Skip to content

Martin Wolff – Residence

Martin Wolff (1881-1948) was an engineer, journalist, and an early community historian of Canada’s Jews. Born on December 16, 1881, in Frankfurt-am-Main, Germany, Wolff was the son of Julius, an observant Jewish wine merchant, and Sarah, an English Jew of Sephardic background. Wolff was raised and educated as an engineer in England, briefly interrupting his college education when he volunteered for the British army as an electrical engineer in South Africa during the Boer War (1899-1902).

Four years later, Wolff immigrated to Montreal and then St-Casimir, Québec, gaining employment in railway surveys and construction. He worked for various railways, including the Canadian Northern Railway and the National Transcontinental Railway. At the outbreak of war in 1914, he was a member of the Officers’ Training Corps in Quebec. He was then attached to the Department of Militia and Defence and to the Imperial Ministry of Munitions. After the war, Wolff was appointed assistant engineer in the Department of Economics of the Canadian National Railway. He eventually joined the engineering department of the City of Westmount. His daughter, Annette, recalled that “civil engineering meant doing a job to completion and then finding another – no steady security. This condition dogged his whole life.”

In 1909, Wolff married Irene Joseph, a direct descendent of Aaron Hart, and the two established themselves in Montreal in the early 1920s. Wolff served as treasurer of the Spanish and Portuguese Synagogue beginning in the 1920s, and as chairman of the Canadian Jewish Congress Archives Committee from 1934 until his death. In addition to numerous contributions to periodicals, Wolff authored The Jews of Canada in 1925 for the American Jewish Committee, one of the first histories of Canada’s Jewish community. He also wrote a history of the Canadian National Railways, at the request of S.W. Jacobs.

In 1940, Wolff’s life was terribly shaken when he lost his wife Irene to cancer and then one of his daughters shortly after. During the Second World War, Wolff sponsored Alfred Bader’s release from internment at Camp I, housing the young Jewish refugee who would go on to become a celebrated chemist. Bader recalls that Wolff “became the first father figure in my life.” Wolff died on March 8, 1948, while on vacation in Barbados.

Compiled by Alison Dringenberg

Sam Borenstein – Residence

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 inspired by masters such as Chaim Soutine and Vincent Van Gogh. His early works were concentrated on his surroundings in Depression-era Montreal, which he depicted with great energy and bright colours. In the 1940s, he travelled regularly to the Laurentian Mountains, sometimes accompanied by Group of Seven artist Lawren Harris, and painted many of his most well-known works on these trips. He also painted regularly on Montreal’s “mountain,” Mont Royal. Although acclaimed for these colourful landscapes, full of movement and energy, Borenstein also painted portraits, often in the summertime at the family’s summer home on Lac Brûlé in the Laurentians.

Since his passing in 1969, many of his works have been shown at the Galerie L’art Francais, and in 2005, he was the subject of an exhibit at the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts. In 1992, he was the subject of a documentary directed by his daughter, called The Colours of My Father.

Compiled by Federation CJA and Na’ama Freeman.

Ethel Stark – Residence

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 in Montreal in 1907. Her father was the president of the href=”Jewish Immigrant Aid Society”http://imjm.ca/location/1396 and her mother of the Ladies Immigrant Aid Society. Stark began her musical education playing violin. When she was only 13 years old, she auditioned for Oscar Morini in New York, who offered to to take Stark as his protegée to Europe. Because Stark’s mother thought she was still too young for touring, Stark remained in Montreal. Between 1928-34 she studied at the Curtis Institute in Philadelphia where she was the first Canadian citizen to receive a major scholarship.

In 1934, Stark became the first Canadian woman to perform as a soloist in a broadcasted program across the US. In 1940, she founded the first Canadian orchestra composed exclusively of women, the Montreal Women’s Symphony Orchestra, which she conducted until the late 1960s. Their first concert took place in the chalet on Mount Royal, and was attended by several thousand people. In 1947, the MWSO accomplished something no Canadian orchestra had done before: they performed at the prestigious Carnegie Hall in New York. Stark also lead a successful career as a conductor, helping to found and direct the New York Women’s Chamber Orchestra (1938-40), the Ethel Stark Symphonietta (1954-68) and the Montreal Women’s Symphony Strings (1954-65). She was a guest conductor for symphonies all over Canada and worldwide, including Israel and Japan.

