Sixty Years’ Changes, As Hotelman Has Seen Them — The Queen’s Has Been “An Institution”...
Memoirs of Dorothy Goldstick Dworkin In the following article, the former Dorothy Goldstick relates...
The ribbon-cutting ceremony that opened Beth Sholom’s Mildred Arnoff Memorial Hebrew School took place...
Fingerprints Practically Infallible — Inspector Duncan an Expert at Identification — A Card With...
Today Forest Hill residents are just beginning to endure the noise and traffic jams...
Memoirs of Dorothy Goldstick Dworkin In the following article, the former Dorothy Goldstick relates her experiences working as a nurse and midwife in Toronto’s fledging Jewish community from 1907 to 1911, when thousands of Jewish immigrants from Eastern Europe and the Russian Pale were...
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The ribbon-cutting ceremony that opened Beth Sholom’s Mildred Arnoff Memorial Hebrew School took place in November 1950 — 60 years ago this year (2010). Mildred, the younger of two daughters of Harry and Fanny Arnoff, died of nephritis (kidney disease) in 1946 at the...
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As the son of the revered Toronto Rabbi Jacob Gordon and his wife Lifsha Gordon, Wilferd Gordon came to be respected and admired in his own right for his own profound learning, and he, too, came to exercise great influence in the Toronto Jewish...
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Class of Talmud Torah with R. Yakov Kamenetsky, and Rabbi Y.L. Graubart (inset photo). ca 1950s The death of Rabbi David Graubart of Chicago in 1984 prompted J. B. Salsberg to write a poignant two-part reminiscence in the Canadian Jewish News of May 10...
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Leo Hausman, studio photographer Leo Hausman, a photographer who did much work for and within the Jewish community of Toronto, died in Toronto in January 1982 and his body was flown to Tel Aviv for burial, the Canadian Jewish News reported on January 28,...
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Yeshivah Torath Chaim held a “shloshim” service for Reb Israel Fortinsky in late November 1977, according to the Canadian Jewish News of November 25, 1977. Fortinsky was a scholar and teacher who had taught students in the upper grades at the Torah Chaim Rabbinical...
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From the Beth Sholom Bulletin, September 2008 Fred Ganz remembers. Ninety-four years after he was born at Toronto Western Hospital, Fred Ganz retains vivid memories of his childhood, his distinguished law career, and his years of service at Beth Sholom, where he was a...
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This list of Toronto landsmanshaft and (Jewish) mutual benefit and benevolent societies was compiled from a multitude of sources, and includes dates of founding when known. Although care has been taken to ensure accuracy, names may not be complete, spellings may differ, and omissions...
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From the Canadian Jewish News, May 16, 1985 The Barsh family is a link between the fascinating worlds of Yiddish theatre and music in Toronto. The family lived in four rooms above their barber shop and pool hall at 305 Spadina Avenue, a few...
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Grand Opening of New Jewish Theatre Quite an Up-to-Date Playhouse with All Sorts of Conveniences — Notables See the Play. From the Toronto Star, May 5, 1909 With waving of flags and the making of many speeches, the new Jewish theatre, called the Lyric,...
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Hyman Gewirtz, who migrated from Belce, Poland to Canada in 1912, had little idea that some 50 years later, a son of his would become mayor of the big cosmopolitan city of Toronto, according to a story in the Canadian Jewish News of December...
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Congregants of Beth Sholom Synagogue who gathered for the first seder of Passover in 1982 also used the occasion to commemorate the 94th birthday of Lily Rosenberg, who was born in Bialylshick, Poland (between Radom and Warsaw) on April 3, 1888. In 1982 Lily...
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A comment that Saul Cantor’s daughter, Rochelle, made more than five years ago inspired him to write his memoirs. She said to him, in 2000, “I know some of the things about your life, but there are a lot of things I don’t know,”...
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It was a festive afternoon as 300 members, guests, politicians and representatives of other local yacht clubs came to Mugg’s Island for the official ribbon cutting of the Island Yacht Club’s new clubhouse. Father’s Day, June 18 (2006), marked the second anniversary of the...
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Since 1946, the members of B’nai Brith’s Upper Canada Lodge have performed numerous services for the Jewish and general communities. As the lodge celebrates its 60th year (in 2006), it can look back on its outstanding accomplishments and selfless dedication from its first president...
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Excitement is mounting as alumni, parents and campers prepare to celebrate the 50th anniversary of Camp Arrowhead at a reunion on Sunday, August 13, 2006, from 2 to 10 p.m. The fun-filled day will include activities for the entire family, such as memorabilia exhibits,...
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In this brief item, which appeared in the Toronto Star of October 28, 1910, a woman is brought into police court in connection with an episode in which she came to the defense of a Jewish mother and daughter who were being “stoned” on...
