A major refrain running through our heads in 2017 has been:
the Canadian Jewish Archives is losing weight! In
an initiative led by Archives Assistant Hélène Vallée, more than
ever before we have been making efforts to lighten boxes and reduce
unnecessary bulk, through removing nests of aging staples,
replacing heavy metal clips and bulky binders with streamlined file
folders, and separating out superfluous duplicate or otherwise
non-preservation-worthy materials.
Through refining our scanning techniques and
technology we note that we are more quickly and
economically answering researcher and media requests. However
increasing our digitization output has not resulted in a reduction
of our paper footprint, as unlike offices which can make the
decision to "go paperless", Archives do not discard
original historical materials after creating a digital
copy. (For anyone interested in reading many
compelling reasons why this is the case, I recommend this article
posted by the Peel Archives Blog: https://peelarchivesblog.com/2017/05/31/why-dont-archivists-digitize-everything/.)
Of course we could not resist the lure of some new collections
over the course of 2017, such as papers from Gertrude Katz
about her work with Dr. Henry Morgentaler and her own career as a
writer and social activist, and information from
Myra Giberovitch about the Canadian Jewish community
involvements of Holocaust Survivors. We also acquired a
diverse selection of family papers, ranging from the
Yiddish writings of Harry Sarlin donated by his daughter
Gladys Rose of Saskatoon, to additional papers about the
life and work of Rabbi Daivd Feuerwerker and his wife
Antoinette Feurwerker of Montreal.
As always, we would not have accomplished what we did over the
past year without the help of our energetic and savvy student
interns from McGill and Concordia Universities and John Abbott
College. As part of their internships, Tetyana Stadko (JAC)
created a video featuring a 1995 interview with Wendy Eisen
speaking about Soviet Jewry activist women in the Group of
35 (http://www.cjhn.ca/en/permalink/cjhn48781),
Michelle Savard (McGill) created a video about Jewish
community life in Rouyn-Noranda from the 1930s to 1950s
(http://www.cjhn.ca/en/permalink/cjhn88129
), Robert Citrom (JAC) developed and implemented a template
system for improved archival box labels, and Claire
English (Concordia) completed a much-needed catalogue for our
Congregation Shaar Hashomayim administrative
records.
We also continue to rely on our amazing trio of dedicated
Archives volunteers. At over 96 years of age Willie
Glaser, who has sorted and categorized papers at the
Archives for over 30 years, must surely be one of our
community's oldest donators of time and skills. Handling
all those lightened up and streamlined old documents must be
helping to keep him young!