The Rise of the Toronto Jewish
Community
The Rise of the Toronto Jewish
Community
From: Polyphony Vol.6, 1984 pp. 59-63
© 1984 Multicultural History Society of Ontario
From: Polyphony Vol.6, 1984 pp. 59-63
© 1984 Multicultural History Society of Ontario
Before 1900 the Jewish working class in Toronto was insignificant
in size and influence. Poor as they were, the immigrants found it
easier then to turn to middle-class pursuits-such as peddling and
retail selling-for their livelihood. Small stores catering to the
special needs of Jewish customers were opened in the downtown area
of the city. There were Kosher butcher shops for Jews to shop in,
bakery stores in which chalah and the familiar beigel could
be bought, small creameries in which kosher dairy products could
be purchased. At first the pedlars did their business with fellow
Jews, but as their knowledge of English improved, they ventured
more and more into gentile neighbourhoods, sometimes journeying to
adjacent towns and villages to buy and sell.
The first Jewish bakery in Toronto was opened by Rubin on York
Street, the first Jewish butcher shop by Mr. M. Cohen on the same
street. Mordechai Dickman was the first local Shochet, joined the
same year by a second, Rev. I. Halpern. The first junk shops were
started by Mendel Granatstein and Leo Frankel. Shortly afterwards
Shloime Godfrey, Moishe Siegal, and a number of others went into
the same business. Most of the employees in these Junk shops were
pious Jews who refused to take any jobs where it was necessary to
work on the Sabbath. Consequently they were sometimes shamelessly
exploited by callous employers. They were forced to work in the
shops Saturday evenings, when the Sabbath was over, sometimes very
late into the night. Occasionally they had to work on Sundays-
behind locked doors, of course-in order to make enough to live
on.
To meet the widespread poverty among the Jewish population
attempts were made to organise relief. Slight as the success of
these efforts was, they were, nevertheless, the first organised
activities in the young community. For example, a small dispensary
was opened at 218 Simcoe Street, and free medicine distributed to
the needy. In the same three-storey house, there was also an
orphanage, taking up two rooms. One of these rooms was used as a
cheder, where the children were given an elementary Jewish
education; the other was reserved for the staff, which consisted
of one supervisor. The house had originally been rented at $25 a
month and was eventually bought for $11,000. When, six months
after the building was bought, the first payment fell due-the
amount was exactly $50-there was not enough money on hand.
Fortunately, an employee of the Chestnut Street branch of the
Crown Bank, Joseph Gurofsky, offered to provide the money if he
were given a promissory note signed by several respectable men.
Ten persons came forwatd to endorse the note, each guaranteeing to
pay $5 if it was not redeemed. Mr. Gurofsky then gave the money,
and the interest on the house was paid. When the note was finally
redeemed it was given to Mr. S. Fremes, a local jeweller, in whose
keeping it has since remained. For the Jewish worker this was a
surprising state of affairs. At, home in Eurpoe, he had grown
accustomed to the constant struggle between workers and employers.
He had helped organise unions, taken part in strikes, he had stood
the picket line distributing strike literature. No wonder then
that he couldn't stomach the letharhy of the native-born Canadians
factory workers and turned to orgainised unions of his own. This
factor explains the rapid rise of small Jewish unions for each
trade, or a branch of a trade, and their feverish political
activity.
In this first decade of the present century, from 1900-10, the
Jewish population of Toronto showed very little interest in
politics. The City if Toronto, like the rest of the province, was
solidly conservative. Despite some oposition from the LIberals,
the Conservative candidates were always elected to office with
overwhelming majorities. There was no Socialist party to vote for
and the workers seldom put forth a candidate if their own. The
more well-to-do Jews, the assimilated Yehudim and the
parvenu rich invariably backed the conservatives. Somethimes, when
an issue affecting the interest of the local Jewish population
would arise, a few of these individuals would step forward,
unbidden, as representatives of the community. In time these
self-appointed Jewish leaders became the recognized intermediaries
between the civic administration and the local Jewish community.
They were befriended by politicians seeking office and utilized as
vote-getters. In return for political favors these so-called
leaders of the community would promise to get the Jewish vote for
their candidate. On his side of the candidate, in his campaign
speeches, would promise to defend the interests of his Jewish
constituents if elected to office.
Apart from these professional Jews, however, few Jews took an
active interest in politics, whether municipal, provincial, or
national. They saw little difference between the two parties or
their candidates. One waas as good or bad as the other, and in any
case, they felt that both parties represented the same interests.
Furthermore, the immigrant could not understanf the English
sppechs of the rival candidates, the issues were obscure to them,
and there was no Jewish candidate running who would appeal to this
national pride.
