Torontonian Norman Cowan reminisced about hanging out on College Street around Becker’s, Altman’s, Wellt’s and the Eppes Essen Restaurant during the Depression years in an article by Frank Rasky that appeared in the Canadian Jewish News on November 4, 1982. Then a 73-year-old retired estate planner, Cowan delivered an address titled Reminiscences of Ward 4…
The Standard theatre becomes a movie house, 1935
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This article, which appeared under the title “Gone to the Movies” in the Canadian Jewish Standard of March 14, 1935, tells the sad tale not only of the demise of the Standard Yiddish Theatre at Spadina and Dundas in Toronto, but of the Yiddish language in general across North America. Younger, more assimilated and acculturated…
New Yiddish theatre an asset to Toronto (1922)
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From The Canadian Jewish Review, September 8, 1922. The popularity of the Jewish play in Toronto received a decided impetus with the formal opening of the Standard Theater on Wednesday. The theater was filled to capacity at this, the first Yiddish presented in Toronto in some years. The audience was more than agreeably surprised on…
Krugel brothers came from Galicia in 1890s
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Berel, Mattes and Chaim Srul Krugel arrived in Toronto in the late 19th century, according to an article that appeared in the Canadian Jewish News on July 4, 1985. More than 70 family members held a family reunion in Toronto, the paper reported. The Krugels were from Galicia and came here between 1893 and 1895.…
Obit: Edmund Scheuer (1847-1943)
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Father of Reform Judaism in Canada dies at 93 Well-known philanthropist, educationist passes after street-car collision Edmond Scheuer, 95, one of Toronto’s oldest and best known citizens, died Friday (July 2, 1943) in St. Michael’s hospital following a collision with a street car at MacPherson Avenue and Yonge Street. Mr. Scheuer retired from the jewelry…
Fighting to get married: two Jewish marriages
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The course of true love never did run smooth, as the Bard said, a sentiment confirmed by these two articles from Toronto newspapers in the pre-WWI era. The first story below appeared in The Globe of December 25, 1907: * * * Bells Did Not Ring Free Fight in Synagogue instead of Wedding Detectives and Policemen…
J. S. Granatstein runs for alderman, 1906
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The following article, which appeared in the Toronto Star of December 8, 1906, highlights the fact that Toronto Jews did indeed get involved in municipal politics, even in the relatively early period of their citizenship in our free and democratic Canada. In an interview with the Star, aldermanic candidate J. S. Granatstein presented his views…
Opening of the Standard Yiddish Theatre, 1922
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The Standard Theatre Successful Opening of New Yiddish Temple of the Drama Last Night The opening ceremony and initial performance at the Standard Theatre, the latest addition to the places of amusement of the city, passed off very successfully last night. His Worship the Mayor snatched a half-hour from his duties at the City Hall…
Devor family reunion in Toronto, 1983
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Thanks to the prodigious efforts of Toronto accountant Louis Devor, 180 members of a clan that variously spelled its surname as Devor, Devore, Dwor and D’wor, met in Toronto in the summer of 1983, reported Frank Rasky in a story in the Canadian Jewish News of August 4, 1983. Participants, who ranged in age from…
A Bacher family reunion in the Catskills, 1983
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More than 250 members of the Bacher family met for a reunion at Grossinger’s, the Catskills resort, reported the Canadian Jewish News on July 21, 1983. The following is a summary of the original story. Ethel Bacher and Yossel Yussiper of Bukovina, Romania, who died in an 1860s cholera epidemic, were the ancestors to which…
