ONWARD HARBORD

This is going to be a short entry in my blog. I am unable to describe with mere words the passion in my head and heart that I feel for Harbord. I am not eloquent enough, nor can I project myself far enough. But I can explain why I feel this way. I love Canada , the best country in the world and Harbord is Canada. The school describes our country. From the late 19th century through the beginning of the 20th, immigrant children came to High School in this neighbourhood, in  rotation the Anglo-Saxons and Irish, the Jews, the Italians, the Portuguese, the Ukrainians, the Chinese , and many other Asians and smaller numbers of nationalities and religions. They were given the opportunity to work hard and they did, and made real successful Canadians of themselves and made Canada what it is today. Led by Harbord every  High School in every part of our city is now like Harbord, and Canada is the successful country I am proud to live in.

The students I am going to mention were all the children of immigrants and  were first generation. They were  all graduates of Harbord C.I. in 1950 and I personally am proud to say I also graduated the same year, and went into the University of Toronto, the Faculty of Pharmacy. But don`t jump to any conclusions, I was not on the same level as these men, boys at the time. Bernie Langer who went into Medicine, and became president of the Royal College of physicians and Surgeons of Canada, Saul Sidlofsky graduated from Honour Science, who eventually became a surgeon as well, Melvyn Finkelstein who went into Commerce and Finance and eventually became a Chartered accountant , and Henry (Red) Petroff a graduate of Architecture. What was amazing was not that they all succeeded in their professions, it was that that they ended their first year of university as number #1 in their class. To be honest I do not know if they maintained that ranking all through university, but they may well have. I challenge any school of any year to match that success. When I think about them and what they accomplished, I still find it hard to believe. Harbord was 90% of the Jewish faith at the time and they were of our faith.

Tweet