The centre of the immigrants' political activivty, forty or fifty
years ago, was to be found in the numerous ice-cream parlours, the
Jewish soft-drink pubs that had sprung up, like mushrooms after a
rain, all through the Jewish district of the city. As soon as an
immigrant has mangaed to accumulate a few dollars he would sink
his savings into one of these ice-cream parlors. The sale of ice
cream was actually a very small fraction of the storekeeper's
business. Here it was possible to get a meat sandwhich or a hot
cup of tea, a package of ciggarettes or a glass of siphon water,
the popular drink at the time (today's bottled drinks were
unknown). In the back of the store were a few small tables for the
customers. Here they could sit down and order a meal. However,
most of the time, the regular customers kust sat and talked, or
read the newspapers, or played a game of dominos, or cards. The
discussions were always lively and often stormy, with everyone in
the store taking part. Jewish problems were carefully analysed;
political affairs were discussed noisily with no pretense and
objectivity. Tempers often flared and it was not uncommon to have
and arguement end in a brawl. Young suiters courted their belles
under the benevolent eyes of the sotrekeeper and his customers.
Not a few hapy marrages had their beginnings in these ice-cream
parlours.
A few of these places were frequented exculusivley by the local
Jewish intelligents. After work, intellectuals of every type,
Xionist and socialists, Genossen and Cheverum would drop in for a
cup of tea or a game of chess, often staying long into the night,
talking or arguing, each trying to prove the superiority of this
group or ideology. One of the most popular places stood at the
cornor of Louisa and Elizabeth streets, in the very heart of the
Jewish neighbourhod. There are good grounds for believing thier
cheif reason for opening the store was to provide a social centre
for immigrant intellectuals. Themselves workers -- the two
Rosenfields made a comfortable living as carpenters and Mr.
Koldofsky ran a small business with some success -- the owners
were eager to promote the intellectual life of the young
community. When their day's work was over, these gentlemen liked
to repair to the store and wait on the customers, at the same time
listening to the various discussions going on. Some evenings the
customers were entertained with more formal discussions, with
readings from Yiddish classics and talks on Zionism,
territorialism and other subjects of special Jewish interest.
But literature and politics were not the sole interest of the
habitués. Chess was very popular, and tournaments were held
frequently. One of the most interesting players was a Mr. I.
Rosen, a bookkeeper by trade. He was always the first to come and
the last to leave and was looked up to as a great athority on all
matters relating to chess. He spent all his time at the
chessboard, opnly very occasionally absenting himself to take some
little job that he couldn't very well refuse.
Another such store, belonging to Chanan and Boris Dvorkin, was
located at the corner of Albert and Chestnut Streets.It was later
moved to 64 Elizabeth Stree. The proprietors extended credit to
their regular customers and their generosity soon brought them a
larger trade. The customers coming here were, generally speaking,
bitter opponents of Jewish nationalism, being mainly bundists,
anarchists and other anti-Zionists.
A third store, located at 102 Agnes Street (today's Dundas Street)
was owned by Yitzchak Herman, a native from Wolin, Poland. An
intellectual, Mr. Herman was still a very naïve person.
Watching the customers queuing up at his counter for cigarettes
amd tobacco, Mr. Herman decided thst the retail tobacoo business
had a great future. When he learnt further thar the Imperial
Tobacco Company made huge profits buying tobacco and making their
own cigarettes, he decided that there was no earthly reason her
could not do the same. He began to package and sell his own
tobacco, using the trade name of the Imperial Tobacco Company. He
sold his tobacco a few cents cheaper per package and watched with
elation as sales rose sharply. He became inebriated with visions
of getting rich qucik. Unfortunatly, however, he was visited a
week after he launched his scheme fromt he Exise and Revenue
Branch of the dominion governement. Mr. Herman now discovered, to
his dismay, that the violation of patent rights was a serious
matter and the evaision of excise duties even more serious. Mr.
Herman had a hard time convincing the authorities of the innocence
of his scheme. The legal suit cost him a tidy sum, but he was
lucky to escape with his skin. Before this incident took place,
Mr. Herman had worked in a local shoe factory. Now he was forced
to return to his old job, leaving the management of the store to
his wife. Their store was a favourite rendezvous for Poali
Zionists, Talmudic students who liked a game of chess and various
young men starved for the life of the mind.
A fourth ice-cream parlour was openedat the corner of Armoury and
Chestnut Streets by Mr. Greisman. Most of Mr. Greisman's customers
were Galician Jews who had come from the part of Poland annexed by
Austria after the First World War.
Also, another ice cream parlour was Michaelson's at 97 Agnes
Street, which became the headquarters for Romanian Jews and
meeting-place for young men and women with a passion for theatre.
