Isaac Matenko (1874-1960) was a founder, teacher, and principal of the I.L. Peretz School. He worked tirelessly to preserve and promote secular Jewish culture and the Yiddish language in Toronto. He was also a prominent member of local Jewish organizations, such as the Socialist-Territorialist Club and the Yiddish Kultur Gesellshaft.
Isaac was born on February 1, 1874 in the town of Makarov, Kiev, Ukraine. He married Elke Yelia Moshkevitch (1878- November 19, 1953) on August 4, 1900 in Yakatreneslav. They immigrated from Czarist Russia to Toronto in 1906, passing first through New York with their two children, Percy (June 30, 1901-May 1987) and Theodore (1903-1906, died of measles at Ellis Island), Yelia’s three sisters, Dvora, Bracha, and Celia, and Isaac’s younger half-brother, Paul Frumhartz. They had two more children after arriving: Abraham (August 14, 1908-October 24, 1989) and Shoshana (Sue) (1911-2001). Although he had been a teacher in Russia, Isaac worked as an operator in a cloak factory in Toronto, where he was instrumental in forming the union (likely the Cloakmakers’ Union of Toronto, which later affiliated with the International Ladies’ Garment Workers’ Union).
As a child, Isaac received a traditional Jewish education. This, combined with his self-taught secular education and the teachings of Yiddish Nationalist Dr. Chaim Zhitlovski, informed his future career and philosophies. He was described as an idealist by his friends, whose dedication to Yiddish culture and language motivated him to bring this knowledge to a younger generation.
On July 11, 1911, Isaac and his fellow Socialist-Territorialist members established the Toronto Yiddish National-Radical School. By 1916, it had been taken over by the Workmen’s Circle and renamed the I.L. Peretz School, after the well-known Yiddish author and playwright. The school began in a rented room at the Zionist Institute on Simcoe St., moving to larger locations on Richmond St. W., then Beverley St. as it grew. Eventually, several more branches opened, such as the Maria St. school that Isaac was affiliated with. He taught at the school for free in the evenings after working during the day in a shop. His brother Paul was also a founding teacher at the school.
Isaac was described by family, friends, and community members as a passionate teacher with an iron will: he was well-versed in Jewish knowledge, with a desire to pass it on to a younger generation and his fellow union members. He remained involved in the school and in teaching, even after retirement. He died on June 2, 1960 at the age of 86.
Ethel Mehr (1901-1975) was born in Toronto in March 1901, the daugther of Mendel and Bessie Mehr. She attended Bishop Strachan School in Toronto. On 15 Dec. 1925, Ethel married Henry Greisman (1897-1950) who was a partner in the Balfour Building Company and later owned the Lady Ellis chain of clothing stores. They had two children, John Richard and Sally Barbara. After Henry Greisman's death, Ethel married Myer Brenner, whom she had first met as a young women.
Ethel had four siblings, Pincus, Leonard, Lucille (Warshavsky) and Bernice (Dunkelman).
Gordon Melamed (6 Apr. 1927-16 Nov. 2004) was born to Morris and Zena Melamed. The Melamed family was originally from Russia. Morris Melamed served in the Russian army during the Russo-Japanese War. He was married to Zena Melamed and they had eleven children, Gordon being the only boy. Morris Melamed owned a dry goods store and the family were active members of the Toronto Jewish community.
Gordon Mendly (1904-1998) was born Gordon Gimpel Mendlevich in Kielce, Poland on 3 May 1904. He was the son of Israel and Masha Mendlevich. He immigrated to Canada in 1924, as a photographic apprentice and immediately began working out of his home at 305A Queen Street West. This first studio was called International Studio. In 1932, he started Famous Studios, which was located at his residence at 285 College Street. His final studio was at 3145 Bathurst Street, which he sold to fellow photographer Nir Bareket, upon his retirement in 1977. Mendly was married to Sarah (née Rawet) Mendly. He died on 5 January 1998, at the age of 93.
As a studio photographer, Mendly photographed many members of the Jewish community in Toronto. He was also commissioned for weddings and special occasions, along with various events organized by Jewish organizations and agencies. In particular, it is the latter of these commissions that are most illustrative of the Toronto Jewish community. These include events such as the Zionist Organization of Canada's conventions, Cloakmaker Union rallies, and Jewish Old Folks’ Home bingo nights. His work has won awards in both Canada and the United States.
Mendly was also involved in many of the organizations that he photographed. He was the past president of the Herzl Zion Club; an executive member of the Canadian Jewish Congress Central Region, JIAS and Toronto B’nai Brith Central Region; board member of the Jewish Home for the Aged and Baycrest Hospital; vice-president of the Men’s Service Group of the Jewish Home for the Aged; on the executive of the Judaea Lodge, Knights of Phythias No. 52 and the Keltzer Sick Benefit Society; chairman of Jewish National Fund; affiliated with the Brunswick Avenue Talmud Torah and the American Society of Photographers; and co-chairman of the 1956-1961 UJA Metropolitan Division.
