From the Toronto Star, April 29, 1931 Jews and Gentiles will have their automobile insurance risks underwritten on exactly the same terms by 85 per cent of the automobile insurance companies in Ontario, it was announced last night by E. Fred Singer, K.C., M.P.P. (St Andrews). The information came as a result of a questionnaire…
Tag: JEWISH TORONTO
Obit: Florence Hutner (1907-1992)
by •
From the Canadian Jewish News, January 30, 1992 Florence Hutner, who guided the United Jewish Welfare Fund through problem-filled war and postwar years as its executive director in the 1940s and beyond, died January 6 [1992] at Baycrest Hospital at the age of eighty-four. She was the first woman to head a major Jewish organization…
Profile of an old Russian Jew in Toronto (1913)
by •
From The Toronto Star Weekly, July 1913 Zeth Slavin had to flee the Czar’s domains because his customers were massacred — Now he sells papers at corner of Yonge & Adelaide — Sorry he did not come sooner By Gregory Clark Zeth Slavin’s face is well known to most people whose work brings them to…
Photo exhibit portrays early Jewish immigrants to Toronto
by •
“Picturing Immigrants in the Ward,” a recently installed exhibit at the City of Toronto Archives, offers many tantalizing glimpses of Jewish, Italian and other recently arrived immigrants in the congested “Ward” neighbourhood of downtown Toronto as it existed from about 1905 to 1930, focusing mostly on the era before the First World War. The Ward…
20,000 gawkers swarm Bessie Starkman funeral, 1930
by •
Prelude: Bessie (Besha) Starkman, a Jewish immigrant from Poland, married baker and driver Harry Tobins in Toronto in 1907 and gave birth to daughters Gertrude in 1909 and Lilly (Leah) in 1911. They lived at 92-1/2 Agnes (Dundas) Street in 1909 and 63 Chestnut Street in 1911. In 1912 an Italian immigrant named Rocco Perri…
Lawrence Solman, Canada’s Uncrowned Amusement King (1926)
by •
From The Toronto Star Weekly, November 18, 1926 ◊ Profile of the remarkable Toronto-born entrepreneur Lawrence “Lol” Solman (1866-1931), who was managing director of the Royal Alexandra Theatre, Sunnyside Amusement Park, Hanlan’s Hotel, Hanlan’s Point Amusement Park and the Mutual Street Arena in Toronto; owner of the Toronto Ferry Company and the Toronto Maple Leafs baseball…
When Ancestry.com fails: a Toronto street guide to the 1911 census
by •
Problem: you know your Jewish ancestors or relatives lived in Toronto in 1911 — you even know their street address — yet you can’t find them in the 1911 census. No matter how many times you search, they do not show up in Ancestry.com’s database of the 1911 census. Frequently the problem occurs because a family…
Oppenheimer-Marks “Rainbow Wedding,” 1902
by •
From the Toronto Star, September 24, 1902 A fashionable audience of guests gathered this afternoon in Holy Blossom Synagogue to witness the marriage of Mr. Joseph Oppenheimer of New Orleans to Miss Lottie Marks, daughter of Mrs. D. Marks of 526 Euclid Avenue. The bride entered leaning on the arm of her grandfather, Mr. N.…
Obit: Mary Wilensky (d. 1958)
by •
From the Toronto Star, May 13, 1958 Funeral service for Mrs. Mary Wilensky, eight-six, a Russian immigrant who raised four daughters who became professional women in Toronto and the United States, will be held at 12:30 p.m. Wednesday in Park Memorial chapel, Spadina Avenue. Interment will be in Roselawn cemetery. Mrs. Wilensky died of a…
Obit: Sports hero Harry Sniderman (1976)
by •
From a Canadian newspaper, August 20, 1976 By Mordecai Hershenson Harry Sniderman was a colourful figure in the Toronto scene for three decades — an able athlete, gracious sportsman and promoter and a Babe Ruth of the Bellwoods Park softball teams. During the late 1920s and 1930s, “Iron Man,” “What-A-Man Sniderman” was the king of…
