Is there a time capsule hidden at B’nai Brith headquarters?

B’nai Brith Canada has put its national office up for sale. PAUL LUNGEN PHOTO

TORONTO — It’s like a scavenger hunt with the flimsiest of directions or a treasure hunt with a torn and faded map. 

But former members of BBYO have started making inquiries into the possible location of a time capsule they believe was left at the B’nai Brith building at 15 Hove St. when the building was opened in 1967.

Following a June 11 story in The CJN about the proposed sale of B’nai Brith’s national headquarters, former members of the organization’s youth movement (BBYO) began looking into whether there was a time capsule or not.

Carol Lavine, who served as assistant director of BBYO from 1962 to 1975, said she read with interest The CJN article about the impending sale. Then “I got an email from a gentleman who belonged to BBYO in the 1980s. He had heard there was a time capsule.”

The email in question came from Ken Bernknopf. He had been referred to her by Ted Sokolsky, who ran BBYO before he became head of UJA Federation of Greater Toronto. Bernknopf told Lavine he had posted a note about the impending building sale on BBYO’s FAN (Friends and Alumni Network) Facebook page.

“A message I got back from Martin Traub Werner referred to the possibility of there being a BBYO time capsule buried under the front lawn,” he told Lavine.

Bernknopf asked Lavine for help in solving the mystery.

“I started doing my own research, because I don’t remember a time capsule, but my husband does. He remembers it being in the wall in the building,” Lavine said.

Her interest piqued, Lavine contacted the former building architect, Harold Kelman, and Ron Cowitz, who belonged to Leonard Mayzel Lodge, which had raised the funds for the building. Neither had any knowledge of a time capsule.

She contacted Frank Dimant, former CEO of B’nai Brith, but he didn’t know anything about a time capsule. James Cooper, president of B’nai Brith in 1973 and former president of Leonard Mayzel Lodge, isn’t sure if there is one or not.

“I vaguely remember something about that,” he said. “I know there’s a plaque on the wall, inside the main entrance.”

The plaque was put up more or less when the building was opened and Cooper thinks that might be a logical place to look.

“Is there a time capsule? I don’t know,” said Lavine. But she thinks there are probably some people who do. 

“We need to find the regional n’siah [female] and regional godol [male] from around 1966-68. Also any volunteer advisers or B’nai Brith members.” 

They were present at the dedication ceremony that opened the building and likely had a role in finding the artifacts that went into a time capsule, she said.

It would be interesting to “just see the kinds of things we put in for people to see 100 years later,” she added. 

Lavine can be reached at [email protected]