The agency’s roots run extremely deep within the Toronto Jewish community. It started in 1868, with the establishment of the first women’s social welfare organization in the city, the Ladies' Sick Benefit Society (Toronto Chevra Gemillas Chesed). Many organizations emerged over the years that delivered vital services and support to Toronto’s Jews. A number of these agencies amalgamated and became part of JF&CS after it was formally established in 1943, in the early years operating within the United Jewish Welfare Fund (which later became UJA Federation of Greater Toronto). JF&CS has significantly grown and become one of the most innovative and effective social welfare agencies in the city. It currently operates out of four locations within the GTA, runs over 30 community programs, possesses 120 staff and a budget of over $22 million. ;xNLx;;xNLx;This interactive virtual timeline spans from the inception of JF&CS until recent years. It highlights over 25 of the key milestones – individuals, events and achievements -- that significantly shaped the agency during that period. Each milestone is described in detail, and in many cases, includes corresponding and compelling archival materials such as: photographs, documents and one audio recording. These materials were acquired from the following repositories: the Ontario Jewish Archives, Blankenstein Family Heritage Centre; the City of Toronto Archives; Queen’s University Archives; and the Toronto Public Library. ;xNLx;;xNLx;The research, content and design of the timeline was undertaken by Heritage Professionals. We would like to extend our gratitude to the archivists from the institutions listed above for their assistance, along with the staff and volunteers from JF&CS who contributed to this initiative. ;xNLx;;xNLx;;xNLx;;xNLx;
During the 1890s, the women redirected their focus to Jewish orphans, widows, and transients. Shortly after the Toronto Hebrew Ladies Aid Society was established.
The Toronto Hebrew Ladies' Aid Society emerged in 1899 and operated within Toronto’s first Jewish neighbourhood or shtetl, St. John’s Ward, referred to by locals as “The Ward”. During the turn of the twentieth century, thousands of Jewish immigrants from Eastern Europe immigrated to Toronto and settled in The Ward. Many of the residents toiled as peddlers or garment workers for the Eaton’s factory located nearby. This second wave of Jews was devoutly Orthodox, lived in substandard and overcrowded cottages, and were perceived by outsiders as ignorant foreigners.
Hebrew Ladies Maternity Aid & Child Welfare Society This organization provided mothers and babies with medical care, milk and food. They offered prenatal classes and held annual picnics for 500-1000 Jewish kids.
The Jewish Orphanage was established in 1909 and was initially run out of a rented building in the Ward, at the corner of Elizabeth and Dundas streets. At first, the institution operated as a nursery, providing daycare support for the children of working mothers in the neighbourhood. It later became an orphanage. The first president was Mrs. I. Cooper.
The Jewish Big Brothers movement was created in 1914. The main intent was to address juvenile delinquency within the community and keep Jewish boys out of the court system and industrial school. There was a concern for the welfare of the youth involved as well as the reputation of the community. Mr. Ralph Raphael was the first President and Rabbi Bricker was the Honourary President.
The Jewish Big Sisters organization was established in 1918. It was a part of the Jewish Women’s Council. Its mandate was similar to that of the Big Brothers movement, except that it targeted girls who violated both criminal and moral crimes, offering different programs to achieve its goals. Kate Josephi was the first coordinator.
The Mothers' and Babes' Rest Home was founded in 1919 by Dora Till, Ida Siegel and Lillian Clavir under the auspices of the Ladies’ Maternity Aid Society. The purpose of this home was to provide poor mothers and children with a 10 to 14-day retreat away from the city. The women and children were provided with nourishing meals, fresh air, and a variety of enjoyable activities such as: concerts, picnics, Yiddish folk-singing, games, and health discussions. The hope was that the beneficiaries would be granted a respite from their arduous lives and return to the city with renewed strength and energy.
Enter storThe school was set up to train poor children to become farmers. The focus shifted shortly after to foster homes, viewing them as a better environment for kids to thrive and get the nurturing they needed. y info here
Starting in 1919, family welfare work within the community was overseen by the Family Welfare Committee, which was part of the Federation of Jewish Philanthropies of Toronto (FJPT). In 1931, the agency was restructured and renamed the Jewish Family Welfare Bureau, becoming an independent agency within Federation (later UJWF). Most of its funding came from the FJPT. It’s first home was located at 179 Beverley Street.
The Jewish Child Welfare Association was established in 1936. It was a department of the Federation of Jewish Philanthropies of Toronto (FJPT). The JCWA represented an amalgamation of the following entities: Jewish Children’s Bureau, Jewish Big Brothers, and the Jewish Big Sisters Committee. The latter two left the Association in the early 1940s to become part of the Jewish Family Welfare Bureau. The fist Chair was Bertram N. Davis and the first Executive Secretary (a title often designated to women who served as executive directors at that time) was Anne Gussack. The Association was located at 179 Beverley St. with the Jewish Family and Welfare Bureau. It received most of its funding from Federation, supplemented by municipal and provincial grants.
