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…
Obit: Bill Carrick, wildlife photographer (1920-2002)
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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. * William…
Stories from Jewish Portland
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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 History Press, Charleston, S.C., 2011). Olsen has collected many stories of the Jews of Portland. Their roots go back to the gold rush and their heart is the “old neighbourhood” of…
The Road to Timbuktu: Adventures of a Jewish Traveller
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Seeking to extend their colonial holdings in the early 1800s, the major European powers considered the notion of dispatching expeditions through the forbidden Sahara Desert to Timbuktu, the legendary lost city of gold in the heart of Africa. Rumors of the vast wealth of Timbuktu had been circulating ever since 1324, when Mansa Musa (“Emperor…
Profile: Fred Ganz (2008)
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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 longtime member of the executive and a former president. Fred and…
Publisher has strong ideological mission
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Nearly a decade after he founded a publishing company with a strong ideological mission, Howard Rotberg may take his place among that small and proud group of Canadians who operate successful small publishing houses. Although Mantua Books started off slowly, it now publishes one new title each month. Some of the books sell tens of…
List of Toronto landsmanshaft & mutual benefit societies
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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 are inevitable. Please email me at bg@billgladstone.ca to add a society…
Titanic genealogy
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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, after striking an iceberg in the North Atlantic on its maiden voyage. More than 1,500 of the 2,200 people aboard perished in the tragedy, which has been memorialized in books, popular…
How Yad Vashem computerized names of victims
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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 worked at a feverish pitch through late February and March to computerize the names of three million or more Holocaust victims from a collection of documents at the Yad Vashem Holocaust…
Historic photograph of 1812 veterans was taken in 1861
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No, it isn’t an actual photograph — just a sketch of a photograph of ten surviving veterans of the War of 1812 to 1814, who assembled at Rosedale some 50 years after the war, on October 23, 1861. The photo-sketch appeared in the Toronto Evening Telegram in 1910, just more than a century ago and…
