Three boys of Pontypool, [ca.1934]. Ontario Jewish Archives, Blankenstein Family Heritage Centre.
The Right Road to Pontypool
By Alex Poch-Goldin
A loving chronicle of one man’s sun-kissed dream for Toronto’s working-class Jews.
In early 1900s, Moishe Yukle Bernstein built ramshackle cottages in Pontypool and enticed poor, working-class Jews to vacation there. More resorts sprang up, and that tiny town nestled in Protestant heartland of Ontario hosted 2,500 Jews every summer for over six decades. Those summers changed thousands of lives. With a vast array of characters, songs, and a healthy does of humour, The Right Road to Pontypool tells a unique and moving story of the Jewish experience in Canada.