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One of the groups that worked hard for the establishment of Israel, the Labor Zionist Alliance (LZA), is celebrating its 90th anniversary November 14, 1999, with a dinner at the Borochov Centre. The Montreal branch of the LZA celebrated its 90th anniversary two years...
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For a man who has lived in three centuries, Samuel Kernerman, who will be 101 years old on January 19, 2000, has a simple request. “I just want to see my great-grandchildren grow up,” he said. He has 28 great-grandchildren. Interviewed at the Sunnybrook...
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Etan Diamond, an American academic, has written a full-length study of the Orthodox Jewish community of Toronto and its pioneering movement northward from the inner city into the suburbs in the postwar era. Published recently (2001) by the University of North Carolina Press, Diamond’s...
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If you have roots in Jewish Portland, you may be interested in a recent book — Stories From Jewish Portland, by Polina Olsen (The...
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The 100th anniversary of the S.S. Titanic disaster is almost upon us. The legendary British ship sank on the night of April 14-15, 1912,...
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Faced with a non-negotiable deadline of March 31, 1999, an army of some 1,200 data entry clerks, software technicians, Holocaust scholars and other specialists...
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Jews settled in Stropkov, in the Slovak Republic, around 1640. It was a little town in the backwoods of Slovakia with a Jewish atmosphere...
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During a sightseeing visit to Los Angeles some years ago, I surprised myself by taking a cab to the Margaret Herrick Library at the...
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Born as Tsvi Hirsh Glicenstein in Konin Poland about 1872, my great-grandfather came to London as a youth, married, then brought his family to...
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More than 250 members of the Bacher family met for a reunion at Grossinger’s, the Catskills resort, reported the Canadian Jewish News on July...
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The Leventon family reunion, held recently in Dublin, Ireland, brought together 127 direct descendants — including 28 from Canada — of Rosa and Rabbi...
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Stanley Diamond, a semi-retired Montreal businessman who ran a company that manufactured decorated ceilings, has become a medical-genealogical detective in a bid to defuse...
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THE following is the beginning of The House of the Living, a “long” short story by Bill Gladstone. It is a romance-mystery of Jewish...
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Panorama of Toronto harbour, 1910 THE following book is a wonderful resource for genealogists who are researching particular families that were in Canada in...
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Dr. Gabriel Bar-Shaked, an expert on Hungarian Jewry for Yad Vashem in Jerusalem, is convinced that a massive trove of documents on the Jews...
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Between 1897 and 1914 — the period between the rise of Zionism and the start of the Great War — a quality English-language fortnightly...
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Sometime between 1905 and 1908, my mother’s grandparents said goodbye to their parents and their village of Zhlobin, Belarus, and brought their children with...
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HERE are a series of articles written about the practice of some adherents of the Mormon Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints...
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When the first edition of Alexander Beider’s Dictionary of Jewish Surnames From the Russian Empire came out in 1993, it was hailed in genealogical...
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Sourcebook for Jewish Genealogies and Family Histories, by David. S. Zubatsky and Irwin M. Brent, is an updated edition, with substantial additions, of a two-volume...
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Fingerprints Practically Infallible — Inspector Duncan an Expert at Identification — A Card With a Peculiar History — How Prisoners Behave Before the Camera By Leo Devaney From The Toronto Star Weekly, January 17, 1914 Probably the most important and yet the least known department of Toronto’s police system is the identification bureau, where...
Today Forest Hill residents are just beginning to endure the noise and traffic jams associated with the construction of the proposed Eglinton Avenue LRT: after all, no gain without pain, right? This newspaper story from 1928 describes another noisy and disruptive mechanical operation that was evidently required to remove the “hill” from Forest Hill. ...
Bill Carrick, a Toronto-area naturalist and wildlife photographer who coaxed beavers, ducks, fish, geese, polar bears and other animals into acting naturally in front of the camera, has died after an accidental fall on the rural property he rented in northeastern Scarborough, Ont. along the Pickering town line. He was 81 years old. *...
Toronto’s All-Night Eating Houses, A Study of Those Who Dine While Most Others Are in Bed Sleeping First Customers Are The “Half-Soused” Individuals, Who Come In To Get Sobered Up Before Going Home — They Have Enormous Appetites. Spending The Night In The Shelter of The Kindly Restaurant. From the Toronto Star Weekly, December...
One of numerous vanished racetracks in Toronto history was the Hillcrest Racetrack, which attracted throngs of horse-racing enthusiasts to a spot near the intersection of Davenport and Bathurst almost exactly a century ago. Hillcrest Racetrack opened in August 1912. Despite its name, it was located not on the crest or top of the Davenport...
