- Accession Number
- 1993-3-1
- Source
- Archival Accessions
- Accession Number
- 1993-3-1
- Material Format
- textual record
- Physical Description
- 1 folder of textual records
- Date
- 1917-1919
- Scope and Content
- Accession consists of original and copies of documents and newspaper clippings pertaining to Lawrence Kert's service as a pilot during the First World War. Included are his graduation certificate from the Royal Flying Corps, his flight log, documents, and press clippings concerning his capture by the Germans.
- Administrative History
- Lawrence Kert left the University of Toronto to enlist in the 228th Battalion in 1915, and was transferred to the Royal Air Force in 1917. He was listed as missing, but was actually a prisoner of war. He survived and returned to Canada.
- Subjects
- Canada--Armed Forces
- World War, 1914-1918
- Name Access
- Kert, Lawrence
- Source
- Archival Accessions
- Accession Number
- 2012-12-1
- Source
- Archival Accessions
- Accession Number
- 2012-12-1
- Material Format
- textual record
- Physical Description
- 2 v : 36 x 29 x 5 cm and 36 x 29 x 1.5 cm
- Scope and Content
- Accession consists of two volumes of the Canadian Jewish War Memorial Book of Remembrance. The first of these two volumes contains lists of Jewish soldiers who served in the Canadian military during the South African war, the First and Second World Wars and Korea. It also lists current day Jewish peacekeepers. There are photos and lists of Jewish chaplains who served in the military. For each war, it lists awards, casualties, soldiers' positions and identification numbers. The second volume contains lists of American soldiers who served in the Canadian military.
- Custodial History
- This book was presented by the Canadian Jewish War Memorial Association to the US Consulate who subsequently donated it to the Ontario Jewish Archives.
- Subjects
- Korean War, 1950-1953
- South African War, 1899-1902
- World War, 1914-1918
- World War, 1939-1945
- Source
- Archival Accessions
- Accession Number
- 2015-1-1
- Source
- Archival Accessions
- Accession Number
- 2015-1-1
- Material Format
- textual record
- Physical Description
- 1 folder of textual records
- Date
- 1917-1964
- Scope and Content
- Accession consists of records documenting Samuel Berger and his family. Included is Sam's marriage certificate, wedding invitation, naturalization certificates, and pay book and discharge papers from the First World War. Also included is a copy of the birth certificate for Sam's wife, Rebecca (nee Rotenberg) and a newsclipping of the obituary for Rebecca's father, Lazar Rotenberg.
- Custodial History
- The records were in the possession of Goldie Berger, the daughter-in-law of Samuel Berger and wife of Leonard Berger.
- Administrative History
- Samuel Berger enlisted in the Canadian army in Oct. 1918. He was discharged in Dec. 1918. He married Rebecca Rotenberg in 1917.
- Subjects
- Canada--Armed Forces
- World War, 1914-1918
- Source
- Archival Accessions
- Part Of
- Canadian Jewish Congress, Ontario Region fonds
- Pamphlets series
- Level
- File
- Fonds
- 17
- Series
- 51
- File
- 7
- Material Format
- textual record
- Date
- 1938
- Physical Description
- 1 folder of textual records
- Scope and Content
- File consists of a pamphlet issued by the Jewish War Veterans of the United States regarding Jews of many countries serving in the First World War.
- Subjects
- World War, 1914-1918
- Source
- Archival Descriptions
- Part Of
- Canadian Jewish Congress, Ontario Region fonds
- Community Relations Committee series
- Anti-Semitism cases sub-series
- Level
- File
- Fonds
- 17
- Series
- 5-3
- File
- 8
- Material Format
- textual record
- Date
- 1956
- Physical Description
- 1 folder of textual records
- Scope and Content
- File consists of a letter from Ben Kayfetz to the principal of Bathurst Heights Collegiate regarding a complaint against a teacher, and another letter describing the principal's response.
- Notes
- Previously processed and cited as part of MG8 S.
- Name Access
- Kayfetz, Ben, 1916-2002
- Subjects
- Teachers
- 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
- Part Of
- Patricia Joy Alpert fonds
- Level
- Fonds
- Fonds
- 77
- Material Format
- textual record
- graphic material
- sound recording
- Date
- [ca. 1907]-2001, predominant 1990-2001
- Physical Description
- 1.2 m of textual records and other material
- Admin History/Bio
- Patricia Joy Alpert (1931-2001) was an internationally-acclaimed artist, teacher, and dynamic community leader, most notably serving as national president of Canadian Hadassah-WIZO from 1996 to 1999. Pat was born in Toronto in 1931 to parents Oscar and Gertrude Pattenick. Oscar Pattenick, the son of Benjamin Pattenick and Pauline Goldenberg, was born in 1892 in Galicia and immigrated to Canada with his brother as a young man. The brothers ran a retail clothing business that expanded to several locations around Ontario, including Toronto and Bowmanville. Oscar married Gertrude Breslin (1896-1988) in 1917. She was one of fourteen children of Hyman Breslin and Sarah Pearl Papernick and had been raised in Toronto. Together the couple raised three children: Bernard (Boon), and twin girls Patricia and Pearl.