The Men's Clothing Manufacturers' Association of Ontario (MCMAO) was formed and incorporated in 1919 under the name of the Associated Clothing Manufacturers. The Association's primary mandate was the representation of its membership in negotiations with the Amalgamated Clothing Workers of America and later, the Toronto Joint Board of the Amalgamated Clothing and Textile Workers Union. The MCMAO membership was comprised of the manufacturing firms of men's clothing in Toronto and Hamilton and inlcuded companies such as Tip Top Tailors, Empire Clothing and Shiffer-Hillman among others. The Association was also involved in furthering the interests of the clothing industry in Ontario and with all matters pertaining to the clothing business in which the Association's membership was interested. The MCMAO was a represented member of the Apparel Manufacturers' Associatoin of Ontario and the Apparel Manufacturers' Council of Canada. The MCMAO ceased operation around 1989.
Harris Reuben Moscoe (1905-1987) was born in London, England on December 1, 1905. He was the second child of Nathan Moscovitch and Esther Kaufman whose other children were Herman and Rebecca. The family immigrated to Toronto via Halifax, where they arrived on December 20, 1913. The Moscovitch family then included Nathan’s second wife (also named Esther) and her four children, Millie, Harry, Albert, and Phillip. As there were now two “Harry’s” in the family, they gave Harris the middle name of Reuben and he thus became known in Toronto as “Ruby.”
In the 1920s the family changed their name to Moscoe, except their father, Nathan Moscovitch, who kept his original family name. Nathan had been a hat and cap manufacturer in England and established a similar business in Toronto operating under the name of “London Hat and Cap Ltd.” The business prospered, with the family moving from 43 Grace St. to 513 Palmerston Avenue, a large, single family home on this prestigious street.
Harris attended Grace Street Public School and Harbord Collegiate, from which he graduated in 1926. He graduated from Osgoode Hall Law School and was admitted to the Bar of Ontario in September 1930. From 1931 through 1934, Harry and his brother Herman practiced law together as the firm of Moscoe and Moscoe, situated at 100 Adelaide St. West.
In Toronto, Nathan Moscovitch had become an active member of the Hebrew Men of England Congregation. During the 1920s and 1930s he served in many official capacities, including President. After admission to the Bar, Harry followed in his father’s footsteps, joining the synagogue Board of Governors along with his brother, Herman. Later he also served as Secretary-Treasurer.
In 1935, frustrated by Toronto’s depressed economy, brother Herman moved his law practice to Schumacher, a suburb of Timmins, in northern Ontario. At that time Timmins had a growing Jewish community and a boom in the gold mining industry. Herman then convinced Harry to move to Kirkland Lake, which by then also had a booming mining industry and a growing Jewish community. On February 28, 1936, Harry moved to Kirkland Lake with his wife Adele and son Sydney. He immediately set up a one-man legal practice and became actively involved with the 125-family Jewish community and its synagogue and Rabbi. In 1937, a second son, David, was born to the Moscoe family. Their daughter would be born in 1943.
In 1941 the United Mine, Mill and Smelters Workers Union began a strike at all of Kirkland Lake’s mines. The mine owners then allowed the mines to flood. The town’s economy collapsed, as did Harry’s law practice. In early 1942, he moved to Montreal and began working for the Canadian Jewish Congress, Eastern Region. There he became the Executive Director of the CJC Eastern Region War Efforts Committee.
In June 1944, Harry resigned from the Committee and moved his family back to Kirkland Lake. The economy had not, however, fully recovered. The Jewish population had shrunk to around 95 families. The Rabbi stayed, but the only kosher butcher left within the year, forcing residents to order all kosher food from Toronto. Harry became active, once again, in both the Jewish and general community. He was, for many years, Secretary of the Adath Shalom Synagogue Board and also very active in B’nai B’rith. He also became active politically, working for the local Liberal Member of Parliament, Walter Little. Harry was appointed a part-time Prosecutor under the Wartime Price and Trade Board Act Regulations, and also appointed both Chief Returning Officer for the federal elections for the District of Timiskaming and also Chief Census Officer for the District.
By 1951, Kirkland Lake’s gold mines were depleted and the Jewish population had shrunk to 65 families. In 1952 Harry took on a case for a family whose son had been fatally shot by a local policeman. The trial was before a Supreme Court Judge whose court found the police at fault, but could only award a maximum of $500 to the family. The local Police Chief was very upset with the result and thereafter, whenever Harry appeared in the local Magistrates’ Court, he always lost his cases. The Chief finally told Harry that he could never win another case in Kirkland Lake. “We don’t need your kind of people here”, he stated.
By the spring of 1955 Harry was forced to move his family back to Toronto. He found employment with Joseph Newman, Q.C.,whose office was at 4 Albert St. After six months he leased space from another lawyer, Carl M. Herlick, Q.C. In 1956, Herlick, one of Toronto’s first Jewish lawyers, retured and turned over the remainder of his cases to Harry.
Harry also reconnected with the Hebrew Men of England Congregation, where he did manage to pick up a few clients. In 1958, he convinced his oldest son Sydney, who was still articling, to join him. They shared an office in Herlick’s suite at the “Manning Chambers,” a four-story building on the southwest corner of Queen and Bay streets. In 1959, both Moscoes moved their office to 88 Richmond St. West, bringing Mr. Herlick along with them. Sadly, Mr. Herlick died soon after building problems forced a further move next door to the Victory Building at 80 Richmond St. West. The Moscoe's practice prospered for the following twenty years until Harry’s retirement.
