Norman Bornstein, 90, remembers growing up at his grandfather’s Russian Turkish Steam Bath at 36 Centre Avenue in downtown Toronto. Ten years ago (in 1993), he began documenting his memories of his mother’s father, Mendel Riman, but then put his papers away. Last February (2003), after 66 years of marriage, his wife Lillian died. “I…
Tag: JEWISH TORONTO
Massey Hall rally for Jews in Europe, 1915
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IT’S clear from this article from the Globe and Mail of August 9, 1915, that the situation of Jews in Europe was desperate and that Jews in Toronto were keen to ease their affliction. The rally at Massey Hall reportedly attracted some 2,000 people and representatives of more than 50 Jewish organizations. The keynote speaker was…
Marriage of Yiddish actors attracts 3,000 in 1913
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THE following stories attest to a theatrical event within Toronto’s Jewish community that drew a crowd of 3,000 people in June 1913. The occasion was the actual marriage of two actors on stage after the Saturday evening performance of a Yiddish melodrama at the Lyric Theatre at Terauley and Agnes (now Bay and Dundas). The…
The legacy of Meyer W. Gasner (1906-1974)
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If the city ever proclaims an official day dedicated to the Jewish community’s many successes, it would be most fitting to call it Meyer W. Gasner Day. That’s because MW, as he was known, gave the community its start. He’s the man who spearheaded almost every aspect of Jewish living in Toronto, be it Jewish…
Architects’ records given to Ontario Jewish Archives
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Photographs, blueprints and press clippings documenting the career of the late Toronto architect Harold Kaplan and his firm Kaplan and Sprachman are now in the Ontario Jewish Archives. Records of Kaplan and Sprachman’s work are also at the City of Toronto Archives, the Archives of Ontario and the National Archives of Canada. Kaplan’s two daughters,…
Sherman was society president for 60 years
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William Sherman, who served as president of the Lipsker Young Mens Society for more than 60 years, died recently (2003) at age 91. He was the son of Samuel who came here from Lipsk, Poland in 1905, and in 1930 started Sherman Tailors on College Street. Samuel’s three sons, Teddy, the late Sollie and William,…
Obit: artist Ernest Raab (died 2003)
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Ernest Raab, an internationally renowned sculptor, artist, poet, writer, and Talmudic scholar, died Aug. 22. He was 77. Among his many other works, Raab created the Yad Vashem Holocaust Memorial and the monument to Raoul Wallenberg in Earl Bales Park, a bas relief at Beth Tzedec Congregation and the stained glass windows at Beth David…
Harbord class of ’53 gathers for 50th reunion
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Many graduates of Harbord Collegiate Institute, once the centre of activities for Jewish teens in Toronto, have wonderful memories of their time at the school. The graduating class of 1953 recently held its 50th reunion dinner at Meron Banquet Hall, where 88 graduates, spouses and partners gathered, from places as far away as Kingston and…
Jewish Toronto: miscellaneous photos from the olden days
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MEDICAL ARTS BUILDING ON BLOOR STREET (illustration, above) : New structure to be erected on the old Sweny property at northeast corner of Bloor and St. George stret by a group of Toronto physicians. The site was acquired from the Toronto General Trusts Co., executors of the Sweny estate, and has 140 feet frontage on…
Exhibit offers colourful look at Toronto’s garment industry
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Through a series of colourful panels, photographs, display cases, clothing racks, and stand-alone artifacts such as a 1917 Singer treadle industrial sewing machine, the exhibition, A Common Thread, which opened recently in the Reuben and Helene Dennis Museum of Beth Tzedec Synagogue, offers a lively and compelling look at the history of Toronto’s garment industry from the early…
