Part Of

Dr. Alexander Brown fonds

Level

Fonds

Fonds

95

Material Format

textual record

graphic material

Date

1934-1982

Physical Description

58 cm of textual records

125 photographs

1 print

Admin History/Bio

Dr. Alexander Brown (1909-1984) was a leader in the field of Jewish education in Toronto. He held various positions with Toronto’s Board of Jewish Education (BJE) and the Associated Hebrew Schools of Toronto, and was actively involved with other Jewish organizations, such as the Canadian Jewish Congress (CJC) and the United Jewish Welfare Fund (UJWF).

Brown was born in the Ukraine on 14 February 1909 to Louis and Bessie Brown. The family immigrated to Canada in 1920. Brown attended the Simcoe Street Talmud Torah and studied under Rabbi Jacob Gordon. He continued his education at the Hebrew Theological College of Chicago and returned to Toronto in 1933. Between 1934 and 1936 Brown served as the first executive secretary of the CJC, Central Region. From 1936 to 1937 he was an announcer for the Jewish Radio Hour, where he read the News of the Week. In 1945 he graduated from the University of Toronto with a BA and then again in 1948 with an MA in Oriental languages. Brown was married to Dorothy Mercovitch (1912-2009) of London, Ontario, and together they had two children: Martin and Paul.

Brown entered the field of Jewish education as the principal of Shaarei Shomayim Hebrew School from 1942 to 1948, as a principal of the AHS of Toronto and as dean of the Midrasha L'Morim. From 1957 to 1964 he worked as a consultant with the BJE in Toronto and then became the BJE's associate director until the early 1980s. He also was a member of the UJWF’s Study Committee on Jewish Education, the National Council of Jewish Education, the Toronto Zionist Council, and the Educational and Cultural Committee of the CJC. In 1969, he received an honourary doctorate in Hebrew Letters from the Hebrew Theological College in Skokie, Illinois.

Dr. Brown died on 15 September 1984 at the age of 75.

Custodial History

Records were in the possession of Paul Brown, Dr. Brown's son, until their donation to the OJA.

Scope and Content

Fonds consists of textual and graphic material documenting the professional activities of Dr. Alexander Brown. The bulk of the material relates to his involvement with the BJE and the Associated Hebrew Schools of Toronto. Included are meeting notices, agendas, and minutes, reports, studies, speeches, proposals, constitutions, correspondence, financial records, publications, questionnaires, photographs, booklets, articles, biographies, press releases, newspaper clippings, programmes, invitations, flyers, lists, applications, statistics, and a directory.

Records have been arranged into the following four series: 1. Board of Jewish Education; 2. Associated Hebrew Schools of Toronto; 3. United Jewish Welfare Fund Study Committee on Jewish Education; and, 4. Jewish communal activities. Two files are attached directly to the fonds level. Records are described to the file level with a selection of item level descriptions.

Notes

Fonds was reduced from approximately 1.2 metres to 0.74 metres. Records that were culled include duplicate or damaged photographs, duplicate graduation programmes and invitations, duplicate UJWF Study Committee Interim reports that are located elsewhere in OJA's holdings, and other duplicated material. Also removed were American and other non-Canadian booklets.

Photographers and photography studios are identified on the photographs.

Name Access

Brown, Alexander, 1909-1984

Gordon, Jacob, Rabbi

Associated Hebrew Schools of Toronto

Board of Jewish Education (Toronto, Ont.)

United Jewish Welfare Fund (Toronto, Ont.)

Subjects

Education

Physical Condition

The photographs are in poor condition. They have begun to curl and have become stiff from being stored in a dry environment. They should be flattened through humidification and encapsulated in mylar to prevent re-curling.

Related Material

See: Oral history interview with Dr. Brown (AC 140), Board of Jewish Education fonds 48, United Jewish Welfare Fund fonds 67, AHS of Toronto MG2 G-1E, accession 1981-11-4, United Synagogue Day School accession 1990-5-2, accession 1991-12-5, and accession 1988-11-3. For photographs of Jewish schools see Gordon Mendly fonds 18, series 3.

Arrangement

Arrangement has been created by the archivist since there was no discernable original order.

Creator

Brown, Alexander, 1909-1984

Accession Number

2009-7-9

2010-12-9

Source

Archival Descriptions

Part Of

Solomon Edell fonds

Personal series

Education and extracurricular activities sub-series

Level

Sub-series

Fonds

4

Series

1-4

Material Format

textual record

graphic material

object

Date

1921-1999

Physical Description

4 folders of textual records

1 photograph

4 badges

Admin History/Bio

Sol Edell attended Harbord Collegiate and was an honours student winning awards in several extra curricular activities. His children and grandchildren also excelled scholastically while attending a variety various Jewish parochial schools in Toronto such as the Associated Hebrew Day Schools, Eitz Chaim, Netivot Hatorah and Yeshivat Bnei Akiva Or Chaim Ulpanat Orot.

Scope and Content

Sub-series consists of material relating to the educational and recreational activities of the Edell family. There are newspaper clippings relating to Sol Edell’s participation in the Harbord Collegiate’s First Aid team and a University of Toronto graduation photograph. Sub-series includes correspondence, notices and booklets from his sisters’ and children’s elementary, high school and university graduation commencement exercises. In addition, sub-series consists of correspondence with the Associated Hebrew Day Schools relating to a scholarship awarded in memory of Sol Edell's grandfather, Rabbi Yosef Weinreb.

Name Access

Harbord Collegiate

First Aid team

Rabbi Yosef Weinreb Scholarship

University of Toronto

Subjects

Education

Source

Archival Descriptions

Part Of

Jewish Family Welfare Bureau fonds

Level

Fonds

Fonds

87

Material Format

textual record

architectural drawing

Date

1928-1943

Physical Description

67 cm of textual records

1 architectural drawing

Admin History/Bio

Sometime around 1919, the Family Welfare Committee was set up within the newly created Federation of Jewish Philanthropies of Toronto (FJPT) to perform social welfare work with Jewish families. Around 1931, the Committee was reorganized as an independent member agency of the FJPT and renamed the Jewish Family Welfare Bureau (JFWB). At the same time, Dora Wilensky (1902-1959), a professionally-trained social worker, was hired as the agency’s executive director. Throughout its existence, most of its funding came from the FJPT (later the United Jewish Welfare Fund).

Located at 179 Beverley Street, the JFWB’s core activities included: relief provision; helping families meet basic needs, such as medical care, heating and clothing; housekeeping assistance; counseling; and case work. The JFWB’s major concerns shifted over time from a rise of immigration and desertion cases in the 1920s to the dramatic increase of wife abuse, suicide, and unemployment cases during the Great Depression of the 1930s. After the outbreak of the Second World War, the JFWB sought ways of assisting soldiers and their families, such as, investigating special government grants to soldiers.

In an attempt to meet community needs, the JFWB initiated various programs, such as a Homemaking Club to teach women house management skills, and a Clothing Centre to provide families with inexpensive household goods. It also partnered with other local Jewish organizations in the early 1940s in the Liaison Project for troubled Jewish youth. In the 1930s, the Jewish Employment Service and Hebrew Free Burial Society became departments of the JFWB and, in 1941, the JFWB began guaranteeing loans for clients through the Hebrew Free Loan Association. In the same year, the Jewish Big Sister Committee became affiliated with the agency and the Jewish Big Brother Movement followed soon after.

In 1936, the JFWB became one of the first unionized social agencies in Canada when it formed the Staff Association with the Jewish Child Welfare Association (JCWA), another member of the FJPT. Although the JFWB’s focus was work with families and the JCWA’s focus was work with children, both agencies found it necessary at times to work with both children and families. In order to prevent service duplication and reduce confusion over casework responsibility, the Joint Application Bureau was set up within the FJPT to review all case work applications and determine the appropriate agency to provide assistance. However, a merger between the agencies was still believed necessary to improve service to the community and ease confusion. Discussions regarding the co-ordination of services between the JCWA and the JFWB began as early as 1935 and in February 1943, the JCWA and JFWB merged to form the Jewish Family and Child Services (JF & CS).

Scope and Content

Fonds consists of textual records and one architectural drawing documenting the programs, operation, finances, and special studies of the Jewish Family Welfare Bureau as well as its relationships with other organizations. Included are reports, meeting notices, agendas and minutes, correspondence, memos, budgets, statistics, theatrical scripts, newsclippings, and one architectural blueprint. A number of the records relate to special short-lived committees and projects that the JFWB participated in with other agencies, such as the Jewish Big Sister Committee, Jewish Big Brother Committee, Jewish Child Welfare Association, the Jewish Community Centre Association, the Young Men's and Women's Hebrew Association, and the Jewish Old Folks' Home.

Records have been arranged into the following 19 series: 1. Board of Directors; 2. Executive Director; 3. Jewish Federation Communal Council; 4. United Jewish Welfare Fund Men's and Women's Service Council; 5. Case Committe; 6. Joint Meetings and Committees; 7. Joint Application Bureau; 8. Homemaking Club; 9. Clothing Centre; 10. Liaison Project; 11. Operational statistics; 12. Finance and accounting; 13. Human Resources; 14. Special projects and studies; 15. Publicity; 16. Liaison with other social welfare organizations; 17. Canadian Association of Social Workers; 18. Welfare Council of Toronto; and, 19. Conferences.

Notes

Associated material note: for related records held at the City of Toronto Archives, see also: Welfare Council of Toronto records in the University Settlement House fonds (fonds 1024, series 658); and, Department of Public Welfare records in the Former City of Toronto fonds (fonds 200).

Name Access

Jewish Family Welfare Bureau

Jewish Community Centre Association

Young Men's-Young Women's Hebrew Athletic Association (Toronto, Ont.) (subject)

Jewish Old Folks Home (Toronto, Ont.)

United Jewish Welfare Fund (Toronto, Ont.) (subject)

Federation of Jewish Philanthropies of Toronto (subject)

Wilensky, Dora, 1902-1959

Subjects

Charities

Children

Families

Nonprofit organizations

Access Restriction

Partially closed. Researchers must receive permission from the OJA Director and the head of Jewish Family and Child prior to accessing some of the records.

Related Material

See also: Jewish Child Welfare Association fonds (fonds 86); Jewish Family and Child Services fonds (fonds 79); Federation of Jewish Philanthropies of Toronto fonds (fonds 66); and, United Jewish Welfare Fund fonds (fonds 67).

Arrangement

Records relating to programs, committees and liaison with other organizations that continued after the formation of JF & CS are arranged with that fonds.

Source

Archival Descriptions

Part Of

Canadian Jewish Congress, Ontario Region fonds

Level

Fonds

Fonds

17

Material Format

multiple media

Date

1936-1992

Physical Description

47 m of textual records and other material

Admin History/Bio

By 1919 the plight of post-war eastern European Jewry and the need for a united community voice for Canadian Jewry led to the creation of the Canadian Jewish Congress. Its founding meeting was held on March 16, 1919 in Montreal. Though it briefly maintained a tiny regional office in Toronto, the CJC remained inactive until 1933, when it fully reconvened by opening offices in Winnipeg, Montreal, and Toronto. Egmont L. Frankel was the first president of the new central division in Toronto. While the national office in Montreal focused on the overarching issues of the social and economic rights of European Jewry, assistance for Jewish immigrants, and combating prejudice in Canada, the Toronto office dealt with local, violent anti-Jewish demonstrations as well as continuing discrimination both in employment and in access to public recreational facilities. The structure was based on regular national biennial plenary conferences, at which policies were delineated and national and regional executives were elected. Between plenary sessions, national and regional councils were in charge. These were augmented by the following standing committees: administrative, officers, personnel, financial, publications, and educational and cultural. Special committees were created to deal with issues such as: youth, community loans, kashruth, fundraising, Israel, Russian Jewry, and various emergency issues such as refugees, immigration, and housing.

During the 1930s the central division office moved several times and occupied offices in the following locations: Yonge Street, the Bond Street Synagogue, Scheuer House, the Zionist Building, and its long-term home at 150-152 Beverley Street, where it remained until its July 1983 move to the Lipa Green Building in North York.

The CJC's activities expanded to include taking responsibility for Jewish educational standards, but by 1941 its main efforts shifted to support for Canada’s war effort. Immediately after the end of the war, the focus again shifted to Jewish immigration projects and the maintenance of Jewish identity in small communities. By 1950, the CJC’s use of the title “division” was changed to “region” to accommodate internal operational divisions within each region. Also, by then, the central region was busy expanding its programs for all Ontario Jewish communities, creating a province-wide council of youth groups, and working with the newly-created Bureau of Jewish Education (later Board of Jewish Education, now Mercaz). Standardization of kashruth rules in Ontario was implemented. As well, regular educational conferences and cultural events were held throughout the province, while province-wide fundraising efforts in support of Moess Chittin for relief projects in Israel and for local Congress activities were expanded. Many of its educational and cultural responsibilities necessitated working with other Jewish organizations such as the United Jewish Welfare Fund, Jewish Immigrant Aid Society (JIAS), Hadassah, the Canadian Legion, B’nai Brith, the World Jewish Congress, the American Jewish Congress, and the many landsmenshaften (Jewish mutual benefit societies, each formed by immigrants originating from the same Eastern European community).

During the 1960s, the central region began sending Moess Chittin relief shipments to Cuban Jews unable to acquire kosher foods for Passover. Its lobbying efforts included participation in the Royal Commissions on Hate Propaganda, and its greatest success came with the introduction and implementation of Ontario’s fair employment and fair accommodation practices legislation, an achievement in which Congress played a pivotal role.

From 1971 to 1989 the major focus became international and national lobbying for, and providing support to, Soviet Jewry. Virtually all local and Canadian efforts to assist the Soviet Jewish “refusniks” were organized and coordinated in Toronto by the Ontario region office, which provided staff and funding for the many lobbying activities and public demonstrations that characterized this successful effort.

As of November 1975, the central region’s responsibilities in Toronto were radically altered. To improve cost efficiency in Toronto, CJC educational and social service program activities were merged with similar programs already provided by Toronto’s United Jewish Appeal. The UJA assumed sole responsibility for these amalgamated programs in Toronto and was renamed Toronto Jewish Congress. The central region still retained province-wide responsibilities for Ontario’s smaller Jewish communities, and its office remained in Toronto. Also, following this reorganization, its name was changed to Canadian Jewish Congress, Ontario Region. Although CJC no longer provided direct social and educational programs to Toronto, the TJC’s senior executive was, at the time, still obliged to continue to keep it notified about developments concerning previous Congress responsibilities.