Having acted on the stage in Romania, Mr. Michaelson, the owner of
the store, never stopped talking about his past theatrical
glories. He was always reminiscing about the good old days when
his appearance on the stage was the signal for tremendous
applause. Vanity apart, however, Mr. Michaelson's interest in the
theatre was genuine. He was, in fact, the first person in Toronto
to produce a Yiddish play. In 1904 he orgainised an amateur
theatrical group with himself as director. And a year later in
1905, he was responsible, along wiht Mr. Abramov, for bringing to
Toronto a cast of actors from New York, thus lying the groundwork
for the legitimate Jewish theatre which later arose in the city.
The ocmpany gave a series of preformances of famous Yidish
classics in a hall rented for the occasion by Mr. Michaelson. But
community interest was slight and the group had to disband after a
few months.
In 1900 Toronto had two Jewish restaurants. One, at 119 Elizabeth
street, was run by Mrs. Tucker;l the other, on Teraulay Street,
was managed by Mr. M. Goldenberg. These restaurants had their
regular customers who used to stay on after meals to talk with
friends. But these restaurants never equalled in popularity the
less pretentious ice-cream parlours as centres for social
gatherings. In fact, apart from the few few synagogues and a small
sociaslist club on Queen Streem there was no Jewish centre at all
for people to meet and spend an evening together in a friendly
atmosphere. The situation didn't improve until two Toronto Jews --
Mr. S. Fleishman, a local musician, and Mr. David Sussman, one of
the founders of the Ostrovitzer Synagogue -- realising the needs
of the growing Jewish population of the city, got together and
opened the Centre Palace Hall on Elm Street.
From 1902-05 the small Jewish community of Toronto had many
serious problems to cope with. The most pressing one was, of
course, how to absorb the large number of immigrants that were
steadily arriving. The housing situation in the city was serious.
Accommodation for the newcomers had to be found at once, and food
and clothes. The vast majority of the arrivals were wretchedly
poor with their worldly possessions literally on their backs in
the form of heavy bundles. Their tattered suitcases bulged with
hand-sewn pillowcases, feather-filled bedding, heavy woollen
underclothes and the traditional pair of silver candlesticks. They
had no money to speak of. Their clothes were old and worn, their
bellies empty, their spirits low.
There was then no Canadian Jewish Congress or Hebrew Immigrant Aid
Society. These and similar organisations did not arise until much
later. At that time the small Jewish community in Toronto had no
organisations to look after the needs of the immigrant. There were
no experienced social workers to meet the immigrant as he came off
the boat, to provide him with lodgings, however temporary, and to
advise him as to choice of occupation. The immigrant then had to
rely on his own resources, on his own initiative and
enterprise.
The first two sick benefit societies in Toronto were founded by
Polish and Russian immigrants in 1904. These were the Mozirer Sick
Benefit Society, which was organised in the home of a Mozirer
landsman, Mr. Bregman, and the Pride of Israel Sick Benefit
Society, today the largest organisation of its kind in Toronto.
The years between 1905-14, when the First World War broke out,
were a period of phenomenal growth for the Jewish community of
Toronto. The older Jewish residential quarter, becoming more and
more congested, gradually began spilling over into neighbouring
gentile districts. Slowly Jews began moving away from Elizabeth,
Edward, Chestnut, Elm and Simcoe Streets, and Centre Avenue,
making their way as far west as Spadina Avenue and as far north as
Bloor Street.
From 1905-07 Canada was in the grip of an economic crisis. The
Jewish population was especially hard hit. The majority had lived
in Canada for only a short time and were bewildered by the turn of
events. They had come here hoping to find work and opportunities
and security; now many of the newcomers were thrown out of
employment, jobs were scarce, their savings gone. Some roamed the
streets, hungry, weary and penniless. Anxious to alleviate their
distress, a number of public-spirited working people-a few
tailors, carpenters and small businessmen-got together and
organised an emergency kitchen to look after feeding the
unemployed. A large house on Teraulay Street was leased for the
purpose by David Levine, one of the initiators of the project. The
rental fee was $6 a month. Shortly afterwards, at the beginning of
1906, the first Jewish public kitchen in Toronto was officially
opened. Furniture, dinnerware, kitchen utensils and cutlery came
from a variety of sources. The Shomrei Shabos Synagogue on
Chestnut Street donated wooden benches. Tables were donated by the
Kiever landsleit, many of whom were second-hand furniture dealers.
