Issue 1 - November 2006 - Jewish Public Library

Prologue
The Jewish Public Library Archives – It’s now or never
Vol. I, Issue 1
November 2006
In this issue of the
Jewish Public Library
Archives Magazine
Take a Bow
Mr. Gesser!
The Archivist’s
Desk
History’s Helpers
Archivists:
Here to Serve
L’affaire Dreyfus
The Red Carpet Issue!
Your Archives taking the centre stage!

down licence plate numbers at a Pete Seeger concert,
no one container is without great historical discoveries.
The material also illustrates Gesser’s genius in
his dedication and promotion of Canadian artists and
productions such as Hootenanny! and the Canadian
Festival at Town Hall in New York, productions such as
Duddy (the musical adaptation of Mordecai Richler’s
The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz), La Passion de Narcisse
Mandoux, and Les Feux Follets as well as artists
like Hélène Baillargeon, Alan Mills, Jean Carignan and
Monique Leyrac.
Sam Gesser (left) with Nana Mouskouri and fellow folk legend, Harold Leventhal.
Take a Bow Mr. Gesser!
In March of 2005, the JPL-Archives received a
large donation of original material from Mr. Sam
Gesser, Montreal’s premier impresario. Beginning in
the late 1940s, Mr. Gesser presented some of the 20th
century’s greatest artists and entertainers including
Liberace, Harry Belafonte, Pete Seeger, Nana
Mouskouri, Maureen Forrester, Glenn Gould and Tony
Bennett. He brought to Montreal the sounds of the
folk music movement of the 1950s and 1960s, also
preserving and promoting this music through his work
recording Canada’s folk tradition for legendary record
label Folkways.
The material of the Fonds is consistent in format – photographs,
contracts and other financial and administrative
documents from concert, tour and show
productions – but
the stories behind
these records are
rich and diverse.
From bringing in
the motley “Les
Ballets Trockadero
de Monte Carlo”
to watching the
RCMP taking
Sam Gesser being toasted by Nana Mouskouri, Monique
Leyrac, Maureen Forrester, Harry Belafonte,
Pete Seeger, Sam’s wife Ruth Gesser and mother Ida
Gesser. Celebration ’80, Place des Arts.
The handbills in the Fonds also provide a thorough
examination of the history of Montreal’s concert halls.
Gesser produced and presented concerts at Comédie
Canadienne, founded by Canadian theatre legend
Gratien Gélinas, Her Majesty’s Theatre (the same
theatre that as a child, Gesser snuck into to watch
shows), Saidye Bronfman Centre, L’Érmitage and,
beginning from its opening in 1963, Place des Arts.
His involvement in Place des Arts and the records of
the concerts he organized at this historical venue are
especially significant as Place des Arts does not have
complete records of events from its very early years.
The material then is also an extremely vital research
resource for any person studying Canadian theatre
and entertainment.
The Jewish Public Library Archives considers the Sam
Gesser Fonds to be one of the most significant donations
of the last sixty years. In addition to the presentation
of the Fonds at the Gala 2006 Tribute to Sam
Gesser, the JPL-Archives is also working on a virtual
exhibit of the Sam Gesser material, expected date of
completion early winter 2006. The material speaks of
Mr. Gesser’s work in the Montreal Jewish community
and also documents the entertainment history of the
city, Quebec and Canada.
The tributes to Sam Gesser and his work continue
with the recent announcement from the Canadian
Songwriters’ Hall of Fame. Mr. Gesser will be awarded
the Prix du Patrimoine Frank Davies at the CSHF
Annual Gala on Januart 28th. For more information
visit the CSHF at www.cansong.ca

