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…
From The Canadian Jewish Chronicle, December 8, 1939 The Jewish community of Montreal, thousands strong, paid final tribute to the memory of Reuben Brainin, noted Hebraist, author and pioneer Zionist, who died in New York on November 30, 1939 at the age of seventy-seven. From 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. his body lay in state…
Samuel Koteliansky was never a major figure in the Bloomsbury circle. Author Leon Edel never even mentions him in Bloomsbury: A House of Lions, his masterful portrait of the loose affiliation of writers and artists associated with the London-based Bloomsbury circle. Neither is Koteliansky mentioned in the other books about Bloomsbury on my shelf. We…
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…
As a volunteer for the Survivors of the Shoah Visual History Foundation, the organization created by filmmaker Steven Spielberg, author Alvin Abram gained first-hand knowledge of the experiences of Holocaust survivors. In his recently published seventh book, The Minyan, Abram combines his flare for detective crime mysteries with a story about the Holocaust, featuring locales…
Representatives of Ve’ahavta, a Canadian Jewish humanitarian and relief organization, are being credited with pioneering a method of treatment that drastically reduces HIV transmission from infected mothers to newborn babies in sub-Saharan Africa. Ve’ahavta medics in field clinics in Zimbabwe have devised a system for administering the anti-HIV drug AZT that costs about (US) $5…
After more than 50 years in dentistry, Dr. Gordon Perlmutter is putting away his drill, scaler and syringes. “But not quite,” says his daughter Dr. Sharon Perlmutter, who is also a dentist and a community volunteer. “My father still comes into the office every day when he is in town. He checks the mail and…
Many Canadians do not know that one of the world’s greatest pop songs of all time, I’ll Never Smile Again, was written by a Canadian, Ruth Lowe, more than 60 years ago. Although the song has been recorded by famous orchestras and well-known vocalists, it was not until recently (2004) that attention was once again…
For the invitation to her “100 Years Young” birthday party, Naomi Bogomolny chose an anonymous poem titled Life Owes Me Nothing. On June 3 (2005) Bogomolny will celebrate her 100th birthday surrounded by more than 100 members of her family and friends. Bogomolny was interviewed at her seniors residence, along with her daughter Edith Monson,…
Retired regimental Sgt.-Maj. Sam Cohen, who celebrates his 100th birthday on August 12 (2005), defies all medical logic. “He eats all the wrong foods, such as pastrami with fat and fried foods, and he smokes more than a package of unfiltered Sweet Caporal cigarettes a day,” says his daughter Theresa Strom. “We have to order…
