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History of Beth Tzedec Congregation

Beth Tzedec, Canada’s largest Conservative congregation, had humble roots in Toronto in the 1880s, when its two main predecessors arose as tiny downtown shuls serving the wave of Yiddish-speaking immigrants from Eastern Europe and the Russian Empire. The book tells the stories of the founding congregations — Goel Tzedec and Beth Hamidrash Hagadol — their…

I’m Not Going Back: Wartime Memoir of a Child Evacuee

Toronto author Kitty Wintrob tells the captivating story of her experiences as a ten-year-old Jewish girl evacuated from London’s East End at the start of World War Two. Swept up as a girl in the greatest civilian evacuation in British history, she has written a heartfelt memoir of her time in foster homes in the countryside…

The Jewish Hour

The Jewish Hour: The Golden Age of a Toronto Yiddish Radio Show and Newspaper Author Michael Mandel delves into the pages of a Toronto Yiddish newspaper to tell the story of a Yiddish radio show involving his father and many others in Toronto of the 1930s, 1940s and 1950s. The book documents Mandel’s quest to…

One Foot in America (novel)

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

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

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

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…