Biographical Sketch:
Born in 1884 in Romania, Hananiah Meyer Caiserman was the General-Secretary of Canadian Jewish Congress from its founding in 1919 through to his death in 1950. He came to Canada in 1910 and settled in Montreal. He was involved in many other Jewish organizations, and especially in early Zionist organizations, notably the Poale Zion. He was also an ardent supporter of Yiddish poetry and Jewish culture.

Scope and Content:
Articles, publications, speeches, correspondence with Le Devoir, D. Rome, etc. One file is about Nella Gutman, his adopted daughter. Also tributes, eulogy. His papers include correspondence and manuscripts in Rumanian and Yiddish as well as English. Photographs (stored in PC1/4 and oversize) include family, CJC travels, Romania, Poland, Israel, South America, World Jewish Congress, also Holocaust photos.

Notes:
Language: English, Yiddish, Romanian, and French.
Restrictions: 1 file.
Related Materials: CJC Staff records DA 1 (2 m.), CJC Central file and ZA series.

Biographical Sketch:
Mr. Carin was born December 8, 1918. He was a Montrealer whose parents immigrated from Russia, is a long-time political activist and commentator on the Quebec scene. He was a committed opponent of the Quebec separatist platform and a member of the Freedom of Choice movement. He has studied political science at Concordia University for the past 13 years. Mr. Carin was a retired manufacturer's representative. He has four sons involved in the arts, government and commerce, one son is the Canadian High Commissioner to Singapore. He was a member of the Canadian Jewish Congress Executive committee. Mr. Carin on April 12, 2010 in Montreal.

Scope and Content:
Quebec-Jewish political commentary, including letters to the editor, correspondence and political science/philosophy papers.

Notes:
Alpha-Numeric Designation: P95/09.

Biographical Sketch:
Ian Lawrence Carpman was born in Montreal 1950 and died in 1977 in a car accident. His parents were Lillian Gillitz (b. 1922- d. July 2001) and Harry Carpman.

Custodial History:
The collection was donated by Ruth and Maurice Miller. Mrs. Miller is the sister of Lillian Carpman. She was the original owner of these items at the time of her death, in 2001.

Scope and Content:
Certificate of graduation from Malcolm Campbell High School, June 1967. Certificate from United Talmud Torahs of Montreal, June 1963. Clipping from The Montreal Star, January 7, 1956. 4 photos. Framed photo of Ian Lawrence Carpman’s graduation. Framed photo of I.L. Carpman with his dog, 1955. Framed photo of I. L.

Biographical Sketch:
Born in 1906, Sam Carr was a leader of the Canadian communist movement and national secretary of the United Jewish Peoples’ Order.

Scope and Content:
Published articles and press clippings dealing with politics. Run of United Jewish Peoples’ Order publication: UJPO News 1984-1987.

Notes:
Language: Yiddish and English.
General Note: Originals, press clippings.

Administrative History:
The Lubavitch movement began in 18th century Russia and was founded in Montreal in 1941. This Hasidic group is concerned mainly with study and religion, and as such they provide outreach to the Jewish community. This consists of educational and recreational programs to disseminate information on Judaism, particularly Chabad’s Orthodox Judaism as propounded by the Lubavitcher Rebbe. They sponsor philanthropic activities, social programs, and engage in fund-raising. They established a Yeshiva and various “Beit Chabad” homes in Montreal.

Scope and Content:
Information on Colel Chabad, Women of Chabad, and the Rabbinical College. Some Chabad publications. Calendars. Newspapers. Many clippings or ads/flyers on Chabad activities.

Notes:
Related Materials: Negatives in Drumond Photo Collection.
General Note: This fonds has many clippings.

Biographical Sketch:
Active member of labour movement in Montreal; Canadian Jewish Congress Archives volunteer working on Keneder Adler (Canadian Jewish Eagle) translation project.

Scope and Content:
Several notebooks of handwritten extracts copies from Keneder Adler on a variety of subjects.

Notes:
Language: Yiddish, English.

Biographical Sketch:
Mikhael Chapiro is a Russian Jewish artist now living in Montreal.

Custodial History:
Mikhael Chapiro donated this collection on May 14, 2004. Addition 2006: Donated by Tatiana Jour, with the artist’s permission, on November 13, 2006.

Scope and Content:
12 laser photocopies of oil paintings and book of his artwork. 29 photos. 1 cd. 1 book. 1 business card.
Addition 2006: 1 oil painting size 12" by 16" by Mikhael Chapiro depicting a Holocaust monument at Yad Vashem, Israel, with a sunset behind it.

Notes:
Alpha-Numeric Designations: P04/01-16, P06/11.

