By Susan Cohen, member, Holy Blossom Archives Committee
Photo by Paul Hellen
One of the most emotional symbols of Israel at Holy Blossom Temple is at the same time one of the smallest and most hidden.
Climb to the very top of the second floor above the Alice and Bernard Herman Chapel and you will see five small windows completing the stained glass series that makes the synagogue so distinctive. The artist Peter Haworth began the design in 1965 but it took eight years for the complete group to be developed and dedicated. These windows reflect the theme of ‘place‘: our hope for a universal world (a small rose window symbolizing the United Nations), our love of Canada, and two windows portraying our previous synagogues on Richmond St. and Bond St.
The Israel window is the fifth window on the south wall; it was one of the last to be dedicated (in 1972). Look closely and you will see a map of Israel and in the upper left in tiny form the country’s official state seal, along with the message in Hebrew: “Zot Ha-aretz l’Zarachah Etnennah”. (This is the land … I will give unto thy seed. Deuteronomy 34:4.)
Israel’s official seal is a menorah with two olive branches. The menorah is actually the same one depicted in the Arch of Titus in the Roman Forum. That arch celebrated Rome’s victory in the Jewish-Roman war 66 – 74 C.E. One of the carved reliefs depicts the menorah, part of the spoils of war, carried aloft by the Jewish captives. When the seal was being designed, some objected to using that specific menorah which they felt was a symbol of the Temple’s destruction, but the creators of the seal were motivated by a different vision, seeing it as representative of Israel’s rebirth.
As small as this window is, it reflects Holy Blossom’s long-standing interest in Israel. One of our earliest presidents, Alfred Benjamin, was a president of the first Zionist Society organized in Toronto in 1898. Temple’s influential Rabbi Solomon Jacobs appeared at a Zionist meeting in 1908 and declared his sympathy with the movement. The “firebrand” Rabbi Abraham Feinberg advocated for Israeli statehood and our Director of Education, Heinz Warschauer, gave our students textbooks with biographies of Theodore Herzl and Joseph Trumpeldor to read. Holy Blossom has held the land of Israel close to its heart for well over a century.
(The Archives Committee receives inquiries regularly. We invite you to contact us about this or other areas of interest at: [email protected] We are always interested in learning and sharing more about our remarkable history. We also encourage you to examine the archival displays in the Schwartz-Reisman Atrium.)
By Judy Winberg, Member, Holy Blossom Temple Archives Committee
During the Yom Kippur Yizkor services, we will read:
“…We remember too, the men and women who but yesterday were part of our sacred congregation and our community. … … Their memories will forever be a blessing.”
And so, our teachings guided us as we tried to unravel a mystery that found its way to our Archives committee almost one year ago. Neighbours of the Temple’s first cemetery on Pape Avenue were excavating their backyard when they found a headstone, believed to come from a grave there.
The time-weathered stone, about 15 inches square and weighing 50 lbs., had faded Hebrew lettering. The stone itself was intact but far from its original location. The headstone was delivered to the Temple, and the effort to solve the mystery began.
To whom did this headstone belong? When did the burial take place? How did it come to be buried in a backyard on Austin Avenue? And what, according to halacha (Jewish law and tradition) should we do now that it was in our possession?
Efforts to learn more about the original location of the grave and who may have been buried there were in vain. The stone was so eroded that, despite exacting best archival techniques, the wording could not be deciphered. We reached out to the past Chair of the Temple’s Cemetery Committee and the Ontario Jewish Archives; we consulted our clergy and sought legal counsel regarding the Ontario Cemeteries Act and Bereavement Authority of Ontario. Sadly, there was little to guide us. While our tradition teaches that we are to honour and respect the dead, the law is silent on any protocol for returning a headstone to its original location.
Still, during our investigation, we unearthed (pun intended) a treasure – written records of the burials as Pape Avenue from a long-lost map marking the names and locations of 200+ graves. Many graves were assigned to children and many of those were located around the cemetery’s perimeter. It may be that the headstone belonged to a child; short life expectancy was not uncommon in the late 19th century.
We felt that the most appropriate action was to return the headstone to its original resting place.
