Identifer: CJF-RFC2015072

Medium
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Description
This token was issued in Bronze and is 34mm in diameter. 

This is a rare fundraising token from the B & S. Steinhouse / Nachlass Zkainim Home Fore the Aged in Montreal, Quebec.  This organization evolved into the Maimonides Geriatric Center of McGill University.
 
 
The B & S. Steinhouse Old People’s Home opened in Montreal in 1923 and soon merged with the Nachlass Zkainim Home. In 1927, encouraged by the newly formed Federation of Jewish Philanthropies of Montreal, the combined B & S. Steinhouse/Nachlass Zkainim Home For the Aged amalgamated with the Montreal Hebrew Sheltering Home, a/k/a Moshav Zkainim (which was founded in 1910, and then housed six residents on Evans Street). The institution raised funds for the construction of a larger building on land owned by the Montreal Sheltering Home on Esplanade Street. By 1945, the average age of new residents was over eighty, and increased medical and nursing staff were required. The institution changed its name to Maimonides Hospital and Home for the Aged to reflect this expanded role. The institution still exists, as the Maimonides Geriatric Center of McGill University.
 
This token was issued sometime between 1923 (when B & S. Steinhouse Old People’s Home opened) and 1945 (when the amalgamated institution changed its name to Maimonides Hospital and Home for the Aged), and probably no later than 1927 (when the combined B & S. Steinhouse/Nachlass Zkainim Home For the Aged) amalgamated with the Montreal Hebrew Sheltering Home, a/k/a Moshav Zkainim). It may even have been issued in connection with the fund drive that was initiated in 1927 to build the larger building on Esplanade Street.
 
Ref: Randolph, Marc A. “Jewish Homes for the Aged Tokens,” The Shekel, XXXVI No. 3 (May-June 2003) 14-19, Figure 2.