The Jewish Heritage Centre
Archival Endowment Fund
A one million dollar campaign
to preserve our community’s archives
Becky Sokolov and Fanny Churchill, Balfour Parade
Main Street, Winnipeg, May 19, 1920
Without your help, the story of our past will be lost forever
We Need Your Support
The JHCWC is unable to meet the minimum requirements for good stewardship
of our collection. Current levels of funding simply do not support our needs.
Unless we are able to ensure proper storage and archival treatment, we risk
losing our collections forever. That will mean the loss of our community’s
history. Your help is critical to our ability to properly store and protect our
community’s historical assets.
From our Synagogues Exhibition
Immediate Needs
• Full-time archivist
• Space assessment
• Climate control
• An integrated pest-management system
• Upgraded storage to protect from water damage
• Photographic media storage which meets archival standards
• Improvements to physical layout: separation of research and storage facilities
• Continued digitization of our collection
• Holocaust archive preservation
• Upgraded database to today’s standards
• Publicly accessible online finding aids
• Posting of digitized materials
The JHCWC
Collection
The JHC safeguards a treasure trove of documents,
manuscripts, artefacts, and photos, accessed each year by
researchers from all over the world and the general public. We
are tasked with the challenge of preserving these precious
representations of our history using modern technology and
stewardship. We count on the interest and generosity of the
community, so that future generations may also learn from our
past.
Artefacts from the Rubenfeld collection in our
Holocaust Education Centre
A culture survives because it is able to transmit its history, its values, and its beliefs to future
generations. We cannot understand our present circumstances without our historical
record. This is the foundation upon which every Jewish community organization is built.
Therefore, within this context, the JHC is of vital importance to the well-being and future of
this community, as the only guardians of our historical record.
Harvesting at Sonnenfeld Colony, SK c.1926
Our archival records include thousands of indexed articles from Jewish newspapers, a comprehensive
cemetery archive, manuscripts, audio and video oral histories, and some 70,000 photographs! The archives
are also an important repository of oral histories, photographs, and articles documenting the story of
Shoah survivors who settled in Manitoba. As well, several well-known Manitobans have donated their
collections to us. These include Frances Bay, Maitland Steinkopf, Adele Wiseman, and Perry Diamond.
These must all be preserved for future generations.
About Us
In a world where the historical record is increasingly under threat, our impressive collection
of primary sources, including oral histories, photographs, and artefacts will ensure the
preservation of our past as well as its legacy for future generations.
For more than 50 years, the JHCWC (formerly the Jewish Historical Society) has illuminated the
issues, events, and social changes that produced a dynamic and diverse community of Jews
within Western Canada. The Jewish Heritage Centre’s mission is to develop, interpret, and
disseminate information on the history and culture of western Canadian Jewry and to develop
awareness of the history, moral, and ethical implications of the Shoah and other human rights
violations.
The Jewish Heritage Centre of
Western Canada (JHC) brings
together the Jewish Historical
Society of Western Canada,
the Marion & Ed Vickar Jewish
Museum of Western Canada,
the Genealogical Institute, the
Irma and Marvin Penn
Archives (includes the
Yudasha and Shmerya Posner
New Canadian Archive), and
the Freeman Family
Foundation Holocaust
Education Centre.
• The JHCWC is proud to have partnered
with many organizations over the
years, including the Canadian Museum
for Human Rights, the Manitoba
Historical Society, and Manitoba
Education and Training.
• Our collection continues to be an
important resource for researchers
across the globe and a serves as a
foundation for the innovative
programs and exhibits the JHCWC
produces.
• The JHCWC has been recognized as an
important component of Manitoba’s
cultural mosaic at both provincial and
federal levels of government.
• Recognition includes the William
Shroder Award, the Prix Manitoba
Award, and the Premier’s Award for
Excellence in Design.
Orphaned Holocaust survivors in Winnipeg in the late 1940s with Thelma
Edwards, then Director of the United Hebrew Social Service Bureau. From
left: David Erlich, Anton Deutch, Ernie Green, Leo Greenspan, Eugene
Joseph and John Hirsch.
