Part Of

United Jewish Welfare Fund fonds

Photographic and audiovisual collection series

Level

File

Fonds

67

Series

27

File

541

Material Format

graphic material

Date

29 Mar. 1981

Physical Description

11 photographs : b&w (11 negatives) ; 28 x 28 mm

Scope and Content

File consists of eleven negatives depicting a Toronto Jewish Congress awards event at Beth Tzedec. Sheldon Sper is depicted being recognized with a Leadership Development Award. Wilf Posluns and Irwin Gold are also identified.

Notes

Photos by Graphic Artists Photographers, Toronto.

Name Access

Toronto Jewish Congress

Subjects

Awards

Source

Archival Descriptions

Part Of

United Jewish Welfare Fund fonds

Photographic and audiovisual collection series

Level

File

Fonds

67

Series

27

File

549

Material Format

graphic material

Date

26 May 1981

Physical Description

5 photographs : b&w (5 negatives) ; 28 x 28 mm

Scope and Content

File consists of five negatives of a TJC event. Identified in the negatives are James Kay and Mark Gryfe.

Notes

Photos by Graphic Artists Photographers, Toronto.

Name Access

Toronto Jewish Congress

Source

Archival Descriptions

Part Of

United Jewish Welfare Fund fonds

Photographic and audiovisual collection series

Level

File

Fonds

67

Series

27

File

557

Material Format

graphic material

Date

5 Oct. 1981

Physical Description

2 photographs : b&w (2 negatives) ; 28 x 28 mm

Scope and Content

File consists of two negatives of two unknown men at the TJC offices.

Notes

Photos by Graphic Artists Photographers, Toronto.

Name Access

Toronto Jewish Congress

Source

Archival Descriptions

Level

Item

Item

6156

Material Format

graphic material

Date

[between 1987 and 1989]

Physical Description

1 negative : b&w ; 10 x 12 cm

Scope and Content

This item consists of an original portrait, which is hanging on the fourth-floor wall, and a copy negative. The negative is housed in the OJA's photo cabinet.

Name Access

Rosenfeld, Herb

Toronto Jewish Congress

Subjects

Portraits

Repro Restriction

Copyright may not be held by the Ontario Jewish Archives. It is the responsibility of the researcher to obtain permission prior to use.

Source

Archival Descriptions

Level

Item

Item

6149

Material Format

graphic material

Date

[19--]

Physical Description

1 negative : b&w ; 10 x 12 cm b&w ; 10 x 12 cm

Admin History/Bio

Campaign Chairman: United Jewish Appeal 1976.

President: Toronto Jewish Congress1980-1982.

Scope and Content

This item consists of an original portrait, which is hanging on the fourth-floor wall, and a copy negative. The negative is housed in the OJA's photo cabinet.

Name Access

Posluns, Wilfred

United Jewish Appeal

Toronto Jewish Congress

Subjects

Portraits

Repro Restriction

Copyright may not be held by the Ontario Jewish Archives. It is the responsibility of the researcher to obtain permission prior to use.

Source

Archival Descriptions

Level

Item

Item

3824-3827

Material Format

graphic material

Date

Jan. 1982

Physical Description

4 photographs

Scope and Content

Pictured are Rabbi Sheldon Steinberg (Congress Chaplain), Meyer Feldman (Cairman Book Committee), United Synagogue Day School students.

Name Access

Toronto Jewish Congress

Subjects

Genizah

Places

Toronto (Ont.)

Accession Number

1985-11-6

Source

Archival Descriptions

Part Of

Sammy Luftspring fonds

Level

Fonds

Fonds

82

Material Format

multiple media

Date

1922-2000

Physical Description

2 scrapbooks ; 65 x 48 cm and 34 x 30 cm

Admin History/Bio

Sammy Luftspring was born on 14 May 1916 in Toronto's Ward neighbourhood. His parents were working-class Jews who emigrated from eastern Europe. Sammy began training as a youth at the Brunswick YMHA. He lived in Kensington Market and attended B'nai Brith summer camp as a youngster. In 1932 he started entering boxing matches. He competed in 105 fights and only lost five bouts, capturing the Golden Glove tournaments in weight classes ranging from bantamweight to welterweight. Sammy became famous for his fighting prowess and Jewish pride, always sporting a Star of David on his boxing shorts.

By 1933, he became the Ontario lightweight champion, representing the Elm Grove Athletic Club. That same year, he took part in the Christie Pits riot. Because of his accomplishments in the ring and his contribution to his community, he became a highly respected athlete within the Jewish community.

