- Accession Number
- 1988-4-8
- Source
- Archival Accessions
- Accession Number
- 1988-4-8
- Material Format
- textual record
- Physical Description
- 1 scrapbook
- Date
- 1930-1955
- Scope and Content
- Accession consists of a scrapbook created by Morris Lofsky. The scrapbook contains newspaper clippings of Zionist and labour materials. Of particular note is a stop-work broadside featuring information about the march and demonstration at Queen's Park from 1933 in protest of the pogroms of German Jews leading up to the Second World War. There are also several strike notices from the furrier, dressmakers, and other unions.
- Administrative History
- Morris Lofsky lived with his family in the downtown Kengsington market area of Toronto. He worked as a fur worker and was an active member of the Jewish community.
- Use Conditions
- 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.
- Subjects
- Demonstrations
- Labor
- Zionism
- Places
- Queen's Park (Toronto, Ont.)
- Source
- Archival Accessions
- Accession Number
- 1976-10-3
- Source
- Archival Accessions
- Accession Number
- 1976-10-3
- Material Format
- textual record
- Physical Description
- 26 cm of textual records and graphic material
- Date
- 1925-1960
- Scope and Content
- Accession consists of: Toronto Jewish Medical Association minute book (1925–1936); minutes, clinical records, research papers and other records of the Mount Sinai Clinical Association (1932–1953); Mount Sinai Hospital medical staff minute book (1943–1953); a copy of Dr David Eisen's publication "Toronto's Jewish doctors" (1960); and a photograph of the installation of officers of the Mt. Sinai Hospital Clinical Society (1939).
- Use Conditions
- Partially closed. Researchers must receive permission from the OJA Director prior to accessing some of the records.
- Descriptive Notes
- Availability of other formats: Dr. Eisen's "Toronto's Jewish Doctors" publication has been digitized and is available as a PDF file. The photograph of the officers' installation has also been digitized and is available as a JPEG image.
- Subjects
- Hospitals
- Physicians
- Name Access
- Eisen, David
- Pollock, Ira
- Mount Sinai Hospital
- Toronto Jewish Medical Association
- Source
- Archival Accessions
- Accession Number
- 2004-9-1
- Source
- Archival Accessions
- Accession Number
- 2004-9-1
- Physical Description
- 1 photograph : b&w ; 21 x 26 cm
- Date
- [ca. 1939]
- Scope and Content
- This accession consists of one black-and-white original photograph depicting Chaim Weizmann speaking at a rally in Toronto at Varsity Stadium on Bloor Street. Pictured from left to right are: Rabbi Samuel Sachs, J. J. Glass, Chaim Weizman, David Dunkelman. The photo was taken by Mel Hundert (the donor), who was present at the rally
- Custodial History
- Photo was kept by donor
- Subjects
- Demonstrations
- Name Access
- Weizmann, Chaim.
- Glass, J.J.
- Dunkelman, David.
- Sachs, Samuel, Rabbi
- Places
- Bloor Street (Toronto, Ont.)
- Source
- Archival Accessions
- Accession Number
- 2013-7-3
- Source
- Archival Accessions
- Accession Number
- 2013-7-3
- Material Format
- graphic material
- Physical Description
- 1 photograph : b&w ; 51 x 44 cm on mat 62 x 55 cm
- Date
- 1909
- Scope and Content
- Accession consists of one composite photograph of the University of Toronto, Faculty of Medicine's graduating class of 1909. Included is L. J. Solway.
- Custodial History
- There is no acquisition informaiton for this photograph. It was found in the processing room in July 2013.
- Subjects
- Education
- Physicians
- Name Access
- University of Toronto
- Source
- Archival Accessions
- Accession Number
- 2015-1-4
- Source
- Archival Accessions
- Accession Number
- 2015-1-4
- Material Format
- textual record
- graphic material
- Physical Description
- 1 folder textual records
- 1 photograph: b&w ; 35 x 25 cm
- Date
- 1899-[ca. 1903]
- Scope and Content
- Accession consists of Dr. Samuel Lavine's certification from the State Board of Medical Colleges of New Jersey and and the Board of Medical Registration and Examination, State of Ohio. Also included is one photograph believed to be of Samuel and Ida Lavine.
- Custodial History
- Donor found items among her mother's papers, donor was Samuel Lavine's great-granddaughter.
