Name

Rabbi Dr. David Monson

Number

OH 70

Subject

World War, 1939-1945

Religion

Interview Date

1 Dec. 1982

Quantity

1

Interviewer

(not stated, likely Jack Lipinsky)

Total Running Time

OH70_001: 27 minutes OH70_002: 11 minutes

Conservation

Copied August 2003

Use Restrictions

Copyright is held by the Ontario Jewish Archives. Please contact the archives to obtain permission prior to use.

Biography

Rabbi David Monson came to Toronto from Ottawa in June 1939 to serve as the rabbi of the Shaarei Shomayim Synagogue. He served on the board of the Brusnswick Talmud Torah. He was a member of B'nai Zion and B'nai Brith and was the long-serving rabbi of Beth Shalom.

Material Format

sound recording

Language

English

Name Access

Monson, David

Canadian Jewish Congress. Ontario Region

Shaarei Shomayim Congregation (Toronto, Ont.)

Lipinsky, Jack

Geographic Access

Toronto

Original Format

Audio cassette

Copy Format

Audio cassette

Digital file

Transcript

G:\Description\Oral Histories\OH 70 - Monson\OH70_001_Log.pdf

G:\Description\Oral Histories\OH 70 - Monson\OH70_002_Log.pdf

Source

Oral Histories

In this clip, Rabbi Monson discusses his early positive working relationships with rabbis within the Toronto Jewish community and explains how sectionalization became a post-war phenomenon.

In this clip, Rabbi Monson discusses the role and responsibilities of the Canadian Jewish Congress in Toronto from 1939 to 1948.

Name

Barney and Tillie Nosov

Number

OH 11

Subject

Families

Religion

Interview Date

22 Sep. 1975

Quantity

1

Interviewer

Fred Schaeffer

Total Running Time

side 1: 43:39 minutes

side 2: 43:36 minutes

Conservation

Copied August 2003

Notes

Most of the interview is conducted with Barney Nosov. Wilfred Kideckel is also featured on the tape, and Tillie Nosov is interviewed briefly.

Use Restrictions

Copyright is held by the Ontario Jewish Archives. Please contact the archives to obtain permission prior to use.

Conditional access. Researchers must receive permission from the interviewee or their heir prior to accessing the interview. Please contact the OJA for more information.

Biography

Barney Nosov arrived in Canada in 1916. Nosov lived in Ansonville, Ontario. He was a merchant, owned a store, and was also in politics for many years.

Wilfred Kideckel was born in Kreugerdorf on a farm in 1917. His father was one of the first immigrants to the area. Kideckel had ten people in his family. He moved to Ansonville and got married. Kideckel moved to Toronto in 1942.

Material Format

sound recording

Name Access

Nosov, Barney

Nosov, Tillie

Kideckel, Wilfred

Geographic Access

Ansonville (Ont.)

Cobalt (Ont.)

Cochrane (Ont.)

Original Format

Audio cassette

Copy Format

Audio cassette

Transcript

G:\Description\Oral Histories\OH 11 - Nosov\OH11_Transcript.pdf

Source

Oral Histories

Name

Edna Jacobs

Number

OH 125

Subject

Families

Travel

Education

Occupations

Antisemitism

Girl Guides

Religion

Volunteers

Interview Date

Dec. 1985, Mar. 1986

Quantity

1

Interviewer

Nancy Draper

Total Running Time

Side 1: 36 minutes Side 2: 46 minutes

Conservation

Copied August 2003

Use Restrictions

Copyright is held by the Ontario Jewish Archives. Please contact the archives to obtain permission prior to use.

Biography

Edna Jacobs (née Frankel) was born on 20 March 1904 in Toronto. Her parents, Sigmund and Paula Frankel, were early immigrants from Germany. Edna attended Havergal from kindergarten through high school. She studied general arts for two years at the University of Toronto. She married Arthur Jacobs, the son of Rabbi Solomon Jacobs, in 1936. Together, they had one daughter, Patsy, and a baby who died during infancy. Edna was involved with the Girls Club and the Junior Council of Jewish Women.