Stark is a laureate of the Quebec Academy of Music, recipient of the Curtis diploma, fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, and the recipient of an honorary degree (LLD) from Concordia University. In 1976, she received an annual award given to outstanding Canadian personalities granted by the Concert Society of the http://imjm.ca/location/1199. She was made a Member of the Order of Canada in 1980. In 2003, she was made a Grand Officer of the National Order of Quebec.

In 2016, Montreal’s mayor, Denis Coderre, announced that the Claude-Jutras park would be renamed in Ethel Stark’s honour.

Compiled by Federation CJA and Abigail Borja Calonga.

Henry Morgentaler – Residence

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 famous brief to the House of Commons Welfare Committee stating that women in Canada should have the right to end their pregnancies without risking their lives—at the time, only available abortions were illegal and often risky. Realizing how great a need there was for safe abortions in Canada, Morgentaler founded his eponymously named Montreal Clinic in east-end Montreal in 1969, the first independent clinic to offer abortions to women in Canada.

Although a limited and specific number of abortions became legal in 1969, Morgentaler’s were not, since he did not demand medical prerequisites for his patients. His clinic was raided multiple times, and he was charged just as frequently. His legal battles were so lengthy and legendary—including multiple arrests, dozens of charges, a 10-month prison stint at Montreal’s Bordeaux jail during which he suffered a mild heart attack, and three jury acquittals in Quebec—that the Canadian Parliament enacted the Morgentaler Amendment, stating that no person can have a jury acquittal overturned by an Appeals court.

Morgentaler was raised within the social milieu of the Jewish Bund of prewar Poland, a secular, socialist and Yiddish cultural environment, which he credits with his commitment to human rights. He was a long-time member and president of the Canadian Humanist Association and its lifetime honorary president, and was named Humanist of the Year by the American Humanist Association in 1975.

To this day, his legacy is disputed, and even his nomination to the Order of Canada in 2008 was met with protest.

compiled by federation CJA and Trisha Booth.

Samson Burke – Residence

(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 Baron Byng High School and McGill University, where he earned a degree in physical education.

He was a competitive swimmer from a young age, winning several titles at the provincial and national level for individual swimming as well as for water polo. As an undergraduate, he was named “Canada’s Greatest All-Around Collegiate Athlete.” Burke went on to compete in bodybuilding, winning the titles of “Mr. Montreal,” “Mr. Muscle Beach” and “Mr. Canada.” He put both of these skills to use in the 1948 Summer Olympics, when wrestled and swam for Canada.

During the 1950s, he made his mark in wrestling, using the names « Sammy Berg » and « Mr. Canada, » and sparred with the major names of his era. In the late 1950s, he won the “World Heavyweight Wrestling” title, and the International Federation of Bodybuilders named him the “Top Amateur Athlete in the World” at the World Bodybuilding Championships.

When Burke landed the lead role of Ursus in the 1961 film The Revenge of Ursus, his career took a turn from sports into acting, where his physique led him to many roles as the archetypal “strong man.” His breakout film Toto vs Maciste, in which he appeared opposite Italian comedian Totò, was filmed the following year. Norman Maurer then chose him to portray the mythical Greek hero Hercules in The Three Stooges Meet Hercules, a role which brought him significant fame throughout North America. Burke also played Little John in an Italian version of The Triumph of Robin Hood, Polyphemus in a 1968 Italian miniseries of The Odyssey, and appeared alongside actor Klaus Kinski in the Western Sartana the Gravedigger.

In the 1980s, Burke relocated to Hawaii, where he worked on the television show Magnum, P.I. until it ended in 1988. Burke later moved to California and worked as a personal trainer until his retirement in the early 1990s.

Compiled by Federation CJA and Joshua Fichman-Goldberg.

Louis Fitch – Residence

Louis Fitch (1888-1956) was a lawyer, Zionist activist, and member of the Quebec Legislative Assembly with the Union Nationale party. Born in Suceava, Romania in 1888, he came to Canada in 1891. He adopted the anglicised surname Fitch in 1912.

