Abraham Kaplansky
Born
Avrom-Leyb Kaplansky

(1860-05-01)1 May 1860
Białystok, Grodno Governorate, Russian Empire
Died5 July 1939(1939-07-05) (aged 79)
Montreal, Quebec, Canada
Burial placeSpanish and Portuguese Congregation Cemetery, Outremont
Spouse
Elka Rabinovitch
​
​
(m. 1891; died 1920)​

Abraham Leon Kaplansky (Yiddish: אברהם־לייבּ קאַפלאַנסקי, romanized: Avrom-Leyb Kaplansky; 1 May 1860 – 5 July 1939) was a Canadian printer, lawyer, and communal worker, who established Canada's first Hebrew and Yiddish printing press.[1]

Biography

Kaplansky was born in Białystok, where he trained and worked as a printer.[2] He immigrated to New York in 1889, where he entered the steamship ticket business, before moving to Montreal in 1893.[3] There he established the first Hebrew and Yiddish printing press in Canada, using type imported from New York, which largely produced booklets, pamphlets, and other ephemera.[2] Among Kaplansky's first publications were calendars for the Jewish years 5655 and 5656.[4]

In 1906 he was made a justice of the peace for the District of Montreal,[5] and the following year he took up the study of law.[3] He was appointed head of the legal aid service of the Baron de Hirsch Institute in 1910.[6] Kaplansky became the first clerk of the Montreal Jewish Court of Arbitration when it was founded in 1915 under the auspices of the institute.[7]

Kaplansky was meanwhile active in a number charitable institutions and fraternal societies. He served as District Deputy Grand Master of the Independent Order of the Sons of Benjamin, as Treasurer of the Spanish and Portuguese Synagogue,[3] and as president of the Chevra Kadisha congregation.[8] He was also instrumental in establishing the Jewish Immigrant Aid Society of Canada.[8]

On his death in July 1939, the Jewish Telegraphic Agency described Kaplansky as "one of the best known Jews in Canada".[9]

References

  1. ↑ Margolis, Rebecca (2007). "La culture juive de l'imprimé". Histoire du livre et de l'imprimé au Canada. Montreal: Presses de l'Université de Montréal. doi:10.4000/books.pum.17329.
  2. 1 2 Margolis, Rebecca (2011). Jewish Roots, Canadian Soil: Yiddish Cultural Life in Montreal, 1905–1945. McGill-Queen's University Press. p. 45. ISBN 978-0-7735-8589-8.
  3. 1 2 3 Hart, Arthur Daniel (1926). The Jew in Canada: A Complete Record of Canadian Jewry from the Days of the French Régime to the Present Time. Toronto and Montreal: Jewish Publications, Limited. p. 91.
  4. ↑ Hill, Brad Sabin (2005–2006). "Early Hebrew Printing in Canada". Studia Rosenthaliana. 38–39: 320–325, 332–343. ISBN 9789042919082. JSTOR 41482690.
  5. ↑ "Personal and Social Notes". The Canadian Jewish Times. Vol. 9, no. 25. 2 November 1906.
  6. ↑ Medresh, Israël (1997). Le Montréal juif d'autrefois (in French). Translated by Anctil, Pierre. Septentrion. p. 52. ISBN 978-2-89448-077-9.
  7. ↑ Kary, Joseph (December 2016). "Judgments of Peace Montreal's Jewish Arbitration Courts, 1914–1976". American Journal of Legal History. 56 (4): 436–489. doi:10.1093/ajlh/njw018.
  8. 1 2 Rome, David, ed. (1986). The Immigration Story. Montreal: National Archives, Canadian Jewish Congress. pp. 25–26, 50.
  9. ↑ "Abraham Kaplansky, Pioneer Printer in Canada, Dies" (PDF). J.T.A. News. Vol. 5, no. 179. Jewish Telegraphic Agency. 7 July 1939. p. 5.
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