The Jewish population of Canada is currently about 400,000 people of which close to half reside in the GTA.  They first settled in the area in the 1820s and their number continued to increase when Jewish immigrants from Russia and Eastern Europe arrived in Canada in large numbers after 1880.  They came seeking a home and country in which they could not only survive and prosper, but one in which they could leave a positive legacy for their children, grandchildren, and the generations that followed.  They did indeed find the refuge they were searching for in Toronto and elsewhere, yet their acceptance and integration into the larger society was not always wanted or welcome, and the struggles they faced caused much inner turmoil and hardship.  In this lecture historian and author Allan Levine examines the key lessons, trends and patterns of two centuries of Jewish life in Toronto.

Honey bees play a vital role in agriculture through the pollination of food crops. One third of the food we eat is pollinated by bees. Honey bees provide 80% of this service – native bees provide the rest. Did you know there are 423 species of native bees living in Ontario? They are also vitally important as they pollinate many native plants. Hummingbirds and some bat species pollinate too! Honey bees face numerous health challenges and the role of the University of Guelph’s Honey Bee Research Centre (HBRC) is to help beekeepers keep their bees healthy. The centre conducts hive health studies and trains beekeepers on a global scale. In this presentation Paul Kelly will outline the challenges bees face, survey the research and education activities of the HBRC, and let us know how we can help them help bees.

Ron Brown’s latest book, Top 170 Unusual Things to See in Ontario, was newly released and expanded in 2022. Using the book as a starting point, this illustrated lecture will explore some of Ontario’s most unusual features and landscapes including such phenomena as The Screaming Heads, Guelph’s “Notre Dame”, Toronto’s Graffiti Alleys, and its “Luminous Veil” on the Bloor Street Viaduct as well as the light show in Brockville’s railway tunnel.

Over five centuries in Europe a remarkable concert instrument evolved: the carillon, consisting of tuned bronze bells expressively played from a keyboard. Before the outbreak of the Great War there were more than 140 “singing towers” in the Low Countries, providing melodic soundscapes to their communities. Wars wreaked destruction on the European carillons, but the fame of their voices also inspired a carillon renaissance to build new towers across the world serving as musical memorials. In 1922 Toronto’s Metropolitan Methodist Church (now Metropolitan United Church) installed the first modern tuned carillon in North America. In the century since, ten more carillons were built in Canada and more than 170 installed across the continent. In this illustrated lecture Andrea McCrady will celebrate North America’s newest carillon to serenade Toronto at Yorkminster Park Baptist Church.

Professional explorer and adventurer Adam Shoalts returns to the Yorkminster Park Speakers Series to tell us about his latest adventure and book: a 3,400 km solo canoe journey from Lake Erie to the Arctic. The expedition took over three months and saw Shoalts depart from Long Point and travel all the way to the Torngat Mountains and Ungava Bay. Adam will share the story of his journey as well as photos from it. This lecture coincides with the publication of Adam’s book about his journey, Where the Falcon Flies, on October 3rd 2023. Copies of the newly released book will be available for purchase and signing.

When she a young child, Heather’s mother told her that Mark Twain was a great-uncle. It seemed like a really cool thing to tell people, but other than that, it held little meaning for her at the time. Fast forward forty years: one night while Heather found herself between jobs and with time on her hands a TV ad for Ancestry reminded her of Mark Twain and she decided to see if there was any truth to the family story. Only later did she realise that this was the moment her passion for genealogy was born. In this talk Heather will share stories from her own work – involving archival research, personal interviews and the latest in genetic DNA technology – to help us understand why the field of genealogy has grown exponentially in recent years and why it has become not only Heather’s passion but also her second career. Perhaps she will also inspire you to begin your journey tracing your own family history.

While Holocaust denial is easy to identify and straightforward to explain, Holocaust distortion is a more insidious and complex threat. Unlike the deniers of yesteryear, people, states, and institutions engaged in Holocaust distortion do not deny the factuality of the event. They argue instead that their nation, their people, their tribe, had nothing to do with it. There were some corrupt individuals, no doubt, but helping and rescuing of Jews was the default position of our people, argue the nationalists. And, with the formidable funding provided by the states engaged in Holocaust distortion, the Shoah is being re-branded into a positive narrative in which enthusiastic and altruistic Gentiles strive to save their Jewish neighbors from the clutches of the Germans. We thought we knew that the German genocidal plan had many willing helpers across Europe but this knowledge is now being put to question and assaulted by the agents of Holocaust distortion.

The first book ever to examine this extraordinary collection, Letters to Jackie presents 250 intimate, heartfelt, eye-opening responses to what was arguably the most devastating event in twentieth century America, providing a fascinating perspective on a singular time in the history of our nation.

