From the Globe and Mail, February 28, 1951 When Bernard Rosensweig is installed as rabbi of Bais Yehuda Synagogue, Dovercourt Road, next Sunday, it will be the first time that a Toronto-born boy has returned here as a rabbi. There are no rabbinical colleges in Canada. A student wishing to become a rabbi must leave…
Category: Jewish Toronto
Young Toronto Jews enter the professions (1929)
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Professions claim young Jews; many rise to prominence Dr. Bessie Pullan Singer First Woman in Canada to Receive Degree of Doctor of Medicine From the Toronto Evening Telegram, January 2, 1929 ◊ Note: This is an interesting, albeit uneven story that focuses more on two prominent rabbis of the city than on the younger generation of…
Peddlers Are Not Thieves, says Alderman Salsberg (1938)
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From the Toronto Star, September 8, 1938 Charges of petty thieving by peddlers were today discussed by the civic works committee. Alderman Salsberg demanded an explanation from the street cleaning commissioner, Harold Bradley, of his reported statement that licensed peddlers were guilty of such misdemeanors. He said that such statements, emanating from the head of…
Jewish Voters Out in Force for Liberal Maguire (1911)
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Large Meeting Addressed by Candidate and other Speakers From the Globe and Mail, September 14, 1911 Note: Party politics evidently entered into municipal affairs in Toronto of a century ago. This article describes a rousing meeting held in support of Liberal Alderman Alfred Maguire at the Lyric Yiddish Theatre in 1911; Maguire would serve as…
Yiddish Youth Concert, Massey Hall, 1918
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The Yiddish Yugend Farein or Yiddish Young People’s Organization of Toronto sponsored a Sukkot Concert at Massey Hall on September 25, 1918. Below is the 24-page program, along with a list of names of people and companies mentioned. Note that the booklet’s printed pagination was incorrect and that the order of the pages is correct…
Toronto’s first Jewish nurse writes of early Toronto
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Memoirs of Dorothy Goldstick Dworkin In the following article, the former Dorothy Goldstick relates her experiences working as a nurse and midwife in Toronto’s fledging Jewish community from 1907 to 1911, when thousands of Jewish immigrants from Eastern Europe and the Russian Pale were arriving in the city each year. Below, Dworkin profiled in 1968;…
Police Raid Matzah Factory (1909)
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From the Toronto Star, November 4, 1909 ◊ This article reflects two problems sometimes faced by members of the city’s Jewish community in regard to the police. The first is selective enforcement of the law, seemingly targeting the Jews (and certainly other minorities probably even more). The second is the specific Sunday blue laws that meant…
Toronto’s junk trade worth $10 million a year (1913)
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From the Toronto Star weekly October 4, 1913 Some men who began with the bag over their shoulders now worth around $1 million — Old iron sold to the foundaries to be recast — Bones made into glue, fertilizers, and used in refining sugar – Paper and rags go to the Mills — Nothing is…
Hebrew Sick Benefit Society Souvenir Booklet (1935)
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The following pages are from the souvenir booklet published by the Hebrew Sick Benefit Society of Toronto in 1935 upon the commemoration of its 35th anniversary. It contains many greetings, advertisements and other items from individual members, often listing family names and other details about family history. Most of the pages are in Yiddish. Each…
Toronto shul exhibits photos of Polish shtetl
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From the Canadian Jewish News, October 3, 2012 TORONTO — A series of old historic photographs from the Polish shtetl of Staszow has been quietly wowing visitors since being installed in the Stashover-Slipia Synagogue on Sultana Avenue in Toronto. The photographs are to remain on permanent display in the shul’s lobby. “Everyone notices them when they…