In 1936, he was selected for the Canadian team to take part in the Berlin Olympics that year. Although he was eager to compete, his parents and the community pressured him to boycott the games in protest over the Nazis' treatment of Jews in Germany. Luftspring and "Baby Yak," another famous local Jewish boxer, decided to participate instead in the alternate games in Barcelona, Spain, called the People's Olympics. After making the trip to Europe by ship, the two faced the disappointment of having the event cancelled after the Spanish Civil War broke out on the eve of the opening ceremonies.

After his return to Toronto, Luftspring began to box professionally. In 1938, he won the Canadian welterweight championship after a fifteen-round fight where he defeated Frank Genovese. He held the title for two years. During a fight in New York against Steve Belloise, Luftspring was poked in the eye, resulting in a detached retina. This injury left him blind in one eye, ending his boxing career.

By 1948, he began a new career as a boxing referee. He refereed for several decades, overseeing some of the most celebrated fights of that time. He also ran a nightclub in Toronto called the Mercury Club with three partners. It attracted famous entertainers such as Henry Youngman, Vic Damone, and Tony Bennett. He subsequently ran other nightclubs such as the Tropicana.

In addition to his boxing career, Sammy was also a devoted family man. He married his wife, Elsie, in 1938 at the McCaul Street synagogue. Three hundred and fifty people attended and hundreds waited outside of the synagogue to wish them well. They had two children: Brian and Orian.

His biography, Call Me Sammy, was published in 1975. Luftspring was given the great honour in 1985 of being inducted into Canada's Sports Hall of Fame. He passed away on 27 September 2000.

Custodial History

The scrapbooks were created by Sammy Luftspring. He kept them at his house and when he passed away they were safeguarded by his son Brian.

Scope and Content

Fonds consists of two scrapbooks that reflect Sammy Luftspring's personal life and various careers as a boxer, referee, author, and nightclub manager/owner. Scrapbooks contain correspondence, ephemera, newspaper clippings, brochures, autographs, coins, and approximately seven hundred photographs.

Personal records include photographs of Sammy and his family during his childhood, family weddings, trips and vacations, and other family events, such as birthday parties and his son's bar mitzvah. There are also letters and cards from Sammy's wife, children, grandchildren and friends, and other ephemeral items Sammy collected, such as ticket stubs from baseball games.

Professional records include images of Sammy training for upcoming boxing matches, portraits of Sammy posing in his boxing attire, images from the grand opening of the Mercury Club, photographs of Sammy as a referee, as well as photographs of Sammy at various celebrity boxing matches. There is also correspondence and a brochure documenting Sammy's incorporation into the Canadian Sports Hall of Fame and some correspondence regarding the publication and promotion of his book. Finally, there are numerous newspaper clippings relating to all of Sammy's professional endeavours.

Name Access

Luftspring, Sammy, 1916-2000

Subjects

Boxers (Sports)

Physical Condition

The scrapbooks are in poor condition. Many of the photographs, documents and clippings were glued to the pages and the pages have almost all fallen out of the bindings.

Related Material

1981-1-7

Arrangement

The scrapbooks have been kept intact and no arrangement has been done. However, some of the key images have been scanned and item level descriptions have been completed for them.

Creator

Luftspring, Sammy, 1916-2000

Accession Number

2009-10-3

Source

Archival Descriptions

Part Of

Jewish Community Centre of Toronto fonds

Sports Celebrity Dinner series

Level

File

Fonds

61

Series

5

File

2

Material Format

graphic material

Date

1988

Physical Description

42 photographs : col. ; 13 x 13 cm

Scope and Content

This file consists of photographs taken at the 1988 Sports Celebrity Dinner, honouring Pat Gillick, General Manager of the Toronto Blue Jays. The event was held at the Constellation Hotel. The photographs depict the guests and JCC Executive Committee members.

Identified individuals include Bernard Kaimin, Eddie Shack, David Perlmutter, Sammy Luftspring, Kelly Gruber, Paul Brownstein and Alan B. Zender.

Name Access

Luftspring, Sammy, 1916-2000

Accession Number

2004-6-6

Source

Archival Descriptions

Part Of

United Jewish Welfare Fund fonds

Level

Fonds

Fonds

67

Material Format

multiple media

Date

1936-2010, predominant 1938-1976

Physical Description

14.3 m of textual records

5593 photographs, 25 x 20 cm and smaller, and other media

Admin History/Bio

The Federation of Jewish Philanthropies of Toronto (FJPT) was incorporated in Ontario in March 1917 to coordinate the fundraising activities of Jewish charitable, philanthropic, and social service agencies in Toronto. In 1918, ten separate agencies were funded by the FJPT. By 1937, fourteen agencies were funded. The Great Depression of the 1930s and the development of several newer Jewish aid, education, and medical care organizations created both increased need for resources and growing competition for ever-more scarce dollars. Within a very few years, this funding crisis forced a major review of the organization.