The National Council of Jewish Women of Canada (NCJWC) was the first national Jewish women's organization in Canada. The council had its beginnings among the urban elite, and played a strong role over the years in influencing public policy in such areas as relations with Israel, national unity, and the plight of world Jewry. The NCJWC is dedicated, in the spirit of Judaism, to furthering human welfare in the Jewish and general communities -- locally, nationally and internationally. It operated around three main pillars: service, education, and social action.
The National Council of Jewish Women was founded in the United States in 1893 by activist Hannah G. Solomon. In 1897, its first Canadian chapter was established in Toronto. In 1925, with seven chapters in Canada, a Canadian liaison position to the National Council of Jewish Women was created. A full-fledged “Canadian Division” of the NCJW was formed in 1934, with rules drafted at the first conference in Winnipeg three years later. Irene Samuel served as the Canadian Division’s first national president. In 1943, the division was renamed the National Council of Jewish Women of Canada, and was officially incorporated in 1944, though it did not receive its letters patent until three years later. Even so, the NCJWC still retained some affiliation with the NCJW, whereby they paid per-capita dues to the Americans in return for program and administrative materials. In 1967 the NCJWC ceased these payments altogether, thereby separating from NCJW completely.
The early NCJWC focused on providing service to young girls and immigrants. They also involved themselves in contemporary politics through support for the war effort; the council donated vehicles to the Red Cross, turned Council House into a servicemen's centre, and even built several libraries at Canadian army camps. A national office opened ca. 1950 in Toronto, but until 1966 it moved to the national president's home city with every election. That year the office was permanently anchored in Toronto. In the 1950s and 1960s the council established Good Age clubs, the Irene Samuel Scholarship Fund, and developed the national Higher Horizons child-care and Newer Horizons elder-care programs. It expanded its overseas programs with support for the Israel Family Counseling Association and Ship-a-Box. The Soviet Jewry projects in the 1970s and 1980s reflected the council’s increasing emphasis on social action. Since the late 1990s, the council has focused on women's issues with efforts such as the Breast Self-Examination (BSE) program.
The NCJWC was governed by an executive council, led by a president. Vice-presidents were each responsible for one portfolio, such as membership, public affairs, etc., which were in turn made up of a number of national committees. The national executive was responsible for producing by-laws, guidelines, policies and procedures, as well as developing national service and social action programs. National also provided support and program materials to the sections, and held biennial meetings every other year from 1937 in cities across Canada. Its decentralized structure meant that while the national office remained in Toronto, officers of the executive have resided right across the country.
As of 1997, the National Council of Jewish Women of Canada was an affiliate member of the International Council of Jewish Women, a member of UNESCO Canadian Subcommission of the Status of Women, and a member of the Coalition of Jewish Women Against Domestic Violence and the Coalition for Agunot Rights. Prominent past presidents include Mrs. Harry (Irene) Samuel, Mrs. Lucille Lorie, Dr. Reva Gerstein, Mozah Zemans, Mina Hollenberg, Sophie Drache, Thelma Rolingher, Helen Marr, Bunny Gurvey, Sheila Freeman, Penny Yellen, and Gloria Strom. The council’s national office moved to Winnipeg in November, 1993. As of 2006, the council still had 5 active sections in Canada: Vancouver, Edmonton, Winnipeg, Toronto and Montreal.
Morris Norman (b. 1946) is a chartered accountant living and working in Toronto. He is an avid collector of Canadiana, specifically Judaica. He purchases lots at auction and donates them to the Ontario Jewish Archives, as well as other institutions.
Julius Irving (J. I.) Oelbaum (1899-1966) was a dedicated community leader, whose tireless work with fraternal, educational and philanthropic organizations included an extensive list of Toronto's prominent Jewish organizations. He was born in New York City on 11 October, 1899 to Moishe and Miriam (nee Jacoby) Oelbaum. He had four brothers, Charles, Sidney, Abraham (Babe) and Cuppel (Jack). In 1906, the family moved to Toronto, where Oelbaum received his education. In 1923, he married Sadie (nee Margulies) and had two daughters, Dorothy Koven and Helen Simpson. Oelbaum was a social worker by profession, but in 1932, he went into business with his brothers and became president of the Acme Paper Products Company Limited.
J. I. Oelbaum devoted a lifetime to Jewish communal service, beginning in 1923, when he was hired as the executive director of the Federation of Jewish Philanthropies of Toronto, a post which he retained for five years. Incredibly, during the same period he was also the executive director of the Toronto Hebrew Free Loan Association and the Toronto Hebrew Free School. Oelbaum held executive lay leadership positions with numerous organizations including: District Grand Lodge No. 1, B'nai Brith, United Jewish Welfare Fund, Jewish Family Welfare Bureau, Yeshiva Torath Chaim, Zionist Organization of Canada, Canadian Jewish Congress Central Region, Joint Public Relations Committee, Jewish Immigrant Aid Society of Canada, Jewish Camp Council of Toronto, United Jewish Refugee and War Relief Agencies, Toronto Jewish Old Folks' Home, Mount Sinai Hospital, Canadian Conference of Christians and Jews, Congregation Goel Tzedec, and the Y.M.H.A.
