About the Society
Interest in creating a Jewish historical society started in 1966 when Dr. Abraham Slone began collecting short memoirs of local Jewish personalities. The Society held its first meeting in 1969 under the chairmanship of journalist, Max Bookman. This initiative was not further pursued until 1970 when an executive committee was formally created under the auspices of the Ottawa Vaad Ha'Ir (the present Ottawa Jewish Federation), guided by Hy Hochberg. Michael Freedman was appointed first President and Celia Bookman, widow of Max Bookman, was appointed Secretary.
The primary purpose of the Society was the preservation of Ottawa Jewish history. In 1972, an agreement was pursued with the Public Archives of Canada for the preservation of the most valuable community records. The Society was assigned a collection space at the Jewish Community Centre at 151 Chapel Street. Here material was arranged and organized under the direction of Shirley Berman. In 1974 Sidney M. Green became the President of the Society, followed by Hugo Levendel in July 1980 and Ben Karp in August 1986. Lawrence Freedman, the son of the Society's first president, served from 1992-2006. The current president of the Society is John Holzman. By the mid 1980s the Society's holdings included numerous documents, records, many rare photographs, and oral history recordings. Shirley Berman attained archival certification in 1983; and the following year with the movement of Hillel Academy to the Broadview campus a generous space became available to the Society for storage and preservation. This was soon followed by the installation of environmental controls in the storage vault. Aided by a small volunteer staff of Society members the facility took on the characteristics of a community archives whose mandate became "to collect, preserve, promote, and make its holdings available for research".
Since its inception, the Society has produced many exhibitions which utilized the numerous photographs in its collection. Interpretive visits from the pupils of elementary and Jewish schools, as well as annual visits from the Algonquin College Archives Course produced many fine results. A certified graduate of the Algonquin College course, Dawn Logan served as community archivist from 1999 until her retirement in December 2008. Laurie Dougherty, formerly in charge of the Arnprior & McNab/Braeside Archives, is the current archivist of the Ottawa Jewish Archives. The Society produced its first publication, Those Pesky Weeds, based on Harold Rubin's manuscript in 1992. Another publication, A Common Thread: A History of the Jews of Ottawa, was launched on October 18, 2009. In September 2001 the Society organized a nostalgic bus tour which explored the By Ward Market and much of the early Jewish settlement area of Lowertown Ottawa. This successful tour included commentary by members Lawrence Wall and Sylvia Kershman. When a new community centre was built further west, off Broadview, a modern climate controlled archival facility was included. The Society's holdings were moved there in 1999. In 2001 the Ottawa Vaad Ha'Ir, then known as the Jewish Community Council, assumed responsibility for the community archives. With its changing role, the Society redirected its mandate to that of the promotion of Ottawa Jewish history, as well as association with, and support of the Ottawa Jewish Archives. Its popular program of presenting four talks annually about local Jewish history continues. As well, the Jacob Freedman Scholarship at the University of Ottawa is awarded each year for an academic paper concerned with local Jewish history.