Title and statement of responsibility area
Title proper
General material designation
- Textual record
- Graphic material
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- Source of title proper: Title based on the subject of the fonds.
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Class of material specific details area
Statement of scale (cartographic)
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Issuing jurisdiction and denomination (philatelic)
Dates of creation area
Date(s)
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1920 - 1988 (Creation)
- Creator
- Shaffir, Moshe, 1909-1988
Physical description area
Physical description
Contains 0.2m of textual documents and 11 photographs.
Publisher's series area
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Archival description area
Name of creator
Biographical history
Writer and teacher Moshe Mordechai (M. M.) Shaffir was born with the surname Schachter in 1909 in Suceava, Romania (in a region known as Bukovina). He was one of eight children, and his father was a cantor and shochet (ritual slaughterer). He came to Canada in 1929 and first landed in Halifax before settling in Montreal. He worked for some time as a factory worker before he began writing and teaching. From 1943, he taught at the Peretz School and the the Jewish People's Schools and Peretz Schools, as well as at the Jewish Teacher's Seminary until his retirement in 1981. He was a prolific poet, having published sixteen books of poetry, and his poetry and essays appeared in various newspapers and literary journals. His writing touched themes of nostalgia and remembrance, as well as a longing for a better world free from suffering and cruel existence.
He married Sarah Rudnitsky in 1945, and together they had twochildren, William and Chava. He passed away in 1988.
Custodial history
Scope and content
The fonds contains records related to Moshe Shaffir's career as a productive writer of poetry and essays, with many of his own publications and newspaper clippings present in the fonds. The fonds also contains correspondence, newspaper clippings, manuscripts and ephemera related to the Jewish Public Library, the Association of Bukovina Jews, and other local and global Jewish organizations and Yiddish institutions, all attesting to Shaffir's involvement in the Montreal Jewish community and Yiddish community in the United States, Israel, and Europe. Additionally, letters and newspaper clippings show Shaffir's personal interest in Soviet writers who emigrated to Israel.
Notes area
Physical condition
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- English
- Hebrew
- Romanian
- Yiddish
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Name access points
- Keneder Adler (Subject)
- Afn Shvel (Subject)
- Jewish Public Library (Subject)
- Association of Bukovina Jews (Subject)
- Jewish Daily Forward (Subject)
- Canadian Jewish News (Subject)
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This description was produced by Processing Archivist Intern Dina Gorelik on July 4th, 2023.