This summer, members of the Archives Committee conducted a historical walking tour of the Pape Avenue Cemetery for congregants and a few curious members of the local Leslieville community. The tour ended at a location that divides the cemetery from the neighbour’s backyard. We carefully returned the headstone there and placed it horizontally on the ground. We conducted a short ceremony for the unknown Temple member and, in our tradition of visiting a grave site, small stones were placed on its surface.
While the return of the headstone brought some closure the mystery surrounding it remains unsolved.
The Pape Avenue Cemetery, sometimes called Jews’ Cemetery was established in 1849 by a small group of unaffiliated Toronto Jews. Ownership was transferred to the fledgling Holy Blossom congregation in 1858 and burials took place from then until the early 1940’s. Holy Blossom Temple owns the land and maintains the cemetery to this day.
An interesting article about this cemetery, “Jewish Life in Stone” appeared in 2008: https://www.thestar.com/life/jewish-history-in-stone/article_b2f7ad9c-8763-5975-a3b9-42b1772f2c37.html
The Archives Committee receives inquiries regularly. We invite you to contact us about this or other areas of interest at: [email protected] We are always interested in learning and sharing more about our remarkable history. We also encourage you to examine the archival displays in the Schwartz/Reisman Atrium.
By Howard Roger
Our Archives Committee recently received a question from a librarian at the Bora Laskin Law Library at the University of Toronto. She had been contacted by an archivist in the US (from the NAACP) inquiring about Thurgood Marshall’s speech for the Holy Blossom Temple Brotherhood Forum on February 28, 1955. Did we have any information? We did indeed, and our search uncovered a fascinating coincidence.
Thurgood Marshall was a distinguished civil rights lawyer and legal counsel for the NAACP. In 1967 he became an associate justice of the United States Supreme Court, the first Black to be appointed to that position. But he was, in 1955, already well-known for his successful argument before the Supreme Court in Brown v. Board of Education. That case established the rule that racial segregation in public schools was unconstitutional. It was a watershed moment in American legal history, overturning the separate-but-equal doctrine previously upheld by the Supreme Court in 1896.
Thurgood Marshall spoke at Holy Blossom Temple on the evening of Monday, February 28, 1955. The title of his speech was “Civil Rights and World Peace.” A page from the Holy Blossom Temple Bulletin of February 23, 1955 (see photo) describes not only his upcoming appearance at Holy Blossom, but also other events which he would be attending while in Toronto, including an appearance Sunday night on CBC television, a Civic Reception Monday morning with the Mayor (Nathan Phillips, a member of Holy Blossom) and the City Council, an address in the afternoon to the students of the University of Toronto Law School, and a reception at Hart House hosted by Holy Blossom Temple Brotherhood and the Canadian Council of Christians and Jews.
The article about Thurgood Marshall appears on the right-hand side of the Bulletin page. If you look at the bottom left-hand side of the same page you will see the name of Bora Laskin, who was, in 1955, a professor at the U of T law school and a member of the Board of Holy Blossom Temple. Bora Laskin had, in 1950, assisted the Canadian Jewish Congress in the case of Noble et al v. Wolf, a case before the Supreme Court of Canada which ruled that a restrictive covenant, prohibiting the ownership or occupancy of land “by any person of the Jewish, Hebrew, Semitic, Negro or coloured race or blood,” was void and unenforceable. In 1970 Bora Laskin was appointed to the Supreme Court of Canada, the first Jew to be appointed to that court, and he became Chief Justice in 1973.
We could not find any information on whether Bora Laskin was involved in making any of the arrangements for Thurgood Marshall’s visit to Toronto or attended any of the events. Still, our research has shown how two future Supreme Court justices came together (at least on paper), and reminded us how the history of Holy Blossom and the history of civil rights in Canada and the United States intersect.
You may wish to visit the Archives Committee displays at the far end of our atrium as well as the Living Museum display by the elevator.
If you have any items of archival interest to contribute to the Holy Blossom archives, we would love to hear from you. Please e-mail us at [email protected].