He studied at the High School of Quebec before entering the Faculty of Law at McGill University. He was called to the Quebec Bar in 1911. He was then awarded the Sir William Macdonald Travelling Scholarship to study at the Sorbonne University in Paris in 1912. Upon his return to Montreal, he practised law with the firm of Jacobs, Hall, Couture and Fitch until 1919, and was made King’s Counsel in 1925. When the announcement was published in the Keneder Adler, Peter Bercovitch, a political rival of Fitch’s, was so surprised that he wrote a letter to Hirsch Wolofsky to make sure it was not a mistake. Furthermore, Bercovitch wrote a letter to Premier Louis-Alexandre Taschereau to inquire about the reasons for this appointment. Premier Taschereau responded, arguing that Fitch had the qualities worthy of being King’s Counsel.

His political involvement began with the Zionist movement in Canada. Fitch was appointed vice-president of the Canadian Zionist Organization in 1918, working with Clarence de Sola, and participated in the founding of the Canadian Jewish Congress as its first secretary. Internationally, he also participated in the Eleventh Zionist Congress in Vienna in 1913. He was also involved in the Jewish Community Council in the 1920s.

Peter Bercovitch had held the seat of the provincial riding of Saint-Louis for the Liberal Party of Quebec since 1916. Samuel W. Jacobs, a partner at Louis Fitch’s law firm, had been the Member of Parliament for the same neighbourhood’s federal riding. When Jacobs died in 1938, Peter Bercovitch left his provincial seat vacant to inherit the federal seat. In the by-election Bercovitch’s resignation triggered, Louis Fitch was elected as a Union Nationale member of Parliament for the riding, an incredibly rare instance of support by the Jewish community for the nationalist party. He was committed to his Montreal riding that was home to Jews, Francophones and Anglophones. As a member of the Quebec Legislative Assembly, Fitch led a campaign aimed at exposing Nazism in Quebec, especially its organisations and its leader, Adrien Arcand. He also frequently petitioned Premier Maurice Duplessis on behalf of Jewish workers.

He ran again in St. Louis in the 1939 provincial general election. He began his campaign on October 8, 1939, at the Talmud Torah Hall, shortly after war broke out in Europe. Some in the French-language press accused him of political hypocrisy. According to them, the war on Nazism did not align with pro-Duplessis politics in the way Fitch presented. Newspapers, such as Le Devoir, saw in the Union Nationale an authoritarian and anti-Semitic political force. Fitch argued that his loyalty to Maurice Duplessis and his commitment to fighting Nazism were in no way mutually exclusive. Fitch insisted that he understood that “for us [Jews], the war against Hitler and Hitlerism is a battle for life.” On the election night of October 25, 1939, Fitch was defeated by the Liberal candidate Maurice Hartt.

In addition to his political career, Louis Fitch also left a historiographical contribution through two publications: Tercentenary History of Quebec (1908) and The Disestablishment of the Anglican Church in Wales (1909).

Compiled by Xavier Lévesque

(Traduction à venir)

Peter Bercovitch – Residence

Peter Bercovitch (1879 –1942) was a prominent political figure in Montreal’s Jewish community in the first half of the 20th century. His parents were immigrants from the Russian Empire and his father worked in the garment industry. Bercovitch was born on September 17, 1879 in Montreal. Raised in the working-class, majority-Jewish, Downtown neighbourhoods of Saint-Louise and Saint-Antoine, he attended public school before studying law at McGill University and then resumed his legal studies in French, this time at Laval University in Montreal, later called the Université de Montréal.

He was called to the Bar of the Province of Quebec on November 26, 1901 and co-founded the firm of Bercovitch, Cohen & Spector in 1905. Fluent in both English and French, Bercovitch was lauded as a skilled public speaker. He also gained a reputation as a working-class man who was able to make a name for himself in the upper class, especially through his membership in organisations such as the Liberal Party of Canada’s Laurier Club. Bercovitch was made a King’s Counsel in 1911.

He was elected in 1916 under the banner of the Liberal Party of Quebec in the riding of Saint-Louis in Montreal, and was re-elected in the same riding six times (1919, 1923, 1927, 1931, 1935 and 1936). Bercovitch had a reputation of a hard-working politician, who mostly laboured behind the scenes. In the legislature, he was known to have sat on several important parliamentary committees. He also served as president of the Jewish Immigrant Aid Society in 1921.

In the 1930s he worked on the Jewish Schools Bill, which became known as “The Bercovitch Bill.” The Bill, aimed at resolving the “Jewish School Question,” initially proposed that publicly-funded Jewish schools be established in Montreal if Protestant administrators and the Jewish community could not agree on the conditions for attendance at Protestant schools. After Bercovitch gave his bill more teeth by including the creation of a Jewish section in the Conseil de l’Instruction publique, Liberal Premier Louis-Alexandre Taschereau declared to the legislature that Bercovitch’s bill would lay the foundation for a new system of schools in the province.

