For the first time in the history of Canada a Jew today held office as a Minister of the Crown.
He is David A. Croll, Windsor attorney in his early thirties, who was sworn in late last night as Minister of Municipalities and Welfare in the new Liberal government of the Province of Ontario.
The induction ceremonial took place at the Government House, where the Lieutenant Governor of Ontario administered the oath of office to the new Minister.
Croll, who also is mayor of Windsor in this province, was elected to the provincial legislature in the recent elections, in which he defeated his conservative opponent.
Croll’s career has run true to the Horatio Alger pattern. Brought to Windsor from Russia at the age of six by impecunious immigrant parents, he was selling newspapers on that city’s streets before he had reached his teens.
With money he earned in this and other work he paid his way through school and studied law at Osgoode Hall. Admitted to the bar in 1925, he began practice with the firm of Sheppard and Sheppard, later opening his own offices under the name of David A. Croll and Co.
His entrance into politics, as a member of the Liberal party, eventually led to his election to the mayoralty of Windsor his first public office—at the age of thirty.
He is a member of the B’nai B’rith Lodge, the Zionists and the Masons; is secretary of the West Essex Liberal Association; president of the Windsor Talmud Torah; a director of the Shaar Hashomayim Synagogue; and a leader in a movement to organize a Jewish philanthropy federation in Windsor.
His wife, a former Detroit resident, is president of the Windsor Hadassah. The couple have two daughters.
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The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