- Administrative History
- Dr. Samuel Lavine (1874-1959) was the first Jewish doctor to practice in Toronto. He graduated from Trinity University Medical School in 1899. Understanding that Jewish practitioners had little future in Toronto, he moved to the United States and received his medical certification in New Jersey and Ohio. However, he returned to Toronto one year later and opened an office at John and Adelaide Streets. He was known for making house calls on his bicycle. Dr. Lavine was also part of the Pride of Israel Sick Benefit Society, and became the first Jewish Lodge doctor in 1907. In 1909, he helped found, and later remained active in, the Free Jewish Dispensary. As of 1911 he lived at 159 Beverly Street. After 1922 he lived and practiced at 30 Dunvegan Road. The building was designed by Benjamin Brown. By 1931, Lavine's practice was located at 2 Wells Hill. Around 1903 he married Ida (nee Levy? Levi?) (1880-1958), and they had two daughters, Ruth (Levinson) and Helen (Sterling), and a son Bernard. Helen's husband, Theodore "Ted" Sterling, is said to be the first Jewish stockbroker.
- Subjects
- Physicians
- Name Access
- Lavine, Samuel, 1874-1959
- Source
- Archival Accessions
- Accession Number
- 2015-9-12
- Source
- Archival Accessions
- Accession Number
- 2015-9-12
- Material Format
- textual record
- Physical Description
- 1 folder of textual material
- Date
- 1973-1974
- Scope and Content
- Accession file consists of letters, posters, press releases, minutes of meeting and policy statements regarding Israeli prisoners of war in Syria. The documents are from many organizations such as the Labor Zionist Alliance, National Jewish Community Relations Advisory Council, Toronto Jewish Youth Council, and the Canada-Israel Committee.
- Custodial History
- There is no information on the acquisition of this material.
- Subjects
- Demonstrations
- Israel--Armed Forces
- Name Access
- Canadian Jewish Congress, Central Region (Toronto, Ont.)
- Places
- Toronto, Ont.
- Source
- Archival Accessions
- Accession Number
- 2015-12-1
- Source
- Archival Accessions
- Accession Number
- 2015-12-1
- Material Format
- textual record
- graphic material
- Physical Description
- 1.2 m of textual records
- ca. 250 photographs : b&w and col.
- Date
- 1776, [191-]-2012
- Scope and Content
- Accession consists of the records related to the life and career of Dr. Fred Wienberg. Included are textual and photographic records documenting his personal and family life, his medial career, scholarly activities, involvement with the Jewish community, his collecting of Judaica, medical antiques and art, and his synagogue involvement. Other items include the Ostrovtzer Mutual Benefit Society minute book and a 1776 letter from Jonas Phillips, a veteran of the American Revolutionary War and an American merchant in New York City and Philadelphia.
- Administrative History
- Fred Weinberg (1919-2003) was born in Ostrawiec, Poland on July 6, 1919 to Rose and Israel Weinberg. Israel immigrated to Canada in 1920 and his wife and children joined him several years later in March of 1924. The family settled in Toronto where Israel worked in the fur manufacturing business. Israel was a supporter and aficionado of cantorial music as well as a founder of the Associated Hebrew Schools of Toronto and the Ostrovtzer Synagogue on Cecil Street.
- Fred completed his primary and secondary education at Clinton Street Public School and Harbord Collegiate. He also attended the Brunswick Talmud Torah, celebrating his bar mitzvah in 1932. Fred decided to pursue a medical career, graduating from the University of Toronto’s medical school in 1944. During his studies he enlisted in the army and completed officers’ training in April 1945, attaining the rank of Captain. During his military career he served in the RCAMC at Camp Borden, Christie St. Hospital and at the Stanley Barracks in Toronto. Towards the end of the war he served as Officer in charge of repatriation of the POWs.
- After the war Fred pursued his post-graduate work at Seaview and Bellevue hospitals in New York City from 1946 to 1947 and then moved on to the Children’s and Washington University hospitals in St. Louis, Missouri the following year. He was subsequently accepted as a resident at Sick Kids Hospital in Toronto and was ultimately appointed Chief Resident under the supervision of the internationally renowned paediatrician, Dr. Alan Brown. In 1950, Dr. Weinberg was hired as a physician in paediatrics at Sick Kids Hospital, making him the first Jewish doctor on staff. In addition to his staff responsibilities, he also lectured and was a faculty member at the University of Toronto’s Medical School for many years.
