Photograph collections
The archives currently
houses over 20,000 photographic prints, including the Canadian
Jewish Congress organizational photo archives, photos donated in
small groups by individuals, and those belonging to several large
organizational and private collections. Photographs of unknown
provenance are included in the general (PC 1) collection. Subjects
include immigration, family life, city life, small communities
across Canada, Jewish organizations, business, and religion. The
photographs are indexed on computer and can be searched according
to subject, date, location, photographer, format, and even
aesthetic quality.
The photograph collections are probably the most requested of all
our holdings. Virtually all documentary filmmakers dealing with
antisemitism in Canada in the 1930s have used images from our
collection. Commercial films, such as Enemies: A Love
Story, have used photos from family collections to depict
characters mentioned in the screenplay, and museums have used them
as adjuncts to exhibited items. Well-known Canadian Jewish history
texts such as Irving Abella's and Harold Troper's None Is Too
Many and Gerald Tulchinsky's Taking Root have drawn
their illustrations almost exclusively from our visual archives. In
addition, CJC itself draws heavily on the photo collection for its
own publications.
Major photo collections of the Canadian Jewish Archives:
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PC 1 Canadian Jewish Congress and related organizations

This extremely large collection includes individual photos
donated to the archives over the years, as well as community event
and notable building photos and portrait photos of hundreds of
individuals of note in the Canadian Jewish community.
Alan Rose, then Canadian Jewish Congress
Executive Vice-President, greets Pope John Paul II in Montreal,
September 10, 1984. At centre is Bernard J. Finestone, then CJC
Quebec Region officer.
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PC 2 Jewish Immigrant Aid Services

These photos of immigrants arriving and settling into Canada
since 1920 have been used in many contexts to depict our history in
this country. Approx. 1000 photos.
Montreal, 1950s: Recently immigrated Jewish
children pose outside the JIAS headquarters, then located on
Esplanade Street
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PC 3 National Council of Jewish Women

This charitable organization documented its activities vividly
through photographs, in particular from W.W.II on. Approx. 1000
photos.
During World War II fundraising by the
National Council of Jewish Women of Canada paid for these
ambulances
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PC 4 Joint Distribution Committee

The living conditions of Jews around the world, from 1938
through the 1950s, can be seen in these moving press
photographs.
Ourika, Morocco, 1950s - Winnipeg Rabbi
Arthur Chiel and his wife visited Morocco representing the Joint
Distribution Committee and furthering their relief
efforts.
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PC 5 Allan Bronfman

Both private and public views of the life of Allan Bronfman and
other members of the family can be seen in this large collection,
which includes photos from the just-formed state of Israel.
Montrealer Allan Bronfman met with Albert
Einstein at a Zionist fundraising event in the 1950s.
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PC 6 Frances Goltman

A beautiful collection of family photos, many of them from the
previous century, depicting family life. Some of the photos were
taken by Montreal's Notman Studio.
A Russian Jewish family in St. Petersburg
posed for this studio portrait at the end of the 19th
century.
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PC 7 William Gittes

Depicts Mr. Gittes' many community activities and includes many
persons of renown (approx. 500 photos, 1925-1980.)
William Gittes is pictured, centre left,
among his philanthropic peers, in this Combined Jewish Appeal
tribute caricature from the late 1940s.
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PC 8 Rosa Finestone

This family collection of approx. 600 photos includes views of
Outremont and NDG in the 1920s and 1930s, as well as wartime army
photos of Bernard Finestone.
Photographed by his mother, Rosa, Bernard
Finestone (at left), and a friend, stand outside the family cigar
store near the old Montreal Forum on Mount Royal Avenue, circa
1924.
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PC 9 Harry Hershman War Orphans

The 146 orphans who came to Canada from the Polish Ukraine in
1920-1921 are depicted in individual and group portraits, taken in
Europe. The collection also includes vintage greeting cards.
From Harry Hershman's case files, two of the
World War I Polish Jewish orphans who were brought to Canada from
an orphanage in Rovno in 1921.
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PC 10 Leon Crestohl

Important Jewish community meetings of the 1940s and 1950s are
the focus of this collection.
On a visit to Israel in 1948, Leon Crestohl
is seen here with Arab leaders.
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PC 11 Ethel Ostry

Social worker Ostry documented the work she carried out in
Europe with post-W.W.II displaced persons and refugee youth, many
of whom she assisted in immigrating to Canada.
Maccabean Club members at the Fohrenwald
Displaced Persons Camp, immediately after World War II.
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PC 12 Jewish Colonization Association

Fascinating photographs (1909-1963) of the inhabitants,
buildings, cattle, machines, and cemeteries of Canadian Jewish
farming colonies, including Edenbridge, Eyre, Montefiore, Hirsch,
Lipton, Coalfields, Sonnenfeld, and Souris Valley, Saskatchewan,
and Rumsey, Alberta, as well as those of the Niagara Peninsula,
Ontario. Also includes Jewish refugees established in Manitoba in
1939 by CJC.
A Sukkah (temporary structure used for meals
during the holiday of Sukkot) in the Lipton Jewish farming colony,
Saskatchewan.
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PC 13 Ruth Colton Lehman

Approximately 500 Jewish Montreal photos taken by photographer
(the late) R. Lehman in the 1980s.
Two Hassidic children from Montreal's
Outremont neighbourhood, 1988.
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PC 14 Monty Berger

Accompanying his textual records, the Berger photo collection
depicts community and private activities, including W.W.II army
service and Israel experiences.
In the company of other Montreal Jewish
community leaders, Monty Berger (second from right) signs for the
construction of the United Jewish Services building (Cummings
House) in 1973.
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PC 16 Drummond Photo Collection

This immense collection contains an estimated 223,000 (8.6
metres) of negatives in black and white and colour, dating from
1960 to 1991. Jewish community organization negative subjects
include AJCS (Allied Jewish Community Services) and CJA (Combined
Jewish Appeal); Zionist organizations such as JNF (Jewish National
Fund), ORT, and the annual Negev Dinner; the Jewish General
Hospital and the Hope and Cope Foundation of the hospital; Orthodox
groups such as Chabad (Lubavitch organization), Mizrachi, and
Emunah Women; Jewish day schools such as JPPS (Jewish People's and
Peretz Schools), Hebrew Academy, Herzliah and the Ecole Sépharade;
foundations such as Canadian Friends of Ben Gurion University and
Claridge; as well as synagogues and Jewish businesses. Negatives of
individuals and families include individual and family portraits,
"sweet sixteens" and anniversaries, weddings and Bar Mitzvahs, as
well as some Bat Mitzvahs, and brits (circumcisions). Privacy
restrictions apply to many of the family photos. Of particular
interest in the negatives of family events are shots depicting the
interiors of Montreal synagogues as well as aspects of Jewish
ritual.
Montreal, early 1960s: A Jewish wedding in a
hotel ballroom, showing the wedding party under a decorated Chuppah
(bridal canopy.)
Photo Reproduction Services
For prices of reproductions, please see the
copying fees
page.