S.W. Jacobs, K.C., M.P., Draws the Attention of the Members of Parliament to the Fact That Jews Have Been Murdered in Poland Even After the Treaty With Poland Had Been Signed From the Canadian Jewish Chronicle, September 19, 1919 Ottawa, Sept. 12 — Two resolutions calling for approval of compacts entered into by certain of…
Tag: politics
Joe Salsberg: A Life of Commitment, by Gerald Tulchinsky
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BOOK REVIEW: Joe Salsberg: A Life of Commitment, by Gerald Tulchinsky (University of Toronto Press, June 2013) It was said that it would take Joe Salsberg three to five hours to stroll along Spadina Avenue from College to Queen because he couldn’t venture more than a few steps without meeting someone and having a conversation. The…
Canadian Parliament Hears of Polish Atrocities (1919)
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From the Canadian Jewish Chronicle, September 19, 1919 ◊ Note: “In 1919, Russian Jews were caught in the middle of a civil war, and became the victims of warring Red and White Russian, Ukrainian and Polish forces, among others. Thousands of pogroms resulted in the loss of an estimated 100,000 Jewish lives. Polish troops, Petlura’s soldiers,…
Jewish Voters Out in Force for Liberal Maguire (1911)
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Large Meeting Addressed by Candidate and other Speakers From the Globe and Mail, September 14, 1911 Note: Party politics evidently entered into municipal affairs in Toronto of a century ago. This article describes a rousing meeting held in support of Liberal Alderman Alfred Maguire at the Lyric Yiddish Theatre in 1911; Maguire would serve as…
Yiddish Youth Concert, Massey Hall, 1918
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The Yiddish Yugend Farein or Yiddish Young People’s Organization of Toronto sponsored a Sukkot Concert at Massey Hall on September 25, 1918. Below is the 24-page program, along with a list of names of people and companies mentioned. Note that the booklet’s printed pagination was incorrect and that the order of the pages is correct…
New book offers pieces by Kayfetz, Speisman on Toronto Jews
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Toronto publisher Now and Then Books’s latest title — Only Yesterday: Collected Pieces on the Jews of Toronto, by Benjamin Kayfetz and Stephen A. Speisman — is a prolifically illustrated book featuring 18 evocative articles by two notable historians of Toronto’s Jewish community. Culled from a variety of sources, the pieces in Only Yesterday focus…
Obit: Ross Dowson, Trotskyite & mayoral candidate (d. 2002)
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From the Globe and Mail, February 2002 As a Trotskyite and leader of the Revolutionary Workers Party, Ross Dowson might have been expected to tarry on the fringes of Canadian political life forever, so it came as a considerable shock to many Torontonians when he drew twenty per cent of the vote in a mayor’s…
David Crombie reflects on a century of change in Toronto
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Exclusive Report, February 3, 2013 Former Toronto Mayor David Crombie easily charmed a full-house audience at a January 30th meeting of the North Toronto Historical Society in Northern District Library. Although Crombie’s advertised topic was “North Toronto 1912, Then and Now,” references to North Toronto were few and far between. But it didn’t seem to…
Emma Goldman, Toronto’s anarchist guest (1926)
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From the Toronto Star Weekly, December 31, 1926 by Frederick Griffin You can’t imagine the gigantic United States with all its doughboys and buddies being scared of a woman. It is like a man being scared of a mouse. And yet we have the fact that they were so frightened over there by the presence…
Jimmy Blugerman (1887-1991) was labour organizer extraordinaire
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Adapted from the Canadian Jewish News, June 10, 1977. Recently Jim “Yascha” Blugerman, who is nearly 90 years of age, was installed as the 58th president of Toronto Lodge, the oldest and largest B’nai Brith chapter in Canada. Yascha had only five rubles in his pocket when he came to Toronto in 1908. He also…