From 1983, the Ontario Region's offices were located in the Lipa Green Building at 4600 Bathurst Street. It continued its work of financially supporting various Israeli institutions and fostering Canada-Israel relations. It also spearheaded the movement to support and protect Jews in Arab lands, especially in Syria. Funding for the CJC came from the Canadian Council for Israel and Jewish Advocacy, which restributed a portion of the funds raised by the local Jewish federations across Canada.

The CJC dissolved in 2011. Today, the Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs (CIJA) acts as the Jewish community's primary lobby group.

Scope and Content

Fonds consists of the records of the Ontario Region office of the Canadian Jewish Congress. Of primary importance in documenting this organization’s history are its minutes of the Executive and Administrative Committees and the various standing, and short-term committees such as Community Organization, Finance, Fund Raising, Educational and Cultural, Research, Immigration, War Efforts, and Jewish Education. Most of these records are still managed all together within Fonds 17, Series 1. Fonds 17, Series 2 contains the general subject and correspondence files of these committees. Records in both series require further processing.

Records now found in Series 3 document the efforts of the Committee for Soviet Jewry in coordinating the activities of the many Toronto and Ontario organizations involved in assisting Soviet Jewry during the 1971 to 1989 period.

Series 4 consists of administrative and committee records of the United Jewish Refugee and War Relief Agencies in Toronto from 1938 through 1967. These document its work rescuing the survivors of European Jewish communities, settling as many as possible in Ontario, and providing assistance to those attempting to obtain restitution payments.

Series 5 consists of the records of the Community Relations Committee (1938-1976). Responding to depression-era anti-Semitism in Canada, the Canadian Jewish Congress and B’nai Brith together established in 1938 a new joint committee. Since then this Committee has documented racist threats in Canada; initiated advocacy activities to work for improved civil rights; promoted legislation combating hate; worked to ensure equality of access to employment, education and accommodation; and investigated specific incidents of discrimination. The Committee, for example, played a key role in achieving the Anti-Discrimination Act of 1944, and the Fair Employment Practices Act of 1951, key steps leading to Canada’s current Human Rights Code. Although originally named Joint Public Relations Committee in 1938, a series of name changes later occurred; s follows: Joint Community Relations Committee, Central Region (1962-1978), Joint Community Relations Committee, CJC, Ontario Region (ca. 1978-ca. 1991) Community Relations Committee, CJC, Ontario Region (ca. 1991-present) Records in this series were reorganized into 5 sub-series and a further 9 sub-sub-series during the 2009 to 2011 period. For further details please view the database records for Fonds 17, Series 5. Although this series will eventually hold all CRC records up to 1992, only those prior to 1979 are currently fully processed.

Notes

Physical description note: Includes 1839 photographs, 89 audio cassettes, 11 videocassettes, 4 drawings, and 6 microfilm reels (16 mm).

Processing note: Processing of this fonds is ongoing. Additional descriptive entries will be added in future.

Name Access

Canadian Jewish Congress. Ontario Region

Subjects

Pressure groups

Access Restriction

Partially closed. Researchers must receive permission from the Archivist prior to accessing some of the records

Arrangement

Partially closed. Researchers must receive permission from the Archivist prior to accessing some of the records.

Creator

Canadian Jewish Congress. Ontario Region (1919-2011)

Places

Ontario

Source

Archival Descriptions

Part Of

Lipa Green fonds

Level

Fonds

Fonds

20

Material Format

textual record

graphic material

Date

[190-]-1979

Physical Description

42 cm of textual records

69 photographs : b&w and sepia (23 negatives) ; 21 x 26 cm or smaller

Admin History/Bio

Lipa (Louis) Green (1899–1976) was born on 15 April 1899 in Usupow, Poland. He immigrated to Toronto in 1910 and later began work as a bricklayer. In 1924, Lipa married Fanny Green and had three sons: Abraham (Al), Harold and Sam; and three daughters: Deana (Weiman), Rookie (Goldstein), and Shavy (Tishler). In 1948, with partner, Arthur Weinstock, he founded the Greenview Construction Company, later to be renamed Greenwin. Green's sons, Al and Harold, along with Weinstock's son-in-law Al Latner, later became involved in the business.

Green was a prominent Jewish communal leader and philanthropist in Toronto and was affiliated with organizations such as the Labor Zionists (Farband), the Jewish Vocational Service and the Jewish Public Library. He was a strong advocate of the Yiddish language and was involved with many Yiddish committees, both at the local and national levels. The current building for Jewish agencies in Toronto is named the Lipa Green Building for Jewish Community Services.

Custodial History

The records were in the possession of Lipa's son, Harold, before being donated to the OJA in January 1978.

Scope and Content

This fonds consists of records documenting Lipa Green's personal life as well as his professional and philanthropic endeavours. Included are financial documents, event invitations and programs, meeting minutes, photographs, personal, business and organizational correspondence, speeches and writings, a scrapbook, records on a cooperative Jewish summer resort near Pickering, Ontario, as well as some material produced by other organizations and collected by Green during the course of his life. Most of the personal correspondence, speeches and other writings are in Yiddish, including Green's reminiscences on his life in Poland and his bar mitzvah. The files have been grouped according to personal records, business records, organizational records and ephemera.

Name Access

Green, Lipa, 1899-1976

Subjects

Businesspeople

Immigrants--Canada

Philanthropists

Physical Condition

Some of the photographs are in very poor condition and require conservation work.

Related Material

See Gordon Mendly Fonds 18 for a portrait of Lipa Green.

Arrangement

The records had been previously arranged as MG6 A. Many of the files were kept or combined, but several new files were also created to better reflect the records in the fonds. Several files were also culled as they did not relate to the mandate of the OJA. See the accession record for further information on the culled materials.

Creator

Green, Lipa, 1899-1976

Accession Number

1978-1-4

2004-5-150

Source

Archival Descriptions

Part Of

Solomon Edell fonds

Level

Fonds

Fonds

4

Material Format

multiple media

Date

[ca. 1900]-2010

Physical Description

3.1 metres of textual records and other material

Admin History/Bio

Sol Edell (1919-2000) was a prominant member of the Toronto Jewish community who initially pursued a career as a pharmacist and was later founder and president of the property development company, Elmdale Investments. He held positions as board member or chair in a wide variety of religious, educational and social service organizations and institutions both in Canada and Israel. In Toronto, these included: Clanton Park Synagogue, Adas Israel Synagogue, Jones Avenue Cemetery, Canadian Jewish Congress and the Jewish Federation of Greater Toronto (formerly Toronto Jewish Congress, and now the United Jewish Appeal Federation of Greater Toronto).

Edell was born in Toronto on 5 March 1919, the son of Pesach and Molly Edell. He attended Harbord Collegiate and graduated from the Toronto College of Pharmacy, University of Toronto, in 1943 while on leave of absence from the army. He was enlisted in the Canadian Armed Forces during the Second World War and served in the signal corps.

After he completed his army service, he opened Edell’s Drug Store at 1978 Queen Street in Etobicoke in 1948, the first shomer Shabbat drug store in the city. He operated a second store at 494 Spadina Avenue in the late 1940s. In 1955 the Queen Street location was expropriated by the City of Toronto. Subsequently, Edell founded Elmdale Investments, the company which built and managed the Elmhurst Plaza in Etobicoke. He reopened the drug store, which was renamed Elmhurst Drugs in the plaza. He also invested in two retail textile stores, Deltex Drapery and Dodd’s Drapery which had been founded by group of businessmen including his cousin Israel Edell.

In 1952 he married Dolly Weinstock, the daughter of Moishe and Sylvia Weinstock. They lived in the newly developed suburb of North York with their four children: Ethel, Simcha, Malka and Joseph. After 10 years of marriage, Dolly died and in 1966, he married Celia Rogen Hoffman.

Sol Edell was a founding member and first president of the Clanton Park Congregation. He was actively involved in the construction of the synagogue and its development. He continued to be affiliated with Shomrai Shabbos where his grandfather Rabbi Yosef Weinreb had been the rabbi. He was also involved with Adas Israel, the synagogue in Hamilton where his wife Celia had been an active member.

He was chair of the Canadian Jewish Congress, Ontario Region -- Toronto Jewish Congress Archives Committee, which subsequently became the Ontario Jewish Archives. During his tenure, the archives was responsible for the reconstruction of the Kiever Synagogue which had been built in the early 1900s but had fallen into a state of disrepair by the 1960s.

Sol Edell was also involved in a number of Zionist organizations. He was the founding chair of the Aliyah Support Committee of the Jewish Federation of Greater Toronto, whose mandate was to assist Torontonians who had moved to Israel and ease their transition into Israeli society. He was also an active member of the Mizrachi organization and its affiliated institutions. Another one of Sol Edell’s interests was ensuring the preservation of local cemeteries. He was president of the Jones Avenue Cemetery and on the board of Pardes Shalom and the Bathurst Lawn Cemetery, Clanton Park section.

Scope and Content

Fonds consists of records documenting Sol Edell's business activities, community involvement and personal life. Included is correspondence, meeting minutes, photographs, financial records, legal records, publications, audio-visual material, invitations, newspaper clippings, artifacts, lists, reports, speeches, and architectural drawings.

The fonds is organized into the following eleven series: Personal; Edell's Drug Store and Elmhurst Pharmacy; Elmdale Investments; Deltex Drapery and Dodd's Drapery; Adas Israel Synagogue; Clanton Park Synagogue; Shomrai Shabbos; Aliyah; Cemetery and funeral home; Historical materials; and, Activities and organizations.

Notes

Physical description note: includes 739 photographs, 232 architectural drawings, 11 audio cassettes, 9 audio reels, 13 film reels, 7 videocassettes, 4 slides, 1 plaque, 4 badges, and 1 key.

Name Access

Edell Solomon, 1919-2000

Clanton Park Synagogue (Toronto, Ont.)

Edell, Dolly

Edell, Celia

Edell's Drug Store

Elmhurst Pharmacy

Jones Avenue Cemetery

Canadian Jewish Congress/ Toronto Jewish Congress Archives

Aliyah Support Committee

Subjects

Business

Pharmacists

Access Restriction

Partially closed. Researchers must receive permission from the OJA director prior to accessing some of the records.

Physical Condition

The bulk of the architectural drawings are currently being stored rolled up. They should be flattened and encapsulated in melinex.

Film and sound reels should be digitized.

Related Material

See fonds #5 for material related to Paul Edell.

See accession #2012-10/9 for material related to the Edell family.

Creator

Edell, Solomon, 1919-2000

Accession Number

2002-12-2

2008-8-29

2011-5-4

2012-10-9

Source

Archival Descriptions

Part Of

David Pinkus fonds

Level

Fonds

Fonds

138

Material Format

textual record

graphic material

graphic material (electronic)

architectural drawing

philatelic record

sound recording

cartographic material

object

Date

1854-2021

Physical Description

ca. 2.4 m of textual records

ca. 600 photographs : b&w and col. (ca. 90 negatives); 30 x 35 cm or smaller

other material

Admin History/Bio

David Pinkus (1924-2021) was born on May 11, 1924, at the Toronto General Hospital to Isadore Pinkus (1887-1947) and Molly (Mollie) Pinkus (née Parelstein) (1892-1990). Isadore was born in Kiev Gubernia of the Russian Empire; Molly was born in Podolia Gubernia of the Russian Empire and later moved to Ukraine with her family. Isadore and Molly met and married in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, in 1910 and moved to Toronto in 1911. The Pinkus family settled in Kensington Market in around 1914 and was one of the first Jewish settlers to the Kensington neighbourhood. David spent his entire life living in the Kensington Market area. He lived on 83 Huron Street until 1927 when the Pinkus family moved to 34 Nassau Street, which has been the house of the Pinkus family ever since. David had two siblings: brother Max and sister Goldie.

In his childhood, David attended the Brunswick Talmud Torah daily and learned Hebrew. He had his bar mitzvah at the Kiever Shul. David attended William Houston School until 1930 and Ryerson Public School until grade eight. Later, he attended Harbord School for high school and was also involved with sports at Harbord Collegiate and YMHA. In 1947, David obtained his Bachelor of Applied Science degree in mechanical engineering from the University of Toronto. After graduation, he worked at Goodyear for one year and returned to the University of Toronto as an instructor of engineering drawing and machine design. Later, he worked at various places such as Canadian Industries Limited in Maitland, Toronto Iron Works, and Avro Aircraft Limited.

David’s father, Isadore, was one of the founders of the Kiever Synagogue. David’s involvement with the Kiever Synagogue started in 1947, following Isadore’s death. David served as president and held positions on the executive of the Kiever Shul and played a principal role in the restoration of the shul. He also served on Toronto’s Board of Health as well as the boards of the Toronto General Hospital, Toronto Western Hospital, and St. Christopher House. In addition, David was an active community leader and local historian. He did genealogical research for many Toronto Jewish families. David had been recognized by the National Jewish Federation of North America as a Jewish community hero in 2011. He passed away on May 6, 2021.

Custodial History

Records received after the death of David Pinkus through Joseph Solomon, the executor of David Pinkus’ estate. Records have been selected by archivists following a site visit at David’s home at 34 Nassau Street, Toronto.

Scope and Content

Fonds consists of textual records, graphic material, sound recordings, architectural drawings, artifacts, and a small number of philatelic records, most of which document David Pinkus’ career and personal life, the Pinkus family, the Kiever Shul, the Kiever Cemetery, as well as Mount Sinai Cemetery Association (Mount Sinai Memorial Park) and the Dawes Road Cemeteries (Amalgamated Dawes Road Trustees), of which the Kiever Congregation is a member organization. Also included are documents and photographs of other individuals and families, which David collected for his genealogical research, and those that are pertaining to Kensington Market and other congregations and cemeteries.