The Archivist’s
Desk
Direct from the ink quill
of William Shakespeare,
“What is past is prologue”, wise words reflective of
the work of archives. History and the repositories
that preserve its forms are not stagnant, but rather
a force that occurs everyday around us. The Jewish
Public Library Archives strive to communicate the
importance of community history through its collections
and is pleased to be able to share this dedication
through this, the first issue of Prologue. This e-newsletter
will promote the story behind our collections, to share
the history of the community and to broaden discussion
about why archives are vital to cultural identity.
Reconstruction of the Archives wall, Spring 2006
As this inaugural e-newsletter arrives in your in-box,
final renovations are underway in our facilities. Beginning
in October 2005, the Archives were forced to
place the majority of collections into remote storage
for the safety of the materials. All of the collections
have been safely returned to their shelves and are fully
accessible to visitors. These collections will also be
witness to the exciting expansion of the JPL-Archives
facilities. When finished, the Library’s Rare Book
collection will be placed with the archival collections
and staff, volunteers and researchers will have a larger
space in which to work. To see pictures of this work
unfolding, visit the JPL-Archives site at: www.jewishpubliclibrary.org/archives/archives.html
History’s Helpers
The JPL-Archives is extremely fortunate in the wonderful
volunteers and students that have worked in
our facilities over the last year. We would like to take
this opportunity to acknowledge the fantastic work
they did and are continuing to do. Without their
skills and dedication, the Archives would not be able
to strive forward as it is.
Janice Camlot, Sarah Janes and
Deborah Ray
Janice, Sarah and Deborah were part of the crew that
unpacked and reorganized all of the JPL-Archives
collections once the wall was re-built. All three are
graduating students at McGill University’s Graduate
School of Library and Information Studies.
Eva Neumann
Eva is entering her first year of library school and
during her time volunteering with us she worked on
several collections, including the Photograph Collection,
the Sam Gesser Fonds and was also responsible
for the creation of the Tilya and Eric Helfield Fonds
Finding Aid.
Aaron Spiro
Aaron came to us through the Krueger Scholarship
programme. He is an upper-year student in history
at McGill and worked on several collections at the
Archives including the Sam Gesser Fonds and the
Charles and Ninel Segal Fonds as well assisting in the
evacuation of material last October.
Theresa Walsh
Theresa started with the Archives in the summer
working under a Young Canada Works grant on the
Photograph Collection project. She will continue
working with us on this project thanks to a generous
donation from the Birks Family Foundation and a
grant extension from the Canadian Library Association
(CLA) and YCW.
Danya Vered
Danya is a McGill University history undergraduate
student interested in the work of cultural heritage institutions.
She will be lending her excellent research
and language skills to assist in the arrangement and
description of the Poster Collection.

?
Did you know…
In addition to the Sam Gesser Fonds, the Jewish Public
Library Archives preserves several additional red
carpet worthy collections:
Harry Gulkin
Montreal-based producer Harry Gulkin is behind
many classic films, including Mordecai Richler’s Jacob
Two-Two and the Hooded Fang and Ted Allen’s Lies My
Father Told Me. His collection celebrates his wonderful
contributions to cinema in Quebec. The Harry
Gulkin Fonds includes scripts, promotional material,
correspondence as well as photographs and production
documents. Mr. Gulkin donated the material to
the Archives Spring 2005.
Chayele Grober
Born in Bialystok, Grober was an internationally acclaimed
writer and actress in the Yiddish and Hebrew
theatre. She settled in Montreal in the 1930s but
before and after this enjoyed a celebrated career.
The JPL Archives holds a small collection of correspondence
and ephemera material related to
her writing and acting.
Ralph Novek
Ralph Novek was a playwright as well as casual
scriptwriter for CBC Radio. His early work reflects
his social activism in the early communist
movement and later his support of Canadian
soldiers fighting in World War II. The Fonds,
which includes copies of scripts and plays as
well as articles, was donated to the JPL-Archives
in July 2006 by Ralph Novek’s son, Joel
Novek, a professor of sociology at the University
of Winnipeg.
JPL Poster Collection
The JPL Poster Collection has some extremely
interesting items, especially the early-20th
century posters of Yiddish theatre events.
The posters, in various languages including
English, French, Hebrew, Polish and Yiddish,
illustrate the history of theatre, political rallies,
philanthropy campaigns as well as Jewish Public
Library and community events. A major project is
currently underway to digitize a selection of the posters
for research and promotion use.
Ethel Stark
Ethel Stark,
violinist and conductor,
became
the first woman
to perform as a
soloist in a radio
program broadcast
in 1934
across the United
States. Born in
Montreal, Stark
was active in the
cultural world of
her native city;
she founded
the Montreal
Women’s Symphony Orchestra in 1940. She also
performed and taught in numerous countries including
Japan. The Ethel Stark Fonds is preserved at the
Library and Archives of Canada but the JPL-Archives
has a small collection of concert ephemera, including
a poster
from Japan,
and a small
amount
of correspondence
between
Stark and
Ernest
Bloch.
Ethel Stark, violinist and conductor,
JPL Archives Photograph Collection
‘Der Payatz’ presentation at Monument Nationale, JPL Poster Collection