Material Format

sound recording

Language

English

Name Access

Toronto Girl's Club

Toronto Council of Jewish Women

Geographic Access

Toronto

Germany

Original Format

Audio cassette

Copy Format

Audio cassette

Digital file

Transcript

G:\Description\Oral Histories\OH 125 - Jacobs\OH125_001_Log.pdf

G:\Description\Oral Histories\OH 125 - Jacobs\OH125_002_Log.pdf

Source

Oral Histories

In this clip, Edna Jacobs shares memories from a trip she and her family took to Biblis, Germany to celebrate her grandparents’ golden anniversary.

In this clip, Edna Jacobs reminisces about several prominent Toronto Jewish families.

Name

Arthur Gelber

Number

OH 241

Subject

Antisemitism

Arts

Charities

Interview Date

28 Nov. 1990

Quantity

2 cassettes (1 copy)

Total Running Time

1:6 minutes

Conservation

Copied August 2003

Digitized 2014

Use Restrictions

Copyright is held by the Ontario Jewish Archives. Please contact the archives to obtain permission prior to use.

Biography

Arthur Gelber was born on 22 June 1915 in Toronto. He was educated at Upper Canada College. He married Esther Salomon and had four daughters. Arthur was actively involved in Jewish and general community activity. Among his accomplishments, Arthur served as chair of the National Arts Centre Corporation, chair of the Advisory Council Ontario Cabinet, past president of the Canadian Conference of the Arts, past president of the National Ballet, Board of Directors of the American Council for the Arts, Ballet Opera House, National Ballet, Stratford Festival, life director of the National Theatre School of Canada, governor of National Theatre School of Canada, former honorary chair of the Performing Arts Development Fund, and former governor of York University, trustee of the AGO, decorated with the Order of Canada, recipient of the Centennial medal in 1967, Diploma D’honneur 1978, Queen’s Jubilee Medal, vice-president of America-Israel Cultural Foundation, executive of Canadian Jewish Congress, president of Toronto Zionist Council, president of United Jewish Welfare Fund, second chair of the UJA in 1949, chair of the United Jewish Relief Agency, and chair of the United Jewish Appeal.

Material Format

sound recording

Name Access

United Jewish Relief Agency

UJA Federation of Greater Toronto

Ontario Arts Council

Geographic Access

Toronto

Original Format

Audio cassette

Copy Format

Audio cassette

Digital file

Source

Oral Histories

Name

Mel Lastman

Number

OH 290

Subject

Religion

Families

Interview Date

1 Jun. 2006

Quantity

1

Interviewer

Ellen Scheinberg

Total Running Time

60 min.

Conservation

Copied November 2006

Use Restrictions

Copyright is held by the Ontario Jewish Archives. Please contact the archives to obtain permission prior to use.

Biography

Melvin Douglas Lastman was born in Toronto on 9 March 1933, the son of Rose and Louis Lastman. Raised in the Kensington Market area, he attended Ryerson Public School and Central High School of Commerce, where he was president of the school council. Lastman left high school to work at an appliance store and, in 1955, opened his own appliance store. By the late 1960s, he owned a chain of forty stores, Bad Boy Appliances, throughout Ontario. Lastman lived in North York and, in 1969, ran successfully for the North York Board of Control. In the 1972 municipal election, he was elected as mayor of North York, a position he held for twenty-five years until North York became part of the newly created City of Toronto on 1 January 1998. With the provincially-mandated creation of the new City of Toronto by the amalgamation of Metropolitan Toronto and the six local municipalities, Lastman decided to run for mayor against the other major contender, former City of Toronto mayor Barbara Hall. He won the 1997 election and was sworn in on 1 January 1998. Lastman was easily re-elected in the 2000 mayoralty election; however, in February 2003, Lastman announced that he would not be seeking re-election in the November municipal election.

