Print - The Canadian Jewish Heritage Network - Alex Dworkin Canadian Jewish Archives

Physical Description: 28 photographs. - Env. 0.06 metres of textual records.

Scope and Content: The documents in the collection consist of 5 paper files as well as a file of photographs. The document files are 1) documents related to JIAS history, programs and administration, including some newsletter articles written by Ethel Stern and others by Joseph Kage; 2) JIAS administrative and person…

Physical Description: 28 photographs. - Env. 0.06 metres of textual records.

Scope and Content: The documents in the collection consist of 5 paper files as well as a file of photographs. The document files are 1) documents related to JIAS history, programs and administration, including some newsletter articles written by Ethel Stern and others by Joseph Kage; 2) JIAS administrative and personnel correspondence with Ethel Stern, as well as correspondence from other sources related to her life and career; 3) letters sent to Ethel Stern, mostly expressions of gratitude from JIAS clients; 4) JIAS client case information and attestations written by Ethel Stern (this file carries restrictions on names); 5) Photographs. There are 5 small colour snapshots of Ethel Stern's retirement party at JIAS,1983, and 4 small black and white photos including portraits of Ethel and David Stern plus a small snapshot of Ethel outside the JIAS building early in her career there (circa 1938). There are 18 black and white 8"x10" prints of JIAS events and staff groups. File 6) pertains to Ethel's husband David Stern, a German Jew who was interned during WWII. The file contains biographical information, much of it as used when making a postwar restitution claim against the German government.

History / Biographical: Born in Mogiliov Podol, Russia in 1913, Ethel Polisuk Stern was nine years old when she immigrated to Montreal Canada with her family in 1922. She began working at the Jewish Immigrant Aid Services (JIAS) in the 1930s, after living down the street from the organization's Esplanade Street building in her teen years. She was a social worker for JIAS from the 1930s until her retirement in 1983. Ethel's husband David Leo Stern was born in Germany in 1916, living with his family in Cologne before the war. He escaped to England in 1939 and was sent to Canada as an internee in 1940. He was released in 1942 to work in a shoe factory. Ethel and David Stern did not have any children. David Stern died in 1967. Ethel Stern died in July,1995.

Custodial History: The collection was donated by Rosa Finestone, Ethel's niece, on August 5, 2015

Notes: Alpha-numeric designations: P15/18.General note: Adds to major collections at CJCCCNA by providing a personal perspective for the JIAS organizational records.