I. L. Peretz Folk School

The I.L. Peretz Folk School of Winnipeg was founded in the city's Jewish district in the years immediately following the explosion of Jewish population in Winnipeg's North End caused by antisemitic pogroms in Russia that peaked in the 1880s.

The school was named for one of the greatest Yiddish authors and playwrights, Isaac Leib Peretz (May 18, 1852 – 1915), also known as Yitskhok Leybush Peretz, best known as I.L. Peretz (or more popularly among Yiddish speakers as Yud Lamed Peretz, using his Hebrew-language initials).

As the city of Winnipeg's Jewish population grew, notably during the post-World War II years, many middle-class families began purchasing homes in the new suburban housing developments in the northwest area of West Kildonan (and district of the city at the time). The development known as Garden City rapidly became populous enough to justify the building of a second school. The original school on Aikins Avenue in the older part of the city's north end continued in full operation. The newer second school, on Jefferson Avenue, flourished and through obvious need attracted a younger and more contemporary group of teachers.

Throughout its history, it held co-educational classes in both Yiddish and English up through Grade VII. Declining enrolment and rising costs during the 1980s led to its closing and absorption by the Talmud Torah, a more religiously oriented, Hebrew-language day school on Matheson Avenue, which created a Yiddish-language track to accommodate those interested in continuing education in Yiddish. The Talmud Torah name, in turn, disappeared when all parochial Jewish education in Winnipeg was moved to the new Asper Jewish Community Campus in Tuxedo during the 1990s.

Notable alumni

• Isadore Coop (1926–2003), Canadian architect
• Velvl Greene (1928–2011), Canadian–American–Israeli scientist and academic

External links

• History of the school
• Additional history of the school
• I. L. Peretz Jewish School in Long Island, New York