Born in Belarussia, and later a resident of St. Petersburg, Odessa, Kovno and Riga, Simon Dubnow (1860-1941) published his first essay about the Jews of Russia in 1880, and understood at a relatively early age that the subject would always be of particular significance for him. He wrote in his diary in 1892, “My life’s…
‘Jewish Victorian’ a fascinating window into British past
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It is not commonly known that 14 large asteroids in the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter were discovered by Herman Goldschmidt, a French-Jewish astronomer and artist, over a remarkable decade of scientific achievement beginning in 1852. Since only 20 asteroids had been known to science before Goldschmidt’s heavenly investigations, which he began with only…
Jews In Places You Never Thought Of
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Recently published in hardcover, Jews In Places You Never Thought Of (Ktav), edited by Karen Primack, reminds us that the Jewish family tree includes many diverse and exotic branches. Ever heard of the Chuetas of Majorca and other islands off the Mediterranean coast of Spain? Outwardly Catholic, they are considered descendants of hidden Jews who…
‘Unbroken Chain’ links diverse rabbis, celebrities
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Dr. Neil Rosenstein of New Jersey has been researching his roots ever since his childhood in South Africa. Born in Cape Town in 1944, he studied medicine there and interned in Israel, but despite the rigours of medical school he never abandoned his family tree research for long. A surgeon, he jokingly describes his medical…
Obits: Kew Dock Yip (1906-2001) & Irving Himel (1915-2001)
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Kew Dock Yip, a familiar and distinguished figure in Toronto’s Chinatown for more than half a century, has died in Toronto at the age of 94. While serving as a reserve in the Queen’s Own Rifles in 1942, Mr. Yip entered Osgoode Hall Law School and in 1945 became the first lawyer of Asian descent…
Obit: pediatric neurosurgeon E. Bruce Hendrick (1924-2001)
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Dr. E. Bruce Hendrick, a renowned pediatric neurosurgeon who headed the neurosurgical division at Toronto’s Hospital for Sick Children for more than two decades, has died in Toronto after complications from abdominal surgery. He was 77. As Canada’s first full-time pediatric neurosurgeon, Dr. Hendrick operated on tens of thousands of children with head injuries, brain…
Obit: MPP Lorne Henderson (1920-2002)
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Lorne Henderson, who represented the former Lambton riding in the Ontario Legislature for 23 years and served in cabinet for seven of those years, was a grass-roots politician who knew an astonishing number of his constituents by their first names. Raised on a farm in Enniskillen Township in southwestern Ontario, he was first elected to…
H. Halpern Esq. continues long family tradition
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“The name Halpern has been over the doors of men’s wear stores in this city for more than 75 years,” says Meredith Halpern, manager of H. Halpern Esq., an upscale boutique for gentlemen in the lobby of the InterContinental Hotel on Toronto’s Front Street W. Generations of Torontonians bought their bar-mitzvah suits at the original…
Weiner’s Jewish Roots in Poland a ground-breaking inventory
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Miriam Weiner’s Jewish Roots in Poland: Pages from the Past andArchival Inventories is a pioneering work that presents a concise, authoritative inventory of extant Jewish records in the Polish State Archives and its regional (oddzial) branches, and in more than 2,500 Urzad Stanu Cywilnego (USC) or local town hall record offices throughout Poland. It also…
Kurzweil’s classic ‘From Generation to Generation’
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It has been almost 25 years since novice Jewish genealogist Arthur Kurzweil wandered into the Jewish Division of the New York Public Library to search the card catalog for references to the Galician shtetl of Dobromil, where his father and numerous ancestors had lived. Kurzweil had heard enough family legends and stories about the town…