In 1954, Oelbaum was honoured at a Jewish National Fund Negev dinner, which over 1400 people attended. He also received the Queen's Coronation Medal in 1952 and the Canadian Council of Christian and Jews Human Relations award in 1953. J. Irving Oelbaum died on 2 October 1966 after a lengthy illness.
Samuel Posluns (1910-1994) was born in Toronto to Abraham Isaac Poslaniec (1870-1922) and Sheindel Saltzman (1872-1960). He had three brothers and three sisters: Joseph, Louis, Abe, Gertrude Miriam, Anne, and Sarah. His father Abraham established the family run clothing firm Superior Cloak Company in 1916. In 1934, it was bankrupted and closed after a lengthy strike. In 1936, Samuel opened his own business, Popular Cloak Company. In 1967, the Posluns family purchased Tip Top Tailors, in partnership with entrepreneur Jimmy Kay. A year later they incorporated their new venture under the name of Dylex as a holding company for the Tip Top chain of stores.
During the Second World War, Samuel Posluns served as a member of the Air Force reserves. After the war, he was elected president of the United Jewish Welfare Fund in 1947. That same year, in collaboration with the Canadian Jewish Congress and the Jewish Labour Committee, Posluns helped lead the Tailor Project along with Max E. Enkin, which was aimed at helping Jewish displaced persons immigrate to Canada by securing them employment as tailors. A commited advocate for Jewish Education, Posluns also served as the first president and founding chair of the Board of Jewish Education (BJE) in 1949. He remained Honorary President for life and continued to attend meetings until health problems held back his participation in the late 1970s and early 1980s. Posluns was also a founding board member of the North York General Hospital.
Samuel Posluns died in Toronto in 1994.
Brenda Richards was born in Toronto, attended Ryerson Public School and Harbord Collegiate, and then enrolled in Central Technical School to study commercial art. Brenda was later employed as an art teacher at Humewoood Public School and continued teaching and assisting until she retired at age 60. Her husband Alfred or "Alf" managed a George Richards men’s clothing store.
Following the death of their 21 year old son, the Richards wished to assist other young men and became involved in the Scouting movement. They became the leaders of the 159th 'B' Cub Pack, which met at Shaarei Shomayim Synagogue in Toronto on Wednesday evenings. In the terminology of Scouting, using characters from Rudyard Kipling’s “Jungle Book’, Alfred, the Cubmaster, was known as “Akela” and Brenda, the Assistant Cubmaster was “ Baloo” (the Bear). At its peak, the Cub pack had approximately 36 members but dissolved in 1970. During Brenda’s career in the Cub movement, she was awarded several “Good Service” medals by the Scouting Council of Canada.
Joseph Baruch Salsberg (1902-1998) was a labour leader, political activist, politician, insurance salesman, and journalist. He was also active in various Jewish organizations, including: the Canadian Jewish Congress (CJC), the Jewish Federation of Greater Toronto, and the New Fraternal Jewish Association. He is well remembered by contemporaries, such as Sam Lipshitz, as a “champion of the people”, committed to social justice, the plight of the working-class, and the preservation of Jewish culture.
J.B. was born in Lagov, Poland on November 5, 1902 to Abraham and Sarah-Gittel Salsberg. Abraham immigrated to Toronto in 1910 and J.B. followed with his mother and two younger sisters in 1913. They settled at 73 Cecil Street. Abraham and Sarah-Gittel had additional children in Canada: Nathan (b. 1915), Reuven (Bob or Robert, b. 1917), Betty, and Thelma. Abraham worked as a peddler in Toronto.
J.B. briefly attended Landsdowne Public School, but dropped out around 1915, against his parent’s wishes, and took a job in a leather goods factory to contribute to his family’s income. J.B.’s parents had hoped he would become a rabbi and, despite his full-time employment, J.B. continued to study the Torah with scholars at the synagogue on Centre Ave.
In 1917, J.B. decided to pursue the ideas of Zionism and Socialism and, abandoning his plans to become a rabbi, he became involved in establishing the Young Poale Zion organization, a Labour Zionist youth group dedicated to secular aims. Around 1922, J.B. was made Secretary General of the Young Poale Zion of America in New York, where he worked for one year. Shortly after returning to Toronto, he became the organizer for the Hat, Cap, and Millinery Workers Union of North America in Chicago. While in Chicago, around 1925, J.B. married Dora Wilensky.
In 1926, J.B. joined the CPC. He was an active member of the CPC for 30 years, serving as the head of its Trade Union Department for two decades. In 1929 he was suspended from the Party for one year as a dissenter. In 1932, he became the Southern Ontario District union organizer for the communist Workers Unity League.
