Tag: canada

At 100, Bogolmony maintains positive outlook

For the invitation to her “100 Years Young” birthday party, Naomi Bogomolny chose an anonymous poem titled Life Owes Me Nothing. On June 3 (2005) Bogomolny will celebrate her 100th birthday surrounded by more than 100 members of her family and friends. Bogomolny was interviewed at her seniors residence, along with her daughter Edith Monson,…

Centenarian Abraham Lieff looks back on Canadian Jewry

For more than a century, Abraham (Abe) Lieff, who is known as the father of modern Canadian family law, has witnessed history unfolding in Canada and Israel. Lieff is a walking history book. His memory reaches back into the pioneer days of the development of the organized Jewish community in Canada, particularly the Jewish community…

Wartime anti-semitic Iron Guard active in Ontario

“Look at Judah’s claws, deeply penetrating my body! Look how my blood is running, look how the Jews are drinking it!” These are lyrics to a song. They were excerpted from a songbook found at Romanian Camp, a 50-acre compound in Flamborough, Ontario, outside Hamilton, where a group of sympathizers of the Iron Guard —…

The Ostrys: a legacy of accomplishment in public life

Sylvia and Bernard Ostry are an exceptional Jewish couple, says book publishing consultant Malcolm Lester of Malcolm Lester and Associates. “They are one of a kind in terms of their joint accomplishments in Canadian public service,” adds Lester, who has been a consultant on their recently published books. Both of the Ostrys are respected around…

Obit: gallery curator Ken Saltmarche (1920-2003)

Canada’s art world is lamenting the end of an era with the demise of Ken Saltmarche, founding director of the Art Gallery of Windsor, who died in Toronto on July 3, 2003, at the age of 82. An accomplished artist, Saltmarche ultimately made his greatest mark as an arts administrator and is being remembered as…

Yarmouth, picturesque Maritime town, is losing its Jews

A melancholic mist o’erhangs the main street of Yarmouth, an isolated village of about 7,000 people on Nova Scotia’s extreme southwestern shore. Sixty miles from the coast of Maine, Yarmouth has not changed much since its glory days as a thriving regional seaport in the late 19th century, when it served as a major embarkation point…

Tapper’s Biographical Dictionary of Canadian Jews

Between 1897 and 1914 — the period between the rise of Zionism and the start of the Great War — a quality English-language fortnightly newspaper captured the flavour of Jewish life in Canada. Published in Montreal, The Canadian Jewish Times functioned as a community bulletin board for the several thousand Jews then resident in Canada…

Edmund Scheuer and the Toronto Jewish Free School

The Toronto Star Weekly of February 12, 1916, carried this report on the Jewish Free School sponsored by Jewish philanthropist Edmund Scheuer. Making Good Canadians Out of Girls of Jewish Birth Splendid Work Being Done at the Jewish Free School Tolerance for Creeds of Others Taught Loyalty to King and Country Strongly Emphasized. The Jewish…

Toronto’s Tom Sandler, photographer to the Royals

Although Tom Sandler’s family lived in England in the late 1800s, none of his relatives ever came into contact with royalty until he became the British royal family’s photographer of choice during their frequent visits to Canada. The Toronto camera pro’s relationship with the royals blossomed from his volunteer involvement, beginning more than a decade…

Obit: Ben Weider, built bodybuilding empire (1923-2008)

Ben Weider, who with his brother Joe founded a billion-dollar bodybuilding empire and helped launch Arnold Schwarzenegger’s career in the United States, died October 17 (2008) of heart failure in his native city of Montreal at the age of 85. Weider was also a collector of rare Napoleonic artifacts, and donated some sixty valuable pieces…