Textual records include correspondence; scrapbooks; education records; identification documents; research notes and clippings relating to David’s genealogical research; documents pertaining to his Kensington Market activism and community work; files on David’s engineering career and his role as president of the Kiever Shul; and files documenting the Pinkus family members, such as funeral documents, notebooks, family correspondence, voters’ lists, and records relating to Pinkus Fruit Co. and 34 Nassau Street. Also included are records documenting the Kiever Shul, which include meeting minutes, ledger books, financial documents, legal documents, membership lists and application forms, address books, high holiday service cards, and historic papers dating from the 1920s and 1930s. Textual records documenting the Kiever Cemetery, Mount Sinai Memorial Park, and the Dawes Road Cemeteries are mainly comprised of cemetery maps, burial plot cards, burial record books, by-laws and regulations, and meeting minutes. Also present are records pertaining to other congregations and cemeteries, such as constitution books, brochures, booklets, and copies of legal documents.

Photographs mainly feature David Pinkus and the Kiever Cemetery, with a small number featuring the Pinkus family members, the Junction Synagogue (Congregation Knesseth Israel), the Great Choral Synagogue of Kyiv, and those that David collected for his genealogical research.

Architectural drawings of this fonds include the restoration and renovation plan for the Kiever Shul and the alteration plan for Mount Sinai Cemetery Administration Building.

Also present are sound recordings, including cassettes and microcassettes of David Pinkus; and artifacts, including felt patches, pin back buttons, medals, Toronto foot-pedlar registration badges, and a wooden gavel of the Kiever Shul.

Fonds has been arranged into the following series: David Pinkus’ personal records; Kensington Market; David Pinkus’ genealogical research; the Pinkus family; the Kiever Shul; the Kiever Cemetery; Mount Sinai Memorial Park; the Dawes Road Cemeteries; and other associations, congregations, and cemeteries.

Notes

PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION NOTE: Also included are 22 architectural drawings, 7 maps, 4 audio cassettes, 2 microcassettes, 1 optical disc, 8 drawings, 2 prints, 1 photo collage, 34 pinback buttons, 15 Toronto padler-on-foot registration badges, 8 felt patches, 3 medals, 3 brooches, 1 wooden gavel, 2 tax tokens, 2 postage stamps, 1 sales tax stamp, and 9 revenue stamps.

SCOPE AND CONTENT NOTE: Books that were initially included in this fonds have been removed and incorporated into the OJA’s library collection. These books are: Spadina Avenue by Rosemary Donegan with an introduction by Rick Salutin, Toronto No Mean City by Eric Arthur revised by Stephen A. Otto, Canadian Jewish Directory edited by Edmond Y. Lipsitz, The Toronto Jewish Directory, and The Canada Year Book 1905 (second series).

HISTORY/BIO NOTE: Information is sourced from OH 413 and the content of the fonds.

Name Access

Pinkus, David, 1924-2021

Kiever Synagogue (Toronto, Ont.)

Mount Sinai Cemetery Association (Toronto, Ont.)

Mount Sinai Memorial Park (Toronto, Ont.)

Dawes Road Cemetery (Toronto, Ont.)

Amalgamated Dawes Road Trustees (Toronto, Ont.)

Subjects

Families

Synagogues

Genealogy

Cemeteries

Access Restriction

Partially closed. Researchers must receive permission from the OJA director prior to accessing some of the records.

Repro Restriction

Copyright may not be held by the Ontario Jewish Archives. It is the responsibility of the researcher to obtain permission prior to use.

Related Material

See accessions 2004-1-5, 2004-1-6, 2004-2-1, 2008-11-9, 2016-3-48, and 2021-10-1 for additional information on the Kiever Shul; and OH 413 for more information on David Pinkus and the Pinkus family.

Arrangement

Records came into the OJA with no discernible order. Arrangement has been imposed by the archivist.

Creator

Pinkus, David, 1924-2021

Places

Toronto (Ont.)

Kensington Market (Toronto, Ont.)

Accession Number

2021-7-3

Source

Archival Descriptions

Part Of

Edelstein family fonds

Level

Fonds

Fonds

111

Material Format

textual record

graphic material

object

text

Date

1890-2005

Physical Description

2 m of textual records

30 photographs

4 posters

2 artifacts

12 books

1 CD

Admin History/Bio

Isaac Edelstein (1889-Dec. 1954) was born to Ronya Edelstein (née Silver) ([18--?]-June 1921) and Abraham Edelstein (1846-[19--?]). The family moved to Canada in 1913, arriving in Quebec before settling in Toronto. Isaac, the eldest, had five siblings: Archibald, Bessy, Lilian, Goldie, and Harry. Isaac married Ida (Hebrew name: Chaya) (1898-1978), who immigrated to Canada from Gomel district in Homiel Province, Belarus.

Isaac was a tailor and Ida was a dressmaker. Isaac and Ida had two children: Rony (nickname Renne) Rabassa (b. 4 Jan. 1931) and Albert (nickname Abi) Edelstein (26 Sept. 1925-1 May 2021).

After meeting through shared involvement in Habonim, Albert married Ruth (née Blumenstein) (15 Sept. 1928-30 Mar. 2023) on 2 Jan. 1949. They had 4 children, 11 grandchildren, and 7 great-grandchildren.

Albert received vocational training as a watchmaker at Central Technical School, and spent the majority of his career as a retailer, operating a jewelry store with his wife Ruth. He was the president of the District Jewelers Association (1983-1984) and the chairman of the Queen Broadview Business Improvement Area in the 1990s. Ruth and Albert's children were educated in the Jewish day school system. Ruth was involved in the National Council of Jewish Women.

Scope and Content

Fonds consists of records documenting the personal lives of members of the Edelstein family and their communal affiliations.

Name Access

Edelstein (family)

Subjects

Families

Creator

Albert Edelstein

Accession Number

2000-1-1

2000-2-2

2000-3-3

Source

Archival Descriptions

Part Of

Pappenheim family fonds

Level

Fonds

Fonds

113

Material Format

multiple media

Date

1906-2005

Physical Description

2.0 m of textual records and other material

Admin History/Bio

Albert Pappenheim (1921-1984) was born to Jonas (1877-1941) and Irma (1881-1941) Pappenheim in Frankfurt am Main, Germany. He had three siblings, Ernst (b. 1911), Karla (m. Goldschmidt) (1912-1989), and Ruth (m. Possen) (1915-2010). From 1936-1938, Albert studied at the Jewish Teachers Seminary (ILBA) in Wurzburg, Germany, but his studies were interrupted due to Kristallnacht. Albert was sent to study at a yeshiva in England, but was declared an illegal immigrant with the start of the war and was interned and sent to Canada in 1940. He was interned at Ile aux Noix in Richelieu River in Quebec along with other yeshiva students. Upon his release from the camp, he resumed his rabbinical studies and became a prominent rabbi and community leader in Toronto. He married Rhoda Helen (née Kabatznik) Pappenheim (1925-1987) who was born to Eli and Sarah Kabatznik. Rhoda studied to be a teacher at Toronto Normal School. Albert and Rhoda had a daughter Irma. Albert's sister and brother-in-law Karla and Max Goldschmidt emigrated to Palestine. Sister and brother-in-law Ruth and Leo Possen eventually joined Albert in St. Catharines after the war.

Albert received a BA in Oriental Languages in 1947 and MA in 1949 at the University of Toronto. He also continued his training at Yeshiva Torath Chaim Toronto under Rabbi Abraham Price and took the rabbinic exam in 1949. He led the Congregation B'nai Israel in St. Catharines, Ontario from 1948-1953. In 1953, he moved to Lexington, Kentucky to be the rabbi of Ohava Zion Congregation. While in Lexington, he was also a lecturer at the University of Kentucky in Hebrew and Biblical History. In 1956, he returned to Canada to be the rabbi of Beth David Congregation in Downsview, Toronto. Beth David amalgamated with B'nai Israel Synagogue in 1960 and with Beth Am Congregation in 1977. Albert also served on many rabbinical organizations and committees. He was the Chairman of the Education Committee for the United Synagogues of America, Ontario Region; Secretary of the Rabbinical Assembly, Central Region, Canada; and Chairman of the Religious Affairs Committee of the Canadian Jewish Congress, Central Region. His service and contributions to the rabbinical community was recognized through an honourary doctorate from the Jewish Theological Seminary of America in 1975.

Custodial History

The records were donated by Irma Pappenheim, daughter of Albert and Rhoda Pappenheim in three accessions. Some of the letters created and accumulated in researching the Pappenheim family history were in the custody of her aunt Karla.

Scope and Content

Fonds consists of records documenting the life and activities of Rabbi Albert Pappenheim and his family, including genealogical research conducted by his daughter Irma Pappenheim. The majority of records document Albert's activities as a rabbi at B'nai Israel Congregation in St. Catharines, Ontario; Ohava Zion Congregation in Lexington, Kentucky; and Beth David B'nai Israel Beth Am Congregation in Toronto. Records include sermons and related research, newspaper clippings, newsletters, bulletins, scrapbooks, photographs, correspondence, and administrative records. Also included are copies and originals of family correspondence and related material chronologically documenting the Pappenheim family history from the 1930s onwards, including translations. Other records document Albert's personal life and education with some material related to his wife Rhoda and her mother Sarah Kabatznik and include posthumous tributes, letters, and clippings.

Fonds is arranged into six series: 1. Personal, 2. Posthumous material, 3. Sermons and writings, 4. Rabbinical activities and congregational records, 5. Genealogical research 6. Scrapbooks

Notes

Physical Description Note: Includes ca. 250 photographs, 4 scrapbooks, 2 CDs, 3 audiocassettes, 1 audio disc and 1 USB key.

Duplicate copies of genealogical research, sermon notes, and other publications were culled.

Arrangement

Original order was preserved whenever discernible with sermons and writings largely organized into subject files and genealogical research in chronological order.

Creator

Pappenheim (family)

Accession Number

2005-10-1

2017-1-14

2017-8-12

Source

Archival Descriptions

Part Of

Ben Kayfetz fonds

Level

Fonds

Fonds

62

Material Format

multiple media

Date

1919-2001

Physical Description

93 cm of textual records and other material

Admin History/Bio

Benjamin Gershon Kayfetz was born on December 24, 1916 in Toronto, graduating from the University of Toronto in 1939, with a B.A. in modern languages. Between the years 1941 and 1943, he worked as a high school teacher in Huntsville and Niagara Falls. In 1943, he joined the war effort, working for the Department of National Defense in Postal Censorship and was responsible for reviewing prisoner of war mail. After the war, Kayfetz traveled to British Occupied Germany where he worked as a censor of telecommunications with the Control Commission until 1947.

Upon returning to Toronto, he was hired as the National Director of Community Relations by the Canadian Jewish Congress (CJC), and as the Executive (National) Director of the Joint Community Relations Committee (JCRC), a CJC - B'nai B'rith cooperative organization. He also served as the Central Region Executive Director of the CJC between 1973 and 1978. During his tenure, he worked with various churches, unions and minority groups to develop anti-discrimination laws and for the protection of minority and religious rights. Kayfetz was also actively involved in promoting the welfare of Jewish Communities worldwide, and made visits to Cuba in 1962 and 1965, and Russia in 1985, to study and report on the state of these Jewish Communities. After his retirement in 1985, he was awarded the Samuel Bronfman Medal by the Canadian Jewish Congress. In recognition of his efforts to promote Human Rights, he was also awarded the Order of Canada in 1986.

In addition to his professional activities, Kayfetz wrote articles for various Jewish publications under both his own name and the pseudonym, Gershon B. Newman, and gave a weekly radio address on CHIN radio addressing various contemporary Jewish issues. He was also actively involved in the Toronto Jewish Historical Society (serving as its president), Canadian Jewish Historical Society and Yiddish Luncheon Circle. Ben Kayfetz died in 2002.

Scope and Content

Fonds consists of materials produced or acquired by Ben Kayfetz in both his personal and professional capacity. It includes biographical materials, minutes, correspondence, recorded CJC and JCRC meetings, memorabilia, transcripts and recorded versions of CHIN radio broadcasts he delivered, as well as various interviews, speeches, articles, book reviews and works he composed. Fonds also consists of minutes, agendas and other records of various Yiddish and historical associations Mr. Kayfetz was involved in.

Notes

Physical Description note: includes 20 photographs, 107 audio cassettes, 1 Beta video cassette and 1 object.

Fonds includes audio tapes 1-5, 7-32, 35-37, 39-42, 44-45, 47-50, 53-56, 58-64, 66-67, 70-85, A1-A5, A7-A9, A12-A14, A16-A20, A23-A28, A30, A32-A38 and A40-A43.

Name Access

Kayfetz, Ben, 1916-2002

Access Restriction

Partially closed. Researchers must receive permission from the OJA director prior to accessing some of the records.

Related Material

Audio tapes AC 246-AC 275 belonged to Ben Kayfetz and are related to this fonds.

Creator

Kayfetz, Ben, 1916-2002

Accession Number

1975-012, 1976-10-4, 1980-12-13, 1982-2-2, 1983-6-2, 1985-4-2, 1987-2-3, 1996-5-4, 1998-3-22, 2000-11-4, 2004-3-1, 2004-5-20, 2006-2-9, 2006-8-4

Source

Archival Descriptions

Part Of

Philip Givens fonds

Level

Fonds

Fonds

51

Material Format

multiple media

Date

[192-]-1990

Physical Description

1.35 metres of textual records (20 vols.) and other material

Admin History/Bio

Philip (Phil) Gerald Givens, QC, (1922–1995) was a Canadian politician, judge, police commissioner, and active Jewish communal leader. He is is largely remembered as the fifty-fourth mayor of Toronto.

Phil Givens was born in Toronto, the only son of Hyman and Mary Gevertz (Gewercz). As a youth, he attended Harbord Collegiate and graduated from the University of Toronto in political science and economics in 1945. In 1947, he married the former Minnie “Min” Rubin. They had two children together: Eleanor and Michael.

Givens graduated as a lawyer from Osgoode Hall Law School in 1949; however, shortly thereafter, he decided to enter politics, running as a municipal school board trustee in 1950. In 1951, he was elected as alderman for Ward 5, serving in this capacity until 1960, when he was subsequently elected as a controller.

Givens was appointed Queen’s Counsel in 1962.

Following the sudden death of Mayor David Summerville in 1963, Givens was appointed by City Council as the mayor of Toronto and was officially elected to the position in 1964, winning a close race against Allan Lamport. As mayor, Givens was automatically a member of the Metropolitan Toronto Executive and Council, the Metropolitan Toronto Police Commission, the Consumer’s Gas Company Executive, the Toronto Hydro Commission and the governing boards of Toronto’s major hospitals.

