Shelter (2021)

Fleeing religious persecution, resilient Jewish immigrants arrive in Toronto and begin building affordable, quality housing in a growing metropolis. Toronto-voted one of the top 5 most livable cities in the world and renowned for its vibrant cultural diversity-was forever changed for the better when a group of resilient Jewish immigrants came to Canada in the first half of the 20th century. Shelter is the inspirational story of how these brave Jewish immigrants survived religious persecution in their homelands to build wildly successful real estate and land development businesses and help shape a growing metropolis by making it a refuge for all newcomers to Toronto. Forced into entrepreneurship by prejudice and circumstance, these new Torontonians started their businesses by buying land, building homes and then reinvesting in the process. But they had a vision; they saw in the post WWII real estate boom the need for affordable, quality, rental housing and instinctively knew that high-rise apartments were the answer. From 1952 to 1975, their companies, renowned and still active developers, built over 500,000 apartment rental units across all areas of the city, winning awards and accolades and providing shelter for countless newcomers. They knew that a healthy city provided shelter for all. During that time the city grew from 1 million to 2 million people.