I often get requests from researchers who have seen their family in the 1901, 1911 or 1921 census of Toronto but can’t find the street they were living on a modern map because the street has disappeared or the name was changed. Where was Buchanan Street? Where was Cuttell Place? Where was Alice Street? Etcetera.…
From the Toronto Daily Star, May 7, 1907 At the next meeting of the annual conference of the Canadian Chiefs of Police, one of the most important subjects to be discussed is the establishment of a central general bureau for the identification of criminals. At the present time there is no general bureau and the…
From the Canadian Jewish News, Summer 2013 With his latest novel A Bird’s Eye, prolific Toronto writer Cary Fagan has created what may be his best work since his acclaimed first novel, The Animals’ Waltz, won the Canadian Jewish Fiction Prize in 1994. A Bird’s Eye marks a return for Fagan to the small-canvas, miniature…
From the Canadian Jewish News, May 12, 1972 For some time now it has been open season for Toronto’s Spadina Avenue and its off-shoot the Kensington Market in the daily, weekly and periodical press. At one time when The Toronto Star and the late Telegram were both carrying TV and entertainment supplements, one could expect…
From the Canadian Jewish News, January 13, 2005 Hy Burstein can’t quite explain his passion for riding horses, only that it first hit him as a teenager and that it’s still going strong six decades later. Born to Russian-Jewish immigrants in Toronto in 1928, he recently published Ride ’em Jewish Cowboy, a book describing his…
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…
There is now a vacant lot where the house on 42 St. George Street stood. All that is left of Mendel Granatstein’s home, a property which is now owned by the University of Toronto, is the front portico. According to Heritage Toronto records, the home was the first in Toronto to be owned by a…
Longtime friends of commercial and real estate lawyer Sam Moskowitz refer to him affectionately as “the son of the pickle man.” If you ask him what pickles and law have in common, he will tell you “everything.” His fond memories of his parents’ store at 186 Baldwin St., filled with barrels of pickles, herring, tomatoes,…
Even the children have their deposits — One lad of four opens his own account — Hard business to transact From the Toronto Daily Star, January 26, 1906 That Toronto in common with American cities has an increasing foreign population is shown in many ways, but in none more clearly than in the fact that…
From the Canadian Jewish Chronicle, September 5, 1919 A very interesting decision was handed down last Sunday in the Jewish Court of Arbitration. The case was that of the S. Karsch Co., kosher sausage manufacturers. The company consists of two partners, Sam Karsh and Joseph Peverman. One of the partners accused the other of misappropriating…