More Important Than Ever
Jewish communities worldwide are facing a surge in antisemitism, unprecedented since 1945. As
the principal purveyor of education on the Shoah and antisemitism, we reach thousands of young
people and adults each year.
As we face a future without Holocaust witnesses, our reliance on archival materials to safeguard
the historical record and combat distortion increases and the work of the Jewish Heritage Centre
becomes more important than ever.
Purim party King Edward Hall, circa 1908
From our extensive newspaper archive
Contact us for more information.
We would love to give you a tour!
Suite C-140 123 Doncaster St.
Winnipeg, MB R3N 2B2
T: 204-477-7460
www.jewishheritage.org
jewishheritage@jhcwc.org
TO LEARN MORE ABOUT THIS IMPORTANT INITIATIVE
Please contact:
Belle Jarniewski
Executive Director Jewish Heritage Centre of Western Canada
TESTIMONIALS: WHAT PEOPLE ARE SAYING ABOUT THE JHCWC
“The collection certainly deserves to be
better known among historians and I am
sure it will be. It provides a singularly rich
source of original manuscript material
relevant not just to the history of Jews in
Harold Troper,
Professor of History
(University of Toronto)
and co-author of None is
Too Many
Manitoba but also to Jews in Canada more generally. And, like
me, all historians and students of Canadian Jewish life who use
this and other original document collections preserved by the
Jewish Heritage Centre will owe a debt to those communityminded
individuals who showed wisdom and foresight in ensuring these Jewish
historical treasures are safely preserved. Without this effort, the historical legacy
of Canadian Jewry would eventually be lost.”
“The Jewish Heritage Centre of
Western Canada’s archive is
invaluable. Its rich collection of
photographs, documents, and
publications enables visitors to
explore and learn about the rich
history of Winnipeg’s Jewish
community and the many
Arthur Ross, Professor
(Ryerson) in the
Department of Politics and
Public Administration, and
author of Communal
Solidarity: Immigration,
Settlement, and Social
Welfare in Winnipeg’s
Jewish Community, 1882–
1930.
contributions Jews have made to Winnipeg’s social, economic and cultural life.
Over the past few years, I spent many days in the archives completing the research
for my book, Communal Solidarity: Immigration, Settlement and Social Welfare in
Winnipeg’s Jewish Community, 1882-1930. I know that the archives contain a
wealth of material that could illuminate many more aspects of the history of
Winnipeg’s Jewish community: the history of Jewish educational institutions, the
formation of Jewish garment workers unions and their role in Winnipeg’s labour
movement, the origins and development of the Jewish Welfare Fund and Jewish
Child & Family Service, the arrival and settlement of Holocaust survivors after the
Second World War, the history of Winnipeg’s synagogues, the contribution of
Winnipeg’s Jews to the Canadian Jewish Congress and the Zionist Organization of
Canada, to name a few.
“I am writing a book on the history of the
Jewish Left in Canada and have used your
archives extensively. They have been
invaluable – in particular
Ester Reiter. Senior
Scholar, York
University, Toronto
the Yiddisher Vort, the picture collection, the interviews that
were done some years ago, the material from
the Freiheit temple association. I can’t stress too strongly how
important your collection is for all of us:
Dos Goldene Bukh from the 1940s, the material on Edenbridge, the cemetery
project pictures– and that’s just a few of the things that come to mind. The history
in the collection is invaluable – it’s our history, and it deserves the greatest
respect.”
"The archives are the golden resource of the Jewish
community. I have searched for family records, burial
information, and marriage books for my own family and many
others as well. The project launched by the JHC for the
marriages performed by Rabbi Kahanovitch brought much joy
to many families by reproducing these registers for them...The
Gerald Posner,
Lawyer,
philanthropist, and
community leader—
former Winnipegger
now living in
Toronto.
archives are a resource which needs to be added to and nurtured. The community
depends on it in ways they do not even realize."
PRESERVING OUR PAST – ENSURING OUR FUTURE
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