On January 1, 1943, a merger took place involving the JCWA and the JFWB to form JF&CS. This included the consolidation of the Jewish Employment Service, Hebrew Maternity Aid Society, Joint Application Bureau, Mothers and Babes Rest Home, and the Toronto Free Burial Society. A United Jewish Welfare Fund Annual Report from that era referred to JF&CS as “an old agency with a new name.”
Following the Second World War, JF&CS worked with the CJC, JIAS, Folks Farein and the federal government to bring in 1,116 Jewish orphans to Canada. The Canadian Jewish Congress was responsible for coordinating the national initiative. However, JF&CS played a critical role in orchestrating the settlement of 384 orphans in Toronto from 1947 to 1952. Mrs. David Vise served as the Chair of JF&CS’s European Youth Committee. Vise had been a member of JF&CS’s executive since its inception. She later went on to become President of JF&CS in 1954.
In 1950, JF&CS began holding annual Chanukah celebrations for its foster families. It became an extremely successful and long-running program. The early celebrations were held in the JF&CS building on Beverley Street. They were hosted by the Foster Parents’ Club and attended by the JF&CS staff, board members and the foster families. The typical sequence of events included a welcome message delivered by the Executive Director, Dora Wilensky, and the President, Mrs. Vise, followed by the traditional candle lighting ceremony, singing and dancing, and of course, refreshments and latkes. Gelt and gifts were also distributed to the children.
JF&CS was one of the earliest agencies to engage in play therapy with their clients. Since young children are often unable to express their thoughts and feelings, play therapy was devised as a method to address this challenge when treating youngsters. It is often employed when treating children ranging in age from three to eleven, relying on play as a tool for diagnosis and healing.
Jerome Diamond was born in New York City in 1915 and completed a BSc, LLB and MSW in the United States. He served in the U.S. Corps of Engineers during World War Two and won a Bronze Star for his heroic service. Before relocating to Toronto, he was employed as Director of the Bronx Jewish Family and Child Services. Diamond was appointed Executive Director of Toronto’s JF&CS in 1960 and made his mark as a gifted, respected and talented leader. He was one of the founders of Centre Shelanu in 1975, later renamed the Jerome D. Diamond Centre for Adolescents. One of Diamond’s great strengths was forging strong alliances with other religious and secular social service agencies within the city. He retired in 1981 and remained active until he passed away at the age of 100 in 2015.
JF&CS was incorporated with the Province of Ontario on October 25th, 1966. The legal name of the agency at the time was Jewish Family and Child Service of Metropolitan Toronto. The letters patent was issued in the names of Abraham David Berlin, Henry Goodman, Joseph Kronick, Stephen Berger, Ethyle Levine, and Sophie Goldenson. In 2001, the letters patent document was updated to alter the agency’s name to Jewish Family Services of Greater Toronto.
JF&CS’s Mobile Treatment Centre was set up by Gordon Wolfe in 1968. The program was also referred to as the Traveller Project. The Centre provided a “service on wheels” to street youth in Yorkville. The Centre was open from 3:00 p.m. to 2:00 a.m.
Centre Shelanu was established in 1975. The name is Hebrew for “Our Home”. The Centre had two homes located at 122 and 196 Keewatin Avenue in the Mount Pleasant area. Stanley Lerner and Edwin Schild were respectively the first directors of the Centre and school. It was equipped with a kosher kitchen and boasted a 17-member staff and a Jewish identity program. It served as an adolescent residential and day treatment centre for teens. The first group of youth included four girls and two boys aged 12-19 years of age. The Centre was run by JF&CS with support from the province in the amount of $300,000.
Jewish Family & Child became the only government-mandated Jewish Children’s Aid Society in Canada. JF&CS became responsible for the care and protection of all Jewish youth in the GTA, providing a supportive atmosphere for Jewish children who were separated from their families.
Gordon Wolfe was raised and educated in Toronto and completed degrees in business and social work at the University of Toronto. His main passion during his younger years was working at White Pines Camp. He served as Program Director at White Pines and met his wife Linda there in 1956. They later set up their own camp, Camp Wabicon, which Wolfe ran for a decade. He also was devoted to Holy Blossom Temple, his childhood shul, where he later worked as a social worker for their youth program.
Just a Second Shop opened in 1983 at 3101 Bathurst St. It was run by a small group of staff and many dedicated volunteers. The shop brought in new and gently used clothing and small appliances, selling them at reasonable rates to the public. JF&CS clients were offered merchandise gratis.