By Judy Winberg, Archives Committee
Holy Blossom Temple’s archives collection houses treasures which are historically significant not just to the congregation, but to the Jewish community in Toronto and elsewhere. Some were gifted by congregants, and many were endowed by the families of the original owners. It’s been an honour to work with the archives and to be one of the custodians of our congregation’s rich history.
The collection is varied. Historic papers such as legal documents, contracts, original deeds and maps, drawings, and photographs testify to the early days in the life of the congregation. More recent holdings include official minutes of the Temple’s Boards of Directors, the Temple Foundation and committees. Printed programs and tribute books chart significant events at Temple while photographs, manuscripts, prayer books and hymnals, as well as works of art document our cultural and spiritual life as a congregation and are proudly and carefully maintained by the Archives Committee.
As you enter the main sanctuary through the Schwartz/Reisman Atrium take a moment to examine an important artifact from 1857 in a specially designed showcase. It’s the original Yad, the silver engraved pointer used to guide the reading of the Torah; it was received with the first Sefer Torah (Torah Scroll), donated to the “holy congregation Pirchei Kodesh (Holy Blossom) as a gift in perpetuity from the benefactor Elyakum, son of Isaac of the family Asher (and) his wife the lady Rachel”. (This translation was provided by the late Rabbi Dow Marmur z”l.)
The original Offering Book from 1876 recorded the weekly donations. Entries were made with a shoelace (no writing instruments on Shabbat!). It is preserved and on display in the historical Timeline showcase located along the north window wall of the Schwartz/Reisman Atrium.
In 1962 The Reverend Martin Luther King Jr. spoke at Holy Blossom Temple as part of a ‘Brotherhood Forum’ The program and follow-up letter of thanks signed by King can both be viewed in the Timeline showcase.
The parochet, or fabric curtain used to line the inside of the ark protecting the Torah scrolls (due to be re-installed in the anteroom of the Max E. Enkin Boardroom in the Lawrence Bloomberg Leadership Centre) is an interesting artifact because of the name on it – Sons of Israel. This name appears in our Minute Books as the name of the congregation four times in the early months of our existence in 1856. The name then disappears. We are not sure where the parochet was used (perhaps in our first location above Coombes Drug Store on Richmond Street). Decades later Executive Director, Mel Olsberg, found it among items returned to us from St. George’s Congregation which moved into our Bond Street location after the move to 1950 Bathurst Street.
These are just four examples of some of the archival objects that are in our safekeeping. Watch this space for more and if you think you may be housing some treasures in your homes and want to talk to us, please reach out to [email protected].
Two Past Presidents were laid to rest last week. Before each funeral service, an Honour Guard of Past Presidents stood on either side of the casket, as is our custom. Holy Blossom Temple was strengthened by their leadership. May their memories continue to be for blessing.
Richard Lorie z”l
From the Temple Archives, thanks to Sheila Smolkin:
Richard served as President of Holy Blossom Temple from 1978 to 1980. In his address to the congregation at the Annual General Meeting, Nov. 4, 1979, Richard quoted from his Installation address: “We must use the experiences and traditions of the past, the lay leadership and professional staff of the present to build a strong congregation of the future.”
In addition to welcoming Cantor Maissner to the congregation, Richard’s first year as President saw Jacques Barruch and Morris Vigoda take over as co-chairmen of the Usher Committee, the creation of a new committee to help Vietnamese Boat People resettle in Canada, and an Interfaith trip to Israel and Egypt led by Rabbi Fields and Rev. Stanford Lucyk of Timothy Eaton Memorial Church. Richard also supported Henrietta Chesnie z”l in her role as Chair of the Local Arrangements Committee for the UAHC Biennial held in Toronto that year.
A year later, Richard reported in his address to the Annual General Meeting that he had been pleased to welcome Rabbi Steve Garten as Holy Blossom’s new Director of Education and Rabbi Joan Friedman, as Assistant Rabbi, the first woman to hold a rabbinic position in a Canadian congregation.
A memory about Richard’s leadership from Michael Cole:
When Dick Lorie became president of Holy Blossom, he decided that he should know more about Judaism than he remembered from his days in Holy Blossom’s Religious School. So, he enrolled in a lot of Temple’s adult education classes, including Hebrew, and borrowed a lot of books from the Sisterhood library. By the end of his term as President — and beyond –, Dick had become quite Jewishly knowledgeable.