- By the mid-point of his career, Dr. Weinberg went on to specialise in Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD), delivering lectures and publishing articles in medical journals. He also ran his own practice, which operated from 1950 to 1976, and later become Associate Medical Director of the Child Development Clinic, Neurology Division of Sick Kids until his retirement in 1984. He later continued his service at Sick Kids as a senior staff consultant and ran a specialized practice in Developmental Pediatrics for close to twenty years, which was later situated at 208 Bloor Street West.
- Fred married Joy Cherry on December 16, 1952 at Goel Tzedec Synagogue. The couple had four children: Joel (b. 1953), Barry (b. 1955), Sari (b. 1956) and Deena (b. 1961). Throughout his life, Fred was actively engaged in Jewish communal work in a variety of capacities: assisting with the establishment of the United Synagogue Day School during the 1950s; as a fundraiser for the United Jewish Appeal (UJA); and as a participant in two of UJA’s early study missions to Israel in 1960 and 1961. He was also an influential figure within his synagogue, joining the Board of Directors of Beth Tzedec Synagogue during the late 1960s and serving as president from 1972 to 1975.
- Fred and his wife Joy also collected Judaica, antiques and artwork. As a physician, Fred developed a passion and expertise in the area of medical antiques. He published articles in both the mainstream and Jewish press on subjects related to Jewish rituals, Judaica and art. He also had a regular column in the Canadian Journal of Diagnosis from 1998 to 2002 entitled “Antique instruments”. Over time, the Weinberg’s assembled a world-class collection of Judaica and became increasingly active in the museum world. Fred assisted in the establishment of Beth Tzedec’s Helene and Rubin Dennis Jewish Museum, contributing items from the couple’s Judaica collection and securing the acquisition of the renowned Cecil Roth collection for the Museum during the early to mid-1960s. As a result of his significant contributions, he was bestowed the title of honourary curator to the Museum. Dr. Weinberg later branched out and assisted with the Koffler Gallery’s Lifecycle exhibition in 1984 as guest curator. The following year, he served as a special presenter and instructor to the docents at the “Precious Legacy” Czech Judaica exhibition at the ROM. The Weinberg’s most significant contribution to the museum world, however, was marked in September of 2000, when they were honoured at the opening of the Dr. Fred and Joy Cherry Weinberg Gallery of Judaica at the ROM, featuring some of their most valuable and treasured pieces.
- Dr. Fred Weinberg passed away on October 30, 2003 at 84 years of age. The Weinberg Endowment Fund was established by the family at the University of Toronto’s Jewish Studies Program to honour Fred’s passion for Jewish history, rituals and artefacts. That year the Weinberg family also set up a fund in Fred’s name in support of the Therapeutic Clown Program, a highly visible and successful program within Sick Kids’ Pediatric Division.
- Use Conditions
- Copyright is held by the Ontario Jewish Archives. Please contact the Archives to obtain permission prior to use.
- Partially closed. Researchers must receive permission from the OJA Director prior to accessing some of the records.
- Descriptive Notes
- Use Conditions Note: Records contain patient names and medical information.
- Subjects
- Families
- Physicians
- Societies
- Name Access
- Weinberg, Fred, 1919-2003
- Source
- Archival Accessions
- Accession Number
- 2016-6-12
- Source
- Archival Accessions
- Accession Number
- 2016-6-12
- Material Format
- graphic material
- textual record
- Physical Description
- ca. 60 cm of textual records
- 11 photographs (3 negatives) : b&w ; 20 x 25 cm or smaller
- Date
- 1976-[ca. 1990]
- Scope and Content
- Accession consists of textual and graphic records that trace Natan Sharansky's history as a prisoner of political conscience; the broader Refusenik issue; and the community advocacy efforts of Debby and Stan Solomon from 1976 and into the late 1980s at the local, national and international scales. Included are memos and newsletters from the Committee for Soviet Jewry (Ontario Region and national-level); background information as well as petition templates, speeches and planning documentation produced by the Committee to Release Anatoly Sharansky and the Beth Tikvah Synagogue in conjunction with community organizations, including the CJC and its Soviet Jewry social action committees, to support on-going advocacy efforts; correspondence with Canadian and American political representatives at the provincial/state and national levels; white papers/grey literature from non-governmental organizations about the persecution of the Soviet Jewry; planning documentation from the First Annual Sharansky Lectureship on Human Rights in 1980; correspondence, articles and ephemera associated with the granting of Sharansky's honourary law doctorate from York University in 1982; 1985 Freedom Rally/Weekend in Ottawa planning documentation and correspondence; 1987 National Conference on the Soviet Jewry and Mobilization for Freedom planning documentation; 1987 Community Rally at Massey Hall promotional materials; and promotional materials from Sharansky's autobiographical "Fear No Evil" 1988 book launch. Graphic material includes photographs of Sharansky's release during the February 11, 1986 American-Soviet prisoner exchange on the Glienicke Bridge in Berlin.
