THE JEWS OF WINDSOR
1790–1990
THE JEWS OF WINDSOR
1790–1990
~ A Historical Chronicle ~
Jonathan V. Plaut
With a Foreword by Dr. Larry Kulisek
Copyright © Jonathan V. Plaut, 2007
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise (except for brief passages for purposes of review) without the prior permission of Dundurn Press. Permission to photocopy should be requested from Access Copyright.
Editor: Andrea Knight
Designer: Jennifer Scott
Printer: Thistle Printing Ltd.
Library and Archives Canada Cataloguing in Publication
Plaut, Jonathan V
The Jews of Windsor, 1790-1990 : a historical chronicle / Jonathan Plaut.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-1-55002-706-8
1. Jews--Ontario--Windsor--History. 2. Jews--Ontario--Windsor--Biography. 3. Windsor (Ont.)--Biography. I. Title.
| FC3099.W56Z7 2007 | 971.3'32004924 | C2007-900085-1 |
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We acknowledge the support of the Canada Council for the Arts and the Ontario Arts Council for our publishing program. We also acknowledge the financial support of the Government of Canada through the Book Publishing Industry Development Program and The Association for the Export of Canadian Books, and the Government of Ontario through the Ontario Book Publishers Tax Credit program and the Ontario Media Development Corporation.
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J. Kirk Howard, President
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This book is dedicated to
my grandparents
Jonas and Selma Plaut
Harry and Therese Strauss
my parents
Rabbi W. Gunther and Elizabeth S. Plaut
my wife
Carol Plaut
my children
Daniel and Amy Plaut
Deborah and David Elias
and my grandsons
Steven Andrew Elias and Jeffrey Benjamin Elias
Preface and Acknowledgments
My thirty-seven year journey to publish this book began in 1970 after I had assumed my first rabbinical position in Windsor, Ontario. At that time, I had also decided to study for my doctorate and was looking for a suitable topic on which to base my dissertation. Apart from my love of history, what ultimately prompted me to decide to research the background of the Windsor Jewish community was a meeting with Arthur B. Weingarden, then the president of my congregation, which included a visit to the grave of Moses David, the founding father of Windsor’s Jewish community. A whole new world opened up for me when Mr. Weingarden told me that he had in his files some interesting background material on this man and that he was willing to share it with me.
It was during my tenure as spiritual leader of Congregation Beth El that I began writing the early history of Windsor’s Jewish community for my doctorate, which was awarded in 1977. In the early 1980s, a publisher not only suggested that the manuscript be rewritten in a style more suitable for publication, but also encouraged me to further update the manuscript since my research ended in 1940. Within a few years, however, I had embarked on a new rabbinical assignment in California, forcing the project to be put on hold, at least for the time being.
The incentive to complete this project was renewed in 1993, when my family and I came back to the Detroit-Windsor area. I now had easy access to local libraries and other research facilities. Research into some fifty years was required and I was fortunate that my new professional responsibilities allowed me enough spare time to truly focus on this venture. I tackled it with renewed energy and much enthusiasm.
Several histories broadly describing Canada’s Jewish scene had been written and published in the past, but very few had dealt with specific Jewish communities such as Windsor. Despite its comparatively small size, I do believe that its members played an important role in the development of southwestern Ontario.
This book is a two-hundred-year chronicle of the events that took place in Windsor. While writing it, every effort was made to accurately reconstruct the events based on available information provided from a variety of sources and any errors are totally unintentional. In particular, although every effort has been made to trace all the Jews who settled in the Windsor area, either shortly before or soon after the turn of the century, we regret that we were unable to establish the identities of everyone. Every effort has been made with available records and recollections to properly list the names of these early settlers, but errors do occur. Some of the people in question may have changed their names and/or religion, and the descendants of others may not have been aware of our search. I deeply regret any errors I may have made and apologize in advance for any omissions or inaccuracies in regard to family relationships.
I was fortunate to have access to ample data documenting the life and times of pioneer settler, Moses David, and his relationship with Detroit and Montreal. However, I found only scant primary material about others who inhabited the Windsor area at that time. Having chosen to cover the period between 1790 and 1940 for my doctoral dissertation, I perused all available newspaper accounts and existing archives of that era. To chronicle the years from 1940 until the end of the century, I had at my disposal the minutes of board meetings of several organizations — the Windsor Jewish Community Council, the I. L. Peretz Shule, Congregation Beth El, and some pertaining to Shaar Hashomayim Synagogue. I am indebted to Harvey Kessler and Donna Petoran of the Windsor Jewish Federation; to Anna Mae Gumprich, Lorraine Victor, Katerina Stecko, and Connie Cullen of Congregation Shaar Hashomayim; and to Rabbi Jeffrey Ableser, Carol McDowell, and Mary Zaltz of Congregation Beth El for making these records available to me. I would like to take this opportunity to thank Miriam Beckerman for translating the I. L. Peretz Shule minutes from Yiddish into English. Regarding the activities of congregations Tifereth Israel and Shaarey Zedek, I had to rely on oral testimonies from members of these institutions. I wish to express my thanks to them all.