Biographical Sketch:
Born in 1880, Leon Chazanovitch was a revolutionary labour agitator and journalist. He died in 1925.

Scope and Content:
Photocopies of articles from Die Folkszeitung of Montreal, a labour weekly edited by Louis Chazanovitch.

Notes:
Language: Yiddish.
General Note: Copies.

Administrative History:
The B’nai Jacob, founded in 1886, was located first on St. Constant (now called De Bullion), then on Fairmount from 1918 until 1956. The Chevra Kadisha was begun in 1893 as a burial society affiliated with a synagogue. It was incorporated in 1901 and met in a St. Lawrence street loft until a building was constructed. After a fire in 1920, the synagogue had a variety of locations until in 1954 members began to plan and build a new permanent sanctuary and community centre. Although the B’nai Jacob merged in the middle of this construction, it was incorporated into the Clanranald building’s plans. The new synagogue, which also houses an afternoon school and more recently the Creative Social Centre for seniors, opened in 1958. The Chevra Kadisha B’nai Jacob is the result of the amalgamation of two of the oldest Orthodox synagogues in Montreal.

Scope and Content:
Board members (1977). Correspondence (1963, 1965). Inaugural address for Sunday school (1915). Jewish yearbook entries (1936, 1946, 1954, 1964). Dedication book and bulletin (1958). Bulletins (1956, 1958 1960, 1962-1966, 1969-1980). Course lists. Program (1964, 1967). Certificate from Israel (1958). Tickets and invitations. Clippings (1900-1902, 1910, 1912, 1927 (some copies), 1946, 1956, 1963, 1980, 1983, 1986-1991).

Biographical Sketch:
Born in 1920, Rabbi Arthur Chiel was a spiritual leader and author; Director of B’nai Brith Hillel Foundation at the University of Manitoba where he established the department of Judaic Studies holding rank of Assistant Professor; author of two books and numerous articles about the history of Jews in Manitoba; helped organize and establish Winnipeg's new Rosh Pina Congregation where he served as spiritual leader. He died in 1983.

Scope and Content:
Published articles on the history of Jews in North America. Typewritten report on Mission to Jews in USSR. Correspondence with Canadian Jewish Congress.

Notes:
Related Materials: File in Joint Distribution Committee photo collection. Book on Jews of Manitoba in Library Collection.

Custodial History:
The collection was donated by Charles Eddis, Rabbi Leigh Lerner, and Richard Silver. The collection was formerly stored by Mr. Eddis, and donated through the initiative of Canadian Jewish Congress, Quebec Region, an organizational member of the Christian-Jewish Dialogue Group.
Addition 2002: The addition was donated by Charles Eddis and Mattie Terhoe of the Lutheran Church.

Scope and Content:
3 boxes (1 half full) containing minutes, membership information, correspondence, financial records.
Addition 2002: Recent files, 1 box.

Notes:
Alpha-Numeric Designation: P00/06, P02/12 , and MB 8.
Restrictions: The financial documents are restricted.
Related Groups of Records: I0083.
Importance of Collection: Efforts in Christian-Jewish dialogue go back a long way in Montreal and are of importance in understanding the relationship of Jews with the wider community.

Administrative History:
These 53 VHS cassettes, and transcripts of their contents, consist of interviews by Donnalu Wigmore with Canadian Jews. These were later used for the CBC production “A Coat of Many Colours,” produced in conjunction with the Museum of Civilization exhibit of the same name.

Scope and Content:
53 VHS cassettes of “A Coat of Many Colours” interviews; transcripts. Some of those interviewed include Harry Rasky, Dave Barrett, Al Waxman, Phil Gold, Irving Layton, Larry Zolf, Judith Feld Carr, Mordecai Richler, and Otto Lowy.

Notes:
Alpha-Numeric Designation: P90/14.

Biographical Sketch:
A controversial speaker and philosopher, Bernard Lande Cohen was born in Montreal on June 6, 1902, and married Alyse Cohen on Decembe 6, 1942. He graduated in Civil Law from McGill University, was a Montreal barrister/lawyer, a member of the Zionist youth group Habonim, and a Mason (pre-1942). He lectured across the U.S.A. on capital punishment, with numerous appearances on TV and radio. He died on September 6, 1997.

Custodial History:
This collection was referred to CJCNA from the National Archives of Canada by Myron Momryk, Ethnic Collections, Manuscripts Division.