- Identified in the photographs are: Debby Solomon; Stan Solomon; Natan Sharansky; Avital Sharansky; U.S. Ambassador Richard Burt;
- Custodial History
- Material was collected and/or created by Debby Solomon, Natan Sharansky's cousin. Debby donated it to the OJA.
- Administrative History
- Debby Solomon is the cousin of Anatoly (Natan) Sharansky, the Soviet born Israeli politician, human activist and author who spent nine years in Soviet prisons. Debby's father Boris Landis (born 1900) and Sharansky's father were first cousins.Their grandfathers were brothers. Debby's father immigrated 1929 to Toronto from Russia as his older brothers were already in Toronto. Debby and her husband Stan Solomon got involved in the community's activism efforts to free Sharansky and other Refuseniks.They were worked for many years on these efforts by planning programs through their synagogue Beth Tikvah and with Sam Filer, a lawyer and volunteer at the CJC who was also a member of Beth Tikvah.
- Subjects
- Antisemitism
- Politics and government
- Human rights
- Demonstrations
- Synagogues
- Committees
- Source
- Archival Accessions
- Accession Number
- 2016-3-63
- Source
- Archival Accessions
- Accession Number
- 2016-3-63
- Material Format
- textual record
- Physical Description
- 1 folder of textual records
- Date
- [192-?]-1953
- Scope and Content
- Accession consists of material primarily documenting kosher meat scandals and strikes in Toronto in the 1920s and 1930s as well as the Kehilla (Toronto Rabbinical Board). There are complete pages of some documents and portions of others. The documents are flyers (public notices) in Yiddish (with some Hebrew in religious context and quotations) to do with a scandal or several scandals in which it became clear a number of butchers were operating outside Rabbinical Board supervision and therefore selling (assumed to be) treif meat to Toronto Jews. Secondary scandal with Rabbi Yehuda Leib Graubart, who allegedly split off from the Rabbinical Board with six butchers to do business outside the union, with wholesalers, and gaining more money than union butchers and the rabbis working with them. Another thread relates to a strike for cheaper meat, including meetings of women picketers, and then for better conditions for local butchers. The flyers mostly fall between 1920-1940. All are from Toronto. Lists of local butchers’ shops with addresses and names are included.
- Additional flyers cover Communist protests and protest meetings against German fascism and pogroms, specifically Hitler's government's prosecution of the Communist Party of Germany related to the Reichstag fire. Also included are a 1953 flyer for the tenth anniversary commemoration of the Latvian-Lithuanian Jews’ annihilation, and an open letter to Rabbi Abraham Aaron Price regarding his title.
- Custodial History
- There is no information on the acquisition of this material. However, retrieved from the original package in which the material was lodged was a note "Kashruth fliers from E. Miller" or Mitler.
- Descriptive Notes
- Language: Yiddish with some Hebrew (phrases and quotations).
- Subjects
- Demonstrations
- Kosher food
- Rabbis
- Places
- Augusta Avenue (Toronto. Ont.)
- College Street (Toronto, Ont.)
- Dundas Street West (Toronto, Ont.)
- Kensington Avenue (Toronto, Ont.)
- Queen Street West (Toronto, Ont.)
- Spadina Avenue (Toronto, Ont.)
