Nearly a decade after he founded a publishing company with a strong ideological mission, Howard Rotberg may take his place among that small and proud group of Canadians who operate successful small publishing houses. Although Mantua Books started off slowly, it now publishes one new title each month. Some of the books sell tens of…
Tag: history
Titanic genealogy
by •
The 100th anniversary of the S.S. Titanic disaster is almost upon us. The legendary British ship sank on the night of April 14-15, 1912, after striking an iceberg in the North Atlantic on its maiden voyage. More than 1,500 of the 2,200 people aboard perished in the tragedy, which has been memorialized in books, popular…
Historic photograph of 1812 veterans was taken in 1861
by •
No, it isn’t an actual photograph — just a sketch of a photograph of ten surviving veterans of the War of 1812 to 1814, who assembled at Rosedale some 50 years after the war, on October 23, 1861. The photo-sketch appeared in the Toronto Evening Telegram in 1910, just more than a century ago and…
Genealogist explores her family’s history in Stropkov
by •
Jews settled in Stropkov, in the Slovak Republic, around 1640. It was a little town in the backwoods of Slovakia with a Jewish atmosphere because it was between Galicia and Hungary and thus attracted Jews fleeing from those two areas. On May 24, 1942, the day before the Nazis began to deport Jews, the records…
Pre-1950 Jewish Toronto manuscript published
by •
A 60-year-old manuscript titled The Rise of the Toronto Jewish Community has been found in the archives of Beth Tzedec Congregation. Ralph Berrin, a volunteer in the Beth Tzedec Museum, brought the manuscript to the attention of Bill Gladstone, the publisher of Now and Then Books. Gladstone identified the author as the late Shmuel Mayer…
Massey Hall rally for Jews in Europe, 1915
by •
IT’S clear from this article from the Globe and Mail of August 9, 1915, that the situation of Jews in Europe was desperate and that Jews in Toronto were keen to ease their affliction. The rally at Massey Hall reportedly attracted some 2,000 people and representatives of more than 50 Jewish organizations. The keynote speaker was…
Mature writer Jacqueline Park scores with first novel
by •
After a distinguished career as a television scriptwriter and a professor of dramatic writing, Winnipeg-born Jacqueline Park, at 72, has achieved every writer’s dream: an acclaimed and commercially successful first novel. The book, a sweeping historical epic of the Italian Renaissance, is called The Secret Book of Grazia dei Rossi. Published by the prestigious American…
50th anniversary of Belleville’s Sons of Jacob Congregation
by •
Calling all Bellevillians and former Bellevillians to the 50th reunion of the “new” Sons of Jacob Congregation. The reunion takes place in the city of Belleville on the June 3 (2005) weekend, and includes a full program to celebrate the building’s 50th anniversary. In 1955, 65 Jewish families looked at their old-fashioned synagogue, which was…
Toronto’s colored population in 1908
by •
THIS appraisal of the lot of the colored population of Toronto in 1908 presents a fairly positive and upbeat portrait, but it is clear nonetheless that the “negro” of a century ago faced genuine discrimination in this city, with many doors closed in his face. The era was one in which the vast British-descended Anglo-Saxon…
On the Warsaw Ghetto
by •
In the decades before the Holocaust, the Jews of Warsaw believed that they were on the eve of a great positive transformation, according to an Israeli professor of Jewish history who took part in the Warsaw Ghetto uprising. The Jews of Warsaw were poor, often living in one-room flats where lively discussions of religion, politics…