I was on the Temple Board when Dick was President. I remember him as unfailingly fair, patient, polite, and decent. May his memory be for blessing!
An excerpt from Rabbi Splansky’s eulogy:
I didn’t know until now that Richard was a Levi. It makes perfect sense. The Levites were the ones who carried the Tabernacle on their shoulders and took care of Jerusalem’s Temple. Richard was reliable. You could count on him. If Richard Lorie said he’s going to do something, he’d do it. He’d do it well and he’d do it right. If he said he’s going to be there, he’d be there — right on time, or more likely, a little early. This is more than a good habit. This is at the heart of the character of the man that he was. We learn about this trait in this week’s parasha. Ki Tissa literally means, “When you lift. When you elevate.” Like his Levite ancestors, Richard learned that by dedicating himself to lifting up his family and his community, he would, in turn, be uplifted himself.
Jean recalls: “He was determined to do the right thing.” When I asked her how Richard came into Temple leadership, she said, “Well he couldn’t sit still during services, so he became an Usher. And one thing led to another.”
I like to imagine it began earlier than that. Perhaps on Richard’s Bar Mitzvah day, right here at Holy Blossom Temple in 1942. In the midst of WWII, on this very sanctuary, on this very bima, Richard read from the Torah and got a hint of what it feels like to stand in the midst of the community, to be needed. Heinz Warshauer, his teacher and mentor, and set high standards for him. Camp Arowhon made Richard Head of Sail, the most trustworthy role on camp. He went on to become President of Holy Blossom Temple, President of Oakdale Country Club, President of the Toronto Construction Association, on the Board of the JCC, and President of their condo building for many years. Richard’s long-time friend and fellow congregant, Walter Pape, said of Richard: “When kids are little they dream of being a fireman or an astronaut. Little Dicky Lorie said, ‘When I grow up, I want to be a President.’”
Richard Krelstein z”l
From the Temple Archives, thanks to Sheila Smolkin:
At the conclusion of Richard Krelstein’s term as President (1988-1990), Rabbi Marmur wrote an article for the Bulletin in which he expressed the following hope “that although he and I came from very different corners of the Jewish world, we would walk in the same direction. My hope has been fulfilled. In the process of working together, I have got to know him and to appreciate his many lovable qualities, of least his kindness and his sense of humour.”
During his term as President, the Leo Baeck Day School made a decision to open a southern campus at Holy Blossom and Mel Olsberg retired as Executive Director of the congregation.
When addressing the congregation, Richard said: “I believe that people have an obligation to provide skills to the community in which they live. The reward is in the satisfaction derived at seeing the results of your involvement.”
A memory about Richard’s leadership from Avra Rosen:
Richard first introduced himself to me by email in November 2019 to congratulate me on becoming the President of Holy Blossom Temple. Under our bylaws, our Past Presidents and Wardens are members of the Presidents Council. I was looking for two representatives from The Council to sit on the new Board of Directors. Richard thanked me for the invitation, but advised that as he was living in Los Angeles, he would not “be in a position to accept the honour.” Five months later, deep into lockdown, Richard reached out to ask how he could help.
The pandemic was a gift to Richard in terms of reconnecting with Holy Blossom and working with our lay leadership to ensure congregational success and stability. Richard was suddenly able to actively participate in the Presidents Council Zoom meetings, participate in our services online, and see the breadth of our online programs. Richard was convinced, and I wholly agreed, that our live stream services were one of the best in North America. He was very determined to see how we could further welcome non-member guests from outside of the GTA. He often sent me links to Google analytics and other synagogues. Thanks to his persistence, I invited him to join a taskforce on communications and he was an avid participant, sending us countless suggestions. Even as we began to emerge from COVID, Richard continued to advise me.
I was expecting to be in Los Angeles in November for Rabbi Sharon Sobel’s installation at Temple Beth Sholom. Richard suggested we get together for coffee so we could finally meet in person. Sadly, personal circumstances prevented me from travelling then and we never shared that cup of coffee. I will always be grateful for Richard’s support. It was my privilege to stand as an Honour Guard beside his casket at his funeral in the Main Sanctuary last week.
