Fonds 70 - Samuel Posluns fonds

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.