The Jewish Heritage Centre of Western Canada is in need of your assistance.
As you may have already heard, on the night of June 9, the basement of the Asper Jewish Community Campus began to fill with water. For the Jewish Heritage Centre (JHC), this wasn’t simply a flood, but a potentially devastating and potentially irreversible crisis.
However, thanks to the quick and diligent work of our staff and a team of kind volunteers, we were able to implement an emergency disaster plan, separate the affected material and move the damp archives to a frozen storage facility within 48 hours. These crucial actions successfully saved the archive, putting a stop the growth of mold that would have spread throughout the entire collection at a rapid pace, eventually destroying even the parts of our collection that were left untouched by the flood.
The frozen materials have now been transferred to an out-of-province facility where it will be vacuum freeze-dried in a restoration process overseen by a conservator.
Our dry and unaffected archives and artifacts were also quickly removed from the basement and brought upstairs to be stored in several places around the Campus. The directors of the Gray Academy and the Asper Community Campus were kind enough to offer us the space we required to temporarily store our collections.
Thankfully, we were able to respond quickly to save the archive. But if a similar disaster were to ever occur again, we might not be so lucky.
The JHC Archive preserves the precious history and physical memory of our community and also that of of the communities across Western Canada and Northwestern Ontario whose histories have been entrusted to us. It dates back to the late 1800s. Delicate, old, and irreplaceable items are frequently accessed by students, researchers, educators, genealogists, and community members. Simply put, the archive constitutes the very heart and memory of our community.
Now that the immediate crisis is over, we face new problems and must begin a massive project to further protect the archives.
At the inception of the AJCC some thirty years ago, several of the rooms on the first floor were specifically designed with climate control suitable for an archive or museum. But as community needs arose, we were moved out of that specialized space and into the basement.
With space at a premium in the building, we have had to do our best with the cards we were dealt.
Moving our archive off the Asper JCC has never been a viable option for the JHCWC. Our museum, our offices, and the other half of our archive are all firmly situated in this building on the main floor. We work within our basement archive daily and we rely on the safety that the security within the Asper Campus affords us.
In order to preserve the precious treasures in our archive we must do everything within our power to optimize the basement for archival storage and take the necessary steps to mitigate disaster.
That is how you can help:
Our archive must be renovated for safety while maintaining the standards of practices for long-term preservation. We have already put a plan into motion for more effective humidity control and the sealing of the room. All of our textual records must be placed in specialized archival enclosures, our artifacts must be re-boxed/wrapped according to their individual preservation needs, and we must purchase adequate shelving that will keep our collections away from the ground and the walls while allowing for effective air circulation. These protective measures will be costly, requiring specialized materials, but they are necessary. Our estimated budget is approximately $100,000.00
We hope you will consider donating to this essential project so that we can continue protecting the priceless history of Western Canadian Jewry for generations to come. All donations are tax receiptable.
Please make cheques out to the Jewish Heritage Centre of Western Canada. Mailing address: C-140 123 Doncaster Street, Winnipeg, MB R3N 2B2. Credit card payments also accepted. Please call 204-478-8590
Donations can also be made through Canada Helps
Preferred method of payment is e-transfer to [email protected]
Security donations also welcomed. Contact us for our form.