Larry Becker was a well-known collector of Toronto memorabilia. There is a long article about him on the Toronto Archives site.
"Born just before the outbreak of World War II, Larry Becker grew up in central Toronto near Dundas and Ossington, where his father ran a cigar store next to the Lakeview Lunch, bought war stamps, and volunteered as an air warden with A. R. P.
"Around 1948, the family moved north to the Vaughan and Oakwood area where Larry and his younger brother Harold attended Rawlinson Public School and Vaughan Road Collegiate.
"After high school, Larry attended Lakeshore Teachers' College, married fellow-teacher Rose Weber in 1961, and taught primary school in Welland, Ontario, before returning to Toronto in June 1965 to start collecting for profit (his businesses) and posterity (his Toronto collection)."
Read the whole article here. See also: Larry's Works. Family History.
May 20, 2013
The Ward
The Toronto Star has a great article on The Ward which is where most of the Jews in Toronto lived 100 years ago. It's by Jon Lorinc.
From the article:
"Bounded by Queen, Yonge, University and College, the Ward developed in the mid-19th century and was also known as Macaulaytown.
"Its commercial spine was Elizabeth Street, a bustling strip of tiny shops serving working-class patrons.
"By the early 1900s, the merchants hailed from countries like China, Russia and Italy. Many residents also worked in Eaton’s massive factories a few blocks east."
A key topic in the article is the preservation of working class history.
Normally, we preserve the beautiful houses of the wealthy but in New York City Ruth Abram and Anita Jacobson came across an old tenement building and have turned it into a tourist attraction called The Tenement Museum.
They researched city records to identify about 10,000 tenants who lived there between the late 1800s and 1935 and some of these people have visited the museum.
From The Star:
"The City of Toronto a few years ago floated the concept of creating a museum about the Ward inside City Hall, with digital displays focusing on immigration.
"But city officials say the project was put on hold because of the 1812 bicentennial, as well as preliminary plans to establish a Toronto Museum at Casa Loma."
Read the whole article. It has lots of great pictures.
Here is a shorter article about The Ward at BlogTO.
"Bounded by Queen, Yonge, University and College, the Ward developed in the mid-19th century and was also known as Macaulaytown.
"Its commercial spine was Elizabeth Street, a bustling strip of tiny shops serving working-class patrons.
"By the early 1900s, the merchants hailed from countries like China, Russia and Italy. Many residents also worked in Eaton’s massive factories a few blocks east."
A key topic in the article is the preservation of working class history.
Normally, we preserve the beautiful houses of the wealthy but in New York City Ruth Abram and Anita Jacobson came across an old tenement building and have turned it into a tourist attraction called The Tenement Museum.
They researched city records to identify about 10,000 tenants who lived there between the late 1800s and 1935 and some of these people have visited the museum.
From The Star:
"The City of Toronto a few years ago floated the concept of creating a museum about the Ward inside City Hall, with digital displays focusing on immigration.
"But city officials say the project was put on hold because of the 1812 bicentennial, as well as preliminary plans to establish a Toronto Museum at Casa Loma."
Read the whole article. It has lots of great pictures.
Here is a shorter article about The Ward at BlogTO.
May 10, 2013
Bukharan Jews and Family Feeling
From: The Forward
My first trip to Uzbekistan was in 1993. I was a graduate student in cultural anthropology who had traveled to this part of the world to witness the end of one of the longest chapters in Jewish Diaspora history.
Jews had lived in Central Asia (in the region that had long been part of the Bukharan Emirate) for two millennia. Now, with the dissolution of the Soviet Union, this deeply rooted community of some 50,000 was fleeing fast.
My first trip to Uzbekistan was in 1993. I was a graduate student in cultural anthropology who had traveled to this part of the world to witness the end of one of the longest chapters in Jewish Diaspora history.
Jews had lived in Central Asia (in the region that had long been part of the Bukharan Emirate) for two millennia. Now, with the dissolution of the Soviet Union, this deeply rooted community of some 50,000 was fleeing fast.
A Meaningless Reunion
From: The Forward
Someone had sent that photo to my grandfather in the 1920s, shortly after he immigrated to the United States. I could not read the note scrawled on the back, which was in Yiddish, and that was all I knew about the family he had left behind in Ukraine.
My grandfather had passed away when I was a child, and I never learned anything about the fate of his siblings or their children. I grew up with a void, a hole in my family and my history, and even a missing piece in my understanding of who I was.
