Biographical Sketch:
Israel Rabinovitch was born in 1893. He was an author, journalist, editor; author of Muzik bie Yidn (Jewish Music Ancient and Modern); former editor of the Keneder Adler; first president of the Jewish Music Council of Montreal; former president of the Jewish Writers Association of Montreal. He died in 1964.

Scope and Content:
60th birthday tribute book. Yiddish typescripts of several chapters of his book on Jewish music with handwritten corrections. Yiddish press clippings reviewing the book. Songs and music used to research the book. Manuscript notes for book in Yiddish. Financial record of book sales. Biographical press clippings in Yiddish. Personal correspondence in Yiddish. Yiddish articles about Jewish music, musicians, literature, education. 10 photos PC 1/4/16.

Notes:
Language: Yiddish and English.

Biographical Sketch:
Yakov Rabkin was born 1945 in St. Petersburg. First studying chemistry, he left Russia in the early 1970s via Vienna and briefly Israel. He came to Montreal in 1973 to teach history at University of Montreal, where he is today.

Custodial History:
Yakov Rabkin donated this collection on August 6, 2004.

Scope and Content:
Videotaped interview by Tatiana Jour in Russian about his Judaism, background in Russia and Israel en route to Canada, and his views on history. Book 2004, L’Opposition juive au Sionisme. CD with 3 pages, also copied - article. Bio from Web.

Custodial History:
Arnold Rajinsky donated this collection on June 23, 2004.

Scope and Content:
6 books.

Notes:
Alpha-Numeric Designations: P04/01-20.

Custodial History:
Mariam Rajinsky donated this collection on June 23, 2004.

Scope and Content:
1 video interview - Interview done at CJC June 23, 2004, about immigration and settlement in Canada experiences. Arrived in 1990s. 1 CD of documents. 2 photos.

Notes:
Alpha-Numeric Designations: P04/01-24.

Biographical Sketch:
Matthew Ram was born in 1919. He was a social worker; former fundraising director of: Zionist Organization of Canada, Maimonides Hospital, Miriam Home of Montreal; was director of Community Services for Canadian Jewish Congress with fundraising responsibilities. He died in 1986.

Scope and Content:
Correspondence and appointment calendars about the fundraising for Canadian Jewish community and Israel. Documents on financial investments. Identity cards and 70 photos (PC 1/4/17) (snapshots).

Notes:
Restrictions: Correspondence file, minutes and reports, varia.

Administrative History:
In 1960, Lavy Becker placed an ad in the Montreal Star, inviting people to a meeting to form a Reconstructionist group, which became incorporated in 1960 and 1962. The founding members worshipped in a variety of locations. By 1964 they purchased land, and in 1966 the habitant-style building was completed, the first synagogue in Hampstead (and the only Reconstructionist one in Canada, until recently). The institution was principally referred to as the Reconstructionist Synagogue, so that its objectives and form of Judaism practiced would be apparent. The Hebrew name “Dorshei Emet” was adopted in the late 1970s. An addition was built in 1977 due to membership growth, and secondary High Holiday services were required from the late 1980s on. Lavy Becker was the rabbi from 1960-1977 and helped the synagogue acquire Torahs from Egypt, Casablanca and Trinidad. Dorshei Emet has its own cemetery and is one of the oldest and largest Reconstructionist congregations in North America.

Biographical Sketch:
Abraham Aaron Roback was born in 1890. He was a psychologist, educator, author, Yiddishist; early editor of the Keneder Adler; authored more than 30 books on psychology, Yiddish language and literature. He died in 1965.

Custodial History:
This fonds is composed of several small collections donated by various Roback family members. Leah Roback, niece, made two donations in 1987 (P87/41 and P87/23). Mrs. Rose Mergler, niece, made two donations on December 22, 1987 (P87/42) and on January 18, 1988 (P88/04). R. Helfield made a donation on March 24, 1988 (P88/27). Annie Pedvis made two donations in 1988 (P88/45 and P88/31).