Givens was publicly seen as an affable and populist mayor, but his tenure was not without controversy. His support for the construction of the St. Lawrence Centre for the Arts and his decision to acquire Henry Moore’s bronze sculpture The Archer for the new Nathan Phillips Square were both highly controversial during his term in office. In particular, the Moore sculpture sparked intense controversy and public debate amongst council members and citizens alike, because traditional and representational public art pieces were the norm in Toronto at the time and The Archer sculpture was considered expensive, bold, and unrelatable. The controversy surrounding the statue’s purchase was still partly to blame for Givens’ 1966 election defeat to William Dennison. Ultimately, the sculpture was purchased with privately solicited donations and has become one of Toronto’s beloved and recognized landmarks.

Givens ran for the House of Commons of Canada in the 1957 and 1958 federal elections but was defeated in his bid to become member of Parliament for Spadina. In 1967, Givens entered national politics for the second time, winning a seat as a Liberal in Toronto’s York West riding. In 1971, he stepped down before the end of his term to campaign for a seat in the Legislative Assembly of Ontario. Again, running under the Liberal banner, Givens won his seat in York-Forest Hill. In the 1975 provincial election, he was re-elected as a member of Provincial Parliament in the Armourdale constituency.

In 1977, Givens retired from politics and was appointed as a provincial court judge and chair of the Metropolitan Toronto Police Commission, serving in both capacities until 1985, when he left the Commission but continued in the judiciary as a civil trial judge until officially retired from public life in 1988.

In addition to his political career, Givens also worked briefly as a current affairs commentator for local radio broadcaster CHUM 1050 AM.

Givens was an ardent Zionist and a prominent leader of several Jewish communal organizations. He was the founder and first president of the Upper Canada Lodge of B’nai Brith and sat on the executives of the Canadian Jewish Congress, the United Jewish Welfare Fund, the Talmud Torah Eitz Chaim, the Zionist Organization of Canada, the Toronto Zionist Council, Jewish National Fund, State of Israel Bonds, and the Baycrest Centre for Geriatric Care. He was chair of the United Israel Appeal-Israel Emergency Fund in 1967 and the United Jewish Appeal-Israel Special Fund in 1968. From 1973 to 1985, he was the national president of the Canadian Zionist Federation. In the 1990s, he served as the national chairman of the Committee for Yiddish of the Canadian Jewish Congress.

Givens was the honouree of the Jewish National Fund’s Negev Dinner in 1968. He received the Human Relations Award from the Canadian Council of Christians and Jews in 1969 and the Award of Honour from the Toronto Regional Council of B’nai Brith in 1972.

Givens was also known to be a passionate sailor and was a member of both the Royal Canadian and the Island Yacht Clubs in Toronto.

Custodial History

The records were in the possession of Phil Givens until they were donated to the Archives in September 1990 by his wife.

Scope and Content

Fonds consists of records documenting the personal, professional and communal activities of Phil Givens. The bulk of the material is graphic and most of the photographs relate to his tenure as Mayor of Toronto and to his Jewish communal work. The records also include general correspondence, speeches, campaign material, scrapbooks, cartoons, certificates and awards, biographical writings, audio and visual materials and artifacts. The records have been arranged into nine series representing Givens’ various roles and activities and have been described to the file level and item level when necessary. These series are: 1. Personal life; 2. City of Toronto Alderman; 3. City of Toronto Controller; 4. City of Toronto Mayor; 5. Metropolitan Toronto Police Commissioner; 6. Provincial politics; 7. National politics; 8. Legal career; 9. Jewish communal service.

Notes

Physical Description Note: Includes ca. 915 photographs, 14 drawings, 1 print, 1 presentation piece, 27 objects, 4 DVD’s, 4 videocassettes and 1 audiocassette.

Physical Extent Note: Fonds was reduced from 5.5 m of records to 2.6 m of records. Please see accession record for further details regarding the records that were culled.

General Note: Previously cited as MG6 B

Associated material note: City of Toronto Archives: “Philip Givens fonds” (fonds 1301) and Series 363, Sub-series 2 “Mayor' Office journals” (fonds 200). Library and Archives Canada: “Correspondence and subjects” series (R4942-1-1-E) in the Stuart E. Rosenberg fonds (R4942-0-X-E); Henry S. Rosenberg fonds (R3946-0-9-E); Jewish National Fund of Canada fonds (R4347-0-1-E), “Subject series: Givens, Judge Philip G. – Toronto” (R4347-7-4-E); “Correspondence, memoranda, minutes, reports” series (MG31-H67), Zdzislaw Przygoda fonds (R6257-0-0-E) [Sir Casimir Gzowski monument committee records –chaired by Phil Givens]; B'nai Brith Canada fonds (R6348-0-9-E); Canadian Zionist Federation fonds (R9377-0-6-E).

Name Access

Givens, Phillip, 1922-1995

Givens (nee Rubin), Min

Subjects

Law

Politicians

Related Material

See Fonds 2: Benjamin Dunkelman fonds

See Fonds 18: Gordon Mendly fonds

See Fonds 28: Zionist Organization of Canada fonds

See Fonds 37: Gilbert Studios fonds (Negev dinners series, Zionist Building series, Portraits series).

Creator

Givens, Philip, 1922-1995

Accession Number

1990-9-7

Source

Archival Descriptions

Part Of

Benjamin Dunkelman fonds

Level

Fonds

Fonds

2

Material Format

multiple media

Date

1898, [192-?]-1997

Physical Description

80 cm of textual records and other material

Admin History/Bio

Benjamin Dunkelman (1913–1997) was a successful businessman and president of Tip Top Tailors. He had a distinguished military career in both the Canadian Army during the Second World War and in the Haganah during the 1948 Arab-Israeli War.

Benjamin was born in Toronto to David Dunkelman (1883–1978) and Rose (née Miller, 1889–1949). He had three sisters and two brothers: Joseph, a movie executive; Ernest, a manufacturer; Zelda; Veronica; and Theodora. His father, David, was a successful entrepreneur who established Tip Top Tailors in 1910. Both David and his wife Rose were fervent Zionists.

Benjamin attended Upper Canada College and, at the age of eighteen, visited Palestine for the first time. While in Palestine, he worked for a year on a kibbutz, mostly as a guard. During the Second World War, he served as a major in the Queen’s Own Rifles of Canada; as major, he gained respect for his knowledge of mortars. He was awarded the Distinguished Service Order (DSO) in 1945 for his role in the final Allied assault on Germany. Two years later, Benjamin returned to Palestine to join the Haganah in the 1948 Arab-Israeli War. As a commander, he captured Nazareth and brought northern Galilee under Jewish control. Near the end of the war, he met and married Yael Lifshitz (m. Dunkelman), a corporal in the Israeli army. Benjamin was elected national commander of the Jewish War Veterans of Canada in 1977.

In addition to his work as a soldier, Benjamin was a successful businessman. He served as president of Tip Top Tailors after his father stepped down; he was also director of Colonial Finance Corporation, president of Cloverdale Shopping Centre, and president of Renforth Developments. Besides operating the Dunkelman Gallery, Benjamin and his wife, Yael, ran the Constellation Hotel and Dunkelman’s Restaurant.

Dunkelman later wrote of his experiences in both wars in his autobiography "Dual Allegiance" (published by MacMIllan). As well as the DSO, Dunkelman was awarded the Fighter’s Decoration of the State of Israel (1970), and an Israel Bonds Award Dinner in Tribute to Ben Dunkelman (1977). He was a guest of honour both at a reception hosted by the Canadian Society for the Weizmann Institute of Science and the veterans of the Queen’s Own Rifles of Canada (1976) and at a 7th Brigade Reunion in Israel (1991).

Scope and Content

Fonds consists of records documenting Benjamin Dunkelman's personal, business, and military activities. Included is personal and business correspondence and other records, maps, photographs, news clippings, and scrapbooks assembled by Dunkelman. The bulk of the records relate both to Dunkelman’s autobiography Dual allegiance and to his military career in the Second World War and in the 1948 Arab-Israeli War. Other records relate to his business work with Tip Top Tailors, the Constellation Hotel, Dunkelman’s Restaurant, and the Dunkelman Gallery, as well as to his Zionist actvities, his writing and public speeches, and his personal life.

The fonds is organized into the following series: Personal records and correspondence, Zionist materials, Businesses, Second World War, Arab-Israeli War, Dual Allegiance, and Speeches.

Notes

Physical description note: Includes 218 photographs, 60 maps, 7 postcards, 5 architectural drawings, and 3 albums.

Associated material note: see the Ben Dunkelman fonds at Library and Archives Canada.

Name Access

Dunkelman, Benjamin, 1913-1997

Subjects

Authors

Israel-Arab War, 1948-1949

World War, 1939-1945

Related Material

See fonds #39 (Rose Dunkelman fonds).

Creator

Dunkelman, Benjamin, 1913-1997

Accession Number

2000-3-4

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

Part Of

Henry Weingluck fonds

Level

Fonds

Fonds

44

Material Format

multiple media

Date

[ca. 1939]-1985

Physical Description

60 cm of textual records and other material

Admin History/Bio

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. Weingluck was born in Zawiercie, Poland on May 7th, 1902, to an Orthodox Jewish family. He was the son of Alter Weingluck, a footwear designer. 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.

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 emigrated 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) Weingluck (1904-1987), whom he met in Canada. Henry died in Toronto in 1987.

Scope and Content

Fonds consists of material related to the personal life and artistic career of Henry Weingluck. The records pertain to the following: his experiences during the war and in the work camp at Beaulieu, France; his emigration to Canada; his restitution claims for artworks confiscated by the Nazis; his exhibitions; and his art gallery on College Street in Toronto. These records include personal and professional correspondence, certificates, photographs, newspaper clippings, personal writings, publications, programmes, exhibition catalogues, designs and sketches, and artifacts.

Notes

Physical description note: includes 30 photographs, 1 audio cassette, 22 designs and sketches, and 16 objects.

Associated material note: the Canadian Jewish Congress National Archives (Montreal) has a collection of paintings and other records of Henry Weingluck.

Name Access

Weingluck, Henry, 1902-1987

Subjects

Artists

Physical Condition

Some of the records are in fragile condition.

Related Material

See also the Ontario Jewish Archives' news clippings file under "Weingluck, Henry"

Creator

Weingluck, Henry, 1902-1987

Accession Number

1988-2-11

Source

Archival Descriptions

Part Of

Scheuer family fonds

Level

Fonds

Fonds

47

Material Format

textual record

graphic material

object

Date

[187-]-1959

Physical Description

6 folders of textual records

2 window plates : brass

58 photographs : b&w ; 25 x 20 cm or smaller

Admin History/Bio

The Scheuer family dates back to at least the eighteenth century in Germany to Moise Scheuer (1765-1846) and Esther Ackerman (1770-1847). Their son, Isaac Scheuer (1809-1889), married Hannchen (Johanna) Strauss (1815-1878) in 1843. Isaac and Johanna had six children: Gabriel (1844-1922), Camilla (1845-1916), Edmund (1847-1943), Emma (1853-1916), Ida (1855-1902), and Benno (Benjamin) (1857-1921).

While Gabriel, Emma, and Ida remained in Europe, Camilla, Edmund, and Benno immigrated to Canada in the late nineteenth century. Camilla came to Hamilton, Ontario after her marriage in 1866 to Herman Levy, co-founder of the Levy Brothers jewellery business. Edmund became a partner in the business when he first immigrated to Canada in 1871, and lived with Camilla and Herman. Camilla became the acknowledged leader of Jewish women in Hamilton. She served in organizations such as the Deborah Ladies' Aid Society, which eventually became an auxiliary of Temple Anshe Sholom, Canada's oldest Reform congregation, often referred to as the Hughson Street Temple. Edmund established the first Sabbath School in Ontario at Anshe Sholom in 1872 and served as president from 1873 to 1886.

After he was established in Hamilton, Edmund returned to Europe in 1873 to marry Oda Strauss (1854-1913) at Forbach, Lorraine, and then brought her back to Canada with him. The couple moved to Toronto in 1886, where he established a wholesale jewellery business on Yonge Street called Scheuer's under his company Edmund Scheuer Limited. Scheuer's was one of the oldest jewellery firms in Toronto and the oldest established wholesale diamond importer in Canada. Edmund's brother, Benno, also worked for the business as the accountant and then secretary-treasurer. Benno was married to Gatella Strauss (1859-1903) and they had three children: Eddie Jr. (1884-1967), Rhoda (1886-1963) and Isadore (1887-1969). Eddie Jr. and Isadore also worked for their uncle's business. Eddie Jr. started as a clerk and then became vice-president, while Isadore started out as a travelling salesman and jeweller. When their uncle retired in 1922, Eddie Jr. took over as president and his brother Isadore became vice-president of Scheuer's.

In addition to his jewellery business, Edmund Scheuer also taught and supervised the religious school at Holy Blossom Synagogue. He went on to serve in every official capacity at Holy Blossom, including vice-chairman and treasurer of the building committee for the Bond Street building. He also founded The Jewish Free School at 206 Beverley Street for Jewish girls and wrote his own textbook for the school, the first Jewish religious school book printed in Toronto. In 1892, he founded the first Jewish benevolent society in Toronto and was later president of the Federation of Jewish Philanthropies. In 1927, the Beverley Street building, which housed Federation offices, was dedicated in his honour and named the "Scheuer House".

Scope and Content

Fonds consists of records documenting the Scheuer family in Germany, Hamilton, and Toronto. The fonds is made up primarily of photographs of Scheuer family members and friends. It also includes some textual records, including correspondence, marriage certificates, a Toronto Jewish Free School text book, and Holy Blossom Temple Bulletins. Also included are two brass "Scheuer's" window plates which were likely from Edmund Scheuer's jewellery business of the same name.

Notes

Associated Material Note: See the CJC National Archives collection for Edmund Scheuer at: http://www.cjc.ca/template.php?action=archives&Type=1&Language=EN&Rec=253

Name Access

Scheuer (family)

Subjects

Families

Related Material

See OJA vertical file cabinet for "Scheuer, Edmund" and "Levy, Camilla"

See MG3 A1 Holy Blossom

See MG2 G1C - Edumund Scheuer's Zionist Free School

Saarbrücken City Archives - May have records pertaining to Edmund's brother Gabriel Scheuer (1844-1922) who remained in Germany.

