Series ZB consists of "Personalia" files and boxes compiled about individuals; mainly Jewish Canadians, as well as a few non-Jewish persons of significance to the Canadian Jewish community. The series includes files coded "Pre-1900 personalia", comprised of members of many of the early Jewish famil…
Series ZB consists of "Personalia" files and boxes compiled about individuals; mainly Jewish Canadians, as well as a few non-Jewish persons of significance to the Canadian Jewish community. The series includes files coded "Pre-1900 personalia", comprised of members of many of the early Jewish families in Canada, such as the Harts, the Josephs, the Davids and others.
Mezuzah (Heb. literally "doorpost") refers to one of the 613
commandments in Judaism which requires that a small parchment
(klaf) inscribed with two sections from the Torah's Book of
Deuteronomy (6:4-9 and 11:13-21) be affixed to each doorpost and
gate in a Jewish home and business. A small case or box typically
covers the parchment.
The collection housed at the Congregation Shaar Hashomayim's Museum and Archives (and Library) numbers approximately 15,000 objects and approximately 6,500 Judaic books. The Museum collection includes Jewish liturgical and ritual objects, as well as secular and Israeli cultural objects. The Archiva…
The collection housed at the Congregation Shaar Hashomayim's Museum and Archives (and Library) numbers approximately 15,000 objects and approximately 6,500 Judaic books. The Museum collection includes Jewish liturgical and ritual objects, as well as secular and Israeli cultural objects. The Archival holdings are comprised of an extensive collection of photographic and textual records, including a photographic collection documenting Jewish life in Canada and Europe, and textual records of institutional and personal provenance, comprised of correspondence, synagogue bulletins and other papers, official acts, and birth and wedding certificates. The Archives houses video and audio interviews with congregation members and staff as well as recordings of public lectures. The Shaar Hashomayim Archives also houses minute books, birth, marriage, and death registers of Montreal Jewry from 1857. Researchers wishing to learn more details about the minutes and registers portions of the collection must contact the synagogue directly. The Library holdings include a Judaic rare book collection. The Shaar Hashomayim Museum and Archives holdings are thematically divided into four categories of information: Archives, Decorative arts, Fine Arts, and Human History. The Archives division includes Prints and drawings, Manuscripts, Films and videos, Photographs, Sound recordings, Textual records, as well as Artifacts pertaining to Canadian Jewish life. The Decorative Arts collection includes Moroccan and Ethiopian Jewish folk art, American Jewish folk art, European Jewish folk art, ceramics, porcelain, pottery, glass, metalwork, silverwork, goldwork, textiles, and tapestries. The Fine Arts collection includes oil paintings, illuminated manuscripts, tapestry, sculpture, watercolor, lithographs, diverse collections of Jewish artists covering a range of subjects, i.e. Holocaust, portraiture, Biblical renditions etc. The Human History collection is related to Jewish communal and religious life in Canada and includes archaeological objects, ceremonial objects, costumes and accessories, currency, furniture and furnishings, household objects and domestic technology, film, photographs, video, manuscripts, medals, memorabilia, religious and liturgical objects.
Date
[1700-2002].
Fonds No.
SH-01
History / Biographical
The Congregation Shaar Hashomayim, which is the second oldest synagogue in Canada as well as the oldest Ashkenazi synagogue, was founded in Montreal in 1846 by English, German and Polish Jews. Having been members of the Spanish and Portuguese synagogue, they decided that they wanted to be able to attend Ashkenazi services. Thus, the congregation began its life in a rented room on St. James Street, and after several moves, it obtained land at Kensington Avenue and Côte St. Antoine in Westmount in 1920. This new synagogue was completed in 1922, and the congregation has worshipped at this location ever since. Throughout its early history, the congregation continued to have ties with the Spanish and Portuguese congregation, but in 1918 the name Congregation Shaar Hashomayim was incorporated and it in turn separated from the former. After the Second World War a school was added to the congregation and because so many families had joined the synagogue it was further expanded in 1967. Though Orthodox by charter, the congregation is Conservative.Additional historical information about the Congregation can be seen in the attached PDF document (5179K.)
Notes
General note:The items shown on this website were digitized in 2001 for the Canadian Jewish Virtual Museum and Archives project (CJVMA) funded by CHIN (The Canadian Heritage Information Network). They were previously displayed on a website located at www.cjvma.org. All the displayed items from this collection are copyright the Congregation Shaar Hashomayim Museum and Archives.