Then, in 1991, the Soviet Union dissolved. My father’s cousins found us, and we exchanged a few letters. They resettled in Israel, and it so happened that I was planning a trip there. I took the long bus ride up north from Jerusalem, where I was staying, apprehensive the entire way about our impending reunion.
Mikhail met me at the bus stop. Shuffling in his slippers, and slightly stooped, he accompanied me back to the modest apartment he shared with his wife and his adult son. Their shelves were lined with music books. Alex, a few years older than I am, was a doctor who was planning to retrain.
Of the three, Klara was the most talkative. In broken Hebrew, with a heavy Russian accent, she told me how disappointed she had been that my father had not helped the family to immigrate to the United States. They offered me some fruit.
In their cramped, floral, socialist, Slavic, Israeli, cultured home, I could picture our family tree. I had learned the links that joined me to Mikhail, Klara and Alex. Yet I could not help but wonder what I was doing in this apartment, among these people to whom I felt no kinship.
Someone had sent that photo to my grandfather in the 1920s, shortly after he immigrated to the United States. I could not read the note scrawled on the back, which was in Yiddish, and that was all I knew about the family he had left behind in Ukraine.
My grandfather had passed away when I was a child, and I never learned anything about the fate of his siblings or their children. I grew up with a void, a hole in my family and my history, and even a missing piece in my understanding of who I was.
Then, in 1991, the Soviet Union dissolved. My father’s cousins found us, and we exchanged a few letters. They resettled in Israel, and it so happened that I was planning a trip there. I took the long bus ride up north from Jerusalem, where I was staying, apprehensive the entire way about our impending reunion.
Mikhail met me at the bus stop. Shuffling in his slippers, and slightly stooped, he accompanied me back to the modest apartment he shared with his wife and his adult son. Their shelves were lined with music books. Alex, a few years older than I am, was a doctor who was planning to retrain.
Of the three, Klara was the most talkative. In broken Hebrew, with a heavy Russian accent, she told me how disappointed she had been that my father had not helped the family to immigrate to the United States. They offered me some fruit.
In their cramped, floral, socialist, Slavic, Israeli, cultured home, I could picture our family tree. I had learned the links that joined me to Mikhail, Klara and Alex. Yet I could not help but wonder what I was doing in this apartment, among these people to whom I felt no kinship.
May 5, 2013
The Brest Ghetto Passport Archive
Unlocking 50 Years of Secret Documents: The Brest Ghetto Passport Archive -- by Elaine Cheskes
Wednesday, May 22, 2013 -- 7:30 pm.
Temple Anshe Sholom,
215 Cline Ave. N., Hamilton
From fragmented pieces of secret documents discovered in Brest-Litovsk the story of a family who perished in the Holocaust was uncovered.
see: Ancestry.ca -- Wikipedia
Wednesday, May 22, 2013 -- 7:30 pm.
Temple Anshe Sholom,
215 Cline Ave. N., Hamilton
From fragmented pieces of secret documents discovered in Brest-Litovsk the story of a family who perished in the Holocaust was uncovered.
see: Ancestry.ca -- Wikipedia
May 4, 2013
Holocaust Survivor Hid Jewish Identity
From: The National Post
“I saw so many horrible things. I saw so many dead people. It is amazing what seeing these things can do to a mind. I knew I was safe here in Canada. But I just couldn’t say I was Jewish.”
Not even to her son, Tom, who, after a terrible car accident near Ottawa during his university years went looking for the big answers in life and found religion, converted to Judaism, changed his name to Gershon and moved to Israel where, to this day, he leads an orthodox life. (And where, until recently, his mother had never told him he was Jewish to begin with.)
Read the rest here.
See also:
Toronto Star: Leader of anti-Semitic party in Hungary discovers he is Jewish
Toronto Star: Surprise, You're Jewish
Catholic Priest Learns He's a Jewish Holocaust Survivor
“I saw so many horrible things. I saw so many dead people. It is amazing what seeing these things can do to a mind. I knew I was safe here in Canada. But I just couldn’t say I was Jewish.”
Not even to her son, Tom, who, after a terrible car accident near Ottawa during his university years went looking for the big answers in life and found religion, converted to Judaism, changed his name to Gershon and moved to Israel where, to this day, he leads an orthodox life. (And where, until recently, his mother had never told him he was Jewish to begin with.)
Read the rest here.
See also:
Toronto Star: Leader of anti-Semitic party in Hungary discovers he is Jewish
Toronto Star: Surprise, You're Jewish
Catholic Priest Learns He's a Jewish Holocaust Survivor
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