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Benjamin's Park Memorial Chapel

Benjamin's Park Memorial Chapel [textual record] – 1930-1980.
Accession Number
2023-11-3
Source
Archival Accessions
Accession Number
2023-11-3
Material Format
textual record
Physical Description
4.9 m of textual records
Date
1930-1980
Scope and Content
Accession consists of record books and file cards documenting deceased persons handled by Benjamin's Park Memorial Chapel.
The seven record books were kept by Joseph Benjamin from 1930 to 1980 and contain the following information: date of death, yarzheit, name of deceased, cemetery section, name of cemetery. The outside dates for each book are:
Book 1: Jan. 1930 to 31 Dec. 1945
Book 2: 1 Jan. 1946 to 19 Dec. 1953
Book 3: 1 Jan. 1954 to 29 Dec. 1959
Book 4: 29 Dec. 1959 to 29 Dec. 1963
Book 5: 1 Jan. 1964 to 30 Dec. 1968
Book 6: 29 Dec. 1968 to 28 June 1972
Book 7: 29 June 1972 to 30 June 1980
The complete set of file are arranged alphabetically in chronological order, 1936–1945, 1954–1976, vols. 1 to 21. Records arranged chronologically 1916 to 1957, vols. 21 to 24. The cards contain information about the deceased which supplements that found in the record books:
Volume 1: Aaron to Benaim
Volume 2: Benatar to Breslin
Volume 3: Breslin to Cohen
Volume 4: Cohen to Dzialoszynsk
Volume 5: Eaton to Fox
Volume 6: Fox to. Golant
Volume 7: Gold to Green
Volume 8: Green to Herman
Volume 9: Herman to Katz
Volume 10: Katz to Kyriazoglou
Volume 11: Labelle to Lipschitz
Volume 12: Lipset to Miller
Volume 13: Miller to Pearson
Volume 14; Pearson to Roher
Volume 15: Roher to Saltman
Volume 16: Saltman to Shindler
Volume 17: Shindman to Sobel
Volume 18: Soberman to Swerling
Volume 19: Swersky to Wein
Volume 20: Weinbaum to Yellin
Volume 21: Yeretsky to Zyro; 1 Jan. 1946 to 21 June 1947
Volume 22; 21 June 1947 to 28 Oct. 1949
Volume 23: 30 Oct, 1949 to 31 Dec. 1951
Volume 24: 1 Jan. 1952 to 31 Dec. 1953
Custodial History
Transferred from Library and Archives Canada in 2023 at the request of the OJA and with permission from Benjamin's Park Memorial Chapel.
Administrative History
Benjamin's Park Memorial Chapel was founded in 1922 by Henry Benjamin, who was a member of one of the early chevrah kadishas of Toronto. Henry Benjamin came to Canada at the turn of the nineteenth century from Russia. He owned a grocery store on College Street in Toronto and had a wagon that he used to deliver groceries. Wagons were rare in the Jewish community at that time, so Henry was asked by Toronto’s first chevrah kadisha to use his wagon to help deliver bodies for burial. At first, he did this because he felt a responsibility to his community. Over time, he became more deeply committed to the work of the chevrah kadisha. When his son, Joe, was a young man, Joe helped his father prepare bodies for burial, and his father impressed upon him that taking care of the dead was a sacred trust.
In 1922, the Ontario government passed a law to regulate funerary services. From then on, the cultural traditions of all ethnic and religious communities had to be practiced under the auspices of a licensed funeral home. That year, H. Benjamin and Sons was established on Spadina Avenue to provide the proper legal framework for continued service by the members of this chevrah kadisha.
Joe Benjamin took over the company in 1939 following Henry Benjamin's death. The chapel (then known as the Park Memorial Chapel) served the Jewish community for forty years from its premises on Spadina Crescent. In Joe’s forty years, the chapel was known as H. Benjamin and Sons, Park Memorial Chapel, and, finally, Benjamin’s Park Memorial Chapel.
While Henry’s worldview had been local—focused within a few square blocks in Toronto—Joe’s was much wider. He was an active participant in the Jewish Funeral Directors of America, expanding his expertise and helping to develop many of the standards of communication, practice, process, philosophy, and values that are characteristic of the North American Jewish funeral home.
After university, Michael Benjamin, Joe’s son, studied to become a licensed funeral director in Ontario. He enhanced his training at Yeshiva University in New York and the Institute of Funeral Services in Evanston, Illinois. He studied Jewish ethical issues around burial with the late Rabbi Felder. He pursued an ambitious dream for a new funeral facility, custom-designed to meet the highest standard of care for the Jewish community. He assumed full responsibility for the business in 1979.
Toronto’s Jewish community had spread up the “Bathurst spine” to the suburbs and across the city. The culturally and religiously homogeneous Judaism then practised started to splinter through immigration and new religious movements. Benjamin’s followed the community north and built a new chapel at 1404 Steeles Ave W., which opened in 1977, the first designed specifically for Jewish funeral rituals.
As of 2024, Michael Benjamin and now his children, Marc, Jordan, and Barbi, continue to guide the business. After university, Marc and Jordan qualified for their funeral director licenses, while Barbi gained her certificate in human resources. They now form the core executive team under Michael, helping to guide Benjamin’s into the future.
Use Conditions
Partially closed. Researchers must receive permission from the OJA Director prior to accessing some of the records.
Descriptive Notes
USE CONDITION NOTE: Records less than forty years old will be made available only to:
researchers who have obtained written permission from Benjamin's Park Memorial Chapel;
staff of the archives for purposes of answering specific requests for information and providing reproductions of records in response to such requests, with the cause of death and the cost of the funeral redacted;
researchers who seek information of a statistical nature and who agree in writing that they will not disclose directly or indirectly information about any individual person.
Subjects
Burial records
Name Access
Benjamin's Park Memorial Chapel
Places
Toronto (Ont.)
Source
Archival Accessions