Scope and Content:
The documents in the collection include a handwritten autobiography, unpublished and published manuscripts, including clippings of published articles; notes on philosophy/ideology of capital punishment, Jews in society, comparative religion; and a complete unpublished typescript on comparative religion. The fonds also includes

Biographical Sketch:
Born in 1868, Lyon Cohen was a businessman and a philanthropist. He was a co-founder of the Canadian Jewish Times, the first anglo-Jewish periodical in Canada; treasurer of the Montreal Reform Club; former president of the Jewish Colonization Association in Canada, Baron de Hirsch Institute, Federation of Jewish Philanthropies, Canadian Jewish Congress 1919, Montreal Va’ad Ha’ir; organized Jewish Immigrant Aid Services of Canada. He died in 1937.

Scope and Content:
Manuscript of address before third Canadian Jewish Congress Plenary Assembly, 1936. Press clippings and correspondence paying tribute to his public service.

Notes:
General Note: Mostly originals, press clippings.

Biographical Sketch:
Born in 1910, Maxwell Cohen was the first full-time Jewish member of McGill University’s Law Faculty and eventually, Canada’s first Jewish Dean of Law; expert on constitutional law; was chairman of Canadian Jewish Congress Select Committee on the Constitution and chairman of a Federal Commission on Hate Literature; prolific writer of learned articles on a variety of subjects. He died in 1998.

Scope and Content:
Correspondence and reports on hate literature in Canada. Minutes and reports of Montreal Law Association. Biographical press clippings and articles by Maxwell Cohen.

Notes:
Restrictions: 1 correspondence file.
General Note: Mostly originals, press clippings.

Biographical Sketch:
Samual David Cohen was one of the founders of Canadian Jewish Congress, in 1919, and among those who reorganized it in 1934; was director of United Talmud Torahs of Montreal; was joint secretary of 1919 Canadian Jewish Congress convention and secretary of Canadian Jewish Congress Eastern Division after 1934 reorganization; was chairman of Canadian Jewish Congress Boycott Committee, which did much to lessen Nazi commercial and political influence in Canada; was chairman of the Committee on Relations with French Canadians of Canadian Jewish Congress and was involved with CJC’s Cercle juif de la Langue française; was secretary of the Ukrainian War Orphans Committee; was executive director of Retail Women’s Wear Association of Montreal and editor of its magazine.

Scope and Content:
Canadian Jewish Congress reports on public relations to combat anti-Semitism. Signed replies from delegates to Canadian Jewish Congress 1934 (form letters only). Canadian Jewish Congress correspondence and minutes. Cercle juif de la Langue française reports, etc.

Biographical Sketch:
Rabbi Zvi Hirsch Cohen was born in 1862 in Lithuania and received his rabbinical ordination in Vilna and Volozhin. He was dean of the Canadian Rabbinate and president of the Montreal Council of Orthodox Rabbis; opened the first session of Canadian Jewish Congress with a prayer in 1919; founder of Jewish Community Council of Montreal (Va’ad Ha’ir) and Talmud Torah School; active in Mizrachi organization of Orthodox Zionists; served on executive of Federation of Jewish Philanthropies; author of many learned articles on religion. He died in 1950.

Custodial History:
The donor, Herbert Fierst, is the son of Harry Fierst, son-in-law of Zvi Hirsch, to whom most of the correspondence is addressed. Harry Fierst, a businessman, was involved in religious and Zionist Jewish causes. Herbert, a lawyer, helped displaced persons (DPs) after WWII.

Biographical Sketch:
Rabbi Colton was the primary mohel (ritual circumciser) for Montreal and the surrounding area during the late 1910s to the early 1950s. His handwritten registration books thus provide a key to locating birth and other vital records recorded in greater detail in civil archives.

Custodial History:
The collection was donated by Annette Colton and Fay (Colton) Magid, daughter-in-law and daughter of Rabbi Colton. The initial contact was made through the Jewish Genealogical Society of Montreal. Copies of the books have been made by the Society prior to donation.

Scope and Content:
34 notebooks organized alphabetically by year recording the names of the boys circumcised in Montreal and small Quebec towns in the surrounding region, including the Laurentian foothills. The notebooks also include the records of a small number of marriages performed by Rabbi Colton as well as of girls’ births. The notebooks can be used to find civil record folios containing additional information.

Biographical Sketch:
Ruth Colton Lehman, born August 13, 1930, was a Montreal artist and photographer. Her images document Jewish life in Montreal and the lower Laurentians. She died July 14, 1990. Nathan Rosenberg was born and raised in Ste. Sophie, a small community located in the lower Laurentians, north of Montreal. Ste. Sophie is the location of Kottenberg’s Inn, a small kosher hotel for Jewish summer vacationers which was owned by the Rosenberg family and the Rudy family, to whom Nathan is related through his mother’s sister’s marriage to a Rudy. Ste. Sophie was settled partly by immigrants sponsored through the Jewish Colonization Association in the early 1900s.