Archivists:
Here
to
Serve
By Eiran Harris
Vandalized window of Fred Rose’s campaign headquarters, Léa Roback Fonds
Every guest who visits our archives to conduct
research departs happy and satisfied. It is both a joy
and a pleasure to observe the delight expressed by our
guests upon successful completion of their projects.
The following represents but a small sample of their
interests:
Krisha S., Montreal
Holocaust Commemorations in Canada
Simo M., Helsinki, Finland
Mordecai Husid Literary Collection
Paula L., Great North Productions, Edmonton,
Alberta
Visuals for television programme about Fred Rose,
Canada’s only Communist Member of Parliament
Marie-Hélène M. et Dominic M., UQAM
Jewish emigrant writers
Ayelet W., California
Jewish Montreal in the 1920s
Suzanne R., Concordia University
Ida Maze, Yiddish poet
Dominique C., Memorial University
Jewish Labour Committee Collection
Perec Z., Montreal
Workmen’s Circle Collection
Eiran Harris is the
JPL’s resident Archivist
Emeritus.
He is generally
well tempered,
extremely knowledgeable
and
has been known
to exchange bits of
wisdom for cookies.

L’affaire Dreyfus
This newsletter was partially conceived to promote
some of the lesser known, yet significant, Special
Collections of the Jewish Public Library. In this first
issue, we have the distinct pleasure of presenting the
Dreyfus Affair Collection.
The Dreyfus Affair was a political scandal which
divided France during the 1890s and early 1900s. It
involved the wrongful treason conviction of Jewish
military officer Alfred Dreyfus.
Building an
endowment fund…
To preserve the future, to supply cookies to the archivists,
the Jewish Public Library initiated a campaign
to build much-needed funds for the Archives. The
JPL-A would like to thank the following initial donors
to this fund
Myer Zuraw
Ben Pekeles
Issie Nachshen
Kenneth Atlas
Charles and Ninel Segal
Alfred Dreyfus
To join these donors in helping to preserve your history,
please contact Jennifer Solomon at (514) 345-2627,
ext. 3042.
Captain Alfred Dreyfus was the highest-ranking
Jewish artillery officer in the French army. Charged
with passing military secrets to the German Embassy
in Paris, he was convicted of treason in 1894 and imprisoned
on Devil’s Island. The conviction was based
on documents which were found in the waste-paper
basket of the German military attaché, and which
initially appeared to the French military authorities to
implicate Dreyfus. Fearing that the sometimes anti-
Semitic press would learn of the affair and accuse
the French army of covering up for a Jewish officer,
the French military command pushed for an early
trial and conviction. By the time they realised that
they had very little evidence against Dreyfus (and
that what they had was not at all conclusive), it was
already politically impossible to withdraw the prosecution
without provoking a political scandal that would
have brought down the French government. The
subsequent court martial was notable for numerous
errors of procedure.
The writer Émile Zola is often thought to have exposed
the affair to the general public in a famous open
letter to President Félix Faure to which the French
statesman and journalist Georges Clemenceau appended
the eye-catching title “J’accuse !” (I Accuse!);
it was published 13 January 1898 in the newspaper
L’Aurore (The Dawn). In the words of historian Barbara
Tuchman, it was “one of the great commotions of
history.” Zola in fact was a latecomer who did, however,
bring world-wide attention and publicity to Dreyfus’
unjust treatment. The real credit for exposing
the flaws behind Dreyfus’ conviction belongs to four
others: Dreyfus’ brother Mathieu, who fought a lonely
campaign for several years; the journalist Bernard
Lazare; a whistle-blower in the intelligence service,
Colonel Picquart, who was the new chief of French

