When Judah Joseph, an English-born Jew, settled in Muddy York in 1838 and set up shop as an optician and watchmaker, little did he dream he was the forerunner of a vigorous community of 75,000, the third largest Jewish community in the British Commonwealth. It is now (in 1956) celebrating its 100th anniversary as an…
Clanton Park Synagogue will honour Rabbi Yitzchok Kerzner and his wife Rebbitzen Bash Kerzner at a tribute dinner on May 7 (2002) at Paradise Banquet Hall. Well known for his knowledge of halachah and for his many contributions to this city’s Jewish community, Rabbi Kerzner is retiring from his pulpit duties at Clanton Park after…
Beth Sky has the distinction of receiving an award as the only surviving graduate of the University of Toronto’s pharmacy class of 1932. The active 91-year-old former pharmacist was presented with a gold medallion of the Chancellor’s Circle at a recent ceremony at the U of T’s Hart House. The following day, she received a…
History students doing scholarly research and individuals interested in the labour movement and Jewish history in Canada can now, for the first time, study the J.B. Salsberg Papers. The permanent collection, part of the Queen’s University Archives, was opened to the general public last month. It consists of extensive correspondence, speeches, reports, photographs, clippings, sound…
King Edward Public School will celebrate its 100th anniversary with festivities planned for September 29 to October 3 (2002). In 1872, the Bathurst Street School opened at the corner of College and Bathurst streets. In September 1902, the Toronto Board of Education renamed the school in honour of King Edward VII who ascended the throne…
Hail, hail, the gang’s all here! Memories of the old gang will prevail at the Y All-Clubs reunion and buffet dinner, which will bring together members of all the early YMHA clubs, going back more than half a century. “The reunion will feature hundreds of wall-to-wall characters like you’ve never seen before,” says Ken Borden,…
The Standard Theatre Successful Opening of New Yiddish Temple of the Drama Last Night The opening ceremony and initial performance at the Standard Theatre, the latest addition to the places of amusement of the city, passed off very successfully last night. His Worship the Mayor snatched a half-hour from his duties at the City Hall…
Thanks to the prodigious efforts of Toronto accountant Louis Devor, 180 members of a clan that variously spelled its surname as Devor, Devore, Dwor and D’wor, met in Toronto in the summer of 1983, reported Frank Rasky in a story in the Canadian Jewish News of August 4, 1983. Participants, who ranged in age from…
More than 250 members of the Bacher family met for a reunion at Grossinger’s, the Catskills resort, reported the Canadian Jewish News on July 21, 1983. The following is a summary of the original story. Ethel Bacher and Yossel Yussiper of Bukovina, Romania, who died in an 1860s cholera epidemic, were the ancestors to which…
As a tribute to the memory of Rebbitzen Mirl Fish Kelman, her children recently published a book, Mother’s Memoir and Family Recollections, in which they describe her influence on the Toronto Jewish community and tell how she overcame adversity and raised a family of communal leaders. The life of the matriarch of the Kelman family…