In 1953, Mel Lastman married Marilyn Bornstein. They have two married sons and six grandchildren.

Material Format

moving images

Name Access

Anshei Minsk Synagogue (Toronto, Ont.)

Lastman, Mel

Scheinberg, Ellen

Geographic Access

Toronto

Kensington Market

Original Format

Digital videocassette

Copy Format

DVD

Source

Oral Histories

In this clip, former Toronto mayor Mel Lastman remembers playing as a child at the Minsk Shul in Kensington Market.

Name

Michele Landsberg

Number

OH 294

Subject

Religion

Families

Buildings

Interview Date

Aug. 2006

Quantity

1

Interviewer

Ellen Scheinberg and Aviva Heller

Total Running Time

60 min.

Conservation

Copied November 2006

Use Restrictions

Copyright is held by the Ontario Jewish Archives. Please contact the archives to obtain permission prior to use.

Biography

An award-winning columnist, staunch feminist, and tireless activist for social justice and progressive causes at home and abroad, Michele Landsberg was a well-known and prominent Torontonian during the mid-to-late twentieth century. According to a biography posted by the University of Windsor where Landsberg was a distinguished visitor in women's studies in October 2003, her "zest for wanting to change the world has its roots in her childhood: growing up as a Jewish girl in 1950s Toronto, where sexual stereotyping and objectification were rampant and overt antisemitism was acceptable." As a result, Ms. Landsberg tackled a wide-range of related issues, often grounding her columns in events, places, and issues of particular interest to Torontonians.

Born on 12 July 1939, Ms. Landsberg attended Toronto public schools, spent time on a kibbutz in Israel, and graduated from the University of Toronto with honors in English language and literature in 1962. She was dissuaded from pursuing a master's degree by her male professors and instead became a reporter at the Globe and Mail newspaper and launched a remarkable career as a journalist and writer. In addition to freelance and full-time stints with the Globe and Mail (1962–1965; 1985–1988), Chatelaine magazine (1965–1971), and the Toronto Star (1978–1983; 1989–2003), Ms. Landsberg frequently appeared on television and radio and wrote three best-selling books. She garnered awards, including the first National Newspaper Award for column-writing, the YWCA Woman of Distinction Award, and the 2002 Governor-General's Award in Commemoration of the 1929 Persons Case, and received honourary degrees from several Canadian universities. She also served on the boards of many community organizations, such as CARAL (Canadian Abortion Rights League) and Opportunity for Advancement.

After her retirement from the Toronto Star in 2003, Ms. Landsberg planned to pursue other writing projects and to spend more time at home in her garden and with her family: husband Stephen Lewis, three grown children, and two grandchildren. In September 2005, she was acclaimed as the new Chair of the Women's College Hospital Board when the Hospital ended its partnership with Sunnybrook Hospital.

Material Format

moving images

Name Access

Anshei Minsk Synagogue (Toronto, Ont.)

Landsberg, Michele

Scheinberg, Ellen

Heller, Aviva

Geographic Access

Toronto

Original Format

Digital videocassette

Copy Format

DVD

Source

Oral Histories

Canadian author and journalist Michele Landsberg provides recollections of attending the Minsk Synagogue with her grandfather in the 1940s.

Name

Cyrel Troster

Number

OH 441

Subject

Arts

Charities

Committees

Interview Date

28 Nov. 2016

Interviewer

Melissa Caza

Use Restrictions

Copyright is held by the Ontario Jewish Archives. Please contact the archives to obtain permission prior to use.

