Henry Balinson (1886-1961) was a typesetter, journalist, labour activist, and the owner and editor of International Press Printers. Most notably, Balinson self-published the Yiddishe Shtime de Hamiltoner (Jewish Voice of Hamilton), a Yiddish-language, monthly newspaper, from 1933 to 1943. Having established his printing business shortly after arriving in Hamilton in 1911, Balinson was quick to capitalize on his multilingual skills—he spoke seven languages—to serve Hamilton’s diverse community. However, it was his Yiddish newspaper that provided Balinson with the most creative and meaningful outlet for his long-held ambition to become a writer. It also served as an important forum for sharing his ideas, thoughts, and opinions on local and world issues.

One of seven children, Henry Balinson was born in Mariuple, Ukraine. In 1906, as a young man of twenty, he set off to nearby Odessa, where he trained as a typesetter and found employment with the Balfour Printing Company. In 1911, Balinson left Odessa and immigrated to Canada. It was during his journey to Canada that he would meet the Garshowitz family and his future wife, Sarah Garshowitz. Upon arriving in Hamilton, he quickly found employment in the printing business. That same year, Balinson opened International Press Printers and soon relocated the business to 246 King Street West, where he and Sarah raised their family of seven children in the apartment above the shop. Their children’s names were Robert, Anne, Reuben, Alexander, Morley, Victor, and Goldie.

Remarkably, the Jewish Voice of Hamilton was one of four Yiddish-language newspapers published in Canada. The others —Der Keneder Adler (The Canadian Eagle), Dos Yiddishe Vort (The Yiddish World), and Der Yiddisher Zhurnal (Daily Hebrew Journal) —were published in Montreal, Winnipeg, and Toronto, respectively. Balinson wore many hats to ensure the paper’s success, serving simultaneously as reporter, typesetter, and art director, while also recruiting advertisers, and managing printing and distribution. According to Balinson’s son Morley, who took over the International Press Printers business, at its peak the monthly paper was distributed to about seven hundred of the one thousand Jewish families living in Hamilton at the price of one dollar per year. These pages became an outlet for Henry’s opinions and observations, especially in his signature front-page column, “Mein Shpatsir iber Hamilton” (My Stroll Around Hamilton). Through this column, Henry provided his readers with colorful commentary on Jewish Hamilton, that was just as likely to receive praise as to raise hackles.^[1]

Despite Balinson’s many successes, tragedy loomed large for his family, with three of his seven children passing away prematurely—Anna due to an accident, Reuben from illness, and a third in war. The loss of his twenty-four-year-old son, Flight Sergeant Alexander Balinson, a wireless air gunner with the Royal Canadian Air Force who died in Malta on April 25, 1942, was a blow from which Balinson would never fully recover.

[1] https://www.jewishhamilton.org/community-news/jewish-voice-of-hamilton