Scope and Content:
Biographical press clippings. Photocopies of articles in Yiddish. Photocopies of personal correspondence. Original letters to B.G. Sack in Yiddish. Pamphlets. Periodicals containing his articles.

Biographical Sketch:
Benjamin Robinson was born in Kovl, Russia, and raised in the United States. After graduating from McGill University, he settled in Montreal. Robinson was president of the Montreal Advocates Benevolent Society, Jewish Immigrant Aid Society, and honorary vice-president of Canadian Jewish Congress. His wife Antonia (Tony) was also very involved in the Jewish community. A successful attorney, he was the second Jew to be appointed judge of the Quebec Superior Court for the District of Montreal in 1960.

Scope and Content:
Documents, notices, testimonial, and messages of congratulations on his appointment as judge. B. A. diploma, Harvard, 1915. Invitations. Clippings.

Notes:
Alpha-Numeric Designation: P86/10.

Biographical Sketch:
David Rome was born in Lithuania in 1910. He was a librarian, archivist, historian, author; edited Vancouver’s Jewish Western Bulletin, Canadian Jewish Congress Bulletin; English page of Toronto’s Daily Hebrew Journal; was Press Officer of Canadian Jewish Congress; was Executive Director of Jewish Public Library; founder of Cercle juif de la langue française; Secretary of Committee on Catholic-Jewish relations; lecturer on Jewish Studies at McGill University; member of Arts Council of the Quebec Ministry of Cultural Affairs, author of 60 books and monographs on Canadian Jewish history and Jewish/gentile relations in Canada; recipient of Ordre Nationale du Québec; Doctor of Laws (honoris causa), Concordia University. He died in 1996.

Custodial History:
8 metres of records (P96/01), the contents of his home office, were donated by his family soon after his death.
Addition 2000: Was donated by Tibie Flanders, Mr. Rome’s daughter.

Biographical Sketch:
David Rome was Director of the Jewish Public Library from 1953-1973. For further biographical notes, see Rome collection P0126 (received 1996).

Custodial History:
The collection was donated by Eiran Harris after it was de-accessioned from the Jewish Public Library in July 2000.

Scope and Content:
Aproximately 300 New Year (Rosh Hashana) cards from friends and contacts made during his position as director of the Jewish Public Library. Contain Jewish scenes and signatures. Some discarded (duplicates, not of interest). Importance of Collection: Shows card aesthetics of 1950s to 1970s. Jewish ceremonial art, Israel scenes. Signatures include Israeli politicians, Montreal Jewish and non-Jewish notables.

Notes:
Alpha-Numeric Designation: P00/03.
Language: English, Hebrew, Yiddish and French.

Biographical Sketch:
Alan Rose was born in Dundee, Scotland, in 1921. He was the executive vice-president of Canadian Jewish Congress; member, Governing Board, World Jewish Congress; member, Board of Directors, Canadian Human Rights Foundation; member, Canadian Multicultural Advisory Committee. He died on July 18, 1995.

Scope and Content:
Biographical press clippings. Papers pertaining to Canadian politics, Middle East, Canadian Jewish community.

Notes:
Restrictions: Correspondence file.
Related Materials: See Canadian Jewish Congress DA 5 listings on computer (10 metres of departmental staff records).

Biographical Sketch:
Fred Rose was born in 1907. He was Canada’s first and only Communist Member of Parliament. He was elected in 1943 and 1945 but was forced to resign after being found guilty of spying for the Soviet Union. He died in 1983.

Scope and Content:
Biographical press clippings. Political pamphlets and flyers in English and Yiddish. House of Commons Debates.

Notes:
Language: English and Yiddish.

Biographical Sketch:
Jacob Rosemarin was born in 1892. He was a music teacher, composer and for 33 years choirmaster at Montreal’s Shaar Hashomayim Synagogue.

Scope and Content:
Music manuscripts.