Material Format

moving images

Name Access

Ontario Jewish Archives

Original Format

Digital file

Transcript

OH 441 Part 1 0:22 Cyrel outlines her academic background and discusses her volunteer & professional positions, including Chair of the OJA, Chair of Cultural Planning & Allocation, served on the Board of the Canadian Jewish Congress & Ontario Jewish Congress and currently serves on the Board of OJA. 0:53 Cyrel discusses the history of the Ontario Jewish Archives. Cyrel. & Susan Cohen obtained federal grants to create a local initiative project with the initial focus to collect information on prominent members of the Toronto Jewish community. Cyrel identifies the organizations & individuals who assisted them initially (e.g. Toronto Jewish Historical Society,Victor Sefton) . She discusses the staff, including Steven Speisman, Bess Shockett & Ruth Ladovsky and the location in Shaarei Shomayim Synagogue. 4:53 Cyrel describes the creation of the Sense of Spadina Walking tours which were an offshoot of a living exhibit designed for the Triennial for the Canadian Jewish Congress in 1974. She discusses the contributors to the project, including Steven Speisman, Bess Shockett, Marty Mendelow, Charlie & Peggy Goldsbie and Mrs. Langner, the wife of the Rabbi from the Kiever Synagogue. 6:05 Cyrel describes the successful Sense of Spadina Walking Tours held in June 1974. 7:47 Cyrel discusses the formation of day & evening volunteer committees to help catalogue material in OJA’s new location in the basement of 150 Beverly St. She discusses some of the archival donations e.g. Sidney Harris, Ben Kayfetz. 9:12 Cyrel recalls the move to Lipa Green building in early 1980’s. 9:48 Cyrel describes the OJA office at 150 Beverly. St. She describes some of the historical documents that were discovered in the basement. She discusses the volunteers’ responsibilities. 11:27 Cyrel discusses the function of the OJA committee. She discusses Photo Committee. 13:00 Cyrel discusses early efforts to acquire material for the OJA. 15:56 Cyrel explains why an archive specific to the Ontario Jewish community was established. The effort to establish the OJA arose from a small group of researchers, including Steven Speisman, who recognized the importance of preserving ethnic Jewish history. 17:18 Cyrel explains how the material collected by OJA is unique to & valued by the Ontario Jewish community. 18:48 Cyrel discusses some of the challenges faced by OJA in the early years. 19:58 Cyrel discusses the end result of the Toronto Jewish Historical Society. 20:45 Cyrel discusses the evolvement of the Sense of Spadina Walking Tours. She explains how Ellen Scheinberg, archivist, was pivotal in the advancement of the walking tours. Spadina Walking Tours became a part of “Jane’s Walk”. 24:02 Cyrel shares an amusing story about Henry Papernick, retired lawyer & OJA volunteer. 25:35 Cyrel discusses the contributions made by Brooky Robins, assistant to Steven Speisman. She spearheaded the collection of material from northern Ontario. Also involved was Fred Schaeffer. 26:46 Cyrel discusses OJA hosting various community events to donate materials to the archives. 27:41 Cyrel explains that due to the volume of donated material, off-site storage facilities were used at Yonge & Eglinton. 28:04 Cyrel describes the changes and improvements that occurred after moving to the facilities at Lipa Green. 28:55 Cyrel discusses her responsibilities as Chair of OJA between 1983 and 1998. She mentions that she also served on the Ontario Jewish Congress, Ontario Region Executive & the Toronto Jewish Congress. 30:11 Cyrel explains that Jewish Communist papers were passed on to the collection of Multicultural History at St. Michael’s. 30:36 Cyrel discusses some of the projects and exhibits that OJA pursued. 32:05 Cyrel discusses the efforts made by Sol Edell & Marty Mendelow to fix up the Kiever synagogue in the early 1980’s. 34:25 Cyrel explains why the Kiever synagogue was chosen as a focus for an OJA project. 35:25 Cyrel discusses the special projects & direction of the OJA during the period she was Chair. 36:19 Cyrel discusses the biggest challenges faced by the OJA during her sevice as Chair. OH 441 Part 2 00:00 Cyrel discusses the changes in leadership and operation at the OJA ca 2000. Staff included Brooky Robins, Susan Jackson and Ellen Scheinberg. 1:54 Cyrel discusses the major projects that occurred while Ellen Scheinberg was Director. 3:09 Cyrel discusses her role with the OJA while Ellen served as Director. 4:07 Cyrel discusses the challenges faced by OJA while Ellen served as Director. 5:23 Cyrel discusses the relationship between OJA and other archives and agencies. 8:00 Cyrel addresses the factors that contributed to the success of the Sense of Spadina Walking Tours. 11:13 Cyrel points that out the general groups participating in the Sense of Spadina Walking Tours tend to be Jewish but Jane’ Walk groups are varied & drawn to the neighbourhood. 11:53 Cyrel discusses why the OJA has played a major role in her life. 12:25 Cyrel shares a story from her personal life in order to illustrate the importance of preserving oral histories. 13:51 Cyrel relates a story told to her by Ben Kayfetz about the Strettiner Rebbe on Cecil Street. OH 441 Part 3 00:00 Cyrel describes the efforts of Sol Edell, Susan Brown and Cyrel to put together an audio-visual presentation to mark the opening of the archives. 2:17 Cyrel describes a conceived project that was not realized.