Food Bank usage in Toronto has increased from 60,000 client visits per month before the pandemic to over 270,000 in the summer of 2023. Who are the people who now need to rely on food charity? What has caused this crisis and, most importantly, what can we do to change the situation we find ourselves in?

Early in the Second World War, the Canadian government built a top-secret munitions factory in the then rural community of Scarborough just seven miles from Toronto’s downtown. The plant, called GECO—General Engineering Company (Canada) Limited—comprised 346 acres, 172 buildings, and over four kilometers of underground passageways. Barbara Dickson’s book, Bomb Girls: Trading Aprons for Ammo, is a comprehensive, historical record of Canada’s biggest WWII munitions plant, GECO, which employed over 21,000 citizens, predominantly women, courageously working with high explosives around the clock during the Second World War. In this lecture, Barbara will relate the dramatic story of the incredible contribution made by so many women so long ago. What was it really like to work in a munitions factory? Did anyone die? What were working conditions like? How closely did bomb girls resemble “Rosie the Riveter?” Barbara will draw on twenty years of research to answer these questions. 

This lecture is a live, in-person event in Cameron Hall. You do not need to pre-register to attend – just show up.

BIOGRAPHY:

Barbara Dickson is an author, historian, public speaker and documentary film producer who has entertained, educated, and enlightened audiences for twenty-five years. She strives to educate Canadians about the phenomenal work carried out by women across the nation whose invaluable contribution helped win the Second World War and is committed to ensuring that Canada’s “bomb girls” are honoured and commemorated. Her legacy project is to found a museum on the old GECO site in Scarborough where the public can come to learn, appreciate, and remember the critical sacrifice women made for their country so long ago. Her 2015 book, Bomb Girls: Trading Aprons for Ammo, was a finalist for the Ontario Legislature’s Book Award in 2016 and turned into a documentary film in 2017.

The brutal massacre of October 7 in southern Israel by Hamas terrorists cannot be justified under any circumstances. But the attack and Israel's response took place within a complex and longstanding context of conflict between Israelis and Palestinians that began in the early 20th Century. The November 2022 election in Israel, when the most right wing government in Israel's history was elected, resulted in policies, actions and personalities that helped set the scene for the tragedy that we are witnessing today. The only silver lining to emerge from the conflict is a revival by key players of the idea of a two-state solution as the best means for bringing long term safety and security to both parties.

Some of us feel distraught and helpless witnessing the horrors of the current situation. We are searching for ways to alleviate some of the pain and suffering in the region. Jon Allen chairs Rozana Canada, a non profit that builds trust and respect between Israelis and Palestinians through the health care sector. Rozana designs, implements and funds joint Palestinian-Israeli projects in the training, treatment and transport of Palestinians with the collaboration of Israeli health professionals. This work is more important now than ever.

BIOGRAPHY:

Jon Allen was born in Winnipeg and studied at Western University and the London School of Economics before joining the Department of External Affairs in 1981. In addition to postings in Mexico 

City, New Delhi and Washington, Jon spent his early career working in the areas of human rights, humanitarian, and environmental law. From 2006 to 2010, he served as Canada’s Ambassador to Israel; from 2012 to 2016 as Ambassador to Spain and Andorra; and from December 2012 to July 2014, as interim Chargé d’affaires to the Holy See. Jon Allen is currently a Senior Fellow at the Munk School of Global Affairs and Public Policy and a Distinguished Fellow of the Canada International Council. He is the Chair of Project Rozana Canada, a not for profit whose objective is to build bridges between Palestinians and Israelis via the health sector.

In this lecture based on the book of the same title, Don Loucks will tell the stories of Toronto’s built heritage of row houses, semis, and cottages and the people who lived in them. Too often, workers’ cottages are characterized today as being small, poorly built, and disposable. But in the late 1800s, to have worked and saved enough money to move into one was an incredible achievement. Moving from the crowded conditions of boarding houses, or areas such as Toronto’s Ward, to a self-contained, six-hundred-square-foot cottage was the result of an unimaginably strong hope for the future and a commitment to what lay ahead. For the workers and their families, these houses were far from modest. The architectural details suggested status, value, and pride of place and reminded the workers of the homeland from which they had come. 

This lecture is a live, in-person event in Cameron Hall. You do not need to pre-register to attend – just show up.

BIOGRAPHY:

Don Loucks is an architect, urban designer, and cultural heritage planner, with forty years of project experience. He is committed to environmental, economic, and cultural sustainability, and to preserving the variety of rich urban forms that contain the stories of our communities’ history. He lives in Toronto. 

This Lecture is co-sponsored by the Toronto Society of Architects.