The 1920s through the 1940s were the peak years for Montreal’s Zionist youth movements. The non-partisan stance of Young Judaea and its emphasis on Jewish culture had broad appeal for young Jews from established families, while the more left-leaning Habonim and Hashomer Hatzair were popular among East European “downtowner” families….
Exhibits
Born in Lithuania, Borenstein immigrated to Montreal in 1921 with his father and one sister. He first worked as a furrier’s apprentice in Ottawa before returning to Montreal, where he found employment in the garment industry. In the evenings he took classes in drawing and sculpture. Borenstein’s expressionist style was…
Traduction à venir Violinist, conductor, teacher, and musical pioneer Ethel Stark (1910-2012) devoted her life to the promotion of Canadian musical talent, and was a major advocate for women’s access to the world of professional classical music. Stark was the daughter of Austrian immigrants Adolph and Laura Stark, who arrived…
A prisoner of the Lodz Ghetto and Dachau concentration camps, Henry Morgentaler (1923-2013) survived with his brother but lost both his parents to the Nazis. Morgentaler arrived in Montreal in 1950 with his wife, writer Chava Rosenfarb, to study medicine at the Université de Montréal. In 1967, he delivered his…
(Traduction à venir) Samson Burke was born in 1929 to Jack and Mina Burke, who lived and worked in the Jewish immigrant neighbourhood near the garment factories of Saint Lawrence Boulevard. As a young adult in the 1940s, Burke worked as a cutter in Montreal’s booming shmata industry. He attended…
Israel Pincu Lazarovitch, later the world-famous modernist Canadian poet Irving Layton, was born in 1912 in a small town in Romania. His family moved the next year to the heart of the Jewish neighbourhood in downtown Montreal. In 1926, Layton entered Baron Byng High School, where his life was transformed…
Israel Pincu Lazarovitch, later the world-famous modernist Canadian poet Irving Layton, was born in 1912 in a small town in Romania. His family moved the next year to the heart of the Jewish neighbourhood in downtown Montreal. In 1926, Layton entered Baron Byng High School, where his life was transformed…