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The Folks Farein was first located at 23 Cecil St., however, at some point during the 1940s or 1950s they moved to 37 Cecil Street. In Yiddish Folks Farein translates to People’s Association. It is also known as the Hebrew National Association. They were formed in 1914 by a group of Toronto Jewish immigrants as an organization dedicated to anti-missionary and educational outreach. At this time, a number of Jewish converts to Christianity sought to exploit the situation of poor Jews in the community by making available the services of doctors, midwives and the distribution of direct relief. In addition there was constant street¬corner preaching and proselytizatian. To counteract this, the Folks Ferein was formed. They offered a number of different services including child welfare for working mothers, a reading room, English language classes, and help forJewish hospital patients who could not speak English.
Folks Farein, 1914-[ca. 1977]
- Address
- 37 Cecil Street
- Source
- Landmarks
The Folks Farein was first located at 23 Cecil St., however, at some point during the 1940s or 1950s they moved to 37 Cecil Street. In Yiddish Folks Farein translates to People’s Association. It is also known as the Hebrew National Association. They were formed in 1914 by a group of Toronto Jewish immigrants as an organization dedicated to anti-missionary and educational outreach. At this time, a number of Jewish converts to Christianity sought to exploit the situation of poor Jews in the community by making available the services of doctors, midwives and the distribution of direct relief. In addition there was constant street¬corner preaching and proselytizatian. To counteract this, the Folks Ferein was formed. They offered a number of different services including child welfare for working mothers, a reading room, English language classes, and help forJewish hospital patients who could not speak English.
- Address
- 37 Cecil Street
- Time Period
- 1914-[ca. 1977]
- Scope Note
- The Folks Farein was first located at 23 Cecil St., however, at some point during the 1940s or 1950s they moved to 37 Cecil Street. In Yiddish Folks Farein translates to People’s Association. It is also known as the Hebrew National Association. They were formed in 1914 by a group of Toronto Jewish immigrants as an organization dedicated to anti-missionary and educational outreach. At this time, a number of Jewish converts to Christianity sought to exploit the situation of poor Jews in the community by making available the services of doctors, midwives and the distribution of direct relief. In addition there was constant street¬corner preaching and proselytizatian. To counteract this, the Folks Ferein was formed. They offered a number of different services including child welfare for working mothers, a reading room, English language classes, and help forJewish hospital patients who could not speak English.
- History
- When the threat from missionaries was no longer an issue, they became a philanthropic society dedicated to ministering to the sick and needy. Under this revised mandate, the Folks Farein provided dentures, eyeglasses, orthopaedic shoes, operative support, crutches, artificial limbs and other related medical appliances wherever needed. They maintained close contact with hospitals, sanatoria, mental institutions, local jails and reformatories to help needy Jewish patients and prisoners. They also distributed kosher meals during Passover; helped seniors get old age pensions and widows and mothers and their children get allowances where fathers were sick or incapacitated; and fed and billeted the unemployed and homeless at the Folks Farein’s premises at 37 Cecil Street. In 1945, when the first group of Jewish refugees from Europe arrived in Toronto, the Folks Farein temporarily accommodated many on its premises and provided them with meals.
- Category
- Social Service
- Source
- Landmarks