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Lil Blume & Miriam Beckerman
- Accession Number
- 2020-1-1
- Source
- Archival Accessions
- Accession Number
- 2020-1-1
- Material Format
- textual record
- text
- Physical Description
- 1 book
- 1 folder of textual records
- Date
- 1959-2011
- Scope and Content
- Accession consists of materials collected by Lil Blume for an anthology called "Letters and Pictures from the Old Suitcase". The anthology was published in 2011 for a Jewish Literary Festival that Lil Blume ran in 2010. Included in the collection is handwritten autobiographical pages as well as photocopied pages from Miriam Beckerman. In addition, there are two photocopies of a 1959 letter to the Irgun regarding redirecting of reparations due to Moshe Beckerman. The document provides a summary of Moshe Beckerman's wartime experience including enlistment with the British Military serving with the Regiment of Royal Engineers (1940), transfer to Greece (1941), capture by Germans (1941), escape and recapture in Italy and eventual internment in Minchen and then Danzig prior to his release in 1945 by the second British Army.
- The Beckerman's contribution to the anthology included translated copies of four Yiddish language letters written by Miriam and Moshe Beckerman to Miriam's parents in Toronto while the couple were living in Palestine and then Israel in 1947 and 1948.
- In addition, there is a copy of the publication "Letters and Pictures from the Old Suitcase" edited by Ellen S. Jaffe and Lil Blume. Contributors to the anthology listed in alphabetical order include Alvin Abram, Larry Anklewicz, Miriam Beckerman, Maxianne Berger, Steven Michael Berzensky, Helen Blum, Aha Blume, Lil Blume, Baila Ellenbogen, Shelley Halpern Evans, Joi Freed-Garrod, Ellen S. Jaffe, Beth Kaplan, Nomi Kaston, Agnes Klinghofer, Myrna Neuringer Levy, Carol Lipszyc, Malca Litovitz, Janice Masur, Seymour Mayne, Maria Meindl, Wendy Morton, Sharon H. Nelson, Aviva Ravel, Karen Shenfeld, Ken Sherman, Sharon Singer, Joan Sohn, J.J. Steinfeld, Pia Taavila, Carolynne Veffer, and Thomas Verny.
- Custodial History
- Miriam Beckerman sent handwritten autobiographical pages as well as photocopied pages to Lil Blume, as part of her contribution to the anthology that Lil Blume published in 2011.
- Administrative History
- In 2011, Lil Blume published an anthology called "Letters and Pictures from the Old Suitcase". The publication was edited by Ellen S. Jaffe and Lil Blume for a Jewish literary Festival that Lil Blume ran in Hamilton in 2010.
- Miriam Beckerman (née Dashkin) is a Yiddish literature translator. She attended the Farband Folks Shule in Toronto during the 1930s and later worked as a bilingual secretary (Yiddish and English) at the Canadian Jewish Congress, Ontario Region. In 1946, she travelled to Israel where she met her husband, Moshe Beckerman, at a kibbutz. The couple married in October 1947 and emigrated from Israel to Toronto with their children in 1952. Beckerman continues to work as a Yiddish translator for individuals, scholars and institutions. She has a number of published translations, including her recent collaborative work "A Thousand Threads: a story through Yiddish letters." Her work has been recognized by the Dora Teitelboim Foundation of Coral Gables, Florida. Her husband Moshe passed away in 1993.
- Use Conditions
- Copyright is not held by the Ontario Jewish Archives. It is the responsibility of the researcher to obtain permission prior to use.
- Subjects
- World War, 1939-1945
- Israel-Arab War, 1948-1949
- Israel--Emigration and immigration
- Source
- Archival Accessions