Bernstein Family, Part 2

 

The Bernstein Family - Part 2

 Erminie Bernstein Cohen (1926-2019) and Mortimer Bernstein (1927-2013)

 

Mortimer and Erminie Bernstein, 1930s




Erminie and Mortimer Bernstein were the children of Mitchell S. and Clara (Goldfeather) Bernstein.

Erminie Bernstein Cohen was a graduate of Saint John High School and Mount Allison University. In 1948 she married her childhood sweetheart Edgar R. Cohen and had three children. She joined her husband in business when her children were older, as a buyer for their women’s retail fashion shop, Hoffman’s.

She was an ardent volunteer from an early age and worked tirelessly as an advocate for social justice and to improve social and economic well-being of New Brunswick’s most vulnerable citizens. In 1978, she was appointed to the first New Brunswick Advisory Council on the Status of Women and as a result founded the non-profit organization, Saint John Women for Action, which worked with others to create a shelter for abused women and their children, of which she was a member of their founding board.  She later served on the National Advisory Board on the Status of Women.

Swearing-in Ceremony - Hon. Erminie Cohen with family - Bill Thompson, Cathy Tait, Micah Tait, M. Lee Cohen, Shelley Cohen-Thorley and Edgar R. Cohen


She was Atlantic Vice-President of the Progressive Conservative Party of Canada. She was appointed to the Senate of Canada in 1993, where she became known for her compassion, activism and work on poverty reduction, publishing a report in 1997 entitled Sounding the Alarm and fighting to prohibit discrimination based on social conditions under the Canadian Human Rights Act.

After serving as a Senator for eight years, she went on to become the first chair of the New Brunswick Adoption Foundation. Under her leadership, the Foundation was able to help more than 1,000 children find their “forever families”. 

Hon. Erminie Cohen
Among her many awards are the Order of Canada, the Order of New Brunswick, The Red Cross Humanitarian Award, and the Salvation Army Humanitarian Award. She was the recipient of the Queen’s Silver, Gold and Diamond Jubilee Medals, the YMCA Red Triangle Award and was a Paul Harris Fellow from Rotary. She holds a Doctorate of Laws from the University of New Brunswick, Saint John Campus.

Erminie served on numerous boards and committees including the National Capital Commission, Saint Joseph’s Hospital Board of Trustees, Hestia House, The Human Development Council, and was President of Opera New Brunswick. She remained active on several committees and was chair of the Residents’ Council at Parkland Saint John at the time of her death.



Within the local Jewish community she served as the first woman President of Congregation Shaarei Zedek, as Vice-President of Sisterhood Shaarei Zedek and the Vice-President Atlantic for Hadassah-Wizo. She was honoured with a State of Israel Bonds dinner in 1975 and with a Jewish National Fund Negev Dinner in 1998 which funded the New Brunswick Forest in Yatir, Israel. In 1999, she led a group of friends and supporters to Israel for the official dedication.


Mortimer Bernstein worked alongside his father and business partners on real estate developments in Saint John. The projects included Mitchell Apartments, LaTour Terrace at 61 Union Street which had four floors of offices with a bowling alley and coffee shop on the ground floor and the first homes on the grounds of the former Saint John airport in Millidgeville.

He married Ronna Taub of Westmount, Quebec on September 2, 1958. They made their home in Saint John for many years, before moving to Toronto to be closer to their three children.  

 

References: 

  • Louis I. Michelson Archives and Research and Exhibition Files, Saint John Jewish Historical Museum 
  • Marcia Koven, Weaving the Past Into the Present (Saint John: 1989 and 2008) 
  • The Evening Times Globe / The Telegraph Journal (Saint John newspapers)

 

See also: Cohen Family


To comment on this story please send an email to sjjhm@nbnet.nb.ca  


This project is made possible with funding from the Archaeology and Heritage Branch, Province of New Brunswick through their Exhibit Renewal Digital Component program and the unwavering support of the Jewish families who made Saint John their home.




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Bernstein Family, Part 1

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The Bernstein Family - Part 1   Mitchell S. Bernstein (1895-1967) and Clara (Goldfeather) Bernstein (1902-1964)  Clara and Mitchell Bernstein Mitchell Sidney Bernstein was born in New York City and moved with his family to Montreal, Quebec when he was ten years old. His career started in New York in 1914 with a film exchange for Warner Brothers, before he moved on to Metro Pictures. He arrived in Saint John in 1916 and was working with the booking and staging of vaudeville shows at the Queen Square Theatre and films for Warner Brothers. In 1917, he was working with Famous Players theatres out of New York City traveling from theatre to theatre with the first talking moving pictures (talkies). Mitchell Bernstein and Joshua Lieberman Mitchell Bernstein partnered with Joshua Lieberman to form B & L Theatres in 1928. In the early days, they travelled by car to small towns in the Maritimes, rented the local hall, and hired a pianist to play for the silent movies. One of them collected t
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