- Source
- Archival Accessions
- Accession Number
- 2018-10-5
- Source
- Archival Accessions
- Accession Number
- 2018-10-5
- Material Format
- textual record
- Physical Description
- 7 cm of graphic material and textual records
- 1 folder (oversize) of graphic material and textual records
- 1 scrapbook ; 37 x 31 cm
- Date
- 1916-2008, predominant 1940-1998
- Scope and Content
- Accession consists of material documenting the Rother family, in particular Irving and Florence Rother. Included are: three of Irving Rother's Second World War letters; professional and educational certificates for Irving Rother; service records for Irving Rother; records documenting the sale of the family's Rother Cigar Store; a letter to Dr. and Mrs. Rother from Lester C. Sugarman welcoming the couple and their family to Holy Blossom Temple; records (including group portraits) of Hadassah-WIZO Rishon Chapter, which Florence Rother belonged to; and an Alpha Phi Pi scrapbook.
- Administrative History
- Florence Rother (née Warshavsky) was born in 1919. In 1998, she was honoured for her service to the Rishon Chapter of Toronto Hadassah-WIZO. She died at home on 9 July 2016.
- Dr. Irving Rother was born in 1919. He studied at the University of Toronto, where he was part of the Phi Delta Epislon Fraternity. He graduated in January 1943 with a Doctor of Medicine degree. During the Second World War, he held the rank of captain in the Royal Canadian Army Medical Corps (RCAMC) and served in Canada, the United Kingdom, and continental Europe. After the war, Rother moved to Baltimore, Maryland, where he served on the house staff of Sinai Hospital first as assistant resident on the pathology service and then as intern and assistant resident on the medical service.
- In 1953, Dr. and Mrs. Rother and their family became members of Holy Blossom Temple in Toronto.
- Use Conditions
- Copyright may not be held by the Ontario Jewish Archives. It is the responsibility of the researcher to obtain permission prior to use.
- Subjects
- Families
- Physicians
- World War, 1939-1945
- Name Access
- Rother (family)
- Rother, Florence
- Rother, Irving, 1919-2018
- Places
- Baltimore (Md.)
- England
- Toronto (Ont.)
- Source
- Archival Accessions
- Accession Number
- 2019-1-6
- Source
- Archival Accessions
- Accession Number
- 2019-1-6
- Material Format
- textual record
- Physical Description
- 2 folders
- Date
- 1911-1987
- Scope and Content
- Accession consists of material documenting two generations of the Singer family. Included are: a College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario certificate for Bessie Thelma Pullan (1911), a Law Society of Upper Canada certificate for Burrell Milton Singer (1937), a Department of National Defense (Army) certificate for Burrell Milton Singer (1946), a Grand Chapter of Royal Arch Masons (RAM) of Canada constitution (1952), a Mount Sinai Chapter RAM by-law booklet (1952), a Mount Sinai Chapter RAM invitation to its sixty-first convocation (1954), and a Law Society of Upper Canada certificate for Burrell Milton Singer (1987).
- Custodial History
- Records were donated by Burrel and Carolyn Singer's son Tom.
- Administrative History
- Louis Michael Singer, K.C. was born in Austria in 1885. When he was three, Louis and his family immigrated to Canada. In Toronto, he attended Jarvis Collegiate Institute. He went on to study law at Osgoode Hall Law School, graduating in 1908. Afterwards, he set up the Singer and Singer law office. In 1914, Louis ran for Toronto City Council, representing Ward 4, and became Toronto's second Jewish alderman. He was re-elected in 1915, 1916, and 1917 only to be defeated in the 1918 election. Thereafter, he returned to his law practice full-time. Louis died on September 23, 1959.
- Dr. Bessie Thelma Singer (née Pullan) was born in Russia on June 5, 1888. On July 6, 1911, she married Louis Singer. Two days later, on July 8, 1911, the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario admitted her as a member, entitling her to practice physic, surgery, and midwifery in the province. Bessie never practiced medicine; instead, she became a homemaker. She died on January 4, 1947, surived by her husband, Louis, and two sons, Burrell and Ralph.
- Burrell Milton Singer, Q.C. was born in Toronto on November 1, 1912. On September 7, 1937, the Law Society of Upper Canada called him to the bar. Burell and his wife Carolyn had two sons: Jeff and Tom. Burrell died on September 26, 1989.
- Descriptive Notes
- Conservation: Certificates deframed.
- General: An annotated copy of Burrell M. Singer's Handbook of Canadian Military Law, which the former co-authored with Lieutenant-Colonel R. J. S. Langford, is available in the OJA's library.
