“The Lot of the Census Taker in the Ward is Anything But an Easy One” is the title of the first story; its subtitle is “The Foreigners There Have No Idea of the Months of the Year, and It Takes a Long Time to Convince Them That the Information Is Not for the Tax Collector.”…
Beth Lida is a small congregation in midtown Toronto whose long and colourful history is outlined in this 44-page full-colour illustrated book. Commissioned by the congregation on its 100th anniversary and written by Bill Gladstone, the book tells of the origins of the early members in the town of Lida; the congregation’s earliest days in…
The best of Bill Gladstone’s columns on Jewish genealogy. Contains tales of research triumphs, major research institutions, book reviews, etc. Published by Ontario Genealogical Society, 2006. With a foreword by Gary Mokotoff, publisher of Avotaynu. Softcover, 224 pages. US $20 plus $2 shipping (includes applicable tax).
Beth Tzedec, Canada’s largest Conservative congregation, had humble roots in Toronto in the 1880s, when its two main predecessors arose as tiny downtown shuls serving the wave of Yiddish-speaking immigrants from Eastern Europe and the Russian Empire. The book tells the stories of the founding congregations — Goel Tzedec and Beth Hamidrash Hagadol — their…
Toronto author Kitty Wintrob tells the captivating story of her experiences as a ten-year-old Jewish girl evacuated from London’s East End at the start of World War Two. Swept up as a girl in the greatest civilian evacuation in British history, she has written a heartfelt memoir of her time in foster homes in the countryside…
The Jewish Hour: The Golden Age of a Toronto Yiddish Radio Show and Newspaper Author Michael Mandel delves into the pages of a Toronto Yiddish newspaper to tell the story of a Yiddish radio show involving his father and many others in Toronto of the 1930s, 1940s and 1950s. The book documents Mandel’s quest to…
One Foot in America, a novel by Yuri Suhl, is a sweet coming-of-age tale that paints a vivid picture of what life was like for Jewish immigrants in North America, particularly Brooklyn, in the 1920s and 1930s. Sol Kenner, the likeable young narrator, describes his experiences from the time he leaves the port of Antwerp at age fourteen…
