Our Collections

The OJA’s records span all segments of Ontario’s Jewish community. We have records from businesses, families, labour unions, organizations, and synagogues. These records date from the community’s earliest days to its present. What’s more, they come from all over Ontario and in every format you can think of. If you were to lay out all of our boxes, they would stretch from the foot of Yonge Street to Dundas Square!

Below you can find highlights from our newest acquisitions as well as collections that have recently been processed and added to our website search.

Do you have records to donate to the OJA? Click here to learn how.

Acquisition of the Month

June 2024

According to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, "Kindertransport (Children's Transport) was the informal name of a series of rescue efforts between 1938 and 1940. These rescue efforts brought thousands of refugee children, the vast majority of them Jewish, to Great Britain from Nazi Germany." One of those children who left the Third Reich (in this case, Nazi-ruled Austria) was Herbert Fielding.

Born Herbert Zwergfeld, Herbert made his way to Great Britain, where he spent the entirety of the Second World War. His mother, Marie, was not so fortunate, dying in December 1944 after having been moved to Stutthof from the Riga ghetto. 

Many of those who left the Third Reich as part of the Kindertransport were only able to bring one suitcase with them. The suitcase shown here belonged to Herbert. After the war, he held onto the briefcase, using it to store his personal correspondence and other important documents. One of his daughters, Helen, donated the briefcase along with the aforementioned documentation, which the OJA is pleased to preserve on behalf of, and in partnership with, the Toronto Holocaust Museum.