- History/Bio note: Bessie Singer's tombstone lists her birth date as July 28, 1890, however, JewishGen has her birth registration as June 5, 1888 and the 1901 Census lists it as July 14, 1888. Bessie's youngest brother Sydney, Harry Pullan was born on Aug. 11, 1890 and therefore the July 28, 1890 date is likely erroneous.
- Subjects
- Lawyers
- Physicians
- Politicians
- Name Access
- Singer (family)
- Singer, Bessie Thelma, 1890-1947
- Singer, Burrell M., 1912-1989
- Singer, Louis, 1885-1959
- Places
- Toronto (Ont.)
- Source
- Archival Accessions
- Accession Number
- 2019-5-16
- Source
- Archival Accessions
- Accession Number
- 2019-5-16
- Material Format
- graphic material
- Physical Description
- 3 cm. of textual records (1 vol.)
- 2 photographs : b&w ; 8 x 13 cm and 18 x 23 cm
- Date
- 1897-1963
- Scope and Content
- Accession consists of material documenting aspects of A. I. Willinsky's life. Included are: two portrait photographs of Willinsky as a boy (ca. 1897) and as an adult (ca. 1940s); a scrapbook related to the publication of A.I. Willinsky's book, A Doctor's Memoirs; a booklet with information referencing Willinsky's travel films; and Gertrude Kronick's handwritten "putterkuchen" recipe. Included in the scrapbook are congratulatory letters, newspaper clippings related to the book, and a proof copy for submission to Who's Who in Canadian Jewry.
- Administrative History
- Abraham Isaac Willinsky (1885-1976) was born 29 March1885, in Omaha, Nebraska to Sarah Rebecca (née Vise) and Myer Lionel Willinsky. Sarah had immigrated to Canada as a child in the 1860s; the Myers family was originally from Lithuania. Abraham had seven siblings: Abey (b. 1885), Ida (b. 1886), Faly (b. 1888), Minnie (b. 1890), Gertrude (b. 1893), Lila (b. 1899) and Bernard (“Bunny”) (b. 1900). Willinsky’s family moved to the east end of Toronto in 1890 where his father worked as a merchant
- Most of Abraham's siblings eventually married: Ida married Maurice Kamman in 1909; Faly married Sam Mehr in 1912; Minnie married Arthur Jacobs in 1912; Gertrude married Sam Kronick in 1912; Lila married Jospeh Lisson in 1920; and Bernard married Florence Samuel in 1930, but divorced soon after.
- When Willinsky was a child he helped his uncle, Solomon Vise, in his photography business, which was located at 439 King Street East. Working in his uncle's darkroom and studio on Saturdays awakened Willinsky's interest in photography.
- Willinsky graduated from biological and physical sciences at the University of Toronto in 1906, and from medicine in 1908, earning the George Brown Memorial Scholarship. He married Sadie Dobensky, from Bancroft, Ontario, in July of 1911. They had three children: Dorothy, Jack, and Myra. Dorothy eventually married Garfield Cass and worked as a social worker. Jack married Cecily Samuel and became a urologist and, later, a radiologist. Myra married Dr. N. Simon, a dental surgeon.
- As one of the early Jewish doctors in Toronto, Willinsky initially had difficulty launching his career due to discrimination and prejudice. After joining the Academy of Medicine in 1910, he began his first practice as a “lodge doctor”, working out of his office and home at College and Henry Streets.
- With other possible internships and appointments denied him, A. I. accumulated his early clinical training with resourcefulness, by performing “ghost-surgery” and by studying abroad in Dublin at the Rotunda Hospital, Paris and Vienna. In 1916, under the adopted name of Wills, and with a claim to Greek Orthodoxy, Willinsky managed to secure a position at the Polyclinic in New York, where he began as an ambulance doctor. He also interned at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester. His skill was, in time, recognized in Toronto and he was accepted at the Toronto Western Hospital in 1918, where he pioneered spinal anaethesia and began his work as a urologist. In 1923, Willinsky became a fellow of the American College of Surgeons. In 1925, all forty practicing Jewish physicians formed the Toronto Jewish Medical Association. In turn, the same members would become the staff of Mount Sinai Hospital, which was established in 1923 at 100 Yorkville Avenue.
