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…
Category: Current & Featured
Passover 1911: Assailing yacht club prejudice
by •
In the spring of 1911, just before Easter and Passover, members of the Toronto’s Queen City Yacht Club considered a motion to exclude “Jews, negroes and people of other undesirable nationalities” from becoming members. This article focuses on Rabbi Solomon Jacobs’s response, which he articulated in a rousing sermon in Holy Blossom Synagogue during the…
Historic photograph of 1812 veterans was taken in 1861
by •
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…
How teachers tame school-children in the Ward
by •
Making Men Out of Street Arabs By W. F. Wiggins From Toronto Saturday Night Magazine, December 1, 1906 From an educational standpoint there is no more interesting institution in Toronto than the Elizabeth street public school, popularly known as “the school of the Ward.” Here have been taught and trained some of the worst boys…
Profile of city’s Jews — and rich Mr. Singer (1911)
by •
The Star Weekly ran this feature profile of “Toronto’s Hebrew population” in 1911, observing that some Jewish immigrants had risen, in only a few years, to the tops of their professions and that one — Jacob Singer — had become the biggest real estate owner in the city. The article also indicated that the Zion…
Harry Winberg, mayoral candidate in 1915
by •
The following collection of articles relates to Harry Winberg (also spelled Wineberg), the self-made, Donald-Trump-like Toronto real estate mogul who owned and published the Hebrew Journal, and who was likely the city’s first Jewish candidate for Mayor in 1915; there are also articles related to his wife and in-laws, the well-known Bachrach family. These articles…
Pioneers of Toronto’s Jewish Community
by •
From The Jewish Times, 1912 (as reprinted in The Jewish Standard, 1934) by S. J. Birnbaum The Jewish Standard’s introduction: The following article is part of a thesis written by Mr. Birnbaum, now an attorney in Toronto, when he attended the University of Toronto. It is to our knowledge the most authoritative history of Toronto’s…
Benevolence is latest novel from Cynthia Holz
by •
Bernard Wasserman and Renata Moon, the central characters in Benevolence, are a middle-aged, childless couple straining to regain their former closeness even as they struggle with barriers that separate them from their clients in their professional lives, he as a doctor who assesses patients involved in organ transplants, she as a psychotherapist who helps patients…
100 Years Ago: Toronto’s Dickens society in 1912
by •
From the Star Weekly, February 3, 1912 Toronto boasts the largest Dickens society in the world Centenary of Famous Novelist Will Be Celebrated with Much Feeling Next Wednesday — Over 1,000 Members in Dickens Fellowship Next Wednesday (February 7, 1912), the centenary of the birth of Charles Dickens, will be celebrated throughout the English-speaking world…
A Victorian Detective: Police Inspector Alf Cuddy
by •
After 30 years on the force, acclaimed Toronto police inspector and detective Alf Cuddy retired in February 1912, one century ago this month, and shortly thereafter moved to Calgary, where he assumed the role of police chief. Here are a couple of stories, published in February 1912, celebrating Cuddy’s immeasurable contribution to law and order…