An excerpt from Rabbi Splansky’s eulogy:
Although Richard was known for running a very disciplined, 59-minute Board Meeting, he was also known for crying at every funeral — even if he didn’t know the person who had died. Sydney says: “If you need a crier, Richard would be there.”
Our Biblical Books of the Prophets contain many references to professional criers. It was considered to be an art form – moirology. And moirologists like Richard Krelstein, were held in high esteem, for they could tap into some truth about the meaning of life and death that others could not. Perhaps Richard acquired this rare wisdom at a young age. He was just 11 when his mother died. Away from home – at boarding school during the year and at camp during the summers — young Richard must have had time to reflect on the themes of life and death in ways that no child should have to. If Richard were sitting today in this sanctuary, which he loved, no doubt he would be crying – over how much he loved his wife and children, over how much he loved his friends, over how much he loved simply being alive, but not one of his tears would be shed like Rabbi Assi’s tears. According to Midrash Tanhuma, Rabbi Assi lamented at the end of his life that he shirked his responsibilities to lead the community. If Richard Krelstein were sitting today in this sanctuary he loved, he would also smile with confidence in knowing that whenever the opportunity to lead, to mentor, to volunteer, to serve and strengthen the community, he rose to the occasion – with a full heart and without hesitation.
When I asked Sydney how Richard, from Memphis, Tennesse, came to be in leadership at Holy Blossom, she explained, “He started on the House Committee, and worked his way up the ladder. They must have seen a spark in him. And… he adored Rabbi Plaut. He loved to study Torah and philosophy with him.” She reflected back and said, “It was a new start for him. His strength came from Holy Blossom Temple.”
By: Sheila Smolkin
Who is this distinguished gentleman now looking at us from the wall in the Bloomberg Jewish Leadership Centre, just outside the Max Enkin Board Room? He is Edmund Scheuer (1847-1943) generally regarded as the father of Canadian Reform Judaism.
Scheuer moved to Hamilton, Ontario from Paris, France in 1871 where he became very involved in Anshe Sholom Congregation. Under his influence, Anshe Sholom became the first Reform Congregation in Canada in 1882. He had a dream in this new land; Jew and Christian, Synagogue and Church would work shoulder to shoulder for the ideals which both religions held in common, “The fatherhood of God who has created us all, and the brotherhood of all men.”
Scheuer moved to Toronto in 1886 where he established his business as a jeweller. He immediately joined Holy Blossom and was elected to the Board. He saw Jewish education as a privilege. He took charge of the synagogue’s school where he served as superintendent for several years, he wrote a number of young people’s textbooks, organized and taught a Confirmation class for girls, aged 13, which culminated in 1899, and he organized and financed the Zionist Free School for Girls run by 16 volunteer teachers from Holy Blossom.
Scheuer was dedicated to the Jewish community in many other ways as well. He founded the first Jewish Benevolent Society in Toronto and was the first president of the Federation of Jewish Philanthropies.
During the 57 years that he was a member of Holy Blossom, Edmund served in almost every capacity in the synagogue. For his lifelong service, he was appointed Honourary President in 1934.
In 1920, influenced by the thinking of Scheuer, Holy Blossom took the first step to affiliate with the North American Reform Movement when it hired Barnett Brickner, ordained at the Reform theological school, Hebrew Union College, as its rabbi.
In 1943, at the age of 95, Edmund Scheuer was killed when hit by a streetcar on Yonge Street. As the historian, Michael Brown has written, Edmund Scheuer remained to the end of his life both an advocate of modernization and acculturation in Jewish life and a dedicated and proud Jew.
You may wish to visit the Archives Committee displays at the far end of the atrium as well as the Living Museum display by the elevator.
If you have any items of archival interest to contribute to the Holy Blossom archives, we would love to hear from you. Please e-mail us at [email protected].
