From about 1840 to roughly 1900, one sort of Jewish immigrant was so familiar in North American cities that he was caricatured in novels, newspapers articles and comic strips. According to the stereotype, he was a prosperous merchant, garbed in bowler hat, business suit, and thick moustache. He manufactured or traded in pianos, fine watches,…
Kitty Wintrob’s wartime memoir, I’m Not Going Back
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When Kitty Wintrob enrolled in a creative writing workshop with her daughter some 25 years ago, she didn’t imagine she would end up writing a full-length memoir. After receiving enthusiastic praise in the workshop for her writing, Wintrob enrolled in a second workshop, then a third. She ultimately kept taking one workshop after another for…
The remarkable Russian Consular Records
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One night in November 1933, a convoy of US Army trucks pulled up in front of a locked and deserted Russian government compound in Washington DC to undertake a mission that was both hushed and rushed. Obeying official orders from higher up, a platoon of American soldiers broke into the premises and began removing boxes…
Jolson Sings Again
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What was it like to see Jewish show business legend Al Jolson at his best in front of an adoring public? A high-budget musical profile of Jolson, now on stage at the historic Victoria Palace Theatre in London’s West End, seemingly rekindles that quintessential and electrifying spark that this most famous cantor’s son was able to…
The ageless charm of an Irving Berlin musical
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The story has it that when Irving Berlin’s new musical Annie Get Your Gun was being readied for its 1946 Broadway opening with Ethel Merman in the title role, the legendary composer was so nervous about one particular number, There’s No Business Like Show Business, that he was prepared to yank it from the show.…
Old news is new again
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At some point in their lives, nearly everyone in our modern world gets into the newspaper, even if only for a birth, marriage or death announcement. That’s why the newly-emerging searchable electronic archives of publications like the New York Times, the Toronto Star and the Globe and Mail constitute a giant leap forward for genealogists,…
Obit: Mandel Sprachman (1925-2002)
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Mandel Sprachman, the Toronto architect who restored the city’s legendary Elgin-Winter Garden vaudeville house to its original splendour, has died at the age of 77. Like his father before him, Sprachman specialized in old movie palaces and theatres; he renovated and restored many such edifices in Toronto, Montreal and other Canadian cities. He was also…
Toronto: A Literary Guide
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A year after Isaac Bashevis Singer came to the United States, he was required to renew his visa from outside the United States. Rather than return to Europe, he snuck into Canada and came to Toronto. In case you missed reading details of Singer’s 1936 visit here in his reminiscence Lost in America, the episode…
History of anti-semitism within the Social Credit
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Norman Jaques, a former Social Credit MP from Alberta, earned a special place in the annals of Canadian antisemitism 60 years ago when he wrote a virulently anti-semitic letter on House of Commons letterhead, thus tarring two reputable institutions with a single brush. In the summer of 1943, as the Nazi Holocaust was raging in…
Kohelet is a knotty and naughty book
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“Futility of futilities! All is futile!” I heard someone mutter recently while glancing up with darkened brow from the pages of Kohelet, the Biblical book also known as Ecclesiastes. The utterance was understandable, since most commentators, if they agree on anything at all about Kohelet, seem in accordance that it is a most vexing and…
