After three years in the planning, Oakwood Collegiate Institute’s (OCI) 100th anniversary celebration was a resounding success. From April 30 to May 4 (2008), hundreds of former and current OCI students came out to celebrate, with some alumni travelling great distances to meet and mingle with friends and former classmates, some of whom they had…
Miss Mary Minty, Toronto’s first policewoman (1913)
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Toronto’s Policewoman Has Faith in Her Sex Miss Mary Minty is Eager to Engage in Preventive Work — Seems Well-Fitted for Her New Position From the Toronto Star, May 15, 1913 “I have received no official intimation of the appointment, and did not know I had been chosen until I saw the announcement in the…
Obits: Hyman Breslin (d 1934); Reva Breslin, 1918
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Death silences toast of noted businessman while family mourns Clock stops in hallway as Hyman Breslin borne to grave “Trinken Lachayim” Jewish philanthropist years ago had vision of passing of wife’s mother From the Toronto Daily Star, January 2, 1934 With his life hanging by so slender a thread that death resulted an hour later,…
Minnie Cohen, Toronto’s first Jewish woman doctor
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Not only is Minnie Cohen Toronto’s first Jewish woman doctor, but she was also known within the city’s Jewish community as “Chazzan Bernard Wladowsky’s daughter” because she was the daughter of the well-known cantor. As reported in The Canadian Jewish News of March 2, 1962, Dr. Cohen specialized in paediatrics and also in an specialty…
Obit: Movie pioneer Arthur Cohen (1880-1975)
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Arthur Cohen, the Canadian movie industry pioneer, was a leader of Toronto’s Jewish community and a philanthropist. He died of a heart attack at the age of 94, the Canadian Jewish News reported on March 7, 1975. Cohen was the son of Magistrate Jacob Cohen and Lena Jacobs Cohen. He attended Jarvis Collegiate, from which…
B’nai Brith Toronto Lodge was founded 1919
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The Toronto Lodge of B’nai Brith was founded 1919 and had as many as 2,400 members in its heyday in 1948, according to a Canadian Jewish News article on March 27, 1980, marking the Lodge’s 60th anniversary. Sixty-eight Jews banded together to form Toronto Lodge of B’nai Brith in 1919, and one of them was…
Sad case of Louis Brown, 1915
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Real Estate Losses Led to Brown’s Suicide Queen St. Tailor Suffered Heavily in Slump FEARED FOR HIS FUTURE Had Made Up His Mind to Die — Intimated He Would Leave Money to All Denominations, Though He Was a Russian Jew From The Globe, March 8, 1915 Although he was the holder of many mortgages and…
Flees pogroms, he builds large business (Max Wolfe)
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Max Wolfe was born in the village of Widze, Kovno district, in March 1892 and came to Canada in 1905, the Canadian Jewish News reported in a story marking his 90th birthday in its issue of April 22, 1982. Max’s father, three brothers and two sisters left Russia first; as the baby of the family,…
Obits: Alfred D. Benjamin (1848-1900); Frank Benjamin (1866-1937)
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A. D. Benjamin is Dead Well-Known Business Man and Citizen Passes Away Suddenly To-day LEADER IN THE SYNAGOGUE One of Toronto’s Most Wealthy and Generous Hebrews — A Popular Employer From the Toronto Daily Star, January 8, 1900 The business portion of the city was surprised this morning to learn of the sudden death of…
JCC davener Reb Abraham Weintraub turns 90
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At age 90, Abraham Weintraub was honoured as the elder statesman of a congregation of about 100 people that gathered to daven at the Bloor Jewish Community Centre, the Canadian Jewish News reported in a story on December 2, 1982. The members, most between the ages of 40 and 65, prayed each Thursday and Saturday…