It was as a member of the CPC that he entered electoral politics. After a series of failed bids in municipal and provincial elections between 1935 and 1937, J.B. was elected Alderman of Ward 4 in Toronto in 1938. He only held the position for one year. In 1943, J.B. was elected to the Ontario Legislature as the representative for the St. Andrew riding. J.B. sat as Member of Provincial Parliament for the Labour-Progressive Party (the provincial wing of the CPC) for 12 years. For several years, he was the only elected communist in North America. As MPP, he helped create legislation banning discrimination in public places and introduced a bill that would ensure fair employment practices in the province. He lost his seat to Allan Grossman in 1955 and unsuccessfully ran in the federal election later that year. Remembered by journalist Gordon Sinclair as “one of the best debaters in the house”, J.B. was well-respected by members of all political parties. Out of admiration for J.B., Conservative Premier Leslie Frost named Salsberg Township in Northern Ontario in his honour.
Throughout the 1930s and 1940s, J.B. had grown increasingly concerned about reports of Soviet anti-Semitism and privately urged party leaders to pursue the issue. In 1956, when Soviet First Secretary Nikita Khrushchev exposed the transgressions of Stalin’s regime, J.B. went to Moscow as part of a CPC delegation. After meeting with Khrushchev himself, it became clear to J.B. that anti-Semitism was indeed a problem in the USSR and that his efforts to probe the situation were being stonewalled.
J.B. publicly expressed his concerns about Soviet anti-Semitism in a series of articles published in the Vochenblatt from October 25, 1956 to December 13, 1956. He finally left the Communist Party in 1957. However, he remained a member of the United Jewish People’s Order (UJPO), a communist Jewish fraternal organization.
Entering the business world, J.B. established the Model Insurance Agency Limited in 1957, where he served as President for several years. In 1959 J.B.’s wife, Dora passed away. Around this time J.B. also resigned from the UJPO, along with other members who felt the organization needed to be more critical of the Soviet Union. They founded an alternative, non-communist left-wing Jewish organization, the New Fraternal Jewish Association, where J.B. served as President for several terms and edited its publication “Fraternally Yours”.
In his later life, J.B. was active as an executive member of organizations, such as the CJC and the Baycrest Centre for Geriatric Care. He was the first chairman for the CJC Ontario Region’s Soviet Jewry Committee and the Committee for Yiddish. He also began writing an award-winning weekly column for the Canadian Jewish News. J.B. was awarded the CJC’s Samuel Bronfman Medal for distinguished service, and the Jewish Federation of Greater Toronto’s Ben Sadowski Award of Merit. A strong supporter of Israel, he was involved in the creation of two Israeli medical centres that are named in his honour. He also helped establish the J.B. and Dora Salsberg Fund and the J.B. Salsberg Fund for Yiddish at the Jewish Foundation of Greater Toronto. J.B. passed away in 1998.
The Scheuer family dates back to at least the eighteenth century in Germany to Moise Scheuer (1765-1846) and Esther Ackerman (1770-1847). Their son, Isaac Scheuer (1809-1889), married Hannchen (Johanna) Strauss (1815-1878) in 1843. Isaac and Johanna had six children: Gabriel (1844-1922), Camilla (1845-1916), Edmund (1847-1943), Emma (1853-1916), Ida (1855-1902), and Benno (Benjamin) (1857-1921).
While Gabriel, Emma, and Ida remained in Europe, Camilla, Edmund, and Benno immigrated to Canada in the late nineteenth century. Camilla came to Hamilton, Ontario after her marriage in 1866 to Herman Levy, co-founder of the Levy Brothers jewellery business. Edmund became a partner in the business when he first immigrated to Canada in 1871, and lived with Camilla and Herman. Camilla became the acknowledged leader of Jewish women in Hamilton. She served in organizations such as the Deborah Ladies' Aid Society, which eventually became an auxiliary of Temple Anshe Sholom, Canada's oldest Reform congregation, often referred to as the Hughson Street Temple. Edmund established the first Sabbath School in Ontario at Anshe Sholom in 1872 and served as president from 1873 to 1886.
After he was established in Hamilton, Edmund returned to Europe in 1873 to marry Oda Strauss (1854-1913) at Forbach, Lorraine, and then brought her back to Canada with him. The couple moved to Toronto in 1886, where he established a wholesale jewellery business on Yonge Street called Scheuer's under his company Edmund Scheuer Limited. Scheuer's was one of the oldest jewellery firms in Toronto and the oldest established wholesale diamond importer in Canada. Edmund's brother, Benno, also worked for the business as the accountant and then secretary-treasurer. Benno was married to Gatella Strauss (1859-1903) and they had three children: Eddie Jr. (1884-1967), Rhoda (1886-1963) and Isadore (1887-1969). Eddie Jr. and Isadore also worked for their uncle's business. Eddie Jr. started as a clerk and then became vice-president, while Isadore started out as a travelling salesman and jeweller. When their uncle retired in 1922, Eddie Jr. took over as president and his brother Isadore became vice-president of Scheuer's.
In addition to his jewellery business, Edmund Scheuer also taught and supervised the religious school at Holy Blossom Synagogue. He went on to serve in every official capacity at Holy Blossom, including vice-chairman and treasurer of the building committee for the Bond Street building. He also founded The Jewish Free School at 206 Beverley Street for Jewish girls and wrote his own textbook for the school, the first Jewish religious school book printed in Toronto. In 1892, he founded the first Jewish benevolent society in Toronto and was later president of the Federation of Jewish Philanthropies. In 1927, the Beverley Street building, which housed Federation offices, was dedicated in his honour and named the "Scheuer House".