During 1936, a series of special meetings of leading individuals were held to examine the income and expenditures of all Toronto Jewish agencies and also to speculate about the need for a new Toronto Jewish "community chest" as the sole fund-raising organization for a federation of all Jewish agencies, including the FJPT. In 1938, the new United Jewish Welfare Fund was formally constituted. Added to the FJPT's previous list of Toronto client agencies in 1938 were: the Canadian Jewish Congress, the Hebrew National Association, the Jewish Immigrant Aid Association, the Mizrachi Society, the Toronto Free Loan Association, the Geverkshaften, and Old Folks Home, and the United Palestine Appeal, raising the total number of agencies to twenty-two.

When the State of Israel was established in 1948, the UJWF's annual fundraising campaign was combined with the CJC's United Palestine appeal to form a new, combined campaign named the United Jewish Appeal (UJA). In 1967, the UJA name was legally changed to the United Jewish Appeal of Metropolitan Toronto.

In mid-1976, the organization's public name was changed to the Toronto Jewish Congress. Although initially thought of as a merger between the UJWF and the CJC, the actual result was the expansion of the UJWF responsibilities to include local education and welfare services previously shared with the Canadian Jewish Congress, Central Region. The UJWF, however, remained the legal senior entity.

In 1991, the public name was again changed to the Jewish Federation of Greater Toronto and, in 1999, to UJA Federation of Greater Toronto. By this date, over thirty beneficiary and affiliated agencies, forty-nine affiliated schools and five federation departments were fully or partly funded by the federation.

In June 2010, the organization altered its legal structure, with the senior legal entity becoming the UJA Federation of Greater Toronto.

Scope and Content

Fonds consists of 25 series: Annual Meetings, Annual Reports, Board of Directors, Constitution Committee, Executive Committee, Officers Committee, Budget and Finance Committee, Administration Committee, Social Planning Committee, Committee on Capital Needs and Planning, Central Committee on Scholarships in Aid, Joint Committee of the BJE and UJWF Study on Jewish Education, Nominations Committee, Pension Fund Committee, Coordinating Committee, Special Ad Hoc and Temporary Committees, Annual Campaign, Client Agencies, Joint Committee of the CJC and the UJWF, Committee on Community Organization, Sub-Committee on Construction and Administration of Community Schools, Joint Committee on Fundraising, Personnel Committee, Community Leadership Development Council, and Israel at Fifty Community Celebration.

Over 4500 photographs and a variety of other media are managed within Series 17, Campaign records.

Notes

For exact details about the contents of individual series and sub-series, please review their scope and contents notes.

Name Access

United Jewish Welfare Fund

Federation of Jewish Philanthropies of Toronto

United Jewish Appeal

Toronto Jewish Congress

Jewish Federation of Greater Toronto

UJA Federation of Greater Toronto

Subjects

Charities

Fund raising

Access Restriction

Partially closed. Researchers must receive permission from the OJA director prior to accessing some of the records.

Related Material

For records of the predecessor of the UJWF, see Fonds 66, the Federation of Jewish Philanthropies of Toronto fonds.

Further detailed documentation of the proposed merger between the UJWF and the CJC (creation of the TJC) may be found in Fonds 67, Sub-sub-series 5-5-1, Files 171 and 221.

Further documentation on the United Jewish Welfare Fund may be found within Fonds 9, Series 7, records of the Jewish Immigrant Aid Society.

For further detailed records of a key community leader's involvement with the UJWF see Accession 1982-8-8, the records of Samuel Godfrey, 1943-1972.

Creator

United Jewish Welfare Fund (1938-)

Places

Toronto (Ont.)

Source

Archival Descriptions

Accession Number

2004-6-12

Material Format

textual record

Physical Description

3.3 m of textual records

Date

[ca. 1970]-[ca. 1990]

Scope and Content

Accession consists of the records created or accumulated by the Committee for Yiddish, which operated under the auspices of the Canadian Jewish Congress, Central Region and later, the Toronto Jewish Congress (UJA Federation of Greater Toronto).

Use Conditions

Records in off-site storage; advance notice required to view.

Name Access

Committee for Yiddish (Toronto, Ont.)

Toronto Jewish Congress

Canadian Jewish Congress, Central Region (Toronto, Ont.)

Source

Archival Accessions

Accession Number

2011-9-4

Material Format

graphic material

Physical Description

1 photograph : col. ; 19 x 24 cm on matte 28 x 36 cm

Date

[ca. 1983]

Scope and Content

Accession consists of one photograph of Sydney Cooper with Sammy Luftspring. Writing on the mat reads: Sydney Cooper and Canadian Welterweight Champion Sammy Luftspring. Writing on the verso reads: To my friend Sydney Cooper, You are nice people. My best wishes always. Sincerely, Sammy Luftspring.

