In his recent book While Canada Slept: How We Lost Our Place in the World, Ottawa writer Andrew Cohen examines what he calls “our three D’s” (defense, diplomacy, development), presents irrefutable evidence of our declining influence and reputation in these spheres, and suggests that it’s time for us to regain some of this lost ground.…
The day I invited Chubby Checker to town
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Some years ago, shortly after my 90th birthday, I wrote an autobiography. The exercise helped me recall many episodes from my more than eight decades in Toronto since coming here with my family from England at the beginning of the First World War. As I described in the book, I had a multifaceted career. I…
Tale of the missing wedding ring
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Some years ago, Leslie Robbins of Toronto lost her diamond wedding ring, which she had placed in a secret hiding place within her home. For two years the ring did not turn up. After thoroughly searching her home, Robbins filed an insurance claim and began to plan a European vacation with the insurance money that…
Obit: General Choi Hong Hi, grand master of taekwon-do
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General Choi Hong Hi, who founded the martial art of taekwon-do in Korea in 1955 and devoted his life to its promotion, has died in his birthplace of Pyongyang, North Korea. He was 83. Gen. Choi established the International Taekwon-do Federation in 1966 and oversaw its growth into more than 100 countries. He used to…
Roselawn Cemetery transcription project
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THIS article, written in 1994, provides a snapshot of the cemetery mapping committee of the Jewish Genealogical Society of Canada (Toronto) at an early stage of its work. Project volunteers have now completely transcribed Roselawn and several other Toronto Jewish cemeteries, which have been posted to JewishGen’s Online Worldwide Burial Registry. Visit www.jgstoronto.ca for more details. After…
Noyek Family Reunion
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Davida Noyek Handler, who lives in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, once owned a translation company, but gave it up in the early 1980s to concentrate on researching her family tree. Thanks largely to her research skills and perseverance, some 175 Noyek family members from six countries attended a first-ever family gathering at the Holiday Inn Yorkdale…
Hear Mormon Tabernacle Choir in Salt Lake City
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Beneath the giant dome of the Mormon Tabernacle, the harmonious voices of the famous Mormon Tabernacle Choir rise into the air, melding sweetly. Whether it’s a Biblical hymn or a medley from The Music Man, each selection sung by the 330-member choir reverberates with a rare purity in this hallowed hall. Established in 1847, the…
Bin Laden’s long career of evil
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If you have trouble sleeping, don’t read Bin Laden: The Man Who Declared War On America. The book, an in-depth study of the criminal mastermind who tops the world’s most wanted list, was written by Yossef Bodansky, a former consultant to the U.S. Departments of Defense and State. It first appeared two years ago and…
From plague to comedy: filmmaker Ric Bienstock
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Toronto film producer-director Ric Bienstock says that she missed many comforts of home when she shlepped all over China, India and Egypt to make a series of three hour-long TV documentaries featuring Penn and Teller, a celebrated pair of stage magicians from Las Vegas. But the veteran filmmaker, whose previous works include an acclaimed documentary…
Review: The Bible Is History
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Anyone attempting a serious book about the Bible’s status as history steps wilfully into a morass of difficulties. The first is what is meant by the word “Bible”? Is it the Tanach of the Jews (consisting of the 24 books of the Torah, Nevi’im and Ketuvim)? Does it include the later Christian testaments? The solution,…
