Hyman Gewirtz, who migrated from Belce, Poland to Canada in 1912, had little idea that some 50 years later, a son of his would become mayor of the big cosmopolitan city of Toronto, according to a story in the Canadian Jewish News of December 13, 1963. A tailor, Gewirtz settled in the Euclid and Dundas…
Congregants of Beth Sholom Synagogue who gathered for the first seder of Passover in 1982 also used the occasion to commemorate the 94th birthday of Lily Rosenberg, who was born in Bialylshick, Poland (between Radom and Warsaw) on April 3, 1888. In 1982 Lily and David Rosenberg had six children, 12 grandchildren and 12 great-grandchildren,…
In 1911, a time when there were roughly 3,000 automobiles in the entire city of Toronto, the public debated whether it was time for the Toronto police department to acquire its first automobile so as to be able to keep up with the criminal element. The Star Weekly’s subtitles argued that it was indeed time:…
In the spring of 1911, just before Easter and Passover, members of the Toronto’s Queen City Yacht Club considered a motion to exclude “Jews, negroes and people of other undesirable nationalities” from becoming members. This article focuses on Rabbi Solomon Jacobs’s response, which he articulated in a rousing sermon in Holy Blossom Synagogue during the…
In this brief item, which appeared in the Toronto Star of October 28, 1910, a woman is brought into police court in connection with an episode in which she came to the defense of a Jewish mother and daughter who were being “stoned” on Victoria Street. Such incidents were certainly not unique in the Toronto…
These costumed young actors appeared in a Purim play at the old Holy Blossom Temple on Bond Street around 1920. Perhaps the play was about the Purim drama itself. Pictured from left are: Arthur Cohen, Abe Cohen, Sam Nelson, Harry Hertzman, Louis Goodman, Norman Cowan (?), Sam Coffler and Lionel Cohen. Well-known Toronto photographer William…
Making Men Out of Street Arabs By W. F. Wiggins From Toronto Saturday Night Magazine, December 1, 1906 From an educational standpoint there is no more interesting institution in Toronto than the Elizabeth street public school, popularly known as “the school of the Ward.” Here have been taught and trained some of the worst boys…
The Star Weekly ran this feature profile of “Toronto’s Hebrew population” in 1911, observing that some Jewish immigrants had risen, in only a few years, to the tops of their professions and that one — Jacob Singer — had become the biggest real estate owner in the city. The article also indicated that the Zion…
The extraordinary story of Eli Hyman first came to my attention with the following notice that appeared in the Toronto Daily Star of December 20, 1902: * * * WILL BE BURIED SUNDAY Rabbi Jacobs Will Conduct the Funeral from Holy Blossom Synagogue The funeral of the late Eli Hyman, the Jewish miser who died in…
Tar and Feathers for an Obstinate Juryman — Some Attempted Escapes — A Picture of Desolation From the Toronto Daily Star, June 15, 1901 Grim, solemn, and even sullen seems the aspect of the old Court House on Adelaide street east, which has stood as a monument of integrity for half a century. The building…
