), and 5 audio recordings by Adrianna Steele-Card with her grandparents Bill and Esther. There is also a microcassette labelled "Joe Levitt."
- The accession also includes the stripe of a German corporal that Bill captured as a prisoner, peace stamps and an early copy of Cy Gonick's A Very Red Life: The Story of Bill Walsh, edited by Bill.
- Administrative History
- Richard "Dick" Kennilworth Steele is the name adopted by Moses Kosowatsky. He was born in 1909 in Montreal to Samuel Kosowatsky and Fanny Held. He lived in a laneway off Clark Street, below Sherbrooke, where his father collected and recycled bottles. He grew up with his siblings, Joseph, Mortimer, Matthew, Gertrude, and Edward.
- Bill Walsh (birth name Moishe Wolofsky) was born in 1910, to Sarah and Herschel Wolofsky, the editor of the Keneder Adler (Montreal's prominent Yiddish newspaper). He attended Baron Byng and then Commercial High School, where he met Dick Steele. Bill recalled that Dick denounced militarism in the school when a teacher tried to recruit students to be cadets.
- Bill moved to New York City in 1927. His brother, who was living there, helped him get a job as a messenger on Wall Street. He also worked in the drug department at Macy's while attending courses at Columbia University in the evening. Dick worked on a ship for a year and then joined Bill in New York City in 1928. Dick worked at a chemical plant called Linde Air Products while also studying in the evenings at Columbia University.
- In 1931, Dick and Bill boarded a ship together in New York bound for Copenhagen. Together, they travelled across Europe, witnessed a Nazi demonstration in Breslau, Germany, and found work in Minsk and Moscow, Russia. This trip inspired them to become Communists. In 1933, Bill's father was on a Canadian trade mission to Poland, which he left to "rescue" his son from the Bolsheviks. Bill agreed to return to Canada after being advised to do so by the Comintern. He then changed his name to Bill Walsh to protect his family.
- In 1934, Bill moved to Toronto. He worked as the educational director for the Industrial Union of Needle Trade Workers and the Communist Party, where he met Esther Slominsky/Silver, the organization's office manager. Dick joined Bill in Toronto soon after. Bill introduced Dick and Esther, who then married. In 1940, Esther gave birth to twin sons, Michael and John Steele. Esther was born in Toronto in 1914 to Joseph Slominsky and Fanny (Blackersany?). Her siblings were Bella, Eileen, Morris, and step-sister Eva. Her father, Joseph, was a cloak maker and Esther also worked in the garment industry. Her mother Fanny passed away in 1920 at the age of twenty-six from tuberculosis.
- Dick was a metal worker and became a union organizer in the east end of Toronto. He was the head organizer of the Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO) and the Steel Workers Organizing Committee of Canada (SWOC) until 1940, when he was dismissed for being a Communist. Bill helped organize Kitchener's rubber workers into an industrial union and was also an organizer for the United Auto Workers of Windsor, Ontario.
- Jack Steele, an alias for Dick's brother Mortimer, fought with the Mackenzie-Papineau Brigade in the Spanish Civil War. Jack Steele was recalled to Canada in October 1937 to rally support for the efforts in Spain, returned to the front in June 1938, and was killed in action in August. Some of Dick's letters to his wife, Esther, are signed "Salud, Jack" and were likely written in 1940 when the Communist Party (CP) was banned by the Canadian government under the War Measures Act.
- In November 1941, after Mackenzie King's call for enlistment, Dick wrote to the Department of Justice to ask permission to join the army. He never received a reply. On 1 April 1942, Dick's home was raided and he was interned at the Don Jail until September 1942, when he was moved to the Ontario Reformatory in Guelph. Esther wrote a letter to the minister of justice, Louis St. Laurent, to appeal on his behalf.
- Major public campaigning by Communists and the wartime alliance with the USSR after 1941 shifted public opinion toward the CP, and the Canadian government slowly began releasing internees in January 1942. Dick was released in October 1942 and enlisted at the end of the month. Dick died on 17 August 1944 in Normandy, France. He was a tank driver in the Canadian Army.