From the Archives: Choirs, Cantors and Organs
By Susan Cohen
Collection of Religious and Popular Israelite Songs, with historical essay by composer Samuel Naumbourg; published 1874, found in Holy Blossom Music Archives
You can explore Holy Blossom’s archives through many lenses such as people, events, liturgy, or social action. Michael Cole and I have been reviewing musical archives prior to sending Cantor Emeritus Benjamin Maissner’s musical material to libraries in Israel and Germany.
It took 70 years to firmly establish the role of cantor at our synagogue. Our first ‘cantor’ (in 1879), Joseph Glueck may have been the first musically trained chazzan in Toronto, but he was also a teacher, baal koray, shochet, mohel and dues collector. No wonder he only lasted 3 years.
As the synagogue grew, the leadership looked for more distinguished clergy. Reverend Herman Phillips, a well-regarded and trained cantor from Europe, joined us next. Blessed with a rich baritone, he fulfilled the roles of teacher and spiritual leader as well as cantor. But music became a bone of contention between the orthodox and reformist wings of the synagogue. Feelings reached such a pitch in 1890 that dissident congregants dumped the synagogue’s portable organ outside and the board demanded its return. The use of the organ made Cantor Phillips resign, and a rabbi was hired that year who was not averse to the instrument.
Four years later the synagogue created a separate cantor’s position, filled by Cantor Sol Solomon. He came from Paris, the Rue de Nazareth synagogue, famed as the musical home of Samuel Naumbourg whose compositions we still sing today. Solomon likely brought Naumbourg’s choral and organ works to sing here; we have found some music books of that era in the archives. Entirely in keeping with Cantor Solomon’s background, our new synagogue on Bond St. (1897) made room for a permanent pipe organ and choir loft. Emma Yoemans took on the role of organist.
Cantor Solomon’s position was never entirely secure and he left in 1901. In letters we have in our archives, he told Holy Blossom President Alfred Benjamin that the synagogue had not treated him well nor was he appropriately compensated. There was even some dispute about whether he had properly taken music with him. Jewish newspapers of the time said that Holy Blossom could not afford both a cantor and a rabbi.
From 1901 until 1943 the synagogue employed no cantor at all, a not-unusual feature of Reform synagogues of the time. When our Bathurst St. building opened in 1938, there was space for a choir and organ, but none for a cantor, not even a cantor’s lectern. Still, the choir had many talented professionals in it, and some took on chazzan-like roles including Sam Stolnitz. He had been taught cantorial skills by his father and was a gifted singer formally trained at the Toronto Conservatory. In 1949 Rabbi Abraham Feinberg told the board that Stolnitz would share the “chancel” with him at services. We have been served by exceptional cantors ever since.
You may wish to visit the Archives Committee displays at the far end of the Temple Atrium honouring Rabbi Marmur z”l and The Pioneering Women of Holy Blossom, as well as the Living Museum in the Atrium by the elevator.
If you have any items of archival interest to contribute to the Holy Blossom archives, we would love to hear from you. Please email us at [email protected].
By Michael Cole
Archivists depend on written records—minute books, Bulletins, correspondence—in order to know what actually occurred in the past. However, in order to know how people felt about what occurred, we have to hear them speak.
Over the past couple of decades, I have been privileged to record interviews with many of our members and some staff, all of whom have memories of how they felt about what occurred at Holy Blossom over the years, and about the many, often colourful, people involved in these events. Sadly, some of these interviewees have since passed on.
Leonard Levy, David Hart, and Marilyn Farber shared with us their recollections of the years on Bond Street with Rabbi Eisendrath and Edmund Scheuer. Henrietta Chesnie told us about her experiences as the first female president of Holy Blossom, her working with Rabbi Plaut, and of organizing our 150th Anniversary celebrations.
Anne Le Sarge and Ruth Levine were secretaries in our Religious School for many years, and, in a joint interview, related what it was like working for Heinz Warschauer, our long-time Director of Education. Zita Gardner and Linda Wolfe, in another joint interview, told us about their long and varied experiences teaching in our school.
Rabbi Goldfarb, Cantor Maissner, and Rabbi Helfman spoke about what it was like to be clergy at Temple, as well as giving us some insight into the life they had before coming to Holy Blossom.
We now have over fifteen recorded oral histories, which are in the process of being digitized so that they will give future generations an insight into our past.