Ellis Irving Litch Shapiro (1905-2002) was born in Toronto to Annie and Joseph Shapiro. In 1934 he married Fanny Enushevsky (1910-1991) originally from Guelph, and had two children, Elaine (Glassman) and Barry. Ellis was very involved in the United Jewish Welfare Fund of Toronto fundraising campaigns, as United Jewish Appeal campaign co-chairman. He also held positions in several other organizations, particularly during the 1930s to the 1960s. He was chairman of the Beth Tzedec Board of Governors, first vice-president of YM-YWHA and chairman of the New Building Committee, president of the Jewish Camp Council of Toronto, president of B'nai Brith Toronto Lodge, president of Goel Tzedec Men's Club, and president of the first Combined Board of Goel Tzedec and Beth Hamidrash Hagadol Synagogue. He was on the executive of the Canadian Jewish Congress, was on the Budget Committee of United Jewish Appeal of Toronto, was treasurer of the Northwood Golf and Country Club and a member of the Primrose Club. He was also Noble Grand of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows (IOOF) in Guelph, Ontario. Ellis' father and grandfather were founders of Goel Tzedec Synagogue on University Avenue in Toronto.
In 1930 Ellis founded, along with his partner Max B. Ennis, the Dominion Gasket and Manufacturing Company Ltd of which he was president. He was also president of Faul and Timmins Incorporated, Buffalo.
Fanny Enushevsky (1910-1991) originally from Guelph, married Ellis I. Shapiro in 1934 and had two children, Elaine (Glassman) and Barry. Fanny was involved with a number of community organizations and held various positions on the auxiliary boards of the Jewish Home for the Aged, Baycrest Hospital and the New Mount Sinai Hospital. She was also on the board of the Jewish Camp Council and the Mothers and Babes Summer Rest Home, on the executive of Hadassah, the National Council of Jewish Women, and B'nai Brith Women. She was co-president of the UJWF Women's Service Council and campaign co-chairman of the United Jewish Appeal Women's Division.
Canada’s third chapter of Hadassah was organized in Brantford on January 2, 1918 by Mrs. Anna Selig (later Mrs. Anna Raginsky) and sponsored by Mrs. Leah Lazarus primarily to assist with Canada’s war effort. In 1919, it joined with other Canadian chapters to form the Hadassah Organization of Canada. By 1921, Hadassah Canada had merged with the Women’s International Zionist Organization (WIZO) and changed its name to Hadassah-WIZO. In 1929, the Brantford chapter adopted the name Rose of Sharon, but abbreviated it to the Sharon Chapter of Hadassah.
As a member of Hadassah-WIZO, the Sharon Chapter shared its mandate of financially and socially supporting the peoples of Israel and promoting Jewish culture and ideals in Canada. Following the national organization’s mandate, its administration consisted of two levels: a general membership and an Executive Committee. The general membership voted on all issues and activities, while the Executive Committee ensured all tasks were completed. Although the chapter initially only elected one president, it began electing three presidents in 1943.
Mrs. Sam Fox served as the chapter’s first president over the charter membership of 30 women. Membership initially remained fairly constant, but grew to 92 members by 1962. All members paid annual dues, of which a small portion was used to pay the chapter’s expenses with the remainder being forwarded to the regional Hadassah council to pay administrative costs and donations.
Some of the fundraising activities Sharon Chapter organized include; an annual birthday party (started in 1925), an annual Bazaar (started in 1952), sewing circles, pot lucks, tea and garden parties, rummage and auction sales, and showers. The funds and other goods accumulated from these events were forwarded to the regional Hadassah council to support various Hadassah-WIZO projects, such as Youth Aliyah and the Acco Baby Creche. The Sharon Chapter also supported local projects, such as, assisting new immigrants, and entertaining servicemen at the local canteen during the Second World War.
The population of Brantford’s Jewish community began declining after the 1960s as younger generations moved to larger cities and were followed by their parents after retirement. By 1999, the Sharon Chapter’s membership had fallen to 24 women and meetings were being held only once a year. The Sharon Chapter likely closed around 2001; the same year that dwindling resources and membership forced the closure of Brantford’s synagogue, Congregation Beth David.
Nachman Shemen, a rabbinic scholar, author and Jewish civil servant, was born Nachman Boimoil in Chodel, Poland on March 15, 1912. His great-grandfather was a disciple of the founder of Hasidism in Poland, known as the “Seer of Lublin,” and both of his parents were descendants of Hasids and scholars. Shemen was ordained in Warsaw in 1929 at age seventeen by the chief rabbi of Warsaw, Rabbi Eliezer Ezra Kershenbaum of Lublin, and the famous scholar Rabbi Pinchas Eliezer Grosfershtand. In 1930, he settled in Toronto with his family, becoming a teacher at the Eitz Chaim Talmud Torah until 1965. He was also a disciple of Rabbi Yehuda Lieb Graubart, spiritual leader of the city’s Polish Jewish community and an internationally respected rabbinic authority and author. In 1936, he married Toby Rosenberg and they had a son and three daughters.
