Accession Number

1991-5-9

Material Format

textual record

Physical Description

1 folder of textual records

Date

1910-1950

Scope and Content

Accession consists of material documenting the business career and community involvement of Joseph Graner. Included are receipts, insurance release foms, bills, and an auditor's financial report. His company is decribed on letterheads as dealing with steamship tickets, real estate, foreign exchange, insurance, loans, mortgages, valuations, and rent collection. There are three items of historic paper foreign currency from Germany and Russia. As well there are order forms for Universal Garment Company Sportswear Specialists, and a seal for Joseph Graner, Justice of the Peace for Toronto and the County of York. Finally there are press clippings and correspondence pertaining to his community activities with organizations such as Associated Hebrew Schools, Goel Tzedec Synagogue, Ontario Zionist Association, the Conservative Association, and committees protesting the persecution of Jews in Poland and Gemany before the Second World War.

Administrative History

Joseph Graner was one of the founders of the Federation of Jewish Philanthropies and the Jewish Dispensary (the forerunner of Mount Sinai Hospital). A biography is included with the Instrument of Donation.

Name Access

Graner, Joseph

Source

Archival Accessions

Level

Item

Item

2444

Material Format

graphic material

Date

1937

Physical Description

2 photographs : b&w (1 negative)

Scope and Content

Photo is a group shot of campers and staff at Camp Yungvelt with posters which read: "War is murder, the promoters - murderers" and "We want our fathers with us and not in war."

Name Access

Workmen's Circle

Camp Yungvelt

Arbeter Ring

Arbeiter Ring

Subjects

Demonstrations

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

Pickering (Ont.)

Accession Number

1979-4-4

Source

Archival Descriptions

Level

Item

Item

1184

Material Format

graphic material

Date

1935

Physical Description

2 photographs : b&w (1 negative)

Scope and Content

Item is a photograph of the Workmen's Circle mandolin orchestra.

Name Access

Workmen's Circle

Arbeter Ring

Arbeiter Ring

Subjects

Mandolin orchestras

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

1977-1-3

Source

Archival Descriptions

Level

Item

Item

1185

Material Format

graphic material

Date

1936

Physical Description

2 photographs : b&w (1 negative)

Scope and Content

Individuals in the photograph include Sam Shopsowitz (with accordian), Mannie Farber, Percy Lipshitz, Muni Frumhartz, [Mr. Gluskin?], and Al Rosenberg.

Name Access

Shopsowitz, Sam

Workmen's Circle

Arbeter Ring

Arbeiter Ring

Subjects

Mandolin orchestras

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

1977-1-3

Source

Archival Descriptions

Level

Item

Item

6081

Material Format

graphic material

Date

[ca. 193-?]

Physical Description

2 photographs : b&w (1 negative) ; 26 x 21 cm

Scope and Content

Copy photograph of Irwin Graner, son of Joseph Graner, aboard steamship, possibly in the 1930s.

Name Access

Graner, Irwin

Graner, Joseph

Subjects

Transportation

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

1991-5-9

Source

Archival Descriptions

Level

Item

Item

6085

Material Format

graphic material

Date

[193-?]

Physical Description

1 photograph : b&w ; 21 x 26 cm

Scope and Content

Photograph of steamship company owners aboard the Queen Mary, probably 1930s. Includes: Dorothy Dworkin (8th from left, front) and Joe Graner (2nd from right, front).

Name Access

Dworkin, Dorothy, 1890-1976

Graner, Joseph

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

1991-5-9

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

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

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

Level

Item

Item

3045

Material Format

graphic material

Date

April 1933

Physical Description

2 photographs : b&w (1 negative)

Scope and Content

Identified in this photograph from left to right are: Joseph Graner; E.F. Singer; Samuel Factor, M.P.

Name Access

Factor, Samuel

Graner, Joseph

Singer, E. F.

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.)

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