Arrangement

The textual records have been arranged in chronological order into five files. The objects have been described as one file. The fifty-eight photographs have been described as two files and thirty-nine items arranged chronologically

Accession Number

1989-4-2

2004-7-1

Source

Archival Descriptions

Part Of

Henry Rosenbaum fonds

Level

Fonds

Fonds

121

Material Format

graphic material

graphic material (electronic)

textual record

Date

1928-2015

Physical Description

247 photographs : b&w and col. (1 negative); 20 x 25 or smaller

13 cm of textual records

Admin History/Bio

Henry "Hanoch" Rosenbaum (1925-2015) was born in Radom, Poland. He was the second youngest of eight children born to Rachel Rosenbaum (née Katz) and Moshe Rosenbaum.

In the aftermath of the Second World War, Herny learned the fate of Radom's Jewish civilian population. Two thirds of Radom's Jewish population were victims of mass murder and perished in the extermination camp Treblinka, immediately following the first liquidation of Radom's large ghetto in August 1942. Henry's parents, two siblings, and their families were among the innocent victims murdered during the Holocaust.

Henry Rosenbaum met his wife Bella Rotbard (1925–2012) while living in an Italian DP camp after the war. Although Bella was also from Radom, she did not know the Rosenbaum family. Bella's parents, her sixteen-year-old sister, and four-year-old brother, as well as most of her parents' extended families, were also victims of the Holocaust.

While in Italy, the Joint Distribution Committee funded "mock kibbutzim," preparing Holocaust survivors for immigration to Palestine and kibbutz life. Bella, a one-time member of the secular Jewish youth movement Hashomer Hatzair, believed that she was destined to be a "kibbutznik," a member of a kibbutz.

In 1946, Bella and Henry immigrated to Palestine as part of the Bricha. The Bricha supported the illegal immigration of Holocaust survivor refugees to Palestine. They spent their first few days in Atlit, a British Mandate detainee camp and soon settled on kibbutz. Bella married Henry in 1946 and moved to an apartment in Ramat Gan. During this time Henry served in the IDF’s motor pool.

Henry, Bella, and their young daughter Brenda (b. 1949) immigrated to Toronto in 1952. With the assistance of a relative, Henry gained employment in a print shop sweeping floors. Henry soon advanced to machine operator and in 1961 opened his own print shop, Trio Press Limited.

Bella worked in the garment industry, sewing collars onto shirts and earned her wages through piece work. She continued working in manufacturing up until the birth of her second child Murray (b. 1961).

Henry Rosenbaum was an active life-long member of the Radom Society and served as editor for their quarterly Yiddish and English journal the Voice of Radom.

Custodial History

Material was in possession of Henry Rosenbaum's daughter Brenda Bornstein.

Scope and Content

Fonds illustrates the family history of Henry Rosenbaum and the life he and his wife Bella Rosenbaum rebuilt in Canada. Photographs document: early life in Poland, displaced persons camp in Italy, immigration to Palestine, military service in the Israel Defense Forces, family life in Israel, immigration and settlement in Canada and many milestone events and celebrations in Toronto, Ontario. Additional photographs of the Radom Society in Toronto. The majority of the photographs were assembled in a scrapbook created by their daughter Brenda Bornstein in celebration of her parents' thirtieth wedding anniversary (1976). In addition, there is a more comprehensive biography written by Henry and Bella's son-in-law Eric Bornstein.

Fonds consists of records relating to Henry Rosenbaum and his affiliation with B’nai Radom. Included are programs and souvenir booklets from the 1962 unveiling of a monument in memory of the Jewish Martyrs and Heroes of Radom and Vicinity (Poland), annual Holocaust remembrance (Yizkor) events published in 1987 and 2010; and a 50th Anniversary of Liberation publication. Books include a Yiddish language bound copy of the Voice of Radom from 1963-1965, an English language bound copy of the Voice of Radom 1983–1989 and Henry Rosenbaum’s personal memoir published in 1995. In addition, there are eight photographs of Henry's great-grandchildren, and a photo of Henry with his daughter Brenda.In addition there is a collection of speeches written by Henry Rosenbaum primarily for family milestone events such as weddings, birthdays, bar mtizvahs, and bat mitzvahs. In addition there is a copy of a presentation made to the Radom Congregation on the occasion of Israel's twenty-fifth year of independence, a Hebrew-language letter of congratulations, and several personal letters written by Murray Rosenbaum (the latter are addressed to his parents while travelling to Israel and Europe). The personal speeches written and delivered by Henry were in honour of the following relatives: Rivi Anklewicz, Marshall Lofchick, Murray Rosenbaum, Elana Aizic, Regina Goldstein, Brenda Rosenbaum, Eric "Ricky" Bornstein, Murray Severin, Robin Severin-Weingort, Rachel Bornstein, Susan Szainwald, Daniel Bornstein, Sholom Rosenbaum, Bella Rosenbaum, Linda Goldstein, and Leon Aizic.

Subjects

Holocaust survivors

Creator

Rosenbaum, Henry, 1925-2015

Places

Poland

Italy

Palestine

Israel

Toronto (Ont.)

Accession Number

2015-10-5

2017-2-13

2019-7-1

Source

Archival Descriptions

Part Of

Congregation Beth David fonds

Level

Fonds

Fonds

88

Material Format

multiple media

Date

[ca. 1916]-1996, predominant 1940-1996

Physical Description

38 cm of textual records (9v.) and other material

Admin History/Bio

The Brantford Hebrew Association, Congregation Beth David’s precursor, was founded in 1907 when Rabbi Backer officiated Brantford’s first public Jewish religious service in an upper hall on George Street. Services had previously taken place in the homes of Jewish families, who had begun settling in the area around the turn of the century. By 1911, services had moved to the old Conservative Hall at Dalhousie and King Street. In 1915, the congregation purchased a building at 33 Palace Street and remodeled it into a synagogue. This building was also used as a community centre and for the Congregation’s Hebrew school.

On October 13th, 1911 the congregation was incorporated, and the following year it purchased land for a cemetery in the northeast corner of Mount Hope Cemetery. Due to increasing membership, a new synagogue was built at 50 Waterloo Street in 1948. In January 1950, the congregation changed its name to Beth David in honour of member David Axler, who died during the Second World War while training as a pilot in the Royal Canadian Air Force.

The congregation was at its peak in the 1960s with 150 member families. However, membership drastically fell after the children of this generation moved to larger cities and their parents followed after retirement. By 1999, only 28 families remained as members and services were reduced to being held on the High Holidays and special occasions, such as, b'nai mitzvah. Dwindling resources and membership forced the congregation to close around 2001. Throughout its existence, over 30 rabbis served the congregation, including Rabbi Saul Wolfe Gringorten (ca. 1910-1923). Its cemetery continues to be looked after by Allan Norris, a past president of the congregation.

Scope and Content

Fonds consists of records documenting the acitivities, religious programs and services, membership, and finances of Congregation Beth David, as well as the recognition and honours awarded by and to Brantford's Jewish community. Included are meeting minutes, photographs, plaques, a key, a marriage register, general ledgers, ledgers and lists of membership dues and receipts, audited financial statements, budgets, correspondece, bulletins, office stationary, newsclippings, certificates, library book cards, bookplates, rabbi contracts, and surveys.

Fonds has been arranged into the following six series: 1. Meetings ; 2. Religious programs and services; 3. Finances & accounting ; 4. Administrative functions ; 5. Bulletins ; and, 6. Events.

Notes

Includes 10 microfiches of textual records, 5 architectural drawings, 11 photographs (4 negatives), 3 plaques, 1 mounted letter and 1 key.

Fonds was reduced from ca. 1 metre to ca. 45 cm. See accession 2001-10-3 for further information about the culled material.

Name Access

Congregation Beth David (Brantford, Ont.)

Subjects

Architecture

Communities

Synagogues

Physical Condition

The binding on some of the general ledgers is fragile and coming apart. They have been stored flat to reduce any strain.

The architectural drawings have some tears and should be flattened.

Related Material

Please see the Sadie Stren fonds 78 for other records documenting Brantford's Jewish community and the Beth David Congregation, including the synagogue's original letters of incorporation.

For other photographs documenting Congregation Beth David, see: accesssion 1976-6-5 (photo # 1133); accession 1976-6-6 (photos # 1138, 1137, 1136); accession 1976-6-13; accession 1986-2-2 (photos #3593-3595, 3856, 3889-3894), photo #918; and, photo #578.

For records related to Beth David's namesake, David Axler, and photographs of its cemetery, please see accession #2004-5-71.

For records of Rabbi Gringorten, see accession #2009-2-5 and 2008-11-3

For additional records related to Brantford families and other Jewish organizations, such as the Hadassah chapter and B'nai Brith lodge, please see accession #2001-10-3; MG 2J29a, #2009-7-1, 1978-11-4, 1977-8-16, 1992-8-3, 1980-1-14, 1978-1-2, 2008-7-1, photo# 109, photo# 755, and photo #758.

Arrangement

Fonds is arranged to the file-level, but only described to the series-level. Three file-level descriptions exist for files attached directly to the fonds. Photographs with existing item-level descriptions were also attached to the fonds.

Creator

Congregation Beth David (Brantford, Ont.)

Places

Brantford (Ont.)

Accession Number

2001-10-3

1978-11-4

1981-12-2 / MG3 B16

1976-6-8

Source

Archival Descriptions

Part Of

Rabbi Samuel Sachs fonds

Level

Fonds

Fonds

106

Material Format

textual record

Date

1914-1979

Physical Description

63 cm of textual records

Admin History/Bio

Rabbi Samuel Sachs (1894-1989) was the spiritual leader of Goel Tzedec Synagogue from 1927 to 1946, when the congregation was housed on University Ave.

Rabbi Sachs was born on 1 September 1894 in Vilnius, Lithuania. He was the son of Yehuda Sachs and Reiza Malka Sachs. He had two siblings: sisters Khaya Sachs and Rebecca Sachs.

As a child he attended Radin, one of the classical yeshivas in Lithuania. Coming to the United States, he studied at the Isaac Eichanan Yeshiva and the Jewish Theological Seminary. He received his smicha (rabbinical ordination) in 1916 and in the ensuing ten years served in Brooklyn, Detroit, and Portland, Oregon.

He married Florence "Fayge" Farber (1902-1976) on 24 Oct. 1920 in Detroit, Michigan. Together, they had four children: Judah (Jerry) Raphael Walpert, David Sachs; Mendel Sachs and Elliott Sachs.

In 1927, Sachs moved to Toronto to become the spiritual leader of Goel Tzedec Synagogue.

Notably, Sachs led the deputations to Mayor William Stewart to stop the flaunting of an inflammatory swastika banner during the Christie Pits riot of 1933. The following year, when the Canadian Jewish Congress was reorganized, Sachs joined the public relations committee, which he chaired for a time. He was also active on the Jewish education committee, the German boycott committee and the arbitration committee.

Later, in the war years, he was chairman of the Intra-Jewish Committee — a body which undertook to enforce that Jewish merchants and dealers complied with the wartime restrictions on various supplies and provisions.

He acted as prison chaplain in the 1930s and honorary chaplain to the Royal Canadian Air Force during the Second World War.

He left Toronto in 1946 because of an illness that was removing his voice leaving him unable to perform most of his rabbinical tasks. In California he partially regained this function and carried on certain rabbinical and teaching tasks. He died on 25 April 1989 in Santa Monica at the age of 94.

Scope and Content

Fonds consists of records created by Rabbi Samuel Sachs. Included are his sermons and related notes on a number of biblical themes, general writings, prayers, speeches, and general correspondence.

Name Access

Sachs, Samuel, 1894-1989

Subjects

Rabbis

Source

Archival Descriptions

Part Of

Joseph Baruch Salsberg fonds

Level

Fonds

Fonds

92

Material Format

multiple media

Date

1914-1993

Physical Description

1.2 m of textual records (2 v.) and other material

Admin History/Bio

Joseph Baruch Salsberg (1902-1998) was a labour leader, political activist, politician, insurance salesman, and journalist. He was also active in various Jewish organizations, including the Canadian Jewish Congress (CJC), the Jewish Federation of Greater Toronto, and the New Fraternal Jewish Association. He is well-remembered by contemporaries, such as Sam Lipshitz, as a “champion of the people," committed to social justice, the plight of the working class, and the preservation of Jewish culture.

J. B. was born in Lagow, Poland on November 5, 1902 to Abraham and Sarah-Gittel Salsberg. Abraham immigrated to Toronto in 1910 and J. B. followed with his mother and two younger sisters in 1913. They settled at 73 Cecil Street. Abraham and Sarah-Gittel had additional children in Canada: Nathan (b. 1915), Reuven (Bob or Robert, b. 1917), Betty, and Thelma. Abraham worked as a peddler in Toronto.

J. B. briefly attended Landsdowne Public School, but dropped out around 1916, against his parents' wishes, and took a job in a leather goods factory to contribute to his family’s income. J. B.’s parents had hoped he would become a rabbi and, despite his full-time employment, J.B. continued to study Torah with scholars at the synagogue on Centre Avenue.

In 1917, J. B. decided to pursue the ideas of Zionism and socialism and, abandoning his plans to become a rabbi, became involved in establishing the Young Poale Zion organization, a Labour Zionist youth group dedicated to secular aims. Around 1922, J. B. was made secretary general of the Young Poale Zion of America in New York, where he worked for one year. Shortly after returning to Toronto, he became the organizer for the Hat, Cap, and Millinery Workers Union of North America in Chicago. J. B. married Dora Wilensky in 1927.

In 1926, J. B. joined the Communist Party of Canada (CPC). He was an active member of the CPC for 30 years, serving as the head of its Trade Union Department for two decades. In 1929 he was suspended from the party for one year as a dissenter. In 1932, he became the Southern Ontario District union organizer for the Communist Workers' Unity League.