From 1940 until his death in 1993, Shemen was a secretary of the Canadian Federation of Polish Jews, later known as the Canadian Federation to Aid Polish Jews in Israel, serving as secretary of the Toronto branch and executive secretary of the national executive. From 1954 to 1993, he was Director of the Orthodox Division of the Canadian Jewish Congress, now known as the Kashruth Council of Canada.
Shemen was a prolific writer, contributing articles to periodicals not only in Canada, but also in the United States, Europe, South America, and Israel. Shortly after his arrival to Canada, Shemen began a journalistic career with the Toronto Hebrew Journal. Writing under seven pen names, his works appeared in numerous Yiddish dailies, weeklies, and periodicals around the world. From the mid-1950s, he served as the editor of Yidishe Nayes for a decade, a monthly bulletin published jointly by Canadian Jewish Congress and the United Jewish Welfare Fund of Toronto. He edited commemorative volumes for many Toronto Jewish organizations and wrote more than twenty books ranging from biographies of rabbis to fascism, from Chasidism to labour issues. He was also a founder and volunteer rabbi for the Torah V’Avodah Congregation.
Ida Lewis Siegel (1885-1982) was instrumental in the founding and development of several prominent Jewish organizations, such as the Daughters of Zion, Hadassah-Wizo Organization of Canada, the Hebrew Ladies' Maternity Aid Society and the Y.M.-Y.W.H.A. She was also particularly active in the educational sector and in campaigning for the rights of female educators. She was internationally known for her devotion to Jewish learning and for her contributions to the development of the Toronto Jewish community.
Ida was born to Samuel Lewis (b. 1859) and Hannah Ruth (Ticktin) Lewis (b. 1864) on 14 February 1885 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. She was the first child to be born in the United States after her parents immigrated from Lithuania. She had two brothers, Abe Lewis (b. 1880) and Charles S. Lewis (b. 1883). She attended elementary school in Pittsburgh, and in 1894, she and her family moved to Toronto.
On 14 February 1905, Ida married Isidore Hirsch Siegel at the Elm Street Synagogue. Isidore was a travelling peddler, and later, owner of a store in Cochrane, Ontario. Together, they had six children: Rohama Lee (1905-?), Leah Gittel (Labovitz) (1907-2004), David Isar (1909-2004), Sarah (Sontag) (1912-1942), Avrom Fichel (1916-2010), and Rivka Hadassah (Gurau) (1923-2001).
Ida is credited with helping to found a large number of Jewish philanthropic and social organizations including the Daughters of Zion, the first ladies' Zionist society in Canada (1899); the Herzl Girls' Club (1904); Hadassah-Wizo Organization of Canada (1916); the Hebrew Ladies' Sewing Circle, which developed into the Hebrew Ladies' Maternity Aid Society (1907); the Y.M.-Y.W.H.A. (1919); the Women’s League of the United Synagogues of America in Toronto (192-); the Goel Tzedec Sunday School (1914); and the Goel Tzedec Sisterhood (192-). She was also named honorary president of the Beth Tzedec Sisterhood in 1953. With the help of her brother Abe, Ida formed the first free Jewish Dispensary in Toronto, located on Elizabeth Street in the Ward, which was the forerunner to the Mount Sinai Hospital.
Ida also helped form a unified fundraising body for the Jewish community known as the Federation of Jewish Philanthropies (1917), which would become the current UJA Federation of Greater Toronto. However, Ida was denied a seat on the executive after campaigning for a female representative.
Always involved in the field of education, Ida was one of the original founders of the Home and School Association in 1919. In 1930, she became the first Jewish woman to be elected to the Toronto Board of Education, a post which she held for six years. She was later named honorary secretary of the Toronto Board of Jewish Education. In 1937, she ran unsuccessfully for alderman in Toronto, but remained politically active with the Association of Women's Electors. She was active in the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom from 1915 onward and was an outspoken opponent of both world wars. Throughout her lifetime, Ida held the position of national vice-president of the Zionist Organization of Canada, sat on the executive board of the Canadian Jewish Congress and was a member of the Jewish Historical Society.
Her religious affiliations were with Goel Tzedec, Beth Tzedec, Shaar Shomayim and the Beach Hebrew Institute.
Harry Simon (1909-1993) was born in Russia on 15 July 1909 and immigrated to Canada with his parents and two younger brothers in 1923. In 1930, he married Eva Millman and together they had two sons, Morris and Norman. Simon was involved in a number of labour unions and organizations during his lifetime, namely the Fur Workers' Union, the AFL-CIO, the Canadian Labour Congress and the Labour Zionist Movement.
In 1926, at the age of 17, Simon left his schooling in Toronto and went to work in a fur factory. He joined the International Fur Workers' Union and at the age of 20, Simon held the distinction of being the youngest business agent elected to a union in Canada. He joined the Canadian Commonwealth Federation (CCF) in 1933 and ran as a political candidate in the 1937 provincial election for the St. Andrew riding in Toronto.
Simon also served as the Canadian representative for the American Federation of Labour from 1944 to 1956. In 1956, he was appointed to the Canadian Labour Congress, becoming the CLC's Ontario regional director of organization until his retirement in 1974. Simon also held the position of national chairman of the Jewish Labour Committee of Canada and as president of the Labour Zionist Movement of Canada. He was also a member of the national executive of the Canadian Jewish Congress.