Custodial History

The item was dropped off to Brenda Cooper of UJA Federation of Greater Toronto by Sydney Cooper's daughter, Tobie Bekhor.

Subjects

Boxers (Sports)

Name Access

Luftspring, Sammy, 1916-2000

Source

Archival Accessions

Accession Number

2014-1-10

Material Format

graphic material

textual record

Physical Description

1 folder of textual records

1 presentation piece : 50 x 42 cm

Date

[ca. 1982]-[ca. 1983]

Scope and Content

Accession consists of one folder of textual records related to the UJA Federation of Greater Toronto and one presentation piece in the form of a framed photograph of Hilda Naiman complete with a commemorative plaque.

Custodial History

Records came via Shelly Rotman, Adminstrative Assistant with the UJA Federation of Greater Toronto.

Administrative History

Hilda Naiman was the former Executive Secretary of Toronto Jewish Congress when they were located on Beverley Street in Toronto.

Use Conditions

UJA Federation meeting minutes and general correspondence are closed for 10 years from date of creation. Contracts and donor agreements are permanently closed.

Subjects

Nonprofit organizations

Name Access

Haiman, Hilda

Toronto Jewish Congress

UJA Federation of Greater Toronto

Source

Archival Accessions

Accession Number

2014-5-7

Material Format

textual record

Physical Description

90 cm of textual records

Date

1968-1985

Scope and Content

Accession consists of the general financial ledgers for the United Jewish Appeal (1975-1978, 1980-1982); the United Jewish Welfare Fund (1975-1980, 1984-1985); the Toronto Jewish Congress (1980-1985); the Bequest and Endowment Fund (1968-1985); and the Toronto Hebrew Memorial Park (1983-1985).

Use Conditions

UJA Federation meeting minutes and general correspondence are closed for 10 years from date of creation. Contracts and donor agreements are permanently closed.

Descriptive Notes

Use Conditions note: Some of the ledgers contain payroll information. This information is closed until 30 years after death of the individual documented.

Name Access

UJA Federation of Greater Toronto

Toronto Jewish Congress

United Jewish Welfare Fund (Toronto, Ont.)

Toronto Hebrew Memorial Park

Source

Archival Accessions

Accession Number

2018-7-2

Material Format

textual record

Physical Description

20 cm of textual records

Date

1979, 1989-2005

Scope and Content

Accession consists of material documenting Shoel Silver's involvement with various committees, including: Project Renewal, NECHAMA. Keren Hayesod, Israel Center for Treatment of Psychotrauma and The Jewish Agency for Israel, UJA and others. Included are reports, correspondence, proposals, a 1979 edition of the Jewish Standard, first edition of the Children's Newspaper in Kfar Gvirol and assorted research material.

Use Conditions

Conditional Access. Researchers must receive permission from the donor prior to accessing the records. Please contact the OJA for more information.

Descriptive Notes

Language: Most of the items are in English, with some items partially or fully in Hebrew.

Subjects

Charities

Israel

Name Access

Jewish Agency for Israel

Jewish Federation of Greater Toronto

Project Renewal (Israel)

Silver, Shoel

Toronto Jewish Congress

Places

Israel

Toronto (Ont.)

Source

Archival Accessions

Accession Number

2018-10-14

Material Format

textual record

Physical Description

7 cm of textual records

Date

1964-2018

Scope and Content

Accession consists of material documenting different public and Jewish organizations in Toronto. Included are: 1964 and 1965 issues of the William Lyon Mackenzie Collegiate Institute's Advocate yearbook; a record of the Eglinton chapter of B'nai Brith Women of Canada's opening meeting on 16 September 1992; a booklet with short profiles of the 1998-99 UJA Federation Board of Directors; a 2013 commemorative booklet celebrating Darchei Noam's fortieth anniversary and Rabbi Tina Grimberg's ten-year anniversary at the synagogue; a program for the 8th Annual Symposium in Germanic Studies University of Toronto, which was titled Global Yiddish Culture, 1938-1948; various materials from the 2018 Ashkenaz Festival; newspaper clippings; and informational material for the Canadian Jewish Congress/Toronto Jewish Congress' Heritage-in-a-Box project

Subjects

Festivals

Public schools

Synagogues

Name Access

Ashkenaz Festival

B'nai Brith Women of Canada

Canadian Jewish Congress. Central Region

Congregation Darchei Noam (Toronto, Ont.)

Grimberg, Tina

Toronto Jewish Congress

Troster, Cyrel

University of Toronto

William Lyon Mackenzie Collegiate Institute

Places

Toronto (Ont.)

Source

Archival Accessions