Grand Opening of New Jewish Theatre Quite an Up-to-Date Playhouse with All Sorts of Conveniences — Notables See the Play. From the Toronto Star, May 5, 1909 With waving of flags and the making of many speeches, the new Jewish theatre, called the Lyric, at Agnes and Teraulay streets, was opened last night as...
Hyman Gewirtz, who migrated from Belce, Poland to Canada in 1912, had little idea that some 50 years later, a son of his would become mayor of the big cosmopolitan city of Toronto, according to a story in the Canadian Jewish News of December 13, 1963. A tailor, Gewirtz settled in the Euclid and...
In 1911, a time when there were roughly 3,000 automobiles in the entire city of Toronto, the public debated whether it was time for the Toronto police department to acquire its first automobile so as to be able to keep up with the criminal element. The Star Weekly’s subtitles argued that it was indeed...
In this brief item, which appeared in the Toronto Star of October 28, 1910, a woman is brought into police court in connection with an episode in which she came to the defense of a Jewish mother and daughter who were being “stoned” on Victoria Street. Such incidents were certainly not unique in the...
Making Men Out of Street Arabs By W. F. Wiggins From Toronto Saturday Night Magazine, December 1, 1906 From an educational standpoint there is no more interesting institution in Toronto than the Elizabeth street public school, popularly known as “the school of the Ward.” Here have been taught and trained some of the worst...
“The Lot of the Census Taker in the Ward is Anything But an Easy One” is the title of the first story; its subtitle is “The Foreigners There Have No Idea of the Months of the Year, and It Takes a Long Time to Convince Them That the Information Is Not for the Tax...
There is now a vacant lot where the house on 42 St. George Street stood. All that is left of Mendel Granatstein’s home, a property which is now owned by the University of Toronto, is the front portico. According to Heritage Toronto records, the home was the first in Toronto to be owned by...
The Star Weekly ran this feature profile of “Toronto’s Hebrew population” in 1911, observing that some Jewish immigrants had risen, in only a few years, to the tops of their professions and that one — Jacob Singer — had become the biggest real estate owner in the city. The article also indicated that the...
THE following account of Helen Keller’s visit to Toronto comes from the Toronto Star Weekly in January 1914. * * * A WONDER WOMAN AT MASSEY HALL Helen Keller Spoke to Large Audience Who Were Spellbound. HER FAMOUS TEACHER Mrs. Macey Taught Blind, Deaf Mute to Speak and Hear. A magnificent audience almost filled...
The extraordinary story of Eli Hyman first came to my attention with the following notice that appeared in the Toronto Daily Star of December 20, 1902: * * * WILL BE BURIED SUNDAY Rabbi Jacobs Will Conduct the Funeral from Holy Blossom Synagogue The funeral of the late Eli Hyman, the Jewish miser who died...
Tar and Feathers for an Obstinate Juryman — Some Attempted Escapes — A Picture of Desolation From the Toronto Daily Star, June 15, 1901 Grim, solemn, and even sullen seems the aspect of the old Court House on Adelaide street east, which has stood as a monument of integrity for half a century. The...
After three years in the planning, Oakwood Collegiate Institute’s (OCI) 100th anniversary celebration was a resounding success. From April 30 to May 4 (2008), hundreds of former and current OCI students came out to celebrate, with some alumni travelling great distances to meet and mingle with friends and former classmates, some of whom they...
Toronto’s Policewoman Has Faith in Her Sex Miss Mary Minty is Eager to Engage in Preventive Work — Seems Well-Fitted for Her New Position From the Toronto Star, May 15, 1913 “I have received no official intimation of the appointment, and did not know I had been chosen until I saw the announcement in...
A. D. Benjamin is Dead Well-Known Business Man and Citizen Passes Away Suddenly To-day LEADER IN THE SYNAGOGUE One of Toronto’s Most Wealthy and Generous Hebrews — A Popular Employer From the Toronto Daily Star, January 8, 1900 The business portion of the city was surprised this morning to learn of the sudden death...
The following collection of articles relates to Harry Winberg (also spelled Wineberg), the self-made, Donald-Trump-like Toronto real estate mogul who owned and published the Hebrew Journal, and who was likely the city’s first Jewish candidate for Mayor in 1915; there are also articles related to his wife and in-laws, the well-known Bachrach family. These...
Sadie Shapiro’s sparkling blue eyes are an expression of the positive outlook on life she has had for 100 years. Interviewed at her residence at Cummer Lodge, Shapiro spoke of her eventful life and her philosophy that has kept her cheerful and optimistic despite many adversities. Shapiro was born in Toronto on June 14,...
Former Toronto Mayor Phil Givens grew up on Augusta Avenue and later Euclid Avenue, attended school at Parkdale and Harbord Collegiate, and got his education at the old Talmud Torah Eitz Chaim on D’Arcy Street, the Canadian Jewish News reported in a story by Gary Cohen on March 15, 1984. Then finishing a 10-year...