- Bill was similarly arrested in 1941, spending time in jail and then an internment camp with other members of the CP. He joined the Canadian Army in 1943 and fought in Holland and Belgium. Bill was first married to Anne Weir who died of a brain hemorrhage in 1943, just before he enlisted. The family believes this may have been due to drinking unpasteurized milk. Encouraged by Dick Steele to take care of his family should he pass in the war, Bill married Esther Steele in 1946. They had a daughter named Sheri and were members of the United Jewish People's Order. For twenty years, Walsh worked for the Hamilton region of the United Electrical Workers (UE). Bill remained a member of the CP until 1967, when we was expelled for criticizing another union leader. He died in 2004. Esther passed away in 2010 at age ninety-six.
- Use Conditions
- Partially closed. Researchers must receive permission from the OJA Director prior to accessing some of the records.
- Descriptive Notes
- RELATED MATERIAL NOTE: Library and Archives Canada has the William Walsh fonds and MG 28, ser. I 268, USWA, vol.4, SWOC Correspondence, has various letters from Dick Steele ca. 1938. Museum of Jewish Montreal has an oral history with Leila Mustachi (daughter of Max Wolofsky, Bill's brother) where she speaks about Bill, Dick and Esther. USE CONDITION NOTES: For "Bill Walsh Oral history" Vols.1 and 2, some contributors stipulate that recordings are restricted to personal use only and must not be used for any commercial purpose.
- Subjects
- World War, 1939-1945
- Politics and government
- Labour and unions
- Name Access
- Steele, Michael
- Steele, Dick
- Walsh, Bill
- Walsh, Esther Steele
- Places
- England
- Fort William (Ont.)
- Germany
- Guelph (Ont.)
- Hamilton (Ont.)
- Montréal (Québec)
- Netherlands
- Oshawa (Ont.)
- Ottawa (Ont.)
- Thunder Bay (Ont.)
- Toronto (Ont.)
- Source
- Archival Accessions
- Accession Number
- 2018-4-15
- Source
- Archival Accessions
- Accession Number
- 2018-4-15
- Material Format
- graphic material
- textual record
- Physical Description
- 1 folder of textual records
- 8 photographs : b&w and col. (hand-tinted) ; 21 x 26 or smaller
- Date
- 1885-2003
- Scope and Content
- Accession consists of the records of Pearl "Pesh" and Solly Zucker. Included is Jennie Davis' birth certificate (1885), the invitation to the marriage of Jennie Davis and Simon Sidman (1910), Jennie and Simon's ketubah from the New Synagogue and Beth-Hamidrash, Cheetham Hill Rd (1910), Simon Sidman's burial card (1928), Pearl's birth certificate (1914), Solly's birth certificate (1908), Pearl and Solly's ketubah from the United Synagogue in Manchester (1934), marriage certificate of Jennie Sidman and Myer Cohen (1956), British passports for both Jennie Cohen and Pearl and Solly Zucker, Canadian citizenship certificates for Solly and Pearl, and photos of Simon Sidman, Solly and Pearl, Solly, Gerald and Simon, Pearl's wedding portrait, and two portraits of Esther and Isaac Sugar. Also included are writings by Pearl, mostly written after the passing of Solly in 2001, and typed by her daughter-in-law, Jan Zucker.
- Administrative History
- Pearl Miller Zucker (née Sidman) was born on 18 Jan. 1914 in Manchester, England to Jennie Sidman Cohen (née Davis) (b. 5 May 1885, Russia-d. 31 Dec. 1983, Toronto) and Simon Sidman. Miller was the middle name given to Pearl at birth by her father. Pearl's mother Jennie had married Simon Sidman on 21 Aug. 1910. Simon died on 10 Dec. 1928 at age 45. Jennie then married Myer Cohen on Feb. 15, 1956 in Manchester, who died sometime between 1956 and 1959. Jennie became a landed immigrant in Canada in 1959.
- Moses Solomon "Solly" Zucker (Sugar) (b. 6 Feb. 1908, County of Gateshead, England-d. 22 Jan. 2001, Toronto) was born to Isaac and Esther Sugar (née Greenbaum). He married Pearl "Pesh" Sidman on 20 June 1934. Miller was Pearl's given middle name. The couple had two sons: Gerald Zucker (b. 5 July 1936) and Simon Zucker (b. 15 Nov. 1937). Solly served with the fire brigade in Manchester during the Second World War.
