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Ben Kayfetz
- Accession Number
- 2021-12-2
- Source
- Archival Accessions
- Accession Number
- 2021-12-2
- Material Format
- textual record
- graphic material
- Physical Description
- 1 folder of textual records
- 5 photographs : b&w
- Date
- 1944-1984
- Scope and Content
- Accession consists of correspondence to Ben Kayfetz from an American friend in Berlin in 1951 and 1952, a 1944 Central Commerce yearbook belonging to Eva Kayfetz (née Silver), five photographs, an armed forces prayer book formerly belonging to Chaplain Rabbi Jacob Eisen, a speech about Soviet Jewry, and Ben Kayfetz's retirement speech.
- Custodial History
- The donor, Zena Tenenbaum, is Ben's daughter.
- Administrative History
- Ben Kayfetz was a well-known leader of the Jewish community and advocate for human rights. He completed a degree in modern languages from the University of Toronto. During the Second World War, he worked for the Wartime Information Board reading prisoners-of-war letters, and from 1945 to 1947, worked with the Canadian Control Commission in the British-controlled sector of Germany.
- He served with the Canadian Jewish Congress from 1947 to 1985 in various positions, including director of public relations and executive director of the Central Region. He was instrumental in the development of government anti-discriminatory policies and legislation in the 1950s and 1960s onward and received the Order of Canada in 1986.
- Ben Kayfetz also founded the Yiddish Luncheon Club, was president of the Toronto Jewish Historical Society, and was a frequent contributor to various periodicals in Canada and abroad, under his own name and his pseudonym, Gershon B. Newman. He was viewed as the local authority on Toronto Jewish history and also had his own radio spot on CHIN.
- Use Conditions
- Copyright is held by the Ontario Jewish Archives. Please contact the Archives to obtain permission prior to use.
- Descriptive Notes
- Availability of other formats: correspondence have been scanned and available in PDF format.
- Subjects
- Prayer books
- Yearbooks
- Human rights workers
- Speeches, addresses, etc
- Name Access
- Kayfetz, Ben, 1916-2002
- Places
- Toronto (Ont.)
- Source
- Archival Accessions