Between 1897 and 1914 — the period between the rise of Zionism and the start of the Great War — a quality English-language fortnightly newspaper captured the flavour of Jewish life in Canada. Published in Montreal, The Canadian Jewish Times functioned as a community bulletin board for the several thousand Jews then resident in Canada…
Month: December 2011
Restoration of old Mount Sinai Hospital
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Although most of the old Mount Sinai Hospital on Yorkville Avenue is gone, a prominent architectural firm has agreed to restore the only wing of the hospital still standing. The wing, built as an addition around 1928, was used as a nursing home after Mount Sinai moved to its present location on University Avenue in…
At Innisbrook, a Florida golf resort
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“A subtle dog-leg to the left”: that’s how golf pro Matt Hurley describes the 10th hole of Sandpiper — which is to say that it bends ever so slightly. Our golf-cart is idling in a shady grove at Innisbrook, a posh 21-year-old golf resort in Tarpon Springs, on Florida’s Gulf Coast. Its well-landscaped 1,000 acres…
Bathurst Manor memory: frog hunting in the creek
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There were bull-frogs in the creek on the other side of Wilson Heights, Jackie told us: monstrous bull-frogs, the biggest he had ever seen. He had brought one home like a warrior returning from battle with a spoil. But he said the granddaddy of them all, the Moby Dick of bull-frogs, was still in the…
Old synagogue one of Curacao’s many attractions
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Situated in the Caribbean some 63 kilometres from Venezuela, the Dutch island of Curacao is a rugged, hilly outcropping with some 160,000 inhabitants. Although most are Catholic, they represent about 80 nationalities and speak four official tongues: English, Dutch, Spanish and Papiamentu, the native lingo that is a smorgasbord of Old Dutch, Portuguese and African…
The Jews of Bangkok, Thailand
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Sam Cohen, a petroleum geologist from Calgary, left Canada to work on a large oil field in the Gulf of Thailand about 1983. When his contract expired during an industry slowdown several years later, he chose to remain in the bustling capital city of Bangkok, where a forest of cranes along the skyline suggests an…
Hyman’s book store was Spadina landmark
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As the “people of the book,” wherever Jews live, they will always find a dealer who can provide them with sforim — Hebrew, Jewish and religious books. Before the turn of the century, rabbis and scholars brought with them numerous sacred books, and from time to time, a shipment of books would arrive here. Barenholtz…
Landsmanshaft societies helped immigrants feel at home
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As Jews from Eastern European countries began to settle in Toronto and other urban areas, they formed landsmanshaften, groups of individuals from the same area or shtetI. Along with the friendships, camaraderie and the social aspects of the landsmanshaft, these societies fulfilled many other needs of the immigrants. They arranged for funerals and purchased burial grounds,…
Remembering the Temple Building on old Bay Street
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THIS article, by an unknown writer, is reprinted from the Toronto Telegram of July 7, 1928, along with the photo, restored from the microfilm. The photo at bottom, with an earlier view of “Old Bay Street,” has been added. DO YOU REMEMBER WHEN . . . the Temple Building used to loom up on the west…
Many at funeral of Flora Draimin (1842-1925)
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This obituary appeared in the Toronto Evening Telegram, November 2, 1925. Many at funeral of Mrs. Draimin Deceased Was One of First Jewish Citizens of Toronto In the death of Mrs. Flora Draimin, aged 83 years, wife of the late Jacob Draimin, who died at the home of her son, Archie Draimin, at 80 Beverley…