Later, in May 1936, the Leader of the Opposition, Maurice Duplessis, convened the Public Accounts Committee. Responsible for examining public finances, it had not met in over two years. There, Duplessis dealt a hard political blow to the established Taschereau government. As a loyal Liberal, Peter Bercovitch attempted an almost solitary defence in face of the Union Nationale leader. This political thrust and parry between Bercovitch and Duplessis was immortalised on-screen during the first episode of the 1978 series Duplessis, in a scene written by Denys Arcand.

In 1938, Peter Bercovitch entered federal politics in a by-election in the federal riding of Cartier – geographically equivalent to his provincial riding of 22 years – left vacant by the death of Samuel Williams Jacobs. The provincial seat he left was won by Louis Fitch, a Jewish member of Duplessis’ Union Nationale party, and a political rival. Running unopposed, he was re-elected in 1940 and died in office at the age of 63. The by-election in Cartier that followed Bercovitch’s death sent Fred Rose to the House of Commons, the first Communist MP in the history of the Canadian Parliament.

Complied by Xavier Levésque

Camp I, Île-aux-Noix

Île-aux-Noix is a small island on the Richelieu River, southwest of Montréal, and the site of historic military fortifications. It was once home to Camp I (later, Camp No. 41), an internment camp that held Jewish internees during World War II. Housed within a 19th-century British military fortification of Fort Lennox, Camp I was part of a network of camps set up in response to the British government’s request that Canada take in “enemy aliens” and prisoners of war. Many of these detainees were young German and Austrian Jews who had fled Nazi persecution, only to be arrested under the suspicion of being Nazi spies. After a brief period of internment in England, they were deported to Canada. They were imprisoned alongside prisoners of war and, in some cases, steadfast Nazis.

Camp I on Île-aux-Noix opened on July 15, 1940, with the arrival of 273 Jewish refugees. One former internee recalls that, in the eyes of many Canadian guards, “we were all dangerous Nazis.” The Commandant, Major E.D.B. Kippen, expecting to guard fascist prisoners, was bewildered at the sight of the internees, some of whom were clearly Orthodox Jews. According to his camp diary, the men arrived in the pouring rain to a hastily prepared camp within the stone walls of Fort Lennox. “The desperation was global,” recalls another former internee.

Education was one escape from the monotony of daily camp life. The many former academics among the prisoners led to the emergence of a “people’s university,” where internees delivered lectures on their subjects of expertise. Eventually, a formal camp school was established. Queen’s University and other Canadian universities became involved in the program, and many of the inmates would later become their alumni (such as future chemist and businessman Alfred Bader). Other daily activities included learning English, playing music, and writing. Yeshiva students were able to resume their religious studies. Rabbi Harry J. Stern of Reform Temple Emanu-El and the Orthodox Chief Rabbi of Montreal Zvi Hirsch Cohen each visited the camp in its early existence. Despite their circumstances, the Jewish internees even raised money to assist Jews in Poland.

Camp I was officially re-classified as a refugee camp on July 24, 1941. It closed on December 24, 1943. Since the war, these former internees have been an integral part of Canadian society. “There is hardly a field you look at,” commented a former internee, “where you don’t find one of our boys right up on top. In retrospect, I think about the incredible amount of pluses that Canada achieved by some unwanted people who have added so much to Canadian life from literary to textiles to education.”

Compiled by Alison Dringenberg

Alfred Bader – Camp I

Alfred Robert Bader (1924 – 2018) came to Canada a prisoner. By the end of his life, he had become a distinguished chemist, businessman, and philanthropist.

Born in Vienna, Alfred Bader was the son of Alfred, a middle-class Czech Jew, and Elisabeth, a Hungarian aristocrat. His father passed away soon after his birth and Bader was raised by his aunt Gisela in a loving extended Jewish family. When antisemitic persecution intensified in Europe in the 1930s, Gisela placed the fourteen-year-old Alfred on a Kindertransport train headed to England, where he boarded with a Jewish family near Brighton for the next fourteen months.

