One Foot in America, a novel by Yuri Suhl, is a sweet coming-of-age tale that paints a vivid picture of what life was like for Jewish immigrants in North America, particularly Brooklyn, in the 1920s and 1930s. Sol Kenner, the likeable young narrator, describes his experiences from the time he leaves the port of Antwerp at age fourteen…
Finding Home: In the Footsteps of the Fusgeyers
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The Fusgeyers (Yiddish for wayfarers) were Jews who fled persecution in Romania in the early 1900s to find refuge, ultimately, in the New World. One hundred years later, author Jill Culiner retraces their steps on foot in the search for lost remnants of this epic journey. Culiner uncovers a largely forgotten corner of Jewish history, revealing the persistence…
100 Years in Canada: the Rubinoff-Naftolin Family Tree
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Thousands of people across Canada, the United States, Israel and many other countries are related to the Rubinoff and Naftolin families of Toronto, whose ancestors came from the Russian provinces of Minsk and Moghilev (now Belarus) in the early 20th century. Researched and written by Toronto genealogist Bill Gladstone, One Hundred Years in Canada: the Rubinoff-Naftolin…
A Basket of Apples: Stories by Shirley Faessler
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Possessing a remarkable ear for dialogue and a keen eye for the biting ironies of life, Shirley Faessler brings the magic of a born storyteller to these linked stories about a coterie of Jewish immigrants in Toronto’s Kensington Market in the 1920s and 1930s. All six of her Kensington Market stories are presented here for the first…
A Toronto baseball team from 1880
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From the Toronto Evening Telegram, April 1919 Thirty-nine years ago up on the the old grounds in Queen’s Park, near where now stand the Parliament Buildings, the Clipper Baseball Club performed. That was in 1880, a long time ago, it is true, but not too long for even some of the present day “regulars” to…
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Toronto Jewish Records Toronto Jewish Deaths (1939 – 1942) Background: This database offers a thorough and richly detailed index of 1,100 Jewish death records that occurred in Toronto from the beginning of 1939 to the end of 1942. Every identifiable Jewish record is included, including those for stillborns. (Stillborn records were often put on a…
Toronto Jewish Births (1907-1917)
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Toronto Jewish Records Background: This database contains a very thorough indexing of more than 5,800 records, representing almost all of the Jewish births registered in Toronto between 1907 and 1917. There were inevitably some that could not be identified as Jewish and were therefore not included; while others with an uncertain Jewish connection were included…
Christine (The Girls I Might Have Married, part III)
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From A Series of Sketches by a Prominent Bachelor, Canadian Jewish Chronicle, 1919 Read Part I Read Part II Part III (Continued from last week) From being foreman in a shop to being my own master was not such a big step after all, and I was barely twenty-four when I opened up a small factory…
Ing Quong, Chinese magnate, in his last procession (1912)
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As “John Bull” he celebrated the inauguration of the Chinese Republic Guards Band Played Him Home Funeral of Well-Known merchant was a remarkable street scene yesterday — He was a patriot and a Christian — a wagon load of flowers ◊ Note: This article describes the funeral of Toronto businessman Ing Quong and is presented in…
Toronto Jewish Records:
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