- The couple immigrated to Canada from England in June 1952 for economic reasons. Pearl had a cousin named Mark Gilbert already living in Canada. The couple and their two sons first landed in Montreal, but only stayed a year before moving to Toronto. Upon arrival in Canada, Solly got a job with the Canadian Government, possibly with the RCAF at Downsview. Pearl worked for Bell Canada. The family belonged to Shaarei Tefillah Synagogue and lived in the Bathurst and Eglinton area.
- Pearl died on 20 February 2018 at the age of 104.
- Use Conditions
- Copyright is held by the Ontario Jewish Archives. Please contact the Archives to obtain permission prior to use.
- Subjects
- Families
- Name Access
- Zucker, Pearl, 1914-2018
- Places
- England
- Toronto (Ont.)
- Source
- Archival Accessions
- Accession Number
- 2018-10-5
- Source
- Archival Accessions
- Accession Number
- 2018-10-5
- Material Format
- textual record
- Physical Description
- 7 cm of graphic material and textual records
- 1 folder (oversize) of graphic material and textual records
- 1 scrapbook ; 37 x 31 cm
- Date
- 1916-2008, predominant 1940-1998
- Scope and Content
- Accession consists of material documenting the Rother family, in particular Irving and Florence Rother. Included are: three of Irving Rother's Second World War letters; professional and educational certificates for Irving Rother; service records for Irving Rother; records documenting the sale of the family's Rother Cigar Store; a letter to Dr. and Mrs. Rother from Lester C. Sugarman welcoming the couple and their family to Holy Blossom Temple; records (including group portraits) of Hadassah-WIZO Rishon Chapter, which Florence Rother belonged to; and an Alpha Phi Pi scrapbook.
- Administrative History
- Florence Rother (née Warshavsky) was born in 1919. In 1998, she was honoured for her service to the Rishon Chapter of Toronto Hadassah-WIZO. She died at home on 9 July 2016.
- Dr. Irving Rother was born in 1919. He studied at the University of Toronto, where he was part of the Phi Delta Epislon Fraternity. He graduated in January 1943 with a Doctor of Medicine degree. During the Second World War, he held the rank of captain in the Royal Canadian Army Medical Corps (RCAMC) and served in Canada, the United Kingdom, and continental Europe. After the war, Rother moved to Baltimore, Maryland, where he served on the house staff of Sinai Hospital first as assistant resident on the pathology service and then as intern and assistant resident on the medical service.
- In 1953, Dr. and Mrs. Rother and their family became members of Holy Blossom Temple in Toronto.
- Use Conditions
- Copyright may not be held by the Ontario Jewish Archives. It is the responsibility of the researcher to obtain permission prior to use.
- Subjects
- Families
- Physicians
- World War, 1939-1945
- Name Access
- Rother (family)
- Rother, Florence
- Rother, Irving, 1919-2018
- Places
- Baltimore (Md.)
- England
- Toronto (Ont.)
- Source
- Archival Accessions
- Accession Number
- 2017-8-14
- Source
- Archival Accessions
- Accession Number
- 2017-8-14
- Material Format
- graphic material
- textual record
- multiple media
- Physical Description
- 1 folder of textual records ca. 2cm of textual records
- 12 photographs : b&w and col ; 30 x 35 cm or smaller
- 1 scrapbook
- Date
- 1900-1950, [196?], 1970-1995
- Scope and Content
- Accession consists of 12 photographs (ca. 1900-1930, 196?) of members of the Schönberger family, including family portraits, class portraits, and a group photograph of the United Cloth Hat & Cap Makers Union Local No. 41. Accession also contains a scrapbook (ca.1937-1945) kept by Walter Schoenberger consisting of ca. 90 photographs and other graphic materials (eg. cigarette cards, photographic postcards) documenting his life in Vienna, England, Quebec and Toronto. This scrapbook includes photographs of Schoenberger's internment at a Kitchener Camp in Kent, England, as well as photographs of a parade at Old City Hall in Toronto.
