Tag: JEWISH TORONTO

Holy Blossom invites homeless Out of the Cold

HOLY BLOSSOM’s Out of the Cold program, which has been operating at the mid-Toronto synagogue since the mid-1990s, continues to be one of the most excellent programs of its kind in the city. This is an article I wrote a few years ago for the Jewish Telegraphic Agency. It was published in numerous cities across…

90-year-old stays active teaching dance

Irving Naftolin teaches dancing. Naftolin, who will be 90 years old in October, is spry, articulate and has a clear memory of events past and present. He is enthusiastic about sharing his thoughts on staying youthful, his love of dancing and the tremendous benefits he gets from dancing and teaching others to dance. He believes…

She started nursery at Brunswick Talmud Torah

July 28, 26 Tammuz (2003) was the first yahrzeit of Sarah (Steinhauer) Rumack, who in 1941 started the first Beth Hayeled (nursery) at the Brunswick Talmud Torah, a program that grew into Toronto’s first Jewish day school. “I don’t know of any teacher who didn’t have the highest regard for Sarah — as a teacher,…

Profile: Toronto poet-essayist Kenneth Sherman

Toronto native Ken Sherman loved fishing as a boy at Jackson’s Point, where his family had a summer cottage. But these days, whenever he tosses out a line, it’s usually a line of poetry. At 50, Sherman is celebrating the publication of his 10th book — The Well: New and Selected Poems (Wolsak and Wynn,…

Max Gold celebrates his 100th birthday

Max Gold celebrated his 100th birthday on June 11 (2005). At the recent Sons of Jacob Shalom Lodge’s general meeting, Gold was honoured. His family and friends celebrated his 100-year milestone with an open house at the home of his daughter, Gloria de Hond, in Thornhill. Gold’s father, Shia Shalom (Zushie) Gold, was one of…

Former Vanek family resort to become a park

Members of the Vanek family of Toronto are upset because the town of Richmond Hill has erected an “eyesore” on property that had been designated as a park in honor of their mother, the late Jessie Vanek. Three acres in size, the land sits along Bayview Avenue, on the eastern edge of the small, springfed…

Obit: Eddie Goodman, lawyer, political power broker (1918-2006)

Eddie (Edwin) Goodman, a prominent lawyer, decorated war veteran, philanthropist and political power broker, died in Toronto from Alzheimer’s and heart disease on August 23, 2006. He was 87 years old. Head of a large law firm employing nearly 200 lawyers, Goodman was a lifelong Conservative who befriended Prime Minister John Diefenbaker and was a…

Roselawn Cemetery transcription project

THIS article, written in 1994, provides a snapshot of the cemetery mapping committee of the Jewish Genealogical Society of Canada (Toronto) at an early stage of its work. Project volunteers have now completely transcribed Roselawn and several other Toronto Jewish cemeteries, which have been posted to JewishGen’s Online Worldwide Burial Registry. Visit www.jgstoronto.ca for more details. After…

Noyek Family Reunion

Davida Noyek Handler, who lives in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, once owned a translation company, but gave it up in the early 1980s to concentrate on researching her family tree. Thanks largely to her research skills and perseverance, some 175 Noyek family members from six countries attended a first-ever family gathering at the Holiday Inn Yorkdale…

McCaul Synagogue Golden Anniversary (1938) – Section D

THIS Golden Anniversary book was published in 1938 to mark the first 50 years of the Beth Hamidrash Hagadol Chevra Tehillim of Toronto, which was founded in 1887 and moved into the  McCaul Street Synagogue about 1905. The Congregation published its Golden Jubilee 50th anniversary book in 1938. In the early 1950s it merged with the…