The MHMC acquires and preserves artefacts, documents and testimonies of Holocaust witnesses for study, reference, and presentation to the public, together with information about them. The Museum collection holds more than 9,700 items consisting of over 4,800 textual records (including 2,000 items o…
The MHMC acquires and preserves artefacts, documents and testimonies of Holocaust witnesses for study, reference, and presentation to the public, together with information about them. The Museum collection holds more than 9,700 items consisting of over 4,800 textual records (including 2,000 items of correspondence), 3,400 graphic material items (including 3,000 photographs) and 1,500 objects related to the history of the Holocaust. Among the objects collected are personal objects, household items, ceremonial artefacts, currency and artworks created before and during the Second World War. The majority of these objects is directly linked to personal stories and therefore has a unique value. The items in collection originate from over 60 different countries and are written in 30 different languages. The collection also comprises over 3,000 hours of video interviews representing the life stories of 500 Holocaust survivors interviewed by the MHMC. Materials in the MHMC Collection illustrate and document the prewar life of communities that were persecuted by the Nazi party (National Socialist German Workers' Party or NSDAP) regime; the crimes of the NSDAP regime and its collaborators; the world's response to the NSDAP regime and its occupation of Europe and the experience of Holocaust victims including resistance, rescue, and life in hiding. The Collection also holds items recording the experience of Holocaust survivors after Liberation, such as the postwar resettlement experience (Displaced Persons' camp), the re-emergence of Jewish life after the war and immigration of Holocaust survivors to Canada directly after the war and the pursuit of justice through war crimes trials.
Date
[1700-2008].
Fonds No.
MHMC-01
History / Biographical
The Montreal Holocaust Memorial Centre was founded in 1979 by a group of Holocaust survivors and other members of the Montreal Jewish community. The first objects, documents and photographs which were to form the basis of the collection were donated by Holocaust survivors living in Montreal. The MHMC museum was opened in 1979 to the public in the Federation CJA building on Côte-Sainte-Catherine Road and soon reached schools and other groups with temporary exhibitions and survivor testimony. In 1991, the Centre was incorporated under federal jurisdiction. In 2001, the Quebec Minister of Culture and Communications recognized the Centre as a museum institution. In June 2003, following a period of renovations and extension, the new permanent exhibition of the Montreal Holocaust Memorial Museum was inaugurated by Canada's Prime Minister and the Premier of Quebec. The MHMC Museum is open to the public year-round and presents over 380 artefacts in its permanent exhibition. The Museum now reaches over 15,500 visitors each year, as well as many thousands other participants through educational events and pedagogical tools. The Montreal Holocaust Memorial Centre educates people of all ages and backgrounds about the Holocaust, while sensitizing the public to the universal perils of antisemitism, racism, hate and indifference. Through its Museum, its commemorative programs and educational initiatives, the Centre promotes respect for diversity and the sanctity of human life.
Notes
General note :The Collection is documented according to the Info-Muse Network documentation system based on standards proposed by the Canadian Heritage Information Network.
On each side is a multi-layered flower buckle, connected with a linked chain. Each buckle has a gold coloured flower base with silver petal outlines placed over top. Inside each petal is a series of coiled curlicues; the left buckle has an additional smaller layer of petal outlines, topped with a silver knob; the right side has 3 additional petal-outline layers, topped with a silver knob. The 2 buckles are connected by a 14 link chain. Each link is the same: A circular centre with decorative rings and balls at the top and bottom. In the middle of the circle is a flower with 6 petals and a silver centre. Each chain-link is connected together with 3 circular links, incised with small lines, at the top, centre and bottom. The backside of the chain-links are smooth metal. The buckles have fastenings soldered on: the left side has 2 eyes; the right side has a round metal peg. Both buckles have metal strips that come from the front and fold onto the back, to attach the front detailings.
Probably image #10 from volume I, no. 4 in a collection by the artist. Studies of "lulav," "etrog," "shofar," "mezuzzah," "matzah," hanging Shabbat lamp, "tallit." Descriptions of objects in French in legend under images.
Env. 361.57 metres of textual records. - Env. 14100 photographs. - 1531 sound elements. - 43 films. - 1017 videos.
Fonds No.
CJC0001
Date
1765-present.
Scope and Content
The collection consists of several classes of material, as described in the series descriptions below. While the CJC materials begin in 1919, Series Z, the documentation collection, contains material that precedes this date, a few items going back even as far as the earliest settlement of Jews in C…
Env. 361.57 metres of textual records. - Env. 14100 photographs. - 1531 sound elements. - 43 films. - 1017 videos.
Scope and Content
The collection consists of several classes of material, as described in the series descriptions below. While the CJC materials begin in 1919, Series Z, the documentation collection, contains material that precedes this date, a few items going back even as far as the earliest settlement of Jews in Canada in the late 18th century.