It was as a member of the CPC that J. B. entered electoral politics. After a series of failed bids in municipal and provincial elections between 1935 and 1937, J. B. was elected alderman of Ward 4 in Toronto in 1938. He only held the position for one year. He was re-elected to this position in 1943, beating out Nathan Phillips, before being elected to the Ontario Legislature as the representative for the St. Andrew riding. J. B. sat as member of provincial parliament for the Labor-Progressive Party (the provincial wing of the CPC) for 12 years. For several years, he was the only elected Communist in North America. As MPP, he helped create legislation banning discrimination in public places and introduced a bill that would ensure fair employment practices in the province. He lost his seat to Allan Grossman in 1955 and unsuccessfully ran in the federal election later that year. Remembered by journalist Gordon Sinclair as “one of the best debaters in the house," J. B. was well-respected by members of all political parties. Out of admiration for J. B., Conservative Premier Leslie Frost named Salsberg Township in Northern Ontario in his honour.

Throughout the 1930s and 1940s, J. B. had grown increasingly concerned about reports of Soviet antisemitism and privately urged party leaders to pursue the issue. In 1956, when Soviet First Secretary Nikita Khrushchev exposed the transgressions of Stalin’s regime, J. B. went to Moscow as part of a CPC delegation. After meeting with Khrushchev himself, it became clear to J. B. that antisemitism was indeed a problem in the USSR and that his efforts to probe the situation were being stonewalled.

J. B. publicly expressed his concerns about Soviet antisemitism in a series of articles published in the Vochenblatt from October 25, 1956 to December 13, 1956. He finally left the Communist Party in 1957. However, he remained a member of the United Jewish People’s Order (UJPO), a Communist Jewish fraternal organization.

Entering the business world, J. B. established the Model Insurance Agency Limited in 1957, where he served as president for several years. In 1959 J. B.’s wife, Dora, passed away. Around this time J. B. also resigned from the UJPO, along with other members who felt the organization needed to be more critical of the Soviet Union. They founded an alternative, non-Communist, left-wing Jewish organization, the New Fraternal Jewish Association, where J. B. served as president for several terms and edited its publication, Fraternally Yours.

In his later life, J. B. was active as an executive member of organizations, such as the CJC and the Baycrest Centre for Geriatric Care. He was the first chairman for the CJC Ontario Region’s Soviet Jewry Committee and the Committee for Yiddish. He also began writing an award-winning weekly column for the Canadian Jewish News. J. B. was awarded the CJC’s Samuel Bronfman Medal for distinguished service, and the Jewish Federation of Greater Toronto’s Ben Sadowski Award of Merit. A strong supporter of Israel, he was involved in the creation of two Israeli medical centres that are named in his honour. He also helped establish the J. B. and Dora Salsberg Fund and the J. B. Salsberg Fund for Yiddish at the Jewish Foundation of Greater Toronto. J. B. passed away in 1998.

Custodial History

The records were donated to the OJA in a series of accessions. Material from accessions 1991-5-4 and 1992-9-4 were donated by J. B. Salsberg. The remaining material was donated by his estate after his death.

Scope and Content

Fonds consists of records documenting J. B. Salsberg's personal, professional and Jewish communal activities. The bulk of the records are textual and relate to his membership in the CPC (later LPP), election campaigns, and Jewish communal work. Included is correspondence; photographs; reports; political writings; certificates; agendas; pamphlets; brochures; booklets; flyers; campaign literature; campaign notes; posters; newspaper clippings; press releases; articles; transcripts; speeches; telegrams; political platforms, briefs and submissions; statements; constitutions; resolutions; newspapers; meeting minutes; bulletins; periodicals; notebooks; notes; course guides and outlines; medallions; pins; plaques; donation receipts; event invitations and programmes; lists; blank employment applications; a school test; a study; a coin; a drawing; a sketch; an audio cassette; and a delegate card.

Records are arranged into the following five series: 1. Personal ; 2. Labour Zionism and union activities ; 3. Political career ; and, 4. Jewish community involvement. There are also four files and one item attached directly to the fonds.

Notes

Physical Description Note: Includes 53 photographs, 7 medallions, 11 pins, 4 posters, 2 plaques, 1 sketch, 1 drawing, 1 audio cassette, 1 desk name plate, and 1 coin.

Physical Extent Note: Fonds was reduced from approximately 7 metres to 1.5 metres. The culled material consisted primarily of published books, periodicals and pamphlets that had been collected by J. B. Salsberg. For further details about what was culled please view the accession records.

Associated Material Note: Queen's University Archive also has a J. B. Salsberg fonds, 14 hours of interview tapes with J. B. Salsberg and records of the UJPO are held by the Multicultural Historical Society of Ontario (MHSO).

Name Access

Salsberg, J. B.,1902-1998

Subjects

Labor leaders

Politicians

Related Material

For additional records in OJA's holdings, see: Ben Kayfetz fonds 62, series 8, file 2 ; accession 2008-11-2 ; accession 2004-1-4 ; and oral histories AC 71 and AC 226.

Creator

Salsberg, Joseph Baruch, 1902-1998

Accession Number

1991-5-4

1992-9-4

1998-2-2

1998-12-5

2004-5-28

2010-4-1

Source

Archival Descriptions

Part Of

Zionist Organization of Canada fonds

Level

Fonds

Fonds

28

Material Format

textual record

graphic material

moving images

Date

1908-1979, predominant 1955-1976

Physical Description

7.4 m of textual records and other material

Admin History/Bio

The Zionist Organization of Canada (ZOC) (1921-1978) acted as the official voice of Zionism in Canada, promoting the aims of Zionism in communities across the country. The ZOC adhered to the principles of the Jerusalem Program of the Zionist movement founded by Theodor Herzl in 1898 during the First Zionist Congress held in Basle Switzerland. These principles included: 1) the promotion of immigration to Israel; 2) raising funds to carry out the aims of Zionism; 3) encouraging investment in Israel; 4) fostering Jewish consciousness; and 5) mobilizing public opinion about Israel and the Jewish communities of the Diaspora.

The Federation of Zionist Societies of Canada (FZSOC) was founded in 1898 as the national collective of groups representing Zionist interests in Canada. In 1921 the organization changed its name and was incorporated as the Zionist Organization of Canada, becoming the primary umbrella organization for Zionist groups in Canada.

The ZOC was a broad-based organization that embraced an ideology of nationhood which attracted influential national leaders within the Jewish community as well as thousands of members across the country. ZOC's main office was located in Montreal until 1970, when it moved to the Toronto Zionist Centre on Marlee Ave, Toronto. ZOC provided smaller communities, which had few institutional supports, with vital linkages to the metropolitan centres through their programs that were run out of the regional offices and local Zionist councils. The Zionist Organization of Canada operated as an umbrella group that oversaw Zionist funds and administered the budgets of such organizations as Canadian Hadassah-WIZO, the Men's Zionist Organization of Canada and Young Judaea. ZOC programs promoted a stronger Jewish identity amongst Canadian Jews and familiarity with Hebrew through the periodical, Canadian Zionist. These programs included book clubs, lunch clubs, film exhibits, youth camps, travel offices, and two television programs during the 1970s on cable television in Montreal and Toronto.

In 1967, ZOC became a constituent member of the new Federated Zionist Organization of Canada (FZOC), along with Canadian Hadassah-WIZO, the Labour Zionist Movement of Canada, Mizrachi Hapoel Hamizrachi Organization of Canada, Zionist Revisionist Organization of Canada, Achdut Avoda, and Friends of Pioneering Israel (Mapam). In 1972, FZOC became the Canadian Zionist Federation (CZF). During the 1970s, ZOC's functions were gradually absorbed by the Canadian Zionist Federation, the CZF Central Region based in Toronto, and by the Toronto Zionist Council. By 1978, the Zionist Organization of Canada had ceased to function as an organization.

Scope and Content

The Zionist Organization of Canada (ZOC) records span a 70 year period between 1908, with the formation of the Toronto Zionist Council (and its affiliated corporation, the United Zionists of Toronto) and the creation of the Zionist Organization of Canada in 1921, until 1978. The bulk of the records in the fonds were created after 1950.

The fonds is organized into two sous-fonds and eight record series. The sous-fonds contain records of the ZOC Central Region and the Toronto Zionist Council, which exercised considerable autonomy in their work under the ZOC umbrella. The record series include records relating to: ZOC's executive bodies, the National Administrative Council and Executive Board, and their predecessor, the Executive Committee of the Federation of Zionist Societies of Canada (1919-1976); the National Camps Association, responsible for overseeing the administration of summer camps owned by ZOC (1961-1968); Canadian Young Judaea, the youth wing of ZOC which was also responsible for the operation of ZOC summer camps (1957-1978); the ZOC Department of Education and Culture's cable television programme, Shalom (1971-1977); ZOC national conventions (1946-1975); the Federated Zionist Organization of Canada, of which ZOC became a member organization on its formation in 1967 (1972-1978); and the 28th World Zionist Congress held in 1972. The fonds also includes a series of subject files, the primary recordkeeping system for ZOC's administration, and a series of photographs of prominant persons and events maintained by ZOC for its public relations work.

Notes

Physical description note: Includes: ca. 1100 photographs (b&w and col.; some negatives), 24 embossed prints, 3 film reels (col., Super 8 mm), and 1 videocassette (col., VHS).

Associated material note: Additional records of the Zionist Organization of Canada can be found at the Canadian Jewish Congress National Archives (Montreal), Library & Archives Canada (Ottawa), and the World Zionist Organization's Central Zionist Archives (Jerusalem)

Name Access

Zionist Organization of Canada

Subjects

Zionism

Access Restriction

Partially closed. Researchers must receive permission from the OJA director prior to accessing some of the records.

Creator

Zionist Organization of Canada (1921-1978)

Source

Archival Descriptions

Part Of

Hillel Foundation, University of Toronto fonds

Level

Fonds

Fonds

65

Material Format

textual record

graphic material

architectural drawing

Date

1945-1988

Physical Description

3.72 m of textual records, graphic material and architectural drawings

Admin History/Bio

The B’nai Brith Hillel Foundation was founded at the University of Illinois in 1923 by Rabbi Benjamin Frankel. The University of Toronto chapter was established in 1946, by which point there were over one thousand Jewish undergraduates at the university. Hillel’s mandate was to foster students’ Jewish identity, creating a religious, cultural, and communal environment and coordinating the activities of many affiliated sub-groups. Hillel was supported by the B’nai Brith Foundation and the United Jewish Welfare Fund (later the Toronto Jewish Congress), with increasing operational funding from the latter as the decades passed.

Hillel’s predecessor at the University of Toronto was the Menorah Society, founded in 1917 and disbanded in 1931 due to waning interest. In 1944 the Jewish Student Fellowship was formed, and on January 23, 1946 it was transformed into the University of Toronto B’nai B’rith Hillel Foundation.

Hillel chapters were run with the guidance of a professional appointed by the B’nai Brith Hillel Foundations at American and Canadian Universities. During the period covered by this fonds, U of T Hillel had four directors: Rabbi Aaron Kamerling (director 1946-1970), Rabbi Eliyahu Eliezri (1970-1971), Ben Mayer (1971-1978), and Gerry Fisher (1978-1981). The director answered to a board of advisors, drawn from the university and Jewish communities, that was responsible for maintaining Hillel House, overseeing staffing, and representing the foundation to the public. Early chairmen of this board included Edward E. Gelber, Jack D. Pearlstein, Cyril Houser, Dr. Alexander Lipson, Sidney Midanik, and E. M. Sprackman.

At the day-to-day operations level, Hillel was run by an elected council of thirteen students under the director’s guidance. At U of T, the Hillel student council created and implemented a yearly program, edited the literary magazine and Hillelite bulletin, and over the years maintained the following standing committees: religious; cultural; house; social; publicity; art, music and drama; United Jewish Appeal; debates; membership; and seminar. The council met monthly and was required to call general meetings bi-monthly.

Hillel’s first administrative offices were at 492 Spadina Avenue, with programs held in various locations, including the B’nai Brith Youth Organization space at 750 Spadina Avenue, and local synagogues. From the beginning, Hillel joined forces with the B’nai Brith Youth Organization to raise funds for a permanent home on campus for Hillel. Programs in the early years included Shabbat services and lectures, arts performances, dances, personal counseling, and courses such as Jewish literature and Hebrew. Three times a year Hillel published the Scribe, a literary magazine addressing topics of Jewish heritage, life, and prominent figures. This was replaced in the 1950s by an annual magazine named Reflections. The Hillelite bulletin informed members of activities and events. Hillel continued to build the Judaica collection of its Norman Raitblat Memorial Library. It also sent delegates each year to the Hillel Summer Institute in New York State; the Brandeis Camp Institute, a leadership training program sponsored by the American Zionist Youth Commission; and, beginning in 1948, the Inter-Hillel Conference, which was hosted alternately by Queen’s University, McGill University, and U of T.

In 1950, Hillel acquired a house at 186 St. George Street. Hillel House was formally dedicated at Convocation Hall on January 21, 1951. In December 1977 Hillel House was destroyed by fire, after which its offices were moved to space in the YMHA building at Bloor and Spadina. Programs were hosted for several years at ‘The Lower East Side’ in the Newman Centre at 89 St. George Street. In June 1979 Hillel acquired office space in a house at 604 Spadina Avenue.

In the 1970s Hillel’s numbers across North America were in decline. In 1974 the Jewish student population at U of T was approximately 3000, but only 400 were registered members. This slump was apparently reversed by the end of the decade, however, when student interest grew enough that a general council of forty students was established to supplement the elected student council (steering committee). 1970s programs included conventions and retreats, United Jewish Appeal fundraising campaigns, a Shabbat co-op, a choir, the Coffeehouse lounge, a film series, a music club, a library society, an annual Purim Bash, an art festival, and counseling groups.

Hillel also served as the voice of Jewish students at the university. The U of T chapter participated in the fight against quotas for Jewish students and faculty, advocated for kosher food availability on campus, and was successful in persuading the university to avoid having examinations on Jewish holidays. In addition, Hillel often represented the views of the Jewish community to the general student population. It has been involved in the dissemination of Holocaust awareness material and in counteracting propaganda against Israel.

In 1970, partnering with the Jewish Student Federation of York University, Hillel established the Free Jewish University. Its courses were held on the U of T and York campuses and featured free courses covering a range of intellectual, personal and practical topics. Also in conjunction with York, Hillel published Or monthly newspaper and the Masada quarterly magazine. The latter evolved into a non-partisan newspaper, Migdal, which in turn became Images in the early 1980s. In addition, the Jewish Students’ Enquirer was published monthly, a joint publication of Jewish students at U of T, York University, Ryerson Polytechnical Institute, and Seneca College.