You may wish to visit the Archives Committee displays in the Temple Atrium, currently honouring Rabbi Marmur z”l and The Pioneering Women of Holy Blossom, as well as the History of Holy Blossom at the far end of the Atrium. We also draw your attention to the Living Museum by the elevator, showing a collection of chanukiyot.
If you have any items of archival interest to contribute to the Holy Blossom archives, we would love to hear from you. Please email us at [email protected].
Holy Blossom Temple Archives Committee
United Jewish Farmers of Ontario, Organization meeting, Holy Blossom Synagogue Toronto, March 25, 1925
Ferdinand Isserman was our rabbi from 1925 to 1929. The historical exhibition on immigration, currently on the second floor of our atrium in the Garson/Baskin Gallery, reminded us of Rabbi Isserman who, from the moment of his arrival in Canada, concerned himself with immigration and the plight of refugees.
Writing in the Canadian Jewish Review on September 4, 1925, Rabbi Isserman warned Canadians not to follow the example of the United States in adopting restrictive immigration laws. His advice was timely, as the U.S. Secretary of Labor, James J. Davis, was at the time visiting Toronto and urging Canadians to enact legislation similar to America’s restrictive Johnson Immigration Bill. Rabbi Isserman’s description of that law was blunt. He called it “a product of bigotry and chauvinism … It exalts the Nordic race, despite the fact that sober scientists maintain there is no Nordic race. It assumes a philosophy of racial superiority which has no basis whatsoever in objective truth.”
Sadly, as Rabbi Isserman would quickly learn, Canadian immigration policy was not much different from that of the U.S. Immigration from Britain was encouraged. Quotas for persons from other countries could be granted, at the discretion of the cabinet minister responsible for immigration, and these went mostly to Nordic countries. There was also a special category for farm labourers.
In December 1926, Rabbi Isserman, together with Lyon Cohen, a founder of the Jewish Immigrant Aid Society, and S.W. Jacobs and A.A. Heaps, Jewish members of Parliament from Montreal and Winnipeg, headed a delegation that met in Ottawa with the Minister of Immigration, Robert Forke. The group made two requests: that a quota for Jewish immigration be renewed and that concessions be made for the admission of relatives of Canadian Jews. Regulations at the time permitted a Canadian Jew to bring over an unmarried child or brother, but not a married child or brother or a sister. In January 1927, it was announced that both requests were refused.
This still left open the possibility for Jews to come to Canada as agricultural workers. A Jewish Farm School had been founded in Georgetown, Ontario. The school (which ran from 1925 to 1930) was the creation of the United Jewish Farmers of Ontario, whose first organizational meeting (see photo) was held at Holy Blossom in March 1925. Morris Saxe, under whose direction and on whose farm the school was to operate, was elected president and Rabbi Barnett Brickner, our rabbi from 1920 to 1925, was elected honorary president.
In an editorial in the Canadian Jewish Review on June 24, 1927, Rabbi Isserman wrote about the first immigrant arrivals at the school. “Fifty Polish war orphans, constituting the entire population of an orphanage in Mezrich, Poland, twenty-two girls and twenty-eight boys, from the ages of nine to seventeen, are en route to the Jewish Farm School …” Fundraising for the orphans, Rabbi Isserman reported was being led by Edmund Scheuer, well known as a distinguished member of our board, and for many years Superintendent of our religious school. Rabbi Isserman pleaded urgently for members of the Jewish community to assist Mr. Scheuer: “In five days the orphans will be here. Will you help provide for them? Will you be father to the fatherless and plead the cause of the orphan?”
You may wish to visit the Archives Committee displays in the Temple atrium honouring Rabbi Marmur z”l and The Pioneering Women of Holy Blossom, and the Living Museum display in the atrium in honour of Remembrance Day.
If you have any items of archival interest to contribute to the Holy Blossom archives, we would love to hear from you. Please email us at [email protected].
1950 Bathurst Street, Toronto, ON, M5P 3K9
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Founded in 1856, Holy Blossom Temple is Toronto’s first synagogue with a rich history of tradition and modernity in our religious and spiritual expression.