This program was established by Marilyn Horwich in cooperation with JF&CS in 1984. Marilyn Horwich was a member of the community who was the victim of wife abuse. She not only had the strength to escape, but became a prominent speaker and advocate on behalf of abused women. In a 1987 interview with CJN, she revealed that four out of ten Jewish wives in Toronto were victims of abuse. It was extremely difficult for these women to seek out help, since the support didn’t exist within the community. There were no shelters that catered to Jewish women, and to make matters worse, many of these women confronted community pressure to keep their marriage intact and refrain from airing their dirty laundry in public.
The Henry G. Goodman Home opened in September 1985. It served as a foster home for “developmentally handicapped” children. The Home was located on Wilmington Avenue near Finch.
Child abuse has always been a problem within Canadian society. However, there was a reluctance on the part of the Jewish community to acknowledge that it afflicted the Toronto Jewish community. In 1980, the province of Ontario mandated JF&CS as a Jewish Children’s Aid Society, responsible for the care and protection of all Jewish youth in the GTA.
The Jewish Hospice Care Program was established in 1994 and is intended to provide support to individuals with life-threatening illnesses along with their families. The home-based services if has offered includes: counselling, care planning, advocacy, chaplaincy, volunteer support for caregivers, bereavement support, and other services for the children and family of the infirm family member. This pioneering and pivotal program offers integrated hospice and palliative care that has drawn national attention.
In partnership with Youthdale, this treatment provided comprehensive and integrated residential services for Jewish youth aged 12- 18. The participants also attended day treatment at the JDD Adolescent Centre.
Dr. Richard Cummings possesses an M.Ed. from McGill University, and an MA and Ph.D. from the University of Toronto. He started his career as the Coordinator of Evaluation and Research at Dellcrest Children’s Centre. Cummings later went on to occupy the position of Director of Day Treatment, and subsequently, Executive Director, of the Integra Mental Health Centre from 1985 to 2005. During that period, Richard served as a Director with the Board of JF&CS for 15 years, serving as President from 1999 to 2001.
Jewish Folks Telling Jokes In an effort to engage stakeholders and donors through laughter, Jewish Folks Telling Jokes was launched in 2012, also running in 2014 and 2016. An evening to celebrate the jokes that reflect our culture and honour those that have the special gift of ‘telling a good story’. The three events combined raised more than $1 million dollars!
This group was established to influence and empower young Jewish professionals through education, networking and fundraising. Their annual event, Cringe Worthy, brings people together to laugh while giving back to the community. The focus of the group is to sustain a vibrant and healthy future for the vulnerable members of Toronto’s Jewish community.
Maxie’s Garden, a potent partnership initiative with Shoresh, delivers hands-on gardening instruction and experience to JF&CS clients at the downtown home of a generous community member. Once the crops mature, the participants are encouraged to enjoy and consume the fruits of their labour.
The Café Europa program was established in 2013. It is a joint initiative between JF&CS and the Bernard Betel Centre. This program brings together Holocaust Survivors in Toronto for monthly lunch events featuring live music. It provides its participants with the opportunity to get out, mingle, and enjoy a day of fun with other Survivors. The event attracts around 250 to 300 seniors each month. The program is funded by the Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany.
The current Executive Director, Brian Prousky, was hired in January 2015, after the retirement of Richard Cummings. He has a BA in Arts and an MA in Social Work from the Wurzweiler School of Social Work at Yeshiva University. Prousky started his career at JF&CS as a front-line social worker. From 2003 to 2015 he worked for the Durham Children’s Aid Society, completing his tenure there as Director of Services. His main priorities as ED are to carry out the objectives within the Strategic Plan. He has also voiced his objection to any provincial plans to amalgamate JF&CS with other child protection agencies. He is therefore proven to be a strong and staunch advocate and spokesperson on behalf of his staff and volunteers, his clients, as well as marginalized members of the community.
The Pearl Project is a recently launched, grassroots initiative aimed at supporting and serving young people who have graduated out of foster care or a group home. The goal is to reach youth who may be alone, isolated and lack the support system required to get by, transition to adulthood, and thrive. The name of the program is meant to represent the potential of these individuals who are viewed by JF&CS as hidden pearls within the community. JF&CS provides these youth with the support required to build their expertise, confidence, and connections.
We'd love to hear from you. Please send questions or feedback to the below email addresses.
Before contacting us, you may wish to visit our FAQs page which has lots of useful info on Tiki-Toki.
We can be contacted by email at: hello@tiki-toki.com.
You can also follow us on twitter at twitter.com/tiki_toki.
If you are having any problems with Tiki-Toki, please contact us as at: help@tiki-toki.com
Close