In 1978, with a view to modernize and reinvigorate its image, Hillel changed its name to the Jewish Students’ Union–B’nai Brith Hillel. The decision involved some contention with the Hillel advisory board, and reflected a closer association with the Toronto Jewish Congress. A third unofficial organization name, J.U.S.T. (Jewish University Students of Toronto), was used for the monthly newsletter, J.U.S.T. News. This newsletter was briefly renamed The Rolling Scribe before being discontinued in 1980.

The 1980s saw Hillel coordinating the efforts and activities of a large number of interest groups: Student United Jewish Appeal, Toronto Student Zionists, Student Struggle for Soviet Jewry, Jewish Residence Council, Jewish Studies Course Union, Student Mobilization for Jews in Arab Lands, Moadon Aliyah, Canadian Branch: North American Jewish Students Network, and Israeli Students Organization. Hillel is now represented on three Toronto universities and three college campuses.

Scope and Content

Fonds consists mainly of textual records created, received and maintained by Hillel directors from 1945 through 1988. The records document the directors’ administration and programming activities, Hillel events, and relations with outside organizations. The most concentrated set of records are those of Rabbi Kamerling from the 1940s and 1950s. The fonds is comprised of correspondence, memoranda, reports, newspapers and newsletters, publicity material, calendars of events, financial records, event programmes, and catalogues. There are blueprints of the proposed extension to Hillel House in the 1960s, the mid-1970s renovations, and the new Hillel House on Huron Street considered in 1978. The fonds also includes annual reports for 1953-1955 and 1960-1970, and a number of publications (incomplete sets): the Hillelite and the Hillel Scribe from the 1940s, the J.U.S.T. (Jewish University Students of Toronto) News, its successor The Rolling Scroll, and newspapers Masada, Migdal, Reflections, Or, and the Jewish Students’ Enquirer.

The fonds contains 130 photographs, predominantly black and white, in the form of prints, contact sheets and 35mm negatives. Aside from 32 head shots of speakers and performers from 1950s events, the photographs date from the 1970s. There are images of plays, meetings, special events, and executive members.

Fonds is arranged with each director’s files separate and in approximate alphabetical order by file name. The files are loosely based on subject/function, likely as they were originally created. Rabbi Kamerling’s records are in two groups since they were acquired in two accessions (see note below).

Notes

Availability of other formats: A small amount of material has been digitized.

Name Access

B'nai Brith Hillel Foundation at the University of Toronto

Related Material

See MG 9 for a more complete run of publications with which Hillel was involved (eg. Midgal, Images).

Arrangement

Processing of the collection maintained each director’s files separate and in their original order. Following the Hillel House fire in 1978, Rabbi Kamerling’s records (1945-1955) were acquired by the Archives. In 1986, additional Kamerling files were acquired (1946-1970). These overlapping sets of records were described and processed separately.

Creator

B'nai Brith Hillel Foundation at the University of Toronto (Toronto, Ont.)

Accession Number

1978-3-7

1981-5-2

1988-11-2

Source

Archival Descriptions

Part Of

Dr. Isadore M. Cass fonds

Level

Fonds

Fonds

40

Material Format

textual record

graphic material

Date

1909-1995

Physical Description

45 cm of textual records

14 photographs : b&w (8 negatives) ; 18 x 13 cm

Admin History/Bio

Dr. Isadore M. Cass (1916-1996), a well-known pathologist and practicing mohel--Jewish ritual circumcisor--for the Toronto Jewish community, was born and educated in Toronto, attending the University of Toronto's medical school. After serving with the army during the Second World War, Dr. Cass returned to Toronto to private practice. He began studying pathology in 1953, and performed research at the Ontario Cancer Institute, Connaught Labs and the Ontario Department of Health throughout his career. He was chief of pathology at Ajax and Pickering hospitals for twenty-three years, until his retirement in 1986.

In 1945, Dr. Cass began doing ritual circumcisions and was the first medical doctor in Toronto to do so. He performed over 40,000 circumcisions throughout Canada and the eastern United States and trained many physicians to perform them as well.

Dr. Cass was a member of the following organizations: New York Academy of Sciences; the Academy of Medicine, Toronto; the Israel Medical Association; General Wingate Branch of the Royal Canadian Legion; and many other associations and societies.

Dr. Cass studied Torah under Rabbi Jacob Gordon and was a Torah reader at Goel Tzedec Synagogue and later, Beth Tzedec. He also studied and taught Torah throughout his life, chairing the Canadian Jewish Congress' Tanach study group for many years, and leading weekly Gemara classes at Beth Tzedec. He belonged to Shaarei Shomayim and Beth Lida synagogues, as well as Lubavitch. In 1987, Dr. and Mrs. Cass were honoured as "Couple of the Year" by Machanaim, The Network of Educational Institutions in Kiryat Gat, Israel, for their great contributions to this charity over the years.

Dr. Cass was married to Miriam Cass and they had four daughters: Sharon, Hylah, Judy, and Elaine. He had four brothers: the late Rabbi Samuel Cass, Harry, Al, and Elie (who was a Reform mohel), and two sisters: Miriam Cass and Zelda Fink. He also had seven grandchildren and three great-grandchildren.

Dr. Cass died on January 24, 1996 of cancer.

Scope and Content

The fonds consists of records relating to the personal and professional life of Dr. Isadore Cass. These records include appointment books documenting circumcisions he performed, correspondence, writings, Tanach study group notes, a Machanaim invitation and programme, prayer books, certificates, memorial cards, and photographs.

Name Access

Cass, Isadore M., 1916-1996

Subjects

Physicians

Access Restriction

Partially closed. Researchers must receive permission from the OJA director prior to accessing some of the records.

Physical Condition

The prayer book is in poor condition and some of the early daytimers are in fair condition.

Related Material

See also the Ontario Jewish Archives' reference news clipping file under "Cass, Dr. Isadore".

Creator

Cass, Isadore M., 1916-1996

Accession Number

1997-5-1

1997-8-2

Source

Archival Descriptions

Part Of

Rabbi Yehuda Leib Graubart fonds

Level

Fonds

Fonds

42

Material Format

textual record

graphic material

Date

1884-1974

Physical Description

21 cm of textual records

3 photographs : b&w ; 21 x 26 or smaller

Admin History/Bio

Rabbi Yehuda Leib Graubart (1862–1937) was chief rabbi to Toronto's Polish Jews, director of Eitz Chaim Talmud Torah, and a leading spokesman for Orthodox Jewry during the 1920s and 1930s. Rabbi Graubart was born in Poland, the descendant of a prominent rabbinical family. He was a noted rabbi and posek (legal decisor) in Poland, St. Louis (USA), and, later, Toronto. In Poland, he served in Stashov, the district from which most of Toronto's Polish Jews had emigrated. He was renowned for his religious knowledge and published works and for his efforts in creating rabbinical associations throughout Poland and Russia. He was also an enthusiastic Zionist.

On 18 August 1920, Rabbi Graubart became the communal rabbi of Toronto's Polish Jews, succeeding Rabbi Judah Rosenberg. He soon took charge of the Eitz Chaim Talmud Torah, and, in 1922, he formed a yeshivah called Shaarei Torah. He was the recognized authority for Polish-Jewish congregations on the supervision of kosher food production, which involved him in ongoing disputes with other Toronto rabbis of the time, including Rabbis Jacob Gordon and Joseph Weinreb.

Rabbi Graubart developed the first communal eruv in Toronto, enabling Jews to carry or move items outdoors on the Sabbath. He launched a campaign against Sabbath violation, publishing notices and holding open-air sermons in Kensington Market, urging Jewish workers and manufacturers not to work on Saturday. He also approached unions urging them to let their employees off for holy days. He was also a spokesman for Mizrachi, the movement of religious Zionists.

Toward the end of his life, Rabbi Graubart withdrew from communal work and concentrated almost exclusively on his writings and the study of rabbinic literature. He was renowned internationally as a scholar and authority in his field. He wrote an autobiography entitled "Book of Memoirs." Rabbi Graubart was married to Esther Graubart (née Liebschuetz), and they had three children: David, Hinda, and Deborah.

Scope and Content

Fonds consists of Rabbi Graubart's marriage registers and certificates, personal and professional correspondence, articles, speeches, sermons, photographs, copies of the introductions to "Chavalim Ba-Ne'Imim" in Hebrew and English, and other personal and family documents.

Notes

ACCESS RESTRICTION NOTE: Rabbi Graubart's marriage registers and certificates post-1937 are closed in accordance with the OJA's privacy policy. Pre-1937 records are open and can be consulted.

Name Access

Graubart, Yehuda Leib, 1862-1937

Subjects

Orthodox Judaism

Rabbis

Access Restriction

Partially closed. Researchers must receive permission from the OJA director prior to accessing some of the records.

Repro Restriction

Copyright may not be held by the Ontario Jewish Archives. It is the responsibility of the researcher to obtain permission prior to use.

Physical Condition

Many of the records are in very fragile condition.

Related Material

See also Photo #3413 and the Ontario Jewish Archives' news clippings file under "Graubart, Rabbi Yehuda Leib"

Creator

Graubart, Yehuda Leib, 1862-1937

Accession Number

1990-5-1

1992-8-6

Source

Archival Descriptions

• 
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Part Of

Solomon Edell fonds

Adas Israel Synagogue series

Level

Series

Fonds

4

Series

5

Material Format

multiple media

Date

1958-2008

Physical Description

21 cm of textual records and other material

Admin History/Bio

Adas Israel is an orthodox congregation that was founded in the 1920s. The original building was on Cannon Street in downtown Hamilton. After the arrival of Rabbi Morton Green in 1958, a decision was made to move the synagogue to the western suburbs of Hamilton. The new building was built in 1961 and also included the Hamilton Hebrew Academy Day School. Since its move, synagogue membership has increased from 75 families to 350 families. Sol Edell became a member in 1966 after he married Celia Hoffman who was a member of the congregation. He did not attend the synagogue and had no regular involvement but did supervise a number synagogue renovation projects.

Custodial History

The material in this series was originally collected by the Hoffman family who were members of the congregation in the 1960s. Sol Edell became a member of the congregation after his marriage to Celia Hoffman in 1966. After her death in 1973, he inherited the material that she had collected and he continued to receive material from the congregation since he maintained his membership until his death in 2000.

Scope and Content

Series consists of correspondence, blueprints, photographs, audiotapes and films relating to the establishment and construction of the new synagogue in 1961. It also includes correspondence and anniversary books documenting a variety of synagogue activities such as the dedication of the synagogue and a tribute dinner honouring Rabbi Mordechai Green. Also included are synagogue bulletins from 1958 to 2000. The series is made up of 6 sub series: Building, Clergy, Religious, Programmes, Administration and Finance, and Publications.

Notes

Physical description note: includes 27 photographs, 3 audio reels, 1 film reel, 15 architectural drawings, and 1 key.

Name Access

Green, Morton, Rabbi

Hoffman, Celia

Hamilton Hebrew Academy Day School

Subjects

Architecture

Education

Synagogues

Source

Archival Descriptions

Part Of

Dov Noy : Toronto Yiddish Folklore Recordings fonds

Level

Fonds

Fonds

133

Material Format

sound recording

textual record

Date

1972-1973

Physical Description

15 cm of textual records

222 sound recordings

Admin History/Bio

Dov Noy (1920-2013), renowned folklorist and ethnologist, was born on October 20, 1920 in Kolomyja, Poland. He immigrated in 1938 to Palestine, where he began his academic studies at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. He obtained his doctorate in folklore from Indiana University in 1954 with a dissertation on the motif-index of Talmudic-Midrashic tales (under the name Dov Neuman).

In 1955, he began his teaching career at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, where he taught aggadah, folk literature, general folklore, and Yiddish. He became professor and holder of the Max Grunwald Chair of Folklore and Hebrew Literature. From this post, he had a profound influence on the development of folklore studies in Israel, mentoring many students and colleagues to engage with folklore and ethnology. He taught and lectured all over the world, particularly on folk narrative and Jewish folklore. He founded and directed the Haifa Ethnological Museum and Folklore Archives (1956–82) and edited the Israel Folktale Archives Publications series until 1981. He founded the Israel Folktale Archives in 1955, now named after him. He was director of the Hebrew University Folklore Research Center from 1968 and edited its journal. He served as the Encyclopaedia Judaica departmental editor for folklore. He started the folklore section at Haifa University within the department of Hebrew Literature. From 1985 to 1992, he served as professor of Yiddish folklore at Bar-Ilan University. In 1992–93 he served as professor of folk literature at Ben-Gurion University and in 1995–96, professor of folklore at Haifa University. In addition to teaching in Israeli universities, Noy devoted himself to spreading Jewish folk culture all over the world. He also wrote and edited about sixty books, including English Folktales of Israel, Jewish Folktales from Morocco, and Studies in Biblical and Jewish Folklore. In 2004, he was awarded the Israel Prize for literary research. Biographies of Dov Noy can be found in the Encyclopedia Judaica, Encyclopedia of Jewish Folklore and Traditions (ed. Haya Bar-Itzhak), Who's Who In Israel and Jewish Personalities from All Over the World, and in the Hebrew Wikipedia.

Scope and Content

Fonds consists of audio reels, cassette tapes, and accompanying finding aids documenting Yiddish folk songs as recalled by Toronto residents. The recordings were made as part of a pilot project initiated by Professor Dov Noy while a visiting professor at University of Toronto. Participants were primarily residents at Baycrest's Jewish Home for the Aged. Participating organizations were the Canadian Centre for Folk Culture Studies at the National Museum of Man; the Eliakum Zunser Centre for the Study of East European Jewish Folklore at the Hebrew University, Jerusalem; and the Canadian Jewish Congress, Central Region. Fonds also includes various textual records produced during Dov Noy's research.

Notes

Scope & Content: Audio reels are copies of the cassette tapes. Cassettes are numbered from 1 to 148, with a DN prefix, and reels are numbered from 1 to 74, comprising two cassettes per reel.

Associated Material Note: The Canadian Museum of History also holds cassette tapes related to this project.

Name Access

Noy, Dov, 1920-2013

Subjects

Songs, Yiddish

Folk singers

Yiddish folklore

Repro Restriction

Copyright may not be held by the Ontario Jewish Archives. It is the responsibility of the researcher to obtain permission prior to use.

