Several individuals were instrumental in making the entire project become a reality. I owe a debt of gratitude to Arthur B. Weingarden for his constant encouragement and support.
Many oral histories were recorded and transcribed for my doctoral dissertation on the early years of Windsor’s Jewish community. I would like to express my thanks to all those who granted me interviews or so willingly responded to my many questions. I would like to thank Ruth Booth, Elaine Cohen, Judy Frank, and George and Donna Lane for their research assistance.
While chronicling the last sixty years, I was greatly assisted by the following men and women who generously supplied me with new material or filled in obvious gaps in my story:
Rabbi Jeffrey Ableser, Pam Albert, Senator David Croll, Rhonda Ellis, Rabbi Edward Feigelman, Gerald Freed, David Glaser, the Honourable Herb Gray, Larry Greene, Rabbi Ira Samuel Grussgott, Diana Giunta, William Hurwitz, Rabbi Miriam Jerris, Dr. Marilyn Miller Kronmal, Sandi Malowitz, the Honourable Mr. Justice Saul Nosanchuk, Burt Pazner, Richard Rosenthal, Rabbi Yosie Rosenzweig, Amy Shafron, Isaac (Izzy) Sigal, Kurt Weinberg, Arthur B. Weingarden, Rabbi Sherwin Wine, Anne Winograd, and Shalamas Zimmerman.
I also wish to commend librarians Maggie Bacon, Ann Swaney, Charla Kramer, and Rochelle Hammontree at the Helen and Mark Osterlin Library at Northwestern Michigan College for their efforts on my behalf, as well as for so hospitably offering me the use of their computers during my frequent visits to Traverse City.
This manuscript has gone through many rewritings over the years. Some years ago, Lesley Wyle became my editor and did an outstanding job with the initial reworking of the manuscript. Throughout the editorial process, she offered me valuable suggestions and ideas with regard to content and style and brought conflicting textual information to my attention.
I appreciate the services provided by a select group of readers I consulted on this project. They include Rabbi Jeffrey Ableser, Belle Adler, Arthur Barat, Herb Brudner, Joseph Burk, Carl Cohen, Jackie Eisenberg, Larry Greene, Nancy (Klein) Helm, Fred Katzman, Harvey Kessler, Jack Shanfield, Isaac (Izzy) Sigal, Rabbi Dr. Samuel Stollman, Paula and Harold Taub, Arthur B. Weingarden, Milton Whiteman, and the Honourable Mr. Justice Carl Zalev. Thanks to their familiarity with Windsor’s history between 1940 and 2000, they not only were able to verify several facts, but also provided me with a great deal of new information about that period.
I extend sincere thanks to Christine Bonhomme for the superb job she did arranging appointments for me, doing extensive fact-checking, transcribing interviews, transferring corrections, and painstakingly co-ordinating all footnotes and checking them for accuracy.
I am also especially grateful to Dr. Larry Kulisek, Professor Emeritus of History at the University of Windsor, for agreeing to write the Foreword for this book. He suggested new ways that this manuscript should be arranged, provided valuable information on how best to connect Windsor communal life in general to the events of the Jewish community. He truly helped my story come to life by reorganizing the wealth of material gathered from so many different sources. Without his patience, diligence, and commitment, this project never could have been brought to fruition.
My thanks to Kirk Howard, president of Dundurn Press, for agreeing to publish this manuscript and for his efforts in bringing it into book form. From my initial discussion with Malcolm Lester, he was an invaluable resource that helped steer this process step-by-step and stood by me until its conclusion. He introduced me to Andrea Knight, who did the final editing. I want to thank her for her many hours of work in adjusting the text and footnotes to conform to the same style and ensure the fewest possible errors. As a historian herself, I am much indebted to her for her valuable work.
I would like to make particular mention, with my sincere thanks, of the most generous support I received from the Morris and Beverly Baker Foundation. These funds helped cover some of the expenses incurred in connection with this project.
Last but not least, I wish to thank my dear wife, Carol, for the love and encouragement she showed me during the very long time it took to research, write, and complete this book. I also commend her for her patience, having had to put up with countless boxes of reference material and other files used in this study that cluttered our various homes for a considerable length of time. She now can reclaim all that space and bring our house back to normal!
Farmington Hills, Michigan
J.V.P.
Foreword
Dr. Larry Kulisek
This book is a chronicle of the Jews of Windsor, Ontario, recounting their origins, aspirations, experiences, and achievements. It is not a text nor is it a comparative study of Jewish experience elsewhere in North America. Rabbi Plaut’s focus is on the Jewish community who made Windsor their home. Living in a Canadian border community in the heart of North America, just a stone’s throw from Metropolitan Detroit, and even closer in mind and spirit to world Jewry and Israel has made Windsor’s Jews citizens of the world.
The author has scoured decades of newspapers, tracked down obscure archival sources, sought to integrate informing literature, and built up an impressive archive of personal accounts, interviews, and oral histories. He allows the participants to tell their own stories, some of which are important for their entertainment value while others — from rabbis, Jewish Community Council executives, and influential laymen — provide the insights and analysis from those most responsible for leading the community.
At times numbering a single soul, as in Moses David’s day, or a handful of pioneer founders in the 1880s, and never more than 3,000 at its zenith, Windsor’s big little Jewish community settled, survived, and prospered. As they ventured out of the familiar East European shtetls they had created to maintain their ancient history, customs, and traditions to live “in the world,” these newcomers struggled with the dilemma of putting down roots in a new country — how to remain Jewish while becoming Canadians.
For over two hundred years, Jews have had a vital presence in Windsor. They established their synagogues, schools, and institutions, occasionally quarrelled; and regularly united as a community to demand their rights and protect their heritage. They grew alongside the wider community and today form a significant part of it. This book honours their journey.
Dr. Larry Kulisek
Professor Emeritus, University of Windsor
Introduction
While several works have been published that provide a broad canvas of the Canadian Jewish scene, there are only a few communal Jewish histories. Windsor is not one of Canada’s premier cities such as Toronto, Montreal, or Vancouver, nor is its Jewish community comparable in size, but the important role that Windsor Jews played in the development of the Ontario Southland is a story deserving to be told.
The story begins in the eighteenth century when Jewish merchants and military provisioners accompanying the victorious British forces into Montreal in 1760 surveyed the economic opportunities opened up by their victory over the French. With the existing French economic system leaderless, a functioning fur trade composed of a series of forts and routes, native alliances and technical expertise, and a continent to exploit — the lure to Anglo entrepreneurs was irresistible. Jews made up a major part of the Montreal merchant community during this transition and many of them participated in the far-flung fur trade itself. A Jewish consortium of five, including Ezekiel Solomon and Chapman Abraham at Michilimackinac and Detroit, respectively, were among the first Anglos to the Great Lakes, the stepping stones to the Northwest and the Rockies. These Jewish fur traders worked throughout the Great Lakes region, peddling their wares to the Indians and coming into contact with the leading military, economic, and social figures in the region. Although many of these