counter-espionage and was, ironically, an anti-Semite
himself but who wished to have the real traitor Major
Ferdinand Walsin Esterhazy exposed[1]; and finally
the politician Scheurer-Kestner, who brought the
injustice to the attention of the French political class.
Picquart himself was “reassigned” to Tunisia, North
Africa in December 1896 for his continual attempts
to expose Major Esterhazy and rehabilitate Dreyfus.
The abundant production of iconographic materials
was due in part to the newness of their media.
That photography was just becoming popularized
can be seen in the many small photographic portraits
mounted on paperboard backings, referred to as cartes
de visite. The Dreyfus Affair material is truly unique,
a perfect example of the treasures held in the stacks of
the Jewish Public Library.
Dreyfus was put on trial in 1894 and was accused of
espionage, found guilty and sentenced to life in prison
on Devil’s Island. In September of 1899, he was offered
a pardon from the president of France, which he
declined.
While the JPL’s Dreyfus Affair Collection includes
numerous materials dating from the 1880s and early
1890s, and many others that appeared between 1909
and 1961, its strength lies in the period contemporary
to the Affair itself. The three most intense years--
1898 to 1900--saw the greatest production, and a
correspondingly high proportion of the material in
the Collection dates from this time: approximately
eighty-five percent of the books and pamphlets and
virtually all of the manuscripts and ephemera in the
Collection.
The JPL owns books and pamphlets written by the
principal figures: Bernard Lazare, Joseph Reinach,
Georges Clemenceau, Maurice Barrès, Emile Zola,
Jean Jaurès, Alfred Dreyfus, Yves Guyot, Ferdinand
Brunetière, Ferdinand Walsin Esterhazy, Francis de
Pressensé, Emile Duclaux, Abbé Ludovic Trarieux,
Louis Havet, Jules Lemaître, Jean Ajalbert, and
others. If we associate many of these names with
the pro-Dreyfus campaign, the reason is simple:
while anti-Dreyfusards overwhelmingly dominated
the popular press, Dreyfusards carried the day on
the field of l’édition, of independent publishing.
Separately issued publications ranging in size from
several-page pamphlets to several-hundred-page
studies and essays lent themselves far better to the
painstaking pursuit of Truth and Justice than the
brief, sensational articles that became the trademark
of so much of the daily press. Yet they could hardly
compete with the newspapers, which could also follow
events as they unfolded day by day. As a result,
many of these books and pamphlets sold poorly and
failed to galvanize public opinion on a massive scale
in the way that the papers did.
Colourful ephemera from the Dreyfus Affair Collection.

In the next issue…
Capturing Memory on Film
Learning through the Lens
New to the Archives
Give us your ideas! The next two issues of Prologue
are planned already but if you have a suggestion for
topics you would like covered, e-mail Shannon Hodge
at archives@jplmontreal.org.
Virtually Yours!
The JPL and the Archives are pleased to present a
basic introduction to the Jewish Public Library Rare
Book Collection. For those individuals who would
like to catch up on Josephus, in Latin that is, or interested
in deciphering prayers in Geez, check out the
virtual introduction to the Rare Books through the
Archives website.
The JPL-A on the road!
The JPL-A was pleased to participate in several
external exhibits and publications over the past year.
Working with researchers and other heritage institutions
is an excellent indication of the importance of
Archives in communicating Canada’s cultural history.
Prayer book for Shabbat and holidays that are reckoned by the moon,
prayers for burials and for difficult times.
Asforegie (Dabat district, Gondar province) Ethiopia, 178-.
For more information, visit ATSA at:
http://www.atsa.qc.ca/pages/frags2home.asp.
300 ans de manuels scolaires au Québec
Organized by the Bibliothèque et archives nationales
du Québec, the exhibit borrowed Hebrew manuals
and flashcards from the Bernard Figler material of the
JPL’s Jewish Canadiana collection. The exhibit runs
at the Grande Bibliothèque from November 21st to
May 27th.
On the bookshelf
The latest book to take advantage of the JPL-A
Photograph Collection is Mordecai Richler Was Here,
published in Canada under
Madison Press Books.
The book is conveniently
available in the Library!
In the display cases
Lace Up: Canada’s Passion for Skating
This Canadian Museum of Civilization exhibit contains
JPL-A material on Louis Rubenstein, Canada’s
first world fancy-skating champion and an active leader
in the Montreal Jewish community. The exhibit
runs until April 1, 2007.
FRAG on the Main
Created by ATSA (Action Terroriste Socialement
Acceptable), FRAG on the Main displays the colorful
heritage of St. Laurent Boulevard as viewed through
images and historical descriptions. Featured prominently
is Léa Roback, activist and union organizer.
North America’s oldest Jewish lending institution, the JPL is an
agency of FEDERATION CJA. The JPL Archives contain 800
linear meters of textual documents, 17,000 photographs as well
as artifacts, textiles and ephemera reflective of Montreal’s Jewish
community’s culture and history.
We are located at: 5151 Côte Ste-Catherine
(514) 345-2627, x 3015