Places

Toronto (Ont.)

Accession Number

1974-16

Source

Archival Descriptions

Part Of

Dr. Alexander Brown fonds

Board of Jewish Education series

Level

File

Fonds

95

Series

1

File

29

Material Format

textual record

Date

[ca. 1973]

Physical Description

1 folder of textual records

Scope and Content

File consists of a booklet.

Source

Archival Descriptions

Part Of

B'nai Brith Youth Organization, Lake Ontario Region fonds

Level

Fonds

Fonds

98

Material Format

textual record

graphic material

sound recording

Date

1932-2001, predominant 1990-1996

Physical Description

86 cm of textual records

ca. 300 photographs

2 wire recordings

Admin History/Bio

In accordance with the mandate and ideals of the International B'nai Brith Youth Organization (BBYO), the Lake Ontario Region (LOR) is dedicated to helping Jewish youth understand their history and culture while developing leadership skills through various activities and community service programs. BBYO was first introduced in Ontario as early as the 1920s but LOR was not officially established until after the Second World War. In 1929 the B'nai Brith Toronto Lodge sponsored the first youth chapter with 35 young men as bearers. Membership steadily grew overtime and new chapters began opening throughout the province. By the end of the Second World War, the rapid growth of new lodges and chapters resulted in the formal creation of the Southern Ontario Region (SOR), LOR's precursor. SOR included chapters in Toronto, Hamilton, Kitchener, London, Guelph, and Peterborough. By the 1990s, its name had changed to LOR and chapters from Buffalo, Rochester, and Upstate New York were added to its jurisdiction.

LOR is organized into a series of chapters comprised of AZA (Aleph Zadik Aleph) for boys and BBG (B'nai Brith Girls) for girls with a focus on teens from grades 8-12. Chapters are supervised by an adult board and are youth-led. Members are democratically elected to office by their peers and have control over planning and organizing programs, which include dances, sports activities, festivals, fundraisers, group discussions, community services, trips abroad, and weekend conventions with other BBYO members. Summer camp programs are also offered with the goal of building interpersonal and leadership skills. LOR remains faithful to its original purpose of providing learning experiences for its youth and instilling within them the desire to contribute to their communities as confident and responsible adults.

Scope and Content

Fonds consists of records documenting the activities and programs of the B'nai Brith Youth Organization Lake Ontario Region. Included are meeting notices, agendas and minutes, correspondence, reports and evaluations, constitutions and by-laws, policies, financial records, membership statistics, brochures and booklets, scholarship and award applications, manuals, grant requests, photographs, scrapbooks, event invitations,newspaper clippings, programs, lists, publications, and flyers. Records such as statistics and by-laws also document the Laurentian Region, Red River Region, North Star Region, Evergreen Region and Northwest Canada Region.

Fonds is arranged into sixteen series: 1. BBYO Canada; 2. Regional Board of Directors; 3. Administration; 4. Relations; 5. Correspondence; 6. Reports and Evaluations; 7. Financial Accounts; 8. BBYO Youth Groups; 9. Chapter Advisors; 10. Chapters; 11. Membership; 12. Fundraising; 13. Scholarships and Awards; 14. Programs and Events; 15. Published Material; and 16. Photographs. There are two files attached to the fonds level.

Notes

Associated material note: additional material can be found in the B'nai Brith Canada fonds at Library and Archives Canada.

Name Access

B’nai Brith Youth Organization. Lake Ontario Region

Subjects

Youth movements

Repro Restriction

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

Physical Condition

Scrapbooks are in fragile condition with loose material inside. Some photographs are ripped, torn, and/or faded. The wire recordings need to be reveiwed and, if the contents are usable, digitized.

Creator

B'nai Brith Youth Organization, Lake Ontario Region

Places

Ontario

Accession Number

1977-7-4

2005-9-8

2006-3-10

2007-6-5

Source

Archival Descriptions

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• 
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Part Of

Solomon Edell fonds

Personal series

Level

Series

Fonds

4

Series

1

Material Format

multiple media

Date

[ca. 1900]-2000

Physical Description

49 cm of textual records and other material

Admin History/Bio

Sol Edell, the son of Paul and Mollie Edell, was one of five siblings. He and Dolly Weinstock, the daughter of Moishe and Sylvia Weinstock, had two daughters and two sons and lived in Toronto. After Dolly died in 1961, he married Celia (née Rogen) Hoffman, a widow, in 1966. He became the stepfather to the two sons of Max and Celia Hoffman who had been residents of Hamilton. Some members of the family remained in Toronto while others moved to other parts of Canada, the United States and Israel. Sol Edell was actively involved in or provided financial support to many educational, professional and religious organizations.

Scope and Content

Series includes correspondence, invitations, publications, photographs, family films and a sound recording. The series is made up of seven sub-series: Associations, Charities, Community Activities, Education and Extra-Curricular Activities, Life Cycle and Family Events, Religious, and Residence.

Notes

Physical description note: includes 12 photographs, 7 film reels, 1 audio reel, 1 plaque, 4 badges, and 47 architectural drawings.

Name Access

Hoffman, Max

Hoffman, Celia

Rho Pi Phi

Harbord Collegiate

Subjects

Education

Greek letter societies

Physical Condition

Film and sound reels should be digitized.

Source

Archival Descriptions

Part Of

Solomon Edell fonds

Personal series

Charities sub-series

Level

Sub-series

Fonds

4

Series

1-2

Material Format

textual record

Date

1957-1997

Physical Description

3 cm of textual records

Admin History/Bio

Sol Edell made charitable donations to a large number of Jewish organizations mainly ones located in Canada, Israel and the United States.

Scope and Content

Sub-series consists of correspondence, receipts and certificates from Canadian, American and Israeli educational, religious and welfare organizations and institutions that received charitable donations from the Edell family.

Subjects

Charities

Education

Israel

Religion

Source

Archival Descriptions

Part Of

Solomon Edell fonds

Personal series

Community activities sub-series

Level

Sub-series

Fonds

4

Series

1-3

Material Format

textual record

object

Date

1968-1995

Physical Description

3 folders of textual records

1 plaque

Admin History/Bio

Sol Edell was involved in a variety of religious, educational and cultural organizations. Not only did he make financial donations to organizations, but he also became personally involved and organized specific projects. As well, representatives of foreign institutions would stay at his home when they came to Toronto on speaking engagements or fundraising missions.

Scope and Content

Sub-series consists of awards that relate to Sol Edell’s fundraising efforts on behalf of “Yeshiva Hatalmid” and for hosting speakers and fundraisers who were visiting Toronto. Also included is a day book listing community meetings as well as family events. As well, there is correspondence relating to an item loaned to the Baycrest Heritage Museum, and a plaque.

Name Access

Yeshiva Hatalmid

Baycrest Heritage Museum

Subjects

Education

Fund raising

Religion

Source

Archival Descriptions

Part Of

Solomon Edell fonds

General community activities series

Level

Series

Fonds

4

Series

11

Material Format

multiple media

Date

1950-2010

Physical Description

77 cm of textual records and other material

Admin History/Bio

In addition to his ongoing involvement with Clanton Park, the Canadian Jewish Congress Archives, the Aliyah Support Group, Jones Avenue Cemetery, Shomrai Shabbos and Adas Israel, Sol Edell undertook special projects on behalf of a wide array of Jewish organizations. These include cultural (Toronto Cantorial Scholarship Fund), educational (Netivot Hatorah and Yeshivat Or Chaim Ulpanat Orot), religious (Union of Jewish Orthodox Congregations), social welfare (Association of Jewish Seniors and Co-Ordinated Services to the Jewish Elderly) and Zionist (Canadian Friends of Yeshivat Hakotel and State of Israel Bonds) organizations.

Scope and Content

Series consists of records documenting Sol Edell's involvement with a wide variety of Jewish educational, social and religious organizations and institutions in Canada, the United States, and Israel. Included are meeting minutes, publications, reports, photographs, correspondence, invitations, programmes, financial records, an architectural drawing, and a sound recording. While many of these organizations such as Eitz Chaim, Or Chaim Ulpanat Orot (educational), Mizrachi Organization of Canada, Emunah Women (Zionist) and Beth Jacob V’Anshe Drildz (synagogue) are orthodox, others such as Associated Hebrew Day Schools (educational), State of Israel Bonds (Zionist) and Co-ordinated Services to the Jewish Elderly (social welfare) have no religious affiliation.

Notes

Physical description note: includes 26 photographs, 1 audio cassette, and 1 architectural drawing.

Name Access

Eitz Chaim

Or Chaim Ulpanat Orot

Mizrachi Men’s Organization

Emunah Women

Beth Jacob V'Anshei Drildz (Toronto, Ont.)

Associated Hebrew Day Schools

State of Israel Bonds

Co-ordinated Services to the Jewish Elderly

Camp Moshava

Harbord Collegiate

Netivot Hatorah

Union of Jewish Orthodox Congregations

B'Nei Akiva

Toronto Committee for Bikur Cholim Hospital

Subjects

Charities

Children

Education

Fund raising

Older people

Religion

Zionism

Source

Archival Descriptions

Part Of

Dr. Alexander Brown fonds

Jewish communal activities series

Level

Series

Fonds

95

Series

4

Material Format

textual record

graphic material

Date

1934-1982, predominant 1958-1982

Physical Description

7 cm of textual records

37 photographs

Scope and Content

Series consists of textual records documenting Dr. Alexander Brown's various Jewish communal activities. Included are meeting minutes, speeches, publications, correspondence, invitations, flyers, photographs, biographies, newspaper clippings, brochures, a list, and a program.

Notes

Photographers and photography studios are identified on the photographs.

Physical Condition

A number of the photographs are starting to curl along the edges and have become stiff due to poor storage conditions.

Source

Archival Descriptions

Part Of

Larry Becker collection

Level

File

Fonds

34

File

70

Material Format

textual record

Date

1970-1971

Physical Description

1 folder of textual records

Scope and Content

File consists of miscellaneous correspondence pertaining to the Jewish National Brotherhood (a.k.a. the Jewish National Club).

Source

Archival Descriptions

Part Of

B'nai Brith Lodge No. 1154 fonds

Level

File

Fonds

91

File

3

Material Format

object

graphic material

Date

[196-?]

Physical Description

1 plaque

1 album

2 pins

Scope and Content

File consists of records documenting the lodge's support of the Jewish National Fund. Included is one tribute plaque that was presented to lodge president Maurie Stren, one "Let my People Go" pin, one Israel 46 pin, and one photo album presented by the Karen Kayemeth Leisrael. Photographs in the album document Kibbutz Lakav.

Source

Archival Descriptions

Part Of

Joseph Baruch Salsberg fonds

Jewish community involvement series

Level

Series

Fonds

92

Series

4

Material Format

textual record

graphic material

object

Date

1914-1993

Physical Description

11 cm of textual records (1 v.) and other material

Scope and Content

Series consists of records documenting J.B. Salsberg's involvement with various Jewish organizations, including: the I.L. Peretz School, the Canadian Jewish Congress, UJA Federation, the New Fraternal Jewish Association, the Baycrest Centre for Geriatric Care and the Canadian Zionist Federation. Included are medallions, pins, a coin, a poster, certificates, photographs, meeting minutes, a test, booklets, event programmes, a transcript, bulletins, notes, newspaper clippings, articles, reports, newsletters, a brochure, and a flyer.

Notes

Physical description note: includes 17 photographs, 4 pins, 4 medallions, 1 coin, 1 poster, and 1 certificate.

Related Material

For other records documenting the CJC's Committee for Soviet Jewry see also fonds 17, series 3.

For other NFJA records see MG 2B-1P and MG9 ("Fraternally Yours" publications).

Source

Archival Descriptions

Part Of

Solomon Edell fonds

Shomrai Shabbos Synagogue series

Level

File

Fonds

4

Series

7

File

18

Material Format

textual record

Date

1958

Physical Description

1 folder of textual records

Scope and Content

File consists of correspondence relating to the purchase of trees by the Shamrai Shabbos synagogue as well as a certificate from the Jewish National Fund.

Source

Archival Descriptions

Part Of

Zionist Organization of Canada fonds

Central Region sous-fonds

Subject files series

Level

File

Fonds

28-1

Series

7

File

136

Material Format

textual record

Date

1963-1965

Physical Description

1 folder of textual records

Scope and Content

The file consists of correspondence between Dr. George Liban and offices of The Jewish Agency.

Name Access

George Liban

Source

Archival Descriptions

Part Of

Joseph Baruch Salsberg fonds

Jewish community involvement series

Level

Item

Fonds

92

Series

4

Item

2

Material Format

object

Date

[ca. 1980]

Physical Description

1 medallion : bronze ; 5 cm in diam. + 1 cardboard box

Scope and Content

Item is a JNF Canada Park medallion.

Notes

Artifact number 142.

Source

Archival Descriptions

Part Of

Solomon Edell fonds

General community activities series

Level

File

Fonds

4

Series

11

File

103

Material Format

textual record

Date

[19-]

Physical Description

1 folder of textual records

Scope and Content

File consists of a booklet containing a memorial service for the departed and Mourner's Kaddish.

Source

Archival Descriptions

Part Of

Larry Becker collection

Level

File

Fonds

34

File

36

Material Format

textual record

Date

1919

Physical Description

1 folder of textual records

Scope and Content

File consists of a list of individual members running for election, their professions and number of votes. H. Dworkin, News Dealer, garnered the most votes with a total of 2,989.

Source

Archival Descriptions

Part Of

Canadian Jewish Congress, Ontario Region fonds

Committee for Soviet Jewry series

Protest activities sub-series

Level

File

Fonds

17

Series

3-5

File

71

Item

1-2

Material Format

textual record

graphic material

Date

May 1977-Sep. 1977

Physical Description

1 folder of textual records

4 photographs : b&w ; 20 x 25 cm

Scope and Content

File contains correspondence, photographs, news releases, fact sheets, and programmes concerning the annual commemoration held on 11 August 1977. Guest readers included Peretz Miransky, a Toronto area poet, and Mordechai Husid from Montreal. File also contains notes and notices in Hebrew.

Notes

Photographer unknown.

Name Access

Husid, Mordechai

Miransky, Peretz

Subjects

Poets

Repro Restriction

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

Source

Archival Descriptions

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