TORONTO — Lou Ronson, left, an elderly statesman of the community, has dedicated his life to human rights issues and fighting discrimination.

The seeds for his quest to eliminate prejudice and racism were sown
when Ronson, 92, was a schoolboy and he was himself the victim of
anti-Semitism.

Ronson has served on numerous committees and organizations and was
the driving force behind the creation of B’nai Brith Canada’s
Anti-Defamation League, later the League for Human Rights.

The Toronto-born son of Russian Jewish immigrants, he was born Louis Rosenblatt in 1915. He served as a commissioner on the Ontario Human Rights Commission in 1985 and served as vice-chair until 1991. At that time, the commission was located on the exact site where his parents rented a flat when he was a child – on Simcoe Street, midway between Dundas and Queen streets.

When Ronson was 10, his family moved to Port Colborne, Ont., where he was enrolled in the local public school and where he encountered the anti-Semitism that played a major role in his lifelong determination to champion human rights.

“My first day at school, during recess, five kids came charging across the schoolyard, pointing to me and shouting, ‘There’s the new Jew.’ And then I was attacked.”

 He was excluded from all social activities at the school, and he had only one friend, the only other Jewish boy at the school. This left an indelible mark on young Louis.

In 1927, the family moved back to Toronto. The 12-year-old entered Jarvis Collegiate, where he was once again shocked when all the Jewish students were in one class, known as “the Jewish class.”

“Soon I was to learn that anti-Semitic taunts and jibes by students, and even some teachers, were not beyond the norm.”

He adds that Jewish students maintained their self-esteem by achieving the highest class averages for each of their five years at the school and receiving a major number of scholarships.

When Ronson applied to chemical engineering at the University of Toronto in 1932 –  a time when Jewish students were faced with strict quotas – he was one of six Jewish students accepted into the course from across the country.

After graduation, he was once again faced with blatant anti-Jewish rejection. After searching for a position in his field for a year, the university graduate accepted a menial job at a dry cleaning plant.

In 1943, he enlisted in the army, and when he filled out the required forms, the enrolling officer, who knew him in civilian life, suggested that he change his name from Louis Rosenblatt. He became Lou Ronson.

After the war, Ronson returned to t