Biographical Sketch:
Louis Rosenberg was born in Poland in 1893 and educated in England. Upon his arrival in Canada in 1914, he taught at the Tiferes Israel School in Lipton, Saskatchewan, was field inspector for the Western farm colonies of the Jewish Colonization Association, and later became the director of the Western Region office of Canadian Jewish Congress. Rosenberg joined the national headquarters staff of CJC in Montreal in 1945, where, in the position of director of the Bureau of Social and Economic Research, he continued his lifelong study of Canadian Jewish demographics and history. He died in 1987.

Scope and Content:
Autobiography, 13 diary and other notebooks, correspondence, will, tributes clippings, bibliography, Ettie Rosenberg correspondence and passports, briefcase and small personal items. One album of photographs, Jewish Colonization Association farm colonies, Lipton, etc. 1915-1930 circa (in PC 1-L). One file of family photos (in PC 1/4).

Notes:
Related Materials: CJC Staff records DA 2 (4 meters) - containing research notes, charts, census and electoral list information, and manuscripts of his published studies.

Biographical Sketch:
Rabbi Stuart Rosenberg was born in New York City in 1922. He was Rabbi of Beth Tzedec in Toronto; he acquired Cecil Roth Art Collection for Beth Tzedec Museum; created Institute of Ethics; established Christian-Jewish dialogue; was among the first to report on plight of Soviet Jewry 1961; brought Ben Gurion to Canada for United Jewish Appeal; weekly columnist for Toronto Star; author of Jewish Community in Canada; Christian Problem - a Jewish View; wrote several articles and pamphlets on theology, Canadian, Quebec and world Jewry. He died in 1990 in Florida.

Scope and Content:
Articles, pamphlets. Book review; article Rabbinate is Changing. Canadian Jewish Congress items. Personal correspondence. Press clippings. Typescript Christianity and Anti-Semitism. Obituary.

Notes:
General Note: Mostly originals, press clippings, publications.

Biographical Sketch:
Marvin Rotrand was born in 1951. He taught Cree Indians in the North; was elected Snowdon district Montreal City Councillor with the Montreal Citizens Movement (MCM) in 1982, 1986 and 1990; resigned from the MCM to help form the Democratic Coalition of Montreal; social action activist, tenants’ rights advocate.

Scope and Content:
Press clippings about his period in office. Principal advocacies: tenants’ rights, low-income housing, green spaces, minority hiring, race relations.

Notes:
General Note: Press clippings.

Administrative History:
Tatiana Jour is a Russian-speaking archivist born in Riga. Trained in Moscow, she moved to Israel with her family after the fall of the Soviet Union, then settled in Montreal from 1996 to 2008. For this project, she collected archival material and scanned items from the private collections of recent Jewish immigrants from Russia and the countries of the former Soviet Union. The initial project received funding from the Jewish Community Foundation of Montreal. Donors to the project include poets and writers, scientists, historians, publishers, musicians, graphic artists, Holocaust survivors, war veterans, and athletes. Most have immigrated here since 1991.

Custodial History:
The collection was donated by Tatiana Jour. Received from January to October 2004.

Administrative History:
Begun in 1907 in Montreal as the Russian-Polish Society, this landsmanschaft soon changed from a fraternal organization of newly arrived immigrants to a sick benefit association with close ties to the community. As one of the oldest Jewish fraternal organizations in North America, the Association provided gifts and helped its members celebrate special occasions. Broadening to a community organization, it provided mutual assistance, sick benefits, visits to ill members, burial lots, visits to the bereaved, funeral expenses, assistance to the aged, free loans, and aid to European Jews. By holding cultural events and through its membership, it was able to raise funds for these causes as well as for Israel. It was closely associated with the Adath Jeshurun Hadrath Kodesh Synagogue and the Federation of Polish Jews.

Scope and Content:
Annual reports (1943). Correspondence (1919, copy; 1940-1942). Souvenir books and programmes (1927-1956, e/y). Posters/ads for meetings (1936-1944). Dinner invitations and tickets (1937-1942). Clippings (1940, 1957, 1982).

Notes:
Language: English and Yiddish.
General Note: Mostly copies.