25
BLACK MARKET BABY
A letter from Lana Michaels, the secretary of the synagogue, informed me they had no information on Rebecca, Lily or Ruth Hershorn and suggested I write to the Canadian Jewish Congress.
An Esther Segal in Vancouver sent an email to Sharon Edelson in Ontario after joining Canadopt, a non-profit organization on the Internet politically pro-active in attempting to get Canadian laws changed to assist all people in the "adoption triad." Shortly after registering she was contacted by Sharon, Donna, and Sheri who noticed her Jewish name, city of birth and birth date. How amazing - things happened so fast!
This is Esther #1091 and Tammy #1097. Every day seems to bring another communication from a Jewish child horn at the Rahinovitch clinic. You are now the fourth person I have heard from. I spoke to a friend's mother here who knew Dr. R. in that era. She said if anyone was deeply involved in black market" or baby rings," it was him.
A day later I received a letter from Donna Roth, #98:
Some of you know me from Canadopt. I have noticed in the time I have been with this organization a number of adoptees have similar characteristics. We seem to share births in Montreal, Jewish surnames and birth dates within a span of ten years. If we could get a good number of adult adoptees to appeal to either government powers that he or the Montreal Gazette, we could open doors and possibly gain that long elusive information for which we all are searching. Let me know if you would like to he part of this. I have had contact with a Montreal reporter who expressed interest.
I responded saying I was definitely interested. Towards the end of the month a letter from Esther Segal arrived:
After receiving a copy of your letter to Sharon, I thought it was time to intro- duce myself. I am Esther Segal, living in Vancouver along with one of my oldest friends, Tammy Rosenblatt - alias Rahinovitch babies! I am not sure how much Sharon told you hut I will give you a brief history and how we fit into the scheme of things.
Tammy was horn in 1945 and I, in 1946. Her ninety-four year old adoptive dad told her he picked her up from Dr. R.'s clinic and took her home to Alberta. My parents, also desperate for a baby, went through the same procedure. Family stories confirm my parents paying $10,000 for me; however, Tammy's father denies paying anything. She has been searching for years. I had no particular interest until health problems developed. She petitioned to have her file opened in the 1970’s and when it came before Judge Melvyn Salmon, he said something like “there's nothing here that would he of any use and I can't imagine why anyone would want to know this information." He probably either went to law school or synagogue with those mentioned in her file or had been involved in the black market himself! I have enclosed a copy of all my documents so you can compare them to yours. Tammy's are almost identical. Nothing is said about being horn in Montreal hut that we were “horn" to our adoptive parents. Are yours similar?
I continued to” the net" and came across the story of the “Butterhox Ba- hies." Because my birth certificate showed no city of birth, I sent an e-mail to the address on the web-page and asked if there were records of all the babies horn at the Ideal Maternity Home in Chester, Nova Scotia. A gentleman answered that the records had been destroyed and several of the survivors were adopted in Quebec and fighting earnestly to get access to their information. Joan Boyd from Quebec, who is searching and seems to have a lot of resources, is the eastern section head for Canadopt and the head of Parent Finders in Nova Scotia. However, she is not Jewish and does not share our background.
She sent me a story from the Montreal Gazette dated Fehruary 13, 1954. That was two weeks after joining Canadopt and having heard from all the other ladies. (Where are all the male Rahinovitch babies?)
Joan remains completely fascinated with our story and e-mails us when she finds any similarities to our cases. I realize the infamous Dr. R. was not mentioned in the 1954 Gazette article hut Tammy and I both have “spies" in Montreal who are going to the Gazette to find further files pertaining either to the black market ring or Dr. R. We know a lady here, a friend of the Rahinovitches, who said he did things the way he wanted, made a lot of money, was always harassed by the authorities, hut managed not to get arrested or shut down. He died a very rich man! She reminded us of how much the French hated the Jews, hut found the Jewish community helpful in dealing with the over-abundance of French babies being horn in the community and occasionally, within the Church. Sounds like real cooperation!
Sure would like to see you and all the rest - can't say that Tammy and I look particularly Jewish. My bets are on all of us being French-Canadian.
When I contacted Batshaw, Sylvia Kirstein told me that there were no records of my birth and it must have been a private adoption. How many of us come across her desk every year? Wonder how much she really knows! Let me know how a nice Eastern Jewish <