What natural feature gives Bon Echo provincial park, in northeastern Ontario, a special reputation among campers? We arrived here late one June afternoon without knowing the answer — but we soon found out. After pitching our tent, we set off on a hike through the tangled forest, threading through stands of birches and pines along…
Mormons baptise Holocaust victims
by •
HERE are a series of articles written about the practice of some adherents of the Mormon Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints to perform baptism rituals on behalf of deceased Jewish victims of the Holocaust. The articles appeared in the New York Jewish Forward; the first piece prompted the New York Times to…
Feeding time is best time to visit Coral World
by •
At 3 on a typical afternoon at Coral World here, a diver descends into the shallow, sunlight-dappled water surrounding the underwater observatory and distributes lunch to hundreds of exotic fish that circle him. Just a few feet away, on the other side of the glass, a crowd of spectators also circle as they watch the…
Close encounters with the wildlife of Alberta
by •
Last winter (2003), it was my pleasure to travel through the Canadian Rockies in the company of a wonderful guide, Ian Hipkins. A transplanted Montrealer, Hipkins has lived around the mountains of Alberta for nearly 20 years, and has climbed nearly every Canadian peak between Calgary and the Pacific. One clear crisp morning, we set…
A compendium of Canadian Jews in the arts
by •
Note: this compendium of Canadian Jews in the arts appeared in a special supplement of the Canadian Jewish News in 2005. * * * Jewish poets were composing lines and Jewish painters composing scenes long before Canada was founded; and, as evidenced in the Canadian Jewish New’s weekly Eye on Arts column, there is no…
A mature story collection from Joan Oliver
by •
Producing an acclaimed first collection of short stories was a “snap” for Joan Oliver, a Toronto writer whose book Lines of Truth and Conversation merited inclusion in the Globe and Mail’s list of the 100 best books of 2005. “Snap” is the title of perhaps the collection’s most charming tale, about an eight-year-old girl’s search for…
Cliff Goldfarb organizes conference on Arthur Conan Doyle
by •
It’s “elementary” that Toronto lawyer, author and “bootmaker” Clifford Goldfarb would be centrally involved in organizing the Conan Doyle conference slated for Toronto later this month (October 2006). A fan of Conan Doyle since his youth, Goldfarb is vice-chair of the Friends of the Arthur Conan Doyle Collection at the Toronto Reference Library and former…
Toronto’s David Novak to address papal conference
by •
A Toronto academic who has been invited to speak at a conference on Pope Jean Paul II at the United Nations on March 27 says that he’s glad to pay homage to “somebody who was so favourably disposed towards Jews and Judaism.” David Novak, professor and former director of the University of Toronto’s Jewish studies…
Jewish Mothers & Babes Home to be restored
by •
The future of Glendella House, an historic cottage in Bronte, Ont. that once served as a summer rest home for Jewish mothers and children from Toronto, is under discussion as the Ontario Municipal Board (OMB) decides whether to allow a developer to move the 161-year-old heritage structure to accommodate two proposed high-rise towers. Built in…
Masterpiece of scholarship on surnames (2009)
by •
When the first edition of Alexander Beider’s Dictionary of Jewish Surnames From the Russian Empire came out in 1993, it was hailed in genealogical circles as one of the most important books ever printed about Jewish surnames. His subsequent compilations of Jewish surnames from Poland, Galicia and other regions have only solidified his reputation as…