Date
1765-present.
Fonds No.
CJC0001
History / Biographical
Canadian Jewish Congress was founded in Montreal in March 1919. "The Parliament of Canadian Jewry," CJC was constituted as the democratically elected, national organizational voice of the Jewish community of Canada, serving as the community's vehicle for defence and representation. Committed to preserving and strengthening Jewish life, CJC acted on matters affecting the status, rights and welfare of the Canadian Jewish community, other Diaspora communities and the Jewish people in Israel. CJC combatted antisemitism and racism, promoted human rights, fostered interfaith, cross-cultural relations and worked towards tolerance, understanding and goodwill among all segments of society in a multicultural Canada. The organization spoke on a broad range of public policy, humanitarian and social-justice issues on the national agenda that affected the Jewish community and Canadian society at large. Through its charitable operations, CJC provided domestic and international relief aid on a non-sectarian basis, following natural disasters and to isolated Jewish communities in need. The Archives department also fell under the mandate of CJC Charities Committee. In 1999 the CJC national office relocated to Ottawa, with three regional CJC offices (Quebec, Ontario and Pacific), as well as affiliated offices across the country. CJC ceased operations in July 2011, when it was absorbed into the newly-created Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs (CIJA), along with the Canada-Israel Committee, the Quebec-Israel Committee, National Jewish Campus Life and the University Outreach Committee. CJC and its charitable wing were formally disbanded in late 2015. Since that time the CJCCC National Archives, renamed the Alex Dworkin Canadian Jewish Archives as of January 2016, functions under the aegis of Jewish Federations Canada UIA.
Custodial History
Both the national headquarters and the Quebec Jewish Congress (formerly Quebec Region, Eastern Region) offices of the Canadian Jewish Congress were located in Montreal until 1999, when most of the national office relocated to Ottawa. The National Archives is the repository of records created and received in these offices. The collection also includes materials from the National Office in Ottawa, as well as the national records of Manuel Prutschi, Bernie Farber, and other national departments based in Toronto and Vancouver. The regional offices of Canadian Jewish Congress outside Quebec are little represented in the collection, aside from correspondence from across the country and certain publications which were addressed to the national office.
Notes
General note: The number of paper records in this collection is subject to change, due to additions to Documentation Series Z as well as the ongoing weeding of duplications. Most of the material was created after 1919, with the exception of Series Z, which includes photocopies and a small number of originals dating back as far as 1765.
The Shearith Israel Spanish and Portuguese Synagogue was founded in 1768 in Montreal by, among others, Simon Levy and Aaron Hart. Prominent members have included the families Joseph, Hays, David, Solomon and Wolff. As many of the original members (from England, Germany, and the American colonies) were descended from Spanish and Portuguese Jews, the Orthodox synagogue followed the Sepharadi customs. It was modelled on similar synagogues in London and New York. At first, a building was rented, and then a new one erected on Notre Dame in 1778. After several moves and buildings, the edifice at the present location on Lemieux Street was constructed in 1947. The famed Reverend Abraham de Sola and his son Meldola de Sola were rabbis of the synagogue in the 1800s. Members of the congregation founded the Young Men's Hebrew Benevolent Society of Montreal (later the Baron de Hirsch Institute) in the 1850s. The synagogue has a cemetery and a school and was the recipient of the first two Torah scrolls ever sent to Canada. Some of its Torah cases are over 200 years old as well. The Shearith Israel is the oldest congregation in Canada.
Notes
English, Yiddish and Hebrew.Includes 5 coins from 1899-1900.
8 microfilms. - Env. 0.12 metres of textual records.
Fonds No.
P0198
Date
1770S copies-1985.
Scope and Content
Files of Evelyn Miller papers catalogued and deaccessioned by McGill University Archives including copies of Shearith Israel early minutes, Shaar Hashomayim Synagogue documents, Canadian Jewish Historical Society documents, copies of de Sola family microfilms. A. de Sola finding aid.
8 microfilms. - Env. 0.12 metres of textual records.
Scope and Content
Files of Evelyn Miller papers catalogued and deaccessioned by McGill University Archives including copies of Shearith Israel early minutes, Shaar Hashomayim Synagogue documents, Canadian Jewish Historical Society documents, copies of de Sola family microfilms. A. de Sola finding aid.
Date
1770S copies-1985.
Fonds No.
P0198
History / Biographical
Evelyn Miller was a member of the CJC Archives committee and a founding member of the Canadian Jewish Historical Society. She devoted much effort to collecting information about early Montreal Jewish history and documented location of archives about it. Abraham de Sola was an important figure in Victorian Montreal, from the mid 1800s until his death. He taught at McGill in addition to being spiritual leader of the Shearith Israel and prolific author on religious Jewish subjects.
