Part Of
Rose Dunkelman fonds
Level
Fonds
ID
Fonds 39
Source
Archival Descriptions
Part Of
Rose Dunkelman fonds
Level
Fonds
Fonds
39
Material Format
textual record
graphic material
Date
1896-1979
Physical Description
30 cm of textual records
28 photographs : b&w (11 negatives) ; 21 x 26 cm or smaller
2 scrapbooks
Admin History/Bio
Rose Dunkelman (1889–1949) was born Rose Miller in Philadelphia to Harry Miller and Dora Miller (née Belkin). At the age of thirteen, she moved to Toronto where she received her education and where she resided with her family until her death in 1949 at the age of fifty-nine. Rose Dunkelman devoted her life to helping the less fortunate, particularly children and orphans, and to championing the cause of Zionism at home and abroad. She was internationally known and respected for her philanthropic work and for her knowledge of, and dedication to, Zionist causes. She was a leader in the Canadian-Jewish community for more than thirty years.
On 19 January 1910, she married David Dunkelman (1883–1978), founder and president of Tip Top Tailors Ltd. The couple had six children: Joseph, Ernest, Benajamin, Theodora, Veronica (Annenberg) (Ourisman), and Zelda (Wilner).
Rose was a founding member of the Zionist Organization of Canada, vice-president of the Ontario Zionist Region, and founded and chaired the Canadian branch of Youth Aliyah in 1933. For over twenty-five years, Rose held various positions within the Hadassah-WIZO Organization of Canada, including president of the Toronto Council of Hadassah (1921), honorary president on the executive board (1938–40), joint chair of the war effort (1941), president of the Hadassah Organization of Canada Central Chapter of Toronto (1937–8, 1945-6), and honorary national vice-president. Rose also founded the Hadassah Bazaar in 1924. There is currently a Canadian Hadassah day care centre in Neve Sharett that is named in her honour, as well as the Rose Dunkelman Memorial Community Center in Hadassim erected in 1950 in her memory.
In 1930, prompted by the 1929 attack on Jews at the Western Wall in Jerusalem and in Hebron, Rose and David Dunkelman founded the magazine the Jewish Standard as a Zionist forum for the English-speaking Jewish population of Canada. She was the periodical's first publisher and managing editor.
After the First World War, Rose worked as an officer with the Canadian Red Cross, bringing war orphans to Canada from eastern Europe, for which she was presented with the Coronation Medal by King George VI in 1937. She was also active in the rehabilitation of First World War veterans.
During the Second World War, as chair of Ontario Youth Aliyah, Rose helped rescue children from Nazi persecution at Auschwitz, Treblinka, Buchenwald, and Dachau concentration camps and helped secure their passage to and resettlement in Palestine. Dunkelman held leadership positions in many domestic and international Jewish and Zionist programs and projects—many focused on the welfare of Jewish children—including the Jewish National Fund, Karen Hayesod, Karen Kayemeth, Young Judaea, the Toronto Hebrew Free Schools, and the YM-YWHA. She also served on the Canadian Family Allowance Board after the Second World War.
After a lengthy illness, Rose died on 20 October 1949 in Toronto at the age of fifty-nine. She was buried at Goel Tzedec's cemetery on Dawes Road and was later re-interred in Israel's national cemetery at Degania on 14 January 1953, as she requested in her will.
Scope and Content
The fonds consists of personal and business correspondence, family letters, newsclippings, event invitations, articles, two scrapbook albums and other textual material relating to Dunkelman's death and re-interment in Israel, her philanthropic activities with Hadassah and Youth Aliyah, and her business activities with the Jewish Standard.
One scrapbook contains a testimonial certificate presented to Rose by Toronto Hadassah on her recovery from ill health (1926), while the other was presented to her by Toronto Hadassah on the occasion of her 57th birthday in 1946. This scrapbook contains photographs of the banquet along with several pages of signatures from members of local Hadassah chapters.
The photographs include: Rose Dunkelman's re-interment in Israel (1953), a birthday banquet for Rose hosted by Hadassah (date uncertain), a portrait of Rose as a young woman (ca. 1905), David Dunkelman as a young boy in Brooklyn, NY (1896), the groundbreaking ceremony for the Mount Sinai Hospital (Toronto) extension (1966), a portrait of Benjamin Dunkelman in Israel (1953), and one photograph of Rose Dunkelman with Mrs. Sara Delano Roosevelt (1941).
Name Access
Cohen, Israel
Dunkelman, Ben, 1913-1997
Dunkelman, David
Dunkelman, Ernest
Dunkelman, Rose, 1889-1949
Dunkelman, Theodore
Dunkelman, Veronica
Dunkelman, Zelda
Dunkelman, Joseph
Family Allowance Board
Goel Tzedec Synagogue (Toronto, Ont.)
Hadassah-WIZO Organization of Canada
Hebrew Free Schools
Jewish Federated Charities
Jewish National Fund
Jewish Standard
Karen Hayesod
Karen Kayemeth
Red Cross
Steinglass, Meyer F.
Tip Top Tailors
Weisgal, Meyer
YM-YWHA
Zionist Organization of Canada
Subjects
Businesspeople
Philanthropists
Zionists
Physical Condition
Some of the documents are very brittle.
Related Material
Ben Dunkelman fonds 2: (accession 2000-3-4)
Ben Dunkelman accession: 1978-6-6
Zionist Organization of Canada fonds 28, series 6, file 27
photo #4690
Hadassah accession: 1978-1-2, 1984-12-3, 2003-3-1, MG2 J1I
The Jewish Standard: MG9
Creator
Dunkelman, Rose, 1889-1949
Accession Number
1988-5-8
Source
Archival Descriptions