Hershel Wilder, Ben Zion Nussbaum and Mr. S. Weber supplied the
glassware and cutlery. Carpenters and painters donated their
labour, repairing furniture, washing floors and painting walls. A
few people volunteered as waiters and dishwashers. Mrs. Tucker and
Mrs. Solway, two prominent Toronto ladies, undertook to look after
the cooking. Meals were served twice daily, at noontime and in the
evening. Because of the scarcity of dishes it became necessary to
serve the unemployed in groups of twenty-five only.
Most of the money to maintain the kitchen came from the poor; the
more well-to-do ignored the undertaking. The money was raised by
public subscription, the majority of subscribers paying five cents
weekly. Several subscription lists show the highest individual
contribution to be fifty cents. Many donations were in the form of
gifts of food. The following items appear in a typical list:
2 loaves of bread
(a single loaf cost 4¢ and a double loaf 7¢)
1/4 bag of potatoes (a bag cost 12 1/2¢)
3 Ibs of meat (cost 20¢)
2 Ibs of onions (cost 5¢)
The regular collectors were Cantor M. Caplan and Moishe Caplan, a
pants presser. The latter devoted most of his time and energy to
his voluntarily assumed task. A few of the leading workers were
Joseph Layefsky, Abraham Layefsky, Mr. M. Blechman, Mr L. Tredler
and Mr. M. Langbord.
There were some, however, who, though hungry and without money to
buy food, were, nevertheless, reluctant to come to the kitchen.
Ashamed of having to accept public assistance, they felt it a
further humiliation to have to eat their charity meals before the
eyes of strangers. In deference to their feelings, an innovation
was made in the manner of distributing relief thanks to a garment
worker, Leibish Finkelstein, who thought of a way overcome their
reluctance. At his suggestion it was decided to prepare box
lunches containing sandwiches, soup and meat to distributed once a
day to needy persons calling for it.
After a short time the kitchen had to close owing to lack of funds
and lack of experienced personnel. A second attempt to run a
kitchen was made a year later. This time the chief sponsors were
businessmen and insurance agents. A large, run-down house was
leased, and a hostel added to provide free lodgings. But, though
money was more abundant this time, it too had to close down and
was not reopened until three years later in 1911.
At one time or another during the early years of the present
century, most Jewish tailors in Toronto had worked for the T.
Eaton Company. In 1900 the company-with the largest store in the
British Empire and ranking first in retail merchandising- opened a
factory in Toronto and began manufacturing men' s and ladies'
clothes. There was at all times a heavy demand for ready-made
clothing, and as the T. Eaton Company could not manufacture enough
in its own factory to meet the constant demand, it was forced to
farm out unfinished garments to private contractors and
individuals for finishing. With the large influx of Jewish
immigrants into Canada at the turn of the century, many of them
experienced tailors, there was a sharp increase in the number of
Jews working for the company. Eaton's was anxious to enlarge its
factory and increase production, so it hired almost anybody with
some tailoring experience. At first many immigrants applying for a
job gave their origin as German, believing that they would be
hired more quickly if their true origin was unknown. But the T.
Eaton Company, as a matter of fact, did not discriminate in hiring
people to work in its factory. Indeed for many years Jews made up
an impressive part of the personnel in the factory.
Employees were paid by the piece-work system, and it was a rule
that a worker in the factory must earn no less than $5 a week if
single and $7.50 a week if married. Naturally a slow or
incompetent worker who did not earn this minimum would not stay
long on the job. The firm was strongly opposed to unionism and
forbade any form of union organisation among its employees. It
refused to recognise any official labour holidays. An employee who
absented himself on such a day was, more likely than not, to be
fired when he showed up the next day. Nevertheless, the Jewish
workers formed a union, and in 1912, when factory conditions were
particularly bad, they went on strike. Although the strike had,
from the very first, little chance of success -- the union was too
small and weak to be able to wage a successful fight against so
wealthy a firm-- it was a hard and heroic struggle.
The whole Jewish population rallied behind the strikers. Out of
sympathy with them Jewish housewives organised a boycott of the
firm's stores, refusing to buy any goods there until a settlement
was reached. Clashes occurred between Jewish strikers and Jewish
strike-breakers, but despite all the efforts of workers and
unions, the strike was lost. It is interesting to note here, that
many of the future Jewish cloak manufacturers of Toronto took an
active part in this strike, either as strikers or strike-breakers.
Two of the most active figures in the union at the time were Mr.
Lubedsky, a designer in charge of organising the cloaks section,
and Mr. Harry Waxman, who looked after the men's wear. A few of
the leaders of this 1912 strike were Max Shore, Abraham
Nissenwater, Abraham Kirzner, Mr. B. Wilkowsky, Max Finkelstein,
Moishe Goodman, Abraham Rovner and Shlome Zietz.