Custodial History
This collection was donated by McGill University Archives and the estate of Evelyn Miller on February 1st, 2005.
Notes
P05/03, ZB.Abraham de Sola material is valuable and much requested by researchers here. This fills out our holdings, as does the synagogue material. Cross references with McGill Collections and our synagogue holdings.
Env. 14 metres of textual records. - 149 sound elements. - Env. 440 photographs. - 1 video. - 1 film. - 2 compact discs (DVD-ROM) (movie). - Env. 3 artefacts.
Fonds No.
SP-01
Date
1791-2008.
Scope and Content
The Spanish and Portuguese Synagogue Archives contains the following catalogued series of documents: Architectural Plans for the Lemieux Street building (dating from 1940 and onwards), Synagogue Bulletins and other serial publications of the synagogue (1931-2008), legal documents and membership app…
Env. 14 metres of textual records. - 149 sound elements. - Env. 440 photographs. - 1 video. - 1 film. - 2 compact discs (DVD-ROM) (movie). - Env. 3 artefacts.
Scope and Content
The Spanish and Portuguese Synagogue Archives contains the following catalogued series of documents: Architectural Plans for the Lemieux Street building (dating from 1940 and onwards), Synagogue Bulletins and other serial publications of the synagogue (1931-2008), legal documents and membership application files (mostly restricted, due to their personal name information), liturgical music scores, Sisterhood papers, general Synagogue subject files (mostly pre-1995), photographs and audiovisual materials, and an inventoried cabinet housing life cycle record books (1919-1994), minute books (1832-1970), and other bound record books. The collection also includes an unprocessed series consisting of four boxes of recent minutes (for various boards and committees, on paper and on audiocassette) and three boxes of Synagogue Administration documents. These recent, unprocessed documents almost all date from post 1995. The Synagogue Archives also houses several dozen framed photographs and framed documents. Furthermore, many of the congregation's older Jewish ceremonial objects, as well as other historic artifacts and antique books, are considered by the Synagogue to be part of the Archives' collection, although they are not housed in the Archives space. Although not described in the present catalogue, the majority of these items were described in a previous catalogue prepared in 2009 by volunteers belonging to the Sisterhood.
Date
1791-2008.
Fonds No.
SP-01
History / Biographical
The Corporation of Spanish and Portuguese Jews is the oldest Jewish institution in Montreal, in Quebec and in Canada, tracing its history back to the first Jewish settlers who began to arrive in 1760. The few families met for prayer in private homes until the Congregation was formally established in 1768. The first Synagogue building was located in Old Montreal and was the first non-Catholic house of worship built in the city. In 1838 the Congregation moved to Chenneville Street and in 1890 to a beautiful edifice on Stanley Street. Although these building were not preserved, the Congregation has carried with it many of the principal furnishings and artifacts from the early edifices. It has been housed in its fourth premises, in the Snowdon-Cotes des Neiges area of Montreal, since 1947. The Spanish-Portuguese tradition follows the rites and customs of those Jews expelled from Spain and Portugal beginning in 1492 who sought refuge in European lands. Other Sephardi (Spanish or Iberian) Jews left for Mediterranean, mostly Moslem, lands, becoming known as the Sephardi Oriental Jews. During the past fifty years many hundreds of families from these latter communities have come to Montreal and have joined the Congregation, reconnecting with their kin from whom they had been separated 500 years ago. Until the early 1960s the Spanish and Portuguese Synagogue was the only Sephardi congregation in Montreal and in Canada. The Congregation today serves over 700 families who come from almost every country in the world in which Jews have ever lived. Four parallel services must be held in order to accommodate the two thousand people who wish to pray on the High Holydays. It is a multicultural community reflecting Montreal life and Canadian pluralism. Although established mainly by English speaking Jews, it has now become a bilingual community due to the arrival of numerous French-speaking families from North Africa and the Middle East. Through its attention to the present and to the past, the Spanish and Portuguese Synagogue demonstrates its commitment to be not only an active Jewish congregation but also an historic monument to Canadian and Quebec and Jewish life. (Adapted from a history written by Rabbi Howard S. Joseph. The full text is online at http://www.thespanish.org/about-us/.)
Custodial History
In the 1970s, recognizing the historical significance of the Congregation, the Public Archives of Canada (now Library and Archives Canada) requested that all the early documents and minute books be donated there. This was done in 1977. The Congregation presented its first Torah Scroll to the National Archives as well. The Archives collection currently housed at the Spanish and Portuguese Synagogue therefore consists primarily of documents dating from 1930 and later.