◊ Saturday Night, the staunch Canadian magazine, did us a service by preserving in prose the naïve, native prejudicial stereotype of the day. This article from 1904 paints a disgustingly dark portrait of the ugly foreigner, particularly the Jew, who was then collectively making Toronto a cosmopolitan city for the first time. Anti-semitic in its purest…
Tag: canada
On Toronto’s First Synagogue, by Dr. David Eisen
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View from north-east corner Adelaide & Victoria, Toronto, 1856 From the Jewish Standard, April 15, 1966 That Toronto’s first synagogue was located over a drug store at the corner of Richmond and Yonge Streets is fairly well known in the Jewish community. But what this structure looked like and the general appearance of the neighbourhood…
Rabbi Schild’s memoir of an ‘uncertain passage’
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From Books in Canada, 2002 One evening some months ago, a crowd of about 600 people gathered in Toronto’s Adath Israel Synagogue for the launch of Rabbi Erwin Schild’s latest book, The Very Narrow Bridge: A Memoir of an Uncertain Passage. The hall in the synagogue was packed (standing room only) as the rabbi delivered…
Furor over United Church pastor-editor (1969)
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Can’t See the Forrest for the Trees Editor’s note: In July 2012 the United Church of Canada is considering a boycott of Israeli goods, a proposal that nine Canadian senators have condemned. This is only further evidence that, when it comes to relations with Israel and the Jews, the Church has had a long and…
Toronto by night: a bakery and a hospital (1884)
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Toilers of the Night, Part II The People Who Don’t Go to Bed Until Sunrise From The Toronto World, May 9, 1884 Interior, Toronto General Hospital, 1913. CTA F1231-it207b The majority of men working in city bake-houses are not, strictly speaking, employed all night. About 3 a.m., or a little later, as the printers begin…
Nine books celebrated at Canadian Jewish Book Awards
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Eli Pfefferkorn says he was walking in the park one day, thinking about the story he had been longing to tell, when suddenly he experienced a rare and startling revelation. “I found the voice,” he said. “One day, one morning, I heard the voice from inside coming . . . a voice I had not…
From Belarus to Cape Breton & beyond
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From the Canadian Jewish News, May 15, 1997 In the early part of the century, our parents sailed to this country from many parts of Europe, and their history is interwoven with Canada. Now along comes a book about Whitney Pier, Cape Breton Island, one of the most fascinating settlements of early Jewish life. The…
Re-enacting the War of 1812 near Long Point
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From the Globe and Mail, July 2000 Painted a bright red, the 201-year-old John C. Backhouse Mill seems as conspicuous against its background of grass and trees as the British Redcoats must have been when engaged in combat with the Americans during the War of 1812. A historic property that was restored to pristine condition…
A visit with the Jews of Kingston
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From the Canadian Jewish News, January 7, 1999 Kingston is a city full of surprises for a Jewish reporters from the big city of Toronto. For one thing, the Kingston Jewish Community Council spreads an umbrella over the unaffiliated Jews, as well as those of the Orthodox, Conservative and Reform persuasions. The unaffiliated 50 members…
Jewish community thriving in Kitchener-Waterloo
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From the Canadian Jewish News, August 5, 1999 If you’re tired of gridlock in Toronto traffic and the high housing costs, and you seek a calmer small city way of life, officials of this community have the answer. In an audacious recruiting drive, they want Jewish families to come to the twin cities of Kitchener-Waterloo…
