- Ottawa Jewish Archives
- Abraham Caplin fonds
Digitized below this fonds
2 images · small copies hosted here, credited to Ottawa Jewish Archives
Where
Not on the map yet.
- Held by
- Ottawa Jewish Archives via Canadian Jewish Heritage Network (incl. Alex Dworkin Canadian Jewish Archives)
- Dates
- [ca. 1924] (indexed as 1924)
- Level
- fonds
- Extent
- textual material, objects
- Scope & content
- Fonds consists of: a photocopied letter from Rabbi Fyne, July 18, 1924; a hand coloured certificate of condolence when Abraham Caplin died in July, 1924 signed by S. Spevak (President) and A. Sugarman (Vice-President) (see 1-1007); and four shoichet knives. The shoichet knives (butchers knives) were owned by Abraham Caplin. Two have stamps from New Jersey, a third was made in Germany, and the fourth is unmarked. Three also have what seems to be early Bakelite handles - the earliest type of commercial plastic. This would put the date of their manufacture at any time after 1907. The handle from Germany however is made of ivory and is stamped with the name G. Gruenwald / Konigsberg. Gruenwald specialized in making ritual knives like circumcision blades and other slaughterer's tools. These knives were likely made between 1850 and 1915. Allan has memories of his grandfather sharpening the knives using a whetstone, again and again, until they were sharper than a razor blade. "He would run his fingernail down the length of the blade looking for any chips, and if there were, back to the stone." 1. Biographical information provided by Allan Maser and by the Honourable Abraham H. Lieff, 2001. 2. The Caplan surname is usually spelled with “a,” however, Abraham Caplin’s headstone in the Bank Street cemetery is spelled with an “i”. Allan Maser suggested (July, 2014) that the change in spelling likely occurred during the immigration process.
- Location
No place found in this description yet.
- Genre / form
- multiple media
- Harvested
- 2026-10-16T07:54:26Z · source datestamp n/a · cjhn