At 97, Anne Gitterman could be the poster model for successful aging. Gitterman is legally blind, travels in Toronto with Wheel Trans, and has an oxygen tank for when she needs it. Yet she participates in a weekly pottery/sculpting workshop at Bernard Betel Centre. “Whenever one of my students or someone new to pottery says…
Tag: JEWISH TORONTO
Shapira family held key to Terauley Street synagogue
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Zelig Shapira, who lived in Toronto from 1890 to 1907, was remembered at a family reunion that 93 of his descendants attended in Toronto in October 1983, according to a story that appeared in the Canadian Jewish News of November 3, 1983. Shapira was born in 1851 in Pamoren, Galicia, and was active in the…
Rose family has 35th annual gathering, 1980
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Because Beryl and Mintzi Rose wanted the family to stay together, Beryl organized a family club in Toronto in 1945, shortly before he died. In 1980, more than 100 members of the Rose clan attended a 35th anniversary reunion at Beth Torah Synagogue, the Canadian Jewish News reported on October 2, 1980. Eleven of Beryl…
Obit: Nathan Smith (d. 1936)
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From the Jewish Standard, January 1937 With the passing of Nathan Smith, Toronto was bereaved of one of the most interesting and one of the most remarkable Jews in its city. The late Nathan Smith was like an oak transplanted from the old Jewish forest of Eastern Europe, a sturdy young oak which has taken…
Chmielniker Society carries on heritage
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The memory of a murdered Jewish community has been kept alive for years by members of the Chmielniker Society of Toronto. Chmielnik, located in the southeast of Poland, was once home to more than 8,000 Jews before World War II. This was in a town of 10,000. The Chmielniker Society is made up of those who…
Cowan reminisces about the old Ward 4, 1930 to 1935
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Torontonian Norman Cowan reminisced about hanging out on College Street around Becker’s, Altman’s, Wellt’s and the Eppes Essen Restaurant during the Depression years in an article by Frank Rasky that appeared in the Canadian Jewish News on November 4, 1982. Then a 73-year-old retired estate planner, Cowan delivered an address titled Reminiscences of Ward 4…
The Standard theatre becomes a movie house, 1935
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This article, which appeared under the title “Gone to the Movies” in the Canadian Jewish Standard of March 14, 1935, tells the sad tale not only of the demise of the Standard Yiddish Theatre at Spadina and Dundas in Toronto, but of the Yiddish language in general across North America. Younger, more assimilated and acculturated…
New Yiddish theatre an asset to Toronto (1922)
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From The Canadian Jewish Review, September 8, 1922. The popularity of the Jewish play in Toronto received a decided impetus with the formal opening of the Standard Theater on Wednesday. The theater was filled to capacity at this, the first Yiddish presented in Toronto in some years. The audience was more than agreeably surprised on…
Krugel brothers came from Galicia in 1890s
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Berel, Mattes and Chaim Srul Krugel arrived in Toronto in the late 19th century, according to an article that appeared in the Canadian Jewish News on July 4, 1985. More than 70 family members held a family reunion in Toronto, the paper reported. The Krugels were from Galicia and came here between 1893 and 1895.…
Benevolent society celebrates its 110th anniversary
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The Toronto Hebrew Benevolent Society, the oldest Jewish mutual benefit society in Ontario, and possibly in Canada, has been serving the needs of its members for more than a century. The benevolent society recently celebrated its 110th anniversary with a dinner and dance at Beth Torah Synagogue. Howard Federman, a fourth-generation member, is the organization’s…