- Pat and her sister showed artistic talent from an early age. After graduating from Oakwood Collegiate Institute, Pat enrolled at the University of Miami and graduated with a BA in art history in 1956. She started her career as a designer and display artist at the Simpson department store, doing freelance artwork and volunteering at the Art Gallery of Ontario. Pat married Herbert S. Alpert in 1958 and they had two daughters, Lisa and Nancy. Pat went back to school at Toronto Teacher's College and then taught kindergarten for eleven years for the North York Board of Education. She also earned a supervisor's art certificate and taught art at the Art Gallery of Ontario, Royal Ontario Museum, North York Public Library, and Associated Hebrew Schools. Her artistic career took off in the 1970s, when her drawings were exhibited in solo and group exhibitions around North America. She typically drew human figures using ink.
- Pat Alpert’s volunteer work began soon after her marriage, when she joined Toronto's Carmel chapter of Hadassah as a way to make new friends. In 1983, she became president of Toronto Hadassah-WIZO, serving until 1985. She continued with Toronto Hadassah as vice-president and corresponding secretary. Pat was deeply committed to Jewish life and to the State of Israel. Choosing Hadassah as the focus of her passion, she left her professional career in the 1990s to become a full-time volunteer. She served as chair of the Canadian Hadassah-WIZO Foundation, vice-president of National Hadassah, national president from 1996 to 1999 and president of Toronto Jewish National Fund from 1992 to 1994. Pat also held positions for Israel Bonds, Jewish Women’s Federation, B’nai Brith League for Human Rights, the Holocaust Centre of Toronto, Baycrest Women’s Auxiliary and board of governors, and Reena Foundation. Pat Alpert died on October 4, 2001, at the age of seventy.
- Custodial History
- Donated by Herbert Alpert in late 2001 or early 2002. No documentation for this donation could be found when it was assigned an accession number in October 2002 during an inventory of the vault. Pat Alpert's daughter Nancy Spring was contacted in 2009 to sign a deed of gift.
- Scope and Content
- Fonds contains records documenting Patricia Joy Alpert's personal, professional and volunteer-related activities. The records include textual material, photographs, and a sound recording of a radio show announcing an exhibit of Alpert's work. The records of Alpert's professional career as an artist and a teacher are comprised of curriculum vitae and brief biographies, exhibit records and correspondence. Samples of Alpert's drawings are included, dating from the 1940s to the 1970s. The records relating to Alpert's community leadership include a large number of speeches, clippings, articles, correspondence, cards and letters, meeting minutes, and unique diary entries meticulously detailing Hadassah business, conversations and controversies. There are minutes from the following entities: Hadassah National Officers, Hadassah National Executive Board, World WIZO Executive and Canadian Hadassah Foundation. Other organizations represented in the records include the Jewish National Fund, Baycrest Women’s Auxiliary, Canada-Israel Cultural Foundation, and State of Israel Bonds.
- The personal records in the fonds include letters written by Pat to Herbert when he was working in England during parts of 1968-1970, letters exchanged between Pat and her daughters when the girls were at camp in 1971 and 1973, and a collection of clippings spanning twenty years in which Alpert appears. As well, there is a notebook of Pat's Torah observations, thoughts and quotations. The personal series also contains records of Gertrude Pattenick's: a handwritten homemaker's guide and recipe book, ca. 1907, and several letters exchanged between Gertrude and Oscar before and during their marriage. One file contains the obituary of Gertrude and the condolences received by Pat.
- There are approximately 3175 photographs (218 negs and 45 slides) in the fonds. These are of Hadassah conferences and annual conventions, meetings, social events, Hadassah projects in Israel (contact sheets) and images of Alpert's drawings. Many of the photographs were originally in four scrapbooks Alpert created: three to highlight the events of her Hadassah presidency and one she titled "Important Moments" that spans the 1980s and 1990s. The scrapbook files (in box 3) contain photographs, clippings and a number of event programs. The photographs include images of Alpert at special events and conventions, as a speaker, meeting people, socializing and travelling in Israel and to international Hadassah events around the world.
- The poster in the fonds is for an event organized by the Women's Auxiliary of Baycrest Centre in 1981, the second annual Camerata concert and gala reception.
- The fonds is arranged in 6 series: 1. Personal; 2. Professional; 3. Toronto Hadassah; 4. Hadassah-WIZO Canada; 5. Jewish National Fund; 5. Hadassah-WIZO of Canada Foundation; Other organizations.
- Notes
- Physical description note: Includes ca. 3175 photographs (218 negatives and 45 slides), 1 cassette tape and 1 poster.
- Name Access
- Alpert, Patricia Joy, 1931-2001
- Hadassah-WIZO Organization of Canada (Subject)
- Subjects
- Artists
- Teachers
- Volunteers
- Access Restriction
- Partially closed. Researchers must receive permission from the OJA director prior to accessing some of the records.
- Arrangement
- The arrangement of the fonds was constructed by the archivist. The scrapbooks were taken apart and the captions for each event provided the titles for the files.
- Creator
- Alpert, Patricia Joy, 1931-2001
- Accession Number
- 2002-10-65
- Source
- Archival Descriptions