B'nai Brith
The B’nai Brith Club was established in North Bay in 1950. Harry Himmel was elected the fraternal organization’s first president. Among the group’s many activities were the awarding of scholarships, the donation of toys for nurseries in North Bay hospitals, Remembrance Day ceremonies, and hosting guest speakers, generally from the Canadian Jewish Congress. Their annual tag day event raised $1,265 in 1967 which supported the Cancer Society.
Other prominent members included Henry Wiseman, Herb Brown, Nathan Rivelis, Ben Herman, Sid Cohn, Abe Brown, Marty Brown, William Berk, Murray Finkelman, Morley Daiter, Harry Reiss, Bill Freedman, Joseph Rosenberg, Abe Freedman, Harry Freeman, Sam Herman, Joe Hoffman, Morris Brown and Sam Heisler. Mendel “Manny” Gurevitch, an insurance underwriter and one-time chairman of the Parks and Recreation Committee in North Bay, was president of the B’nai Brith Lodge in the early 1960s. Alex Metz as well as Allen and Gordon Rosenberg were also past presidents. Throughout the late 1970s and 1980s, the group struggled to maintain a membership base. By 1992, it was defunct.
