Murray Rubin recalls his days at Harbord Collegiate very well, even though his last year there dates back to 1950.
The school was smack dab in the middle of a Jewish neighbourhood, around Bathurst and Harbord streets, populated by kids whose hard-working, blue-collar parents instilled in them a burning desire to succeed, he said.
Outside the building was something unique to Harbord: memorials to former students who went off to fight in the Great War and World War II, but never came back.
Inside, the renowned school orchestra earned its chops playing operettas by Gilbert and Sullivan. Some of its musicians went on to perform with the Toronto Symphony Orchestra.
Rubin remembers the orchestra well, and like a blast from the past, today’s Harbord orchestra is expected to again perform songs by Gilbert and Sullivan when alumni gather April 28 and 29 to celebrate the school’s 125th anniversary.
Rubin, 86, has been working the phones over the last few months, urging alumni to return to help celebrate the school’s momentous anniversary. He hopes to see between 30 and 40 people who attended Harbord in the 1940s, part of a much larger group of 800 who are expected to participate in some part of the weekend festivities.
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For Rubin, who grew up on Manning Avenue, Harbord retains a special place in his heart. At the time, the neighbourhood was about 95 per cent Jewish, and “90 per cent were the children of immigrants.”
Jews were hardly the first immigrants to attend the school. Going back to the late 19th century, Harbord educated teens who hailed from Ireland, Scotland and England. After the Jews came the Italians, the Portuguese, Ukrainians and Jamaicans, he said.
As he recalls, “there was a very good friendly attitude among the students and from the teachers to the kids. There was no anti-Semitism in any way, shape or form.” In fact, “the teachers took a great deal of pride in the success of the kids.”
Businessman Leslie Dan recalls his year at Harbord as one of great intellectual and cultural excitement. Attending the school in 1949-50, he recalled the kids as the children of manual labourers, many of whom worked in sweatshops.
“They hoped their children would do good,” he said.
Many did. A good number continued their education at universities, and Harbord became known for producing many notable doctors, surgeons, architects, lawyers and accountants, he said.
Among its more noted alumni you’ll find Louis Rasminsky, former governor of the Bank of Canada; Wayne and Shuster, a comedy duo whose careers spanned decades; and human rights advocate Alan Borovoy.
Bernie Langer grew up on Palmerston Avenue and attended Harbord from 1945 to 1950. “When I got to school at 13, I was pretty much an inexperienced kid. It looked huge to me, busy and really interesting, with lots going on, with lots of opportunities.”
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In addition to his interest in math and science, Langer participated in sports, and was in the Cadet Corps and the rifle club, heading down to the shooting range in the basement for practice.
Langer intended to pursue a career in actuarial mathematics, but a guidance counsellor noted that banks and insurance companies wouldn’t hire Jews. Instead, he studied medicine, becoming the first Jew on Toronto General’s full-time staff. Eventually, he became head of general surgery.
Karen Mock spent one year at Harbord, 1958-59, before her family moved north. In her day, Jews were still a large part of the population, but so were kids from other ethnicities. “You could sense a United Nations, where everyone got along,” she said.
Isaac Silverstein, Mock’s uncle, graduated from Harbord in 1952. He recalled that once, he and classmate Belle Blumenstein were asked to write a letter and buy a gift for a teacher going to France on sabbatical.
“I went to Belle’s house to write the letter. We never did get to write the letter that night,” he quipped.
The couple eventually married. They’ll celebrate their 60th anniversary in August.