Hidden Heroines: How Canada’s Jewish Women Helped Win WWII

Join author and journalist Ellin Bessner for a talk on The Untold Story of Jewish Women in the Second World War. She will take a fascinating look at the Jewish heroines, at home and at the front, who helped Canada win WWII, and whose contributions to history have never been recognized. Meet Cpl. Daisy Lazare, Sgt. Miriam Freedman, S/O Rose Goodman and Pvt. Esther (Bubis) Thorley, as well as the legions of Jewish women volunteers who raised funds, packed boxes, made sandwiches and even built the bombs.

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Jewish Canadian women in uniform in WWII deserve a nod on International Women’s Day

The nearly 280 Canadian Jewish women who volunteered, put on a uniform, and served in WWII lived their own important wartime experiences, and contributed to help Canada and the Allies win the war, defeat Hitler, and stop the Holocaust. Most of the women also had their own #Time’sUp moments.

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Portrait of a Patriot: Toronto artist’s search for the unknown Jewish veteran comes to a happy end

A Toronto artist’s year-long quest to learn the identity of the gregarious Jewish war veteran whose portrait she’d painted last year, brought her and the canvas to a boardroom at Baycrest Hospital last Sunday. There, at the regular monthly meeting of the Royal Canadian Legion Wingate Branch 256, comprising Jewish Second World War and Korean War veterans, the portrait of Jerry Rosenberg found a permanent home.

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VIDEO: How a Jewish soldier fought for religious freedom in the Canadian Army during WW2

Manny Rubinoff of Toronto served as a sapper after he enlisted in the Royal Canadian Army in the Second World War. When he refused to attend Catholic or Protestant church services on his army base in Ontario, he was”paraded” or brought up in front of the colonel to be disciplined. Instead, Rubinoff unbuttoned his uniform, showed the officer the Jewish daily prayer garment known as “Arba Kanfot” that he wore under his clothes, and pulled out his pocket-sized prayer book, handed it to the colonel, and waited. He tells “Double Threat” author and journalist Ellin Bessner what happened next.

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