Source

Oral Histories

Address

371 Spadina Avenue

Time Period

1925-1973

Scope Note

Hyman's Books and Art was a popular locale for the literary crowd. Hebraists were known to spend time here, discussing the latest trends in the world of literature. The owner Ben Zimon Hyman was also a Hebrew teacher but had originally trained as an engineer both in Russia and at the University of Toronto.

History

The store was operated by Ben Zion Hyman and his wife Fanny. Their hours were 8:30 a.m. to 1pm daily (except for Saturday). There was a mimeograph machine, pop cooler, newspapers and a bar mitzvah registry. They carried Yiddish and Hebrew books, Judaica, tickets for the Standard Theatre, stationary, and school supplies. The store later moved to 412 Spadina Ave. (Donegan, Spadina Ave., p.138)

Category

Education

Arts

Retail store

Source

Landmarks

Address

542 Dundas Street West

Time Period

1910-1975

Scope Note

The Yiddisher Zhurnal (or the Daily Hebrew Journal) was the primary organ for the Yiddish-speaking population in Toronto. This newspaper covered events in the Jewish world in Toronto and abroad. The paper was also a forum for Yiddish essayists. The long-time editor of the newspaper was Abraham Rhinewine (1887-1932). Born in Poland in 1887, he immigrated to London, England in 1902 and then came to Toronto with his wife Amy in 1907.

History

The newspaper eventually moved to 409 College Street West (at Lippincott). The OJA has the Yiddisher Zhurnal on microfiche from 1915-1959.

Category

Political

Education

Arts

Source

Landmarks

Address

665 College Street

Scope Note

Henry Weingluck (1902-1987) was an artist and Toronto art gallery owner, who immigrated to Canada in 1948 after being imprisoned in concentration camps in France during the Second World War. He studied at art academies in Crakow, Copenhagen, and Berlin and was a pupil of Professor Max Lieberman, president of Berlin's Academy of Arts prior to the Nazi takeover of Germany. Weingluck often depicted Jewish themes in his paintings, in a style he called "academic impressionism." He exhibited in Paris with Kandinsky and Chagall, as well as at the Art Gallery of Ontario and the Jewish Museum, Berlin. He painted portraits of such prominent figures as Albert Einstein, Max Schmelin, Yehudi Menuhin, and Chaim Weizmann.

History

From 1933 to 1942, Weingluck lived in France and, during the Nazi occupation of France, was imprisoned in eight concentration camps from 1942 to 1945. The Nazis made use of his artistic talent as a barracks designer and portraitist. During this time, the Germans confiscated 375 of his paintings. After the war, Weingluck moved to Tangiers, Morocco, and then immigrated to Canada to join his brother in Toronto. Henry opened H. W. Art Gallery, at 665 College Street, around 1948, and then Weingluck's Art Gallery and Gift Shoppe at 623 College Street, in the 1950s. In 1950, he married his wife Rae (née Simon), whom he met in Canada. Henry died in Toronto in 1987.

Category

Arts

Retail store

Source

Landmarks