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Archival description
CA ON00210 17 · Fonds · 1936-1992

Fonds consists of the records of the Ontario Region office of the Canadian Jewish Congress. Of primary importance in documenting this organization’s history are its minutes of the Executive and Administrative Committees and the various standing, and short-term committees such as Community Organization, Finance, Fund Raising, Educational and Cultural, Research, Immigration, War Efforts, and Jewish Education. Most of these records are still managed all together within Fonds 17, Series 1. Fonds 17, Series 2 contains the general subject and correspondence files of these committees. Records in both series require further processing. Of special note are the recently processed records now found in Series 3 and 4. Series 3 records document the efforts of the Committee for Soviet Jewry in coordinating the activities of the many Toronto and Ontario organizations involved in assisting Soviet Jewry during the 1971 to 1989 period. Series 4 consists of administrative and committee records of the United Jewish Refugee and War Relief Agencies in Toronto from 1938 through 1967. These document its work rescuing the survivors of European Jewish communities, settling as many as possible in Ontario, and providing assistance to those attempting to obtain restitution payments.

Canadian Jewish Congress
CA ON00210 9 · Fonds · 1925-1982

Fonds contains the records of the Toronto Office (Central region) of the Jewish Immigrant Aid Services of Canada. The fonds consists primarily of textual records: minutes, correspondence, financial records, reports, immigration files, naturalization case files, social service case files and the records of attempts to trace missing individuals. There are also photographs of special events, speakers and arriving immigrants.

The fonds represents an important resource for the study of Canadian Jewry, especially when taken in conjunction with the JIAS National Office records at the Canadian Jewish Congress National Archives in Montreal, and those of the Western Office at the Library and Archives of Canada. It documents the means by which a particular Canadian ethnic community has dealt with the problems of rescue, settlement and government relations. These records also offer insight into the relationship between the Toronto Office and the other branches of JIAS, and invite comparison with similar agencies in the United States, as well as those of other ethnic groups in Canada.

The material collected includes information about the countries of origin, transportation routes, settlement and employment patterns of Jewish immigrants to Canada in the twentieth century. The documents also touch upon important related issues such as advocacy, sponsorship, admission processes, health and social problems.

These records cover several waves of immigration following the Second World War: Holocaust survivors in the late 1940s, Sephardic (North African) and Hungarian Jews in the 1950s, Russian and Czechoslovakian Jews in the 1960s, and additional Russians in the 1970s.

The records also contain significant information for those researchers looking to conduct genealogical research into Jewish immigrants and their descendants.

The fonds has been arranged with one sous-fonds, which contains the records of the National JIAS office in Montreal. In total there are 17 series. The Toronto office (main fonds) series are: 1. Board of Directors and Executive Committee Minutes; 2. Annual meeting proceedings; 3. Reports; 4. Legal ; 5. Administration; 6. JIAS Committees; 7. External committees; 8. Financial ; 9. Arrivals; 10. Immigration case files; 11. Social service assistance case files; 12. Photographs; 13. Miscellaneous. The National Office sous-fonds is divided into the following series: 1. National executive meeting minutes; 2. National annual meeting proceedings; 3. National annual reports; 4. Publications; and Photographs.

Canadian Jewish Congress