beind the Pictures The stories

Shechita Meeting in 1960

In 1959 then Prime Minister John Diefenbaker’s government passed the Humane Slaughter of Food Animals Act which approved shechita as a humane method of slaughter. It also banned the method being used in shechita at the time called “shackle and hoist,” whereby the animal was suspended in the air by its legs prior to shechita. The government gave the Jewish community one year to find an alternative restraining method.

A number of options were tried but those involved in the issue settled on a pneumatic restraining mechanism that raised the animal’s head gently. This pneumatic restraint received plaudits from the plant, but it needed rabbinical approval as well.

A meeting of Rabbis was required to investigate the issue. The Kashruth Committee of the Canadian Jewish Congress (COR) invited a group of rabbis to Toronto led by Rabbi Yosef Dov Soloveitchik zt"l, Rosh Yeshiva of Rabbi Isaac Elchanan

Theological Seminary at Yeshiva University and Rabbi Eliezer Silver zt"l President of the Union of Orthodox Rabbis of the U.S. and Canada. Also in attendance were Rabbi Pinchas Hirschprung zt"l of Montreal, and Rabbi Pinchas Teitz zt"l from Elizabeth, New York among others.

The esteemed rabbis along with committed lay people visited Canada Packers to observe the pneumatic restraint and the rabbis determined that it was acceptable -- even more preferable than shackle and hoist from a halachic perspective according to some. Pneumatic restraint was implemented shortly thereafter and has been in use at Canadian abattoirs ever since.

After the tour at Canada Packers, some of the COR representatives and lay people, as well as other rabbis from the city, returned with Rabbi Soloveitchik, Rabbi Silver and the other senior rabbis to the home belonging to a member in the community. While there, someone must have decided to take a picture, recording that moment in the annals of history of Canadian Jewry.

Rabbi Moshe Feinstein zt"l Visit in 1970

Rabbi Moshe Feinstein was recognized by many as the greatest halachic authority of his time. On his visit to Toronto he was greeted enthusiastically by yeshiva students and spoke at some of the shuls and schools in the city, including at Eitz Chaim. News of the great tzaddik’s arrival even made its way to general society as reflected in the picture of Rabbi Feinstein together with then mayor of Toronto William Dennison who hosted the rabbi at Toronto City Hall.

Visit from Chief Rabbi of Jerusalem, 1980

In 1980 Jerusalem’s Chief Ashkenazi Rabbi of Jerusalem, Rabbi Bezalel Zolty came to visit Toronto. He was interested in learning how kashrut was administered in the city so he had a meeting with the relevant representatives from COR. Pictured from right to left are Rabbi Yitzchok Kerzner, COR’s Rabbinic ViceChairman; Rabbi Gedalia Felder, COR’s Rabbinic Chairman; Rabbi Zolty; Mr. Yitz Feldman COR’s lay Chairman; and Rabbi Nachman Shemen Executive Director.

Toronto Kollel 1980

In 1970 the complexion of Toronto’s Jewish community changed with a revolutionary idea: the establishment of an institute of higher Jewish learning, a Kollel, where members would fully immerse themselves in Torah study. Over 50 years later they have strengthened and enriched the Jewish community as a result. The Kollel opened in 1970 with ten families under the leadership of Rabbi Shlomo Miller and Rabbi Yaakov Hirschman. At first it was housed in a small unit above what is now Miriam’s Judaica. But as the Kollel grew, it secured its current location on Coldstream. These pictures were taken at the dedication of that building in 1980.