Custodial History:
The photograph portion of this collection was donated in May 1991 by the late Ruth Colton Lehman’s partner, Nathan Rosenberg. The slide show was added by Rosenberg in 2008.

Custodial History:
This material was donated at the time of the transfer to CJC of the Bensimon film collection. It was donated by James Dahan of CSQ.

Scope and Content:
Publications by or related to the CSQ, Montreal's Sephardic community organization. The fonds mainly contains La Voix Sépharade, which is published by the CSQ. This organization and its publication reflect primarily the Moroccan Jewish community of Montreal.

Notes:
Alpha-Numeric Designation: P97/10+.
Language: French and English.
General Note: To be sorted; some of the material will be discarded if duplicated elsewhere.

Administrative History:
Congregation Agudath Achim was founded in 1917. Its members, the Jewish community of Sherbrooke, Quebec, had emigrated there around the First World War, mainly from Estropol, Russia. The congregation prayed in a loft until the building was completed in the 1920s. It was further expanded in the 1950s. With the Jewish population dwindling, the community tried to sell the building and continue their activities in a smaller hall. Their services were attended by Jews of the surrounding areas as well. The synagogue also maintained a cemetery. The Congregation ceased functioning in 1983.

Scope and Content:
Minutes (1928-1969). Donation list. Register (1906-1985, on microfilm). Birth certificate (1924).

Biographical Sketch:
Born in 1941, Irwin Cotler, O.C., P.C., M.P., has been a Member of Parliament since November 1999. He was a McGill University law professor; member of the Canadian Human Rights Tribunal; special counsel to the Canadian Civil Liberties Association; served on the board of directors of the Canadian Human Rights Foundation and Holocaust and Human Rights Research Project; was a president of Canadian Jewish Congress; was on the board of editors of the Middle East Review.

Scope and Content:
Press clippings and published articles regarding Israel, Soviet Jewry, Anatoly Scharansky, human rights, war criminals, Canadian Jewish Congress presidency.

Notes:
Restrictions: Correspondence file.
Related Materials: Canadian Jewish Congress Officers’ records (Series J1). Files from presidency of Canadian Jewish Congress 1980-1983 - 3.3 metres.
General Note: Originals. 1 box microfilm. Press clippings.

Biographical Sketch:
Born in 1900, Leon David Crestohl was a barrister and a Member of Parliament, a Zionist, past president of the Jewish Community Council of Montreal (Va’ad Ha’ir), former editor of the Canadian Jewish Chronicle, a past president of Canadian ORT, Zionist Order Habonim, Canadian Friends of Hebrew University, and vice-president of Zionist Organization of Canada. He was a staunch defender of minority rights and a proponent of an open immigration policy for Canada. He died in 1963.

Scope and Content:
Religious manuscripts in Hebrew. Photocopies of family correspondence, mostly in Yiddish. Religious correspondence in Hebrew with Rabbi C.M. Crestohl of Quebec City. MacDonald College scrapbook 1921. Personal correspondence. Scrapbooks of press clippings regarding political activities. Congratulatory correspondence regarding election victory 1950. Run of House of Commons “Debates.” Published report of his trip around the world. Jewish National Fund Negev Dinner album with photos and correspondence. 2 scrapbooks 1946-1961 of invitations to social and political events (L-22). Scrapbook 1930-1960, Yiddish and Hebrew press clippings about his political career (L-26). Photos PC 10 - 2 albums of Israeli settlements (L-22); files PC 1/4/7; PC1/4/8. The albums and photos are stored separately from the textual records.

Biographical Sketch:
Born in 1900, David Arnold Croll was a barrister and a politician. He was mayor of Windsor, Ontario; elected to Ontario Legislature; first Canadian Jew to attain Cabinet rank; elected to Canadian parliament; first Canadian Jew to be appointed to the Senate; established enviable record as champion of the “little man”; was chairman of the Royal Commission on Poverty. He died in 1991.

Scope and Content:
Biographical press clippings regarding military service and political career. Run of Senate “Debate” regarding human rights, freedoms and poverty.

Notes:
Correspondence Restricted: 1 correspondence file.
General Note: Originals, press clippings.

Biographical Sketch:
Arch Crystal was born in Montreal on May 4, 1919. After studying both science and real estate, Arch Crystal founded Crystal Realtors Inc. in the mid 1950s with his brother Sam. Soon after, he was appointed to the executive of the town of Hampstead’s municipal and recreational organization, where he served the community for 14 years. In 1969 he began working for Israel Bonds, leaving in 1983 to become the executive director of Montreal’s Organization for Rehabilitation Through Training (ORT) until his retirement from this post in November 1994. Crystal remained active in the community until his death, on February 4, 2010.

Custodial History:
Donated by Helen Kossy through Joe King.