From The Jewish Times, 1912 (as reprinted in The Jewish Standard, 1934) by S. J. Birnbaum The Jewish Standard’s introduction: The following article is part of a thesis written by Mr. Birnbaum, now an attorney in Toronto, when he attended the University of Toronto. It is to our knowledge the most authoritative history of...
Airstrip envisioned in countryside north of city, now the heart of North York From the Toronto Telegram, July 1928 Newspaper drawing of 84 years ago shows the Canadian Air Express Ltd.’s newly proposed flying field for Bathurst Street near Sheppard Avenue. The caption explains that the property was formerly the Salvation Army farm, which...
From the Star Weekly, February 3, 1912 Toronto boasts the largest Dickens society in the world Centenary of Famous Novelist Will Be Celebrated with Much Feeling Next Wednesday — Over 1,000 Members in Dickens Fellowship Next Wednesday (February 7, 1912), the centenary of the birth of Charles Dickens, will be celebrated throughout the English-speaking...
After 30 years on the force, acclaimed Toronto police inspector and detective Alf Cuddy retired in February 1912, one century ago this month, and shortly thereafter moved to Calgary, where he assumed the role of police chief. Here are a couple of stories, published in February 1912, celebrating Cuddy’s immeasurable contribution to law and...
This article, which appeared under the title “Gone to the Movies” in the Canadian Jewish Standard of March 14, 1935, tells the sad tale not only of the demise of the Standard Yiddish Theatre at Spadina and Dundas in Toronto, but of the Yiddish language in general across North America. Younger, more assimilated and...
Herman Ladovsky, restaurateur par excellence, whose hallmark smile and friendly greetings to patrons at United Bakers, many of whom became friends and part of his extended family, died January 6 (2002). He was 89. Now in its third generation, United Bakers Dairy Restaurant has been an important landmark in the history and growth of...
The following article, which appeared in the Toronto Star of December 8, 1906, highlights the fact that Toronto Jews did indeed get involved in municipal politics, even in the relatively early period of their citizenship in our free and democratic Canada. In an interview with the Star, aldermanic candidate J. S. Granatstein presented his...
The Standard Theatre Successful Opening of New Yiddish Temple of the Drama Last Night The opening ceremony and initial performance at the Standard Theatre, the latest addition to the places of amusement of the city, passed off very successfully last night. His Worship the Mayor snatched a half-hour from his duties at the City...
Seeking to extend their colonial holdings in the early 1800s, the major European powers...
Grand Opening of New Jewish Theatre Quite an Up-to-Date Playhouse with All Sorts of...
When your address is Hollywood and you’d like some murals in your synagogue, who...
In the year 1839, had you been a traveller along the road from Rzeszov...
Since the recent declaration of peace between Jordan and Israel, and the opening of...
In Place d’Armes, an historic square in Montreal’s Old City, two opposing shrines —...
A special summer of activities highlighting Montreal’s historic Jewish community kicks off June 15...
James Harris, a 19th-century dairy farmer, brought renown to the southwestern Ontario town of...
Boasting numerous gems of Georgian architecture, this hilly, former spa town, set in the...
The largest urban park in Canada and the third largest in North America, Vancouver’s...
Twice a day for nine days each August, 100 propane-fueled hot air balloons rise...
About the time Alberta-born Doug Webber moved to Churchill, Man., with his family in...
Situated on a dramatic windswept cliff overlooking Vancouver’s Georgia Strait and the snow-capped peaks...
With factories, warehouses, train stations and other relics of the past strewn about central...
Insect chop suey, sauteed crickets, and pizzas slices loaded with mealworms were among the...
One of the first and most persuasive successes of the League of Nations, the...
Note: Written in the height of the Mubarak years, long before his overthrow during...
A melancholic mist o’erhangs the main street of Yarmouth, an isolated village of about 7,000...
The mini-van had made it safely up the red mud slopes and Sam, our...
“A subtle dog-leg to the left”: that’s how golf pro Matt Hurley describes the...
Situated in the Caribbean some 63 kilometres from Venezuela, the Dutch island of Curacao...
Sam Cohen, a petroleum geologist from Calgary, left Canada to work on a large...
His name was Moses; he was a leader of his people; he spent much...
A few paces over the line between east and west, the American Colony is...
Inside a large public room at Sotheby’s, the famous auction house on New Bond...
The play is again the thing in the Southwark district of London as a...
The Biblical account of the creation of the universe is in “complete and remarkable...
Our first day in St. Petersburg, Russia, we took a tour that showed off...
Although Tom Sandler’s family lived in England in the late 1800s, none of his...
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