First Jewish Settlers
The first Jew to arrive in St. Catharines was Nathan Hoffler. He was originally from Germany and came to Canada with his wife Gertrude around 1854. Nathan worked as a tailor and merchant. His store occupied the Haynes Block on St. Paul Street. The couple remained in St. Catharines for a little over a decade and then moved to Buffalo around 1865.
By the 1870s, there were about 10 Jews living in the St. Catharines area. They included: Max Jacob, a Russian clothier who owned a store on St. Paul Street and lived with his family of seven; Joseph Helfron, a peddler; Michael Hayman, who operated Peninsular Clothing located at St. Paul Street and Queen Street; and Alfred Levi, a tin peddler from Germany. Most of the early settlers did not live in town very long. The exception was Levi, who remained in St. Catharines with his wife and two children for more than fifteen years and was the first of many Jewish junk dealers in town.
The next wave of settlers was from Russia and included a number of the founding families of the community: Philip Ginsburg, Rachmiel Nadell, Maurice Morris and Isaac Friedman all ended up in the junk business. Philip Ginsburg arrived in 1875. He and his wife Annie had 10 children and resided on Geneva Street next to Maurice Morris and his family. Rachmiel (also known as Richard) Nadell, came with his wife Dora and their first three children during the late 1880s. The family lived in St. Catharines for approximately 30 years. R.J. Hoffman settled in town in 1902 and married his wife Eva in 1905. He ran a successful dry good business and the couple had five children. Finally, Isaac Friedman arrived in Canada in 1890 without his family. He initially lived in a boarding house, working as a peddler to raise sufficient funds to send for his family. He then moved to the U.S. before his wife Rebecca joined him. The couple had three children in the U.S. and another five in St. Catharines, between 1893 and 1909.
Another wave of Russian Jews arrived after the Russo-Japanese war of 1904-1905. This precipitated the emigration of the Cooperman, Zalavinsky, Offstein and Newman families. Jacob Cooperman arrived in 1902, with his second wife Annie (née Blinderman) and their four children following him in 1907: Edith, Ida, Sam and Philip. The last two children, Mildred and Bernard Isaac (Itzy), were born in St. Catharines in 1908 and 1912 respectively. The family owned a furniture and dry goods business at 285 St. Paul Street, where they also resided. Simon and Rebecca Zalivinsky arrived in 1905. They had their children in St. Catharines and Simon worked as a shoemaker and junk dealer on Queenston Street. Jake Offstein and his family lived on the same street as the Zalavinsky family and ran a junk business with the help of their nephew, Abe Newman.
