<aside> <img src="/icons/push-pin_gray.svg" alt="/icons/push-pin_gray.svg" width="40px" /> Henry Balinson and his Newspaper

Henry Balinson (1888-1961) was the printer behind the first and only Yiddish newspaper in Hamilton, Ontario, Yiddishe Shtime de Hamiltoner (The Jewish Voice of Hamilton). Born to a large family in Mariupol, Ukraine, Balinson was self-educated, a polyglot, and an avid reader. He trained in typesetting and printing in Odesa and aspired to become a poet and playwright. In 1911, at the age of 23, Balinson immigrated to Canada with his wife-to-be, Sarah, and her family. Within the year, he had established his own small printing business in Hamilton, and the apartment above the shop became their new home. Together, he and Sarah raised a family and became active members of their community.

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Henry Balinson outside of his print shop, June 1942, Courtesy of the Ontario Jewish Archives.

Street view of Balinson’s print shop, International Press Printers (246 King Street West, Hamilton, Ontario), September 1944, Courtesy of the Ontario Jewish Archives.

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The life and work of this one Yiddish printer is fairly well-documented. In addition to his family photographs and papers held at the Ontario Jewish Archives (OJA) in Toronto, we are lucky to also be able to handle and actively use some of the metal and wood type that Balinson left behind, now held at the Bibliography Room at Massey College.

Balinson’s small print shop, International Press Printers, was located at 246 King Street West in Hamilton, Ontario. His work was indeed international and intercultural in nature, as he job-printed materials in a variety of languages and scripts, not only for his own Jewish community, but also for the Polish, Hungarian, Ukrainian, and Latvian communities, among others, across the city.

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Yiddishe Shtime de Hamiltoner (The Jewish Voice of Hamilton), issue no. 192 (April 1, 1942).

Yiddishe Shtime de Hamiltoner (The Jewish Voice of Hamilton), issue no. 202 (July 1, 1943).

<aside> 📰 Yiddishe Shtime de Hamiltoner (The Jewish Voice of Hamilton)

At the heart of Balinson’s printing business was his passion project: his Yiddish newspaper, Yiddishe Shtime de Hamiltoner (The Jewish Voice of Hamilton). The paper was issued monthly from 1933 to 1943 and served as the main source of local news reported from a Jewish perspective. A subscription to the paper cost one dollar a year. By also providing job printing services for the broader community, Balinson was able to sustain his newspaper and leave behind this remarkable window into Jewish life in Hamilton in the 1930s and 1940s.

Balinson’s paper reported on both local and global news but was also infused with his original voice and opinions. He was deeply devoted to his community and believed in the power of the collective to create change.

To learn more about the ideological backing of Balinson’s newspaper, see case 3.

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Yiddishe Shtime de Hamiltoner (The Jewish Voice of Hamilton), issue no. 197 (February 1, 1943)

<aside> 📰 Yiddishe Shtime de Hamiltoner (The Jewish Voice of Hamilton), issue no. 197 (February 1, 1943)

The February 1943 issue of Yiddishe Shtime was a special issue published to commemorate the sixtieth anniversary of Beth Jacob Synagogue in Hamilton. The front-page features photographs of the synagogue’s Cantor and Rabbi. Beth Jacob Synagogue played an important role in the stewardship of Balinson’s archival records and printing equipment, housing and exhibiting the materials before the collections were eventually transferred to Toronto.

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<aside> 📰 Yiddish newspapers in North America

The Yiddish press in Canada dates back to the late nineteenth century and came to be more firmly established in major city centres such as Toronto, Montreal, and Winnipeg, following the settlement patterns of Jewish newcomers. In North America, the readership of Yiddish newspapers generally consisted of recent immigrants, many of whom earned livings working long hours in the garment trade or through other semi-skilled labour. According to the 1931 Canadian census, the vast majority of Jewish-Canadians identified as bilingual. In Balinson’s hometown of Hamilton, nearly 90% of the city’s Jewish population spoke both English and Yiddish. Across the country, Yiddish was the first language of approximately 15,000 Canadians (representing 1.4% of the national population).

In the United States, Yiddish publishing came to represent the most widely printed foreign language press up to and including today. Yiddish newspapers were more than just news outlets. These publications fostered a sense of community among eastern European Jewish newcomers, serving as a guide to their new and unfamiliar surroundings while preserving their culture and memories of home. The Yiddish press not only reported on Jewish life but strove to actively shape it.

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Bill McArthur (employee) operating a printing press at International Press Printers (246 King Street West, Hamilton, Ontario), [1946?]. Courtesy of the Ontario Jewish Archives.

Morley Balinson‘s (1925-2019) name set in type “Moshe Aryeh Ben Yedidiah / Morley Balinson / Moshe Aryeh Ben Yedidiah”

<aside> <img src="/icons/keyboard-alternate_gray.svg" alt="/icons/keyboard-alternate_gray.svg" width="40px" /> Morley Balinson (1925-2019)

After Henry Balinson’s death in 1961, his son Morley kept the presses at International Press Printers running until the 1970s. Traces of Morley’s personal connection to these artifacts can be found within the collection, such as this setting of his full name, which arrived at Massey College as is, tucked inside one of the type cases.

The Balinson Jewish Type Collection was acquired by Massey College in 2013 from Morley and his wife Joan Balinson in the interest of preserving not only the legacy of the Yiddish newspaper it was once used to print, but also the broader history of moveable type and the trade of letterpress printing.

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“Yiddish has been dying for over 200 years. And we hope it will go on dying for 200 more.” — Mordkhe Schaechter (1927-2007), Yiddish Linguist

<aside> <img src="/icons/pen_gray.svg" alt="/icons/pen_gray.svg" width="40px" /> A dying language?

Yiddish is an old vernacular Germanic language, believed to date back as early as 900 CE. The language is a fusion of medieval German, Hebrew, Aramaic, and Slavic as well as old French and Italian. Although it is typically written using Hebrew letters, it has its own unique grammatical structure.

Hebrew, on the other hand, is an ancient language that was restricted to religious practice until its modern revival, which began to take shape towards the end of the nineteenth century. For most Ashkenazi (central and eastern European) Jews and their descendants, Yiddish was the language of everyday life. Today, Yiddish is widely considered a dying or endangered language given that approximately half of its speakers perished during or in the aftermath of the Holocaust, and the language consequently faded out of use over time.

These distinct uses of Hebrew and Yiddish would still have been applicable for Balinson and his readers. Although Balinson’s type may technically be referred to as Hebrew letterforms, it is important to recognize and celebrate the collection’s unique Yiddish legacy.

To learn more about the Yiddish language, see case 2.

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