After his retirement Simon often spoke about labour issues at various functions and events when requested. He died on 22 December 1993 at the age of 84.
Maurice Solway (1906-2001) was a violinist, music teacher, composer, author and actor who lived and worked for most of his life in Toronto. Although he was highly respected as a musician in Toronto, and thoroughly immersed in the city’s musical culture from the 1920s until the 1980s, his greatest fame came to him later in life, as an actor in the Academy Award nominated NFB short film “The Violin”.
Maurice Solway's family lived at 164 York Street, Toronto, where he was born, in 1906. His parents, Jakob (b.1877) and Roza Solway (b.1877), had only just emigrated that year from Halofzen, Russia, where Jakob had been a musician and band leader. In Canada, Jakob adopted his father's trade and worked as a Kosher butcher, in Toronto’s St. John’s Ward. As a youth, Maurice played the violin in variety programmes with his sister, Dora, accompanying him on piano. His father was his first teacher, but he quickly showed enough promise to warrant private lessons with Harry Adaskin, and later with Dr. Luigi von Kunits, at the Canadian Academy of Music. He also studied at the Hambourg Conservatory in Toronto with Henri Czaplinsky and Geza de Kresz, starting in 1921.
Solway began his professional career with the New Symphony, which later became the Toronto Symphony Orchestra (TSO). During the 1920s, he also played in the Famous Players Cinema orchestras that accompanied silent films, and performed lunch concerts in Toronto hotel and department store orchestras, professional venues that would disappear by the 1930s.
From 1926 to 1928, Solway left Canada to study in Brussels with the highly regarded violinist, Eugène Ysaÿe. There he befriended other students of Ysaÿe, such as Nathan Milstein, William Primrose, Viola Mitchell, Robert Velton, and Joseph Gingold.
Upon his return to Toronto, Solway gave several recitals that were both critically and publicly well-received. Few such opportunities, however, existed in Canada at the time, and Solway was obliged to find work in-between solo concerts. He also suffered an injury to his left hand while moving a piano in 1929 that required him to adjust his technique for three fingers and interfered with his being able to play comfortably for a number of years.
He was married in 1930 to Anne Cass (1907-1994), and they had a son, Stephen. Facing his financial obligations to his new family, he opted for the more dependable income of orchestral playing versus the riskier and transitory life of a soloist. Besides classical music, he played with jazz groups like the Jolly Bachelor’s Orchestra, Oscar Peterson, Jerome Kern, and Percy Faith, and on numerous recordings for the CBC, CFCA, and CKGW radio stations. He also played chamber music with the Joyce Trio, founded by Simeon Joyce (piano) and featuring Charles Mathe (cello).
In 1952, Solway retired from the TSO, dedicating himself to his chamber playing and radio work. He founded the Solway String Quartet (SSQ) in 1947, with Marcus Adeney (cello), Nathan Green (viola) and Jack Groob (violin). The quartet played a mixed repertoire that included standard classical music with more widely recognized popular songs and new compositions, especially works by Canadian composers such as Howard Cable, John Weinzweig and Jean Coulthard. Sponsored by the Ontario Board of Education and the CBC, the SSQ played rural Ontario towns and broadcast concerts for a wide demographic of music listeners. In 1955, they performed the Canadian debut of the Castelnuovo-Tedesco Quintet for guitar and strings with Andres Segovia. The SSQ, with frequent changes in personnel, continued performing until 1968. Other players in the SSQ included Robert Warburton, Martin Chenhall, Murray Adaskin, Arthur Milligan, Charles Dobias, Eugene Hudson, Berul Sugerman, Joseph Pach and Ivan Romanoff.
In 1973, Solway was invited to act in a short children’s film “The Violin,” co-produced by George Pastic and Andrew Walsh. Solway also contributed the original music to the film, which was nominated for an Academy Award in 1975. Following the success of the film, Solway also appeared on television, making guest appearances with Sharon, Lois and Bram, on the Elephant Show and Mr. Dressup. During this time, his wife Anne traveled with him and managed his appointments.
Solway was also a violin teacher throughout his career. In 1989, he published a preparatory book, Fiddling for Fun: the Visual and Aural Art of Violin Playing, in which he outlined a new theory for violin practice that proposed an easy to use visual system for familiarizing students with intervals and fingerboard positions.
He also wrote an autobiography, Recollections of a Violinist, in 1984, and continued to lecture and speak about music. In 1981 and 1983 he devised a lecture performance series to commemorate Ysaÿe, the proceeds of which went to the establishment of a music scholarship at the Royal Conservatory. As he began to play less frequently in the 1980s, he also began to compose more regularly, completing more than one hundred compositions, primarily works for solo violin and for violin and piano. As a composer, he returned frequently to folk themes and completed a series of songs based on his travels around the world. Among his folk themes are songs inspired by his visits to such diverse countries as Norway, Maui, Japan, Israel and Spain.
Maurice Solway was affiliated with the Beth Tzedec Synagogue and frequently contributed to charity concerts and fundraising efforts for organizations such as the Inner City Angels, a cultural society for disadvantaged children. He died in 2001 in Toronto.