- Accession also consists of 1 folder of textual records, including Canadian citizenship and naturalization documents, a Vienna drivers license, one postcard, wedding invitations and certificates, newspaper clippings, personal writings, and a death certificate. There are also a number of documents ca. 1939-1942 relating to Walter Schoenberger's time at the Kitchener Camp in England, including letters from the Red Cross, the American Embassy to Vienna, the American Consulate General in London, the Hebrew Sheltering and Immigrant Aid Society, the Central Council for Jewish Refugees Agricultural Committee, and Tip Top Tailors.
- Accession also includes Victory Bonds certificates (1943-1945), an issue of the Toronto Star from December 3, 1992, a Toronto Transit Commission map, a program for a "Life Begins at 65" celebration for George Burns, and a book entitled "Collective Poems - The Terrace Holocaust Survivors Group" consisting of poetry by Holocaust survivors. Also included are documents relating to the Schwab family.
- Ancestor chart of Mindy Schönberger
- Custodial History
- Collection of Walter Schoenberger, donated by daughter Mindy Pollishuke.
- Use Conditions
- Copyright is held by the Ontario Jewish Archives. Please contact the Archives to obtain permission prior to use.
- Subjects
- Tailors
- Immigrants--Canada
- Labor unions
- Clothing workers
- Postcards
- Refugee camps
- Refugees
- World War, 1939-1945
- Places
- Toronto (Ont.)
- England
- Austria
- Germany
- Source
- Archival Accessions
- Accession Number
- 2019-11-8
- Source
- Archival Accessions
- Accession Number
- 2019-11-8
- Material Format
- textual record
- Physical Description
- 1 folder of textual records
- Date
- 1912-2013
- Scope and Content
- Accession consists of copies of immigration and naturalization records related to the Granovsky (Granowski/Grainer) and Avrutsky families. Included are: naturalization information for Sam Granovsky (Gloria's maternal grandfather) obtained from the Citizenship and Immigration Department of the Government of Canada; a ship's manifest copied from a microfiche retrieved from the Toronto Public Library showing the Granovsky family travelled on the ship Ausonia from Southampton to Quebec City in 1912; and copies of correspondence between the Russian Embassy and Gloria's uncle, Mordko Granowski, obtained from Library and Archives Canada. Also included is a family memoir written by Gloria Geller entitled "Threading My Grandmother's Needle."
- Administrative History
- Shaya Ber Shlema Leibov Granovsky (Sam Granovsky) (1871–1945) was born in Zvenigorodka, Ukraine, and was the only son of Shlioma Leib Vigdorovich Granovsky and Kreinya (?) Granovsky. He married Hinda Avrutsky (1873–1959), born to Gedalia Ber Avrutsky and Riva (Rifka, family name unkown), in the mid-1890s and moved to her town, Tal'noe, where he worked as a businessman. They had six children between 1896 and 1907: Mordkho (Max, 1896–1984); Aaron (Harry, 1899–1974); Victor (1901–1982); Rochel (Rose, 1903–1945); Lisa (Lillian, 1905–1996); and Sura (Sally, 1907–1972). Sam and Hinda immigrated to Canada in around 1912. In 1913, Hinda gave birth to their seventh child, Louis Leib (Lou, 1913–2006). The family run a bicycle repair business at 75 Chestnut Street between 1914 and 1918, then moved to 507 1/2 Yonge Street, where Sam had a second hand goods business. From the early 1920s to the mid-1940s, Sam and Hinda owned a used tire business, United Tire Exchange, at 751 Queen Street West. In the early 1920s, Max graduated from the Faculty of Medicine, University of Toronto. Later, Lou attended university and became a pharmacist. He owned Grainer Drugs for many years. Sam and Hinda's fourth child, Rose Geller (née Granovsky), married Sam Geller in the mid-to-late 1920s. She gave birth to Saul in 1929 and Gloria in 1938. She died at the age of 42 in 1945 due to a hospital error. Gloria lived with her grandmother, Hinda, for a period of time after her mother died and for a longer time after her father Sam's death in 1948.
- Use Conditions
- Copyright is held by the Ontario Jewish Archives. Please contact the Archives to obtain permission prior to use.
- Subjects
- Immigrants
- Ukrainians--Canada
- Places
- Ukraine
- England
- Québec (Province)
- Toronto (Ont.)
- Source
- Archival Accessions