- Willinsky was probably the most prominent of Mount Sinai’s original staff, dividing his time between the new Jewish hospital and Toronto Western, where he was the head of genito-urinary surgery. He became chief of surgery at Mount Sinai and produced a number of papers that dealt primarily with spinal anaesthesia. He later opened a practice at 316 Bloor Street West, above which he temporarily resided. In 1928, he set up a clinic and office at 569 Spadina Avenue. His practice remained at this location until his retirement.
- Throughout his life, he remained enthralled by photography and prolific in his production of travel movies. In 1934, he became a founding member of the Toronto Amateur Movie Club. Around this same time, he created films to help Holy Blossom fundraise for a new building. In 1941, he gave a lecture on the principles of amateur moviemaking before the Royal Canadian Institute, in which he advocated holding the movie camera steady and letting the action move into the frame as a strategy to encourage careful composition. For sound in his early movies, he played records bought in the country where the picture was taken, stacking them in order and playing them at intervals during the commentary. Later on, he manufactured his own gramophone records, and eventually, bona fide soundtracks. Often shooting as much as 3600 feet of film on a single trip, he tended, in his more senior years, to invest long hours editing and framing sequences in the basement of his own home at 120 Madison Avenue. Here, he set up a miniature theatre and often held film evenings for friends. In 1945, Willinsky won an award for a medical film, Cystometrography, in which he used the animation technique of filming drawings. Aortography and advances in X-ray technology provided other cross-overs between medical and filmic experiments, and most of his chronicled travels were the extra-curricular benefits of regular attendance at medical conferences.
- Towards the end of his life in 1960, Willinsky dictated the stories for A Doctor’s Memoirs to his transcriber, Margaret Avison. He spent the last 14 years of his life at Toronto's Jewish Home for the Aged and Baycrest Hospital. He passed away in 1976 at the age of ninety-one.
- Use Conditions
- 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.
- Subjects
- Physicians
- Name Access
- Willinsky, Abraham Isaac, 1885-1976
- Source
- Archival Accessions
- Accession Number
- 2022-10-1
- Source
- Archival Accessions
- Accession Number
- 2022-10-1
- Material Format
- textual record
- Physical Description
- 1 textual record
- Date
- Sep. 2022
- Scope and Content
- Accession consists of a publication authored by Joanna Krongold and published in September 2022 titled "In Their Own Words: Jewish Doctors, Antisemitism, and the Restrictive Quota System at the University of Toronto's Faculty of Medicine." The publication was made available at no cost to those attending the event Reflecting on Historic Jewish Student Quotas in Toronto Medical Education, which was held at Innis Town Hall in Toronto, Ontario, on 29 September 2022
- Dr. Joanna Krongold is a 2022–2023 joint postdoctoral fellow at the University of Toronto's Anne Tanenbaum Centre for Jewish Studies and the Temerty Faculty of Medicine's Office of Inclusion and Diversity. She received her PhD from the Department of English at the University of Toronto in 2020.
- Custodial History
- The donor acquired the item at the event Reflecting on Historic Jewish Student Quotas in Toronto Medical Education.
- Use Conditions
- Copyright is not held by the Ontario Jewish Archives. It is the responsibility of the researcher to obtain permission prior to use.
- Subjects
- Antisemitism
- Discrimination in higher education
- Physicians
- Name Access
- Krongold, Joanna
- University of Toronto. Faculty of Medicine
- Places
- Toronto (Ont.)
- Source
- Archival Accessions
- Accession Number
- 2023-2-10
- Source
- Archival Accessions
- Accession Number
- 2023-2-10
- Material Format
- textual record (electronic)
- Physical Description
- 2 textual records (docx)
- Date
- 2022-2023
- Scope and Content
- Accession consists of material documenting two members of the Drutz family: Dr. Meyer George Drutz (1911–1984) and Dr. Harold Paul Drutz (1944–). Included is a "bio profile" for Harold and a document titled "Drutz family in medicine" that primarily relates to the life of Meyer.
- Administrative History
- Meyer George Drutz was born in Toronto, Ontario, in 1911 to Barnett and Hannah Drutz. He was the third of five children. His parents had immigrated from eastern Europe (what is now Belarus) in 1908. Barnett's grandson, Harold, reports that Barnett was a tailor who earned eight dollars a week. They lived on Denison Avenue.
- Growing up in Toronto's Jewish community, Meyer was known as Mickey. An outstanding student, Meyer entered Jarvis Collegiate at the age of eleven. He continued to excel in school, and his marks were so high that he was able to meet the entrance criteria for University of Toronto's medical school at the time when there was a strict quota on the number of Jews and women in any given year.
