13 photographs. - 4 artefacts. - 2 videos. - 1 compact disc (CD-ROM). - Env. 0.07 metres of textual records.
Fonds No.
P0184
Date
[ca. 1930]-2015.
Scope and Content
Recipies Mother Never Knew Mizrachi-Hapoel, 1965. Glass milk bottle designed with input from Mrs. Aber's mother for Montreal's Milk Fund, pre-WWII. Pins and badges from Zionist groups and conventions, photos of the staff of Aid to Israel 1950, Aid to Israel Jewish Youth Group 1950, Zionist Organiza…
13 photographs. - 4 artefacts. - 2 videos. - 1 compact disc (CD-ROM). - Env. 0.07 metres of textual records.
Scope and Content
Recipies Mother Never Knew Mizrachi-Hapoel, 1965. Glass milk bottle designed with input from Mrs. Aber's mother for Montreal's Milk Fund, pre-WWII. Pins and badges from Zionist groups and conventions, photos of the staff of Aid to Israel 1950, Aid to Israel Jewish Youth Group 1950, Zionist Organization of Canada 1949-1950. Material on the Jewish Child's Day Appeal. Clippings and ephemera re: Zionism, Child's Day, and actor William Shatner, a former Montrealer. 9 Photos of Montreal scenes. Material about Montreal's Talmud Torah, Jewish Artists at Congregation Shaar Hashomayim. Additions 2001: 2 photos (snapshots) of Camp Hashomer Hadati in Bronte, Ontario, Hebrew textbook and prayer book dated 1979, photo of a 9th-grade class of Baron Byng High School including Ita Aber, Clippings, 2 Videos. Additions post 2001 (passim): Articles written by Ita Aber, information about her artwork and recent exhibitions. Addition 2015: Autobiographical audio interview of Ita Herscovitch Aber recorded in New York January 9, 2015 by Renata Stein; WAV file, 56 minutes, provided on CD. Transcript of interview, done by her daughter Mindy Aber Barad via email correspondence from Israel, 30 pages. Themes covered in the interview include her early life in Montreal, art education at Baron Byng high school with teacher Ann Savage, religious background, mother's involvement in charitable efforts such as the Milk Fund, help given to a German Jewish internee and a Jewish refugee, Ita Aber's work for the Israeli consulate in Montreal in the early 1950s, her establishment in New York circa 1953, her career as a textile artist, encounters with Martin Luther King, and Judy Chicago, art groups such as the Pomegranate Guild, Jewish motifs in artwork.
Date
[ca. 1930]-2015.
Fonds No.
P0184
History / Biographical
Ita Aber was born in Montreal, in 1932 and grew up in a family dedicated to Zionist and charitable causes. She later moved to New York, where she made her name as an artist. As described in a 2001 article; "Ita Aber is an artist who delights in unconventional formats that provide unique and startling insights into Jewish Life. Her work is found in almost every major Jewish museum throughout the world. She is a master of the fabric arts, which is by its very nature, an interdisciplinary field. As practiced by Ita Aber, the fabric arts explode in scale to include the diverse skills of embroidering, beadwork, sewing, appliqué, silkscreen, jewelry design, weaving, painting, sculpture, and assemblage. The stunning range of her talents is reflected in the vast array of work and Judaic objects she has produced, from wall hangings, jewelry, and sculpture to Torah covers, etrog boxes, and Purim masks." Ita Aber is also known as a conservator of textiles, an art historian, a curator, teacher, and the author of The Art of Judaic Needlework: Traditional and Contemporary designs (Scribner 1979).
Custodial History
This collection was donated by Mrs. Ita Aber.
Notes
Alpha-numeric designations: P01/12, P93/08, and subsequent additions (ongoing to P15/04.). Associated material: Clippings by and about Canadian-born journalist Sam Orbaum (1956-2002), a Jerusalem Post humour columnist (donated by Ita Aber and filed under his name.) General note: The biography is from an article published in The Artists Proof, Spring 2001.
Director of Jewish Community Services Mr. Manuel Batshaw responds to numerous questions regarding the Sephardic Jewish community from North Africa and how they were received by Montreal's community and its leaders. Bensimon's questions suggest a real schism between the two communities and how they saw each other. Batshaw confides about some of the difficulties that both sides had to overcome for a better dialogue and responds to questions about the impact of Maimonides School built exclusively through Sephardic support, the francophone element as to how it effected changes at Jewish summer camps, and other related issues. Some of the sections of the visual interview are missing though the sound is in sync.
First half of an 89 minute long interview, on 2 cassettes. In a 5 minute series of clips from this portion, Professor of Theology Gregory Baum speaks of his early history and his internment experience upon arriving in Canada in 1939.
Archival / Genealogical
Archival Descriptions
Repository
Canadian Jewish Archives
YouTube
BAUM, Gregory - Interview by Sharon Gubbay Helfer for Quebec Dialogue Pioneers project
Bloomfield family (Neri and Bernard Bloomfield, Evelyn Schachter) - Zionist activities
Description Level
Fonds
Material Type
textual record
moving images
graphic material
Physical Description
1.6 metres of textual records. - 6 films. - Env. 30 photographs.
Fonds No.
P0247
Date
1918-2007.
Scope and Content
Textual records dating from 1918-2007, collected by Evelyn Bloomfield Schachter and her parents Bernard and Neri Bloomfield over the course of their long involvement in Montreal and international Jewish community activities, especially related to Israel and to Zionist organizations in Canada. Organ…
1.6 metres of textual records. - 6 films. - Env. 30 photographs.
