Month: May 2012

Orchestrating the American dream

Family Matters: Sam, Jennie and the Kids, by Burton Bernstein, was first published in 1982, and remains, 30 years later, one of the most interesting family histories this reviewer has read. The reason is not so much that Burton Bernstein was the brother of a celebrity, the great composer-conductor Leonard Bernstein, but because he treated…

Mishpocha memories at the Beth Sholom

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 age of sixteen. Harry and Fanny and daughter Lillian became early…

Profile: Wilferd Gordon (1909-1994)

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 community during its formative years. Wilferd, or Bill, Gordon grew up…

J. B. Salsberg on Rabbi Yehuda Leib Graubart

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 and 17, 1984. The Graubart dynasty was world-famous and centred in…

10,000 Criminals in Toronto’s Police Records (1914)

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 the…