From the Globe and Mail, February 2002 As a Trotskyite and leader of the Revolutionary Workers Party, Ross Dowson might have been expected to tarry on the fringes of Canadian political life forever, so it came as a considerable shock to many Torontonians when he drew twenty per cent of the vote in a mayor’s…
Category: Obit
Obit: Florence Hutner (1907-1992)
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From the Canadian Jewish News, January 30, 1992 Florence Hutner, who guided the United Jewish Welfare Fund through problem-filled war and postwar years as its executive director in the 1940s and beyond, died January 6 [1992] at Baycrest Hospital at the age of eighty-four. She was the first woman to head a major Jewish organization…
Obit: Mary Wilensky (d. 1958)
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From the Toronto Star, May 13, 1958 Funeral service for Mrs. Mary Wilensky, eight-six, a Russian immigrant who raised four daughters who became professional women in Toronto and the United States, will be held at 12:30 p.m. Wednesday in Park Memorial chapel, Spadina Avenue. Interment will be in Roselawn cemetery. Mrs. Wilensky died of a…
Obit: Sports hero Harry Sniderman (1976)
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From a Canadian newspaper, August 20, 1976 By Mordecai Hershenson Harry Sniderman was a colourful figure in the Toronto scene for three decades — an able athlete, gracious sportsman and promoter and a Babe Ruth of the Bellwoods Park softball teams. During the late 1920s and 1930s, “Iron Man,” “What-A-Man Sniderman” was the king of…
Obit: Sam Shopsowitz, hot-dog king, dead at 63 (1984)
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Based on article from the Canadian Jewish News, Sept. 20, 1984 Sam Shopsowitz, the pastrami and hot dog king whose Shopsy’s deli on Spadina at Dundas was a city landmark for more than half a century, died last week of a heart attack at age sixty-three. His wife Lillian, also sixty-three, predeceased him by only…
Obit: Reuben Brainin (1862-1939)
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From The Canadian Jewish Chronicle, December 8, 1939 The Jewish community of Montreal, thousands strong, paid final tribute to the memory of Reuben Brainin, noted Hebraist, author and pioneer Zionist, who died in New York on November 30, 1939 at the age of seventy-seven. From 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. his body lay in state…
Obit: Eva Rothblott (1918-2012)
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From Beth Sholom Newsletter, 2008 Eva Rothblott [who died on December 7, 2012] was born on Baldwin Street in Toronto in 1918 — ninety years ago — and has been associated with Beth Sholom Congregation “from the very beginning,” she told me when I met with her recently at her retirement home on Sheppard Ave.…
Obits: Fanny Green, Moshe Grossman, Esther Harris
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Above: Harry & Esther Harris & Children, Toronto ca 1920. Back row from left: Harold, Meyer, Rachel, D. Lou, Millie, Joe, Ann. Middle: Kay, Jean, Fred. Front: Gertie, Harry & Esther, Leola. D. Lou Harris (top centre in striped tie) became an influential Jewish communal figure. From Canadian Jewish News, Dec. 31, 1971 Fanny Green…
Rabbi co-owned Miriam’s Fine Judaica for 41 years
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Rabbi William Rosenthal, a beloved teacher and dedicated volunteer who co-owned Miriam’s Fine Judaica for 41 years, died on April 11 (2008). He was 97. Born in Miskolc, Hungary in 1911, he and his brother operated a lumber business. He had attended yeshiva and at age 34, he became engaged to Miriam Schwarcz who lived…
Annie Black, Peterborough pioneer (d. 1980)
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Adapted from the Canadian Jewish News, February 14, 1980 Annie Black, pioneer of the city of Peterborough, died in January 1980, the CJN reported. Daughter of the late Miriam and David Florence who arrived in Peterborough in 1902, Annie Black married a rabbi, Philip Black, Peterborough’s first. Soon after the marriage they opened a store.…