Scope and Content
Textual records dating from 1918-2007, collected by Evelyn Bloomfield Schachter and her parents Bernard and Neri Bloomfield over the course of their long involvement in Montreal and international Jewish community activities, especially related to Israel and to Zionist organizations in Canada. Organizations represented in the collection include: Hadassah-Wizo (early involvement by Neri Bloomfield, and later by her daughter Evelyn), Canadian Zionist Federation, Israel Bonds, JNF, Histadrut-AMAL, Technion University. Canadian Friends of Hebrew University and other university support organizations, as well as Jerusalem 3000 and other projects related to hospitals and schools in Israel. Some family documents and images are also included in the collection, including the earliest dated material found here. There are a few oversize items, including 2 large rolled photographs of Histadrut conventions in New York (early 1950s), a smaller rolled photo of a Histadrut campaign dinner in Montreal in 1948, a large group photograph from Hadassah Wizo in Toronto (1957), a Jewish National Fund blueprint for the Bloomfiield forest in Israel, and a 1970 Conservative Party election poster for Evelyn Bloomfield's brother Harry Bloomfield, during the campaign when he ran against Pierre Elliot Trudeau for the Mount Royal riding. There are 6 reels of 16 mm. film stock of film related to the Bloomfield family's Israel activities or film financing ventures, copied from the Bloomfield collection at the Public Archives of Canada (now LAC).
Date
1918-2007.
Fonds No.
P0247
History / Biographical
Neri Bloomfield served as national president of the Canadian Zionist Federation. She was born in Bucharest, Romania, was educated in London, and immigrated to Canada in 1941. She was an active volunteer and effective leader and fundraiser in both the Jewish and non Jewish communities for many years. She was a member of the International Board of the Hebrew University, presided respectively over many Canadian organizations and campaigns. Mrs. Bloomfield was the youngest National President of Canadian Hadassah-Wizo (1972-76), the first woman to hold the position of National President of the Canadian Zionist Federation (1984-87), as well as the first female President of the Jewish National Fund of Canada (1988-91). She was also a member of the Board of Directors of Bank of Hapoalim (Canada); the only woman director in the Bank's history. She was actively involved with St. Francis Xavier University in Antigonish, Nova Scotia, where she was awarded an Honourary LL.D. (Doctor of Laws). She was a member of its International Board of Governors of the Hebrew University since 1971, and received an Honorary Ph.D. from there. She was also a member of the Board of Governors of the Technion. Her Canadian involvements included serving as President of the Lady Davis Research Institute of the Jewish General Hospital and serving as the Chair of the Canadian celebrations for Jerusalem 3000. (Source: jafi.org - The Jewish Agency for Israel.) Bernard Manfred Bloomfield, business executive, community leader and philanthropist, was born in Montreal and educated at McGill University. He was president of Canadian Manufacturers Sales Company, Israel Continental Oil Co. Ltd., which drilled for oil in Israel from 1954 to 1967, and New Continental Oil Co. of Canada. He was Honorary Consul General, Republic of Korea from 1969 until his death. Bloomfield served on the boards of numerous Jewish organizations and institutions including the Canadian Association for Labour Israel and its Canadian Histadrut Campaign, Jewish National Fund of Canada, 1969-1974, Canadian Technion Society and the Lady Davis Medical Research Institute of the Jewish General Hospital. He was also active in Canadian Friends of the Hebrew University, Canada-Israel Maritime League, Jewish Immigrant Aid Services of Canada, and the Canada-Israel Chamber of Commerce in Israel. As president of the Eldee Foundation, established by Henrietta Davis, the first wife of Sir Mortimer B. Davis who founded Imperial Tobacco, Bernard and his brother Louis used the proceeds to build 16 of the 65 Amal vocational high schools in Israel. Bloomfield was a Governor of the Sir Mortimer B. Davis Jewish General Hospital, the Hebrew University, the Technion, St. Francis Xavier University and the Tel Aviv Museum. He was author of Israel Diary, 1950, an account of his first trip to Israel. He received numerous awards and honours for his community service. Source: National Library and Archives Canada bio, taken from Canadian Who's Who, 1984, p. 121. Evelyn Bloomfield Schachter, daughter of Bernard and Neri Bloomfield, is vice president of the Eldee Foundation. She is deeply involved in numerous Montreal Jewish organizations. Harry Bloomfield, born 1944, is Managing partner of the law firm of Bloomfield & Avocats, and is a philanthropist and businessman.
Samuel and Saidye Bronfman Family Foundation (SSBFF)
Description Level
Series
Material Type
textual record
moving images
Physical Description
0.33 metres of textual records. - 3 compact discs (DVD-ROM) (movie).
Fonds No.
I0116; K
Date
1953-2011.
Scope and Content
Correspondence, research materials, including some administrative materials from other series in this collection, draft copies of Spirited Commitment, photographs and DVDs documenting the book launch event.
0.33 metres of textual records. - 3 compact discs (DVD-ROM) (movie).
Scope and Content
Correspondence, research materials, including some administrative materials from other series in this collection, draft copies of Spirited Commitment, photographs and DVDs documenting the book launch event.
Date
1953-2011.
Fonds No.
I0116
Series No.
K
History / Biographical
Roderick MacLeod and Eric John Abrahamson authored the book Spirited Commitment: The Samuel and Saidye Bronfman Family Foundation, published in 2010 by McGill-Queen's University Press. The book launch in 2011 is documented here, along with research materials drawn from other parts of the SSBFF collection before it was donated to the CJArchives in 2022.
Outs of footage from P-1060-27 with Jewish family at JIAS offices. In this material, other families are presented in voice-over sound with lots of images missing. In one sequence, a younger JIAS male counselor lists some of the services the new immigrants can access. They include, among others: housing information on leasing, a drop-in centre for women to help them adapt to new food, shopping, etc., summer camp for children, and information on various religious and secular public schools available for the children. There are also shots of the waiting room and other clients, a receptionist and an older and younger male counselor at work.