Collection

LAXER, Rabbi Getsel.

Description Level

Fonds

Physical Description

0.09 metres of textual records.

Scope and Content

The fonds consists of 7 soft-cover and 2 hard-cover notebooks as well as one large file of loose correspondence. Almost all are handwritten in Hebrew and are in fragile condition. Contents include notes for sermons, Torah scholarship and commentaries, including notes on kashrut (kosher slaughter), also notices of births and deaths in the family.The collection also includes two 1999 typescripts: Bernstein, Lily Laxer Laxer Saga (family history), and Robinson, Ira (1999) Is Saul Also Among the Prophets? - The Papers of Getsel Laxer and Their Importance for a History of Rabbinic Culture in Montreal (article)

Date

[1920-1942], 1999.

Fonds No.

P0171

History / Biographical

Rabbi and scholar Getzel Laxer was born in the Austro-Hungarian Empire in 1878 and settled first in Sherbrooke, Quebec upon his arrival in Canada in 1900. From the 1920s he lived in Montreal, earning his living as a schochet (ritual slaughterer) while working on scholarly works and sermons. He died in April 1942.

Custodial History

The papers were held by Laxer's granddaughter, Soryl Naymark, until they were lent to Professor Ira Robinson who wrote a paper based on them, presented at the Congress of Learned Societies Canadian Jewish Studies section in Sherbrooke in 1999. With the permission of Mrs. Naymark, daughter Lily Laxer Bernstein, and grandson Joseph Laxer, the papers were transferred to CJC Archives in December 1999

Notes

Fragile due to deteriorating paper.P99/12.Mainly Hebrew.Biographical sources: Bernstein, Lily Laxer (1999) Laxer Saga (family history) Robinson, Ira (1999) Is Saul Also Among the Prophets? - The Papers of Getsel Laxer and Their Importance for a History of Rabbinic Culture in Montreal (article).

Archival / Genealogical

Archival Descriptions

Repository

Canadian Jewish Archives

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