- Meyer graduated from medical school in 1936 and interned at the original Mount Sinai Hospital at 100 Yorkville Avenue, which was one of the few hospitals where Jews were allowed to intern.
- In 1935, Meyer met Belle Ostry (1913–2001). Belle was born in Nikopol, Ukraine, which was on the Dnieper River, north of Odessa. In 1923, Belle's family immigrated to Canada, initially settling in Wadena, Saskatchewan, where Belle's father ran a general store.
- Belle went to business school in Winnipeg, Manitoba. In the early 1930s, she and a friend bought a car and drove to Toronto. After a period of courtship that their son Harold would describe as "very austere," Meyer and Belle married in Toronto in June 1936.
- With Canada, and the world, still in the grip of the Great Depression, Meyer accepted a job to go to Malartic, Quebec, where he became a doctor for the Malartic Goldfield Mines. Because the locals were not familiar with the name Meyer, he went by his middle name George, which continued for the rest of his life.
- When the Second World War broke out in 1939, the Quebec government refused to conscript Meyer on the grounds that he was the only doctor in three hundred square miles. Meyer's son, Harold, writes that in the winter his father used a dog sled to get to homes and deliver babies. Harold recalls the stories told to him by his mother of how George was trapped in an underground mine for three days when he went underground to help miners trapped after a cave-in.
- Belle and Meyer had their first child, a daughter, at Toronto Western Hospital in 1942. The baby was born in Toronto, because Belle had problems with hypertension, and Meyer sent her to Toronto for care. Their second child, Harold, was born in August 1944.
- In 1948, the family moved to Kitchener, Ontario, where Meyer practiced for less than a year.
- The family moved back to Toronto in 1949, where George set up a practice in the Keele Street/Rogers Road area. He was a founding member of the Northwestern General Hospital and was on the founding family practice staff of the New Mount Sinai Hospital (1956) and Baycrest Geriatric Hospital.
- Harold Drutz received his bachelor of arts from the University of Western Ontario in 1965 and his doctor of medicine from the University of Toronto in 1969. Upon graduating, he did his residency in urology, general surgery, and obstetrics and gynecology at the University of Toronto from 1970–1974.
- He became a fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons in 1974 in obstetrics and gynecology. The same year, he became a fellow in the bladder function unit at the Toronto General Hospital. In 1975, he was awarded a McLaughlin Fellowship and did pioneer training in female pelvic medicine and reconstructive surgery in Europe, Ethiopia, and the United States of America.
- In 1998, he became a full professor in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology. From 1987–2015, he was the professor and head of the Division of Urogynecology (AKA Female Pelvic Medicine and Reconstructive Surgery [FPMRS]) at the University of Toronto. From 1976–2015, he was the head of urogynecology at Mount Sinai Hospital. From 1986–2022, he was the head of urogynecology at Baycrest Geriatric Hospital. Baycrest Hospital was the first geriatric hospital in Canada to have a program in female pelvic medicine.
- From 1988–1991, he served on the American Urogynecological Association (AUGS) board of directors. From 1994–1996, he was president of the International Urogynecological Association (IUGA), the only Canadian to have been president of the society. In 1996, he received the degree of professor honoris causa from the Ss. Cyril and Methodius University in Skopje, Macedonia. From 2000–2002, he served as the first president of the Canadian Society of Urogynecology and Reconstructive Surgery (CSURPS). From 2017–2019, he served as founding president of the Canadian Society for Pelvic Medicine (CSPM). The Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at the University of Toronto has given Professor Drutz the title of "the founding father of urogynecology in Canada."
- Harold is the recipient of fifty-nine externally-funded peer reviewed grants. He is the author of 139 peer-reviewed papers, eighteen chapters in textbooks, and is the senior of author of two textbooks. He has trained forty-four fellows who practice all over the world.
- Use Conditions
- Copyright is held by the Ontario Jewish Archives. Please contact the Archives to obtain permission prior to use.
- Subjects
- Discrimination in higher education
- Families
- Physicians
- Name Access
- Drutz, Harold, 1944-
- Drutz, Meyer George , 1911-1984
- Places
- Toronto (Ont.)
- Source
- Archival Accessions