As the British grew increasingly fearful of a Nazi invasion, Austrian- and German-born “enemy aliens” were arrested and imprisoned, including Bader. It was suspected that there may be Nazi spies hiding in their midst. Internment in England did not last long. In July 1940, Bader and 272 other Jewish refugees were brought to the small island of Île-aux-Noix, southwest of Montreal, and placed in Camp I. The commandant, Major E.D.B. Kippen, told Bader he was surprised that a sixteen-year-old had parachuted into England. When Bader replied that he was a Jewish refugee, Major Kippen scoffed. “Do not pretend to be a Jew,” he said. “I do not like Jews either.”

Despite the rough start, life in internment gradually became more pleasant. The internees established a camp school and Bader spent much of his time studying. In June 1941, the students were allowed to take the McGill matriculation exams. Bader was granted leave to visit Montreal to sit the examinations, where he also attended a reception at the Montefiore Club, a social club for wealthy and influential members of the Jewish community. There, Bader met Martin Wolff, whose mother had hosted Bader in England.

Wolff, an engineer and historian, sponsored Bader’s release from internment and encouraged the young man to pursue his education. Bader was accepted into Queen’s University, where he completed a B.Sc. in engineering chemistry, a BA in history, and an M.Sc. in chemistry. During the summers, he stayed at the Wolff family’s home in Westmount while working for the Murphy Paint Company in Montreal. Its owner, Harry Thorp, encouraged Bader to go to Harvard and provided significant financial support. An MA and a PhD in chemistry at Harvard University followed. Within a year of leaving Harvard, Dr. Bader co-founded the Aldrich Chemical Company, which grew into a significant pharmaceutical company.

Looking back on his internment in Camp I, Bader reminisced that “we were treated badly at first because the Canadians had been given no information about us, but what was that compared with the concentration camps of Europe? Not a single man died in the camp and those who wanted a great education received it.”

Compiled by Alison Dringenberg

Alfred Bader – Wolff Family Home

Alfred Robert Bader (1924 – 2018) came to Canada a prisoner. By the end of his life, he had become a distinguished chemist, businessman, and philanthropist.

Born in Vienna, Alfred Bader was the son of Alfred, a middle-class Czech Jew, and Elisabeth, a Hungarian aristocrat. His father passed away soon after his birth and Bader was raised by his aunt Gisela in a loving extended Jewish family. When antisemitic persecution intensified in Europe in the 1930s, Gisela placed the fourteen-year-old Alfred on a Kindertransport train headed to England, where he boarded with a Jewish family near Brighton for the next fourteen months.

As the British grew increasingly fearful of a Nazi invasion, Austrian- and German-born “enemy aliens” were arrested and imprisoned, including Bader. It was suspected that there may be Nazi spies hiding in their midst. Internment in England did not last long. In July 1940, Bader and 272 other Jewish refugees were brought to the small island of Île-aux-Noix, southwest of Montreal, and placed in Camp I. The commandant, Major E.D.B. Kippen, told Bader he was surprised that a sixteen-year-old had parachuted into England. When Bader replied that he was a Jewish refugee, Major Kippen scoffed. “Do not pretend to be a Jew,” he said. “I do not like Jews either.”

Despite the rough start, life in internment gradually became more pleasant. The internees established a camp school and Bader spent much of his time studying. In June 1941, the students were allowed to take the McGill matriculation exams. Bader was granted leave to visit Montreal to sit the examinations, where he also attended a reception at the Montefiore Club, a social club for wealthy and influential members of the Jewish community. There, Bader met Martin Wolff, whose mother had hosted Bader in England.

Wolff, an engineer and historian, sponsored Bader’s release from internment and encouraged the young man to pursue his education. Bader was accepted into Queen’s University, where he completed a B.Sc. in engineering chemistry, a BA in history, and an M.Sc. in chemistry. During the summers, he stayed at the Wolff family’s home in Westmount while working for the Murphy Paint Company in Montreal. Its owner, Harry Thorp, encouraged Bader to go to Harvard and provided significant financial support. An MA and a PhD in chemistry at Harvard University followed. Within a year of leaving Harvard, Dr. Bader co-founded the Aldrich Chemical Company, which grew into a significant pharmaceutical company.

Looking back on his internment in Camp I, Bader reminisced that “we were treated badly at first because the Canadians had been given no information about us, but what was that compared with the concentration camps of Europe? Not a single man died in the camp and those who wanted a great education received it.”

Compiled by Alison Dringenberg

Contact Us