This post is brought to you by David C. Martin, a volunteer at the Ottawa Jewish Archives.
If you ask an Ottawa Jew about the community’s golden age, brace yourself, for you’re likely to receive a full megillah on the heyday that was Ottawa in the1950s and 60s. If you sharpen the question however, and ask about the golden age of yiddishkeit in the Byward Market, it seems to me, that a far older story may still need to be told…
Today, the Market really doesn’t appear at the centre of Jewish life in the nation’s capital – but that wasn’t always the case. Though small, pre-WWII Jewish Ottawa was booming. Families that many will fondly recall, the Aisenbergs, Lithwicks, Greenblatts, Rivers, Copoersmiths, and Slipacoffs among others, operated at the centre of a vibrant community where business and trade regularly mixed with family, community, and synagogue. Small enough to where ‘everyone knew everybody,’ life, it seems, was at once both far more difficult and yet, simpler.[1]
I’m going to borrow an anecdote to help set the scene… In a 1982, while appealing for tzedakah as General Chairman of the UJA Campaign, Jack Krane took a moment to reminisce about the youth he spent in the Byward Market of the 1930s:
One Thursday, as we were walking along the market row, there were a couple of young kids standing beside their little wagons shouting “Transfer Lady”! “Transfer Lady”! and my Mother, whose English was terrible, asked me in Jewish “Voos shreien zay Krantzberg lady”? and I answered her in Jewish, explaining… they’re not crying out “Krantzberg lady”, they’re shouting “Transfer lady”! My Mother then asked once again in Jewish, “Voos meint is Transfer lady?” and I explained to her that these boys were equipped with their little wagons and were offering their services to help people carry their parcels home for a small tip. My Mother nodded her head and the following week, there was a new wagon purchased for me (not to help with her parcels) but to find myself a spot in the market and begin earning my own way.[2]
Jewish life in the market laid down its roots as far back as the 1890s. Fleeing the pogroms and extreme economic hardship of Eastern Europe, Jewish immigrants found in Ottawa, especially in Lowertown, fertile ground for the fruits of hard work and dedication. From twenty families in 1889, to a population of well over 5,000 by 1961, early successes proved a model that encouraged continued growth.[3]
Between the two world wars, Jewish merchants dominated Byward selling everything from produce and baked goods to furniture, clothing, and jewelry. One pioneering family, led by Louis and Rochel Gunner, whose horse and wagon are pictured to the left, arrived in Ottawa in the early 1920s. Each about 20 years old, they had followed Louis’ sister, Mrs. Slack, who had already made the journey from Ukraine. Almost immediately, the couple took up peddling – a common practise of freshly arrived Jews – wherein they used a horse and small cart to collect whatever discarded and recycled goods they could find. Rags, old textiles, and metals of all sorts were sold for scrap to the Baker Brothers located off Scott Street in LeBreton Flats.[4]
Some early arrivals, who were lucky enough to have the minimal funds necessary to rent a “stand” in the market, were really able to hit the ground running. Jacob and Leah Rivers and their four children, for example, arrived in Ottawa in 1921. After operating a produce stand for a few years, while at the same time attending night school classes to learn English, the couple was able to expand into a proper shop (pictured to the right). They rented a small retail space at 16 Byward Market where they sold fruit and vegetables both for the wholesale and retail markets. After a few years at number sixteen, the family was able to purchase a larger storefront at 50 Byward, which they named, J. Rivers Fruits. Always enterprising, Jacob and his sons were also able to secure a large retail space on York Street, where they owned and operated a modest haberdashery. Here too, the family was able to quickly expand, transforming their outlet into the clothing superstore that was 26 Byward.[5]
Another spirited and industrious family who, like the Gunners, began their Lowertown story as peddlers, were the Nathansons. Sam Nathanson arrived in Canada at just six years old. Even from that young age, Sam learned about business and the Market, by helping his father Nusin operate his horse and wagon. Together, father and son travelled outside the city to buy produce from area farmers, sometimes, even sleeping under the wagon when it became too dark to travel safely. With goods in hand, Nusin and Sam then made the long trek home to replenish stock at their Byward Market stand and then to sell whatever excess they had via horse and buggy in the Hintonberg area. As he grew up and got married, Sam sought to apply the lessons learned at his father’s knee by opening Sam’s Buy and Sell at 41 William Street (Pictured above). There, he sold second-hand clothing, musical instruments, buffalo robes, trunks, and whatever other quality stock he was able to obtain. Sam and his wife Florence had three boys, Sam Jr. Louis and Harry. Harry, some may know, had a hand in establishing Machzikei Hadas Synagogue on Murray Street at King Edward in the late 1920s.[6] Perhaps a symbol of the era, the shul stood as a landmark for nearly 40 years, before moving, along with much of the Jewish community, to Alta Vista in 1973.[7]
While few of our youth are likely to associate the Byward Market with Jewish life in the capital, our historic connection to Lowertown is indeed remarkable. If you get the chance, ask your grandparents what memories they might have of our community’s very first Golden Age.
[1] Freedman, L. (1993, June). A talk on Jewish Commerce in the Byward Market 1920 – 1940’s. Ottawa Jewish Historical Society fonds. Ottawa; https://www.cjhn.ca/link/cjhn106584.
[2] Kimmel, D. (2020, August 24). Jack Krane. Geni Family Tree. https://www.geni.com/people/Jack-Krane/6000000008219640546; Krane, J. (1982, May 28). This UJA… What’s in it for you! The Ottawa Jewish Bulletin. Ottawa. Retrieved January 13, 2024, from https://archive.org/details/v46ottawajewishbulletin19/page/n1/mode/2up?q=byward.
[3] Ottawa Jewish Archives. (2024). The Jewish Community of Lowertown. Community Stories. https://www.communitystories.ca/v1/pm_v2.php?id=exhibit_home&fl=0&lg=English&ex=00000787
[4] Ottawa Jewish Archives. (2024). Louis Gunner, Peddler. Projects – Community Stories Collection. https://www.communitystories.ca/v1/CM_V2_Apps/ui/remWindow.php?remID=112520&remP=%2Fsgc-cms%2Fhistoires_de_chez_nous-community_stories%2Fhdcn-cm%2FAETM%2F0001%2Ftext%2F&remEx=&lg=English
[5] Ottawa Jewish Archives. (2024a). Jacob and Leah Rivers with daughter Thelma at River’s Fruit and Vegetables. The Jewish community of Lowertown. https://www.communitystories.ca/v1/pm_v2.php?id=record_detail&fl=0&lg=English&ex=00000787&hs=0&rd=225563
[6] Ottawa Jewish Archives. (2024c). Sam Nathanson outside Sam’s Buy and Sell. The Jewish community of Lowertown. https://www.communitystories.ca/v1/pm_v2.php?id=record_detail&fl=0&lg=English&ex=00000787&hs=0&rd=225704
[7] Concerned Group Seeks To Save Murals. (1977, December 9). The Ottawa Jewish Bulletin. Ottawa. Retrieved January 17, 2024, from https://archive.org/details/v42ottawajewishbulletin7/mode/2up.
L'Dor V'Dor 